GM-ing RIFTS vs other games...

[slade the sniper]

What is everyone's opinion of GM-ing RIFTS as opposed to GM-ing other games?
As for me I feel that RIFTS is probably the most difficult game to GM for (and I have been GMing/playing RPGs for...um...30 years and GM-ed 2E AD&D, 3E D&D, a LOT of "Old" World of Darkness, Basic Roleplaying/Call of Cthulhu, Robotech and TMNT in long standing campaigns and more than a few others in short campaigns). The reasons for this are:
1. Lack of a central "bad guy" (the CS sort of counts, but in all of the games I have played or GM'ed, the CS always seems to rapidly fade into the background and never becomes a central theme for some reason). This means that a lot of the game is spent travelling and dealing with "new" stuff.

2. The world is huge and has, IMO, enough background fluff and crunch that is pretty much only equaled/surpassed by WEG D6 Star Wars and AD&D. What that means is that there a million+ story hooks, NPCs, equipment and locations. That is awesome as a GM, but sometimes I look at my stack of books and think "well, what next?"

3. Character creation/NPC generation is a pain, at least if I did it by the book. Now I just look for an idea, find a picture of something similar online, figure out the name of the NPC, what the voice is, figure out the MDC, number of actions and bonuses for strike/parry/dodge and go. Determining anything else is so time consuming. I really wish there was a RIFTS quick NPC generator somewhere (other than the monster generator in the Main Book). I feel that I sometimes do my players a disservice by not making all the monsters by the book, but damn, it isn't like I can just copy/paste them and I am not going to hand jam 12 wild vampires...

4. Game/player balance doesn't exist. I like the fact that the vagabond and his soap can be in the same game as the cosmo-knight. The idea is great, and I love how it places a lot of responsibility on the players and the GM. It always makes me laugh when I read about D&D has some game balance issues and am grateful that Palladium doesn't care at all about those silly concepts...

5. I actually appreciate that RIFTS is kinda clunky, in that it allows me as a GM to quickly justify or retcon things I want, and I never feel any need to dig around through books or argue with rules lawyers. Oddly enough, the D20 rules lawyers never argue with me about RIFTS calls...probably because there are so many internal inconsistencies that it makes D20 look like a well designed, cohesive rules set LOL.

6. The game system itself is...less than stellar, BUT, I am able to cobble and steal stuff from any other game system and jam it in there since RIFTS is just some sort of mutant hybrid system anyway...and if things don't quite fit or make sense, who cares? The setting is beautiful, regardless of the rules...

7. Combat...I use all the shortcuts I can in combat (such as you get 3 seconds to decide what you are going to do or you just take cover and wait until the next round), and after some pretty bloody fights, my players act more like Cyberpunk players than D&D players (finally)... They actually care about things like range, cover, explosive radius, ammunition, food, encumbrance, fuel, etc. The problem is that now my players will avoid combat until it literally comes to them The combat, IMO or at least the way I play, is easily as deadly as any other game I play or GM and the fact that death is a threat and without the handy dandy resurrection of most fantasy means that combat is...not epic fun. Although I track morale and rarely will my enemies fight "to the death" unless they have a really good reason, the fact that all combat expends resources, my players are not fans. The speed is fine, but I find that I have to play some enemies as fools or morons in order to give the players a pass (sometimes...) since smart enemies can reduce a player character to dead in very short order using fire and maneuver, especially at range...

So, what are you experiences actually GM-ing RIFTS? Good, bad, indifferent as opposed to other games?

-STS

[Zer0 Kay]

For me Rifts became super easy. When I DMed AD&D I learned from modules which IMO teaches a DM how to railroad his players many of my "games" were description of location of environment, give options, onto next scripted event for selected option.

Rifts taught me to ad lib and improv most things and that major encounters can be moved where the GM needs them to happen instead of at the second left in the "dungeon" that is more labyrinth than dungeon.

