What's Rifts about, anyway?

[Chibiyuri]

Everybody is going to roll stats together. I'm trying to give everyone who managed to get their hands on new books a chance to read up.

So we have
thedon-
chibiyuri-
Thunderhowl - Dogboy
Punstarr - Hero D-Bee
xaq - cyberdemon....

So I read the Supernatural Strength Power, 30+1D6 is your strength. I approve that power.

Super Energy Expulsion was actually more powerful than I thought it'd be. It gives you a cool absorb/expulse and immunity power. However since the minor Energy Expulsion: Energy was scaled back a bit for MD in Rifts I need to decide the numbers that will be best for balance. I approve that power as well.

What kind of super will you be that has those two powers? I'm tempted to disallow Megaheroes but I really like those achilles heels.


I'll edit this post later, I gotta clock in.
*runs*

Ok ^_^ Figured that would be the best way

I'll have one written up for you this weekend

Thinking of either a Burster or an Elemental Fusionist.
Leaning more towards a Burster (Elven)

[Punstarr]

So I read the Supernatural Strength Power, 30+1D6 is your strength. I approve that power.

Super Energy Expulsion was actually more powerful than I thought it'd be. It gives you a cool absorb/expulse and immunity power. However since the minor Energy Expulsion: Energy was scaled back a bit for MD in Rifts I need to decide the numbers that will be best for balance. I approve that power as well.

What kind of super will you be that has those two powers? I'm tempted to disallow Megaheroes but I really like those achilles heels.

Heh actually it wouldn't be on the same character. I'd either run a Blaster type or a Tank type. If I do run a Blaster type though I'd want to give him the minor power of Extraordinary PE... that'd make him a minor MDC creature. I don't feel even remotely safe in RIFTS unless my character is MDC rather than SDC (even if it's just a few dozen MDC).

Question though. If I do the Blaster, can I take the Healing Factor power with a self imposed restriction that it only works after I've absorbed energy (been hit by an energy attack, drained an E-Clip, etc)?

[Tom the Fanboy]

OK, I'll give you guys a warning. To stay on my good side when I'm GMing a game using tabletop RPG rules, even online, don't use terminology from MMORPGs.

It really bugs me when people call an ogre a "mob" or talk about aggro when they're being pursued. The terminology can be used accurately, but in my opinion it cheapens the tabletop experience. I don't play any MMOGs and generally have a grudge against them. I don't like the idea of having people I don't like in the game with me amd I don't want my game experience to be dependant on my computer, the server, and the bandwidth. They are all much more fickle and expensive then a pencil, a character sheet, and my dice.

So anyway...
You guys haven't gamed with me in RL, so I wanted you to know that it really bugs me.


Punstarr, you can have more than one superpower. Do you have a copy of HU to use for your character?

Chibiyuri, go for the burster. I haven't had any experience with the Elemental fusionist (since they're new with Ultimate Edition)

[Punstarr]

OK, I'll give you guys a warning. To stay on my good side when I'm GMing a game using tabletop RPG rules, even online, don't use terminology from MMORPGs.

It really bugs me when people call an ogre a "mob" or talk about aggro when they're being pursued. The terminology can be used accurately, but in my opinion it cheapens the tabletop experience. I don't play any MMOGs and generally have a grudge against them. I don't like the idea of having people I don't like in the game with me amd I don't want my game experience to be dependant on my computer, the server, and the bandwidth. They are all much more fickle and expensive then a pencil, a character sheet, and my dice.

Uh oh. I hope it wasn't my use of the terms "Blaster" and "Tank" that brought that up. If so, sorry about that.

I just feel that those are good words even out of an MMO to describe certain categories of Heroes...

So anyway...
You guys haven't gamed with me in RL, so I wanted you to know that it really bugs me.

No worries. I'll try to remember.

Punstarr, you can have more than one superpower. Do you have a copy of HU to use for your character?

I know I can have more than one power, but I feel that an Energy Blast and Super Strength really don't go together well conceptually. If I go for the Super Strength route, I'll probably be somewhat cliche and give him Invulnerability and Flight: Wingless to go with it. If I go for the Blaster concept (I can't think of any better term than Blaster to describe it), He'll probably have Energy Expulsion: Major, Energy Absorption (if I roll 2 Majors), Healing Factor (with that restriction) and Flight: Wingless.

