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 (http://www.somethingawful.com/dungeons-and-dragons/wtf-dnd-rifts/1/)
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 (http://www.somethingawful.com/dungeons-and-dragons/wtf-dnd-rifts/1/)
That article is awesome. The picture they use describes it to a T however
(http://i.somethingawful.com/u/elpintogrande/april09/rifts_covernew.jpg)
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
Quote from: Nerzenjäger;787586Fantastic. I like how you rounded it off with a question, playing with their expectations.
Thank you, one thing I would really suggest is to carefully consider what books you want to use, and what OCCs and RCCs are open to the players. There is no internal balance for the game and so it really falls on the GM and Players to regulate the scale. I mean if you really wanted to you could run a Power Rangers styled game with each player as a Cosmo-Knight from Phase World battling the evil Splugorth for control of Atlantis. I also would not advise this for your first game.
If you pared things down to just the Midwest you can tell a very compelling story with the Coalition, the Free States and outlying towns. Especially if you use a bit of nuance with the Coalition so they don't come off as just Future Nazis but ordinary people that sacrificed everything to survive and don't realize the monsters they have become for it.
Rifts brings back good memories to me ! the 1st ed Corebook was pure gonzo post apo high tech future with a lot of guns !
Vampire Kingdoms was a totaly over the top idea : Mexico full of vampires !
Atlantis is a very beautiful book.
NGR and Triax is full of cool robot and power armor designs from Kevin Long.
Undersea, Japan, Mercenaries, Juicer Uprising and Coalition War Campaigns are full of awesome pics from Vince Martin (I wish he stayed working for Palladium) !
And finally, Phase World is an anwesome setting which can be use for a lifetime of RPG gaming (and also features terrific pics from Vince Martin) !
Quote from: yabaziou;787659Atlantis is a very beautiful book.
Of the various Rifts books Atlantis was my favorite. There was a definite power creep in most of the books but Atlantis seemed to mesh well with the core setting, and explained the cover of the main book to boot.
Quote from: YourSwordisMine;787530Human Sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria!
Hehe, best quote ever!
Much like Peano arithmetics and the Tao, no description of Rifts can do it justice. I like to call this the Siembieda Incompleteness Theorem. ;)
My usual elevator pitch goes something like this:
"Rifts is a game where the post-WWIII Earth becomes a transdimensional nexus and gets invaded by beings from every imaginable world. It's a game where a dragon, a mecha pilot, a wizard and a hobo might team up to fight the vampire lords of Mexico, alien slavers from Atlantis, the cyborg barbarian tribes of Russia or the ever-popular jackbooted, skull-helmeted human supremacists of the Coalition States."
Not a jewel of brevity, and as I said it hardly does the game justice. But there you go.
Quote from: The Butcher;787675Much like Peano arithmetics and the Tao, no description of Rifts can do it justice. I like to call this the Siembieda Incompleteness Theorem. ;)
.
Full disclosure here, I'm not a fan of the rules engine or a lot of the setting pieces. Because a lot of the material is compartmentalized though, it's easy to pick and choose the parts you want to use.
RIFTS: Where the peashooter laser pistol can raze a small village, but if you want to kick a vampire's ass, you better bring your super-soaker and the water balloons.
RIFTS: The only place where someone covered in magical tatoos that can stop a nuclear missile, can hang out with:
A Russian cyborg cat,
Someone mainlining more drugs then the last 10 Tour de France winners,
A wizard crackling with mystic powers (with 10 pages worth of spells to prove it), and
A guy. Just a guy. No, he doesn't even have a laser rifle! Just.a.guy.
And it's totally normal.
Quote from: Certified;787642Thank you, one thing I would really suggest is to carefully consider what books you want to use, and what OCCs and RCCs are open to the players. There is no internal balance for the game and so it really falls on the GM and Players to regulate the scale.
This I am informed about; I don't give much of a damn about balance, the scenario will have to provide challenges to all types of characters. For rules and options I will probably stick with the classic rulebook (no RUE here) and a world book on the region the characters are starting in. Seems the most natural to me.
Quote from: Nerzenjäger;787753This I am informed about; I don't give much of a damn about balance, the scenario will have to provide challenges to all types of characters. For rules and options I will probably stick with the classic rulebook (no RUE here) and a world book on the region the characters are starting in. Seems the most natural to me.
(https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-jAIfrVULZR4/VBnquq_xM_I/AAAAAAAAI_A/b399LgF-0bU/w600-h750-no/14%2B-%2B1)
I GM'd Rifts for almost 15 years. Never had an issue with party balance. There were some occasions were I had a campaign idea that some OCCs and Races wouldn't work, but in a balls out game? Players could be anything. The longest running game I ran had all kinds of characters and the one that lasted the longest (5th level, if I remember correctly) was a Vagabond. He only died because another player killed him with a bad throw of a grenade.
