I started playing Rifts by pure accident. I actually started running Robotech with elements from Heroes Unlimited Revised and TMNT. I saw Triax and the NGR and thought it was a stand alone game and started using elements from there, COMPLETELY unchanged. Yes there was a power difference with the Triax weapons, but Robotech technology was more than a match with speed and firepower.
Later I found that there were more books and though the game "changed" for my players I still kept it basically the same until about 8yrs ago when I completely scrapped the old world and started anew. I now run a more "traditional" style, but very open to ANY and ALL books and will write in a whole new storyline to fit it in,
Does anyone else go "Full Megaverse" and how do you do it?
Re: Rifts Megavervse
Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 2:55 am
by Bood Samel
I have in the past, but not in long while. Though I may take my heroes group there for a one shot.
Re: Rifts Megavervse
Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 9:26 am
by Misfit KotLD
I prefer to keep the party on earth, but the full megaverse is present and in motion.
Re: Rifts Megavervse
Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 10:20 am
by GaredBattlespike
Greetings!
My GM has a "Full Megaversal" Game. I am still playing my Mind Melter from Rifts Earth (who went to Manhunter-Verse, then Phase World), and an Elf Combat Mage (Merc Adventures) and an Immortal (Not Sure-He's being cagey). An ecclectic group that has had: an Elf Cyber-Knight, an Alien Mega-Hero, an Ular Spacer Captain (Manhunter), a Human Bloodletter (Manhunter), and more...
Re: Rifts Megavervse
Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 10:22 am
by jaymz
Myself I use N&SS, BTS and HU as modern day then Chaos Earth as Great Cataclysm and Rifts as Rifts. When they travel to those worlds its more a time travel than a new dimension. I have had/played elements from Robotech and Phasewworld in my games as well.
Re: Rifts Megavervse
Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 11:09 am
by keir451
I usually run strictly Rifts w/ RT/Macross/MAcross 2 crossovers w/ occasional forays into the Three Galaxies. I've yet to have characters in Rifts that are completely from HU or TMNT, etc. I don't do HU because it's just not my style, as for TMNT and its affiliated books... I just haven't had the opportunity yet.
Re: Rifts Megavervse
Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 11:31 am
by Jorel
I use it all, though I'm currently running a Rifts Earth based game.
Re: Rifts Megavervse
Posted: Tue Mar 08, 2011 2:23 pm
by RoadWarriorFWaNK
As a G.M., i draw from everything, except for Heroes Unlimited and Nightbane. All of my best villains and friendly NPCs are constructed using bits and pieces from other Palladium games. I usually limit PCs to Rifts only, but i'm willing to look at characters from other games. As long as I approve them first. And my players know me well enough to know that i never allow anything from Heroes Unlimited or Nightbane.
Re: Rifts Megavervse
Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2011 2:12 am
by Zer0 Kay
I started playing PB games with Robotech back in 1988 and we started a game of PFRPG and TMNT and Mechanoids and BtS and had a very brief stint with Recon. We combined TMNT, HU and N&S as one world and picked up TMNT: Transdimensional and then they advertized for Rifts and we figured it was just going to be another world they'd connect with TMNT: T (not even thinking in our youth that they wouldn't because of copyright issues) but it was a whole new system.
My campaign (curently a play by post game on facebook, RiftsGM if anyone wants to join) is a whole Megaverse game. I've always ran Rifts that way before the dimension books were released. So we've got: A "space Elf" from our Robotech A Psychic Yakuza assassin from BtS A few Nightspawn one of which was transported to N&S before going to Rifts where he picked up the Gizmoteer OCC A crew of the psychic soldiers from System Failure that had their Cheyenne Mountain Facility rifted into Rifts' Cheyenne Mountain Facility A Robotech Ship is ice locked in the Arctic and an Invid hive is submerged, also in the arctic A Great House from Splycers was Rifted into the ice in Antarctica and there is a Machine repair facility above which doesn't have the ability to produce nanites but is capable of maintaining the other robots it contains several splinter AIs. There is a HU "colony" hiding in the reserves on Atlantis but there enemies are the Vampires in Mexico The Vampire Intelligence near Mexico City is DRASTICALLY changed being damn near pro living. Macross II equipment is used by the army of one of the Nightspawns Arthuu and Myrrlin were ousted and replaced by King Arthur and a young (aging backwards) Myrdin d’Monchilder of Caledon son of Wydt Ymrys Ambrosius also known as Merlin (very bastardized name using many possible names of the insperation for the character). There is a Torchwood like agency that have been cycled through cryo waiting for the return of Arthur so that they could stop him. Two of the characters are .0001, or something like that, owners of Naruni Enterprises, because they saved Thraxus. Another is the assembler of a super gynoid that is a cross of Major Motoko Kusanagi, Kos-Mos, Naomi Armitage, and Gunnm/Battle Angel Alita. Then there is a crazy sorceress from PFRPG and finally an Adult Dragon.
Re: Rifts Megavervse
Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2011 3:13 pm
by mobuttu
My campign started as "plain" Rifts but it slowly will turn to full megaversal. By now I have allowed a character that uses the supersoldier set in HU created by Doc. Bradford.
Re: Rifts Megavervse
Posted: Sat Mar 12, 2011 12:30 pm
by Saitou Hajime
I can and will use everything from the multi-verse.
Re: Rifts Megavervse
Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 11:05 pm
by Mechanurgist
I'd go "partial megaverse" if I ran a campaign. My favorite-sounding combination is Ninjas & Superspies + After the Bomb. The idea of Giraffes with Tiger Claw Kung-fu and Sheep with Sumo Wrestling sounds too awesome to pass up.
For a Rifts campaign I'd use most anything except the Phase World/Three Galaxies supplements and HU. No supers in my games, it's my least favorite genre.
Re: Rifts Megavervse
Posted: Tue Mar 15, 2011 11:28 pm
by Crucible
Mechanurgist wrote:I'd go "partial megaverse" if I ran a campaign. My favorite-sounding combination is Ninjas & Superspies + After the Bomb. The idea of Giraffes with Tiger Claw Kung-fu and Sheep with Sumo Wrestling sounds too awesome to pass up.
For a Rifts campaign I'd use most anything except the Phase World/Three Galaxies supplements and HU. No supers in my games, it's my least favorite genre.
Yeah, I notice that its left out in many discussions and campaigns. I would have thought that Super-Mutants would have been more of a staple. It IS a supernatural postapocalyptic world, but it doesn't have to HAVE or OMIT anything. Your campaigns are probably amazing.
Re: Rifts Megavervse
Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 4:48 am
by slade the sniper
Oh dear...Full Megaverse all the way...
ROBOTECH = Base setting PF = another planet... HU = powers used, gained via genetic engineering mostly TMNT & AtB = used as a filler for genetic engineering tech Chaos Earth + all of the post ROBOTECH series RDF books (Malcontent Uprisings, Strike Force, Ghost Ship, etc.) + Nightbane = Earth after the Rain of Death (instead of the lackluster backstory in the book) with Zentraedi and magical mutants (Nightbane) Southern Cross + RIFTS = Balkanized psuedo kingdoms and alien invasion, beginnings of the CS (ASC forces attempt to maintain control over what they can as the world burns...again), but the Robotech Masters also have Magic! Invid Invasion + RIFTS = same as above, but less people and more monsters...only the strongest most ruthless human enclaves survive (the CS, NGR, etc.) Sentinels = Humans figure out the Universe really hates everyone... (ROBOTECH + Warhammer40K + Renegade Legion + Star Wars + Star Trek + FarScape + Babylon5 + BattleTech, etc, etc... check out the Robotech Crossover thread for what it looks like...) Shadow Chronicles + RIFTS = The REF returns and finds the NGR, the CS and others are NOT happy to see the "liberators"...they are pretty hate filled towards the cowards and traitors...and the fact that the REF had to make alien allies, whereas the humans on Earth pretty much want to exterminate everything NOT human...
