Savage Rifts is down the to-run queue and I hope I get to give it a spin eventually. I am somewhat skeptical of it, even though I admire the considerable work and passion Sean's put into it.
But in any case, it got me thinking about what sort of game I'd like to run.
I'd set it in North America because it's the classic, iconic (for me) Rifts setting, even though I did run a NGR game back in the day.
As for the timeline, I'd set it in 101 or 102 PA because I'm not crazy about the Tolkeen War plot; I strongly flavor the classic Kevin Long designs for Coalition gear over the sleeker look of Vince Martin's Coalition War Campaign gear (the Wayne Breaux ones are okay); and I'm undecided on whether to use the Mechanoids (I probably will) and the Four Horsemen (traveling to Africa looks like too much trouble).
So I'd probably use setting material from:
Core (classic)
Sourcebook 1 (haven't seen the revised version, would love to)
Conversion Book 1
Vampire Kingdoms
Atlantis
Mechanoids
Mercenaries
Pantheons of the Megaverse (some great adventure hooks there!)
Lone Star
Plus odds and ends (Temporal Magic from England, Necromancy from Russia, some OCCs from Juicer Uprising, some OCCs and setting stuff from Federation of Magic and Psyscape)
Undecided on New West/Spirit West, Dark Conversiobs, Dinosaur Swamp, Arzno, Madhaven, Merctown.
What about you? If you're running Rifts, what ate you using? If not, what would you use?
My on-off Rifts campaign is South America + Russia + Atlantis. In my campaign, for whatever reason, those areas become locked in a rift loop so that's where travel is happening. So why hasn't Atlantis splattered everybody? Because something about this development is causing unholy chaos among the mega D-bees in Atlantis and setting off major power plays there.
My on-off Rifts/Mechanoids Space Vikings campaign is mostly Mechanoids Book 1 and Book 3, Phase World books and Rifts Main. I've yanked a couple bits from here and there.
If I start up another Rifts game, I am thinking a mercenary campaign with the PCs being part of a merchant fleet in the Atlantic ocean so I could use Dino Swamp and Madhaven and the Shemarrian book.
Not running Rifts right now, but I have done some work if I get a chance to GM it again.
Core:
1st Edition Rulebook. UE has some interesting stuff, but I prefer the original.
Good to have supplements:
Conversion Book One. Lots of monsters.
Sourcebook One. ARCHIE and has the stats for the Splugorth Minion. If Atlantis starts to feature heavily in the campaign, I'd start using the Atlantis Worldbook, but the Sourcebook has the Minion stats, and that's good enough if they're just going to be the occasional encounter.
Vampire Kingdoms. The Vamp Kingdoms are close enough to NA to be relevant, and it's just a great resource when using vampire foes.
Mercenaries. Guns and Robots!
Federation of Magic. For the additional spells that make casters more appealing.
Heroes Unlimited. Many of the powers are useful for character with odd mutations and abilities.
Coalition War Campaign. I prefer the original Coalition equipment as well, but some of the War Campaign gear is neat, and I can find a use for the new stuff as elite gear.
Juicer Uprising. I consider this to be the best Rifts adventure book out there right now. It's an iconic Rifts style adventure, and has some great info on Juicers and how they can be used in adventures, both as villians and characters. (Damn, that almost sounded like an advertisement!)
Coalition Wars, Aftermath. I know a lot of people are unsatisfied with the Tolkeen war stuff, but I do think that most players want to play in the "Official" world, and so I put Aftermath on this list, as it's good to know about the setting updates.
Nice, but not necessary supplements:
Mechaniods. Useful for the Mechanoids themselves. But totally optional if the Mechanoids are not going to be featured in the campaign.
Nightbane. The Nightbane are different and cool to drop into an adventure every now and again.
Situationally useful:
Atlantis.
Pantheons of the Megaverse.
Lone Star.
New West/Spirit West.
Xiticics Invasion.
Honorable mention.
Triax and the NGR. Useful for a Coalition campaign where the NGR may have agents or representatives visiting NA.
Everything Else.
Hm. Good thread idea. This has solidified my "repurchase" list. I'm still rebuilding my Rifts game book collection.
What I used was primarily the following. Rifts Underseas and Rifts Japan with some Rifts Africa and Rifts Atlantis added in.
Ran a short lived campaign in Wormwood. No core Rifts elements, just the straight up Wormwood setting.
When I used to run it and play it, it usually started off somewhere small, then became a world spanning-dimension hopping mega adventure over time.
