OSSR: Rifts Dimension Book 1: Wormwood

[Koumei]

Right, first of all, let me preface this by saying that during the European Oil Crisis (thanks, Ukraine!), people favoured burning copies of this for fuel above all else. True story, you needn't verify it elsewhere.

So, we start off with the front cover. How does it look? Like this.

-PICTURE TO GO HERE ONCE I'M HOME-

Yeah. It's not awful, but it just looks a bit silly. Honestly, my only problems are with the face (it looks like a mask that was stitched on or something) and the skulls of the dead dudes. But whatever. Let's not judge this book by its cover, that'd be too much credit for it.

Next we get the hilarious disclaimer about this not being real, and them not convoning violence and demon summoning. We also don't get a page that has copyright information, which is certainly interesting. Now, I'm not going to review the Contents, but you know how bad they are. Zero stars.

So, next we find out where Wormwood comes from - with a reasonably metal picture (fire-breathing demon in the stomach, guy with Star of Chaos on his helmet etc). Now he claims that some comic authors created the world, he asked if it could be worked into Rifts and they thought that'd be pretty rad. I still stand by my statement that Wormwood is created thanks to Kev drinking a bunch of absinthe. Hence wormwood.

Next page? WE GET ANOTHER FUCKING DISCLAIMER. This time though, it's not the usual legal disclaimer they put everywhere as a "please don't sue me" thing. No, it's "The Publisher's Soapbox" where he explains that he's horrified that some teenagers repeated what they saw in a movie (teenagers lying on the line in the middle of the road to show how they can keep their nerve), with one death and a few serious injuries following. Then asking again that people understand the difference between fantasy and reality, and not do stupid stuff that happens in games.

It's kind of weird to see it there, but whatever. I'm going to assume that really is him worried not about bad press and round two of "Roleplaying makes you evil", but about kids trying to sacrifice each other and someone having to bury their 13 year old son.

Pages 9-28 are then taken up by a comic about Wormwood. Now, it's not amazing, but I'll admit I've seen worse sold standalone. Also this is from a more innocent age: there is a scantily clad woman fighting tentacled horrors and the obvious does not occur!

So next we have a bit of info from Erin Tarn. For those not in the know, she's a traveller and explorer - completely human and nonmagical, but she promotes knowledge, exploration and learning, which makes her superbad according to the Coalition State. Seriously, if you were to do Rifts Celebrity Jeopardy*, with Emperor Proseck taking the place of Trebek? Tarn would play the part of Sean Connery there. So she actually tells you about most places in most books, because she's been everywhere despite not being a combat character.

Eventually we get a map of the place. It's this:
-PUT MAP HERE ONCE HOME-

Yeah. GOOD GUY LAND, and BAD GUY LAND, separated by a big empty space. Paladins would love this place, because you rock up at the place which is your alignment, then just get to fight THE BADDIES for all eternity. It's like that episode of Angel where they go to the world the green empath bartender-singer comes from, and they say "It's an eternal battle between good and evil, always fighting, no thinking" and Angel thinks that's heaven.

It ends with Tarn saying how she can sort of understand the Coalition's fears of the supernatural after visiting there, with the rampant demons, but that it also brings out the worst in humans, turning them into monsters, and that is the Coalition's problem, so they're still bad.

Now she mentions this almost right at the start, but I'm saving it for now and they remind everyone again (for those who didn't read her writings) that the planet is alive. No, it doesn't have trees and stuff. It is actually a living organism (that could therefore theoretically be killed. Imagine the PPE gained from that sucker!) Also, there are no insects. Ignore the front cover.

So the idea of a massive living blob that people use as a planet seems kind of cool, right? Don't worry, they fuck it up. It grows buildings as they are needed. No really. The planet knows when there are more people, so it grows extra houses to hold them. Also, threads of special superstrong cotton float from the sky to be woven into rope as needed. What about food? Well! First of all, there's no surface water. It's all inside the planet, except for where it's sort of been drilled into, to provide small springs and wells and stuff. There are no actual rivers or oceans though.

