A Bunch of Random Stuff

Wow...I've got so many thoughts blazing through my head right now I'm a little overwhelmed with where to begin. For having "a day off," I sure have expended a lot of mental energy this morning!

No writing yet, though. Ugh...I am NOT putting stuff off, I'm just getting all my other ducks in a row, answering emails and such, while eating a big, traditional English Breakfast at the Four Spoons. I am a great believer in Lincoln's philosophy, "if you only have eight hours to chop down the tree, spend the first seven sharpening your axe!"

[of course, this is sometimes at odds with my loved ones. My wife would say, "if you start chopping now you'll probably get finished in six hours!" while my brother would spend NINE hours sharpening the axe, bargaining for more time by saying he'll do the cut job for free]

Point is, I'm not actively TRYING to procrastinate, folks. Though I did get a little side-tracked by Jim Mora's firing as the Seahawks head coach. Ugh...the play-offs start this weekend! I've got work to do!

The box place turned out to be a dud (they had nothing in the dimensions I want)...at this point it appears I will be making my own. Heading out to a supply shop today, and will be deriving a template from my old TSR boxes (yes, I still have some for whatever reason...God knows I'm a packrat and these poor things are crushed to death at the bottom of a large box of papers and whatnot...no B/X boxes, though, unfortunately). Something to do while watching football.

First art submissions received...o boy o boy o boy. So far so awesome. Will be working on lay-out today as well, and will also be turning my "reading .pdf" into a printable mock-up.

Speaking of the .pdf...have received feedback from the Doctor, and he thinks it's great, though he seems to have missed the point as he tells me, "dude, I think you should publish this!" Dude, what the hell do you think I'm doing? He does not read my blog, so he seems to have missed this little detail.

Interesting side benefit...the Doc appears to be an excellent target sample for feedback. As his only reference to B/X is through Labyrinth Lord, he is able to address the game in how it works with LL. He asks why I bothered to duplicate many of the spell lists from LL, for example (because the early level spell lists of both are based on B/X...I don't bother describing the effects of these low level spells, but I include the entire B/X list). He likes the monsters and magic items included. I am hoping for more feedback on some of the system stuff as he gets deeper in his perusal. He likes the lay-out...yay!

Talked to Joel, last night...he's going to send me some artwork. He's doing the World of Warcraft thing these days, god help him. Oh, well. We'll see if he's up to some painting.

Oh...and a new interested party wants to submit art, and may have been wrangled into doing stuff for my module. Better get that done.

Figured out how to configure my scanner/printer and download the necessary software onto my computer last night...made my first run at scanning and it worked great! I am so excited! My wife will be so proud that I did something technical all by myself!

: )

Yesterday, I posted some thoughts on adventure design, which in analysis seems to be an overall negative critique of the length of the design. Sorry for the negativity; doesn't mean I don't love and continue to use these adventure modules...just think maybe they need to be used in a slightly different way. I want to address this more at length later, and in addition want to post about something from this awesome article on Prokopius. The awesomeness is NOT the lambasting of the thief class...it is the adventure design implications that are worth the read. Check it out.

Picked up Wormwood a couple days ago. Damn you Palladium! As with Rifts Russia, in re-reading this gem, I see so much squandered potential. I don't think I will ever play another Rifts game again, but damn if I'm not going to riff on their ideas for my own private games (due to Palladium's policies, I will probably NOT be posting anything to this blog in the near future). However, let me just say that Wormwood makes an EXCELLENT setting for B/X or OD&D and I fully intend to use it as such. So there!

All right, I got quite a bit to do today (including cleaning the yard of my dogs' leavings...man, this is the one time when Seattle rain makes life suck!). I'll be checking in later!

Have a great Friday everyone!

A Different Type of Torture

Once again, not talking about the Seahawks here, though to all the Detroit Lions fans who may be reading this I can only say, "Better you than me."

[and incidentally to anyone who's wondering: there ARE Lions fans out there, many in attendance at Sunday's game. What's more, they courageously cheered for their team the entire game, only leaving at the very end, and while obnoxious at times, were mostly classy and stopped short of starting any fights...which is to say, they were a damn sight better than the Green Bay fans last year!]