As for a copy of HU, unfortunately I don't... I'll call a buddy of mine and see if he still has a copy, but I may be up the creek without a paddle.

[Xaq]

I, too, am not a fan of MMORPG terms, especially since I don't PLAY any of them, and have no idea what the hell people are talking about when they use them... so I can relate.

Keep in mind, Punstarr, that I'm making a cyborg... a character class that can't really do much of anything BUT fill tank/bruiser roles in a party (ie, a "heavy"). You might want to try to take some superpowers that give you more versatility than simply handing out and/or taking damage, because that's all I'm going to be able to do. Not that it's a BAD idea to have multiple fighter-types in a party (in D&D or otherwise), but you can always take just a few fighting powers and mix it up with some other things (Energy blasts plus flight, for instance? Maybe some sort of shape-change or manipulation powers, like Mind Control or Stretching/Elasticity? Gravity Manipulation or Elemental powers?)

Oh, and also, Tom... when do you want us to start creating these characters? I can start throwing stuff together pretty easily, whenever you say the word.

[FirstAidKit]

Alright, THIS weekend I'll be getting on my character for real. Next week I don't have any exams, so I'll have time to read all the books. Judging by the group of folks that've already shown up in this party, I'll be doing a Juicer, possibly hyperion. It's either that or a body fixer, but the sheer diversity of the party would put a stretch on that, I think. Suggestions and comments on the strategy are welcome of course.

I'll be talking to you all soon in either guise.

[Tom the Fanboy]

I'll be making a new thread when it's time to do the rolling up. Once again, let me look at the player list

FirstAidKit- ???
thedon- ???
chibiyuri- ??? Elven burster?
I'll go over your guys' stuff when you have more worked out.

Thunderhowl - Ex-CS Dogboy
OK so I found the optional breed rules in Rifts Ultimate Edition (RUE). I'm going to rule that if you take the breed bonus you have to roll on the random disadvantage table. Whether you take the breed bonuses or not you have to roll on the random height table (mwahahaha!).

German Shepherd: +1D6 IQ, PE and Spd
+15 SDC
+2 Perception
+1 Initiative
Swimming (60%)
Loves to work with humans and has a friendly disposition. Extremely loyal.

Rottwieler/Doberman: -5% track by scent
+1IQ, +1D6 PS and PE, +2D6 Spd
+20 SDC
+1 Perception
Works well with humans. Very clever and loyal.

The Mutation Abnormality chart doesn't just have disadvantages on it. sometimes they're just different. Like having physical psionics instead of sensitive, a more human appearance, being unusually large or small, bonuses to tracking and prowl, "robotic" level strength, or even just shaggier hair. So let me know if you want to risk it. I will be rolling your abnormality.


Punstarr - Heroes Unlimited D-Bee
OK since you don't have an HU book just yet let me see where we should start.

With the powers and kind of character you want you can be either an Experiment or Mutant. Technically some of the magic origins would work but I'm not going to get that complicated in Rifts.

With experiments you were either a scientist or a test subject. something went wrong and you got powers or the experiment was a success. There is a super soldier option here as well. There's charts in the books for what kind of organization is responsible for your change and what their attitude is towards you. If you're the hunted kind of super then you could have escaped to Rifts Earth to evade capture. If you are on good terms, were you built specifically to explore another dimensions (without knowing you'd be trapped there?) or did this happen on duty (see below)?

Mutants have just as many options. Say that some magic wielding supervillain ported you to Rifts to get you out of his way, you could have been a normal human and actually gotten your powers from the rifting. Or you could have just come into your powers at puberty and been blasted into the rift by the villain you were fighting.


xaq - Cybernetically enhanced minotaur
xaq I trust you have the sourcebooks you need. Which borg OCC are you going with? Combat Cyborg and Headhunter are in the base book. you mentioned being partial conversion so I thought maybe you might be a Headhunter. There's plenty of variants of these two throughout the books i'm allowing so let me know the OCC and then we can go over your specific set of augmentations. I'm guessing Legs, enhanced skeleton and a gun arm so far.

I do not suggest rolling up your characters yet. If you have a character sheet ready though, you could start filling in your racial bonuses and OCC skills and maybe your starting gear. You know, everything BUT the rolling.

Also, in RUE I have found no ruling that Major/Minor psionics eliminates skills. I am going to continue to rule that a character who has Major Psionics has taken the time to practice and enhance his psionic abilities at the detriment of his skills so he will have a reduced number of Secondary and OCC Related skills.

