Rifts...just wondering

[Lady Tialait]

Does anyone play Rifts..or even remember it anymore execpt me?..

I dunno i've just been missing mega damage and such.

If you do remember it or even play it anymore...tell me what your charitor is..and what worlds you play in...Cause I miss it...alot

I don't play anymore..but when i did I played a Tengu..in South America..with ze Vampires

[mabriss lethe]

Ah, good ole' glorious rifts. There are a host of characters I've played through the ages.

-Former CS psychic turned Anti-monster after a failed diplomatic trip to Columbia (attacked by vampires, barely survived by throwing himself, and the vamp, down a waterfall. returned to CS and managed to build a pyramid on the ruins of old Chicago by playing all the local factions against one another (ultimate goal, stop an invasion by an army of Kitanni under the command of one of Splyncryth's splugorth rivals.)
-Dogboy (wolf)who found a love for magic. (had no sensitive powers, were replaced by a buttload of phys powers.) later classed into mystic. Wound up being a double agent around the magic zone.
-Heroes unlimited mutant, amnesiac.(gravity manipulation major, kinetic manipulation minor, Enhanced PP, super speed minor) recruited by the Order of Mystic Knights. Retired after two sessions. Just too over the top. 2nd level character killing entire platoons of CS troops. later replayed the character minus the Mystic Knight, loads more fun. replay wound up in Pecos empire leading a group of genetically engineered mutant escapees from Lonestar.

[kjones]

OH MAN. I have a completely skewed perspective on Rifts since I played it at a time in my childhood where big guns/robots/power armor/juicers/etc. were the coolest things imaginable. Not a particularly good system, but oh, the times we had...

My first character was a Burster R. C. C. who... um... well, she was a pyro. What can I say? I was 12. IIRC, this was the time we ran through the Juicer Uprising... I don't really remember much, other than being constantly overshadowed by the Glitter Boy, and feeling bad for the Mind Melder who never got to do very much.

The other character I played was a CS SAMAS pilot. I think the point of this adventure was to get us to rebel against the evil of the Coalition, by being ordered to commit heinous acts (slaughtering innocent DB's, etc.) but we enjoyed doing evil things waaay too much.

Haven't played since, and I'm not sure I would given the opportunity. I'd hate to have to reconsider my beautiful memories.

[TheSteelRat]

I grew up on that system actually, first RPG and all. The books were great until the power-creep and bad editing really started taking over. I'm actually working on converting Rifts to Earthdawn's system, since the original was horrible. Probably going to have the most trouble figuring out how to convert individual spells, though I've got most of the rest of the combat system / social system down.

Think the best memory I have of playing with it was having a Rahu-man headhunter miss a Lore: Demon (or was it Lore: Faerie) roll and end up sky-clad, purple, painted with smiley faces, dancing for about a day while my character handed out chocolates.

That or the time I managed to get my hands on a greatest rune weapon at 5th level (natural 20 parry + natural 1 attack), even though it teleported back to its owner the next round.

[Lady Tialait]

Wow, Everytime I played it we had a nickname for it..'Powergamers wetdream' and quite frankly..I didn't start playing it till AFTER I had played D&D3.5...

I enjoyed it more. But my first GMing was in Cyberpunk 2020 then I ran Rifts..then 2nd ED. then I turned finally got a team up to play 3.5...yay!...i just miss Rifts..don't have the books anymore...

I remeber my second charitor was a Speedster...mmm juice is yummy

[TheSteelRat]

Yeah, powergaming and munchkinism is definitely part of Rifts if you're into that. You can have groups that try and balance it out though, or times when you're just killing everything in sight. Easy to make both. Most other games attempt more balance, but Rifts at least stated up front they weren't trying for that. Most GM's I had just played it based on different experience things. Rogue Scholar would be like 5th level when you had a 1st level Glitter Boy (heck, if glitter boys were allowed, mostly the class got house-ruled into "you get a light power armor that's old, but has some modifications")

[Tyger]

We were actually playing Rifts right up to a few months ago. One of our DMs is trying to convert the Rifts world to a D20 system. It has had its speedbumps, but its, like all works in progress, coming along OK.

Love the world and its infinite possibilities. Nothing says "do what you want" like the Rifts world!

[Zeal]

mmm, Rifts, the game that really introduced me to Role-playing games. I only wish my gaming group wasn't scared off by systems other than D20.

