Alternate settings

[Larsen]

After reading the Greenland thread and thinking about it, what cannon settings has anyone taken and changed for their campaign? I know for myself the ninja, cowboys, or other cliches I generally didn't put in my games.

[Colonel_Tetsuya]

I haven't actually done this (i haven't run a game of any Palladium game in a loooooonnnnggg time, finding players who will tolerate the system is a chore), but if i were to do so... LOTS of stuff would change.

The world would change heavily to reflect how Kevin originally intended it to be.

- Flying places far away is impossible. The changes to the magnetic field make inertial navigation impossible, and the magic in the air makes even flying by sight difficult.
Why? Because, as the rules actually work, Rifts NA (and any place else with a moderately high tech society that has planes - relatively cheap 20th century technology) is actually not hard to traverse in mere days. Or even less. A guy in a SAMAS can be across the continent in just a few hours. There HAS to be something built into the setting that makes that impossible, or the entire idea of uncharted wilderness just doesn't make sense (even if you just sent out unmanned Skelebot-hoverjets to make aerial maps of the entire co ntinent, it'd take... a few months, maybe a few years, at most?). Unpopulated or largely underpopulated still makes sense, because there's few reasons for people to live there.. but the CS and any civilization with planes would have a general idea of the layout of the entire continent. So, in my game, flying without using actual landmarks or a beacon of some kind is risky. You're just as likely to fly in circles for six hours and go almost nowhere as you are to actually make it 2000 miles away.

- Even travel overland is risky. Without using landmarks and well traveled paths, you're likely to get lost. Same reasons as above. There's no GPS or inertial navigation that can help you. If you go slow, use the position of the sun, take a lot of measurements, and use the stars on clear nights, you can make it where you want to go reliably... but the operative word is SLOW. Kevin really intended it to be that travelling places took a lot of time. Even a "slow" road vehicle can do ~60mph in rough terrain - which means if navigation wasn't an issue, you could be across the continent in a few days, even driving, barring impassable terrain (super closely packed forests, mountains, rivers you cant cross). Hover vehicles make it even worse, because most of them can easily fly higher than the average forest and can traverse rivers, leaving only mountains. Ergo, in my game.. travel is difficult. Because magic is weird and other reasons.

- Radio doesn't travel the listed distances. Period. Even Laser communicators. Magic in the air, whatever you want to call it. Otherwise, you're almost never outside of communication range with civilization - ever. Anywhere on the continent. The distances listed are for perfect conditions if there is zero magic or other interference. You're going to be lucky to get half that, and most times, about a third of the listed distance.

- nothing smaller than a tank, APC, giant robot or other very large vehicle has a nuclear reactor. Period. Power Armors, Hovercycles, and smaller vehicles (like the ATVs and stuff listed in the RMB and elsewhere) have nuclear batteries. Basically, a rod of radioactive material surrounded by layers of a material that generates electrical current when exposed to radiation. This is then sealed up (so you dont die) and built into a dense battery and capacitor pack. It is still "effectively infinite" in its power generation, and in a lot of light-use cases - say, just walking around in your PA but not firing energy weapons, flying, or fighting - it even produces enough juice that the battery/capacitor portion isn't being tapped. Same with vehicles. Below a certain speed (20% of max speed) it doesn't drain the battery portion. Combat use or driving/flying at high speeds will drain the battery. Most of these batteries are good for ~12-24 hours of constant use, so if you're fighting for a few hours, and then resting, it's not an issue - but it does provide a way for the GM to ratchet up the tension. ("You've been flying and fighting for a long time and not resting and recharging, you're down to 30% on the battery.."). This also makes NG's new Solid-OX batteries a far more interesting solution, since some of them can run for weeks (but dont recharge). It makes it a much more interesting choice of power sources.

- The JA-12 doesn't exist as presented in Juicer Uprising in my world. (This one i HAVE used). The JA-12, in my game, is identical to the JA-11, except that it replaces the Ion blaster with the grenade launcher. Basically, it's a variant. No pulse-firing, 4000ft-range, more-damage-than-a-freaking-rail-gun hijinks. Love CJ's fluff, but his crunch, at times, is just completely, foolishly out of hand.

- Several of Wilk's and Triax's laser weapons have increased range. The fact that neither manufacturer, in canon (particularly Wilks, who STARTED with a pre-rifts laser tech base and have only advanced it), can produce a weapon better than the JA-11 is absurd, particularly since modern production facilities can make the JA-11 (it is a Pre-rifts design but is still manufactured). There's no conceivable reason that Wilks cant produce a weapon that is just as good for long-distance shooting. The Triax weapons dont quite beat the JA-11 on range (but even as their listed stats in Triax 2, do more damage, i just extend the range to 3000-3500ft); the Wilks weapons can do the same damage out to another 1000ft (5000ft range) but have low ammo capacity and require recalibration after a few shots. Wilks also makes comparably ranged weapons that inflict slightly more damage (basically, they improved the JA-11 laser just a bit - 3D6+10 MD @ 4000ft), and the base Wilks laser rifle does 4d6 MD, not 3d6 (because there is no reason their basic laser tech would not be as good as the JA-11).

- Burst Firing Weapons do not scale perfectly (and i have used at least a simple version of this) - one of the things that really annoyed me about later Rifts books is the seeming lack of memory that weapons that fire bursts aren't supposed to scale perfectly. Rail guns are the only weapons that seem to have retained this "flaw". In my game, you dont get perfect damage from bursts (and the slug-throwing weapons in Merc Ops and Black Market are serious offenders here, where they fire bursts where every shot apparently hits, and do better damage than rail guns at 4000+ft in a man-portable weapon) no matter what. Pulse weapons scale the best, because that's part of what makes them cool - but this does explain how a weapon like the wilks Pulse Rifle (which, since the base laser does 4D6 in my game, instead of 3D6) which should do 12D6/1D6x10+10 on a pulse, still does 1D6x10, effectively losing the 2 extra damage dice worth of damage. Similarly, the Wilk's Pulse Cannon (in Merc Ops) takes a rather hefty nerf (its burst does too much damage period - its got BETTER than perfect scaling - a 5D6 single shot (30 damage) somehow becomes 3d4x10 (up to 120 damage?!?) to 2d4x10 for its pulse.

