How do your groups get around?

[Pepsi Jedi]

Was looking through a few of the books last night and a question came to mind.

Rifts earth is 90% unclaimed wilderness and it's pretty dangerous to travel from place to place. You never know if you'll just ravel with no problem, or when a swarm of inhuman demonic monsters might come up out of the ground or down from the sky to eat your face.

So I'm curious how your groups get around. Many OOC's will let you start with a horse or bike or something, but for 'Group' travel that's not always the best. Which vehicles do you guys use? Converted Mark V Apc? Horses? Hover cycles? hover jeeps, Mountaineers? I'm not really talking about 'BATTLE' but more transit and travel over the 100s and 1000s of miles of wilderness and such.

[MaxxSterling]

power armor, flying mostly. i don't think i've ever had anyone own a vehicle or walk ever in a game...

[Akashic Soldier]

My first group used a Mountaineer. The second group stole some old sdc dirt bikes, then they got totaled, so they legged it and then they started bumming rides and now they're in Lazlo and this is one of the big things they need to figure out for exactly the reasons you have presented here. I will let you know what they settle with. As GM I have no input on what their choice will be (only if they can afford it )

[flatline]

Hoverbikes and Jet Packs (or Grav Packs if we could get them).

Hoverbikes had a tendency to get shot to pieces. Jet Packs usually lasted longer since the GM ruled that they were protected by Armor of Ithan and similar magic or psionic force fields, but even they needed to be replaced with alarming frequency, so once the campaign really go going, we tended to bum rides from NPCs or rely on non-vehicular transportation like Dimensional Portal, Teleport, or flight spells/tattoos/etc. Natural flight and/or teleport abilities were highly prized in our group.

The Temporal Wizard provided plenty of Dimensional Pockets, so storage space was only an issue if you wanted to store something heavier than 30lbs.

--flatline

[Colt47]

Mostly used conventional and TW powered vehicles that can be had for cheap, so lots of RUE vehicles. The real valuable equipment tends to be portable power generators and other tools that can recharge vehicle engines if they are electric. Hover vehicles are flying death traps, stay the heck away from them.

[flatline]

Hover vehicles are flying death traps, stay the heck away from them.

Because you're exposed to enemy fire while riding them? Or for some other reason?

--flatline

[Akashic Soldier]

Hover vehicles are flying death traps, stay the heck away from them.

Because you're exposed to enemy fire while riding them? Or for some other reason?

--flatline

Slightly lower base pilot skill + immense speeds = deadly crashes.

[Colt47]

Hover vehicles are flying death traps, stay the heck away from them.

Because you're exposed to enemy fire while riding them? Or for some other reason?

--flatline

I don't know the reason. Everything in Rifts Earth seems to either want to steal hover vehicles, shoot hover vehicles, or eat hover vehicles. I just sort of gave up on them after a while and stuck with motorcycles and automobiles. It's not like Rifts Earth has grabloids from Tremors...

[Pepsi Jedi]

Dino swamp does say that the high pitched whine of hover vehicles chases off game, and draws predators (( sentient and animalistic)). People to steal and apparently predators come to investigate the weird sound and find soft om noms where the sound was.

Still interested though. I think it's kinda funny how people don't seem to give much thought to this. More than one person has stated hitching rides. I find that kinda amazing. Travel being as dangerous and hard as it is in Rifts, to just hand wave it is sort of a trip.

[Killer Cyborg]

For our longest campaign, we were last seen flying around in a magical longship.

In general, Mountaineers and Big Boss ATVs are popular, as are hovercycles.
A lot of the time, though, we go on foot.

[Faceless Dude]

I play a lot of power armor guys, so there's that.

Otherwise one of my first citified purchases is a converted humvee from Golden Age. That's my preferred point a to point b transport.

In a very early game, I did have an operator make a transport vehicle for our party out of wreckage from a large fight with the CS. He ended up with a Mk V without wheels, mounted on top of a pair of spider skull walker leg sets.

[Pepsi Jedi]

Most of our rifts games, we'll ask the GM for a group vehicle. If allowed great. If not, we'll use the starting vehicles from our OOCs till we can save up. First order of business is usually the "Eclip recharger" after that we'll save up for the group vehicle.

When I play I often put forward the idea and so far it's been jumped on most every time. The first time we played (20 years ago, I was like 15. ) We 'liberated' a CS MarkV. Awesome group vehicle. Thing is.. when the CS see you in it, they know 1) You stole it, and 2) You very likely killed CS troops to do so.

Needless to say. BAD TIMES Ensued. It's also a bit large.

Since then I have had Northern Gun produce an adventurer APC. Kinda the same IDEA As the Mark V but smaller, ALOT less weapons (( to make the CS less twitchy if they see you, and less likely to instantly deem you a threat and blow you up.)) It's still pricy but no where near the cost of building a full out Mark V.

