Link to Palladium Books®
Look im trying the new websites link it feature!
Palladium, I love you guys to death. Even though I'm critical at times, its just because I want you guys to be the best you can be.
Its only outta my deep respect for the work you've done bringing us such a wealth of material. Since coming out in the 80s you have finally been drug kicking and screaming into 2011's internet saavy world, and im glad to see it. While TSR and FASA are dust you guys kept kicking and producing book after book.
Keep it up!
(end palladium cheerleading lol)
Showing posts with label Editorial. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Editorial. Show all posts
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
Palladium Cleanup
A few things I would clean up:
1) Standardize XP tables and use a ECL system similar to DND where if you are a lvl1Headhunter OCC with a high power RCC you level at the rate of a 3rd level. http://nwn.wikia.com/wiki/Effective_character_level
Seriously though the different XP tables are ridiculous and add nothing but tedium to looking up if its 2100 or 2200 xp to level your two classes. This is needlessly complicated.
2) SDC conversion with penetration values
1-100 MD/SDC conversion is crap. With these SDC conversion rules you can do 1/2 damage with modern weapons to MDC items, everything MD is between x2-x7 SDC instead of x100s. It also takes into account penetration using the old weapon compendium rules which can help end tedius battles between two oponents with 100s of MDC. Regardless of these or others, everyone agrees MDC is broken.
3) Standardized templates published with all the RCC/OCCs used. I have written alot of templates based on these:
http://members.cox.net/fiona_mclaud/riftsmain.htm
But really, who has the time? It is time consuming to calculate bonuses for npcs considering the many powers that come into play. Having basic templates premade for the more interesting classes highlighting their powers and listing them along with commonly used tactics would make it more useful as a description than mere dice roll stats. Palladium’s games are quite simply harder to play than say DnD 3.5 (dont talk to me about 4th edition). The ability to quickly throw together stats in with some of the many many toybook creatures published in rifts is there, but you can’t really do it justice without a lot of meticulous rules checking. DND3.5 published templates for stats for basic classes per level which made throwing these into your game a cinch. Not so with Palladium.
4) STOP ADDING RCCS AND OCCS. We have too many. TOO MANY. What rifts needs is more story. Do you know in all of Psyscape there is only 1 PAGE describing Psyscape itself and the rest is toys and new RCCs?
5) Adopt publishing standards not used in the 70s. Modern books look so great but palladiums are just so predicable inside its a shame as some of the material is top notch, but the presentation could be sooooo much better.
6) prune duplicate skills/occs
id plants/fruits is already taken care of by wilderness survival/botany/holistic medicine
demolitions could cover disposal as well
Fencing is basically overpowered wp sword (no other weapon gets this special bonus, why?
Read Sensors, TV Video, Surveilance Systems are all basically the same thing.
Chemistry/Analytic
The skills just seem awkwardly tacked on and don’t really add much to the game experience other than making character generation a chore.
1) Standardize XP tables and use a ECL system similar to DND where if you are a lvl1Headhunter OCC with a high power RCC you level at the rate of a 3rd level. http://nwn.wikia.com/wiki/Effective_character_level
Seriously though the different XP tables are ridiculous and add nothing but tedium to looking up if its 2100 or 2200 xp to level your two classes. This is needlessly complicated.
2) SDC conversion with penetration values
1-100 MD/SDC conversion is crap. With these SDC conversion rules you can do 1/2 damage with modern weapons to MDC items, everything MD is between x2-x7 SDC instead of x100s. It also takes into account penetration using the old weapon compendium rules which can help end tedius battles between two oponents with 100s of MDC. Regardless of these or others, everyone agrees MDC is broken.