So Rifts turned my GMing from SSI D&D games to Oblivion. There is a story but if the players go somewhere else that's cool to. From railroad to sandbox. From DM/GM driven to player driven and all because my first all weekend Rifts game was supposed to have the group go to Oregon but an insane mage decided to go to Mexico, aided by the area already being detailed so I didn't have to develop something like I did in Oregon. I waved good by at railroading and now my campaigns all look like incomplete notes instead of a script and it is more like I, the GM am more like a participating player than the guy pushing the story along. However this has also required me to use my NPCs more as Deus Ex Machinae being the hero of the moment but still allowing the heroes to pull the group through at the end of the day. Making for an adventure that has a few "thank goodness you (NPC) were there, but ends with a look what WE (players) did!

[Alrik Vas]

Rifts is a tough nut the crack because you want to embrace the limitless notion of the setting, but really would rather your players chill with the Demigod Mystic Knights with Burster Powers that Pilot Power Armor.

So yeah, it's tricky from a mechanical standpoint.

Storywise, i think that it's one of the better settings because you can make up whatever you like in the corner of nowhere if you ever get tired of the FoM, CS or Sploogies. You can have 1st Apoc Cav guys be bandits chasing the PC's one day, then have them be allies the next vs a monster incursion. It's all about making things grey and fluid in Rifts, with no one ever being right.

Which is why it's best with tossing out the idea of alignment and concrete values of good and evil as natural forces.

[slade the sniper]

You can have 1st Apoc Cav guys be bandits chasing the PC's one day, then have them be allies the next vs a monster incursion.

Funny you mention that, since my PC's really hate the 1st Apoc Cav right now, but they are going to be the "reinforcements" if/when the PCs get curb stomped. Still wonder what the PCs are going to do when they run into some of the "Good" Reid's Rangers after their last two run-ins with "Bad" Reid's Rangers...

Shades of Grey

-STS

[Nightmartree]

Shades of Grey

-STS

Are there at least 50 of them?

...*runs off to write up a sorcerer named grey who can summon 50 shades*

[slade the sniper]

There were 50 of them Pre-Cataclysm...now there are like...51

And as a sort of add-on question:
"Is there any sort of noticeable power level demarcation in RIFTS (or other Palladium games by extension)?"

I don't really there think there is. The games power scaling seems to be built into the OCC, not the level. This seems to be in direct opposition to the D&D model of level 1 = teenage simpleton; level 20 = near demigod (of course this is due to personal interpretation and experience). I think that RIFTS just lets you adventure with anything you want and it is up to the GM to make it challenging, and the player to make it fun for the group.

An observation is that unlike D&D, RIFTS games never seem to devolve into "builds," or "usefulness of character" or any sort of power comparisons between X or Y. I wonder why. Hmm, perhaps for all its' flaw, RIFTS actually is a good setting, and a fun game (albeit with less than stellar rules).

-STS

[Shorty Lickens]

We've already discussed this many times but it comes up every so often:
The game is inherently unbalanced but thats not a bad thing, it only means the GM has to do a lot more prep work.
If you've got lots of experience with other game systems then you may appreciate the freedom here. But it can be a little too much for some people so they either give up, or use generic encounters and NPC's and eventually get tired of Rifts cuz its not excited enough.

[Nightmartree]

There were 50 of them Pre-Cataclysm...now there are like...51

And as a sort of add-on question:
"Is there any sort of noticeable power level demarcation in RIFTS (or other Palladium games by extension)?"

I don't really there think there is. The games power scaling seems to be built into the OCC, not the level. This seems to be in direct opposition to the D&D model of level 1 = teenage simpleton; level 20 = near demigod (of course this is due to personal interpretation and experience). I think that RIFTS just lets you adventure with anything you want and it is up to the GM to make it challenging, and the player to make it fun for the group.

An observation is that unlike D&D, RIFTS games never seem to devolve into "builds," or "usefulness of character" or any sort of power comparisons between X or Y. I wonder why. Hmm, perhaps for all its' flaw, RIFTS actually is a good setting, and a fun game (albeit with less than stellar rules).