Every group I've pitched it to has 1) Agreed it's exactly the sort of thing NG would build and makret. 2) Agreed that while it has two weapon systems it's not 'TOO MUCH' to make other groups instantly nervous. Defending against MD threat is a way of life in rifts and 3) Have agreed with the design.

Twin rail gun mounted on the front. Laser cannon on top. The one we 'save up for' is usually nuclear so we never have to worry about running out of gas. One pilot (Who can control the forward rail gun if needed), one communications/gunner. (( Usually on the main laser cannon but can control the front gun if needed. Can seat 13 other "human" Sized troops in MD armor.. or less... if it's power armor, or big DBee's or something. I'm sure you all can figure that out on your own. For a total of 15 with the pilot and comm/gunner. Naturally this is kinda packed in and not hugely comfy. 10 is better. 20-25 or so if you've got people standing up and holding onto grab bars packed in like sardines. (( our largest group ever was 9 +An NPC Operator so it never really got that far.

Now... I didn't create the design, but I use it. I'm not posting stats here. If anyone wants them I can dig um out and pass um over off the site. Here's the visual for our group vehicle though.

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o314 ... APC111.jpg
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o314 ... APC222.jpg
http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o314 ... APC333.jpg

Note... when ever I propose this to our groups I never propose it as a COMBAT VEHICLE.. this is how we get from A to B and if we get jumped along the way it doesn't instantly blow up.. but we do NOT drive the expensive vehicle (( with our Eclip recharger)) into battle. We hide it some where and go into battle 'normally'. The weapons are there for DEFENSIVE purpose. Again, if we're ambushed it can punch back, but it's not a full out COMBAT VEHICLE. I mean you could but the thing is over a million bucks... we try and keep it in one piece.

One time in one group we did drive one through a Bar and ran over a crazy with it... but that was extenuating circumstances and he totally deserved it.

[ZorValachan]

Walking, Cyberhorse for the cyber-knight and our group found an APC (the one in sourcebook 1 revised+expanded) damaged and buried in snow escorting refugees from Tolkeen. Used it like a mobile home afterwards. Dog boy ran ahead scouting, Cyber knight a bit back on the horse and everyone else riding on the APC (including the Glitterboy).

[camk4evr]

Before an (almost) TPK we had a van, a VHT hover tank, the Glitterboy used his armour, and a hovercycle of some kind. After they were killed we used a Valkyrie 2, an Avenger PA, an aerospace fighter, and I forgot what the other guy in our group used.

[Johnathan]

Depends on the group really... The last four groups I've played all had very different modes of transportation.

Group #1 "borrowed" a huge starship/luxury cruiser that has sentient (not an AI, an actually intelligence) from an enemy who gave up the ship rather meet the nasty end of her life.

Group #2 primarily used horses to get from place to place.

Group #3 used living magicks designated as Pathways to travel long distances. Then they would acquire whatever form of transportation was readily available for temporary use.

Group #4 currently travels on spaceship that is a part of the company they're working for (I.E. not their own vehicle)

[TechnoGothic]

Mostly our groups/characters end up Walking-Treking on foot.
Its quite, and allows the group to spot/hear trouble before its a threat usually.

[Mallak's Place]

Any thing Cheap and disposable. Our groups has on more then one occasion spent small fortunes on top of the line High-tech transportation then spent another fortune on TW upgrades and Accessories. only to have it totaled or be left behind a few adventures down the line. Generally we always have a Gypsy Wagon with a few Dimensional Envelopes for extra storage

[DBX]

Was looking through a few of the books last night and a question came to mind.

Rifts earth is 90% unclaimed wilderness and it's pretty dangerous to travel from place to place. You never know if you'll just ravel with no problem, or when a swarm of inhuman demonic monsters might come up out of the ground or down from the sky to eat your face.

So I'm curious how your groups get around. Many OOC's will let you start with a horse or bike or something, but for 'Group' travel that's not always the best. Which vehicles do you guys use? Converted Mark V Apc? Horses? Hover cycles? hover jeeps, Mountaineers? I'm not really talking about 'BATTLE' but more transit and travel over the 100s and 1000s of miles of wilderness and such.

Mainly whatever the player group start out with. I think in the early days it used to big boss/mountaineers that our group as a whole used

In another campaign we had the Mark V APC. Think this still is best player group vehicle but it comes under military vehicles, though after CWC book, it could quite easily be considered a civilian market vehicle, as more and more are decommissioned by the CS and sold on the BM

we settled on the behemoth explorer being a good choice for a player vehicle when we actually discussed this, as in those days that appeared to be only useful civilian vehicle, and it was designed for that purpose (mobile home for research in the wilderness), as well as it appeared to be one of the few vehicles that was produced by Lazlo.

