Rifts GM Collaboration?

[narcissus]

Update: I've created a Rifts GMs Discord Server for a less formal ideas setting:

https://discord.gg/hBBd5MVEPG

---

[Cross-posted from G.M.s Forum]

Hi. I'm wondering if any fellow GMs would be interested in collaborating / being each other's sounding boards. I'm running two campaigns right now, and am occasionally stuck on what to do / where to go next. I have the big picture and end game figured out - it's just getting there that I could sometimes use some help with. I would also love to help others in similar situations.

As an example, my PCs are currently running Mechanoids in 102 PA. Without getting into too much detail, they're trying to assemble various factions to help fight them. One of their leads is to Poseidon, who they've tracked to Andropelous Three in the Anvil Galaxy (Three Galaxies; Phase World). They're currently in Phase World, and will be taking a Gate to Andropelous Three to find him (a tropical pleasure planet; they had a vision of a tiki bar called Olympus [which is run by Dionysus, but they don't know that yet]). I'm just kind of stuck on what to do when they get there. Do they just see Poseidon having a cocktail, tell him about the Mechanoids, and he freaks out and joins the cause? Or does he make them do some quest for him, even though "as soon as he hears about the Mechanoids' appearance anywhere (like Rifts Earth) he will rush to defend the planet"? Or is he a drunk, because he's depressed about his prior loss to the Mechanoids, and they have to convince him to help? I also would like to delay his arrival on Earth so that they have some time to fight more Mechanoids, recruit some more factions, and learn some more about Hagan/ARCHIE, before the final battle.

I'd prefer a medium like Slack so that it's more conversational than these forums (and I also don't want to get spammy on the forums every time I'm stuck for an idea). If anyone is interested, reply to this thread or PM me and we can figure out what medium works best.

Thanks!

[Captain_Nibbz]

You should feel free to spam the message boards (in my opinion). We could do with a bit more life and discussion around here that doesn't swirl around the use of the rules.

As far as your current dilemma, I'm not terribly familiar with the book that you're going through right now. I would think that you should treat Poseidon like France in the American Revolution. Willing to join the cause because of the shared enemy, but not willing to back what they see as a losing fight. Maybe they need to acquire a decisive or major victory against the Mechanoids before he'll join? That could be a pretty good hook to exploring ARCHIE and Hagan. Convincing them to rise against the Mechanoids at a crucial turning point or something so that they can score their victory, and convince Poseidon to join?

Once the victory against them is achieved, I imagine that it would take a bit of time for the Gods to gather their faithful to join in the fight against them, so that could serve to delay him joining a bit longer as well.

Thats my two credits on the situation!

[narcissus]

You should feel free to spam the message boards (in my opinion). We could do with a bit more life and discussion around here that doesn't swirl around the use of the rules.

That's fair, but I'd still like more of a conversational medium in general - something less formal. But I'll definitely still come here for ideas that I can formalize.

As far as your current dilemma, I'm not terribly familiar with the book that you're going through right now. I would think that you should treat Poseidon like France in the American Revolution. Willing to join the cause because of the shared enemy, but not willing to back what they see as a losing fight. Maybe they need to acquire a decisive or major victory against the Mechanoids before he'll join? That could be a pretty good hook to exploring ARCHIE and Hagan. Convincing them to rise against the Mechanoids at a crucial turning point or something so that they can score their victory, and convince Poseidon to join?

Once the victory against them is achieved, I imagine that it would take a bit of time for the Gods to gather their faithful to join in the fight against them, so that could serve to delay him joining a bit longer as well.

I really like this. I'll need to play around with the specifics, but it's a nice "side-quest" that doesn't really deviate from the main one.

Thats my two credits on the situation!

Nice

[guardiandashi]

You should feel free to spam the message boards (in my opinion). We could do with a bit more life and discussion around here that doesn't swirl around the use of the rules.

That's fair, but I'd still like more of a conversational medium in general - something less formal. But I'll definitely still come here for ideas that I can formalize.

