I have to admit I've enjoyed RIFTS, as silly as the rules are.  I had a mutant weasel (from TMNT) with Ninjas & Superspies martial arts and a mecha that had fifteen attacks a round.

Also, after playing d20 a while, the complete lack of game balance doesn't bug me so much any more.  :heh:  My problem is that each new supplement has ALL NEW SUPER LEET CHARACTERS that blow the old ones out of the water and that character generation is so very front-loaded.  Yeah, there are levels, and you gain minor benefits with them, but most of your power is there out of the gate.

Guess that Rifts was a huge munchkin trip for me. But I was like 15 years old :heh:

Still, we had fun.

I played RIFTs for many years.  Initially it was "from robotech" but later on it was all new characters fighting the Coalition from within.  The power creep started with Atlantis and has continued every since.  It's not just new, cool, and elite, it's more powerful machines and a gradually scaling up of damage, armor, dodge bonuses, etc.

Some books are far worse than others of course, but the principle remains the same, and one of the biggest hesitations I've had to doing a world explorer model.

I love the concept of RIFTs, but that and the system have kept me from playing for a couple of years now.  I'll still buy a book or two though to catch up on plot fiction.

One of the things that helped curb (most) of the power creep for me is that I actually let my players start with characters that (in several cases) had phenomenal power levels, but rather strict personal codes of conduct due to how they were raised (and a heavy dose of humility), and the fact that they could feel each others' deaths, making it unlikely that they would unnecessarily risk the lives of their comrades.

98% of the psychics, (all but one of the originals, even the ones who had a genetic heritage of becoming more powerful psionically by puberty than a 15th level mind melter) had little or no directly offensive powers until AFTER they arrived on Rifts Earth, and didn'r realize that they had potential for such additional powers for several levels worth of gaming. This, in a campaign where their O.C.C.s had such an XP penalty from the depth of training and the existence of their powers (I don't cut skills for being a psychic, I add percentages of XP penalties) that their XP progressing made the Dragon and vampire R.C.C.s look like the AD&D 1E thief progression by comparison.

There's still little, if anything, even now in Rifts that comes close to their power level in terms of equipment, or in about a half-dozen of the assorted characters (only two of which actually operate in the field) - but they recognized from day one that they were strangers in a violent world, and would gain little from throwing themselves at problems too big for a goup of 50, or even 5000.

They saw their opportunities, and their actions in the world became more modeled on a scalpel than a claymore. Actions were done based on minimized threat with maximized potential. While eventually becoming reasonably self-sufficient, they also realized that they were out of reach of immediate help (their home universe's dimensional travel was based on space folding, and space folding in the Solar system in Rifts is about as dangerous as playing Russian roulette with 5 bullets - just ask the Archons), and are actually dependent on a couple of dimensional-exploration-oriented shifters (as opposed to the "let's see what I can summon" types) for rare communications back to their original home.

They played diplomats, scientists, and teachers (not to mention pirate broadcasters); merchants and mediators. All the while, doing so with characters originally trained as information specialists, scientists, and the combat pilots meant to deliver and protect the others, for a first contact mission (which in many ways, Rifts became). In time, many of the combat types became more like the others, while the others became more cloak & dagger. They knew that knowledge was power, and that a lot of power focused on the right small spot could be much more effective than expending much more power, diffusely, over a larger area.

My players handled the concept pretty well, but the one who moved to Oz was going a little overboard with it (Was on a WoD angst kick at the time) in terms of character relationships by the time he moved down there to marry the girl he met (we comment, only half-joking if that, that considering that her parents and their extended families were Sicilian immigrants to Australia, and that most of that family are still in one area, many with occupations that would raise an eyebrow here in the states, that he married into the Perth mafia - I mean, two of the jobs that the relatives of his schoolteacher wife got for him, at the same time, was security guard, and bouncer at a bar frequented by visiting sailors and port workers). :ponder:

It also helped that everyone in the group were experienced role-players (6-8 years before starting the campaign or joining it in progress), and that much of that time included campaigns of Twilight 2000 (where they focused there attempts for "survival" into "nation building" in Eastern Europe, supporting the leaders they felt deserved it, followed by going home and doing the same for their home section of the States, while waiting for the smoke to clear in the arguments between halves of the fractured US government - and putting the beat-down on New America) and a home-brew D&D world that was trying to rebuild from the near-fall of civilization (only a refuge of about the size of Connecticut survived, with societal elements from the major races) from a war with humanoids a thousand years earlier that had been followed by a planet-wide catastrophe that took out the victorious hordes at the brink of total victory.

So, Rifts' setting as a concept wasn't entirely new to them (they'd already done fantasy, modern era and SF world-rebuilding - Rifts just combined elements of all of them). IT was a new challenge, and one they dove into with gusto.

BTW, in the LGSA stuff I posted, these are the O.C.C.s of the characters used in the story material.
Steven Freeman: Communications Engineer (effectively a Mind Melter with about a century of dimension-hopping that he's used means to not age from, before he entered his technical training). one of my personal NPCs.
Musica Freeman: Scientist (speicalizing in life sciences) High powered psychic, becomes effectively a godling R.C.C. in addition to O.C.C. several years into game.
Kayla O'Connor: Dedicated Martial Artist (Ninja). One of their early recruits; switched to Elite Power Armor Pilot O.C.C. for her infiltration into Chi-town.
Janice Lynn Belmont: Born Lynn-Janice, was raised a child by parents as Worldly Martial Artist (Shao-Lin Kung Fu) with musical training from mother. LGSA training is as Communications Engineer. 2nd of 3 daughters.
Karen Lynn Freeman: Born Lynn-Karen, younger sister of Janice. One of Steve's wives. Early life as her sister, but training was in Leopard Style Kung Fu instead of Shao Lin. Also a Communications Engineer. Mother of 2 children by Hermes from aftermath of characters getting caught up in the Hera/Freya plotline from Pantheons of the Megaverse. Also, was part of a group that attempted to break into Azlum, when they were trying to be a little too grandiose in their schemes, ended up being exposed to the weird light column there.

Notice the trends in their LGSA training?

Basara, you sound like a damn kick-ass DM.  That would have been a cool game to be in on.  To hell with the rules sucking -- that would have just been fun.  Thanks for the good read.