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Old 05-03-2006, 02:09 PM   #31
UncreativeNameMaker
 
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Default Re: Rifts to GURPS: another way to look at it.

I agree that the system is terrible. Most of the attributes don’t really do anything unless they’re exceptionally high. Leveling up takes forever, and most (but not all) classes get only minor benefits from it. Even the main book isn’t really balanced, and there has been a lot of power creep since then. It’s a good setting that’s stuck with a bad system. Hence the desire to convert it to GURPS.
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Old 05-03-2006, 04:11 PM   #32
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Default Re: Rifts to GURPS: another way to look at it.

I have always thought that the Gatecrasher setting (if run seriously) would be somewhat like Rifts (possibly crossed with Shadowrun). You have high tech, magic, fantasy races and random weirdness coming through the portals from other dimensions.
And the owners don't sue people for doing conversions!
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Old 05-03-2006, 06:57 PM   #33
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Default Re: Rifts to GURPS: another way to look at it.

This is not an insurmountable problem. I've sometimes thought the best way to run a high level Supers game is to use an "open budget" approach. That is, instead of using a specific point budget, like 150 or 400, you do the following...

1) Clear the concept with the GM--the character should have certain strengths but should not be able to do EVERYTHING, otherwise he will overshadow the rest of the player characters, and that's no fun

2) Negotiate certain limits and at least one clear weakness (and preferably more) for the character with the GM

3) Build the character with as many points as the concept requires

So, you want a character who can make the skies rain blood, or acid, or chickens? Go right ahead. Cool concept. (Don't laugh. Have you ever had some five-pound roasters dropped on your head from three miles up? Yeah, you're thinking about it now, aren't you?) The area affect on the Modular Innate Attack will probably be very expensive. But make sure the character has some limits (she needs time to create the attack, she is only average as a melee fighter, etc.) and some genuine disadvantages (she is hunted by the people whose village she destroyed, etc.).

Point budgets are a great idea, but they are not essential to create a balanced team of player characters. What is essential to do this is to make sure every character can contribute something but that every character also has some limits, some weaknesses, so that they can be challenged and so that the GM can create involving stories.

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Quote:
Originally Posted by jbalsle
This exposes a weakness of Palladium's original concept, and at the same time, also shows w a problem with GURPSifying Rifts. How do you work in a Rogue Scholar who may be 200cp max with heroic level attributes (IQ 14, DX 12, HT 12, ST 10, for instance) when your party has a Hatching Thunder Lizard (~1000 points in advantages and stats) and a Leyline Walker (which could be 250-300 points if you use skills for spells, and ~1000 points if you make his spells powers.)?

This would be the biggest arguement I could give against a fan-adaption of Rifts for GURPS. Palladium might find a way to tone down their O.C.C.s and R.C.C.s for an official work, but otherwise, you'll have Rifts players saying their Cyberknight just doesn't feel right anymore and blaming the person who did the conversion -- that's me, by the way. :p
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Old 05-03-2006, 07:07 PM   #34
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Default Re: Rifts to GURPS: another way to look at it.

If you want a Rifts like world then maybe GURPS Under the Broken Moon the Thundarr the Barbarian RPG. Almost the same as the Rifts world but since it came out many years before there wouldn't be a problem with copyright.
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Old 05-03-2006, 09:50 PM   #35
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Default Re: Rifts to GURPS: another way to look at it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by nanoboy
I guess that someone could come up with a setting that's Rifts but isn't. Palladium couldn't really do anything about that, I suppose. Still, that just doesn't seem quite right. The whole time anyone would play it, they would be saying, "But isn't this really just Rifts?"
I dont think people would say that at first *unless that product is marketed that way*. there is a much broader spectrum of players that arent into rifts which can be drawin into a well done Kitchen Sink setting.

