#193 – The Slingers

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So we're trying something a little bit new this time. We've in the past done deep dive episodes talking about specific OCCs, but I figure it might be more interesting to compare and contrast a group of similar OCCs. And since we just finished our run through the West trilogy, Lone Star, New West, Spirit West, I figured that a good way to kick this off, an example of such a group of classes would be what I'm calling the slingers.

There are a number, depending on how you count it. I was looking at it. You have, you have your, your 4 core slingers in New West, right? So you got your gunslinger, or excuse me, your gunfighter. Yeah.

Yeah. The gunfighter is the only one that's not a slinger, but he's a slinger.

He's a slinger. Yeah, absolutely. You have the gunslinger. So gunfighter, gunslinger, your psi slinger, which when I reread it last night, I was surprised about some of the stuff I did. I missed, um, the wired slinger. And then depending on how you stretch it, there's one or two of the full conversion cyborg mods that are basically slingers, but I don't know if I'd want to include them. Um, cause one of the models is like, there's the kid and then there's the other one, but you know, maybe we'll, maybe we'll talk about this. Maybe we won't.

Yeah.

Let's, yeah. The super slinger cyborg is the one I think you're thinking of specifically. It's, um, yeah. Borgs are interesting in that it's, it's really hard to classified them because again, this was from a book when the Ultimate Edition didn't exist. So this was based on Butts Edition Rifts and Borgs were a little different, not nearly as awesome as they are now. I mean, they were awesome, but they got quite an uplift.

Well, this book kind of gave them an uplift. It also gave them a downlift. That could be something we could talk about some other time because like the tramp miner cyborg, kind of the broken down mining cyborg.

Well, yeah, it's an adventurer.

Yeah, absolutely.

I like it. I love that class.

So, but slingers. So, you know, we go to page 90 there and we go to the gunfighter, which kind of starts it off. It's a pretty robust class. As with many of the classes in New West, it has some really cool, like unique features, class abilities and bonuses just that are unique to this class. The big one of note, the big 2 is the weapons master. They pretty much, they pick it up, they can shoot it.

Yeah.

Yeah. Like, like that's, that's actually kind of cool. And they get right off the bat, I think they get, uh, yeah, they get just an extra attack if they're using any sort of gun, old style bolt action, energy pistol, energy rifle. They just get an extra attack if they're using a pistol or a gun. And like, well, that's kind of cool.

Any gun.

Any gun.

Includes railguns.

Yeah. Just, just any gun, they get an extra attack.

Yep.

They also get disarm shots, a called shot with a disarm shot, a +3, which is cool.

That seems to be prevalent in most of these classes, that one. At least.

And then it starts with the horror factor bonuses, which—

Are you talking about the horror factor or the save versus horror factor?

So it gives you a save to horror factor, right?

Okay.

Which I considered foreshadowing for the end of the special abilities, which, which is like, I don't think they had done it, done this in any other books.

Um, uh, man, these books are so old and we've read so much since then. It does kind of get all muddled. You kind of forget what does it. But yeah, I think, I think this by now, horror factor or, uh, escalating horror factor saves is actually pretty common.

So no, I was talking about, um, the, the special ability 6, reputation and horror factor. Oh, where the class, just because people will know your reputation, you have a horror factor.

That's pretty rare too. Yeah.

And, and like, and if you think about it, you go back to your spaghetti westerns, you know, when Clint Eastwood Walked into the city, everyone knew the Man Without a Name and they were scared of him. You know, they're like, oh crap, that's that guy. Right. You know.

Well, this one's pretty cool, right? But it doesn't kick in until level 6 and it starts at a horror factor of 8.

So, right.

But it, but it goes up. So over time it'll get 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. So it'll go up to a horror factor of 14.

Yeah. That's pretty impressive.

At level 15.

Like you're just gonna scare someone down. You're like, grrr.

Okay, so folks listening at home, remember that. We're gonna come back to that in a minute.

Yeah.

