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I'm thinking of running a game where the PC's are members of a traveling carnival that goes from place to place, dimension to dimension. My thought would be that they'd travel via rift along a set route. Am I correct that a Shifter could accomplish the rift opening part? Would it require more than one Shifter? It seems like it would take a butt load of PPE to do it this way, even with the revised Shifter OOC from the Megaverse Builder book, so I was thinking about a PPE battery to help power the trip.

Thoughts? Ideas? Thanks!

Mr. Anchovy wrote:I'm thinking of running a game where the PC's are members of a traveling carnival that goes from place to place, dimension to dimension. My thought would be that they'd travel via rift along a set route. Am I correct that a Shifter could accomplish the rift opening part? Would it require more than one Shifter? It seems like it would take a butt load of PPE to do it this way, even with the revised Shifter OOC from the Megaverse Builder book, so I was thinking about a PPE battery to help power the trip.

Thoughts? Ideas? Thanks!

It would likely take a really large PPE battery and a high level shifter (to keep the portal open long enough)
HOWEVER... if they had a TW device...
well..
It could be 'programed' for its route (instead of being able to go anywhere the shifter can visualize)
it could recharge on its own during shows (i.e. they stay in town for two weeks every time... because the McGuffin takes two weeks to charge)
It can keep the portal open long enough to move the entire carnival through in one casting
It could be designed with a function that limits it to only work for the Ringmaster (so a thief cant use it at all...)
And of course the best is that it gives you an excuse to have an absolutely massive calliope for your carnival.

RUE shifter can learn energy sphere as early as level 2 iirc. i'm not sure PPE capacity is as much of a problem as you think it is.

Actually, if you use the Re Re-revised Shifter from Rifts Ultimate Edition you don't even need that. They can create a one-way Rift for a mere 125 PPE, +25 PPE per individual they permit to travel through the Rift (The shifter must always be last, as this special dimensional portal closes the moment they go through). The other limit is they cannot target the cheeper rift accurately, at first level they can only target a specific planet or dimension, but a completely random area on it (Just never the middle of the ocean or desert or artic), and get more fine control as they level to come out closer and closer to intended target.

But yes, a PPE battery for a reliable (and targetable) rift is helpful for times when you need to be precice.

Mr. Anchovy wrote:I'm thinking of running a game where the PC's are members of a traveling carnival that goes from place to place, dimension to dimension. My thought would be that they'd travel via rift along a set route. Am I correct that a Shifter could accomplish the rift opening part? Would it require more than one Shifter? It seems like it would take a butt load of PPE to do it this way, even with the revised Shifter OOC from the Megaverse Builder book, so I was thinking about a PPE battery to help power the trip.

Thoughts? Ideas? Thanks!

Well PPE could be provided by:
-Energy Sphere (noted)
-Talismans
-sacrifice (remember PPE x2s upon death)
-sharing of PPE (by others travelling with the Shifter, who may or may not be able to use their PPE anyway, everyone should have some PPE)
-use of Ley Lines/Nexus Points (they provide extra PPE)

Great! Thanks for helping a new GM everyone!

I would recommend Shifters collect several Boschala, they have a lot of PPE and are permanent minions without any need for battle of wills or counting against minions-per-level limit, just so long as you keep it under a dozen so they don't go into a breeding frenzy, because then you lose them.

Shark_Force wrote:RUE shifter can learn energy sphere as early as level 2 iirc. i'm not sure PPE capacity is as much of a problem as you think it is.

I don't like the ES spell due to it's short duration. Thus I made a variation of it called Golden Sphere that has a longer duration, holds more and it auto-restarts using the PPE stored in it. For the details go to the fan made magic topic in this forum.

2 days per level is a short duration?

i'm not sure auto-restart sounds that terribly necessary either. i'm pretty sure i could afford to spend less than 15 seconds every 2+ days on maintaining something and not consider it a horrible burden.

A ritual dimensional portal spell casting with several mages is also possible.

They need a few talismans for a fast getaway.

Maybe they have a dragon or some other magical creature to support your shifter.

Nekira Sudacne wrote:Actually, if you use the Re Re-revised Shifter from Rifts Ultimate Edition you don't even need that. They can create a one-way Rift for a mere 125 PPE, +25 PPE per individual they permit to travel through the Rift (The shifter must always be last, as this special dimensional portal closes the moment they go through).

The other limit is they cannot target the cheeper rift accurately, at first level they can only target a specific planet or dimension, but a completely random area on it (Just never the middle of the ocean or desert or artic), and get more fine control as they level to come out closer and closer to intended target.

But yes, a PPE battery for a reliable (and targetable) rift is helpful for times when you need to be precice.

Ability 4, RUE 122, another limit to it is that it is "one way", whereas the spell Dimensional Portal allows people to both come and go.

This mentions that 5 people can pass through per melee round and it stays open a maximum of 1 minute, meaning a maximum of 20 people can get through, then you'd have to pay the 125 base cost all over again.

In the maxed-out example it says 600 PPE but I'm not really sure how... 20 x 25 is 500, plus the 125 base should be 625... I figure the 25 difference must be because the 20 people includes the shifter himself, who is included in the base 125. So it would probably be simpler to just say "100+25xpeople, shifter must go last" plus I guess the familiar is the true freebie.

I don't see where it mentions that the shifter must go last and it closes when they go through. Which paragraph do you see that in?

