Dice Rifts - The Thirteenth Mystery - OOC

[Epiphany]

Epiphany If my character dies, I have another one I'd like to run past you...

Spoiler

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[EmperorNorton1]

If anything, healing is underpowered in an MDC game. Taking HP or SDC damage is pretty rare. If you're wanting some durability, consider Extraordinary Physical Endurance.

oh? Well, good to know! I guess mostly the goal for this character is talking their way out of a fight or dodging hits if he cant. oh, now should probably be a good time to ask. we have fantasy speciesism, but do we still have racism and homophobia in this universe?

 

[EmperorNorton1]

ok, so if i just took the Invurnurability major super power, and then the enhanced hearing minor super power, would that be too broken?

 

[Psychie]

Just saying, stealth is great, but if there is no one left alive, it's kinda moot.

Not that I'm advocating wholesale slaughter, I was just putting that out there. Yeah.

Lol

On a side note, I don't mind Purr having some tattoos. I won't be the one getting any new ones anyways.

 

[Purr]

Ha ha ha!

 

[Epiphany]

oh? Well, good to know! I guess mostly the goal for this character is talking their way out of a fight or dodging hits if he cant. oh, now should probably be a good time to ask. we have fantasy speciesism, but do we still have racism and homophobia in this universe?

Wellllll, bear in mind the framework for the game came together in the 1980s, picked up steam and peaked in the 1990s, still had a slew of products in the 2000s and has wound done somewhat over the last 15 years.

On the one hand, I can't recall racism or homophobia being discussed in any Rifts product (but to my recollection, the latter's the result of LBGTQIA+basically not being mentioned at all anywhere). On the other hand, I've paged through all 6 of the Coalition War Campaign books a few times in the last month or so, plus the Coalition War Campaign World book, the Core book, etc. There's dozens and dozens of statted up Coalition NPC officiers. With a singular exception, they're all white men.

So here's how I see it (and I invite other perspectives if you folks have read something I haven't).

• DeeBees, Practitioners of Magic and Supernatural Horrors make a fantastic 'them' group to unite an 'us' group around. Also bear in mind the first century or so in the area that would someday be called the Coalition States was a struggle for survival, just as it was anywhere else. As a result, a little thing like skin color or even accent became pretty irrelevant.
• The Chi-Town Libraries where the elite and educated can study have access to a variety of pre-Rifts books, with all the implicit racism, sexism, classism, etc. you'd expect to find. The Coalition Military High Command in particular (especially the Emperor and his son) are rather enamored with Hitler's writing and studying the works of fascism is probably encouraged at a certain level of position.
• Their context is entirely different, though. So where a book refers to people of Slavic or Irish descent as being lesser, or Africans being degenerate humans, the Coalition States as a government might be leery of Russia, Ireland or Africa as nation-states (if they even had contact with them) but actually connecting modern Coalition States ethnic populations to those nation-states...not so much.
• That said, the educated are even more likely to be influenced by historical media than contemporary people IRL, as there's no real media bias education and their values are very different (mistrust in the government for example has done a 180). As a result, I'd envision what amounts to a 'glass ceiling' that more or less results in very few non-white people holding top positions in the Coalition government or military.
  • In other words, fascism has a historically inevitable pattern of going after a target group, then going after another group, and another, leading to the classic "I voted for them, I never thought they'd come for me" reaction. If the Coalition States ever achieves its ambitions, securing its borders and reducing external threats to its power, it's inevitable that the government will eventually turn on its people as well.
• Outside of the Coalition States, I imagine racism is largely dead except where you have competing groups fighting over a particular resource and the ethnic makeup of one or more groups is homogenous.

• As for the gays, I imagine they're treated exactly as the books treat them. I.e. they're not really discussed or talked about, kids don't grow up hearing about them, people who've never met an 'out' couple are surprised and perhaps a bit uncomfortable for not knowing exactly how to behave around them. Religion by this time doesn't really talk about or address LBGTQIA+ people at all so that source of prejudice has evaporated at least. The post-apocalyptic nature of the setting, however, makes having kids a lot more important than it is in most of the IRL world and non-reproductive pairings are potentially getting the stink-eye (although a couple that adopts or helps out their extended family with child-rearing's a-okay).
  • Given the enormous strides in medicine, most of which seem to have carried over past the apocalypse, I would imagine gender-affirming surgical options are (A) rare outside of a city, (B) quick and easy to do in a city and (C) include supplemental cosmetic modifications that are otherwise prohibitively expensive or impossible via modern medicine.

I have no doubt this was vastly more word count than you or anyone else was expecting but that's what you get for asking a queer woman.

 

[Sherwood]

What are you trying to say, Pips? Is that a resounding 'yes'?

Lol

 

[Epiphany]

ok, so if i just took the Invurnurability major super power, and then the enhanced hearing minor super power, would that be too broken?

