Phase World books

Shotgun Jolly · Thu Apr 05, 2007 3:49 am

Ok,

I have been reading the last couple of days, several posts about Phase world. And how they dont translate well into a rifts setting.. But isn't Phase world part of the Rifts setting?

Or is it a completly different gamming universe all together that just so happens to use the same rule set as Rifts?

I know Chaos Earth is Pre Rifts. And I thought that Phase World was just a galaxy far far away from Rifts earth.

But I am getting the impression its really a whole different thing.

I guess what I am trying to ask is. Do most people play this as a stand alone game like CE, or is it mainly intergrated into people's current Rifts setting?

Regards

asajosh · Unread post by **asajosh** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 6:13 am

Phase world and the Three Galaxies are in a different dimenstion then Rifts Earth. The only way to access it is via Dimensional gate (rift).
Phase World and its sourcebooks are obviously MDC worlds and therefore translate to and from the other Rifts books well, as fras the rules are concerned. The big thing to considder is that technology and magic in PW are hundreds or thousands of years more advanced then any on Rifts Earth and therefore can be unbalancing.
Hope this answers your question.

Nekira Sudacne · Thu Apr 05, 2007 12:40 pm

Shotgun Jolly wrote:Ok,

I have been reading the last couple of days, several posts about Phase world. And how they dont translate well into a rifts setting.. But isn't Phase world part of the Rifts setting?

Or is it a completly different gamming universe all together that just so happens to use the same rule set as Rifts?

I know Chaos Earth is Pre Rifts. And I thought that Phase World was just a galaxy far far away from Rifts earth.

But I am getting the impression its really a whole different thing.

I guess what I am trying to ask is. Do most people play this as a stand alone game like CE, or is it mainly intergrated into people's current Rifts setting?

Regards

Phase world is not in the same settings as Rifts earth.

Phase World operates on the same rules system as Rifts (in fact, it comes with no printed character creation information, it assumes you already have the Rifts book).

What it does however is tottally ditch the Rifts setting for a new one. Now, rather than a single planet with insane magic levels, you have an entire universe like that, with super-high spacefaring technology to make exploring it possible. But while they can break light speed by several orders, it still takes time. Thus Phase World as a setting mostly revolves around the "Three Galaxies"--three galaxies amazingly close to each-other so transport is possible.

elecgraystone · Thu Apr 05, 2007 1:16 pm

Nekira Sudacne wrote:What it does however is tottally ditch the Rifts setting for a new one. Now, rather than a single planet with insane magic levels, you have an entire universe like that, with super-high spacefaring technology to make exploring it possible. But while they can break light speed by several orders, it still takes time. Thus Phase World as a setting mostly revolves around the "Three Galaxies"--three galaxies amazingly close to each-other so transport is possible.

Well, the settings are not 100% separate. There are no less then 5 dimensional gateways in center alone that go to rifts earth. Naruni and splugorth are in both places. To be more accurate, rifts earth is part of rifts phaseworld as are wormwood, heroes unlimited, palladium fantasy and ninja's and superspies. Your rifts campain never has to include things from other settings (these things are optional) but phaseworld includes ALL other settings (not optional).

Hope this helps

Braden Campbell · Thu Apr 05, 2007 1:34 pm

Shotgun Jolly wrote:I have been reading the last couple of days, several posts about Phase world. And how they dont translate well into a rifts setting.. But isn't Phase world part of the Rifts setting?

Phase World is connected to the main Rifts setting, but as has been pointed out, you can only get there via a dimensional rift. They are two separate universes.

Problems can arise when the higher technology levels of the Phase World game setting are brought over into the Rifts setting without any kind of balance. the weapons are a bit more powerful, and Rifts, as a game setting, quickly falls apart if spaceships and space tech is brought in.

Do most people play this as a stand alone game like CE, or is it mainly intergrated into people's current Rifts setting?

Right now, it's all I play. The Dimension books (Wormwood, Phase World, and whatever else comes along) are meant to provide a cool place to visit for a regular Rifts campaign. But there si no reason whatsoever that you can't just ignore Rifts Earth and play in one of those other universes.

