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<blockquote data-quote="ACpilot" data-source="post: 5700339" data-attributes="member: 6679603">I just want to chime in in defense of Kevin and RIFTS in particular.My RIFTS books have held up superbly despite being well loved for almost 2 decades.&nbsp; The sturdy, large, soft books are great for use at the table.&nbsp; Only downside is they are a little difficult to shelve without book-ends for support.I find their layout extremely easy to use - I have just shy of 3 dozen books and the simple 2 column layout and heavy use of spot illustrations make them very easy to navigate and easy to remember where items are in the books (must-have when you have so many!)There is fun stuff in every book - flavor and new rules, monsters, character classes, equipment.I have had so much fun in RIFTS despite sub-par rules (which I've always heavily house-ruled or thrown out entirely).&nbsp; This is mostly because the world is so crazy and full of interesting ideas.&nbsp; The world of Rifts is rich; full of good guys, bad guys, and people in between - strange and unusual adventures are everywhere.Speaking to the rules themselves, they are ok at best but they turn particularly bad if a DM uses them exhaustively and procedurally for everything.As far as the balance issue - RIFTS balance, or lack there of, perfectly models the kind of insane power disparities typical in hyper-violent anime (from the 80s and early 90s), where demons and monsters and other baddies can just effortlessly demolish normal humans with preposterous levels of gore.&nbsp; If you play with that sort of mentality the game comes alive.The RIFTS rules are... unsafe.&nbsp; DMs and players can't rely on them to model outcomes and probabilities the way more modern game systems do, but they do allow for a great amount of action and freedom and crazy power levels.That said:&nbsp; I'm running a RIFTS campaign right now but with COMPLETELY different rules!&nbsp; Entirely homemade - much faster, simpler, and more balanced (but I still love RIFTS, honest).</blockquote>

[QUOTE="ACpilot, post: 5700339, member: 6679603"] I just want to chime in in defense of Kevin and RIFTS in particular. My RIFTS books have held up superbly despite being well loved for almost 2 decades. The sturdy, large, soft books are great for use at the table. Only downside is they are a little difficult to shelve without book-ends for support. I find their layout extremely easy to use - I have just shy of 3 dozen books and the simple 2 column layout and heavy use of spot illustrations make them very easy to navigate and easy to remember where items are in the books (must-have when you have so many!) There is fun stuff in every book - flavor and new rules, monsters, character classes, equipment. I have had so much fun in RIFTS despite sub-par rules (which I've always heavily house-ruled or thrown out entirely). This is mostly because the world is so crazy and full of interesting ideas. The world of Rifts is rich; full of good guys, bad guys, and people in between - strange and unusual adventures are everywhere. Speaking to the rules themselves, they are ok at best but they turn particularly bad if a DM uses them exhaustively and procedurally for everything. As far as the balance issue - RIFTS balance, or lack there of, perfectly models the kind of insane power disparities typical in hyper-violent anime (from the 80s and early 90s), where demons and monsters and other baddies can just effortlessly demolish normal humans with preposterous levels of gore. If you play with that sort of mentality the game comes alive. The RIFTS rules are... unsafe. DMs and players can't rely on them to model outcomes and probabilities the way more modern game systems do, but they do allow for a great amount of action and freedom and crazy power levels. That said: I'm running a RIFTS campaign right now but with COMPLETELY different rules! Entirely homemade - much faster, simpler, and more balanced (but I still love RIFTS, honest). [/QUOTE]

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