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Has anybody actually run or played a campaign starting with the Mechanoids and going on to Africa and so on?

A few years ago, the best GM I've ever had ran this; most of us went through SEVERAL characters. Our group consisted of 7 people, and our characters started at 3rd level. The only characters who survived from beginning to end were Nyx the Nightstalker (daughter of Nigel), Valshea Freysdottir the Norse Godling, and Kageken the Demi-god Ronin.

Characters who died included: Glitter Boy, Cosmo-knight, Royal Knight, Cyber-knight, CS Military Specialist with SAMAS, Asgardian High Elf Temporal Warrior, Grackle-Tooth Special Forces, Kremin Cyber-Samurai, Wolfen Palladin, AbM Mechanoid Brute, Demi-goddess Air & Earth Warlock, Shikome Kido-Mi, Titan Palladin, Naruni Repo-Bot, Atlantean Undead Slayer, Shifter, Phase Adept, Oni Ninja, Holocaust Cyborg and Asgardian Dwarf Techno-Wizard/ Runesmith.

We had some NPC support people, but our characters did the "heavy lifting"... and dying.
Strangely, even after all of the crap we went through, the three survivors are only 7th-8th levels (the rest of us are 5th-7th levels).

My original Rifts group did most of the meta campaigns up through Tolkeen War. By the time Minion War came out the group had stopped playing.

My campaigns have a low mortality Rate so even 20 years later (real time) all of the characters were still alive. The group was a GB pilot, Cyber-Knight, old RMB version of the Head Hunter so he was more of a robot vehicle pilot, a wilderness scout and a hatchling great horned dragon. At the time we also had a City Rat who was a transferred intelligence robot and a ley line walker.

If I remember the basics they:
-Started with the Archie scenario in SB1
-Did several raids against Archie
-Tracked Erin Tarn to Wormwood, then returned to earth after they found out she had left
-Were in Archies base when the Mechanoids came through
-Fought the Mechanoids working with Hagan
-Went to England to collect Erin Tarn
-Went to Africa with her and defeated the Four Horsemen.

They started at 1st level and were at least 5th or 6th by the end of all that.

Warshield73 wrote:My original Rifts group did most of the meta campaigns up through Tolkeen War. By the time Minion War came out the group had stopped playing.

My campaigns have a low mortality Rate so even 20 years later (real time) all of the characters were still alive. The group was a GB pilot, Cyber-Knight, old RMB version of the Head Hunter so he was more of a robot vehicle pilot, a wilderness scout and a hatchling great horned dragon. At the time we also had a City Rat who was a transferred intelligence robot and a ley line walker.

If I remember the basics they:
-Started with the Archie scenario in SB1
-Did several raids against Archie
-Tracked Erin Tarn to Wormwood, then returned to earth after they found out she had left
-Were in Archies base when the Mechanoids came through
-Fought the Mechanoids working with Hagan
-Went to England to collect Erin Tarn
-Went to Africa with her and defeated the Four Horsemen.

They started at 1st level and were at least 5th or 6th by the end of all that.

How the hell did those characters survive, let alone defeat, the Mechanoids let alone Four Horsemen? Were things toned down, have a lot of NPC support or what?

Fenris2020 wrote:

Warshield73 wrote:My original Rifts group did most of the meta campaigns up through Tolkeen War. By the time Minion War came out the group had stopped playing.

My campaigns have a low mortality Rate so even 20 years later (real time) all of the characters were still alive. The group was a GB pilot, Cyber-Knight, old RMB version of the Head Hunter so he was more of a robot vehicle pilot, a wilderness scout and a hatchling great horned dragon. At the time we also had a City Rat who was a transferred intelligence robot and a ley line walker.

If I remember the basics they:
-Started with the Archie scenario in SB1
-Did several raids against Archie
-Tracked Erin Tarn to Wormwood, then returned to earth after they found out she had left
-Were in Archies base when the Mechanoids came through
-Fought the Mechanoids working with Hagan
-Went to England to collect Erin Tarn
-Went to Africa with her and defeated the Four Horsemen.