Short Bursts are 3 shots and do damage x2, and long bursts are six shots that damage x3 (for weapons even capable of firing bursts). One of the few rules "changes" from RMB to RUE that i agree with regarding gunplay is the making of most weapons into single-shot weapons. (though i think there's an argument that, other than the obvious gaffe of having *examples* of guns with ROF: Standard firing bursts in CB1, ROF: STandard was always meant to be single shot). It makes a lot more sense when the average guy in armor has about 70-80 MDC to have the average weapon doing 2D6-4D6 MDC. That gives some time for some back-and-forth shots to go in and makes the game less of a hose-down-the-enemy-with-full-clip-bursts gibfest.

- the -10 to dodge thing does not exist in my game. Ever. It never did. One of the WORST parts of the Palladium system is the weird way in which penalties and bonuses are stacked around each other. (I'm -10 to dodge a guy firing a laser at me, but if i have Invisibility: Lesser up, he's -10 to hit me, and im moving, so he's -10 some more, so it leads to these weird penalty+bonii stacking things that just dont work). Leaving aside the argument "you cant dodge lasers" - because, uh.. you also can't dodge bullets, which are traveling at several thousand feet per second - its just not fun. Given that the system doesn't even start giving you bonuses to dodge from attributes until you reach an attribute level that isn't going to be statistically likely to be reached (your chances of rolling a 16-18 on any given stat are really not that good. I always giggle when i see someone's sheet with loads of 20+ attributes - 'cause we all know that didn't happen) it just makes the game too painful. People dodging guns is fine.

- Cyber Knights as presented in the SoT Book 4 do not exist in my game. The one in the RMB is perfectly good and awesome, and doesn't require 30 minutes of chicanery in every. single. combat. while we figure out which enemies are at which penalties and how they lose attacks and dont and.... Ugh, god that thing is a jedi-loving fanfic mess. Just no. That is probably the worst thing ive personally seen that Kevin designed. I really have no idea how he thought that thing was playable.

- The new aimed/called/etc rules for guns are dumb, as are the weird variable strike bonii for WPs. I haven't run a game since they were changed, but the games i occasionally guest star in (i live rather far away to be a regular player) - zero of them use this. If i were to run a game -

Proficiency - +1 to strike at all odd levels, including 1. (So +1 @ 1, +1 @ 3, etc).
-- single shot: +1 to strike. MOST things that add to "Aimed Shots" (like scopes, Wilk's bonuses for being so well balanced) WILL apply to this. SOME will not (i'd get this list together before play. Sniper (the skill) would not, for instance.
-- "Aimed" Shots - single shots only. Add an additional +1 to strike for each action held. Must fire at the end of the round. Maybe a hard cap to bonus (to prevent guys with lots of actions from stacking up too high? Would have to run the math. Then again, im not really sure there's a balance problem with a guy sacking all of his attacks to gain +7 or 8 to hit on one single attack). If you do anything else that consumes an action before firing, your shot is ruined. Aimed Shots require the proficiency.
-- Called Shots - none of this single-shot nonsense. You're just aiming at a particular spot, hoping to hit it. Roll as normal. Beat the base called shot target number, + whatever penalty the target might have (like cords, etc, having -6 or what have you). Bursts are fine. You're accepting the lower strike bonuses anyway. Called shots made without the proficiency are Shooting Wild.
-- Burst firing - without the proficiency, you can't fire manual bursts. If the weapon has a toggle, and it's set to burst already, you can fire it, but you're shooting wild. If the weapon only fires bursts - same deal, Shooting wild without the proficiency.
-- Shooting Wild - proficiency with the weapon means you aren't considered shooting wild from a moving vehicle as long as the vehicle doesn't require you to be in a precarious position to fire. If you're in the back of an APC shooting out of the firing port, you're fine. If you're on the back of a hovercycle holding on for dear life - shooting wild.

Sensors and Moving Penalties: Penalties for hitting moving targets can be negated with sensors. If you have a sensor lock, you're not at the usual penalty to hit them based on their speed. Yeah, this means infantry are at a serious disadvantage against fast-moving PA. It's supposed to be like that - that's supposedly one of the things that makes the SAM so deadly. Penalties for shooting targets when you are moving fast can be similarly negated with sensors. Penalties for speed are calculated on DIFFERENCE in speed in most cases. (If you're going 300, and im going 200 chasing you, the penalty is only as if you were going 100).

That's just the basic stuff.

I'm actually mid-work (slowly, lots of other things that actually pay money going on) of completely re-writing the Palladium combat system (with an extension-ish to the skills system, slimming down the proliferation of skills to make it more likely that you can actually have a character that is competent at certain jobs without having to have the single OCC that gives you enough skills and be 12th level) into something a lot more streamlined and quick-playing, while still retaining the opposed-rolls and action based system that makes Palladium Palladium.

Yeah, i could write a better system for Rifts. I've actually got a generic-ish tabletop system sitting around that would work. But it wouldnt feel like, or be Rifts, because the opposed rolls and active defenses of the system are what gives it that unique feel, and im trying to keep that. I may do a post here sometime soon-ish (convention and faire season is picking up, so my .. second or third job, not sure how to order them - is picking up and ill have less free time) with what i have so far to get feedback and ideas.

