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Hello!

I'm thinking of trying out RIFTS for my post-apocalyptic RPG needs.

But, I have to admit to being a bit lost, confused and intimidated by the system.

If I recall correctly, isn't there something like 438 supplements/books out for this system?

Can anyone give me a review of the thing?

Is the current edition due to be updated anytime soon?

Are all the world books 'necessary'?

If you had to put together a list of 'essential' RIFTS books, what would you choose?

Thanks!

I feel the same way about rifts. Whenever I've paged through the books in stores I end up being pretty overwhelmed but unimpressed.

All kidding aside, I think there are close to 70 books total in the entire Rifts "Universe".

I think the rules were last revised/updated in 2005.

I really don't want to buy into the system only to have it suddenly (as far as I'm concerned!) get updated!

The 'official' website is rather unimpressive as well...

So, I'm still waiting for a Rifts fan to drift by and give me the scoop!

I played rifts for a number of years in high-school and college. Thought I will admit it's been a few years since the last time I played.

To start playing, you simply need the Rifts Ultimate Edition book. The World books and Sourcebooks are add-ons that you can purchase later. As far as I believe, they have no plans of changing the core rules, the only changes they have made are clarifications. They expand the rifts world thru sourcebooks and worldbooks.

The only other two books I would recommend are the Rifts Game Master guide and Adventure Guide. The adventure guide being very good for helping new GM's create adventures.

The game play is dice based, akin to D&D, where actions and skills success is based on the roll of a dice (for skills it's 2d10 for percentile). To create a character you roll 3d6 for the 8 attributes, and select an O.C.C (a player class) and then go from there. Character creation is usually about 20ish min.

The main dice you will use are d6, d20 and d10's.

Hope that helps.

It has been a long time since I played Rifts. The one thing I remember is that I felt that the system was excellent for a fantasy system, but stumbled when used in a futuristic setting. It just really started to feel like initiative winner lives loser dies most of the time. It could just be the parts I remember.

The one really positive I have is the source. They have some incredibly rich source material. They do a fantastic job of coming up with material.

Given up on Dark Heresy already Alpha?

Rifts was best described as a Power Gamers Wet Dream.
I have played it a few times, and I had fun most of the time.
As for running the game, if you don't take to serious and just run simple short term story lines with lots of action and have a simple long te3rm story line it is a blast

H.B.M.C. wrote:Given up on Dark Heresy already Alpha?

No, not at all!

Just looking for something more Post-Apocalyptic/Mutant/etc.

Like old school GAMMA WORLD and such...

Gama World is suposed to come back this fall/winter in a d20/4e mode

Anpu42 wrote:Gama World is suposed to come back this fall/winter in a d20/4e mode

So I heard...

But allegedly with cards and 'proprietary' items ala WFRP 3.

Not good!

Any reason to choose Rifts over the other post apocalyptic systems out there (ie: d20 Modern, etc.)? Is it something about the universe you like? I personally find the entire Rifts system to be brutal (in a bad way).

No, no reason, other than I am looking for a Post-Apocalyptic setting, and that's one of the few that I can think of...

I haven't heard much good about it either, to this point.

I agree that besides Rifts and d20 Post Apocalyptic there aren't many "big names"...

Hmm there is also the Fallout Pen and Paper game, which I think saw a revitalization with the release of the 3rd video game.

This blog post has a good descriptive list that rounds up some you might not have heard of.

There are a few harder to find games like Horizon: Redline. Or you could look to the smaller publishers who make stuff like Hot War and Degenesis.

Possibly it's just easier to grab a setting and world you like and play using a solid ruleset in that setting. Most of the time there aren't a ton of setting specific rules anyways, I guess. It's too bad there isn't a defacto game when it comes to the apocalypse, but I guess it (regrettably) never was as popular as fantasy or sci-fi.

Actualy I you wand a real good Post Apoc, AFTERMATH!
RPG.com has the PDF avalible

In most cases RIFTS can be a Power gammers wet dream but so can any other game out there, its all about the GM's moderation of characters choices for the set campaign. In all honesty the Core Rule book is all you need to play the game and create what you need/want some of the older books are great but not needed NGR is a great source book for Borgs and can be used as a supplement for a super corp that is bent on world domination.

Rifts is a hard system to recommend. See my Robotech RPG review for notes on the system: it's the same basic system.

The basic schtick of the game is that a nuclear war unleashed enough soul energy to open up a bunch of ley lines. This made magic easier but allowed a lot of alien creatures in to our dimension. Before the war, a wizard might need to sacrifice an animal and chant for an hour to cast a minor damaging spell, but now the power level is so high they can do it quickly and do Mega Damage with it.

A flaw that becomes even more pronounced in Rifts is the sheer number of characters that are available. The main book includes gritty survivor types (A Rogue Scientist class, for example) through high-powered power armor jockies (The Glitter Boy, who at start-of-game has a mini-mech with a massive rail gun and a reflective anti-laser paint job.). These fit together oddly.

The expansion books make this problem a bit worse: Improved Glitter Boy variants, alien creatures, demigods, etc. If two players made characters without talking, you might end up with a gritty survivor armed with some thrown-together armor and a laser pistol teamed up with an ancient Atlantean whose skin is harder than diamond (and thus Mega Damage) armed with a rune blade and a mecha for transport.

