The O.C.C you'd ne'er be.

[Razzinold]

I'm seeing a lot of hate on here for Crazies, never played one my self but my wife did and she played it amazing!
I'm going to assume that most people see them/play them as the drooling, running around screaming type of character ?

When my wife played one she did all kinds of research into mental illness and she played an amazing character. Hell if you looked at our group we looked insane and her quite normal. She was all calm and collected and creepy, kind of like Hanibal Lector, but she was totally insane, you just couldn't tell by looking at her. But man some of the traits she exhibited , that's when you knew she was crazy.

She had a list of notes in front of her about how people with certain illnesses behaved and played it to the letter, she even had lists of triggers. The really scary part is how powerful she was. Technically she wasn't the Crazy OCC, she was a demi god and the GM either let her roll or pick from the insanity tables. Luckily we were all powerful too in case she ever turned on us.
I would try playing a crazy after I saw how much work she put into her character and how fun it was for her to play it.

That. Sounds. Awesome.

It was, the best examples I could give to describe it is a cross between Hanibal Lector and Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker, which is kind of cool because she played this character like 6 years ago (so before The Dark Knight). She was all calm and collected, while removing someone's spleen with her bare hands, and did it just because she could, or wanted to see why they needed the spleen. The next minute she could be in a complete rage fest, but her character had a high level of intelligence so everything was calculated and methodical, even while raging! I can't remember everything she researched but some of it was Bi-Polar disorder, schizophrenia, multiple personality disorder. I have never seen someone put that much care an effort into a performance. I feel it deserves to be called a performance, she could have easily been in actress with how well the character came across.

The problem is that this actually helps SUPPORT the argument against crazies. The 'insanities' as written are broken, and to get a good performance you had to house rule in a totall rewrite of the system. So the original post of 'the insanities are bad' seems to be upheld by this.

How do you figure that ? The GM let her apply the insanities to a different OCC is all, she still suffered all the same penalties as the Crazy OCC. The difference is she actually put thought and effort into playing out the insanities. I believe one of the ones she rolled was God Complex which was kind of humerous her being a demi god and all. So she researched and read about actual cases of people with a god complex and acted accordingly. How is that house ruled or a total rewrite ? If she would have rolled the jack the ripper one then she would have read up about him.

[keir451]

Elemental Fusionist. Why? Because it makes no damn sense.

I do not agree.

Elemental Fusionists represent a command over the power that springs from two opposing elements coming into contact with one another. Think of it like this, a Warlock gains his power from drawing strength from the power of a single element (or even two) but the Elemental Fusionist draws his power from the mystical reaction of two said forces interacting with one another. I think they make perfect sense from a mystic point of view. It is exactly like the Chaos Mage (might have the name wrong?) from Chaos Earth that draws their power from the chaotic principles of magic so sometimes their spells go wrong.

Also I wouldn't touch ANY of the Rifts China 1 OCC's simply becasue they also make no sense

Really? No sense at all? Or is it you just do not like them? (Which is a fair and honest response).

and finally the stupid Necromantic Carrion-Eating Crab Vampires out of Lemuria, Why? Because it makes no sense that carrion eaters would make their food into undead and then make a pact w/a vampire intelligence that somehow allows them to become immune to water and take 1/2 damage from Holy water in violation of preset Vampire vulnerabilities.

Imagine if you would that you had a surplus of ham burgers. Now, imagine that you were under attack from animal rights groups. If all of a sudden you could make your hamburgers get up and attack your enemies... would you? It is much safer than fighting yourself or sending your family out to fight on your behalf and risking injury. It isn't like they INVENTED Necromancy... they just started using it. Then, when the undead corpses were mutilated or whatever... they could eat what was left from both sides. Its not like they need their carrion to be in good condition, its carrion.

