Savage Rifts® Design Diary PDF

The following Design Diary by Sean Fannon reflects some details from the upcoming Savage
Rifts. It isn't final and some details may change before the book is finally sent to print.
MAKING RIFTS SAVAGEMEGA DAMAGE,

VAMPIRES, AND JUICER BURN
Fans of both Rifts and Savage Worlds have had
lots of great questions about how different rules,
characters, and monsters are interpreted between
the two systems. While there's no way to explain
every decision, we thought a few good examples
would go a long way toward telling you what we
were thinking, how the rules played, and what
eventually became game you're about to receive.
This should help you understand how this is
both very much Rifts while remaining a very
Savage Worlds game.
MEGA MATTERS
The Glitter Boy strode onto the field, even as

two dozen Skelebots and a squad of Dead Boys
fired hundreds of lasers at him. They all bounced
harmlessly, and even a couple of grenades did little
more than make a couple of scratches on the chrome.
Some of the Skelebots dropped their guns and activated
their embedded vibro-blades, those being the only
weapons they had that could hurt him. His teammates,
however, started taking them out with rail guns,
lasers, and magic.
The pilot laughed
as he drove the pylons
into the ground and brought
his Boom Gun to bear. One
thunderous shot later, scrap
metal and shattered bodies flew
everywhere as the remaining forces
scrambled for cover. It was only when the
UAR-1 Enforcer arrived that the Glitter Boy pilot
became concerned.
"Now things get interesting," he thought, as the
race to see who shot first was on...
This is an actual play experience, repeated
often, during the initial play test sessions and
demos we've run over the last year all over
the country. Folks wanted to know how MegaDamage and M.D.C. armor would feel under the
Savage Worlds version of Rifts, and universally,
they've been everything from generally pleased
to practically giddy.
It did, however, take us a longer journey than
you might expect to get there.
Probably the single most asked question is
some variation of "How are you handling the
concept of Mega-Damage and M.D.C. (MegaDamage Capacity) armor from Rifts?" This
question entered the wrangling phase for us
on the very day that I got Kevin Siembieda's
blessing to pursue making this project a reality.
Immediately after getting Kevins approval, I
called Pinnacle Core Rules Brand Manager, Clint
Black, and we gushed and fan-boyed and just
relished in the giddy feeling.
Right there and then, we discussed how Heavy
Armor and Heavy Weapons, as per Savage Worlds
rules, was the way to go. For those new to Savage
Worlds, having Heavy Armor means a
normal pistol or knife has no chance
of doing any damage to whatever is
protected, no matter how many
"Aces" you roll for damage. It
takes Heavy Damage to hurt
such a thing. In other words,
a .45 pistol can't hurt a Tiger
Tank, but a rocket launcher
can. Boom, we had a nice,
clean, easy solution.
And yet...
Years later, as the
project finally got
seriously underway, we
decided to question all
assumptions. We
dropped the idea that the "Heavy Solution" was