But there are AIR FISH! Also you can eat the worms and fungus that grows, and they're delicious. And apparently you can bring your own seeds, plant them in the planet's flesh and still grow stuff. This planet sure can support of diverse array of life!

Blah blah blah, creates air, deflects harmful radiation so the world basically has Earth's atmosphere, and the demon forces are effectively a cancer that is spreading across it. YOU PLAY AS THE CHEMO!

Now we get on to stuff that's slightly more "game mechanics" related:
1. There pretty much isn't technology. They're basically stuck in the dark ages, and for reasons unknown, even if you arrive with your mecha and a production factory and so on, you won't change things - they don't go about developing new stuff and spreading it about, they just stay in the same era of equipment. Techno-Wizards are immensely popular here though.

2. There are no ley lines. After a few months of fuck you, mages can attune themselves and get used to the place, at which point they can sense the blood vessels and use them as weak ley lines. It mentions that there are ways to draw out more magic energy, augmenting it through stuff, but that basically only the baddies do that, because fuck you, that's why.

3. Fuck you. No really. You're an elementalist? Well fuck you, most nature-altering powers flat-out won't work at all (earthquakes, hurricanes etc), and the planet is unpsychic (no psionics originate there, and visiting psionicists have reduced power - and the planet is flat-out immune). Also, all the magic items from here stop working once you leave Wormwood, and any characters that actually draw their power from here lose such powers once they leave. Because fuck you.

4. Everyone from Wormwood (and everything) is an MDC creature. No really. Humans born there convert their HP and SDC into MDC and it stays that way when they go elsewhere. So you never play a character class from Wormwood, but if you're a human, you're always from Wormwood. Because MDC.

5. The main language is English. No really.

To be continued. Next chapter: the two sides, and the classes within them, in which we start to get an image of these SKULLS AND ARMOUR religious fanatics with a corrupt church that put holy iconography everywhere will people die of disease and famine, fighting against DEMONS AND TRAITORS.

*It's been done. It was an ongoing out of character joke with short sketches in a game, then references to its actual existence cropped up in-game. Good times.

[OgreBattle]

Wormwood had a GNARLY cover

[Whipstitch]

I've long been down with the evil scarecrow look even if it occasionally leads to people making fun of your heavy metal smurf hat.

[Maxus]

It does have a certain something

[Desdan_Mervolam]

The group I ran with in Texas played Rifts, and I remember during one of the campaigns one of the party played someone from Wormwood. I recall hearing that everything in Wormwood was MDC. EVERYTHING. Including the food, so if you don't bring your own food or have a megadamage bite attack you are going to starve there, because eating anything is like trying to chew a brick.

[OgreBattle]

so if you don't bring your own food or have a megadamage bite attack you are going to starve there, because eating anything is like trying to chew a brick.

So if somebody from wormwood took a shit on Earth, it could be used to block laser blasts?

[Desdan_Mervolam]

So if somebody from wormwood took a shit on Earth, it could be used to block laser blasts?

If the reading I was given (Not that I was GM, I was playing in that one) is correct, then yes, depending on the damage output of the lasers. People in Wormwood shit bricks. Bricks strong enough to stop weak personal arms fire.

[JigokuBosatsu]

Yeah, this one never lived up to the promise of the cover, unless the cover was promising "half-thought-out batshit crazy." This was probably the most disappointing of the Rifts books, but at least it didn't leak over into your normal Rifts game and infect it with tattooed half-dragon assassins.

[Whipstitch]

So, Wormwood has the most terrifying shit-covered peasants in the known universe. Good to know.

[Red_Rob]

4. Everyone from Wormwood (and everything) is an MDC creature. No really. Humans born there convert their HP and SDC into MDC and it stays that way when they go elsewhere. So you never play a character class from Wormwood, but if you're a human, you're always from Wormwood. Because MDC.

This was the source of a lot of the craziness with Wormwood. When I get my Rifts stuff in a day or so I'll go into why it was so batshit, but basically it tied into why MDC never worked and caused massive problems and this just compounded it.

