So a few weeks ago, some people I used to play RPGs with reached out to me about bringing the band back together. Once we slayed the scheduling demon, we figured out what we could play. We settled on Rifts, using the Savage Worlds Adventure Edition.
Rifts being Rifts, just assume trigger warnings of an awful post-apocalyptic world with demons and fascists apply.
Session 0
We made characters. Here's the list, starting with my characer, Tony:
- Anthony "Loco" Riaz (SAMAS pilot) - Ruins gang survivor, captured and raised by the Coalition, now late 20s, Fugitive SAMAS pilot from CS El Dorado, wanted for stealing a SAMAS suit with some vibrosword upgrades, getting in trouble with, whom it turns out, was the Colonel's wife. Fleeing north towards Castle Refuge, he ran short on supplies while evading Coalition supplies, and got dehydrated, before being rescued by....
- Layla Lacoi (DB Mystic) - A tall dimensional mystic being with a bit of a catfish face. She healed him and fed Tony. She has a bond to....
- Midnight (Psi-stalker variant) - A dark and mysterious stranger, riding a strange horse. He seems to have influence over lightning, and is a man who lives off the land. Midnight has a bond with....
- Faith Macavoy (I'm not really sure) - A non-descript vagabond woman, who seems to be quite capable and full of supplies. She has a bond with....
- Shan Medsans (Cyber-doc, I think) - A hardcore cyberdoc apparently from a long line of traveling healers, renowned enough to know Erin Tarn personally. Her clinic is in an upgraded Mountaineer ATV, traveling around to help those in need. She has helped Tony, both healing him and repairing his SAMAS. He has, in return taken to staying with her, and guarding her. Her nephew is its dedicated driver, although Shan can also drive.
We did some role play on our meeting, and talked about being assigned our mission to lead refugees from the area of Hope, in the Colorado Baronies, back to Castle Refuge. Mechanically, this is starting out with a journey,
Session 1 - Leaving Castle Refuge
Day 1
We officially left Castle Refuge. About fifty miles out, we encountered a coalition patrol chasing us down, although they hadn't spotted our exact location.
Midnight was out scouting, and the rest of us were in the Mountaineer. Midnight was able to distract the sky cycle patrol with lightning in the sky. Layla and Ryzelle used their skills to help Shan pilot the Mountaineer on the most efficient and occluded path, while Tony, not wanting to fly his camo-painted official SAMAS out to meet a Coalition patrol, used the upgraded electronics of the Mountaineer to mess with their sensors until they managed to lose them.
Day 2
We were driving into west, but a storm was catching up to us. It was bad enough that the river we were getting to was already experiencing storm surge. Midnight found a good ford. After some quick jostling and communicating, Tony flew Sir Thrope's and Erin Tarn's robot horses across, one at a time and with much more panache on the second trip, while Midnight got his horse into the cargo bay normally housing Tony's SAMAS. Tony then flew Layla across, carrying the Mountaineer's tow line as far across as it would reach before fastening it to a boulder.
Tony spent most of his next non-sleep down time with a shop vac cleaning up all the mud and horse hair, and trying to get the horse smell out of his bay.
Session 2 - Closing on CS Frontier
Day 3
The storm continued, but we were getting into higher territory, without any broad wide valleys to deal with anymore. While driving, the sound of the tires on the ground changed from the muddy squishing to something quite hard.
We got out, and investigated. It turns out some sort of vessel had been unearthed by an earlier mudslide. Layla went insubstantial to go through, and fell thirty feet. It turned out the vessel was on its side. We all got in and aggressively started searching.
- Midnight accessed the electrical system somehow, and got an uncomfortable and alien feeling.
- Layla sensed a presence that she wanted to rescue.
- Tony worked from a logistical basis to use the power cabling to determine where more secure parts of the ship where, in the hopes of finding an armory, and found some munitions which looked like they could be adapted to his SAMAS' mini-missile launchers.
- I lost track of what Faith found.
- I don't know if we discussed what Shan would've been looking for.
We also looted other miscellaneous supplies. Our looting was surprisingly quick and thorough, to the point that we didn't lose any time, and managed to travel further.
At the camp fire that night, Sir Thrope briefly shared his story of leaving his tribe and becoming a cyberknight. Tony felt comfortable enough to briefly share his story, of growing up int he ruins west of Dallas, in a gang made up of humans and DBs. One day, some coalition squads came in with transports, and the captured members were sorted into humans and DBs. The humans were loaded onto a transport, taken back, and raised in barracks, most of them becoming cadets in the Coalition military. It wasn't until later that he realized what had happened to the non-human members of his gang, and also succumbed to the Coalition education. First, briefly as a grunt, and then later as a SAMAS pilot, he did some horrible things, while living a life of relative comfort and privilege. He's working now to make up for the things he did following the orders of the Coalition Military.
Midnight, unknown to the rest of us, senses a difference in the potential psychic energy here in the CS Frontier region, a sour taste to it. Layla also notices some differences.
I have to say, making characters was interesting, but play is pretty quick. We're using Foundry VTT for this. It's my first experience outside of Owlbear Rodeo, and I have to say it's been surprisingly smooth so far.
Part of it is just the blast of playing with people that I've played with in my early twenties, as much as I like pick up games, and part of it is just playing Rifts without playing Palladium system. Don't get me wrong, I have a fondness for that system, it's probably the one I played the most in high school. It's just showing it's age. It's also my first time playing Savage Worlds, and I'm more impressed by it than I thought it would be.
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