Jab's Rifts Builds (Rifts- A Final Summation!)

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catsi563
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Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (DINOSAUR POWER ARMOR!)

Post by catsi563 »

yeah Vampires and Atlantis introduced the concept of Intelligences to the Rifts universe from Paladium Fantasy and Supernatural. The god like beings with 10s if not 100s of thousands of MDC so powerful that you needed rune weapons to evne try and harm them and most rune weapons were just as nasty as the beings they were supposed to kill in the first place.
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Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (DINOSAUR POWER ARMOR!)

Post by Sidious »

Jabroniville wrote: Mon Apr 01, 2019 4:13 am My friend Paul's second character was actually a Felinoid (he's an anime fan) Blood Rider, with a dino named "Reecher" :). Alas, I don't have that book.
LOL that may be for the best. It has a city with the remainder of the mutant animals. two words "Mutant Capybara" .
Rifts Atlantis seems like the big dog, and is arguably the one most responsible for the legendary "Power Creep", much as Siembieda apparently likes to blame CJ Carella. Multiple things in here have THOUSANDS of MDC, Look at all that Kittani crap in the second part of the book. Making that the "Upper Tier" just made later writers want to equal it.
This may be a thread all in itself. There's a LOT going on with Atlantis.
Triax and the NGR appears to be horrendously-mighty, as well. I only have the second book, but the shop close to me has the first, and most of the Power Armor in it is SIGNIFICANTLY better than anything the Coalition got until Coalition War Machine, and even THEN, they have 50-foot-tall super-mechs with thousands of MDC. And their Gargoyles are actually tougher than DRAGONS from the looks of things, hitting 1D6x100 MDC! NGR 2, which features ADVANCED versions of all this tech (and fits the usual Palladium M.O. of "Well, our artist drew it, so..." with literally dozens of similar-looking suits with the same general attacks and stats), is even higher. Then even have stronger versions of the GLITTER BOYS!!

It's actually kind of neat that while the writers are clearly in love with the Coalition States, Tolkeen and Atlantis, that the Triax/NGR thing is actually the source of most of the world's super-powered stuff. Most writers would have made America the center of power, but both South America & Germany seem to have its number.
It has some interesting mechanics in it. Like how radioactive rounds actually prevent supernatural beings from using bio-regeneration. Not to mention the borgs and bots. it's definitely worth the read. The Gargoyle Kingdom is interesting But I'm more of a fan of The Mindwerks book.

Still for Europe you have England (and the most incompetent Alien Intelligence ever at manipulating people. But Nexus Knights do make great Stormtroopers. Rifts Africa and the 4 horsemen and necromancy is a strong contender, while the Phoenix Empire is pretty blah, the piece on the Egyptian Gods is nice.
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Voodoo Priest

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

”Look, were not making Rifts Central America, okay? So this has to be in THIS book.”

VOODOO PRIEST O.C.C.
Role:
Spiritual Wizard
PL 3 (86 + Magic & Loa), PL 6 (86 + Magic & Loa) to Undead
STRENGTH
1 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 5 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 2

Skills:
Expertise (Survival) 5 (+7)
Expertise (Magic) 8 (+10)
Perception 5 (+7)
Persuasion 5 (+7)
Stealth 3 (+5)
Treatment 6 (+8)

Advantages:
Close Attack 2, Equipment 2 (Survival Gear), Fast Grab, Sidekick xx (Loa), Ranged Attack 4, Tracking

Powers:
"Commune With Spirits" Comprehend 2 (Spirits) [4]
"Turn Dead" Mind Control 6 (Extras: Area- 60ft. Burst +2) (Flaws: Touch Range -2, Limited to Undead, Limited to Leaving) (12) -- [13]
  • AE: "Excorcism" Mind Control 5 (Extras: Area- 60ft. Burst +2, Continuous) (Flaws: Touch Range -2, Source- Ritual, Limited to Evil Beings, Limited to Leaving) (10)
"Magic Powers"

