What is Rifts like?

[The Lost Muse]

I found a large lot of RIFTS stuff on eBay - so hopefully no one outbids me on it. I've decided to ditch the rules and homebrew an OGL variant system. Too bad I can't share it though...

 

[Felon]

If nothing else, you'll have lots of nifty pictures to look at.

 

[The Lost Muse]

I'm actually not particular fond of what I've seen of RIFTS art. This is limited to drawings of robots and whatnot, so maybe I'm missing something.

 

[Derren]

While the world is interesting I think that some nations are too much of a copy&paste from real world history.
The coalition basically screams "Nazi Germany Clone" which is I think even included in the lore. Controversly, Rifts Germany looks a lot like the late/after war USA. High technological and while not treating its foreign (meaning coming from other dimensions) citizens completely equal they are not abused (much).

 

[Prince Atom]

I think the uncool was what happened for the other characters

In retrospect, it was, and I even started carrying less-irritating weapons so the technomancer didn't exact his vengeance too often.

I never said that and I apologize if you thought that was the point I was making (if you did, you missed my point entirely, BTW).

Reading over this thread again, I probably did misunderstand your point. I'm sorry that we had a misunderstanding. I guess I just jumped to the defense of my friend where no offense existed.

TWK

 

[Goobermunch]

Rifts is the greatest game you can never play. As a setting it is just amazing. As a game it's a flaming brown paper bag sitting on your doorstep after the doorbell has rung.

JoS

Some people say that Rifts is the greatest game you can never play. I respectfully disagree. Rifts is the greatest game you can play with difficulty and an experienced group focused on fun.

Fringeworthy is the greatest game you can never play. Imagine Stargate SG-1 written in 1983. Now imagine a damage system designed by a forensic pathologist and a manuscript that was shuffled by leaf blowers on the way to the printer. That's Fringeworthy.

Rifts, on the other hand, gives rise to some awesomely over the top potential. Like our Rifts group that found their way into the path of the returning Robotech Expeditionary Force. If you ever want to see an unbalanced combination, give a Juicer a VR-041 Saber Cyclone and a ton of Veritech combat training. Imagine a character that can parry melee and ranged attacks with an indestructible blade. Sure, he can only do 1-4 MDC with it, but given enough time and enough called shots, he can decapitate a glitterboy without ever taking damage. That's the definition of broken.

Fun! But broken.

--G

 

[MINI]

I'm in a Saturady Rifts game online and its fun. I play teh role of a healer but the other characters and the NPC's vary greatly. Sometimes I'm patching up primitives who revere me as a god healer and sometimes I'm patching up village idiots with weapons too big for themselves. The game does offer alot of variety.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I was wondering - Is Torg actually Rifts with a good rulesystem?

 

[Scurvy_Platypus]

From my perspective, not really.

I suppose you might be able to bash it over in that direction, but the two games have a really different feel overall. Bear in mind I haven't played Torg for some 15 years or so...

Part of what drives the different character types and allows them to mix is that whole Possibility Points thingy. Going between the different realms and not fitting in because a character is from a fundamentally different reality and the possibility that their Awesome Thing might not work because of it leads to some rather different considerations when playing.

Torg falls into that "kitchen sink" sort of thing like Rifts (and Waste World to an extent) but the state of the world and how people are dealing with it in game are pretty different.

As for the system...

Personally, I think that while the Palladium system has issues, it's an easier system overall to deal with (or rip out) than the Torg one. I seem to recall some similarities to the old MEGS (Underground/Batman/Blood of Heroes) but it's been so long since I played Torg and I'm unfamiliar enough the the MEGS that I could be completely off base here.

What stuck with me about Torg is the system was basically functionable, but I always felt it was... inefficient? It seemed like they could have arrived at similar results in a simpler fashion.

Hmmmm....

I guess in my mind the similarity/differences between the two are kind of like comparing Battletech and Robotech in terms of how the settings "feel". Others might disagree with me, but that's my take on it.

 

[jerich01]

That was kind of the point. He attempted to use threat of lawsuit, I raised him via threat of physical violence. The point was made, all action related to the C&D letter ceased, and that was where it ended. If you're willing to escalate beyond the tolerance of the other party the cultural chest-thumping dies down very fast.

Hmm, bullet in the mail with posted threat of physical violence? Oh and no record of a C&D; didn't know those had to be registered? So, how long in the federal pen and how long you been out?

Oh, didn't know, mailing ammunition is and always has been illegal in the USA - not something that would have gone unanswered ever...

So, how about another Internet Gaming Myth?