Do you ever play Rifts world-books as stand-alone settings?

[Bill]

My current series is set in England and isn't likely to venture beyond until the players make it happen. My previous one was set in Chi-Town's burbs. That one meandered through Ishpeming and Manistique a little. Before that was a Yucatanadventure that had a small side-plot going on in Bolivia. It's a very big world with a lot of problems. I haven't needed to include a lot of globe/megaverse hopping.

[jaymz]

Nope not that I can ever recall.

[Alrik Vas]

I've done it before, but not really on purpose. I tend to do games by continent and usually at some point a NA game ends up in Atlantis, Germany games end up in England etc.

[tundro]

I've been developing a game that would be set in the new west (Arzno and Lone Star would probably get used, also). I would love the game to remain in those areas, but if the players want to wander off, I'll deal with that as it comes.

[MaxxSterling]

No, but I've thought about it. But not very hard...

[Nekira Sudacne]

I've run more stand-alone worldbooks than world-hopping games. but I tend to play more world-hopping games by some coincidence.

[dragonfett]

I have never done that as all of the games I have ran were in North America, usually in the New West, so I wind up using at least three of the world books from the get go.

[Morik]

I play more styles as a setting. If you want to play a Ronin Samurai while the group is a small time Pecos bandit gang, you better be looking for your families long lost sword.

The best book I could see for this would be Underseas. That is about as stand alone as you can get. (Lemuria expands on it)
I bet you could play a great game were you just go around thwarting the lord of the deep cults and their plots.

[boxee]

My games are usually in NA, but can do about anything.

[Icefalcon]

Sometimes I do and sometimes I do not. It all depends on the type of game I am running. There are many of the books that I use as stand-alone settings but there are times I will allow anything from any book. As I said, it depends on the game I am running.

[DhAkael]

To original question: No.
NEXT!

[Corinth]

I tell my gamer friends that I consider Rifts to be multiple games that share product branding and a ruleset, with accommodation for cross-genre play, so I prefer to run Rifts in this manner.

When I set up a campaign, I will deliberately sift through the existing rules and content first. I will select a narrow--sometimes, very narrow--subset of those rules and content, and I will confine the allowable range of playable characters to conform to that selection. (One of the first set of character types that get culled are those with innate powers of long-range or nigh-instantaneous transportation, such as Ley Line Walkers (and all with their ley line phasing powers) and Shifters, because I don't want people acting as Gandalf does in The Hobbit (which, for those who have not read the book, is that he comes and goes frequently from Thorin & Company to deal with White Council affairs; the film does not show this much). I'm out to achieve a specific gameplay experience, so I don't want dissonant elements present to work against that goal.

The second thing I will do is to change the rules that I do choose to use to better achieve the aforementioned objective. If the Occupations or Racial/Psychic classes that I allow have minimum requirements, or the milieu wherein the campaign takes place does not allow believable characters to exist below a given threshold, then I have no problems changing how attribute scores are determine to ensure that those minimums are met. If the interactions between, say, weaponry and armor, do not conform then I will change whatever values or procedures are necessary to make them conform. I will do so repeatedly until I get a ruleset that reliably produces the desired results.

The third thing I will do is to write a document that puts all of this upfront, in clear and natural language (and defining jargon as necessary), so everyone that sits down to play shares the same expectations for how they are going to spend their free time with me- both in what they are to receive as well as what they are to give in return. This is the best I can do to ensure that a campaign centered around a Coalition Army infantry squad and its activities, or one centered around a privateer crew sailing under Letters of Marque & Reprisal from one of the major interstellar states, or one centered around the lance of a Cyber-Knight or one centered around a crew of confidence artists in a not-Venice of the not-Renaissance all feel and play differently despite all of them using the same Palladium game engine and ruleset. Game time is precious, especially for mature adult players with several competing demanding upon their free time, so it is in my interest as the Game Master to never waste it, and this procedure is one major way that I meet that objective.

[Icefalcon]

I've been running a game out if New West for almost 4 years now.My players love it so no reason to move on.

Just tell them to stay away from Wormwraith prostitutes...

That's just mean. I like it.

[SolCannibal]

Have done quite a bit of both - sometimes you play world-trotter, sometimes you have a base/home and things spin all around it, overall it tends to evolve more or less organically from the OCC & RCC choices my group makes i would say.

[Razzinold]

I find that most of my games take place in various locations across North America. I've run a few games that took place in one location only, the main one being Australia and New West being a close second.

While it can be fun to dimension/world/system (i.e. Rifts to Nightbane) hop, but only do it if the campaign requires it. I don't feel that every campaign needs to span the entire globe, or cross into other systems, simply because it can be done.

[nilgravity]

I've had so many rifts characters because my old GM loved to run short or mid length campaigns in a specific locale. Of them I remember:
1. Juicers (though we never got to uprising)
2. Atlantis
3. Phase World
4. New West

[The Baron of chaos]

Hmm I've toyed with the idea sometimes but never done that. Most campaign i did(when i still had that precious thing called free time) were of the nomad-style type, as the griup would accomplish quest and mission wandering from one place to another(mostly in the new west, sometimes atlantis, sometimes europe...and sometimes everywhere every time against everyone...kickng ass and taking names. You know usual Rifts business).
At times i thought to make Japan as such...mostly because Japan disappointed me a little bit, I had great expetations. But lacked Yokai and Bakemono in decent quantity...