Edited: The Smiling Jack SAM does not carry the C-40R in my game. It carries a hand-held CS weapon. I like the art, and i like the art to match my games, and there's no place to even mount the drum or machinery for the C-40R on the Smiling Jack. If i thought about it, it probably carries the Dead Man's rail gun or a licensed CS knockoff of the Triax Borg gun as it's standard armament, but can also carry the CP-40, CP-50, or C-29 with at least a trio of the energy packs (as there is plenty of room to mount a few of those to the back between the intakes) with permission.

Further, and i dont know how this one escaped me... E-Clips are NOT universal in my game.
..... mostly. The innards of any given E-clip are all based on the same, basic pre-Rifts design. But the exteriors match the art, which means you cant just jam a clip from one gun into another. A competent armorer can swap the guts into a new shell (and anyone with production skills can make the shells fairly easily) fairly easily and cheaply. In SOME cases, this wont be possible (the FSE-Clips that Triax and some Wellington Knock-offs use are higher capacity and larger, so they wont fit into most regular E-clip casings, or in the case of pistols, since they fit into the grip... if the grip is especially small on a given weapon, it may not be able to use the innards of another pistol clip because they are too big).

But if you're packing an NG-P7, and blow away a CS Grunt, you cant bend down and strip him of the E-clips from his CP-50 and just load them into your gun. Theyre obviously very differently sized.

And even more of an edit:

- Missiles!
Missiles are guided by default. One of the most ham-handed and dumb changes from RMB to RUE. Never, ever used it. You're telling me that the powers of Rifts earth (that can build intelligent AI into humanoid skeleton robots) cant put technolgy from the 1960s into a missile? Give. Me. A. BREAK.

Mini-missiles are not guided by default after launch (the launching system may orient them towards the target when they fire, as is the case from tubes that are not pointed right at the enemy, but there's no onboard guidance), and are more akin (as in the RMB) to rockets or bazooka rounds. You CAN make an aimed/called shot with an unguided Mini-missile firing from a launcher that can be pointed directly at the target you're trying to hit. (like, using the CR-1 launcher, since you can point the thing directly at your target, you can make a called shot). If the launcher is fixed in any way - no aimed/called shots. You can do the same with Short Range Missiles that are unguided. (see below)

Missiles CAN be purchased un-guided, or, with the appropriate skill rolls, have the guidance disabled. Why would you want to do this? Saturation fire, indirect fire, etc. In the case of Short Range Missiles, there are a few borg and augmented portable SRM solutions, that you could fire at specific targets (called shots).

Missiles gain their guidance bonus (+3 or +5 for smart missiles), plus any bonuses the pilot and launching system may have that apply (Weapon Systems, any bonuses from the launching platform (sensor bonii from a robot or PA, and bonuses from Robot or PA training to ranged combat). In the case of Smart Missiles, this if for the first attack only.. If they miss on the first pass, they switch over to their internal guidance only, and are at the base +5 to strike.

Laser-guided is a feature that can be ADDED to any missile except mini-missiles (at least on Rifts Earth - the Naruni can probably outfit their smart-Mini Missiles with laser guidance too), and changes the way the missile strike works entirely - the person using the laser designator has to roll to strike to lase the target. If the target is successfully lased, the missiles WILL HIT. Itll follow the laser right in. Boom. If the target moves, the laser operator has to roll to re-acquire the target. If they dodged another (different) attack, he has to beat that dodge roll to maintain his laser mark. In most cases, since the laser isn't visible, the target wont know theyre being lased unless they have sensors to detect that active (infrared vision would see the beam, among other things). If they can see the beam, they can attempt to dodge it - again, the laser operator has to roll to beat their dodge to keep the beam on target. In the end, though, if the part of the round comes where the missile would hit and the laser is on target - that's that. It hits. Laser-guiding systems ARE expensive and the exception, not the rule, even for industrial giants like the Coalition. 90% of the time, a simple guidance system is more than enough, 9% of the time the Smart Missiles will pick up any slack, so laser-guiding isn't often used and is quite expensive.

[Eagle]

I like the old RMB burst rules. They make a Wilk's laser pistol that does 1D6 damage actually worth taking. Generally I prefer to use the rules from the RMB and the character classes from the RUE. They fleshed out a lot of different OCCs that needed some help. Old WPs. No -10 to dodge guns. Allow physical prowess bonuses to apply to ranged attacks. Old WP bonuses. New spellcasting times. Old rules for how Ley lines boost magic damage.

I also prefer if you can't cross the continent in a SAMAS suit in an afternoon. The entire Seige of Tolkeen doesn't make sense given how quickly the CS army can move. Ley lines should be huge sources of EM interference. I'd also dramatically tone down the sizes of armies. In the real world, you can't maintain 10% of your population as a standing army. I think the Japan book notes that something like 6% of the population has undergone Juicer conversion. That's called total demographic failure. They're gonna be hating life in 5 years when most of their young people are dead. I doubt that granny is the one who went and got the Juicer procedure, it's basically your breeding age population who would be doing it. 6% of the total population is about 1/3 of your breeding age people. I'd cut most armies down to about 1/10th of their size, maybe more than that.

To me, Rifts owes a lot to crazy Saturday morning cartoons. It's a chance to play in a He-Man and Thundercats-style world, but with higher lethality and slightly more plausibility. Mix in some anime stuff and an aesthetic taken from early 90s Image comics, and you've got Rifts. My first exposure to Rifts came from an ad in a comic book, showing one robot smashing another robot's head flat with its fist. I was like 13 at the time and thought that looked totally awesome. I didn't get to play it until years later, but to me Rifts needs to stay that big messy hodgepodge of stuff, with shirtless guys riding jetskis through the sky while waving magic swords around. Real military tactics have to take a backseat to the requirements of the setting. Theme is more important than realism.

[Colonel_Tetsuya]

In the real world, you can't maintain 10% of your population as a standing army.