Okay, but the other things that this class, well, this book really introduces, and this class is one of the ones that makes them, maximizes the use of it, are 2 things: Sharpshooting and Quick Draw Initiative. So we've talked about Quick Draw Initiative before. It is, it says it's exclusive to the Gunfighter, but it's not.

No, no.

The other slingers also get it. However, the gunfighter gets it with handguns and rifles.

Right, right.

And I think the rifles part might be unique, but, but it, what it is, is it's an ability that you get an initiative bonus based on your physical prowess.

Yep.

Which I've said this before, I'm not fond of that particular way of progression. I think that should be level-based. And I think it's easy enough to switch it to a level-based progression.

I agree. Um, because mechanically speaking, increasing your PP, there's only a couple of skills that can do it. And if you're playing a plain Jane human, like you could get the really cool roll and get a really high PP, but odds are you're not. Right. And so I've always thought that that was kind of funky as well.

It's funky.

It really says, here's this cool thing that you never get. Yeah, it is really what it says.

Here's the thing that you might get to use, and it's—

But odds are, even if you take gymnastics and acrobatics and everything else that gives you a PP bonus— oh, but we've forbidden you from taking those, uh, then you can't use it. So anyway, but moving on, the paired weapons, revolvers and pistols. This is when Uh, it may have been introduced somewhere else, but this is where like 2, you're dueling pistols in each hand, revolvers. It starts to get wacky. Like, like, I mean, paired weapons. I mean, I know you guys have done at least 1, 2 podcasts on paired weapons alone. I don't know.

Maybe we did. I don't know. We've talked about it a lot. I don't know if we've dedicated it.

It's a complex term. It's a complex thing. Like rules as written, it doesn't necessarily work, make sense. And then like, if you house rule it, it can, but now we're adding pistols.

You know, I've, I've gone around in circles with myself on whether or not I like the way paired weapons is written.

Oh yeah.

Sometimes I'm like, man, this is awful. I'm going to rewrite it. And the other times I stop and I sit and I read through it and I read through it again. And then after the third time I'm like, oh wait, no. Okay.

I get it.

Well, and I don't think it's as complicated as it looks, but it's written weird.

Yeah.

Yeah. Um, and, and it, and then there's the whole auto parry. Like if you're using paired weapons, can you auto parry or can you not auto parry?

And like, but if you're, if you're frequently, well, here it very specifically says parrying is not possible when 2 guns are being used as paired weapons. Yep. Yeah. And I think updated versions of paired weapons do come out and specifically say things like parry multiple attacks at the same time.

If you, but that uses the action or yeah, there's ors, right? There's not. Yeah. But anyway, you get paired revolvers and pistols. Which is or thrown throw two knives. I like it. Or throw two knives.

Well, what it essentially lets you do is fire two guns for one attack.

Yep.

And that is crucial.

Yeah.

Especially if you are a gunfighter.

Right, exactly. A parry is not possible. And then you get the sharpshooting specialties.

Yep, yep. So the sharpshooters have. Okay, so fun thing. One might read over the sharpshooting and think, I'm never going to use this. This is silly. It says you can fire a 2-handed weapon like a rifle one-handed without penalty. Okay, I might use that. Can shoot over the shoulder with a mirror. Okay, never going to use that. Accurately shoot while riding a horse. Okay. Okay. Okay. I'll use that. Shoot while standing on head. Nope. Never going to use that. Dodge somersault. Okay. That's, that's pretty cool.

Ricochet shot.

Oh, yeah.

That sounds cool, but I'll never use it. I've used every single one of these fucking things, sometimes multiple times in a session. When you play a gunfighter or a gunslinger, you find ways.

Oh yeah, absolutely. And then you come to the reputation and horror factor that we were talking about, where at 6th level you have a reputation. And instead of creating a whole new system of reputation, They, they go, hey, let's just use horror factor. You were that damn intimidating at 6th level as a gunfighter. You've, you've gunned down that many people in the street or whatever, and they'll know who you are. And, or once they realize who you are, they're terrified. They're gonna pee their pants. And it gets worse as you go up in level. As you said, eventually it gets to about +14 at 15th level.

14, total of 14.

Yep.

Yep.

So I want to say one last thing on the, on the sharpshooting.

