More Power and Shifting Responsibilities

I have been working on a little game related project using HTML. The game is Rifts®; the project is to make a more powerful character sheet for one specific character type in the main book of the game. That class is called the Shifter. It's a re-imagining of the classic Summoner from PFRPG®, which is a pretty easily imagined type of character just from the name and the fact it exists in a fantasy game.

Throughout the span of time that Rifts® has been out there the Shifter class has undergone some changes. The most important of these changes has been the addition of the Minion rules. From the outset the Shifter has always been able to, and meant to, summon up creatures and put them to use for whatever task the Shifter had in mind when deciding upon what to summon. However these helpers were fleeting and finding the time to summon things could be an issue, especially with some unhelpful GMs.

The Minion rules, and this is just a name I've given them to easily reference them, allow the Shifter to collect "permanent" helpers at select levels. I won't speculate on where the idea did or did not come from because I don't care. The importance is this addition gave the Shifter a leg up as the Rifts® world became tougher and more dangerous. As a matter of personal preference my first choice for a Shifter character's minions is entities. Two imp-like beings, or two entities count as one minion.

My project then was to include as much information about the Shifter's minions on the HTML character sheet as possible. To that end I built in an inline frame to contain the list of minions and linked to that IFRAME (for those knowledgeable about HTML) a second one where descriptions of the powers can be read. It's quite excellent. Of course this is a purely personal resource, because any distribution of that level of information would be a breach of Palladium Books®'s copyrights. However this is a good exercise in co-ordinating information and using higher level HTML and similar coding. Otherwise I wouldn't have brought it up.

Mood: exhausted.
Music: Wicker Man (1997) by Bruce Dickinson and Obsolete by Fear Factory.

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A Thin Line Between Freedom and Constriction

Last time the conflict was between giving the game direction and not dictating the actions of the player’s characters. Today I am thinking more about the line between filling in detail, and setting dates and history, versus leaving it to the GM to tailor to his game as needed. Leaving things open is the best and most efficient way to let everyone run their own version of the game that is different from the next group and the next. Detailing a lot of material tends to generate in some circle much the same shouting, moaning, and general hatred generated by railroading. What is it with these circles?

Back when time was on my side and I could spend hours on end thinking, daydreaming, and writing my own game material like there was no tomorrow, the idea of a lot of material tightly defined in a game left me with mixed feelings. Reading the new Powers Unlimited from Palladium Booksâ I see a lot of powers that I would have found redundant several years ago because they are simple variations on the same idea, though some of them do have the occasional nice variance, or even better with a couple, a completely different application of the power possible.

That is one way in which I would have agreed that it was a waste of pages. However, now with more and varied responsibilities and demands on my time I think these additions will be helpful because I can’t just sit down and come up with them on my own in any reasonable amount of time. Thinking back to those days when the time was available I know that I was also aware that some things which were not detailed could have been and it left me with a feeling of lacking to the game depending on what it was that was missing. More about those missing things next time.

Mood: jumbled.
Music: It Sucks to Be You by Quiet Riot and Lightning Strikes Twice by Iron Maiden.

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