As far as your current dilemma, I'm not terribly familiar with the book that you're going through right now. I would think that you should treat Poseidon like France in the American Revolution. Willing to join the cause because of the shared enemy, but not willing to back what they see as a losing fight. Maybe they need to acquire a decisive or major victory against the Mechanoids before he'll join? That could be a pretty good hook to exploring ARCHIE and Hagan. Convincing them to rise against the Mechanoids at a crucial turning point or something so that they can score their victory, and convince Poseidon to join?

Once the victory against them is achieved, I imagine that it would take a bit of time for the Gods to gather their faithful to join in the fight against them, so that could serve to delay him joining a bit longer as well.

I really like this. I'll need to play around with the specifics, but it's a nice "side-quest" that doesn't really deviate from the main one.

Thats my two credits on the situation!

Nice

I would start him off as being willing to give minor aid, that doesn't really cost him much in the long run, such as ammo, eclip charging repairs etc. maybe minor "untraceable" stuff etc.

then after they earn a certain level of trust he will help more

[Mack]

Perhaps Poseidon's forces are tied up with another conflict that must be resolved before he can help with the Mechanoids? And the sooner the PCs help him deal with that, the sooner he can throw his weight at the Mechanoids.

[mentolio]

GM collaboration: very cool idea! I hope you will keep it here, I'd like to watch this thread.

[narcissus]

Since it seems there's some interest in adding to this thread, and not so much in using another medium right now, I'll post here for the time being. So, I guess I'll start further back in the campaign so that there's some context. If it seems like the campaign jumped around a lot, it's probably because it did. I was trying to get into the canon of the world quickly, and I may have taken some liberties. Don't judge Also, this is a bit of a fast-forward campaign compared to what I was involved in when I was a kid. We don't have a lot of time to play, and I want the group to experience mid and high levels, as well as mid and high level equipment, so I'm fairly generous with experience, and just in general as a GM. My goal is to get them to level 10 in a year of "real" time, assuming one session every 2 weeks. My long-term goal with the group is Mechanoids -> something else for 6-12 months of "game" time -> Four Horsemen.

The group are all base humans (no Atlanteans or anything) and consists of a Miscreant Shifter, a Scrupulous Gunslinger, and an Anarchist Robot Pilot (Triax X-545 Super Hunter with some TW additions). The Shifter (player and character) is female, and the other two are male. All of us are in our mid-30s to mid-40s. The team dynamic is interesting to say the least.

It's spring, 102 P.A. The Gunslinger was trailing a different evil Shifter (The Man in Black - yes, I steal pop culture tropes). While hanging out in a town that The Man in Black had passed through near the ruins of Pittsburgh (Irvin; previously a steel mill, which was repurposed into an armor manufacturing and repair factory), the PCs saw a light shooting into the sky from a hundred or more miles away. This was the moment the Mechanoid rift was opened by said Man in Black and you-know-who (rhymes with "marchie"). I realize this is probably 6 months earlier than they appeared in canon, but it's just how it worked out.

They did some reconnaissance and discovered that the Mechanoid force is pretty hefty, and they can't take them alone, so they need to assemble an army. As luck would have it, they came across a couple (Jungle Elf Air/Water Warlock and Lemurian Ocean Wizard) who had escaped an invasion by Mechanoids in another dimension, but the Mechanoids destroyed their planet. The luck part is that living with them on their planet was none other than Poseidon, who now has a vendetta for the Mechanoids (this was taken from Poseidon's description in CB2). Using magic and clairvoyance, etc., they figured out that Poseidon is now in the Three Galaxies.

They rifted to Phase World, and that planet's central city, Center. They rifted in on one of the dangerous lower levels, and managed to work their way up to level 2, where the Spaceport and Gateland are. They figured out where they need to go in the Three Galaxies - Andropelous Three in the Anvil galaxy - and that they can rift there from Gateland. Andropelous Three is a tropical pleasure planet, with resorts and stuff like that. Their vision told them about a tiki bar called Olympus [GM note: Olympus is run by Dionysus, and Poseidon is hanging out with him there].

