Monster Manual for the love of god!

[drewkitty ~..~]

The RCB1 & RCB1r and RDC has a lot of monsters from other settings converted to Rifts stats.

There is also the PF Monsters and Animals book has monsters.

Each region has it's own listings in the World Books for those regions.

[FatherMorpheus]

I like this idea, but only if they take the time to actually edit things not just the classic Palladium C&P crap.

[drewkitty ~..~]

Bad guys....there are the CS tolkeen war books and lonestar with all those CS badies.

[grandmaster z0b]

Yeah I agree, Rifts needs a lot more things to help GMs: statted out characters and monsters, detailed maps, fully fleshed out adventures etc.
The original edition Conversion Book 1 was super helpful and these days you need Dark Conversions but yeah you still need to work it out.

That being said you can get pretty good at looking at all those numbers and making a monster really quick. Here's how I do it:

Let's say the MDC is 3d6x10+PE. Just assume an average, so 3x3x10=90 you can quickly adjust it up or down depending on the encounter (generally for low level characters start with the minimum, so 30) then do the same for PE, PS and PP. Make sure you have the attribute bonus copied and in front of you (it was on the old game master's screen which helped). Let's just assume this monster/de-bee has 3d6 for PP and 4d6 for PE and PS: so PP is 9, PE and PP is 12- no bonuses so all you have to do is add 12 to the MDC number.

Generally the combat stats won't change too much anyway unless they have a high PP anyway so just use the combat stats listed. I wouldn't bother with skills and stuff unless they are the main bad guy.

As far as spells and psionics go that can take a while but again, I generally know which ones are useful in combat so would probably just give them a handful of those off the top of my head. If they have Master Psionics give them Bio-Manipulation and they will try to paralyze people with it, also Empthatic Transmission and they will use the fear effect or maybe Radiate Horror Factor. If you want more combat styled psychic attacks get Pyrokinesis, Psi-Sword and Telekinetic Push. Even minor psychics probably have Sixth Sense so give them that. If they have magic give them Magic Net, Call Lightning and/or Fire Bolt as combat attacks and maybe Charm, Fear and Energy Disruption. Also give them Armor of Ithan and Invisibility: Simple for defense. If you want to be really mean give them Impervious to Energy and Invisibility: Superior.

It sounds like a lot of work but actually when you know a handful of useful spells and powers you can wing it most of the time or create the monsters fairly quick. It's human NPCs that can take the longest actually because you need to work out all the skills and hand to hand combat stats.

If you search online you will find people who have pre-gen NPCs and monsters you can download or copy. Rifts: Mercenaries has lots of fleshed out NPCs and some statted out monsters plus and adventure at the back. Use and just rename them or tweak them slightly. If you can get your hands on the Index and Adventures then buy them just for the stats of the NPCs.

[ShadowLogan]

Ok as a GM I have to ask why doesn't this game have a monster manual. A compilation of generic monsters/NPCs with pre made stats. I get it, I like to make villains too. However having to flip thru multiple books, roll up stats or determine them, and also have to figure out total bonuses to strike etctc etc.for each and every encounter is a bit much.

A compilation of generic bad guys that are fully statted out would help soooooo much for GMs of this game.

Generic NPCs can be found in a few placess scattered about (back of RMB ((not RUE)), Tattoo Mgic, IIRC Mutant Insects in MiO, Seige on Tolkeen Books, maybe a few other places). And there certainly are ways to achieve what you are looking for without a new book that will more likely look like a C&P job than what you are expecting.

Options:
-(as previously suggested) make assumptions about the rolls.
-take some time to write a simple computer program to handle the rolls, the initial investment in time can be a bit much (depending on skill level), but in the long term might be helpful. This would be more automated than the Rifts GM manager, I have written Random Monster & Oni Tables to Programs from RMB and Japan before.
-give them equipment (which has pretty standard values) and only focus on a few critical attributes (and roll/assume as needed for the others), this doesn't work well for monsters though with their variable attributes.
-use magic monsters (Zombies, Golems, Mummies, Mystic Warriors, Skeletons, etc) found in Spell/Ritual descriptions instead of the ones out in the wild that use fixed values instead of ones w/random rolls

[Proseksword]

Ok as a GM I have to ask why doesn't this game have a monster manual. A compilation of generic monsters/NPCs with pre made stats. I get it, I like to make villains too. However having to flip thru multiple books, roll up stats or determine them, and also have to figure out total bonuses to strike etctc etc.for each and every encounter is a bit much.

