What's Rifts about, anyway?

[Narf the Mouse]

I've read online posts about it, but I've never been able to grasp what it's about. It seems like everyone talking about it just sort of assumes everyone else knows what they mean.

[Chibiyuri]

Here is about the best I can do for Rifts - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rifts_(role-playing_game)

Lots of info there, fun game if you can find enough ppl to play it, actually its the only PnP RPG I've every really had any interest in (ya ya skin me alive now ) Hope you have as much fun tumbling down the rabbit hole as I did ^_^

[Narf the Mouse]

Thanks. Looks like it doesn't really have a core concept, beyond 'Everything and the kitchen sink'. Which can be fun.

[Chibiyuri]

Yup yup ^_^

I'd love to play, but around here there is just my B/f and I, which sucks.

[Thunderhowl]

Thanks. Looks like it doesn't really have a core concept, beyond 'Everything and the kitchen sink'. Which can be fun.

Well. It's a little bit more complicated than that. It's a post-apocalypse setting where magic has resurged. There's an uneasy balance of magic and technology which allows for Mecha fighting Demons. It's pretty sweet.

The biggest drawback to Rifts (aside from MDC which I don't like) is that each new book has a slew of new character classes, power armour, weapons, magic and monsters and often the balance in power levels, while consistent within that book, are not balanced to previous books. Good GMs can usually find the balance though, so it can make for some great games.

[Spyder_V]

Sounds like something that, if enough of people here get into/read about/get well acquainted with, may be fun to do. Another RP thread?

[Thunderhowl]

The biggest problem as I see it, is that all the core rules for D&D are on the web as system resource documents. If such a thing is around for Rifts I've never heard of it.
Also, who would run it? I've run Rifts before, but with a lot of house rules...my Rifts is quite different from canon Rifts.
Maybe we can convince xaq to run it! He used to run Rifts regularly for my group...

*begin applying the crushing weight of peer pressure*

[Tom the Fanboy]

I always like saying that rifts is about kitchen sinks with giant guns.


I love Rifts, Palladium is my home system and no matter how hard it may be to understand and how complicated things can get I'll play a Rifts campaign instead of D&D every time.

I just don't have player group anymore. Stupid drama....

I have a ton of Rifts books and would be glad to help if there was a Rifts game on the fourms.

[Thunderhowl]

Would you help by running it?
I only ask for one house rule, everything else that I don't like I can deal with. Can the ratio for megadamage be changed from 1:100 to 1:10?

[FirstAidKit]

You know, I'd never really looked at Rifts until this thread, but yesterday I was so bored in histology that I went through the whole wikipedia and began the search for the rulebooks. It seems like a really interesting system, just from the overview that I got. I'll have to read through some of the source stuff when and if I can find it here (or on teh interwebz).

I think, if someone were to start a Rifts game here, *cough* I'd be up for trying it. (The inevitable crossover between bard and post-apocolyptic god-knows-what will be truly stunning... or get me killed).

[Tom the Fanboy]

*sigh*
Well..... I might be willing to run a Rifts game online, with a literal once a week update schedule. I have enough books for everything outside of China, even the moon.

...yeah I guess I can run a game since you guys are so interested.

Lets find out what kind of game you guys want to play before I set up parameters. With a good enough group you can play ANY style of game in the Rifts setting.

I'll make a new thread when I'm ready. For now you guys tell me three things.

1- What style of game do you want. (intrigue, action, mystery, cyberpunk, adventure etc)
2- Where do you want to be in the game (like, a part of the world or a setting like city/forest/frontier/seashore etc).
3- what kind of character would you like to play. (not your race/class)

We'll see what you guys want and I'll tell you what you can have.


Tom's Character sheet test.

Place for your rolled attributes:
IQ (4d6.takeHighest(3)=8)
ME (4d6.takeHighest(3)=14)
MA (4d6.takeHighest(3)=11)
PS (4d6.takeHighest(3)=12)
PP (4d6.takeHighest(3)=15)
PE (4d6.takeHighest(3)=15)
PB (4d6.takeHighest(3)=16)Bonus (1d6=2)
Spd (4d6.takeHighest(3)=14)

Base HP (1d6+15=17)(PE+1d6)

Code: Select all


[code]

IQ  -- * Name:_____________ * Appearance:________________________________
MA  -- * OCC:______________ * ___________________________________________
ME  -- * Alignment:________ * Disposition:_______________________________
PS  -- * Race:_____________ * ___________________________________________
PP  -- * Level:____________ * Height:_______ * Eyes:_______ * Age:_______
PE  -- * Exp.:_____________ * Weight:_______ * Hair:_______ * Skin:______
PB  -- *
Spd -- * Run at x m/s Run at xxmph, xxm/melee

****** Saving Throws ********************** Racial abilities ****************
Save vs -------:______ ***** Speak Native Language: ______________________ 98%
Save vs -------:______ ***** _________________________________________________
Save vs -------:______ ***** _________________________________________________
Save vs -------:______ ***** _________________________________________________
Save vs -------:______ ***** _________________________________________________
Save vs -------:______ ***** _________________________________________________
Save vs -------:______ ***** _________________________________________________
Save vs -------:______ ***** _________________________________________________