-STS

sdc to mdc, palladium has only one lvl up...mwhahahahaha

actually disregarding a few classes here and there leveling up has an impact in about 3 cases, sustain (more ppe, isp, hp, ect) if only minor, super powers/magic/psychic powers that go up by lvl or are accessed by lvl, and skill for you to do noncombat things

rifts combat however tends to rely more on gear and occ or race (excluding the users of powers that scale by lvl, who are rarer than youd think) so the best clear line? have you cleared 3 digits mdc, 4 digits mdc, 5 digits mdc or higher?

[Dunia]

1. Lack of a central "bad guy" (the CS sort of counts, but in all of the games I have played or GM'ed, the CS always seems to rapidly fade into the background and never becomes a central theme for some reason). This means that a lot of the game is spent travelling and dealing with "new" stuff.

In my eyes, this makes the game more believable and fun. I hate those Pathfinder adventure paths that centers around 1 final oss fight and all enemies are tied to that bossfight.

I like the looming threat of the Coalition States but that there are pirates, bandits, Erin Tarn, monsters, land holders etc that wish to gain power, money etc that can become antagonists to the players.

2. The world is huge and has, IMO, enough background fluff and crunch that is pretty much only equaled/surpassed by WEG D6 Star Wars and AD&D. What that means is that there a million+ story hooks, NPCs, equipment and locations. That is awesome as a GM, but sometimes I look at my stack of books and think "well, what next?"

Or Ars Magica, Rolemaster, MERP, Gurps and a plethora of other games. I rather take MERP with its color maps of Middle Earth, good art and well thought out adveture ooks/region ooks written by good authors than RIFTS any day or Ars Magica where the authors actually care about their books and the publisher does not rewrite them without understanding the thoughts of the author. For the 10 years and 45 books to Ars Magica 5, they gave more ideas and help to players & GMs with fluff, aids and story hooks than I have seen in Rifts 200+ books. Quantity of books (Rifts/Palladium) is inferior to quality (Merp/Ars Magica) of books and gameaids.

3. Character creation/NPC generation is a pain, at least if I did it by the book. Now I just look for an idea, find a picture of something similar online, figure out the name of the NPC, what the voice is, figure out the MDC, number of actions and bonuses for strike/parry/dodge and go. Determining anything else is so time consuming. I really wish there was a RIFTS quick NPC generator somewhere (other than the monster generator in the Main Book). I feel that I sometimes do my players a disservice by not making all the monsters by the book, but damn, it isn't like I can just copy/paste them and I am not going to hand jam 12 wild vampires...

Character creation sucks in RUE and RMB. So much flipping to find info, and creating enemies suck even more. This is not a newbie friendly game at all, you need to have a bunch of books to start up the game. or example Pathfinder is a game where you need maybe the main book and a monster book, then you are set. In RUE you get almost nothing.

4. Game/player balance doesn't exist. I like the fact that the vagabond and his soap can be in the same game as the cosmo-knight. The idea is great, and I love how it places a lot of responsibility on the players and the GM. It always makes me laugh when I read about D&D has some game balance issues and am grateful that Palladium doesn't care at all about those silly concepts...

Silly concepts like MDC and Comso Knights as well as the fear of having the Abrahamitic religions present. I have seen so many different RPGs portray Christianity, Islam and Judaism and they hae done it with respect and made a beautiful job which makes it fun. Palladium Books have made i think 2 oocs and treat that like the plague. I like that in my 5 or so years as GM in Rifts, none of my players wanted to play a MDC race (apart from a Psi Stalker who is MDC at a few times) - they all thought that the MDC races and classes like Godling or Cosmoknight or Dragon was made for munchkins and runied the fun of the game and decided to play as Operators, Ley Line Mage, Headhunters and Wilderness scouts instead.

5. I actually appreciate that RIFTS is kinda clunky, in that it allows me as a GM to quickly justify or retcon things I want, and I never feel any need to dig around through books or argue with rules lawyers. Oddly enough, the D20 rules lawyers never argue with me about RIFTS calls...probably because there are so many internal inconsistencies that it makes D20 look like a well designed, cohesive rules set LOL.

