Quick intro - Rifts New West concerns the area of American that after the cataclysm returned to a martial law, "cowboys and indians" type state, but with all the modern technology, magical creations and alien monsters thrown in. It's 'Firefly' meets 'Star Wars' meets 'Lord of the Rings' and add in most any other sci-fi or fantasy element you can think of. Rifts is something of a jack of all trades of the sci-fi/fantasy world, I haven't read every world or dimension book but I'd say it's fair to assume most anything you can imagine is covered and if it's not you can always make it up.
Anyway I'm something of a fan of the sci-fi/western setting of the New West book so that's where I tend to set my campaigns but this is a somewhat unique example. I'm not going to go into any real detail regards the playing of the game or the Rifts books themselves so if you're interested then look it up, all I will be writing here is the story of the players. Backstory:
What's different in this campaign is that the objective in this campaign is that there is no objective. I created a relatively enclosed county, drew up a map and planned out a number of settlements, I then brainstormed a whole mess of characters and threw them around the county. This is the extent of the writing I did before the players made their characters and we played an introductory session which I'll go into below. The intention is that in all the previous games I have run I keep the plot so open the players can more or less do whatever they want and I always end up having to improvise heavily, but it works really well, so this new campaign would be an entirely improvised game, throwing the players in at the bottom rung and leaving them to figure out what they want to do, even if that means they want to lead a normal boring life (which is relatively impossible anyway considering the setting). Aside from the map and the handful of characters this was going to be a 100% improvised scenario, the players have total control over their own destinies.
It quickly descended into chaos.
Below is the introductory session, the only session I wrote a scenarios for which brings the players into the world and allowed them to get used to the dynamics of it and their characters.
Session One - Reset To Zero:
Here's what you need to know, because this isn't technically on the New West map or in any of the Rifts books: the county the game takes place inside of is enclosed in a valley, essentially trapping the players as traveling outside of this area is far too dangerous. There are two ways out of the valley aside from up one of the many cliffsides, and those are a train line to the north or overland to the south but that territory is owned by the CS, the heavy military force that likes to think it owns the place. The only other option is the crater. You see the valley is just a crack that was created by something much larger, a massive crater several hundred miles across of unknown origin with a nexus point in the middle. It's best avoided but that doesn't stop people traveling there.
The players begin their lives living in a small town in the north-west corner of the county, a place simply called 'Valley Station' rather obviously because it's the valley's train station. The train itself is of techno-wizard design and travels along ley lines linking up the various counties in the surrounding states. Our players live relatively simple lives, a farmer (Alan), a mechanic (David), a smith (Andy), a truck driver (Ian) and an officer of the law (Liam). However, in order, they are a necromancer with a collection of undead workers running his farm (Alan), a psychic whose mechanical skill lies in the power of his mind (David), a supernaturally strong Russian alcoholic with the power to create magical weaponry (Andy), a professional daredevil/deranged stunt driver with a knack/desire for causing and surviving serious road accidents (Ian) and a gunslinger whose skill doesn't so much lie in his ability so much as his collection of brain implants that give him unnatural speed and heighten his senses (Liam).
We open on an average day in the lives of this oddball group with them all going to work, with the exception of our truck driver Ian who has just come back from an overnight delivery. As their day begins Liam is at the sheriffs office watching over some prisoners, David goes to his workshop, Andy is at home getting ready for the day, Alan watches over his zombie workers and Ian arrives home and prepares to get some rest. Liam is alone at the sheriffs office as the sheriff and his deputies were called away to deal with a cranky old man chasing children off his lawn with a shotgun. Essentially it turned into a hostage situation which turned worst when the cranky old man revealed that he had a home made tank in his garage and proceeded to have a dangerous shoot out with the sheriff until they managed to break into the tank and arrest him. This event was witnessed by several of the player, it was hard to miss after all.
Meanwhile a storm is rolling in, and I don't mean that metaphorically I mean an actual storm is coming. Heavy rain cloud, thunder and lightening are approaching fast, not a common occurrence around here but nothing too exciting, until it arrived overhead with surprising speed. The town could do little but watch as the storm increased in intensity until the lightening came, lightening that tore through buildings and blew the townspeople into tiny pieces. The storm attacked the town ferociously sending its citizens and our unfortunate players running for cover.
The storm launched Alan's tractor through his kitchen, flattened David's workshop, tore Andy's house in half and killed all the prisoners Liam was watching over. Ian attempted to flee in his car and forced to drive north by the chaos around him he joined the train line and followed it away. Unfortunately he met a train coming the other way and whilst trying to avoid a collision flipped his car which was dutifully rammed out of the way by the train, although he managed to escape. Even more unfortunately the train proceeded onwards into the storm and was derailed and destroyed by it.
In the ensuing chaos it became apparent that there was something in the cloud attacking the town, but it was impossible to tell what it was. With few other options one of the players took control of the cranky old mans tank and began firing wildly into the cloud. Perhaps because of this the cloud dissipated and whatever had been up there fled leaving the town either destroyed or on fire and a mass of dead behind it.
This disaster leaves our players at a loose end. With most of them homeless and/or jobless and the town a wreck they are forced to venture out into the relatively unfamiliar county to try and rebuild their lives.
The players are now free to do whatever they please.
More to come ... Session Two - Accidents in the Workplace
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