RIFTS Earth/PhaseWorld

[jeflint]

In the beginning...

The planet earth was a technical marvel with science, technology and medicine began beyond the scope of anything we could understand and was used to create cybernetics, bionics and human augmentation. This new development in human augmentation excited all the nations, and everybody began pouring resources into this new field. As the nations worked on these, trade of information and technology increased, making nations wealthy and peace reigned as each focused on themselves.

Once they had achieved great bounds in human augmentation, they began looking at what other nations were doing, and they noticed that not all nations had achieved equally. While everyone had succeeded, some had overshadowed others with what was created.

This led to discontent among the nations, then discontent led to suspicion. After all, what were these super-men good for, other than war? The fear and suspicion led to slowing of trade between nations, weakening the nation's infrastructure. This was seen as pre-emptive actions, as a weak nation is easier to conquor.

After some skirmishes, smaller nations joined the larger ones, creating more definite lines of power. Once these super-nations were formed, the governments started developing machines of war, creating weapons of war. The Glitter Boys shining examples of robotic power armor with a rail gun that fired powerful flacchete ammunition, Juicers individuals who gave up their life expectancy to become stronger, faster and tougher than any human could possibly be with the use of chemical cocktails, Borgs and Bots.

The end of the Golden Age of man was marked by massive world war. A war larger and more destructive than any that had come before. With the use of super-men, machines of war, giant robots, laser weapons, particle cannons, millions upon millions were killed.

With the killing of a living creature, it's PPE (Potential Psychic Energy) is released to the environment. Normally, this energy will dissipate and maybe have minor lingering effects (poltergeist, ghosts, strange feelings when in a location), or typically no lingering effects at all.

When humans were killed in massive numbers all across the world, all their PPE released to the environment would coalesce in Ley Lines. When enough PPE was released, the Ley Lines tore open Rifts, letting loose monstrous horrors from the beyond. These Dimensional Beings (commonly referred to as D-Bees) entered a world at war, and had no qualms about killing these violent creatures infesting this wondrous mystical place.

The Dark Ages followed the coming of the Rifts. Monsterous creatures, coming through the Rifts slaughtering humans released more PPE into the world, further strengthening the Ley Lines and opening more Rifts.

During this time, the mythical continent of Atlantis returned from it's dimensional traveling to its earthly origin. The returning of a continent raised the ocean levels, recreating the coastlines of every continent, destroying coastal cities and killing more people, further adding to the free PPE powering the Ley Lines and Rifts. Also, Atlantis brought the Splugorth slavers to earth who quickly began their conquesting activities, killing and enslaving humans and D-Bees.

The Dark Ages saw the fall of nearly every human civilization, cities, countries and governments were all thrown down. Mankind lost track of time and much information and technology was lost.

After a time uncounted, mankind secures some footholds in the world.

In the Americas, the military government that emerged was the Coalition States. Based in a giant city fortress built on the bones of old Chicago, Chi-Town (pronounced Shy-Town, after the nickname of the old city of Chicago) became the safe haven of humans in old United States. The Coalition is Pro-human and anti-magic.

Also in the old United States is the Federation of Magic. In the Ohio valley sits a city that embraces magic, and is filled with Necromancers which puts it at odds with the neighboring Coalition States.

Free Quebec is the Coalition States refuge for humans in old Canada.

In old Toronto, Canada lies New Lazlo, a free city that embraces magic and non-humans and is the birthplace of Techno-Wizardry.

England, Wales and Scotland have had their cities destroyed as well, to be replaced by societies of magic and Druidism.

China is a land besieged by mystical energies and demons.the human population is shattered and losing ground every day.

Japan was hit by tidal waves, monsoons, volcanoes and demons. Today it is a land of tiny islands.

Egypt is a place of magic, with Ley Lines and Nexus Points often marked by pyramids from ancient times. It is said there is a major Nexus Point in Egypt.

