Rifts Conversions

[AngelBlade]

Hey all,
       I was wondering if anyone knows of any conversions for Rifts to another game system? I love the setting and have purchased like... 40-50 different Rifts/Palladium books over the years, but only ever played once. The system was just too awful for me. Personal taste I guess. So I was wondering if anyone has seen any conversions out in the Intarwebz. D20 would be good, or even new 4th edition, lol. Maybe d20 modern would work as well... hmmmm.

I could probably do it myself but that would be truckloads of work. : )  D20 modern would probably be a good fit i'm thinking.

Anyways, any and all responses appreciated.

AngelBlade

[Josh]

Do you have any idea the snakepit you just jumped in?

(I'm on your side btw)

[altpersona]

without regard for any license issues...

i would say,
a mage is a mage is a mage..
if it uses items its either batman or an artificer..
borgs are warforged..

otherwise that whole system is more screwy than a porn set.

[jcm]

Wide distribution of ports seems to be the only limitation. So maybe search "rifts" and "system name" for a bit and track down some board discussions and pm the participants to see if you can get a copy. My reading is that you can port the game and play it with your group, but posting a web link to the result is impossible.

I guess my approach to a port would be to let your players do a lot of the work. Pick your system, tell your players they are in the rifts universe, hand them the books, and let them make their characters with point buy or lifepath or whatever. Don't worry about balance at first, worry about a faithful translation. Figure out what works and codify it to save future players trouble. It's still truckloads of work, but you only do the pieces you are interested in as you need them.

[Melblen_Cairn]

When I was looking to start a modern genre campaign, I dusted off the palladium books to use (since I don't have the funds to sink into anything else nor do I want to have to buy anything else anymore). My players, while not new to RPGs were new to this system. So I just made some modifications to run things smoother and they have a blast with it.

As for conversions; threads, links, and the like usually get locked down pretty fast due to threats of lawsuits and such. So you aren't likely to find much out there. If your players are familiar with both systems then I like the idea of having them help with the work load of converting it for your personal use.

[AngelBlade]

The thing that i'm having the biggest problem with is the whole SDC/MDC thing. I just can't seem to wrap my brain around a way to translate that into a more simple, viable system. Hmmm, didn't Star Wars have a vitality/hit point kinda system? I think i have 1 Star Wars book, before it went D20. Any ideas?

AngelBlade

[jcm]

I'm assuming you are gonna use a d20 system of some sort. You could snag the "damage save" notion from true20 and just give mdc characters ungodly toughness bonuses and mdc weapons an ungodly +damage bonus. You might have to play with the numbers a bit to get the desired result though.

An alternate method might be a resisted test to see how well you hit between the attacker and defender with a basic damage level (light-moderate-serious-deadly-deadly+1-deadly+n) that is staged up by 1 for every 4 by which the attacker wins, and then a soak roll vs the power of the weapon - the defender's armor, with the defender staging the damage level down 1 for ever 4 by which they win. I'm not explaining that real well, it's a slapdash adaption of the old shadowrun combat rules to a d20.

[AngelBlade]

Hmmm, I'm going to have to check out True20, i've seen that some people are big fans of it.

The more i think about it, the more i'm thinking a Vitality/Hitpoint structure might work. Squishy humans or their equivalent (SDC) would be Vitality Points, and Armor and Cyborgs could be HitPoints (MDC)...

Weapons could do only Vitality (SDC) or only Hit Point (MDC) damage... Now the question is, would a person wielding a SDC Weapon be able to damage someone's Vitality only, or would someone with any MDC armor be impenatrable to SDC weapons?

hmmm....

[altpersona]

my head hurts trying to accommodate the wackiness

[AngelBlade]

... And that my friend, is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the Rifts system. Well, I'm going to pull out my Rifts book and start looking at a possible conversion. Probably something d20-ish. If anyone would like to hear about my rambling, cobbled together ruleset, let me know and i'll post.  : )

AngelBlade

[altpersona]

hmm, lvl 1 glitterboy pilot w/ glitterboy.. vs lvl 1 fighter.. ya that could be balanced..

[AngelBlade]

LOL, and that's just in the core rulebook, remember there's what... 30-some World Books, my last count was 6 or 7 Dimension Books, The Rifter Quarterly Magazine, and... a lot more that i'm forgetting. Great Fluff!!! all of it, and some has some great art too, but the system... arrrgggg, the system!!!

AngelBlade

PS. Hmmm, i wonder if a Lvl1 Pilot/PowerArmor(some kind of starter Armor) could be equal to a lvl 1 fighter... Make GlitterBoy only available at lvl 10 or something.... hmmmm

[altpersona]

but you can have it at lvl 1 in rifts... not to mention the option of starting at lvl 15...(i think its 15)

[AngelBlade]

And that's why it's brok'ded. How can you have a lvl 1 Glitterboy next to a lvl 1 "anything not power-armor or MDC being"?

So I think that the actual GlitterBoy armor should be held back from the player, story wise... "You don't have enough MAD SKILLZ" to pilot that yet..."

I don't know, I would probably run my game from more of the Magic side than the Tech side...

AngelBlade

[altpersona]

kobald > glitterboy