d20 Rifts - The Source of Magic

Magic works pretty much as described in the Rifts sourcebook. That is, magic infuses the world, and is drawn primarily from the power of life. The surging, teeming forces of life in the ecosphere tend to flow into rivers of energy, known as ley lines. On most worlds, these ley lines are only able to be detected by those very sensitive to magic. On the hyperactive world of Rifts Earth, however, the ley lines are giant rivers of neon blue light, nearly half a mile across and half as tall. Where two ley lines meet, the energy surges together into a nexus. There are about a dozen locations in the Americas where scores of ley lines come together to form a super-nexus.

However, much of this is of only academic interest to the spellcaster. The most important thing to consider, for the purposes of this discussion, is how to convert the magical energy into practical results. To do this, we need to examine where the energy comes from, and the methods of casting it into a spell.

d20 Rifts - Combat notes and Grenade rules

For combat, 99% of the rules are straight out of Spycraft. I had a couple of notes. But one of the big chunks is a house rule I developed for grenades. In SC, grenades are basically "check if you hit, affect a blast radius". I thought that was boring, and never fit the cinematic tension of grenades.

d20 Rifts - Operator Class

Operator

This is a core class.
The operator is one of the cogs that holds the world together. There is a lot of very advanced technology out there, and precious few people to keep it running. In civilized areas, operators run very profitable businesses, either legitimate or black market. In the wildlands, though, it’s a different story. Very few villages can afford their own specialist, and even fewer can afford parts and supplies. So, traveling operators become part mechanic, part scavenger, and often hero.

d20 Rifts - General rules

Attributes

To generate attributes, you get 36 points to spend on the following chart:

Score	Cost	Modifier
1	—	–5
2–3	—	–4
4–5	—	–3
6–7	—	–2
8	—	–1
9	1	–1
10	2	+0
11	3	+0
12	4	+1
13	6	+1
14	8	+2
15	11	+2
16	14	+3
17	18	+3
18	22	+4
19	N/A	+4

Strength

Strength is raw physical power. It adds to your melee attacks and damage. It also determines how much load you can carry.

Supernatural strength is strength that is well beyond the human scale. It’s measured on the same scale, however, but with two important differences. First, all of the lift/carry amounts are multiplied by 10. Second, a creature with supernatural strength is capable of dealing megadamage with its natural and melee attacks (so long as the melee weapon is an MDC structure).

Dexterity

Dexterity is physical finesse. It adds to your ranged attacks, Defense, Initiative, and Reflex saves.

Constitution

Constitution is physical endurance. It adds to your vitality and Fortitude saves. It also determines your wound points.

Supernatural endurance is an indication that your body is an MDC structure. You gain damage reduction equal to (Con score)/(Con modifier, minimum 0). You are also able to keep going longer than normal humans. You are effectively immune to normal fatigue, are able to hold your breath for a number of minutes equal to your Con score, and can go a number of days without sleep (without penalty) equal to your Con modifier (minimum 0).

Intelligence

Intelligence is a measure of your ability to learn and retain information, and to solve problems. It adds to your skill points and education checks. It also determines your starting languages.

Wisdom

Wisdom is a combination of several mental traits, including acuity and willpower. It adds to your Will saves and intuition checks. It is also important for determining how perceptive your character is.

Charisma

Charisma is a measure of your strength of personality. It adds to your budget and favor checks. It is also very important for most social skills.

Miscellaneous Rules

Favor Checks

Favor checks represent your ability to get miscellaneous aid from the people around you. This can range from information on the local warlord, to borrowing a truck, to bailing you out of jail.

In order to make a favor check, you must spend one GP and choose a person or organization you want to provide the favor. You then make a roll, adding your character level and your Charisma bonus. If you succeed, then your contact will fill your request. If you fail, then you may not make the same request of that contact for the remainder of the session (however, you may make the request of another contact, and another member of your party may ask the same contact).

The difficulty of a favor check is determined both by how difficult/ expensive/ risky/ etc. filling the request will be for the contact (as determined by the GC), and by what kind of relationship you have with the contact. Contacts have qualities of Stranger (-6), Poor (-2), Mediocre (+0), Good (+2), and True Friend (+6). The quality of a contact can be improved with the use of Bureaucracy (for organizations) or Diplomacy (for individuals), or through acts which benefit the contact. Likewise, the quality of a contact may be worsened through acts which harm the contact.

Intuition Checks

Intuition checks are a tool to get a hint from the GC as to what to do next. They represent a sudden flash of insight, or a feeling that you’re on the wrong track.

Making an intuition check requires you to spend 1 GP. You add your character level and Wisdom modifier to the roll.