There's a side thing going on where I introduced the Book of Heroes (The Mechanoids and Four Horsemen seemed like a good reason for it to appear, and who doesn't love super powers?!). The Gunslinger found it, and did a bunch of stuff with it like parrying laser beams and protecting a bunch of townsfolk from the Children of Doom cult. In addition to appearing to the Gunslinger, the book's Hero Mentor appeared to the Shifter and Pilot to try to convince them to change their evil (or selfish) ways. On a related note, the Shifter in the party has a supernatural pact with Mephisto. He told her he heard the book is on Rifts Earth and wants it for himself, and would greatly reward her if she gets it for him. So on one hand, the book is telling her to be good, and on the other her Deevil Lord sponsor is telling her to steal the book for him.

At this point I actually ran a short solo session with the Shifter while they were in Center to see what she wanted to do, and what her plan was to steal the book (so that I could orchestrate it if it involved NPCs or she didn't want to come right out and do it during a group session). Interestingly, when presented with the option to steal the book, which would have consequences (likely either she or the Gunslinger would die, as he wouldn't take theft of the book lightly), she decided to change her evil ways and switch alignments to Principled(!) because she didn't want to kill the Gunslinger. Knowing that not stealing the book for Mephisto would bring his wrath. I honestly didn't expect it to go that way, but was pleasantly surprised when it did.

Last session they managed to get to Andropelous 3, find Poseidon, and ask for his help. They were also granted super powers from the Book of Heroes (well, the Shifter and the Gunslinger anyway; I gave the Pilot another opportunity to become good, even after he knew there was a reward, and he still said no - he's Anarchist through and through). They then rifted back to Earth to find that the Mechanoids had destroyed Irvin and were converting the factory to produce Mechanoids. They managed to destroy the force there, and are now back to tracking The Man in Black because they (rightly so) believe there's a connection between him, the Mechanoids, and the "big brain thing" (they had previously run The Face of Evil from SB1).

In addition to The Face of Evil, they've encountered Archie/Hagan before. Prior to all this, they were doing some work with Robot Control (SB: Mercenaries), and Titan Robotics hired them to kidnap a Uteni (so that Archie could reverse engineer the Naruni tech). They never had any direct interaction with Hagan, but he was literally lurking in the shadows both during that exchange, and when they killed the "big brain thing" at the end of The Face of Evil. Frankly, at this point Hagan is cool with them - sure, they blew up a decoy brain (which Hagan thought was real but has since learned better), but they also did his dirty work for him by kidnapping a Uteni, and they've been actively fighting Mechanoids.

So... where is this going? Well, they will get to the Archie bunker where the Mechanoids were summoned from. I'm not sure if I'll let them in or not, but either way Hagan will have been tailing them and will stop and talk to them. Since the PCs are assembling an army, Hagan will work with them, and this will provide incentive for Archie to revolt against the Mechanoids. They will continue to recruit various factions and fight along the way, until the final battle against the Spider Fortress. I also like the idea of the PCs knowing about and working with/for Archie/Hagan, at least to some degree, rather than it just being some faceless source of constant trouble. My players don't really read source material, so if they don't learn about something through actual gaming, they don't know about it.

In a meta context, between sessions the Shifter and Gunslinger have selected their super powers, so the next session will be the first one where they actually have them. I'm a little concerned that I may have bitten off more than I can chew, as it seems like a singularity to me - nothing which happens after the super powers could have been predicted using any model that came before. For what it's worth, the Shifter selected Psychic Mind Controller and Super Martial Arts Warrior, and the Gunslinger selected Super Speed and Supernatural Being. So I'm hoping I'm able to at least continue to challenge them - Mephisto and the minions of Dyval are after them now, the Mechanoids, they're wanted by the CS, and have basically been making more enemies than friends. But the next couple of sessions are going to be a challenge for me.

I'm not actively looking for any additional input right now, but am totally open to ideas, side-missions, and sub-plots if anyone has any. Otherwise, I hope you enjoyed the spam

[Captain_Nibbz]

Overall it sounds like your players are very lucky to have you as a GM. That game sounds like a blast so far

I look forward to your next issue that you bring to the table looking for input!

[narcissus]

Overall it sounds like your players are very lucky to have you as a GM. That game sounds like a blast so far

I look forward to your next issue that you bring to the table looking for input!

