Fresh off the Boat: Savage Rifts (SWADE Edition)

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But the Coalition are an Nazi analog. And like the real political party of our past, it's just the LEADERS that are the real bad guys, the populace are just dupes who believed in them. And they're meant to be used like the Pulp equivalent, as general goons to beat up and blast.

It's too easy to say that, but let's be real, the circumstances of the Coalition and the Nazis are *radically* different.

Prosek *is* a megalomaniac, but he's also terrified of the cosmic terrors that have invaded the world. Anyone in their right mind *should* be scared. I mean... ORCS are literally running around west/north west part of America raping and pillaging and siding with evil forces against humanity. And that's the least of humanity's worries.

The position of the CS that makes it so "Nazi-like" is the wholesale destruction of anything "not human" - obviously. It's shooting all the babies in the bathwater before throwing them out. And it also, obviously, precludes the fact that humans themselves have supernatural proclivities that existed prior to the Rifts that only now are coming online... so yeah it's too drastic a solution.

But in the long run... they're doing something about it. At great terrible cost. For me - it's interesting. While it's fun to say "Let's do a CS campaign!" - half the fun for me is putting PC's into those morally grey zones where they're justified and not-justified to do what they think needs to be done. But I recognize not everyone likes playing like that heheh.
 
Take this with a grain of salt. As *I* read it... and this is not some official statement of how it IS supposed to be played... - but this issue seems to be more of a CS problem than a CK issue. And there are several major examples of the CS in the SW Rifts books looking the other way, and even teaming up with D-Bees, even hiring arcane/psionic characters they'd ordinarily kill, to work alongside the CS. Now what most people think of the CS as the Evil Empire... is largely true in the major cities (Chi-Town, etc.) But once you're out in the territories, where CS troops are dealing with shit that wants to east CS, wizard, CK alike... they aren't as trigger-happy against their D-Bee or Magic/Psionic using populace (mostly, but not always).

My bad, I was focusing on the CK part of the blurb, where they actually changed the mechanics of OCC just to be anti-Coalition. That's all that I took from that. It's a massive retcon that makes no sense.

And it makes sense. Makes for good roleplaying tension too on both sides of the coin. I know if I were some Atlantean Ley Line Walker with some non-CS friendly PC pals... doing stuff, running across a CS patrol in the woods of Michigan isn't exactly a tension relieving experience. But it's not necessarily a shoot-out to the death either (but it might be, that's half the potential fun).
There is an adventure in the SW Rifts North America monster book, where the players end up beating up Godzilla. And that's where my GB character defined his personality. He uses quotes from 'old' pop culture (1990's video games and movies and the like) all the time.


If I can tangent for a bit
Well you should stand vindicated. Because that's the vibe I get here. And I agree - Paladins do not, and have not gotten enough love in fantasy games. I'll run my CK's like this too.

Part of the problem I've run into (Again, anecdotally) is that people think that being a Paladin is boring and they're all the same personality. Which blows my little mind, these are PEOPLE. People have their quirks! Even those who are generally nice are different from each other! So I just stressed that members of different 'orders' or 'Gods' would have differing tenets and that would colour their personal views.

I don't think it hurt that I played three Paladins that were completely different in 3e. Before I burnt out.

BTW - there is an Edge for CK's to transform their Psi-Swords into any kind of weapon they want, which grants them the abilities of that weapon-type (among other things). Plus the Edge Psi-Shield, a literal shield of psychic energy. The Paladin fans can go WILD! A Psi-Zweihander, or a Morningstar/Battle Axe and Shield? I'm in.

Personally, I allow melee types to use Two Fisted with Shields as a 'weapon' (as in real life they are and should be used offensively as necessary.) I'm not sure I am going to that path with my SW CK.

So... it doesn't say they can. But I'll add this: SW doesn't much care how you wanna describe it. They've always been like that. Parry is merely the designation for melee attacks coming at you and the number you have to beat in order to hit the person (and it assumes they're aware of the attack). How you as a player or GM envision what you're *actually* doing to justify that Parry... when someone with a greatsword whiffs, while you're only armed with a knife, and a high-Fighting score, is up to you.

And the same goes with Ranged attacks - where your standard Target Number is 4. But you might grant penalties to attack for different Edges, maneuvers etc. or Powers that justify an increase to that number.