Oh, sorry.

There is a line here that you need to— gunslingers, especially gunfighters with the energy weapons, you need to memorize this line. And that is, glitter boys are excellent reflective surfaces for performing ricochet laser shot.

Oh my God.

If you are a gunslinger with an energy pistol and you have a glitter boy in your party and you are not shooting that motherfucker at every possible time just because you can, You're doing it wrong.

With a laser, with a laser gun. Please stop shooting me. But you only take half damage from it and then I get to shoot someone else. It's like, what? No, stop shooting my armor. It's really expensive to fix. Stop it. But it's cool.

Yeah, it's, it's an annoying thing, but at the same time, if it helps you line up a shot.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

I can shoot around corners.

This is pretty much like if the glitter boy is out there tanking and you're the gunslinger at a distance, you, Through the Glitter Boy and the mirror shot. Remember, you've got the mirror shot. That's your number 2 power right there. And the number 2 with the mirror, the number 6 with the ricochet and the Glitter Boy, you can pretty much see anyone on the battlefield.

Yeah, absolutely.

It's great.

Then you got some good skills. I mean, you got a good selection of skills you start with. So that type of stuff, when I was comparing it, I didn't think any of these really had more OCC related or more OCC skills or more secondary skills than anyone else. I didn't notice anything particular equipment-wise, uh, that really jumped out at me that was like, oh, you get to start with a Deathhead transport, you know, like just because.

You don't get that much money. No, you don't get any cybernetics or bionics.

Nope.

Uh, you get some very basic weapons. If you want, you can get a Techno Wizard pistol. So that's pretty cool. You get some grenades. Uh, you can get a horse or a battered hovercycle.

Yeah.

Right.

So yeah, that's, that's pretty standard. I mean, it's a solid class. It really much is a, it's your man-at-arms, man-at-arms with some extra cool abilities. Right. I mean, it's, it's pretty solid.

I will note that, okay. OCC-related skills in Palladium classes, I feel are like a crapshoot when it says what you can and cannot get. Yep. I, again, in the, in the last few years have taken to recommending ignoring all such restrictions. Just ignore them. It will allow you to create a more interesting character. I don't understand why the gunfighter can't take acrobatics. Why not?

Why? Why?

I don't—

Acrobatics is one of the 2 things that give you a PP bonus.

Oh.

But you can take gymnastics, which gives you a PP bonus. So maybe you can't take both.

But I can take any science skill. I can take any, anything else. I just, but I can't take acrobatics.

It's—

Yeah.

Um, yeah.

Anyway, I always recommend— oh, and I get all of this. My character looks like a cowboy with a gun. I know how to ride a horse, but I can't take cowboy skills. Again, it's— I would recommend folks just ignore those. You'll have a much more fun character.

Yeah. Yeah. Um, you do get a crapload of weapon proficiencies, even though technically I guess you don't need them.

Yeah.

I mean, you do because you get the bonuses, but you get revolver, energy pistol, and sniper.

Yep.

So it's a good one. Okay.

Yeah.

Now we have the man with no name, right? Ramon Perez channeling some Clint Eastwood. Beautiful picture on page 93 of Rifts: New West. Such a gunslinger.

Such a good picture.

The gunslinger is a fantastic character class. It's wonderful. It, if you want, it does what it says. on the label.

Yeah.

Yeah.

You look at this art and you look at this label and you're like this. Yes. Everything that this character class does is exactly what you see in that picture. Like expertise is all handguns.

Yep.

Does all that stuff. Um, does he get the extra attacks? Nope. He gets +1 melee attack at levels 5, 10, and 15 when using any type of revolver, but he doesn't start with the extra +1.

He doesn't get the +1 attack when using a gun of any kind.

Yeah.

But he gets additional attacks as you go up in level. So, you know, the Gunfighter is your all-around, I've used, I can use any gun I pick up. The Gunslinger is I use pistols and revolvers and I'm going to get better and better and better at them.

So now we've got the same quick draw initiative bonus. This doesn't apply to rifles, just revolvers and pistols. Now take a note that whereas the previous one was every 2 points over 16, this is +1 for every point 18 and above.