Just as a start I'll say that I don't think it specified Wormwood humans got Supernatural strength, which is what you need to deal MDC damage with natural weapons. This meant they did SDC damage with their fists, which couldn't hurt MDC creatures. Like other Wormwood humans.

[erik]

I was suckered into buying about a dozen Rifts books, but thankfully one of my friends bit the bullet and bought Wormwood, sparing me that ignominy.

Despite running many, many Rifts campaigns, we never used Wormwood for anything and it wasn't even suggested that we ever go there other than as a joke. We used South Americas, Africa, Phase World, Pantheons, Mexico, Japaaaaaan, and we even let someone homebrew a Predator... which turned out to be pretty pissant for Rifts tech. Invisibility, some MDC dealing vibro-weapon equivalents, a shoulder-mounted laser and a force field that can be penetrated by SDC weapons? Weak!

[Voss]

It does have a certain something

Its also a classic Kevin S. subversion because, gasp, he is the good guy!

No, really. That is the 'thing' of the setting. Bioparasites that people put on to fight evil.

So if somebody from wormwood took a shit on Earth, it could be used to block laser blasts?

We always used the idea that a MDC imbued human couldn't cut his own fingernails, but yeah. MDC/SDC sort of worked in Robotech, where mecha=MDC and pilot=splatter, but it Rifts it goes bugfuck. There was a big rant in the Conversion book where Kevin uses an actual play example to illustrate how its supposed to work, but the lesson isn't quite what is intended, as one player pulls out a laser pistol in a bar fight and causes major property damage (and cuts down trees outside the bar with it), and the baby dragon in the party repeatedly fails 'pull punch' rolls and ends up squashing people.

He was aiming with 'be careful with Megadamage,' but the lesson that anyone with a brain took away was 'never take your armor off,' or just be an MDC creature. And don't play a cyberknight, because an enemy rolling 16+ to hit just bypasses your armor and kills you. (Nothing else in Rifts uses the stupid armor rules from Palladium Fantasy, so what the fuck?)

[Koumei]

Yeah, humans born on Wormwood can't actually punch each other out. They are literally unable to hurt each other without learning magic or whatever. Speaking of which...

THE GOOD GUYS THE FORCES OF LIGHT

I was right the first time!

So basically, you have THE CATHEDRAL, which is not an actual place.

The Cathedral functions as a secret (and not so secret) network of resistance fighters, underground operations, hideouts, outposts and operatives in virtually every city.

They even have people infiltrating THE BADDIES. Don't worry, there are also corrupt members within The Cathedral. And infiltrators. Anyway, it's an organisation of heroes, and is religious-themed without necessarily requiring any specific religion.

So the Aemed Forces of The Cathedral are:
Priest of Light OCC (see below)
Knight of the Order of the Temple OCC (see below)
Knight of the Order of the Hospital OCC (see below)
Apok OCC (see below)

Church Affiliates are:
Freelancer OCC (common folk warriors, see below)
Monk Warrior OCC (common folk martial artists, see below)
Wormspeaker OCC (common folk shamans, see below)
Holy Terror OCC (common folk warriors, see below)
Symbiotic Warrior OCC (common folk warriors, see below)

And Other Available characters (that are indigenous to the planet):
Knight OCC (probably from Rifts: England)
Shifter OCC (from core)
Techno-Wizard OCC (from core)
Temporal Raider RCC (from Rifts: England - yeah, they're total jerks and make decent villains, but apparently they're good guys here, because the bad guys demand proper fealty and subservience, the good guys just require "fight the bad guys")
Temporal Warrior OCC (Rifts: England)
Temporal Wizard OCC (Rifts: England)
HoboVagabond OCC (core)
Wilderness Scout (core)

Then a note that you can also get things like Line Walkers, Mind Melters and others, but they're not actually indigenous to Wormwood.

