Ok I'm running a friday night game for my nephews (wife's oldest sister's sons) via google hangouts. The setting is Rifts and the system is my homebrew "3D" (3 Dice) system which has game mechanical similarities with Cortex Plus, FFG Star Wars, Fate, Star Wars Saga edition to name a few.

One of my nephews (12 years old) is playing a bionic super soldier (primary role survivor secondary role tech) name Rex (he's a fan of the clone wars) with a mega rail gun carbine (which can fire U238 ammo which interferes with healing factors) and wheel shields (the shield on his left arm and leg and rotate to the inside of his arm and leg so he can bend over and effectively become a motorcycle a lot like the old cykill go bot), the character has 50 (mega) hit points

The other nephew (8 years old) is playing a cyberknight (primary role muscle, secondary role mystic) named phoenix, with heat vision that rides an ostrosaurus (a dinosaur about 1.5 times the size of a horse).The character has 40 mega hit points (his dinosaur has 30 mega hit points)

Both of them are looking for their families in Afghanistan, because they were kidnapped and forced to work as slaves on a poppy farm,

So this time they were heading towards Kabul and decided to travel only at night... so I was being narratively descriptive and said there's a full moon out and occasionally they could see the outlines of large winged creatures fly in front of the moon. One of them is a flying dinosaur like the type that Rex and Frank fought 3 sessions back (before Phoenix joined the game)... and it saw you and was diving towards you when suddenly a much larger black shadow swoops down, grabs it in claws flies over to sit on that mountain over there and bites the much smaller but still very large flying dinosaur's head off, in the moonlight you can see that it's a gigantic dragon after it's done snacking on the flying dinosaur it takes back off into the air... What do you do?

I was expecting them to figure out that discretion was the better part of valor and hide in a cave to small for the dragon to come in, but my older nephew says

"we spread out and attack it from different angles"

I asked are you sure you want to do that, the dragon is huge and it might not have seen you yet

younger nephew: how much health does it have?

me: probably 350 mega hit points

younger nephew: how many time would it have to attack me to kill me?

me; well you'd survive the first time it bit you but would probably die the second time?

younger nephew: don't let it eat me, I'll die <laughs>

older nephew: Are you saying it hasn't seen us yet?

me: you don't know, maybe it hasn't, maybe it has and is planning to attack you, maybe it has and you aren't a big enough meal to be worth it's time attacking you. What do you want to do?

older nephew: we spread out and attack it

me: are you sure you don't want to find a cave to hide in and wait until it leaves?

older nephew: well...

me: I'll let you attack it if you want to, but it's probably not a good idea..

older nephew: we spread out and attack it

me: ok, how do you want to attack it?

older nephew : with my mega rail gun carbine

me: what type of ammo do you want to use, if you spend 2 character points you can switch from standard to U238 or silver they're listed on the "special" line underneath the mega rail gun carbine stat block on your character sheet. Do you know what U238 is

older nephew: is it silver?

me: no, it's uranium 238, it's radioactive and interferes with healing factors

older nephew: I want to use the U238 ammo

me: <a few more hints>

older nephew: I want to shoot it in the eye

nephew rolls a d12, d10, and d8... not very good outcome (not enough to overcome the dragons damage reduction of 14)

me: if you swap the 6 on the d12 you just rolled with the 10 on the d12 in your destiny pool and then spend a Karma Chip (double sided black/white othello chips, the Karma pool is a lot like the destiny pool in FFG star wars, but what they can do is more like destiny points in Saga, i.e. get an automatic critical hit, which means double the first/largest die times 2 damage and it ignores damage reduction, instead of the sum of the two smaller dice minus damage reduction) you would do 20 points of damage that ignore damage reduction

nephew: yeah I do that

dragon breathes fire on him that after his 6 points of damage reduction deals 9 points of damage to him.

younger nephew, does a double attack with his MEGA heat vision (he also has a weaker version of the power that won't vaporize ordinary humans), swaps in a 12 on the d12 in his destiny pool, spends a Karma chip and does 2 attacks that each do 24 points of damage that ignore damage reduction.

