I try to keep things, even, fair, and fun.  I want to stick with the rules as is as much as possible until they get in the way of fun.  I have no problem changing or modifying on the fly.  If somthing doesn't work, I'll change it.  Input is welcome, but don't think that means I'll agree on everything.

Magic is generally a weak point in Rifts.  You run out of ammo faster, and the good stuff takes too many actions to be really useful.  Unless otherwise noted, general combat magic takes one action to cast regardless of level.

When dodging, you may fire wild for your lost 'attack.'  Why?  You're a damn action hero, that's why.

1.  I roll initiatives and set the order to save time.

2.  You may post out of order, and I will resolve your action when it comes up.

3.  Indicate in your posts which defenses you will use if needed.  I will roll them rather than have everyone wait for you to post again.  Alternately, you may roll ahead of time and I will use those rolls when needed.  This could include saving throws.

The following is fluid and may change.  It is open to discussion.

The biggest debate seems to be the disparity between MD and SD.  I, like many, have a love/hate relationship with it.  Siembieda takes a rather naive stance in my opinion.  It's basically summed up with "but why would they use a MD weapon against SD opponents?"  Because they are players, Kevin!  Sure, we all grab a dagger or two to go along with our longsword, but who the heck is actually using it?  Or the little .38 snubnose and a frickin' .44.  "But MiB, you never know when you need to cut your steak!"  Yeah, yeah.  Lot's of RP reasons for a dagger, but you never look at the kobold and say, "my +5 longsword of disembowling and skullsplosions is overkill.  I'm using my dagger!"  It doesn't matter if that kobold has 1 hp.  You're disembowling the little fucker!  Right?

(Yes, I like to exaggerate for comedic effect.)

In general: enchanted weaponry does SD to SD targets.  AR is useless!  I have thought that energy weapons (like lasers, not plasma!) would do the same.  It can easily be argued both ways.  A split second laser beam will go through you, but basically seal the hole.  A bullet creates a shockwave and bounces around.  Both will certainly make you wish you were dead but not neccessarily make you so.  AP rounds do less damage than regular rounds for much the same reason.  You know, without the cauterizing effect.  Yes, I know it's just a game...  But the laser makes 'em 'splode real good!  Sure we can go that way too.  The point I want to make is why on earth are you going to keep pumping shotgun rounds into an ogre making sexual advances towards you when you can off him with a single laser shot?  For now I'm leaving EW up to your discretion.

Someone brought up just changing MD to x10 rather than x100.  I've considered it before, and I'm starting to think this is the easiest way to go.  Thoughts?

Then you have to deal with AR and assign things formerly made of MD with an AR rating.

In reply to Man in Black (msg # 3):

If that is the case, would physical strength damage bonus add into MDC weapons?

Why not keep the RAW?

Seems like everything has MDC anyway, especially in later books. Anything SDC-only isn't much of a threat, both from the perspective of it can't take a hit and from the perspective that it's probably not that aggressive anyway. If you really want to threaten us with something that would be SDC by RAW, well, this is Rifts - it could have been magically enhanced or actually a d-bee version or any of a dozen other explanations to make it MD.

House-ruling is a slippery slope with Palladium. IMO, the MDC system is actually the least holey of the various wacky mechanics. If you want to get to a sane rule system, we should probably go to Savage Rifts (Savage Worlds).

In reply to player 6 (msg # 6):

Oh yeah, savage rifts is awesome! I was part of the Kickstarter but never got to play it.

Just remember, firing off a Wilks laser pistol in a bar fight is going to have unintended consequences. You miss and you vaporize a hole through how many walls, buildings, people? You hit and if you roll 2MD, the guy most likely dies, and anything higher than that, and the guy behind him dies...and maybe the waitress behind that. Either way, your 86'd from that town and will have a bad reputation in that area for a long time.

I happen to like the system as slightly modified (actions/dodge rules) and I have been playing it for 25 years. Should mages use energy rifles instead of direct damage offensive spells, probably, but then magic is so much more useful than just being able to damage things.

I'm inclined to go with the RAW, myself.  I mean, we've all got MD weapons and armor anyway, and I can patch up people who take a MD hit a little under half the time, so you aren't automatically goo.

The change in relationship between MD and SDC from 100 to 10 does nothing else, it would not influence AR or SDC weapons ability to damage MDC structures (like non supernatural strength bonus), all it does is fix the above mentioned over penetration problem of the tiny laser pen light in your pocket.  Instead of carving through half a building with 400 SDC you only cut off a guy's arm with 40.

Just about the only side effect of this is to make Titan Juicers and Minotaurs minor MDC creatures by default, but one of those is in a book we aren't using and the other can go ahead and be a real monster anyways.

I have a tabletop GM who runs Rifts as SDC only.  Using the MDC system, though, gives it that anime feel.  Like the weapons in the Robotech/Macross movies, Bubblegum Crisis, and others.

I definitely think that it works better here than it does in other gamelines-- MDC just does not work well in Macross, or ported over into Heroes Unlimited.

Maybe I am not understanding what is being proposed.

If what is being proposed is that MD weapons do the MD*10 as SDC to SDC things, instead of 100, that is fine with me. SDC things just don't have the resistance or density to take the 'whole' amount of damage.

If what is being proposed is that all MDC and MD is being multiplied by 10 and the entire universe is moving to SDC only, I am not in favor of that. I like the idea that Bob the farmer with his ancient slug thrower can't do anything to that shiny (or not so shiny) mecha, tank, etc. I like the idea that there is a threshold that has to be reached in order to be effective against some things. Bob the farmer with the ancient slug thrower should not be able to do anything against a battleship except scratch the pain and add some lead smears to it.

Everything is the same except MD weapons only do a tenth of the damage to SDC targets.  That slug thrower is still useless.  MD weapons still do the same damage to MD targets.

Just a side note - are we using the perception system from Nightbane?