So th hierarchy within the Cathedral is as follows:
High Priest
Priest of Light
Knight of the Order of the Temple (Templar)
Knight of the Order of the Hospital (Hospitaller)
Apok (aka Avenger)
Monk
Freelancer
Citizen
Other

Regular human society, on the other hand, has the following:
(For the record, it randomly swaps between singular and plural in the book. I will too, just to share the irritation)
High Society:
High Priest
Sainted Heroes (this is just a matter of being a famous hero - any PC team could achieve this with some effort and instantly be the second most awesomest people in the world)
Priest of Light
Wormspeakers
Hospitallers
Champions of Light (heroes of renown, ie you after like three sessions tops)
Techno-Wizard
Templars

Middle Class:
Monks
Elder Citizens & Community Leaders
Average Citizens
Freelance Warriors & Heroes (apparently they rate below normal people)
Wilderness Scouts
Magic Users (unless they're covered elsewhere)

Lower Class:
Temporal Warriors/Wizards/Raiders
Symbiotic Warriors
Vagabonds
Unallied Adventurers
Mercenaries
D-Bees (forehead aliens)
Holy Terrors (they look scary)
Shifters
Criminals
Traitors
Apok (yes, The Cathedral loves them, but they're double-traitors and also scary)
Others

I bet you want to see what these classes look like, don't you? Well guess what! Hahaha, next post. Protip: most are worthy of the bin.

[Koumei]

No, really. That is the 'thing' of the setting. Bioparasites that people put on to fight evil.

Hey dude, spoiler that! That was going to be my BIG REVEAL! Nobody would see it coming! Except for everyone.

There was a big rant in the Conversion book where Kevin uses an actual play example to illustrate how its supposed to work

I prefer the example where a kid can't scratch a tank by throwing stones, and even using a handgun he can't hurt it in any real measure. But once he pulls a bazooka out ("Hey, that's one well-armed kid!") he blows it up. Because tanks and bazookas exist in the current real world, but MD things are explicitly "future world only". Technically, a modern tank should be an SD thing and thus automatically obliterated by most hand lasers. And indeed you could gradually chip its SDC away with a slingshot.

(Nothing else in Rifts uses the stupid armor rules from Palladium Fantasy, so what the fuck?)

I imagine the answer is that he hates D&D Paladins so it's a subtle "fuck you". Or that it never occurred to him how bad this idea actually was, and he refuses to back down and say something was shitty.

[Koumei]

So, the OCCs of LIGHT!

First we have the Priest of Light.
-INCLUDE PICTURE HERE-
That's a very nice hat.

So what do we get besides the hat? Plenty of PPE, but not as much as a real caster does. Like, at all. Also, meditation (get PPE back pretty damn fast) and a happy boost to MDC. You get a few tiny boosts to saves as well, nobody cares.

You also get a bunch of magic powers for Communion with Wormwood: create a Burial Place, Opening or Fountain of Water, Close an Opening, Life Fuel, Locate Places of Evil, Mold Structures and Impervious to Symbiotes. You also get additional ones as you gain levels. This is your big trick, by the way, and it's kind of lame when everyone else is a mecha pilot.

Your skills aren't very special - as usual for a caster, you get quite a few lores and languages and stuff, and can take any science skills, but you have a fair few limits on other things. Also, you start with basic hand to hand combat, but can upgrade it to expert, martial arts or assassin.

You start with the usual assortment of crap that everyone gets, as well as magic weapons that depend on the MC being nice, and weak armour. Also, they can't use symbiotes, but can summon them, such as the Battle Saint.

Then a note on High Priests. Basically, a priest that has IQ 12+ and MA 12+ and is level 9+ gets some special bonuses, though basically this is for NPCs. I think the assumption is that it's for NPCs you meet that just sprung into existence at level 13 or whatever. So if a player hits 9th level they probably shouldn't expect to just get a PPE boost, MDC boost, more save bonuses, 3 more powers and six extra skills.

APOK, THE AVENGER!

Now, the big secret here is DAMNIT! YOU SPOILED IT!

Yeah, they wear hideous demonic symbiote masks that make them extra powerful, they radiate terror and look evil... BUT THEY ARE THE GOOD GUYS! Basically it's for double-traitors: you were good, then turned to evil, then turned back to good and really meant it this time. Requires 100% sincerety.