To nitpick a bit here, yes, you can. Easily. In fact, much higher numbers than that were common until the industrial era made it easier to project more force with less people. Given even moderately modern agriculture (tractors and pumped irrigation) and basic industry (assembly lines), you can support the population with way less people. One farm with ~40 workers can grow enough food to feed tens to hundreds of thousands of people. One assembly line can pump out enough war materiel to support a division. And this is talking 1930s tech. With highly automated production facilities... easily.

Now, i dont disagree with the sentiment of reducing army sizes. Just not for the reasons you're using. I just dont think army sizes that large make any sense in the setting, because if they had that many men and women under arms, the continent would be a whole lot safter than it supposedly is, and the whole Minion War thing would be even LESS threatening that it already is. The initial invasion forces trying to set up hell pits (Megaverse in Flames) could all have simply been burried in troops at 2 or 3 to 1 loss ratios. And not even cost the CS much. End of threat.

So yeah, cutting army sizes down - i agree with. But not for the "you cant sustain it" - 'cause with industrialized society, you easily can.

I think the Japan book notes that something like 6% of the population has undergone Juicer conversion. That's called total demographic failure. They're gonna be hating life in 5 years when most of their young people are dead. I doubt that granny is the one who went and got the Juicer procedure, it's basically your breeding age population who would be doing it. 6% of the total population is about 1/3 of your breeding age people.

Given that they just appeared in Rifts Earth, this seems like a completely great storyline to run. Yeah, it's not sustainable, but 6% of the population went out and got juiced in a panic after ending up in a hell-world. Great story hooks trying to reverse the damage to society or encourage a lot of those people to get detoxed early enough to survive and maybe get bio-systems and have kids.

To me, Rifts owes a lot to crazy Saturday morning cartoons. It's a chance to play in a He-Man and Thundercats-style world, but with higher lethality and slightly more plausibility. Mix in some anime stuff and an aesthetic taken from early 90s Image comics, and you've got Rifts. My first exposure to Rifts came from an ad in a comic book, showing one robot smashing another robot's head flat with its fist. I was like 13 at the time and thought that looked totally awesome. I didn't get to play it until years later, but to me Rifts needs to stay that big messy hodgepodge of stuff, with shirtless guys riding jetskis through the sky while waving magic swords around. Real military tactics have to take a backseat to the requirements of the setting. Theme is more important than realism.

I dont disagree - i just think the setting should be altered to reflect that, instead of us having giant standing armies that make no sense. Honestly, i think we're agreeing and just saying it differently.

[Zer0 Kay]

I've twisted so much stuff. Like

*Hagan is a hack and got the idea for the Shemarians and the Monst-Rex from D-Bees he ran into (story somewhere in the Shemarian fan created thread)
then there is Free or True Altarian
*King Arthur and a young "Myrdin d’Monchilder of Caledon son of Wydt Ymrys Ambrosius" also known as Merlin taking the throne from Arthuu and Zashaun (sp?) and that there is still a section of MI5 that was specifically waiting for signs of The Kings return. The groups heritage is of the Britains that wanted to remain in power and feared the return of the Celtic (pronounced Kelt-Ick, not Selt-Ick for you sports wackos ) King.
*The young orphan woman (in her late teens) that was "raised" by "an orthodox priest and the women of his parish" was a D-Bee, not by species but by time and dimension travel, when the priest found her she was clothed in a nightgown, covered in blood, she had no memory of where she came from or who she was... except the name Romanova. The women of the parish named her Sonya. I kept everything else from the book as far as what she knew and experienced. What no one knows is that she is the Grand Dutchess Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova who was saved by Grigori Rasputin, not a big deal but just a little timeline/dimensional fun for me.
*The USS Eldridge appears for a short time off of Philadelphia during my campaign.
*Oh, yeah and one of the ones I really like. The Vampire Kingdom that covers Mexico City... I forget which one, favors humans. Rather it understands that humans provide food and rather than treating them as cattle they reward them for voluntarily donating blood. They keep them safe from other vampires, they punish vampires that take advantage of humans, they give humans freedoms and even a say in running the government. So not only does the VI receive the worship energy from his vampire minions but many of the humans also worship him. The VI and as trickle down the vampires embrace the technology of the humans and use their superior intellect to advance the technology. Imagine Mexico City, all ruins washed completley away, Lake Texcoco has shrunk around the island, and the VI has his temple on the Island surrounded by an ancient looking city named Tenochtitlan, beyond the water which forms a "small" ring lake around the lake is a more modern city that is shaped as a circle with streets spoked outward centered on the temple on the island. The city is surrounded by a giant wall and over the city is a temporal shield... but that is a longer explenation so I'll just stop here.
*There is a Splycer house in the Antarctic Ice with a limited force of the machine with a repair shop who dont know their above them. They are out of nananites and can only repair, they shifted in and the area in splicers was replaced with a lake now the only location of perpetual PPE.
*The Regis in the Arctic under the ice, the REF icelocked above her have come to a cease fire.
*The UNSpacy of Macross II base Alus appeared on the dark side of the moon, A Mechanoid mother ship appeared in the great storm on Jupiter and is locked in the gravitational pull (just as a threat... will they make it out? Will they survive? Type thing).
*Nightspawn keep popping up with more regularity (mostly by walking through the mysts on the astral plane).
*And also what I'm working on becoming the world book for Alaska with the working title Alyeska the greatland. Unfortunately my work and family and other restrictions has made this an off and on endeavor since 2009. I've been looking for a cowriter but so far they've been able to work on it less than me, meaning I've only been able to entrust them with small parts and only received reviews so far and not much product.