[Tom the Fanboy]

Oh, and here's my plan for the NPC that'll travel with you. A priest of Ehecatl, Dragon of the Winds.

He'll be a Scrupulous priest from the OCC in Pantheons of the Megaverse and will be a human native of Rifts Earth. probably some light armor and a speedy little horvercycle.

[Punstarr]

I'm thinking an Experiment... but tell me, can we choose our side effect or must we randomly roll it? Same with Mutant unusual features...

[Chibiyuri]

Yea, I'm going to go with an Elven Burster
working on the stuff now (everything but the rolling) ^_^

Edit: Ok, forget it, sense I can't find really anything on Elves in Rifts, I'm going to go with a Human Burster, unless someone would be kind enough to point me in the right direction ^_^

[Tom the Fanboy]

I'm a big fan of rolling the side effects and choosing the powers. I'm not going to force something super stupid on you like "no skin", but i think it should be up to the dice. Specifically, the dice I roll.
*rolls*
The first I rolled was "triple normal body hair", we already have a dogboy....
The second was "Whole body glows", -40% to Prowl. If you had Energy Expulsion this would make sense.

See we're usually supposed to roll to see how many powers you get to pick, but we've already discussed this and you seem to want One Major and a few Minor powers. Since I'm forcing the side effect on you I'll say you get to choose three minor abilities. Deal?

I had one GM that let you roll a new power and a new mutation up to 5 times in addition to the normal stuff. We had some pretty crazy characters. Then again, I once let people add an extra 1D6 to an attribute in exchange for a random insanity. That was a lot of fun.

Oh, and forget the supersoldier options, they don't give Major powers.

chibiyuri, Elves are given stats in the Conversion Book or in Palladium Fantasy. I'll go get you their stat block.

One of the cool things with Palladium races is that you get a whole different dice pool for other races. Humans just get 3D6 each.
IQ 3D6+1 elves are slightly smarter
ME 3D6
MA 2D6 Elves don't try as much to be clever and likeable
PS 3D6
PP 4D6 Elves are very destrous
PE 3D6
PB 5D6 Elves are beautiful
Spd 3D6

SDC starts at 10
PPE 5D6 (use the Burster's listing)
Nightvision 90ft
+1 attack per melee (hereby referred to as APM) with a bow if Archery is taken.
Average life span 600 years (how long have you been in Rifts Earth? The apocalypse was about 400 years back so that's plenty of time for an elf.)
Height 6ft +1D6 inches
Weight 150-230lbs

Speak and be literate in elven at 98%, speak and be literate in another language (+20%), and Basic Math (+20%) in addition to the OCC skills from the Burster. +2% to any wilderness skills taken.



Oh and since Rifts was made in Michigan, next door to Canada, they put metric conversions in almost everything so let me know if anybody would like their info in metric.

[Punstarr]

Alright, "Whole Body Glows" sounds good (unless you'd let me take "Requires Energy for Nourishment" instead). I'll be taking Super Energy Expulsion as my major power and Flight: Wingless, Extraordinary PE and Healing Factor as my minors.

Question... for attributes, is it straight down the list, or do you roll and we get to choose where to put each attribute (to best suit our concept)? It'd suck to play a Scientist OCC and get stuck with an IQ of 11.

[Chibiyuri]

I'm a big fan of rolling the side effects and choosing the powers. I'm not going to force something super stupid on you like "no skin", but i think it should be up to the dice. Specifically, the dice I roll.
*rolls*
The first I rolled was "triple normal body hair", we already have a dogboy....
The second was "Whole body glows", -40% to Prowl. If you had Energy Expulsion this would make sense.

See we're usually supposed to roll to see how many powers you get to pick, but we've already discussed this and you seem to want One Major and a few Minor powers. Since I'm forcing the side effect on you I'll say you get to choose three minor abilities. Deal?

I had one GM that let you roll a new power and a new mutation up to 5 times in addition to the normal stuff. We had some pretty crazy characters. Then again, I once let people add an extra 1D6 to an attribute in exchange for a random insanity. That was a lot of fun.

Oh, and forget the supersoldier options, they don't give Major powers.

chibiyuri, Elves are given stats in the Conversion Book or in Palladium Fantasy. I'll go get you their stat block.