Yeah.

which at a physical prowess of 30, you're going to have a +13 to initiative.

Yeah.

Again, I think you should mete that out across experience levels.

Yeah.

But still, that's nothing to laugh at.

No.

Well, and, and rules as they're written, theoretically you could roll that extraordinary PP attribute or bump it up. And at 1st level you have a +13 to initiative when you're quick drawing your pistol.

Yeah.

Like, I'm going to shoot every fucker in the bar and they're not going to know it. Yeah.

This, this character class reminds me of why we changed one of our house rules as a teenager.

Oh.

Because when we started playing Palladium with a certain group that I played with a lot in high school, we played our house rules for character creation were whatever the number of dice it says to roll, roll one more.

Okay.

Reroll 1s and 2s.

Oh yeah.

Drop lowest.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So basically all of our characters were just, you know, combat gods. Yeah. And we're like, oh, oh yeah.

We're broken now. Okay.

You get the paired weapons, you get the sharpshooting, you get all that fun stuff. Now, remember earlier when I said to remember that horror factor? So the gunslinger, the gunfighter gets his at level 6. The gunslinger gets this at level 1. Horror factor of 8.

Yep.

Which goes up at levels 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 11, 13, and 15. That is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 for a gunslinger horror factor of 17 from your reputation of gunning motherfuckers down.

Yep.

Um, yeah, that's, that's like Oh, plus 2 against common folk.

Right.

Common folk. So everyone normal. Um, I, I mean, you, you run into a, a hardened squad of CS and they've heard of you and they all shit their drawers and need to run away. Like, like, and you never even fire a shot. Like, that's, that's impressive.

Like El Diablo.

Yes.

Yes.

I'm Baba Yaga. Wrong genre.

You get some pretty good saves as well to horror factor. Yep.

But I do like the comment here, like, the reputation is a two-edged sword. While it may provide intimidation power and blah blah blah, um, it's likely to be noticed. Other people won't like you. They'll, they won't want you around. They might be gunning for you, right? Like, like, it's a liability as much as it is a, you know, awesome. So, um, uh, yeah. And then, then you get your attacks. You get 3 extra melee attacks with revolvers and pistols only.

Over levels.

Yeah, over levels, over levels. Um, you get a little SDC boost, some, you know, punch and disarm, some bonuses to horror factor, and you have a strong will. Like, okay, like a little, little— here's a little stat block for some extra stuff.

And your skills, your starting skills essentially define you as a drifter.

Yep.

You know, the basic array here, you get some weapon proficiencies, you get not As many extra skills though, only 6 OCC related and only 2 secondary.

Yeah.

But, uh, and you have more restrictions again, ignore it. Uh, nothing equipment-wise, I think that is particularly broken. Yeah.

Yeah.

No, it's, it's again, it's a good class.

Oh, as opposed to the gun fighter, which gets a crappy hovercycle, you can get a brand new one.

Oh, you can also get a robot horse.

Yeah, I think— could they get a robot horse?

Or just a regular horse?

Nope, nope, they can only get a regular. Yep.

Because you're like, the robot horse is like one of the most expensive things in the book.

So these are the players of the Slingers.

Yeah, exactly. Um, well, they, they probably killed a gunfighter for their robot horse.

Yeah. Okay.

Yeah. Okay. So now, now we jump.

We jump ahead to the Psi Slinger.

Yeah, to the Psi Slinger.

So now We've left the world of purely skill-based and now we're adding powers to the mix.

Absolutely.

The Psi-Slinger is essentially the Gunslinger. Now it makes a note here that it's questionable. And in the opening few paragraphs, the last one of the Psi-Slinger says, except for their unique powers, Psi-Slingers are fundamentally Gunslingers with the same profession, outlook, and ethics. And this is the one I don't necessarily agree with. However, psi slingers are generally considered superior. I used to believe that.

