The Call Of Palladium...

A Cyber-Knight drawing her Psi-Sword... makes you wanna play doesn't it?

And so it calls, this crazy system of games from ages past and present.

The mother of all tool boxes.

The sum of all genres.

Rules upon rules, systems upon subsystems, flaws upon flaws, coolness that knows no bounds. A deep-dive is akin to an RPG acid-trip, you awake hours later on the floor, perfectly-bound soft-cover books and character sheets scattered about, your head ringing inside, police sirens in the distance... Is this the greatest system ever or the worst? Where have you been all this time? How many hours? How many days? To play this game straight or to hack? Hacking is a must. Contradictions and the fog of war demand it. But to pull one thread... does it unravel? No matter, down the rabbit hole you go. One thread at a time. Akin to reading the God Damn Necronomicon -- a sanity check will follow...

SYSTEM PSYCHOSIS...

• Only one attack per round. Special maneuvers that use two attacks are made at -4. Full round actions are made at -8. OR... roll 2d20/3d20 and keep the worst. This also means higher level spells will take 2 or 3 rounds to cast. We could introduce a casting roll...

• S.D.C./Hit points/A.R.. No M.D.C.!

• O.C.C related skills are rolled randomly. A multitude of class-tailored charts are required, or one standard, weighted with precursors and bonuses (like below.) How much time do you have? And so, no spamming physical skills. Secondary skills are ignored. For example, the Cyber-Knight's O.C.C Related Skills list would read:

2 rolls on the Physical skills chart

3 rolls on the W.P. charts (3 rolls total between ancient and modern)

7 rolls on the chart below... (followed by rolls on the specifically rolled or chosen skill chart)

01-05  Communications

06-10  Cowboy (+10%)

11-15  Domestic

16-20  Electrical

21-25  Espionage (+5%)

26-30  Horsemanship (+10%)

31-35  Mechanical

36-40  Medical

41-45  Military (+5%)

46-50  Physical (+5%)

51-55  Pilot (+5%)

56-60  Pilot Related

61-65  Rogue

66-70  Science

71-75  Technical (+5%)

76-80  W.P. Ancient

81-85  W.P. Modern

86-90  Wilderness (+5%)

91-00  Choose

• Weapon Proficiencies give a one-time bonus of +2 to strike/parry. If rolling randomly, you get a +2 every time you roll that weapon. This makes leveling up much simpler.

• Rolling a percentile skill you already have gives you a bonus of 10%.

• Paired Weapons roll 2d20 to attack. You can counter-strike, parry one, or both if also fighting with paired weapons.

• All spells and psychic powers rolled randomly. More tables that don't exist, but could without too much work.

• And speaking of tables... random tables for every single spell and magic item in the RIFTS Book of Magic and random tables for every single item listed in the Game Masters Guide. Every place you explore should produce random "somethings" to salvage and/or sell. A man can dream! Not impossible though...

• Each skill based on the sum of two stats, e.g., Pick Locks starting percentage is the sum of I.Q. and Prowess. Perhaps +10. Lots of work, maybe too subjective. Not crucial. Not necessary. Probably simpler to start every skill at 30 or 35%. Most of them already do.

• New skills should be less frequent, maybe 1 every 3 levels. Randomly rolled on your class chart like above. These are skills you are learning "off-screen" -- no need to explain. Perhaps have level-up instructions like 1 W.P. and 1 random skill. This way martial types will always improve combat in some way other than their hand-to-hand style. Or, add +1 to a W.P. of choice or roll randomly which results in +2 to whichever weapon skill is rolled.

• When you level up add 5% to all skills... or roll 1d6 -- more time-consuming, but more interesting. Even if you've never used the skill, it's assumed you're using them "off-screen."

• Hand-To-Hand styles are re-written to be more concise as to what you can and can not do and you CAN NOT trade up from Basic for a mere skill or two. 

• Or... combine all combat bonuses and maneuvers onto one chart and depending on your O.C.C., you get so many rolls on this chart per level. So, in effect, everyone has their very own combat style. Something akin to this... 