3) Standardized templates published with all the RCC/OCCs used. I have written alot of templates based on these:
http://members.cox.net/fiona_mclaud/riftsmain.htm
But really, who has the time? It is time consuming to calculate bonuses for npcs considering the many powers that come into play. Having basic templates premade for the more interesting classes highlighting their powers and listing them along with commonly used tactics would make it more useful as a description than mere dice roll stats. Palladium’s games are quite simply harder to play than say DnD 3.5 (dont talk to me about 4th edition). The ability to quickly throw together stats in with some of the many many toybook creatures published in rifts is there, but you can’t really do it justice without a lot of meticulous rules checking. DND3.5 published templates for stats for basic classes per level which made throwing these into your game a cinch. Not so with Palladium.
4) STOP ADDING RCCS AND OCCS. We have too many. TOO MANY. What rifts needs is more story. Do you know in all of Psyscape there is only 1 PAGE describing Psyscape itself and the rest is toys and new RCCs?
5) Adopt publishing standards not used in the 70s. Modern books look so great but palladiums are just so predicable inside its a shame as some of the material is top notch, but the presentation could be sooooo much better.
6) prune duplicate skills/occs
id plants/fruits is already taken care of by wilderness survival/botany/holistic medicine
demolitions could cover disposal as well
Fencing is basically overpowered wp sword (no other weapon gets this special bonus, why?
Read Sensors, TV Video, Surveilance Systems are all basically the same thing.
Chemistry/Analytic
The skills just seem awkwardly tacked on and don’t really add much to the game experience other than making character generation a chore.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
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…
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…
Wednesday, March 19, 1997
Magic In Rifts Earth: Forcing Power
An ancient rant written before our subsequent conversion of magic and supernatural to x3 SDC and tech gear to x3-7SDC depending on size. I find the new way works better but as you can see from this old essay I was frustrated at magics ineffectiveness compared to tech at the time. Perhapse I was a bit naive in my treatment of magic...
This introduces the idea of overcharging magic spells at a detriment to the user, like the people charging up in anime... also see the following in game books which are the inspiration for research into this area by the original "Forcers" of Rifts Earth... "http://wot.wikia.com/wiki/Forcing"
Rumor has it possession of one of the Wheel of Time novela of ancient pre-rifts era can shred insight into the process of forcing which may unlock abilities mentioned later.
Magic In Rifts Earth
11-19-97
Magic: This force has been used in many games other than Rifts, the major one being Dungeons and Dragons. In that game, Mages started out one of the weakest classes, but once they reached higher levels, they were easily the strongest. Is this the case in Rifts? Well, after presenting some view points, I'll let you decide.
The world of Rifts Earth is supposed to be alive with magic energy. It is criss-crossed with ley-lines, and abounds with beings of supernatural and magical power. So, from the many quotes and such from the Main Book, it would make sense that magic is a force to be reckoned with, correct? However, in comparison to some other new developments in Rifts earth, I am sad to say that this is simply not true.
I have always like the idea of magic, it really can be pretty neat and mysterious, but in Rifts? No way, a Mage gets his ass beat hands down in nearly any encounter. Maybe in a medieval setting they are powerful, but in Rifts Earth, the technological equivalents are always much better.
Wana throw a lightning bolt? A commonly available energy weapon can shoot farther, has a higher payload, can be used more than 2 times per melee, and frequently will do more damage than an average Mage's lightning.
Need some armor? Armor of Ithan really does give crap protection, not much more than light armor at the medium levels. Plus, it has a duration, and requires attacks to cast. Mages never truly rely on this spell, it's only backup, or supplementary, they always wear real armor too.
Transportation? Magic does have it's teleport and mystic portal spells, but they require large amounts of PPE and are usually pretty limiting. The flight movement spells are nice, if only for the bonuses, but modern vehicles are what you really need to get from point A to point B.
Now, out of those three main categories, Magic can also do many other things, but most of them are really quite trivial. Magic's sensory abilities are OK, but a Psionic is MUCH better, and decent optics are more useful and long-ranged than anything magic has to offer. The "cantrip" spells, they're mostly amusing or annoying, but never really too useful.