Offense:
Unarmed +5 (+1 Damage, DC 16)
Initiative +0

Defenses:
Dodge +5 (DC 15), Parry +5 (DC 15), Toughness +2, Fortitude +5, Will +3

Complications:
Various

Total: Abilities: 36 / Skills: 32--16 / Advantages: 9 + Loa / Powers: 17 + Powers / Defenses: 8 (86 + Magic & Loa)

-Voodoo Priests are given only a short bio in the book, explaining that the perception that they are all evil is a misconception. They are explained in the section about "Bahia", one of many island-nations in the northern part of South America. They have four spells per level until Level 5, at which point they can only take two, and have a few minor Spirit-related spells, including a 6-hour ritual that can near-permanently banish any evil spirt. Not much of a combat class (it's said only 30% possess any sort of Bio or Techno-Wizard Weapons). One of their key powers is the ability to control a single Loa (spirit)... with a 55% chance at Level 2. You roll again every two levels thereafter... meaning that lucky Voodoo Priests can have SEVERAL Loa minions, while an unlucky player might NEVER attain one of the major class features! Oh, RIFTS.

-Loa, the animated spirits of the dead, typically have decent-ish stats (2-3), reasonable MDC (+7-8 Toughness), can Fly, and are impervious to nearly all damage. They may possess non-magical beings (they get a save vs. Magic), boost their stats a bit (+1-2, typically), and fight using them. They also gain two Super-Psionic Powers based off of the personality of the deceased person. They actually have a hell of a lot of attacks, too.
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Atlantean Monster-Hunter

Post by Jabroniville »

ATLANTEAN MONSTER-HUNTER O.C.C.
Role:
Monster Hunters

-A side thing with no art, this is a modification of the Atlantean Undead Slayer class from Rifts Atlantis, and adds some new Tattoo Magic. It's pretty clear that the designers are WAY into the idea of "Atlanteans" and "Tattoo Magic", though neither had that much effect on other books- it just gets brought up a LOT in the books I own. I'll add stuff for the Atlanteans when I get to their book, but these are an MDC-sporting class. They will start with 15 tattoos (with the types noted- 1 Weapon, 2 Magic Weapons, 2 Animals, 2 Monsters, 4 Monster-Shaping, 3 Powers, and one additional from any category). The "Monster-Shaping" Tattoos are new- you have to spend your Psychic Energy points and can "transform" (actually a false-body around the Atlantean, as they are immune to transformation effects). A single tattoo of a creature can turn the Atlantean into that form and give it the same stats- Gargoyles, Ogres, Trolls, Dragons (!!), Sphinxes, etc. The only issue is you can't copy senses, flight, Regeneration or energy attacks. But yeah, you can turn into a 400-600 MDC creature for a couple of rounds.
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Manoa

Post by Jabroniville »

MANOA:
-Fatal & Friends made the sad assertion that Rifts South America isn't as good as you remember it; I think stuff like Manoa's region is part of the reason why. The most accurate depiction of the mythical El Dorado (and said to be the true basis for most of the tales, as it was once a part of Earth until only a few generations ago), it's... basically a Mary Suetopia. Some lost True Atlanteans, Amazons & Healess People formed a society that works perfectly, has a just rulership and head council, and all are valued. Hell, these Atlanteans aren't even the typical "We want to rule because we know best, and we don't share things with lesser races, whom we view as children"- these are NICE Atlanteans who share everything with all (there's only a minor bit that says some are condescending and it creates strife). It's... bland and boring. A world of no flaws.
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Amazon

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

AMAZON R.C.C.
Role:
Hot Amazons (Literally), Blood Knights
PL 8 (109 + Magic/Psionics)
STRENGTH
7 STAMINA 5 AGILITY 4
FIGHTING 6 DEXTERITY 3
INTELLIGENCE 0 AWARENESS 1 PRESENCE 2

Skills:
Athletics 4 (+11)
Expertise (Survival) 7 (+8)
Perception 7 (+8)
Stealth 2 (+6)

