Splicer unnerving things

[The Baron of chaos]

Orrr what I do not like of Splicer.
As I said elsewhere I developed a....fall....in my feelings for this game. I think is related to some features for the game that I never digested.
a) Is an MDC system. Man the setting would have been much more sensed if was an SDC system.
b)No psionic. I understand magic but why get rid of psionics? Being a "Scanner" fan this hurt me a lot.
c) But this is secondary problem. After all whats worth having telepathy if your main enemies are mindelss machines. this simple fact over the time get boring. And telepathy is not the only uselese thing. Seduction, Card sharp and many other skills no directly related with com,bat are useless. why they wasted space putting them inot book..
d)The nanoplague. I know it was meant to be frustrating, but is too dont know. Is hard to manage for both the GM and player
e)Very limited world info. I've seen more in Triax and NGR book!!

I know this would probably cause puzzled and perhaps negative reactions. But I'm curious if you too had found some "bugs" that really you don't like too much.
With honor and respect
Baron of Chaos

[demos606]

Orrr what I do not like of Splicer.
As I said elsewhere I developed a....fall....in my feelings for this game. I think is related to some features for the game that I never digested.
a) Is an MDC system. Man the setting would have been much more sensed if was an SDC system.
Makes sense to me as a MD setting. SD combat has too many flaws for me, most notably AR.

b)No psionic. I understand magic but why get rid of psionics? Being a "Scanner" fan this hurt me a lot.
One word - Telemechanics

c) But this is secondary problem. After all whats worth having telepathy if your main enemies are mindelss machines. this simple fact over the time get boring. And telepathy is not the only uselese thing. Seduction, Card sharp and many other skills no directly related with com,bat are useless. why they wasted space putting them inot book..
Robots are only 1 of the problems the Resistance faces. The very likely fight each other more than they fight robots, makes the human based skills still useful. Even when they aren't fighting, who's to say the bases cant have casinos of some kind? Most of thee human population, even in a House, is noncombatant, gotta have something for them to do all day.

d)The nanoplague. I know it was meant to be frustrating, but is too dont know. Is hard to manage for both the GM and player
Yes the nanoplague can be frustrating but thats one of the attractions for me - it forces us to think outside the box

e)Very limited world info. I've seen more in Triax and NGR book!!
Rifts sourcebooks, especially Triax and NGR, are heavily focused on a single aspect of a larger, far more established world. The original PF concepts weren't much better as I recall, 20+ years of refinement does a lot for a setting.

[The Baron of chaos]

nice try but I still remain of my opinion. Infact you don't realize you spotted the main flaw of Splicer.
Is 99% combat oriented. More than most Palladium games. No exploration, no surprises nothing
Let's not deny it. Is more a board game(it remind me Warahmmer40.000 don't know why) than roleplaying game.
I doubt this RPG , as it is now, has future.
And again you're probably the only one tha tlike MDC system. Maibn flaw is that silly ratio of 100 SDC is 1 MDC, and no SDC weapon can even scratch an MDC structure. Much mroe better 10 SDC is 1 MDC, or change damage ratio depending upon the type of damage.
Bahh this is going off topic.
I don't Like splicer as is it. And this explian why I had wrote some stuff about it(if someone after reading this puzzled about it). If I liked it I would not have wrote a bit(like nightbane, that is perfect as it is)

[demos606]

Splicers is what you make of it. Whats presented in the book is 99% combat oriented but that doesn't have to be the entire world. Our first game was actually 90% non-combat and the only combat was against a renegade House. As for your Warhammer 40k comparison, it's actually pretty accurate from a certain perspective.

As for being the only one that likes the MD system or the "silly" 100 SDC is 1 MD conversion, it only becomes an issue when you start trying to do goofy things like combine the 2 systems. No, there aren't a lot of SD weapons that can damage MDC structures but there are plenty of explosives that work quite nicely when they aren't nerfed beyond belief by KS being afraid to make combat lethal. The only place SD weapons should ever even be considered for use is in a SD environment which Splicers most certainly is not.