the only way to go, and we experimented and
discussed many different alternate concepts. It
was only after we'd beat up all the other ideas
that we finally concluded that "if it walks like a
tank and talks like a tank, it's a duck...er, tank."
In this way, we also made a fundamental
change that differentiates Savage Rifts from the
original Rifts. Not every suit of armor is M.D.C.,
and not every weapon does Mega-Damage. This
was another area of much discussion, wrangling,
thinking, and more discussion, but I think I can
boil down the moment that solidified it. Savage
Worlds creator Shane Hensley and I were chatting
online and Shane asked what would happen if a
Glitter Boy pilot were sitting next to a campfire,
wearing normal body armor, and a guy with
leather armor and a spear jumped out at him.
I explained that, under Rifts rules, the spearwielder would have no chance of hurting the
pilot, who would then blow him into a fine red
mist with a laser pistol.
We both agreed that, while that was absolutely
Rifts in nature, it wasn't Savage Worlds. In this
way, we've definitely opted for a shift in game
play that makes our game similar, yet different
from the core Rifts experience. We brought
this to Kevin, who was very supportive of the
decision. He liked the idea of a different game
system granting a different experience, while
at the same time remaining true to the heart of
Rifts. This has been the design experience every
step of the way, sharing ideas of both fidelity and
change with the Palladium team, and coming up
with a fantastic new window into that gonzo,
incredible world.
So while not everyone will necessarily have a
Mega-Damage weapon, neither will everything
they face have M.D.C. armor. At the same time,
there are solid options for a team to handle
both normal and M.D.C. threats; for example,
we did decide to make virtually all advanced
melee weapons do Mega-Damage, mostly
because Savage Worlds is a very hand-to-hand
friendly game, and we thought bringing the
chain sword out to deal with the SAMAS armor
was a great thing to support. As well, there's
grenades, plasma weapons, and the capacity for
spellcasters and psionics to amp up their damage
spells to do Mega-Damage as needed. Of course,
rail guns in the hands of cyborgs and vehicle
weapons on robot armor take care of those threats
pretty handily.
A RIFTS VAMPIRE
IS NOT A SAVAGE
WORLDS VAMPIRE
Some concern exists that we might rely
heavily on previously published versions of
things to represent monsters, demons, and other
antagonists in Savage Rifts. We recognize that
the internal truths and consistency of a setting
demand attention to the details that make
entities in that setting specific to the world
they reside within.
Let's look at a vampire as an example,
specifically the wild vampire. As with every other
monster and antagonist we put into the Savage
Foes of North America book, we first reread and
researched all the details of the Rifts vampires.
Translating something in a way that is exciting for
new players, yet very recognizable to established
fans, drove every design decision. With Rifts
vampires, there are some important distinctions
that make them the kinds of threats they are
to those who face them. This includes making
them invulnerable to most weapons and attacks;
granting them the ability to change into a wolf
or bat; and giving them effective immortality,
able to regenerate from nearly all damage in
the way that a particularly famous image from
Palladium's original Vampire Kingdoms depicted.
In truth, much of the abilities and powers of
a Rifts vampire are similar to that of a master
vampire in core Savage Worlds rules. It's the
various vulnerabilities of a Rifts vampire
that required specific attention. For example,
vampires in this setting take damage and can be
destroyed by water (not something a standard
Savage Worlds vampire has to worry about), and
that's in there. So are the vulnerabilities to silver,
magic, sunlight, etc
The stat block for a Rifts wild vampire
(we'll get into the other ones when we journey
further west in later products) is a rather long
and involved one. This was necessary in order
to preserve what makes a Rifts vampire special
to the setting, as well as establishing the kinds of
conflicts that traditionally exist between Rifts
heroes and vampires. Honestly, I can't imagine
a battle with vampires that doesn't involve water
guns and a light with a cross-shaped shadow
emanating from it. Well, those and the automatic
wooden stake-throwers...
JUICERS BURNING
BRIGHT
As I said, fidelity to what makes Rifts the
setting it is was and will always be a key concern of
ours. At the same time, we do have the advantage
of looking back over a quarter century of history
with this setting and considering new ideas that
might make a certain concept pop in a new, vital
way. This is how we came to change the nature
of Juicers, and it may be one of the coolest things
we've done with this vision of Rifts.
The story begins with Ross Watsonmy Evil
Beagle partner, co-writer on a number of Savage
Rifts products, and the author of The Garnet
Town Gambitdeciding we should really find
a way to do something with the "death arc" of
the Juicer, and challenging me to hammer at
that idea. We went round-and-round on it, never
quite getting what we wanted, but agreeing that
we wanted something that reflected the short
life/exchange for power as a profound part of
the Juicer story.
Cut to a trip to Arizona, where we gathered
in Shane's garage with Michael Conn, Jimmy
Macias, and John Wick for a play test and design
jam session for a couple of days. We brought up
the thoughts we had about Juicers over dinner
at one of the many awesome restaurants Shane
knows, and John essentially demanded that we
must make a game mechanic aspect that reflects
the Juicer arcand he suggested some of the
core ideas that would eventually become what's
in the game. The epic story of the Juicer's short
life span just didn't feel right without specific and
dire game mechanics to back it up.
Pens on bar napkins scribbled furiously as the
conversation delved further into the matter, and
ultimately we ended up with a game mechanic
that John swore he'd steal and make an entire
game upon if we didn't use it. We were, however,
entirely determined to use it. The trick would be
to see if Kevin would also be comfortable with
a new approach to the Juicer's short life span as
something that could actually be played with.
Imagine my delight when I discovered that he
really, really loved the idea!
Essentially, it works like this. Every Juicer has
a Burn Rating; starting Juicers have 8, and there's
a Background Edge (which means it's meant to

be taken at character creation, which is vital in
this case) called Freshly Juiced that can bring
that total to 10. Every Juicer also has a Burn Die,
which serves two purposes.
First, at the beginning of every session, the
player of the Juicer must roll the Burn Die (no
Wild Die for this), and compare it to her current
Burn Rating. If the result is equal to or greater
than that number, the player must make a
choicemark off a point of Burn, permanently
(there's no known way to replenish Burn) or die
by the end of the session. Naturally, early on,
most players will spend the Burn. However, it
should be readily apparent that, no matter what,
that Burn Rating will decrease over time, simply
by mathematical attrition.
However, there's that second use of Burn to
consider as well. We wanted Juicer players to
have a meaningful choice when it came to their
life span being so short, and we wanted them to
have a way to spend that precious asset for even
more superheroic actions than they normally
could perform. As such, a Juicer player may
spend a point of Burn at any time to add his
Burn Die to a Trait roll or a damage roll! There
are also special Edges that Juicers can take that
further add to the preternatural things they can
accomplish by spending Burn.
While a Juicer player can play it safe and keep
their character alive for as long as any other
Savage Rifts hero, it should be pretty clear that
most will play for the short, glorious career,
whereby they can pick their moment and truly
go out in a Blaze of Glory.
Which, by the way, there's a Setting Rule for,
but we can get into that another time.
Sean Patrick Fannon
April, 2016
Savage Worlds is 2016 and TM Pinnacle

Entertainment Group. All Rights Reserved.
Rifts and Megaverse are Registered
Trademarks of Palladium Books, Inc. All
character names and likenesses are copyright
and trademarks owned by Palladium
Books, Inc. and used under license.

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The following Design Diary by Sean Fannon reflects some details from the upcoming Savage

MAKING RIFTS SAVAGEMEGA DAMAGE,

The Glitter Boy strode onto the field, even as

dropped the idea that the "Heavy Solution" was

a Background Edge (which means it's meant to

Savage Worlds is 2016 and TM Pinnacle

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