RIFTS General

>Which other R.C.C.s aren't allowed to pick an O.C.C.?
By default you only get one class. You can only take both if your RCC has a section talking about which OCCs it can take.

Yeah, and mostly civil too.

Perez is my favorite, his shit just oozes style.

I feel like Long, Perez and C.Walton all just make the game feel and look very different and I like them all.

I guess, thanks to the Rifts, players could import their characters from whole other RPGs. This would require conversion maths, of course, but still. Have you experienced players seen this happen much?

One of the first things I got asked when I started talking about Savage Rifts with my group was one of them asking if his character who was lost between worlds in a previous campaign could show back up in this one. He wound up doing something different, but it's something that can happen.

So I played rifts back in the day but I know precisely bugger all about savage worlds.

What's the system like? How well does it handle different kinds of games and encounters? How hard is it to teach your friends so they can give it a go?

Medium crunch.
Fairly easy to teach and play.
Combat goes fast.
Lots of edges, special abilities and sub-rules.
Uses cards for initiative.
Bennies are tokens players can spend on various metagame things.
Savage Worlds has dozens of expansions for all kinds of genres, from westerns to horror to scifi, so you could classify it as a generic universal system.
Chase rules suck.
It's decent but not amazing.

>Chase rules suck.
I would add that the chase rules from the previous edition are actually really good.

As far as how easy to teach it is, I just had my first session of Savage Rifts on Monday. One of my players has never played anything but D&D and d20-based games, and generally disdains anything that isn't one of those. He picked up the basics in about 15 minutes, and was talking to me about in-depth rules questions within an hour. So I'd say it's very easy to learn.

I like the system, its works as intended very well. It's decently crunchy in that it covers rules for pretty much everything you need. Encounters are fun and run the gambit of being very quick to bog-ass slow.

I'd say its easy enough to teach players who have any RPG experience already. It's certainly a lot easier to grasp for people with previous d20 or Palladium experience than say Burning Wheel or FATE would be, you don't need some RPG paradigm shift to understand it thats for sure. Few key features that stand out are the fact it uses a Deck of cards for initiative and its actually a lot more fun that I thought it would be. It uses Bennies (kinda like Fate points r Hero points or whatever other games call them) that you can earn with RP and cash in for mechanical benefits. One of the features I like the best about it is that entire monster stat blocks can fit on a single Cue Card and still not feel 'limited' versus the entire page or two stat block for some monsters that Rifts or Pathfinder can have. As a GM thats is supppperrr nice.

I have played a handful of SW games, but no long running campaign so I can't vouch for whether or not its a good system for that, I have heard mixed feelings on it though, some swear by it and some think you just don't change enough over time I guess.

Attached are the Savage Worlds test drive rules. Personally, I'm a big fan of the system. One thing it does particularly well is big combats.

The mass battle rules in Savage Worlds are sweet as fuck.

Yep. They way they involve player-characters is particularly well designed.

Would anyone here know enough about Savage Worlds to know how one might go about incorporating characters using the Super Powers Companion into Savage Rifts in a relatively balanced fashion? It seems as though it should be doable, and would fit into the setting (since the Rifts setting was supposed to be linked to the Heroes Unlimited setting). I was thinking of incorporating Street Fighters level heroes as comparable to the Lords of War or Masters of Magic.

Sean Fannon, the writer of Savage Rifts, used a character from the SPC as part of his con game characters. Basically, just take a 45-point superhero from the SPC then let them have two rolls on the Hero's Journey tables based on what kind of superhero they are. Done. Apparently it was basically balanced with a starting Savage Rifts character.

That sounds pretty alright. Thanks.

I highly recommend everything Zadmar for those who are getting into Savage Worlds, his free PDFs are excellent and he has all sorts of tools on his site. The Savage Spellbook in particular is great as its has much better examples of Trappings in use than how the core book explains them.

godwars2.org/SavageWorlds/

Well, it was derived from a skirmish level minis game, so I should hope it does that well.

What I find absolutely hilarious about Savage Worlds is the course Deadlands took with it. First you have Deadlands, then you have a skirmish game based on a trimmed down version of the Deadlands ruleset, then you have an RPG based on a flesh out version of the skirmish game's ruleset, then you have a new version of Deadlands adapted to that RPG's rules.

The serpent eats its tail.

So, what are some things you're eager to see updated to Savage Rifts? I for one desperately want to see ramjet rounds make a return, especially the 12 gauge variation from the Juicer Uprising book. It would be nice to see them made halfway useful and I've always wanted to play a character using a tube-fed shotgun loaded with them.

Hmmm. Now that sounds interesting.

>Zadmar

Who?

>Who?

Zadmar

Not that guy, but he made a supplement called Savage Armory which cleans up the Savage Worlds weapon design by giving it a basic framework from which to operate. It's a nice improvement on the basic game.

Yeah I've been looking at his stuff and he's certainly dedicated. Nice to have fans like that around.

I think Zadmar's stuff is a little too mechanically rigorous for my style of SW, but I appreciate his effort.