A compilation of generic bad guys that are fully statted out would help soooooo much for GMs of this game.

Something to keep in mind is that in a lot of encounters, the full stats of each NPC or monster are not required. Mainly, all you need to look at is their MDC, bonuses to initiative, strike, parry, & dodge, and what magic/psionic abilities they have.

Don't waste your time rolling for their IQ or MA - it's not important if you're just going to brawl with them! PS only really matters in combat if it's supernatural, and you're generally looking at around 1/2 their PS dice in SN MD punch damage. For every 1D6 above the normal 3D6 for PP, ME, or PE, give them a +1 bonus to strike/parry/dodge, Save vs Psionics, or Save vs. Magic respectively. The values you get will be close enough to an average value for the species.

If you are coming from a game like D&D, it's worth mentioning that Palladium's system is intended to be fast and loose, not to provide a very technical, wargame-like combat experience. If you're sweating over whether or not a monster should have 50 MDC or 55 MDC, or a soldier should be +4 or +5 to roll with impact, you're thinking far harder about things than I suspect the authors ever do, and you should remember the most important part about the game is having fun, playing in character and advancing the story, not whether or not the laser-targeting bonus counts for your hip-shot.

TL;DR: If it's complicated, fudge it. If it's not in print, make it up. If it's slowing your game down, GM makes the call and let the story roll on.

[kaid]

Honestly a nice Monsters and animals of north america book to compliment the D-bees of north america book would be a nice addition and honestly one that would probably be reasonably easy to bang out. Throw some new art in there but otherwise it would just be gathering and formatting so from a writing perspective it would be pretty easy to bang out. Maybe bring back ye olde random monster generator tables from the old Rifts main book which was really useful for making up weird things from beyond the rifts on the fly as a gm.

[Grell]

In terms of a Monster Manual, I just compile my own. I will usually have one generic example of a given adversary/monster like a typical Brodkil or a typical Simvan, but I only draw stats for what I will need and this way I have a baseline upon which to adjust them accordingly. This approach works for me, but probably because I don't do random encounters. I only introduce combat if it's relevant to the story and even then, most times it is probably avoidable on some level. If there is a local threat in the adventure area, I will stat that out too (again, just a typical example that can be adjusted as need be). I prefer to introduce subplots rather than random encounters, but the trade off probably lies in the longer prep times.

[DhAkael]

Maybe bring back ye olde random monster generator tables from the old Rifts main book which was really useful for making up weird things from beyond the rifts on the fly as a gm.

WHY Kevin did such a bone headed manuver as taking that table out is beyond me. Oh wait; the double full page add for the NGage game that lasted all of 2 weeks on the market had more value than actual, y'know, game material for the RPG book.

I'll never figure out his editing process... (re; cut & pasting that the Psi-staler was only 6 INCHES tall plus 2 inches in 4 different books).

[The Beast]

Maybe bring back ye olde random monster generator tables from the old Rifts main book which was really useful for making up weird things from beyond the rifts on the fly as a gm.

WHY Kevin did such a bone headed manuver as taking that table out is beyond me. Oh wait; the double full page add for the NGage game that lasted all of 2 weeks on the market had more value than actual, y'know, game material for the RPG book.

I'll never figure out his editing process... (re; cut & pasting that the Psi-staler was only 6 INCHES tall plus 2 inches in 4 different books).

So they're 8 inches...

[runebeo]

make Rifts Tome Grotesque and make it part Beyond the Supernatural with crossover notes then we may be see it this decade.

[Mechghost]

I started rebuilding a collection of sheets I can print as needed, only have the CS PAs and Bots so far but will get there. Used to have about a 200 sheets or so but lost the file.

[Ravenwing]

Rifts does have a MM, its called D-bees of North America!

[kaid]

Rifts does have a MM, its called D-bees of North America!

It is useful for populating with humanoid enemies but I could see a rifts version of the old palladium RPG monsters and animals book could be nice. That said it is pretty low on the priority list of stuff I would want to see and their printing time/speed is very finite.