As for them making a deal with the Vampire Intelligence that allows them to be resistant to water, yes its in violation of previous Vampires... but... Vampirism isn't perfect either. Otherwise, how could there be Heroic Vampires? (I refer to the R.C.C.) or the different stages of Vampirism? I think you will find that Vampire Intelligences have a wide range of terrible, terrible, TERRIBLE things they can turn you into... its just traditional Vampires are what is easiest.

They are Alien Intelligences after all and you'd be surprised the horrors those critters can unleash. Heck, most people don't even realize these entities have enchanting singing voices and lure men to them like sirens. There is a lot of ways Game Masters can use Vampire Intelligences and a lot of darksome things they can do. I think your mistake was trying to limit them to something you could reliably manage and predict.

Fair 'nough . Regarding the Elemental Fusionist; At first the concept seemed interesting but the more I read of it the less it seemd like workable class especially given the Palladium magic system.
Re: Rifts China 1, Where's the Celestial court in all of that muck? Where's the Chinese gods, etc.? What's with "chi" not being used outsdie of China? Geo Front-Why would the Chinese Communist gov't build a city in an area that has bad chi flow? Yes they're "communist", but they are still Chinese to the core, so they at least pay lip service to the "old ways".
If I had a surplus of burgers I would NOT waste them on my enemies, I'd find a better way to fight them that does not involve having a "food fight". I just doesn't make sense that carrion eaters would use necromancy, the concept of your food "fighting" for you is really ridiculous to me.
As for Vampirism, this is half the problem, in the original VK book vampires were CLEARLY defined, they had specific limitations. Now all of a sudden we have a NEW breed of Vampires that can defy some of those weaknesses. That screams inconsistancy (a constant Palladium problem) on the part of the Lemuria author AND Kevin.

[eliakon]

I'm seeing a lot of hate on here for Crazies, never played one my self but my wife did and she played it amazing!
I'm going to assume that most people see them/play them as the drooling, running around screaming type of character ?

When my wife played one she did all kinds of research into mental illness and she played an amazing character. Hell if you looked at our group we looked insane and her quite normal. She was all calm and collected and creepy, kind of like Hanibal Lector, but she was totally insane, you just couldn't tell by looking at her. But man some of the traits she exhibited , that's when you knew she was crazy.

She had a list of notes in front of her about how people with certain illnesses behaved and played it to the letter, she even had lists of triggers. The really scary part is how powerful she was. Technically she wasn't the Crazy OCC, she was a demi god and the GM either let her roll or pick from the insanity tables. Luckily we were all powerful too in case she ever turned on us.
I would try playing a crazy after I saw how much work she put into her character and how fun it was for her to play it.

That. Sounds. Awesome.

It was, the best examples I could give to describe it is a cross between Hanibal Lector and Heath Ledger's portrayal of the Joker, which is kind of cool because she played this character like 6 years ago (so before The Dark Knight). She was all calm and collected, while removing someone's spleen with her bare hands, and did it just because she could, or wanted to see why they needed the spleen. The next minute she could be in a complete rage fest, but her character had a high level of intelligence so everything was calculated and methodical, even while raging! I can't remember everything she researched but some of it was Bi-Polar disorder, schizophrenia, multiple personality disorder. I have never seen someone put that much care an effort into a performance. I feel it deserves to be called a performance, she could have easily been in actress with how well the character came across.

The problem is that this actually helps SUPPORT the argument against crazies. The 'insanities' as written are broken, and to get a good performance you had to house rule in a totall rewrite of the system. So the original post of 'the insanities are bad' seems to be upheld by this.

How do you figure that ? The GM let her apply the insanities to a different OCC is all, she still suffered all the same penalties as the Crazy OCC. The difference is she actually put thought and effort into playing out the insanities. I believe one of the ones she rolled was God Complex which was kind of humerous her being a demi god and all. So she researched and read about actual cases of people with a god complex and acted accordingly. How is that house ruled or a total rewrite ? If she would have rolled the jack the ripper one then she would have read up about him.

what your telling me is 'we read up on how multiple personality is in real life and did that' that is different than 'roll on this table' its great, honestly its a wonderful concept, and I am sure it was wonderful. BUT it was not the basic roll on this table, and act like this insanities that are core to the system. THOSE 'insanities' are what is often critiqued, and complained about, that they have nothing at all in common with real insanities.

