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How many does this count for the 6 tatoo limit on non tattoo casters?

A flaming sword is two, the steaked heart is 1, so that'd be 3 tattoos out of six.

That is what I thought, just checking

I have always counted Magic Weapon effects as one Tattoo when it comes to how many it counts toward the limit of 6. I just adjust the PPE cost to activate it according to the effects added.

For example:

Weapon covered in flames - Tattoo count - 1, PPE - 10

Weapons crossed, Covered in Flames - Tattoo count - 1, PPE - 15 (10 for flaming weapon, 5 for crossed weapons)

Weapons crossed, Covered in Flames, Dripping Blood - Tattoo count - 1, PPE - 20 (10 for flaming, 5 for crossed and 5 for dripping blood)

Just a thought.

Mouser13 wrote:How many does this count for the 6 tatoo limit on non tattoo casters?

For True Atlanteans it counts as 2

I always interpreted it as Devjannz and SpiritInterface. The Marks of Heritage count as 2.

You can't have a blank space covered in flames by itself. It isn't a magic tattoo unless there is a weapon to go with it, so the flames wouldn't count as a tattoo by itself. Same reasoning with the crossed, serpents, wings, dripping blood. None of these are a magic tattoo by themselves.

Rifts Atlantis says that a True Atlantian may have as many as four more tattoos (never more than that unless they are a T-class). Which would seem to indicate that each of them is 1 tattoo. Since if compound weapon tattoos counted for 2, then you could only get 3 more (or less if you get more compound weapons) and not exceed the 6 tattoo threshold.

Additionally it would seem that, for instance. Sword Tattoo and Flaming Sword Tattoo are two separate, distinct tattoos. Each counts as one item, and takes 'one slot'. The only one that MAY take two is wings...though my reading of it is that if you have a winged weapon then you MUST pay the additional PPE. (so you could have a flaming sword, and a flaming winged sword.....) Each combination of weapon mods results in one, unique specific weapon with a set activation cost.

I agree with most of the crowd here:
- Flaming Sword = 1
- Staked Heart = 1

Two (2) total.

Yup, it's two. Weapon 'features' don't count as a separate tattoo.

Nekira Sudacne wrote:A flaming sword is two, the steaked heart is 1, so that'd be 3 tattoos out of six.

Wow! Never thought somebody would have to say this to you, buy you are just wrong, it's 2. Once in 20k posts not bad though.

I always thought that crossed weapons should count as an additional and separate one from actually creating a weapon, it was designed as a bonus-adding thing that didn't actually make a weapon, should really be a 'power' tattoo.

NPCs muddied the water by having flaming/crossed weapons even though the means of designing those together was not actually presented, the only canonical combos Atlantis gave was serpent/fire (you could not even get serpent without fire) and wings with everything else.

Tor wrote:I always thought that crossed weapons should count as an additional and separate one from actually creating a weapon, it was designed as a bonus-adding thing that didn't actually make a weapon, should really be a 'power' tattoo.

NPCs muddied the water by having flaming/crossed weapons even though the means of designing those together was not actually presented, the only canonical combos Atlantis gave was serpent/fire (you could not even get serpent without fire) and wings with everything else.

I have always played it that the crossed weapons tattoo is a 'power-lite' tattoo. You use crossed swords to boost all your swords tattoos for instance. And yes, that means I had to 'fix' the NPCs.

For what it's worth...

Rifter 52 has some additional tattoos. And within that article, it assumes you can combine some tattoos that I didn't think was possible in the original write up.

For example, it says that you can combine Flaming & Blood Dripping into a single tattoo. So you'd get a weapon that does double it's normal damage in mega-damage. A 2D6 sword would inflict 4D6 MD, and the tattoo cost is 15 PPE (10 from Flaming and 5 from Blood Dripping).

It also has an example of someone with "Flaming Bow with Three Arrows with Wings, all Dripping Blood."

Based on the description in Atlantis (and the BoM) I would not have thought that combo was allowed, but it's treated as a given in the Rifter article (i.e., not something new).

Your mileage may vary.

NMI's thread at viewtopic.php?f=4&t=77496 mentions "Rifts: The Crusaders & Black Crusade (Tattoo Magic) -- Page 18" under Rifter 52 but this isn't tagged as <OFFICIAL> like the Triax 2 Weapons Locker in Rifter 51 or the Lemuria OCCs in Rifter 58, so wouldn't it be non-canon combos?

Tor wrote:NMI's thread at viewtopic.php?f=4&t=77496 mentions "Rifts: The Crusaders & Black Crusade (Tattoo Magic) -- Page 18" under Rifter 52 but this isn't tagged as <OFFICIAL> like the Triax 2 Weapons Locker in Rifter 51 or the Lemuria OCCs in Rifter 58, so wouldn't it be non-canon combos?

Basically. The whole Black Crusade stuff is unofficial fanon. Which would make the combinations in it just as unofficial.

The interesting part of the Black Crusade material was that it assumes the combos I previously mentioned were normal, and then the meat of the article builds upon. I agree Rifter articles are not canon (unless specifically stated to be so) but this particular one gave me cause to go back to the original write-ups and review them from another perspective. If someone wants a power weapon that costs 50+ PPE to activate, sure, why not? Even with all the features combined the resulting weapon is not that powerful.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not claiming this is the The Way It Was Intended™, merely that there was another way of looking at it. That's why I both opened and closed my previous post with caveats.

Mack wrote:The interesting part of the Black Crusade material was that it assumes the combos I previously mentioned were normal, and then the meat of the article builds upon. I agree Rifter articles are not canon (unless specifically stated to be so) but this particular one gave me cause to go back to the original write-ups and review them from another perspective. If someone wants a power weapon that costs 50+ PPE to activate, sure, why not? Even with all the features combined the resulting weapon is not that powerful.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not claiming this is the The Way It Was Intended™, merely that there was another way of looking at it. That's why I both opened and closed my previous post with caveats.

Hmmm, that is a valid point. (And I was not looking at it quite that way. This does change how I look at it too.)
Though I would say that I would still be leery of such combos (my players have picked out some pretty borderline edgy weapons before I would be loathe to allow them to make them double md returning weapons for instance. But yes in some cases it could add some flavor.)

I just noticed something else that previously escaped my attention.

Atlantis, p86, under Magic Weapons wrote:...A magic weapon may have more than one magic feature. For example, a flaming axe with wings means the weapon inflicts mega-damage, has triple the normal range when thrown and magically returns when thrown.

I thought that the only combination was <something> plus wings. Such as Flaming + Wings, or Dripping Blood + Wings, etc. However, the way the quoted text reads, that's merely one combination. It doesn't say that's the only combination.

I'm not calling that definitive... just something else to think about.

I think we can't combine tats unless told, otherwise I'd combine Death Touch and Invulnerability into one tat.

Tor wrote:I think we can't combine tats unless told, otherwise I'd combine Death Touch and Invulnerability into one tat.

He wasn't saying you could combine powers.
Just that you could combine the various weapons features in different combinations...

Right but there's nothing to indicate that, must explicitly be informed of any combos. Closest to that might be NPCs with crossed/flaming combined.