Im happy for you. I hate the clunkyness of Rits and the rules incosistency. Where things dont add up and you can get 10-15 attacks in 1 round without much work for 1 character.

[Dunia]

6. The game system itself is...less than stellar, BUT, I am able to cobble and steal stuff from any other game system and jam it in there since RIFTS is just some sort of mutant hybrid system anyway...and if things don't quite fit or make sense, who cares? The setting is beautiful, regardless of the rules...

I agree Setting = Lovely, Rules = Abhorrant

7. Combat...I use all the shortcuts I can in combat (such as you get 3 seconds to decide what you are going to do or you just take cover and wait until the next round), and after some pretty bloody fights, my players act more like Cyberpunk players than D&D players (finally)... They actually care about things like range, cover, explosive radius, ammunition, food, encumbrance, fuel, etc. The problem is that now my players will avoid combat until it literally comes to them :( The combat, IMO or at least the way I play, is easily as deadly as any other game I play or GM and the fact that death is a threat and without the handy dandy resurrection of most fantasy means that combat is...not epic fun. Although I track morale and rarely will my enemies fight "to the death" unless they have a really good reason, the fact that all combat expends resources, my players are not fans. The speed is fine, but I find that I have to play some enemies as fools or morons in order to give the players a pass (sometimes...) since smart enemies can reduce a player character to dead in very short order using fire and maneuver, especially at range...

Do you have to have a mandatory fight? Every rpg adventure do not require a shootout at dawn in the main street. If the players want to avoid your battles, and manages, then give them extra xp or rewards. Having GMs who want to force you into a combat just to make it exciting is in my eyes a bad GM. There are so many other ways to make things exciting than a combat.
Your players seem like perfect players who actually care what they carry and dont run around with thngs in their pockets that would reqire a fleet of cargo trucks for others.

So, what are you experiences actually GM-ing RIFTS? Good, bad, indifferent as opposed to other games?

-STS

[slade the sniper]

We've already discussed this many times but it comes up every so often:
The game is inherently unbalanced but thats not a bad thing, it only means the GM has to do a lot more prep work.
If you've got lots of experience with other game systems then you may appreciate the freedom here. But it can be a little too much for some people so they either give up, or use generic encounters and NPC's and eventually get tired of Rifts cuz its not excited enough.

Oh, I appreciate the unbalancing bit... Palladium games were my first RPGs and then I graduated to Cyberpunk and Shadowrun so I am comfortable with clunky rules, and lack of game balance. I do note that there is some expectation management when GM-ing RIFTS since most of my players only played D&D or some other generic fantasy setting, so going from that to one shot kills and no resurrection is a bit of an eye opener. I still find myself having to take a few minutes before every game for some Q&A on the setting.

Or Ars Magica, Rolemaster, MERP, Gurps and a plethora of other games. I rather take MERP with its color maps of Middle Earth, good art and well thought out adveture ooks/region ooks written by good authors than RIFTS any day or Ars Magica where the authors actually care about their books and the publisher does not rewrite them without understanding the thoughts of the author. For the 10 years and 45 books to Ars Magica 5, they gave more ideas and help to players & GMs with fluff, aids and story hooks than I have seen in Rifts 200+ books. Quantity of books (Rifts/Palladium) is inferior to quality (Merp/Ars Magica) of books and gameaids.

Character creation sucks in RUE and RMB. So much flipping to find info, and creating enemies suck even more. This is not a newbie friendly game at all, you need to have a bunch of books to start up the game. or example Pathfinder is a game where you need maybe the main book and a monster book, then you are set. In RUE you get almost nothing.

Do you have to have a mandatory fight? Every rpg adventure do not require a shootout at dawn in the main street. If the players want to avoid your battles, and manages, then give them extra xp or rewards. Having GMs who want to force you into a combat just to make it exciting is in my eyes a bad GM. There are so many other ways to make things exciting than a combat.