I still think people who shit on Rifts for balance issues are probably really terrible GMs that I wouldn't want to play in a game with. It's really not that hard to run an adventure with a dragon hatchling, a glitterboy, a juicer, a mutant badger, a vagabond, and a techno-wizard. Really, you just don't have to be a douche bag.
It also helps to not have douche bag players, but once again, that comes down to a GM issue.
Running Rifts definitely strengthened me as a GM/DM for later games. Especially when making rulings on the fly and coming up with adventures when the players either went in a different (figurative) direction or blew up whatever Big Bad I was going to use.
Hell, if there were a clinic on dungeon mastering, I would train everyone on running Rifts. If you can do that without sucking, you'll be awesome at running any game.
Quote from: everloss;787905I still think people who shit on Rifts for balance issues are probably really terrible GMs that I wouldn't want to play in a game with. It's really not that hard to run an adventure with a dragon hatchling, a glitterboy, a juicer, a mutant badger, a vagabond, and a techno-wizard. Really, you just don't have to be a douche bag.
Having read Rifts thoroughly over the years, I'm sensing truth to this statement. Maybe I'm just the type to not worry too much, but I just can't see what the big, supposed problem with running the game is (in all fairness though: I might be finding out soon).
The character generation is somewhat of a mess from an organisational pov, but the game itself is ridiculously simple.
I think it was Sett who said, that it is easier for the uninitiated to understand Rifts in context of its predecessor Palladium Fantasy 1E -- which is a much better organised book by all accounts. This could be very true, for even though I bought Palladium 1E much later than my first copy of Rifts, I started to understand the latter better after perusal of the former.
Quote from: everloss;787907... or blew up whatever Big Bad I was going to use...
An event that is no surprise in a great RIFTS game. :)
Not to say that it couldn't handle other types of play. But "heroic hooligans shooting up the multiverse" is something that suits RIFTS perfectly, and was the main point of RIFTS for my group.
I think that when people look at a game like Rifts, after being used to playing other games by other companies, they can't handle the chaos. So many games are preoccupied with "balance" between character classes, magic and martial feats, obsessed with equality, etc that they see Rifts and just think, "nope." Because they think they're going to have to spend more time "fixing" the game in the false belief that it's "broken," simply because it is so far out of their comfort zone.
I like playing Pathfinder, but I can see that if I had played Pathfinder before ever playing Rifts, I would probably hate Rifts. I've been running LotFP for a few years now and I've found shades of that Rifts chaos in it. Probably one of the reasons I like it so much.
Oh well my attempt at a long pitch for the game:
200 years after the end of the world, creatures of magic and aliens from other dimensions live side-by-side with humans upon the reshaped Earth. PCs can be normal humans, wizards, mutants, dragons, cyborgs, even creatures from other dimensions (pull out your favourite character from some other RPG and use the Conversion Book). Your group could be fighting for survival in the wilderness, exploring demon-infested ruins looking for treasure, allying with the fascists that are humanities' current best hope, helping save a small town from bandits, going for a trip through the Rifts to a different planet completely, or getting dragged into the battle against / between the cosmic evils that threaten the planet -the Splugorth, the Four Horseman, the Mechanoids, the Vampire Intelligences.
Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;788098200 years after the end of the world, creatures of magic and aliens from other dimensions live side-by-side with humans upon the reshaped Earth. PCs can be normal humans, wizards, mutants, dragons, cyborgs, even creatures from other dimensions (pull out your favourite character from some other RPG and use the Conversion Book). Your group could be fighting for survival in the wilderness, exploring demon-infested ruins looking for treasure, allying with the fascists that are humanities' current best hope, helping save a small town from bandits, going for a trip through the Rifts to a different planet completely, or getting dragged into the battle against / between the cosmic evils that threaten the planet -the Splugorth, the Four Horseman, the Mechanoids, the Vampire Intelligences.
Thanks, mate. I like the what-to-do approach of your pitch.
Quote from: everloss;787907Hell, if there were a clinic on dungeon mastering, I would train everyone on running Rifts. If you can do that without sucking, you'll be awesome at running any game.
I agree....but as a caveat, I feel you really need mellow fun players with Rifts more than other RPGs because the rules munchkins can shatter the fun faster than with most other RPGs.
If you have a crew that cares more about fun than rules, then Rifts can kickass more than most other games. It's impressive when it works.
Quote from: Spinachcat;788482I agree....but as a caveat, I feel you really need mellow fun players with Rifts more than other RPGs because the rules munchkins can shatter the fun faster than with most other RPGs.
If you have a crew that cares more about fun than rules, then Rifts can kickass more than most other games. It's impressive when it works.
That can happen in any game. 3.x, Pathfinder, Shadowrun all have craploads of sites and generators designed to min-max the fun out of it.
I believe that knowing how to deal with munchkin players who suck the fun out of a game for every one else is part of being a good GM.
Quote from: everloss;788626That can happen in any game. 3.x, Pathfinder, Shadowrun all have craploads of sites and generators designed to min-max the fun out of it.