Case in point - Deflection is described as doing Bullet Time, or physically parrying or whatever your "schtick" is. The net effect is the same mechanical benefit. So you know... it's up to you. Me, I'll let'em do it. Just like if someone is rocking a Light-Shield I want the players, after a hail of laser-fire, to know their shield deflected full-auto laser fire and feel awesome as it tears up the area around them.
Deflection? Works for me!
 
So... it doesn't say they can. But I'll add this: SW doesn't much care how you wanna describe it. They've always been like that. Parry is merely the designation for melee attacks coming at you and the number you have to beat in order to hit the person (and it assumes they're aware of the attack). How you as a player or GM envision what you're *actually* doing to justify that Parry... when someone with a greatsword whiffs, while you're only armed with a knife, and a high-Fighting score, is up to you.

And the same goes with Ranged attacks - where your standard Target Number is 4. But you might grant penalties to attack for different Edges, maneuvers etc. or Powers that justify an increase to that number.

They call out in Psi-Shield that it provides MDC armor if it's being shot through. If the CK is using the Defend action, I'd allow them to interpose the shield.
 
I mean... how can you look at that guy, and knowing the horrors that exist in Rifts... and not say "Fuck yeah, I'm rolling with him."

Give me my Psi-Greatsword and let's get this Crusade started!
 
But the Coalition are an Nazi analog. And like the real political party of our past, it's just the LEADERS that are the real bad guys, the populace are just dupes who believed in them. And they're meant to be used like the Pulp equivalent, as general goons to beat up and blast.
"Hans... have you noticed our caps have got little skulls on them? ...Are we the baddies?"
 
I mean... how can you look at that guy, and knowing the horrors that exist in Rifts... and not say "Fuck yeah, I'm rolling with him."

Give me my Psi-Greatsword and let's get this Crusade started!

My Cyber-Knight uses his Psi-Sword in BOTH HANDS (not that it does anything extra, but Sweep works better visually to me.)

"Hans... have you noticed our caps have got little skulls on them? ...Are we the baddies?"
As amusing as it is, and to be fair, almost all real world Military Forces have used skulls and symbology of death to frighten their foes into submission throughout history. Hell, the Marvel Punisher's death's head symbol is REVERED by the U.S. Army.

The real badass armies are the ones who uses the heads of their enemies as their symbols.
 
I've yet to encounter SWADE Savage Rifts in the wild, but a friend lent me their Savage Rifts books from the previous edition and I'm really digging it. I've yet to give the stuff a proper read, but I've glanced through the GM's guide and Savage Foes of North America. I'm not currently planning to run Savage Rifts as such, but I'll definitely be stealing some stuff from those books for my current campaign.

I know there is SWADE Savage Rifts stuff available on DTRPG, but if I'm going to get it, I would prefer the dead-tree version.
 
In the scope of our group we've picked up all the SWADE books directly from PEG, and the quality is excellent. I mean.. absolutely fantastic. I picked up the box set for the dice and bennies and map and I have no regrets whatsoever. Totally worth it.
 
Must admit that I'd love LOVE to run this with my group but it's a bit of a guilty pleasure currently. There's so much ill-feeling over Rifts from its Palladium system days that I don't even feel comfortable telling them I have the Savage Worlds version.

Maybe I need to get my arse in gear and fess up to having it and how awesome it would be to play it. And, yes, the quality of the boxed sets, books etc is absolutely fantastic. It would have been so easy for PEG to do a lazy conversion but they really went for it and pulled out all the stops. Credit to them.
 
Must admit that I'd love LOVE to run this with my group but it's a bit of a guilty pleasure currently. There's so much ill-feeling over Rifts from its Palladium system days that I don't even feel comfortable telling them I have the Savage Worlds version.

Maybe I need to get my arse in gear and fess up to having it and how awesome it would be to play it. And, yes, the quality of the boxed sets, books etc is absolutely fantastic. It would have been so easy for PEG to do a lazy conversion but they really went for it and pulled out all the stops. Credit to them.
When you sit down and look at how PEG addressed EXACTLY the problem areas of Palladium Rifts in Savage Rifts and present those to people who had a problem with the Palladium System but put up with it until they were fed up because they loved the Rifts SETTING, you'll be amazed. They managed to keep the feel exactly in place while avoiding all the mess of a system problems.