[Jay05]

Who cares someone had fun and that's all that matters ;D. Good post Razz

Sounds like your lady is a helluva roleplayer Razz!

[Comrade Corsarius]

The way I see crazies is this (I rather like Crazies, TBH, but as Eclipse mentioned, it's the random rolls that blows):

Look at yourself. We're all a bit mad in some way or another. Some people are neat freaks. Some kids have tantrums when they're upset. Some people are adverse to spiders, or heights. Nothing major, you get on with your life as normal, but you just don't go up tall buildings or whatever. Everyone's got something, even if it's not much.

Now add your MOM implants. You're a super-being, but all those little triggers? You've just had all your dials turned up to maximum.

A dislike of spiders becomes a full-blown running-and-screaming phobia
A fear of heights turns you into a real-life worse-than-BA Baracus-type (I ain't flyin' in no plane)
A tendency to have a tantrum as a kid means you will probably frenzy
A desire to collect things (books, comics, Rifts sourcebooks) would become an insane obsession.

When I say 'insane obsession'...Say you liked batman. You think he's nifty. Now you've got MOM enhancements and you're obsessed... OBSESSED. You collect EVERY batman object you can get, even risking life and limb just to get something like a broken batman pez dispenser. You will have a utility belt... just like batman, and try to get your armour to look just like batmans, and rewatch every batman show and movie you can as often as you can, copying mannerisms and accents. You'll have an encyclopaedic knowledge of batman. You'll even wear a cape like batman and try to talk and act like him. All the goddam time. It gets worse when you develop a separate personality. Out of the suit, you're just a nice normal guy. Put on the cowl (possibly the only time you can get your powers to function anyway) and you change personalities as well. While that may still sound cool to some, imagine trying to live with that, or have your friends and family try to live with that, every. single. day.

And that's batman, you know, something that might actually be useful even while it mentally cripples you. God help you if you get fixated on Dora the Explorer or some such.

So that's how I imagine real-life MOM recipients. Take yourself, and take a good HARD look at yourself, then turn all the knobs up to 11. You might think again about those implants.

[Hotrod]

Well, this thread marks the first time I've heard of someone playing a crazy in an interesting way that wasn't a gigantic pain in their group's rear. Kudos to your lady.

... except she wasn't playing an actual Crazy OCC, if I'm reading your post right. With that approach, though, I'm sure she could have. Ok, I'll concede that there are a tiny minority of players who can make that class anything better than an annoyance. Personally, though, I still won't ever touch it.

It beats the Millennium Druid and Saloon Bum, but not by much.

[Eclipse]

Yeah, just look at those shows like 'Hoarders' - you'll realise that (this disorder really should be one of the Rifts ones) how disabling these insanities can/should be. If you're playing a more adult version (not x-rated or high gore, but actual adult issues like disability awareness and exploring realistic consequences of things) then you can use the DSM http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diagnostic ... _Disorders as fodder (in a sensitive fashion). (Keeping in mind the criticisms levelled against the DSM in the wikipedia article)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSM-IV_Codes

