Difference between revisions of "User:Bill/Rifts Week by Week"

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==Player Characters==
 
==Player Characters==
Any character that will fit into the basic story line of the game, regardless of original source, will be acceptable. However, for my sanity I will need to know what books you have used. Please have them at hand so I can easily review the background material and make a determination on whether or not the character will be approved. I strongly recommend reviewing the pregenerated characters before you start making one of your own to familiarize yourself with the approximate power range and background stories I am already using.
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Participating in Rifts Week by Week is intended to be easy and fun. You can bring a different character every week if you want. All I ask is that the characters be around the same power level as the pregenerated characters I'm offering for your use. No matter what you choose to bring, please make sure that you have the associated sourcebooks for me to review on hand. I'd hate to short-change your character because I'm not universally familiar with every available power and option.
  
 
===Pregenerated Characters===
 
===Pregenerated Characters===
All of the pregenerated characters will be made using one or more of the following books; World Book 31: Triax 2, Dimension Book 14: Thundercloud Galaxy, Rifter 51, Rifter 52. These sources have been selected in an effort to highlight the most recent releases in the Rifts product line. While players who wish to make their own characters are encouraged to use these sources, they are not required to do so as long as the characters are of a similar power level and are able to fit into the background story.
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For each series, I will be generating a selection of characters that you may choose to use. The notes for each series will show the specific ones that I will have with me, but you are welcome to print off any of the characters from the previous series as well.
  
*[[/Ashara|Ashara]]
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*[[/Ashara|Ashara]] - Series One
*[[/Jimena|Jimena]]
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*[[/Abraxas Sharin|Abraxas Sharin]] - Series Three
*[[/Theophorus|Theophorus]]
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*[[/Jimena|Jimena]] - Series One
*[[/Zebulon|Zebulon]]
+
*[[/Kaethe Sharin|Kaethe Sharin]] - Series Three
 +
*[[/Milosh|Milosh]] - Series One
 +
*[[/Peta|Peta]] - Series One
 +
*[[/Rhaab Sharin|Rhaab Sharin]] - Series Three
 +
*[[/Theophorus|Theophorus]] - Series One
 +
*[[/Zebulon|Zebulon]] - Series One
 +
*[[/Zosime Sharin|Zosime Sharin]] - Series Three
  
 
===Custom Characters===
 
===Custom Characters===
 +
'''[https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B5i4WLbKRXBzMzljNjBjNGUtYmQzYS00ZjZkLWE3MjUtZDBlMWY5MzljYTVl Download the Character Sheet]'''
 +
 
Anyone wanting to create their own characters may do so, following these guidelines.  
 
Anyone wanting to create their own characters may do so, following these guidelines.  
*Level 3
+
*Level 1
 
*Stats will be rolled straight without modification
 
*Stats will be rolled straight without modification
 
*Any alignment except Diabolical or Miscreant may be selected
 
*Any alignment except Diabolical or Miscreant may be selected
 
*Any personal equipment, within reason
 
*Any personal equipment, within reason
The only real requirement is that the characters be willingly employed by the New German Republic's Special Tactical Regiments; volunteer units assembled from D-Bees, mutants, magic users, and assorted other folks that don't quite fit into the mainstream military. Since the characters will be working for the NGR, Triax weapons and armor will be assigned to the characters as appropriate for any given mission.
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*Do not exceed 200 natural MDC
 +
My only real requirement beyond the above is that the characters fit into the general storyline described for each series. And since that's generally an exercise in creativity more than anything else, it shouldn't be too much of a challenge.
  
====Background Stories====
+
Players are encouraged, but not required, to use the advanced skill rules presented in Rifter #30.
Since this is a drop in game, you may not want to put a lot of time or thought into your background story. I really only need the following defined for every character.
 
*How you got to Germany
 
*Why you joined the special tactical regiments
 
The easiest answers to these questions are that the character was born in the NGR or one of the D-Bee border settlements and that he or she (or it) is attempting to gain citizenship, but feel free to be creative. Anything else you take the time to write will be read, provided that it's legible, and I may end up incorporating portions of it into the metaplot.
 