They started at 1st level and were at least 5th or 6th by the end of all that.

How the hell did those characters survive, let alone defeat, the Mechanoids let alone Four Horsemen? Were things toned down, have a lot of NPC support or what?

They were probably 4th level when the Mechanoids hit and they figured it pretty easy. Individually the mechs aren't as tough as the average power armor much less a robot vehicle or dragon so the hit and run tactics worked well to eliminate the field teams. But they did a lot of actual role playing to get others on their side and help them. So in addition to Hagan, his vehicle and bots they had a few dozen other adventurers to help take out the spider fortress. Infact they hit it so hard I had to add some forces and give the fortress its force field just to make it a challenge. I think the best part was when the city rat and dragon started investigating sabotage and that led to a pro mech cult (the one in SB2) which was going to attack there staging area.

I think the hardest part of the entire Mechanoids game was the beginning. May players had already been at war with Archie for months and they were doing a raid on his base. If I remember correctly I had lied to my players saying that the gaming store hadn't received SB2 yet so when, in the middle of the raid while they were two levels into the base, boom the mechanoids show up. They had already been damaged by Archie bots and had used at least half of their missiles, then they get attacked by giant cyborg psychics. They barely made it out with them and Hagan intact and then the spider fortress was just standing there. The only reason they made it out was because they had stashed extra vehicles nearby (they used PA's in the base and medium bots outside) and I had them meet the AbM Mechanoids.

As for the Four Horseman, I had to cheat even more there. They did hours of recon working with other groups to find 3 of the 4 horseman and they attacked war who they thought was closest to the pyramid. They clobbered him so quick, all on their own, that I altered things to make the end tougher. I said that Famine, who they had not located, was already at the pyramid and the Pharoh had escorted Death there as well. They were only waiting on Pestilence. Probleim is kill pestilence and the other two just from Armagedón and its all over. Again lots of RP and they coordinated a huge operation were the large army of heroes attacked Rama then team, I think lead by Arr'thuu, attacked Pestilence. Then the players air dropped onto the Pyramid. They had a small group of NPCs helping but they only secured the entrances to the pyramid. In the end they were worn down hard but after they killed all 3 of the lesser horseman Death was kind of easy. The biggest problem they had was getting out but again they planned well.

Now they were well equipped with some magic as well as tech but I found the Mechanoid and Four Horseman to be perfect for mid-level characters. Both enemies divided themselves so all the PCs had to do was investigate, RP and plan.

Juicer Uprising was far more brutal.

Warshield73 wrote:

Fenris2020 wrote:

Warshield73 wrote:My original Rifts group did most of the meta campaigns up through Tolkeen War. By the time Minion War came out the group had stopped playing.

My campaigns have a low mortality Rate so even 20 years later (real time) all of the characters were still alive. The group was a GB pilot, Cyber-Knight, old RMB version of the Head Hunter so he was more of a robot vehicle pilot, a wilderness scout and a hatchling great horned dragon. At the time we also had a City Rat who was a transferred intelligence robot and a ley line walker.

If I remember the basics they:
-Started with the Archie scenario in SB1
-Did several raids against Archie
-Tracked Erin Tarn to Wormwood, then returned to earth after they found out she had left
-Were in Archies base when the Mechanoids came through
-Fought the Mechanoids working with Hagan
-Went to England to collect Erin Tarn
-Went to Africa with her and defeated the Four Horsemen.

They started at 1st level and were at least 5th or 6th by the end of all that.

How the hell did those characters survive, let alone defeat, the Mechanoids let alone Four Horsemen? Were things toned down, have a lot of NPC support or what?