And speaking of fans, thanks to the readers that nominated my blog for addition to Grognardia's web site. I was afraid I wasn't "Old School" enough for inclusion but he threw me up there anyway. We'll see if that has any influence on my hits this week (last week was my 2nd highest recorded with 954).

Okay...back to torture.

Originally, I wanted to title this post "Guilty Pleasures," but I've soured a bit and I'm afraid this may devolve into a bit of a rant...so be it. Yes, this is about Rifts again, a very innovative setting game with a ton of supplemental material, firmly chained to an ugly Old School-esque system, but spouting rhetoric of a New School variety.

What do I mean by New School rhetoric? Specifically, I'm talking about all the BS writing that requires/assumes a GM is supposed to run a game in a particular style that encourages "story creation" even while there is nearly nothing in the system that facilitates the same AND appears to simply counting on social contract between folks at the table allowing the GM to come up with a nice story (i.e. railroad) while allowing the players to do some cool things (with their "heroic" characters). Ugh.

However, let me return to the good stuff first...the "guilty pleasure." I've been reading my new copy of Rifts World Book 17: Warlords of Russia off-and-on since purchasing it on Friday. If I'd found time to blog about it then, you probably would have heard a completely different tune.

I forgot just how damn good some of these Rifts' supplements can be. Yes, I talked about Wormwood before, but that was recall from memory alone. Having Warlords in front of me, I can really delve into the nitty gritty of a setting book...and this thing meets all the expectations of its type. AND I finally get an idea now why Palladium has lasted as long as it has.

Warlords of Russia is well-written. Siembieda and Mr. Krueger (who receives "additional text" credits) are articulate, straight-forward, and entertaining reading. The book is thoughtful (well, as thoughtful as the Gonzo-action world of Rifts needs to be) and interesting, fun without devolving into silliness (save perhaps Warlord Romanov) and a helluva' lot better organized than any Palladium core book. It simultaneously manages to juxtapose the 21st century Russia (with its black markets, longing for independence, and longing for the lost age of Empire), with 20th century Cold War-style Russia (of the James Bond variety) with 19th century Russia (of the pillaging Cossack variety). Even if you completely removed the raging supernatural monsters, you could still have a very cool, high-tech post-Apocalyptic setting for any role-playing game, film, or book. It makes ME want to write short stories and screenplays anyway.

The cyborg stuff is slick and well-done, again feeling very much like the stereotypical "Russian" variety (these are not the sleek little transistors and sophisticated engines a stereotypical German or Japanese culture might create, but the robust, practical, gear of war, easily "tuned up" with the healthy whack of a wrench). I love it. I love the warlords, I love the New Sovietski, I love the new guns and vehicles (more here than you'll find in the original Rifts book...enough to make a setting-specific campaign...which is what I want!).

The history and political factions are present, exploring the reason things are "the way they are" and providing insight into the motivations of the powers that be. And there are many nice setting-specific OCCs to choose from (easily supplemented by the adventurer OCCs of the core book...who needs a "Gypsy" OCC when I can use the Vagabond? Duh!).

Yep, reading the Warlords of Russia left me on the verge of a great up swell of love for Palladium and Rifts. Who cares if the game system is crap? I can smooth out the rough edges enough that playing the setting will be a dream!

Or so I was thinking a couple days ago.

As time went on, and I had more opportunity to read Warlords and more time to consider a possible campaign, I remembered something else...something that, like the nice detail, writing, and organization of the World Books, I had once known, but had completely forgotten. And that something is this: Rifts tells you nothing about how to play the damn game.

