I am so very in for this. I've long loved the Rifts setting, but the gaming system isn't much liked by the people that I play with these days. But, we've done a couple of different things with Savage Worlds. This is the key to actually getting to run a Rifts game again.

Quote from: The Butcher;894173We have (p)reviews from Chris Helton and Tommy Brownell which go into some detail with regards to the modified mechanics featured in the Savage Rifts Player's Guide.

The first one also clarifies just WTF the "Tomorrow Legion" is — an anti-Coalition do-gooder outfit led by Erin Tarn. :rolleyes: I'll just ignore the fluff and use it to play circa 102 P.A. because I'm a Rifts grognard who despises the Tolkeen metaplot.

The Tolkien Metaplot is what made the Cyber-Knights less cool to me.  They became anti-tech knights with powers that countered the Coalition's toys, mainly.

The issue with this is that according to the first Rifts book, the Coalition was created about 50 years before the start of the time line.  The Cyber-Knights were around 150 years.  And the most common type of foe that CKs would fight?  Magic based Monsters, not Techno-Bandits.

Neeters. Looks maybe affordable too.

At a glance looks like if you wanted troops to be more sturdy in armour then bump it up to heavy status? Or is there more to it than that?

Quote from: Christopher Brady;894188The Tolkien Metaplot is what made the Cyber-Knights less cool to me.  They became anti-tech knights with powers that countered the Coalition's toys, mainly.

The issue with this is that according to the first Rifts book, the Coalition was created about 50 years before the start of the time line.  The Cyber-Knights were around 150 years.  And the most common type of foe that CKs would fight?  Magic based Monsters, not Techno-Bandits.

I missed out on the Tolkeen metaplot and Cyber-Knight cruft. What little I read about did not pique my interest.

To be honest I always found Cyber-Knights sort of underwhelming. The unintuitive combination of moderately powerful psionics with a couple of unimpressive cybernetic implants never really felt like it merited the "Cyber" prefix. When Psyscape came out I seriously considered replacing all Cyber-Knights with Psi-Warriors, who feel like a better "Rifts Earth Jedi Knight" class to me.

Quote from: Omega;894234Neeters. Looks maybe affordable too.

At a glance looks like if you wanted troops to be more sturdy in armour then bump it up to heavy status? Or is there more to it than that?

I dunno. It's not clear to me if Mega-Damage weapons will "only" consist of the Heavy Damage property or if they will also feature a ton of damage dice (e.g. 4d10+4 quoted in the text). You may have to ramp up Toughness if that's the case.

In fact, since (IIRC) the Heavy Weapons property offers no additional damage against non-Heavy Armor, it may be just a matter of increasing Toughness.

Quote from: The Butcher;894236I missed out on the Tolkeen metaplot and Cyber-Knight cruft. What little I read about did not pique my interest.

To be honest I always found Cyber-Knights sort of underwhelming. The unintuitive combination of moderately powerful psionics with a couple of unimpressive cybernetic implants never really felt like it merited the "Cyber" prefix. When Psyscape came out I seriously considered replacing all Cyber-Knights with Psi-Warriors, who feel like a better "Rifts Earth Jedi Knight" class to me.



I dunno. It's not clear to me if Mega-Damage weapons will "only" consist of the Heavy Damage property or if they will also feature a ton of damage dice (e.g. 4d10+4 quoted in the text). You may have to ramp up Toughness if that's the case.

In fact, since (IIRC) the Heavy Weapons property offers no additional damage against non-Heavy Armor, it may be just a matter of increasing Toughness.

I remember reading the Glitter Boy had around 25 Toughness, which means heavy weapons need to have a higher damage output to compensate for greater defence.

If they're already sending out a preview beta copy to reviewers, I hope if you back the KS, you'll have access to the same preview doc.

I'm not too worried about Metaplot elements since I do "my own thing" with all the set-pieces in most settings.

Gotta say these preliminary reviews have got me kinda hyped.

Quote from: CRKrueger;891771

• Kevin Siembieda (probably because he worked as an artist for Judge's Guild, etc) left the rights to the art with his artists, so they would have to recontract with the original artists to reuse them, so new color art will be used.

That is very weird to read that explanation. Palladium books has a lot if reuse art in its books and the copyright notice only mentions Palladium and Kevin Siembieda as copyright holders ... Matbe the original contract with the artists only allow use for Palladium ...

It will be strange to see a Rifts books with the iconic illustrations made by Kevin Long and Vince Martin to name a few (the TMNT artist too, I forget his name).

Maybe they will still hire Zeleznik for the cover.

Quote from: tenbones;894285I'm not too worried about Metaplot elements since I do "my own thing" with all the set-pieces in most settings.

Gotta say these preliminary reviews have got me kinda hyped.

What metaplot? Rifts has, aside from the Tolkeen shakeup, had about zero metaplot?

Quote from: Omega;894393What metaplot? Rifts has, aside from the Tolkeen shakeup, had about zero metaplot?

...You never read the Rift books did you?

They had A LOT of metaplot.  It was just well written (KS is an excellent writer, even if his system leaves a lot to be desired in some aspects) to the point of being minor.

The Siege of Tolkien and the Coalition War Campaign source book were the only two instances in which things stood out and 'visibly' changed things.  The War Campaign redesigned most of the machines that the Coalition States used and gave them the infamous MDC bloat.

Where as the Siege was a series of 5 adventure books which, frankly was written as a railroad.  Nothing the Players could have done would have changed things.  It also had other issues, but I could go on for a very long post about those, and would rely on my admittedly faulty memory.

Any date for the KS yet?
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I'm an idiot, it's on the topic's freaking title. Doh'!

Quote from: tenbones;894285Gotta say these preliminary reviews have got me kinda hyped.

Do you have a link to a review you can share?

Btw, major question: do I have to buy the Savage Words core or will this book have all the rules to play?

Quote from: Maese Mateo;894406Btw, major question: do I have to buy the Savage Words core or will this book have all the rules to play?

You'll need to buy the core rules--which are all of $10 U.S..

Quote from: Maese Mateo;894397Do you have a link to a review you can share?

I think there's more out there, but this is the only one I know of: http://mostunreadblogever.blogspot.com/2016/04/tommys-take-on-savage-rifts-players.html#more

Quote from: Maese Mateo;894397Do you have a link to a review you can share?

Nope.