Forums of the Megaverse®

Nightfactory wrote:

computertrucker wrote:So for the last year and a half I have been running deathwatch. One of the things I really love about their system is the horde combat. Where a few players can stand against and even destroy an onslaught of enemies. It created some very heroic moments in gameplay. So curious. Does rifts have any rules like this? If so what book would I need to look at.

While Rifts doesn't specifically have the same system, the same thing is certainly possible (and, indeed, has been done) by many players in many games. In one of our games, using a combination of magic, psionics, and tech, four players repelled a charge by 40 gurgoyles.

computertrucker wrote:So for the last year and a half I have been running deathwatch. One of the things I really love about their system is the horde combat. Where a few players can stand against and even destroy an onslaught of enemies. It created some very heroic moments in gameplay. So curious. Does rifts have any rules like this? If so what book would I need to look at.

Thanks.

RoadWarriorFWaNK wrote:

computertrucker wrote:So for the last year and a half I have been running deathwatch. One of the things I really love about their system is the horde combat. Where a few players can stand against and even destroy an onslaught of enemies. It created some very heroic moments in gameplay. So curious. Does rifts have any rules like this? If so what book would I need to look at.

Thanks.

Although there are no official rules on running massive groups in the Palladium combat system, I have some house rules I have been using that have worked out well. I don't want to post them here because I'm also using them in a Dead Reign manuscript I'm working on and I'm not sure they'd want me to put them up on the internet forever.
But if you like, PM me and I will send them to you.

computertrucker wrote:

Nightfactory wrote:

computertrucker wrote:So for the last year and a half I have been running deathwatch. One of the things I really love about their system is the horde combat. Where a few players can stand against and even destroy an onslaught of enemies. It created some very heroic moments in gameplay. So curious. Does rifts have any rules like this? If so what book would I need to look at.

While Rifts doesn't specifically have the same system, the same thing is certainly possible (and, indeed, has been done) by many players in many games. In one of our games, using a combination of magic, psionics, and tech, four players repelled a charge by 40 gurgoyles.

Interesting..How long did that take to play out? In deathwatch I've had 2 marines and an imperial arbitrator wade thru about 30 termigaunts in just a few rounds with their hordes system.

computertrucker wrote:

Nightfactory wrote:

computertrucker wrote:So for the last year and a half I have been running deathwatch. One of the things I really love about their system is the horde combat. Where a few players can stand against and even destroy an onslaught of enemies. It created some very heroic moments in gameplay. So curious. Does rifts have any rules like this? If so what book would I need to look at.

While Rifts doesn't specifically have the same system, the same thing is certainly possible (and, indeed, has been done) by many players in many games. In one of our games, using a combination of magic, psionics, and tech, four players repelled a charge by 40 gurgoyles.

Interesting..How long did that take to play out? In deathwatch I've had 2 marines and an imperial arbitrator wade thru about 30 termigaunts in just a few rounds with their hordes system.

RoadWarriorFWaNK wrote:

computertrucker wrote:So for the last year and a half I have been running deathwatch. One of the things I really love about their system is the horde combat. Where a few players can stand against and even destroy an onslaught of enemies. It created some very heroic moments in gameplay. So curious. Does rifts have any rules like this? If so what book would I need to look at.

Thanks.

Although there are no official rules on running massive groups in the Palladium combat system, I have some house rules I have been using that have worked out well. I don't want to post them here because I'm also using them in a Dead Reign manuscript I'm working on and I'm not sure they'd want me to put them up on the internet forever.
But if you like, PM me and I will send them to you.

Nightfactory wrote:

Thinyser wrote:Thats the rub. In rifts you can take out 40 gurgoyles but you are looking at a huge consumption of real life time.

About three hours of real time, but it was worth it!

Nightfactory wrote:

Thinyser wrote:Was that with regular palladium combat rules or some modifications to speed things along?

Curious because I've had battles of 6 PC's against 20-30 mobs that took 4-6 hours depending on how the battle progressed what tactics were used and countered etc.

No, just regular rules. But the PCs were very clever in their use of combat tactics. They had some advance warning that the gurgoyes were coming so they set up a ambush inside a abandoned missile silo they'd been using as a base. About 12 were killed outright by hidden bombs right at the beginning. A PC Mind Melter mentally possessed one of their leaders and led six of them to a pit trap where they ended up falling down a deep shaft, then got a River of Lava dumped on their heads. The party also used 'divide and conquer' tactics to split up the remaining group and took them out with a mix of spells, rail guns, and particle beam weapons. There was very little close combat. I ran the gurgoyles intelligently, too; it wasn't a give-away. I will admit that it did help that I rolled relatively low MDC for the gurgoyles: most had 100-300 MDC tops. All in all, it took about three hours. But I tend to run combat fairly fast and also the party was commited to their cause and used to working together.

In my experience, when combat is slow and ponderous, it's because: A) The players are not very familar with their own capabilities and keep having to look things up, and B) Don't work well as a team (ie. everyone is out for themselves and end up hindering each other). In contrast, a prepared well-oiled team, so to speak, can meet a superior enemy force with confidence and have a good chance of suceeding against them.