They were probably 4th level when the Mechanoids hit and they figured it pretty easy. Individually the mechs aren't as tough as the average power armor much less a robot vehicle or dragon so the hit and run tactics worked well to eliminate the field teams. But they did a lot of actual role playing to get others on their side and help them. So in addition to Hagan, his vehicle and bots they had a few dozen other adventurers to help take out the spider fortress. Infact they hit it so hard I had to add some forces and give the fortress its force field just to make it a challenge. I think the best part was when the city rat and dragon started investigating sabotage and that led to a pro mech cult (the one in SB2) which was going to attack there staging area.

I think the hardest part of the entire Mechanoids game was the beginning. May players had already been at war with Archie for months and they were doing a raid on his base. If I remember correctly I had lied to my players saying that the gaming store hadn't received SB2 yet so when, in the middle of the raid while they were two levels into the base, boom the mechanoids show up. They had already been damaged by Archie bots and had used at least half of their missiles, then they get attacked by giant cyborg psychics. They barely made it out with them and Hagan intact and then the spider fortress was just standing there. The only reason they made it out was because they had stashed extra vehicles nearby (they used PA's in the base and medium bots outside) and I had them meet the AbM Mechanoids.

As for the Four Horseman, I had to cheat even more there. They did hours of recon working with other groups to find 3 of the 4 horseman and they attacked war who they thought was closest to the pyramid. They clobbered him so quick, all on their own, that I altered things to make the end tougher. I said that Famine, who they had not located, was already at the pyramid and the Pharoh had escorted Death there as well. They were only waiting on Pestilence. Probleim is kill pestilence and the other two just from Armagedón and its all over. Again lots of RP and they coordinated a huge operation were the large army of heroes attacked Rama then team, I think lead by Arr'thuu, attacked Pestilence. Then the players air dropped onto the Pyramid. They had a small group of NPCs helping but they only secured the entrances to the pyramid. In the end they were worn down hard but after they killed all 3 of the lesser horseman Death was kind of easy. The biggest problem they had was getting out but again they planned well.

Now they were well equipped with some magic as well as tech but I found the Mechanoid and Four Horseman to be perfect for mid-level characters. Both enemies divided themselves so all the PCs had to do was investigate, RP and plan.

Juicer Uprising was far more brutal.

My amount of disbelief at War being "clobbered so easily" is through the roof.
My group is mainly veterans; we reconned, RPed and all, and went through a LOT of characters. I'm wondering exactly how toned down War's abilities were in your campaign, and how much NPC help was available.

Fenris2020 wrote:My amount of disbelief at War being "clobbered so easily" is through the roof.
My group is mainly veterans; we reconned, RPed and all, and went through a LOT of characters. I'm wondering exactly how toned down War's abilities were in your campaign, and how much NPC help was available.

First, I already explained the help. Second, what part of Gathering of Heroes wasn't clear? As a GM this was your chance to do the portal scene in Endgame 30 years before it appeared on film. The letters from Tarn even talked about the massive number of heroes.

In the end they had a range and speed advantage. As I recall, and remember we ran this just a few months after the book came out so decades ago, first they would do strike and fade attacks to kill his minions/protectors and then they just kept ping-ponging him. Far from toned down I cheated. One of my players from that game just reminded me that I had more minions come out of a mystic shroud, which I think was something I just made up at that point, to force them to reorient there group since once they engaged War they didn't want to break off because he had such massive regeneration. They didn't go after him with rifles and EBA they had PA's, robot vehicles and the dragon did nothing but use magic fire and carpet of adhesion (which forced War to use an attack to negate or get stuck in place until he I believe he decided to pop anti-magic cloud which I think was worse for him than the PCs) and everyone with a rail-gun was using silver, thank you Vampire Kingdom weapons.

Don't get me wrong, I have run groups that would have been slaughtered by just War even if they were 15th level. A recent group was only 4 players with no mages and no giant bots so War looks at them funny and they die. But look at the 7 PCs I described above, that is a lot of firepower and a lot of attacks.

If I ever run this again, which seems unlikely as I have only had one group last longer than 2 years, then I would add more helpers to the 4H, but I was limited to the books I had at the time.