I like to think that heroes who know they're really shitty as-is can spend one minute breaking windows (note: requires plasma cannons) and going "OOGLY BOOGLY BOO, I AM EVIL!" before "repenting" and gaining the power boost.

PPE is like a Priest of Light, Meditation, more MDC than the Priest (not by leaps and bounds mind you), and Communion powers: Create/Close Opening, Create Shelter, Heat Point, HELLFIRE! (does very respectable damage), Invisible to Magic Seeing (constantly on, no cost), Locate Home Town, Locate Places of Evil, Repel Symbiotes. Gains a few more at higher levels, but no summoning.

Immune to fear, which is nice. Also immune to possession and mind control. This is looking better by the minute. SUPERNATURAL STRENGTH, THERE WE GO! Finally you can chew your fucking nails. More strength and speed and bonuses to saves. Also, THE DEMON MASK.

Wearing the mask gives Horror Factor 10 against Good people, and 16 against Baddies (no idea about neutral people). You also deal double damage to supernatural beings, creatures of magic, demons, vampires, dragons, intelligences etc. Yes, even weapon damage like beam guns. Do it. Oh, and +1 attack per round, +1 initiative and +200 MDC (there we go, that's the stuff). The mask is indestructible.

Skills: Lores, Languages, Weapon Proficiencies and a bunch of other stuff. Also, Hand to Hand Expert, but this can't actually be upgraded. The worst bit is this means you can't burn extra Related skills for specialist Martial Arts. Which you want, for the crazy strength bonuses and damage tables they have.

You get adventuring crap, a bunch of normal weapons and one magic one, and basically no armour. Whatever.

Coming next: THE MONK!

[Koumei]

IT'S MONK TIME! (no, dad, no!)

I bet you've been wondering "Does this monk suck as much as the core D&D one does?"

Almost.

Okay, so they have way more PPE than normal humans do, but not enough to be a caster. It'd be enough to qualify for transformation into a Mega Juicer, but I doubt they'd be up for that. They also get the meditation thing.

They are MDC creatures! Of course, fucking everyone is. Also, it's not much MDC. Their saving throw bonuses are tiny, too, so they don't even have "All Good Saves" like a proper monk.

They also get priestly Communion powers - four choices (and no more from levels gained) from: Close Opening, Create Opening, Create Fountain, Locate Places of Evil, Locate Food & Resources, Locate Home Town, Summon Battle Saints & Orbs (protip: choose this one), Invisible to Magic Seeing

They also get to choose one area of mastery:
1. Resplendent Lotus Felates the MonkeyArt of Defense
Almost no combat moves, but they do get the Judo flip which is decent.
Small bonuses, including "+2 Initiative but ONLY when defending, -2 on Initiative when attacking". That makes no fucking sense. You don't spend actions on your turn to defend, nor do you have stuff like flat-footedness (where there could be a benefit to having "Your turn starts sooner for the purpose of getting Dex to AC"). Fuck, this is stupid.
Also you get TWO WEAPON PROFICIENCIES! And Gymnastics, which is actually a great skill - it's like five different percentage skills and also gives an array of stat bonuses.
It also grants some actual special abilities:

• Automatic Dodge (this is good)
• More MDC (like, triple at first level)
• Punches and kicks do Mega Damage to MDC creatures (everything), or large amounts of SD to SDC creatures.
• Block/parry every attack at once no matter how many attackers
• Parry with feet (if it ever matters). Parrying suffers no damage.
• Tumble Strike: bonus to Dodge, then make an attack on your turn that also knocks the foe over (this is pretty rad)

2. Hummingbird Evades the Divine CrowArts of Offense
You get the ability to attack instead of dodging/parrying (note: you both auto-hit, it's not actually a bad deal), leap attack and crap. A flat-out Initiative Bonus with no weird restrictions. +1 to hit (nobody cares) and +1 attack per round (now we're talking!)
You also get Acrobatics (this is as good as Gymnastics), Boxing (nice stat bonuses and PLUS ONE ATTACK) and some Weapon Proficiencies of choice. Don't worry, you also get special powers:

