Religion in my Rifts is pretty clear cut. As soon as people prayed to certain Pantheons and gained magical powers, that was the end of any religion whose leaders couldn't cast spells to protect their followers.

In Chaos Earth, religion does make a big resurgence in the Apocalypse, but even here Kevin threads very lightly and does not give mechanics for character faiths.

I can't blame him. Outside of In Nomine and CoC, how many RPGs have really tackled modern day religions? CoC has it easy since its all about the HPL worldview where the Old Ones are the only real gods.

Vampires being destroyed by running water isn't all that unusual in folklore. Nor is the spraying of holy water thing all that far from "moving water" either. Definitely does have the potential to get silly with squirt guns, but I don't know the RIFTS rules here, so really how much damage can a squirt do? If just a dab'll do ya, well yeah, that'll get silly fast. But "From Dusk til Dawn" worked a pulp fiction-tastic holy water supersoaker, and that was rather fun (and the baseball bat + shotgun cross was a nice touch). And I don't remember RIFTS being sold as a serious game...

I feel obliged to point out that crosses are a magical symbol older than christianity...

RPGPundit

Quote from: Novastar;559763Only the old saw about Vampires being repulsed by crosses...with absolutely no "in-game" explanation whatsoever.

Which indicates that the Judeo-christian God is real (or at least the Catholic version) within the setting of the game, as the crucifix is a holy symbol that wards off the undead. Also, holy water damages them as well.

What I never understood was why are all the vampires portrayed as former humans? Can a wolfen be vampire? Can any d-bee become a vampire? Would that change the vampire's stats in any way?

Quote from: The Butcher;559831Actually he went with the much more awesome "Romans hanged execution victims from crosses to keep vampires away from them."

Where did he say that?

I don't think RIFTS mixes well with Christianity anyway.  If Jesus was a Mega-Damage creature he couldn't have been crucified.

JG

Quote from: everloss;560591What I never understood was why are all the vampires portrayed as former humans? Can a wolfen be vampire? Can any d-bee become a vampire? Would that change the vampire's stats in any way?

IIRC, as long as you're a normal SDC sentient creature, you can be turned into a vampire. It's just assumed that humans would feed on humans, for some reason (culture clash, maybe?).

Quote from: everloss;560591Which indicates that the Judeo-christian God is real (or at least the Catholic version) within the setting of the game, as the crucifix is a holy symbol that wards off the undead.

not necessarily, as pundit mentioned previously.  also:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_cross#Pre-Christian_crosses

http://freetruth.50webs.org/B1b.htm

What, Jesus an MD creature?

Man, get a grip, Jesus is god as a mortal, right; isn't that one of the big points? So as by will of god, he became an S.D.C. creature. Probably, as he is revised edition not even S.D.C., but just straight HPs.

ha!  that's some crazy geekin'-out, there, sett.  well done.

Quote from: everloss;560592Where did he say that?

WB1: Vampire Kingdoms. I don't have the book with me so I can't quote the page, but I'm sure it's there.

Quote from: Settembrini;560701What, Jesus an MD creature?

Man, get a grip, Jesus is god as a mortal, right; isn't that one of the big points? So as by will of god, he became an S.D.C. creature. Probably, as he is revised edition not even S.D.C., but just straight HPs.

He'd just be a divine eidolon of some kind, surely.
That means in the world of RIFTS, the Gnostics were right!

RPGPundit

Quote from: The Butcher;560818WB1: Vampire Kingdoms. I don't have the book with me so I can't quote the page, but I'm sure it's there.

I have it and have had it since it first came out, and I've never seen anything like that. I haven't looked at the new edition that just came out though.

Not saying you're wrong, just saying that in almost 20 years of owning a book, I don't remember reading an explanation like that.

In fact, it always kinda irked me that there wasn't an explanation for the Vampire's abilities or weaknesses. The only thing I can recall is Kevin repeatedly saying that they are tied to the element of Earth; hence the dirt from the homeland in the coffin, weakness to silver and garlic, can't cross running water (consciously, anyway), etc. That doesn't explain the fear of the cross, but I always just ran it by saying that any holy symbol from any religion will work, as long as the person holding it believes in it.

Quote from: everloss;561269In fact, it always kinda irked me that there wasn't an explanation for the Vampire's abilities or weaknesses. The only thing I can recall is Kevin repeatedly saying that they are tied to the element of Earth; hence the dirt from the homeland in the coffin, weakness to silver and garlic, can't cross running water (consciously, anyway), etc. That doesn't explain the fear of the cross, but I always just ran it by saying that any holy symbol from any religion will work, as long as the person holding it believes in it.

It's MAGIC!!!

JG

Yeah, I don't remember that explanation about crosses either, but I guess its the kind of thing one could miss...

RPGPundit