Spoiler:
This is a list of settings/rule sets that I use in my House Setting: Vhraeden Warhammer40k (Dark Heresy, Inquisitor, Death Watch, Rogue Trader, WH40K miniature rules for mass combat) BattleTech (~3050) Renegade Legion Elric (the 1st world) Warhammer FRPG (the 2nd world) Lord of the Rings (the 3rd world, AKA Middle Earth) Conan (the 4th world) Shadowrun (the 6th world) Dungeons and Dragons (AD&D, 3E, 4E...Oerth, Faerun, Athas, Sigil are all planets/locations....) Palladium Fantasy Heroes Unlimited Marvel Super Heroes DC Adventures Abberant Aeon/Trinity The World of Darkness - ALL of it, including a lot of netbooks like Highlander, Genius, Dragon, etc. as well as the Dark Ages set Scion RPG Armageddon/Witchcraft RPG Chill RPG Call of Cthulhu RPG - this plus ROBOTECH and Warhammer40K are the "base" setting Star Wars Star Trek Stargate Babylon 5 Battlestar Galactica FarScape Firefly Recon Ninjas and Superspies RIFTS - worldbooks 1 through 24 ROBOTECH - every book...even "Lancer's Rockers" TMNT & AtB Nightbane Systems Failure Ghost in the Shell AD Police Files/Bubblegum Crisis Cyberpunk 2020 Pathfinder (netbook) - equipment only ALIENS netbook - use the USCMC as how the REF Marines are, until that book sees the light of day! HURRY UP... Dune (mixed with Warhammer 40K) Cthulhu Tech Cthulhu Rising Doom (the video game) Battlelords of the 23rd Century Alternity MegaTraveller 2300 AD (very little) Charmed (TV) Supernatural (TV) True Blood (TV) Twilight 2000 Various GURPS books (Supers is used a lot...) Magic: the Gathering (I use each of the settings as a seperate planet) Skraypers The 3 Galaxies (only the races) about 30 other Palladium Books several tens of books (The Quick, the BOLOs series, all the ROBOTECH novels, Operation Starstrike, etc...) bits and pieces of other games such as In Nomine, Mekton II, 7th Sea, etc.
Why? Because I started gaming in 1989...and I always add to the setting, and never have needed to "reboot" the setting...so it has just become a giant blob of game sytems and files...5 bookshelves, 6 binders and 13 Gb of pdf's, notes, characters, pictures and storylines...
Re: Rifts Megavervse
Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2011 5:01 pm
by Zer0 Kay
slade the sniper wrote:Oh dear...Full Megaverse all the way...
ROBOTECH = Base setting PF = another planet... HU = powers used, gained via genetic engineering mostly TMNT & AtB = used as a filler for genetic engineering tech Chaos Earth + all of the post ROBOTECH series RDF books (Malcontent Uprisings, Strike Force, Ghost Ship, etc.) + Nightbane = Earth after the Rain of Death (instead of the lackluster backstory in the book) with Zentraedi and magical mutants (Nightbane) Southern Cross + RIFTS = Balkanized psuedo kingdoms and alien invasion, beginnings of the CS (ASC forces attempt to maintain control over what they can as the world burns...again), but the Robotech Masters also have Magic! Invid Invasion + RIFTS = same as above, but less people and more monsters...only the strongest most ruthless human enclaves survive (the CS, NGR, etc.) Sentinels = Humans figure out the Universe really hates everyone... (ROBOTECH + Warhammer40K + Renegade Legion + Star Wars + Star Trek + FarScape + Babylon5 + BattleTech, etc, etc... check out the Robotech Crossover thread for what it looks like...) Shadow Chronicles + RIFTS = The REF returns and finds the NGR, the CS and others are NOT happy to see the "liberators"...they are pretty hate filled towards the cowards and traitors...and the fact that the REF had to make alien allies, whereas the humans on Earth pretty much want to exterminate everything NOT human...
Spoiler:
This is a list of settings/rule sets that I use in my House Setting: Vhraeden Warhammer40k (Dark Heresy, Inquisitor, Death Watch, Rogue Trader, WH40K miniature rules for mass combat) BattleTech (~3050) Renegade Legion Elric (the 1st world) Warhammer FRPG (the 2nd world) Lord of the Rings (the 3rd world, AKA Middle Earth) Conan (the 4th world) Shadowrun (the 6th world) Dungeons and Dragons (AD&D, 3E, 4E...Oerth, Faerun, Athas, Sigil are all planets/locations....) Palladium Fantasy Heroes Unlimited Marvel Super Heroes DC Adventures Abberant Aeon/Trinity The World of Darkness - ALL of it, including a lot of netbooks like Highlander, Genius, Dragon, etc. as well as the Dark Ages set Scion RPG Armageddon/Witchcraft RPG Chill RPG Call of Cthulhu RPG - this plus ROBOTECH and Warhammer40K are the "base" setting Star Wars Star Trek Stargate Babylon 5 Battlestar Galactica FarScape Firefly Recon Ninjas and Superspies RIFTS - worldbooks 1 through 24 ROBOTECH - every book...even "Lancer's Rockers" TMNT & AtB Nightbane Systems Failure Ghost in the Shell AD Police Files/Bubblegum Crisis Cyberpunk 2020 Pathfinder (netbook) - equipment only ALIENS netbook - use the USCMC as how the REF Marines are, until that book sees the light of day! HURRY UP... Dune (mixed with Warhammer 40K) Cthulhu Tech Cthulhu Rising Doom (the video game) Battlelords of the 23rd Century Alternity MegaTraveller 2300 AD (very little) Charmed (TV) Supernatural (TV) True Blood (TV) Twilight 2000 Various GURPS books (Supers is used a lot...) Magic: the Gathering (I use each of the settings as a seperate planet) Skraypers The 3 Galaxies (only the races) about 30 other Palladium Books several tens of books (The Quick, the BOLOs series, all the ROBOTECH novels, Operation Starstrike, etc...) bits and pieces of other games such as In Nomine, Mekton II, 7th Sea, etc.
Why? Because I started gaming in 1989...and I always add to the setting, and never have needed to "reboot" the setting...so it has just become a giant blob of game sytems and files...5 bookshelves, 6 binders and 13 Gb of pdf's, notes, characters, pictures and storylines...
What no Gamma World, Boot Hill, Top Secret, Runequest, Bubblegum Crisis, Mekton Z, Synnabar, Macho Women With Guns, Car Wars, Iron Wood, Cybergeneration, Teenagers from Outerspace, Dream Park, Mutant Chronicles or Torg? OK maybe the MWWG, Synnabar, Iron Wood and Dream Park have no real use but the rest have their points. Which 40K Rogue Trader? The newer RPG or the 1st Edition of the table top game?
Re: Rifts Megavervse
Posted: Sat Mar 19, 2011 9:47 pm
by slade the sniper
Zer0 Kay wrote:
slade the sniper wrote:Oh dear...Full Megaverse all the way...
ROBOTECH = Base setting PF = another planet... HU = powers used, gained via genetic engineering mostly TMNT & AtB = used as a filler for genetic engineering tech Chaos Earth + all of the post ROBOTECH series RDF books (Malcontent Uprisings, Strike Force, Ghost Ship, etc.) + Nightbane = Earth after the Rain of Death (instead of the lackluster backstory in the book) with Zentraedi and magical mutants (Nightbane) Southern Cross + RIFTS = Balkanized psuedo kingdoms and alien invasion, beginnings of the CS (ASC forces attempt to maintain control over what they can as the world burns...again), but the Robotech Masters also have Magic! Invid Invasion + RIFTS = same as above, but less people and more monsters...only the strongest most ruthless human enclaves survive (the CS, NGR, etc.) Sentinels = Humans figure out the Universe really hates everyone... (ROBOTECH + Warhammer40K + Renegade Legion + Star Wars + Star Trek + FarScape + Babylon5 + BattleTech, etc, etc... check out the Robotech Crossover thread for what it looks like...) Shadow Chronicles + RIFTS = The REF returns and finds the NGR, the CS and others are NOT happy to see the "liberators"...they are pretty hate filled towards the cowards and traitors...and the fact that the REF had to make alien allies, whereas the humans on Earth pretty much want to exterminate everything NOT human...
Spoiler:
This is a list of settings/rule sets that I use in my House Setting: Vhraeden Warhammer40k (Dark Heresy, Inquisitor, Death Watch, Rogue Trader, WH40K miniature rules for mass combat) BattleTech (~3050) Renegade Legion Elric (the 1st world) Warhammer FRPG (the 2nd world) Lord of the Rings (the 3rd world, AKA Middle Earth) Conan (the 4th world) Shadowrun (the 6th world) Dungeons and Dragons (AD&D, 3E, 4E...Oerth, Faerun, Athas, Sigil are all planets/locations....) Palladium Fantasy Heroes Unlimited Marvel Super Heroes DC Adventures Abberant Aeon/Trinity The World of Darkness - ALL of it, including a lot of netbooks like Highlander, Genius, Dragon, etc. as well as the Dark Ages set Scion RPG Armageddon/Witchcraft RPG Chill RPG Call of Cthulhu RPG - this plus ROBOTECH and Warhammer40K are the "base" setting Star Wars Star Trek Stargate Babylon 5 Battlestar Galactica FarScape Firefly Recon Ninjas and Superspies RIFTS - worldbooks 1 through 24 ROBOTECH - every book...even "Lancer's Rockers" TMNT & AtB Nightbane Systems Failure Ghost in the Shell AD Police Files/Bubblegum Crisis Cyberpunk 2020 Pathfinder (netbook) - equipment only ALIENS netbook - use the USCMC as how the REF Marines are, until that book sees the light of day! HURRY UP... Dune (mixed with Warhammer 40K) Cthulhu Tech Cthulhu Rising Doom (the video game) Battlelords of the 23rd Century Alternity MegaTraveller 2300 AD (very little) Charmed (TV) Supernatural (TV) True Blood (TV) Twilight 2000 Various GURPS books (Supers is used a lot...) Magic: the Gathering (I use each of the settings as a seperate planet) Skraypers The 3 Galaxies (only the races) about 30 other Palladium Books several tens of books (The Quick, the BOLOs series, all the ROBOTECH novels, Operation Starstrike, etc...) bits and pieces of other games such as In Nomine, Mekton II, 7th Sea, etc.