Your players seem like perfect players who actually care what they carry and dont run around with thngs in their pockets that would reqire a fleet of cargo trucks for others.

From the top:
I totally forgot about ArsMagica...because I played that after I played Magic:Sorcerers Crusade (OWoD) so it always felt like a powered down version of that game (I know it isn't but it "felt" that way). I forgot about GURPS because I own about 20 of their sourcebooks and the base game and compendium I and II that my wife and I use as sourcebooks. Nobody I know (IRL) has ever played it, but we do own a lot of the books. Weird... MERP, the one that used Rolemaster? Is there more than just the boxed set from ICE? The only other ICE product I know is Cyberspace (loved it). I bought the MERP box set as a gift for my wife and it has never been used (along with like two other RPG versions of that settings).

Although the character creation does suck...that has to be done only for PCs and rarely...making NPC villains is where the pain is, so I think we are in agreement.

My complaint about combat isn't about whether it exists or not...but this is a paraphrased conversation:

Spoiler:

Player 1: Wow, those mass combats are brutal. We need to stay away from those.
Player 2: Yeah
Player 3: Totally!
GM: OK. So, here is a really powerful NPC that wants to be your friend so that you will tell other people you come across that she is not a bad guy.
Player 1: But, we need his gas!
Player 2: And his bullets
Player 3: And our vampires are hungry
GM: She is being nice and gives you food and gas.
Player 1: Lets do a raid on her refinery!
Player 3: Yeah, we can steal the gas truck and all the extra gas too!
Player 2: We will attack through the main gate!
GM: Um, this is a big town, have lots of troops, a lots of stuff, etc.
Player 2: Well if we build a large wooden badger
GM: I thought you didn't want large combat anymore.
Player 1: We don't
GM: Well, how are you going to do this
Player 3: Well, we will talk all our allies into attacking for us, and we will get the gas.
GM: What will your allies get?
Player 1: Our love and respect.

That is what I was meaning by players not wanting combat. They WANT things that they can't get just by BS-ing NPCs, and they don't want to do anything for the NPCs, but are also scared to fight the NPCs, so they spend a lot of time playing "why don't you and him fight." It is effective, for the most part, but when the NPCs are not swayed by honeyed words or lies...they have a tendency to just leave...especially if the people they were trying to get to fight figure it out.

I certainly don't force combat, but when they run away from a lot of it, it does make them seem less than heroic in the eyes of the locals.

-STS

[Alrik Vas]

The only time combat is forced, imo, is when the PC's are dealing with someone who really wants to fight them. Or someone who is just a complete meathead who will fight anyone. Though fights like that are rarely to the death.

Though I recently had a player start a melee with a Vangard Brawler because he knew the guy was a hot head and beating his face in would be simpler than talking to him.

[slade the sniper]

The only time combat is forced, imo, is when the PC's are dealing with someone who really wants to fight them.

This is what is beginning to happen...and these are fights that are going to be to the death. Killing off brothers of chieftains, deliberately embarrassing ranking officers, skipping out on arranged marriages, allying with undead...these are the sort of things that make others unhappy enough to kill.

-STS

[Alrik Vas]

Just the allying with the undead part is enough for me, to be honest. Well, most of my characters, anyway, heh.

[slade the sniper]

I really had no idea they were going to do that. Not many characters would willingly ally with the vampires against Reid's Rangers. The most hilarious thing is that all the PCs really think that they are "good." But, it is a sandbox and they are free to make any choices they want...and apparently what they want is to be very non-heroic.

-STS

[Nightmartree]

I really had no idea they were going to do that. Not many characters would willingly ally with the vampires against Reid's Rangers. The most hilarious thing is that all the PCs really think that they are "good." But, it is a sandbox and they are free to make any choices they want...and apparently what they want is to be very non-heroic.

-STS

The question is will they live and learn...or Unlive and learn?

[slade the sniper]

I really had no idea they were going to do that. Not many characters would willingly ally with the vampires against Reid's Rangers. The most hilarious thing is that all the PCs really think that they are "good." But, it is a sandbox and they are free to make any choices they want...and apparently what they want is to be very non-heroic.

