Looking for some RIFTS (seeking GM, other players)

[kongming]

Yes really. I know RIFTS (TM) is a nightmare of a thing. But on the other hand, you can play as dino-riders and stuff. It has so many options. So I'd like to play it. Probably with a side of sexiness. We'd all need to be on the same page (both in regards to a vague power level and to allegiance). So here are various character ideas I have, with a vague idea of what kind of group they'd fit, and likely also with some art to help sell the idea:

1. Neo-Human, a "perfect" creation

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

-High Power games, good characters that accept non-humans and psychics
-A sensual, hedonistic psychic, but nonetheless very loving and caring, putting others ahead of her own life. Fighting against evil in all its forms, yet easily motivated by promises of wealth (to waste on luxuries)

2. Psi-Stalker, the psychic vampire

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

With armour like the one on the far right:

(That's a joke, in the Coalition State they're all on the far right!)

-From Low to Medium Power, either a loyal, team-bonding Coalition thing (fighting against supernatural monsters, doing investigations), or as a wild hunter of evil
-There are like five different ways to upgrade Psi-Stalkers, and you can pretty much stack all of them even. At the base, they're pretty plain (and low powered), but they can be boosted up - tribes or being born in Psiscape to improve their base stats; Psycho-Stalker conversion to make them fighting powerhouses, the Psi-Stalker Vampire Virus to boost their power and give more psychic abilities...
-She'd be a hunter of evil creatures, a real team player, protective of allies, and a rough lover. Would work well for a "you're not the baddies" Coalition game, with team-building stuff (and group showers! Can't forget those!), police style missions, scouting adventures and such.
-In a more inclusive "anything goes" thing, she could get really into a supernatural girlfriend, with her energy-feeding being the typical "vampirism as erotica" thing.

3. Cyber-Ninja (what it says on the tin)

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

-For "not part of a main legal entity" games where we're all "not affiliated with the main government of (place)" or are mercenaries for hire or are actually all criminals or part of a clan. Medium power, decent versatility
-Clearly good for sexy near-naked adventures

4. A robot with a transferred intelligence

Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

Normal giant-mecha shape, but with the mind and voice of...

-For reasonably high-powered games, the kind where we get money and down-time. After all, robots don't heal, they need to actually get repaired. And buy ammunition all the time.
-A scientist by nature, but a little twisted. Has many sciency skills, but also has a bunch of autocannons and a deadly neurotoxin.
-I don't foresee sexy fun with this one, being a giant mecha thing with the personality of GladOS.

So, if we play fast and loose with the rules a bit, are there things there that sound good? Where other players would like to be part of a team with one of these? Where a GM would enjoy taking them on?

[Doji Hoturi]

I've always been interested in the greater world and idea that is Rifts...that said, the system is brutal and there are almost too many options. You need a strong GM for something like this.

I'm interested, but I'm not the GM for this endeavor.

[TFcommando]

While the ideas in RIFTS can be fun, the system is such a train wreck it might be better to convert it to some other system.  Mutants and Masterminds or BESM 3 could work.  Plus since you're in a Mega-Damage environment, you have to wear sealed full-body MDC armor all the time, making it hard to be nearly or fully naked when adventuring. 

I have a yearning to play a techno-wizard or rogue scientist, people hunting for information and technology from the lost past.

[Muse]

  Well, i'd like to play, and still thin there's hope for the system.  ^_^;;

[rikka]

Here's hoping this somehow pushes through. The last rifts game I joined here stopped in limbo.

Psychic vampire (the team coalition thing) and cyber-ninja both seem attractive to me but I like to be a player. GMing rifts is just so daunting.

[Crash]

I thought about running a free-form sandbox RIFTS game a while back but I could never run a fully stated RIFTS game again. 

[kongming]

Crash: I would be just fine with freeform in play. Like, we put character sheets together, because I like making characters, but then use them as guidelines during the game, just as roleplaying aids and knowing more or less what we're able to do based on the sheets. Would you be happy to run something like that? After all, it means not having to spend a week at a time collating everyone's actions and rolls for combat, and not having to generate a full sheet every time you want an NPC or monster to be in the area.

---

TFCommando: all those "Here, you have a pool of points, so it's totally balanced even if one of you spends all your points on skills and someone else takes invulnerability, extra actions and a plasma blast" have problems. With Rifts (TM), it's better to just accept its own problems, and set vague limits based on what makes a party that works together. The joys of the system really are in that you can transfer across characters made using TMNT with all splatbooks, for a team of mutant ninja wolverines from the moon, who all pilot mecha and are lava warlocks. In that regard, probably the best thing is to create characters using the normal rules, and then just use them as guidelines for a freeform game.

And fully sealed armour isn't necessary: just don't play an innately SDC character. Of the things I put forward, the cyber-ninja is bionic inside (MDC creature), the Neo-Human turns into an MDC creature for huge stretches of time, the Psi-Stalker takes mega-damage as normal damage, and the robot... is an MDC robot. (Other options for MDC "looks like a person" include a couple of Juicers, Tattooed Warriors, Invincible Guardsmen, anything from Wormwood, Valkyries and Godlings.)

[rikka]

Sounds like a plan, and something I or any other would have never thought of.  You're a genius kongming.  :-)

[Crash]

Not sure if I ran it that I would require players to write out a full character sheet.  If really limits the player base for a game that has a limited player base here anyway.  Besides by completely ignoring SDC/MDC by not having everyone stated out it erases one of the things that I hate about RIFTS (sdc vs. mdc).

I honestly do not have time at the moment to run a new game.  I am running or co-running two Sandbox style games and one small group game at the moment.  It is something I would think about when my schedule clears up some after this semester is over as I love the setting (just hate the rules).

The city of Arzno was a Sandbox I was thinking about.

[kongming]

Fair enough then.

[Kimmy]

Did anything come of this thread? Because I would love to play some Rifts. But I just don't have ape ouch inspiration to runa game as a GM.

[Crash]

Nothing came of it as far as I know.  I stopped running games online.  Maybe if I decide to run something in the future again but that is debatable.  I like freeform sandbox games with little GM directed plots and that only works with a lot of players who are highly motivated.  Hard to do with a game like Rifts as the player base is small.

[Muse]

Even as much of a mess as Rifts is, I've had fun playing it. 

Not sure if I'd go in for a freeform version or not though.  ^_^;; 

[TFcommando]

Somehow, Palladium has agreed to license RIFTS.  There's going to be a Savage Worlds adaption of it, though that has the opposite issues of RIFTS.  It's too tight, with too little room for choices.  Still, it'd make for a more playable game.

[Crash]

I would buy that.