RIFTS – 22/5/2012
Ah Rifts, if there was a gaming system that embraced crossovers more then I don’t know what it is. For those who have no idea what I am talking about, Rifts is a post-apocalyptic RPG system. The world is all but destroyed and with that destruction came… the Rifts. Now pockets of life fight for survival while anything and everything has crept into pre-Rifts Earth. Nothing is as it was.
Rifts is a very open setting, each historic country/ region sees it histories and mythologies come to life. Adding the trans-dimensional and interstellar travel associated with Rift travel and the game can become the background for, literally, anything.
Our little gaming group has been exploding it’s way through a Rifts campaign, played on a loose fortnightly schedule, we have probably been at it for a couple months now. Our teams background is as part of a mercenary operation, north of the old U.S border and somewhere comfortably tucked in between Chi-Town, Tolkeen and Free Quebec, so the area see’s a bit of action. To cut a long introduction short our merc team has completed a number of missions now, some more successful than others. We have failed to seal a Rift and changed it from an unstable, small rift to a rather large, near permanent rift. We completed a successful train hijack as well as a Search and Rescue along the Xiticix borders. All up, we have had a lot of fun and used a lot of explosives.
Our current mission sees us working for a Dragon out of Tolkeen, to help correct our abysmal job of sealing the rift from our first mission. In our first mission, not only did we fail to seal the rift, but we also caused a fair deal of collateral damage to some inhabitants of the region. Needless to say this was all inside Tolkeen’s borders and they were none to happy to see these events go down. Thankfully said dragon employee only knows our Mercenary Group was involved, not our team specifically. Regardless, our journey to the rift was uneventful however the dragon proved duplicitous as we tried to complete our task and seal the rift successfully. The end result, our team ended up with the rift sealed – but with us on the INSIDE with no way home. It also turned out there were plant people in the rift. Explosives 1, Plant People 0.
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
– Luc Drapeau-Blanc – An Ace Pilot and(for some obscure reason) Frenchie hating prick with weapons of disappointingly small destruction. Currently our field leader.
– Blackneto! – A suave super spy, with amazing powers of magnetism.
– Mac Guyver – The groups operator. Nothing he can’t fix, especially with Duct Tape.
– Tibor – A tattooed man from South America with crystal armour, a summonable staff and a mean right hook.
– G$linger – The wired gunslinger from the New West, complete with hat, pistols and a HOG!
– GM-Extraordinaire – Our most esteemed Game Master
Bringing us to our current session…
Things went interestingly. After being trapped and trying to make our way to another rift we could spy in the distance, we met with and parlayed with the leader of the plant people. Deals and accords were struck by both parties which would see us safely home, the plant person leader reunited with a lost tome, and a deceased dragon. Win, Win and Win. Through the rift we step.
A room, square and empty. A door. 2 ventilation ducts. 1 control panel. So Tibor wanted to look in the grates. Then Blackneto! says ” I’ll get that for you” and pulls it off the wall with his amazing magnetic powers. 1 alarm. Then the greatest plan of all time. Which didn’t fail… (but more on that in a minute).
Of course the alarm caught the attention of the guards around this place and very soon Blackneto! had to use his amazing powers of magnetism to keep the large doors shut from the oncoming guards. Unfortunately these guards were smart and foiled our cunning plan by cutting through the door. Ah well, Plan B – into the vents! Except G$ was in no way going to leave his hog and so began one our better and more thought out plans…
For some unknown reason, the entire party believed the best course of action to take with G$ was to use Blackneto!’s amazing magnetic powers to ‘stick’ the hog to the ceiling. Of course G$linger couldn’t hold on upside down on the ceiling so the only course of action was to duct tape him to the bike… yeah. Of course in that position it would be hard to hold on to his pistols so of COURSE we had to duct tape his pistols to his hands… yeah. SO, G$linger, the wired gunslinger stood ready in ambush duct taped to his bike, with his guns duct taped to his hands, with his bike magnetised to the ceiling… yeah. Best. plan. ever. You can see how this is going to end up.
The rest of us hid in the vents.
Turns out the cutter cut right through the door and the guards were some sort of blue iron giants (or for those in the know Space Marines of the Ultramarines Chapter). Turns out these iron giants are not only smart but have sophisticated technology. Turns out part of that technology is thermal imaging. Hog exhausts get hot, who would have thought. Turns out hog exhausts show up glaringly bright on thermal imaging. The iron giants made their ‘Detect Ambush’ roll then. Ultramarines 1, Us 0.
In a rare display of thoughtfulness we decided to try another round of parlaying to help the captured G$linger. Tibor and Blackneto! made their way out of the vents while Luc went on a scout run and Mac hacking into a console. Turns out the group can’t speak Imperial High Gothic. It also turns out that the ear-fish (little portable universal translator) has a 75% chance to speak Imperial High Gothic – huzzuh!
An almost bungled exchanged ended up with the surrender of G$linger, Tibor and Blackneto!. See, apparently in the Imperium, if you use super powers that look like magic, you end up being called a WITCH. It is even worse if you agree with this statement when it is thrown at you (ear-fishes don’t always work). In the Imperium, the local saying goes ‘Burn the Witch’. The people who do the burning are usually Space Marine Librarians. So not good for Blackneto!.
So we did the ultimate, we split the party. We even allowed half of us to be captured, to make it look good. From here there was simply too much awesome to put down on paper, so I’ll do my best to round this up
GROUP 1 – Mac and Luc: Able to stay hidden and explore the vent system. Also able to hack into this sections schematics and cameras. Turns out this is some sort of bunker complex. There is also a cranky dreadnought in the hanger. As a bonus we found a safe way to get from where we are to the main control room of the bunker. We also found out where we needed to get to hitch a ride with the next Rift. Apparently in the Imperium rifts are called ‘Warp Breaches’. I wonder what this ‘warp’ is like and if there are any more plant people in there. After some vent travel (hey, it was our turn to play Aliens! Cool.) we found the main control room and we left the game at Mac and Luc eyeballing a techpriest plugged in to the main control room. I can smell grenades next session!
GROUP 2 – Captured. Marched. Thrown into a cell. Waiting interrogation. That sums up the plight of the other band of brave heroes. However bleak their plight is though, a though, a shimmer of hope, a PLAN. Escape. A Librarian enters the gaol cell, witches in mind, and strides haughtily to the weaponless and armourless ‘things’, past the Sergeant doing his paperwork. So weak, so pitiful, so different. BAM. Plan into action. With a MIGHTY punch Tibor actives his rune of strength and shatter the Librarians helm, inflicting major trauma. G$linger, sneakily finds a grenade on the belt of the Librarian and primes it, then letting it detonate. BLIND (grenade)! Not the result that was desired but of some effect anyway. Chaos ensues, decisions are made. Battle is drawn. Blackneto! blinds the sergeant. Tibor’s fist goes through the Librarians head. Clear vision returns. Time stops, motion is slow. The giant of a Sergeant rises and draws his power fist to strike. G$linger moves, back flipping, dropped to his knees, slid under an oncoming attack, turned while un-holstering the Sergeants Bolt Pistol, rose up behind the behemoth and shot the back of his skull out. Or would have if he hadn’t failed his first backflip roll and ended up break dancing. The Sergeant stares in surprise at what manner of creature these things are. G$linger (like any wired gunslinger) attempts the dangerous maneuver again. This time… SUCCESS. There is a sharp bang, followed by a dull thud as the body of the Ultramarines Sergeant hits the floor. Smoke rises, dust clears, silence. They are victorious. Us 2, Ultramarines 1. Now, to the Rift!
playingtheodds 