****** OCC skills ************** OCC Special Abilities ******************
skill_name_:base%..__+x%..* ________________________________________________
skill______:base%..__+x%..* ________________________________________________
skill______:base%..__+x%..* ________________________________________________
skill______:base%..__+x%..* ________________________________________________
skill______:base%..__+x%..* ________________________________________________
skill______:base%..__+x%..* ________________________________________________
skill______:base%..__+x%..* ________________________________________________
skill______:base%..__+x%..* ________________________________________________
WP _________________ **** Hand to Hand Combat: _______________
WP _________________ ****

** OCC Related Skills ***** Secondary Skills *********
skill_name_:base%..__+x% ** skill_name_:base%..__+x%
skill______:base%..__+x% ** skill______:base%..__+x%
skill______:base%..__+x% ** skill______:base%..__+x%
skill______:base%..__+x% ** skill______:base%..__+x%
skill______:base%..__+x% ** skill______:base%..__+x%
skill______:base%..__+x% ** skill______:base%..__+x%
skill______:base%..__+x% ** skill______:base%..__+x%
skill______:base%..__+x% ** skill______:base%..__+x%
skill______:base%..__+x% ** skill______:base%..__+x%
skill______:base%..__+x% ** skill______:base%..__+x%

-WP-  Strike  Parry  Dodge  Damage **** Hand to Hand Combat: _________
name___+--___+--___+--___ +--___ **** Strike+__ * APM:___
name___+--___+--___+--___ +--___ **** Parry +__ * Init +__
name___+--___+--___+--___ +--___ **** Dodge +__ * Roll +__
name___+--___+--___+--___ +--___ **** Pull Punch+__
name___+--___+--___+--___ +--___ **** Punch Damage:_____ Kick Damage:______
name___+--___+--___+--___ +--___ **** Special Bonuses: ___________________

************************************************************

_______
_______

Cybernetics/Psionics/Spells will be listed here, format to be created.
Robot/Power Armor/Vehicle data will be created as needed.
Gear: Equipment will be listed off of the coded character sheet.
[/code]

[Thunderhowl]

*sigh*
Well..... I might be willing to run a Rifts game online, with a literal once a week update schedule. I have enough books for everything outside of China, even the moon. ...yeah I guess I can run a game since you guys are so interested.

w00t!

Lets find out what kind of game you guys want to play before I set up parameters. With a good enough group you can play ANY style of game in the Rifts setting.

I'll make a new thread when I'm ready. For now you guys tell me three things.

1- What style of game do you want. (intrigue, action, mystery, cyberpunk, adventure etc)
2- Where do you want to be in the game (like, a part of the world or a setting like city/forest/frontier/seashore etc).
3- what kind of character would you like to play. (not your race/class)

We'll see what you guys want and I'll tell you what you can have.

Double w00t! I vote for adventure/mystery, frontier/forest. I'd like to play either a superhero (Heroes Unlimited) or a run away Coalition Dog Boy disenchanted with the Coalition.

The reason I hate the 1:100 SDC/MDC conversion is because it means anyone caught outside their body armour/mecha that isn't a natural MDC structure is toast the first time someone pulls a Wilks pistol out. It's lame.
Also, it makes conventional SDC weapons totally useless, and that's no good either. The 1:10 SDC/MDC ratio still keeps the MDC weapons deadly but gives soft targets a chance of surviving a single shot if they get lucky. Personal preference. Anyway. If you won't budge on the MDC thing, then I'd like to play either a Superhero or a Dragon Hatchling.

[FirstAidKit]

Wheee! New and interesting frontiers of roleplaying. Well, new for me, anyway. From what I've read, I could go along with the adventure/mystery setting in Rifts, and the forest frontier, or perhaps frontier city would be an interesting place to set the whole post-apoc opera.

As for my character? I wouldn't mind trying something with some melee flavor. Some sort of close and personal bruiser or some such. A juicer, maybe even. I just got a copy of the sourcebooks, so if you could point to some good pregame reading, I'd be much obliged.

[Tom the Fanboy]

If you want to be a Juicer then the Juicer Uprising is a natural choice for a source book. I actually have a frontier town written up already and I'd love the chance to bring in my old player character as a retired NPC. I was planning on submitting my town to the Rifter originally, this will put all those NPCs I created to good use.

Let's get a couple more players before I dig out my notes though.

Just to make it clear, adventure is the classic RPG traveling loot grabber kind, not necessarily the King's Quest epic sort of adventure.

Though I'm not against having you guys save the world.

[Thedon]

1. All Hail Prozek, all giving and loving.
2. Erin Tarn is hypocrit, her way or the highway.

Ah you ask yourself who are these two people, well the First is Emporer Karl Prozek of the Coalition States.
he second is Rogue Scholar who bleieves that the world should be a fair and loving place, mind you within all of her strict rules and must haves. She bleives that human can co-exsist with Non-Humans (aka D-Bees).

