Rifts

Savage Rifts, Palladium Rifts and Savage Worlds in general.

RIFTS RESOURCES: txt.do/58m2k

If you had to choose, would you choose Prosek or Dunscon?

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There's a wolf robot armor in the Arzno book.

All Hail the new Rifts threads!
Long May they live!

It's a welcome change from the shitshows that were Rifts threads in the past 16 years.

So, how's running Savage Rifts and how's it going? Any storytimes?

^who's running Savage Rifts

I'm reading the SR player's guide and I'm kind of puzzled by some of the things it mentions, like

>Mystics are equally illegal and reviled in the Coalition and the True Federation of Magic.

So necromancers, evil demons, slavery and pretty much every deviancy is okay in the federation of magic...but not mysticism. Why?

> Spiritual Channel: Constantly in contact with spirits, and quite possibly with divine messengers of whatever faith the Mystic follows

So are there angels, devas and djinnis in Rifts officially now? God too?

>So necromancers, evil demons, slavery and pretty much every deviancy is okay in the federation of magic...but not mysticism. Why?

Well, in Savage Rifts mystics aren't normal mages, but rather spiritual/religious spellcasters, not arcane ones. Not only that they have psionic powers too, and are all about unity and harmony, both internally and between people. Meanwhile, the federation of magic is not just about magic, but magic supremacy, to the same degree that the Coalition is devoted to anti-magic and technological supremacy.

So, they're banned because they represent the total opposite of everything the Federation of Magic stands for.

>So are there angels, devas and djinnis in Rifts officially now? God too?

Good-aligned supernatural beings have always been a part of Rifts. Whether those are actual "angels" of any actual "god" is up to your interpretation.

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>So necromancers, evil demons, slavery and pretty much every deviancy is okay in the federation of magic...but not mysticism. Why?
I assume it's because they would oppose all that dark magic and slavery. I imagine Cyber-Knights aren't welcome either.

>So are there angels, devas and djinnis in Rifts officially now? God too?
Angels and Jinn have been part of Rifts since the original Conversion Book 1. Several pantheons of gods are stated out in the second conversion book, including Hindu gods.

Oh cool, some homebrew rifts art. That's dedication.

>If you had to choose, would you choose Prosek or Dunscon?
Prosek. They're both evil fucks, but at least Prosek is practical evil. Dunscon is a moody "muh revenge" villain.

What future Savage Rifts splatbooks have been promised, if any?

Are they gonna do warlocks and dino swamp and tattooed men and everything?

They've promised that future books are coming, but no details about what they'll be.

There's also this one from Northern Gun, that got included in the SR Player's Guide.

What do people think of the Minion War?

On one hand, it feels a lot like a cheap comic book crossover event. On the other hand, I'm kind of a sucker for stories about enemies forced to unite against a common threat.

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>So necromancers, evil demons, slavery and pretty much every deviancy is okay in the federation of magic...but not mysticism. Why?

Well, it's wrong, but even the good guys of the Federation (Dweomer) hate psionics - or rather, their Lords of Magic are vulnerable and somewhat afraid of them, so they have a psionic ghetto.

Cheap and nonsensical based on the numbers... but despite that I actually rather liked the RIFTS book for it, and a lot of the enemy commanders were pretty neat.

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I hate to harp on this, but I was really hoping to get some feedback on this idea. Does the basic concept mesh with Rifts? Does it fuck up any setting assumptions? Is it missing anything? Should I boost the MDC? Is it too cheap? Should I add anything else to it?

What's your least favourite part of the Rifts setting? There's lots of awesome stuff, but everyone I'm sure has that one thing that just wont sit well with them no matter how they look at it.

For me, it's the juicer killer power armour. The concept is just dumb, there's an easier, cheaper way to thwart autododge in Rifts: missile volleys, and using AP missiles they don't even have to have a huge blast radius. Second, those automated guns, why not just mount them on fucking everything and reprogram them to serve as an anti-missile measure? Something like that would have changed the goddamn setting, yet instead, there it sits, as a retarded gimmick.

Free Quebec producing a GB variant shaped like a Barbie doll, because the female pilots wanted the enemy to "know they just got their ass kicked by a girl."

I've read that statement at least a three times now and I still see it as "know they just got their ass fucked by a girl." I think I need to go talk to dr. Freud.

Crazies. Why did Kev have to shoehorn them into everything?

You know how many freudian psychologists it takes to change a lightbulb?

2, one to screw in the lightbulb, the other to hold penis

WAIT NO I MEANT CHAIR.

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Dude, you're really overthinking this. There's almost nothing you could to Rifts to unbalance or fuck it up; it's already there. Adding an APC with a little extra armor ain't gonna do shit to the setting.

