Tips for doing anything with Palladium from a forever DM

[aswarola8]

So I've been at this for about 20 years now. Started on D&D but quickly went to Rifts/Palladium for it's massive flexibility. I've just recently found this Reddit and I keep seeing posts looking to honebrew things. So I figured as a forever GM who runs almost exclusively homebrew I'd share my tools.

First off is books, obviously more=better but some of the best books for bang for your buck go like this. Rifts core, duh, should be your first book, it's got rules and stuff. Second up get the Rifts game master guide, spells, abilities, weapons, and just loads of reference, if you want to make a thing you'll find stats here for it. For character creation I'd suggest adding After the Bomb and the heros book, along with the last 2 books you'll be able to make any rcc/occ you can think up. Other useful books include Macross/Robotek if you want to do giant Mecha and Juicer uprising has a great section for performance enhancing drugs.

From there you should have enough reference to work with. Now you need a setting and a story. This is the heart of the homebrew, go wild. Know your world and skim the books, if it's close beat it with a hammer till it fits. Whatever you do don't just freehand, always build off of something you saw in the books, it'll help you keep game balance and avoid your players getting op. Make sure you decide on day one SD or MD, even with a 10 to one conversion MD will dominate your game if you don't plan for it.

I can't think of much more general tips but HMU with specific questions and I'll see if I can help.

[BlidningLight]

So I've been at this for about 20 years now. Started on D&D but quickly went to Rifts/Palladium for it's massive flexibility. I've just recently found this Reddit and I keep seeing posts looking to honebrew things. So I figured as a forever GM who runs almost exclusively homebrew I'd share my tools.

First off is books, obviously more=better but some of the best books for bang for your buck go like this. Rifts core, duh, should be your first book, it's got rules and stuff. Second up get the Rifts game master guide, spells, abilities, weapons, and just loads of reference, if you want to make a thing you'll find stats here for it. For character creation I'd suggest adding After the Bomb and the heros book, along with the last 2 books you'll be able to make any rcc/occ you can think up. Other useful books include Macross/Robotek if you want to do giant Mecha and Juicer uprising has a great section for performance enhancing drugs. In the near future I plan on renting a decent ride from Real Car's fleet https://realcar.nyc/fleet and travel a bit so if you have any questions I might also give advices on this.

From there you should have enough reference to work with. Now you need a setting and a story. This is the heart of the homebrew, go wild. Know your world and skim the books, if it's close beat it with a hammer till it fits. Whatever you do don't just freehand, always build off of something you saw in the books, it'll help you keep game balance and avoid your players getting op. Make sure you decide on day one SD or MD, even with a 10 to one conversion MD will dominate your game if you don't plan for it.

I can't think of much more general tips but HMU with specific questions and I'll see if I can help.

Good tips, I am thinking about becoming a DM myself since our forever DM moved recently and I have some work to do. Will post here in case I have any questions, hope you will be able to help with some of them. Till then, thanks for your work.

[Zer0 Kay]

What you dont like N&S for HtH combat, Splycers for bio armor which doubles as homebrew Invid tech; PF, specifically Library of Blethorad and Island at the edge of the World, for magic and artifacts topped off by Nightspawn for any weird character concepts?

BtW where are the tools you mentioned?

[ravi]

Pretty great tips. Some things I'd add from a GURPS GM perspective.

Rule 0: Any rule you see in the books can be thrown out if it would benefit the table. This can be temporary -- "The CS Grunt hit you with a Critical Hit and utterly killed you, but as GM, I'm going to 'forget' that and just say he winged you for all but one of your MDC so you can get to cover and get out of the fight," or it can be permanent -- "Ranged Weapons benefit from PP bonuses, so if you have a PP of 24, you get a +5 to your ranged weapon skill just like you get +5 to your melee weapon skill."

You are the GM, not the Adversary: Your main goal as the GM is to weave a fun tale. Don't be afraid to kill Heroes when it's appropriate to do so, but also don't think you win if the PCs lose. You win if the story is memorable.

You are the Referee: A GM's most important role at the table is to help everyone shine, but at the same time, you must also sometime dim someone's fire so someone else may shine. Conflict resolution is a valuable skill to have at a table. Telling players 'no' is also important. And always design your scenarios so that everyone can shine. Help players make characters that fit the typical Action roles of Shooter, Assassin, Cleaner, Demolitions Man, Face, Wire Rat, Hacker, Wheel Man, and so on can really help you design scenarios that everyone can benefit from.

Remember this is a hobby, and always keep it fun!