Why? Because I started gaming in 1989...and I always add to the setting, and never have needed to "reboot" the setting...so it has just become a giant blob of game sytems and files...5 bookshelves, 6 binders and 13 Gb of pdf's, notes, characters, pictures and storylines...
What no Gamma World, Boot Hill, Top Secret, Runequest, Bubblegum Crisis, Mekton Z, Synnabar, Macho Women With Guns, Car Wars, Iron Wood, Cybergeneration, Teenagers from Outerspace, Dream Park, Mutant Chronicles or Torg? OK maybe the MWWG, Synnabar, Iron Wood and Dream Park have no real use but the rest have their points. Which 40K Rogue Trader? The newer RPG or the 1st Edition of the table top game?
Gamma World is owned by the wife...but it is just awful...I use some of it as the "outside" area when we play Paranoia...I have two versions of Alpha Complex...one is on RIFTS Earth, the other is a forgotten Hive World that has been overrun by various Chaos beasts (WH40K) and I that is where I use the Gamma World stuff
Boot Hill...wow, that is OLD SKOOL...and I don't own it..
Top Secret, I have a few of the sourcebooks, but prefer GURPS SpecOps or (shudder) D20 Spycraft...mixed with N&SS since it is getting a bit dated
Runequest...yeah, I use the D100 ruleset for Middle Earth, since MERP is simply horrid (sorry Iron Crown...only Cyberspace was worth the money...and of course 10 million ways to die...)
Bubblegum Crisis...yes, I use the Knight Sabers as written though a bit grittier since it is more GITS centric, and of course it is circa Southern Cross...
Mekton Z...the mecha construction rules are there for the high end mecha that cant be made with battletech...and of course to make Transformers...from Cybertron
Synnabar - never read it
Macho Women With Guns - don't own it anymore, it sort of sucked...but...I do have a copy of Hot Chicks RPG...a "better" netbook reimagining
Car Wars - of course I have Car Wars, but since my players demand more playercentric vehicles, they use the AtB vehicle rules, not the quick and deadly Car Wars vehicular combat rules....
Iron Wood - didn't buy it...
Cybergeneration - I have it, a lot of good netbooks about it, and I have used the carbon plague before as nano-weapon created by Kaizen Gamorra to keep the UNSC out of his business...too bad Hawaii had to be the "example" to let everyone know he was serious.
Teenagers from Outerspace - hated it!
Dream Park - never read it
Mutant Chronicles - Yes, absolutely...I use it in combination with Mutants in Orbit and Jovian Chronicles which is what the REF found when they returned to "save Earth"...
Torg - This is what I prefer my RIFTS game to look like...a little 'less' post-apocalyptic and a bit more "Judge Dredd" with magic...and varying levels of magic power and sometimes tech just doesn't work. The Storm Knights have an uneasy alliance of convenience with the Cosmo Knights and Cyber Knights...the High Lords are basically what a Magic:the Gathering Planeswalker turns into...and of course, multiple deities DO NOT like it, especially the Sploogies! I have only used this ONCE since it turned into juicer assassins trying to become immortal start timeline jumping trying to kill off some CoC investigators over the Himalayas, High Lords battling with Night Lords and vampire intelligences... that game lasted 6 months, used 4 sets of characters (different timelines and universes) and resulted in 3 TPK's and only 2 PC's left alive, but hey, the MultiVerse was safe from the Tall Man (I used the guy from Phantasm as a High Lord)...
Which 40K Rogue Trader? The newer RPG or the 1st Edition of the table top game?
I have a PDF of the 1st Edition...and converted all the stuff...but currently using the FFG line for Dark Heresy, Deathwatch and Rogue Trader...with some additional backstory from Inquisitor (a narrative wargame...huh?????)
Not trying to sound like...um...a total retard dork geek lord, sorry if it comes off that way.
-STS
Re: Rifts Megavervse
Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2011 10:20 pm
by Misfit KotLD
Rhomphaia wrote:No MDC...after that, everything else kinda just falls into place.
Hells yeah!
Re: Rifts Megavervse
Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 3:07 am
by Crucible
Rhomphaia wrote:No MDC...after that, everything else kinda just falls into place.
You'll have to tell me more about that. Sounds interesting.
Re: Rifts Megavervse
Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 4:21 am
by Snake Eyes
Robotech was my big game when i used to GM......i used elements from the bionics sb, plus i converted alot of stuff from WH40k (mostly Tyranids), stuff from starcraft, and a few others.
Spoiler:
OMG..converting the Tyranids was a pain
Re: Rifts Megavervse
Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 1:12 am
by slade the sniper
Snake Eyes wrote:Robotech was my big game when i used to GM......i used elements from the bionics sb, plus i converted alot of stuff from WH40k (mostly Tyranids), stuff from starcraft, and a few others.
Spoiler:
OMG..converting the Tyranids was a pain
The 'nids weren't a problem, it was just coming up with the baseline damage values...once that happened, it was nice...but it was weeks of excel spreadsheets and bad math trying to get stuff to work where it wasn't nerfed or too overpowered.
I will say that my Statistics class finally came in handy for RPG conversion work
-STS
Re: Rifts Megavervse
Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 2:10 am
by Snake Eyes
slade the sniper wrote:
Snake Eyes wrote:Robotech was my big game when i used to GM......i used elements from the bionics sb, plus i converted alot of stuff from WH40k (mostly Tyranids), stuff from starcraft, and a few others.
Spoiler:
OMG..converting the Tyranids was a pain
The 'nids weren't a problem, it was just coming up with the baseline damage values...once that happened, it was nice...but it was weeks of excel spreadsheets and bad math trying to get stuff to work where it wasn't nerfed or too overpowered.
I will say that my Statistics class finally came in handy for RPG conversion work
-STS
I may go back sometime one my computer gets fixed, and get started on the 'nids again....then do some starcraft stuff
Re: Rifts Megavervse
Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 3:14 am
by Zer0 Kay
slade the sniper wrote:
Zer0 Kay wrote:
slade the sniper wrote:Oh dear...Full Megaverse all the way...
ROBOTECH = Base setting PF = another planet... HU = powers used, gained via genetic engineering mostly TMNT & AtB = used as a filler for genetic engineering tech Chaos Earth + all of the post ROBOTECH series RDF books (Malcontent Uprisings, Strike Force, Ghost Ship, etc.) + Nightbane = Earth after the Rain of Death (instead of the lackluster backstory in the book) with Zentraedi and magical mutants (Nightbane) Southern Cross + RIFTS = Balkanized psuedo kingdoms and alien invasion, beginnings of the CS (ASC forces attempt to maintain control over what they can as the world burns...again), but the Robotech Masters also have Magic! Invid Invasion + RIFTS = same as above, but less people and more monsters...only the strongest most ruthless human enclaves survive (the CS, NGR, etc.) Sentinels = Humans figure out the Universe really hates everyone... (ROBOTECH + Warhammer40K + Renegade Legion + Star Wars + Star Trek + FarScape + Babylon5 + BattleTech, etc, etc... check out the Robotech Crossover thread for what it looks like...) Shadow Chronicles + RIFTS = The REF returns and finds the NGR, the CS and others are NOT happy to see the "liberators"...they are pretty hate filled towards the cowards and traitors...and the fact that the REF had to make alien allies, whereas the humans on Earth pretty much want to exterminate everything NOT human...
