User:Bill/Rifts Week by Week
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.
Contents
Approved Source Material
While the big benefits of participating in a week by week open, Encounters style, game for players is the opportunity to network with other players and learn a new set of rules, the benefit for a store and publisher in promoting these activities is in sales. This is why WotC limits the sourcebooks that may be used to the most recent releases. I'll be following suit. The entire game will focus on the contents of the most recent World Book, Triax 2, and the most recent Dimension Book, Thundercloud Galaxy.
Player Characters
Creating characters for this game will be a little challenging. Triax 2 only includes one OCC, and no RCCs. I could address that by permitting the use of core book classes or classes from the previous Triax & the NGR book. I will make that decision after I've had an opportunity to review Thundercloud Galaxy, which features an abundance of both.
To fully utilize Triax 2, even though none of the characters are likely to originate from that book, I'll be setting the game in the New German Republic. Triax 2 presents two very easy ways to integrate an entire party of aliens. Even though it has xenophobic tendencies, the NGR military employs regiments of aliens as special ops and assault troops. However, outside of the military there are few opportunities for nonhumans in the NGR and most are deported to shanty towns on the borders of gargoyle and brodkill territory.
The latter option would offer a lot of opportunities for intrigue and the players to advance personal agendas; I would enjoy it immensely with the right group. It doesn't lend itself well to a week by week game though because it requires a lot of continuity. It also would restrict the availability of Triax equipment, which would dramatically undermine the inclusion of Triax 2 in the source material for the game. So we'll definitely be going with the former.
Regardless, limiting the available sourcebooks in this fashion will be a bit of a pain because the available character races and classes don't quite hit every broad category of character. I prefer to conceptualize Rifts as a superhero game; which typically offer players the opportunity to play bricks, melee oriented characters, blasters, mind controllers, and speedsters. Obviously that's an oversimplification, but it suffices to illustrate that there are no mind controllers or speedsters available in the material I've selected. To address that issue, any characters fitting those categories will be acceptable, regardless of source.
Pregenerated Characters
Custom Characters
Anyone wanting to create their own characters may do so. However, all races and classes must come from one of the following sources; Rifts Dimension Book 14: Thundercloud Galaxy, Rifts World Book 31: Triax 2, The Rifter #51, and The Rifter #52. Stats will be rolled straight without modification. Any alignment except Diabolical or Miscreant may be selected, though Anarchist may prove difficult to play at times. Any personal equipment and items of sentimental value may be selected from any appropriate source within reason. 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.
House Rules
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
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 five (round down) as a bonus against a target number based on the difficulty of the task.