Advantages:
All-Out Attack, Equipment 4 (MDC Guns & Armor), Languages (Various), Ranged Attack 3, Tracking

Powers:
Protection 4 (Extras: Impervious 5) [9]
Regeneration 4 [4]
Senses 1 (Low-Light Vision) [1]
"MDC Punch" Strength-Damage +2 [2]
Speed 2 (8 mph) [2]
Immunity 2 (Heat, Cold) [2]
Immunity 21 (Heat & Cold Damage, Aging) (Flaws: Limited to Half-Effect) [11]

"Magic or Psionics"
(Magic as Mystic; Psionic as Master Psionic, with 8 lesser powers w/ Psi-Sword & Psi-Shield)

Offense:
Unarmed +6 (+9 Damage, DC 24)
Initiative +1

Defenses:
Dodge +6 (DC 16), Parry +6 (DC 16), Toughness +9 (+3 Impervious), Fortitude +6, Will +4

Complications:
Responsibility (Amazonian Tenets)- Amazons are rigidly moral, fighty, decisive, outspoken and competitive. They do not suffer weak people gladly.

Total: Abilities: 56 / Skills: 20--10 / Advantages: 6 / Powers: 31 + Magic-Psionics / Defenses: 6 (109 + Magic/Psionics)

-The Amazon R.C.C. is descended from tribal women who were befriended by Atlanteans following the disappearance of Atlantis from Earth centuries ago- they were magicked into being super-powerful beings, and they grew into powerful defenders. They are brassy, loud, confident warriors who hate indecisive, self-indulgent or dishonorable people, and make this known. The book explains that the all-female Amazons frequently take mates from other races, and most of their children are female, but the relationships seldom work out- their high standards, obsessive soldiering, and more all result in a saying "as rare as a happily-married Amazon".

-I think the picture is supposed to be sexy and fanservicey, but the way the artist drew the Amazon's mouth has always been odd- those extra lines right beside the mouth, and the odd shape of the mouth as well, kind of mess up the whole image. Also it's funny how she's in the "Fur Bikini" mode when the bio lists the 70 MDC armor the R.C.C. is expected to wear.

-Amazons are fierce combatants, and even get MAGIC OR PSIONICS, making them a truly upper-tier R.C.C.- never mind that this doesn't even include their potential O.C.C.s. An Amazon can have between 30-180 MDC (not including armor), and does as much damage unarmed as a DRAGON HATCHLING, meaning they are quite a bit more dangerous than a Crazy or a Juicer are. This is the kind of thing bolstering the "CJ Carella Powergamed up Rifts" argument.
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Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (DINOSAUR POWER ARMOR!)

Post by Jabroniville »

The infamous Bill Coffin "Rifts Greenland" diatribe, in full:
quote:

One of Kevin's biggest problems is that he is a micro-manager in the truest sense of the word. He runs an operation where ultimately, every single decision must go through him, and frankly, that's too much for one person to do and still keep up a company whose primary asset is a steady stream of new intellectual property. He's still living this fantasy where he thinks he can oversee everything himself and still go home and bang out a great sourcebook in seven days. Do you see the folly in this? You do? Well, bully for you, because Kevin sure doesn't.

This is where another big problem of his comes forth and compounds his first problem: Kevin simply cannot accept the fact that sometimes he is wrong or might have fallen short in something. Work with the guy long enough, and you'll see this is the case. He never, ever accepts responsibility for something bad that has hapened to the company. Or if he does, he couches it in terms of how he's too much of a nice guy and gave Idiot Freelancer #23 a break when he should not have, or he was too open a boss and let Treacherous Scumbag #44 stab him in the back, and so on. His fault, but not really his fault.

