Revised Game Master Screens and Adventures....

[MADMANMIKE]

..Is there any interest in this? The adventure book had some great stuff in it, but my contribution was only the layout of the Game Master Screens (and the panels were not in the order I designated), and the character sheets/GM sheets which have since been posted on the cutting room floor.

..I've fiddled off and on with a revision, and was wondering what kind of reception it would get...

..I think I'd focus on combat sequence, quick NPC generation and expiditing the character creation process.

..Thus far I have a panel and a half with all the Hand to Hand skills presented, a single panel with the Attribute bonus chart, Supernatural strength damage table, and most importantly an explanation of each of the attributes bonus sets, and am working on a few panels of random equipment that would reference the Game Master Guide's expansive lists.

..Gimme some feed back...

-Mike >8]

[Dead Boy]

Personally I made my own GM Screen that is up on all the most current rules and lays everyting out for easy use and gameplay no matter what they players need. The thing is 7 pages long and extremely comprehensive. It's pretty damn good if you ask me.

[MADMANMIKE]

I think a condensed list of all of the skills and their base percentiles would be a handy addition to such a creation. A bit like the list on the Heavy Gear GM's screen.

..I've considered this; It's been done on pages 50 and 51 of the Game Master Guide, but I think I can condense it down smaller, maybe a page and a half, as well as add in abbreviated bonuses for the physical skills.

Basic combat rules are a must, like base chances to hit at short, medium and long range, moving targets, called shots and so on.

..Exactly. A quick combat reference guide for those "What was that rule again?" questions that pop up once in a while but not often enough for you to keep them memorized.

..Thanks for the feedback, keep it coming..

..The problem I see here is that at best, maybe one in four people who buy Rifts products is going to be interested in the project at the onset; But it's really going to be designed as a quick reference set handy for anyone who plays as well. I don't intend to toss a bunch of random encounter tables up there, and not just because the ones that I put on the first edition were placed wrong and far too limited.

..There's so much to use here; the first set was a Tech oriented shield and a Magic oriented shield; I actually had abreviated stats on every spell and every Psionic from the main book on the Magic screen. That's pointless to try now, as before the Coaliton Wars and Mystic Russia I was up to three and a half shields designed that way (including spells from the other games, ie Palladium Fantasy, Nightbane, etc.)

..Instead I think I'll just try to do one with multiple panels of reference, maybe one set for your character creation, then another for the combat reference and a third for Magic reference. That would be 32 pages, not unlike the HackMaster GM Shield (which I have yet to see, but here is quite awesome).

-Mike >8]

[MADMANMIKE]

..Yeah, I think that would go well, along with the Perception Rules as first introduced in NightBane.

..In the first set I included rules for quick learning spells, by rating them and having a dice roll each time one attempts to cast a new spell. I'll probably update that with guidelines for how to rate a spell, as originally I just had the rating attached to each spell in the list (and a complete list is not going to fit on a shield now).

..I also thought it would be a good vehicle for my Minion Creation Rules. Basically zero level characters that can become NPC followers for a character. As a character gains experience they can spend Minion Creation Points, gathered from along with their own growth, to improve their minions until they reach second or third level (second or third because to be viable in combat they can start with up to third level hand to hand and WP's).

..Along that line I've been working on some morale rules that factor into the whole Horror Factor thing. More concise guidelines for HF are needed in my opinion.

-Mike >8]

[ghost2020]

I'd be up for another screen. More art on the outside, possibly a nice landscape piece or assorted art from various Rifts covers.

Fonts...use a better font for the screens and PC sheets. They're hard to read. I loved the PC sheets, but please, use a sans-seriff font like arial or something, and nothing in ALL CAPS.

-hand to hand bonuses

-basic ranged weapon modifiers and to-hit numbers

-basic saves

-ley line effects

-spell strength rules

[Adam of the Old Kingdom]

does the shield need to have stuff for leveling? or player reference? see below for an alternative.

If you are going to have randon encounters, how about a list of generic stats for enemies. table a group of common stat blocks for a low (1-3), medium (4-7) and high (8+)level NPC. so if the random encounter table calls for 3 juicer bandits (or what ever) the GM can then instantly get 3 generic juicer bandits stats to suit the player group.

some of the cool optional effects, like sdc damage in armour and knock down rules.

stats for comon weapon or equipement, for those times when the player is out of ammo (or has no weapon) and must break something or get a weapon from Generic Goon X , so the GM kows how much damage the item must take to break or does when utilised with out look to a book.

[MADMANMIKE]

id buy it if it was relatively inexpensive, or at least bundled with a book...or something else nifty. but if palladium expected me to shell out $8.95 for it, i probably pass it up until i found one on ebay for $1...

..Looking at my one remaining shrinkwrapped copy, the original was $12.95 for two tri-fold screens and a 62 page adventure sourcebook (paperback, no hard cover). I'm sure it would be more than that now, but then I'm talking about a single screen with 16 panels front and back; don't know what they'd want to do with an adventure book this time around, but I'd like to see the original adventures reprinted..