Frank does a double attack with the disintegrate spell which costs him 2 character points (1 each, disintegrate is a non automatic critical hit that provides a d12 as a damage die) gets an 11 as his largest rolled result and I spend a Karma chip (white to black) so it does 2 x22= 44 points of damage that ignore damage reduction to the dragon, and that's their last Karma chip

dragon breathes fire on younger nephew and I spend a Karma chip so that they have another white Karma chip in the pool, it deals 16 points of damage to him and his ostrosaurus

older nephew double attacks with the mega rail gun rifle, after swaping with the destiny pool gets a 10 as his highest die and spends a Karma chip for 40 more points of damage (that ignore damage reduction), and they're out of white Karma chips again

younger nephew does a single attack with mega heat vision (better odds when you don't have Karma to trigger an automatic critical hit) rolls fairly well and deals 15 points of damage minus the dragon's 14 damage reduction so the dragon takes 1 more point of damage reduction

Frank double attacks with disintegrate (spending 2 character points), largest rolled result is a 12 and it's a critical hit so 2 x24 =44 more points of damage that ignore damage reduction

in 3 or so rounds, by using up all their white Karma and several character points they brought the dragon from 350 hit point down to 115 hit points, and the initial U238 to the eye meant that the dragon's healing factor wasn't working so well so... I told them that the dragon decided that continuing to fight them wasn't worth the risk (because it didn't know that they were out of white Karma)

So I suggest that maybe you ought to sleep in a cave until morning and see what they can gather up after the fight so that they can have something to trade when they get to the slave auction and they decide that's a good idea and as a reward they get enough dragon scales to make maybe 5 suits of armor, 1 gallon of dragon blood, and one of the dragon's giant horns (it lost two thirds of its hit points so I figured it was loosing body parts)

I was expecting at least one of them to die (and was prepared to sacrifice Frank), but because my nephews just wanted to "kill stuff" this random bit of narrative description turned into a very pitched combat encounter, that they got lucky in, and used up all their white Karma (which does not reset between sessions, except for 1 chip when the whole pool is all white or all black) and it turned into something that will actually move the story forward next time

I thought that was pretty darn cool.

BTW they also got the standard character point award of 3 character points per encounter.

BTW I'm not sure I remembered all the rolls right, looking at my hen scratching math on the paper, I think frank did 14 points of damage the first time he attacked the dragon with a single disintegrate and now Karma chip

I’m confused. What does this post have to do with Star Wars?

Did you accidentally post this message in the wrong forum?

I’m confused. What does this post have to do with Star Wars?

Did you accidentally post this message in the wrong forum?

I thought it was awesome, had to tell someone, I don't have a forum for my homebrew game, the dragon empire forum is dead nobody reading them (last post was 2015), and the tangential connection is that some similar to FFG star wars mechanics (e.g. Karma Pool <=> destiny pool, advantage) played a central role in helping them pull it off

I’m confused. What does this post have to do with Star Wars?Did you accidentally post this message in the wrong forum?

Reads thread topic, gets snarky.

The title of the thread should clear up any confusion you're experiencing. I think the OP is equal parts amazed and proud, and wanted to share his nephews' good fortune.

It's responses like yours which diminish this community. Its nothing except negative.

To the OP: Those boys are about the same age as my brothers were when I plopped 'em down to play the Red Box in 1983. They sound just like 'em, too. Enthusiastic.

Love rifts but hate palladium xD been talking about doing a FATE rifts game for a while.

Definately gonna finish reading this later! ^^

(At work rn)

Love rifts but hate palladium xD been talking about doing a FATE rifts game for a while.

