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so what is the most common method of transportation for a starting group of pc's that is not walking/hiking through the wilderness? Riding/Pack animals? vehicles of some sort? mostly I find it slightly mood breaking to be able to carry all my character's inventory with out being over encumbered not by the weight but by the size and unwiledy ness of that much stuff... Basically I am trying to decide what if any I should pick as a piloting skill

For my char, the most common ""other then walking"" transport would be ether horse or starship.

honestly automobile should cover most of the cheap basic stuff a Gm could let a group have without balance issues.. like pickups and other smal ltrucks, dunebuggies, or what have you.

horses would be a go-to option for many characters as well.

I find that pilot Auto and/or pilot Hover will cover pretty much anything that I will want in the way of transportation. If my character has a bunch of stuff then its time to get an ATV or a truck, if just a little stuff I check out the motorcycles. Hover versions of these work wonders as well.
A key issue of course is what the rest of the group is going to be playing and what the campaign is, at least in theory, going to be about/set. While things can change I find that rarely is the game a total surprise to the party and thus you usually have some advance planning options. I.e. if there are going to be 8 of you, all tech heavy with a lot of gear and the game is going to be one of exploration out in the west past the Rockies then I would suggest that your group invest in some nice ATV like a Big Boss, or some hover trucks. If your all a moderately geared group of mainly magic and psychic setting out to poke around Dinosaur Swamp then you probably want some mounts that can forage, MDC critters if you can manage that.
One of the groups I currently play in made sure to take some big cargo haulers because as a small mercenary company on extended operations we needed to be carrying around several tons of missile reloads and you can't just tie those on your saddle...

eliakon wrote:I find that pilot Auto and/or pilot Hover will cover pretty much anything that I will want in the way of transportation. If my character has a bunch of stuff then its time to get an ATV or a truck, if just a little stuff I check out the motorcycles. Hover versions of these work wonders as well.
A key issue of course is what the rest of the group is going to be playing and what the campaign is, at least in theory, going to be about/set. While things can change I find that rarely is the game a total surprise to the party and thus you usually have some advance planning options. I.e. if there are going to be 8 of you, all tech heavy with a lot of gear and the game is going to be one of exploration out in the west past the Rockies then I would suggest that your group invest in some nice ATV like a Big Boss, or some hover trucks. If your all a moderately geared group of mainly magic and psychic setting out to poke around Dinosaur Swamp then you probably want some mounts that can forage, MDC critters if you can manage that.
One of the groups I currently play in made sure to take some big cargo haulers because as a small mercenary company on extended operations we needed to be carrying around several tons of missile reloads and you can't just tie those on your saddle...

well the campaign so far is us interacting with the war on Tolkeen on the tolkeen side... we are early enough in that our characters are only just now seeing that tolkeen is willing to do things that we might not like in order to win the war. and currently our characters find our selves in a position to potentially steal a coalition apc...

Drachenwulf wrote:
well the campaign so far is us interacting with the war on Tolkeen on the tolkeen side... we are early enough in that our characters are only just now seeing that tolkeen is willing to do things that we might not like in order to win the war. and currently our characters find our selves in a position to potentially steal a coalition apc...

Does anyone in your group currently have the Pilot Tanks/APC's skill?

Dustin Fireblade wrote:

Drachenwulf wrote:
well the campaign so far is us interacting with the war on Tolkeen on the tolkeen side... we are early enough in that our characters are only just now seeing that tolkeen is willing to do things that we might not like in order to win the war. and currently our characters find our selves in a position to potentially steal a coalition apc...

Does anyone in your group currently have the Pilot Tanks/APC's skill?

probably not lol

so what would be the most likely mode of transportation used by a Clan Skellian undead slayer? I am just wondering if I should just go with horsemanship general or exotic, or what ever would allow using a motorcycle or something slightly larger like a humvee...

I would go with some exotic riding animal, even something with intelligence as a partner wouldn't be out of the realm for an Undead Slayer.

Drachenwulf wrote:

Dustin Fireblade wrote:

Drachenwulf wrote:
well the campaign so far is us interacting with the war on Tolkeen on the tolkeen side... we are early enough in that our characters are only just now seeing that tolkeen is willing to do things that we might not like in order to win the war. and currently our characters find our selves in a position to potentially steal a coalition apc...

Does anyone in your group currently have the Pilot Tanks/APC's skill?

probably not lol

so what would be the most likely mode of transportation used by a Clan Skellian undead slayer? I am just wondering if I should just go with horsemanship general or exotic, or what ever would allow using a motorcycle or something slightly larger like a humvee...

what pilot skill/riding skill options do you have? and how lenient is your Gm towards exotic options? and where has your char been running around as part of his backstory?

when i made my Clan Skellian Cyberknight, my GM was a bit lenient so i was able to get a northern Gun hovercycle instead of using a horse.. i had to spend a secondary skill on it, but it made for an interesting dynamic. the background i worked out with the Gm for was that it had originally been owned by a Pecos Bandit that my cybernight had defeated, and then claimed it for his own use. (which involved slapping a layer of paint and the Knight's heraldry on to try and hide the original paintjob of flames)

Sedan chair, schlepped by my supply train of steadfastly loyal minions....
They serve extra duty as ablative meatshielding and as rations in an emergency.

transportation used by my chars..
lefty and righty...
monst rex (modified)
various robot vehicles
various power armor
various ... tanks
various fighters
various starships.