Seriously, nothing. No insight, nada. I'm looking at the core book, and here're the chapters in the Table of Contents (I'll paraphrase):

Glossary of Terms

Creating A Character

Alignment, Experience Points, and Insanity (yes, that's one section)

Skills

Combat

Classes ("OCCs" or Occupational Character Classes)

Psionic Powers

History (of Rifts Earth)

World Overview (mini-setting material)

Magic Spells

Equipment (weapons, armor, robots, vehicles, cybernetics)

Game Master Section

Now you might THINK there'd be something about how to play or run Rifts in the "Game Master" section. But you'd be dead wrong. The GM section consists of FOUR PARAGRAPHS + 1 paragraph, sub-title "Some Short-Cuts," which is simply an introduction to a few "quick roll" tables (random demons, a generic dinosaur, some coalition grunts, a a couple (literally two) monsters). The four paragraphs (less than a page of the 256 page Rifts core book) gives NO INFORMATION on how to set up a campaign, or an adventure, or what a typical Rifts campaign/adventure might look like. There are no "sample adventures" - hell, there are no ideas presented at all!

In fact, there's no information on running the game at all...no tips on adjudicating, no info on how to set the stage, nothing. Only four paragraphs of Kevin Siembieda simply describing his FEELINGS regarding some of the PLAYTEST results. That's it. There are no specifics, just "the players grumbled about the length of character creation," or "the players loved the setting," or "this is a thinking man's game."

There's not a single idea or hint of how to run this "thinking man's game."

Which is probably why my stunted, still-born campaigns of the past consisted of nothing more than a few random fights...and, um, that's about it!

Really...as I remember the usual Rifts' game session went something like this:

1) I described the setting of the game.

2) Players spent some time figuring out which kewl character they want to play.

3) Character creation.

4) I introduce some flimsy justification for several disparate characters being together.

5) Introduce antagonist.

6) Fight!

And generally that was about it. Most of a game session (4-5 hours) would be taken up with this, up to and including the single fight. No one had enough interest, to warrant pursuing a second session (at least not one with the same character, assuming said character survived). But you know what? Check out that table of contents there...I pretty much used the rule book to its MAXIMUM POTENTIAL.

Character creation? Check. History and color of setting? Check. Combat? Check. Hopefully there were some skill rolls involved somewhere along the line.

Garbage.

Anyway, guess what? Warlords of Russia is both nicely written and well-organized, and is chock full of cool ideas and lots of setting specific "color." It includes new background and history, new OCCs, new gear and weapons (lots of new 'borg stuff)...even some new skills.

It has NO information on how to run a game set in Russia. It has no "adventure ideas." Basically it provides nothing more than a setting to be used with a core rule book...a core rule book that tells one nothing of how to run a Rifts game.

In other words, pretty useless.

I remember now that this was a large part of my frustration with Rifts and one of the main reasons I sold everything, even Wormwood. Wormwood was chock full of cool ideas and information, but had none of the information I needed to run a game.

I am certain that K.S. and company have very specific ideas of how to run a Rifts game session AND a consistent campaign. Too bad they didn't bother to enlighten the rest of us.

What a crock of shit.

Wormwood

Let me just state something loud and clear and up front: I DO have an absolute favorite source book for Rifts and it has no bionics whatsoever in it.

Rifts Dimension Book 1: Wormwood is my all-time favorite supplement for Rifts. Out of the entire Palladium game line, it is probably my single favorite book. Hands down, no question.

How much do I like it? Let me put it to you this way: when I made my decision seven or so years ago to sell all my Palladium material I had several reasons, the biggest one being that I wanted to trim my game collection down to ONLY the games I might someday play again in the future, and Palladium, by dint of its sheer crap-tasticness was on the chopping block.

Wormwood almost stopped me from selling.

Not only that, but when it came time to actually part ways with my books (not an easy task for me as I am one big, nostalgic packrat when it comes to things that have sentimental value…even beloved RPG books!) I nearly retained Wormwood just to keep on the shelf. The only thing that prevented me from doing so was that it was un-playable without the core book.

When I went and picked up Rifts the other day, I purchased the Borg Sourcebook to go with it…the whole reason I re-purchased Rifts in the first place was to “take a stroll down ‘borg lane.” But if Wormwood had been on the shelf, I would have picked it up in a heartbeat…once those floodgates open, man, look out!