01-05  +1 to strike/parry

06-10  +1 to dodge

11-15  +1 to roll with punch...

16-20  +1 to pull punch

21-25  +1 to disarm/entangle

26-30  +2 damage -- melee

31-33  +2 damage -- ranged

34-36  +1 crit range (e.g., 19-20)

37-38  K.O./stun on 20

39-40  Deathblow on 20

41-44  W.P. ancient (+1 to current or +2 to random new one)

45-48  W.P. modern (+1 to current or +2 to random new one)

49-51  +1 to initiative

52-54  +1 to perception

55-56  +1 save vs curses

57-58  +1 save vs Disease

59-60  +1 save vs poison

61-62  +1 save vs Drugs/toxins

63-64  +1 save vs Circles

65-66  +1 save vs horror

67-68  +1 save vs insanity

69-70  +1 save vs K.O./stun

71-72  +1 save vs spells/rituals

73-74  +1 save vs psionics

75-76  +1 save vs wards/fumes

77-78  +10% vs coma/death

79-81  +1 M.E.

82-84  +1 P.S.

85-87  +1 P.P.

88-90  +1 P.E.

91-93  +1 SPD

94-00  Choose

• Bionic characters (Heroes Unlimited) roll bionics randomly and total value comes from that, which might determine how badly they want you back... are you hunted?

• No difference between punches and kicks, all are strikes that do normal strike damage or power-strike damage (2 attacks, see above.) Can't have worlds where knights in plate-mail are walking around trying to karate-kick dragons.

• Cyber-Knights' Psi-Swords start at 3d6 and crit on 19-20. Perhaps damage or bonus damage depends on the value of their M.E.?...or... they do 2d6 ignoring armor. They are PSI-Swords after all.

• XP based on monster hit points and finding stuff. This incentivizes action and exploration, not "story-telling." Long live the OSR!

• Critical Hits damage A.R. by one point. Death Blows by two.

• Spell-casting penalty for wearing armor for each point of A.R. over 10. This is added to the target's save/dodge or subtracted from the caster's strike roll, whichever is appropriate.

• "Mega-Damage" weapons simply get a multiplier: x5 or x10.

• When all else fails, play the game exactly as it is... except... M.D.C. must go, and XP is as described above, and no spamming physical skills, and... you see, rabbit holes inside of rabbit holes.

• And so on and on...

• But seriously, the game is fine... except for M.D.C..

RIFTS Ultimate Edition is so crammed with information that every time you read it, it's like you never have. The only other book that does this is the original AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide. RIFTS is wildly overwritten and often contradictory. And that is why you get pulled down the rabbit hole. You can not escape the gravity of this. And, do you even want to? Despite the madness, you love it.

Is this the book I would take to an island?

The ultimate game exists here... somewhere.

Honoring Memorial Day: To those patriots who fought (and fight) for the stars & stripes, I salute you.

O.C.C.: NIGHTBANE

(Sans any skills or martial-arts what-so-ever.)

On a world where your Nightbane transformation was PERMANENT, this is what you became...

A blend of leather and metal -- straps, chains, and spikes... But this is no armor, no true exoskeleton. This is your flesh. It doesn't come off, it can not be changed. Covered, perhaps. You can still bleed, a knife still cuts, a bullet, potentially fatal, but, probably not. You are tough. Tough as nails, tough as spikes. You can take... a lot. And give a lot more.

You hardly have a face, only a hint. Your lips will never again touch those of another. Do you have other options? Not your immediate concern.

You will almost certainly never walk the daylight again.

There's an invasion. A bleak mirror-world clandestinely attacks, ultimate motive, unknown. Do you defend? How can you when you are so shunned? Sometimes you have no choice but to engage and the more you fight, the more you appreciate what you are, nightmare it may be. 

Oh, how you love kicking ass.

So be it.