I gave it the final blow with a one-shot, by the end of that the players (and the actual GM, who'd been resisting because he'd put so much effort into making Palladium playable) were SOLD and we just dropped the PRifts game we were playing and started anew in SRifts, and everyone is having a blast.
 
I've now read through the first of half of the SWADE Savage Rifts Game Master's Handbook. I love it! I've never been particularly into established settings, preferring to make my own, but I find the sections on Savage Rifts Earth and The Heartland to be interesting and inspiring, while remaining loose enough that I don't feel constrained by it.

Gates to other dimensions are already an established part of reality in my current homebrew game, so it should be pretty easy to bring in some Savage Rifts material.
 
You're right, he was a Ranger in the Palladium Fantasy world, one of the Defilers, the main PC group in Kevin's home fantasy campaign.

Which makes the "Cyber-Knights" thing all the more mystifying. I see they came up with an answer on the Cyber-Knights book but still, total Rule of Cool setting design. Classic Siembieda.
 
Word of advice to anyone to any other Rifts n00bs who pick up this box set: read The Tomorrow Legion Player's Guide first. I started by reading the Game Master's book, and it was occasionally frustrating because the GM book sometimes refers to terms and events that are not described in the GM book. Turns out those things had been introduced in the Player's Guide book, so if I had just read it first, that frustration wouldn't have happened.

Overall, I'm finding this boxed set to be a great product that has me stoked to try out some Savage Rifts. Thus far my only nitpicks are that it could have used one more editing pass. There are some misspelled words in the books, and the damage for a Psi-Sword is stated as "Strength + Spirit x 2," whereas the example in the next paragraph makes it clear that the damage is actually "Strength + (Spirit x 2)."
 
the damage for a Psi-Sword is stated as "Strength + Spirit x 2," whereas the example in the next paragraph makes it clear that the damage is actually "Strength + (Spirit x 2)."

Well, according to order of operations, both of those equations say the same thing. :tongue:
 
I've never been great at maths... I thought the first one meant add strength and spirit and multiply that total by two.

The example paragraph in the book shows that they meant multiply spirit by two and add it to strength. The specific example is "For example, a Cyber-Knight with Strength d8, Spirit d10, and Psionics d6 does 1d8 + 2d10 melee damage..."

Using the same Cyber-Knight, "Strength + Spirit x 2" sounds to me like it means d8 + d10, then take that total and multiply it by two. It has been over 20 years since I've taken any kind of math class, though.
 
Well, according to order of operations, both of those equations say the same thing. :tongue:

Not really.

6 + 8 x 2 = 28
6 + (8 x 2) = 22

So you actually get two different damage figures.
Just sayin'
 
Multiplication and Division come before Addition and Subtraction. So 8x2 would be done first with or without parentheses.

That's not how my (MS Windows) calculator works; 6 + 8 x 2 gives 28. Excel gives 22.

But... BODMAS!

B
Brackets first

O
Orders (ie, Powers and Square Roots, etc)

DM
Division and Multiplication (left-to-right)

AS
Addition and Subtraction (left-to-right)

:smile:

EDIT: So, yeah, just to avoid doubt I'm agreeing with you - answer is 22 for the written expression 6 + 8 x 2.
 
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That's not how my (MS Windows) calculator works; 6 + 8 x 2 gives 28. Excel gives 22.

But... BODMAS!

B
Brackets first

O
Orders (ie, Powers and Square Roots, etc)

DM
Division and Multiplication (left-to-right)

AS
Addition and Subtraction (left-to-right)

:smile:

EDIT: So, yeah, just to avoid doubt I'm agreeing with you - answer is 22 for the written expression 6 + 8 x 2.

Let me see if I can't sum things up.

6Qlp.gif
 
That's not how my (MS Windows) calculator works; 6 + 8 x 2 gives 28. Excel gives 22.

Maybe if you have Windows Calculator in Standard Mode like some uncivilized barbarian.

If you have it in Scientific Mode like all people of culture and class, then it gives 22. :shade:
 
Maybe if you have Windows Calculator in Standard Mode like some uncivilized barbarian.

If you have it in Scientific Mode like all people of culture and class, then it gives 22. :shade:

I'll stick to being an uncivilised barbarian, all things considered, thanks.
 