What is my point here? Well, as long as I've been playing Rifts, I've always been vastly amazed at just how much Magic sucks in comparison to its technological equivalents. I mean, sure magic can do some things that tech can't, but does that really matter most of the time? No. I hate the fact that in combat, a Mage is really a joke. He can only cast 2 spells per melee! Common men of arms have at least twice that many attacks. Plus, their weapons usually do MORE damage, and have a HIGHER range. What is a Mage to do against any targets sitting at 301ft away? Nothing with magic, that's for sure. And it's cheesy as hell that Mages should be forced to carry mere energy weapons around with them, they should be mighty enough not to need such toys. So, as you can see, Magic just isn't up to par with anything remotely technological.
Now, I understand that Mages on Ley-Lines and Nexuses DO usually kick ass somewhat (except for range, even doubled or tripled spell ranges still suck). However, off a Ley Line, Mages just don't have the power of most other modern things. Is this how it was meant by Palladium? Well, here is my thoughts on what they think.
Palladium's magic in Rifts has basically just been transported out of their previous books (like a lot of things). Thus, it was originally designed for the Palladium fantasy game, and in that genre, it really was pretty fun to play. Then, they re-released Palladium (2nd addition). The release did help match the older game to Palladium's new rule style (SDC, and PPE, you know). However, they also toned magic and Psionics do wn A LOT. Why? Why? Why? That always bugged me. They just hurt some of the coolest classes in the game. But even then, in the fantasy world, magic was still cool.
The next usage of magic was in Heroes Unlimited (I think...). Here, magic is in a relatively modern world, but it still fit pretty well. Most HU games aren't so violent as Rifts ones, and the world itself presents Mages with certain advantages. But, then came Rifts. Palladium made the world full of magic, but they didn't make the magic worth using. Kurt summed up my disgust in the current state of Magic with these words: "it's like they just put magic in to explain why the Rifts happened". This r eally does seem to be true in some ways.
The world of Rifts earth is truly TEEMING with magical energy and beings, and I hate to see all of those cool possibilities going to waste, powering TW plows, and other lame crap. So, my solution? MAKE MAGIC KICK ASS LIKE IT SHOULD. I want my Mages to look at SAMAS and go: "Just one? No matter, I'll burn it to cinder with a thought." I mean, HOW THE HELL did the federation of magic ever significantly threaten the Coalition? With Fire Bolt? No way, the CS has had some of their bots since that fi rst battle between them, and even a high level Mage would be blown to crap against any power armor or robot pilot with half a brain. If anything, because the Mage could only do 2 attacks, and the Bot pilot gets around 6!!! Even against normal armored fo es, Mages just don't have the same raw offensive abilities. So how did the Mages actually put fear of annihilation into the CS? Not with the standard Fire Ball, Fire Bolt, and Call Lightning, that's for sure. Here's how I think magic should have always been, and then you'll see why the Coalition was scared shitless.
I advocate making magic more powerful in a few different ways. The first is finding a way to make up for Magic's basically crappy range and overall damage capabilities. One method of doing this has already been thought of by someone else (who? I can' t remember). The method is the "stacking" of spells, which allows a Mage to cast a spell multiple times over, to increase the effects, range, and duration. The ruling I saw penalized the Mage for doing so, but why? Even stacked, magic isn't overly powe rful, and I don't think that any penalties are needed. Now stacking magic can use attacks in two ways. Either you can say each stack takes an additional attack, or do what I think is cooler, where the stacking doesn't take longer, it's just like a more powerful, and higher PPE draining kind of the spell. Now, when it comes to stacking magic, Mages do have the ability to cast some pretty powerful magics. The other major problem with magic is it's utterly horrible range. My solution? Well, for most sp ells, I just take the original range, and make that what it increases by per level. With nearly all of the spells, this makes them a little better, but even then most of their ranges are still below that of an average energy rifle (1600ft). The third pr oblem is the pitiful number of magic attacks. I have seen tables devoted to this, but my rule of thumb is that low level magic attacks (1-6) count as normal physical attacks, while mid level ones (7-10) count as two, and high level (11-15)ones count as 3 . Spells of legend usually suck too much to waste all that PPE on, but if you want, I guess they could take 3 attacks too. Even though magic probably should take longer to cast, if it did, mages would be at too much of a disadvantage in any kind of batt le.
