Hope NG2 is better than NG1

[Premier]

I haven't read NG1 but I doubt I'll buy it from the sounds of it.

What I really want in a World Book these days is history and info about the area, good maps of both the local geography and the town itself, characters with stats, lots of plot ideas and flavour. Stuff that helps me GM, that saves me the time of doing that stuff myself.

What I don't need is another book with robots, guns and OCCs. There are more than enough books like that, especially in North America.

Also, the stupid thing with giant robots have guns that do 6d6 damage when there are relatively cheap energy rifles all the way back to the original RMB that do 6d6 or 1d4x10 really puts me off buying robot books. Maybe I would be more interested in those books if those things were fixed but really that just needs a general overhaul anyway. While we're on that point, I was reading the original Robotech book the other day and that had the damages for it's vehicles pretty well done. The robots had a variety of burst modes they could use, that did appropriate damage and many had area of effect. The big robots did big damage and the smaller ones did smaller damage. Why did Rifts that obviously used the rules from Robotech get the damages so wrong?

All respect to the writers but it doesn't sound like my cup of tea.

On the other hand we've had some great North American world books in the last 10 years; Madhaven and Arzno both excelled in the flavour department.

The NG1 actually has quite a bit of world setting info. The first 100 paged in fact help sculpt the setting and offer you more ideas and information that can enhance your campaigns, especially if your in that region or hired for certain merc ops and sorties. There are new O.C.C.s that you or your fellow Players may also enjoy. Many purchasers of NG1 were very pleased with the material.

As to robot damages as a whole in Rifts compared to smaller arms, sigh... there are numerous discussions about this that entail both the pros and cons, the logical rationalizations and clear problems, not to mention some well written remedies to deal with any damage and mdc scaling issues for large robot vehicles.

However, I will make mention that having the large robots to assist and utilize or to contend with proves their worth in a well conducted campaign. Simply how some of these robots can relay and coordinate battlefield info and intel or the efficiency in tactics, particularly when accompanied with PA platoons really demonstrates how influential these heavy machines can be, imho.

[grandmaster z0b]

I haven't read NG1 but I doubt I'll buy it from the sounds of it.

What I really want in a World Book these days is history and info about the area, good maps of both the local geography and the town itself, characters with stats, lots of plot ideas and flavour. Stuff that helps me GM, that saves me the time of doing that stuff myself.

What I don't need is another book with robots, guns and OCCs. There are more than enough books like that, especially in North America.

Also, the stupid thing with giant robots have guns that do 6d6 damage when there are relatively cheap energy rifles all the way back to the original RMB that do 6d6 or 1d4x10 really puts me off buying robot books. Maybe I would be more interested in those books if those things were fixed but really that just needs a general overhaul anyway. While we're on that point, I was reading the original Robotech book the other day and that had the damages for it's vehicles pretty well done. The robots had a variety of burst modes they could use, that did appropriate damage and many had area of effect. The big robots did big damage and the smaller ones did smaller damage. Why did Rifts that obviously used the rules from Robotech get the damages so wrong?

All respect to the writers but it doesn't sound like my cup of tea.

On the other hand we've had some great North American world books in the last 10 years; Madhaven and Arzno both excelled in the flavour department.

The NG1 actually has quite a bit of world setting info. The first 100 paged in fact help sculpt the setting and offer you more ideas and information that can enhance your campaigns, especially if your in that region or hired for certain merc ops and sorties. There are new O.C.C.s that you or your fellow Players may also enjoy. Many purchasers of NG1 were very pleased with the material.

Cool, are there detailed maps and stated out characters? As a GM this is what I need most.

[BuzzardB]

What I really want in a World Book these days is history and info about the area, good maps of both the local geography and the town itself, characters with stats, lots of plot ideas and flavour. Stuff that helps me GM, that saves me the time of doing that stuff myself.

Also, the stupid thing with giant robots have guns that do 6d6 damage when there are relatively cheap energy rifles all the way back to the original RMB that do 6d6 or 1d4x10 really puts me off buying robot books.

I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of of fluff in the book despite the fact I bought it for the opposite reasons you want too. All I wanted was Walton-Bots with stats. You get good details on NG Region, History, Politics (with CS and others), city details (no city maps), several regional maps, good ones too, military info, research department info, store details and a bunch of other stuff.

I don't think there are a lot of statted out NPC's, but I could be remembering incorrectly. So most of your desires are met in the book.

I 100% agree with you on the weapons thing though, but that will probably never change. There has never really been a big damage disparity between infantry and giant robots despite feeling like there should be.

[kaid]

The NG1 Robot vehicle are nice because about half of them are not actually primary combatants but either support or combat support vehicles. Like the bulldog it is a pretty solid threat in combat but its primarily an exploration vehicle/mobile secure living area/labratory/salvage machine.

Many of the combat robots actually have living quarters/sanitary facilities inside of them which gives them some huge benefits for troops deployed in hazerdous areas having a nice secure and climate controlled sleeping area and washing/bathroom facilities. It is one thing they can do that power armor can't. The other thing is the combat robots in the book tend towards large weapon diversity most have at least 2 "main guns" and some even more than that so they are less prone to smart ass sharp shooters and more combat damage survivable.

As for the weapon damages baring a totally new edition of rifts don't expect it to change they pretty much have set what their high end boundry is at 3d6x10 and all the weapons on the robots and power armor of the NG fall within the range of heavy weapon damage that has been established for decades now. There are a lot of arguments for and against the scaling of weapon damage in rifts and I won't rehash it here but they clearly have what they feel are valid weapon damage ranges for various side things and the scale they use favors hand held weapons pretty strongly. The NG and NG2 being consistent with all the other books damage wise is only to be expected.