[taalismn]

In my universe?
A high atmosphere band of dimensional instability makes breaching the atmosphere by purely mechanical means much more difficult...high atmosphere dimensional distortions, spontaneous storms and random rifts make traversing the 'interface' hazardous at best, suicidal most of the time...it also refracts light at times, making detailed analysis of things in orbit(and conversely, the surface of the planet) nearly impossible. The same distortion effect makes radio and laser communications virtually impossible. And the tendency of the Interface instability to tear apart vehicles or shunt them into other universes makes travel into space haphazard, and bombardment from orbit nearly impossible unless you're tossing lunar masses at the interface.

[Incriptus]

To start my Rift's timeline has yet to reach the CS War Campaign announcement, so a great deal of Meta-Plot has yet to (and likely never will) happen.

Making the rules match the settings theme

The Melee Weapon Problem: This game has tons of melee weapons that are designed and sold as weapons of war. As such; you get to add your strength bonus to them, so they can pack a punch; You can dodge gun/laser fire, so you can get in range.

The Radio Problem: People have to hand deliver messages, Soldiers have to kill people. As such radio signals suffer undoly with ever-shifting interference. As such; you have to make a skill check to successfully use them, reliable range changes arbitrarily.

The Travel Problem: You are going to travel on foot or horse or ground vehicle most of the time, because I can't have you just flying past my obstacles. The radio problem persists and gets even worse, magicians feel magical interference, psychic sense a presence in the skies. Reliable airspace is as precious as gold, major kingdoms have theirs mapped for safe zones and defend it properly, however even they know that these safe zones can change ... like the wind.

----------------

Setting changes

So far there haven't been any. The main chunk of the game took place in the urban area of Kingsdale. We've done the Adventure from Rifts Mercenaries (with a few twists), We traveled through Dinosaur Swamp, then took a ship across the atlantic, had a brief stop in England (didn't make it to Camalot), Made it to the Eastern Boarder of the NGR ... then the game hit another long pause.

I've always intended them to return to the states and get interupted by the Archie Storyline. On their way home they come across some of the War Campaign Tech being testing. They make it to Kingsdale just in time to hear the War Campaign Speech.

I haven't considered much past that. It depends on what the team wanted to do, they could get involved any which way. However one of the "What If" Senarios I've always considered is "What if Lone Star declared independence when War was declared on Free Quebec"

[J_cobbers]

I like Colonel Tesuya's revisions, but you know what I like better for a streamlined version of the game? Savage Rifts. Rules are so much cleaner, yes it is a different system, and I've had to wrap my head around a new set of rules and how they work, but I like it a lot more. Mega Damage isn't as redonckyoulus as the original or ultimate, combat, equipment and weapons are streamlined, skills are kept to a minimum, and yet it is really flexible to allow for all the craziness of the setting. So instead of trying to fix what's broken in RUE/RMB and source books with house rules, I'm opting to use a new system all together. I hope they get to publish more books in this version. The thing is to introduce anything that's not covered you do need the Rifts source books to base your adaptation on, and there can be different interpretations on how to do that, but ultimately that's just fine, gives me a reason to keep buying new books if I want the content to adapt. Plus there's been a lot of people who've put up their own creations and adaptations on on the web and linking it in the pinnacle forum and that I've been able to copy onto my computer to compile into my own resources which saves me a lot of effort as well.

[Chuck Lang]

All the Rifts campaigns I've run have never gone beyond the timeline described in the main Rifts rulebook.

The first campaign I ran was down in ElCentro, California back in '95 while I was in the US Navy and after playing in a campaign in '94. Part of me wants to stick with the Palladium rules system for nostalgia's sake; however, I helped fund the Savage KickStarter, so a strong part of me wants to transfer over to that system instead. It's a tough choice especially since I own every Rifts book up to and including World Book 31 (excluding Rifts Manhunter).

On the other hand, the GM who ran the first campaign I played in added his own kingdom around western Nebraska. Since that campaign, and justified by the volatile nature of the rifts, I've felt perfectly fine creating my own substantial kingdoms wherever I choose and adapting the regional power structures as I see fit to fit. I especially attempt to portray that humanity is on brink of destruction.

[Zamion138]

I like Colonel Tesuya's revisions, but you know what I like better for a streamlined version of the game? Savage Rifts. Rules are so much cleaner, yes it is a different system, and I've had to wrap my head around a new set of rules and how they work, but I like it a lot more. Mega Damage isn't as redonckyoulus as the original or ultimate, combat, equipment and weapons are streamlined, skills are kept to a minimum, and yet it is really flexible to allow for all the craziness of the setting. So instead of trying to fix what's broken in RUE/RMB and source books with house rules, I'm opting to use a new system all together. I hope they get to publish more books in this version. The thing is to introduce anything that's not covered you do need the Rifts source books to base your adaptation on, and there can be different interpretations on how to do that, but ultimately that's just fine, gives me a reason to keep buying new books if I want the content to adapt. Plus there's been a lot of people who've put up their own creations and adaptations on on the web and linking it in the pinnacle forum and that I've been able to copy onto my computer to compile into my own resources which saves me a lot of effort as well.

Savage rifts seems like it was setup for swords and sorcery and modern conflict was a side thought/add on, it pushes the ability to close with a ranged shooter to much, you should loose against a rifleman if you have an axe every time if you start 100 yards apart (assuming your both humans in body armor all things being equal other than armament).
Shotguns are better than laser rifles somehow. Exploding die damage breaks combat, and the idea of a typical cs trooper being cannon fodder or a mook to be shot down by droves is , well just bad. They are the dominant power in north america and somehow a guy with the same rifle and armor as a pc, military training and advanced comand and control systems.... but they die and droves somehow....