 

A Rifter's Best Friend

There's nothing more loyal than a Coalition State Dogboy... anywhere... on earth... in space... another dimension... another reality. Nowhere. Nowhere, will you match this brand of devotion. The dog. The uplifted dog. The genetically modified dog. The Dogboy.

He'll sniff out your enemies. Natural. Supernatural. Doesn't matter. His sense of smell is one million times stronger than yours. And, he just might be psychic too. So magnify those senses by another million. He knows he's just a mutt. He knows you're superior. He knows you love him. He knows all of you love him. He knows you will die for him. Because you know he will die for you. In all of this he is content.

Just let him off his leash every now and then. Let him fight for the Coalition. Let him protect mankind. Let him protect you.

It's what he does.

Welcome to 2023.

 

RIFTS: Wilderness Scout And... Skills

Once again I open the year with Palladium...

In between ideas, looking for a book to flip through... of course I grab from my Palladium shelf...

RIFTS: Ultimate Edition.

This time, I flip to the Wilderness Scout...

Low powered class, one of the mere mortals of RIFTS Earth, basically a tracker with nice bonuses to survival skills. RIFTS: Ultimate Edition adds three special abilities:

• Trail Blazing: The ability to cut and mark trails for others to follow.
• Cross-Country Pacing: The ability to pace your journey.
• Cartography: The specialized art of mapmaking.

Except, these are not special abilities at all, they're just, well... skills. And they're basically just fluff story skills that would rarely come up during play and can really be summed up under Land Navigation, which already exists.

Every class, in every game system, should have abilities that make them valuable to the team, and I'm not talking, balance, I'm talking usefulness, like, "Holy shit, am I glad we have a Wilderness Scout right now!"

Something like this would make this class a little cooler...

• Group Camouflage: Basically, mass stealth. With a successful roll, the Wilderness Scout can hide his entire team in wild terrain as if they all made their stealth* rolls. If time-keeping is important to you, it takes 1d4 minutes per person. If launching an ambush surprise attack, every member of a Wilderness Scout's group gains one extra attack during the first round of action. A failed attempt means that it's time to roll for initiative. Base Chance: 35%, +5% per level.
• *Oddly, with the plethora of skills available, there is no actual Stealth skill in RIFTS: Ultimate Edition, the closest thing is Prowl. 
• If you're a fan of critical failures and successes, which for me equals rolling doubles on a success or failure, a critical success grants two extra attacks to everyone, and a critical failure gives initiative and one extra attack to the other side.

Anybody familiar with this blog knows that I love Palladium Books regardless of inconsistencies and contradictions in the rules over many books and sometimes within the same book. I mean, who cares, especially from an OSR, DIY point of view? Yet, I would agree that changes could be made. They won't be, which is understandable, because there's too big of a catalogue that could made obsolete. So, we make these changes ourselves.

The three barriers preventing people from enjoying Palladium Games, as far as I see it are:

• Character creation takes FOR-EV-ER! Skill selection is a drag. I never write down that a character can speak his native language at 95% or can do basic math at 85%. These things are simply not worth recording.
• M.D.C./S.D.C. My solution, as I've stated before: Scrap M.D.C. Mega-Damage weapons would simply get a multiplier, be rare and dangerous to use.
• No ready-made monsters and NPCs. And they just released a very nice Bestiary, but you still have to build EVERYTHING, which is fine, but, simplified ready-made stat-blocks would be incredible.

 So, using the Wilderness Scout as an example, here's how I would present character creation:

• Roll your Attributes as normal.
• Roll Hit Points/S.D.C.
• Record Special Abilities.
• Record automatic skills, then roll for others (see below.)
• Roll starting money.
• Ignore the listed starting equipment, because, holy shit that list is extensive! Just take the important things. You don't need to record that your character has a hat or a pair of sunglasses.
• Choose alignment.