One of the cool things with Palladium races is that you get a whole different dice pool for other races. Humans just get 3D6 each.
IQ 3D6+1 elves are slightly smarter
ME 3D6
MA 2D6 Elves don't try as much to be clever and likeable
PS 3D6
PP 4D6 Elves are very destrous
PE 3D6
PB 5D6 Elves are beautiful
Spd 3D6

SDC starts at 10
PPE 5D6 (use the Burster's listing)
Nightvision 90ft
+1 attack per melee (hereby referred to as APM) with a bow if Archery is taken.
Average life span 600 years (how long have you been in Rifts Earth? The apocalypse was about 400 years back so that's plenty of time for an elf.)
Height 6ft +1D6 inches
Weight 150-230lbs

Speak and be literate in elven at 98%, speak and be literate in another language (+20%), and Basic Math (+20%) in addition to the OCC skills from the Burster. +2% to any wilderness skills taken.



Oh and since Rifts was made in Michigan, next door to Canada, they put metric conversions in almost everything so let me know if anybody would like their info in metric.

Yay!! Thank you Tom *gives a big kiss on the cheeks*
I was thinking that thats were the stats would be, thank you so much. I 'think' I have everything set and ready for the dice rolling, would you mind looking at it, and let me know what I'm missing/ got wrong, etc.
Just tell me how you want me to send it to you (Its a .pdf)

[Tom the Fanboy]

You guys will get to place your rolls in the stats you want, unless you play a nonstandard race (minotaur, elf...) because they have different dice. They can switch around the ones with the same pool, like 3D6.

I'm going to go into one of my earlier posts her and start experimenting with code windows to craft a forum based character sheet. I don't want to start a new thread for it until I have at least that created.

[Xaq]

I was just going to go with the partial conversion rules for combat cyborgs from the main rule book, but if you have a better version, that works too. I'm a bit busy with writing a paper at the moment, but I'll get details worked out as soon as I have a spare moment. When you set up the new thread for rolling stats, I'll probably start with that. Minotaurs have supernatural strength, so I'll likely just try to match the Minotaur stats for sake of easy bookkeeping.

[Tom the Fanboy]

According to page 150 of the conversion book one minotaurs have normal strength. They also have several hundred SDC naturally, which allows them to take a couple of points of mega-damage without dying, but they are still not considered MD creatures. Minotaurs are powerful but they don't get the super boost that most creatures get from Rifts. I think that's because they were meant more as a racial creature then a solitary monster.

I can try and do a write up on their conversion book stats in a couple nights if you don't have a copy of the conversion book.

Are the partial conversion rules you're looking at in front of the Headhunter section?

[Xaq]

I have a Conversion book, I just hadn't cracked it yet... I was going from memory. The partial conversion rules are right in the combat borg section of my rulebook, but I've got the original edition, which may have been changed. I can always go with full conversion so long as it's not simply brain-in-a-can (because otherwise why bother being a minotaur?)

I'll have some time to crack the books later this week, if that's cool. We're supposed to wait to roll stats until you start that new thread, correct?

[Tom the Fanboy]

Yes, we're rolling stats when I put up the new thread.

The funny thing is that I've got a copy of Acrobat so I can fill in data on the pdf character sheet and then post it online, which would look a lot cleaner than a forum code page. However the pdf is huge. I'll probably set up links to the pdfs and then have the important data in the forum code.

Do you guys have any requests for what kind of info we should have up? I'm making a big deal since I know how different computers can have trouble with different websites. I want everybody to be able access their stuff easily without opening multiple windows.



I wish I had a copy of the old Rifts book, then I could compare and just let you know what's different. You should be fine making characters, there just might be new stats on the cybernetics themselves.

[Punstarr]

Hey Tom! I just picked up a copy of Heroes Unlimited 2nd Ed today!

[Tom the Fanboy]

Awesome Punstarr!
Let me know if you see any different minor powers that strike your fancy.


Oh, and I just re-read the partial conversion rules in RUE, they're listed in the Headhunter section like I thought. You get some choices for your arms, legs, and a few bonus cybernetics. You'll be a MD creature, even if you weren't already (minotaurs usually have a couple hundred SDC) and even though you won't have supernatural strength, you'll definitely have extraordinary strength and you'll be able to power punch for Mega-damage.

The rest of you guys got your characters figured out yet?