So what's the most powerful combo in Rifts?

[SSquirrel]

And Vampires were pretty powerful, I recall, unless you had wood, silver, or a squirt gun (which was silly, but that's Rifts for you).

This was a play on vampires not being able to cross water. In teh world of RIFTS, it now means you can deal real damage to them. The Techno-Wizard guns were, of course, the best ones. I think normal water guns worked too tho.

And then there'd be the poor sap (ah, who am I kidding, it's me) that decided playing the "Vagabond" was a good choice. You know, the guy who got a few piddly skills, a pistol, no armour, and no crazy super powers? you know, the "regular joe" PC?

The "regular joe" who was friends with a walking mountain, a weird armoured whale, and a tweaked out methhead ninja?

The GM should have told you up front if it was a high or low power game and that if you play a Vagabond, you may as well have a 2nd character built and waiting in the wings The main book has a few low end ideas so you could do a campaign focused on survival inside one of the city states, running with the underground folks. Or you could have a Mind Melter or Great Horned Dragon in the same book heh.

"Well, of course if you use everything in the books it will be unbalanced. The GM has to carefully look over anything in his game."

...what? I can understand the sentiment here, and of course she's sort of right. But it bugged me that this is the defence that is used, again and again, in defence of Rifts. Still boggles my mind.

3.X was this way. So was 2E when you got into all of the various kits *cough* Bladesinger *cough* and things. The DM should always be concerned with what options are included and what makes things over (or under) powered. RIFTS and balance are not related, but careful decisions on what is allowed and making sure the party is built to work well with the planned game, it can be a good time.

 

[Rangergord]

My Favorite that I played years ago was a GM approved Monster Brodkil with a rune weapon, some Altanean tech, and Narani weapons and specialized armor. Pretty Pimped out, something like 6 attacks average 2d6x10 to 6d6x10 MDC each without working for it at all.

As a GM my party (A pimped out cyber-knight, a Cat person cyborg (from Lone star), and one other I can't remember) they Stole a Deathshead Transport...and kind of launched every nuc. on the town they had fled, I remember we had to0 roll every d6 we owned for damage (and of course x10 or x100 for everything). From that time on the town was a new wasteland and nexus in our games.

 

[Saeviomagy]

3.X was this way. So was 2E when you got into all of the various kits *cough* Bladesinger *cough* and things. The DM should always be concerned with what options are included and what makes things over (or under) powered. RIFTS and balance are not related, but careful decisions on what is allowed and making sure the party is built to work well with the planned game, it can be a good time.

Not by design though. And even a bladesinger competed on the same order of magnitude as other characters.

In D&D, the most heinous examples of powergameing, rulebreaking optimization require some serious work and very specific combos.

In rifts, they require choosing from a basic character class.

 

[SSquirrel]

3.x has a definite power creep to it, which is exactly what RIFTS has always been. There was a certain power range in the core rules and most every book after expanded on that.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

This was a play on vampires not being able to cross water. In teh world of RIFTS, it now means you can deal real damage to them. The Techno-Wizard guns were, of course, the best ones. I think normal water guns worked too tho.

As I recall, it was a cross between the legendary weakness of Vampires to be unable to cross moving water coupled with the whole holy water thing.

At this point, I'll just reiterate my desire that RIFTS eventually gets bought up or licensed by another game company so that the setting can get some mechanics to match its richness...M&M or HERO would be my first choices, but I can think of several others that would work as well.

 

[Thanee]

Noone's stopping you from using the background with the HERO rules.

You don't even need to convert everything (which would be a ridiculous amount of work), but just what is currently needed (probably manageable), step by step.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

I have done just that in the past...but I'd rather see a complete treatment of the game in a better system so I wouldn't have to do all the heavy lifting by myself.

 

[SSquirrel]

Shh quiet! If Kevin hears people talking of converting his system to anything else he has a conniption

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Then his estate can get on with the selling/licensing of RIFTS...

 

[scourger]

...And then there'd be the poor sap (ah, who am I kidding, it's me) that decided playing the "Vagabond" was a good choice. You know, the guy who got a few piddly skills, a pistol, no armour, and no crazy super powers? you know, the "regular joe" PC?...

I allowed the Vagabond in the Rifts Coalition Soldiers Campaign that I ran once upon a time. Sort of a conscript option. It worked okay, but the other OCCs & RCCs were very restricted. There was some sort of bonus for being a vagabond, but it was definitely a "story" choice as opposed to a "power" choice.