Shotgun Jolly · Thu Apr 05, 2007 10:18 pm

Very Interesting indeed.

Its the next setting I am going to be looking into, so I want to check it out.

Thanks

Kesslan · Unread post by **Kesslan** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 11:39 pm

The other thing to take into account is that you can even have CE - Rifts Earth. Not just in old forgotten arms caches etc (Or stuff left by Archie) but also a direct cross over since rifts are not just interdimensional, they some times either lead simply to somewhere else on the planet, or even across time.

In the end the rift goes where ever the heck you want it to as a GM.

Personally though I just run Rifts Earth more or less as is. It doesnt really need anything more than that. Unlike perhaps Mutants in Orbit, which being a lone, and rather slim book (with just the sol system to boot) doesnt have too much to it. So after a while you just may well need a trip somewhere else, especially if you run short of ideas since you litterally have to pretty much do everything on the fly when you use that setting for Rifts Earth.

That said, given that all these other locations connect to Rifts Earth it's easy enough to have stuff shift between one setting and another. But as was mentioned you need to be careful of game balance.

Kesslan · Unread post by **Kesslan** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 2:23 am

Takes abit more than that though some times Eagle.

It all depends on the type of game you and the players are looking for. If you want a sort of gritty game the last thing you want is a never ending arms race between the players and the NPCs. Which is exactly what you get once you start introducing all sorts of PW tech and other similar stuff to a setting like Rifts Earth.

Of course you hit the same thing the moment you start going to areas like South America as well but thats a whole other story. In the end, yes you can easily have an 'epic' quest just on Rifts Earth and, plausibly, the exact same if not higher level of game all on Rifts Earth as you can anywhere else.

Except not everywhere in Rifts Earth is so super high powered. Even the mighty CS actually isnt that tough. If you give a single level 9 char the right kinda gear they can easily lay waste to an entire -platoon- of CS troops and come out of it with barely a scratch to show for it to boot.

And thats just using an SDC non juicer character (or similar) using all tech gear.

Think about it this way.

Lets give the character an Exo suit
Now lets give him a jetpack
Now lets also give him an NE heavy forcefield
Now lets give him one of those NE plasma gattling guns.
Now lets upgrade him from an exo suit to power armor.

See what I'm getting at here?

If you dont allow some of this stuff in the first place you dont wind up ever facing those kinda problems. I mean obviously I'd fully expect a mid to high level character to have some really good gear etc. But not everyone wants a game that's so high powered that by level 5 PCs are battlings gods and their endless armies.

Kesslan · Unread post by **Kesslan** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 2:39 am

mAd eAgle wrote:Yeh I respect that. It's all about how far you are willing to take it. I was just reinforcing the fact that Rifts Earth contained it all. The GM has the last say in all situations, and with the multitude of options at players' disposal, they must maintain the plot with a conservative attitude.

Oh I agree with that. I'm just also counterpointing that some times depending on the game time you actually have to be very careful of game balance. Because it's extremely easy to break a 'low level/power' game.

Since, bonuses asside a level 1 can use any sword as well as a character with 20 level 15 OCCs so to speak. As there's no level requirements etc on gear (And honestly, there shouldnt be)

In the end though there's certain kinda things you can do in PW you cant with Rifts Earth.. Such as having massive space fleet battles and such. At most for Rifts Earth you can -some how- get into space and maybe have some small scale stuff, but a fight over the moon or space station just isnt the same as a massive multi starsystem spanning war between two intergalactic superpowers.

Kesslan · Unread post by **Kesslan** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 2:44 am

To heck with friggates, there are battleships that run on PPE!

I'd hate to be the one having to recharge that battery I tell you.

Shotgun Jolly · Fri Apr 06, 2007 2:49 am

Kesslan wrote:
In the end though there's certain kinda things you can do in PW you cant with Rifts Earth.. Such as having massive space fleet battles and such. At most for Rifts Earth you can -some how- get into space and maybe have some small scale stuff, but a fight over the moon or space station just isnt the same as a massive multi starsystem spanning war between two intergalactic superpowers.

