Character Building Guidelines(City Rats)

The City Rats Adventure will be a roleplaying intensive game focused on a gang of City Rats in the Ch-Town Burbs. I've laid out the basics for the district that the game will be taking place in, but it will be up to the players to fill in bulk of the empty space. Now that doesn't mean that you'll need to come up with an entire district during character creation, just one small corner of it, the area that relates to your character and to the party. The rest will come as the game is played.

This game will not focus on combat. That is not to say that there won't be any physical confrontations within the game, just that they will most likely be in the form of a barroom brawl, a silent assassination, or fleeing from the wrath of the CS unit that just discovered your black market ring. The players will be out-gunned by all of the major factions around them, and will need to make use of what other resources they may have.

Group Development

The game is focused on the gang of city rats, not any individual character, therefore it is important that the group as a whole takes a high importance during character development. Unlike high combat games, building the party around a mix of Defenders, Strikers, Leaders and Controllers is not important. However ensuring that each character has some niche to fill and fits in with the group dynamics is much more important. I highly recommend everybody read the pdf I linked on the topic.

It is also important to develop the gang as a whole. What is the gangs name? Its colours? Its favourite hang out? How do you all know each other? What is your purpose for forming the gang? How did you go about acquiring the funds to purchase MD Arms and Armour? What do you all desire to do in the future, both near and far? Of course not all these questions need answers, and you may think up some interesting information that's beyond their scope, but they should be a good starting point to figure out who and what you are.

Classes and Roles

For this game I would like the majority of players to roll a Teenage Human City Rat. They are a flexible class with a wide range of potential niches to fill. Any other Human Scholar or Adventure class will likely be approved, assuming the player has a good reason for why the character would be hanging out and adventuring with a gang of City Rats. Non-Humans, Men at Arms, Practitioners of Magic and Psychics may be approved, but only with a truly epic concept which won't steal the spotlight from other characters, and a good explanation for why they haven't been sought out and corpsified by the Coalition States.

Example Concepts and Roles

In addition to the Thug, Hero, Assassin, and Hacker types described in the City Rat OCC description, here are a few other possible concepts:

• Wannabe Deadboy - Many people truly believe the CS propaganda, and desire to enlist in the CS Army.
• Reprogrammer - This specialized hacker has gotten his hands on damage Skelbot and is trying to restore it under his control.
• Cyberjacker - Somebody who steals cybernetics from other people to sell on the black market. If a large number of party members play a character with this roll then a Cyber Doc could be an interesting addition to the party.

More to come as I think of them.

Background

Character background will take on a very large role for this game. In addition to the three basic pieces of background information detailed above, and the various questions mentioned about the gang as a whole, the following is also requested:

• An ally or other useful contact, including what's helpful about him and why he's willing to help out your character.
• A bit of information about where your character lives. In an apartment? With her rich parents in their large house? With one of the other PCs?
• Does any part of your concept / skill list require anything to be included in the surrounding environment. For example a character with boxing as a skill spends at least eight hours per week in the boxing gym. This requires there to be a boxing gym in the nearby area.

There are also many other aspects of your character that should be developed, though these need not be determined at creation time.

• What is your opinion of the Coalition States? Do you believe the propaganda? If no, then why not?
• Do you desire citizenship and access to the city of Chi-Town? Why / why not?
• Do you have a criminal record? If so are you aware that you will have to reapply for citizenship?
• What are your opinions on Dimensional Beings(D-Bees)? Have you ever encountered one?

Rules and Other Crunchy Bits

We'll be using the Ultimate Edition City Rat OCC, standard attribute generation, as well as the penalties for ability scores below 8.

Check the Character Generation Houserules page for more details.

Recommended Reading

Besides those articles already linked to, and of course the content on the wiki related to the adventure, there are a few bits that are important to read to give a better idea of what to expect in the game. The first few items are pretty much essential, whereas later items on the list (bionics source book and down) are just for those who feel like spending some extra time reading.

• Rifts Main Book
  • pg 73-74, City Rat OCC
  • pg 140, The Burbs
• Rifts Ultimate Edition
  • pg 88-89, City Rat OCC - Cleaned up better than the main book version with a few mechanical changes, but flavour is the same.
• Rifts Source Book 5, Bionics Source Book
  • pg 15-28, City Rats Defined
• Rifts World Book 11, Coalition War Campaign
  • pg46, The Average Coalition Citizen
  • pg197-200, The Burbs
• Rifts Aftermath
  • pg134-141, The Coalition States. This gives a good updated overview of the CS in 109 PA, the year the game will be taking place. pg 138 and 139 contain the most relevant information.
• Rifts Adventure Source Book, Chi-Town Burbs
  • pg 7-25, Lots of information about Chi-Town burbs. Nothing here is really essential to play as the specifics will all be covered in the setting info posted on the wiki.

Closing Remarks

I hope that the above has given you guys a good idea of what kind of game I'm going for, and what I'll be looking for during character creation (which will, of course, take a whole session). If you've got any questions or comments feel free to post on the discussion section, or pester me in person, preferably both.

Over the next while I'll be adding more details to the setting, and would like all who participate in the game to contribute as well. The wiki allows anybody to edit it for a reason, so that you can do a write up on the pool hall that your uncle owns, or add some extra touches to the CS outpost that make things feel more real.

I'm really looking forward to running this game, and hope you're all just as excited about playing it.