Rifts D20, what would you use?

[Michael Tree]

I would personally use Mutants and Masterminds rather than D20 modern, so players could create anything under the sun and still be balanced with each other. But if using D20 modern, use anything that can possibly be shoehorned into D20 modern. If you want to buy Urban Arcana anyway, it would be useful, but probably not neccessary. It has some nice spells for affecting technology, some appropriate advanced classes, and several PC races, but most of the rest is specific to modern settings.

 

[Salcor]

Hmmm, I agree that using D20 Modern as your basis would be the best option, but you are going to need to get Urban Arcana for the D20 modern conversions for spells. The biggest problem that you are going to run into with this conversion is that the world represented in D20 Modern is nowhere near as magically powerful as Rifts. In D20 Modern a character won't get first level spells until they are like 4th or 5th level. Well here are my suggestiong

D20 Modern - use this as the basis for character classes and rules

Gamma World D20 - the community rules from this setting, and the critters are definately a must. The equipment rules are also good for a basis for converting Rifts weapons and equipment

Cybernet D20 - I recommend this game for cybernetics, and rules for large cities like Chi-Town. It also has some good base classes in it.

D20 Mecha - Definately a must for creating the powered armer, mechs and vehicles of Rifts

Classically Modern, and Psychically Modern - http://members.lycos.co.uk/merlinsworkshop/ - these web creations are great because they bring the DnD 3rd classes in line with D20 Modern. Highly recommend them.

Critters - I recommend just about every monster book out there for Rifts. although some specific stuff might need to be converted.

Also there are some group created templates for things like Juicers floating around out there. If you want them, drop me an email.

D20 Modern Players Companion - Just a great book, a must have for any D20 Modern player.

Call of Cthultu D20 - For all the spugoloth creatures, and for Rifts if might help to institute the Sanity Rule.

That is all I can come up with right now. Good luck

Salcor

 

[Brutorz Bill]

I'd recommend Arsenal & Factory by Perpetrated Press, really cool Techno-Magic Items & Weapons!

 

[GMVictory]

Got anything to fight off cease & desist letters?

 

[Alchemist]

Got anything to fight off cease & desist letters?

Call it Rafts, rename everything, make sure nobody wears black power armour and you're off to the races. Variant magial apocalypses are certainly not under anybody's copyright law.

Rifters=Rafters, with power over the rafts that have opened up over the world.

 

[Kanegrundar]

Here's what I've been using:

D20 Modern
Star Wars (I converted Force Adepts and the two Jedi classes to D20 modern. I just really wanted Jedi in the setting! Also for more equpiment.)
Gamma World
Darwin's World 2
All Monster/Race books
Ultimate Alien Anthology
Book of Vile Darkness (Made Russia into a wasteland under the effects of the Warp Touch curse. I never liked the 2 Russia worldbooks.)
Call of Cthulhu (Sanity rules)
Urban Arcana
Farscape (weapons and races)
Various converted bits from the myriad of Rifts worldbooks.
SW Hero's Guide (Cybernetics rules. I modified DW and GW cybernetics to better fit with the rule in the SWHG, which I like better.)
I'm looking into modifying the mecha rules from BESM D20 for robot armor and such.

Magic is the D20 Modern standard, as is psionics. It's not really in tune with Rifts, but at least it's playable now. (The Rifts system is horrible, IMO.) I call it Rifts, and it mostly is since it uses much of the background from the worldbooks, but I still add my own flair and ideas to it.

That ought to give you a good start.

Kane

 

[blackshirt5]

That's basically what I'm looking to do, Kane.

I should add the Jedi, since I'm converting them over anyway(if I run another star wars game it's gonna be with Star Wars converted to D20 Modern).

 

[Gospog]

I myself will be running RIFTS D20 this summer.

My plan matched pretty close with what everyone else is saying.

I'm going to use D20 Modern as the base, because it is so "generic". This will allow me to plug in everything I want, such as Mecha from Mecha Crusade, magic from D&D, etc...

I will be starting off the group at 4th level, probably, to allow some players to use monstrous (D-Bee) characters, and others to start with an Advanced class worked in (like Cyber Knight).

Blackshirt, OBVIOUSLY, we won't be posting any of our work, but if you want to E-mail back and forth a bit, for our own personal use only, without the express written permission of anyone else, you can reach me at gospog@hotmail.com

For example, one idea that I would like feedback on is Juicers. My idea is for them to roll to "check out" every time they level up. Really puts thier short life span in perspective, you know?
My current mechanic is a 5% chance per level, for this next game to be the Juicer's last. The next game, they start to burn up, and all that fun stuff you read about in Juicer Uprising.

What I'm wondering is, is 5% per level too much of a chance, or too little? Should there be Epic Juicers out there???

 

[blackshirt5]

I like the 5% chance per level; I assume the Juicer template(or class, whichever you're going for) is powerful, right?

BTW, I don't have Juicer Uprising; in fact right now I don't even have the main book(for once, wish I was still friends with Richard so I could borrow his; this guy's got every RIFTS book ever made, seriously!), I'm planning on picking it up after Christmastime; but I remember a lot of the background, so for now I'm working from that.

And I'm emailing you...now.

 

[Kanegrundar]

I can't believe I forgot to mention that I use Savage Species as a base for mutated animals (the anthropomorphic template). Plus, any race that has a ECL of +1 or over must take racial class levels before taking regular class levels. I've put a cap on what monstrous species my players can be at ECL +10, simply because the player will spend half of his character's career taking monster classes. Not all that fun IMO. Plus I also apply the anthropomorphic template to alien animals and beasts as well, giving the world an even more alien appearance. It's worked out pretty well so far.

Kane