Savaging Your Favorite Rifts® Ideas

Written By: Sean Patrick Fannon with Clint Black and Sean Owen Roberson

Interior Illustrations: Gunship Revolution, Matheus Calza, Felipe Gaona, Alida Saxon

Graphic Design & Layout: Aaron Acevedo, Jason Engle, Thomas Shook

Editing: Ron Blessing, Jodi Black

Art Direction: Aaron Acevedo, Alida Saxon

Line Manager: Sean Owen Roberson

Executive Producer: Simon Lucas

Rifts® Created By: Kevin Siembieda of Palladium Books®

Savage Worlds Created By: Shane Lacy Hensley

WWW.PEGINC.COM Sample file

Savage Worlds is © 2020 and TM Pinnacle Entertainment Group. All Rights Reserved. © 2020 Palladium Books Inc. All rights reserved, worldwide. Rifts® and Megaverse® are Registered Trademarks of Palladium Books, Inc. All character names and likenesses are copyright and trademarks owned by Palladium Books, Inc. and used under license. SAVAGING YOUR FAVORITE RIFTS® IDEAS

rom the day the Savage Rifts® project into Savage Worlds. You may discover these was announced as a reality, the most guidelines help you translate pretty much requested companion piece was a any idea into something you can use in F ® “conversion guide,” something fans could Savage Rifts . use to bring their favorite things from the massive library of Rifts® books published by Palladium Books, Inc., into Savage Worlds. Though both the Rifts® system from PHILOSOPHICAL Palladium and Savage Worlds fulfill similar FOUNDATION roles—core rules used to express a vast array of concepts, genres, and stories— they do so in very different ways. Both are Savage Worlds fans have long known the powerful and effective, giving their fans a philosophical foundation of writing things great gaming experience, yet they handle up in the system—translate and interpret, the core tasks of expressing characters and rather than convert. Whether creating actions so differently that creating a strictly something from scratch or bringing an mathematical process to convert from idea in from another source (movies, one to the other would be an comics, another game setting, etc.), exercise in frustration and you are best served by trying to futility, as the end recreate the essential aspects product wouldn't of the concept, rather than be very fun. attempting to directly Instead, this convert each and guide is meant every minute detail to aidSample you in of the idea.file translating If you’re writing up a your favorite specific character ideas from the f rom a not her vast amount source, what of material in are the essential Palladium’s qualities of Rifts® library that character? Is

2 she quick-witted? Brutally strong? A two- MORE VARIETY, NOT guns-blazing acrobat? A strong-willed and MORE POWER hard-boiled detective? When recreating a previously-designed RPG character, you will be better off stepping away from the Most gamers know the term “power numbers and figuring out the essential creep.” Newer material comes out for questions and answers about her. Once a game of almost any kind, and there you’ve done that, it’s a lot easier to go is a righteous concern that the new through the Savage Worlds material and find character type, weapon, armor, etc. the elements which best define her. will be so much better than what’s For example, if she’s a “strong-willed and come before it makes the older release hard-boiled detective,” you can design her to obsolete. Designers of all forms have Edges like Investigator, Nerves of Steel, of games conscientiously struggle and (of course) Strong Willed. There may be to ensure new material makes the nothing in her original system write-up which game experience more dynamic and reflects those exact mechanical qualities, but interesting without creating an arms that may be because the original system race to acquire the new releases just handles such concepts very differently. because it completely overpowers Of course, the game system may have anything else. equivalent ideas, in which case your task is This is a concept you should keep to look for roughly similar ways to express in the front of your mind as you go the same thing. Regardless, the above through your own creation process ® mental approach serves you best as you seek to add things to your Savage Rifts to make sure this character feels right under campaign. While the temptation Savage Worlds rules, rather than reflecting is strong to ensure your personal a mathematical approximation of her pure favorite O.C.C. or power armor is as stats from the Rifts® system. awesome as you can possibly make it, This same design philosophy applies you will do better by your game and to pretty much everything else you’ll your fellow players by working on want to translate to Savage Worlds rules, making it stand out creatively, rather though in the case of things like monsters, than in terms of raw power. Savage vehicles, and character types (Occupational Worlds is a game system which favors Character Classes, or O.C.C.s, in Rifts® a certain amount of balance among terms), you have another very useful tool to roughly equivalent things, and the wield. The best guide to bringing a creature, game works best when honoring piece of equipment, or even O.C.C. over this idea. from Rifts® to Savage Rifts® is to simply look Look for what makes your favored at an existing, similar item in the Savage idea special and interesting, rather Rifts® books and start from there. In many than what makes it kick the stuffing cases, you can even use that concept’s stats out of every other like it in the as a starting place, varying them to better setting. After all, it’s relatively easy represent the new concept. to just make something stronger, For example, when translating a Northern tougher, and more damaging…but Gun robot vehicle into Savage Rifts®, you’ll that’s hardly exciting or intriguing. have a much easier time looking at the It’s better to find the elements NG Samplerobots already in The Tomorrow Legion which make it standfile out in more Player’s Guide and using one of them as a memorable ways. starting framework. The same idea goes for translating O.C.C.s—most of them are readily understood as variations on existing Iconic Frameworks, or at least similar enough in concept and power usage to be relatable.