As a result, he surrounds himself with people that he can shunt blame to, ignoring all the while that you can't really shunt anything away from yourself in a company where you are the one guy who ultimately approves every single thing that happens. But, he does it anyway, which is why when an order gets boggled, it's one of his worker's fault. When he can't get writing at home done, it's the fault of somebody in his family. When he assigns a book to be written, has fully crystallized views on what that book ought to be but does not share them with the writer, and gets a book he didn't expect, why, that's the writer's fault. When the distributors don't order 8,000 copies of his latest book which is three months overdue, it's the tough marketplace's fault.

(IMO, this explains why Kevin holds some measure of disdain for pretty much everybody in his life -- the way he sees it, everybody he comes into contact with lets him down at some point or another. For a guy who feels like he's propping up the efforts of a bunch of halfwits and marginal talents, he still can't see that without all those people, he wouldn't have a company.)

These things have a nasty tendency to pile on top of each other and create vicious circles of which Palladium's goofy production schedule is a great example.

It starts with Kevin receiving a manuscript proposal for Rifts Greenland. Kevin likes the pitch and greenlights the project. Whatever the freelancer's ideas for the book are, Kevin gets jazzed over the concept of the book and develops all on his own what the book ought to be. Only, this is going on while the poor freelancer is writing the book, so surprise, surprise, when the book gets turned in, it's not what Kevin wanted. This is a classic case of somebody hating Black Hawk Down because when they went ot see it, they were in the mood for M*A*S*H. So, Kevin does what he does best, he writes the freelancer a patronizing letter on how excited he was when the project was first pitched and how disapoointed he was that all that promise never materialized. Sometimes, the freelancer doesn't take this well, and he goes off on Kevin, which is never a good thing because then it prompts Kevin to call his other writers, read to them the letters he and Angry Freelancer traded back in forth and lament about how sad it is that there are so few professionals in this business.

But back to work. We now have a Rifts Greenland is not to Kevin's liking, but he wants to put the book out, both because he wants his vision of it realized and because he needs new product. Objectively speaking, it might, in this case, be smart to write off Rifts Greenland and instead put out the book he's been working on himself. Only he can't, because he hasn't been working on a book himself. He's been busy running a company by chewing out the guys in the warehouse, fighting with Disney over preserving his right to sell Rifts tee shirts he'll never produce once the movie comes out, and calling his other freelancers to bitch about how difficult his life is.

Thus, as shipping day looms, Kevin has no Rifts Greenland, and no Mechanoids Space, BTS 2E or whatever he really ought to have been working on all this time. But he's got bills to pay, so he must produce something. And, since he got all fired up about the very idea of Rifts Greenland way back when the project was first introduced, he started pimping the book thirty-two seconds after he received a signed copy of the book contract from the freelancer. So now the public expects Rifts Greenland whether its ready or not. And what's more, he put the book on a release schedule that would only be met if every stage of the book's production goes entirely according to plan.

There are (surprise!) a few problems with this. One, by now Kevin ought to know full well that unless he's got a dependable full-timer writing for him (ala CJ Carella) he hits his schedules a fraction of the time. So, until he goes a year or two hitting every single release date on the nose, he ought to budget 50% more time for his projects than he does. Or at the very least, he should have the decency to not get bent out of shape when his unrealistically planned project goes overdue, further cementing his company's reputation for having one of the most unreliable production schedules in the business.

The second problem at this stage of the game is that Kevin never actually looks at a finished book until it's a few weeks away from its date with the printer. This, my friends, is akin to a flight crew performing a pre-flight check on a plane that is taxiing down the runway. If Kevin were smart, he'd give all incoming manuscripts a full edit the moment they hit his desk a) to see if they are any good and b) to speed the production process along. Kevin's editors would certainly do a better job of making sure the book is what Kevin wants if Kevin molded it a bit himself to begin with.

But no, what happens is Kevin gets the book, often holds on to it for a period of time, then drops it on his editors, who he routinely criticizes for not really being able to edit. Then, 12 days before print time, he expects to be able to do a quick brush-up edit himself on a book that by his reckoning, shouldn't need it anyway. This particular recipe for disaster, in comparison, makes mixing buckshot, nitroglycerine and pistachio ice cream together in a Slurpee machine seem like the next big thing in frozen desserts.