Spoiler:
This is a list of settings/rule sets that I use in my House Setting: Vhraeden Warhammer40k (Dark Heresy, Inquisitor, Death Watch, Rogue Trader, WH40K miniature rules for mass combat) BattleTech (~3050) Renegade Legion Elric (the 1st world) Warhammer FRPG (the 2nd world) Lord of the Rings (the 3rd world, AKA Middle Earth) Conan (the 4th world) Shadowrun (the 6th world) Dungeons and Dragons (AD&D, 3E, 4E...Oerth, Faerun, Athas, Sigil are all planets/locations....) Palladium Fantasy Heroes Unlimited Marvel Super Heroes DC Adventures Abberant Aeon/Trinity The World of Darkness - ALL of it, including a lot of netbooks like Highlander, Genius, Dragon, etc. as well as the Dark Ages set Scion RPG Armageddon/Witchcraft RPG Chill RPG Call of Cthulhu RPG - this plus ROBOTECH and Warhammer40K are the "base" setting Star Wars Star Trek Stargate Babylon 5 Battlestar Galactica FarScape Firefly Recon Ninjas and Superspies RIFTS - worldbooks 1 through 24 ROBOTECH - every book...even "Lancer's Rockers" TMNT & AtB Nightbane Systems Failure Ghost in the Shell AD Police Files/Bubblegum Crisis Cyberpunk 2020 Pathfinder (netbook) - equipment only ALIENS netbook - use the USCMC as how the REF Marines are, until that book sees the light of day! HURRY UP... Dune (mixed with Warhammer 40K) Cthulhu Tech Cthulhu Rising Doom (the video game) Battlelords of the 23rd Century Alternity MegaTraveller 2300 AD (very little) Charmed (TV) Supernatural (TV) True Blood (TV) Twilight 2000 Various GURPS books (Supers is used a lot...) Magic: the Gathering (I use each of the settings as a seperate planet) Skraypers The 3 Galaxies (only the races) about 30 other Palladium Books several tens of books (The Quick, the BOLOs series, all the ROBOTECH novels, Operation Starstrike, etc...) bits and pieces of other games such as In Nomine, Mekton II, 7th Sea, etc.
Why? Because I started gaming in 1989...and I always add to the setting, and never have needed to "reboot" the setting...so it has just become a giant blob of game sytems and files...5 bookshelves, 6 binders and 13 Gb of pdf's, notes, characters, pictures and storylines...
What no Gamma World, Boot Hill, Top Secret, Runequest, Bubblegum Crisis, Mekton Z, Synnabar, Macho Women With Guns, Car Wars, Iron Wood, Cybergeneration, Teenagers from Outerspace, Dream Park, Mutant Chronicles or Torg? OK maybe the MWWG, Synnabar, Iron Wood and Dream Park have no real use but the rest have their points. Which 40K Rogue Trader? The newer RPG or the 1st Edition of the table top game?
Gamma World is owned by the wife...but it is just awful...I use some of it as the "outside" area when we play Paranoia...I have two versions of Alpha Complex...one is on RIFTS Earth, the other is a forgotten Hive World that has been overrun by various Chaos beasts (WH40K) and I that is where I use the Gamma World stuff
Boot Hill...wow, that is OLD SKOOL...and I don't own it..
Top Secret, I have a few of the sourcebooks, but prefer GURPS SpecOps or (shudder) D20 Spycraft...mixed with N&SS since it is getting a bit dated
Runequest...yeah, I use the D100 ruleset for Middle Earth, since MERP is simply horrid (sorry Iron Crown...only Cyberspace was worth the money...and of course 10 million ways to die...)
Bubblegum Crisis...yes, I use the Knight Sabers as written though a bit grittier since it is more GITS centric, and of course it is circa Southern Cross...
Mekton Z...the mecha construction rules are there for the high end mecha that cant be made with battletech...and of course to make Transformers...from Cybertron
Synnabar - never read it
Macho Women With Guns - don't own it anymore, it sort of sucked...but...I do have a copy of Hot Chicks RPG...a "better" netbook reimagining
Car Wars - of course I have Car Wars, but since my players demand more playercentric vehicles, they use the AtB vehicle rules, not the quick and deadly Car Wars vehicular combat rules....
Iron Wood - didn't buy it...
Cybergeneration - I have it, a lot of good netbooks about it, and I have used the carbon plague before as nano-weapon created by Kaizen Gamorra to keep the UNSC out of his business...too bad Hawaii had to be the "example" to let everyone know he was serious.
Teenagers from Outerspace - hated it!
Dream Park - never read it
Mutant Chronicles - Yes, absolutely...I use it in combination with Mutants in Orbit and Jovian Chronicles which is what the REF found when they returned to "save Earth"...
Torg - This is what I prefer my RIFTS game to look like...a little 'less' post-apocalyptic and a bit more "Judge Dredd" with magic...and varying levels of magic power and sometimes tech just doesn't work. The Storm Knights have an uneasy alliance of convenience with the Cosmo Knights and Cyber Knights...the High Lords are basically what a Magic:the Gathering Planeswalker turns into...and of course, multiple deities DO NOT like it, especially the Sploogies! I have only used this ONCE since it turned into juicer assassins trying to become immortal start timeline jumping trying to kill off some CoC investigators over the Himalayas, High Lords battling with Night Lords and vampire intelligences... that game lasted 6 months, used 4 sets of characters (different timelines and universes) and resulted in 3 TPK's and only 2 PC's left alive, but hey, the MultiVerse was safe from the Tall Man (I used the guy from Phantasm as a High Lord)...
Which 40K Rogue Trader? The newer RPG or the 1st Edition of the table top game?
I have a PDF of the 1st Edition...and converted all the stuff...but currently using the FFG line for Dark Heresy, Deathwatch and Rogue Trader...with some additional backstory from Inquisitor (a narrative wargame...huh?????)
Not trying to sound like...um...a total retard dork geek lord, sorry if it comes off that way.
-STS
No it is cool, I don't like combining everything as much as you but I think I'm as much a geek lord and it is nice to geek out. I really only like Macho Women with Guns for the humorous read. The magic system for Ironwood was interesting but I think too complicated to implement, Synnabar... is interesting but I think far too complicated (which I believe is why it received the title of worst RPG EVER). Dream park was probably just as bad if not worse than Teenagers from Outerspace. So do you use 1st ed Rogue Trader (40K) Gene Stealers or current? I think the old ones are far worse since the new ones don't have the power to infect. Funny I love most of the Mekton stuff but I really didn't like the Jovian Chronicles. Geez, BGC is grittier than all of the Macross series added together into a single episode, how much grittier did you make it and then how much grittier is your Macross stuff? Thanks, I'm enjoying this!
Re: Rifts Megavervse
Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 3:16 am
by Zer0 Kay
Rhomphaia wrote:
Crucible wrote:
Rhomphaia wrote:No MDC...after that, everything else kinda just falls into place.
You'll have to tell me more about that. Sounds interesting.
It is an extensive house rule, but in basic, I convert all MDC to SDC on a 1:10 scale. This means a Wilk's 320 pistol will deal 1D6x10 MD.
For supernatural creatures, I simply use their SDC stats (if I have them) or I convert their MDC to SDC on the same scale and have a scale for what multiple of their PE becomes hit points (x1, x2, x5 or x10, depending on the power of the creature).
That is the basic of it, but I also have rules for implementing AR, making explosives blast radii bigger (as tends to be the case with SDC explosives) and similar.
The reason why I use a 1:10 scale is that this keeps the flavor of overwhelming power for the weapons and equipment and creatures, but effectively removes the crap of a character's health being the same number as the MDC of their armor. It lends an air of survivability, but still makes combat dangerous and something you don't necessarily want to get into.
So how do you make it so that a .22 or a survival knife doesn't damage a tank... EVER?
Re: Rifts Megavervse
Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 3:27 am
by Zer0 Kay
Rhomphaia wrote:
Zer0 Kay wrote:
Rhomphaia wrote:
Crucible wrote:
Rhomphaia wrote:No MDC...after that, everything else kinda just falls into place.
You'll have to tell me more about that. Sounds interesting.
It is an extensive house rule, but in basic, I convert all MDC to SDC on a 1:10 scale. This means a Wilk's 320 pistol will deal 1D6x10 MD.
For supernatural creatures, I simply use their SDC stats (if I have them) or I convert their MDC to SDC on the same scale and have a scale for what multiple of their PE becomes hit points (x1, x2, x5 or x10, depending on the power of the creature).
That is the basic of it, but I also have rules for implementing AR, making explosives blast radii bigger (as tends to be the case with SDC explosives) and similar.
The reason why I use a 1:10 scale is that this keeps the flavor of overwhelming power for the weapons and equipment and creatures, but effectively removes the crap of a character's health being the same number as the MDC of their armor. It lends an air of survivability, but still makes combat dangerous and something you don't necessarily want to get into.
So how do you make it so that a .22 or a survival knife doesn't damage a tank... EVER?
This is where it gets tricky, but I use a variant of AR and the old Penetration Value rules. In short, AR is a damage reduction value and a weapon's PV must be equal to at least 1/10 the AR of the item to damage it. According to the old PV rules, .22s and knives have a PV of 1, so...
A lot of common sense helps too.
The use of PV makes a lot more sense and also makes AP round more useful than they are under RUE or even RMB rules. Relying on common sense though... that could get you in arguement with players especially those who like to ignore common sense in their favor or worse those that don't have any.