Contents

1 Disorders usually first diagnosed in infancy, childhood, or adolescence
1.1 Mental Retardation
1.2 Learning disorders
1.3 Motor skills disorders
1.4 Communication disorders
1.5 Pervasive developmental disorders
1.6 Attention-deficit and disruptive behavior disorders
1.7 Feeding and eating disorders of infancy or early childhood
1.8 Tic disorders
1.9 Elimination disorders
1.10 Other disorders of infancy, childhood, or adolescence
2 Delirium, dementia, and amnestic and other cognitive disorders
2.1 Delirium
2.2 Dementia
2.3 Amnestic disorders
2.4 Other cognitive disorders
3 Mental disorders due to a general medical condition not elsewhere classified
4 Substance-related disorders
4.1 Alcohol-related disorders
4.2 Amphetamine (or amphetamine-like) related disorders
4.3 Caffeine-related disorders
4.4 Cannabis-related disorders
4.5 Cocaine-related disorders
4.6 Hallucinogen-related disorders
4.7 Inhalant-related disorders
4.8 Nicotine-related disorders
4.9 Opioid-related disorders
4.10 Phencyclidine (or phencyclidine-like) related disorders
4.11 Sedative-, hypnotic-, or anxiolytic-related disorders
4.12 Polysubstance-related disorder
4.13 Other (or unknown) substance-related disorder
5 Schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders
6 Mood disorders
6.1 Depressive disorders
6.2 Bipolar disorders
7 Anxiety disorders
8 Somatoform disorders
9 Factitious disorders
10 Dissociative disorders
11 Sexual and gender identity disorders
11.1 Sexual dysfunctions
11.2 Paraphilias
11.3 Gender identity disorders
12 Eating disorders
13 Sleep disorders
13.1 Primary sleep disorders
13.2 Parasomnias
13.3 Other sleep disorders
14 Impulse-Control Disorders Not Elsewhere Classified
15 Adjustment disorders
16 Personality disorders (Axis II)

I'd favor a points system and theme-based choices.. to eliminate some 'dumb' randomness..

[Pepsi Jedi]

I don't like to say 'Never' as often I'll make characters just to challenge myself.

Stuff like "Saloon bum" or Vagabond or the like hold little interest to me.

I don't generally like to play mages. I don't really love the Palladium magic rules and I've seen way way way wayy too many twinks in magic classes. Which is funny because I have little problem playing them in other game lines.

Stuff I think is personally silly or stupid I wouldn't play either. Butter trolls and the like. I know it's not an OOC but it's right in there.

Conversely. Someone should start a "Your Favorite OOC's to play, and why?" Limit it to 3 per person and require them to say why. lol no huge lists and if you put something down, you gotta say why.

[drewkitty ~..~]

I will not play any class that inherently evil.

[BloodAnjiel]

I prefer the more flawed characters. My best and favorite character ever, is a human professional gambler. There is nothing at all special about her, and I made her have a fistful of character flaws. Shes a pickpocket, shes a slut, shes an alcoholic, shes addicted to some kind of "wonder drug" but she is tough as nails. Shes slaughtered women and children, set fire to the town she grew up in and witnessed 2 of her sisters get beheaded by zombies, and yet, she does not give a rats ass (passed insanities with flying colors). Yet my cosmoknight sees 1 person get eaten by a zombie and he's developed a phobia of zombies...someone explain that crap to me...

[Hotrod]

I prefer the more flawed characters. My best and favorite character ever, is a human professional gambler. There is nothing at all special about her, and I made her have a fistful of character flaws. Shes a pickpocket, shes a slut, shes an alcoholic, shes addicted to some kind of "wonder drug" but she is tough as nails. Shes slaughtered women and children, set fire to the town she grew up in and witnessed 2 of her sisters get beheaded by zombies, and yet, she does not give a rats ass (passed insanities with flying colors). Yet my cosmoknight sees 1 person get eaten by a zombie and he's developed a phobia of zombies...someone explain that crap to me...

Different people react to traumatic events differently. It's often very difficult to predict who will shrug off seeing awful stuff and who will have PTSD.

That said, your character sounds like a psychopath (in the clinical sense). Such people tend not to be affected nearly as much by witnessing traumatic events.