Per Rifts - Conversion Book 1:
The character can select one of the following categories of powers.
1. Three major super abilities (no minor powers).
2. Two major super abilities and one minor ability.
3. One major super ability and three minor abilities.
4. Four minor super abilities (no major powers).
5. Two major super abilities and three minor powers — Or — Three major super abilities and two minor powers, but reduce the number of "other" skill selections (from O.C.C.) by half.

If you really only want one Major and one Minor superpower, you can but you're selling yourself a bit short there.

 

[Epiphany]

What are you trying to say, Pips? Is that a resounding 'yes'?

Lol

No final decisions until I see the R.C.C.

 

[Sherwood]

No final decisions until I see the R.C.C.

Ha ha ha!

 

[Epiphany]

Just saying, stealth is great, but if there is no one left alive, it's kinda moot.

Not that I'm advocating wholesale slaughter, I was just putting that out there. Yeah.

Lol

On a side note, I don't mind Purr having some tattoos. I won't be the one getting any new ones anyways.

Purr And with that second buy-in, Chan-Chan is a go.

 

[EmperorNorton1]

As a nonbinary lesbian, im very glad to have so much information. these are all good ideas! so racism as in the modern sense is mostly gone aside from maybe some eugenics bullshit and the obvious different species thing, while homosexuality isnt talked about but may be slightly frowned upon because gay=no kids=less humans we must preserve our glorious species. and gender affirming health care is much easier to get at, should you have the money.

good to know. I'm planning on playing someone who's gotten the "Titty snipper", to use the clinical name. (I hope i can use that word on this site in this context and not be flagged-) and who uses whatever pronouns they damn well feel like at the time.

If you really only want one Major and one Minor superpower, you can but you're selling yourself a bit short there.

lets sprinkle in a little flair then. the rules in the super book are slightly different than rifts conversion. Invurnurability, Flight (Wingless), Bend Light, and Enhanced Hearing. this good for you?

 

[Sherwood]

I am happy to know that this site can be a safe place to let people know your gender identity/sexual orientation without getting flamed. Thanks for having the courage to say what you have, my friends.

 

[Epiphany]

As a nonbinary lesbian, im very glad to have so much information. these are all good ideas! so racism as in the modern sense is mostly gone aside from maybe some eugenics bullshit and the obvious different species thing, while homosexuality isnt talked about but may be slightly frowned upon because gay=no kids=less humans we must preserve our glorious species. and gender affirming health care is much easier to get at, should you have the money.

good to know. I'm planning on playing someone who's gotten the "Titty snipper", to use the clinical name. (I hope i can use that word on this site in this context and not be flagged-) and who uses whatever pronouns they damn well feel like at the time.

lets sprinkle in a little flair then. the rules in the super book are slightly different than rifts conversion. Invurnurability, Flight (Wingless), Bend Light, and Enhanced Hearing. this good for you?

I imagine 'adventurers' aka. people who are obviously heavily armed and armored get no flak from the average anyone. If your transmasculine guy wants to hold hands with their boyfriend or girlfriend, the most likely source of grumbling or objection might be from your extended family who's wondering where the kids are coming from. Everyone else sees an MDC pistol in a holster on your leg and keeps their mouth shut.

I'll default to 'they' for your character for now, then, until I see how their pronoun use shakes out in game.

Your power selection's fine with me!

 

[Sherwood]

As my friend Patrick would say, an armed society is a polite society.

 

[Epiphany]

I imagine 'adventurers' aka. people who are obviously heavily armed and armored get no flak from the average anyone. If your transmasculine guy wants to hold hands with their boyfriend or girlfriend, the most likely source of grumbling or objection might be from your extended family who's wondering where the kids are coming from. Everyone else sees an MDC pistol in a holster on your leg and keeps their mouth shut.

I'll default to 'they' for your character for now, then, until I see how their pronoun use shakes out in game.

Your power selection's fine with me!

Purr if you're tracking rolls, add an extra +6 to PE and a +3 to PS (and +20% to save vs. coma/death) from Invulnerability.

Wingless Flight of course adds +1 attack per melee, +2 to strike, +2 to parry, +4 to dodge when hovering or flying under 80 mph1128 km, +6 to dodge when flying around 90 rnph (144 km) or faster, +4 to damage for every 20 rnph (32 km)'of flight speed, and the SDC goes poof.

Unless you guys usually turn SDC bonuses to MDC bonuses for MDC characters? This is an edge case I don't know much about.

Heightened Sense of Hearing gives a +1 to parry, +2 to dodge, +6 to initiative (plus various abilities).

 

[Sherwood]

Well, I have to clock in at work soon, but I'll be on as I can be.

 

[EmperorNorton1]

the most likely source of grumbling or objection might be from your extended family

and the last piece of my backstory just clicked it into place. i'll run it by you in dms.

 

[Purr]

It's a Kaiju Cat! Hiya Kaiju Cat !