Thanks

Actually, I do have something I'm not sure how to handle. The newly principled Shifter is going to give up her pact with Mephisto and wants to form one with Thoth instead. I can handle the (ongoing) repercussions from Mephisto, but I'm trying to figure out what to get her to do so that Thoth agrees to a pact. It's gotta be something fairly significant - it's Thoth after all - but could (should?) also be more than one thing. My first inclination is finding some long lost book or something since Thoth has a thirst for knowledge, but that's about as far as my thought process has gone.

Suggestions?

[Captain_Nibbz]

What if Thoth also wants the Book of Heroes? Or at least a portion of it or something similar. Makes sense that if he wants a rare book, that he might want THAT rare book.

That being said that feels a little too quantum ogre to me personally. But if the Gunslinger's main qualm with getting rid of it was who it would be going to, maybe you could work with that?

Additionally, you could make it a bit of a side-quest line. Have the shifter lose some abilities for the time being, and they constantly are getting jumped by Mephisto's forces. Maybe Thoth actually approaches THEM and offers the pact and protection them from Mephisto in exchange for safeguarding the book.

The book could then come up again as an artifact or plot point during the Horsemen of the Apocalypse arc maybe since I think he's mentioned in that book?

[Nuristas]

Since it seems there's some interest in adding to this thread, and not so much in using another medium right now, I'll post here for the time being. So, I guess I'll start further back in the campaign so that there's some context. If it seems like the campaign jumped around a lot, it's probably because it did. I was trying to get into the canon of the world quickly, and I may have taken some liberties. Don't judge Also, this is a bit of a fast-forward campaign compared to what I was involved in when I was a kid. We don't have a lot of time to play, and I want the group to experience mid and high levels, as well as mid and high level equipment, so I'm fairly generous with experience, and just in general as a GM. My goal is to get them to level 10 in a year of "real" time, assuming one session every 2 weeks. My long-term goal with the group is Mechanoids -> something else for 6-12 months of "game" time -> Four Horsemen.

The group are all base humans (no Atlanteans or anything) and consists of a Miscreant Shifter, a Scrupulous Gunslinger, and an Anarchist Robot Pilot (Triax X-545 Super Hunter with some TW additions). The Shifter (player and character) is female, and the other two are male. All of us are in our mid-30s to mid-40s. The team dynamic is interesting to say the least.

It's spring, 102 P.A. The Gunslinger was trailing a different evil Shifter (The Man in Black - yes, I steal pop culture tropes). While hanging out in a town that The Man in Black had passed through near the ruins of Pittsburgh (Irvin; previously a steel mill, which was repurposed into an armor manufacturing and repair factory), the PCs saw a light shooting into the sky from a hundred or more miles away. This was the moment the Mechanoid rift was opened by said Man in Black and you-know-who (rhymes with "marchie"). I realize this is probably 6 months earlier than they appeared in canon, but it's just how it worked out.

They did some reconnaissance and discovered that the Mechanoid force is pretty hefty, and they can't take them alone, so they need to assemble an army. As luck would have it, they came across a couple (Jungle Elf Air/Water Warlock and Lemurian Ocean Wizard) who had escaped an invasion by Mechanoids in another dimension, but the Mechanoids destroyed their planet. The luck part is that living with them on their planet was none other than Poseidon, who now has a vendetta for the Mechanoids (this was taken from Poseidon's description in CB2). Using magic and clairvoyance, etc., they figured out that Poseidon is now in the Three Galaxies.

They rifted to Phase World, and that planet's central city, Center. They rifted in on one of the dangerous lower levels, and managed to work their way up to level 2, where the Spaceport and Gateland are. They figured out where they need to go in the Three Galaxies - Andropelous Three in the Anvil galaxy - and that they can rift there from Gateland. Andropelous Three is a tropical pleasure planet, with resorts and stuff like that. Their vision told them about a tiki bar called Olympus [GM note: Olympus is run by Dionysus, and Poseidon is hanging out with him there].