Perez and Walton are a pair of my favorites, though a have a foundness for the Mannings too.

What changes to Savage Rifts do I have to make to make it fit?

I have often juggled characters between systems in campaigns. Megaversal system is super-easy to convert to, often a matter of looking are a character and going "Ok, what are they good at?" Then turning to the classes and finding the closest fit, occasionally applying a hammer.

I wanna throw something nasty at the players for a climax. It's gonna drag itself through the mind of someone, what is good to throw that lives in the the psyscape?

Pretty much everything from Atlantis. Bio-wizardly, tattoo magic, rune weapons, and the rest of the Splugorth minion races.

...

I wonder who owns the license for all the N-gage art?

...

Some of it wasn't bad.

Some was a little retarded.

>dat backpack
>dem pauldrons
Did a space marine steal a glitter boy's helmet?

Those two main guns firing together do about half as much damage as a Boom Gun.

If you were not previously aware that Rifts has stats for demonic whale men, you are now.

All this makes me wish I could give a damn about Savage Worlds. It never clicked for me for some reason.

Does that thing have a cybernetic tornado arm or did I have a stroke and imagine it

>Does that thing have a cybernetic tornado arm
Yes. Yes it does.

what's your problem with it?

>That Guy who wants to play a T.I. inside this thing

>Those two main guns firing together do about half as much damage as a Boom Gun.

In other words, that massive gunbot would have to shoot a Glitterboy's chest about 16 times in order to destroy it.

Rifts!!!

Writeups like this make it perfectly clear that Kevin looks at the art and makes shit up based on what he sees.

>another day by the Dinosaur Swamp

Grab Nightbane's Between the Shadows and if you can Rifter there's very good Rifter article titled Beyond Between the Shadows that is a nice companion piece for use in other settings.
Great selection of Astral natives and monsters to use alongside Psyscape, and a more in-depth look at life there.

I hear the game was actually decent, just married to a failed platform so hard that no one has been able to pry it loose to convert to others.

Again a reminder that the GB is supposed to be the apex of Golden Age tech.

I love that book so hard.

Nah, most of the time he sends names and vague descriptions out, then the artists send in submissions and he picks whatever is closest. Art is largely non-canon for this reason.
Some, Walton in particular, have had a number of concept art pieces that were off the mark but were so well liked that they were then made into their own thing. These guys and a couple of the Splicers/Lemuria mounts are the Walton examples I'm aware of. The tigershark warmount was originally supposed to be more about the shark of similar name. Those stats got the name changed and new stats for the wonderful creature Chuck drew. Fucken shark-tigers man.

Also comparing 1v1 battles is a little pointless.

Because of how attacks and dodging work in Palladium, being outnumbered and having to use more dodge actions can quickly overwhelm a character even if he is powerful. And because defense is mostly through ablative armor it can he worn down in a hurry even if individual shots don't hurt much.

>My name is Joxjieojbops'xefs'xer!s, and I hate every single one of you

Question for anyone who's played Palladium Rifts: how does cover work? Does the attacker get a to-hit penalty or what? I've never seen a definitive rule for it.

...

You have to make a called shot against a part of your target that isn't behind cover.

This thing is 70 feet tall. The gun on its back weighs almost 5 times as much as an entire Glitter Boy suit. It's a military robot built by one of the major powers of the Three Galaxies. Who are suppose to be more advanced than Rifts Earth ever was. That gun's average damage is only 33% greater than the Boom Gun's.

I think of the GB versus the other Rifts earth mechs like an Abrams facing off against Panthers or Centurions.

But even at that, I'll admit that it's got some serious lackings in design consistency.

On an unrelated note, Rifts vampires are basically fragments of some sort of malovelent alien intelligence, right?

t. never read vampire kingdoms

Vampires in Rifts work like this
Dude makes bargain with giant alien tentacle monster becomes Master Vampire
Master Vampire makes a bunch of Regular Vampires
Regular Vampires make a bunch of Feral Vampires
Eventually you have enough vampires that are fragments of an Alien Intelligence to allow that Alien Intelligence to cross over into our dimension which I think has happened like four times in Mexico

Why are they bothered by crosses?

I don't know why can they take a Boom Gun to the face but not a Squirt Gun

When the heck are we getting a Scan for Heroes of Humanity? You be playing a CS psyber Knight RIGHT NOW if there was a scan./

>Glitter Boy is way too tough.

>Again a reminder that the GB is supposed to be the apex of Golden Age tech

I know, I know. But it's still fucking retarded.

Again a reminder that a Glitter Boy can survive SEVEN shots to the chest by its own gun -- the biggest gun in the game, and also the apex of Golden Age tech. Even at maximum damage it can still survive four shots to the chest.

So it's still retarded.

>Also comparing 1v1 battles is a little pointless.

No it's not, it's a sound method of measurement.

>Because of how attacks and dodging work in Palladium

"work"? LOL

>being outnumbered and having to use more dodge actions can quickly overwhelm a character even if he is powerful.

Still doesn't change the numbers.