 

[Purr]

Unless you guys usually turn SDC bonuses to MDC bonuses for MDC characters? This is an edge case I don't know much about.

I do. Unless the class or power or the like prohibits it, or unless the Game Master specifically prohibits it, all S.D.C. bonuses from skills, class, and all that to become M.D.C. in my Rifts games.

If you're tracking rolls, add an extra +6 to PE and a +3 to PS (and +20% to save vs. coma/death) from Invulnerability.

I intended to do so. Thanks!

As my friend Patrick would say, an armed society is a polite society.

Ah! He is a fellow Robert Heinlein fan I see! Woo!

Epiphany Something I've been meaning to ask about the characters return to year 101 P.A.:

Spoiler: Edited into a spoiler to take up less space.

If memory serves, you said that the party would reappear from 109 P.A. at the speech of this famous person whose name I can't recall? I am imagining huge crowds, lots of noise and fanfare, and somebody very important giving a very important speech.

Now. I remember at least one of us talking about a backstory that they may or may not have used or will use about losing a beloved one in front of their eyes around the same moments the rift takes them back in time.

If I were to watch my loved ones die or become seriously harmed in front of me then watch a hospital go up and then be popped through a rift, I can guarantee you all I will NOT be the Dann that you know when I arrive 8 years prior. I will be so messed up even beyond what I can imagine I can't imagine if I lost my Kaerri to hostile circumstances.

Is it your intention for most of our (traumatized) characters to appear while some big speech is going on? Or have I missed something? Because, at minimum, I'm imagining police activity where they just pick up our party, put us all in the Paddy Wagon, and take us away. And then, the game soon winds up with us in jail, a hospital, or at the front door of whatever passes for an insane asylum, or escaped and on the run from the local law enforcement or whatever passes for it.

I really don't mean to sound dramatic, I'm just trying to put myself in this character's place. And forgive me if I've gotten the setting wrong. I just thought that's what I read.

 

[Epiphany]

I do. Unless the class or power or the like prohibits it, or unless the Game Master specifically prohibits it, all S.D.C. bonuses from skills, class, and all that to become M.D.C. in my Rifts games.


I intended to do so. Thanks!


Ah! He is a fellow Robert Heinlein fan I see! Woo!

Epiphany Something I've been meaning to ask about the characters return to year 101 P.A. - if memory serves, you said that the party would reappear from 109 P.A. at the speech of this famous person whose name I can't recall? I am imagining huge crowds, lots of noise and fanfare, and somebody very important giving a very important speech.

Now. I remember at least one of us talking about a backstory that they may or may not have used or will use about losing a beloved one in front of their eyes around the same moments the rift takes them back in time.

If I were to watch my loved ones die or become seriously harmed in front of me then watch a hospital go up and then be popped through a rift, I can guarantee you all I will NOT be the Dann that you know when I arrive 8 years prior. I will be so messed up even beyond what I can imagine I can't imagine if I lost my Kaerri to hostile circumstances.

Is it your intention for most of our (traumatized) characters to appear while some big speech is going on? Or have I missed something? Because, at minimum, I'm imagining police activity where they just pick up our party, put us all in the Paddy Wagon, and take us away. And then, the game soon winds up with us in jail, a hospital, or at the front door of whatever passes for an insane asylum, or escaped and on the run from the local law enforcement or whatever passes for it.

I really don't mean to sound dramatic, I'm just trying to put myself in this character's place. And forgive me if I've gotten the setting wrong. I just thought that's what I read.

Great question. I suppose the actual reaction of individual PCs will be up to their players. But remember, they aren't 'appearing' in the past so much as "oh damn that Rift's coming and I can't out run it oh nooooo---wait why am I standing in...hey, this place was hit by a missile strike yesterday and what are all these civilians doing, where's all the military, why is King Creed looking so chill up there, what's he talking about? The New Tolkeen Army? What? Wait, what's my watch/chronometer/calendar book say? WHAT IS HAPPENING?" and all of that may or may not be outloud.

I imagine the average PC is going to get some sideeyes if they start shouting crazy talk but how strong the reaction is will depending on the specific reaction. If the 'police' get involved, it might be a soldier you remember seeing dead last year, now alive and well and maybe they recognize you if you knew them 8 years ago and...

And so on and so on.

If any players have concern with the 'arrival' and the potential consequences of their IC reaction, let me know so I can plan accordingly.

 

[Sherwood]

We should also note that if we start to rant about time travel and the horror of the coming war, we will be labeled as nut jobs.

 

[EmperorNorton1]

if you have super hearing and you go from bomb explosions and being in a hospital as it crumbles, to sudden silence, to sudden loud again, this time talking rather than screams- hi kids, do you like sensory overload because no the fuck i certainly dont. :|

we're in for a bit of a panic attack for my OC, but probably not a ton else?

 

[Sherwood]

Makes me wonder.... Would a Detect Lie read us as telling the truth?

 

[Psychie]

Might be an interesting thing to try.