Core Rifts Ideas (vis a vie Modern/Future/DnD)

[Graf]

Lots of good ideas. See two posts up.

Need to keep studying but just wanted to respond quickly.

It works in Modern? I'm very inclined to pick up the books now.

I also eyeballed Soulknife as being almost perfect for cyberknight.
How would you balance a Soulknife against a Modern character? (Do you use second world)? I was thinking that psychic warriors with extra feats and some kind of "insanity issue" like that inflicted upon the Pseudonatural PrC (forgot the name) in Complete Arcane would be interesting. (extra levels damaging mental attributes and inflicting insanities, etc).

They tread dangerously close to furries but I've always loved the dogboys. Their weird symbiotic relationship with the CS and the dynamic their mistreatment at the hands of humans forces upon the Psi-Stalkers who oversee them is worth the price of admission. (And the art for them was always better than average in the books).

I liked WB 1, but I also really liked WB 2 and 3 (especially WB 2). And Wormwood of course.

Honestly I could have Rifts be a bit darker... so if Juicers are only getting a +6 to attributes for a few hours a day and then are exhausted I don't think it would really harm the setting.
And there were Juicers later who were weaker, no?

... Omega World, which was a much better fit for me to run the game; ...

Best $10 you'll ever spend on d20!

Its very funny that you mention Omega World. I love the game and I think that John Tynes made a brilliant effort but with limited pages he was only able to create a very focused game.

I actually started this thread after reading through OW and realizing that it was not enough to work with to really make a long term future campaign. In particular I think it suffered from not having anything but the 3.0 DnD rules to work with.

I do think OW is awesome for what it is though. Sparse, evocative writing; good simple rules; etc.
The temptation to include Androids ala Phillip K. Dick and humanoid rabbits who turn stuff into rubber is mighty powerful.

 

[danzig138]

How would you balance a Soulknife against a Modern character? (Do you use second world)?
They tread dangerously close to furries but I've always loved the dogboys.

I liked WB 1, but I also really liked WB 2 and 3 (especially WB 2). And Wormwood of course.

Honestly I could have Rifts be a bit darker... so if Juicers are only getting a +6 to attributes for a few hours a day and then are exhausted I don't think it would really harm the setting.
And there were Juicers later who were weaker, no?

I didn't to a whole lot to the soul knife, but then, I also haven't had the chance to playtest in game with modern characters.
I don't like the dog boys because A, one of my old payers was a furry. Jeez, I got tired of hearing about that stuff, and B, I got tired of humanoid animals being in every freaking Palladium game. It always seemed like that was the fallback when they couldn't think of anything else, kind of like how they use alien intelligences.
Wormwood has some good ideas. The execution I'm not fond of, and the book seems to be lacking a lot of information (like equipment), but I'm slowly working on "reimagining" it as a d20 game.
I think a short term per day Juicer could probably work. Yes, some of the Juicers in JU were weaker, but had ceertain strengths to compensate.
Personally, I kind of like the Titan juicer.

 

[Graf]

Passed my test. Rifts switch turned back on.

To a certain degree I see the Juicer as a "parable class" its about the horrible things people will do to themselves for power and destructive power of drugs.
Of course in "core rifts" the negative part was pushed out past the likely duration of the campaign. (and then there were so many awesome combat classes that turned up later that Juicers lost a lot of their appeal).
Making the daily struggle with using the drugs, and the highs and the lows seems to keep the "core parable" of the class while offering a better balance.

So the Juicer gets to train their body to maximize the chemicals.... there is a race to reach the pinnacle of power (i.e. gain levels) before your body begins to give out in a few years.

How did you handle (did you handle) the Rifts games offering people the opportunity to increase their attributes significantly through skills?

The titan Juicer sounds familiar but I can't remember what it was (like big and super strong with a bit of megadamage maybe)?

 

[Ar'Salan]

Just a semi-random thought:

Reading the RIFTS core books reminds me intensely of two books by British writer Jeff Noon: specifically, "Vurt" and "Pollen." Similar modern/cyber/psychic/magic/juiced-up/feral animal-hybrid/mega-corp/power-armor cop world.

You might get some added ideas from them. http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0330338811/ref=pd_sxp_elt_l1/202-3568722-1234212

-good luck, RIFTS is awesome!

 

[Turanil]

My suggestion would be to get a look at several of d20 supllements by RPGObjects (mainly Darwin's World and Modern System sections). They have supplements on martial arts, superheroes, and post apocalyptic that you could probably use to good ends for a RIFTS like setting.

 

[danzig138]

Of course in "core rifts" the negative part was pushed out past the likely duration of the campaign. (and then there were so many awesome combat classes that turned up later that Juicers lost a lot of their appeal).

Yeah, I had a few players who figured they'd never see the burnout time for their juicers in the campaign. Until I reminded them that I kept a good track of time, and that if they didn't provide adventure hooks in character, months might pass in game between adventures.
It got funny looks.
It is a shame I think that the Juicer lost some of its oomph with later books. Even the Uprising book didn't help with that.

How did you handle (did you handle) the Rifts games offering people the opportunity to increase their attributes significantly through skills?

I used a feat from the Modern Player's Companion (I think that's the source). It allowed an increase in one ability score (maybe for a decrease in another). Between that and level advanement bonuses, I figured it was covered.

The titan Juicer sounds familiar but I can't remember what it was (like big and super strong with a bit of megadamage maybe)?

Really big and supernaturally strong, but still S.D.C., so they had to be careful what they hit with their super strength.