Rifts -- Who's played it?

[Palaner]

Just for the heck of it, I decided to go ahead with the Ultimate Edition. The setting should be a fun read.

 

[Immak Antunel]

Let us know what you think, okay?

 

[Palaner]

I'll reply with a somewhat detailed answer in August.

 

[Karl Green]

I do like some of the ideas in Rifts and some of Kevin's other games... but they are just to "all over the place" for me... it like he has all these great ideas, that really don't go together BUT he crams them in anyway.

Like the fantasy game... there are like 15 races or something that you can play? An Ogre or Troll or Wolfen or Human. Rifts just takes this to the EXTREME... and then every new source book is just endless lists of new guns and OCC (kind of character classes) and RCC (kind of racial character classes).

I ran my only version of Rifts using GURPS 3rd about 10 years ago. It was a pretty wild game BUT no where near as crazy as Rifts...

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

GASP! RIFTS offers lots of choices!

You say that like its a bad thing. Talisanthna lists, in its core rulebook, 125 archetypes, including something like 80 races or nationalities. Open ended systems like M&M, HERO, and GURPS are limited only in your imagination and your GM's leniency.

Heck, even D20 has lots of races...especially after Savage Species was printed.

When I ran my first RIFTS campaign, I made a cheatsheet for my players, consisting of a 1-2 line summary covering each RCC and OCC I would allow the players to play, and where to find it, sorted by book. It was about 7 pages long (I didn't eliminate many classes).

Lots of weapons & equipment? YAY! A lot of sci-fi games suffer because they are equipment poor. Ever wander through a gun store or gun & knife show? Do it and you'll see THOUSANDS of weapons from hundreds of manufacturers, and that ignores the custom-made stuff or the experimental prototypes.

It is the rare established product that is unique in its field. At some point, a competitor will try to grab some of its market share- instead of 1 armed hoverbike used worldwide, you'd expect to see several designs, each with strengths and weaknesses...ESPECIALLY in a setting that presumes multiple alien and cross-dimensional civilizations living in close proximity.

 

[danbuter]

What game is this? Is there a link I can follow?

He's referring to FATAL or RaHoWa. If you want to injure your brain, look them up through Google.

 

[Karl Green]

GASP! RIFTS offers lots of choices!

I am NOT saying choice is bad, it is just that the choices are MASHED together with little ryme or reason... at least IMO I mean how many different types of Wilderness Scouts are there? Or basic troops?? How many laser pistols that have all teh same stats but are re-named something this or that?? I mean it is just filler

 

[the Jester]

God dammit, after resisting for who knows how many moons, I've finally downloaded that frickin' game.

I read the whole review- it was one of those "can it really be THAT bad?" moments that you know you should ignore- and, more fool I, I dl'ed it...

 

[AdmundfortGeographer]

God dammit, after resisting for who knows how many moons, I've finally downloaded that frickin' game.

I read the whole review- it was one of those "can it really be THAT bad?" moments that you know you should ignore- and, more fool I, I dl'ed it...

I was just like you. There are times when folks say something is so bad that you must save yourself and avoid it. Such a claim sounds too amazing so you check it out....

I checked out that game a few years ago. I was scrubbing my eyeballs for days afterwards. I felt violated for weeks. So wrong...

 

[Gilwen]

I have previously, for many years, GM'ed rifts and all the other palladium games. My summation of their all their lines is this:

Cool concepts, very poor execution!

Gil