I've been thinking about Palladium's Rifts a lot. I've been thinking maybe I might want to convert it to the Japanese Standard System, SRS, used in games like Night Wizards and Tenra Bansho Zero.
I don't think I'll convert every single class though.
I definitely want to convert the following:
Glitterboy, Crazy, Juicer, Deadboy, Dogboy, Cyborg, Cyber-Knight, Techno Wizard, and Dragon.
What are some other Rifts classes that I absolutely must convert over?

Tell us about Night Wizards!

What about the "normal human classes" like Vagabond, Rogue Scientist, and Rogue Scholar?

Also, if you are a Savage Worlds fan, it was announced that Savage Rifts is hitting the shelves in 2016.

Quote from: Spinachcat;875087Tell us about Night Wizards!

It's based on this anime:
http://gogoanime.io/night-wizard-episode-1

It's sort of a Japanese take on urban fantasy like Mage: the Awakening. Magic and demons are blocked from the real world by a protective World Barrier that enforces common sense. If a person sees something that flags as supernatural or abnormal, the World Barrier kicks in and writes it out of reality. Demons called Emulators are able to evade the World Barrier by hiding out in micro-realities called Lunar Caskets that overlay physical spaces in the real world but block out causality. Emulators hide out in their Lunar Caskets, and emerge at night to feed on human 'prana' (life force).
You play as a wizard. Your job is to seek out Lunar Caskets and destroy them.

Rolls are 2d6.
You roll 2d6 twice at the beginning of each session to determine your fumble and critical values for that session. You have a pool of points with which to adjust these.

Character creation involves selecting two classes (you can select the same class twice) skills, equipment, and two elements for your attacks.

It's not officially translated yet, but there is a fan translation brewing over on 4chan.

QuoteWhat about the "normal human classes" like Vagabond, Rogue Scientist, and Rogue Scholar?

Definitely. I should convert everything from the Ultimate Edition Main Book, but I'm wondering if there's anything from the source books I should also convert, or if there's anything I should omit for balance reasons.

QuoteAlso, if you are a Savage Worlds fan, it was announced that Savage Rifts is hitting the shelves in 2016.

...I might just save myself the work and just buy that then, thanks!

Keep us posted about Night Wizards!

Is it a popular RPG in Japan?

Quote from: Spinachcat;875110Keep us posted about Night Wizards!

Is it a popular RPG in Japan?

I wish I could tell you first hand. I haven't been to Japan in months. I'm actually in Madison, WI right now. But I have been following the translation on /tg/.
I hope the game gets an official translation at some point. My Japanese just isn't good enough to decipher a rule book.

I wonder if you'll need more Coalition classes?
But I think its a hard question to answer without knowing more about the system in question. As in, a few Rifts classes are just slight variations on each other - like Body Fixer /Cyber Doc, or maybe the generic human warrior classes without major enhancements with each other (wilderness dude, headhunter, dead boy). Or the Scientist/Rogue Scholar.
So it could be that you could smoosh a few "meh" classes into each other or emulate the distinctions with some choices of skills or feats or whatever your system uses.

Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;875225I wonder if you'll need more Coalition classes?
But I think its a hard question to answer without knowing more about the system in question. As in, a few Rifts classes are just slight variations on each other - like Body Fixer /Cyber Doc, or maybe the generic human warrior classes without major enhancements with each other (wilderness dude, headhunter, dead boy). Or the Scientist/Rogue Scholar.
So it could be that you could smoosh a few "meh" classes into each other or emulate the distinctions with some choices of skills or feats or whatever your system uses.

Well, most SRS games let you start out with a total of three class levels.
You can put all the levels into one class for a single-classed character, put each level into a different class for a triple-classed character, or you can put two levels into a 'primary class' and one level into a 'secondary class'.

If so many classes are just tweaks of other classes, or just combinations of other classes, then it would make sense to offer a shorter list of classes and let players mix and match them to make the character they want.