You cannot actually fail at an intuition check. Simply by making the check, you will get some level of insight. The result of the check simply determines the quality and relevancy of that insight.

Education Checks

Education checks represent the general education and world experience that the character has picked up. This can be anything from recognizing a famous person, to knowing where Ishpeming is, to telling the difference between a legitimate cyber-doc and a body chop shop.

Education checks are free, and can be made whenever a character wishes. You simply roll, and add your character level and Intelligence modifier. If the result is high enough, you know the piece of information you are looking for. If not, you don’t. If you fail an education check, you may not make additional checks on that topic this session. You may take 10 on an education check, but you may not take 20.

Education checks are not a replacement for Knowledge skills. For one thing, information that would be trivial for a character with a relevant Knowledge skill may be difficult with an Education check (meaning, it would have a much higher DC). There are also some things that can only be accomplished with the relevant Knowledge skill. For instance, there is a popular juicer movie hero named Julian Amici. It would be a fairly easy education check to know who he is (DC 15). It would be a difficult education check (DC 25), but a fairly easy Knowledge (Juicers) check (DC 10) to name his favorite weapon. No education check would allow you to name all the actors who have portrayed him, but it would be a difficult Knowledge (Juicers) or Knowledge (Movies) check, or an easy Knowledge (Julian Amici) check.

Education checks regarding people, places, and things not on your home plane have a DC increased by 10.

Languages

There are a large number of languages in the world. Pretty much every traveller ends up learning a few of them.

You will start with fluency and literacy in your native language. If you wish, you can give up literacy in your native language in return for an additional language pick, but you cannot be literate in any other language if you are not literate in your native language. You also start with a number of language picks equal to your Intelligence modifier. You then gain one additional language pick for each rank you have in the Languages skill.

With each language pick, you can choose to gain one of four things. You can become competent in a language you do not already know. This allows you to hold any normal conversation, but you have a distinct accent and occasionally have trouble with idioms or jokes. You can become fluent in a language you are already competent in. This means you speak like a native in all ways. You can become literate in a language you are competent in. This allows you to read and write in that language. (If the language is a “dead” language, you can choose to become literate instead of becoming competent with your first pick.) Finally, you can choose to master a particular lingo. This is generally associated with a particular profession, such as military or technical, and includes the jargon particular to the profession, as well as common phrases and references used by members. Another type of lingo is the dialect of a particular location or population. In either case, learning the lingo allows you to pass yourself off as a member or native of that group.

If you do not possess competency with a language, you can still attempt to make yourself understood with that language, using a few words and frequent gestures. This requires both you and the person you are talking to to make a Languages check, with a DC based on the closest common language. If both people fail, then communication cannot be held. If both people succeed, then most concepts can be communicated. If one person succeeds and the other fails, then only simple concepts can be communicated.

Some common languages on Rifts Earth are: Coalition English (the most common language in North America), Spanish (common in southern North America and Central America), Quebecois (unique to the Coalition State of Free Quebec), Faery, Draconic (also frequently used for magical writings), Gobbledy (a rough language common among a surprising number of less civilized dimensions), and Leet (a much more advanced version of today’s 1337-speak, used by computer and electronics gurus. This is a text-only language, and hence you only need to pick literacy with it). Some less common ones include Atlantean/Splugorth, German, Native American (an amalgamation of Apache, Navajo, and other tongues, that varies widely from group to group), Enochian, Avestan, and Takelma (these three are common among divine and infernal beings and their servants).

d20 Rifts - Spycraft overview

It occurs to me that I know all about Spycraft. I didn't actually include many explanations of its mechanics in my notes. But you guys reading this may not know about it. So let me give a bit of a primer of some of the ways it deviates from standard d20.

Rifts using the d20 system

I've written about this before. I got a bug a few years back to convert the Rifts setting to a d20 system. This would allow for the vast range of options in Rifts, but with more structure, balance, and predictability than the Palladium system provides.

I just ran across some of my old notes. I don't know that I want to necessarily pick the project up again. (Among other things, I think I like using the Gamma World system better than d20.) But I was actually pleased with what I'd written, so wanted to toss it out into the world. Maybe someone else can use it.

Guardians of the Galaxy - Spoilers Within!

*cough* Wow, this place is dusty. I should swing by more often.

So, like a good chunk of the nation, I saw Guardians of the Galaxy this weekend. I loved it! And I wanted to have a super spoileriffic discussion of some of the points in the movie. Facebook doesn't really do jump-cuts and the like well, so I figured I'd fire up this old hunk of junk.

<<< There be spoilers within >>>