Thus we come to the best part of the process, where Kevin -- already disgruntled because he feels obligated to rewrite Rifts Greenland into what it should have been in the first place, and even further disgruntled because he feels this is pulling him away from the projects he really wants to be working on (even though he really wasn't working on them anyway) -- undergoes a commando rewrite of the project. He's got about two weeks to do it in, a vision of the finished project and about three half-decent ideas ot get him there. Obviously, Kevin can't get blood from a stone, so he writes up some half-strength filler material, knocks about some reprint material, and takes what he likes from the original Rifts Greenland manuscript, giving himself co-credit for having the wisdom to give it a second chance. If he's really hard put, he'll take a look at the art that's already come in and mine it for ideas ("Hmm...this D-bee wasn't in any other books, but it looks cool, so I hereby declare this guy the Grinkle-Nosed Hogtailer R.C.C. Nobody will mind if I reprint the picture, especially once I Xerox it and scribble a few more details on it myself..."). If he's got a freelance writer he works with who he trusts, he'll call them up and ask for a quickie section on something that tangentially refers to Rifts Greenland by the end of the weekend.

What's that, you say? When does he play test any of this stuff? That's a good question. Too bad it's got a bad answer. For starters, he's only got a few days between when he finishes a book and when he gets it out to the printer, so there's no time for a proper shakedown. Not that any of this needs one, don't you know, because the Palladium engine works, it's rock solid, the fans like it judging by the number of books that have sold over the years, and all those jerkoffs over at RPGnet who keep telling him to revamp the engine can kindly take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut. Third, when I was still working for the man, Kevin didn't role-play anymore. He was too busy running a role-playing game company. (Some poor saffron-clad Tibetan is up in the mountains right now trying like hell to wrap his brain around that one.)

Once Kevin's ready for layout, he prints out the whole mess and fires up his wax machine because he still puts these damned things together by hand. What's that? Desktop publishing software? Naw, he's faster without it! To his credit, he lays out the book in fairly decent time, but he also illustrates why all Palladium books have a simple two-column format. Kevin isn't going to cut columns to shape or deviate from formula because he might have to reflow a section of the book, and when he does, all those columns have to be standard or else none of it works. Where this really makes you want to bang your head against the tip of an artillery shell is when he lays out 80% of the book, discovers that he'd like to rename an alphabetically ordered item on page 5 and decides that it would be too much work to reflow the rest of the list. You know how every so often in a Palladium book you'll have a series of NPCs or OCCs or something and one of them is grossly out of alphabetical order? That's why. I used to think it was because Kevin couldn't read the alphabet. Now I know it's because he's truly, madly, deeply in love with putting books together in ways that even Monty Burns would decry as old-fashioned.

Voila! He's finally got Rifts Greenland in the bag and off to the printer. And all it took was him not sleeping for a week (after he already skipped a week's sleep handling the Post Office of the Apocalypse sourcebook fiasco), telling a fresh freelancer to go take a hike, calling up his other workers to say that somehow this might be his best work yet, executing a slapdash layout job, recycling artwork and telling himself over and over again that nobody does it like than he does. In that regard, he's dead on, because 1985 ended way back in NINETEEN EIGHTY FUCKING FIVE.

This is the crazy way in which Kevin Siembieda produces a book. I don't really know exactly how he handles the precise details of managing the rest of his operation, but I always felt that his book production methods set an ominous precedent.

If any good comes out of it, it is all thanks to him. If any bad comes out of it, well, then it's your fault and my fault and that guy's fault and her fault and the industry's fault and the fault of that fucker who sold him a soggy pierogie yesterday and...you get the picture.