Yeah, I don't. There's some parts that I like, I agree with, but combat-wise, so they have some cool psychic abilities. Okay. They can fire fire bolts, energy from their fingertips. They can do some, they can do an STC to an MD tac from 1 to 6 ISP. That's kind of cool. The range is a little short, 20 feet per level, but you always have, basically you can do your, you know, you can do your, your finger guns and actually shoot someone. That's kind of cool. Psychic weapons convert normal ammunition into MD ammunition.

That's, that's powerful.

Yeah.

So they can pick up normal SDC guns and shoot MDC rounds out of them. That's pretty cool.

And in the right setting, that, that, that's really powerful, right? Um, but they only can do it with D6 MD for 10 ISP.

Yep.

Uh, okay. All the rounds in the weapon are affected up to 15. So that's the— you know, it's like you got your— you have your little .22 carbine repeater that has 15 rounds in it and you're blowing holes in tanks.

And they don't have much MD or much ISP.

No.

So for 10 ISP to convert an attack to MD is kind of expensive.

Yeah. Then the interesting ability here, the energy conversion ability, that is interesting. That basically any attack of 30 MD or, well, 29 MD or less gets converted automatically, but for no cost.

To SDC.

Mm-hmm.

And then anything 30 or higher will still do MD, but half.

Right.

It's a nice defensive thing. Yeah.

Yeah.

Which is neat. Like, I don't know if there's any other class that really does that.

So here's a fun one. All Psi-Slingers possess the powers of Sixth Sense, Mind Block, Mind Bolt, Psi Sword.

Yeah.

And Telekinesis. Psi Sword. Oh, plus they can sense the energy and so on. Okay.

Right.

Psi Sword is an interesting one to start off. Okay. Well.

Well, so remember, Psi-Scape worldbook-wise is 12 and this is 14, but it came out after this book.

Yeah.

And I think they were done very independently. So some of the different telekinetic things that are in that book and definitely in Rifts Unlimited didn't show up yet. So like I could see a bunch, I could see several of the TK abilities instead of Psi Sword showing up there. Had it been done at a different time. Um, they get, they're considered a super, uh, psychic. So they get their master.

Yeah.

They master, they get the ME attribute times 2 plus 10.

Yeah. That's it.

That's it.

That's not a lot.

ME is one that's hard to get high points in.

Yep.

Yeah. Yep.

And it doesn't— I didn't see anywhere where you get more per level.

10 per level. Oh, there it is. Okay.

10 per level.

Right.

I said that.

So, okay. They get the same quick draw initiative as the gunslinger. They get the paired weapons, they get sharpshooting. They even get the same horror factor. They do not get the additional attacks at levels 5 and whatever.

Nope.

So the one, the lack of the extra attacks is I think one thing which is going to put the gunslinger above them. However, the Psy Slinger does have one very fucking useful thing. It's a tiny little paragraph here. I think it's like one sentence. Also note that the Psy Slinger can telekinetically make any psychic weapon linked to them fly into their hands at the cost of an ISP, but is limited to a range of 10 feet plus 1 per level. Yeah, that is so fucking useful.

That is like— when I read that, I was like, oh. And I think they can link so many to them or something like that, right?

Yep.

So the picture, the Perez picture that's on page 99 of all hell breaking loose and throwing all sorts of different things, that while the line that says, except for their unique powers, they're fundamentally them, but they're considered more superior. I could see perception-wise they'd be considered superior. Yeah, because they are scarier. But are they actually superior? I don't—

So a tactic that I've used that I've, I've never played one, but I've seen with Psi Slinger players is a bandolier full of loaded pistols. Okay, 8, 10 of them, right? You pull out 2, right? Fire them, fire them until they're gone. Drop them. 2 more appear in your hands. Fire, fire, fire, fire, fire.

You never have to draw.

You just keep shooting. You never have to draw.

Yeah.

Okay.

Okay. It's pretty cool. But, but they lack, they lack those extra attacks, I think. Yeah.

I mean, even with the paired weapon revolvers and pistols, which basically double up their pistol shooting.

Uh, yeah.

It's those extra attacks are crucial. Yeah.

Oh, that's interesting. I didn't see that.

What?

