Before and After Sourcebooks

[DevastationBob]

Has anyone played in an area before it was detailed in the Rifts setting and then had the adventure radically changed because what was written didn't match to what you'd played? I.E. We played in New York City long before Madhaven was written, and all we encountered were blind morlocks riding around on giant albino alligators. Granted, that may not be the most extreme example, but does anyone want to share their experience?

[DhAkael]

Has anyone played in an area before it was detailed in the Rifts setting and then had the adventure radically changed because what was written didn't match to what you'd played? I.E. We played in New York City long before Madhaven was written, and all we encountered were blind morlocks riding around on giant albino alligators. Granted, that may not be the most extreme example, but does anyone want to share their experience?

Actually, my Madhaven is even NASTIER as the city itself is semi-sentient in places and does not like trespassers.
Thus, the Madhaven sourcebook, which IS well written pretty much fell short of how I portrayed my NY so I didn't bother purchasing the book OR modifying my campaign.
Ditto with Thundercloud galaxy; great book which I did buy, but my galaxy map is better than what was given, so mine is extant, while the 'official' one is not.
I pretty much refuse to alter how I portray my settings if PBooks has been too slow / Lazy to detail them. When and IF a Lazlo worldbook comes along, I'll just leave it on the store shelf, as I happen to live in Toronto, base most of my campaigns in Lazlo and have THOURGHLY developed the city, personalities and locations beyond anything PBooks could offer.

[Witchcraft]

I have detailed a thorough outline and fleshed-out a very meaty New Calgary: The Demon Kingdom. It'll be interesting to see just how prescient I am when the MIF is actually released.

[kronos]

Has anyone played in an area before it was detailed in the Rifts setting and then had the adventure radically changed because what was written didn't match to what you'd played? I.E. We played in New York City long before Madhaven was written, and all we encountered were blind morlocks riding around on giant albino alligators. Granted, that may not be the most extreme example, but does anyone want to share their experience?

Actually, my Madhaven is even NASTIER as the city itself is semi-sentient in places and does not like trespassers.
Thus, the Madhaven sourcebook, which IS well written pretty much fell short of how I portrayed my NY so I didn't bother purchasing the book OR modifying my campaign.
Ditto with Thundercloud galaxy; great book which I did buy, but my galaxy map is better than what was given, so mine is extant, while the 'official' one is not.
I pretty much refuse to alter how I portray my settings if PBooks has been too slow / Lazy to detail them. When and IF a Lazlo worldbook comes along, I'll just leave it on the store shelf, as I happen to live in Toronto, base most of my campaigns in Lazlo and have THOURGHLY developed the city, personalities and locations beyond anything PBooks could offer.

You're in Toronto? I'm just north of you then. Up near the airport, home of where the Avro Arrow was made. Anyone who knows aviation history, and some Canadian history will have an idea of where I am.

And on topic.. last time I played in a full campaign, I look at the books that released after the game was over and noticed that if we had those books then, parts of the campaign would have gone a fair bit differently.

[Bill]

This has never been an issue for me. Mostly because I've never had a Rifts game run long enough to force me to choose between what I'd made up and what was published. My current game might run into the problem though. It's based around Ishpeming and Manistique, which could come out some time soonish.

[Razzinold]

Has anyone played in an area before it was detailed in the Rifts setting and then had the adventure radically changed because what was written didn't match to what you'd played? I.E. We played in New York City long before Madhaven was written, and all we encountered were blind morlocks riding around on giant albino alligators. Granted, that may not be the most extreme example, but does anyone want to share their experience?

Actually, my Madhaven is even NASTIER as the city itself is semi-sentient in places and does not like trespassers.
Thus, the Madhaven sourcebook, which IS well written pretty much fell short of how I portrayed my NY so I didn't bother purchasing the book OR modifying my campaign.
Ditto with Thundercloud galaxy; great book which I did buy, but my galaxy map is better than what was given, so mine is extant, while the 'official' one is not.
I pretty much refuse to alter how I portray my settings if PBooks has been too slow / Lazy to detail them. When and IF a Lazlo worldbook comes along, I'll just leave it on the store shelf, as I happen to live in Toronto, base most of my campaigns in Lazlo and have THOURGHLY developed the city, personalities and locations beyond anything PBooks could offer.

You're in Toronto? I'm just north of you then. Up near the airport, home of where the Avro Arrow was made. Anyone who knows aviation history, and some Canadian history will have an idea of where I am.