  
 
==House Rules & Clarifications==
 
==House Rules & Clarifications==
 
Including too many house rules in a game intended to teach people the rules as written somewhat defeats the purpose. However, Palladium actively encourages the game master to house rule as he or she sees fit to make the game personal. Any house rules I do choose to use will appear here along with my justification for them.  
 
Including too many house rules in a game intended to teach people the rules as written somewhat defeats the purpose. However, Palladium actively encourages the game master to house rule as he or she sees fit to make the game personal. Any house rules I do choose to use will appear here along with my justification for them.  
  
===d20 Skill Resolution===
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===Bonus Experience Scheme===
Normally, Rifts uses a percentile skill system where the player must roll under his or her character's rating to be successful. There's nothing wrong with this system per se, but it is inconsistent with the roll over mechanic used in the rest of the system. So, for purposes of resolving skills, a player will roll a 20 sided die and add his or her skill rating divided by ten (round down) as a bonus against a target number based on the difficulty of the task.
+
To reward players for extra effort to support the game an additional 100 experience points will be awarded for each significant contribution to this wiki in relation to this game. Some examples:
 +
*Writing a page of background information on your custom character.
 +
*Writing a page of notes describing a game session from the perspective of your character.
 +
I award these points based solely on quantity, not quality. So don't concern yourself with how poor your spelling or grammar might be. I am a bit of an academic though, so don't be surprised if I edit your stuff.
  
===Head-Shots Are Critical===
+
===Drowning & Suffocation===
Any successful called shot to the head of a normal living creature will count as a critical strike. As normal for critical strikes, combining criticals increases the damage multiplier by one. So, if you were to declare a called shot to the target's head and roll a natural 20, the attack would inflict triple damage. Non-living targets such as robots and undead monsters, or creatures with unorthodox anatomies that locate their brain elsewhere are not subject to this rule. A successful check with the appropriate lore skill will reveal a weak area that may be targeted on such creatures, if one exists.
+
The official rules for drowning are very simple but are not easy to locate. Drowning takes two to four minutes according to certain spell and monster descriptions. Per the swimming rules, a character begins drowning after three failed swim attempts and will die if not rescued. This rule doesn't go into much detail and will limit a player's ability to save themselves. I don't anticipate this situation coming up frequently due to the near universality of environmental body armor in the setting, but just in case it does we'll use the following instead.  
 +
 
 +
The period that a character may hold its breath without significant effort is equal to its Physical Endurance in actions. A character not performing any actions may effectively hold its breath up to its PE in melee rounds.
 +
 
 +
Beyond this point the player must roll percentile to avoid the character blacking out with a base chance of 1-50%, +10% per two actions (or melee round doing nothing). Apply any bonus that the character has versus Coma/Death to the die roll. Once the character has blacked out, roll versus Coma/Death (1-20%) every round until the character dies or is resuscitated; failure indicates that the character has died.
 +
 
 +
Resuscitating a drowned or suffocating character requires a First Aid or related medical skill check. Apply a -5% penalty to the check for every round that the character has been unconscious. After the successful resuscitation check, the player of a drowned character must still make two successful saves versus Coma/Death per the table on page 355 of Rifts Ultimate Edition. Failing to succeed on two checks indicates that the character has lapsed into a coma from complications related to drowning/suffocation such as water in the lungs, a collapsed trachea or other life-threatening problem. Characters that survive drowning will feel weakened and may be vulnerable to pneumonia and other diseases; temporarily reduce the character's PS and PE by 1d6 each. The character recovers both PS and PE at a rate of 1 per week without hospitalization and 1 per day if he or she is receiving treatment at a hospital or other medical facility.
 +
 
 +
Characters with supernatural endurance multiply their PE by 10 for purposes of calculating how long they may hold their breath. Characters with superhuman levels of endurance are very unlikely to drown.
  
 
===MD Damage Stacks===
 
===MD Damage Stacks===
Line 49: Line 65:
  
 
===Shooting Into Melee===
 
===Shooting Into Melee===
Firing into melee is dangerous for friendly characters. To fire into melee, a player must take an aim action and at a -2 penalty, offsetting the normal bonus. If the attack is successful, it resolves normally. If the shooter misses though, roll a D20. On 11+ the shot will hit a friendly character; usually the one standing closest to the intended target.
+
Firing into melee is dangerous for friendly characters. To fire into melee, a player must take an aim action at a -2 penalty, offsetting the normal bonus. If the attack is successful, it resolves normally. If the shooter misses though, roll a D20. On 11+ the shot will hit a friendly character; usually the one standing closest to the intended target.
 