Um, includes a +1 melee attack when using that specific weapon for the entire melee round. It's the sharpshooting. It's a, it's a, it's a, it's a line in the sharpshooting. Is that everywhere?

Oh, fascinating. I might've skipped over that line. Let's go back and look. Gunslinger sharpshooter.

Yes, it is.

It is.

It looks like it is. Yep. Interesting.

Okay.

But that, but that, that's the, that's kind of a push. Like all of them have that.

So.

Yeah, it's interesting. I almost want to try to play one of these, I think.

Yeah. What I would love to do is run a party of nothing but the slingers.

Oh, oh geez.

Yeah.

Do something like either some Deadwood or some, uh, well, could you do a, you could do a Magnificent Seven.

Magnificent Seven.

Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Right.

Like, yeah.

Yeah. Uh, which, which actually would fit excellently. Um, well, we're almost there, but like, But, uh, so the Psi-Slinger, um, I like how all of these are Psi-Slinger, OCC, and NPC villain, also known as the Psi-Assassin or an energy killer. Like, I think all of them have the like, and consider this, like, definitely not shying away from the fact that these are morally ambiguous characters. They're not necessarily good guys.

Yeah.

You know, like it's, It's, uh, because all of them have that kind of extra blurp of like hired assassin, killer, you know, whatever. Skills-wise, they have an okay chunk of skills. They get 5 OCC others, 2 secondaries. Uh, it looks like all of them have the any physical except for acrobatics.

Yeah, I think all of their, for the most part, they just otherwise look like the gunslinger.

Right.

Now this brings us to the 4th one.

Yeah.

The Wired Gunslinger, page 107. The Gunslinger Crazy.

Yeah.

Well, yeah. Okay. Let's talk about this class. They get automatically all the crazy shit. So augmented strength, super, super, super.

Oh, wait, wait, wait.

Hold on. Don't go to the augment yet. Start at danger response.

Oh, well, I don't know if I would consider that an ability. Well, it's more of a curse.

Um, you know, there's a line here. Automatically notices and reacts to movement, especially movement seen out of the corner of the eye. It is, it is an instinctive and reflexive response to draw and point his gun at anything that moves because it could be an enemy or it startles him. And then it goes down and it says, this is the cause of death of many wire slingers. 25% kill themselves after 10 plus 2d4 years. Because the stress of constant anxiety of thinking an enemy is lurking behind every shadow. I mean, like it, it takes a lot of the crazy and immediately jumps up front. It's like, no, you're, you're tweaked up really high. Like you cannot, you make chihuahuas look nervous. Yeah.

Like, it's like, um, so I could be wrong here, but I think this is when the crazy starts getting the automatic dodge. If I don't remember the crazy in the Buzz Edition having it. Could have sworn that it was only the juicer that did.

I know the juicer did. You have a copy right there.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I thought the crazies did get it.

Well, I know that they do in the ultimate edition. I don't remember if they do in the the butts edition. Let's see.

Hmm.

I don't see it anywhere. Yep, they get extra attacks. Hold on. Except vision and sense of smell and sense of touch, but it doesn't show automatic dodge. Yeah.

Okay.

Yep.

They can leap.

They have high reflexes. Oddly, I don't think I see any dodge bonuses.

Yeah.

Yep. Yep. They put me— they do get some physical prowess boost. So yeah. I think, uh, unless they added them in, uh, what was it, Mindworks, which had all the crazies. Yeah, they added them there. This, this crazy most definitely does have an automatic dodge.

Has some heck of a bonuses against horror factor, which, which is, you know, surprising to me because again, they're crazy.

Um, extra attack per melee round regardless of weapon, right? Uh, major initiative bonuses plus all the quick draw. Special physical prowess bonus is not quite the same. See, and oh, okay. Sorry. It already, it gets, it just gets a set bonus. It doesn't have the, the, okay.

It doesn't have the potential of like +8 or +9.

Sharpshooting extra attack as well.

Yep.

Let's see reputation. Um, where does their start? They're known to be crazed killers.

Level 1, level 1.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. Yeah. Same. They can get up to 17 or 19 versus ordinary citizens.