I think there should be a few more civilian transport vehicles, specifically for this purpose in books. IMO Lazlo is most likely to be a huge market for this type of vehicles and tech

[Colt47]

I was just planning on posting a topic similar to this to see how other groups did it. My group from back in the 90's always used Mountaineers and Big Boss ATVs.

While we're on the topic of traveling...
Glitter Boys aren't really meant for long range overland travel. How do you other groups handle stuff like that? It's not like you can just perch the armor on the back of your Big Boss ATV and take off. So how do you handle having large suits of Power Armor and other bulky when you travel long distances? I really like Pepsi Jedi's idea of having a non-CS APC available for purchase.

The issue has never really come up. The heaviest thing we've lugged around in our play group is probably some early dark age statues that we sold for a mint (one of them weighed about 3 tons).

[Greyaxe]

Behemoth explorer. is my personal favorite. We have used them as aircraft carriers mobile science operations platforms and all around big base fun.

[Icefalcon]

In some of the games that I have been a part of, we have used various modes of transportation. After the group is able to afford it, we have usually bought a big boss or moutaineer APC. There have been games where I allow groups to buy the Wilderness Crusader or one of the Cargo Haulers from Triax. Hover cycles are also very popular with the group until they can come across a group vehicle. The hover APC from Merc Ops has become a quick favorite with the group. Some of the times, I have seen horses, robot horses, motorcycles and light MDC cars/trucks.

[MADMANMIKE]

I don't know the reason. Everything in Rifts Earth seems to either want to steal hover vehicles, shoot hover vehicles, or eat hover vehicles. I just sort of gave up on them after a while and stuck with motorcycles and automobiles. It's not like Rifts Earth has grabloids from Tremors...

Yeah, that's not RIFTS, that's your GM...

It always amazes me how many people just can't grasp how vast and difficult to traverse wilderness can be. Just because vehicle has a top speed of X miles per hour, doesn't mean owning that vehicle let's you go that fast. I've had that argument more times than I can count.

PJ, I like the idea of an NG APC like that. Would you be opposed to a less copyrighted version, art-wise?

[flatline]

I don't know the reason. Everything in Rifts Earth seems to either want to steal hover vehicles, shoot hover vehicles, or eat hover vehicles. I just sort of gave up on them after a while and stuck with motorcycles and automobiles. It's not like Rifts Earth has grabloids from Tremors...

Yeah, that's not RIFTS, that's your GM...

It always amazes me how many people just can't grasp how vast and difficult to traverse wilderness can be. Just because vehicle has a top speed of X miles per hour, doesn't mean owning that vehicle let's you go that fast. I've had that argument more times than I can count.

PJ, I like the idea of an NG APC like that. Would you be opposed to a less copyrighted version, art-wise?

Well, part of the appeal of hover vehicles is that you can hover above the trees and actually achieve 100+ mph (assuming you don't draw any shoot-you-down-attention).

--flatline

[Pepsi Jedi]

For those of you walking. How did your GM's handle the length of travel. With towns and cities being 100s of miles apart, and the average soldier doing about 12 to 15 miles a day did your GM just tick off 10.. 20... 30 days at a click? "You set out from town A, ti's 100 miles to town B, Walking at a decent clip but not killing yourselves on the march you make it in 10 days?"


As to the "how'd you move power armor around. I can't speak to others but they either go in the cargo area of the APC or we'd put like running boards with secure straps(Chains whatever)) on the outside/top. We never had "too much" power armor so it wasn't a huge deal.

Our games are pretty big into the "you're not in MD armor 24/7 as it'd just be unhealthy as hell and you'd get sick, pressure sores, ect, (( it'd stink)) and you'd mess up the inside of the armor. Our group's tend to (( since it came out)) Wear the Northern Gun light mdc Cammo Fatigues (( Dino swamp 2 I belive. Last few pages. GOTTA look those up. lol Our group loves customizing their camo and boots and stuff. )). The groups will armor up if expecting trouble (( or rotate with 2 in armor and the rest out, during travel ect))



Our groups (( the few I've had)) Have made that 'gentleman's' agreements", when it comes to our vehicles during 'adventures'. We used to leave 2 or 3 people with the 'camp/vehicles/gear' to prevent it from getting stolen or something. This lead to split groups with only half ever getting to play and the GM feels he needs to do something for those with the gear or they're left out. So our 'agreement' is "While it's not 100% realistic, noone likes going on the adventure and getting screwed. If the GM agrees not to screw us over on having our stuff stolen, the entire group will go adventuring instead of leaving people back every time"

It's a SLIGHT bend of disbelief but it leads to MUCH more fun games, if you're not always worried about the 'GM Screw' Factor. Makes it easier for the GM too, as he doesn't have to run the adventure for those away from camp and then have something happen at camp every time too.