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4 Herein lies a key idea to internalize: to take in creating new character options for Savage Worlds amalgamates a lot of intricate Savage Rifts®. detail into larger, broader “packages.” This The core Iconic Frameworks in The not only makes for faster and easier game Tomorrow Legion Player’s Guide and Edges play, it simplifies both the creation and from that book and Savage Worlds represent understanding of characters and other the foundation concepts of the Rifts® setting, builds. Wielding a rapier, punching, and making them the best starting places for swinging a lamppost all fall under the translating other ideas, or even in creating Fighting skill. Missiles of magic, holy bolts of new ones to play with. Thinking in these energy, and a telekinetic punch at a distance terms, your best steps in translating a are all best interpreted as the bolt power. favorite O.C.C. into character options are: Having a thick hide, reinforced bones, or an incredible pain tolerance all fall under the 1. Brainstorm the major abilities of auspice of possessing a high Toughness. the O.C.C. and compare them with As you go through the very specific details known Savage Rifts® character options. and ideas of a given character, monster, piece Depending on how unique the concept of gear, or whatever, remember to figure out is, there are a few broad possibilities: its essential game play quality and find the Edges: Many character concepts can Savage Worlds mechanic that represents it be covered by creating a new Edge; best. Think in broad concepts, then use your not every hero type needs a whole descriptions and trappings to elaborate on new Framework to fulfill their shtick. the details which make the story part of that The simplest variations on characters concept stand out. fit into this theme—like the Ley Line Rifter, which we accomplished by adding the Teleportational Hitchhiker Edge to Blood & Banes— CHARACTER and are usually derivative of core OPTIONS iconic Rifts archetypes like the Juicer, Ley Line Walker, etc. Keep in mind that not every Edge needs to be You've likely heard the phrase “more art available at character creation—it's than science” when it comes to game design. OK to let players work towards the This truism certainly comes into play with Edges needed to fully realize their all of the Savage Rifts® character rules, from heroic ideal. Even if some Palladium Iconic Frameworks and MARS packages to O.C.C.s started with those abilities, Edges and special abilities—not to mention Savage Worlds characters tend to Race and power options. The numbers are progress more over time. important, yet how those numbers interact MARS packages: Use the MARS in terms of game impact and the player’s framework if the character option is experience is as much about intuition and more than an Edge or two's worth of narrative understanding as it is about abilities, or part of a "full package" formulas. Nowhere is this more evident concept. MARS packages often have a than in the crafting of character options. unique special ability (roughly equal in value to an Edge) or custom power The Kitbash Approach list to help the character concept be ThoseSample who work with miniatures for RPGs truly unique. Iffile you don't need a and wargaming know the term “kitbash” special ability or custom power list very well. It’s the process of taking existing to build the package, realize what models and pieces, pulling them apart, and you are creating is essentially just recombining those pieces into a custom a MARS Personal Concept Option result which more exactly fits what the with added steps (which is totally modeler wants. This is the right approach acceptable!).

5 Iconic Frameworks: For truly unique Another thing to watch out for is being Rifts® concepts with a combination too literal in your choice of foundation. For of special abilities and complications, example, if you’re translating something you can build your own custom with a strong set of psionic abilities, you Iconic Framework. This is the most might be automatically drawn to the work out of all of the options, but can Mind Melter as your starting place. This be the most rewarding when you get is probably the right choice for many ideas, it right! Remember that, like building but if the particular concept you’re playing a custom Race in Savage Worlds, you with is less about raw power and more will need unique complications for about a variety of special abilities outside of the concept to offset its powerful simply using psionics, you might be better abilities. off looking at the Ley Line Walker. Yes, the Walker is arcane-based, but 2. Whichever approach you take—Edges, realize that much of what you are doing MARS, or IF—decide which existing is effectively “re-skinning” an established Iconic Framework or MARS package framework so that it looks and feels like most closely resembles the idea of what what you want. If the Ley Line Walker gives you want to translate or create. you more options 3. Go through existing abilities, Edges, and power lists, then modify the most similar ones to fit your current idea. Make sure to keep things about the same effectiveness and power level. 4. For any additional abilities you feel are important to the concept, define them as Iconic Edges the player can choose for the character either at creation or later.

This is the best approach to give you balanced results in keeping with the spirit of Savage Rifts®. The devil resides in the details, however, so let’s go over these steps a bit more. CHOOSING A MODEL FRAMEWORK This is the most important part of the process. The right choice means the least amount of serious work you have to put in and establishes the foundation of your build. The wrong choice can set you off on a frustrating path and a lot of re-working. Again, the temptation may be to make a choice you see as the most powerful. This isn’t really the best approach, however, and can lead to a very clunky result more about the powerSample than about representing the best file elements and lore of the O.C.C. you are trying to emulate. It’s better by far to target the Iconic Framework that exemplifies the same kind of role and capabilities the established O.C.C. represents from the original Rifts® sources.