Wow.

And they get a bunch of— they get melee attack bonuses just at level 5.

So I would say that mechanically, this one is the superior.

Yeah.

Well, the numbers I think work out in its favor. Plus it gets a guaranteed initiative bonus, right? Which others don't. Yep.

Yep.

But that said, Starting at level 3, you start picking up insanity.

Oh, pish posh.

So level 3, 5, 7, 10, and 13, you pick up some pretty nasty issues going on in your head, which added to the anxiety one that you start off with.

So here's the thing though. Those are role-playing mostly. Players who are signing up to play a crazy, know what they're getting into. Like, that's—

I agree.

They probably expect it and want it.

Right. I agree.

Yeah. That's like saying the juicer is going to die in 5 years.

Which, which, um, you know, oftentimes never comes into play.

Yeah.

But, uh, which, uh, you know, I, I think it's the thing that's been talked about before. Um, the Savage Rifts conversion, the concept of burnout in Savage Rifts with the burn die, I thought would be— I want to figure out a way to bring that into Palladium rifts.

Just lift, just drop.

Drop.

Okay. Yeah.

I mean, why not?

Yeah.

I'm sure it could do it.

So yeah.

Yeah. Skills-wise, skills-wise, uh, I think they get a good chunk of skills, all the, all the weapon proficiencies you could ever want. Someone needs to work on their layout, but, uh, they also can't have acrobatics. A crazy can't have acrobatics. I know. Well, they can have gymnastics though, but not acrobatics. They can't learn subduction, seduction, which I can see the crazy trying to seduce people. They get 2 secondary skills and 5 OCC-related skills.

Yeah, levels up there. They're also low in the skill level.

Yeah.

They get some fancy clothes, any cool gear, a derringer, robot. They also can have a robot horse or a brand new hover vehicle. And they get a few like simple cybernetics, a clock, multi-optic eye, which would give them other bonuses.

Oh, well, there you go. That, that solves it. They got the clock calendar, right? This is the superior class.

But yeah, no, um, the Psi-Slinger is an interesting cat. Uh, like, and again, Perez, I think, knocks it out of the park with a picture of the Psi-Slinger. Like, he's, he does not look like someone you want to mess with. Is that his hat with a hole in it? Is that a hole in the hat? Derby on the boot.

The boot flying through the air, I think, is what like really draws that whole picture together. For the size slinger, though.

Oh, for the size slinger.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Well, I was looking at the crazy picture. The like there's like a shovel with a derby hat.

Oh yeah, that's got to be his.

Yeah.

He Perez, I know, has put the the derby hat at least on the crazy that he had in what do you call it? That book.

Machinations.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Of Doom.

Yeah.

So thoughts?

So you have 4 solid classes that, 4 solid classes that give you enough difference between the 4 that it really can go in any direction. Of them, I actually want to try to play the Wired— no, uh, the Psi Slinger.

Yeah.

Because I, I've, and I'm, I'm a builder player. Like I like playing techno wizards. I like things that build and create, but The Psi Slinger has just enough to it that I think it'd be interesting. I really like the idea that for no reason at all except that I'm a Psi Slinger, your first 30— 29 points coming in, I can just turn to SDC. I could almost wear no armor.

Yeah.

And really like try to be that guy because 30— 29 points of MD, I mean, depending on the campaign, you're probably not going to get hit with much more than that. And if you do, you're gonna die. So, you know, it's like you take a, you know, one of the plasma mini missiles and you roll a 6, a 5 or a 6, well, you know, you're goo anyway. So, but in like a game that's like a, a western-ish type of game where people are running down with Wilkes pistols and revolvers and, um, it could be a really fun, um, but all of them are just different enough, I think.

So I think what we should do is have a one-shot scenario. Oh, the, the 7, the Magnificent 7 kind of thing. So we bring in at least those 4 classes, maybe, maybe also the Sheriff and/or the Justice Ranger.

Okay. Okay.

Um, the rest of the character classes are kind of, they just don't quite compare. The Highwomen's all right, but the, yeah, they're just They don't have that, that sweet array of abilities.

