The Palladium Megaverse Gigathread

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Traditional Games > The Palladium Megaverse Gigathread

Dr. Tough: Oct 22, 2007

Oh man, I was actually just thinking of running a Rifts game for my gaming group some time and had dug out my old core book. Rifts was actually the first non-AD&D RPG that I played way back in high school in about 2000. My friend Steve ran the campaign. It was like nothing that the rest of us had ever seen. I was playing a child genius that was one of those psychics and also wizards at the same time, my friend Larry was playing a dude from MechWarrior, etc.. Good times. My character got blown up by a plasma missile, my sister lost her character sheet, my next character killed my friend Kevin's headhunter on the bridge of his own ship. The PC deaths piled up into a mountain. Steve ran whatever source book he happened to bring that day and just let us do whatever the hell we wanted to. I remember we were stuck in the Three Galaxies and needed to get on a ship but had no money. So because we were in high school and were functionally retarded, instead of just sneaking on board we told Steve that we were going to prostitute out characters for an entire year. He was like "okay". And then we went to Rifts Australia.

Even back in high school I could tell that the Palladium rules system... left something to be desired. Like the skill system is complete disaster where no matter how complex or simple a task is you still have the same probability of successfully completing it. You have to roll for everything and so you might want to play a bangin' sexy, lady Coalition soldier with that cool armor with the plume on the helmet, but you end up with a short, pot bellied, schemer with six brothers or some poo poo. It really is a relic from the 1980's that through some accident of nature survived to the present day. I feel like Rifts should be exhibited in some Victorian grotesquery.

# ¿ May 20, 2013 18:37

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 06:05

Dr. Tough: Oct 22, 2007

ToyotaThong posted:

ToyotaThong Stories Day 2

When we last left our story, my sole player was trapped in a stasis bubble. Flash forward 400 or so years. The bubble has worn off. Luckily, an archaeology team from the Sentinels were at the site doing research. After interviews, Jason asked if there was any way he could get back to his own time. A perytonian mage could cast a one way time travel spell, but it would be very risky. He took that chance, and arrived a few months after the second Invid invasion. The campaign would last a few more months after that. Eventually to fade into history. I was running Twilight:2000 for my ROTC buddies. In an epilogue to the Robotech campaign, Jason's character did appear as an NPC in a later Rifts campaign.

The Rifts Chronicles

I had seen Rifts at my local game stores, but not really paid much attention to it. After all I had Robotech and Twilight:2000. One of my friends bought it, and ran a campaign. I played a Coalition "deserter" with an Enforcer, Lenny played a Line Walker, Ashley was a headhunter, Jack was a full conversion cyborg, and Jeff was an operator. We had many great adventures traveling the North American continent. All the while I was reporting back to Chi-Town my observations.

After a few months time, Joe, our GM, had grown tired of running Rifts. He asked me to end the campaign with a bang. Most of the party was from Lazlo and wanted to return home for some R&R. HQ wanted me to "liquidate assets" and return home. To accomplish this task I was to be joined by a squad of SAMAS, and do the deed. I announced the squad was coming in, and my companions arrayed in battle formation. I broke into our frequency with the following message.
"I'm so very sorry friends. Either they kill you or we all die here. You've changed me, and for that I will never forget you. Thank you, and I'm so very sorry."
With that I unloaded with every weapon at my disposal. They died in a hail of rail gun fire and burning plasma. The look of shock on their faces was quickly replaced with "WHAT THE gently caress............That was Awesome!!!!"
Mission accomplished. Miniature games and live action Car Wars would fill that gaming slot. Soon I was buying my own collection of Rifts books, and would eventually run some too. But that is a story for another time.

Oh man the spy angle. In the Rifts game I played my third character was a spy for the Kreeghor Empire. At one point in time a rift opened and a bunch of dudes from Star Wars poured through led by Han Solo. Thinking that we were all going to die I confessed my sins. My friend Kevin's character tried to execute me for my crimes but I killed his guy instead. Also we survived the Star Wars assault for reasons that I don't remember. Rifts.

# ¿ May 22, 2013 12:13

Dr. Tough: Oct 22, 2007

occamsnailfile posted:

It makes me wonder what happened around an official Palladium table to get that in there. I think the higher-level wizard and warrior options were meant for speed-generating assistants to a Raider but then they don't have prebuilt Raider statblocks at higher levels, who the hell knows.

Well evidently Kevin Siembeda hasn't roleplayed since like at least 2003, so God only knows.

# ¿ May 29, 2013 01:57

Dr. Tough: Oct 22, 2007

How many people do you think the CS has in total? Also I liked the write up!

# ¿ Jun 6, 2013 12:50

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