I have to say that I have enjoyed reading this thread. Keep up the good work!
The thing aboug RIFTS that makes me laugh is that it's basically the ultimate F.U. to roleplayers. It even tries to sucker them out by making OCCs that are ostensibly playable while being completely worthless.
GM: "So you want to be the street thug who was born into destitution, and through his wily nature was able to run an underground network of thugs and urchins?"
You: "Yeah, that's right"
GM: "Ok, so you have (rolls 3d6) 11 followers with submachine guns and connections in the underground."
You: "Sweet!"
GM: "A coalition soldier jumps you, he's wearing power armor, but he doesn't actually do anything. He glowers at you impressively."
You: "I order my guys to take cover and attack him, focusing on any weak spots we can find on his armor!"
GM: *rolls dice without even looking* You all hit, but since you have crappy S.D.C. weapons you can't hurt him, no matter how long he stands there ignoring you.
GM: *rolls dice without even looking* With his 8 attacks he kills you and 7 of your buddies.
Welcome to the "It's About Goddamn Time, Zed, Seriously" edition of our ongoing Let's Read of Rifts. It's been entirely too long since the last one, I know. Hopefully the server will see fit to cooperate with this new installment.
We're breaking our hiatus with one of my personal favorite classes; the Mystic. Outside of the 3 or 4 available flavors of druids, these folks are the hippiest, dippiest, trippiest spellcasters in Rifts. In a somewhat original at the time subversion of the traditional nerdy, studious wizard image.
"It's like, full of colors, man."
You see, instead of years of magical training or techno-magical tinkering, Mystics spend 6 days meditating in the woods (psychadelics suggested but not required) and at the end of that time they know a half dozen low level spells and have a decent sized suite of psychic powers that skews toward the sensitive (astral projection, object sense, etc). What takes others decades takes these guys under a week.
"I have a PhD in Interplanar Travel."
Other than the spellcasting and psionics, the Mystic gets a couple of special abilities. The first is a sensitivity to supernatural evil, which is pretty ubiquitous among psionic classes. It's available to at least 2 other R.C.C.s in the main book, and it seems to be something that just got thrown into practically every class printed in any of the 30+ World Books. I'm only being mildly hyperbolic here; it's seriously everywhere. While it's not terribly special, it is pretty useful depending on how your DM handles the whole supernatural and/or evil thing, so there's that.
The other special ability they get is quite a bit more flashy. "Opening oneself to the Supernatural" might be an incredibly awkward ability name, but the ability itself is actually pretty useful if you're ok with standing motionless and not taking any actions for it to work. Basically, the Mystic amps up their psychic reception to be more aware of disturbances in the Force, and they become invisible to mystical detection as well as the naked eye. You just can't fight, cast spells, talk or really do anything while in this state. For balance, obviously.
Ok, since this entry is a little lighter on content than some of the previous ones have been, it seems like a decent time to showcase some of the actual spells that can be learned and cast in Rifts. Today we have 3; one utility, one offensive and one that is completely balls to the wall ridiculous.
1. Globe of Daylight
A small globe or sphere of true daylight is magically created. The light is bright enough to light up a 12ft (3.6m) area per each level of its creator's experience.
Unlike some other, lesser, systems with their lame spells that simply create light, Rifts lets you summon the essence of the sun itself as a Level 1 spell. The distinction is largely pointless, but still, this version is way more AWESOME.
The obvious exception, of course, is the case of vampire attack. As it turns out, being able to turn night into day in an instant is fairly devastating to those who are harmed by sunlight. And honestly, vampires are so common in most Rifts games I've seen that this spell is worth having specifically for this eventuality, even if you can already see perfectly in the dark.
"Suck that! Instead of me. Oh please god don't suck me."
2. Fire Bolt
Like the energy bolt, the mage can create and direct a bolt of fire. Bonus to strike is +4. Damage is normally 4D6 M.D.C., or 1D6 x 10 S.D.C. (the mage can adjust the damage).