>And because defense is mostly through ablative armor it can be worn down in a hurry even if individual shots don't hurt much.

Still doesn't change the fact that the GB can shoot himself 7 times. Biggest gun in the game.

So, still retarded. It's a system that goes very, very far out of its way to avoid logic.

>This thing is 70 feet tall. The gun on its back weighs almost 5 times as much as an entire Glitter Boy suit. It's a military robot built by one of the major powers of the Three Galaxies. Who are suppose to be more advanced than Rifts Earth ever was. That gun's average damage is only 33% greater than the Boom Gun's.

This guy gets it.

I love your tongue, Joxjieojbops'xefs'xer!s.

I'll take "How Do Hips Work" for 100, Alex.

>why can they take a Boom Gun to the face

because the Boom Gun doesn't actually do all that much damage.

Is sending a bunch of vampires against starting pcs too much?

I thought it had to be a TW squirt gun?

Also, just incase it isn't, I dunno lol. Maybe they're like the wicked witch of the west.

>Again a reminder that a Glitter Boy can survive SEVEN shots to the chest by its own gun -- the biggest gun in the game, and also the apex of Golden Age tech. Even at maximum damage it can still survive four shots to the chest.

Not to be nitpicky, but how many hits from a 120mm gun can a modern MBT take to the front armour?

Are there any guidelines for converting Dead Reign zombies to Rifts? Do they become MD creatures with supernatural strength? I kind of want to have a rift open up and have a bunch of them dogpile the PCs.

Yes yes, the damage to defense ratios in this game are way off, this isn't news and its always been dumb.

Depends very much on if they're prepared for fighting vampires or not. Rifts vampires are weird. A boom gun shot to the face will just knock a vampire over. But if you gave this kid a crucifix necklace he's stand a chance.

Soooo Rifts board game announced being make by Carmen Bellaires new company. Kickstarter for it early next year.

Whose ready to be be out of their money for 4+ years like the Robotech backers.

Yeah. They're a species of Alien Intelligences, like the Splugorh. Pic related.

In the original Vampire Kingdoms book, it was just a mystical property of the shape itself. Nothing to do with religion.

The revised version made some retcons, including making all holy symbols work. It doesn't commit to a canon explanation, but offers the theory that people's belief in the symbol empowers it, like how worship empowers gods. They also changed it so that cross-shaped shadows don't hurt vampires anymore.

Any water is deadly to them. They live in Mexico for the dry weather.

>No it's not, it's a sound method of measurement.

It really depends what you're trying to measure or what point you're trying to make.

Yes, GBs are incredibly poweful in game terms, but way far from invincible and a ton of things they can't do. There's a huge number of ways to take them down. They're just the "brick" role.

Also a heavy combat Borg with heavy Borg armor can accumulate more MDC than a glitter boy at first level. So can robot characters if you use the Sourcebook 1 rules.

>Any water is deadly to them. They live in Mexico for the dry weather.

Still, coming to fucking earth AT ALL is kind of retarded. I mean what could they possibly get out of setting up shop here?

MAGIC! Earth is like a ley line nexus for a huge portion of the megaverse, allowing for easy travel, and has a vast amount of PPE, which the Vampire Intelligences feed on.

So, if a player wants to buy a weapon from the 20th or 21st century in Savage Rifts, do I just use the core book prices from Savage Worlds? Someone in my groups wants their character to carry a .357 magnum revolver loaded with silver ammunition.

That's a reason to ban heavy Borg armor and the robot RCC: role protection for the Glitter Boys.

Are you for fucking real?

Nope. Just stupid.

Yeah. All those old-timey weapons are cheap as dirt. I also think they don't get stuck with the Technical Difficulties rule, since that's only supposed to apply to things that are "high tech." So your basic slugthrower is cheap and reliable but can't hurt anyone wearing decent modern armor or anything with even a little supernatural toughness. Sounds fair to me.

This popped up in my game. Some PC's wanted silvered melee weapons. I let them buy silvered longswords for twice the basic book price. Worth noting: 20th and 21st century rifles are only a little inferior to Savage Rifts laser rifles.

so how do you close a rift?

How has this been out for 2 months and no PDF?

In MD settings Defense trumps Offense.
That even the most advanced gun would have to work hard to kill a target is Working as Intended.

They're vampires. They need humans (or other mortal humanoids) for blood and to make more of themselves. They can't live on a planet without water.

>Again a reminder that a Glitter Boy can survive SEVEN shots to the chest by its own gun -- the biggest gun in the game, and also the apex of Golden Age tech. Even at maximum damage it can still survive four shots to the chest.
How many shots is it suppose to take for one super-tech robot suit to kill another?

>How many shots is it suppose to take for one super-tech robot suit to kill another?

I think a good frame of reference is >how many hits from a 120mm gun can a modern MBT take to the front armour?

The answer should be informative.

Why should it be the same as a modern day equivalent? The relative effectiveasness of weapons and armor have varied a lot over history. The first battle between ironclad ships ended with both sailing away after failing to sink each other for hours.