Re: Rifts Megavervse
Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 6:34 pm
by Blindscout
Weeeell
The Rifts campaign I am currently playing in is definitely what I would consider megaversal. The game didn't even start as a Rifts game, it was originally a homebrew game world and system and the PCs eventually ended up in Rifts. Since getting to Rifts earth there have been elements of PFRPG, Phase World, Wormwood, and Heroes. We have traveled to Palladium, traipsed across Faerun, Spelljammed to Sigil and gotten ourselves stuck on worlds that I don't know the names (or source material) of. Elements of Talislanta, Cyberpunk, and Earthdawn have also made appearances.
Re: Rifts Megavervse
Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 11:39 pm
by Crucible
Basically, within reason and depending on the storyline for the character I will allow almost anything.
Re: Rifts Megavervse
Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2011 4:18 pm
by Mechanurgist
Blindscout wrote:Elements of Talislanta, Cyberpunk, and Earthdawn have also made appearances.
Wow, that's the second time today I've seen someone reference Talislanta on these forums. And here I thought it was dead and forgotten. Tal was my first RPG, even before I learned D&D. Man, those were the days. Too bad it had so much bad luck with publishers.
Re: Rifts Megavervse
Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2011 5:22 pm
by Killer Cyborg
Crucible wrote:I started playing Rifts by pure accident. I actually started running Robotech with elements from Heroes Unlimited Revised and TMNT. I saw Triax and the NGR and thought it was a stand alone game and started using elements from there, COMPLETELY unchanged. Yes there was a power difference with the Triax weapons, but Robotech technology was more than a match with speed and firepower.
Later I found that there were more books and though the game "changed" for my players I still kept it basically the same until about 8yrs ago when I completely scrapped the old world and started anew. I now run a more "traditional" style, but very open to ANY and ALL books and will write in a whole new storyline to fit it in,
Does anyone else go "Full Megaverse" and how do you do it?
I almost always run Rifts, but because of the nature of the rifts themselves, there is a lot of interaction with the other Palladium games. I've had crossovers with almost every other Palladium game, simply because so much stuff comes to Rifts Earth, and it's so easy to wind up travelling from Rifts Earth to another world.
slade the sniper wrote:Oh dear...Full Megaverse all the way...
ROBOTECH = Base setting PF = another planet... HU = powers used, gained via genetic engineering mostly TMNT & AtB = used as a filler for genetic engineering tech Chaos Earth + all of the post ROBOTECH series RDF books (Malcontent Uprisings, Strike Force, Ghost Ship, etc.) + Nightbane = Earth after the Rain of Death (instead of the lackluster backstory in the book) with Zentraedi and magical mutants (Nightbane) Southern Cross + RIFTS = Balkanized psuedo kingdoms and alien invasion, beginnings of the CS (ASC forces attempt to maintain control over what they can as the world burns...again), but the Robotech Masters also have Magic! Invid Invasion + RIFTS = same as above, but less people and more monsters...only the strongest most ruthless human enclaves survive (the CS, NGR, etc.) Sentinels = Humans figure out the Universe really hates everyone... (ROBOTECH + Warhammer40K + Renegade Legion + Star Wars + Star Trek + FarScape + Babylon5 + BattleTech, etc, etc... check out the Robotech Crossover thread for what it looks like...) Shadow Chronicles + RIFTS = The REF returns and finds the NGR, the CS and others are NOT happy to see the "liberators"...they are pretty hate filled towards the cowards and traitors...and the fact that the REF had to make alien allies, whereas the humans on Earth pretty much want to exterminate everything NOT human...
Spoiler:
This is a list of settings/rule sets that I use in my House Setting: Vhraeden Warhammer40k (Dark Heresy, Inquisitor, Death Watch, Rogue Trader, WH40K miniature rules for mass combat) BattleTech (~3050) Renegade Legion Elric (the 1st world) Warhammer FRPG (the 2nd world) Lord of the Rings (the 3rd world, AKA Middle Earth) Conan (the 4th world) Shadowrun (the 6th world) Dungeons and Dragons (AD&D, 3E, 4E...Oerth, Faerun, Athas, Sigil are all planets/locations....) Palladium Fantasy Heroes Unlimited Marvel Super Heroes DC Adventures Abberant Aeon/Trinity The World of Darkness - ALL of it, including a lot of netbooks like Highlander, Genius, Dragon, etc. as well as the Dark Ages set Scion RPG Armageddon/Witchcraft RPG Chill RPG Call of Cthulhu RPG - this plus ROBOTECH and Warhammer40K are the "base" setting Star Wars Star Trek Stargate Babylon 5 Battlestar Galactica FarScape Firefly Recon Ninjas and Superspies RIFTS - worldbooks 1 through 24 ROBOTECH - every book...even "Lancer's Rockers" TMNT & AtB Nightbane Systems Failure Ghost in the Shell AD Police Files/Bubblegum Crisis Cyberpunk 2020 Pathfinder (netbook) - equipment only ALIENS netbook - use the USCMC as how the REF Marines are, until that book sees the light of day! HURRY UP... Dune (mixed with Warhammer 40K) Cthulhu Tech Cthulhu Rising Doom (the video game) Battlelords of the 23rd Century Alternity MegaTraveller 2300 AD (very little) Charmed (TV) Supernatural (TV) True Blood (TV) Twilight 2000 Various GURPS books (Supers is used a lot...) Magic: the Gathering (I use each of the settings as a seperate planet) Skraypers The 3 Galaxies (only the races) about 30 other Palladium Books several tens of books (The Quick, the BOLOs series, all the ROBOTECH novels, Operation Starstrike, etc...) bits and pieces of other games such as In Nomine, Mekton II, 7th Sea, etc.
Why? Because I started gaming in 1989...and I always add to the setting, and never have needed to "reboot" the setting...so it has just become a giant blob of game sytems and files...5 bookshelves, 6 binders and 13 Gb of pdf's, notes, characters, pictures and storylines...
What no Gamma World, Boot Hill, Top Secret, Runequest, Bubblegum Crisis, Mekton Z, Synnabar, Macho Women With Guns, Car Wars, Iron Wood, Cybergeneration, Teenagers from Outerspace, Dream Park, Mutant Chronicles or Torg? OK maybe the MWWG, Synnabar, Iron Wood and Dream Park have no real use but the rest have their points. Which 40K Rogue Trader? The newer RPG or the 1st Edition of the table top game?
Gamma World is owned by the wife...but it is just awful...I use some of it as the "outside" area when we play Paranoia...I have two versions of Alpha Complex...one is on RIFTS Earth, the other is a forgotten Hive World that has been overrun by various Chaos beasts (WH40K) and I that is where I use the Gamma World stuff
Boot Hill...wow, that is OLD SKOOL...and I don't own it..
Top Secret, I have a few of the sourcebooks, but prefer GURPS SpecOps or (shudder) D20 Spycraft...mixed with N&SS since it is getting a bit dated
Runequest...yeah, I use the D100 ruleset for Middle Earth, since MERP is simply horrid (sorry Iron Crown...only Cyberspace was worth the money...and of course 10 million ways to die...)
Bubblegum Crisis...yes, I use the Knight Sabers as written though a bit grittier since it is more GITS centric, and of course it is circa Southern Cross...
Mekton Z...the mecha construction rules are there for the high end mecha that cant be made with battletech...and of course to make Transformers...from Cybertron
Synnabar - never read it
Macho Women With Guns - don't own it anymore, it sort of sucked...but...I do have a copy of Hot Chicks RPG...a "better" netbook reimagining
Car Wars - of course I have Car Wars, but since my players demand more playercentric vehicles, they use the AtB vehicle rules, not the quick and deadly Car Wars vehicular combat rules....
Iron Wood - didn't buy it...
Cybergeneration - I have it, a lot of good netbooks about it, and I have used the carbon plague before as nano-weapon created by Kaizen Gamorra to keep the UNSC out of his business...too bad Hawaii had to be the "example" to let everyone know he was serious.
Teenagers from Outerspace - hated it!
Dream Park - never read it
Mutant Chronicles - Yes, absolutely...I use it in combination with Mutants in Orbit and Jovian Chronicles which is what the REF found when they returned to "save Earth"...
Torg - This is what I prefer my RIFTS game to look like...a little 'less' post-apocalyptic and a bit more "Judge Dredd" with magic...and varying levels of magic power and sometimes tech just doesn't work. The Storm Knights have an uneasy alliance of convenience with the Cosmo Knights and Cyber Knights...the High Lords are basically what a Magic:the Gathering Planeswalker turns into...and of course, multiple deities DO NOT like it, especially the Sploogies! I have only used this ONCE since it turned into juicer assassins trying to become immortal start timeline jumping trying to kill off some CoC investigators over the Himalayas, High Lords battling with Night Lords and vampire intelligences... that game lasted 6 months, used 4 sets of characters (different timelines and universes) and resulted in 3 TPK's and only 2 PC's left alive, but hey, the MultiVerse was safe from the Tall Man (I used the guy from Phantasm as a High Lord)...