 
==Setting Notes==
 
Europe is a big place and, potentially, I could run this as a little bit of a travelogue where the players visit many of the significant locations near the NGR. To help me keep track of the various areas that the players could visit, and possibly give folks some ideas to include in their characters' backgrounds, I'll keep a few notes here.
 
 
 
===Der Schwarzwald===
 
The Black Forest region is literally crisscrossed with ley lines and as a result it is infested with faerie folk, demons, monsters and other creatures seeking to benefit from the large amount of PPE in the area. Located at the nexus of these ley lines is of course the Tree of Darkness, see ''Mindwerks''. The Tree of Darkness is also home to several Gene-Splicers.
 
 
 
The NGR may take an interest in this area due to reports describing the evil millennium tree, the loss of troops passing through the Black Forest, or rumors of a new demonic menace that would ultimately lead to Struwwelpeter. Entire campaigns could be run based on any of these, and they could all tie together. Depending on the composition and consistency of the group I may move in that direction.
 
 
 
===France===
 
Descriptions of France in ''Aftermath'' and ''Triax and the NGR'' and ''Triax 2'' are inconsistent on a number of points; primarily regarding Paris and the significance of the Blood Druid threat. The former source indicates that Paris is a cosmopolitan settlement dominated by ogres, trolls, and goblins with some human and d-bee residents, while the NGR books state that it was a gargoyle roost that the combined NGR and CS forces bombed practically out of existence. The blood druids receive no attention in ''NGR 2'' while ''Aftermath'' describes them as chaos agents perched in a location near Geneva that enables them to engage all factions in the European theater.
 
 
 
Potentially the most interesting location in France is described with less than a paragraph in ''Triax and the NGR''. The megalithic sites common to the region are said to have created a sort of ley line highway frequented by demons, and alien monsters. This could easily be parlayed into adventures based on evil or misguided spellcasters attempting to harness that power, a new alien race emerging en force from the "highway" during a celestial event, rediscovering ancient or alien technology that grants some control over the phenomenon, etc.
 
 
 
France is one of the larger regions in Europe, so there's a lot of potential to create custom material to fill it. That may not be the best direction to go for this particular game though.
 
 
 
===Italy===
 
Most of the Italian peninsula is under water. What is left is not detailed to any degree, though ''Triax and the NGR'' indicate that wolfen are currently occupying it. A wolfen warrior working for the NGR as part of a diplomatic exchange would be an acceptable character background. The text also notes that several other human and nonhuman communities have recently sprung up in the region, so it could be used as the home location for a variety of other races as well. The only good reason that occurs right away to visit the area would be to plunder the Vatican; which would also be a fun excuse to pull in some underwater nasties.
 
 
 
===Poland===
 
====The Brodkil====
 
The brodkil themselves don't interest me very much. They are brutish barbarians with a power-based hierarchy. And while some players might find the idea of taking control of a tribe or warband by challenging and defeating its leader exciting, I don't think it makes for that great a story for a group. The Angel of Death and Mindwerks on the other hand are potentially very interesting. The challenge there would be figuring a good reason for the players to investigate Mindwerks. Perhaps exposing a connection between commonly encountered body chop-shop MoM hardware and that found on the bodies of dead brodkil would work.
 
 
 
====Tarnow====
 
Pronounced Tarnuv. The Tarnow kingdom as described in ''Mindwerks'' is nestled in the middle of Brodkil territory. That in itself could be a good excuse for putting the player characters there; acting as "advisors" cultivating a guerrilla force to harass the brodkil in their own back yard. And who would be more deniable as an asset to an openly human supremacist government than a handful of d-bee freaks and deserters? All sources indicate that the NGR is taking a wait and see posture with the brodkil because they aren't openly hostile to Germany, but I doubt the NGR military is really stupid enough to ignore a violent alien race living on their border. I could potentially dovetail this into a more extended story exposing Mindwerks.
 