[keir451]

Yeah, just look at those shows like 'Hoarders' - you'll realise that (this disorder really should be one of the Rifts ones) how disabling these insanities can/should be. If you're playing a more adult version (not x-rated or high gore, but actual adult issues like disability awareness and exploring realistic consequences of things) then you can use the DSM http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diagnostic ... _Disorders as fodder (in a sensitive fashion). (Keeping in mind the criticisms levelled against the DSM in the wikipedia article)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSM-IV_Codes

Contents

1 Disorders usually first diagnosed in infancy, childhood, or adolescence
1.1 Mental Retardation
1.2 Learning disorders
1.3 Motor skills disorders
1.4 Communication disorders
1.5 Pervasive developmental disorders
1.6 Attention-deficit and disruptive behavior disorders
1.7 Feeding and eating disorders of infancy or early childhood
1.8 Tic disorders
1.9 Elimination disorders
1.10 Other disorders of infancy, childhood, or adolescence
2 Delirium, dementia, and amnestic and other cognitive disorders
2.1 Delirium
2.2 Dementia
2.3 Amnestic disorders
2.4 Other cognitive disorders
3 Mental disorders due to a general medical condition not elsewhere classified
4 Substance-related disorders
4.1 Alcohol-related disorders
4.2 Amphetamine (or amphetamine-like) related disorders
4.3 Caffeine-related disorders
4.4 Cannabis-related disorders
4.5 Cocaine-related disorders
4.6 Hallucinogen-related disorders
4.7 Inhalant-related disorders
4.8 Nicotine-related disorders
4.9 Opioid-related disorders
4.10 Phencyclidine (or phencyclidine-like) related disorders
4.11 Sedative-, hypnotic-, or anxiolytic-related disorders
4.12 Polysubstance-related disorder
4.13 Other (or unknown) substance-related disorder
5 Schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders
6 Mood disorders
6.1 Depressive disorders
6.2 Bipolar disorders
7 Anxiety disorders
8 Somatoform disorders
9 Factitious disorders
10 Dissociative disorders
11 Sexual and gender identity disorders
11.1 Sexual dysfunctions
11.2 Paraphilias
11.3 Gender identity disorders
12 Eating disorders
13 Sleep disorders
13.1 Primary sleep disorders
13.2 Parasomnias
13.3 Other sleep disorders
14 Impulse-Control Disorders Not Elsewhere Classified
15 Adjustment disorders
16 Personality disorders (Axis II)

I'd favor a points system and theme-based choices.. to eliminate some 'dumb' randomness..

Putting THAT many disorders in the game could get a little overwhelming IMO. I play things quite a bit harsher regarding some of those sidorders In My Games; many of the people with these disorders typically don't/didn't survive or (going by the level of genetic tweaking availble pre-Rifts) were eliminated genetically. Much would also depend upon the severity of the disorder with the mild cases managing to survive (for a short while, perhaps longer) and the severe ones not making it at all. I also rule that eating disorders don't exist in Rifts, as the culture whcih spawned them (ours) no longer exists, also many of the current crop of drug addictions (IMO) don't exist in Rifts as the drug trade which supports them was destroyed with the coming of the Rifts.

[Razzinold]

instead of quoting everyone I will just sort of genralize/paraphrase.

Technically no she wasn't the Crazy OCC she was a demi god but rolled on the provided insanity table.
I still don't see how what was done altered the book/game. One of the options printed in the book was multiple personalities. All she did was study real life cases, so in my opinion she still followed the book as written. It would be the same as if you selected the .50 cal sniper rifle from the book and read up on the real one for more technical information to flesh out your character. She may have added more as well but everyone she random rolled on in the book she used, just researched their behaviour.

As for the compliments on her roleplaying, I will be sure to pass them on.