The inaccuracy can be mitigated via ability 6 (Dimensional Teleport Home) "Rifting on the Same World" which appears to give you automatic zeroing-in on the closest nexus to your target destination, long as you've been there before. When it says half PPE I'm not sure if that refers to half of 75 (in which case would that be 32 or 33?) or half of the 150.

Using the special Shifter Ritual of Meditation to cut Re-Open Gateway from 180 to 90 seems like a safe bet if you wanted to first go somewhere alone then widen that path to bring others.

10 Boschala = at least 200 PPE, would be very useful in using these abilities. Shifters can choose ANY summoning spell at 2nd level, so SLB gets you the Boschala who stay past their duration as long as they don't mate.

Ice Dragon wrote:A ritual dimensional portal spell casting with several mages is also possible.

They need a few talismans for a fast getaway.

Maybe they have a dragon or some other magical creature to support your shifter.

In the middle of a game where the LLW cast D-portal (or was it create rift…whatever) witht he support of all the mages and SN beings in the group.
Ended up on a PF world variant where the elves came out on top of the Dwarf-elf wars.

Thought of an interesting strat... begin with Control/Enslave Entity (RUE 218) for 80 PPE.

Control a pair of Poltergeists (Dark Conversions 76) since they're pretty much everywhere.

Draw 8 PPE (4 each) and then send them out to suck up PPE from others and bring it back to you.

Mr. Anchovy wrote:I'm thinking of running a game where the PC's are members of a traveling carnival that goes from place to place, dimension to dimension. My thought would be that they'd travel via rift along a set route. Am I correct that a Shifter could accomplish the rift opening part? Would it require more than one Shifter? It seems like it would take a butt load of PPE to do it this way, even with the revised Shifter OOC from the Megaverse Builder book, so I was thinking about a PPE battery to help power the trip.

Thoughts? Ideas? Thanks!

Or do it a ley-line new rules give 2400 per hour. which is over 2 per hour?

Mr. Anchovy wrote:I'm thinking of running a game where the PC's are members of a traveling carnival that goes from place to place, dimension to dimension. My thought would be that they'd travel via rift along a set route. Am I correct that a Shifter could accomplish the rift opening part?

As of Ultimate Edition, yes. Page 120 indicates the OCC (which I dub "Ultimate Shifter" or U-Shifter to distingush from earlier versions) now has the level 15 spell Dimensional Portal as a starter spell...

Which is kind of silly to me because that would seem like something that would seriously drive down the price of obtaining this spell on the black market for other OCCs like Line Walkers because it would suddenly be omnipresent among a bunch of destitute beginners.

Doing this seems completely unnecessary to me ESPECIALLY since the U-Shifter on pg 122 has their ability 4 "Dimensional Travel" allowing them to open 1-way portals. Why exactly would 1st level Shifters need to start off with the level 15 spell for 2-way travel?

As a house rule I would remove that spell and have this be something rare which Shifters aspire to acquire for convenience.

That or treat these specialty spells as Mystic-like OCC abilities which could not be taught, to avoid the revamped Shifter ruining the economy.

Mr. Anchovy wrote:Would it require more than one Shifter? It seems like it would take a butt load of PPE to do it this way, even with the revised Shifter OOC from the Megaverse Builder book

The expanded shifter in http://palladium-store.com/1001/product ... ilder.html which we might term the "Builder Shifter" or B-Shifter, DB7p39 seems pretty similar to the Ultimate version, not entirely sure what differences are.

Mr. Anchovy wrote:I was thinking about a PPE battery to help power the trip. Thoughts? Ideas? Thanks!

1000 PPE is a lot to manage without assistance. The assistance need not be other Shifters though, only 1 person needs to know the spell, the others can just donate PPE.

RUEp124 mentiosn batteries, but it also mentions "willing participants". These could be easier to get than batteries, as the Talisman spell still might be rather rare.

Summoned creatures (RUEp123) under your domination (failing battle of wills) might qualify as willing in terms of being ordered to choose to give their PPE to you. You could summon creatures with high PPE bases to help.

This is rather cheap now in Ultimate edition since it only costs ability 5's Communication Rift (bottom left of 122) at most 200 PPE to do, whereas previously to get these minions you had to use Summon Lesser Being for 425 PPE and only got them for a matter of days instead of months. Plus that 200 is easily reduced to 100 or 50 by ley lines/nexuses which also provide much more PPE now than they used to.

In either edition, the Boschala is a great choice because they are eternally a non-threat to their summoning Shifter (even if they mate!) and will be eternally obedient so long as you can prevent them from mating. They have high PPE and work easily as a 'freak show' for your circus. This frees your "battle of wills" quota to be reserved for other beings, and your Boschala can help you defend against rebelling demons.

ShadowLogan wrote:Well PPE could be provided by:
-Energy Sphere (noted)
-Talismans
-sacrifice (remember PPE x2s upon death)
-sharing of PPE (by others travelling with the Shifter, who may or may not be able to use their PPE anyway, everyone should have some PPE)
-use of Ley Lines/Nexus Points (they provide extra PPE)

Bolded by me.

I can see why the carnival needs to keep leaving town now.

You know...it could be part of the act, work up a spell that takes attuned beings with you, and then the final act is the shifter casting a spell and the entire carnival vanishing to the next location, drawing PPE from the audience to power the spell