 
 
====Poznan Collective====
 
The Poznan Collective doesn't get much attention except to say that the state's infrastructure is mostly underground and that the wealthy of Poznan live entirely underground. The capital is described in a fashion reminiscent of ''Cyberpunk's'' Night City. This is pretty fertile ground in my opinion for stories about dark secrets and hidden cthonic influences. Just setting an adventure underground automatically makes those themes easier to pull off in my experience.
 
 
 
====Wroclaw====
 
Even though Wroclaw was flattened by the NGR offensive, there's a lot of potential for sifting through the rubble. As a semi-independent city-state, there must have been secret government projects and potentially private collections of dangerous artifacts. Either one might make for a good reason to visit the ruins.
 
 
 
====GSS Spaceships====
 
Described in the Gene-Splicer entry, there is a functional spacecraft in Poland and the former Czech Republic. Encountering the Gene-Splicers, their creations, and or their ship could make for an interesting game.
 
 
 
===Spain===
 
Spain receives no attention. It has no significant sites described and all sources indicate that it is sparsely settled wilderness. The ruins of Valencia, Cordoba, Bilbao and a dozen other cities might be worth visiting. Encountering the Basque people might also be interesting.
 
  
===Eastern Europe===
+
===Strength Bonuses===
With the small exceptions of the now anachronistic Czechoslovakia, Romania, and Hungary, eastern Europe and the near east don't get a lot of attention. All three are gargoyle territory. It is hinted that the large population of gargoyles is making it difficult for vampirism to spread from a source in Romania. Investigating periodic vampire outbreaks could be a good excuse for the players to visit these areas, as could seeking pre-rifts technology.
+
Strength bonuses to damage do not apply at robotic and supernatural levels or to megadamage attacks in general. They are SDC bonuses and therefor insignificant by comparison to the rolled damage.
  
===Russia & England===
+
----
Russia and England have entire books of their own and I will try to avoid going there.
+
{|width="50%"
 +
|<big> '''[[/Series One Notes|Series One Notes]]'''</big> || <big>'''[[/Series Two Notes|Series Two Notes]]'''</big> || <big>'''[[/Series Three Notes|Series Three Notes]]'''</big> || <big>'''[[/Series Four Notes|Series Four Notes]]'''</big>

Latest revision as of 09:40, 21 September 2012

After experiencing the success of the weekly D&D Encounters group, I discussed the possibility of doing something similar for another RPG with the store owner. After a brief conversation, we agreed on Palladium Games' Rifts. I'm going to try and have an adventure and cast of characters prepared to start regular weekly sessions on August 8th, the same week as the next season of Encounters. I'll be taking a lot of cues from the Encounters program, so if the stuff I put here looks familiar it probably is meant to.

Player Characters[edit]

Participating in Rifts Week by Week is intended to be easy and fun. You can bring a different character every week if you want. All I ask is that the characters be around the same power level as the pregenerated characters I'm offering for your use. No matter what you choose to bring, please make sure that you have the associated sourcebooks for me to review on hand. I'd hate to short-change your character because I'm not universally familiar with every available power and option.

Pregenerated Characters[edit]

For each series, I will be generating a selection of characters that you may choose to use. The notes for each series will show the specific ones that I will have with me, but you are welcome to print off any of the characters from the previous series as well.

Custom Characters[edit]

Download the Character Sheet

Anyone wanting to create their own characters may do so, following these guidelines.

  • Level 1
  • Stats will be rolled straight without modification
  • Any alignment except Diabolical or Miscreant may be selected
  • Any personal equipment, within reason
  • Do not exceed 200 natural MDC

My only real requirement beyond the above is that the characters fit into the general storyline described for each series. And since that's generally an exercise in creativity more than anything else, it shouldn't be too much of a challenge.

Players are encouraged, but not required, to use the advanced skill rules presented in Rifter #30.

House Rules & Clarifications[edit]

Including too many house rules in a game intended to teach people the rules as written somewhat defeats the purpose. However, Palladium actively encourages the game master to house rule as he or she sees fit to make the game personal. Any house rules I do choose to use will appear here along with my justification for them.

Bonus Experience Scheme[edit]

To reward players for extra effort to support the game an additional 100 experience points will be awarded for each significant contribution to this wiki in relation to this game. Some examples:

  • Writing a page of background information on your custom character.
  • Writing a page of notes describing a game session from the perspective of your character.