If I were to do it today, I would also go pre-Tolkeen books, and use the following;
Original Rule book
D-Bees of North America
Bionics Sourcebook
Lone Star - for the mutants and hover cycles
New West - for monsters and weapons
Sourcebook 1 - for equipment and monsters
Mercenaries - equipment and OCCs
Juicer Uprising
Although, I always thought it would be cool to run a sort-of Coalition version of COPS. To that end, I would use:
Coalition War Campaign - for the various law enforcement and monster hunting OCCs
Main Rule book
Lone Star
On another hand, if I wanted to do a gritty demon fighting campaign, I'd set it in Eurasia:
Warlords of Russia
Mystic Russia
Triax
Sourcebook 3: Mindwerks
(I would not use Triax 2, as it sucks ass)
And then there is Space, specifically a overpowered, planet destroying Phase World campaign!
Phase World
Phase World sourcebook
Fleets of the Three Galaxies
Aliens Unlimited
When I ran it, I kept it small. Usually a book or two beyond the core, also tended to stay in North America. I once ran a Rifts Japan game, can't call it a campaign as it didn't last more than three sessions, before the system got to us.
Yup. Keeping a campaign focused to one general area, at least at the early stages can help to curb some of the problems that creep into the game.
Japan is a tough one to GM as its a very different setting from the mainland post apoc. It, Scraypers and Wormwood all work better as self contained campaigns.
Quote from: Omega;933699Yup. Keeping a campaign focused to one general area, at least at the early stages can help to curb some of the problems that creep into the game.
Japan is a tough one to GM as its a very different setting from the mainland post apoc. It, Scraypers and Wormwood all work better as self contained campaigns.
All three settings I liked, but all three had issues. Namely, the Palladium system.
The system works if you mercilessly take a hammer to it and beat it into something that fits how you and your group plays, but I understand why today people don't feel the need to put in the effort.
Here's another one for my list: Rifts Canafa for the headhunter variants, and/or the Bionics and Magic Sourcebooks.
Quote from: Spinachcat;933545My on-off Rifts campaign is South America + Russia + Atlantis.
Finally, the match we've all been waiting for: Anti-Monster vs. Russian Heavy Machine 'Borgs!
Quote from: Spinachcat;933709The system works if you mercilessly take a hammer to it and beat it into something that fits how you and your group plays, but I understand why today people don't feel the need to put in the effort.
In my evaluation, what the system really requires is:
1. Rewriting the autofire rules (and not applying them to energy weapons)
2. Whittling down the skill system into something less granular, or at least easier to keep track of
3. Rewriting each hand-to-hand combat skill into a bonuses-by-level table
4. (optional) Fiddling with the mega-damage to normal damage rate
5. (optional) You know, a character creation app would be really cool
Quote from: Spinachcat;933709The system works if you mercilessly take a hammer to it and beat it into something that fits how you and your group plays, but I understand why today people don't feel the need to put in the effort.
Well, I like house ruling, but as you say, it really depends on the work to fun ratio, and after a while, I found it too much work for the amount of enjoyment we were getting out of it.
Hence why I'm waiting for the hard copy of Savage Rifts to come out.
I ran it without houseruling just fine. But I will maintain that Rifts, like Gurps and some other RPGs is for more experienced GMs who can trim things down to a managable campaign or are really good at handling totally mismatched power levels.
When I was running the Rifts campaign set around Japan I told the players what was not open to play. Primarily what was in Rifts Japan and Rifts Underseas and parts of the core book.
Quote from: Omega;933765I ran it without houseruling just fine. But I will maintain that Rifts, like Gurps and some other RPGs is for more experienced GMs who can trim things down to a managable campaign or are really good at handling totally mismatched power levels.
For us was the bonuses and that you had to have X stat to actually have a bonus, how Boxing more or less a mandatory power. Also, if I ran Rifts straight NOW, which is about 15-12 later, I could handle the system much better.
Quote from: Omega;933765When I was running the Rifts campaign set around Japan I told the players what was not open to play. Primarily what was in Rifts Japan and Rifts Underseas and parts of the core book.
That's what I did, actually. Same books.
If I had the damn cash, I'd actually order a grab bag and get some of the books back. (Lost the to a bed bug and mouse infestation a few years back.) If nothing else, they are great for just having ideas to mine.
Quote from: Omega;933765I ran it without houseruling just fine. But I will maintain that Rifts, like Gurps and some other RPGs is for more experienced GMs who can trim things down to a managable campaign or are really good at handling totally mismatched power levels.
When I was running the Rifts campaign set around Japan I told the players what was not open to play. Primarily what was in Rifts Japan and Rifts Underseas and parts of the core book.
