After years of preparation, running countless old school campaigns, accumulating many a sourcebook and reading thread upon thread on the 'proper' way to play the game, I am finally ready to run Rifts.

The only thing missing is a quick but fucked up summary of what the setting has to offer, which I can give my players as an introduction. That's why I'm asking you -- fellow Palladium veterans -- for help.

What I need are a handful of quirky, very Rifts-specific phrases, from which i can conjure a short overview of the setting for my gaming group.

Something like:
- Atlantis has risen
- You can play a dragon

Knowing the people on this board who are not afraid of embracing the gonzo-ness of this jewel, I am sure I can crowd-source an amazing introduction that gets to the point of the game.

Your help is highly appreciated.

Didn't the ley lines power up and split open our reality to let in denizens of a bazillion other realities? Suddenly we're the crossroads of the multiverse and there's no way to put the genie back in the bottle?
That's what I seem have hung onto after years since reading it.

Quote from: Simlasa;787475Didn't the ley lines power up and split open our reality to let in denizens of a bazillion other realities? Suddenly we're the crossroads of the multiverse and there's no way to put the genie back in the bottle?
That's what I seem have hung onto after years since reading it.

Pretty much, yeah. However, while being a solid foundation, I need some more specifics. With the flood gates being open: what are the possibilities, what has happened, what does the game let you do with all that?

Quote from: Nerzenjäger;787476what does the game let you do with all that?

What DOESN'T it let you do? As I recall the setting is pretty much wide open... so pick a theme and lay it on top... redemption, exploration, conservation, conquest, vengeance, rescue...

I may have not been entirely clear: I know what the game has to offer basically. What I wanna weave into my summary are Rifts-specific characteristics. Short facts which make you want to play the game.

Things like Atlantis and Lemuria being actual places, the ability to play a dragon in a group of scientists, or cutting a tank in half with a M.D. pistol make me want to play the game. Maybe a thing or two which arose from actual play, too.

Pithy descriptions of Rifts:

There are two wandering-knights-errant-of-Justice classes. One is a Jedi, the other is a Gundam pilot.

Civilization has been largely reduced to a series of city-states and petty empires. One of the most powerful are magic-hating, cyberpunk neo-Nazis with flying power armour, psychic humanoid dog-mutants, and spider-skull tanks.

Russia is in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.

You want to play Carrie and set people on fire with your brain? Guess what! You can!

Eight foot tall full-conversion battle cyborgs with chainsaw swords and gatling lasers are a thing, and you can play one.

There are wizards all over the place, and most of them look like something straight out of Thundar the Barbarian or Masters of the Universe.

There's a drug you can take that'll turn you into buzzsaw of death but will kill you in five years, no backsies.

One of the available classes is the hobo. His special power is the ability to cook beans.

Mexico is ruled by vampires who eventually (d)evolve into giant sentient blobs of killer blood.

And finally:

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!



I hope these have helped.

Quote from: Archaeopteryx;787481Pithy descriptions of Rifts:

There are two wandering-knights-errant-of-Justice classes. One is a Jedi, the other is a Gundam pilot.

Civilization has been largely reduced to a series of city-states and petty empires. One of the most powerful are magic-hating, cyberpunk neo-Nazis with flying power armour, psychic humanoid dog-mutants, and spider-skull tanks.

Russia is in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.

You want to play Carrie and set people on fire with your brain? Guess what! You can!

Eight foot tall full-conversion battle cyborgs with chainsaw swords and gatling lasers are a thing, and you can play one.

There are wizards all over the place, and most of them look like something straight out of Thundar the Barbarian or Masters of the Universe.

There's a drug you can take that'll turn you into buzzsaw of death but will kill you in five years, no backsies.

One of the available classes is the hobo. His special power is the ability to cook beans.

Mexico is ruled by vampires who eventually (d)evolve into giant sentient blobs of killer blood.

And finally:

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!



I hope these have helped.

Most lovely! Merci beaucoup.

Rifts in a Nutshell

A team of skull themed power armor wearing soldiers fighting baby dragons over a magical nexus where Atlantian slavers move goods. Do you want to be the Power Armor guys, the Dragons, the Atlantians or their slaves?

Also just for fun. WTF D&D

Quote from: Certified;787487Rifts in a Nutshell

A team of skull themed power armor wearing soldiers fighting baby dragons over a magical nexus where Atlantian slavers move goods. Do you want to be the Power Armor guys, the Dragons, the Atlantians or their slaves?

Also just for fun. WTF D&D

That article is awesome. The picture they use describes it to a T however

Mecha and mages vs power-armored future nazis. Also, demons and a vampire kingdom.

all hell breaks loose

Quote from: danbuter;787504Mecha and mages vs power-armored future nazis. And Demons and maybe a vampire kingdom.

Quote from: David Johansen;787522all hell breaks loose

Human Sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!

Quote from: Certified;787487A team of skull themed power armor wearing soldiers fighting baby dragons over a magical nexus where Atlantian slavers move goods. Do you want to be the Power Armor guys, the Dragons, the Atlantians or their slaves?

Fantastic. I like how you rounded it off with a question, playing with their expectations.

Simmilar to trying to describe Torg.

A cyborg priest of the digital inquisition fighting alongside a werewolf with a chainsaw and a dinosaur man hugging a boom box backing up a truck driver who is fighting a group of Egyptian soldiers wielding machineguns lead by an evil sorceress.

And then reality goes WTF??? and the truck driver turns into a pistol packing masked avenger of the night while the werewolf changes into a jackal headed mystic and the priest becomes a wizard.

And then the ninjas decloak with their thermoptic camo suits and start blasting away with lazers.

A typical day in Rifts... er ... Torg...

I think this video explains RIFTS and TORG very well

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfdEdE96En0

I give you a hamburger