Yeah, this is a bit odd.  I like the undead, and if I can play them as a race, then I do.

First, I'm willing to bet that D&D has undead skeleton as a player race because D&D has everything.  It wouldn't surprise me if you could play an anthropomorphic pangolin from D&D "China".  So, let's just skip that one if for no other reason than I don't play D&D and want to keep my record. 

The closest I have is Pocket Fantasy where you can play as a Whampyr, assuming you download the free expansion that adds the other races.

I have a couple games that let you play half-devils/demons, usually countered by half-angels/celestial.  Those are ok, but not what I want.   

What I'm talking are full blown skeletons.  No flesh, no master/free willed, probably with glowing eye sockets.

Any game have that?

All I remember is the Eleti race from some Fantasy Flight Games supplements. They appeared in Mythic Races and Dragonstar

WotC did a much overlooked setting booked called Ghostwalk where you could play some forms of undead.

Not an RPG but Lost Worlds had the now classic Skeleton with Sword and Shield as one of the combatants.

If there is not one in Rifts then I will be very surprised.

TSR's Marvel Superhero RPG allows for it and even weirder things.

 

Yeah I can't think of one. Funny that, since I can think of multiple videogame RPGs where you can play a skelly. I can't even call an example from D&D to mind, though I'm sure 3rd edition will have had rules for it. Eventually they had a race-template for everything.

Quote from: Omega on November 19, 2024, 10:06:27 PMWotC did a much overlooked setting booked called Ghostwalk where you could play some forms of undead.

I don't know why Ghostwalk wasn't more successful. It was one of the best books WotC put out. Great high concept, well executed, excellent art.

Not a TTRPG, but Divinity Original Sins 2 put in undead as a playable class.  Features you could put in for a RPG:

-Poison Healed Them
-Head had to be covered at all times to prevent locals from going fearful due to being undead

Dragonbane RPG allows them, if the GM allows it, along with all the other non-monster "Kin" like Orcs & Goblins.

Quote from: S'mon on November 20, 2024, 06:44:49 AMDragonbane RPG allows them, if the GM allows it, along with all the other non-monster "Kin" like Orcs & Goblins.

Do you just take their monster manual equivalent and use it as written?   I know they had some optional races like ogres that you could play but I didn't know playing a skeleton was possible.

Quote from: Thor's Nads on November 20, 2024, 12:11:44 AM

Quote from: Omega on November 19, 2024, 10:06:27 PMWotC did a much overlooked setting booked called Ghostwalk where you could play some forms of undead.

I don't know why Ghostwalk wasn't more successful. It was one of the best books WotC put out. Great high concept, well executed, excellent art.

  My theory has been that it launched just before the 3.5 revision, which sucked all of the air out of the room.

Well, there are the games where 'anything' is theoretically playable, such as many flavors of BRP, GURPS, HERO, etc.

The only one I'm aware of that calls out skeletons specifically and uniquely is, alas, an AD&D product--the Requiem: The Grim Harvest supplement for RAVENLOFT, which includes rules for playing all the classic D&D undead.

Quote from: RNGm on November 20, 2024, 08:04:45 AM

Quote from: S'mon on November 20, 2024, 06:44:49 AMDragonbane RPG allows them, if the GM allows it, along with all the other non-monster "Kin" like Orcs & Goblins.

Do you just take their monster manual equivalent and use it as written?   I know they had some optional races like ogres that you could play but I didn't know playing a skeleton was possible.

You just roll up a PC as normal and apply any Kin abilities and the listed base movement. Skeletons have:
Resistance: All piercing damage is halved (rounded up).
Immunity: Skeletons are immune to fear and PERSUASION.
Movement 8

Which is pretty balanced vs the default Kin.

oh and one forgot. At least one edition of Tunnels & Trolls allowed playing a skeleton. Makes sense as was same publisher as did Lost Worlds.

Oh and one of the old TSR modules, one of the rare one-on-one books I believe, had the player as a skeleton.

Savage Worlds Horror Companion for SWADE has a whole chapter for creating monstrous PC races. You can get really granular with it too. It also comes with sample rules (all of which are modifiable) for playing Angels, Demons, Vampires, Werewolves, Mummies, Revenants, Patchwork Monsters, and Ghosts.

Doing a Skeleton would be pretty easy. But with the rest of the rules present you'd have the ability to give it more options for scalability than you otherwise might imagine.

Palladium has two ways to play a skeleton.   Sort of.  And, interestingly, neither is from Rifts.

Nightbane.  One of the body types is skeleton. 

Heroes Unlimited.  The Powers Unlimited 3 book adds the major super power of Alter Physical Structure: Bone.

Now, I'm going to say these are a bit of a cop-out.  Neither one is an actual undead.  They're just a person with a power to look like an undead. So, while definitely cool, these don't count. 

Tunnels and Trolls.   I'll have to investigate.  I own that PDF file, so it is worth a look.

Savage World, Hero, GURPS maybe. GURPS is kind of an odd duck as the price of the various advantages to emulate the concept could make the concept too expensive to be worth it.