Common, Exotic, Restricted and Banned Character Types
Here on Lost Dominion we try to be pretty open about what’s allowed on the grid. Rifts is, after all, a pretty diverse world full of frankly really strange things. However there are for balance and theme reasons a number of things that are banned or otherwise restricted so far as applications are concerned.
Before we get into the lists, though, there’s one important thing to note. The Rifts world is large and incredibly detailed. Rather than go through each of the 30+ world books and make a decision character by character we’ve dealt with what we feel are the common cases and left everything else to deal with as it comes up. So if you have a concept you don’t see covered in our Extras section, feel free to ask us about it. It may be just fine (in many cases it will be) or it may end up on our restricted or banned lists, but we’re always happy to have the conversation.
Common Characters
Common characters are any concept that might reasonably be found in the Mid Atlantic seaboard of North America or the oceans nearby that isn’t otherwise restricted or banned. For our purposes that includes most concepts that could be found in North America at all – adventuring types tend to get around – though extremely rare or hyper localized concepts might be classed Exotic.
A player may have as many Common characters as they would like.
Exotic Characters
Exotic characters are characters that ‘aren’t from around here’. This doesn’t necessarily mean ‘isn’t from the North American Continent’ since that description also covers most D-Bees. Rather it means concepts that are generally found in another part of the world or multiverse and do not often stray from them. Most character concepts from Asia, Africa, Europe or South America fall into this category as do particularly rare D-Bees or populations that are so localized that they rarely stray beyond their homes.
A player may have up to two (2) exotic characters. If you have questions about whether or not a character is exotic, feel free to ask us but in general staff will confirm with you that a concept is classified as exotic when it is submitted to us.
Why are exotic characters restricted to 2 per player? Mostly its a matter of theme. On the one hand we want players, especially long time rifts fans, to be able to dig into some of the cool concepts that can be found around the Rifts world. On the other hand, we don’t want a hundred Japanese cyborgs wandering around Virginia. This is our compromise.
Present Exotic Characters List (This list will grow and be clarified as time goes on and things come up)
- Any concepts from Rifts source material dealing with Asia, Europe, South America, Africa or Atlantis.
- Lemurians
- True Atlanteans
- Rare or localized D-Bee populations
Restricted Characters
Restricted characters come from concepts that need to be handled a bit carefully. They’re possible in principle but can’t be done with the usual freedom of background and play because of how the setting is set up. If you’re curious about a restricted concept, feel free to ask staff about it and we can talk about what you might like to do and what the restrictions on a given concept are.
Present Restricted List (The list will be updated and clarified as time goes on and things come up.)
- Coalition States characters
- Sub Demons and Lesser Demons (This will depend heavily on the concept. Many demonic characters are unsuitable for PCs even if they are of an appropriate level of power)
Banned Characters
Banned characters are those concepts that we have decided we’d rather not deal with on Lost Dominion. In some cases it’s a question of balance or theme. In others it’s a question of our tastes.
Present Banned List (The list will be updated and clarified as time goes on and things come up.)
- Vampires (Vampires in Rifts Earth are a very specific concept involving an Alien Intelligence that isn’t something we’re looking to have on the game at this time.)
- Adult Dragons (Adult Dragons are insanely powerful in the Rifts universe and are definitely off the table as PCs. Dragon Hatchlings (which can be anything from hours to a couple hundred years old) are absolutely appable.
- New Navy Concepts including Sea Titans (from Rifts Underseas)
- Concepts from Rifts China
- Space Based or Originating Concepts (Nothing ever gets to or from orbit on Rifts Earth and we’re not interested in adding that dimension to our grid or RP right now)
- Other Major IP’s (Fables, Marvel, DC, Robotech, Star Trek, etc. You can be inspired by them, but you can’t be them)
- Powerful Nobility or their equivalent elsewhere. (You can app in characters that are nobles far from their power base or Dogwood nobles at a rank of Count or Knight, but this isn’t a Lords and Ladies game and we’re not really going to be running anything for that kind of play. Similarly players may app in Senators from Vesper, or wealthy merchants but membership in the Thirty or people with similar power and influence are banned.)
- Greater Demons, Demon Lords and most other demonic concepts (Most demons on rifts Earth are too powerful or too ridiculously evil and bloodthirsty to be suitable PCs. Lesser demons and sub-demon races //may// be appable dependent on the specific concept. See the Restricted list above).