So, Skills... Looking at the Wilderness Scout O.C.C. Skills (pg. 99), the ones below are the only ones I would bother with as automatic to the class:

• Athletics
• Climbing (+15%)
• Horsemanship (+20%) this includes exotic animals.
• Hunting (+20%) percentage taken from Track Animals which is essentially... Hunting.
• Land Navigation (+20%) This includes the 3 special abilities from above.
• Pilot (+10%) motorcycle or hovercycle.
• Prowl (+15%)
• Radio: Basic (+10%)
• Wilderness Survival (+20%) Identify Plants would be combined with this skill.
• W.P. Knife, Archery, Rifle, Handguns
• Hand to Hand, I love the idea of rolling this randomly, 25% chance for either Basic, Expert, Martial Arts, or Assassin.
• Actually, for this class I might make it:
• 01-50: Basic
• 51-70: Expert
• 71-90: Martial Arts
• 91-00: Assassin

To make life easier for you, assume all skills start at a base of 35% and don't forget to add a possible  I.Q. bonus.

Now you could (and probably should) stop right there and not worry about what follows, but...

Normally, what comes next are some O.C.C. related skills followed by several secondary skills. The real drag here is all the page flipping back and forth between the class page and the section on skills. Because you get to choose all of these new skills, you're obviously going to search for the best ones. Not too painful if you're familiar with the system, but this is an enjoyment barrier for new or even occasional RIFTS fans. 

Another nuisance with such skill-based systems (in RIFTS case, it's a pseudo skill-based system, combat is d20 based) is that upon leveling up, you need to go down your character sheet, skill by skill, and this will easily be 20+ skills, adding 5% to each one (not to mention all your weapon proficiency and special ability bonuses that come at various levels.)

What I would rather do, after recording your automatic skills, is roll randomly, say, 10 times on a custom skill chart (or series of charts) containing mostly related skills and the automatic ones, but also including some possible outliers to see what other skills you have. If you roll an automatic skill, you get a further 5% bonus every time you roll it. If you roll a new skill, you get it at the base 35% and a further 5% bonus every time you roll it again. If you roll a physical skill that you already have, you get those bonuses a second time (e.g., if you roll Athletics and you already have it, now you have Athletics x 2.) If you reroll a weapon proficiency you get an extra +1 bonus.

Then when you level up, at even levels add 5% to all of your % skills and at odd levels add +1 to any weapon proficiencies. Also each time you level up, you get to roll on the class skill chart 4 or 5 times, or 1d6 times (for further randomness.)

Special Abilities improve at the listed rate or at the same rate as % or +1 skills (even and odd levels.)

Unfortunately, designing these charts for every class would be beyond tedious, so this dream really is dead on arrival.

Unless...

You turned the already existing skill lists in random roll charts and said something like: Roll 3 times on your Automatic Skills chart, Roll 2 times on the Rogue Skills chart, Roll 3 times on the Wilderness Skills chart, once on each W.P. chart, and twice on a randomly determined chart. 

Hmmm...

I'm a dreamer, but like I said earlier, take the obvious automatic class skills and stop right there! 

RIFTS: She Will Kill You!...And The RIFTS 30th Anniversary Edition

She will kill you!

The Blind Warrior Women of Altara. Slaves of the Splugorth of RIFTS Atlantis. The Altarains were enslaved 2,000 years ago. Psionic, fit warriors, three quarters of them have been thoroughly brainwashed into happily serving the Splugorth, the rest yearn for freedom. There are no males and they reproduce by cloning themselves every 12 years. My drawing above portrays them as flirtatious...they are not!...but then again, it's your game.

A couple of weeks ago, this arrived...

Keith Parkinson cover painting, one of the most iconic images in the history of Role-Playing.

This is the original game reprinted in hardcover with a bunch of extras including concept art and several pages depicting all the RIFTS covers ever published. This is raw RIFTS before the multitude of expansion books. The thing I love the most is all the Larry MacDougall art, which for whatever reason is completely absent from RIFTS Ultimate Edition. There are a few samples of his high contrast art below. 

The black ink in this book POPS, I mean, the black is BLACK and crisp. 

Makes you want to play doesn't it?

