Common OOC thread

there is a post that says revised race compendiums. choose the gaia option (Gaia v.2.0). one of the sheets at the bottom should be labeled Zikarian. these sheets will be almost at the bottom of the page, and you may need to use the little arrows to navigate through the individual sheets. i just check the excel file and it is showing up for me.

EDIT: jerry's post is much more helpful. refer to the post just before this one.

ah, but of course. thanks for pointing those out for me.

i noticed your variant druid doesn't use wood products, but except for spiked chain i can't find a weapon in the entire book that doesn't involve some kind of wood construction (ranged weapons particularly). How should i proceed? Have the tribes of Gaia invented advanced plastics yet?

Additional Q?: Do swamplords have sufficiently distinct physiques that they require special armors? (i.e. that cost more)

hmmm, this is an interesting point. i'm going under the assumption that the handles to nearly every weapon are made of some sort of wood. ranged weapons would be even harder because all the bows are made of wood. is it possible to use a bow made of bone? maybe the idea behind the rule is to not use something that is made of a certain percentage of wood. for example: a lance would be out because it is close to 100% wood, while a sword only has a small percentage of wood only used in the handle. anyway, just some thoughts.

weapons that appear to have no wood:
spiked chain, sling, heavy pick (maybe), warhammer (maybe), light hammer (maybe), spiked gauntlets, net, whip

i'm not sure about the swords or other similar hilted weapons, but stuff like a lance, mace or halberd appear to be right out.

Sorry for the lack of clarification (I'll update the Druid class info - meanwhile go with the below), but no, the standing rule is "no wooden weapons."

Archtemplari wrote:

i noticed your variant druid doesn't use wood products, but except for spiked chain i can't find a weapon in the entire book that doesn't involve some kind of wood construction (ranged weapons particularly). How should i proceed?

This may vary from race to race, but because it hasn't been fully developed yet, equip your character's weapons using [edit: hold up. I'll get back to you on weapon materials.]

Quote :

Have the tribes of Gaia invented advanced plastics yet?

To answer a rhetorical question literally, a few have. Most haven't. Notably, Hollowsphereans are actually a technologically advanced race, by universal standards. To a lesser extent, so are Zikarians.

Quote :

Additional Q?: Do swamplords have sufficiently distinct physiques that they require special armors? (i.e. that cost more)

No - because PC-playable races are all (minimally) humanoid in shape, the only cost difference would come from changes in Size categories.

so, just to clarify those new bits, a weapon that might include wood normally (say, a warhammer) but whose nasty bits are still metal would function normally, albeit with the minor cosmetic change of having a bone shaft, or would it still suffer the penalties? (Please, try to read that sentence in a non-sexual way). It doesn't matter to me anyway, all my weapons were masterwork so by the new rules i'll just claim they're also crystal since you said that was purely cosmetic, i'm just curious.

Archtemplari wrote:

so, just to clarify those new bits, a weapon that might include wood normally (say, a warhammer) but whose nasty bits are still metal would function normally, albeit with the minor cosmetic change of having a bone shaft, or would it still suffer the penalties? (Please, try to read that sentence in a non-sexual way). It doesn't matter to me anyway, all my weapons were masterwork so by the new rules i'll just claim they're also crystal since you said that was purely cosmetic, i'm just curious.

Haha, no worries.

The way weapons are made, they would either be normal (wood/metal), or one of the materials shown. That is, either one wields a normal battleaxe, or a bone battleaxe, for example. A weapon composed of multiple materials would derive its statistics from the weakest material included in the mix. The only exception I currently know of are double weapons, such as a double axe. In that case, one end can be made of one material, and the other made of another. Material attributes would then be assessed depending on which end is used to attack.

Hello everyone, I am in the process of looking over the races again, so far it has been hectic/chaotic and seemingly spontaneous but given everyone's patience it has been for the better.

As of this point in time [race compendiums versions 2.0 or 3.0 (depending on the specific file)], I am examining some key changes to some of the races, particularly those of Gaia, in the name of game balance that may have in fact been overlooked by the original authors themselves. The swamplord (lizardfolk, traditionally) race is one example of a monster race that I and many members of the online community do not believe is worth its 3-level savage progression.

Furthermore, after thinking about an excellent point Trevor brought up via email, it led me to think how cool it would be to actually allow "Starting Racial Traits" for all monster races (bloodline/template classes do not apply) that would allow them to begin play on the same level as Core races. I think given how crazy (in a good way) the Savage Species approach to dissecting monster levels is already, it could be cool to go in this new direction. Subsequent monster levels would still grant the normal stat upgrades, but it would be cool to have say, a 1st level Durhock monk, or a 1st level Azerian fighter. Or the option would exist to allow such characters to simply take their 1st level in their own monster race.

In any case, we'll be sticking with the new ruling on favored classes, and pending this aforementioned change, all monster races will now have no favored class until completing their monster levels. This fits the vision of encouraging players to advance their monster levels in timely fashion to simulate a reasonable growth period. Granting a favored class to monstrous characters before they have finished their savage progression allows them to pursue adventuring classes and neglect their monster levels, which conflicts with my original vision for the monster races more powerful than the Core races.

To compensate, monsterraces will instead be able to offer new class skills in addition to what is offered by an adventuring class, as well as default weapon proficiencies (i.e. simple, or martial weapons, or shields, etc.). This is something that the Core races, despite their power, do not give.


All this means that if you are still creating your character, please be in close contact with me, as racial traits may be changing even as you develop your character! Thanks.

aaaaand now i have no more permission to post on chapter 2 jerry >.<

Ok sorry about that, looks like a couple permission boxes got unchecked from when I was trying to (unsuccessfully) figure out the calendar issue. Should be fixed now. Cross your fingers.

kawsome

so as much as i'd love to join in the summer group, summer is getting further and further in and my schedule isn't lightening up at all, so just go ahead w/o me. i'll join back in when regular groups start back up.

Alright. Thanks for the heads up man.

no problem. i didn't want you to wait up on my count, or have to put up with one line "roleplaying".

all this overtime is killing me...

Well work hard, be well, and stay alive! The group could sure use a caster later on. :)

Boomerwang wrote:

The group could sure use a caster later on. :)

for serious!

I'm a caster, I cast my great axe into the enemies head :D

pffft. I'm more of a caster than you are..... i can cast dancing lights twice per day and farie fire once per day. take that jerk!

i'm gonna take Profession: Fishing... then i'll be the best caster of all of us!

[after long hiatus]

Hi everyone, glad to see the forums still functioning and the RIFTS game taking off. I just wanted to put it out there that after I'm done with school this winter, I would be more than happy to come back and reboot Novemterra. At that time I think I will just solo DM and finish Chapter 2. After that, I would be happy to take on any of the rest of you who would like to return to the campaign. We'll figure out details later.

In case you were wondering, this is the first time I've been on here in two months. But I just wanted to give you this heads up. Thanks!

Sounds good man, glad to hear you're still alive. Dan also talked about running his Vampire campaign in person when he is back this spring. Possibly alternating between Lansing and Ann Arbor, since he'll be there for school. Or it may just be down there. Either way, be glad to have Novemterra up and running again...I don't mind running a game, but I've always preferred to play

Agreed, also very glad that you are still alive! i'll be looking forward to the restart of novemterra as well :)

agreed!

so what does this mean for me? it seems like our group has thinned out considerably...

this was a triumph. i'm making a note here: huge success. it's hard to overstate my satisfaction.