-STS

The question is will they live and learn...or Unlive and learn?

Well, all of the PC's are basically unturnable and they have decided to make a pact to help the vampire get more vampires as a sort of recruitment effort/daytime guards. Does it matter that the vampire in question looks like Selma Hayek from Dusk Till Dawn?

-STS

[Nightmartree]

I really had no idea they were going to do that. Not many characters would willingly ally with the vampires against Reid's Rangers. The most hilarious thing is that all the PCs really think that they are "good." But, it is a sandbox and they are free to make any choices they want...and apparently what they want is to be very non-heroic.

-STS

The question is will they live and learn...or Unlive and learn?

Well, all of the PC's are basically unturnable and they have decided to make a pact to help the vampire get more vampires as a sort of recruitment effort/daytime guards. Does it matter that the vampire in question looks like Selma Hayek from Dusk Till Dawn?

-STS

gah unturnable i need better vampires dang it *runs to a lab*

[slade the sniper]

I really had no idea they were going to do that. Not many characters would willingly ally with the vampires against Reid's Rangers. The most hilarious thing is that all the PCs really think that they are "good." But, it is a sandbox and they are free to make any choices they want...and apparently what they want is to be very non-heroic.

-STS

The question is will they live and learn...or Unlive and learn?

Well, all of the PC's are basically unturnable and they have decided to make a pact to help the vampire get more vampires as a sort of recruitment effort/daytime guards. Does it matter that the vampire in question looks like Selma Hayek from Dusk Till Dawn?

-STS

gah unturnable i need better vampires dang it *runs to a lab*

Well the one who wants to be a vampire is a dragon hatchling so he can't be. The two are not too keen on being vampires, but have no issues with helping vampires.

-STS

[Blue_Lion]

Vampire dragon......Its Rifts it can happen.

[Nightmartree]

Well the one who wants to be a vampire is a dragon hatchling so he can't be. The two are not too keen on being vampires, but have no issues with helping vampires.

-STS

my first thought "you know if he's playing in character, young impressionable dragon hatchling? lets give him this cape and some fake fangs and talk about how this is how vampires like Dracula act!"

also i wasn't thinking they'd get a choice if they could be turned. You know, that old supernatural predator thing

[slade the sniper]

The vampire didn't have enough time to turn them (three days) and was on the run from Reid's Rangers... The rogue scholar knew enough about vampires to know not to trust her and that it would take more than one night . The wilderness scout thought she was hot. The dragon was sad he couldn't be a vampire. The next day Lazarious and gang decide to attack and kill off the PCs, their allies and the vampires (obviously) AND the entire surrounding population (to be sure...the fact they had gold was just a bonus). The callous disregard for life that the "bad" Rangers showed was enough to make the PC's question the legends...and wonder if the vampire just had a bad rap. So, they decided to help her out and get back to Mexico. The vampire finds the PCs to be useful idiots...the PCs think the Rangers are all evil and are wondering if they could actually attack Fort Reid.

But, that is the joy of sandboxes and not following the "every X acts like Y" that is so common in other RPGs. The Vampire does have her own agenda (well the VI does), and it is more about the long term than just making some useful idiots vampires. Especially since they have knowledge that the VI might find useful someday. The VI and will turn/enthrall/kill them eventually, but for now, it serves her purpose to not do so.

-STS

[Nightmartree]

The vampire didn't have enough time to turn them (three days) and was on the run from Reid's Rangers... The rogue scholar knew enough about vampires to know not to trust her and that it would take more than one night . The wilderness scout thought she was hot. The dragon was sad he couldn't be a vampire. The next day Lazarious and gang decide to attack and kill off the PCs, their allies and the vampires (obviously) AND the entire surrounding population (to be sure...the fact they had gold was just a bonus). The callous disregard for life that the "bad" Rangers showed was enough to make the PC's question the legends...and wonder if the vampire just had a bad rap. So, they decided to help her out and get back to Mexico. The vampire finds the PCs to be useful idiots...the PCs think the Rangers are all evil and are wondering if they could actually attack Fort Reid.