Which 40K Rogue Trader? The newer RPG or the 1st Edition of the table top game?
I have a PDF of the 1st Edition...and converted all the stuff...but currently using the FFG line for Dark Heresy, Deathwatch and Rogue Trader...with some additional backstory from Inquisitor (a narrative wargame...huh?????)
Not trying to sound like...um...a total retard dork geek lord, sorry if it comes off that way.
-STS
No it is cool, I don't like combining everything as much as you but I think I'm as much a geek lord and it is nice to geek out. I really only like Macho Women with Guns for the humorous read. The magic system for Ironwood was interesting but I think too complicated to implement, Synnabar... is interesting but I think far too complicated (which I believe is why it received the title of worst RPG EVER). Dream park was probably just as bad if not worse than Teenagers from Outerspace. So do you use 1st ed Rogue Trader (40K) Gene Stealers or current? I think the old ones are far worse since the new ones don't have the power to infect. Funny I love most of the Mekton stuff but I really didn't like the Jovian Chronicles. Geez, BGC is grittier than all of the Macross series added together into a single episode, how much grittier did you make it and then how much grittier is your Macross stuff? Thanks, I'm enjoying this!
For Macross, the grit comes across as conspiracies...
The US is leading the UNSC which runs the UEG, but is also heavily involved with the AUL through the use of deniable assets (think Blackwater with mecha) and double agents (like TR Edwards, but he doesn't know he is a double agent)...plus all the higher ups (like Admiral Hayes...) know they are playing both sides of the game in order to ensure that the US comes out on top whether the aliens or Earth wins the war.
Tied into that are the other conspiracies like The Technocracy secretly being the force responsible for creating the RDF in order to jump start Technological progress among the sleepers...that and the fact that if they didn't the Earth would be destroyed with the only remnants of Humanity being a bunch of mages on Horizon Realms (also known as planets)
Of course, there are the evil corporations (Umbrella, Serendipity, etc. who have different plans for the Earth) and not good corporations (like Weyland-Yutani which is a subsidiary of the Syndicate and the Void Engineers and has had dealings with the Deep Umbra AKA Interstellar space since 1979...) that are allies of convenience with the RDF/UNSC etc.
That is the high level conspiracies, the mid level ones are the ones between the Five Metal Dragons and the Technocracy as a whole. Ninjas vs Pirates (or for those that remember the war between Arasaka and Big Len in the Pacific from CP 2013...Solo of Fortune II) makes an appearance and there are numerous brushfire wars everywhere.
The Technology explosion has caused the high tech world of augmentation and mutation to kick into high gear making Moreaus, Juicers, Crazies and Cyborgs commonplace as bush league governments that couldn't buy their way into the UNSC to join the RDF got stuck with the (fledgling) ASC and the PKF's...and all that tech to fight aliens that might show up...well, why let it go to waste when you can use it to attack your ancient and hated neighbor right now?
So because of that, the GMP has their hands full, and since some of the threats use metatechnology (which is used to create metahumans AKA super-powered beings) they have to enlist the help of the UN International Security Teams (IST) and their HQ Stormwatch...
Tie that into organized crime (Ghost in the Shell style), investigative reporters (who know something is going on, but not what), apocalypse cults, Tirollian Overlord Government spies, other alien beings that are trying to leave (remember MiB when they all try to get out of town, similar to that...), the Stargate program (both the US and the Russian one)...and let us not forget Skynet is built and is online, and not at all happy with the ARCHIE project, oh yeah, and the RDF can't fill all the manpower they need, so cloning some soldiers seems like the perfect idea, and thus we have the "replicant problem" and the Bladerunner solution...
All of that = my ROBOTECH setting...which makes BGC a good fit I think. After all Genom is competing with Tyrell Corporation and the Umbrella Corporation...
Hard to follow? I know...but this setting has been built up since 1989 when I got my copy of ROBOTECH...and went megaversal when I got TMNT and Renegade Legion and it hasn't stopped since...
V/r
-STS
Re: Rifts Megavervse
Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2011 10:13 pm
by Anthar
I like mashing things together, but I like a little structure. I worked together an immortal campaign where characters started in early history with OCCs similiar to Palladium Fantasy with a few adjustments, then progressing through history in the ancient, dark, middle, renaissance, colonial, industrial and modern ages. All though out incorporating Heroes Unlimited, PF, Nightbane, N&SS, and BtS. Then engineered a story to take the game over to a parallel dimension where billions of 40 foot tall aliens attack earth and these immortals have to scramble to adapt and stay alive moving through that timeline until they find a way back home to where their learned knowledge allows them to compete with the big boys in the golden age of man until the Great Cataclysm hits(of course they are embroiled in the triggering event). Then mixing in Chaos Earth they scramble to surving, though the lessons they learned in the Robotech dimension allows them to adapt quickly using their cross dimensional technology manage to flee and start a colony in the PhaseWorld dimension, their efforts are focused towards survival and adapting to this new universe. Though they try to return home, their cross dimensional tech can only make a intermitent connection back home, but they can connect to Wormwood and establish Worldgate. Back on their colony, they realize that they are on the throne world of a Splugorth. Of course this won't do, so they focus their attention to tearing down this tyrant and liberate the Splugorth kingdom in a climatic battle in the capital with the demise of the Splugorth. After all this has been dealt with, they find themselves finally able to return home to Rifts Earth and trying to make sense of the mess it has become and what to do with it if anything at all.
Re: Rifts Megavervse
Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2011 1:06 am
by Zer0 Kay
slade the sniper wrote:
Zer0 Kay wrote:
slade the sniper wrote:
Zer0 Kay wrote:
slade the sniper wrote:Oh dear...Full Megaverse all the way...
ROBOTECH = Base setting PF = another planet... HU = powers used, gained via genetic engineering mostly TMNT & AtB = used as a filler for genetic engineering tech Chaos Earth + all of the post ROBOTECH series RDF books (Malcontent Uprisings, Strike Force, Ghost Ship, etc.) + Nightbane = Earth after the Rain of Death (instead of the lackluster backstory in the book) with Zentraedi and magical mutants (Nightbane) Southern Cross + RIFTS = Balkanized psuedo kingdoms and alien invasion, beginnings of the CS (ASC forces attempt to maintain control over what they can as the world burns...again), but the Robotech Masters also have Magic! Invid Invasion + RIFTS = same as above, but less people and more monsters...only the strongest most ruthless human enclaves survive (the CS, NGR, etc.) Sentinels = Humans figure out the Universe really hates everyone... (ROBOTECH + Warhammer40K + Renegade Legion + Star Wars + Star Trek + FarScape + Babylon5 + BattleTech, etc, etc... check out the Robotech Crossover thread for what it looks like...) Shadow Chronicles + RIFTS = The REF returns and finds the NGR, the CS and others are NOT happy to see the "liberators"...they are pretty hate filled towards the cowards and traitors...and the fact that the REF had to make alien allies, whereas the humans on Earth pretty much want to exterminate everything NOT human...
Spoiler:
This is a list of settings/rule sets that I use in my House Setting: Vhraeden Warhammer40k (Dark Heresy, Inquisitor, Death Watch, Rogue Trader, WH40K miniature rules for mass combat) BattleTech (~3050) Renegade Legion Elric (the 1st world) Warhammer FRPG (the 2nd world) Lord of the Rings (the 3rd world, AKA Middle Earth) Conan (the 4th world) Shadowrun (the 6th world) Dungeons and Dragons (AD&D, 3E, 4E...Oerth, Faerun, Athas, Sigil are all planets/locations....) Palladium Fantasy Heroes Unlimited Marvel Super Heroes DC Adventures Abberant Aeon/Trinity The World of Darkness - ALL of it, including a lot of netbooks like Highlander, Genius, Dragon, etc. as well as the Dark Ages set Scion RPG Armageddon/Witchcraft RPG Chill RPG Call of Cthulhu RPG - this plus ROBOTECH and Warhammer40K are the "base" setting Star Wars Star Trek Stargate Babylon 5 Battlestar Galactica FarScape Firefly Recon Ninjas and Superspies RIFTS - worldbooks 1 through 24 ROBOTECH - every book...even "Lancer's Rockers" TMNT & AtB Nightbane Systems Failure Ghost in the Shell AD Police Files/Bubblegum Crisis Cyberpunk 2020 Pathfinder (netbook) - equipment only ALIENS netbook - use the USCMC as how the REF Marines are, until that book sees the light of day! HURRY UP... Dune (mixed with Warhammer 40K) Cthulhu Tech Cthulhu Rising Doom (the video game) Battlelords of the 23rd Century Alternity MegaTraveller 2300 AD (very little) Charmed (TV) Supernatural (TV) True Blood (TV) Twilight 2000 Various GURPS books (Supers is used a lot...) Magic: the Gathering (I use each of the settings as a seperate planet) Skraypers The 3 Galaxies (only the races) about 30 other Palladium Books several tens of books (The Quick, the BOLOs series, all the ROBOTECH novels, Operation Starstrike, etc...) bits and pieces of other games such as In Nomine, Mekton II, 7th Sea, etc.