[kjones]

In fairness, Rifts is scary as far as rules-systems go. When I first played, I didn't read the rulebook, the GM took care of that, and I'm glad he did. When I got my hands on a copy, I realized that the GM had just been winging a lot of stuff... and I'm glad he did. A lot of things are way more complex than they have to be.

[Isak]

Wow... That certainly brings back memories... Let's see if I can remember what my character was...

I believe he was some sort of... Cyborg (Human with a few cybernetic enhancements maybe? Some kind of tech-junkie)... He piloted a Jaeger power suit (Something along those lines) for all battles possible... When he couldn't use that, He could transform into a metal man (Think Colossus from X-Men).

I was about 8. What do you expect.

[TroyXavier]

I enjoy Rifts as long as you keep in check some of the more wonky stuff. I've had a semi-regular group for it for over a year and it's been good. Hope we get back together again after the new year starts.

[MrNexx]

In fact, I just sent a short story about the Chi-town 'Burbs to Palladium to be included in a future anthology; spent about a month thinking like a Crazy.

Currently, I'm in a Systems Failure game (also by Palladium; different world, SDC setting), but if you go to the Nexx's Hello link in my signature, you'll see a good number of characters and such that I've done for Rifts and Palladium Fantasy games.

[mabriss lethe]

I've found it's really hard to get a game going in Rifts that doesn't involve at least a little powergaming. Running it as an outright splatterpunk oneshot powergame is probably the most fun a gamer can have with it. Longer term games are harder. There's just so much crap to abuse built into the system. It takes a steady hand to play or GM a long term rifts game.

[horseboy]

I grew up on that system actually, first RPG and all. The books were great until the power-creep and bad editing really started taking over. I'm actually working on converting Rifts to Earthdawn's system, since the original was horrible. Probably going to have the most trouble figuring out how to convert individual spells, though I've got most of the rest of the combat system / social system down.

That could be interesting. I find it works real well with Shadowrun rule sets we tried it once in RM, it didn't work as well.

It was my second system. And well, living just outside of Wykin, actually made it hit home, instead of some far off mythical place like New York.

My longest running character would have been Goldie Epsilon 32. Psi-hound retriever.

I never did understand the hate for the Glitterboy. It wasn't like it was even that good of a robot. Especially given the rest of the party was a TA Undead Slayer, Dragon crazy and that Nermal looking psy-cat from South America. Course, I played with a guy that calculated muzzle velocities in his head while working on an assembly line to keep sane. That system annoyed him to no end so we didn't play a whole lot. According to him, he'd go on something about an 8mm Mauser having more kinetic energy than the Boom gun or something. I don't know, I never payed attention to him when he went on like that.

[Jayabalard]

They just re-released a couple of books to fill some back orders: Juicer uprising and RIFTS China, so someone is still playing.

it's definitely one of the systems that throws balance out with the bathwater.

[mabriss lethe]

Balancing classes in rifts is cake....Buy a bigger gun

j/k...sort of.

[Telok]

Banned for life by a jury of my peers.

Ok so it was fifteen years ago and a couple thousand miles away from here, but I still respect their decision. I broke the Rogue Scientist class by reading sci-fi and having a working understanding of electronics, computers, and physics. A good head for numbers and probabilities helped too.

I swapped out the Glitter Boy's gun for something better (full auto mini-missile launcher if I recall correctly) by the third session. I think the last straw was trying to mount an automated gun turret with twin plasma rifles, firing long bursts, on the cyborg.

Banned for life, and I never even got to try the automated factory idea.

[Yami]

Ugh, Rifts. I had my fun with it, but that's cuz it's a game, and that's what you do with them. But I really don't have any love for the system.

Let's see, first campaign I played some half demon shadow psionics user or some such, he played like a bastard. Then brought in a flying powered armour user who spent most of the game hunting for some powered armour to fly in. (coalition style) I think the best part was the stunned silence when I helped out the party members. Best reason to play an anti-social character is to mess with peoples heads when you bring in the team player.

Sadly, I dont think the DM liked me. Every campaign (we had three) turned into a world versus me campaign, with the Pc's eventually turning on me.

The second campaign was a d&d fantasy style where in goblins could survive being backstabbed with twohanded swords. The whole system is too much of a slugfest for my taste.

[Dausuul]

Great setting.
Horrible ruleset.

I've never played a RIFTS game that lasted longer than one or two sessions, and that was fifteen years ago or more. Lately I've been thinking about running one, probably using the GURPS 4th Edition rules for some semblance of sense and balance.