Magic is my biggest hate though, spells in Rifts/palladium do very specific things, feel diffrent than say dnd spells, some so costly no mortal mage is doing it on their own (barring a nexus, during a solstice...ect.), but a bolt is a bolt is a bolt just doesnt feel RIFTS-ie. Not to mention dimensional portals or open a rift. 2k ppe in rifts so a massive undertaking that is almost a mission in its self( obviously im talking for non megaversal level powers). But in SR its 20 power points. A starting mage could have 11 power points easy. So 2 mages basicly level 1 by rifts standards can open a dimensional portal. Not to mention teleport being nerfed from being a mode of travel to a combat maneuver.
Rifts having a new system was a good idea but savage rifts was definitely the wrong system for that.

[J_cobbers]

I like Colonel Tesuya's revisions, but you know what I like better for a streamlined version of the game? Savage Rifts. Rules are so much cleaner, yes it is a different system, and I've had to wrap my head around a new set of rules and how they work, but I like it a lot more. Mega Damage isn't as redonckyoulus as the original or ultimate, combat, equipment and weapons are streamlined, skills are kept to a minimum, and yet it is really flexible to allow for all the craziness of the setting. So instead of trying to fix what's broken in RUE/RMB and source books with house rules, I'm opting to use a new system all together. I hope they get to publish more books in this version. The thing is to introduce anything that's not covered you do need the Rifts source books to base your adaptation on, and there can be different interpretations on how to do that, but ultimately that's just fine, gives me a reason to keep buying new books if I want the content to adapt. Plus there's been a lot of people who've put up their own creations and adaptations on on the web and linking it in the pinnacle forum and that I've been able to copy onto my computer to compile into my own resources which saves me a lot of effort as well.

Savage rifts seems like it was setup for swords and sorcery and modern conflict was a side thought/add on, it pushes the ability to close with a ranged shooter to much, you should loose against a rifleman if you have an axe every time if you start 100 yards apart (assuming your both humans in body armor all things being equal other than armament).
Shotguns are better than laser rifles somehow. Exploding die damage breaks combat, and the idea of a typical cs trooper being cannon fodder or a mook to be shot down by droves is , well just bad. They are the dominant power in north america and somehow a guy with the same rifle and armor as a pc, military training and advanced command and control systems.... but they die and droves somehow....


Magic is my biggest hate though, spells in Rifts/palladium do very specific things, feel diffrent than say dnd spells, some so costly no mortal mage is doing it on their own (barring a nexus, during a solstice...ect.), but a bolt is a bolt is a bolt just doesnt feel RIFTS-ie. Not to mention dimensional portals or open a rift. 2k ppe in rifts so a massive undertaking that is almost a mission in its self( obviously im talking for non megaversal level powers). But in SR its 20 power points. A starting mage could have 11 power points easy. So 2 mages basicly level 1 by rifts standards can open a dimensional portal. Not to mention teleport being nerfed from being a mode of travel to a combat maneuver.
Rifts having a new system was a good idea but savage rifts was definitely the wrong system for that.

I agree and disagree, mostly because I had similar feelings, having been a lurker on the Pinnacle boards since I joined the Kickstarter, I've seen a lot of counter arguments to your reservations on there (though it's down for maintenance until next week ) Point in being a good GM with an appreciation for CS Tactics and weapons can actually make a squad of CS troopers pretty formidable, but lets face it the CS grunts are supposed to be a low level challenge for most Rifts Characters. Powers like bolt actually can be a very diverse set of spells, if you apply different trappings to the various iterations of the power, but normal and Mega, which is something I really had to get my head around, the same is true with boost / lower trait, you can have the same power represent a host of skills for each trait being boosted and lowered. Likewise the 20 PPE cost you are referencing if for manipulating certain preexisting rifts; it requires that the Rift already be open and be an "easy rift" (only a 1/8 chance if the condition is randomly rolled). So it's not 20 PPE to just open a dimensional portal/rift. If characters want to open a rift for travel, that's a whole other can of worms not covered. I will agree teleportation now sucks compared to the original version, but if you don't like it, house rule it, or create an edge for characters that makes teleportation better. No one said you have to play it vanilla

[Blue_Lion]

In my games, I some times use a metta plot where a powerful NPC TW alchemist/enchanter shows up and arms the FOM and provides them with a new army of troops.
Evidence indicates he may have been a mage advisor to that pushed for the ordinal assault on chi town, that led to the CS emperors rise to power.
The claim that he matches a key advisor who was lost when a friend of Karl (who was also lost) led an assault that disrupted a ritual that would have insured the FOM victory.
The presents of thousands of clones of this brave hero in the troops provided to FoM further lends support to the claim.

This metta plot changes the FoM into a major player for power in NA that can rivial the CS. It also adds many new magical and TW items to NA. The good news is do to the nature of his fortress it is possible for a small team of elite people(PC) to banish his fortress and a large part of his power base.

I also allow player weapon and item creation(cinematic approach not real world years of development.) and have run groups that where field testers for the CS, NG and or Bandito. So my games can have lots of home brewed weapons.

[slade the sniper]

I changed a lot of stuff timeline wise in order to make the world be more balkanized (with self sufficient arcology city states) and much less travel friendly (similar to what Colonel_Tetsuya recommended).

Basically I use the Rain of Death from Robotech as the pseudo-Extinction Event and go from there tossing in other sci-fi bits to taste.

Spoiler:

The Rain of Death occurs.

The First Robotech war started in secrecy and was prosecuted in secrecy by the Technocracy and their allied organizations such as the UNSC and co-opted national governments (Operation Starstrike, Macross). Much of the work of the Technocracy at this time was to try and defend the Earth such as Operation Adam (Soldier), Spartans (Halo), Replicants (Blade Runner), Operation Stargate (Stargate), Skynet (Terminator), etc. Of course, there were threats on Earth that did not come from the stars such as all the other denizens of the World of Darkness (OWOD).