Why? Because I started gaming in 1989...and I always add to the setting, and never have needed to "reboot" the setting...so it has just become a giant blob of game sytems and files...5 bookshelves, 6 binders and 13 Gb of pdf's, notes, characters, pictures and storylines...
What no Gamma World, Boot Hill, Top Secret, Runequest, Bubblegum Crisis, Mekton Z, Synnabar, Macho Women With Guns, Car Wars, Iron Wood, Cybergeneration, Teenagers from Outerspace, Dream Park, Mutant Chronicles or Torg? OK maybe the MWWG, Synnabar, Iron Wood and Dream Park have no real use but the rest have their points. Which 40K Rogue Trader? The newer RPG or the 1st Edition of the table top game?
Gamma World is owned by the wife...but it is just awful...I use some of it as the "outside" area when we play Paranoia...I have two versions of Alpha Complex...one is on RIFTS Earth, the other is a forgotten Hive World that has been overrun by various Chaos beasts (WH40K) and I that is where I use the Gamma World stuff
Boot Hill...wow, that is OLD SKOOL...and I don't own it..
Top Secret, I have a few of the sourcebooks, but prefer GURPS SpecOps or (shudder) D20 Spycraft...mixed with N&SS since it is getting a bit dated
Runequest...yeah, I use the D100 ruleset for Middle Earth, since MERP is simply horrid (sorry Iron Crown...only Cyberspace was worth the money...and of course 10 million ways to die...)
Bubblegum Crisis...yes, I use the Knight Sabers as written though a bit grittier since it is more GITS centric, and of course it is circa Southern Cross...
Mekton Z...the mecha construction rules are there for the high end mecha that cant be made with battletech...and of course to make Transformers...from Cybertron
Synnabar - never read it
Macho Women With Guns - don't own it anymore, it sort of sucked...but...I do have a copy of Hot Chicks RPG...a "better" netbook reimagining
Car Wars - of course I have Car Wars, but since my players demand more playercentric vehicles, they use the AtB vehicle rules, not the quick and deadly Car Wars vehicular combat rules....
Iron Wood - didn't buy it...
Cybergeneration - I have it, a lot of good netbooks about it, and I have used the carbon plague before as nano-weapon created by Kaizen Gamorra to keep the UNSC out of his business...too bad Hawaii had to be the "example" to let everyone know he was serious.
Teenagers from Outerspace - hated it!
Dream Park - never read it
Mutant Chronicles - Yes, absolutely...I use it in combination with Mutants in Orbit and Jovian Chronicles which is what the REF found when they returned to "save Earth"...
Torg - This is what I prefer my RIFTS game to look like...a little 'less' post-apocalyptic and a bit more "Judge Dredd" with magic...and varying levels of magic power and sometimes tech just doesn't work. The Storm Knights have an uneasy alliance of convenience with the Cosmo Knights and Cyber Knights...the High Lords are basically what a Magic:the Gathering Planeswalker turns into...and of course, multiple deities DO NOT like it, especially the Sploogies! I have only used this ONCE since it turned into juicer assassins trying to become immortal start timeline jumping trying to kill off some CoC investigators over the Himalayas, High Lords battling with Night Lords and vampire intelligences... that game lasted 6 months, used 4 sets of characters (different timelines and universes) and resulted in 3 TPK's and only 2 PC's left alive, but hey, the MultiVerse was safe from the Tall Man (I used the guy from Phantasm as a High Lord)...
Which 40K Rogue Trader? The newer RPG or the 1st Edition of the table top game?
I have a PDF of the 1st Edition...and converted all the stuff...but currently using the FFG line for Dark Heresy, Deathwatch and Rogue Trader...with some additional backstory from Inquisitor (a narrative wargame...huh?????)
Not trying to sound like...um...a total retard dork geek lord, sorry if it comes off that way.
-STS
No it is cool, I don't like combining everything as much as you but I think I'm as much a geek lord and it is nice to geek out. I really only like Macho Women with Guns for the humorous read. The magic system for Ironwood was interesting but I think too complicated to implement, Synnabar... is interesting but I think far too complicated (which I believe is why it received the title of worst RPG EVER). Dream park was probably just as bad if not worse than Teenagers from Outerspace. So do you use 1st ed Rogue Trader (40K) Gene Stealers or current? I think the old ones are far worse since the new ones don't have the power to infect. Funny I love most of the Mekton stuff but I really didn't like the Jovian Chronicles. Geez, BGC is grittier than all of the Macross series added together into a single episode, how much grittier did you make it and then how much grittier is your Macross stuff? Thanks, I'm enjoying this!
For Macross, the grit comes across as conspiracies...
The US is leading the UNSC which runs the UEG, but is also heavily involved with the AUL through the use of deniable assets (think Blackwater with mecha) and double agents (like TR Edwards, but he doesn't know he is a double agent)...plus all the higher ups (like Admiral Hayes...) know they are playing both sides of the game in order to ensure that the US comes out on top whether the aliens or Earth wins the war.
Tied into that are the other conspiracies like The Technocracy secretly being the force responsible for creating the RDF in order to jump start Technological progress among the sleepers...that and the fact that if they didn't the Earth would be destroyed with the only remnants of Humanity being a bunch of mages on Horizon Realms (also known as planets)
Of course, there are the evil corporations (Umbrella, Serendipity, etc. who have different plans for the Earth) and not good corporations (like Weyland-Yutani which is a subsidiary of the Syndicate and the Void Engineers and has had dealings with the Deep Umbra AKA Interstellar space since 1979...) that are allies of convenience with the RDF/UNSC etc.
That is the high level conspiracies, the mid level ones are the ones between the Five Metal Dragons and the Technocracy as a whole. Ninjas vs Pirates (or for those that remember the war between Arasaka and Big Len in the Pacific from CP 2013...Solo of Fortune II) makes an appearance and there are numerous brushfire wars everywhere.
The Technology explosion has caused the high tech world of augmentation and mutation to kick into high gear making Moreaus, Juicers, Crazies and Cyborgs commonplace as bush league governments that couldn't buy their way into the UNSC to join the RDF got stuck with the (fledgling) ASC and the PKF's...and all that tech to fight aliens that might show up...well, why let it go to waste when you can use it to attack your ancient and hated neighbor right now?
So because of that, the GMP has their hands full, and since some of the threats use metatechnology (which is used to create metahumans AKA super-powered beings) they have to enlist the help of the UN International Security Teams (IST) and their HQ Stormwatch...
Tie that into organized crime (Ghost in the Shell style), investigative reporters (who know something is going on, but not what), apocalypse cults, Tirollian Overlord Government spies, other alien beings that are trying to leave (remember MiB when they all try to get out of town, similar to that...), the Stargate program (both the US and the Russian one)...and let us not forget Skynet is built and is online, and not at all happy with the ARCHIE project, oh yeah, and the RDF can't fill all the manpower they need, so cloning some soldiers seems like the perfect idea, and thus we have the "replicant problem" and the Bladerunner solution...
All of that = my ROBOTECH setting...which makes BGC a good fit I think. After all Genom is competing with Tyrell Corporation and the Umbrella Corporation...
Hard to follow? I know...but this setting has been built up since 1989 when I got my copy of ROBOTECH...and went megaversal when I got TMNT and Renegade Legion and it hasn't stopped since...
V/r
-STS
It isn't too hard to follow for me. Its freaking awesome. So did you use the Cartel or Doom Troopers and the Dark from Mutant Chronicles? I'd almost throw some B5 in there too, there is already light vs. dark with the Invid and Haydonites but I like the technomages with their super technology seeming like magic.
Re: Rifts Megavervse
Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2011 2:27 am
by slade the sniper
Zer0 Kay wrote:It isn't too hard to follow for me. Its freaking awesome. So did you use the Cartel or Doom Troopers and the Dark from Mutant Chronicles? I'd almost throw some B5 in there too, there is already light vs. dark with the Invid and Haydonites but I like the technomages with their super technology seeming like magic.