[rmckee78]

I was going to make a post similar to this but then saw this one, so I will post here instead. I am brand new to RIFTS and Palladium. I am just finishing up my first read through of the RUE and I am trying to figure out what setting I will run first. I am considering Japan, Vampire Kingdoms, Undersea, Russia and China (although I have seen some not-so-great reviews of the books). I am not especially interested in NA at this point, as there seems to be meta-plot everywhere. I was wondering if people ran single setting games or not, as that was what I intended to do. Looking at this thread, it appears that people do it both ways and even flip back and forth, and they all seem to work. So this was very helpful.

[GrampaAllen]

I run a phase world campaign and use everything from rifts scattered across the three Galaxy's. Japan now bushi federation, south american country's become a collection of planets just outside of splugorath controlled sector etc etc etc.

[Zer0 Kay]

My 23 year campaign has been a tour de megaverse with frequent revisits to previous locations.

[Zamion138]

We have done an all ngr game using sourcebook 3. Way late in the game. We have done alot of NA games. Couple phase world games before all the exspansions came out. Did one englad game, grabed only some PA from ngr for that one.
We did a two night one shot in wormwood....everyone died hahaha....the unholy should be ran from not battled at lv 1d4 with 3pc's.
Usaly if it makes since ill allow it, but if you want armor from 3 galaxies, weapons from SA and an occ from Canada and your race is from palladium fantasy your probably gonna get a no.
Generaly if were doing NA anything from NA goes plus some but if you want something way out of left field I need a reason to say yes......and no becuase russian cyborgs are cool is not enough.(though true).

[Blue_Lion]

Really depends on which world book. Most of north America has to much bleed over for me to see them as stand alone setting but Africa, England, Japan those are more stand alone setting books.

[SolCannibal]

Really depends on which world book. Most of north America has to much bleed over for me to see them as stand alone setting but Africa, England, Japan those are more stand alone setting books.

There's that point too - Vampire Kingdoms, Lone Star/Pecos, New/Spirit West & Arzno seem particularly egrerious in such bleed over, even thematically in some aspects.

On a sidenote Snuzzles, have you ever done the opposite with Dimension Books, treating them as places to get rifted/teleported/flown into for a temporary mission, and then leave again when done? Places almost as acessible as a neighboring city-state or country due to peculiarities like permanent rifts, a convenient stone pyramid, monolith or millenium tree that leads semi-regularly there or somesuch? Just curious about you or other people's experience with facilities or not of dimension hopping.

[Richardson]

Actually my most enjoyable Rifts game ever was solely Rifts Japan. I played a police officer whose 2 credit tanuki good luck charm was actually a real tanuki taking a nap in statue form. He stayed in my apartment, drank all my beer, drove my pay-per-view (ask your folks kids you don't know the term) through the roof, and made me work LOTS of overtime to clean up after his breaking my stuff all the time. But he also ended up showing up in the back of my hover car during stake outs, his help landed me a sweet gig in the supernatural investigation squad, and without his presence my character would have died a dozen times over. Another player was a Monk and a fourth a Kenku, but the plot revolved around my slovenly roomie and me. Pretty darn fun.

[SolCannibal]

Actually my most enjoyable Rifts game ever was solely Rifts Japan. I placed a police officer whose 2 credit tanuki good luck charm was actually a real tanuki taking a nap in statue form. He stayed in my apartment, drank all my beer, drove my pay-per-view (ask your folks kids you don't know the term) through the roof, and made me work LOTS of overtime to clean up after his braking my stuff all the time. But he also ended up showing up in the back of my hover car during stake outs, his help landed me a sweet gig in the supernatural investigation squad, and without his presence my character would have died a dozen times over. Another player was a Monk and a fourth a Kenku, but the plot revolved around my slovenly roomie and me. Pretty darn fun.

Where was it set, Otomo Shogunate, Takamatsu, Ichto Province, Republic of Japan or some stand-alone homebrew take of Japan made by your GM from the book?

[Richardson]

Where was it set Otomo Shogunate, Takamatsu, Ichto Province, Republic of Japan or some stand-alone homebrew take of Japan made by your GM from the book?

I believe the Republic, inside the city of course. But it was over a decade ago so some of the details are a bit hazy these days.

[SolCannibal]

Where was it set Otomo Shogunate, Takamatsu, Ichto Province, Republic of Japan or some stand-alone homebrew take of Japan made by your GM from the book?

I believe the Republic, inside the city of course. But it was over a decade ago so some of the details are a bit hazy these days.

Oh, i get it, just general curiosity, sometimes i can't stop myself from mining other people's homebrew for Rifts ideas (when i'm not randomly rolling dice to make city-states/kingdoms on my own, that is).

[SolCannibal]

Most of the games I've played always started and ended in newlazlo or chi town berbs with an adventure being something big from one of the other books help with the gathering of heroes in Africa, then go deal a crippling blow to the gargoyle empire off to England to find a rift back to north america that kind of thing or BtS to PW culture shock is always fun to play for me

Yeah, occasional or full-time country/dimension hopping seems to be the usual style of play for most groups.

As an aside, has anyone experimented with using one dimension book or other as the core for some homebrew region of their own in Rifts Earth, a CCW colony in Thundercloud accidentaly rifted into some piece of country, a "little Wormwood" of sorts taking form in some obscure country due to a semi-permanent rift to that dimension or some foolish shifter or psychic bringing some of the Host upon Rifts Earth or some other geographic twists in your games?