But, that is the joy of sandboxes and not following the "every X acts like Y" that is so common in other RPGs. The Vampire does have her own agenda (well the VI does), and it is more about the long term than just making some useful idiots vampires. Especially since they have knowledge that the VI might find useful someday. The VI and will turn/enthrall/kill them eventually, but for now, it serves her purpose to not do so.

-STS

cool, i have the smash happy variety of people in my gaming group, its like having a serial killer juicer with a love of explosives and heavy weapons sitting beside you every week (and no...never actually had a juicer something about the life expectancy)

but glad you've got it thought out

[slade the sniper]

The vampire didn't have enough time to turn them (three days) and was on the run from Reid's Rangers... The rogue scholar knew enough about vampires to know not to trust her and that it would take more than one night . The wilderness scout thought she was hot. The dragon was sad he couldn't be a vampire. The next day Lazarious and gang decide to attack and kill off the PCs, their allies and the vampires (obviously) AND the entire surrounding population (to be sure...the fact they had gold was just a bonus). The callous disregard for life that the "bad" Rangers showed was enough to make the PC's question the legends...and wonder if the vampire just had a bad rap. So, they decided to help her out and get back to Mexico. The vampire finds the PCs to be useful idiots...the PCs think the Rangers are all evil and are wondering if they could actually attack Fort Reid.

But, that is the joy of sandboxes and not following the "every X acts like Y" that is so common in other RPGs. The Vampire does have her own agenda (well the VI does), and it is more about the long term than just making some useful idiots vampires. Especially since they have knowledge that the VI might find useful someday. The VI and will turn/enthrall/kill them eventually, but for now, it serves her purpose to not do so.

-STS

cool, i have the smash happy variety of people in my gaming group, its like having a serial killer juicer with a love of explosives and heavy weapons sitting beside you every week (and no...never actually had a juicer something about the life expectancy)

but glad you've got it thought out

With this group I have to do a lot of tap dancing and taking notes about what I said last week. It takes me a week to come up with a way to justify/explain the stuff I said last week. But it is fun for both them and I, so it is a success in my book.

So, what sort of experiences have other RIFTS GM's had?

-STS

[Alrik Vas]

All i get are players begging to be Cold Blooded when their characters die. tch...

Though one character in my group "Doc" (Malachai Butcher, a full PhD training, yes his last name is Butcher) got into a bit of a bind once. They were on a transatlantic flight to the NGR and a leyline storm over the ocean took their plane down. The rifts snapped the aircraft, and swallowed them up a bit, tossing them about. So they didn't experience the crash in the same violent and deadly way the plane did.

Doc wakes up hanging from a tree, a few busted ribs, no radio, nothing but this TW blade he found (uses ISP to make a Psi-knife, can also make a small TK barrier/shield) and a Wilk's dual threat pistol. Not even body armor. Fortunately he's a minor psionic with healing powers (Bio-Regen and Healing Touch). he falls out of the tree and meditates to heal back some SDC then goes to get his bearings. It's cold, winter in an eastern forest in what used to be France. Some scouting tells him that there are gargoyles everywhere. This is bad, very, very bad.

Things happen, he meets one of the other guys, a Wolfen Cyberknight (who only has their cyber armor and an NG-45) and eventually both of them find 3 gargoyles.

Bad news.

The knight doesn't hesitate a moment and hopes to engage all three of them to keep Doc safe so he can escape, but Doc, being something of a testosterone machine, refuses to be outdone by Sir Woofs and shoots at the third gargoyle, getting it's attention.

I had to ask myself, "why does this guy want the Knight's sacrifice to be meaningless?"

Fortunately the Knight is a complete BAMF. Seriously. These gargoyles are almost a joke to him, it's a little scary. While he's rending scaly flesh, Doc on the other hand is dancing about for his life. He's running out of ISP and the little psi-shield he can create keeps breaking every other action from the gargoyle's claw attacks. Though he's getting pew-pew on the sub-demon in between with his pistol.