For those who’ve never owned it, Wormwood is a supplement for Rifts that details the pocket dimension/planet of Wormwood. It can be used as a stand-alone setting (like all the World books) or as a possible destination for adventuresome characters exploring an interdimensional rift. The sheer awesomeness is somewhat over-shadowed by the SINGLE MOST UGLIEST RULES OVERSIGHT IN ALL OF PALLADIUM. In order to get onto the awesomeness, let me just get the negative part out of the way:

In the Wormwood dimension, the indigenous humans/fauna are all mega-damage creatures. This is explained to be by dint of the environment they grow up in, the food they eat, etc. However, they do NOT possess supernatural strength.

WHAT THE F***?! So if two dudes get into a fist-fight, they do what exactly to each other? D4 the PS bonus SDC damage? Which doesn’t scratch MDC (it’s like punching a tank). Which would usually result in breaking your own hand. Except that your hand is an MDC structure too. Which means you can’t hurt yourself with your own wimpy normal strength. Which means everyone kind of bounces off each other I guess. Same if they fall down. Or throw an (MDC strength) resin goblet at another’s head. UGH!

STUPID STUPID STUPID. Now I can guess some “reasons” behind the idiocy. 1^st off, this is a supplement to RIFTS. Which means that Rifts characters clad in MDC armor and carrying MDC weapons are going to be popping up and the designers don’t want them quickly wrecking the joint. Likewise, the monsters of Wormwood are all MDC creatures (to challenge those same Rifts characters I’m sure) and if the primitive folks of Wormwood were flimsy SDC folks they’d probably have already been exterminated.

As to why they aren’t simply supernatural creatures themselves? I don’t know...I guess they didn’t want them throwing each other miles and miles into the air. Or maybe they didn’t want to encroach on the special abilities of THIS GUY:

Okay, so let’s get to the good stuff about Wormwood (oh, by the way, I never have figured out an adequate fix for this ugliness…in the past I’ve simply ignored the average strength individual entirely, but this wouldn’t work in a true long term, Wormwood-specific campaign):

First off, much of the art is quite, quite good. The Wormwood world itself appears to be the brainchild of comic book authors Timothy Truman and Flint Henry and their adventuresome little comic at the beginning sets the tone for the book. Much of the art within Wormwood’s pages are taken from this comic and there are some nice pieces.

Second, the Wormwood setting is just damn interesting. A truly alien world, Wormwood is a truly living world (as is our own, of course, but Wormwood is a little more proactive with its symbiotic stance). The planet itself creates everything its human inhabitants need…food (worms!), water, resin (for fashioning gear, furniture, weapons), shelter (caves), helpful parasitic/symbiotic organisms (more worms!). I love it…it’s like a weird horror/sci-fi/fantasy novel from the 60s or 70s…like something Marion Zimmer Bradley would write (though less sex and more worms!).

Thirdly, the Wormwood setting is rife with opportunity for CONFLICT, not just combat. Monsters are knocking at the door. People are getting snatched to power the Unholy horde’s war machines (a la the Mutant Chronicles) and being turned to evil (fighting your family!). The Cathedral military/religious institution has been corrupted from within. There are rivalries of class (as in “class system”) in addition to rivalries of deed between the knightly orders (the Templars and the Hospitallers). Then, of course, there are those interdimensional travelers (from Rifts Earth and elsewhere/when) who can bring their own agendas to Wormwood (again, the comic shows this as well with Lazarus Vesper and the Goblin Queen, two non-Wormwood inhabitants embroiled in the politics of the dimension).

Fourthly the OCCs are pretty groovy. The Worm Speakers are awesome (anything that utilizes worms in Wormwood is awesome), the priests have elastic morality, and I dig the knights of both orders (I like Wormwood’s knights even better than Rifts England, and I thought THEY were pretty cool). The Holy Roller is the kind of kid’s toy that every Saturday morning cartoon needs (you know, a Chewbacca kind of sidekick)…and by the way Wormwood feels A LOT like an old school Saturday Morning Cartoon. I mean that it a good way! And, of course, there’s the Apok.

The Apok OCC is my absolute favorite character class in all of Rifts…and quite possibly all of Palladium. I’ve said before that I love the Vagabond OCC (the fact that he has “baseball cap” as part of his standard equipment is very endearing). I dig ‘Borgs and have a newfound respect for the Headhunter (a different post). And I love the Juicers decadent crash course projection (their theme song should be AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell”).

