My Life As A Gamer: Filling The Holes In RIFTS (Part Three)

Magic in RIFTS is not as well-defined as it is in its fantasy game, which is a shame because that game has entire magic-using classes that shine on the Domain level and make excellent Patrons.

But there is defintion. To summarize:

• "Magic is an energy that can be controlled and manipulated by the humanoid mind and force of will." (RIFTS Ultimate Edition, pg. 185)
• Every being has this energy, but most unwittingly spend it developing non-magical capacities. (ibid)
• Inferred, therefore, is that magic-users are those that are aware of this energy and acquire the capacity to wield it consciously; the means to do is defined by their magical practice, which is in turn defined by their beliefs and convinctions fueled by their will. Not quite Alestair Crowley, but close enough.
• P.P.E. can be taken from magic items that store such energy, and it can be taken--either as a voluntary measure, or by force--from others in a ritual manner. (RUE, pg. 186) Lethal sacrifice is very efficient reaping of such energy.
• Ley Lines and Nexus Points are sufficiently saturated to permit drawing from it to replenish or augment one's own stores. (ibid). Doing so when time of day or celestial bodies are in alignment greatly increases the power available to draw upon.
• Spells and rituals are specific formulae devised to reliably achieve specific effects, effects that only get stronger with experience.

This means that magic in RIFTS is both a natural resource to control and a power source to exploit. It is clean compared to mundane alternatives, stupidly-abundant on Earth and in most established sub-settings of the game, and therefore whomever has the mind to do so has a Perpetual Power Plant at their disposal should they device a spell, ritual, or item capable of making this potential actual.

Y'know, like Atlantis- both the current alien usurper and the indigenous Atlanteans currently displaced. Or their Lemurian cousins. Or several other magic-focused states or nations in the game just on Earth, and far more in other subsettings in the game.

Like fucking Tolkeen, which sits on a nexus fuels by 100 ley lines.

That no one in Palladium's office, at any time between the late 1980s when this was in development through to the present ever took this seriously should say volumes about how Domain Play is not even on their radar.

What is missing, however, are things that really nail this home: PPE/time interval (round/minute/hour/etc.), specific procedures on how to erect (thing) that does (x) that are going to be called upon in play by Patrons (e.g. Magic Pyramids, Automata), and other aspects that fall into the real of Strategic Operations and Physical Economy (i.e. Logistics).

Complicating this further is Dimensional Fuckery. Remember when I said that RIFTS is played out across all space and time? I meant it. There are slow-time dimensions, fast-time dimensions, weaponized dimension fuckery, and flat-out time travel with all the headaches that comes from adding Temporal Fuckery to Dimensional Fuckery.

This is a game where The Doctor is not just one Patron, but several, and he can easily be butting heads with himself several times over before Corwin of Amber shows up out of nowhere (several times over) to get in a drinking contest with Kimbal Kinneson and do Barsoom kareoke before heading off to have a talk with Elric about his soul-sucking sword problems.

You, the Referee, need to know things like "How long does it take to replenish the PPE of (place)?" because The Doctor can help Doctor Strange and Dr. Fate crank that rate up and you need to be able to tell those Patrons (and their players) an answer that they can act upon and use going forward. The rules do nothing to help you.

You, the Player, need to know how long it will take to master Magic Tattooing so you can then figure out how long it will take to churn out your own legion of Magic Tattooed Warriors. Again, silent.

This is a mess.

There's no way around it. You're going to have to take what crumbs you can find in spell descriptions, vague definitions, etc. and do even more of a piecemeal patchup than I did to make a Morale and Reaction system that can work.

You're going to piece together how fast a ley line (etc.) regenerates PPE by inferring it from the listed information on drawing from it. Then you're going to start looking at the listed relations between Ley Lines and Nexus Points to math out the effects of crossing or merging streams. As this seems to be drawing from real-life water flows as a model, that's going to be multiplicitive and not additional; the more lines meeting, the bigger the synergy and thus the more potent the Nexus, and the longer a line runs in a given place the greater its flow becomes.

This is what needs to be done to explain Tolkeen--nexus of 100 ley lines--as well at Atlantis and several other locations.

From Techno-Mages, Stone Masters, and other artificers you'll be able to tease out the relation between PPE expenditure, material requirements, time spent, and skills/powers necessary to make widgets, build portals, turn squishies into Tattooed Men, and so on. (Oh, and Tattooed Men shouldn't look like Outlaw Bikers or OnlyFans sluts; we have historical examples of this belief, so use those instead as your models.)

Tracking time and celestial alignment is a no-brainer for Braunstein. It also makes magic-users predictable; big power moves go down when big power draws are possible, so you have a timetable to get your shit together before heading off to deliver dimensional warheads to the Supreme Temple of the God-King of the Great Lord of Blood (i.e. a Vampire Intelligence) that drop said being directly into the Sun.

Oh, and remember your Super-Soakers and Water Cannons of Endless Water. Need those for the vampires. (Not joking about the Super-Soakers; how can you make vampires lame?)

You get the idea. The Referee is going to spend a stupid amount of time resolving such matters because Palladium does not design for Domain Play and that's where Braunstein gaming makes the magic--ha--happen.

And since magic is tied to relgion, man is that going to be a mess. Tomorrow.