Well, the gargoyle is about dead, really. Critical hits, called shots to the eyes, stabbing it in the throat, all that. The little SDC human is kind of shocking the world with his luck and skill. Then the gargoyle simultaneous attacks, but rolls so bad (barely hit) i decide to take pity on Doc for his efforts and roll a die to see where the gargoyle hit. Our boy loses a hand, has to make a save vs Pain to remain conscious from the shock. He fails.

Though he wakes up later and the knight has tended his wounds, because Cyberknights are apparently the most badass things on the planet. (that and i rolled pretty low average for each gargoyle's MDC, admittedly).

Well, the funny bit of this story comes much later. Doc gets a provisional cyber hand from the scouting until of the NGR's 103 BCT, a bunch of rangers with hover bikes and a Leopard APC. They do a crazy job, help the NGR, things occur, it's a long story. The important part is, they go back to civilization and Doc gets a proper cyber hand, MDC materials, bio-sensors to help with his medical work, hidden tools, an IRMSS injector, language translator etc etc. Though...you know...he also makes sure the hand can secret lube.

because Doc is a practical guy, and hornier than a platoon of boots on their first leave.

The jokes about this, as one might expect, are non-stop.

But much later, much much much later, back in North America, Doc and the Knight are trying to sneak into 'the enemy base' and they quietly creep up to an old door. I tell them they shouldn't expect to stay unnoticed if they open it, looks pretty rusted. Doc's player just looks at me and smiles.

"I'll lube it up, it's fine."

I wasn't even mad. Took away all prowl penalties for opening the door.

[Nightmartree]

But much later, much much much later, back in North America, Doc and the Knight are trying to sneak into 'the enemy base' and they quietly creep up to an old door. I tell them they shouldn't expect to stay unnoticed if they open it, looks pretty rusted. Doc's player just looks at me and smiles.

"I'll lube it up, it's fine."

I wasn't even mad. Took away all prowl penalties for opening the door.

okay, that's beautiful and really I can't count the number of times some random little things someone has said or tried in our group have turned into an "OMG you did say that" later, or that one little power/ability everyone forgot about turns a situation around.

that said we tend to give a lot of leeway to each other in my group...sometimes too much we have way too many smart people and several who even when they do something dumb can diceroll it out of trouble...also i'm forbidden from playing pixies...

[Jerell]

In my current campaign, set in the Thundercloud, I feel absolutely free to GM up whatever I'm I the mood for. It's very liberating, even to me a long time PFRPG and Robotech GM. That said, to give direction, there's a web of intrigue that's usually the backdrop behind adventure arcs. I actually have really meaningful NPCs this time out. Like sneaky bad, and selfish, besides standard good and bad ones. But they're all personally and deeply motivated, given where they fit into the certain power blocks, and I'm having more fun GMing than ever.

For example, I have one NPC who's actually, unknow to anyone, a Nexus Deevil, that works as a black ops special forces operative for the UWW. Most of the party just thinks she's an evil aligned UWW elf, that's helped them out a few times (hindered them others), but really has been manipulating the party to take out Demons. I've got so many factions involved, I've never had such a fun time thinking about how actions in one group effect another, and how the players end up getting info. I'm on my phone now, but I'd be happy to explain more what I've got going on when I'm somewhere I can type easier.

With a Shifter, an Artifact Hunter, and 2 hatchling PCs, jumping worlds and/or dimensions is an almost every adventure occurrence. Strictly linear adventures are out the window, these games are off the rails. Being able to roll with whatever comes up as a Rifts GM is probably at least or more important than anything else. Keeping everything "feeling" right is the true art.

[TeeAychEeMarchHare]

You pretty much hit everything I can think of. The hardest part IMO is designing an adventure that will work for your typical mixed group. That's part of why, when I had a group I GM'ed for, I made the players make characters at the same time and keep it right around the same power level, and I'm definitely not above disallowing certain classes/races for PC use.