What really keeps this vicious cycle going, however, is that for a long time, Kevin was extremely successful working this way. So successful, in fact, that it reinforced all those nasty elements I've outlined so far, proving not only that Kevin was right all along, but that the way he does things is practically the Gospel According to Kevin, patron saint of keeping it real in the RPG industry. Only the GAtK doesn't really work that well anymore. Sales are slipping because the company's premier game seems to have played out its best ideas, its other games don't get much support and -- get this -- the new stuff coming out is largely recycled from a game line that is suffering from falling sales. (There's a Tibetan monk working on that one, too.) And of course, taking the fans' input into consideration for what they'd like to see, such as a simplified core book or a drastically rewritten engine, is simply out of the question. Maybe he's too busy writing up memos about how he gives his fans what they want or something.

But the bottom line is that all is not well, and that some major changes ought to be made to keep the business dynamic and thriving. But those changes keep getting ignored while it gets harder and harder to sell product that is already coming out in smaller print runs and abbreviated page counts. Times are tough, no doubt about that. And you know what? Maybe, just maybe, it's not the industry's fault or some freelancer's fault or the weather's fault, or his pet chinchilla's fault. Maybe it's Kevin's fault.

Naaaaah.
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Ewaipanomas

Post by Jabroniville »

Image

"Say what you will about the bloat of D&D, but even during the worst of the 2E days when they were putting out 20 dollars faux leather books about elf culture and boxed sets that were nothing but maps of the inside of castles, there was never a character class that was this stupid."
-Something Awful, about Titmouth, here.


EWAIPANOMAS R.C.C.
Role:
Who The F*ck Would Play This- Seriously
PL 8 (79)
STRENGTH
8 STAMINA 8 AGILITY 1
FIGHTING 5 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 1 AWARENESS 1 PRESENCE 0

Skills:
Expertise (Survival) 9 (+10)
Perception 7 (+7)
Persuasion 5 (+7)
Stealth 3 (+5)

Advantages:
All-Out Attack, Ranged Attack 4

Powers:
Regeneration 4 [4]
Impervious Toughness 3 [3]

Offense:
Unarmed +5 (+8 Damage, DC 23)
Initiative +1

Defenses:
Dodge +5 (DC 15), Parry +5 (DC 15), Toughness +8, Fortitude +8, Will +4

Complications:
Responsibility (Nature & Magic-Lovers)

Total: Abilities: 48 / Skills: 24--12 / Advantages: 5 / Powers: 7 / Defenses: 7 (79)

-One of the biggest piles of dumb I've ever seen in these books (though it seems that even the BEST World Books out there have to include 1-2 realllllly stupid things), the "Headless Men of the Amazon" really take the cake. With HORRENDOUSLY stupid art sporting a headless guy with a dad-bod and two mouths for tits (large eyes are hidden on his shoulders), he just looks SUPER-dumb. I guess he only takes up a page, and is based off of weird old folklore, but still. These creatures are said to be deposited on Earth thousands of years ago during an Atlantean cataclysm. Beings of magic, many died on a technology-heavy Earth, but they were hardy, and survived until current Rifts stuff happened.

-Ewaipanomas are incredibly strong and powerful (3D6 +20 for Strength, which puts them higher than anyone short of a Juicer at baseline, though they don't seem to get any Mega-Damage attacks), they are usually "Earth Warlocks" or "Stone Masters". Their baseline MDC and power make them some of the strongest Wizards out there, however. Which might make up for the drooly mouth-tits.
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Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Dinosaur Power Armor! Amazons! Headless Men!)

Post by Jabroniville »

Ugh- the glut of dumb stuff in this book reminds me of Coffin’s “Kevin’s three and a half good ideas” remark. So much is perfectly fine, while other classes are boring and terrible. The REALLY bad Siembieda art completely ruins any shot the Felinoids has of being taken seriously, for example (an insult to the gravitas of a Flame Panther).

The trouble comes when it’s time to stat up EVERYTHING- my completionist tendencies mean I end up with a dozen totally uninteresting things to stat, lol. Only sass can make it interesting! Part of me wants to just stat the “good stuff”, but then I’d have to come back and look at things later. Does anyone care if I skip all the wizards?