• Spirit Fist: your PANCH deals 1d4x10 SD to SDC stuff (decent), and 1d4x10 MD to MDC creatures (not awful). But it uses two fucking attacks.
• Spirit Kick: exactly like above, but it's a kick, the damage is 1d6x10 (better) and also you lose Initiative (automatically go last next turn).
• Spirit Leap Kick: you make one and only one attack, which sucks so much you never use it. But if you did it'd do 3d6x10 MD.
• VITAL STRIKE!: uses two attacks, and only does normal damage, but if you roll a natural 17+ you can either disarm the target (and scare them), knock them down and stun them, double the damage (presumably if you rolled a 20 that means it's x4 now but who knows, and it's SD anyway), or paralyze a limb for 1d4 rounds.

Man, Offense was looking good until we got to the special powers :(
3. Auspicious Swan Flees the Serpent Prana Meditation and Spirit
You get the Judo flip, +1 Initiative, other tiny bonuses, and your meditation gives more PPE back than before.
Also you get a bunch of skills, with bonuses to them, but nothing that grants stat boosts. Also, SPECIAL POWERZ!

• Inner Strength: no fatigue, half damage from heat/cold, save bonuses and a boost to Strength. Lasts 3 min/level, and can be used 3/day.
• Spirit Strength: 3/day gain a 3 min/level immunity to the penalties from exhaustion, pain, drugs, sickness, injury, insanity, psionics and magic.
• Third Eye: 3/day for 5 min/level, See Invisible, Sense Evil, Sense Magic, bonus to saves vs Dear, immune to Possession/Mind Control, can't be tempted to do stuff they don't want to.
• Death Strike: you make one unarmed attack that always hits, dealing 2d4x100 MD (or SD to SDC dudes), and if they survive it they are paralyzed for 2d4 minutes (so 8-32 rounds). After all that, they halve their attacks, speed and bonuses for 1d6x10 minutes. Sounds good? Well it is 1/day and uses all of your remaining PPE (at least 20), and you can't meditate or use your powers for 12 hours. You are rendered helpless for 1d4 minutes, but for the next 10 minutes you have 1 action per round, 20% speed, no bonuses, can't attack, and can't use skills. After that you function at "half your normal level" for 6 hours. After the remaining ~6 hours you can use your powers again.

So those are some very average options. There's some good, some bad.

Skills aren't too awful, especially considering you get more free ones from your specialty, but they're nothing to sing and dance about. You get HtH: Martial Arts, so you could upgrade it to something else if you wanted to spend the skill choices. At the end of the day you're talking 4 attacks/round for a first level human monk who isn't Offense, or 6 if they are. Note that a juicer is doing a minimum of 6 at first level, and you can get it up to ~10.

Needless to say, they don't get real weapons, useful armour or money.

After an intermission, you might be shown the wonders of the WORMSPEAKER.

[Judging__Eagle]

I hope you try and disgust people when you explain what "wormspeaker" actualloo means. D:<

...I remember it being pretty grossnasty.

The review reminds me of when I first read this crazy book.... and now that I think about it, and having just read parts of the Ravenloft review by Frank and Kieth that Wormwood may have very well been an attempt at allowing GMs a way to introduce a "region of horror" (i.e. a planet that didn't work as expected, humans that acted like they did more than 1,500 years ago on Earth (assuming Rifts Earth ~2,396 AD), and actual demons and zombies roam; Evil Dead: Army of Darkness would also be a good example of something similar, transport the PCs to a horror world, then bring them back when its over) which could be kept highly apart from the rest of the setting.

[Koumei]

That's very likely, JE. And yes, gather your sick bags, it's time for the...

WORMSPEAKER!

Blah blah communes with Wormwood itself, blah blah symbiotes, ALL THE SYMBIOTES! Also, THEIR TONGUE IS REPLACED BY WORMS.

Cannot be evil, gets a bunch of PPE, meditation etc.
+25 MDC which is nice but won't save you from a proper source of MD.
A handful of combat/save bonuses too, and +1d4 to each of ME and ME...