But the Apok out-cools all of ‘em. I have said before that I love tales of “falls and redemption” (one of the reasons I am so big on Dark Side rules in Star Wars). The Apok character is a human that went over to the side of Darkness but got his shit together and turned his life around…and now wages a one-man/woman battle against the same forces to whom he previously sold his soul. The symbol of his repentance is the mask he wears and, fashioned from the resin of Wormwood, it gifts him with plenty of Evil-fighting powers…including the ability to turn any normal SDC weapon into an MDC weapon for fighting the bad guys!

[now you see why the “regular folks” don’t do MDC damage? They’d be upstaging the Apok!]

The Apok’s power and prowess causes fear and dissension in the Unholy ranks…he’s a one-man killing machine (like Jack Bauer with an AXE). You may call ME a twink for my love affair with the Apok, but even without the kewl powers, I’d still want to play one. Seriously! For me, nothing says “badass” like a dude with a hood, a mask, and a meat cleaver. Come get some, mother-f***r!!!

Hell, back in college (where I studied the dramatic arts) I even created a puppet for my puppetry class based on the Apok on the cover…I’ll post an image here one of these days.

For all these reasons…the weirdness, the worms, the drama, the conflict, the Apok….Wormwood is my favorite Rifts book of all time. If I ever get around to my own “streamlined” version of the Palladium game system, you can bet your bottom dollar that I’ll be doing things with Wormwood in mind.

OH…one last “bonus” cool thing about Wormwood. Unlike, other Palladium games/supplements, I don’t recall SKILLS being a prevalent at all in Wormwood. People don’t learn Radio:Basic or Electronics (as far as I remember) in this pretty-much-medieval setting; hell, I seem to remember the Confessor (the badass NPC Apok of the game setting) only having Hand-to-Hand Expert…and no boxing or acrobatics! Fewer skills (or lesser emphasis on ‘em) is a GOOD thing in any RPG, but ESPECIALLY in Palladium!

: )

In Praise (??) of Rifts World Books

Did I mention the whole “Love-Hate” relationship I have with Palladium?

I’m sure I did. Of course I did. How could I not? They make me positively seethe with rage and frustration simply by dint of their regular B.S. that passes for “business as usual” in their game books. And yet, and yet…

How can I not be totally enthralled with the little gems found amongst the kilos of dross found betwixt the covers of their books? And while I’m not a huge fan of ALL their art (Mr. Long often leaves me saying “eh…so what?”) I find many of their glossy covers are positively inspiring.

Here is a list of the Rifts books I once possessed:

Rifts

Rifts Sourcebook One

Rifts World Book 1: Vampire Kingdoms

Rifts Conversion Book

Rifts World Book 2: Atlantis

Rifts Sourcebook 2: The Mechanoids

Rifts World Book 3: England

Rifts World Book 4: Africa

Rifts Dimension Book 1: Wormwood

Rifts World Book 5: Triax and the New German Republic (NGR)

Rifts Conversion Book 2: Pantheons of the Megaverse

Rifts World Book 10: Juicer Uprising

Rifts World Book 14: New West

I did in fact use almost all of these at one point or another…up through the Conversion Book 2 I purchased every single item offered in the Rifts line. But shortly after that I played my last game of Rifts. Wow…a long time ago.

Later, I picked up the Juicer Uprising and the New West simply because I was looking to get back into Rifts and while I didn’t have the money to purchase EVERYTHING I’d missed, I wanted to make sure I’d at least get the stuff that really interested me…Juicers and (of course) the Western supplement.

I think that Juicers are probably my favorite, favorite character type of the Rifts game, though it’s difficult to say for sure (there’s just so many cool characters one can play). But I love the Faustian nature of the class…sell your soul for a half dozen years of drug enhanced power before burning out a lifeless, crippled husk? Simply awesome. It’s not “with great power comes great responsibility,” it’s instead “great power comes with a humongous price tag.”