Effective, if not terribly inspiring. Direct damage spells don't show up until level 3, and this is the level 4 option (we'll be covering the earlier ones in a couple of weeks with the Techno Wizard). The mage conjures a ball of fire and hurls it at their target. The ability to do mega damage while otherwise unarmed can be extremely powerful, but as magic goes this spell is fairly bland otherwise.
"It'sa me, Marionificus The Malevolent."
3. Blood and Thunder
Any mortal practitioners of magic within the range of this spell can be targeted and bestowed with a wild and furious magical energy that tranforms them into berserk engines of destruction.
This is a "Spell of Legend", and the effects reflect it. "Within the range" is everyone within 100 feet of the caster per caster level. So that otherwise peaceful druid in his grove 1500 feet away from the conflict zone suddenly goes Omega Sentinel on every squirrel in sight.
The "berserk engines of destruction part" involves giving the targets 50 M.D.C. per caster level and letting them throw hugely damaging bolts of energy for the duration of the spell, once per round for every attack they have. And they regenerate M.D.C at a high rate as well. If your goal is to turn your tired, beaten and nearly routed collection of wizards into a horde of pre-Crisis DC superheroes, this is your ticket.
For when you really, really need every spellcaster in the county to go super saiyan.
The catch? It takes 750 P.P.E. to cast. In a system where the typical mage has 60 or so. Basically only usable on a ley line, or if you're a god. But boy howdy, this is one hell of a party trick.
Having gotten a chance to look over the 3E Mutants and Masterminds players guide, it really looks like a system that could handle the ridiculousness of Rifts pretty well.
I might be taking a shot at some "starting packages" and gear conversions to see if I can make it fly.
The problem with casting is that many external sources of magic are firmly entrenched. Great if you're playing defense, but if you want to venture out? A pyramid isn't going anywhere, and while ley lines are pretty common, they're not everywhere you want to be. And it's hard to ask a CS trooper to stand over near that nexus over there so you can really let him have it. And while sacrificing orphans is fine for your average diabolical Ley Line Walker, good to selfish PC's tend to stay away from anything that atrocious.
That said, once you reach a high enough level (and I typically allowed my mages to start at level 4, just so they could survive a minor conflict) you tend to get access to some really decent spells which reduce any need for technical reliance. I also recall upping the PPE that characters start with as well as what they gain per level, just for the sake of game play. It really felt like it needed some balancing, especially when you take into account the power creep of all the technology through the later world books.
Welcome back to your ongoing Let's Read series for the Rifts roleplaying game. Today we're looking at the third of the four spellcasters in the main book; The Shifter.
Like the Ley Line Walkers, Shifters have to study to learn their magic. None of that cop out meditation stuff here, no sir. Unlike the Walkers, though, Shifters don't get all the crazy drifting/teleporting/communication stuff. The only things they really get that involves ley lines are the ability to sense rifts, and to automatically rift to their home dimension for 150 P.P.E. (5.3 Orphans) if they can find a nexus point.
The reason these abilities are useful for Shifters is that they spend a lot of time traveling. Members of this class are some of the only people on earth who actively seek out the opportunity to be eaten by exotic creatures in other dimensions. For this reason, and many others, Shifters have a rather shady reputation for getting themselves and everyone around them into the sort of trouble that requires mega damage fire to repel.
Honey?
Siembieda flat out says in the class write up that these guys and gals are feared and typically ostracized, but he also seems to want to make it very clear that this is an unfair thing to do. You see, in his own words;
These mages have a reputation of being irrational and evil. However, it is an undeserved reputation, for there are as many good and kind shifters as there are good wizards of the other magic occupations.
Well that's a load off my mind. As a squishy human, barely clinging to existence in this planetary hell full of supernatural predators, I'm damn glad that this particular threat that can obliterate me with a thought has the same chance of being a moral, upstanding dude as that other threat that can obliterate me with a thought. Glad we could get that call on the relative moral standings of the various obliteration delivery systems.