I award these points based solely on quantity, not quality. So don't concern yourself with how poor your spelling or grammar might be. I am a bit of an academic though, so don't be surprised if I edit your stuff.

Drowning & Suffocation[edit]

The official rules for drowning are very simple but are not easy to locate. Drowning takes two to four minutes according to certain spell and monster descriptions. Per the swimming rules, a character begins drowning after three failed swim attempts and will die if not rescued. This rule doesn't go into much detail and will limit a player's ability to save themselves. I don't anticipate this situation coming up frequently due to the near universality of environmental body armor in the setting, but just in case it does we'll use the following instead.

The period that a character may hold its breath without significant effort is equal to its Physical Endurance in actions. A character not performing any actions may effectively hold its breath up to its PE in melee rounds.

Beyond this point the player must roll percentile to avoid the character blacking out with a base chance of 1-50%, +10% per two actions (or melee round doing nothing). Apply any bonus that the character has versus Coma/Death to the die roll. Once the character has blacked out, roll versus Coma/Death (1-20%) every round until the character dies or is resuscitated; failure indicates that the character has died.

Resuscitating a drowned or suffocating character requires a First Aid or related medical skill check. Apply a -5% penalty to the check for every round that the character has been unconscious. After the successful resuscitation check, the player of a drowned character must still make two successful saves versus Coma/Death per the table on page 355 of Rifts Ultimate Edition. Failing to succeed on two checks indicates that the character has lapsed into a coma from complications related to drowning/suffocation such as water in the lungs, a collapsed trachea or other life-threatening problem. Characters that survive drowning will feel weakened and may be vulnerable to pneumonia and other diseases; temporarily reduce the character's PS and PE by 1d6 each. The character recovers both PS and PE at a rate of 1 per week without hospitalization and 1 per day if he or she is receiving treatment at a hospital or other medical facility.

Characters with supernatural endurance multiply their PE by 10 for purposes of calculating how long they may hold their breath. Characters with superhuman levels of endurance are very unlikely to drown.

MD Damage Stacks[edit]

Per RUE p.341, damage from MD hand weapons does not stack with basic MD hand to hand attacks. This is contradicted in a couple places and, in the interest of accelerating combat, I'm overruling it. If a character possesses sufficient strength to inflict megadamage with a hand to hand strike, he or she may treat the megadamage value of a hand weapon as a bonus to that attack. So, if a character is able to inflict 2d6 MD with a punch and it has a vibroweapon that inflicts 2d6 MD, it may roll 4d6 when it hits with the weapon. This will bias things towards hand to hand combat slightly, but with my current set of pregenerated characters that isn't a problem.

Movement[edit]

A character may move a number of yards equal to (5•SPD)/ the character's attack actions by expending an action. A move action may be combined with any attack, increasing the total actions required to perform the attack by one.

For example, the TX-31 Super Trooper power armor has a maximum ground speed of 40mph, SPD 58. Zebulon is able to make 6 attacks per melée. Zebulon is therefor able to move (5•58)/6=48.33 yards in any given action. If the player wishes to execute a move (1) and a tackle (2), he will use three of the character's six actions. The move will however enable him to gain speed and potentially inflict more damage.

Leaping[edit]

Default leaping rules are not included in the Rifts: Ultimate Edition core book. We will be using the following rule, expanded from the Heroes Unlimited GM Guide:

A full speed running start allows a normal character to leap one half foot for every point of P.S. long/across and half that vertically, reduced by 40% for a standing start. Characters with robotic strength double this value and characters with supernatural strength triple it, unless otherwise indicated in the RCC or OCC of the character.

Shooting Into Melee[edit]

Firing into melee is dangerous for friendly characters. To fire into melee, a player must take an aim action at a -2 penalty, offsetting the normal bonus. If the attack is successful, it resolves normally. If the shooter misses though, roll a D20. On 11+ the shot will hit a friendly character; usually the one standing closest to the intended target.

Strength Bonuses[edit]

Strength bonuses to damage do not apply at robotic and supernatural levels or to megadamage attacks in general. They are SDC bonuses and therefor insignificant by comparison to the rolled damage.


Series One Notes Series Two Notes Series Three Notes Series Four Notes