Juicer Uprising has quite a number of cool ideas (dragon juicers, combat chainsaws) and quite a few lame ones (mega-juicers, undead juicers). It’s also a juicer twink’s wet dream…and I hate anything that can be labeled a “twink’s wet dream.”

If the New West had come out when I was still playing Rifts, my campaigns might have gone on for a looong time. I love the western (observe my interest in Boot Hill, Deadlands, Clockwork, etc.). I love the return to the Old West feel of Rifts.

Unfortunately, not everything in the New West book comes out guns and roses. The OCCs, setting material, and half the critters (I especially like worm ones) are cool. But the “western look” gear is lame, and the gunfighting rules are hampered by Palladium’s own sorry combat system.

Like Warlords of Russia, the New West could be a pretty much stand alone game world…use the basic book and everything found in the World Book and you could run a helluva’ campaign. This is the great strength of the Rifts World Books. Along with the basic book “chassis” each one is its own vehicle to adventure. Whether fighting the forces of Darkness in Wormwood, the Vampire Kingdoms of Mexico, or riding the countryside as a knight of New Camelot, each World Book provides ample material for a short or long term campaign.

And yet they don’t say this, and consequently the temptation (especially among young gamers, as I once was) is to use EVERYTHING under the sun…one giant published game system. Ugh! I’m not sure if that’s how Mr. Siembieda runs his own game campaign (somehow it wouldn’t surprise me), but I’d guess even if he did NOT, he’d encourage folks to do so.

And frankly that’s the point, right? Palladium wants you to buy EVERY GODDAMN BOOK they publish: currently up to 29 World Books, 12 Dimension Books, probably half-a-dozen+ Source books (they stopped numbering after 4), and close to the same number of Conversion books, not to mention another 6 books in the “Coalition Wars” series and around about 50 editions of the Rifter. They advertise their books within their books and they reference you to other books for information in the book you’re reading.

Ugh! How about a couple stand alone books, huh?

And so what began as a rave turns into a rant… I sold ALL these books back to the Game Shop eventually (with the exception of a book or two that were inexplicably “lost”…perhaps to one of my gaming buddies) and vowed never to re-purchase another Rifts book ever again…a vow I just broke last weekend. Actually, I may have vowed never to purchase another Palladium book ever again, and I broke that last year when I picked up a copy of Heroes Unlimited 2 at Barnes & Noble (I was just so tickled to see HU at Barnes & Noble that I thumbed through it…with the usual result).

But now, an older and wiser consumer (if not still a completionist/collector) I find myself considering which books I’d purchase again given the chance. I already have Rifts and the Bionics Sourcebook (and, man, am I glad I was able to find a copy of the original game…I want NO part of “Rifts Ultimate Edition”). Here’s what else I’d love to have back in my grubby mitts:

The Vampire Kingdoms, Atlantis, and Wormwood: these are fantastic settings for a specific campaign. Very well detailed, plenty of adventure ideas, plenty of inspiring material and A LOT of opportunity for heroic conflict (this ain’t OD&D, folks); interestingly, none of these were available on the shelf of my local game shop (even though other older volumes were).

Warlords of Russia, Australia, Canada: while I’ve never owned these books, I’ve read good reviews that lead me to believe they’d also make excellent stand-alone settings. Of the three, Russia is the first one I intend to get as I see a ton of potential. I would hope Canada is specific to the Pacific Northwest, but I’m a sucker for snow and Sasquatch anyway.

I’d consider picking up England, though I remember thinking it a little “soft” (a little too fantasy, not enough post-apocalypse). I’m not very interested in having Triax again, but it may be the only source for Triax gear now that the original Sourcebook 1 is out-of-print. I’d be tempted to get the New West only for the gunslinger OCCs and artwork.

Nothing else on the product list really interests me, with the possible exceptions of the Coalition War Campaign or Mystic Russia, though solely as resources for the other books. The Conversion Book #1 and Sourcebook #1 were both exceptionally useful, but they’re no longer available except in “revised editions” and there ain’t no way I plan on purchasing RUE, so I’m not certain of their usefulness.

Hey, my birthday’s coming up! Don’t I deserve a “wish list?”

; )