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Hi all,

I'm trying to get together some friends to play some Rifts with me, and being the one who already knows the game it's up to me to be the GM (at least to begin with) so I'm trying to come up with some idea.

One I have floating around in my head is to have the party captured, all weapons on armour removed, and then have them try to escape while recovering their equipment. I'm trying to think of what you could throw at them (guards wise) if you had in the party say something like a cyber knight, someone who has SN PS and MDC (like a spirit warrior maybe) and other characters who don't normally have MDC unless they have armour like an RPA pilot, or a LLW. Now I can't just throw SDC guards at them as the SNPS guy would have no issues with them. And I can't just send MDC at them as they all wouldn't be able to do something until they got thrit gear back.

So i'm looking for peoples ideas and thoughts on how they might handle this kind of scneario.

Thanks as always,

MightyAtom

It looks like the CK is going to have to be the tank while the others make a break for it. Perhaps they can run into pencil-pushers with a pistol or something along the way out.

Also depending on the prison break scenario you're going with, there's going to be a lot of heat put on the escapees so the CK might be too busy shielding the fleshy PCs to really do anything.

you just have to plan encounters carefully and with staggered threats/rewards.

in the secure zone, squishies (non SN, non MDC) prisoners might be watched over by guards with light armor and SDC weapons (you don't want to be disarmed and killed by your own weapon) so the players have to be sneaky and intelligent in their approach to their breakout.

As they work their way out of the prison they start to encounter heavier security (MDC armor and weapons), which as they defeat the threats allows them to recover equipment that will let them survive further encounters (I'd still make it so that going out, guns blazing gets one evaporated, they need to plan and evade).

As for the characters, I'd probably have anyone playing a SN character, run a NPC prisoner who is escaping with the other squishies. One of the challenges would be to free the SN characters from the higher security levels and then gain the use that powerhouse character as a reward.

I would actually recommend against the jail-break theme at all. Especially if you're trying to convince new people to play. Having them sit down and spend more than an hour (in some cases) creating a character and getting all their cool gear, then taking it all away from them right off the bat might turn them off to the game. I know you said they're getting it back, but still... don't wait too long to give it to them. If all they know right from the start is struggle, they may lose interest.

Northern Ranger wrote:I would actually recommend against the jail-break theme at all. Especially if you're trying to convince new people to play. Having them sit down and spend more than an hour (in some cases) creating a character and getting all their cool gear, then taking it all away from them right off the bat might turn them off to the game. I know you said they're getting it back, but still... don't wait too long to give it to them. If all they know right from the start is struggle, they may lose interest.

I see what you mean. I was thinking of doing this further down the track though. Certainly not straight away. They'd definiitely need to get the hang of actually playing and what's what before throwing in something like this. Though it looks like it might be slipping through. Not much enthusiasm anymore unfortunately. The way it usually happens.

Thanks for the advice people. Keep it coming.

MightyAtom wrote:They'd definiitely need to get the hang of actually playing and what's what before throwing in something like this. Though it looks like it might be slipping through. Not much enthusiasm anymore unfortunately. The way it usually happens.

Here's how you ignite some enthusiasm.

1) Don't start a campaign. Just invite some people over to play for 4-6 hours.

2) Have pre-gens for everyone. Usually the number of players + 2 extra as choices.

3) Keep everything simple. Don't worry about rules or whatever is on page XYZ. Just focus on the characters, story and keeping the action as fast and as furious as possible. Fudge the system as necessary to make the game as fun as possible for the noobs.

4) Have a single session contained storyline. AKA, the beginning, middle and end happens in on the same day of play. Thus, you gotta make sure you make all the background briefing as minimal as possible.

5) I have never seen the "prison break" scenario go well. Players HATE HATE HATE being without their goodies. Instead, give them all their goodies and make the mission about getting somebody else out of that prison. That kind of "prison break" is always good stuff.