You can purchase a copy here: https://www.palladiumbooks.com/

Once again, I have absolutely zero affiliation with Palladium Books, just a fan. 

RIFTS: Dial O For Operator

Still working away at something, but can't neglect the blog, so...

RIFTS Operators...

I wonder how many people have played an Operator?

They're basically just mechanics. Regular folks good at fixing stuff. They'll die in M.D.C. combat immediately. And they won't last terribly long in S.D.C. combat either. Unless you gear them up in either case. Which kind of makes sense, because gear is what they do.

They should almost be a necessity for any RIFTS group, just like the thief is (or should be) a necessity for any group of dungeon-crawlers.

You see, if you don't know, JUNK is all over RIFTS earth. Old junk, new junk, alien junk, all kinds of junk. In fact, if any setting needs a plethora upon plethora of random tables for what you find in this ruined town or that battlefield, it's RIFTS.

A good GM should be littering broken, but potentially useful items (weapons, vehicles, armor, etc.) of all sizes all over the place...specifically for the Operator to shine. Not everything will get fixed (or fixed in time) some rolls will fail, but the Operator will always be busy and could become a cherished member of the group.

Imagine they find some ungodly cool thing that's going to take awhile to fix, but it's in a dangerous place with lots of random encounters. How many fights are the PCs willing to risk while the Operator tinkers with this thing? (The Operator get's to fight too of course.)

The younger me wouldn't have looked twice at this class, but now (especially after I drew that pic) I'm digging it.

BTW, Palladium has been printing hard-covers of their rulebooks and they have a special hard-cover reprinting of RIFTS 1st Edition coming very soon. I've preordered one. That iconic Splugorth Slave Barge cover by Keith Parkinson....damn, if that doesn't fire up your imagination...

Back to writing.

And drawing.

Rifts: To Juice Or Not To Juice?

What is it that you need...?

Revenge?

Money?

Freedom?

Adventure?

What price are you willing to pay...?                                                                                                               

And so you paid...

And now your body, filled with nanobots and cabled with drug-pumping tubes, is capable of astounding feats that defy the limits of humanity. You are cold and efficient -- very efficient. You're so fucking fast. The battlefield around you moves in slow-motion. It's almost too easy. 

So hard to kill. You don't tire for days and when you do sleep, well, it's barely a nap.

The juice has made you the perfect super-soldier.

And after 5 years your heart will explode.

Thanks for your service.

Juicer.

Hope it was worth it.

And now, some Juicer death mechanics, for which, there really are none. Juicer Uprising has a table to roll on when you reach your final year, detailing symptoms of the end such as the shakes and memory loss, but nothing that signifies death itself or even when that final year actually arrives. Savage Rifts has Burn mechanics -- which aren't bad, but I prefer...

Burn-Out in 3...2...

• Burn-Out utilizes a usage die. Anyone reading this should know what that is, but just in case: If you roll a 1 or 2 on a usage die, that die becomes the next lower die, e.g., d20 becomes d12, which would become d10, then d8, then d6, and finally a d4.

1st level Juicers begin with a usage die of d20. At the end of every session, roll your usage die, if you roll a 1 or 2, it falls to the next die. If a session sees no or very minimal combat, the GM may wave your burn-out roll for that session. You should theoretically have many sessions (absolute, extreme bare minimum of 6) before reaching a burn-out die of d4.

Death Is Imminent...

Once you roll a 1 or 2 on a burn-out die of d4, death is imminent starting the following session. At which point -- after every single round of combat, you need to make a burn-out save against target number 20. Juicers already have a +8 vs. toxins which can be applied to this roll along with any bonus received from a high P.E. stat. Subtracted from this roll is your level.

Burn-Out Roll = +8, +P.E. bonus, minus your level vs. 20

If you fail this roll, your heart will explode and strange chemicals will froth forth from your mouth as your well-used and smoking body falls dead. If combat is still ongoing however, you immediately get one last free round of actions before you expire, wherein any damage you do is doubled as you burn out in a wild blaze of glory.

