Rifts Character Creation

Character Creation

Requirements

• Dice Dice Roller
• Ultimate Edition Main Rule Book
• Character Sheet

Terminology

• D - Dice. A D4 is a four sided die. a D6 is a six sided die, and so on. Where there is a number in prefix, such as 3D6, it simply means the amount of that type of dice, in that case 3.
• D-Bee - Abbreviation of Dimensional Being, a being who came from, or whose race originates from, beyond a Rift.
• M.D.C - Megadamage Capacity
• Megadamage - Megadamage represents the incredible destructive power of the weapons used in Rifts. 1 megadamage is roughly equivalent to 100 structural (normal) damage.
• O.C.C - Occupational Character Class
• R.C.C - Racial Character Class
• S.D.C - Structural Damage Capacity

Starting off

The initial stages of character creation can be done one of two ways. Officially you should roll your stats and see what class you can play. Personally I'd pick a class then roll stats until they fit. Have a good think about what you want to play. There's a lot of classes in Rifts, so it might be worth having a think about what play style you might enjoy. Then have a look at classes with that sort of play style, and see if any jump out at you. Some might look particularly attractive either because of the class's defining features, or because an interesting idea for a twist on the character occurs to you. Once you've a good idea of which OCC you want to play, get a character sheet or piece of paper and get rolling. The character creation part of the rules can be found on page 279.

Attributes

A character's basic makeup is represented by their attributes. In Rifts these are randomly generated using 3D6, and there are 8 attributes to roll. When judging rolls bear in mind that only rolls under 9 or over 16 have a specific effect, and anything inbetween can be considered fairly average. More on that later. The attributes are;

• IQ - Intelligence, mental agility. Equivalent to a real life IQ divided by 10.
• ME - Mental Endurance, willpower, coping with stress and mental strain
• MA - Mental Affinity, charm, charisma, how naturally endearing to others a character is
• PS - Physical Strength, the amount of power the body can exert
• PP - Physical Prowess, agility, dexterity, hand to eye coordination
• PE - Physical Endurance, the body's resistance to damage and illness as well as a character's stamina and fitness
• PB - Physical Beauty, how attractive a character is
• Spd - Speed, how fast a character can run

Roll 3D6 for each attribute. A roll that comes up 16 or over is called exceptional and grants another D6 on top of that. If that comes up a 6 too, another additional D6 is added. If that comes up a 6 too, aside from having extremely unlikely dice, no more should be added. This only applies to when attributes are rolled, not when bonuses are added. However, if a low attribute (below 7) is rolled, they may choose another attribute to add 1D4+3 to. Should they have more than one attribute below 7, they may choose another attribute to add 1D4+5 to, plus either +3 to a different attribute or +2 to Perception. Also note that roleplaying low stats well (stupid, ugly, very unwise etc) is likely to bag a character extra experience points. Put the final scores into the attribute boxes on the character sheet.

Random Generation

A word on randomly generated characters. Many things in Rift's character generation are rolled, and it is very tempting to doctor them. Please don't. An experienced GM can spot people tweaking rolls, and will make sure that, in the end, you'll be worse off than if you hadn't. Likewise, it is all too easy to keep rolling until a high set of scores comes up. In fact, I'm sure someone out there could code a random number generator and leave it running until it comes up with a set of max stats. If you're going to do this you might as well just pick your attribute scores. By all means reroll a bad set of stats, but stay within the spirit of the game. A couple of slightly below average stats are not a problem, and not having any exceptional stats isn't either. If you're indecisive and keep wanting to roll again, roll half a dozen sets and choose the one you prefer, then move on. There's far more to a character than stats.

Psionics

Some RCCs and occasionally an OCC have access to psionic abilities. However, any character has the potential to have some degree of psionics. Roll a D100 (2D10 with one representing the tens and one the units). A roll of 01-10 means the character is a major psionic. 11-25 is minor psionic, 26-00 means the character is not psionic.

• Greater Psionic - Choose 8 abilities from either the Sensitive, Physical or Healer categories. All must be from the same category. Or, choose six abilities from any of those three. Roll 5D6 and add your ME attribute for the character's ISP points.
• Minor psionic - Select 2 abilities from one of the Sensitive, Physical or Healer categories. Roll 3D6 and add the character's ME for ISP points.

Character Class

Find your OCC or RCC and read through it. Each class will explain the special abilities, skills, equipment, and any stat bonuses as you read through. Note these down as required. With 30 OCCs in the main rule book alone, it isn't practical to go through everything here. While you're doing this, take a minute to think about how your character got to be in this profession, what their motives might be, and how they might interact with the rest of the group.

It is easier to do this part in stages. Read through the OCC once, making a note of skills and abilities, and adding attribute bonuses. Then read through the skills and enter the base levels for each. Then go through the OCC again and add the skill bonuses and anything else that couldn't be added the first time. The way OCC skills and abilities interact with each other make it easy to miss things, so reading through things again will avoid embarrassing mistakes in-game.

Skills

many skills wil be given by a character's class, but there will also be a number which the player can choose. The list can be found on page 302 of the main book.

Rounding Off

The character should now be in full possession of all the required facts and figures, but that's only part of it. Once that's done a player needs to think about who the character actually is. The more history and personality a character has, the more background information there is with which to interact with the others, and the game is basically just interaction when all's said and done. It is a good idea to write some of this down and send it to the GM, because the more he knows about your character, the more likely he is to reward you for playing it. If you need a bit of inspiration, there are a number of tables on P296 of the main book that can be rolled on for a few pointers, but this isn't mandatory by any means. Indeed, pick whichever you like, or none at all.

Alignment

Even though the book states a character needs an alignment, I don't use them. Ignore it.

Summary

• Choose an OCC
• Roll 8 sets of 3D6
• Add another D6 to any rols over 16, and another D6 if that rolls a 6
• Add 1D4+3 to a different attribute if one is under 7. Add 1D4+5 to another attribute if more than one is under 7, plus either +3 to another, or +2 to Perception
• Roll D100 for psionics. 01-10 = Major, 11-25 = Minor, 26-00 = None.
• Read and apply OCC/RCC abilities, skills, equipment, etc.
• Choose other skills and specific equipment
• Read through OCC again to ensure all bonuses have been applied
• Round off your character with some background and personality