"I'm really a very nice person."
With that settled, let's look at the rest of the class features. Can cast spells, has a P.P.E. base to use for that, blah blah. Nothing too exciting.
Oh, wait. They get a pet!;
Familiar link. The shifter can mentally and physically link with an animal or creature from a rift/D-Bee animal (animal intelligence
and not supernatural). Generally, the animal of choice is a small, inconspicuous animal like a weasel, squirrel, bat, bird, cat, dog, wolf, etc., so that it can be used for spying and reconnaissance. However, larger animals like tigers, lions, and bears can also be used. Insects and intelligent mutant animals can not be used as familiars.
Woo. It's kinda useful I guess, but it always kind of felt tacked on to me. Having a bear that you dress in mega damage barding and equip with vibro-claws might be pretty darn awesome. Winnie the Pain.
And Tigger too.
It's really their other ability, though, that defines the class. I'll just let Siembieda explain why;
Link to the Supernatural! Just as the shifter can connect himself to an animal familiar, he can also connect himself to a supernatural force. The supernatural force must be a greater being such as a greater elemental, demon lord, alien god, or alien intelligence. This union is much more dangerous, for while it bestows upon the shifter great power, it also gives a powerful alien/supernatural force a physical link to our world. Almost always an evil force!
Shorter version: Sell your soul to an eldritch horror for fun and profit.
Best Case Scenario:
Far More Likely:
Obviously, this isn't without its risks. Even if you had an extra soul you weren't using, the type of being that would enter into this sort of bargain with you is probably someone you would want to avoid anyway. In this setting, something as obvious as a tentacled horror is probably a much safer bet than an extra-dimensional being that makes an effort to look human, or at least human-ish.
But aside from keeping the dimensional door cracked open for a demon, Old One or vampire intelligence, what's the harm?
And what does the Shifter get for being a dark god's patsy?
Additional 1D6x10 P.P.E., additional 1D4 x 10 physical S.D.C., additional +3 to save vs horror factor, +2 to save vs magic and psionic attacks, and +1 on initiative rolls. Also the shifter will be granted his choice of six additional magic spells selected from magic levels 6-14.
That last part is the big one. Extra spells, especially high level spells, are a big deal. They have huge effects and are hard to get ahold of by normal means. So selling your soul for them might actually be a decent deal.
Speaking of spells, we're at that point in this installment. This time we've got one that is very thematically Shifter, one that is an enormous dick move, and one that is just about the creepiest thing you'll ever see at the table.
1. Summon Lesser Being
Make sure to bring a leash.
An impressive ritual that plucks a supernatural being out of its native dimension and magically places it before the mystic in our world. A specific lesser monster can be summoned if desired, or a random creature can be called for.
This is a level 13 spell, and it costs 425 P.P.E. (15.1 Orphans). You get a "lesser" supernatural being (that's really all the definition you get) to do your bidding for 24 hours per level. You can have them guard a location, go harass your enemies, kidnap a princess and then throw the fight when you come to rescue her, etc. There are definitely worse things to spend the P.P.E. on.
2. Carpet of Adhesion
Please refrain from taunting the D-Bee.
The spell caster creates a sticky carpet, up to 10ft wide by 20ft long, that will adhere firmly to anyone who touches it. The victim will stay stuck until the carpet spell time elapses or until the spell caster cancels the spell. The carpet can be cast on a floor, table, wall, etc., or actually cast upon a person. The spell caster can create this super flypaper up to 90ft (28m) away and can alter the size and shape (without exceeding the stated limit of 200 square feet (18.6 sq.m)).
If you're a wizard, this should be in your spell book. Whether you want a way to reduce enemy mobility, lock down pinch points, stop that raging mob in its tracks or just troll your party Glitter Boy, this is probably the best use of 10 P.P.E. (.4 Orphans) available. It lasts two and a half minutes per level, and if your enemy relies on melee for damage it basically ends the fight right there. It's also only a level 4 spell, so it's not that hard to get ahold of via automatic progression or just buying it from the local guild.