I guess we won't know till some one Picks up the ball. I honestly wish i had the time to make the "hypothetical" Kitchen sink setting that would pick up after RIFTS (or at least a chance to help make it).

come to think of it, its like the way Eberron came out to fix the consitency and to inject some much needed variety into the typical DnD setting. But like eberron, its not going to be a problem of people saying "its like this or that" because it takes on elements from other settings and improves on them (and has its own twist) but the opportunity to get people who are more familiar with the older settings to play it.
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Old 05-03-2006, 11:54 PM   #36
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Default Re: Rifts to GURPS: another way to look at it.

Banestorms could easily create a Rifts-like kitchen sink world. On Yrth, all of the large scale banestorm events grabbed people who fit into a fantasy setting. On another world, the banestorms might scoop up people from several different genres. It could be an interesting reversal to have a fantasy world suddenly introduced to advanced technology (instead of adding magic to a high tech world, like in Rifts and Technomancer). I would like to see such a setting made for GURPS, but it wouldn’t lessen my desire for a GURPS Rifts book.
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Old 05-04-2006, 09:10 AM   #37
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Default Re: Rifts to GURPS: another way to look at it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by UncreativeNameMaker
Banestorms could easily create a Rifts-like kitchen sink world. On Yrth, all of the large scale banestorm events grabbed people who fit into a fantasy setting. On another world, the banestorms might scoop up people from several different genres. It could be an interesting reversal to have a fantasy world suddenly introduced to advanced technology (instead of adding magic to a high tech world, like in Rifts and Technomancer). I would like to see such a setting made for GURPS, but it wouldn’t lessen my desire for a GURPS Rifts book.
Thats a thought. A high fantasy/sci-fi bane storm, with alien intelligences, conspiracies, noir/pulp/action/mystery/epic tangents and viola! Of course, a good story to tie everything, some time for things to cook and several game adventures out there for people to play (not to mention tons of hooks and plots etc. ) then maybe it might catch on... one doent really know till its out there.
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Old 05-04-2006, 01:10 PM   #38
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Default Re: Rifts to GURPS: another way to look at it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bobzilla
If you want a Rifts like world then maybe GURPS Under the Broken Moon the Thundarr the Barbarian RPG. Almost the same as the Rifts world but since it came out many years before there wouldn't be a problem with copyright.
I would be very careful about making a statement like that regarding copyright.

For one thing, I can't imagine that Thundarr would be out of copyright; I remember the cartoon, and I am no 70-year-old. If there's already an RPG about it, then then that will almost certainly be copyrighted, not to mention the licensing issues with the producers of the cartoon.

Secondly, it would probably be a trademark issue as well as copyright. Please read http://www.sjgames.com/general/online_policy.html for some quicky discussions about trademarks and copyrights.

Also see the linked page, http://www.templetons.com/brad/copymyths.html.
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Old 05-04-2006, 02:00 PM   #39
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Default Re: Rifts to GURPS: another way to look at it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Archangel Beth
I would be very careful about making a statement like that regarding copyright.

For one thing, I can't imagine that Thundarr would be out of copyright; I remember the cartoon, and I am no 70-year-old.
Sorry I meant the Rifts copyright. Basically if by some strange chance SJG wanted the rights to Thundarr they could get them have a world similar to Rifts but PB couldn't sue because Thundarr came out many years before Rifts.
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Last edited by Bobzilla; 05-04-2006 at 09:13 PM.
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Old 05-04-2006, 02:30 PM   #40
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Default Re: Rifts to GURPS: another way to look at it.

Quote:
Originally Posted by UncreativeNameMaker
Banestorms could easily create a Rifts-like kitchen sink world. On Yrth, all of the large scale banestorm events grabbed people who fit into a fantasy setting. On another world, the banestorms might scoop up people from several different genres. It could be an interesting reversal to have a fantasy world suddenly introduced to advanced technology (instead of adding magic to a high tech world, like in Rifts and Technomancer). I would like to see such a setting made for GURPS, but it wouldn’t lessen my desire for a GURPS Rifts book.

This is the best idea so far. IMO Me likey likey.
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