Does anyone have a cheat sheet or GM's Screen for Savage Worlds, with all the stuff like Critical Hit tables and social reaction tables in one place?

They're scattered all over the core book.

Or you need to meet a girl who's into pegging.

The only difference between that and going to a shrink is whether you're face-up or face-down on the couch.

Found one! Handy.

The best part of that is how they try to justify boobplate on a robot by saying it provides more chest armor.

I dunno man, the early Rifts books are actually fairly consistent in their design themes. It only really started to jump the shark around England.

I'm a tasteless faggot, but I actually like the design of the glitter girl. Yeah, the boobs are a bit absurd, but I really like sleek power armour. Same reason I like the flying titan. Too much shit in Rifts is goddawfully bulky.

>started to jump the shark around England.
Which was only like 35 books and 20 years ago.

Yep, that's why I've trimmed the whole thing down to about five books.

Is Agility the Uber-stat in Savage Worlds? So many skills, including combat skills, are keyed to it. So little to Strength...

Yeah, it's basically required if your aim is to be a combat monster. That said, if you want to melee effectively or use heavy armour, strength is a must.

It's worth noting that due to the way skills work, you *can* be a low agility combat monster, it's just an extremely expensive investment (I don't recommend it, just saying that it is an option).

You should read old Rifts books regardless. SR is just very condensed.

Melee is sort of a fool's game though. Ranged is just so much stronger, and also needs less investment.

At least that's what I remember.

I think books were just inconsistent as fuck. Key thing to understand Rift's balance is to keep your games regional. Is your campaign set in Russia? Players can only choose from OCCs and tech available in Russia, which is what the game was clearly designed for if that's where you're setting it.

Especially in Savage Rifts, where Megadamage weapons and armor are so prevalent.

Are there any drawbacks to using Strength and say Spirit as dump stats for a combat monster?

If you are doing any melee range combat you attacks are going to do less because its Str+Whatever for melee damage.

And Spirit is used to resist magical effects, Fear, and more. Its also wildly important in removing the shaken status effect.

Side Note: New Rules released a few months back. You only have to pass a spirit test to remove shaken and have full action, you no longer need a raise.

ProTip: There are no dump stats in Savage Worlds.

Melee has its advantages. The weapons for it all do fairly high damage and have decent AP, they're also almost entirely megadamage.

Low strength means you're going to take considerable penalties to wear heavy armour. It also means some heavier weaponry will be penalized.

Yeah, but I just flat out don't like most of the later setting stuff. It went from "here's a somewhat gonzo sci-fi fantasy setting" to "everything is some sort of wacky regional stereotype."

Also ignoring most of the setting leaves it open for me to do what the fuck ever with.

>Melee has its advantages.
By the time you close to melee range you've probably already been shot a few times.

>penalties to wear heavy armour.
Why wear body armor when you can wear power armor? It has its own strength.

>By the time you close to melee range you've probably already been shot a few times.

Maybe, depends on the combat environment. Most combats are probably going to take place at relatively close range, much like modern combat. You also probably have some manner of enhanced speed on your side.

>Why wear body armor when you can wear power armor? It has its own strength.

Requires an edge to not take a penalty. You also probably don't start with it and it's pretty expensive to buy on your own (even the Samson is something 850K)

>(even the Samson is something 850K)
Good point, that only works for power armor jocks who start with it.

Speaking of which, are there any guidelines in original or Savage Rifts for giving out party treasure?

>How many credits should players be accumulating per session?
>Should they be able to salvage enemy armor, weapons and vehicles?
>What percentage of list price should they be getting on the black market?
>Can they travel to Splynn to get better deals?
>What is the availability of things like power armor in the CS, FoM, Colorado Baronies, Arzno, etc.? The Palladium books seem to imply you can buy this stuff almost anywhere.

Also, it's worth noting that you can't take power armour everywhere. The Samson for instance weighs 460 pounds without its railgun, 1000 with, on top of your character's 150-200 pounds; it's also 11 feet tall.

Those are all in the GM's guide I believe. I haven't read them, but I've seen tables for merc payouts and the like in passing.

On the note of travelling to Splynn, you have to get through the demon sea, and if you need to ask how to get there, you don't want to go there because the weak tend to suffer bad fates there.

Maybe if you remove the Glittery Boy. Even now, only robots that are at least 3 times it's height have more M.D.C.

>Those are all in the GM's guide I believe.
Oh, yeah, page 80. Thanks for the reminder.

I would note that the merc payouts seem ridiculously stingy.

Like a major op wouldn't even pay for the e-clips used.