Combo with Gust of Wind, Telekinesis or even just Heavy Breathing to lock down entire opposing forces. If they've got ranged weapons they can still attack you, but they can't even turn around if you move to the other side of them. A++ must have spell.
3. Armor Bizarre
Goddamn it, Brian.
Like the Armor of Ithan spell, Armor Bizarre creates a suit of magical form-fitting force to serve as armor. ... this armor appears to be composed of dozens to hundreds of writhing tentacles...
Armor of Ithan is kind of a standard when it comes to Rifts spell magic, and we'll be covering it next time. This is basically Armor of Ithan, plus tentacles. Just in case playing that Shifter who is basically you with magical powers and a deal with that very specific devil you worked out with the GM wasn't creepy enough, now you can give yourselves tentacles basically at will. 15 P.P.E. (.5 Orphans) is practically nothing to a spellcaster, but the ability to look like the lead in that video you found online is basically priceless, right? You disgust me. I feel like I should shower just remembering this. And that's coming from a guy making dead orphan jokes.
Guh.
Next Time;
It slices, it dices, it tears holes in space-time.
The problem with casting is that many external sources of magic are firmly entrenched. Great if you're playing defense, but if you want to venture out? A pyramid isn't going anywhere, and while ley lines are pretty common, they're not everywhere you want to be. And it's hard to ask a CS trooper to stand over near that nexus over there so you can really let him have it. And while sacrificing orphans is fine for your average diabolical Ley Line Walker, good to selfish PC's tend to stay away from anything that atrocious.
That said, once you reach a high enough level (and I typically allowed my mages to start at level 4, just so they could survive a minor conflict) you tend to get access to some really decent spells which reduce any need for technical reliance. I also recall upping the PPE that characters start with as well as what they gain per level, just for the sake of game play. It really felt like it needed some balancing, especially when you take into account the power creep of all the technology through the later world books.
I just went the easy route and gave people the maximum amount of PPE per level. We also had rules for how much you could carry with you over your maximum (if you overcharged on a ley line, you could have 2x your maximum without it decaying effectively permanently, and 3x but any amount over 2x was going to evaporate at a rate of 1 per minute).
Shifter never felt like a fitting name for what the class did. It sounded like it better described the Ley Line Walker's abilities that focused on travel and getting around. Shifters, to me, were all about their pacts with aliens and gods.
I think my favorite two spells were my anti-juicer combo - Luck Curse and Wisps of Confusion. Both level 8.
Luck Curse removed ALL relevant combat bonuses and made ALL skills fail (-40%)
Wisps of Confusion further reduced strike parry and dodge by -5, and melee attacks by half.
Not bad for a mere 2.6 orphans (80 PPE).
I think another interesting design choice for the book, hard for someone who never read it directly to appreciate, is having the magic explanation and spells section a good 70 pages after the last magic using class. In between are the psionic classes, the psionic section (conveniently after the psionic classes) and a world overview. Later world books tended to put magic and equipment directly after the relevant classes, often dividing equipment, magic and abilities up through the book making them hard to find.
Void Slayer on
He's a shy overambitious dog-catcher on the wrong side of the law. She's an orphaned psychic mercenary with the power to bend men's minds. They fight crime!
RIFTS should win some kind of award for combining the best worldbuilding with the worst possible game system. Even if you were determined to play the game for the story and modified the mechanics at will, they were still broken as fuck.
But the world, man. It basically combines all the best sci-fi setting tropes into a big awesome ball, and I've been hoping forever that some competent writers would get ahold of it and make a cool movie or a videogame or something out of it.