It's playable if you expect everyone to go for weird stuff and don't look too far, but I'm still not crazy about the system. Again, MDC weapons are common: many characters start with an MDC vibroblade that can cut through nearly anything.

If you're looking at other P-A games, Deadlands: Hell on Earth is a fun post-apocalyptic setting and rules set. The rules are a bit clunky at times, but definitely do the job. They're supposed to be working on a Savage Worlds version. (And Savage Worlds could be used as-is, but there's no post-apocalyptic setting material I'm aware of.)

HoE is the future version of the Deadlands setting. In Deadlands, back in the 1860s supernatural horrors were unleashed, which caused things to get a little weird.

In HoE the Reckoners, the 4 horsemen (literally!) behind the supernatural terror have all but won. They've appeared in person, and finished off a world that was devastated by Ghost Rock enhanced nuclear weapons. The survivors have to push back the darkness, allw the few communities to rebuild and try to bring a little civilization to things.

Fun Stuff in HoE:
There's no set 'classes' but characters can take 'Arcane Backgrounds' if they want. These include Sykers (psychics), Junkers (Tech-mages that can make stuff out of scrap), Enlightened Martial Artists, or the walking dead (possibly with cyborg bits added in).

The setting doesn't take itself too seriously.

There's a lot of 'western' theming you may not want. The default game is set in the southwest US, which is slightly better off than the rest of the continent.

Initiative is a card-draw from a standard poker deck. Faster characters may get more cards.

There is a solid if not remarkable chase system in one book, as well as OK vehicle rules. No mecha, really, but some power armor.

i wouldn't recommend using the Rifts rules for a post-apoc game campaign. imagine playing d&d 1st or 2nd edition... but with 20+ years of post it notes detailing changed or additional rules placed in books that have little to no relation to the rule itself. the core palladium system is largely unchanged since the early 80's. back then, clunky systems without organized mechanics designed from the ground up to be cohesive were the norm.. back then, rifts excellent story line and B&W art made it stand ABOVE the pack. now, where cohesive systems that make sense are the norm and artwork is in color and professionally done, Rifts is trailing other RPGs.

for example, in 3.5 d&d, if WOTC wanted to make up a new skill use, they'd add it to an existing skill so your character could use it seemlessly despite being made years earlier. if Rifts wants to do the same thing, they'll invent a class and a completely new skill that is only superficially different from an existing one (or ones). horsemanship was a skill in the main book.. which was later complemented by a monstrous horsemanship skill.. which was later made redundant by a cowboy horsemanship skill which took up space in their wild west supplements. want your character to be able to fish? well, fishing is a skill... when the underwater book came out, they decided to make fly fishing a separate skill... that your whale character could take. yes, i said that correctly... your whale can become proficient at fly fishing.

palladium in it's early days had a steady power creep that made it best to take a character from the newest book since they were the most powerful. i haven't regularly played rifts for about 8 years or so and can't comment on the power creep in the more recent books but the first 14 years worth (which are still 100% legal as the "ultimate" edition barely changed anything) had an astounding level of power creep. another problem with rifts is balance between characters. the author has stated numerous times that he doesn't want all the classes to be completely balanced with each other but the complete lack of balance in the system is quite remarkable. you can literally make up a character that comes with a glitterboy robot (770 MDC) or a bum (vagabond class) with less than 50 if you take body armor. if you consider a game of 40k to be fun if one player has a single guardsmen while the other has a warhound titan, you'll like palladium's games. finally, the company cuts corners in order to make some money quickly due to corporate theft a few years ago. in order to simply pay their bills and keep the lights on, they publish their books without playtesting or even basic editing occasionally. mistakes from books published 10 years earlier are copy and pasted into the new releases despite being "corrected" in books published in between. as for playtesting, you can literally follow the start of writing a book to it's layout and completion due to the weekly or twice weekly posts by Kevin Siembada on their forums. On a monday, a chapter on new robots (hypothetical example) is yet unwritten, is done by wednesday, and the printer has the book friday. in the meantime, the author is commenting on his 12-16 hour work days. no time to actually play or test the rules.

if anything, get the core book simply for the fluff/background. the storyline and artwork (especially the older Kevin Long artwork) is excellent (albeit b&w) but the rules will have you screaming as a GM. a GM experienced in palladium's quirky (at best) or broken (more accurately) rules system usually has a mental or physical list of house rules that make the pathfinder core book seem skimpy. if you want to deal with that mess/hassle, feel free. rifts and robotech have a place in my heart because they were the two games that got me into gaming but nostalgia can only go so far in overlooking seriously flawed mechanics.

Thanks for all the advice...

Believe it or not, I'm probably going to stick with GAMMA WORLD.

Probably either the 2nd Edition or the 4th Edition.

Definitely NOT the horrible 3rd Edition though!

Again, thanks everyone!

Darwin's World is a pretty good 3.0/3.5-compatible (might work with Pathfinder) post-apocalyptic game. The buy-in is a bit pricey if you need a DMG and PHB, but it's got some neat stuff. Lots of "not-Fallout" bits in the rules, and a similar theme.

Darwin's World?

Never heard of it, though I'll give it a look now...

Thanks!