Now, looking at the rule changes that I propose, let me outline just what this will (and has in my games) do to magic. A 3rd level Mage can cast a lightning bolt 900ft doing 3d6 MD normally, not bad, but crappy in comparison to an energy rifle. Now s tacked, the same Mage could spend say 30PPE for a respectable 6d6MD going 1800ft. Pretty good, with a worse payload than a normal gun, but as he increases in level, he'll gain PPE, and won't NEED to stack things as much. The other attack spells also get better, and now a Mage can significantly increase the effects and duration of his spells just by using more PPE at the time of their casting. Thus, with these ruling in effect, maybe a Mage can't quite take out a SAMAS too easily, but at least at the higher levels he has a chance in hell.
Update
OK, we have been playing with these rules for awhile, and I have thought of some more things that need to be added in. One is some clarification on what stacking does to effects and such. On spells that do damage or give armor, just add up the damage /MDC. For spells that grant special abilities (invisibility, climb, flight, etc.), just add to the duration of the spell for each stacking. Casting a stacked spell only takes the melee action, but I have put limits on the stacking. A Mage can stack spells at X times his level, for example at first level you can't stack safely, at second you can stack 2 castings into one, etc. A Mage can stack over his level, but he will suffer damage because of his inexperience in channeling so much magical energy at once, a Mage will take either SDC or MDC damage according to how much PPE is spent over the "safe" ammound for the stacked spell. Plus, there are physical penalties according to how much damage is taken from such a "burn".
Burn Table
For SDC creatures only, MDC ones can over-flow four times more before they get penalties (their bodies are much more resilient).
1-20PPE burn -The mage is scalded, he feels tired, and sore. -1 on initiative, -2 to strike/parry/dodge
21-50PPE burn - The Mage is burned pretty badly, and feels like crap. -3 on initiative, -4 to strike/parry/dodge, -1 attack, -15% on skills, -25% to speed
51-100PPE burn - The Mage is broiled alive. He survives, has -6 to initiative, strike/parry/dodge, -2 attacks, -30% on all skills, -50% to speed, looks really red and tender (he is!).
100-300PPE burn - The Mage is horribly charred. He needs medical treatment for his burns, and is at -9 to initiative, -8 to strike/parry/dodge, has 1 attack, -75% to speed, and cannot cast magic for 48 hours.
300PPE+ burn - The Mage is burnt to a crisp. Dead. If he was revived, he would have had his magic burnt out of him forever (a greater god/healer *might* be able to help though.) A save vs. death requires 2 out of 3 rolls...
The penalties are not cumulative unless the mage casts another spell that burns him higher than his current injuries (like after a 15pt burn, he later casts a spell with a 30pt burn, he now has the higher penalties). The penalties go away in 1d4 days per stage, even when the damage is healed (his inner body/soul has also been burned too).
For example: Halgron the Mage is being attacked by a powerful demon. Knowing he has to take it out quickly before he's overwhelmed, he decides to stack a call-lightning onto the demon. Halgron is a 3rd level Ley-Line Walker, so he could cast up to a triple stacked call lightning, for 45PPE. That would be the equivalent of 3 castings at once, and do 3 times the damage and have 3 times range (at his level, 9d6MD, going up to 1800ft away). But Halgron doesn't think that will take down this demon, and needs to kill it quickly. So he decides to go past his "safe" limit of stacking, and cast a five-stacked call-lightning instead. This does 15d6MD at 4500ft, and costs 75PPE. Now, Halgron takes 30 (75 total PPE - 45 PPE maximum "safe" value=30)damage, and is glad he worked out at the gym in training, because now he's smoking and only has 14 hit-points left. But the demon is also reduced to a charred crater, was it worth it? Halgron's body is telling him no, he feels like he's been broiled alive as the barely controlled magic energies ravaged his body, but such is the price of casting magics to strong for his level of experience...