Word of advice to anyone to any other Rifts n00bs who pick up this box set: read The Tomorrow Legion Player's Guide first. I started by reading the Game Master's book, and it was occasionally frustrating because the GM book sometimes refers to terms and events that are not described in the GM book. Turns out those things had been introduced in the Player's Guide book, so if I had just read it first, that frustration wouldn't have happened.

And if I had just looked at the spines of the books, where The Tomorrow Legion Player's Guide clearly says Rifts-1: The Tomorrow Legion Player's Guide, this minor issue could have been easily avoided. The books come packed flat in the box, so I never looked at the spines, just the covers. :ooh:
 
And if I had just looked at the spines of the books, where The Tomorrow Legion Player's Guide clearly says Rifts-1: The Tomorrow Legion Player's Guide, this minor issue could have been easily avoided. The books come packed flat in the box, so I never looked at the spines, just the covers. :ooh:

This is just one of those things about RPGs that only makes sense from a promotional standpoint and not from an actual use standpoint.

Most of the people who buy RPG books are GMs. From a practical standpoint, it doesn't make sense to start off with player information, because the person who just bought the book is going to be the one running the game, not participating on the player side of the screen.

But most RPG books lead off with player information, as if trying to draw you in to playing, despite the fact that few players ever bother buying books and fewer still ever read them.

And what makes it even more ironic to me is when I do find a book that leads off with GM information, it feels weird. Like why is this GM stuff here? Where's character creation? I gotta dig in the big middle of the book or grab book 2 for character creation? What's up with that?

On a different note, be proud of the fact that you didn't even notice what it said on the spine. You know what they say about RPGers who pay attention to what is on the spine of a book? The only ones who care about what it says on the spine are the ones who just let the books sit on a shelf.
 
I'm not currently running Savage Rifts, but the universe of my campaign does have some things in common with the Rifts universe. I was feeling like I needed more magic for my campaign, so today I was skimming through the Savage Worlds Adventure Edition Rifts Arcana and Mysticism book, which I bought a while ago, but had never given a proper look. I really like it! Seems like there are lots of gameable ideas in there. This Nxla critter is now a strong contender to become one of the Big Bads in my campaign.
 
So odd question, what does SWADE do better than SWEX?
 
Tomorrow Legions Players Guide, Game Master's Handbook, Savage Foes of North America are in the box. All are updated for the SWADE Core rules.

The three new books are:

Arcana and Mysticism - which delves into pretty much all things magical, centering on the Magic Zone, the Federation of Magic, the Spirit West, Psyscape and Soul Harvest and a bunch of other places.

New Iconic Frameworks - two words: Dragon Juicer. Also, Nega Psychic, Zapper, Elemental Fusionist, and more MARS stuff.

New Races - Dwarves, Elves, Halflings (Oh My!) and a bunch of other stuff. I'm thinking this book might be a glimpse into the upcoming Fantasy Companion SWADE-mode. Which is a good thing.

Lots of gear, lore, Gazetteers for each region, adventures, bestiary and more than enough to get your game on. Clocks in at 192-pages. Good art!

Empires of Humanity - covers *everything* else human. Centers heavily on the Coalition, ARCHIE (whole section of ARCHIE and its rise and what's its doing). Free Quebec, and a ton of other major human outposts all across North America, a huge section on the Frontier West (Pecos Empire, Lone Star and a bunch of other stuff).

New Iconic Frameworks - Momonic Headhunters, Sentient Constructs, more MARS options, and some other stuff.

New Races - Mutant Animals (seriously this is like the best build-your TMNT and After-the-Bomb animal stuff ever), Mutant Felines, and Psy-X Aliens

Tons of gear, cybernetics, vehicles, weaponry. Gazetteers, plus a large campaign, bestiary, and a lot of cool stuff. Also clocks in at 192-pages. Excellent art.

Blood and Banes - This book covers all the weird and cool stuff. Xiticix, Vampire Kingdoms, Mutant Lands, the Calgary Monster Kingdom, Desert Kingdom. Gazeteers for all of them. More races, Iconic frameworks, a mini-campaign, bestiary, in the same format as the ones above. Also clocking in at 192 pages

All the books have indexes, lots of new edges, races etc. More tables for random stuff.

Basically - it's *everything* you need to do your Rifts campaign in North America and more. It also comes with the Rifts Tomorrow Legion Field Manual, which is a 96-page softcover book with four adventures, and more "stuff" (gear, races etc.)
WANT!
 
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