Why so anti-Palladium

[Crothian]

And a glitterboy is doing what, 3d4x10?

3d6x10 actually for the standard glitterboy presented in the main book

 

[Turjan]

In the thread on rpg.net, where Bill Coffin described his experience with Palladium Games, he mentioned something like a sales number of 8000 for a single product being a major disappointment for the company. Given the usual numbers of sales per product floating around for other companies on this messageboard, this seems still to be quite a respectable number and would corroborate the statistics about the ranking of RPG companies.

 

[sword-dancer]

One of the problems is the game doesn;t tell you this. So, if you are new to the system and new to gaming you can easily make the mistake. It is Palladium's fault for not explaining this and letting people stumble through.

I don`t remember where, but I´ve read this exactly in one or more Rifts Bokks, but not in the Core Rules.

 

[Gundark]

If I may jump in for Gundark, I think what he's trying to say is that a level in Rifts means far, far less than it does in D&D, since Rifts characters come so front-loaded. He's using combat as an illustration.

Y'know, that might be worthwhile if the skill system in Rifts and other Palladium games didn't SUCK HORRENDOUSLY. I'm not saying D&D's is a miracle of realism in comparison, but I'll take it over Rifts's any day. If you're trying to say that improved access to a sucky skill system makes up for access to a sucky combat system, I'm afraid you're just rearranging deck chairs on a certain sinking ocean vessel.

Thanks yes this what I was trying to say. I agree that D&D isn't much less combat orientated than Rifts. And I understand the idea that there are characters that are useful in certain situations outside of combat. My other point was that in a setting that relies on combat so much these characters are darn near useless. Yes they have their moments to shine, however these moments are few and far between. I played a Vagabond in a rifts game...it sucked...I was busy hiding most of the time when comabt rolled around....pretty quick I ditched him and picked up a MDC character.Finally I think that Bards and Rogues are pretty useful in D&D when it comes to combat.

 

[The Horror]

Ah Palladium.

Many years back I used to own Rifts and Robotech. Eventually the system bugged me so much I got rid of every Palladium book I had.

Just last year however, I went on a massive shopping spree for second hand Rifts books. Reading through them I really have been appreciating how good the setting is at times, whilst at other times feeling so exasperated I want to hurl some of the books into a fire. The system itself I have no time for. It is a complete jumbled mess that has had very little thought put into it.

I am glad I picked it up again though. The setting is still good fun, and will surely provide many hours of entertainment.



The Horror

 

[qstor]

One reason why their books are so inexpensive is because their production values are so low. Editing is done half-assed, art ranges from bland to stick figure-like, and play testing seems to be a joke. While a few good ideas come from them, they can't follow through with them with good rules. But, their player base is more of the munchkin variety, so play balance isn't really required anyhow.

I agree. What bothers me as player and DM is that NONE of the books has an individual index and material is copied from book to book. Why reprint material from Book A in Book B? Book B should stand on its one. The chapters jump from topic to topic and do not stay focused on a single topic.

That said, I've played and DM'd rifts and a few of there other games. I love the Rifts setting but like the d20 system and a few other systems a LOT better than Palladiums house system


Mike

 

[Sketchpad]

That said, I've played and DM'd rifts and a few of there other games. I love the Rifts setting but like the d20 system and a few other systems a LOT better than Palladiums house system

This is true in many cases I'd bet. I think that the concept behind Rifts is interesting and unique in some ways ... but I think there's a lot of work that needs to be done on it as well. A d20 variant would be interesting, but I think, under current management, that that's nothing more than a daydream. Given the oppertunity, I'd love to see a new edition of Palladium hit the shelves with a streamlined core system that uses Rifts as a way to connect them fluidly.
This is why, if I were to run a Rifts game, I'd be more inclined on converting it over to d20 Modern, d6 or Hero, as each system could tackle it well (especially the Advance Class mechanic from d20 Modern). Unfortunately, due to good ole Kev's ego, it won't be posted to the web :\

 

[Kanegrundar]

Over the last year or so, I've done a lot of work on coverting Rifts over to D20 Modern. I say convert, but mostly I changed a LOT of things to keep it balanced, but still keep the overall feeling of the setting. I'm not totally done yet, but I guess that it doesn't matter, since only my group will ever get to enjoy it.

Kane

 

[warlord]

You better hope a Palladium employee doesn't read your post or you'll get sued! kinda sad isn't it?

 

[Crothian]

You better hope a Palladium employee doesn't read your post or you'll get sued! kinda sad isn't it?

no he won't. if he makes it public for people to downlad then they might, but he can do conversions all he wants for his own personal use. I have Nightspawn conversion notes to d20 for years with zero problems.