When the Rain of Death does finally occur, it immediately creates ripples throughout Space-Time on both sides of the veil, leading immediately to Judgement Day as nuclear weapons are discharged to kick off the Zentraedi forces that do arrive. The combined death toll leads to global destruction (Terminator, Macross, Hardware, etc.). In this backdrop the surviving governments have decided to attempt to counter-attack and avert a second invasion by dispatching a human fleet with mostly cloned troops to attack their aggressors using the full resources of the Technocracy (The Sentinels, Blade Runner). Additionally, large groups of humans under Technocratic control attempt to colonize several areas (Stargate: Atlantis).

The Earth is devastated (Rifts: Chaos Earth, The Malcontent Uprisings, Mad Max, etc.) where monsters, zombies, aliens and all sorts of destruction is visited upon the survivors for several generations until the survivors are crushed under the boot of a second alien invasion (The Robotech Masters) who have to contend with the world being almost uncontrollable (CthulhuTech). The Earth is the invaded a third time (Invid Invasion) who determine that it would be easier to leave Earth than expend effort trying to fully conquer it.

The Robotech Expeditionary Force returns and attempts to “liberate” Earth, but is defeated several times (Invid Invasion, Shadow Chronicles) and the human survivors have no desire to be beholden to a military force they feel abandoned Earth generations ago (CthulhuTech, Rifts, the Coalition States, New German Republic, Judge Dredd, etc.) and there are forces that absolutely are hostile to all other groups (Xiticix, Splugorth, etc.).

Due to this hostility, the REF basically institutes a complete blockade around Earth (the Killer Sat Network) and simply colonizes other areas in the Solar System and begins to initiate trade with other stellar powers (eventually forming Star Fleet and the United Citizen Federation [Starship Troopers]) through the only entity authorized to engage in trade on Earth (the Terran Trade Authority) and simply forgets about Earth as it is, and merely attempts to use Earth as a method of travel and raw materials (Mutant Chronicles, Aliens: Earth Hive, Rifts: Mutants in Orbit, Terran Trade Authority, Firefly/Serenity, etc.).

There are some places that are “almost normal” (ChiTown, Lone Star, the other city states described in Rifts plus MegaCity 1 & 2, Atlanta SubUrb, SinoCit 1 & 2, BritCit, etc.) while other places are just radioactive wasteland populated with mutants, aliens and monsters, and other areas are horrifically deformed hellscapes like Innsmouth, the areas under the control of the Rapine Storm (CthulhuTech) and other areas that are still controlled by the Invid, or the Adeptus Biologis (the renamed Robotech Masters to better fit into Warhammer 40k).

TLDR: Earth sucks and all the non-Earth born humans see no reason to waste any more resources (three failed invasions) getting it back from all the monsters, aliens, and hostile humans.

-STS

[Wōdwulf Seaxaning]

I am going back to the more P-A RIFTS old core book for setting (& maybe rules? I am not sure yet.), but with some of the updated RUE OCCs. From there I am ignoring all the World Books including the Vampire Kingdoms (even though I like the revised one I just can't use them). The Death's Head transports are gone, Dragon RCC is gone, Mutoids & Raiders are back. All power armor especially CS based will be have restricted batteries, limiting long distance travel without a ground based recharge station/vehicle. Killer satellites destroying an large in-organic (larger than a SAMAS) air vehicles making such travel impossible (scans the flying object - if judged organic it is fine, but otherwise it is destroyed). No GPS, limited radio and any such technologies. I'll even be enforcing the trade/barter side of the game, as well as hunting/foraging for food/water scrounging for equipment on battle fields or wrecks and recent ruins. Players can only choose to have ONE Power Armor/Giant Robot Pilot (including Glitter Boys) per campaign and will rarely see them outside the CS states except in generally isolated instances. Juicers, Crazies, Full-body Cyborgs, Psi-Stalkers & Cyber-knights are rare - one per group and players have to rp their disadvantages. The CS burbs are shanty towns NOT modern mini metropolises as described in the Chi-Town Burbs supplements & RUE art; & they will be patrolled by CS forces, including Psi-Division to hunt D-Bees & potential magic using infiltrators & saboteurs; so no pesky D-Bees unless they can pass as human or hide their D-Bee-ness.

[HWalsh]

My biggest setting change is an event called Tolkeen Triumphant.

Sort of anyway.

The CS and Tolkeen war goes off as planned until the Sorcerer's Revenge. The forces driven into the hivelands perish, torn apart by the Xiticix. The CS attempts to rally troops to launch a new offensive but face record numbers of deserters.

The CS citizens aren't used to heavy losses and most of those in the 'Burbs aren't willing to go into what they believe is certain death even for their families to get CS citizenship. It simply isn't worth it to most and morale within the CS falls to an all time low.

Tolkeen in triumphant. The CS becomes more paranoid than ever and begins it's own purge of the burns of deebees and partitioners of magic. For a brief time the CS is revealed to be what it is, paranoid, rambling about the evils of magic.

Unfortunately, for Tolkeen, the victory is short lived. When a Hell Pitt rips open the heart of the city and the demons burst forth it stands no chance. The city falls within a day.

The biggest change in this setting is that the CS's loss causes them to cower behind their borders. Meaning they don't launch directly at the demons. This means there isn't a 10,000,000 person army to fight. The CS has only 4,000,000 troops to field.

This is still a HUGE army, and the CS is still scary. Just that, in this scenario, they are not invincible. They are vindicated, somewhat, in their fear of magic (in their eyes) by the fact that (according to them) Tolkeen fell because they made pacts with demons (thus justifying why they were defeated).

[Colonel_Tetsuya]

4,000,000 troops is still enough to destroy the demons even at a 1:1 loss ratio. Hell, even at a 5:1 loss ratio.

This may have changed in Heroes of Humanity, but the forces listed for each Hell Pit in Megaverse in Flames are a joke.

The CS could wipe them out in an afternoon.

[HWalsh]

4,000,000 troops is still enough to destroy the demons even at a 1:1 loss ratio. Hell, even at a 5:1 loss ratio.