Ok, Now I am hooked!

Kesslan · Unread post by **Kesslan** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 3:10 am

Shotgun Jolly wrote:
Kesslan wrote:
In the end though there's certain kinda things you can do in PW you cant with Rifts Earth.. Such as having massive space fleet battles and such. At most for Rifts Earth you can -some how- get into space and maybe have some small scale stuff, but a fight over the moon or space station just isnt the same as a massive multi starsystem spanning war between two intergalactic superpowers.

Ok, Now I am hooked!

Heh, just keep in mind those are alot of work for a GM depending on how you run it. Me? I just use my own sort of system to determine who wins. Though... I -think- there might be a system in the rifter for it that works rather well. I know there's one that was in a rifter, and I think later appears in one of the offical books for handling large army battles.

There's two actually, one for ancient and one for modern forces.

Basically the way it works for rifts is this:
You have the size of the force, this basically gives you X MDC per person.

You then get bonuses for having a certain percentage of supernatural creatures etc.

Then you get into gear, which gives you more bonuses based on if your using magical gear, low end to ultra high end tech etc.

End result you get one big fat MDC number and a few assorted bonuses as if the entire army was just one character. You do this for all the oposing forces, and apply the modifers as compared to each other.

So for abasic example you'd have a CS platoon
Their human so 1 MDC each and theres 48 people
Their using 'high tech gear' so they get a bonus of let ssay.. 10 MDC per person
So the platoon now has 48x10 or 480 MDC

Their facing a small squad of humans
MDC 1 for 20 people
The small humans are in NE equipment so they get a bonus of eh. lets say 15 MDC
They also have some magic so they get an extra bonus of 5

So now it's 20X(15+5) or 400 MDC.

They'll get some odd bonuses to strike, or something ilke that, roll to strike as normal and who ever runs out looses.

Then there's a sort of suplementary ruleset to figgure out what happens to the loosing side based on strength. For example the samll squad is actually more powerful than the CS platoon, but not overwhealmingly so so there's about a 50% chance theres prisoners after

But lets say the side attacking the CS had 600 MDC

There would be something like a 70% chance the CS platoon was slain to a man kinda thing

I'm probably making it sound more complex than it is. Suffice it to say it takes a few minutes to work up each army, but then rolling out the results takes no time at all and you can easily factor in PCs by simply applying them as a sort of damage bonus.

Shotgun Jolly · Fri Apr 06, 2007 3:23 am

Does not sound complex at all.

The whole concept of a deep space role playing setting would be perfect. Would have alot less structure to worry about then Rifts Earth... More GM freedom I would say

And Space Pirates, boarding parties, and alien space bugs are a cool thing to play around with.

Hence why I am starting to look at buying the PW books.

Regards

Kesslan · Unread post by **Kesslan** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 3:50 am

Yeah, I allways liked those kinda settings, especially when the GM is very creative. Played on PW game where we ended up kinda like that.. unfortunately we never finished due to RL timing issues breaking up the group

Kesslan · Unread post by **Kesslan** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 4:16 am

40K also isnt really an RPG game, rather a minatures game.

It's still loads of fun though, dont get me wrong. I suppose there is a basis for trying to play it out as an RPG though. There's certainly enough fluff to pull it off. But you'd still need some sorta skill system etc I think. The combat system at least for the most part you could just rip right out of the books.

I'm currious to see how they'll handle that with the Warhammer and WH40k MMORPGs they've announced.

Shotgun Jolly · Fri Apr 06, 2007 4:40 am

Yeah, I was big on the 40K for years..

But it got way to expensive everytime they updated the game rules.. then I would need to update my collection, my rule books and everything else.

That.. plus GW is way over priced for my taste now..

But granted, the vastness of the universe is wicked!

Yeah!.. thats it!!.. I may just go order the Phase world books online instead of waiting to get home!