[Mr. Friendly]

Rifts is... well Rifts is Rifts.

It can be fun, or it can be horrible. It all just depends. Honestly though... there just aren't enough games that let you play Dragons, Gargoyles in Power Armor or Psychotic Speed freaks who can punch through a brick wall.

[Lady Tialait]

Yay, my freind got all his Rifts books out...makeing a Dragon...or a GlitterBoy..teehee...gotta love the Glitterboys

[Grynning]

Rifts was the second game I got in to (after 2nd Ed. D&D). I have a ridiculous number of Palladium perfect bounds in my house, and sadly they've been collecting dust as my friends and I are in a frenzy to do all the 3.5 stuff we've been meaning to do before 4th comes out.
I loved the setting as soon as I read the description in the free Palladium catalogue I ordered out of an X-Men comic (ah, when you still bought stuff with snail-mail). I played it religiously for years in the Palladium chat rooms and with a few buddies in Junior High, and GM'ed it for the first time in college. It can be a really fun game, and oddly the terrible rules do encourage some...creative role-playing moments.
Now, though, I just don't have the energy for it anymore. It's too fast and loose, too broken, and it's just something I grew out of. I guess I just don't feel an aching desire to pit giant robots against dragons anymore.
Another factor is that honestly, with what a jerk a certain palladium owner/operator has been to his writers I really don't want to give him any more money (find Bill Coffin's essay/rant on working for Palladium for a good description on what I'm talking about).
I will say that Palladium's SDC games are actually pretty damn good - System's Failure is one of my favorites, Ninjas and Superspies was excellent for its time, and BTS (1st edition) is a classic. I also have a soft spot for Palladium Fantasy 2nd Ed, it's another really neat setting. I would still gladly join a game using one of those systems. The only SDC game that was poorly executed was Heroes Unlimited - it suffers from the same massive balance issues as Rifts, and I'll be going to other systems (M&M FTW!) for my superhero fix these days.

[shaggz076]

I remember when I first started with a group that was running a rifts campaign. The DM was a power gamer and the players in turn were also power gamers. It was fin but they were all level five and wanted me to come in with a level one. We had a Hatchling Greathorn, a goling and an Atlantian Undead slayer. He allowed us to convert characters from any of the Palladium books into Rifts and so I asked a simple question "Can I play a mutant?" They all laughed and chuckled and the DM sniggered out a yes. I made a mutant that had a total of 28 attacks at 1st level. I was their blender and when they equipped me with an Atlantian sword and a vibro blade I tool out a very, very large nest of Vampires by myself.

In all I like to play characters with a little flavor but that game screamed power gamers and as such I did what I had to compete with the rest of the party.

[Hunter Noventa]

I once played in a Rifts capmaign where we all had Xenogears-esque giant mecha. There was also an opposing group of people with similar mecha meant to face off against ours.

By the end of it, it was insane, as things tend to be in Rifts. Our thief pulled out Excalibur and became the King of England. I pulled out the Sword Of Gilgamesh. The juicer and the thief combined forces to build my techie guy a robot girlfriend.

We also bought ourselves the Super Dimensional Fortress Macross at the Splynn Dimensional Market.

The final battle consisted of our Macross versus the other guys and the Macross II, with all our mecha duking in out in the air while hundreds of valkyries flew about and blew the crap out of each other, not to mention the relfex cannons of both fortresses. All this to save the world from the Splugorth after we had dismantled the Coalition with the help of Gendo Ikari.


Needless to say, we don't really play Rifts anymore. But god damn was that a fun campaign.

[MrNexx]

The first thing to remember about Rifts (and most Palladium games) is that they are not written for an artificial balance; it's up to the individual group to find the balance they want. While splattergore can be fun, I've had Rifts games last an entire academic year, then pick up again (with mostly the same characters, and a different GM) the next year. It comes down to a GM with an idea of the game he wants to run, and saying "no" to players who try to break the game. If you turn people loose, without guidance, you have problems keeping the game in playable limits... but q.v. Pun-Pun, this is not a problem limited to Rifts.

That doesn't mean I think the Palladium rules system is flawless; I believe it could probably do with a good enema, with all that the word implies. There's a solid, very playable, system in there, but a lot of it is obscured by rules that are pretty easy to ignore.