That said, I'll be the first to agree that Splicers is not a setting most ppl are going to like unless the want a healthy dose of realism and fatality in combat. Anyone that insists on Magic and/or Psionics being part of their world is not going to like Splicers. Anyone that wants to lreliably ive thru combat with the weakest of the enemy forces is not going to like Splicers. Ya know what? That's just fine with me because I'm not going to want those people for our Splicers or BtS games anyway because they're both quite dangerous and very much slanted against long term PC survival. Neither I nor the other GM in the group has any qualms aboult killing the PCs if they push a bad situation, and they're quite happy to push any situation that presents itself.

[NMI]

there is psionics in splicers, just not mentioned in the main book. There are supposed to be "experimental" characters in a later book that have psionic abilities.

where did you read or hear this at?

[demos606]

p167 Splicers:

2. Psychics ... The indigenous people of the Splicers World do NOT possess psychic abilities, with the only exceptions being bio-genetic experiments (to be considered and covered in future Splicers sourcebooks)

This has to be the reference in question as it's the only one of its kind in the entire book. As for the notion that these will be available as playable characters, thats another matter entirely and I have 3 words for my players - not a chance.

[TechnoGothic]

the two times i did run a splicer game there was no combat.

While scouting out a mountain pass far from base, they had to Hunt for food/Water. They played Poker while on watch duty.

I kept them on edge though. Noises in the Dark. Was it a rivial house party ? was it the machines ? Wild animals ?
Since only Two party member didnt have a parisitic Host Armor, They got Night duty while the rest rested and healed.

The Players saw haw cool Thermosynthetic and Lithovore were better.
It was HOT desert setting mostly. Lots of Rocks/sand for the Lithovore to eat.

Then we took a small break, but we havent gotten back to the game though. our small break turned into a long campaign.

[The Baron of chaos]

Still, as it is now the setting is more around combat than anything else.

[Carmen]

Actually Baron of Chaos, the game is still only a first book and all PBs are foucsed on combat in their first book because that is where the combat rules are. But when I run Splicers it is much more about stealth and intrigue than straight up combat. When I do run combat its lethal (ask anyone who played at a con in my games) so most players avoid the straight up combat. They generally try to find noncombat ways to illiminate The Machine (or at least their small part of it) as it is almost always more effective and does not get them killed so easily.
As for the plague, it was a nessessary part of the world setting, afterall why would humans ever give up standard technology in favor of bio-tech. Would you willing give up your computer? I wouldnt! The part most players seem to miss is that the nanobots of the plague are still directed by NEXUS, but its base level functions, they are not just a simple mecha virus. They are programed by NEXUS to do one job, deny humans acess to technology.
Any way that is my two cents, hear back from you soon, Carmen.

[The Baron of chaos]

Ok. Now don't get bad, there are a lot thing appeal me in this setting(mostly the biotech) and I understand that the nanoplague is needed to explain it(alhtought sometimes is too silly). But I got the feeling the book is somehow incomplete. Like there is something I'm missing but I cannot exactly focus what is it. And then there are thing I don't like but in each game there will alwyas be thing I dont like(example I hate the D20 magic system. so far only gurps never disappointed me, but porlly is because is a generic system).
Talking about setting I've recently read a Scince Fiction story of Michael Swanwick "The Dog said Bow-Bow" , very nice and the setting of th story si very interesting, a world where normla technology is forbidded, infested byt cyber demons and mad cybergods, and biotech is everywhere, where mutant dogs go around, and england is ruled by hmm a massive human living computed wiht dozen of brains and slug like body...I think I'd use that story as base for an alternative setting....

[TechnoGothic]

yeah i do believe some important stuff hit the cutting floor as usual for palladium's track record.

kev will then say "so-so" will be in future books...usually not.

Rifts still needs Australia 2 to be released, Underseas 2 and so on...

As for Splicers.
Well, its pretty much complet for a begining gamebook.

[Prince Artemis]

Combat oriented? Not from what i read. The main npc of the book, the guy that took out the computers node to be able to form that above ground city, his armor was a stealthy scout. I've seen several times where they warn against combat, specifically in some of the nastier bot descriptiong. I think this game is more about tactics, espionage, intelligence and what not then straight out combat. Combat will be a factor, but it is in every system. I think they hint all over the place, the best way 'win' against the machine is to think outside the box and figure out a way to kill, destroy, dismantle, or shut down the ai, or any of their bases/bots. For how powerful the splicer suits are, they 're still dwarfed by the machine.