Another thing that we've done a few times is 'hire" an NPC Operator to travel with our group. His 'pay' gets factored into the groups profits. If the group is 4 players and they hire the NPC Operator, we "Split the pay" 5 ways. Just makes things easier. He can be used as the 'driver' too. He usually stays with the APC/camp. (( which helps with the 'nothing happened at camp while you were away' agreement.

[Pepsi Jedi]

I don't know the reason. Everything in Rifts Earth seems to either want to steal hover vehicles, shoot hover vehicles, or eat hover vehicles. I just sort of gave up on them after a while and stuck with motorcycles and automobiles. It's not like Rifts Earth has grabloids from Tremors...

Yeah, that's not RIFTS, that's your GM...

It always amazes me how many people just can't grasp how vast and difficult to traverse wilderness can be. Just because vehicle has a top speed of X miles per hour, doesn't mean owning that vehicle let's you go that fast. I've had that argument more times than I can count.

PJ, I like the idea of an NG APC like that. Would you be opposed to a less copyrighted version, art-wise?

I wouldn't be opposed at all. I'd love to have something like it in rifts. It was the 90s. It 'fit' what we were looking for, and it's easy to find pictures of. That's just what we use as a default. I statted it out years ago and when we form new groups I have it printed out and propose it. Most groups playing rifts love the thing already and jump on using it. lol

I'm hoping that we'll get a couple in the new NG books. "Official Rifts Northern Gun" ones.

There was a Rifter on "CS support vechiles, that were all built off the Mark V frame, but again, there's that huge problem with the CS going "That's our armored personell carrier, and those guys aren't CS. LIGHT UM UP!!" aspect.

So I just use the above till I find a good substitute.

[flatline]

For those of you walking. How did your GM's handle the length of travel. With towns and cities being 100s of miles apart, and the average soldier doing about 12 to 15 miles a day did your GM just tick off 10.. 20... 30 days at a click? "You set out from town A, ti's 100 miles to town B, Walking at a decent clip but not killing yourselves on the march you make it in 10 days?"

We treated it exactly the same as if we were in vehicles. If nothing interesting happened it'd just be "you walk for 8 hours and get there..." vs "you drive for 1 hour and get there...". If interesting stuff occured ("you sense a ley line off to the east" or "you see something interesting on your way..." or "everybody roll initiative!") we'd decide if we want to change our plans or continue on to our destination.

Of course, if you're walking, you can't get away from chance encounters as easily, so it's much more dangerous. You can, however, hide better.

Our games are pretty big into the "you're not in MD armor 24/7 as it'd just be unhealthy as hell and you'd get sick, pressure sores, ect, (( it'd stink)) and you'd mess up the inside of the armor. Our group's tend to (( since it came out)) Wear the Northern Gun light mdc Cammo Fatigues (( Dino swamp 2 I belive. Last few pages. GOTTA look those up. lol Our group loves customizing their camo and boots and stuff. )). The groups will armor up if expecting trouble (( or rotate with 2 in armor and the rest out, during travel ect))

Hmm...those of us who didn't use force fields generally put armor on at the beginning of the day, wore it throughout the day (usually sans helmet) and took it off when we camped. If the camp was exposed, the watch would be armored while the rest of us slept.

I had a GM that wouldn't give you the benefit of 6th sense if you were armored and the weapon's max damage was less than your armor's MDC. In that campaign, nobody with 6th sense wore armor at all and depended on the 6th sense warning to power up a force field or cast Armor of Ithan.

Our groups (( the few I've had)) Have made that 'gentleman's' agreements", when it comes to our vehicles during 'adventures'. We used to leave 2 or 3 people with the 'camp/vehicles/gear' to prevent it from getting stolen or something. This lead to split groups with only half ever getting to play and the GM feels he needs to do something for those with the gear or they're left out. So our 'agreement' is "While it's not 100% realistic, noone likes going on the adventure and getting screwed. If the GM agrees not to screw us over on having our stuff stolen, the entire group will go adventuring instead of leaving people back every time"

It's a SLIGHT bend of disbelief but it leads to MUCH more fun games, if you're not always worried about the 'GM Screw' Factor. Makes it easier for the GM too, as he doesn't have to run the adventure for those away from camp and then have something happen at camp every time too.

We totally expected the GM to screw us. Anything you couldn't carry with you or hide in a Dimensional Envelope (bikes would fit, nothing larger) was pretty much guaranteed to be stolen, vandalized, damaged, or destroyed after a session or two. That's one of the reasons I prize Grav Packs and Dimensional Pockets so highly.

Another thing that we've done a few times is 'hire" an NPC Operator to travel with our group. His 'pay' gets factored into the groups profits. If the group is 4 players and they hire the NPC Operator, we "Split the pay" 5 ways. Just makes things easier. He can be used as the 'driver' too. He usually stays with the APC/camp. (( which helps with the 'nothing happened at camp while you were away' agreement.