On the flip side of the coin I do see how a character like this DOES create the possibility of game disruption. I had a buddy how played a wired-slinger and, in my opinion, made him a little TOO jumpy and twitchy. Didn't make things more difficult for me, other than the bar fights we'd get in to because he was so on edge that everyone was out to get him, but it made things a little more difficult for the GM/other players.
That and he thought the other people in the group were "out to get him" (by him i mean his character concept not the actual player). So that created some speed bumps along the way because he could never trust anyone else in the group so if they voted go left he'd always vote right.
Luckily him and my character got along, call it professional courtesy, he was a wired-slinger but I was a psi-slinger so he knew that he needed to be altered to be as good as me. So our characters never became friends, we just got along because we knew if things escalated we would draw on each other and both assumed that they had the edge over the other. Him because he was altered through science and me because I was naturally talented.
Truth be told I think I could have taken him though, I had a pretty high PP bonus and some kick ass paired weapons, that an the ability to turn his md laser blasts into sd ones

[BloodAnjiel]

I prefer the more flawed characters. My best and favorite character ever, is a human professional gambler. There is nothing at all special about her, and I made her have a fistful of character flaws. Shes a pickpocket, shes a slut, shes an alcoholic, shes addicted to some kind of "wonder drug" but she is tough as nails. Shes slaughtered women and children, set fire to the town she grew up in and witnessed 2 of her sisters get beheaded by zombies, and yet, she does not give a rats ass (passed insanities with flying colors). Yet my cosmoknight sees 1 person get eaten by a zombie and he's developed a phobia of zombies...someone explain that crap to me...

Different people react to traumatic events differently. It's often very difficult to predict who will shrug off seeing awful stuff and who will have PTSD.

That said, your character sounds like a psychopath (in the clinical sense). Such people tend not to be affected nearly as much by witnessing traumatic events.

She's not a complete psychopath, just a very hardened *****, with some psychopath mixed in there somewhere.

[Hotrod]

(snip)
It beats the Millennium Druid and Saloon Bum, but not by much.

I have a Barmaid, which is the female Saloon Bum and she is actually an interesting and useful character. I have played her in several campaigns with several different GM's and have never had any problems. Do you just not like them because they have no special powers and are just normal humans?

In the case of the barmaid, she's earning a living. She also cooks, sings and dances professionally. I can respect that.

The Saloon Bum? His 'occupation' is sitting in a bar. His OCC Bonus power #1 is "Drinking others under the table." (New West, p121) That's not a profession. That's a pathetic excuse of a wasted life. I see enough alcoholics in real life. They might like the idea of being a 'professional alcoholic' with nothing better to do than sit in a bar all day, but I doubt I ever will.

The only way I would use this OCC is if I wanted to play a barkeep... but even with the two extra lore skills, the barmaid is better-equipped, skill-wise, to run the business.

[ZorValachan]

I think every class has it's quirks and niftyness to them, and some provide great challenges to roleplaying.

If you hate the way crazies are portrayed, why not roll one up and show your buds how you think they should be run? You might have more fun than you think.

And Glitter Boys, while powerful, are not the be all end all of uberness. Plus that character is a platform for some truly awesome gaming and roleplaying if you look past the boom of the gun and the glint of the armor. How did they get the suit? Did they steal it? Was it passed down? The suits themselves have a reputation, not only as powerful, but as heroes. How does the pilot cope with it? Does he take up the mantle of the hero with gusto? Or is he reluctant and constantly besieged by people who seek his help? Is he nice to them? Does he help? Does he tell them to take a hike? He might have to hide the suit just to get a break when he needs some downtime. "What? A GB Pilot in a Terrain Hopper?" /mindblown

Same with other classes with tech or vehicles or magic. Their shtick doesn't have to define them, there is more to a character than the powers they have and the gear they carry. They're people just like anyone else. It's the OTHER stuff that can make them interesting. It's how they deal with the consequences of what they can do that is interesting.

Try playing a class you think you hate because of the way other people play it. Challenge yourself to make it work and make it fun and memorable. If you really give it an honest go and still don't like it, you can always give them a grisly death you think they deserve and try something else.

My friend played a decended GB pilot. The armor went back to the beginning of the Rifts (originally made before Rifts:Chaos Earth). He found a hidden 'cache' in the suit, with a letter from one of his ancestor's to his (ancestor's) son. Somehow the trick to open it was lost, and when he discovered it, he learned some about the armor-it's name (Helga) and that a family of 'Giant-Demons' wanted it dead, because it had slain many in their family (they thought the suit was just armor and that all the pilots were the same guy). Also have to remember that that glitterized MDC can't just be repaired in normal circumstances. He hated damage, because normal repair just added normal MDC to it.