There's a side thing going on where I introduced the Book of Heroes (The Mechanoids and Four Horsemen seemed like a good reason for it to appear, and who doesn't love super powers?!). The Gunslinger found it, and did a bunch of stuff with it like parrying laser beams and protecting a bunch of townsfolk from the Children of Doom cult. In addition to appearing to the Gunslinger, the book's Hero Mentor appeared to the Shifter and Pilot to try to convince them to change their evil (or selfish) ways. On a related note, the Shifter in the party has a supernatural pact with Mephisto. He told her he heard the book is on Rifts Earth and wants it for himself, and would greatly reward her if she gets it for him. So on one hand, the book is telling her to be good, and on the other her Deevil Lord sponsor is telling her to steal the book for him.

At this point I actually ran a short solo session with the Shifter while they were in Center to see what she wanted to do, and what her plan was to steal the book (so that I could orchestrate it if it involved NPCs or she didn't want to come right out and do it during a group session). Interestingly, when presented with the option to steal the book, which would have consequences (likely either she or the Gunslinger would die, as he wouldn't take theft of the book lightly), she decided to change her evil ways and switch alignments to Principled(!) because she didn't want to kill the Gunslinger. Knowing that not stealing the book for Mephisto would bring his wrath. I honestly didn't expect it to go that way, but was pleasantly surprised when it did.

Last session they managed to get to Andropelous 3, find Poseidon, and ask for his help. They were also granted super powers from the Book of Heroes (well, the Shifter and the Gunslinger anyway; I gave the Pilot another opportunity to become good, even after he knew there was a reward, and he still said no - he's Anarchist through and through). They then rifted back to Earth to find that the Mechanoids had destroyed Irvin and were converting the factory to produce Mechanoids. They managed to destroy the force there, and are now back to tracking The Man in Black because they (rightly so) believe there's a connection between him, the Mechanoids, and the "big brain thing" (they had previously run The Face of Evil from SB1).

In addition to The Face of Evil, they've encountered Archie/Hagan before. Prior to all this, they were doing some work with Robot Control (SB: Mercenaries), and Titan Robotics hired them to kidnap a Uteni (so that Archie could reverse engineer the Naruni tech). They never had any direct interaction with Hagan, but he was literally lurking in the shadows both during that exchange, and when they killed the "big brain thing" at the end of The Face of Evil. Frankly, at this point Hagan is cool with them - sure, they blew up a decoy brain (which Hagan thought was real but has since learned better), but they also did his dirty work for him by kidnapping a Uteni, and they've been actively fighting Mechanoids.

So... where is this going? Well, they will get to the Archie bunker where the Mechanoids were summoned from. I'm not sure if I'll let them in or not, but either way Hagan will have been tailing them and will stop and talk to them. Since the PCs are assembling an army, Hagan will work with them, and this will provide incentive for Archie to revolt against the Mechanoids. They will continue to recruit various factions and fight along the way, until the final battle against the Spider Fortress. I also like the idea of the PCs knowing about and working with/for Archie/Hagan, at least to some degree, rather than it just being some faceless source of constant trouble. My players don't really read source material, so if they don't learn about something through actual gaming, they don't know about it.

In a meta context, between sessions the Shifter and Gunslinger have selected their super powers, so the next session will be the first one where they actually have them. I'm a little concerned that I may have bitten off more than I can chew, as it seems like a singularity to me - nothing which happens after the super powers could have been predicted using any model that came before. For what it's worth, the Shifter selected Psychic Mind Controller and Super Martial Arts Warrior, and the Gunslinger selected Super Speed and Supernatural Being. So I'm hoping I'm able to at least continue to challenge them - Mephisto and the minions of Dyval are after them now, the Mechanoids, they're wanted by the CS, and have basically been making more enemies than friends. But the next couple of sessions are going to be a challenge for me.

I'm not actively looking for any additional input right now, but am totally open to ideas, side-missions, and sub-plots if anyone has any. Otherwise, I hope you enjoyed the spam

I'll start by saying that this whole campaign sounds very enjoyable and well thought out.