We tried that, but it never lasted. The GM would eventually have the NPC run off with our stuff or have it stolen from him while we were away. Our inability to keep equipment that we couldn't carry with us is one of the reasons that our character concepts tended to rely so heavily on magic, psionics, and/or super powers.

--flatline

[Colt47]

I don't know the reason. Everything in Rifts Earth seems to either want to steal hover vehicles, shoot hover vehicles, or eat hover vehicles. I just sort of gave up on them after a while and stuck with motorcycles and automobiles. It's not like Rifts Earth has grabloids from Tremors...

Yeah, that's not RIFTS, that's your GM...

It always amazes me how many people just can't grasp how vast and difficult to traverse wilderness can be. Just because vehicle has a top speed of X miles per hour, doesn't mean owning that vehicle let's you go that fast. I've had that argument more times than I can count.

PJ, I like the idea of an NG APC like that. Would you be opposed to a less copyrighted version, art-wise?

More like multiple GMs.

[Chronicle]

most of my characters travel on foot or their own individual vehicles, current campaing has a character with a Jeep. My last one was phaseworld based to we had a typical runner ship

[Pepsi Jedi]

For those of you walking. How did your GM's handle the length of travel. With towns and cities being 100s of miles apart, and the average soldier doing about 12 to 15 miles a day did your GM just tick off 10.. 20... 30 days at a click? "You set out from town A, ti's 100 miles to town B, Walking at a decent clip but not killing yourselves on the march you make it in 10 days?"

We treated it exactly the same as if we were in vehicles. If nothing interesting happened it'd just be "you walk for 8 hours and get there..." vs "you drive for 1 hour and get there...". If interesting stuff occured ("you sense a ley line off to the east" or "you see something interesting on your way..." or "everybody roll initiative!") we'd decide if we want to change our plans or continue on to our destination.

Of course, if you're walking, you can't get away from chance encounters as easily, so it's much more dangerous. You can, however, hide better.

Our games are pretty big into the "you're not in MD armor 24/7 as it'd just be unhealthy as hell and you'd get sick, pressure sores, ect, (( it'd stink)) and you'd mess up the inside of the armor. Our group's tend to (( since it came out)) Wear the Northern Gun light mdc Cammo Fatigues (( Dino swamp 2 I belive. Last few pages. GOTTA look those up. lol Our group loves customizing their camo and boots and stuff. )). The groups will armor up if expecting trouble (( or rotate with 2 in armor and the rest out, during travel ect))

Hmm...those of us who didn't use force fields generally put armor on at the beginning of the day, wore it throughout the day (usually sans helmet) and took it off when we camped. If the camp was exposed, the watch would be armored while the rest of us slept.

I had a GM that wouldn't give you the benefit of 6th sense if you were armored and the weapon's max damage was less than your armor's MDC. In that campaign, nobody with 6th sense wore armor at all and depended on the 6th sense warning to power up a force field or cast Armor of Ithan.

Our groups (( the few I've had)) Have made that 'gentleman's' agreements", when it comes to our vehicles during 'adventures'. We used to leave 2 or 3 people with the 'camp/vehicles/gear' to prevent it from getting stolen or something. This lead to split groups with only half ever getting to play and the GM feels he needs to do something for those with the gear or they're left out. So our 'agreement' is "While it's not 100% realistic, noone likes going on the adventure and getting screwed. If the GM agrees not to screw us over on having our stuff stolen, the entire group will go adventuring instead of leaving people back every time"

It's a SLIGHT bend of disbelief but it leads to MUCH more fun games, if you're not always worried about the 'GM Screw' Factor. Makes it easier for the GM too, as he doesn't have to run the adventure for those away from camp and then have something happen at camp every time too.

We totally expected the GM to screw us. Anything you couldn't carry with you or hide in a Dimensional Envelope (bikes would fit, nothing larger) was pretty much guaranteed to be stolen, vandalized, damaged, or destroyed after a session or two. That's one of the reasons I prize Grav Packs and Dimensional Pockets so highly.

Sounds like your GM was a bit of a jerk.. if you EXPECTED To get screwed over at every opportunity.. why would you play with that guy?

Another thing that we've done a few times is 'hire" an NPC Operator to travel with our group. His 'pay' gets factored into the groups profits. If the group is 4 players and they hire the NPC Operator, we "Split the pay" 5 ways. Just makes things easier. He can be used as the 'driver' too. He usually stays with the APC/camp. (( which helps with the 'nothing happened at camp while you were away' agreement.

We tried that, but it never lasted. The GM would eventually have the NPC run off with our stuff or have it stolen from him while we were away. Our inability to keep equipment that we couldn't carry with us is one of the reasons that our character concepts tended to rely so heavily on magic, psionics, and/or super powers.