Rifts is probably a situation of "roads? we DO need roads" for non-hover vehicles. The wheeled vehicles are going to mostly be ATVs unless you limit your adventures to cities. I suppose the CS might have built some roads connecting its fortress cities, but aside from that, we're looking at ruins of roads which haven't been maintained for centuries. Roads can get pretty bad after just a decade without maintenance, and that's without roaming MDC creatures, ley line storms, etc. to increase wear and tear.

I imagine pavement is still an SDC structure and the CS wouldn't bother using MDC materials for roads, other than for bridges.

As a player, i tend to shoot for either a hovercraft of some kind, or an animal to ride (or a bionic or robotic horse, if the GM is okay with you starting with one).

As a GM, i let my players trade in their individual starting transpo (provided they get one; MOST classes give a hovercycle, motorcycle, or something similar) and pool the money for a party vehicle if they wish.

As a player, If the party finds it needs something to carry a lot of loot, APCs are my go-to.

As a GM i notice that most parties look at big ATVs or up-armored trucks.

Oh, and if im playing a character with the ability to use TW items.... my vehicle will end up TW converted. Who needs gas?

eliakon wrote:One of the groups I currently play in made sure to take some big cargo haulers because as a small mercenary company on extended operations we needed to be carrying around several tons of missile reloads and you can't just tie those on your saddle...

depends on what your riding...

taalismn wrote:Sedan chair, schlepped by my supply train of steadfastly loyal minions....
They serve extra duty as ablative meatshielding and as rations in an emergency.

where do you shop?

And to answer the actual question, most of the people I game with end up in power armor, robots, or foot/wing...which I have to say I don't think I ever considered just how many of our teams have people who can move faster than the teams vehicles...

I think for most groups it has been walking on foot/horse back/hover bikes as the most common conveyances. The big boss/mountaineer ATV are also nice once you can afford them. NG2 has some nice light MD work truck type designs that would work good for basic transport in a lot of areas.

NG1 and 2 also has a lot of really nice party bus type options. If your party is well off or has a robot pilot take a bulldog/okemos/ogre and you have nice quality living quarters for most small/midsized groups.

Axelmania wrote:Rifts is probably a situation of "roads? we DO need roads" for non-hover vehicles. The wheeled vehicles are going to mostly be ATVs unless you limit your adventures to cities. I suppose the CS might have built some roads connecting its fortress cities, but aside from that, we're looking at ruins of roads which haven't been maintained for centuries. Roads can get pretty bad after just a decade without maintenance, and that's without roaming MDC creatures, ley line storms, etc. to increase wear and tear.

I imagine pavement is still an SDC structure and the CS wouldn't bother using MDC materials for roads, other than for bridges.

If you are going to travel with any speed through any forest area hover ground vehicles need some sort of road as well, even if it just a path clear of trees. In addition roads help you navigate from point A to B.

The status of roads is most likely going to be poor in most locations a dirt/mud road, likely worse than tank trails with ruts and impact pot holes. Some major trade routes may have gravel or paved roads, With major cites having paved roads to key locations if not city wide.


In games I have played most common transport is often vehicles from the main book that is starting equipment.

in terms of roads, my general assumptions are:
most roads in the setting are by default Dirt Roads, with the less well traveled ones being little more than dirt ruts in a cleared track or a narrow packed dirt path from people and animals walking it. in more remote areas these might well be mistaken for game trails (or might even be game trails, if the region has a large population of megafauna like tritops or duckbill honkers.) the more well traveled dirt roads tending towards being basically a wide path of compressed soil with a few ruts.

a frequently used road between two nearby communities will usually be an improved surface, the method varying depending on the local resources. a place with readily available timber might use a Corduroy or Plank roadway (possibly edging into Duckboards if the region tends towards muddy, swampy, or marshy terrain), while in areas where timber is harder to find, Gravel or Macadam would be the order of the day.

but long stretches of such improved roads would be infrequent outside major nations like the Coalition, the NGR, Tolkeen, etc. because such large entities are the only ones that will have the resources (and the manpower) to devote to improving and maintaining roads more than a day's travel outside a town's borders.
and even then, you'll probably still just see Concrete nearby the communities, and macadam farther out. smaller nations largely wouldn't want to devote the resources to building fancy highways and such (especially with so much of the industrial transport vehicles in rifts being Hover). the CS isn't big on internal freedom of movement (and has a lot of states that aren't contiguous) either. you do see modern style highway/freeway type networks in the NGR though.

It has depended entirely on what the group was composed of. Obviously any classes that start with power armor or a robot will be using that. Generally that's been most of the group.

The best was the time the Apok stole a car from a shop in the 'Burbs. One of the other players said something about "jacking a car", and the Apok player, staying in character very well, asked what that meant. So the other player, thinking quick on his feet, said something like "Sometimes at these shops, the cars get stuck up on jacks. If you help them get it down, they let you keep the car." Being fresh from Wormwood, the Apok didn't know any better, so he found a repair shop that had a car up on a jack, and he got it down. And then took off with it. The whole time thinking he was doing something good.

My groups have had a mix of horses, motorcycles, hovercraft, and ATV (auto).