Just a thought.

Afterthought...

• You want to play extreme? Roll the burn-out die after every combat instead of every session from the very beginning.

So cool.

Imagine Rifts: Psi-Stalker

Imagine, you're not considered a full human, but a mutant, something of a second class citizen. You're not welcome at the table...and you don't mind. Fuck the table.

Imagine, you never have to eat or drink, but what sustains you is the potential psychic energy and magical strength of those with beyond human capabilities. You can smell them and the smell is good.

Imagine, the thrill of the hunt for such a thing. You live for it. You lust for it. It requires but a drop of blood and every ounce of your will...not to kill.

Imagine, you are but one of many, born of the tribe, the wilderness your home, solitude your temple.

Imagine, you are a Psi-Stalker.

Rifts is cool.

Bursting Into 2021!

The Burster. 

Fire-Starter meets Johnny Storm.

One of the more powerful psychics on Rifts Earth. 

As unpredictable as wildfire. 

If their blood boils, yours will too. 

Welcome to 2021.

Palladium/Rifts Character Sheet -- Revised

My take on a Rifts Ley Line Walker. 

Here's a slightly revised version of my Rifts character sheet, usable with all Palladium games. I left the Speed line blank so the sheet is now 100% accurate as opposed to 99%. I tweaked various things here and there, nothing radical, but I feel it's more stream-lined. A spell/psionics page is attached as with the prior version.

Rifts--Revised

Clerics and Ascension

Would you play a character if you knew there was an ever increasing chance, when leveling up, that something "off-screen" could remove that character from play?

I've been toying with the notion that as a character levels up, background (campaign) forces would ultimately retire that character from play.  High level characters would fade away (or burn out) into myth and legend.  The campaign would remain relatively low powered and gritty.  Granted, most campaigns fizzle out long before this anyway; most aren't much more than one-shots.  But damn, if you knew your character might have a bad-ass ending, you might actually look forward to it.

Fighters may become generals or lords of a realm or simply disappear, fate unknown, or suffer a sad, crippling injury.  Thieves could become guild-masters, or finally get "taken out" by assassins.  Wizards vanish to other worlds or transform into something not human and not playable or their tower explodes due to some mystical experiment, or they go mad.  Clerics could ascend...

What if, starting at say, 5th level??, 9th level??, your Cleric had a certain percentage chance of ascending, being called home to their deity to serve a higher purpose?  So you roll the dice...5%, 10%???...and if you roll below that number, you now begin your path to Ascension.  First, you become a Saint, for whatever you want that to mean--you glow, have a halo, etc., perhaps gain an ability.  Every level thereafter, you have an ever increasing chance of Ascension.

If you roll Ascension you don't immediately ascend; it will be triggered during play.  You could maybe set a target of 3 critical rolls.  The third time that you happen to roll a 20 during an intense, most likely combat situation, something thoroughly dramatic happens, such as all foes present are immediately struck down by your holy magnificence, after which, the rest of the party watches stunned, as you gloriously rise up and away, disappearing from the mortal world forever.

It would be memorable.

But now you have to roll up a new character.

Players would have to agree, from the beginning, that such a thing is possible.

This sort of reminds me of the Juicer Class from Rifts.  If you're not familiar, Juicers are chemically enhanced super-soldiers that live a maximum of 8 years (as a Juicer) -- no exceptions.  Rifts never came up with a mechanic for this though (at least not that I'm aware of, perhaps it's in the book, Juicer Uprising), but Savage Rifts has a mechanic for it.  The notion of playing a character with a limited life-span, by default, adds a certain level of excitement to the game.

Of course, one could argue that every character in the OSR already has a limited life-span......

