Odd things about Rifts

This Section is meant to be a list of interesting things that I have notice (or have been shown to me) about the Rifts books and it’s world in general.

Borg Armor

What’s so big about borg armor? Well, the heavy varity has 420MDC and only costs 32000cr!!! My friend Kurt pointed this out to me one day,”It’s the best kept secret in the Main Book!” he exclaimed. And that it is. Borgs have always kicked ass in Rifts, with a good one able to take over 600MDC, more than that of many robot vehicles over 20ft tall. And, according to this, instead of spending 40000cr of whatever for 10MDC worth of repaires, you can just buy an entire 420 MDC suit for dirt cheap! Is this a typo? Most likely, I should ask Ms. Seimbada about it. My local group theorises that the armor is basically just bolt-on plates, which sould be cheaper than a full enviromental suit. However, even then, this armor probably should cost a little more than a measly 32K…

Note: A suit of heavy borg armor has more MDC than an entire NG-V7 Moblie Hunter Gun Robot Vehicle!!!

Those Annoying Main Book Insanity Tables

Taken right out of Heros Unlimited, many of them refer to “superpowers”, heros, anti-heros, etc. They hardly even changed the tables at all! Well, I plan on writing up an insanity table created solely for Rifts, with things that APPLY to it. I mean, if you have the insanity “power-food” or whatever, where is a post-RIfts charaacter supposed to get pre-rifts foods? (twinkies, etc.) And what “superpower” would an insane Headhunter lose? Many of the listed insanities just don’t fit too well into the Rifts megaverse.

The crappy “Summon Shadow Beast” spell

It costs 140PPE, and all you get is a crappy 2MD shadow warrior that can turn invisible. What use is it but for a spy? The example lists the command “slay so and so”, but I sure as hell don’t know how these weak things could kill any one outfited in Plastic Man and holding a vibro knife! Even if you are striking out at it wildly, you’ll hit it sometime, and it is hard to find a weapon in Rifts that can’t easily inflict 2MD in one hit. I guess you could summon packs of them, but they don’t last that long either.

Main Book Dinosaurs

Can we say sucky?! I belive some speices get what, 3d6 MD! Well, the later books definatly correct this (the Dinos are much more buff). However, prior to the new stats coming out, we always would joke about how “scary” the dinosaurs were. I mean, what’s the point of making them soooo weak?

The Main Book O.C.C.’s get the shaft

Yep, that’s right. Ever since around the release of Rifts:Mercenaries, all the new OCC’s get bonuses to start off, and even extra secondary skills as they progress! Why? After lookin at them in comparison, they usualy don’t have as high of bonuses, or as many skills to start out, but still… The old classes just don’t get initiative bonuses and such like they should.

Every Gun-Slinger Must Have Amp-Hearing…

Or He will be, basically screwed. I never did like the +6 on initiative rule, it is just too high. I let it work for the first melee against a suprise attack, but not against an already known foe. Think about it, for the money this is probably the *best* peice of cyber-ware any player can pick up out of the main book, the bonuses are really good. Too good, in my opinion.

Why would a Jager suprise Erin Tarn?

p10 of World Book Five “four Jagers came running up a lightly forested hill at a beguiling speed”. Why would she have found this so fast for a ground-based power armor? The NG-Samson can run 10mph faster (150mph compared to the Jager’s 140mph). I would think that Tarn has seen one of the NG Samsons before, they are not that uncommon…