Had to edit the quote boxes
I have all the corps "up there" but they are not as powerful as in the MC universe, and the Dark is simply a rebranded Chaos Legion from WH40K. The way the Orbitals interact with Dirtside is similar to how it is handled in Hardwired (by Walter Jon Williams)...though my dirt corps have a bit more oomph than in that novel...namely the Orbitals have tech, but until they OWN real estate and not a few flimsy tin can space stations, they are easily "popped" by either a nuke, an internal "accident" or a good old fashioned attack. For that reason the Orbitals still respect the Dirt corps and follow all the decrees of the Corporate Court.
As for Babylon 5...I have it, but they are a bit later in the timeline. They appear circa the Shadow Chronicles as a way for the League of Non-Aligned Planets (of which Earth used to be a member, but then formed the UFP, but still has VERY good relations with them...thus Earth is a member of the UFP but the REF thinks they are weak and worthless and pretty much decided to join with the League and became the "heavy hitters" for the reformed Rangers.
The Invid are a member of the so called "old races"...not one of the First Ones, but they are massively powerful in their own right. While they don't really care about intergalactic politics, they will not hesitate to fight against TOG (my rebranded Robotech Masters...think WH40K + Renegade Legion + Robotech Masters + a bit of Dune + BattleTech...) and any who look, act, think like them...which is pretty much anyone who has technology. They really hate the Tau and the Necrons as well, but seem to (oddly enough) live in peace with Orks on many planets. The Orks for their part never attack Invid...
As for the Technomages...this is the Technocracy plus 100 years...
It is a bit hard to describe in detail, but if you want, I can send you a .jpg of my galactic map. Just send a PM with an email address.
-STS
Re: Rifts Megavervse
Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2011 10:27 am
by Jockitch74
Rift, Robotech and Nightbane are really the only settings I used. Everything else is just a source book for the 3. So, I like to mix things up a bit.
Re: Rifts Megavervse
Posted: Sun Mar 27, 2011 1:43 pm
by RainOfSteel
Crucible wrote:Does anyone else go "Full Megaverse" and how do you do it?
In my Rifts milieu, there is a full Megaverse out there. Exactly what is in it? What you read in the books is, technically, out there. However, not everything in the books is accessible, nor will everything that is accessible ever be drawn into the same campaign.
For some things, like Rifts Earth, there are massive changes. I use a rebooted version where populations are cut dramatically and there is more wilderness that is inhabited by more monsters (but not overwhelmingly so). I leave out things wholesale here. No Archie, no Mechanoids, no Camelot (and most especially no Arr'thuu or Mrrlyn), and no Mutants in Orbit as my solar system is completely different. Splynncryth's Atlantis is a vacation spot for him and he really lives on a world in another galaxy at the center of an interstellar empire. The NGR and the Gargoyle/Brodkill still battle it out in Europe, but in much smaller numbers. This continues throughout Rifts Earth, with many of my own created locations and NPCs tossed in, replacing anything written in the books as necessary.
The Three Galaxies are out there with few, if any, changes, but I don't think about them much as I built my own galactic setting and would probably use it if players on Rifts Earth were to head out for space adventure. I think it would be a bit jarring to go from the hardscrabble Post Apocalypse setting of Rifts Earth to my star spanning cosmopolitan galactic setting, and there is the issue where players going back might decide they like the galactic setting better (for better access to fully industrial civilization, if nothing else).
I could go down a list of most of the products, but you get the idea.
Re: Rifts Megavervse
Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2011 12:37 am
by Zer0 Kay
slade the sniper wrote:
Zer0 Kay wrote:It isn't too hard to follow for me. Its freaking awesome. So did you use the Cartel or Doom Troopers and the Dark from Mutant Chronicles? I'd almost throw some B5 in there too, there is already light vs. dark with the Invid and Haydonites but I like the technomages with their super technology seeming like magic.
Had to edit the quote boxes
I have all the corps "up there" but they are not as powerful as in the MC universe, and the Dark is simply a rebranded Chaos Legion from WH40K. The way the Orbitals interact with Dirtside is similar to how it is handled in Hardwired (by Walter Jon Williams)...though my dirt corps have a bit more oomph than in that novel...namely the Orbitals have tech, but until they OWN real estate and not a few flimsy tin can space stations, they are easily "popped" by either a nuke, an internal "accident" or a good old fashioned attack. For that reason the Orbitals still respect the Dirt corps and follow all the decrees of the Corporate Court.
As for Babylon 5...I have it, but they are a bit later in the timeline. They appear circa the Shadow Chronicles as a way for the League of Non-Aligned Planets (of which Earth used to be a member, but then formed the UFP, but still has VERY good relations with them...thus Earth is a member of the UFP but the REF thinks they are weak and worthless and pretty much decided to join with the League and became the "heavy hitters" for the reformed Rangers.
The Invid are a member of the so called "old races"...not one of the First Ones, but they are massively powerful in their own right. While they don't really care about intergalactic politics, they will not hesitate to fight against TOG (my rebranded Robotech Masters...think WH40K + Renegade Legion + Robotech Masters + a bit of Dune + BattleTech...) and any who look, act, think like them...which is pretty much anyone who has technology. They really hate the Tau and the Necrons as well, but seem to (oddly enough) live in peace with Orks on many planets. The Orks for their part never attack Invid...
As for the Technomages...this is the Technocracy plus 100 years...
It is a bit hard to describe in detail, but if you want, I can send you a .jpg of my galactic map. Just send a PM with an email address.
-STS
Yeah only 5 nested quotes.
Wasn't Hardwired made into a Cyberpunk book... I think I've got it. I would freaking LOVE to see the galactic map. Great concept chocked full of stuff. I don't think I'd go that far mixing everything up quite that much. My Robotech/Macross is a lot lighter like the anime. I mean after all the cycle is get attacked, run away, counter attack, alien/human romance, almost destroy Earth, beat the bad guys, make allies with alien race, new threat appear, rinse and repeat. So.... in our game a representative from another system found the REF before the REF left for the assault on Reflex point but after they defeated the Regent. Some of the group split off dubbing themselves the Robotech Invasion Force (RIF). A single star system contained Tarriens (Tear'ee'anne's), psychic space elves, on one planet, magic using dragonoids, Draken (Dray'ken) on another planet, and humanoids with cat like features, Verbatim (Ver'bay'tim) on the last planet. Then the bad guys, the Ancients who lived in the star system before and have returned to claim it. Blah blah blah stuff goes on the system regains some semblance of stability and the RIF sends some of its forces back to Earth to aid in the assault on Reflex point. When they get there the events of Shadow chronicles unfolds but then the Ancients pop in and fight both sides when then the Haydonites leave and the Ancients are driven away they later come backe allied and one of the player group that is a Regis Hybrid (custom race, created when two Regis experiments produce a child, because in order to perform the expermients at will on the humans the Regis had to basically instill them with her own genetic material. Some Regis Hybrids just exhibit some of the Regis' traits some have some of her great powers and fewer yet are able to manipulate there own genetic makeup like the Regis does.) followed the Regis' path and reminded her that she is supposed to be the light in the universe opposing the darkness and convinced her to make an alliance with the Sentinel races,Humans, Zentradi and remaining Robotech Masters against the Haydonites and Ancients. Then the Regis grew a fleet of Hybrid ships. Organic ships of mostly human design crewed mostly by Stage 5, the new Stage 6 and some humans.
I wasn't GMing but I... engineered the alliance the entire time thinking of the Interstellar Alliance in B5 and the fleet being what the Alliance fleet was supposed to be with White Stars cruisers and Victory Class destroyers (not really same names or designs but same spirit and then went outragious with battleships, carriers and dreadnaughts (kidna a funny name since dreadnaughts are a class of battleship and not a class of their own).
Re: Rifts Megavervse
Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2011 7:15 am
by RainOfSteel
Zer0 Kay wrote:Yeah only 5 nested quotes.
A necessary limit, though.
Zer0 Kay wrote:Wasn't Hardwired made into a Cyberpunk book... I think I've got it.
Hardwired was written up as a Cyberpunk supplement.
Re: Rifts Megavervse
Posted: Mon Mar 28, 2011 3:16 pm
by Zer0 Kay
RainOfSteel wrote:
Zer0 Kay wrote:Yeah only 5 nested quotes.
A necessary limit, though.
Zer0 Kay wrote:Wasn't Hardwired made into a Cyberpunk book... I think I've got it.
Hardwired was written up as a Cyberpunk supplement.
Supplement... book... are you applying a differentiation where one need not be? Yeah the mostly black cover with red lettering and the cargo aircraft that looks like some of the original artist mock ups of the F-117
Aww come on it isn't like there was any thread that had WAY TOO MANY nested quotes... oh wait there was that one that was my fault so many years ago. ah that was a funny topic.
Hells yeah!
ah that was a funny topic.