"Don't be stupid *** does'nt really exist"

[gelidus]

Where would you hear this in Rifts and with what? Do the people of Canada believe in vampires or wear wolves? Or do the vampires believe in such as a thing called a murder wraith? Are all the baddies known to everyone? Or are some just considered myth or legend?


And no I'm not talking about high ranking officials here just your average guys/foot soldiers.

[cornholioprime]

"Next you'll be telling me that there is such a thing as a SMART Vampire let alone thousands or millions of them.

Hah!!"

-Last known words of CS General William S. Custer, CS Central and South American Expeditionary 'expert,' before his disappearance in or around Ciudad Juarez in PA 90

[Traska]

I would imagine that most laypeople think that most of the "historical" supernatural (vampires, werewolves, etc) would be considered old wives tales. "Vampire? What, you tetched in the head, boy? Them's just D-Bees what drink blood... they do that, you know... drink human blood. It's 'cause them D-Bees are evil! All of 'em!"

[gelidus]

Exactly.... Unless you loved in new mexico then you smack the person who does not believe in vampires.

[Jorel]

Loup Garou

[Dog_O_War]

Where would you hear this in Rifts and with what? Do the people of Canada believe in vampires or wear wolves? Or do the vampires believe in such as a thing called a murder wraith? Are all the baddies known to everyone? Or are some just considered myth or legend?


And no I'm not talking about high ranking officials here just your average guys/foot soldiers.

I'ma take the stance that the average person does "believe" in the supernatural, such as werewolves and the like. And by "believe" I mean, knows about. Mercs and what not are hired all the time to deal with these kinds of foes, because they are a real problem.

Effectively, they'd be saying "don't be stupid" to people who said that vamps and werewolves DIDN'T exist.

[TechnoGothic]

For me it simple. PCs need LORE Skills.

LORE : Vampires
LORE : Demon & Monsters (General not detailed however)
LORE : Werewolves
LORE : Dragons (detailed, sub-races of dragons *Ice, Fire, Horned, etc...)
LORE : Magic
LORE : Psionics & Psychics
LORE : Nightbane
LORE : Juicers (detailed, various types, etc...)

I dont care what the IQ is. If they dont have the proper LORE Skills they know Jack about the subject. Demon and Monster Lore is so Basic, it just teases you in many ways. Its like : "Yeah I heard of Vampires. I heard they Sparkle in Sunlight and love the Cold Weather areas." ... If they had Lore Vampires they would know Truths about the Vampires. Its like : "Vampires !! Yeah I read up on them. Get out the Crosses, Holy Water, and silver weapons ASAP. No Fire doesnt hurt the, Water does." ... I'm not sure If i'm just Houseruling it, but I have Demon & Monster lore so generized your at best Heard of the creature or being, but what you know may not be true or useful. I leave the Focused Lore skills for the actual knowledge of a certain creature type.

It keep PCs and NPCs from too much. I suggest to Player to pick up Skills in game they have actually may be picking up from their experience and not just the "I wants" or "Need this" reasons. If the characters have not been around or even picked up a Sword in game, don't expect to learn WP : Sword just because you think it cool to have. Who taught him, when did you practice it in game ?

[Shark_Force]

to me, that approach makes no sense.

i mean, consider... you're walking down the street, and you see this little guy.

what is he? sorry, you don't know. you didn't take your rodent knowledge check. you might not even be sure if it's an animal... you might think that's a plant or a mineral if you didn't take the appropriate knowledge skill.

now, sure, the average person in north america may not know a thing about omaguan psychic cats, but if you ask them about dog boys or mind melters, they're not going to need lore: psionics to be able to have at least *some* knowledge. they might not be able to tell you about everything that a psi-stalker can do, but odds are good they'll recognise one if they see it, and they'll likely know that psi-stalkers can track supernatural creatures and lives off of their energy.

some things (indeed, many things) are simply common enough that people know what they are without needing any special skill. pretty much everyone should recognise a dragon. they might not know what sort of abilities to expect from a dragon, but they'll probably know it's a dragon. people will know about vampires. they may not know about master, secondary, and wild vampires, and they may not know *every* ability and weakness that vampires have, but they've likely heard about vampires (identifying one on sight is by no means guaranteed, but if they see a human-like figure biting someone's neck and sucking all the blood out, they're likely to presume it's a vampire) some things are simply common enough that you don't need any skill whatsoever to know what they are. obviously, which things those are will depend on your location. someone from china won't recognise a dog-boy on sight, but would quite likely recognise the more common types of demons found in china.

[taalismn]

On Rifts Earth "****? No such thing exists!" rates as Famous Last Words.