I believe that knowing how to deal with munchkin players who suck the fun out of a game for every one else is part of being a good GM.
There is an argument to be made that with Rifts lack of consistency in power level and push for zany combinations that you are meant to min-max your characters. Just min-max them in different ways. You play a Godling with power armor, you play an Anti-Monster-Crazy and I'll be a Cosmo-Knight. Okay, we can all agree we're bad ass, now lets get to the story.
Quote from: Certified;788708There is an argument to be made that with Rifts lack of consistency in power level and push for zany combinations that you are meant to min-max your characters. Just min-max them in different ways. You play a Godling with power armor, you play an Anti-Monster-Crazy and I'll be a Cosmo-Knight. Okay, we can all agree we're bad ass, now lets get to the story.
Sounds fun. I don't see how that's min-maxing though. Munchkin, sure, but that doesn't really matter when everyone is munchkin'd out. To me, min-maxing in Rifts would be rolling up a Rogue Scholar and only choosing physical skills, weapon proficiencies, and the best hand to hand style, while ignoring the spirit of the class.
Rules lawyer note: an Anti-Monster can be crazy, in fact I believe they start with an insanity, but they can't be combined with Crazy (MOM) technology.
Quote from: everloss;788626I believe that knowing how to deal with munchkin players who suck the fun out of a game for every one else is part of being a good GM.
I've mastered the ancient art of throwing munchkin jackasses out of games. Anybody who sucks the fun out of the game (for any of the myriad reasons) gets the boot.
In the old days, I thought I needed to develop skills to somehow keep the worthless bitches in the game while making sure everyone had fun. I fell for the geek tolerance fallacy when I was a teen, and even into college.
But the hard truth is that munchkins, like lawncrappers and catpissmen need to be ejected immediately before they poison a good gaming group.
Some munchkins can be domesticated. At my game table, everyone is innocent until proven guilty of disruption. I've ejected people with whom I'd gamed with for 15 years on account of being disruptive, and would do it again in a heartbeat, if the circumstances were to repeat themselves.
Quote from: The Butcher;789002Some munchkins can be domesticated.
But then you have to walk them... and there's not enough plastic bags in the world let your hand feel clean after that.
Quote from: Nexus;789009But then you have to walk them... and there's not enough plastic bags in the world let your hand feel clean after that.
I don't think it's a GM's job clean up after his or her players. ;)
I had once defined RIFTS as "everything a 14 year old boy could want in an RPG: giant robots, magic, and occasional boobies".
However, that's not entirely fair: the world of RIFTS itself is hugely detailed and relatively consistent.
It totally is a teenager's game. As Rifts fans get older, they tend to try to house rule it into reality-oblivion, which to me, destroys the fun and makes it much more complicated. Of course, I've done the same thing.
However...
I posted skill rules for what I'm tentatively calling 'Rifts Basic' (don't tell Kevin) in the stickied thread on the RPGPundit's forum. I think they keep the awesomeness, but ditch the unnecessary complications. However, since that particular thread is only about skills, I only posted my skill house rules. I'm going to post the whole shit storm on my blog later this week.
Note: While researching the RMB (I don't own the Ultimate Edition), I noticed that there are rules for things that I'm pretty sure I never noticed before. And I ran the fucking game for a long goddamn time.
I don't know why I'm on a Rifts kick lately. I already have an LotFP game I'm running, and I'm playing in two Savage Worlds games and a Pathfinder game. The likelyhood of running a Rifts game in the near future is nill. I guess I just like to tinker, and since I'm more familiar with Rifts than any other game, it just is a natural instinct.
Quote from: RPGPundit;789232I had once defined RIFTS as "everything a 14 year old boy could want in an RPG: giant robots, magic, and occasional boobies".
Other than the classic Atlantis cover, I don't recall a whole lot of boobies in Rifts. I clearly bought the wrong world books.
Quote from: Soylent Green;789366Other than the classic Atlantis cover, I don't recall a whole lot of boobies in Rifts. I clearly bought the wrong world books.
Don't forget the cover of the rule book.
The Rifter magazine had a Swimsuit issue, which consisted of pretty terrible fantasy and sci-fi artwork. I have trouble believing that it sold any copies due to the cover alone; it looked like it was drawn by 12 year old, and colored by an 8 year old. To me, Palladium's artwork has steadily gone down in quality every year since the late 90s. They still use a few excellent artists, but they don't use them much anymore.
Yes, I meant the cover of the core rulebook, which depicts that critter form Atlantis, rather than the cover of the Atlantis itself.
It seems that the first edition cover by Keith Parkinson (whom passing I regret) has made a lasting impression on many persons ^_^ !
Quote from: Soylent Green;789366Other than the classic Atlantis cover, I don't recall a whole lot of boobies in Rifts. I clearly bought the wrong world books.
I did say "occasional"!