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So got an upcoming Rifts campaign, three of the players are new to Palladium, hoping this Rifts campaign with be a gate way game, but we'll see. Fourth player is experienced with Palladium, I made sire of that. ;> May have a fifth player as well who is new to RPing in general.

So go to make characters, two of them decide to go Egg heads... Got a feeling the third may go Egg Head too... Last two should be combat. Seems the one player like to kill parties too, he hasn't done it in the Shadowrun campaign as of yet so hopefully he won't do it now. Course this leaves me scrambling trying to modify things to allow for TWO egg heads.

Please be more specific regarding the nature of your egg-heads.

I'm only familiar with the Systems Failure game's Egghead O.C.C.. I didn't realize Rifts had one too - which book?

RCSG scientists... One has gone more medical and genetics, the other sided into to robotics. Being new to Palladium I'm worried they are so prepared for combat. Figure I can toss some scientific interests their way but need combat as well. My wife will be playing a Coalition spec ops character in a SAMAS... Last player I dunno yet. Hoping he goes combat as well to balance things out.

I know the RCSG are combat scientists, but I've always been a blood and guts GM. Two players going scientist took me off guard. Lot riding on this game. Hoping my players enjoy it enough that they will have an interest in other Palladium games.

Then of course the risk of party conflict if my one player goes and tries to get the party killed. Course I'm thinking the spec ops was assigned to watch these beer nuts, they both seem on the edge of mad scientist.
Campaign is set in South America, idea is the Coalition and other human supremacist nations are working together to fight the Larhold (sp?) barbarians. And may form some alliances in the mean time. Easy to keep the ground pounders busy, but these egg heads. Well we'll see.

So far every has gone Coalition, RCSG is in the Coalition War Campaign book.

RCSG Scientist...just like all CS troops have to qualify with weapons. They should be able to do shoot me up still. Trick is making them also stand out as important. Don't forget they can Ley Line Phase, have that be important at some point in the game....evil line walker drifts or phases away, only the RCSG guys can track the bad guy (memory might be wrong, they can Phase or Drift, one of the two).

If you want to really mess with them though have a NPC offer to teach them some magic

I know they can heal on Leg lines... Definitely plan to tempt them with magic, a few choice magic items. Pretty sure I can set the spec ops off. The wife tends to play die hard Coalition characters.

Have some ideas to start things off, one incident involves a deep mine that has opened into some natural caverns. Thing is, some form of time distortion is slowing time in the caverns. Plan to have the party encounter a NEMA fire rescue team that has been down there since before the rifts. Egg heads may be able to discern just what is going on.

Really need to play up the RCSG abilities too I think. Another thought from an old GM... And old GM ran a campaign in which players had the opportunity to command small units, for larger combats. Problem is how likely is the Coalition to place two Egg heads in charge e enough if they are colonels (sp?)

The RCSG guys are Colonels eh?
Enlisted men follow orders, so if they are ordered by General (insert name here) of the CS to follow the directives of the Colonels then they should.
Within reason I guess....


As a side note, I don't know if you have the RAW material CS book (preview book) but there is some interesting info on this topic in it. Shall say no more, but it's a good read.

Don't discourage it, but point out that the boffins are going to dominate the investigation scenes while the shooters will do the same in the combat scenes. It's probably obvious to your players that this is going to happen and as long as you try to balance out the action and investigation everybody will still have a great time. Be sure to award points in an equitable fashion too; a good plan is worth as much as subduing an enemy.

Tags wrote:RCSG scientists... One has gone more medical and genetics, the other sided into to robotics. Being new to Palladium I'm worried they are so prepared for combat. Figure I can toss some scientific interests their way but need combat as well. My wife will be playing a Coalition spec ops character in a SAMAS... Last player I dunno yet. Hoping he goes combat as well to balance things out.

I know the RCSG are combat scientists, but I've always been a blood and guts GM. Two players going scientist took me off guard. Lot riding on this game. Hoping my players enjoy it enough that they will have an interest in other Palladium games.

Then of course the risk of party conflict if my one player goes and tries to get the party killed. Course I'm thinking the spec ops was assigned to watch these beer nuts, they both seem on the edge of mad scientist.
Campaign is set in South America, idea is the Coalition and other human supremacist nations are working together to fight the Larhold (sp?) barbarians. And may form some alliances in the mean time. Easy to keep the ground pounders busy, but these egg heads. Well we'll see.

So far every has gone Coalition, RCSG is in the Coalition War Campaign book.

So the players want to play a squints run?

SpiritInterface wrote:

Tags wrote:RCSG scientists... One has gone more medical and genetics, the other sided into to robotics. Being new to Palladium I'm worried they are so prepared for combat. Figure I can toss some scientific interests their way but need combat as well. My wife will be playing a Coalition spec ops character in a SAMAS... Last player I dunno yet. Hoping he goes combat as well to balance things out.

I know the RCSG are combat scientists, but I've always been a blood and guts GM. Two players going scientist took me off guard. Lot riding on this game. Hoping my players enjoy it enough that they will have an interest in other Palladium games.

Then of course the risk of party conflict if my one player goes and tries to get the party killed. Course I'm thinking the spec ops was assigned to watch these beer nuts, they both seem on the edge of mad scientist.
Campaign is set in South America, idea is the Coalition and other human supremacist nations are working together to fight the Larhold (sp?) barbarians. And may form some alliances in the mean time. Easy to keep the ground pounders busy, but these egg heads. Well we'll see.

So far every has gone Coalition, RCSG is in the Coalition War Campaign book.

So the players want to play a squints run?

Not sure why they chose egg heads, but as long as everyone has fun.

All good suggestions, all noted.

First session this Sunday, so we'll see how it goes.

Skills heavy characters can actually dominate a game quick like.
A borg to get hit.
A juicer to hit things.
And as many "eggheads" as possible is a gnarly team.

Figure my spec ops player will be the primary combatant in her striker... Still have one character to make, so we'll see what he plays. Might have a mutant cat too, one player's wife is brand new to RPGs so I dunno if she'll be playing.

My players are mostly new enough, they shouldn't dominate too badly.

if they have a base or decently powerful vehicle (and the skills to pilot it) they could be kept pretty safe and still add to the offence ...and then of course never under estimate how devistating a bio weapon can be (something the average samas pilot can't make for sure lol)

Well we have a Terror Trooper piloted by the Spec Ops, gave her an old style SAMAS too, egg heads have rocket bikes, got a light cyborg. So we'll see what the weekend brings. Seems these players have tendency to hmmmm, turn on each other, so the Spec Op may be required to put a bolt in their heads if they get outta hand.

I'm sure the egg heads will find a way to do damage, no major vehicles to begin with, but in this campaign this is a big CS operation, so help isn't too far away.

The more I think about it, the more I think we should have started with Chaos Earth.