[csbioborg]

don't you think there are books and video books all cs grunts are made to watch
if you run into a being that drinks blood and turns into mist
drop your lasers and find a wood club

[gelidus]

don't you think there are books and video books all cs grunts are made to watch
if you run into a being that drinks blood and turns into mist
drop your lasers and find a wood club

not unless there audio books

[MikelAmroni]

I think this is where you aren't taking into account the power of media. Sure no one's reading (unless they are extraordinary), but the CS and more than a few travelling shows spread enough of the actual knowledge so you can know several things. I agree you're not going to know much about vampires with Demon and Moster Lore except for the big stuff. Garlic and running water work, as do crosses. They are savage bloodthirtsy creatures that normal weapons will not harm, even explosives. Silver knife to whittle them down or a wooden stake through the heart and cut off the head and burn the bodies. They hate sunlight. That's all pretty basic (you note the lack of differentiation or note of intelligence) and all you need is a successful skill check to know it (unless you deal with them often, and then not even that). FAILED skill rolls, however, you get the idea that to stake a vampire you merely have to stick it in and the vampire poofs, or that they glitter in sunlight.

The CS and almost every other major power that has an entertainment industry will have movies and stories about vampires, werewolves, demons, dragons, and more. The CS has entire product lines (including videos, apparel, toy and game support) for Monster Hunters, Dogboy action hero movies, CS action hero movies, soap operas where d-bees and monsters are the enemies and foils. You can be certain more than a few Northern Gun products have placement in mercenary movies, many of which use stylized versions of real monsters. Gritty horror movies would include slightly more realistic versions, but the heroes would eventually prevail by keeping their wits and using the conviniently placed weakness, but only after the body count is gruesomely high.

People put far too much into the fact that the average person is illiterate. They know the language and they get entertainment the same as anyone else. Oral traditions passed along information for centuries before written language. Not as evenly or uniformly, but still. This doesn't mean that everyone knows everything about everyone. The situation can and does happen that someone will disbelieve something we know (as gamers) is true. But that doesn't mean that everyone will do this. After all, there are idiots in every crowd.

[gelidus]

I think this is where you aren't taking into account the power of media. Sure no one's reading (unless they are extraordinary), but the CS and more than a few travelling shows spread enough of the actual knowledge so you can know several things. I agree you're not going to know much about vampires with Demon and Moster Lore except for the big stuff. Garlic and running water work, as do crosses. They are savage bloodthirtsy creatures that normal weapons will not harm, even explosives. Silver knife to whittle them down or a wooden stake through the heart and cut off the head and burn the bodies. They hate sunlight. That's all pretty basic (you note the lack of differentiation or note of intelligence) and all you need is a successful skill check to know it (unless you deal with them often, and then not even that). FAILED skill rolls, however, you get the idea that to stake a vampire you merely have to stick it in and the vampire poofs, or that they glitter in sunlight.

The CS and almost every other major power that has an entertainment industry will have movies and stories about vampires, werewolves, demons, dragons, and more. The CS has entire product lines (including videos, apparel, toy and game support) for Monster Hunters, Dogboy action hero movies, CS action hero movies, soap operas where d-bees and monsters are the enemies and foils. You can be certain more than a few Northern Gun products have placement in mercenary movies, many of which use stylized versions of real monsters. Gritty horror movies would include slightly more realistic versions, but the heroes would eventually prevail by keeping their wits and using the conviniently placed weakness, but only after the body count is gruesomely high.

People put far too much into the fact that the average person is illiterate. They know the language and they get entertainment the same as anyone else. Oral traditions passed along information for centuries before written language. Not as evenly or uniformly, but still. This doesn't mean that everyone knows everything about everyone. The situation can and does happen that someone will disbelieve something we know (as gamers) is true. But that doesn't mean that everyone will do this. After all, there are idiots in every crowd.

and do you believe everything the media tells you? I mean its not like the people of the cs have had bs line after bs line spun at them.

[MikelAmroni]

Well in a world where the State can vicsously back up its claim (even if that proof is fake - most folks don't know better), yeah you do. There is a level of viewer beware that just doesn't exist in Rifts unless you are among the educated or informed. They don't realize its even partly BS. I mean certain folks aren't going to believe anything told them, even if its true, but that's not the point. Those same people would tell a master vampire the idea of an intelligent blood sucker is ludicrous - and he would agree with them, right up until he got close enough to kill them.

I mean look how many gang bangers today still think you can hold a pistol sideways? The smarter ones know better, but you'd be surprised how many don't - or the ones that don't perform even basic weapon maintenance. But they all know you can lay down a hail of bullets while running and holding the weapon sideways and expect to hit something on purpose.