...but -2 PP and PS, -1d4 Spd, Horror Factor 11 and half the PB stat because seriously, MOUTH FULL OF WORMS

Priestly Communion powers are: Close Opening, Create Opening, Create a Fountain of Water, Destroy Life Force Cauldron, Locate Home Town, Locate Places of Evil, Remove Symbiotes, Ride Giant Parasites, Summon and Use Symbiotes, Summon Edible Grubs and Worms.
They gain another one each level, but can't take Impervious to Symbiotes and would never create a Life Force Cauldron, Magic Slime, Life Force Battery or Worm Zombie. He might use one of the two first ones if he finds one, for a good purpose.

He starts with ALL of the worm symbiotes*. ALL OF THEM. WORMS EVERYWHERE. THIS GUY DISPLEASES PRIVATEPARTS PRESS, BECAUSE HE DOESN'T HAVE BALLS, HE HAS WORMS. Then at levels 3, 4, 5, 6 and 8, he gains another one that isn't a Worm one. And he can use symbiotic stones and crystals, the spirit of Wormwood and he can pilot Battle Saints and their Orbs.

*Worms of Armour (1 set), Worms of Blood (12), Worms of Mending (20), Worm of Power (1), Worm of Seeing (1), Worm of Speech (1), Worm of Spirit (1).

The actual class skills are very lame. Also the powers aren't really worth it. And the picture is hilarious. As much as I harped on about the horror, it just looks like a guy eating big worms. You can do that effect with gummi worms or whatever. Also they get crappy gear.

So all of that? One of the more iconic things? Really lame. The other iconic (the Apok) is better, go play one of those instead.

[Red_Rob]

It never explains how these guys talk. Their mouth is full of worms, it would be like talking to someone in the middle of eating their lunch all the time. "What's that wise one, I can't understand you because of all the fucking worms in your mouth!"

Also, a Horror Factor? Really? In RIFTS, world of giant cyborg death machines and insane dimensional monsters you get a horror factor for having some worms in your mouth? Fuck, you could dress up in a halloween costume and be scarier than that!

[Koumei]

Yeah, fucking everything has a Horror Factor or Awe Factor in Rifts. And then everyone gets +83 to saves vs Horror Factor. And maybe or maybe not still fails on a 1.

[Whipstitch]

Also, THEIR TONGUE IS REPLACED BY WORMS.

Cannot be evil

Then what is the point?! This upsets me way more than gloop not allowing me to suffocate people in bakuhatsu.

[Koumei]

I was hoping someone would see the "MOUTH FULL OF WORMS, OH THE HORROR, THIS HAS TO BE A VIL- cannot be evil".

And the only reason I stated you can't slide down someone's throat to suffocate them is to neatly avoid discussions that could be classified as a DC 60 Escape Artist check. It's not the mouth I was worried about.

THE SYMBIOTE WARRIOR:
Basic mercenaries with symbiotes. Pretty shitty, to tell the truth, and they get some minor penalties nobody actually cares about.
Starts with just a few Priestly Abilities and does not gain more with levels - most important is that he can ride giant parasite things. He also gains a claw, a crawler, a star and a worm at first level. These are symbiotes, yes. At every even level he gets one more symbiote of choice, and he can use symbiotic stones and crystals, the spirit of Wormwood, worms of blood, worms of mending, and potions and ointments made from slime.

The number of skills isn't awful, but he is stuck with HtH: Expert (or Assassin if evil). No upgrading to Martial Arts (and therefore, burning extra skills for specialist Martial Arts which give you special arts and bonus skills) for you!

Equipment is lame, too.

HOLY TERRORS!
Fuck yeah, Space Marines! With only 2 fingers and a thumb on each hand.

Basically all of them are Good, and apparently they've adopted American names upon arriving in Americaon Wormwood. I don't know why either. They get heaps of PPE, like, potentially more than most casters (1d4x100 at level one, yes, enjoy your swinginess there).