Actually, looking at the table, monster bounties seem fairly profitable.

A dozen brodkil would be simple enough to kill and net you 60k credits.

And recharges aren't that expensive either. Shot capacityx100 or 1/3rd that by someone with the right skills and equipment.

Actually melee does a bit better in Savage Rifts as vibroweapons are pretty much the only portable mega-damage weapons aside from grenades. Also a Cyber-knight can move an insane distance and attack with the damage of a mini-missile.

>the pinnacle of pre-rifts technology is ridiculously good

I don't see the problem. Especially since with the early books Free Quebec didn't have a Gorillion of them and the ability to mass produce new ones.

I'd bet you an Abrams is tougher than a Maus despite being less than a third its weight.

They revamped it after people pointed out it was retarded for a plasma cannon to be cheaper to reload than an ion pistol. Now it's 1500 for pistols, 2500 for rifles.

Are Action Cards just regular playing cards or did Pinnacle release some sort of themed card set?

Don't Mind Melters get Psi-Blades as well, how do they do?

Why is a vibro-sword a megadamage weapon? Isn't the rule of thumb supposed to be "is it like a tank..."?

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>Are there any drawbacks to using Strength and say Spirit as dump stats for a combat monster?

As others have said, there's no dump stats in Savage Worlds.

To answer your question more specifically, Strength is obviously important in melee combat, but it also determines your Encumbrance limit -- and you start having minuses on your die rolls if you're over your Encumbrance limit. In Savage Rifts, you might be able to use strength enhancing armor or cybernetics to skirt around that problem. However, the very handy edge of Brawny increases your load limit multiplier as well as gives you a +1 on your Toughness.

A fairly classic mistake in SW is to set your beginning character's Spirit to d4. Spirit is what you roll to recover from being Shaken, and a low Spirit used to be a great way to get stuck in multiple turns of Shaken . I suspect that a lot of those guys who complain about the SW Shaken rules had a character with a d4 Spirit and aren't getting around to mentioning that little fact.

It's worth nothing that there's been a major change to the Shaken rules that aren't in the SW rule-book. Attached are the errata.

In Savage Worlds, are there any creatures that have more than 3 wounds? Like gigantic dragons or something?

>Why wear body armor when you can wear power armor? It has its own strength.

The issues of weight and power armor have already been mentioned.

However, Size is also an issue in combat. Power armor increases your size and that can give your opponents targeting bonuses.

From the Savage Rifts Players Guide:

Size: Attackers add +2 if the target is at least two points of Size greater than the attacker, and subtract 2 if the target is 2 points smaller or more. These modifiers apply to anyone attacking or attacking from vehicles, robot armor, or power armor.

There are other problems with being in power armor.

Also from the Savage Rifts Player's Guide:

Wearing power armor makes using magic and psionics impossible, due primarily to the caster’s inability to connect with anything outside the suit in a spiritually meaningful way. Power armor also imposes a −6 penalty on Stealth checks, and a −4 for any tasks that call for congenial face-to-face interaction (Persuasion, Streetwise), fine motor work (Repair, Lockpicking), unhindered movement (Climbing, Acrobat-
related Agility checks), or detecting details (Investigation, certain Notice
checks, Tracking).

>In Savage Worlds, are there any creatures that have more than 3 wounds? Like gigantic dragons or something?

No. You have mooks that have one wound and wild cards who have three wounds -- that's it.

ou make wild card creatures tougher by giving them a higher toughness, more bennies, or by given them various combat attributes and edges.

Action Cards are just regular playing cards. Remember to keep the Jokers in the deck. When playing, it's usually a good idea to have two decks. One is in use and the other is ready to go when the first deck needs to be shuffled because a Joker was just drawn. I usually task a player with keeping the decks shuffled while I keep running the game.

Pinnacle does sell a sharp-looking deck of cards for SW. Some other people have produced themed decks for various SW products.

>Power armor increases your size and that can give your opponents targeting bonuses.

All the power armor seems to be Size 1, so that shouldn't be a factor. But the lack of magic/psionics is certainly a big drawback.

What's up with the head?

It's also worth noting that Pinnacle has a thing called an "Adventure Deck". The cards are not about drawing for initiative or the like. Instead, the cards allows players more control over the plot. For example: when played, a specific card indicates that your next die roll is automatically an ace, another might mean that an NPC has the hots for you, and third might say the reinforcements show up.

Each players gets a number of those cards equivalent to their rank when a game session starts. They can trade the cards freely back and forth. Each player can only play one card per session.

A Samson is Size 3. A Predator is Size 2.

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If I had to make a bet, we've got different editions of the players guide. There have been a lot of equipment changes.