And I’m still never sure how to stat up an RCC- Template or full build?
Last edited by Jabroniville on Sun Mar 20, 2022 3:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Dinosaur Power Armor! Amazons! Headless Men!)

Post by catsi563 »

RCCs are usualy just a template but like the amazon above having a full build to riff off of cant hurt your cause any

as for the wizards I have the magic book fed of magic and original rifts books so if you want help let me know
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Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Dinosaur Power Armor! Amazons! Headless Men!)

Post by Jabroniville »

I have the same books too, I’m just saying I hate statting them and find it incredibly boring to go over any of their magic powers, so I might just dump “just some notes” things instead of builds.
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Tribal Shaman

Post by Jabroniville »

TRIBAL SHAMAN O.C.C.
Role:
Shaman, Native Stereotypes
PL 7 (86 + Magic)
STRENGTH
1 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 5 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 2

Skills:
Expertise (Survival) 5 (+7)
Expertise (Magic) 8 (+10)
Expertise (Music) 4 (+6)
Perception 5 (+7)
Persuasion 5 (+7)
Stealth 3 (+5)
Treatment 6 (+8)

Advantages:
Equipment 4 (Survival Gear, Biomancer Weapons), Ranged Attack 4, Tracking

Powers:
"Communicate With Animal & Plant Spirits" Comprehend 4 (Speak to & Understand Plants & Animals) (Flaws: Limited to Limited Images & Concepts) [4]
"Turn Dead" Mind Control 6 (Extras: Area- 60ft. Burst +2) (Flaws: Touch Range -2, Limited to Undead, Limited to Leaving) (12) -- [13]
  • AE: "Excorcism" Mind Control 5 (Extras: Area- 60ft. Burst +2, Continuous) (Flaws: Touch Range -2, Source- Ritual, Limited to Evil Beings, Limited to Leaving) (10)
"Magic Powers" (6 spells from Levels 1-2)

Equipment:
"Biomancer Weapon" Strength-Damage +8 (Flaws: Ranks above +2 Limited to After Spending Psychic Points) (5)
Armor +5 (5)

Offense:
Unarmed +5 (+1 Damage, DC 16)
Biomancer Weapon +5 (+3-9 Damage, DC 18-24)
Initiative +3

Defenses:
Dodge +5 (DC 15), Parry +5 (DC 15), Toughness +2 (+8 Armor), Fortitude +5, Will +5

Complications:
Responsibility (Nature)- Tribal Shamans are animistic types.

Total: Abilities: 36 / Skills: 36--18 / Advantages: 9 / Powers: 17 + Powers / Defenses: 10 (86 + Magic)

-The section on the "Rain Forest" details what the more tribal aspects of South America are like. And of course the art features a native tribesman with a HUGE feather going through his nose, which feels a bit funny in a book like this. The later book Rifts: Spirit West features more of the same, as Earth's "aboriginal" cultures are nearly always, always, ALWAYS seen as featuring the most stereotypical "Native Shaman Guys who worship the trees and love all living things". They copy some stuff the Voodoo Priest can do, but are pretty awful overall- they get two more spells than Priests do, but only from Level 1-2 instead of 1-4! Though they are said to have access to one weapon and some armor- Voodoo Priests are said to have small percentages.
Jabroniville
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Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Dinosaur Power Armor! Amazons! Headless Men!)

Post by Jabroniville »

It's kind of funny, but just looking around some of the other books, I'm reminded of just how much effort the writers took into trapping players in their respective lands at first. "Go past Texas? NOPE- Vampires" "Travel by water? NOPE- random encounters the whole way". "Go into space? NOPE- inexplicable space debris wipes out everything, otherwise that's too easy a workaround" Every nation seems to be completely blocked in by "Here Be Dragons" nonsense, all Excuse Plots to keep the heroes somewhat limited as to where they can go.
Jabroniville
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Totem Warrior

Post by Jabroniville »

TOTEM WARRIOR O.C.C.
Role:
Native Stereotypes, Animorphs
PL 7-8 (79 + Magic)
STRENGTH
1 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 5 DEXTERITY 0
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 2 PRESENCE 2