And on topic.. last time I played in a full campaign, I look at the books that released after the game was over and noticed that if we had those books then, parts of the campaign would have gone a fair bit differently.

@DhAkael if you're in Toronto then I work about 40 minutes east of you along the 401 (well depending which part you live in), travel another 15 minutes east and that's where I live.

@kronos - I don't know Canadian aviation history with a damn but I am strong in the ways of Google, so now I know where you live, just like anyone with a map can deduce where I work and live, lol Ironically enough if you also know your Canadian history you know that the original building of where I work was used to build shells for the war, there used to be train tracks running right into our main building.

As to the topic at hand.

I like to read the official source material and cherry pick what I like. Our campaigns were always a one off kind of thing and there was no continuity in the world. I might take the layout from Merc Town and use it for a town out of New West in one game and use the same write up as the actual Merc Town in another. I also like to make up my own material/details as well. After a few different campaigns my old GM had continuity between campaigns but we also stayed the same pcs for years.

This is something I plan to change though.

I will be starting a new campaign and I plan on making this a living breathing world where no matter which new PCs they play they could run into familiar NPCS (possibly there previous pcs). I will be basing this game out of Lazlo and I will write up my own ideas for it, if/when a book comes out I will read it and probably add some details from it. Obviously my world won't be as detailed as DhAkeal's (since this is my first time using Lazlo) I would be more open to using official material to help flesh out my version of it. So starting with this game, in which the characters won't even have to leave Lazlo to complete, I plan on maintaining this "world" and branch out from there with each campaign I run after.

[DhAkael]

This has never been an issue for me. Mostly because I've never had a Rifts game run long enough to force me to choose between what I'd made up and what was published. My current game might run into the problem though. It's based around Ishpeming and Manistique, which could come out some time soonish.

OOF. You have my sympathies.

[Razzinold]

This has never been an issue for me. Mostly because I've never had a Rifts game run long enough to force me to choose between what I'd made up and what was published. My current game might run into the problem though. It's based around Ishpeming and Manistique, which could come out some time soonish.

OOF. You have my sympathies.

Well, it's not like you are forced to change your settings. What type of players do you have in your group ? Do they purchase every new book that comes out and reads/memorizes them all ?

I was lucky in my last group there was only 1 or 2 guys that had everything memorized but where cool about any changes I made (they didn't even mention them at the table). Another player was a long time player who read everything at one point but couldn't remember and had to constantly look things up so he wasn't aware of any changes I made (my wife falls into this category as well although she isn't as long time of a player as him). The rest were newer players so they wouldn't even know the difference.

[keir451]

I have a very detailed West Coast that is totally different from anything Palladium has even hinted at so far, I also once went through and set up my own Rifts Space long before MiO came out.

[MikelAmroni]

Florida was different for me, but then again what I had was pretty crappy, so it didn't much matter. I used an old Robotech Adventure, changed the Zentraedi to a group of giant rats called the Rattoni, and had the group be a mixed CS squad operating off the CS Submersible carrier. I kinda had the idea that I'd have the Rattoni take over the remains of Disney (the rat/mouse thing). I also had a group of New Navy break away in Jacksonville (J-Ville) - basically yet another high tech hold out in the middle of no where (cause north america needs that). Instead Todd Yoho crafted an original and compelling place full of mystery and adventure, and if I REALLY want to, I can still use that same scenario.

[Bill]

This has never been an issue for me. Mostly because I've never had a Rifts game run long enough to force me to choose between what I'd made up and what was published. My current game might run into the problem though. It's based around Ishpeming and Manistique, which could come out some time soonish.

OOF. You have my sympathies.

Well, it's not like you are forced to change your settings. What type of players do you have in your group ? Do they purchase every new book that comes out and reads/memorizes them all ?

I was lucky in my last group there was only 1 or 2 guys that had everything memorized but where cool about any changes I made (they didn't even mention them at the table). Another player was a long time player who read everything at one point but couldn't remember and had to constantly look things up so he wasn't aware of any changes I made (my wife falls into this category as well although she isn't as long time of a player as him). The rest were newer players so they wouldn't even know the difference.

I'm honestly not expecting there to be a real issue. I'm the one most likely to try and reconcile the story I've told with what ends up published. And the only thing I really want to keep is the abandoned hive city I put over the ruins of Marquette. I doubt that will be too tough to do.

[Icefalcon]

I have run in almost every area of North America covered by sourcebooks later released. I will keep running into this problem with the list of upcoming books. The difference is, I only incorporate what I want from the books for any current campaign. If I start a new game, I can change things then.