One of the things I wanted to do for myself, for when I eventually run Rifts or another Palladium system, is to give myself the gift of organization. You'll see what I've done below, and I've started with the Crazy OCC from Rifts.
(Please note: this post is in no way intended to infringe any copyright, it is simply an example of how I'm re-organizing class information for personal use, but it's interesting enough to show people how I've done it.)
I scoured the pages in the book that the class is presented on, looking for benefits that increase with level to table out, and then mapped the rest out in a tight format, but there's much information that simply won't be able to fit into this table due to the way classes work in Rifts. As such, this in no way replaces reading the description of each ability and making copious notes on the character sheet, but is an at-a-glance method of checking the abilities gained over time. I like it, so I'm working on converting info from each Rifts (and Palladium games in general) to this format in Microsoft Excel, so I can pop right to a certain OCC and see if they gain certain things at certain levels. All of us familiar with Rifts know that PCs gain a ton of abilities and skills right off the bat and then it's just gradual progression, but this is useful nonetheless.
See what I did:
Wow! That's how the OCCs should be laid out in the official books.
ReplyDeleteThere's still a bunch of information in each OCC that just won't fit in there, little bits and bobs that are smaller details or more complicated things. I purposely left out OCC Physical skill bonuses for that reason, and the details of each special power, since some of them are pages long for some OCCs. But I liked what I did, and I'm glad you did, too! Kevin Siembieda is a hero of mine, just for the INCREDIBLE amount of material he's produced, and at such a high level, since the early '80s. People complain about the system being too clunky, but it's just old school, like a toolkit, like OD&D or AD&D.
DeleteI've considered doing something similar, but I have always tried to include too much of the information you decided not to include. You got the mix just right and I may do something resembling what you've done above. Great work! I agree with you. I don't mind the old school style of Siembieda and I appreciate it.
DeleteI just love the fact that both his writing style and their product layout have changed a single bit since the 1990s. When I buy a Palladium product, I know exactly what I'll get: wild ideas, tons of options, and incredibly unique characters. What they do works, and they've only reiterated each game to a 2nd edition, ever, to make them more compatible, and even then, their first editions are, with a little more work, still compatible. I can't get enough of the stuff, honestly.
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