They also get a whole bunch of combat bonuses right out the door, so this is looking good! That said, they can't use Wormwood magic (nobody cares) or Symbiotes (and not a single fuck was given), and take double damage from fire (only Mega Damage fire need apply) and Rune Weapons. Note that some rune weapons deal as much as 4d6x10 MD, so doubling that is not a laughing matter. And some deal 3d6 MD, but instantly kill you and eat your soul with no save.

They have their own number of attacks per round, going up as they gain levels. They also have HtH: Expert, and I'm 99% sure that extra attacks gained from the HtH skill are not supposed to be applied because you're already gaining bonus attacks, but it doesn't *say* that. If you don't do that (and even if you do at lower levels), you are kind of low on the Attacks number, but your breath weapon is a bonus attack (free action) every round.

Can see the invisible, see at night, double in size (to around 20'/6m) and turn invisible at will, at no cost. That's pretty nice. Also they can fire lightning from their hands at +2 to hit, dealing enough MD that you care. They also get EYE BEAMS that don't do as much damage but are +3 to hit and have double range.
Every 24 hours they regenerate their total of 16 silver spikes, which can be launched out in bursts of 1-4 per action. 2d6 MD to mortals, 4d6 to monsters. Just use the lightning, seriously.

And the breath weapon: a toxic cloud free action that either causes mist (obscures sight), sleep or damage and combat penalties. The breath weapon is a fantastic thing to have.

They ALSO get spell-like abilities, 2/day each! Call Lightning, Fire Ball, Magic Net (win), Energy Disruption, Turn Undead, Invisibility (Superior/Others), Chameleon (Self or Others), Swim as the Fish (self or others), Heal Wounds (Others). Nice, but not the real draw of the RCC. Can't learn other spells.

Oh and PSIONICS AS WELL! A good amount of ISP (as in, like a Master Psionic), but only has Sense Evil, Sense Magic, Telepathy and Mind Block (so somewhere between a Minor or Major Psychic).

These guys get an assload of MDC, and amazing regeneration. Fuck the Apok, play one of these.

Supernatural Physical Strength is fifty, so it's probably a good thing you can't use specialist martial arts to pick up one of those attacks that does 6d6 damage, otherwise they'd probably be dealing 18d6x10 MD per attack. Which would be awesome. Sadly, they do pretty crap-tastic melee damage for their PS 50*, so just use their breath and lightning.

Skills aren't bad, and they can even pick up Boxing for +1 Attack.

*Though arguably if you pick up any special moves from taking Boxing or Kick-Boxing, or levelling up with HtH: Expert, or even your base moves with a nice MC, you could then go use Rifter 5 to do something like 3d8x10 MD on a kick.

FREELANCER:
It's shit, really. Roll to see what special thing you get: good techno weapon (Kittani plasma weapon, rail gun, pair of vibro weapons, or if the MC allows it, power armour, cybernetics or bio-wizardry), good magic weapon (most likely from Wormwood, so you could just fucking take one from the bodies of your enemies in session 1), a bonus to PS, PE and MDC (not supernatural PS), a bonus to PP, Speed and Initiative, or a couple of Symbiotes.
Then you can roll on the random table for origins - nothing statistical, just a background generator. Doesn't take up much space, so it's nice to have.

Basic HtH, which can be upgraded, but you don't really get enough skill options to properly make use of this. And their starting gear isn't great, the best stuff will be stuff you might have rolled, above.

Later on, there shall be KNIGHTS!

[Whipstitch]

It's not the mouth I was worried about.

You just gonna keep taking thing away from me, aren't you?


this feels like the millionth typo I've edited today. fucking stupid fingers on a stupid fucking smart phone

[Red_Rob]

This is making me want to do a review of Rifts. Quite aside from the nonsensical copy-pasted portions and poorly explained rules there is so much about the base system that just does not work on a conceptual level that I think there'd be enough material to chew on. Although everyone probably already knows how bad Rifts is.

[Neurosis]

So weird that someone's talking about Rifts here, I was JUST considering making a Rifts review/discussion thread on here, and JUST wondering why no one here had ever mentioned Rifts before.