Quote from: The Butcher;90470424 hours since I got the email with the Savage Rifts Player's Guide download link and I still can't log into the Pinnacle website to retrieve it.

Their server can't keep up. This is insane.

I was sent a drive thru rpg coupon earlier today and downloaded it from there.

Finally got the PDF yesterday and gave it a skim. Initial impressions:

The author takes liberties with both Rifts and Savage Worlds, but the more drastic changes are definitely to the Savage Worlds system.

A do-gooder organization called the Tomorrow Legion is introduced, supposedly formed under the patronage of Erin Tarn and Lord Coake, operating out of a castle in Arkansas. I'm indifferent to it as murderhobo Rifts is best Rifts.

Mega-Damage is really, really toned down. Not every laser pistol is a city-block-leveling weapon anymore. If you're tackling a Mega-Damage foe you'll have to break out the railguns and plasma ejectors. I like it but it is a departure from the source material.

Classes are handled as Iconic Frameworks, which are fun.

• Cyber-Knights now are now nanotech-enhanced cyberkinetics. The cyber-armor is external (rather than subdermal) and manifests when summoned; all technological attacks, incluing gunfire and vibro-blades, suffers a penalty. Psi-Sword's there, though, and it rocks (Mind Melters can get it but it requires taking an Edge!).
• There are new mechanics for Juicers (Burning Out) and Crazies (Losing It) that are absent from the source material but feel very fitting. What doesn't feel fitting is that Crazies have a much bigger list of psionic powers to choose from, with stuff like Bolt and Teleport.
• Glitter Boys are Glitter Boys but there's some neat fluff in the class write-up.
• Mercenaries, Adventures, Rogues and Scholars (MARS) are a set of mini-Skill, Edge and gear packages that cover everything from Headhunters and City Rats to Operators and Rogue Scholars.
• Mystics have become miracle-working holy men in all but name, which definitely feels like a departure from core Rifts, but given SW's near inability to differentiate between psionics and magic, it was probably for the best.
• Techno-Wizards only cast spells through devices which are a lot easier to create from scratch — basically good old SW Weird Science. Fits the fluff and probably makes for fun play, but again it departs from baseline Rifts.
• The one Dragon Hatchling option is impressively well-handled; most of the initial abilities of the original Dragon Hatchling RCC are there. Hats off to the writers for pulling it off.

There's also a ton of rolling on random tables for Edge, Skill, gear and other perks. Fun stuff.

The character creation chapter wraps up with a selection of crappy D-bee races, plus Dog Boys and Psi-Stalkers which are handled as racial options rather than racial Iconic Frameworks like the Dragon.

The gear chapter goes into some (super handwavey) explanations about the credit system and lists a ton of Northern Gun stuff, plus classic purveyors like Titan Robotics and Wellington Industries, and for some reason a lot of Triax. Particle beam weapons are curiously absent. No Coalition tech — probably saved for the antagonists book. Cyberware has some not-quite-Rifts-y stuff like enhanced reflexes and skill chips.

The psionics and magic chapter introduced Mega-Powers: devastating but Power Point-costly versions of regular Savage World Powers, the better to stand up to the Mega-Damage opposition.

The rules chapter adds some new rules, such as Technical Difficulties (tech malfunctions on a fumble), Death & Defeat (a table you roll on when core SW would have you killed; forgiving, but comic-booky) and Blaze of Glory (when Incapacitated you can opt to actually die, no "save" on the above table, but get a few rounds' worth of awesomeness before croaking).

The setting chapter is terse but let's not kid ourselves, if you're reading this you own Rifts. Probably a ton of books too.

The last chapter contains the nifty random tables referred to in character creation.

All in all, I liked it. It's crunchier than core SW but still less bookkeeping than the original; and while not 109% true to source, as an emulation, even when it deviates I'd say it's tapping into the right vibe. Really looking forward to the GMing and antagonist books, and to my inevitable campaign.

So how much of it has any material at all that wasn't in any of the previous RIFTS books? And what kind of material is it? And if it's crunch material, how easy would it be to convert to RIFTS?

How is magic?  Does it use the standard Savage Worlds spells where the player must bring their own trappings?  Or does it come with flavorful trapping filled spells in the book?

Wait, hold on.  They've got a release candidate ALREADY?  Wow.  I hope a hard copy comes out soon, then.  Looking forward to it.

Quote from: Christopher Brady;906230Wait, hold on.  They've got a release candidate ALREADY?  Wow.  I hope a hard copy comes out soon, then.  Looking forward to it.

That's not really unusual for PEG Kickstarters. There's typically a PDF waiting at the end of the funding period or within a few months, tops. The extra stuff like adventures, figure flats, and the like then start trickling in over the next few months.

Quote from: RPGPundit;906105So how much of it has any material at all that wasn't in any of the previous RIFTS books?

None, it's all conversions of existing Rifts material.

What actually intrigued me is how they messed around with certain assumptions about the core Rifts classics, such as giving psionicists (including Crazies!) access to some powers never given to psionic characters in Rifts (such as Teleport); making Cyber-Knights nano-enhanced "cyberkinetics" (and weaving their classic cyber-armor and psi-sword abilities into the package); and making Mystics kinda-sorta miracle-workers/"clerics" instead of the intuitive magician/psionicist types.

Quote from: Old One Eye;906124How is magic?  Does it use the standard Savage Worlds spells where the player must bring their own trappings?  Or does it come with flavorful trapping filled spells in the book?

Standard Savage Worlds "bring your own Trappings" approach, albeit some are immediately obvious, especially for Psionics (e.g. Mind Melters are classic mentalists, Bursters are pyrokinetics, etc.).

Quote from: The Butcher;906242Standard Savage Worlds "bring your own Trappings" approach, albeit some are immediately obvious, especially for Psionics (e.g. Mind Melters are classic mentalists, Bursters are pyrokinetics, etc.).

Kind of disappointing, but eh, that is how SW rolls.

Quote from: Brand55;906233That's not really unusual for PEG Kickstarters. There's typically a PDF waiting at the end of the funding period or within a few months, tops. The extra stuff like adventures, figure flats, and the like then start trickling in over the next few months.

So they have a product ready, but use Kickstarter to judge interest?  No pun intended, but interesting.

Well, here's hoping they'll have something for us non-backers soon.  I'm curious to see if it's worth my money.

Quote from: Christopher Brady;906275So they have a product ready, but use Kickstarter to judge interest?  No pun intended, but interesting.

Well, here's hoping they'll have something for us non-backers soon.  I'm curious to see if it's worth my money.

I've backed a number of their Kickstarters (Weird Wars Rome, The Last Parsec, Rippers Resurrected, Stone and a Hard Place, and most recently Weird War I) and the usual time frame for general release after the funding period ends seems to be about six to eight months. So I'd expect Rifts to see a physical release around the end of the year or early 2017 with the possibility of ordering PDFs some months before that.

Quote from: Christopher Brady;906275So they have a product ready, but use Kickstarter to judge interest?  No pun intended, but interesting.

Well, here's hoping they'll have something for us non-backers soon.  I'm curious to see if it's worth my money.

That is common with the more savvy ones on KS/CF. SJG did that with their Ogre KS for example. That and games/product that look closer to completion are more likely to draw backers than one that is still in the idea phase. Especially now-a-days after so many fails or immense stalls.

Quote from: RPGPundit;906105And if it's crunch material, how easy would it be to convert to RIFTS?

I'd say that converting to Rifts very much defeats the point of this Kickstarter, unless you mean converting the Losing It and Burning Out mechanics;).