Rifts vs. Savage World Rifts?

[LibraryOgre]

FWIW, I've liked everything I've seen of yours, Mr. Hall, both in and outside of PB stuff(You even got me to take a peek at Hackmaster!). It's really a company that, if they realized what a resource they had in freelancers, would be unrecognizable from what it is. I think there was a time where, for instance, Splicers had a lot of fan work being produced, including an artist or two whom were passionate about the setting. Books could have been published as quickly as the art assets could have been made, and would have been sought out by fans.

I'm not trying to be overly snarky. I suppose I'm just more disappointed at a series of business decisions backing up a fraught design process which was inflicted on some real fun settings.

The early 2000s saw a lot of fans turning into freelancers, and even employees (Bill Coffin comes to mind). But, as you said, it's not a well-run business, and my patience for that sort of ran out. "We're not professionals at this!" Sir, you have been in this business for 40 years. If you are not a professional at this, no one is.

[sktarq]

Recently I had a hankering for some heavy metal infused science fantasy ....amiliar with Rifts and Savage World Rifts, (1) how well did the Rifts translate over, (2) what are the benefits of SWR over the original, and (3) what are your general thoughts on Savage Worlds?

Thanks in advance.

SW Rifts tends to be more stable. And I would say less flexible...which isn't always a bad thing. Rifts was the game I always said you can carve a wonderful game out of...again and again and they will be nearly unrecognizable down to many of their rules. It was a halfdozen or more games all poured into one world-mostly decent or better games but they interacted poorly/explosively.
SWR is pretty good but I also think it is combat heavy, personally.
And far easier to learn.

[pkitty]

Unless you absolutely dislike Savage Worlds as a system, I think Savage Rifts is a better way to play Rifts than its own (Palladium) system. It's much easier and simpler, combats take literally 1/10 as long, and even when the characters are radically different in "power level" they still feel balanced by other means. (Unlike the feeling I get in Palladium, where for example if I played a Vagabond I'm literally just less useful in every way than someone playing a better OCC.)

For example, I played a Rogue Scholar in a party with a Glitter Boy and Dragon Hatchling. Obviously I couldn't compare to them regarding Toughness or damage output! Yet because of the way Savage Worlds (and Savage Rifts) works, I was never useless in a fight. I could be mopping up mooks and minions while my huge friends fought the Big Bad, or I could be using my social skills to Test the dangerous foes, or I could hope into my vehicle and use the railgun. More important, because the game isn't just "combat combat combat", I was consistently such a useful character who helped us get through all of the noncombat parts of each adventure.

In Palladium Rifts, "Mega-Damage" (MD) is just normal damage x100. So if you don't have MDC armor, even 1-2 points of MD will splatter you. In Savage Rifts, MD just uses the "Heavy Armor/Weapon" rules, which means someone in MDC armor can ignore small arms fire (don't even roll), while someone in standard armor takes Gritty Damage (potential temp injury) from an MD attack, but otherwise treats it like normal damage. The net result is that MD weapons and MDC armor still feel very powerful, but without auto-killing anyone.

And so on. I know some Palladium fans don't like how Savage Rifts "balances" everything so much (e.g., they feel that some OCCs should just be better in every way than others because that's how it is), but for me it's the main draw, because every character still feels very different. It's nice to see every PC having different opportunities to step into the spotlight.

[LibraryOgre]

The Mod Ogre: As this is a Rifts Thread, necromancy for some reason involved attaching a corpse's arm to your leg. It's still against the rules, just like half-elves and neutral alignments.