Here's an example focusing on Lawful Clerics (I'll address Chaotic Clerics Descending / Damnation some other time and perhaps similar rules for the other classes)

Ascension

Starting at 7th level, roll for Sainthood (15% chance which increases by 10% per level thereafter)

If Sainthood is attained, roll 1d6 on the following table for something beneficial:

1. Gain 1d6 extra Hit Points.
2. Gain +2 Charisma (is that a Halo I see...?).
3. Heal and extra 2d4 Hit Points when casting cure spells.
4. Turn Undead as 2 level higher.
5. +2 to all Saving Throws
6. +3 to all damage vs. Chaos(evil).

Once Sainthood is attained, you have a 10% chance when you reach your next level for Ascension to take place.  The chance of Ascension increases by 10% per level thereafter.  Once Ascension occurs roll 1d6 on the following table for something beneficial:

1. Your attacks count as magic.
2. Your blood heals.  For every 1d4 Hit Points you sacrifice, 2 Hit Points or 1 Condition/Disease is healed.  
3. Your can sprout ethereal, angelic wings allowing you to fly a number of rounds equal to your level per day.
4. Your presence inspires, all those within 10' of you can attempt to Turn Undead as a 1st level cleric so long as they have a Holy Symbol.
5. You are immune to fear.
6. Roll twice on the Sainthood table, results are cumulative.

As stated above, actual Ascension is triggered during play.  You now have a time-clock of rolling 3 natural 20's during combat (or some other situation deemed "stressful")  This could theoretically happen in one session, but will most likely take several.  You could also raise the number of crits needed if you feel 3 is too few.  Just imagine finally getting to that point, knowing that the next 20 you roll is the end...

When Ascension occurs, you dramatically achieve victory over your current dilemma -- all foes immediately present are destroyed as Holy Light radiates from your body.  Then you rise up into the sky (even in a dungeon) and disappear from play forever.  Perhaps they return one day as an Avatar???

This is all theory-crafting. Tinker with it...in fact I'm interested to see what other people come up with.


And now a friendly reminder, if you haven't already, be sure to check out my dark, angelic themed modules below.  Both received very positive reviews...

Sision Tower Reviews:

https://beyondfomalhaut.blogspot.com/2019/04/review-sision-tower.html

http://osrnews.blogspot.com/2019/05/sision-tower-review-goth-girls-and.html

Sision Tower

Praise the Fallen Review:

https://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=4615

Praise the Fallen

I've done some art for my next project, but true inspiration hasn't yet hit.

It will.

Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black

Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black are the four colors that were used to color comic books -- back in the day.  If you've ever heard the phrase "Four Color Comics" or "Four Color Super-Heroes" now you know why.  So, here I present FOUR character sheets for super-hero RPGs.


Mutants & Masterminds 3rd Edition is the newest of this bunch.  It's not a bad game, a little too "point-buy" for my taste.  It's kind of like Marvel (FASERIP) mated with Champions.  Champions was an alright game to play, and I knew people that would spend hours.....no, days..... actually, make that weeks fine tuning their characters, trying to get the most bang for their hero-point bucks.  This might just be where power-gaming started.

The same situation exists with Mutants & Masterminds 3rd Edition, but admittedly, it's nowhere near as bad.  Many gamers love point-buy systems.  Ain't my cup of tea.  My imagination works best when I have to make sense of unrelated fragments.  Now, M&M 3rd does have a meticulously crafted random character generation system that is 100% balanced for their point-buy system.  It's impressive, and whoever designed it deserves credit. I just wish they had it for every level of power in the game.  Not everyone should be "power level 10." I just don't like that amount of balance.  It doesn't exist and never has existed in comics.  Anyway, point-buy is not a flaw, it's a preference one way or the other.

A real nit-pick I have of this system is that it's "condition" heavy.  There are no hit-points, just negative modifiers and conditions, and then more conditions, and then some of those conditions have conditions.  All of these conditions are basically a variation of "stunned."

All in all, it's not a bad game.

Mutants & Masterminds 3rd Edition

When DC Heroes came out I was heavily into Marvel (FASERIP).  As much as DC fascinated me, I never made the switch.  The system is awesome, elegant even, but I hated the fact that you had to build your character.  Might as well play Champions.