Eat it You Nasty Pig. on
it was the smallest on the list but
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
I know when we played we used a very modified version of the rules. It's been a long time since I've played an active version of the game so I don't remember but I'm pretty sure we just turned everything into a d4, d6 or d20 roll. It was power gaming RIFTS at it's best. As we got into it the GM tried to add more of the core rules into the game to get us used to it but he eventually gave up on that. More for his sanity than ours.
I played a GlitterBoy. At least until the world books stuff started to come out. Eventually I played a super psychic disco ball. I can't believe I never made a Juicer.
Seidkona on
Mostly just huntin' monsters.
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OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
edited April 2011
Autododge ftw.
It's what made Cyclones absolutely disgusting in Robotech--and the veritechs in Macross 2 even more disgusting.
There's probably something wrong with me. I just had this thought "Hey I should run out and get the books again and convert this mess to a playable system and then run a game."
I'm pretty sure that way lies madness.
Seidkona on
Mostly just huntin' monsters.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
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OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
There's probably something wrong with me. I just had this thought "Hey I should run out and get the books again and convert this mess to a playable system and then run a game."
I'm pretty sure that way lies madness.
Or awesomeness. What other system has magic, mecha, psionics, dimensional shifting, cybernetics and no balance whatsoever?
There's probably something wrong with me. I just had this thought "Hey I should run out and get the books again and convert this mess to a playable system and then run a game."
I'm pretty sure that way lies madness.
Or awesomeness. What other system has magic, mecha, psionics, dimensional shifting, cybernetics and no balance whatsoever?
4E, Gamma World, Saga and d20 Modern all do the "two out of three ain't bad" thing with this.
M&M could do it as well, I'd think.
Of course, the next writeup I'm going to do is of a class that basically takes the idea of system conversion and bends it over a table.
I've always thought that the biggest problem with RIFTS version of the palladium system was that the SDC/MDC separation happened too low on the food chain, so to speak. It's an interesting way of having a distinction between food soldiers and stuff like tanks or giant robots, but when buildings/cars/people are SDC constructs and characters regularly carry around MDC sidearms (or psychic powers :rotate: ) it gets to be kind of silly.
I'm trying to think what character would be so ruinous to the idea of a conversion that you haven't written up yet. Been so long since I looked at any of the books.
Eat it You Nasty Pig. on
it was the smallest on the list but
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
BESM (2nd edition is what I know) would be perfect for RIFTS, give everything lashings of Heavy Armour and Extra Health and then let your players go crazy nuts in Character generation, "Double Penetration, Earthquake, Area Effect, Rapid Fire attack?" Sure!
Posts
Apparently, so would sane combat rules.
Also, balance.
And rutabagas.
Why I fear the ocean.
The thing aboug RIFTS that makes me laugh is that it's basically the ultimate F.U. to roleplayers. It even tries to sucker them out by making OCCs that are ostensibly playable while being completely worthless.
GM: "So you want to be the street thug who was born into destitution, and through his wily nature was able to run an underground network of thugs and urchins?"
You: "Yeah, that's right"
GM: "Ok, so you have (rolls 3d6) 11 followers with submachine guns and connections in the underground."
You: "Sweet!"
GM: "A coalition soldier jumps you, he's wearing power armor, but he doesn't actually do anything. He glowers at you impressively."
You: "I order my guys to take cover and attack him, focusing on any weak spots we can find on his armor!"
GM: *rolls dice without even looking* You all hit, but since you have crappy S.D.C. weapons you can't hurt him, no matter how long he stands there ignoring you.
GM: *rolls dice without even looking* With his 8 attacks he kills you and 7 of your buddies.
Welcome to the "It's About Goddamn Time, Zed, Seriously" edition of our ongoing Let's Read of Rifts. It's been entirely too long since the last one, I know. Hopefully the server will see fit to cooperate with this new installment.
We're breaking our hiatus with one of my personal favorite classes; the Mystic. Outside of the 3 or 4 available flavors of druids, these folks are the hippiest, dippiest, trippiest spellcasters in Rifts. In a somewhat original at the time subversion of the traditional nerdy, studious wizard image.