Africa is a continent of darkness, tribal living and shamans fighting demons and monsters from the Rifts.

South America has been reshaped by rising ocean levels and the engorging of the Amazon river. It is a land of islands, with Argentina being the notable city of mankind and high technology, such as Glitter boys, Juicers, Crazies and older pre-rifts military technology.



This is the history/setting of the RIFTS world that I feel in love with. With the chance to play dragons, robot pilots, hyper intelligent raptors, vampires, furries, aliens, psychics and normal people it has something for everyone. I would love to play in this setting in a premade campaign or in a home made campaign.

The system tends towards power gaming and a lot of crunch but for me it's the setting that is most important. It can be redone in any system with a competent GM or can be entirely freeform with only the basis of what is in the RIFTS books of which there are a lot.

I only ask that no felines, for me I have an actual phobia of them and they scare me. But other than that I'm all for anything in this Setting, note not game system I'm fine if this is systemless if that is what everyone chooses. I just know I want to play in this more than run it and I thought I would see if anyone else would be interested in picking up the ball and running with it.

[Muse]

I'm still trying to learn Rifts well enough to run it, but if you get a GM I'd love to play 

[jeflint]

Muse,

I can probably teach you how to run RIFTS. I used to run that for my Table Top group a few dozen years ago and I used to run it on Explorers Unlimited. :)

But yeah, I'd love to find someone on this site who could run it.

[King Serperior]

I've been wanting to be a part of a RIFTs campaign for ages now.

I've got between 20 and 30 characters, if not more, that span from almost all the books.  They range from rogue Tattoo'd Men to Demigods to Nightbane to Cold-Blooded to Chiang-Ku Dragon Hatchlings to everything in between.

[jeflint]

Well I'm not huge on the system just the setting. So if someone offered it free form I'd love to play that.

Hopefully both of you would join. 😊 The more the merrier to break that pathfinder/d&d strangle hold.

[mayovagn]

I was thinking we need something other than pathfinder around here. *Nods*

If it's freeform or run on a system that I actually don't hate I am interested if you kids want me. The Rifts system I am not fond of. No. Not at all.

[Mac84]

Very interesting.

[MadPanda]

A certain ikkle Fennec-Mink hybrid has convinced me to maybe give this a whack.  It'll be slow-ish, since i'm usually only here on the weekends.

Caveat: I have Wushu on the brain, so I'm likely to want to use that.  It's practically freeform, though, and not a brainstrain once you stop boggling at the idea of not having hit points or weapon stats or stuff like that.   ;D  The Black Belt Edition is PWYW, at least.

[jeflint]

**wags tail** I'm sure we can get enough interest to get moving forward.

**hugs** Thank you Mad.

[MadPanda]

No sweat.  :D

If I can find my old notes on stuff like one-sheets, I'll throw something more formal together.

[jeflint]

Two guesses what I wanna play.

[keyotess]

I am up for joining in, the setting of Rifts is fascinating. :)

[MadPanda]

Okay, found the old template that bishrook and I used for an old Pulp-fu game way back in the day.  It should work just as well for this.  (Among the many reasons I like Wushu is that you can fit a character sheet on a 3x5 index card.

Working title will be "Tripping the Rifts"  :D Or something equally silly.

[keyotess]

Sounds like an interesting system suited for online gaming. :)

[mayovagn]

I am up for this. *Nods*

[Saric]

I got a copy of the Character sheet early from jeflint so I'll throw it up here, not sure what to put in most of the lines yet but hoping MP has a link for a PDF or a website where I can learn the system. :P

Character Name: Kendra Webborne
Physical Description: WIP

Concept: Shapeshifting Demigod of Technology (Think of what you'd get with Loki fucking a Bot, Borg, or Techo-wizard)

Motivation (5): WIP
Action! (4): WIP
Profession (3): WIP
Weakness (1): WIP

Chi: 3

Basically I've just got the concept honestly. :P

[MadPanda]

Okay, first thing...choose one of those things for each of your traits.