--flatline

Again, it sounds like your GM was an Ahole. That sort of behavior would have rapidly gotten someone left out, when the next invite for the group to get together came. Who wants to play with a GM who purposefully screws you over?

[MADMANMIKE]

I don't want to get off topic, but I have to point out that it's a testament to how awesome RIFTS is that you've kept interest (Colt47 and flatline) after having such terrible GMs..

[Nightmask]

I don't want to get off topic, but I have to point out that it's a testament to how awesome RIFTS is that you've kept interest (Colt47 and flatline) after having such terrible GMs..

I have to second that, those are some awful GM, takes something special to keep your interest when you've got people like that giving you such a miserable time of things. I've seen enough of those horror stories I always go with a character as self-contained as possible just in case a GM turns out to be like that.

[SAMASzero]

Hover vehicles are flying death traps, stay the heck away from them.

Because you're exposed to enemy fire while riding them? Or for some other reason?

--flatline

I don't know the reason. Everything in Rifts Earth seems to either want to steal hover vehicles, shoot hover vehicles, or eat hover vehicles. I just sort of gave up on them after a while and stuck with motorcycles and automobiles. It's not like Rifts Earth has grabloids from Tremors...

Yet.

[flatline]

I don't want to get off topic, but I have to point out that it's a testament to how awesome RIFTS is that you've kept interest (Colt47 and flatline) after having such terrible GMs..

I have to second that, those are some awful GM, takes something special to keep your interest when you've got people like that giving you such a miserable time of things. I've seen enough of those horror stories I always go with a character as self-contained as possible just in case a GM turns out to be like that.

Actually, he was an excellent GM. He never railroaded us, was fair and consistent, extremely creative and patient, was extremely good at pacing the game and preventing us from getting bogged down in rules, and, most importantly, was a whole lot of fun of game with.

But he also felt that it was a really stupid idea to leave expensive equipment parked in the wilderness where there was no rule of law. Also, that EVERYTHING in a blast radius that wasn't protected would take damage ("so, that new tool belt of yours...that you were wearing outside your armor..."). He wasn't stingy with money or equipment, so a vehicle or weapon was easily replaced, but if you lost something special, it still stung.

Over time, we simply learned what his quirks were and designed our characters and play styles to not be particularly vulnerable to his particular brand of "realism" and had a great time.

--flatline

[MADMANMIKE]

I don't want to get off topic, but I have to point out that it's a testament to how awesome RIFTS is that you've kept interest (Colt47 and flatline) after having such terrible GMs..

I have to second that, those are some awful GM, takes something special to keep your interest when you've got people like that giving you such a miserable time of things. I've seen enough of those horror stories I always go with a character as self-contained as possible just in case a GM turns out to be like that.

Actually, he was an excellent GM. He never railroaded us, was fair and consistent, extremely creative and patient, was extremely good at pacing the game and preventing us from getting bogged down in rules, and, most importantly, was a whole lot of fun of game with.

But he also felt that it was a really stupid idea to leave expensive equipment parked in the wilderness where there was no rule of law. Also, that EVERYTHING in a blast radius that wasn't protected would take damage ("so, that new tool belt of yours...that you were wearing outside your armor..."). He wasn't stingy with money or equipment, so a vehicle or weapon was easily replaced, but if you lost something special, it still stung.

Over time, we simply learned what his quirks were and designed our characters and play styles to not be particularly vulnerable to his particular brand of "realism" and had a great time.

--flatline

Well, that's good. And everything in a blast radius should take damage.. Doesn't everyone play it that way?

[flatline]

I don't want to get off topic, but I have to point out that it's a testament to how awesome RIFTS is that you've kept interest (Colt47 and flatline) after having such terrible GMs..

I have to second that, those are some awful GM, takes something special to keep your interest when you've got people like that giving you such a miserable time of things. I've seen enough of those horror stories I always go with a character as self-contained as possible just in case a GM turns out to be like that.

Actually, he was an excellent GM. He never railroaded us, was fair and consistent, extremely creative and patient, was extremely good at pacing the game and preventing us from getting bogged down in rules, and, most importantly, was a whole lot of fun of game with.

But he also felt that it was a really stupid idea to leave expensive equipment parked in the wilderness where there was no rule of law. Also, that EVERYTHING in a blast radius that wasn't protected would take damage ("so, that new tool belt of yours...that you were wearing outside your armor..."). He wasn't stingy with money or equipment, so a vehicle or weapon was easily replaced, but if you lost something special, it still stung.

Over time, we simply learned what his quirks were and designed our characters and play styles to not be particularly vulnerable to his particular brand of "realism" and had a great time.

--flatline

Well, that's good. And everything in a blast radius should take damage.. Doesn't everyone play it that way?