Here's a link to the translated open version of the SRS
http://neko-machi.com/extra/srs_basic.pdf

Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;875225a few Rifts classes are just slight variations on each other - like Body Fixer /Cyber Doc, or maybe the generic human warrior classes without major enhancements with each other (wilderness dude, headhunter, dead boy). Or the Scientist/Rogue Scholar.
So it could be that you could smoosh a few "meh" classes into each other or emulate the distinctions with some choices of skills or feats or whatever your system uses.

Rifts would only really need five generic classes:

Warrior (Headhunter, Juicer, Crazy, most CS military)

Adventurer (skill-monkeys: Body Fixer, Operator, Rogue Scholar and CS Technical, but also City Rat, Wilderness Scout and even Vagabond)

Magician (Ley Line Walker, Shifter, etc.)

Psionicist (Burster, Mind Melter, etc.)

Supernatural Being (Dragon and other race-as-class critters)

That said, some are still hard to peg, e.g. Mystic.

Quote from: The Butcher;875243Rifts would only really need five generic classes:

Warrior (Headhunter, Juicer, Crazy, most CS military)

Adventurer (skill-monkeys: Body Fixer, Operator, Rogue Scholar and CS Technical, but also City Rat, Wilderness Scout and even Vagabond)

Magician (Ley Line Walker, Shifter, etc.)

Psionicist (Burster, Mind Melter, etc.)

Supernatural Being (Dragon and other race-as-class critters)

That said, some are still hard to peg, e.g. Mystic.

Pretty good breakdown. Thought about this, you have
IIRC Mystic is sort of a psionicist/magician crossover. But its been awhile.

Quote from: Cave Bear;875239Well, most SRS games let you start out with a total of three class levels.
You can put all the levels into one class for a single-classed character, put each level into a different class for a triple-classed character, or you can put two levels into a 'primary class' and one level into a 'secondary class'.

If so many classes are just tweaks of other classes, or just combinations of other classes, then it would make sense to offer a shorter list of classes and let players mix and match them to make the character they want.

Here's a link to the translated open version of the SRS
http://neko-machi.com/extra/srs_basic.pdf

Peculiar document. Haven't seen anything quite like that since FUDGE.
The three levels thing could work. For instance with psionics, that could be Minor/Major/Master meaning all three levels would be needed to make you a Burster or Mind Melter, while someone less dedicated would have less psi but some sort of skills.
You'd probably have to put some limitations on it, like Borgs couldn't take psi or mage levels.

Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;875249Peculiar document. Haven't seen anything quite like that since FUDGE.
The three levels thing could work. For instance with psionics, that could be Minor/Major/Master meaning all three levels would be needed to make you a Burster or Mind Melter, while someone less dedicated would have less psi but some sort of skills.
You'd probably have to put some limitations on it, like Borgs couldn't take psi or mage levels.

Well, I did have an idea of giving characters Dissonance and Limit scores depending on how well the player's choice of classes fit together within the setting. Dissonance and Limit are used as fumble and critical thresholds respectively.
Players would then have the option to buy down Dissonance and Limit at the cost of stats.
So... a bit more flexible than regular Rifts in that a Borg could take psi or mage levels, but then they are either going to suffer lower stats or a higher risk of critical failures.

I suppose it makes sense to punish some combinations if players choosing them are clearly min/maxing.  Its probably better to just design the component classes so there's less incentive to crossbreed them, though.

Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;875262I suppose it makes sense to punish some combinations if players choosing them are clearly min/maxing.  Its probably better to just design the component classes so there's less incentive to crossbreed them, though.

Fair enough. I think I'll probably just focusing on converting the classes over. If the players want to combine things that don't make a lot of sense, we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Heck, the players might even come up with good justifications for some questionable pairings.

Good luck!

Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;875270Good luck!

Thanks. I'll post what I got when I complete it.