Stacking on Ley-Lines, nexuses, or at other places of power is a more dangerous thing to try. The number of available stacks is reduced as per the increase of power the point of higher magical energy provides, rounded down. For example, if Haldon tried to stack his magic on a Ley-Line, he would find the the extra magical energy was too much for him to handle safely (3 stacks divided by the Ley-Line's double damage equals 1.5 stacks, so he can only cast single spells at double power). A higher level Mage (say tenth) could only stack his spells 5 times on a Ley-line, or 3 times on a nexus. Yes, this means that a Mage will actually miss out on some damage at these places, but the energy flowing around them is more difficult to control than their own personal PPE. Besides, the increased energy reduces the need to stack anyway. Plus, at Ley-lines and Nexuses, the damage is still good, and the Mage can draw on the ambient power to fuel the stacked spells easier (plus the lesser stacks are more potent for less PPE anyway. A 10th level Mage may be able to stack 10 times for 1d6x100, but does he have 150PPE all the time? On a Nexus he could just stack 3 times for 45 PPE and do 9d6x10MD, magic battles at places of power tend to take longer because of this, the mages can cast more defensive and offensive magic. Note that damage taken from "overstacked" spells at places of power is also increased respectivly (due the the higher ammounts of channeled energy)
Another neat thing about these rules is that it allows a Mage to go out "in a blaze of glory". It also explains why Mages can't all just cast the powerful magics, their bodies have to become accustomed to channeling all of that energy. Plus, now a Dragon Mage is better still than a human one, as he can take the burn damage more easily than a frail human, and god's now definitely have magic to be feared (and they can take LOTS of burn damage!)
These rules also tend to make the higher-level mages much more powerful. So now Mages do become the strongest class at higher levels, sort of like in AD&D, which is cool I think. Is this munckin? Pretty much so, but all of the tech stuff is too, and magic needs to catch up damnit.
Remember, magic teachers would try to show their students how to stack intelligently, so as not to kill themselves, but to supplement their magical power.
Update #2
The Federation of Magic Book eases the pain...
That's the only way I can describe it. I bought this new book recently, and after reading it I realized two things. One, the new magic is now more powerful, if you still want to stack spells, only do it with the old ones. Two, while magic still does suck in some aspects, with this new books mages do have a chance. The new tactics, spells, items, etc. help even the playing field some. While mages still can't quite stand up to a frontal assalt, the new stuff lets them use other ways of getting ahead. This is an excelent book, finally some fleshing out of ideas that have been around from the start of the game.
With the new book in use, there are only a few changes I am keeping in place. for one, range increases per level on many of the spells (but not the already long-range ones). Plus, I'm still not sure how to fix mages lousy casting-rate, but some of the new OCC's get the ability to cast more spells per melee as they gain experience. Sounds like a good idea, but why not with the other more conventional mages? I'm working on that.
This introduces the idea of overcharging magic spells at a detriment to the user, like the people charging up in anime... also see the following in game books which are the inspiration for research into this area by the original "Forcers" of Rifts Earth... "http://wot.wikia.com/wiki/Forcing"
Rumor has it possession of one of the Wheel of Time novela of ancient pre-rifts era can shred insight into the process of forcing which may unlock abilities mentioned later.
Magic In Rifts Earth
11-19-97
Magic: This force has been used in many games other than Rifts, the major one being Dungeons and Dragons. In that game, Mages started out one of the weakest classes, but once they reached higher levels, they were easily the strongest. Is this the case in Rifts? Well, after presenting some view points, I'll let you decide.
The world of Rifts Earth is supposed to be alive with magic energy. It is criss-crossed with ley-lines, and abounds with beings of supernatural and magical power. So, from the many quotes and such from the Main Book, it would make sense that magic is a force to be reckoned with, correct? However, in comparison to some other new developments in Rifts earth, I am sad to say that this is simply not true.
I have always like the idea of magic, it really can be pretty neat and mysterious, but in Rifts? No way, a Mage gets his ass beat hands down in nearly any encounter. Maybe in a medieval setting they are powerful, but in Rifts Earth, the technological equivalents are always much better.