Some ideas for other options to complicate things should you desire to do so:

The book of heroes is needed at another location! (maybe the invasion of Center from Dimensional Outbreak since they already have a link to Center?)
A champion of Mephisto, himself a super powered being(?), is sent to retrieve the shifter because the link is not really working as intended any more.
Is it possible that Lord Splynncryth takes an interest in the situation which such a unique and powerful artifact on the table in Rifts Earth? Could he make a deal with their "anarchist" friend?
If they tell people a book granted them powers, you could even involve the Coalition States: a book exists that transforms normal humans into freaks! Destroy it or lock it up in the Black Vault!
Since Poseidon is involved, it might be possible to involve a Titan: I am pretty sure the book of Heroes is on the to study list of a Titan called Hekate.
If Poseidon boasts of their achievements, is it plausible that Aphrodite takes a passing interest in one of the "New" heroes?

As I said, your campaigns seems very well planned, and adding something, only would add a cherry on top.

[narcissus]

What if Thoth also wants the Book of Heroes? Or at least a portion of it or something similar. Makes sense that if he wants a rare book, that he might want THAT rare book.

That being said that feels a little too quantum ogre to me personally. But if the Gunslinger's main qualm with getting rid of it was who it would be going to, maybe you could work with that?

Additionally, you could make it a bit of a side-quest line. Have the shifter lose some abilities for the time being, and they constantly are getting jumped by Mephisto's forces. Maybe Thoth actually approaches THEM and offers the pact and protection them from Mephisto in exchange for safeguarding the book.

The book could then come up again as an artifact or plot point during the Horsemen of the Apocalypse arc maybe since I think he's mentioned in that book?

Some ideas for other options to complicate things should you desire to do so:

The book of heroes is needed at another location! (maybe the invasion of Center from Dimensional Outbreak since they already have a link to Center?)
A champion of Mephisto, himself a super powered being(?), is sent to retrieve the shifter because the link is not really working as intended any more.
Is it possible that Lord Splynncryth takes an interest in the situation which such a unique and powerful artifact on the table in Rifts Earth? Could he make a deal with their "anarchist" friend?
If they tell people a book granted them powers, you could even involve the Coalition States: a book exists that transforms normal humans into freaks! Destroy it or lock it up in the Black Vault!
Since Poseidon is involved, it might be possible to involve a Titan: I am pretty sure the book of Heroes is on the to study list of a Titan called Hekate.
If Poseidon boasts of their achievements, is it plausible that Aphrodite takes a passing interest in one of the "New" heroes?

You guys are awesome. All around great ideas - keep 'em coming. I'm sure I'll incorporate some of this. I should've started this thread months ago

The one thing about the book that kind of irks me, and makes using it as a plot object difficult, is that by canon it can teleport and dimensionally teleport, and will basically just teleport away from someone if it doesn't want to be in their possession, or is needed elsewhere in the Megaverse. The only exception to this is in Hades (and, by extension in my campaign, Dyval). But I could still see using it as a temporary device - it might be more motivated to teleport out of a selfless need (someone in the Megaverse needs to be a super hero!) than one of self preservation (I'm in the hands of a demon of Hades!).

I'll start by saying that this whole campaign sounds very enjoyable and well thought out.

As I said, your campaigns seems very well planned, and adding something, only would add a cherry on top.

This makes me LOL. This is literally the first campaign I've run in ~25 years, and I've been scrambling the whole time. None of it was well planned at all, but I'm glad it seems that way . Thanks.

[PaganDesparu]

Love this, it's nice to have other GMs to bounce ideas off. Is there a dedicated thread for ideas, or are we just doing this here for now? I could use some advice myself!

[narcissus]

Love this, it's nice to have other GMs to bounce ideas off. Is there a dedicated thread for ideas, or are we just doing this here for now? I could use some advice myself!

That's a good question. This thread wasn't really intended to be for ideas - I was more trying to coordinate usage of a less formal medium for that, but it spiraled.

To wit, I've created a Discord server for GMs to just throw ideas out in a less formal setting, and where ideas can flow freer.

Rifts GMs Discord Link: https://discord.gg/hBBd5MVEPG

In answer to your question, I'd say join that Discord . But otherwise maybe a new thread would be wise, otherwise we're going to have a bunch of GMs posting disparate campaign plots in one thread, and it could get tough to follow.

[PaganDesparu]

Joined! Thanks for setting it up!

[Father Goose]

I joined as well.

[hup7]

Joined myself.

Must say great group and some great collaboration.