Hey, how does radar work? Does it require something to be moving to pick up on it? Would a GB standing perfectly still in ambush pick up on it?

Make sure you get the latest release. Thought I had the latest, but as user pointed out the recharging of E-Clips had been updated and the Predator is indeed size 2.

Where do I get the latest Release?

Also what changed?

I can't find a specific explanation for Radar in the SW Deluxe book, or Savage Rifts Players Guide, or the SW Science Fiction Companion.

Until we hear something more, I would run it as the 3 pt version of the Awareness power from the SW Super Powers Companion.

Awareness (+3/+5) Trappings: Radar, sonar, Zen training.

Your hero ignores any and all obscurement penalties (darkness, fog, invisibility, etc). Cover penalties for solid objects still apply normally.

Movement would not matter. I don't believe that the Glitter Boy armor would have any particular advantage or disadvantage against it. Radar jammers might be something that a PC with Repair and Knowledge(Electronics) could throw together.

I was in the Kickstarter, so I can download them from the source. There's a link in the first post to the files, but I don't know if they're up to date.

There were a lot of changes and they don't have specific version numbers on the PDFs. The latest files should have an early August date, unless that has been modified during copying.

Look for the following indicator in the Players Guide (page 89) "Pistols use short e-clips which cost 5000 credits and 1500 to recharge. Anything larger, such as rifles use long e-clips costing 8000 credits and 2500 to recharge."

A Samson power armor (page 82) should come with a light Rail Gun instead of a medium Rail Gun.

The Flame Wind Hatchling Dragon should have an attribute (page 46) that reads: "Armored Hide*: The Hatchling has +16 M.D.C. Armor and +6 Toughness in
dragon form."

>savage worlds in general
kys

Oh, I meant in original Rifts. I'm going to be running a game for a two man group of robot pilots.

Giving it a brief look on Wikipedia, it seems to work like EM echolocation, so no, it doesn't require a moving target, and the GB would stand out. Since I can assume that both radar and combat computers in Rifts are fairly advanced (after all, the Wilk's 2020 Laser Portable Holographic Computer has a whopping 4 megabytes of random access memory!), I can safely assume that the GB wouldn't be able to escape detection and identification without some kind of jammer on its side.

Holy fuck this is the most retarded shit I've ever seen.

The "clunky" system just writes down what range of radar you have, the "light" system makes you approximate radar out of a list of powers?

Way to go, millennial trash. Way to go.

>millennial trash

>the "light" system

We've been over this. Savage Worlds is mechanically heavier than Rifts. That doesn't mean Rifts isn't clunky.

The radar in power armour in Savage Worlds is lumped in with the sensors and gives +2 to notice checks, there's no specific range for it.

Well damn, I have an older version. Would also like newer versions if someone could upload them.

No point in having pointless rules arguments if we're not arguing from the same rulebook! :D

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He's trying so hard.

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One of my eternal favorites.

Just had my first session of Savage Rifts last week, having my second session tomorrow. My group are a bunch of mercs working out of Paducah. They include a burster who hates the Coalition, a glitter boy pilot who got her suit by stealing it from an ex, a hatchling dragon, a ley line walker with a gambling addiction, a mutant with ninja training, and an elderly cyber-knight looking for a worthy cause to give his life for. The first session was a lot of fun, and I'm really looking forward to tomorrow.

They've said that it's not going to just be conversions or rehashes of the existing world books, but that a lot of Rifts fan-favorite stuff is in the works.

Psyscape. Dumb name, dumb concept, dumb execution. The idea of a psionic kingdom isn't a bad one inherently, but making it a faux-pacifist hidden city of hippie goodness and light is just offensively bad.

Sounds great. Any initial pitfalls to watch out for with the SR ruleset?

I've been playing Savage Worlds for over a decade at this point, so my basic advice to avoid pitfalls is basically:
*There are no dump stats
*Learn to think tactically instead of thinking like a D&D adventurer where everyone just stands out in an open field taking swings until one of them dies
*You don't need a d12 in a skill to be good at it. You're better off with a d8 so that you can diversify your skill set early on and have something to grow into.
*Your GM should be throwing out Bennies like water, and the players should be spending them the same way.
*Don't change rules until you've actually played the game as written. Some stuff that looks bad on paper works great in actual play.

For Savage Rifts specifically, I'd say that you should be prepared to roll with the punches. PCs have a *lot* of power right out of the gate, and they should get to use that power. So GMs need to be ready to handle that sort of thing.

Why in the hell does it have a mawed penis in it's chest?

Have you guys read the FATAL & Friends reviews of some of Palladium Rifts books? Shit's hilarious.

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