This may have changed in Heroes of Humanity, but the forces listed for each Hell Pit in Megaverse in Flames are a joke.

The CS could wipe them out in an afternoon.

They could... If they weren't too afraid to venture out.

In this setting the CS is refusing to leave CS territory to engage the demons. Meaning that the CS is committed to self-defense rather than offense. So the people of North America have to deal with the Hell Pits without CS involvement.

Basically the CS is going, "These guys destroyed Tolkeen, who beat us! Demons are scary! They are invincible monsters!"

Or, more or less, Prosek's fear mongering worked too well and now they are afraid to fight. Saving for defense means that the Hell Pits aren't being assaulted.

[slade the sniper]

I am going back to the more P-A RIFTS old core book for setting (& maybe rules? I am not sure yet.), but with some of the updated RUE OCCs. From there I am ignoring all the World Books including the Vampire Kingdoms (even though I like the revised one I just can't use them). The Death's Head transports are gone, Dragon RCC is gone, Mutoids & Raiders are back. All power armor especially CS based will be have restricted batteries, limiting long distance travel without a ground based recharge station/vehicle. Killer satellites destroying an large in-organic (larger than a SAMAS) air vehicles making such travel impossible (scans the flying object - if judged organic it is fine, but otherwise it is destroyed). No GPS, limited radio and any such technologies. I'll even be enforcing the trade/barter side of the game, as well as hunting/foraging for food/water scrounging for equipment on battle fields or wrecks and recent ruins. Players can only choose to have ONE Power Armor/Giant Robot Pilot (including Glitter Boys) per campaign and will rarely see them outside the CS states except in generally isolated instances. Juicers, Crazies, Full-body Cyborgs, Psi-Stalkers & Cyber-knights are rare - one per group and players have to rp their disadvantages. The CS burbs are shanty towns NOT modern mini metropolises as described in the Chi-Town Burbs supplements & RUE art; & they will be patrolled by CS forces, including Psi-Division to hunt D-Bees & potential magic using infiltrators & saboteurs; so no pesky D-Bees unless they can pass as human or hide their D-Bee-ness.

I like this!
I think I need to cut out all the World Book stuff as you have done. I am not bothered by the power creep, but more the "capability creep." I also use the barter method, which I find solves quite a bit of problems as wealth is not really transportable...you have to perform services to get anything or trade capability as opposed to little pieces of metal or plastic.
I still need a way to negate high speed travel (30 MPH+), especially air travel...Luckily my players haven't tried, but if the power gamer ever decides to join, I have to find a way to shut him down preemptively.

-STS

[Ixal]

So far I have not changes too much, just left out all the things which I thought not appropriate for my game (most world and dimension books and basically all story destructions of interesting places.

But I do have my own idea how the Minion War should end and will likely implement it over the official version (unless it turns out to be close or better).

Basically while earth is victorious every nation has suffered greatly and the power in North America is reshuffled with lots of empty spaces between them. The CS is still big, but they have trouble rebuilding as most of their industry is resource starved and tooled to produce military goods but are ill suited for infrastructure projects. Also the CS lacks skilled labourers to repair and retool their factories because of their anti-education campaigns so they are falling behind in the rebuilding efforts compared to others.
Karl Prosek is dead, killed when the demons attacked Chi-Town (actually he survived but Joseph killed him). Also the CS is not as unified as before and the other states do not follow Chi-Town blindly any more. Some even eased off on the anti D-Bee rhetoric as their troops had too many good experience with them and there is the fear that some would mutiny or at least aid resistance fighters if they kept their total genocide campaign (which they don't have the resources for anyway) while other states had to turn to the Lemurians to avoid famine. When the news of Karls dead reached Lone Star went dark as Bradford took over as he knew that Joseph will ask too many questions or oust him directly and because the garrison was still weak as most loyal CS soldiers had been shipped off to the front lines.

There was also a shism between Northern Gun and Manistique. When raw materials and resourced became scars all the good stuff got routed to NG. It started with Manistique running out of materials for nuclear reactors and batteries and in the end had to accept an offer from Lazlo and Tolkeen survivors to use Techno-Magic power sources to keep producing. As the shortages increased they needed more and more TN components. Now, after the war they keep incorporating TN into their designs, mainly to step out of NGs shadow which they started to resent as they were being kept supplied and everybody praises NG for their role in the war but tends to forget Manistique. Now with their modern factories MI is a larger TN manufacturer than Tolkeen and other magic empires ever were.

Also because of the general devastation some of the more problematic technology pieces like Death Hand Transporter and Glitterboys became valuable again as no one can currently manufacture them and most have been destroyed.

Not the most original thing to happen but imo this shoud provide enough hooks for the players no matter where they want to play and what type of campaign they want.

[TeeAychEeMarchHare]

The last time I played or GM'ed this was the late 90s, and I think the last book we had was Japan. I don't recall there being anything that got changed.

If I were to GM again, some of the changes I would make:

Vampires:
-holy weapons only effect them if wielded by someone who truly believes in whatever it is. So a christian who truly believed and holds up a cross, vamp is effected. Someone who believes in the Norse gods holds up a silver volknut, same effect. A nonbeliever, muslim, etc, holding up a cross = vamp laughs and continues attacking.
-Vamp regeneration increases their hunger level. Combine this with the following point....
-Vamps can be *hurt* by normal weapons (laser, p-beam, even a regular shotgun or 9mm pistol, etc), but they'll just quickly regenerate the damage.

Missiles:
-AP becomes HEAT, and has a better chance of penetrating armor than other warhead types.

Combat in general:
-Armor actually gets penetrated before it's at 0 MDC. I like the vehicle damage system in Twilight: 2000 and Twilight: 2013, so I'd make something similar.

These are just what comes to mind right off the top of my head.