Wana throw a lightning bolt? A commonly available energy weapon can shoot farther, has a higher payload, can be used more than 2 times per melee, and frequently will do more damage than an average Mage's lightning.
Need some armor? Armor of Ithan really does give crap protection, not much more than light armor at the medium levels. Plus, it has a duration, and requires attacks to cast. Mages never truly rely on this spell, it's only backup, or supplementary, they always wear real armor too.
Transportation? Magic does have it's teleport and mystic portal spells, but they require large amounts of PPE and are usually pretty limiting. The flight movement spells are nice, if only for the bonuses, but modern vehicles are what you really need to get from point A to point B.
Now, out of those three main categories, Magic can also do many other things, but most of them are really quite trivial. Magic's sensory abilities are OK, but a Psionic is MUCH better, and decent optics are more useful and long-ranged than anything magic has to offer. The "cantrip" spells, they're mostly amusing or annoying, but never really too useful.
What is my point here? Well, as long as I've been playing Rifts, I've always been vastly amazed at just how much Magic sucks in comparison to its technological equivalents. I mean, sure magic can do some things that tech can't, but does that really matter most of the time? No. I hate the fact that in combat, a Mage is really a joke. He can only cast 2 spells per melee! Common men of arms have at least twice that many attacks. Plus, their weapons usually do MORE damage, and have a HIGHER range. What is a Mage to do against any targets sitting at 301ft away? Nothing with magic, that's for sure. And it's cheesy as hell that Mages should be forced to carry mere energy weapons around with them, they should be mighty enough not to need such toys. So, as you can see, Magic just isn't up to par with anything remotely technological.
Now, I understand that Mages on Ley-Lines and Nexuses DO usually kick ass somewhat (except for range, even doubled or tripled spell ranges still suck). However, off a Ley Line, Mages just don't have the power of most other modern things. Is this how it was meant by Palladium? Well, here is my thoughts on what they think.
Palladium's magic in Rifts has basically just been transported out of their previous books (like a lot of things). Thus, it was originally designed for the Palladium fantasy game, and in that genre, it really was pretty fun to play. Then, they re-released Palladium (2nd addition). The release did help match the older game to Palladium's new rule style (SDC, and PPE, you know). However, they also toned magic and Psionics do wn A LOT. Why? Why? Why? That always bugged me. They just hurt some of the coolest classes in the game. But even then, in the fantasy world, magic was still cool.
The next usage of magic was in Heroes Unlimited (I think...). Here, magic is in a relatively modern world, but it still fit pretty well. Most HU games aren't so violent as Rifts ones, and the world itself presents Mages with certain advantages. But, then came Rifts. Palladium made the world full of magic, but they didn't make the magic worth using. Kurt summed up my disgust in the current state of Magic with these words: "it's like they just put magic in to explain why the Rifts happened". This r eally does seem to be true in some ways.
The world of Rifts earth is truly TEEMING with magical energy and beings, and I hate to see all of those cool possibilities going to waste, powering TW plows, and other lame crap. So, my solution? MAKE MAGIC KICK ASS LIKE IT SHOULD. I want my Mages to look at SAMAS and go: "Just one? No matter, I'll burn it to cinder with a thought." I mean, HOW THE HELL did the federation of magic ever significantly threaten the Coalition? With Fire Bolt? No way, the CS has had some of their bots since that fi rst battle between them, and even a high level Mage would be blown to crap against any power armor or robot pilot with half a brain. If anything, because the Mage could only do 2 attacks, and the Bot pilot gets around 6!!! Even against normal armored fo es, Mages just don't have the same raw offensive abilities. So how did the Mages actually put fear of annihilation into the CS? Not with the standard Fire Ball, Fire Bolt, and Call Lightning, that's for sure. Here's how I think magic should have always been, and then you'll see why the Coalition was scared shitless.