I'd be up for another screen. More art on the outside, possibly a nice landscape piece or assorted art from various Rifts covers.

..I agree, and with the addiitional panels I think it would be a better way to go to have more artwork on it. I think Scott Johnson could do an awesome set of variations on a theme; the HackMaster screen for example has four panels of an adventure group setting out to adventure; then when you flip over the panels that give the GM his combat charts, the picture is that same group being slaughtered by monsters.

..Not that extreme, but the same idea, different artwork for different areas of game play.

Fonts...use a better font for the screens and PC sheets. They're hard to read. I loved the PC sheets, but please, use a sans-seriff font like arial or something, and nothing in ALL CAPS.

..Actually, I used the same font as is used throughout Palladium Books. But yeah, something a bit smoother on the eye would be appropriate. Haven't yet settled on one though... And the caps thing is out in my mind as well.

-hand to hand bonuses

-basic ranged weapon modifiers and to-hit numbers

-basic saves

-ley line effects

-spell strength rules

..Like I said, all of the hand to hand skills are there, similar to how they are presented in the Game Master Guide, although a bit more detailed. Likewise a basic combat glossary will be included, as well as a run down of the combat sequence. This covers the weapon modifiers, and would include the complete saving throw list as well.

..Ley lines, random rifts/ley line storms and the P.P.E. Channeling rules were on my list for the Magic set. Magic Combat would be detailed similar to the normal combat section.

..I'm no artist, so I think I may try to enlist the aid of one of the guys to add a more graphic feel to the layout, maybe a good set of watermark designs, like ley line ripples for the magic section and an industrial pattern for the tech info.

does the shield need to have stuff for leveling? or player reference? see below for an alternative.

..The original had the experience point chart on it, and I figured I'd leave it there. I also thought I'd include a good explanation for the apparently spontaineous process of learning new skills at new levels.

..My Game Master Experience Log was in the adventure book that accompanied the screens the first time around, i'd assume it makes the cut this time too.

If you are going to have randon encounters, how about a list of generic stats for enemies. table a group of common stat blocks for a low (1-3), medium (4-7) and high (8+)level NPC. so if the random encounter table calls for 3 juicer bandits (or what ever) the GM can then instantly get 3 generic juicer bandits stats to suit the player group.

..I had a column with guidelines for generating Quick NPC's, with the P.P.E. by racial types list, random Hand to Hand skills/bonuses, randome Physical Attributes and Random Physical Skill sets. With these you could generate the combat stats of an average NPC pretty quick, although Juicers, Crazies, Psi-Stalkers, Dogboys, etc. have special abilities that would just take up too much space. I do intend to expand this section though, using my minion creation rules as a starting base.

some of the cool optional effects, like sdc damage in armour and knock down rules.

..Yeah, I thought the random hit location tables from Maryann's Compendium of Contemporary Weapons or a variation would be good, as well as the knockdown tables, optional damage/trauma tables and a few suggestions for alternative MDC translation; for example, in my games 1 MDC = 5 SDC, so normal weapons are deadly again in combat.

stats for comon weapon or equipement, for those times when the player is out of ammo (or has no weapon) and must break something or get a weapon from Generic Goon X , so the GM kows how much damage the item must take to break or does when utilised with out look to a book.

..The original had a page of random Items, Rifles, E-Clips, Pistols, Explosives and Armor, with the basic stats on each. Since there is now such a vast variety in each of these categories, I'm opting to rely on the Game Master Guide for the stats and instead just do random tables that include pretty much everything you're likely to encounter in North America with reference to the page number it's found in the guide. I'm also laying out these tables so that you can run games pre-Coalition War Campaign with little modification, preventing the early arrival of the newer equipment in your campaign.

..Also along that line, I'm working on a timeline for the introduction of equipment, robots and Power armor. Just because it wasn't introduced until New West, for example, doesn't mean it wasn't available before 106 PA (the current time of that book). I generally run my games around 101PA as presented in the main book, so keeping track of what equipment from later books is handy is crucial.

..Thanks for the feedback guys, keep it coming.

-Mike >8]

[MADMANMIKE]

The thing I would most like to see on a screen is:

Attack modifiers based on distance, cover, movement (including speed), etc.

Spells / Psionics table with PPE / ISP and range

General costs, repairs, reloads, etc.

These are the things I mostly look up if I have to.

G.

..I had everything but the descriptive text on all the main book spells and psionics on the original magic screen. But now even for just regular spell magic there are more than three times that many spells. I could clean up the index of spells as presented in the back of Siege on Tolkeen book 1, but it would be kind of redundant.

..On the original Tech screen were Repair Rates, Salvage Rates, and the missile table complete with costs, along with the Random equipment tables.

..Movement is covered on my Attribute Bonus page, as well as the Attribute bonus table (yards per melee and miles per hour). But the modifiers will fall under the combat notes section.

-Mike >8]

[Viktor]

I would definetly be interesting in getting one if available.