Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wik" data-source="post: 5698801" data-attributes="member: 40177">I am a palladium hater.  I have been for a considerable length of time, ever since I realized that these games are clunky and just plain poorly put together.I remember, once, buying the Rifts core RPG, skimming through it multiple times, and concluding that I didn't have the complete game.  I couldn't find a combat chapter (it was buried in the skills chapter).  Many game rules were found in the character creation areas.  There was nothing about skill difficulties (you either succeeded on that skill or not, regardless of what you were using it for).  We first played the game using the combat system from Ninjas and Superspies (I think) until we realized that Rifts actually had a combat system hidden in there.I actually have a copy of the 2e Palladium Fantasy RPG, purchased second hand for dirt cheap (less than five bucks at a yard sale).  I like this particular gem from the introduction):(emphasis in bold is mine).In other words, this guy is proud of the fact that he released a book that is over three hundred pages long in less than four months.  Granted, much of it is the same cut and pasting of material from other books, but if even one sixth of this product is newly written (about fifty pages), I'd expect at least a bit of time devoted to playtesting, editing, etc.  And since, in the same introduction, he talks about some rather big rules overhauls, such as changing the magic system, I expect more work was done than just 50 pages.  And if I were making it, and it was forced to be a rushed job done in four months, you can bet I wouldn't be talking about it like it was a huge achievement in my introduction.  Because if I saw something like that as a huge achievement, it makes me wonder how much time he spent on other products.Anyways, while I do enjoy games that expect the GM to carry some of the design burden (ie, come up with some of the damned numbers yourself!), RIFTS does bug me because it leaves so many things up in the air, and then focuses in on super specific situations in others.  For example, the oft-mentioned glitter boy has stabilizers that shoot into the ground so he doesn't drag across the ground.  Does that imply that rail guns will knock most people back?  Why can other things fire them in the air without being moved?  (an example similar to this would be flare compensation in Shadowrun.  There are multiple items and cyberware that offset the penalties to firing due to light flare being in your eyes... but how many games really take that into account?)And, finally, a point was made about how Rifts could work if you realize that some OCCs are combat gods, and others are not - the whole combat vs. skill monkeys being "Equal" due to their excelling in different areas.  This does not fit in Rifts, where there are numerous examples of two classes, existing side by side, where one is clearly better than the other in the exact same field - The Rogue Scientist vs. The Rogue Scholar, for example.  And I know there are numerous classes that excel in about a bajillion different areas, with no real drawback whatsoever.   My brother played in a Rifts campaign, and said it was fairly fun, but apparently it consisted of three players finding ways to hit an "I win button" while the GM got increasingly frustrated.  Not really my type of game.  In my mind, what's really killed Rifts is the sheer pettiness of the company.  Even when something awful happens, like that theft fiasco a few years ago, the general  reaction is the fanboys rally, while everyone else rolls their eyes and makes disparaging remarks.</blockquote>

Verification