RIFTS.

[bmurderh8s]

Just wondering who all on here has ever played Palladium's RIFTS. I used to be big into it in my younger RPG days. Although the game mechanics were often very detailed and time consuming I found it to be a very original and enjoyable concept. I think I still own a bunch of World Books and Soucebooks.

[GalactiKing]

I do. Actually, I've got a group in the works that should be starting soon.

[bmurderh8s]

Very cool.

[sickman]

I actually got into RPGs with RIFTS before D&D.

The entire concept was/is so bad a**.

[behindthebook]

Rifts, though a cool concept, just never clicked for me. I think there was just something about it mechanically that I didn't like, thought I could never put my finger on it. Oddly though, Heroes Unlimited, also from Palladium, was one of the first games I played; and I had no complaints about it.

[Splattercat]

Could it be that it had holes in the rules big enough to drive a Mac truck through...?

Beyond that, it's a great game...

[GalactiKing]

Oh yeah...and having a game with a Cosmic Knight, a Dragon Hatchling and a Vagabond......Chuckles. Still, it's fun even if the rules can drive a person crazy.

[sickman]

Yeah but with any game you kind of make it your own.

[Mad Dog]

Love the concept, hate the system.

[Splattercat]

Rifts was awesome, rules notwithstanding...

Cosmic Knights were game-breaking...They were like Monolith, the absolute maximum power you can get in a "normal" game...

Fun thing about Vagabonds: The Conversion book...Super Abilities...They're the only one that can have 3 Major and 3 minor powers...So, Invulnerability, Sonic Flight, Invisibility, and Energy Expulsion: Energy, Extraordinary Speed, and Extraordinary Physical Strength...

Now go and wail the tar out of that Dragon hatchling that's breathing down your neck...

[thefamoustommyz]

Played many, many systems...and the Palladium system never quite made sense to me. How something so dense go SO popular...wow.

But then, I like lighter systems, so I'm not their target audience. The only incarnation of the system I ever liked was the incarnation that wound up in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

[traviz]

thefamoustommyz said:

But then, I like lighter systems, so I'm not their target audience. The only incarnation of the system I ever liked was the incarnation that wound up in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

I had the TMNT game and later Heroes Unlimited.
I enjoyed them and would have liked RIFTS, too, but I got hooked on GURPS which was the coolest game ever because there was no "genre". It was what you wanted to be. Everything from George Washington to the Vampire Lestat.

[Mad Dog]

I don't like rules heavy stuff. I just want to go "I do so and so." GM tells me to check certain skill, I make 1 roll, GM tells me if I accomplished it or not.

[tystates]

Yeah it seemed like too much work to figure out. I've got some Rifts stuff and pdf files. I've got a pretty good collection of out of print RPGs and I work on finding things I want to convert to classic MSH.

[Splattercat]

Thing is though, maybe I'm just too used to the system after a decade of playing (which ceased almost a decade ago), but We never had to look anything up when we played...Like, with D&D 3rd ed, whenever you want to do an action you have to look up how to do it...Like, shoulder blocking someone or hell, even swimming...Some things are damn near impossible without specific feats, like shooting someone's weapon out of their hand (Which to me should simply be a small target thing)...

Anyway, as D&D was meant for dungeon crawling, Rifts was meant for mindless action gaming...You have big guns that can vaporize people, or big robots that can vaporize towns, or whatever else...it's all about Mega Damage...

[sickman]

We didn't always play by the rules, which explains why I liked RIFTS more then D&D.

And the GURPS reference about making the game anything you wanted. We did similar with RIFTS. Think about it; a rift opens up to a different dimension, world, whatever. We did end up going back in time as well as far in the future.

[bmurderh8s]

What was cool about RIFTS was all the different campaigns scenerios you could run. You could run a straight forward campaign with the giant robots and big guns, or you could use the New West world book and run an old west style campaing with futuristic elements, and even a Japan world book.

The rules as compared to the D20 system were a bit comlicated, but once you sat down and actually used it for longer then a second, it grew on you and became quite easy to use. It was all about memorization.


I always loved the idea of playing a gunslinger character in the new West and hunting down criminals from the law, and the rules for a quick draw showdown. Fun stuff. The new West even had rules for alcohol tolerance.

[Splattercat]

Hehe...Ever looked around in the Canada World Book...? it had the usual: Effects of cold, winter survival, and naturally, under Physical Skills:


Yes, that's right....Hockey...

I love that book...

[bmurderh8s]

The one cool thing about RIFTS is it covers all the bases. It has rules for everything. Very detailed. Thats the appeal, but also the thing that turns others away.

[fti]

RIFTS was one of many RPG's that I played in my High School days, my friends and I played almost every day that we could after School. Other games we played...

D&D
Marvel Super Heroes
Gamma World