[slade the sniper]

[But seriously, I just don't buy that candy is a rare commodity. It just CAN'T BE! It can't be that difficult to fork up 5-10 credits for a bag of sweet, yummy goodness.

Look at the history of sweeteners...until the Arabs introduced sugar, honey was the sweetener of Europe...then once northern Chrsitianity got ahold of it, there was a move to declare it a prohibited substance, then a monopoly of the church. Then it became the foodstuff of the rich, until cheapbulk imports from the Carribean plantations made it mainstream.

With the crash of large scale agriculture after the Coming of the Rifts, pure sweeteners crash down to what can be produced locally from what sugar cane, sugar beets, maple trees, and bee hives survived....and most agricultural production shifting to staple crops. Increased trade between civilized enclaves is bringing back market-farming, so now there are supplies of sweeteners available, such as processed sugar, but real chocolate is worth its weight in gold on the black market, and regional sweets can command high prices elsewhere when people get sick and tired of the local 'candy'.
THe CS, with its technology and trade contacts, can probably produce synthetic sweeteners and faux-chocolate quite easily, but reserves the REAL stuff for the social elite...and I wouldn't try bribing a fay or anybody with a really discriminating/mutant sense of of taste with synthetic sweets.

So candy, especially GOOD candy, is serious business on Rifts Earth.

And chocolate would be a real winner in RIFTS as well...

-STS

[slade the sniper]

The way I see crazies is this (I rather like Crazies, TBH, but as Eclipse mentioned, it's the random rolls that blows):

Look at yourself. We're all a bit mad in some way or another. Some people are neat freaks. Some kids have tantrums when they're upset. Some people are adverse to spiders, or heights. Nothing major, you get on with your life as normal, but you just don't go up tall buildings or whatever. Everyone's got something, even if it's not much.

Now add your MOM implants. You're a super-being, but all those little triggers? You've just had all your dials turned up to maximum.

A dislike of spiders becomes a full-blown running-and-screaming phobia
A fear of heights turns you into a real-life worse-than-BA Baracus-type (I ain't flyin' in no plane)
A tendency to have a tantrum as a kid means you will probably frenzy
A desire to collect things (books, comics, Rifts sourcebooks) would become an insane obsession.

When I say 'insane obsession'...Say you liked batman. You think he's nifty. Now you've got MOM enhancements and you're obsessed... OBSESSED. You collect EVERY batman object you can get, even risking life and limb just to get something like a broken batman pez dispenser. You will have a utility belt... just like batman, and try to get your armour to look just like batmans, and rewatch every batman show and movie you can as often as you can, copying mannerisms and accents. You'll have an encyclopaedic knowledge of batman. You'll even wear a cape like batman and try to talk and act like him. All the goddam time. It gets worse when you develop a separate personality. Out of the suit, you're just a nice normal guy. Put on the cowl (possibly the only time you can get your powers to function anyway) and you change personalities as well. While that may still sound cool to some, imagine trying to live with that, or have your friends and family try to live with that, every. single. day.

And that's batman, you know, something that might actually be useful even while it mentally cripples you. God help you if you get fixated on Dora the Explorer or some such.

So that's how I imagine real-life MOM recipients. Take yourself, and take a good HARD look at yourself, then turn all the knobs up to 11. You might think again about those implants.

And this is now how I will look at Crazies...thank you

-STS

[Razzinold]

Hey there kirkpicard,

I can understand why someone might not be drawn towards a medical/scientific OCC straight away (I find a lot of people prefer combat orientated OCC's vs. skill based ones/support roles, I like both myself) but why so quick to veto the Burster?

[Tor]

CS grunt and any undead. Just do not like them.