"It's like, full of colors, man."
You see, instead of years of magical training or techno-magical tinkering, Mystics spend 6 days meditating in the woods (psychadelics suggested but not required) and at the end of that time they know a half dozen low level spells and have a decent sized suite of psychic powers that skews toward the sensitive (astral projection, object sense, etc). What takes others decades takes these guys under a week.
"I have a PhD in Interplanar Travel."
Other than the spellcasting and psionics, the Mystic gets a couple of special abilities. The first is a sensitivity to supernatural evil, which is pretty ubiquitous among psionic classes. It's available to at least 2 other R.C.C.s in the main book, and it seems to be something that just got thrown into practically every class printed in any of the 30+ World Books. I'm only being mildly hyperbolic here; it's seriously everywhere. While it's not terribly special, it is pretty useful depending on how your DM handles the whole supernatural and/or evil thing, so there's that.
The other special ability they get is quite a bit more flashy. "Opening oneself to the Supernatural" might be an incredibly awkward ability name, but the ability itself is actually pretty useful if you're ok with standing motionless and not taking any actions for it to work. Basically, the Mystic amps up their psychic reception to be more aware of disturbances in the Force, and they become invisible to mystical detection as well as the naked eye. You just can't fight, cast spells, talk or really do anything while in this state. For balance, obviously.
Ok, since this entry is a little lighter on content than some of the previous ones have been, it seems like a decent time to showcase some of the actual spells that can be learned and cast in Rifts. Today we have 3; one utility, one offensive and one that is completely balls to the wall ridiculous.
1. Globe of Daylight
Unlike some other, lesser, systems with their lame spells that simply create light, Rifts lets you summon the essence of the sun itself as a Level 1 spell. The distinction is largely pointless, but still, this version is way more AWESOME.
The obvious exception, of course, is the case of vampire attack. As it turns out, being able to turn night into day in an instant is fairly devastating to those who are harmed by sunlight. And honestly, vampires are so common in most Rifts games I've seen that this spell is worth having specifically for this eventuality, even if you can already see perfectly in the dark.
"Suck that! Instead of me. Oh please god don't suck me."
2. Fire Bolt
Effective, if not terribly inspiring. Direct damage spells don't show up until level 3, and this is the level 4 option (we'll be covering the earlier ones in a couple of weeks with the Techno Wizard). The mage conjures a ball of fire and hurls it at their target. The ability to do mega damage while otherwise unarmed can be extremely powerful, but as magic goes this spell is fairly bland otherwise.
"It'sa me, Marionificus The Malevolent."
3. Blood and Thunder
This is a "Spell of Legend", and the effects reflect it. "Within the range" is everyone within 100 feet of the caster per caster level. So that otherwise peaceful druid in his grove 1500 feet away from the conflict zone suddenly goes Omega Sentinel on every squirrel in sight.
The "berserk engines of destruction part" involves giving the targets 50 M.D.C. per caster level and letting them throw hugely damaging bolts of energy for the duration of the spell, once per round for every attack they have. And they regenerate M.D.C at a high rate as well. If your goal is to turn your tired, beaten and nearly routed collection of wizards into a horde of pre-Crisis DC superheroes, this is your ticket.
For when you really, really need every spellcaster in the county to go super saiyan.
The catch? It takes 750 P.P.E. to cast. In a system where the typical mage has 60 or so. Basically only usable on a ley line, or if you're a god. But boy howdy, this is one hell of a party trick.
Next Time:
Selling your soul in a buyer's market.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
I might be taking a shot at some "starting packages" and gear conversions to see if I can make it fly.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
it probably should
but I don't think it does
Equipment:
Plastic Man body armor (Impervious Toughness 3)
Wilks 320 Laser Pistol (Ranged Damage 1, Laser)
4 orphans
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Also.... 750 PPE? That's kind of a bargain for that.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
But then you're left with all those unused orphans.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
Unused orphans can easily be re-purposed as tools of vengeance.