Skills:
Expertise (Survival) 5 (+7)
Expertise (Magic) 8 (+10)
Perception 5 (+7)
Persuasion 5 (+7)
Stealth 3 (+5)
Treatment 6 (+8)

Advantages:
Equipment 4 (Survival Gear, Biomancer Weapons), Fast Grab, Ranged Attack 4, Tracking

Powers:
"Totem Gifts"
Protection 6 (Extras: Impervious) (Flaws: Source- 1 Round of Dancing) [6]

Animal Powers:
"Anaconda" (ST +4, +1 Toughness, Athletics +6, Damage +4)
"Crocodile" (ST +4, +1 Toughness, Swimming 2, Damage +7)
"Falcon" (Flight 5- Winged, Low-Light & Extended Vision, Damage +2, Defenses +1)
"Frog" (Leaping 1, Athletics 8, Speed 2, Defenses +2)
"Jaguar" (ST +4, AGI +1, FIGHTING +2, Athletics +8, Low-Light Vision, Speed 3)
"Monkey" (AGI +2, Defenses +2, Athletics +8)
"Tapir" (ST +5, Speed 1, +1 Toughness)

"Magic Powers" (6 spells from Levels 1-2)

Equipment:
"Biomancer Weapon" Strength-Damage +8 (Flaws: Ranks above +2 Limited to After Spending Psychic Points) (5)
Armor +5 (5)

Offense:
Unarmed +5 (+1 Damage, DC 16)
Biomancer Weapon +5 (+3-9 Damage, DC 18-24)
Totem Weapons +5 (+1-12 Damage, DC 17-27)
Initiative +3

Defenses:
Dodge +5 (DC 15), Parry +5 (DC 15), Toughness +2 (+9 Totem Gift), Fortitude +5, Will +5

Complications:
Responsibility (Nature)- Tribal Shamans are animistic types.

Total: Abilities: 36 / Skills: 32--16 / Advantages: 11 / Powers: 6 + Totem Gifts / Defenses: 10 (79 + Totem Gifts)

-Totem Warriors, being more Aboriginal Stereotypes, transform into animals. Of course, this being South America, the picture is of a large tiger. In the two itty-bitty paragraphs devoted to this class (seriously, could Carella BE more half-assing it by this point with the "uh, South American natives have spirit animals too, right?" nonsense?), it's said to be a class devoted to those who have a special link to their spiritual guide animals.

-These guys actually aren't so bad if you take the right stuff, though they notably only get ONE animal choice and that's it. So like, you can be a bad-ass Anaconda, Crocodile or Jaguar... or you can be a Frog or Monkey or something, and take the option that's slightly faster (but worse than any Robot Armor) and worse at fighting in every way. You can also play a Tapir, called a "South American Boar" in brackets, because presumably nobody had a National Geographic handy. In the end, you are at PL 8- a semi-solid fighter who nonetheless is barely as good as anyone in armor with a gun.
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JDRook
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Location: The Calgary Rift - City of Monsters

Re: Jab's Rifts Builds (Dinosaur Power Armor! Amazons! Headless Men!)

Post by JDRook »

Jabroniville wrote: Fri Apr 05, 2019 6:40 am It's kind of funny, but just looking around some of the other books, I'm reminded of just how much effort the writers took into trapping players in their respective lands at first.
Interesting; I'd never considered that before. It's not a concern in fantasy and post-apocalyptic RPG settings because vast distances usually mean days/weeks/months travel even ignoring the dangers on the way, but in a high-tech/high-magic world where logically there should be supersonic flight and global teleportation, you need to really up the ante to keep powerful PCs from just jetsetting around.

I guess there's the value of campaign focus, and the added benefit of "we haven't written/published that part of the world yet", but now I'm curious what would be the effect of something like a reliable and ubiqutous global telecommunication system on Rifts Earth? Maybe a ley-line based internet?
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