[Idea Man]

You haven't played Rifts until you've sold your fellow player's dragon character to the Splugorth because the return on the investment was 100 to 1. Ohhh, it was so wrong! Naturally, I took my cut.

Rifts is probably one of the coolest, worst balanced systems I've ever seen. The setting is absolutely awesome, but the rules are horridy complex. Mega damage is a wonderful idea, but essentially impossible to regulate in any meaningful way. If you aren't MDC, and you can't get MDC armor, then you are too squishy to be alive.

Never stopped us, though. The one guy I'm still gaming with from those days, I didn't learn his real name until two years later. We all called him by his first character's nickname: Gunny. Mutant lion headhunter with about a dozen pistols and rifles. Figured it was faster to draw out new guns than reload the spent ones, so would twin-pistol auto-fire until he was out of ammo, drop, draw, and get back to work. He never needed all of his guns in one battle.

[Greyen]

Ohhh Rifts...

Lots of memories there. Especially whenmixing different worlds from Palladium Universe throught the heavy use of the Conversion books. We played a lot of Superhumans in Rifts. Metagaming was rampant to the point that we knew hot to kill the 4 Horsemen in Africa in 1-2 rounds. It was sick.

Someone above said "Powergamers Wetdream" and it was.

[Theodoxus]

My primary Rifts character was Boris the Red, a cyber-doc of some fame who set up shop in Chi-town. He was super-powered: Alter Physical Structure -Fire, Manipulate Energy - Fire, with a few minor powers thrown in. He hid all that though. His fiance, Natasha (god, we were so cliche back then) was also super powered, and gave birth to a super-powered son named Spyder. The rest of the group was a Cyborg (Boris built him after Spyder accidently burnt him up), a Cyber-Knight named Nate, a baby dragon named Bonehead and a glitterboy pilot who lost his GB and learned shortly there after that he was also super-powered with magnetics, and could fire off his own 'boom gun'.

It was a fun trip - I refit a B25 into an MDC mobile air command/cyber lab. Boris also had a number of cybernetic boutiques, in Chi-town and other 'civilized' places. He named them 'The Cybernetique'.

That was 20 years ago, with the first printing... Good times.

A few years back, my best friend and I thought about running another Rifts campaign, but couldn't find players. I was fortunate enough to find most of the books, but they're sitting in a file cabinet, wasted.

meh.

Theo

[MrNexx]

You haven't played Rifts until you've sold your fellow player's dragon character to the Splugorth because the return on the investment was 100 to 1. Ohhh, it was so wrong! Naturally, I took my cut.

And what popped to mind as soon as I read this was... "Splugorth would never go for it. It would make the other dragons mad."

Rifts is probably one of the coolest, worst balanced systems I've ever seen. The setting is absolutely awesome, but the rules are horridy complex. Mega damage is a wonderful idea, but essentially impossible to regulate in any meaningful way. If you aren't MDC, and you can't get MDC armor, then you are too squishy to be alive.

The core rules are pretty simple, actually. Combat is opposed d20 rolls, defender wins ties. Skills are percentiles. However, there's a lot of extra stuff beyond that. I've never understood why people find the system so complex... but I've been playing it for about 17 years, so I may just be used to it.

[Swordguy]

The core rules are pretty simple, actually. Combat is opposed d20 rolls, defender wins ties. Skills are percentiles. However, there's a lot of extra stuff beyond that. I've never understood why people find the system so complex... but I've been playing it for about 17 years, so I may just be used to it.

They are in fact reasonably simple, but the editing in the books puts critical rules in several different locations. I've got the original Rifts book, and it's not well-organized, nor is it really well-written from a technical writing perspective. That's not meant to be an insult - it's simply the way it is. There's wonderful fluff text, and fluff examples (the bit about the difference between SDC and MDC illustrated by the tank getting beat upon was phenomenal), but once it came down to the rules, more examples of how the rules worked from a practical perspective would have seriously quelled much of the kvetching.

I remember asking you about something some time ago; whether you needed a natural five on the d20 to hit, or whether it was a total result of a 5 after you add in all the modifiers to strike. You cleared it up easily, but that one issue has clouded every single game of Rifts I've ever played (since if it's the "adjusted value", you start auto-hitting very fast, and the actual strike roll only mattered for determining the TNs for a parry, dodge, or strike). A single example would have cleared up well over a decade of confusion.

It's just not well-written from a technical perspective, and it confuses people into thinking the rules are more complex than they really are. I refer everyone to this page or further proof.