Coming changes

As I've mentioned, I fear that the time is coming for some battles which might well prove to be rather "final" for some. And so it is now that I present some potential mods to the character system that seek to improve upon the base in the book. Hop efully this will help those who might fall in battle...

One problem with the Palladium/Rifts attribute and skill system is that any attribute below a 15 is essentially the same. For example, whether you have a PP of 3 or 15 makes no difference in your character's ability to pick locks, perform acrobatics, or strike/parry/dodge in battle. Doesn't makes much sense, does it? So, with the help of Chris, I have worked out a system that is based on the idea of the bell curve distribution.

The game is rather anthropocentric and I decided that this was a fine way to "view" the megaverse - through the perspective of humans. An attribute of 3 would be equal (roughly) to someone in the 1st percentile while a human with an 18 would be in the 99th percentile. If you remember how percentiles work, that means, for the the person in the 99th percentile, that only 1 out of every 100 people will be equal or better than them. To make a long story short this leads to the idea that an attribute score of 10 or 11 is dead average. Anything below or above that incurs a penalty or a bonus.

The chart here is for IQ, but will adapted for the rest of the attributes. Not only does your IQ effect your starting skill level, it also effects how quickly your character learns as they level-up. If you are wondering why Rifts doesn't aleady use a system like this, it is probably because the math used to create it is not so simple, creating a situation where you pretty much have to use a chart to figure out whar is going on.

NOTE: Not all skills will be governed by IQ moving into the future. Acrobatics, for example, does not much depend on your brains as your physical prowess.