I ran a Japan-centric campaign once a week for about a year. It was actually set in pre-Rifts, and used elements of Heroes Unlimited, Ninjas & Superspies, Mystic China, Nightbane, and Rifts. One of the PCs was an Incan demigod from South America 2. The campaign worked because I told the player's beforehand what classes were acceptable, and if they had an idea for something, to let me know and we'd work something out. While there were small complications with rules and things, I kept it under control by keeping N&S/Mystic China characters as humans, Nightbane were Nightbane, and the backdrop of ultramodern Japan came from Rifts. There was some stuff from the Rifter too, but I don't remember exactly what it was.
Point being, a Palladium game master has to be able to tell the players that some things are acceptable and some things are not. Especially before play begins. There are simply so many options that it can get mind boggling and worse, will make the game stupid. But if you have a specific setting in mind, it's pretty easy to say, you play a character from this list, and only from this list. You can choose from this list of equipment, but not that list of equipment.
I've heard so many stories of Rifts GMs allowing players to walk all over them, adding superpowers and martial arts powers to OCCs that were never intended for them, simply because, "they can." And then they complain that it's the game's fault that they had a shitty experience.
Quote from: everloss;933915I've heard so many stories of Rifts GMs allowing players to walk all over them, adding superpowers and martial arts powers to OCCs that were never intended for them, simply because, "they can." And then they complain that it's the game's fault that they had a shitty experience.
The friend I used to game with once upon a long time ago was a powergamer. One of his tricks was Jotan Juicer. (Before the Juicer races allowed was clarified.) His other Rifts trick was a Warlock summoning greater elementals, who are IIRC absolutely nutty powerful.
*He was a good gamer, but liked to squeeze advantages out of systems. Made him a great playtester.
Combos are usually where Rifts gets out of hand. And it's pretty easy to say "No" to the guy who wants to make a Vagabond with Heroes Unlimited powers who gets a bio-borg conversion, and then "escapes" Atlantis.
But yeah. The GM has to know to be aware of combos, and some of the uberpowered OCCs.
Man, I've used a ton of books in my RIFTS campaigns. It would be easier to list the one's I've disliked so much I'd never use them. Off the top of my head, I hated RIFTS England, and the south america books. I thought those were awful. Africa was pretty bad.
I was especially disappointed with the south america books, because in the Robotech setting, all the setting material on South America was fantastic.
System issues aside. What bothered me is that instead of focusing on North America first in terms of sourcebook development at first. They went everywhere else. When more often than not many campaigns are started in North america. There is only so many times " a random rift drops you off in Atlantis, England, etc". Or one starts the campaign say in Japan from the start. Unlike many I like the South America books. It's what the damage and MDC values for both weapons and item should have been. No more having a gun on a tank doing less damage and outranged by a laser rifle.
I use RUE, the GMG, Source Book One, and Vampire Kingdoms are my go to books for new campaigns. I usually will only add a World Book if the campaign moves in that direction. I got the Mystic China books in my Christmas grab bag so I want try to get the campaign there.
Quote from: RPGPundit;934772I was especially disappointed with the south america books, because in the Robotech setting, all the setting material on South America was fantastic.
While I actually liked the South America Rifts books, I agree with you that Robotech books like Zentraedi Breakout had a lot more (and better) setting material.
Quote from: everloss;935082While I actually liked the South America Rifts books, I agree with you that Robotech books like Zentraedi Breakout had a lot more (and better) setting material.
Yeah, it was really impressive. While the ones in RIFTS seemed absurd and stereotypical.
Most of the "dimension books" I view as not having much to do with Rifts really, and just having Rifts stuck on it for extra sales.
Notably, the Phase World stuff and Wormwood.
That said, I'd use totally non-Rifts Palladium stuff or perhaps even non-Palladium stuff in Rifts, not an issue. If someone wanted to convert their Gamma World mutant to Rifts say, or even their D&D fighter, I wouldn't really have an issue with it.(Though its a while since I've run it).
I've played Wormwood campaign as a stand alone setting and its good stuff. If Rifts isn't metal enough for a group, Wormwood certainly turns it to 11 and snaps the nob off.
Phase World is Rifts in Spaaaaaaaace. I like it, but I've mostly been a player for Phase World instead of a GM.
It's funny but I found Phase World kind of dumb. On the other hand, I thought Mutants In Orbit was freaking awesome!
Quote from: RPGPundit;938209It's funny but I found Phase World kind of dumb. On the other hand, I thought Mutants In Orbit was freaking awesome!
Long as you know the right book to look up to figure out what the heck TMF was.