No game has ever handled different power-levels as good as DC Heroes.  From Superman to Batman and everyone in between, the rules handle the difference realistically and gracefully.  

Two flaws that stand out to me.  One: In the exponential system that is DC, every number is twice as good as the one before it (4 is twice as good as 3 which is twice as good as 2 which is twice as good as 1.)  However, on the action chart (this could be another flaw--the game was chart heavy, an action and results chart, if you don't mind looking at charts though, they work great) 1-2 is a column, 3-4 is column, 5-6 is a column, etc.  Numbers 5 and 6 have the same value on the action chart, yet 6 is supposed to be twice as good as 5.  Two:  Hero-Points, you're expected to spend them to survive.  You're not really in any danger until you're out of hero-points.  Batman would be knocked out with one punch in this game many times over if he didn't have hero-points to spend to change that fate.  A character should be able to survive and do what they do based on their stats, not the expenditure of hero-points.

Still, a beautiful system.  

DC Heroes

Marvel Super Heroes (now referred to as FASERIP) was my go-to game other than D&D.  I played this game so much that it ruined percentile-dice systems for me for years.  I knew the stats to every Marvel character thanks to all the source books they produced and I still, to this day, mentally rank super-heroes according to the FASERIP system.

I loved the quick and random character generation in this game and it forced you to get creative because, damn, you would roll some weird combos.  Not like we never re-rolled though ("Feeble" Plant Control, I don't think so.)  

Like DC, Marvel was dependent on a chart (charts really were a thing in the 80's), but some people over the years have come up with creative ways not to use the chart (actually called, the Universal Table).  The main flaw of this game is that the powers sometimes aren't well explained.  Also, characters weren't always as strong or weak as their comic book counterparts.  But that's role-playing.  RPGs aren't movies, aren't novels, aren't comics.  RPGs are their own beast.  I think the biggest flaw in FASERIP was OUR inability to use the system to its maximum affect.  

If I was allowed to redesign this game........

A note about the sheet....I added Infamy to oppose Popularity.  You can use Infamy to represent villain popularity or simply to represent negative popularity.  Or you can ignore it.

Marvel Super Heroes FASERIP

Heroes Unlimited.  I know, the character sheet below says Rifts.  That's because this Rifts character sheet is usable for any Palladium Books game from Rifts to Nightbane and Heroes Unlimited to Beyond the Supernatural and Splicers to Palladium Fantasy, you get the point.

Where do I start?  This game is a random character generation paradise, but sometimes it will give you too many powers.  See, powers in this game are so well thought out, that often 1 power is like having 3 or 5 or 10!  And you might roll 4 or 5 powers.....get ready to transcribe! Often, one or two powers is plenty.

No super-hero game does gritty hand-to-hand combat better than Heroes Unlimited. Strike, Parry, Dodge, Roll With Punch, Leap Kick, Body-Block Throw, etc., it's all there.  Throw in powers and magic and you've got the most dynamic comic book action you've ever seen.

You won't be playing Superman or Thor in this game.  The power level is more attuned for street to mid-level play--which is perfect.  As of right now, Heroes Unlimited would be my go-to super-hero game.

Now, Palladium's games aren't without their flaws.  Most critics will cry about contradictory rules being scattered across books and how the system is unbalanced.  I just don't view those things as problems.  When you like a toolbox, you like it.  For me the biggest flaw in Palladium Games is M.D.C. (Mega Damage Capacity).  I simply change everything to S.D.C./Hit Points. Game on.

Physically, Palladium books are probably my favorite format for an RPG.  I love the way a perfectly-bound paperback feels.  I love the gritty black and white interior art and Palladium has some of the BEST COVER ART in gaming.

And to think, I ignored Palladium Books for years.  I currently own over thirty of them and periodically feel compelled to buy more. 

Character Sheet note:  Speed doesn't do much in this game, so I added the OPTION for Speed to give an Initiative Bonus.  Just use the same bonuses that are given for P.P.

Rifts

Will have to do some posts focused only on Palladium....