Right.

And then you bring in like that, the one weird character that, that's probably going to appear in the Western, but they're like the Japanese one. So it's like the samurai or the, the, the Zen archer or something. Anyway, you run through one of these scenarios or a Borg. We got to get a Borg slinger too. So we get a Borg slinger. And then they have to defend something in some kind of a let's call it the Bolivian army showdown.

Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Well, oh.

Uh huh.

Yeah.

Right.

Yep. It's it's kind of like From Dusk Till Dawn meets The Magnificent Seven.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I could see this. I could see this. I may.

Hmm.

From Dusk Till Dawn meets Magnificent Seven. And in fact, I believe Arsinoe has the perfect town for it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um, oh, that'd be good.

Yeah.

Yeah. Just enough.

Um, no, I want to, I want to, you want to play this or you want to run it?

I don't know.

I've been enjoying being a player more often lately, but this sounds like something that would be really fun to run too.

It could be really fun. Um, I may have to, uh, I might get inspired and try to write this up for, uh, Camp WagonCon. Do it at an evening night under the stars.

Honestly, and I think, I think you need to make one of the characters, not a glitter boy, but somebody in glitter boy-like shiny armor, just so the gunslinger can do that.

You know how the Juicer, the, the, the Juicer Uprising book has the wannabe juicers?

Yeah.

Make a wannabe Glitter Boy. Yeah, it's, it's really, uh, um, the Chipwell power armor or Chipwell like exosuit, and he has like these pasted mirrors on him. And so at a distance it looks like a Glitter Boy, but it's really just a disco ball covered suit of Chipwell power armor.

That's wonderful. There's, in fact, if you— there's other Seven Samurai, yes, but if you watch, uh, Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I've seen it. Yeah.

The Cuccio character is, you know, the guy in the big suit. Perfect. Perfect example. Yeah.

And you design this entire adventure to get this one time, you know, all the players that have the trick shot to shoot, like kill 7 other bad guys or 6 other bad guys.

Yeah. So, but you do have to have the one character in full power armor that's covered in mirrors.

Right. But isn't a glitter boy. Isn't a glitter boy. He's always wanted to be a glitter boy, but he's a wannabe.

Well, I, we got to make this happen.

Yeah, absolutely. And, and even if it doesn't happen, we can say that it happened and everyone will think it'll happen.

I heard about that on an episode. Oh, did you now? Well, folks, those are the Slingers. I hope you enjoyed listening to this. This was a fun talk.

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Um, and it's, uh, it's again, it goes back to one of the One of the books that I think you should have, New West, right? It's a great book. Great book.

Cool. Well, folks, thanks for listening. Catch you next time. Drop by Discord and tell us what you think about the Slingers. We'd love to hear from you.

Starships, magic, mystic martial arts, romance. All of these can be found in A Cloak of Blades by Isaac Sher. You might have heard my name before. I've done a lot of voiceover work for Breakfast Puppies. And I've recently released my first novel. It's available on Amazon as an ebook and paperback. And you can get it for free if you have a Kindle Unlimited subscription. I do hope you'll support my work as you're supporting Breakfast Puppies. And it's been a pleasure talking with you today.

Have a good one.

You've been listening to the Glitter Boys, a Palladium Books fan podcast. Glitter Boys, Rifts, the Megaverse, and all other such topics are the property of Kevin Sambita and Palladium Books. Please buy all their stuff and help keep them in print and making more games. You can order directly at palladiumbooks.com, and their entire catalog is available digitally at DriveThruRPG as well. Our opening music is 8-Bit Bass and Lead by Furbyguy from freesound.org. This closing music is Caravana by Philip Gross, available at freemusicarchive.org. All sound effects used are self-made or acquired via Creative Commons Zero license. If you like what you have heard, find us on Twitter and Facebook as The Glitter Boys— that's B-O-I-S— and check us out online at breakfastpuppies.com/glitterboys. And also join us on the Breakfast Puppies Network Discord at breakfastpuppies.com/discord. And if you want to help us out, please spread the word and help us build a community. Thanks again for listening. We'll catch you next time.

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