Typically what I recommend for new GM's is Dbees of north america which covers most sentient non supernatural people, conversion book 1 and 2 and a world book or two for the area they are starting their campaign. That covers pretty much any entity/undead/demon/devil/elemental the party is likely to meet as well as a number of other supernatural type threats and enough weird D'bees to fill out those kinds of opponents quickly and easily. Anything on top of that is pretty much just gravy.

[Ravenwing]

A Rifts MM seems more like a fan based project then one that PB should tackle. As has been pointed out their printing speed isn't great.

Probably best to do it by faction, with sections for CS PC's, FoM, Independents and Monsters. Just MHO.

[Bill]

Palladium's standard format has always been player-centric, which is a wise decision from a sales perspective. A book made up entirely of antagonist profiles, in short form for the GM's convenience, is only useful to GMs; so like 20% of Rifts consumers if we're optimistic.

That said, I agree that some form of reference would be very helpful. I usually do like Grell and compile my own specific to the campaign I'm running. As much as I'd love to see a few pages of The Rifter dedicated to presenting weak, intermediate, and advanced versions of antagonist profiles, Ravenwing probably has the right idea to make a community project out of compiling one. I doubt it will happen otherwise.

I think the first step would need to be establishing a format that works well and is easy for anyone interested in participating to reproduce. That may just be me though. I like things to be as consistent as possible.

[Ravenwing]

Palladium's standard format has always been player-centric, which is a wise decision from a sales perspective. A book made up entirely of antagonist profiles, in short form for the GM's convenience, is only useful to GMs; so like 20% of Rifts consumers if we're optimistic.

That said, I agree that some form of reference would be very helpful. I usually do like Grell and compile my own specific to the campaign I'm running. As much as I'd love to see a few pages of The Rifter dedicated to presenting weak, intermediate, and advanced versions of antagonist profiles, Ravenwing probably has the right idea to make a community project out of compiling one. I doubt it will happen otherwise.

I think the first step would need to be establishing a format that works well and is easy for anyone interested in participating to reproduce. That may just be me though. I like things to be as consistent as possible.

Absolutely, a basic template to start with, with say a common range of attributes, could be pretty easy to set up for various common OCC's, like whats in RUE. Then using the rules of averages you could create small tables for various Races and then plug that into the template.

[Alrik Vas]

An allies and enemies book full of various, pre statted NPCs would be awesome.

[thedrunk]

What would the legal perspective be to create a data base ( excutable) with a monster, NPC, etc. generator. so as you go through the Campaign prep you can create the items you want for pre-made NPC. you can also add a random creation that would take and randomly create a NPC based on location, your setting, and your need at the time during play for those random encounters?

it would be easy to do. all it would do is take a knowledge of Microsoft axcess and time to input the information and set it up with a easy user interface

[ShadowLogan]

What would the legal perspective be to create a data base ( excutable) with a monster, NPC, etc. generator. so as you go through the Campaign prep you can create the items you want for pre-made NPC. you can also add a random creation that would take and randomly create a NPC based on location, your setting, and your need at the time during play for those random encounters?

it would be easy to do. all it would do is take a knowledge of Microsoft axcess and time to input the information and set it up with a easy user interface

If you do the work on your own and don't distribute it, I think legally you are fine. While its out of date, there is the old Rifts GM program. It would take a bit of time to update the tables for new OCCs and RCCs and equipment, but it could be done (if you can access the Access DB). Some of the pure random generators (based on random tables in the books) could probably be easily written in other programs (I've done that myself), and would be workable for NPCs to at a certain level of detail.

If you can find the old Robotech: RDF Accelerated Training module, they have some examples of random rolled NPCs and include a blank page one could use to product additional NPCs (said page can be copied so...)

I'm not sure using MS Access is the best DB to use though due to availability. Unless someone springs for the higher end versions of Office, they aren't going to get Access, and buying it seperately is pretty expensive. Something like an Open Source DB program might be better.

[Athos]

Ok as a GM I have to ask why doesn't this game have a monster manual. A compilation of generic monsters/NPCs with pre made stats. I get it, I like to make villains too. However having to flip thru multiple books, roll up stats or determine them, and also have to figure out total bonuses to strike etctc etc.for each and every encounter is a bit much.

A compilation of generic bad guys that are fully statted out would help soooooo much for GMs of this game.

Yes, it would be useful, and I would buy one.

Unfortunately, the game that PFRPG was patterned after in the early 80's had a monster manual come out in 1977 iirc. I think KS is still sensitive over how original or not original PF is and is worried that if he copies the name of another company/franchise's book, it will just cement in people's mind that PF is a take off of another game.

