Power References

[Bill]

One of the big challenges I have demoing Rifts is that I never have enough copies of the various books featuring powers (RUE, BoM, Psyscape, Mercenary Adventures, Mystic Russia, etc.) to support more than a couple characters with many psionic powers or magic spells. It puts me in an ethical dilemma because I want to show off these parts of the game, but I don't want to reproduce extensive portions of Palladium's copyrighted material to do it. I would greatly appreciate it if Palladium would produce an annual volume of all current spells or psionic powers, including errata. Not as expansive or detailed as the Book of Magic, but a handy, up to date reference for a reasonable price. Ideally, I'd like it to be setting neutral; with both high and low P.P.E. environment versions of the powers.

[The Dark Elf]

Sounds like a PDF idea.

[Tor]

Coalition Wars (Siege on Tolkeen) 1: Sedition had a list of spells compiled by Bill and Anna Coffin with their page numbers.

I don't think it would necessarily be a copyright vio to simply list all the unique class powers's names and the books/pages they are located on. Then people would still have to consult the books to know how they function. Unless this is duplicating something already present?

Page 85 of the GM's Guide reprinted the sensitive/physical/healer/Super/Bleeder stuff but not the actual class-specific unique powers.

[Bill]

I'm afraid that the problem isn't finding the information, it's having enough copies of it at the table that everyone can use it freely. Demoing the game with more than one magic user is very challenging unless I've produced detailed notes (which is fair use until I start printing out multiple copies) on each spell their character is capable of using.

[dragonfett]

Personally, I would type up each spell/power's ability and relevant information (cost, range, etc.) and then print up copies of them. Then as players choose a pre-made mage/psychic, just hand them the spells or powers that their characters have. Yeah, it's more prep work on your end, but I feel for a demo game, it's worth the extra work.

[Bill]

It's reproducing copyrighted material. It's probably covered under fair use, especially for game demos, but I'd rather have the option to purchase a copy rather than infringe on Palladium's rights.

[Crow Splat]

It's reproducing copyrighted material. It's probably covered under fair use, especially for game demos, but I'd rather have the option to purchase a copy rather than infringe on Palladium's rights.

An incomplete listing of spells on plain white paper for the purpose of running demo games would hardly get you into copyright trouble. You aren't selling these after all. You don't stand to profit from said demo game do you? If you do then it becomes a bit more tricky but if not then Palladium would have to be pretty desperate to attempt any legal action.

just don't go handing out xerox'd copies of RUE or something equally stupid.

[Tor]

A list of spell names and page numbers to find their full stats on doesn't seem like it could be used to violate copy, if anything it's an advertisement to go buy the books to find the full stats. Sedition didn't make RMB/FoM useless (BoM/RUE on the other hand...) it just produced a convenient pretty list of those common spells not to mention all the other ones that came along the way.

[Bill]

Thank you for your opinions, unsolicited as they may be.

[Tor]

Your thread is a solicitation... although I may have misread it's purpose, so will give another go.

I never have enough copies of the various books featuring powers (RUE, BoM, Psyscape, Mercenary Adventures, Mystic Russia, etc.) to support more than a couple characters with many psionic powers or magic spells.

I guess the issue is that you want to pass around a book and share it, but it causes problems if both people want to look at a power from the same book at the same time.

I thought maybe you could put it up on a projected big-screen but that would still only let people look concurrently at the same page, wouldn't solve a desire to look at different stuff on different pages in the same book.

Whenever I do up a char sheet I usually make cliffs notes of the spells/powers basic stats to avoid having to check the book every time, your players could do this during character creation. Possible delays in setup but would streamline the actual gaming.

[Bill]

I was quite specific about what I want and from whom. Your opinion remains unsolicited. Having players make their own notes is very good way to do things, up to a point. When every character at the table has spells it becomes a massive drag.

The request isn't motivated by hypotheticals though. I am currently preparing 10 characters with more than 200 spells available between them. And I'm almost finished typing up the very reference that has been recommended by various parties above. It's been an enormously time consuming project and I would have given up on it weeks ago if I hadn't committed to run a game focused on Palladium's magic system. And even though building this thing has given me the opportunity to better understand the range of available spells and a document that I can copy and paste from for future characters, I'd still rather have an official product.

[ShadowLogan]

Have you considered just doing a cliff notes type version of the description instead of doing the entire thing?

When we play with mecha ('bots/PA/vehicles/etc) we had a cliff notes version of a given mecha that could take a several page spread item and condensed it all down to one page pretty consistently. If something need clarification we could always look it up in the book. We've also done something similar with Powers. In this way you need less copies of a given book.

If you can find it still, the old Rifts Game Master program had complete spell/psi-power descriptions (RMB-core only) that you could print out for the characters IIRC (I know the spells are in the database, I'm just not sure if it printed out, but I don't see why not). Updating it is possible, but a chore.

[Spinachcat]

For my demos, I photocopy pictures and write abbreviated text for the players. Also, I deeply limit spell books because most demos only last 4 hours, and you don't want to waste more than 15 minutes (30 max) with setup. Players should be able to quickly understand what makes their character tick and jump into the game.

Copies of pics are really helpful to grab their attention about the setting, because if you are demo'ing not just Welcome to Rifts, but Welcome to Rifts Splatbook Sub-Setting #12, you really need to hit the high notes quickly and get on with the adventuring.

So you have 10 PCs with 200 unique spells...that sounds like a mess for a demo. Realistically, how many of those spells are going to be cast in a 4 hour game? Also, I fear selection paralysis from new players who feel the need to read through their spell lists over and over again before casting anything out of fear of "doing it wrong."

Also, 20 spells per PC is a lot of reading time. Why not limit it to 10?

[eliakon]

One interesting solution that I have done for games before is an idea I got from Call of Cthulhu....

I made up a bunch of 3x5 cards. Each card has one spell/power on it. This allows for a 'spell book' sort of effect and you can flip through the cards as you think. For information I put limited versions. So level, ppe, damage/effect (summeraized effects), range, duration, save
I ignore all the descriptive text.