Why not be a master vampire with healing magic so that whoever you feed on survives and keeps their HP intact?

[taalismn]

Gotta go with witches or possessed/linked Summoner/Shifters...being a (willing) pawn of a supernatural unknown doesn't appeal to me, especially if they got some link to my mind/body that they can flip like a switch.

[Nightmask]

I'd love to play a Legacy Scout, but I never would. Why? Look at that extensive list of equipment and tell what you DON'T see there. Something that most characters NEED.

For those of us without access to said OCC what might that be?

[Jay05]

Gotta go with witches or possessed/linked Summoner/Shifters...being a (willing) pawn of a supernatural unknown doesn't appeal to me, especially if they got some link to my mind/body that they can flip like a switch.

Hadn't thought of that one, good point! Although, with the RUE rule regarding shifters, your patron entity doesn't need to be an evil one. Does that change your view on shifters? I'm not talking about witches here.

[Zamion138]

The south american nazek naza line guys...im at but the ones that use line drawnings to empower themselves and attack things, even if i was in sa it seems to dependent on a grand design that you have to be close to ,to use.

Whale and dolphin, just hard for me to say yeah my flipper is a sweet!

Everytime ive played a witch/priest light or dark it always feels like the gm over uses my god/master or way way under uses it to the point of not mattering.

Anything that goes into a blindy rage and basicly isnt controled by me anymore.

[taalismn]

Gotta go with witches or possessed/linked Summoner/Shifters...being a (willing) pawn of a supernatural unknown doesn't appeal to me, especially if they got some link to my mind/body that they can flip like a switch.

Hadn't thought of that one, good point! Although, with the RUE rule regarding shifters, your patron entity doesn't need to be an evil one. Does that change your view on shifters? I'm not talking about witches here.

Would have to be one transparent management benefactor....Although you get the same deal with the Pantheons of the Megaverse Priest OCC. Still, even GOOD supernatural benefactors shade the truth or conceal it from the spear-carriers if the stakes in a god-level ploy are big enough.

[Jay05]

Gotta go with witches or possessed/linked Summoner/Shifters...being a (willing) pawn of a supernatural unknown doesn't appeal to me, especially if they got some link to my mind/body that they can flip like a switch.

Hadn't thought of that one, good point! Although, with the RUE rule regarding shifters, your patron entity doesn't need to be an evil one. Does that change your view on shifters? I'm not talking about witches here.

Would have to be one transparent management benefactor....Although you get the same deal with the Pantheons of the Megaverse Priest OCC. Still, even GOOD supernatural benefactors shade the truth or conceal it from the spear-carriers if the stakes in a god-level ploy are big enough.

The same can be said of generals

[Greyaxe]

I'll play anything.

Ditto.

[Comrade Corsarius]

Even 'travelling story teller' and 'peasant' from Warlords of Russia?

[Icefalcon]

Even 'travelling story teller' and 'peasant' from Warlords of Russia?

Anything can be turned into an interesting character.

[kaid]

One nice thing about rifts is it only takes one or two skills that everybody can get to be competent in a fight if they can find some gear. Given that pretty much any occ is playable and can be very fun if you can get into that character and enjoy it.

Take the traveling story teller. While power wise you are no massive combat powerhouse you have a character liked by the people who is tapped into all the grape vine rumor stuff for that area and because of that could be immensely handy finding out useful information and smoothing over contacts with local warlords. As a traveling story teller it is likely they would be able to freely travel into warlords camps and even be welcomed doing it. Such a character could be a tremendous boost to a party.

Even a peasant can be useful. They know the land they know how to survive there. They also will be tapped into the local grape vine and know what is going on and knows the local power groups.

[Killer Cyborg]

Even 'travelling story teller' and 'peasant' from Warlords of Russia?

Anything can be turned into an interesting character.

Yup.

[Greyaxe]

Witch or Summoner---I dislike the idea of getting my power from something I can't totally trust, and which can screw me over at whim if I don't do as it sez.

Ditto.