Definately gonna finish reading this later! ^^

(At work rn)

I designed my system to specifically handle a rifts style post apocalyptic kitchen sink setting (the other primary design point was a traditional fantasy setting), I've got an approximately 180 page word doc that I can send you... I'm approximately half way through a major revision to the rules/stat blocks (e.g. range increments became more like how FFG star wars does them... i.e. short range is the same for all weapons but rifles can shoot out to a higher increment than pistols but with conversions to squares, in the previous version the range increments were more like Saga... where short range meant different distances for say pistols and rifles)

if you PM me your email address, I can email you the current (in progress revision word doc)

Love rifts but hate palladium xD been talking about doing a FATE rifts game for a while.

Definately gonna finish reading this later! ^^

(At work rn)

Good news everyone! The folks over at PEG recently got the license to produce the next edition of Rifts in the Savage Worlds system. Palladium apparently crashed and burned in a fireball of drama and embezzlement. I was not a fan of their RPG system, but they had a lot of cool ideas and deserved better.

Uhhhh, Palladium still exists as of a few days ago.

Palladium's still around. Definitely had their issues over the years. Love Rifts even if I don't care for the mechanics. Looking forward to Savage Rifts (along with Savage Talislanta).

Reads thread topic, gets snarky.

The title of the thread should clear up any confusion you're experiencing.

There’s plenty of threads where that is true, but that wasn’t the case here. I was honestly confused, and I said so.

So, because I am confused by a post and I state that I am confused by a thread, I must automatically now be declared to be snarky and you have to shoot me down in the snarkiest manner possible?

Can you explain that to me?

I think the OP is equal parts amazed and proud, and wanted to share his nephews' good fortune.

I don’t have a problem with that. I’ve posted similar threads on this forum, albeit they were actually related to Star Wars.

It's responses like yours which diminish this community. Its nothing except negative.

Hmm. What did you say to me recently, about the pot calling the kettle black?

Good news everyone! The folks over at PEG recently got the license to produce the next edition of Rifts in the Savage Worlds system. Palladium apparently crashed and burned in a fireball of drama and embezzlement. I was not a fan of their RPG system, but they had a lot of cool ideas and deserved better.

For many years, the Palladium FRPG was my very favourite game above all others, and my favourite character that I have ever created in any game system ever (before or since), is from PFRPG.

But we didn’t play Rifts, and there was no part of that original post that was recognizable to me as being from a Palladium/Rifts universe. Had I recognized that, I would have made mention of my favouriet PFRPG character in my initial response on this thread, and said that we never played Rifts, and then tried to make appropriate comments regarding the actual gameplay.

But it’s kind of hard to do any of that if there is absolutely nothing about the game system description that seems familiar.

Its more interesting that hearing about his Peruvian wife or whatever again. Sorry, I don't mean that to be mean its just that going on and on about your relationship in a forum for a roleplaying game is a little off kilter in my opinion. But Im happy for him really, Im not bashing the guy, please don't anybody start a crusade.

Reads thread topic, gets snarky.The title of the thread should clear up any confusion you're experiencing.

There’s plenty of threads where that is true, but that wasn’t the case here. I was honestly confused, and I said so.So, because I am confused by a post and I state that I am confused by a thread, I must automatically now be declared to be snarky and you have to shoot me down in the snarkiest manner possible?Can you explain that to me?

I think the OP is equal parts amazed and proud, and wanted to share his nephews' good fortune.

I don’t have a problem with that. I’ve posted similar threads on this forum, albeit they were actually related to Star Wars.

It's responses like yours which diminish this community. Its nothing except negative.

Hmm. What did you say to me recently, about the pot calling the kettle black?

One think I try to remember when posting on forums is that online text tends to amplify insult, even when none or little us intended, the reason for this is that you can't hear the other persons tone of voice and people tend to interpret written text in a personal insulting tone even when that wasn't the original intent. So maybe we can all just let perceived, insults go until the other person calls us a named personally instead of as soo. As they criticize something we said.