I advocate making magic more powerful in a few different ways. The first is finding a way to make up for Magic's basically crappy range and overall damage capabilities. One method of doing this has already been thought of by someone else (who? I can' t remember). The method is the "stacking" of spells, which allows a Mage to cast a spell multiple times over, to increase the effects, range, and duration. The ruling I saw penalized the Mage for doing so, but why? Even stacked, magic isn't overly powe rful, and I don't think that any penalties are needed. Now stacking magic can use attacks in two ways. Either you can say each stack takes an additional attack, or do what I think is cooler, where the stacking doesn't take longer, it's just like a more powerful, and higher PPE draining kind of the spell. Now, when it comes to stacking magic, Mages do have the ability to cast some pretty powerful magics. The other major problem with magic is it's utterly horrible range. My solution? Well, for most sp ells, I just take the original range, and make that what it increases by per level. With nearly all of the spells, this makes them a little better, but even then most of their ranges are still below that of an average energy rifle (1600ft). The third pr oblem is the pitiful number of magic attacks. I have seen tables devoted to this, but my rule of thumb is that low level magic attacks (1-6) count as normal physical attacks, while mid level ones (7-10) count as two, and high level (11-15)ones count as 3 . Spells of legend usually suck too much to waste all that PPE on, but if you want, I guess they could take 3 attacks too. Even though magic probably should take longer to cast, if it did, mages would be at too much of a disadvantage in any kind of batt le.
Now, looking at the rule changes that I propose, let me outline just what this will (and has in my games) do to magic. A 3rd level Mage can cast a lightning bolt 900ft doing 3d6 MD normally, not bad, but crappy in comparison to an energy rifle. Now s tacked, the same Mage could spend say 30PPE for a respectable 6d6MD going 1800ft. Pretty good, with a worse payload than a normal gun, but as he increases in level, he'll gain PPE, and won't NEED to stack things as much. The other attack spells also get better, and now a Mage can significantly increase the effects and duration of his spells just by using more PPE at the time of their casting. Thus, with these ruling in effect, maybe a Mage can't quite take out a SAMAS too easily, but at least at the higher levels he has a chance in hell.
Update
OK, we have been playing with these rules for awhile, and I have thought of some more things that need to be added in. One is some clarification on what stacking does to effects and such. On spells that do damage or give armor, just add up the damage /MDC. For spells that grant special abilities (invisibility, climb, flight, etc.), just add to the duration of the spell for each stacking. Casting a stacked spell only takes the melee action, but I have put limits on the stacking. A Mage can stack spells at X times his level, for example at first level you can't stack safely, at second you can stack 2 castings into one, etc. A Mage can stack over his level, but he will suffer damage because of his inexperience in channeling so much magical energy at once, a Mage will take either SDC or MDC damage according to how much PPE is spent over the "safe" ammound for the stacked spell. Plus, there are physical penalties according to how much damage is taken from such a "burn".
Burn Table
For SDC creatures only, MDC ones can over-flow four times more before they get penalties (their bodies are much more resilient).
1-20PPE burn -The mage is scalded, he feels tired, and sore. -1 on initiative, -2 to strike/parry/dodge
21-50PPE burn - The Mage is burned pretty badly, and feels like crap. -3 on initiative, -4 to strike/parry/dodge, -1 attack, -15% on skills, -25% to speed
51-100PPE burn - The Mage is broiled alive. He survives, has -6 to initiative, strike/parry/dodge, -2 attacks, -30% on all skills, -50% to speed, looks really red and tender (he is!).
100-300PPE burn - The Mage is horribly charred. He needs medical treatment for his burns, and is at -9 to initiative, -8 to strike/parry/dodge, has 1 attack, -75% to speed, and cannot cast magic for 48 hours.
300PPE+ burn - The Mage is burnt to a crisp. Dead. If he was revived, he would have had his magic burnt out of him forever (a greater god/healer *might* be able to help though.) A save vs. death requires 2 out of 3 rolls...
The penalties are not cumulative unless the mage casts another spell that burns him higher than his current injuries (like after a 15pt burn, he later casts a spell with a 30pt burn, he now has the higher penalties). The penalties go away in 1d4 days per stage, even when the damage is healed (his inner body/soul has also been burned too).