A concussion blast won't actually directly damage small items as much as it throws them around. If you can find them afterwards, they would probably be OK. Not with him...if it was SDC and in the blast radius, it was dust. Woe to the adventurer who was holding his wallet in his hand when something exploded...

--flatline

[Pepsi Jedi]

I don't want to get off topic, but I have to point out that it's a testament to how awesome RIFTS is that you've kept interest (Colt47 and flatline) after having such terrible GMs..

I have to second that, those are some awful GM, takes something special to keep your interest when you've got people like that giving you such a miserable time of things. I've seen enough of those horror stories I always go with a character as self-contained as possible just in case a GM turns out to be like that.

Actually, he was an excellent GM. He never railroaded us, was fair and consistent, extremely creative and patient, was extremely good at pacing the game and preventing us from getting bogged down in rules, and, most importantly, was a whole lot of fun of game with.

But he also felt that it was a really stupid idea to leave expensive equipment parked in the wilderness where there was no rule of law. Also, that EVERYTHING in a blast radius that wasn't protected would take damage ("so, that new tool belt of yours...that you were wearing outside your armor..."). He wasn't stingy with money or equipment, so a vehicle or weapon was easily replaced, but if you lost something special, it still stung.

Over time, we simply learned what his quirks were and designed our characters and play styles to not be particularly vulnerable to his particular brand of "realism" and had a great time.

--flatline

No... he railroaded you by his behavior and how he 'trained' you not to do things he didn't wantyou to do. That's jerky.

Yeah leaving things in the wildernesscould get them stolen, but you can go 1000 miles and never see a living soul. Having your gear stolen on such a regular and consistant basis that you started using magic to keep it on you at all times. (( Well there's many ways we can go with that)) but it's a jerky move.

I wouldn't call a GM "Fair" if he screwed me so hard and so long I learned HOW he liked to screw me and had to plan against it. He even screwed you whe you hired an NPC to help out with it? lol wow.

[flatline]

No... he railroaded you by his behavior and how he 'trained' you not to do things he didn't wantyou to do. That's jerky.

Yeah leaving things in the wildernesscould get them stolen, but you can go 1000 miles and never see a living soul. Having your gear stolen on such a regular and consistant basis that you started using magic to keep it on you at all times. (( Well there's many ways we can go with that)) but it's a jerky move.

I wouldn't call a GM "Fair" if he screwed me so hard and so long I learned HOW he liked to screw me and had to plan against it. He even screwed you whe you hired an NPC to help out with it? lol wow.

Every GM has his quirks. I enjoyed his games. Perhaps you wouldn't have.

And you probably won't be surprised to learn that I played magic users even before I learned his quirks...

--flatline

[Josh Sinsapaugh]

More often than not: foot power and shoe leather.

~ Josh

[Greyaxe]

I don't want to get off topic, but I have to point out that it's a testament to how awesome RIFTS is that you've kept interest (Colt47 and flatline) after having such terrible GMs..

I have to second that, those are some awful GM, takes something special to keep your interest when you've got people like that giving you such a miserable time of things. I've seen enough of those horror stories I always go with a character as self-contained as possible just in case a GM turns out to be like that.

Actually, he was an excellent GM. He never railroaded us, was fair and consistent, extremely creative and patient, was extremely good at pacing the game and preventing us from getting bogged down in rules, and, most importantly, was a whole lot of fun of game with.

But he also felt that it was a really stupid idea to leave expensive equipment parked in the wilderness where there was no rule of law. Also, that EVERYTHING in a blast radius that wasn't protected would take damage ("so, that new tool belt of yours...that you were wearing outside your armor..."). He wasn't stingy with money or equipment, so a vehicle or weapon was easily replaced, but if you lost something special, it still stung.

Over time, we simply learned what his quirks were and designed our characters and play styles to not be particularly vulnerable to his particular brand of "realism" and had a great time.

--flatline

No... he railroaded you by his behavior and how he 'trained' you not to do things he didn't wantyou to do. That's jerky.

Yeah leaving things in the wildernesscould get them stolen, but you can go 1000 miles and never see a living soul. Having your gear stolen on such a regular and consistant basis that you started using magic to keep it on you at all times. (( Well there's many ways we can go with that)) but it's a jerky move.

I wouldn't call a GM "Fair" if he screwed me so hard and so long I learned HOW he liked to screw me and had to plan against it. He even screwed you whe you hired an NPC to help out with it? lol wow.

I totally agree, we had an ******* GM in PFRPG he screwed us at every turn. Out\r Rifts GM want s us to take precautions but doesn't screw us over. Lock your equipment voice activation etc. but he doesn't defeat these measures at every turn.

[flatline]

No... he railroaded you by his behavior and how he 'trained' you not to do things he didn't want you to do. That's jerky.

Out of curiosity, are you married?

--flatline

[Pepsi Jedi]

No... he railroaded you by his behavior and how he 'trained' you not to do things he didn't want you to do. That's jerky.