The Coalition States is what is left of The American States in the futures (which i believe is about 400+ years in the future). The CS (as they known as well) is man's last salvation.
They are forging a bright new future for man, hey brought in the Credit system of the future, they help bring the Vibroblade (new weapon of the future) to world, Invented the SAMAS (type of Power Armor).
A terrible fire destroyed the largest library in northamerica. Was sad day when that happened.

Making a Character can take up to if not more then two hours, rolling stats, finding what you want to play, what skills he/she will have. where your from, what your views of the world are. I"m not saying don't do it, but try it out, two people can make the very same class of character but what skills they select can make the two very diffrent.

Heavy Melee character?? well I suggest the Cyber-Knight, very enjoyable class to play, as they level they are very good against Tech.
Sure in the future some thing will be strong then others, but they also have thier drawbacks. The Glitterboy (power armer with 770 MDC) with it's awsome Boom gun, can easily take out almost any thing. Draw back is it's main weapon, Sure it's powerful but if the rest of the party is not protected by the sonic boom then they are hooped, it also has to skink it's pylons before it can fire, and is basic stuck firing in that directiong. I have seen a character take one down, was a tough fight but he had speed on the slow moving golith.

Rifts is a fun game, I been playing it for...i believe 6 years now. I like what they have done with he new stuff. They have redone some of the older class, upped what they can and can't do. I enjoyed playing my Elven Vagabond who happen to be a Zapper (electric pyschic). The idea behind him was he copied and wrote offical "Erin Tarn books". With over 70 books, 36 disks of info to us he made quite a bit of money.
I even knocked down a Balor (very powerful demon). Mind you it took almost all my ISP (inner strength potenal) to fake having SuperNatural strenght. It let me have the first punch, and I happen to win a butt load of Credits from that fight. I was hella lucky the fight was first one down.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rifts_(role-playing_game) note sure if it was given but good place to start.
http://www.palladiumbooks.com/ is the main rifts/palladium website.

[Xaq]

If you wanna run RIFTS, I'm totally in. I've been running it for years, haven't been able to PLAY since the mid-90s.

Character: I'd love to play the heavy if no one else is... I once played an awesome cyborg minotaur that I'd like to recreate, if that's cool. Otherwise, a Crazy (insane psychic ninjas!)

[FirstAidKit]

Hehe. Another new system to learn about. Well, I'm in. I've got some great ideas for a juicer, and as soon as I work some time in this weekend to figure out how everything works, I'll be ready to go! Since you guys have been doing this for some time yet, I'll pester you all with questions when I find them. I'd say if, but I know better.

[Tom the Fanboy]

Your guys' demands don't seem to be too outrageous. Here's the first wave of restrictions.

I'll be using Rifts Ultimate Edition
World Books 1, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, and 20
Source book 1, Bionics Source book, and Mercenaries
Your characters can also be converted from Palladium Fantasy (most of the books, no land of the damned), Heroes Unlimited, Aliens Unlimited, and Robotech (Base book, Southern Cross, or Invid Invasion)

This game will be Adventure/Mystery and will take place in North America, West of the Coalition States. Also, the timeline will be set just prior to the Coalition/Tolkieen war (unless I find the time to study that Rifts Aftermath book my roomate has). Alignments will be generally good. Anarchist may be allowed. RCC/OCC combos will be restricted for character balance.

We'll use the same online dice roller but I'll have to make a template for character sheets on the forums here for you guys to get the sheets online.

[FirstAidKit]

Wow. I guess I have some reading to do. I've got a midterm on monday, so I'll get started on them that night. Practical exams every Friday for the next two weeks, but I think my unwind time is going to be reading those source books. I'm still in though, if you'll have me! Just... exams suck.

[Thunderhowl]

I found this skill on the Rift's message boards.

Parkour only as a occ. related or 2 secondary skills
+12% to climb X2 to climb speed -2 feet from fall per lvl
+5 roll with fall and punch
+2 to dodge
+2 to physical prowess
+1 physical strength.
+1 physical endurance
+3d6 to speed
not to shabby and not over the top.

Would I be able to take it for my Dog Boy? It would make a cool skill for someone who chases down fugitives for a living.

Basically Parkour is this...
David Belle is the founder of Parkour. Belle began Parkour when he was 15, inspired by his father Raymond Belle and the "methode naturelle" (created by George Hébert). Belle is also the founder of PAWA (Parkour Worldwide Association).

Parkour is a physical discipline inspired by human movement, focusing on uninterrupted, efficient forward motion over, under, around and through obstacles (both man-made and natural) in one's environment. Such movement may come in the form of running, jumping, climbing and other more complex techniques. The goal of Parkour is to adapt one's movement to any given obstacle.

According to founder David Belle, the spirit of Parkour is guided in part by the notions of "escape" and "reach", that is, the idea of using physical agility and quick thinking to get out of difficult situations, and to be able to go anywhere that one desires. However, in freerunning, a closely related art emphasizing aesthetics, fluidity and beauty are important considerations

This video has an interview with the founder.
http://www.parkour-videos.com/videos/reportage-tv-tf1-emission-7-a-8

This shows the founder in action.
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1426/the_urban_ninja/