To quote page 36 of the Black Belt Edition:

You may notice that there are way too many Traits in each slot. I just can’t help myself; I need to give you options. Only have your players copy down the one they want to use.

In other words, the Enlightened Master's Motivation is either "help others find enlightenment" or "sever your last ties to samsara".

Second thing, if you are giving me a single word, I may ask you to fluff it out a bit.  Vengeance on whom, exactly?  What do you mean by Athletic as an Action trait?  Not only do these answers give me a slightly better idea of how to tweak things to relate to your character and thus preventing awkward questions about whether or not this trait applies to whatever's going on, they add a bit of color.  "Burning need to tear down the Vampire Lords" is slightly different from "Vendetta against the Splugorth".  (Professions are usually okay, since they are expected to have a broad penumbra.)

[Saric]

Do you have a link to a site or pdf we can look at for this? Or should we be kind of broad about things? To be honest I know basically nothing about Wushu and just a few of the basics of the Rifts setting. :P

Potential Character Sheet

Character Name: Kendra Webborne
Physical Description: A statuesque futa of changing eye, skin, and hair color... usually.

Concept: Shapeshifting Demigod of Technology (Think of what you'd get with Loki fucking a Bot, Borg, or Techo-wizard)

Motivation (5): Finding/Establishing her place in the world
Action! (4): Shifting of appearance, shape, and material (i.e. turning her skin to metal during a fight, growing claw or wings, or plugging a finger into a computer port)
Profession (3): Up and coming Demi-goddess
Weakness (1): Overly fond of carnal pleasures.

Chi: 3

Still a WIP I think, waiting for more information on the system and setting to finalize. :P

[King Serperior]

I know absolutely nothing about this 'Wusu' at all.  :/

It feels too....simple for the Rifts setting (I've read a number of the books, so I know quite a lot on the setting).

[MadPanda]

An excellent question!  And I should have thrown that up already.  When I get the official game up, I will be posting one of the sample templates as an example.

http://danielbayn.com/wushu/

The Black Belt edition is also PWYW on Drivethrurpg if you are so inclined.

I do not know how good and reliable this is, but I found this for Rifts:
http://rifts.wikia.com/wiki/Rifts_Wiki

However!  This may not end up being a canon Rifts world, as at the moment my entire knowledge of the setting comes from hazy recall of my copy of the book I read nearly half a lifetime ago.  I'm going to focus on the general flavor, not the specifics, and there's likely to be a fair dose of After the Bomb thrown into the mix (because something about a Mad Max airship captained by a mutant Platypus amuses me).

King Serpeior, it IS simple.  That's exactly why I chose it, and that's what we'll be using.  It gives just enough structure to avoid certain issues with freeform without being technically demanding.

[MadPanda]

Don't like? Don't play.

[MadPanda]

I'm happy to answer questions about how this system works: that's part of the job when you GM, and I know it takes a bit to get used to a looser framework like this.  Went through it myself way back when the first version of this was published as an attempt do an RPG set in The Matrix.

I'm not happy to have to argue about my system of choice, because that wastes a whole lot of time and energy and cranks the nutty gamer drama up until all the fun is gone.  And if it isn't fun, why do it?

If you aren't sure, go give the rules a read-over first.  There are a ton of examples in there (and more than a few fun homages to various action movie tropes in the mix).

[MadPanda]

Okay, first two threads are up.

Rules Reference and Cast Thread
https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=277513.0
OOC
https://elliquiy.com/forums/index.php?topic=277514.0

[mayovagn]

The characters so far seem to be all over the place power wise. What is the story we are weaving out of these? How do they tie together? Do we have a story in mind? Because I don't see at a glance how this collection of characters could tell something or where to look to write something that I would enjoy and would also 'fit in'.

[MadPanda]

There is no plot...yet. You raise a good point, and one which deserves consideration.

Okay, gang. You heard Mayovagn. Time to collaborate a bit!