Why I fear the ocean.
They're just part of the Ley Line Walker look.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
They're a very useful storage place for excess awesome.
IOS Game Center ID: Isotope-X
It keeps them safe from attack and also means other people don't have to look at them. Because they're gross.
That said, once you reach a high enough level (and I typically allowed my mages to start at level 4, just so they could survive a minor conflict) you tend to get access to some really decent spells which reduce any need for technical reliance. I also recall upping the PPE that characters start with as well as what they gain per level, just for the sake of game play. It really felt like it needed some balancing, especially when you take into account the power creep of all the technology through the later world books.
Welcome back to your ongoing Let's Read series for the Rifts roleplaying game. Today we're looking at the third of the four spellcasters in the main book; The Shifter.
Like the Ley Line Walkers, Shifters have to study to learn their magic. None of that cop out meditation stuff here, no sir. Unlike the Walkers, though, Shifters don't get all the crazy drifting/teleporting/communication stuff. The only things they really get that involves ley lines are the ability to sense rifts, and to automatically rift to their home dimension for 150 P.P.E. (5.3 Orphans) if they can find a nexus point.
The reason these abilities are useful for Shifters is that they spend a lot of time traveling. Members of this class are some of the only people on earth who actively seek out the opportunity to be eaten by exotic creatures in other dimensions. For this reason, and many others, Shifters have a rather shady reputation for getting themselves and everyone around them into the sort of trouble that requires mega damage fire to repel.
Honey?
Siembieda flat out says in the class write up that these guys and gals are feared and typically ostracized, but he also seems to want to make it very clear that this is an unfair thing to do. You see, in his own words;
Well that's a load off my mind. As a squishy human, barely clinging to existence in this planetary hell full of supernatural predators, I'm damn glad that this particular threat that can obliterate me with a thought has the same chance of being a moral, upstanding dude as that other threat that can obliterate me with a thought. Glad we could get that call on the relative moral standings of the various obliteration delivery systems.
"I'm really a very nice person."
With that settled, let's look at the rest of the class features. Can cast spells, has a P.P.E. base to use for that, blah blah. Nothing too exciting.
Oh, wait. They get a pet!;
Woo. It's kinda useful I guess, but it always kind of felt tacked on to me. Having a bear that you dress in mega damage barding and equip with vibro-claws might be pretty darn awesome. Winnie the Pain.
And Tigger too.
It's really their other ability, though, that defines the class. I'll just let Siembieda explain why;
Shorter version: Sell your soul to an eldritch horror for fun and profit.
Best Case Scenario:
Far More Likely:
Obviously, this isn't without its risks. Even if you had an extra soul you weren't using, the type of being that would enter into this sort of bargain with you is probably someone you would want to avoid anyway. In this setting, something as obvious as a tentacled horror is probably a much safer bet than an extra-dimensional being that makes an effort to look human, or at least human-ish.
But aside from keeping the dimensional door cracked open for a demon, Old One or vampire intelligence, what's the harm?
And what does the Shifter get for being a dark god's patsy?
That last part is the big one. Extra spells, especially high level spells, are a big deal. They have huge effects and are hard to get ahold of by normal means. So selling your soul for them might actually be a decent deal.
Speaking of spells, we're at that point in this installment. This time we've got one that is very thematically Shifter, one that is an enormous dick move, and one that is just about the creepiest thing you'll ever see at the table.
1. Summon Lesser Being
Make sure to bring a leash.
This is a level 13 spell, and it costs 425 P.P.E. (15.1 Orphans). You get a "lesser" supernatural being (that's really all the definition you get) to do your bidding for 24 hours per level. You can have them guard a location, go harass your enemies, kidnap a princess and then throw the fight when you come to rescue her, etc. There are definitely worse things to spend the P.P.E. on.
2. Carpet of Adhesion
Please refrain from taunting the D-Bee.