Out of curiosity, are you married?

--flatline

Very dangerous territory there Flatline.

[Pepsi Jedi]

Maybe it's just the groups I played in, but we never were trying to "Win" against our GM's likewise a GM that purposfully tried to screw the players over wan't liked or appreciated. That's not to say our GM's gave us everything on a silver platter, but there's a difference between giving a challenge.. .and just waiting for the first time you're out side of camp to steal all your stuff.

A challenge is a challenge for the players, it has purpose beyond 'HA!! GOT YA!" If there's story to it and purpose... ok. If it's just the GM taking advantage that he's 'god' and controlls everyone else in the world other than your small group. That's just a power hungry jerk.... we hit those with the RUE (( or the spycraft core book that thing's a brick))

[The Dark Elf]

As a GM the only way I win is if the players & myself had fun!

Back on topic. Cars, cycles, Mountaineers or PA. If we're on foot, we are looking to acquire some transport.

[flatline]

No... he railroaded you by his behavior and how he 'trained' you not to do things he didn't want you to do. That's jerky.

Out of curiosity, are you married?

--flatline

Very dangerous territory there Flatline.

Sorry, not intended to be a dangerous question. I wanted to point out that whether we realize it or not, we influence and are influenced by those around us and I figured this would be most obvious in the context of marriage where you quickly learn to cede small battles (like putting the toilet seat down, to give a stereotypical example) because they're not worth the potential friction to the relationship.

I'm not saying that being part of a gaming group is as significant a relationship as being married, but it is a relationship. And in any relationship, if you ask yourself "is it worth making a big deal out of this?" and decided that it wasn't worth making a big deal out of it, then this doesn't mean the rest of the group was being "jerky" about it. It also doesn't mean that you "gave in". You were simply making a mature decision that acknowledged that the value of the issue was too small to risk the health of the relationship.

--flatline

[cyberdon]

So far, the group I run has used the Mountaineer ATV, a Big Boss motorcycle, a hovercycle, a seeker, and SAMAS armour.

A lot of wilderness to explore...

[13eowulf]

The first Rifts group I was a part of travelled initially by signing on with shipping/supply caravans as security. We got to where we were going, and gots paid to do it.
Later when we had enough money we bought our own vehicle, which in this case as a GAW MDC converted APC from Mercenaries.

[Warshield73]

Since I have moslty been the GM and not gotten to play much I can only tell you from the GM side. When Rifts first came out your only choice was Behemoth Exploreror Mark V APC.

My original player group was bot heavy, including an Enforcer and Hunter Mobile Gun so they used those for transport with a Mark V as an amo & supply carrier.

One of the things that I love about the new group of books is how many civilian or exploration vehicles there are. It really allows for more diverse groups. The new vehicles in Black Market are great for long range transport and the Sky Bunker in Merc Ops is great if you have a group that is more merc and less adventure.

As for protecting vehicles, most of the groups I have run I have allowed a few robot drones like Triax Dyna bots to protect gear, that way everyone is in on the action. As I have told my players at a certain point realism has to give way to this being a game and everyone needs to play.

One of the things that I have always tried to get across to players is that a group vehicle (unlike player vehicles) should be considered disposable. The Behemoth, the Mark V, and lots of other group vehicles, all destroyed in major battles or just to get rid of them so I could give them a chance to get and play with something new and cool.

As for walking I was never very good at the journey. I was the crapy GM that said "OK 11 days later you make it to the next town."

[Nether]

My early games used one of the CS APCs which of course the CS were never to fond of.

We also have had multiple hover cycle with a NE hover tank, the Mountaineer ext.

The groups have collected a few different vehicles over time and the groups tend to always try to keep them out of combat if they can as to preserve them. Especially sinse adventure range all over the place and walking is just not an option.

The last few years the main group has been using a Death's Head Transport as a mobile base, they have a high end space shuttle from the manhunter book with stealth systems that they acquired in some of the ring world / Earth orbit adventures and they take great care to not risk it to assault, which is good because it might make it hard for them to get back to the space stations.

Oh one player is ex NGR Engineer that stole a .. cant remember the name but it is their big super carrier jet which had some stuff on it like the big NGR APC which became the groups team vehicle when on NA.

Games will not very often have the players stuff / vehicles getting jacked and they put security on them as is, and besides i dont want the group being overly concerned with staying with tvehicles and some doing the adv.

As for PA, a good chunk of the groups use various PA and so the bigger transports definitely help for transporting them like the NGR APC which allows for the player(s) to get out and roleplay more than being a voice.

[DhAkael]

Oh dear...
*giggle*
Depends on what the situation is / dimension / world they are on at the time.
PRESENTLY they are using a CG modified Naruni Explorer RV to go investigate "HE" (rel ARCHIE-03 OZ).