Kesslan · Unread post by **Kesslan** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 6:28 am

If you find yourself having to choose between one and another, I'd recommend the main PW book since that covers the major powers, and Three Galaxies. Those two I feel at least are the sort of must haves. As one has a good chunk of the OCCs/RCCs and the other has alot of info. OH right and not to forget Anvil Galaxy.

I guess in order of Importance:
Phase world
Avil Galaxy/Three Galaxies

And then for more toys, some more OCCs etc:
Phase World Sourcebook (Has some info on fines, along with some toys and other goodies etc)
NE Wave 2 (which is almost all toys, though it does have 2 RCCs)

To be honest, as nifty as some of the stuff is in NE Wave 2, I almost totally rewrite bot weapon loadouts etc because half of it makes no sense to me at all.

For example some of the weapon arms inexplicably have like.. 4 weapon types. So I'll gut it down to 2 or 3 (tops) and often either give the plasma cartridge weapons (in the robots) a bigger ammo cap, or I knock them up to the next size of cartridge depending on how many weapons I gut out of the arms.

I'd have to look at it again but I think oen for example had a Plasma cartridge annon, a laser beam, a particle beam and like.. one other weapon or soemthing.

Kinda boggling. To me at least, all you really need weapon wise at most is a trio. Plasma cartridge for high damage/ROF, Energy (Laser, Particle beam or Ion) for when your ammo runs out, and some form of railgun or missile launcher for things that are immune to energy attacks and your set.

And of course often they have missile launchers so I'll cut em down to just the plasma cartridge and a laser or particle beam.

There's a few other issues I have with some things but it's a fun book with some nice munch gear that will easily let you pit an SDC char against some of the tougher things to be found in PW and elsewhere.

Kesslan · Unread post by **Kesslan** » Fri Apr 06, 2007 6:33 am

Oh yeah, it's not Phase world, but if your looking for good rifts books in General I'd also highly recomend Madhaven. Just got that in the mail yesterday and, to be honest. Personally I find it one of the best books ever released for rifts..

But thats just me. I also happen to really like Australia which some people really hate. :-(

Guest · Unread post by **Guest** » Tue May 01, 2007 12:14 pm

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Greyaxe · Unread post by **Greyaxe** » Tue May 01, 2007 1:09 pm

Kuseru Satsujin you are a master of thread necromancy.

Braden Campbell · Tue May 01, 2007 2:16 pm

I've seen deader...

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Thu May 03, 2007 12:29 am

I wonder if you could be Ilcantar in......... nope never mind this skeleton just became active right next to me and said that he is not Ilcantar!

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Thu May 03, 2007 10:42 pm

It has started I have the latest from PB. Now I just wish the next Phase World book was out! I haaaavvvveeee ttoooooo hhhhhhhoooolllllddddd ooooouuuuuuttttt uuuuunnnnttttttttiiiiiiillllll iiiiiiiiitttttttt cccccccooooooommmmmmmeeeeeeessssss ooooooouuuuuuutttttttt!

I thinkkkkkk IIiiiiiiiiii'mmmmmm going thru intermediate withdrawllllllllllllllllll! I need more Palladium stuff!

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Thu May 03, 2007 11:51 pm

I'm suffering thru PB withdrawl! I need morre!!!!!

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Sat May 05, 2007 2:56 am

I'mmmm tttttaaallllkkkkiiiinnnngggg about all of PB's books! I neeeedd mooooore sooon!!! :wink:

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Sun May 06, 2007 2:51 am

I have to wait until it arrives at my FLGS. BUt I'll have it as soon as I can.

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Sun May 06, 2007 3:41 am

I know, but I have to try and keep my FLGS around. I don't want them to fail and close!

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Sun May 06, 2007 3:56 am

I will still try to help them. It keeps people employed!

Aramanthus · Unread post by **Aramanthus** » Mon May 07, 2007 10:27 pm

you see our friends who play Phase World and other various PB books and games are like family as much as some of the FLGS are too.

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