To me, I think this is just silly. There is a lot of original stuff in palladium's megaverse and the powers that be should not worry about borrowing a good concept when they find one. But, after 20+ years without a monster manual, I just don't see it happening now.

[Glistam]

I want a Monster Manual that has a random encounter table full of S.D.C. creatures, then has that 00 result which has you reference the M.D.C. monsters and demons.

EDIT: I'd accept a 99-00, 98-00 or even a 97-00 result for that category as well.

[thedrunk]

What would the legal perspective be to create a data base ( excutable) with a monster, NPC, etc. generator. so as you go through the Campaign prep you can create the items you want for pre-made NPC. you can also add a random creation that would take and randomly create a NPC based on location, your setting, and your need at the time during play for those random encounters?

it would be easy to do. all it would do is take a knowledge of Microsoft axcess and time to input the information and set it up with a easy user interface

If you do the work on your own and don't distribute it, I think legally you are fine. While its out of date, there is the old Rifts GM program. It would take a bit of time to update the tables for new OCCs and RCCs and equipment, but it could be done (if you can access the Access DB). Some of the pure random generators (based on random tables in the books) could probably be easily written in other programs (I've done that myself), and would be workable for NPCs to at a certain level of detail.

If you can find the old Robotech: RDF Accelerated Training module, they have some examples of random rolled NPCs and include a blank page one could use to product additional NPCs (said page can be copied so...)

I'm not sure using MS Access is the best DB to use though due to availability. Unless someone springs for the higher end versions of Office, they aren't going to get Access, and buying it seperately is pretty expensive. Something like an Open Source DB program might be better.

I have MS office enterprise. I will look in to other ones, My question is can it be shared here with out any legal ramifications?
I know you can do a lot of creative content, yet I am unsure about this.
I know for my self I use a file system where each RCC, OCC, Equipemnt ETC. are on thier own page and have a search engine that finds what I am looking at and pulls it up. yet I still have to roll up NPC

[Athos]

I have MS office enterprise. I will look in to other ones, My question is can it be shared here with out any legal ramifications?

Unless they have changed copyright laws recently, if you write something you own it. So unless Palladium sells you the rights to Rifts, or puts it under some kind of OGL, you must obtain permission if you use their material and distribute it, otherwise, it is piracy.

[Ravenwing]

I have MS office enterprise. I will look in to other ones, My question is can it be shared here with out any legal ramifications?

Unless they have changed copyright laws recently, if you write something you own it. So unless Palladium sells you the rights to Rifts, or puts it under some kind of OGL, you must obtain permission if you use their material and distribute it, otherwise, it is piracy.

They haven't. However there are a number of Community/Fansites that make things like this. I know some were shut down for copyright infringement, but those where of other peoples intellectual properties converted to Rifts stats, which is a big no no. I don't think Kevin and Co come down on you for making Game aids for free so long as you're not selling it, or using other peoples Intellectual properties. Something like this though is just a collection of Rifts Tables and what not in a convenient all in one place, so I think it might fly below the radar so to say. Best bet would be to ask Kevin or one of the PB people what they think, that way you're making sure you're not stepping on anyone's toes.

[ShadowLogan]

My question is can it be shared here with out any legal ramifications?
I know you can do a lot of creative content, yet I am unsure about this.
I know for my self I use a file system where each RCC, OCC, Equipemnt ETC. are on thier own page and have a search engine that finds what I am looking at and pulls it up. yet I still have to roll up NPC

To be completely sure, you'd have to contact Palladium directly or even a lawyer.

For your own personal use with no distribution I don't think there is anything legal to worry about. The main legal sticking point I think would be in the distribution of such a product, even if its free, if it contains any copyrighted material which various random tables might just qualify as.

[grandmaster z0b]

I have been working on a excel spreadsheet:

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=144675

At the moment it calculates combat bonuses by level and I have another to calculate skills. However it doesn't take into account OCCs because that's too much work. If anyone wants to help with the data entry I would be happy to do the calculations.

Also Thinyser has a character sheet that calculates stat bonuses and we've discussed incorporating my spreadsheet into his.

viewtopic.php?f=30&t=144164

Perhaps the community could pool it's resources to make a Rifts automated character sheet/NPC creator?