My thirteen year old son found my short stack of Palladium books sitting in the bottom of a box I was getting ready to take to storage. He flipped through most of them quickly, but paused here and there. He slowly walked out of the game room, nose deep in a book and sat down. He looked over at me accusingly and said: "I didn't know there was a Turtles game."
"Um . . . yep."
"And this one (Nightspawn) has, like . . . some kind of mutation table."
"Yeah, I believe it does." I wasn't going to bite on that.
"And man--what is this?" Of course he was wide-eyed and wondering about Rifts.

Despite my sig, I have no hate or Rifts, I just find it somewhat exasperating. But watching my son confront the pages and ages of awesomerestness, I had to admit that the setting was a pretty pure vein of . . . something. So I don't know that I'd change much, myself. Except maybe re-present the material as though it were a Saturady morning show produced by Sid and Marty Krofft.

I hope you let him keep those gamebooks?

RIFTS (or any other palladium RPG) is the perfect first game for a teenager to GM.  It teaches them a lot of lessons, mostly in how to improvise and how to keep control of a ridiculous situation.  These are very useful things.

Plus, the setting stuff in RIFTS is like crack for 12-14 year olds.  The only thing that might be more appealing is a nudie magazine.

RPGPundit

Quote from: SettembriniSorry, I misread.

So why would you want to change anything in the setting?
It hasn´t got a metaplot, so it´s all yours to play with anyway?

I didn't say that I did want to change anything, I wanted to see if others thought they should.  I did make one of the options "change nothing".

Also, technically RIFTS DOES have a metaplot.  The Coalition wars?

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPunditI didn't say that I did want to change anything, I wanted to see if others thought they should.  I did make one of the options "change nothing".

Also, technically RIFTS DOES have a metaplot.  The Coalition wars?

RPGPundit

And that metaplot basicall tanked. Add to that: the metaplot, thankfully, was not spread over other setting books, but had it´s own line of books.

A real metaplot heavy game FORCES you to follow it, to be able to use official publications.

Erin Tarn needs to get the shaft.

James is right about the Coalition States, but I don't have a better idea. It's all very tricky. CS = fascist Starship Troopers. Fed of Magic = Evul. Tolkeen/Laszlo = do-gooders. One really doesn't want to associate with any of them.

Q: Bug or feature? If I were in sector duke mode I'd say: Given that all the major powers suck, let's build a city after our own liking.

You know what RIFTS really desperately needs, setting wise? Its own "Port Blacksand". As in, a big city that isn't totally totalitarian (like the Coalition), and isn't so good its boring (like Lazlo).  
Rather, a "city of thieves", a huge sprawling semi-lawless marketplace ruled by a pirate king who doesn't give a fuck what goes on in his streets as long as everyone pays their tribute to him, a wild place where anything goes.

RPGPundit

Doesn't something like that exist in Texas or Arizona? But if so, it's true that it would be somewhat peripheral, and it should actually be central--where Chi-Town is now.

The setting needs a reboot.  The entire development of the setting since the original rulebook needs to be junked.  The timeline should be reset to the year 101 P.A., and the presentation needs to be wholly objective- if it's in print, it has to be 100% true and accurate.

Development of the setting needs to be done slowly, over time, to drive sales of the rulebook.  Initially, and for no less than five years, this needs to be all about North America; you can easily maintain this focus for a full decade and not run out of material.  Once you're done with North America, then shift your focus to another area of the world; this should be determined by international sales and interest, so the area with the highest demand gets the attention its due, and furthermore as much talent from that area as possible should be put to the task of writing and developing products about that area.

A goodly amount of time needs to be taken, even before a single letter hits the page, in first coming up with a future history that maintains verisimilitude and then in making that future history into something that is both playable and easily accessable to the common gamer.  (This is why you maintain a lore database on your official website these days, and in multiple languages; it's where you put all the stuff that isn't what you need to put into print to play the game.)  Find some university students in the various disciplines and offer internships to them; they'll be plenty happy for the experience, and they'll be good for your final product- credit and reward them appropriately.  If you can, travel to your subject area and see it first-hand; it's old, but it's true- the map is not the territory.