Its more interesting that hearing about his Peruvian wife or whatever again. Sorry, I don't mean that to be mean its just that going on and on about your relationship in a forum for a roleplaying game is a little off kilter in my opinion. But Im happy for him really, Im not bashing the guy, please don't anybody start a crusade.

Noted and I'll scale it back, no offense taken

Its more interesting that hearing about his Peruvian wife or whatever again. Sorry, I don't mean that to be mean its just that going on and on about your relationship in a forum for a roleplaying game is a little off kilter in my opinion. But Im happy for him really, Im not bashing the guy, please don't anybody start a crusade.

Noted and I'll scale it back, no offense taken

Just jealousy talking here, you know that right? Thanks for understanding. I shouldn't have even commented that way. Im having a bit of trouble in another thread and got testy. Ill go eat a worm now.

Its more interesting that hearing about his Peruvian wife or whatever again. Sorry, I don't mean that to be mean its just that going on and on about your relationship in a forum for a roleplaying game is a little off kilter in my opinion. But Im happy for him really, Im not bashing the guy, please don't anybody start a crusade.

Noted and I'll scale it back, no offense taken

Just jealousy talking here, you know that right? Thanks for understanding. I shouldn't have even commented that way. Im having a bit of trouble in another thread and got testy. Ill go eat a worm now.

Very happy for you, honestly. Married 20+ years here, I better not be caught anywhere near E-Harmony!

What an interesting turn this thread took.

well, back to the topic at hand. I'm happy that you had great time with your nephews and that system. I'm not sure if I really had that kind of attention span when i was that young to be able to play theses kinds of games. I don't know, maybe. I didn't have anyone around at that time. For me between 8 and 12 I was big into my Star Wars Toys and MASK. I could play for hours!!! Now I have a room full of toys that never get played with! Anyway, awesome to hear that you can bring something so cool to your nephews! Thanks for sharing...even though it wasn't Sat Wars of FFG!!!!

my 8 year old nephew, is really too young to play (doesn't have the needed attention span)... but he wants to do everything his big brother does because his big brother (his hero/idol) does it so that's why he WANTS to sit at the proverbial gaming table (I think their computer is actually on a desk, I haven't been to their home in Virginia yet, I married my wife May 2015). Also the campaign is exactly my my older nephew asked for... he wanted to be a bionic super soldier who is looking for his family in Afghanistan because they were kidnapped.

And my younger nephew wanted to play a magic warrior with magic swords and heat vision who rides a dinosaur... it almost seems like Rifts is the perfect setting for him lol. I had to reskin the lightsaber equivalent into a "mystic blade" (psi sword from rifts), and I had to make stats for the ostrosaurus but otherwise the My homebrew system already handled everything that he wanted in his character (I designed it from the ground up to handle a Rifts style "kitchen sink" setting, the other primary design point/genre was a traditional fantasy game)

BTW, very early in the development process (last days of Dec 2012 or first days of January 2013) GM Dave of the order 66 podcast saw an early draft of the system rules I had posted on the d20radio forums for feedback and contacted me about letting Gamer Nation Studios publish my system. I've also had an email conversation with Jay Little (yeah that Jay Little, the original lead designer of Edge of the Empire) GM Dave put us in contact with each other, about possibly collaborating on the project merging his triple threat system and my 3D system because of a number of similarities... the reason we jointly decided not to is that his core 3Dice mechanic was a lot like FFG star wars (having positive and negative dice) while mine was more inspired by Cortex Plus where all the dice are positive (i.e. the player's dice) in particular it was inspired by Marvel Heroic Roleplaying the sum of the best 2 dice is success vs failure and effect is determined by the size of the other dice, in mine success vs. failure is determined by the die with the largest rolled result and effect is determined by the sum of the two dice with the smaller rolled results. Jay is a really cool guy and I was strongly debative (bordering on argumentative) and that's on me.