For example: Halgron the Mage is being attacked by a powerful demon. Knowing he has to take it out quickly before he's overwhelmed, he decides to stack a call-lightning onto the demon. Halgron is a 3rd level Ley-Line Walker, so he could cast up to a triple stacked call lightning, for 45PPE. That would be the equivalent of 3 castings at once, and do 3 times the damage and have 3 times range (at his level, 9d6MD, going up to 1800ft away). But Halgron doesn't think that will take down this demon, and needs to kill it quickly. So he decides to go past his "safe" limit of stacking, and cast a five-stacked call-lightning instead. This does 15d6MD at 4500ft, and costs 75PPE. Now, Halgron takes 30 (75 total PPE - 45 PPE maximum "safe" value=30)damage, and is glad he worked out at the gym in training, because now he's smoking and only has 14 hit-points left. But the demon is also reduced to a charred crater, was it worth it? Halgron's body is telling him no, he feels like he's been broiled alive as the barely controlled magic energies ravaged his body, but such is the price of casting magics to strong for his level of experience...
Stacking on Ley-Lines, nexuses, or at other places of power is a more dangerous thing to try. The number of available stacks is reduced as per the increase of power the point of higher magical energy provides, rounded down. For example, if Haldon tried to stack his magic on a Ley-Line, he would find the the extra magical energy was too much for him to handle safely (3 stacks divided by the Ley-Line's double damage equals 1.5 stacks, so he can only cast single spells at double power). A higher level Mage (say tenth) could only stack his spells 5 times on a Ley-line, or 3 times on a nexus. Yes, this means that a Mage will actually miss out on some damage at these places, but the energy flowing around them is more difficult to control than their own personal PPE. Besides, the increased energy reduces the need to stack anyway. Plus, at Ley-lines and Nexuses, the damage is still good, and the Mage can draw on the ambient power to fuel the stacked spells easier (plus the lesser stacks are more potent for less PPE anyway. A 10th level Mage may be able to stack 10 times for 1d6x100, but does he have 150PPE all the time? On a Nexus he could just stack 3 times for 45 PPE and do 9d6x10MD, magic battles at places of power tend to take longer because of this, the mages can cast more defensive and offensive magic. Note that damage taken from "overstacked" spells at places of power is also increased respectivly (due the the higher ammounts of channeled energy)
Another neat thing about these rules is that it allows a Mage to go out "in a blaze of glory". It also explains why Mages can't all just cast the powerful magics, their bodies have to become accustomed to channeling all of that energy. Plus, now a Dragon Mage is better still than a human one, as he can take the burn damage more easily than a frail human, and god's now definitely have magic to be feared (and they can take LOTS of burn damage!)
These rules also tend to make the higher-level mages much more powerful. So now Mages do become the strongest class at higher levels, sort of like in AD&D, which is cool I think. Is this munckin? Pretty much so, but all of the tech stuff is too, and magic needs to catch up damnit.
Remember, magic teachers would try to show their students how to stack intelligently, so as not to kill themselves, but to supplement their magical power.
Update #2
The Federation of Magic Book eases the pain...
That's the only way I can describe it. I bought this new book recently, and after reading it I realized two things. One, the new magic is now more powerful, if you still want to stack spells, only do it with the old ones. Two, while magic still does suck in some aspects, with this new books mages do have a chance. The new tactics, spells, items, etc. help even the playing field some. While mages still can't quite stand up to a frontal assalt, the new stuff lets them use other ways of getting ahead. This is an excelent book, finally some fleshing out of ideas that have been around from the start of the game.
With the new book in use, there are only a few changes I am keeping in place. for one, range increases per level on many of the spells (but not the already long-range ones). Plus, I'm still not sure how to fix mages lousy casting-rate, but some of the new OCC's get the ability to cast more spells per melee as they gain experience. Sounds like a good idea, but why not with the other more conventional mages? I'm working on that.
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