If you're a wizard, this should be in your spell book. Whether you want a way to reduce enemy mobility, lock down pinch points, stop that raging mob in its tracks or just troll your party Glitter Boy, this is probably the best use of 10 P.P.E. (.4 Orphans) available. It lasts two and a half minutes per level, and if your enemy relies on melee for damage it basically ends the fight right there. It's also only a level 4 spell, so it's not that hard to get ahold of via automatic progression or just buying it from the local guild.
Combo with Gust of Wind, Telekinesis or even just Heavy Breathing to lock down entire opposing forces. If they've got ranged weapons they can still attack you, but they can't even turn around if you move to the other side of them. A++ must have spell.
3. Armor Bizarre
Goddamn it, Brian.
Armor of Ithan is kind of a standard when it comes to Rifts spell magic, and we'll be covering it next time. This is basically Armor of Ithan, plus tentacles. Just in case playing that Shifter who is basically you with magical powers and a deal with that very specific devil you worked out with the GM wasn't creepy enough, now you can give yourselves tentacles basically at will. 15 P.P.E. (.5 Orphans) is practically nothing to a spellcaster, but the ability to look like the lead in that video you found online is basically priceless, right? You disgust me. I feel like I should shower just remembering this. And that's coming from a guy making dead orphan jokes.
Guh.
Next Time;
It slices, it dices, it tears holes in space-time.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
I just went the easy route and gave people the maximum amount of PPE per level. We also had rules for how much you could carry with you over your maximum (if you overcharged on a ley line, you could have 2x your maximum without it decaying effectively permanently, and 3x but any amount over 2x was going to evaporate at a rate of 1 per minute).
Luck Curse removed ALL relevant combat bonuses and made ALL skills fail (-40%)
Wisps of Confusion further reduced strike parry and dodge by -5, and melee attacks by half.
Not bad for a mere 2.6 orphans (80 PPE).
I think another interesting design choice for the book, hard for someone who never read it directly to appreciate, is having the magic explanation and spells section a good 70 pages after the last magic using class. In between are the psionic classes, the psionic section (conveniently after the psionic classes) and a world overview. Later world books tended to put magic and equipment directly after the relevant classes, often dividing equipment, magic and abilities up through the book making them hard to find.
This sort of looks like it would be a panel from the worst idea ever for a Punisher crossover.
(well all punisher crossovers are pretty bad but anyway)
something like
Todd McFarlane Presents... Punisher and Winnie the Pooh: Thousand-Acre Blood
Lies.
I will defend the honor of Archie meets The Punisher over any man's body in clean battle.
Why I fear the ocean.
I've missed this game ever since I gave up the books in an attempt to clean up stuff I never use anymore. I miss my druids and Glitter boys.
I spent more time making characters and dreaming up game scenarios then I ever did playing the game.
Favorite race? The phenoxi. . . If they died they ressed themselves.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
But the world, man. It basically combines all the best sci-fi setting tropes into a big awesome ball, and I've been hoping forever that some competent writers would get ahold of it and make a cool movie or a videogame or something out of it.
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
I played a GlitterBoy. At least until the world books stuff started to come out. Eventually I played a super psychic disco ball. I can't believe I never made a Juicer.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
It's what made Cyclones absolutely disgusting in Robotech--and the veritechs in Macross 2 even more disgusting.
I'm pretty sure that way lies madness.
XBL:Phenyhelm - 3DS:Phenyhelm
Or awesomeness. What other system has magic, mecha, psionics, dimensional shifting, cybernetics and no balance whatsoever?
M&M could do it as well, I'd think.
Of course, the next writeup I'm going to do is of a class that basically takes the idea of system conversion and bends it over a table.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
I'm trying to think what character would be so ruinous to the idea of a conversion that you haven't written up yet. Been so long since I looked at any of the books.
Pluto was a planet and I'll never forget
I made a game, it has penguins in it. It's pay what you like on Gumroad.
Currently Ebaying Nothing at all but I might do in the future.