Yes, you're writing a RIFTS product, so you're not going to be wholly hard-SF.  That doesn't mean that you shouldn't try to get the things that most folks do have familiarity with right, and it doesn't mean that you don't acknowledge the beliefs that govern the fantastic elements that you're using for your game.  (If you're going to use a real-world supernatural tradition, take time to research it, regardless of your beliefs on the matter; your work will be better for doing so, and sell better too.)

Finally, pay attention to morale and logistics in your setting- pay attention to the economics.  These things are the lynchpins in all endeavors, great and small, and they deserve to be addressed with the gravity that they possess.  (They're also good adventure fodder; can't make war if you can't supply the troops, can't build walls if you can't get the supplies to the workers, and you can't hold a group together if there's no confidence in your leadership- not without force or fraud.)

Quote from: RPGPunditI hope you let him keep those gamebooks?

RIFTS (or any other palladium RPG) is the perfect first game for a teenager to GM.  It teaches them a lot of lessons, mostly in how to improvise and how to keep control of a ridiculous situation.  These are very useful things.

Plus, the setting stuff in RIFTS is like crack for 12-14 year olds.  The only thing that might be more appealing is a nudie magazine.

RPGPundit

Sure I did. Almost anything he wants to read independently for a couple hours is OK with me.

Most of the Palladium product lines were represented in the box, except Fantasy and Macross. He already wants to run a Ninjas and Superspies campaign, including monster forms from Nightspawn, and enemy weapons and tactics from Beyond the Supernatural. Technological "pollution" has corrupted the natural order of magic on earth, spawning monsters who organize into underground cells to battle pure-strain human fascists, intent on eradicating technology in favor of a return to that old time religion--ancient Sumarian mystery magic and whatnot. Definately a thirteen year old's idea of occult conspiracy. Chip off the old block.

Rifts needs a little more cool cosmic magic and nature stuff to contrast to the excellent industrial kickassedness. And a Rifts Sanctuary/Lankhmar would be very cool.

I'd add a bigass motherfuckin' dungeon, sitting right where Washington, DC used to be.  It would have 666 levels.  The fat book devoted to it would have new monsters, a few sample levels, and gigantic random dungeon and monster charts.  The boss monster on the last level would be Satan.  Who is also a cyborg.

The first thing I would do is fix the damn map, the high water/flood mark is not right  then I would reedit and reorganize the core book . I would leave  any changes to mechanics for last (MDC would get some tweaking).

Fuck, the maps! I forgot about them.
I once put them to close scrutinizitfication, scientific result:

They don´t match up. Neither with reality, nor with themselves.
The first one I could live with, but the second one really stunted my Google Earth Overlay project: It´s too much work for the benefit involved.

Quote from: stu2000Despite my sig, I have no hate or Rifts, I just find it somewhat exasperating. But watching my son confront the pages and ages of awesomerestness, I had to admit that the setting was a pretty pure vein of . . . something. So I don't know that I'd change much, myself. Except maybe re-present the material as though it were a Saturady morning show produced by Sid and Marty Krofft.

They did have a cartoon like Rifts. It was called "Thundarr the Barbarian".
Seriously I have considered running a Rifts game like Thundarr. I think it would be some post apoc gonzo fun.

OhOh! I have another one:

PRE-Fucking-PAINTED-MINIS!!!!!1111

Quote from: RPGPunditYou know what RIFTS really desperately needs, setting wise? Its own "Port Blacksand". As in, a big city that isn't totally totalitarian (like the Coalition), and isn't so good its boring (like Lazlo).  
Rather, a "city of thieves", a huge sprawling semi-lawless marketplace ruled by a pirate king who doesn't give a fuck what goes on in his streets as long as everyone pays their tribute to him, a wild place where anything goes.

RPGPundit

They kind of do with atlantis. But it is ruled by evil for evil so to speak.