A few thorny GM questions

[t0m]

not sure about the spinning blades, i dont play rifts much...but paired weapons i can offer some advice...

it takes an attack to do anything with paired weapons. if the character has a lot of attacks its a good tactic. you can still parry every attack aimed at you (until you run out of actions). but with each parry, you can attack your attacker for free. add in called shots and you can get a lot done.

a guy with 5 attacks can lose initiative, get surrounded by 5 enemies, and still have a chance to defend against, and hit/kill/cripple all of them, but when his attack comes, he will be out of actions. basically to offset the disadvantages you have to have a lot of attacks and a huge bonus to strike/parry (aka- a 'huge pp'), or just make sure that when using your paired weapons, you are fighting one person.

i would also allow a rifle parry. just keep in mind its not going to work right after a good impact or two. do any of the rifts books give sdc/mdc for the guns themselves?

[The Beast]

do any of the rifts books give sdc/mdc for the guns themselves?

IIRC, the original Conversion Book had a few of the weapons with their MDC listed for just such a reason. Can't remember about more recent weapons though.

[Vrykolas2k]

I couldn't say much about the spinning blades, but as far as paired weapons goes...

I dont know if this is just a house rule or not, but when someone attacks you (in the game i'm running) with two weapons, and you only have one, you can only parry one (your choice). So attacking with two has its benefits such as possibly more damage and the ability for one attack to always get through (provided your strike roll was successful). More often than not, though, paired weapons are used as one for attacking one for defense, even in real life settings. Some weapons are better to parry with and some are better to strike with, magical or otherwise, and you kind of get the best of both worlds that way. if your facing three opponents, it may be wiser to attack with just one to allow for a parry, but when facing one, and/or finishing someone off, attacking with two is more efficient.

I run it a bit more realistically than that; after all, I can parry two weapons... even two people wielding two weapons. Then again, I'm not some mage, either...

[The ineffible GM]

Alright, I think I need something cleared up here quickly. I do not own Ultimate edition, though I've read through it. I've also read through most other Palladium core books.

Parrying.
All characters begin with Automatic Parry, meaning that they can parry attacks without losing their next attack action.
I have always understood this to mean that a player can attempt to parry any number of attacks without losing their next attack action.

Has this changed over the years without my realizing it?

This seems to be the core problem with the whirling blades...why rely on the blades to parry if the mage him/herself can parry without penalty? And after a bit of experience, can do so with a larger bonus than the spell?

As for paired weapons, what advantage is there to having a weapon for attacking and a weapon for defending when a character weilding a single weapon can attack, and still use their automatic parry?

[The ineffible GM]

Thank you Shadowmagic for clearing that up, and illustrating exactly what use both that spell and that skill are good for.