Why so anti-Palladium

[Crothian]

Rifts came out in 1983 buddy not 1991 and your forgeting Palladium does more then Rifts their SDC system is a hell of a lot more balanced.

No it didn't. My first edition Rifts main books says otherwise. And THe SDC are not much better in blance, the mega hero, the demon RCCs, there are powerful and weak options in all the games.

 

[warlord]

Hey I was just going off of what I heard at my FLGS.

 

[MerricB]

Rifts has a 1983 copyright date because significant portions of the rules were lifted from earlier incarnations of Palladium's games.

Cheers!

 

[Gundark]

Rifts came out in 1983 buddy not 1991 and your forgeting Palladium does more then Rifts their SDC system is a hell of a lot more balanced.

Yeah as it has been pointed out Rifts came out in the early 90s. The company may have started up around the early 80s. I would argue your SDC claim, I was a long time Palladium games player.

 

[Gundark]

Rifts has a 1983 copyright date because significant portions of the rules were lifted from earlier incarnations of Palladium's games.

Cheers!

Which like has been pointed out is a significant problem with the system....no revision

 

[MerricB]

Which like has been pointed out is a significant problem with the system....no revision

Actually, that's not strictly true. The rules do get revised from time to time. However, it's always in a supplement or new game book, it creates inconsistencies with what has gone before, and you never know which is the official version.

(In actual fact, it's quite possible that Palladium considers them both correct and you should use both).

My "3rd printing" of Rifts was in 1991, and the main copyright date is 1990.

Cheers!

 

[Kanegrundar]

I don't hate Palladium, but I think (like many here) that the company is horribly ran. I think it's safe to say that KS is an egomaniac. It's his ego that's destroying the game. I've been waiting on books for years now that are NEVER going to make it to the shelves. Rifts and PFRP had some great ideas, but the system is past i's prime and is in need of a serious overhaul that will never happen. So, I'll continue converting Rifts over to D20 and say damn the man to KS and his inflated ego.

Kane

 

[Gundark]

I disagree with the second part. Equal power levels is not the "end all, be all" of game system balance. Thats how D&D (more or less) looks at it. Well, thats fine. But it doesn't mean that other systems who don't do it that way are "failed systems". It means that they don't necessarily look at gaming the same way that D&D does. If anything, there doesn't need to be EXP differences in Palladium OCCs/RCCs since Rogue Scholars are just as good at what they do as dragons are at what they do. Maybe even better. Neither of them should be penalized.

As for the first part, the real problem is that the vast majority of of palladium classes get the bulk of their ability/power/importance at first level. Leveling up is better and easier for the skilled guys and tougher and less useful for the combat characters. So there is technically a balancing of power by the uppers levels. Sort of the way Wizards take over the game in D&D games at later levels...hmmm....

Again, these problems are really only a problem in Rifts. The XP differentials are actually effective in the SDC games, since the differences aren't wild in those between classes. Heroes Unlimited is a SDC game, but it lies somewhere in the middle. Levels mean a lot more in HU than in any of the other palldium system games.
.

Well in terms of Rifts I disagee with your analogy about the Rogue scholar and the dragon. Rifts is a game based pretty heavily on combat, combat seemed pretty ingrained in the setting. Thus a Rogue Scholar would get whipped pretty easily, or at the very least just kept his head down and let the big guys do the fighting.

I agree that Hero's Unlimited did have some kind of XP differentials, however they weren't that much of a differential. A 1st level character could still kick the crap out of a 10th level character, same with TMNT. If I had to say if there was a game that actually had an XP ditterential and had a degree of balance was Ninja's and Superspies. I can't comment on the fantasy version as I played this very little.

 

[Gundark]

Actually, that's not strictly true. The rules do get revised from time to time. However, it's always in a supplement or new game book, it creates inconsistencies with what has gone before, and you never know which is the official version.

(In actual fact, it's quite possible that Palladium considers them both correct and you should use both).

My "3rd printing" of Rifts was in 1991, and the main copyright date is 1990.

Cheers!

Splitting hairs ...What's is too bad is that this setting (Rifts) is going to go down in a huge ball of flame when the company dies. What would revitalize the setting ( and the company ) is to drastically revamp the system (d20 it or something). Get rid of most of those beyond stupid world books. However this willl never happen.

 

[Krieg]

What's is too bad is that this setting (Rifts) is going to go down in a huge ball of flame when the company dies.

Except the company is not likely to die. The absolutely worst case scenario would just mean the company was done to one person. Kevin working alone, laboriously cut-n-pasting old books to make new ones.

Palladium is a lot like Chaosium (only about 1k times more fecund) it will hang on no matter how bad things get.