Incline Rifts is Coming to Savage Worlds

[LeStryfe79]

Rifts is Coming for Savage Worlds!

We’re pleased to announce that we will be developing Rifts for Savage Worlds! We’re early in the process now, but Shane* says we anticipate a core setting book in time for Christmas.

Rifts is a classic muti-genre post-apocalypse game with elements of everything from fantasy and mythology on through cyberpunk and mecha, the realization of Kevin Siembieda’s vision of a game with everything for everyone.

“I’m really excited to see what Rifts will look like in the Savage Worlds system,” said Siembieda. “The Savage fans are great folks, and I think Rifts is going to be an amazing amount of fun for them, letting them explore all the possibilities of both the system and the setting.”

Be sure to keep up with the Pinnacle news for more information as it becomes available!

https://www.peginc.com/rifts-is-coming-for-savage-worlds/

 

[Night Goat]

I'm not familiar with Savage Worlds but it's cool that Rifts is still a thing; I don't know of anyone who's played it, but the setting is awesome in its ridiculosity.

 

[LeStryfe79]

Yeah, I had some Rifts source books. I didn't actually play the game either, but I stole a lot of stuff for my crazy D&D games. The math worked out pretty good. Only played a little Savage Worlds, and it played better than it initially looks when you read the rules. It's simple but fun, which makes it the Anti-Rifts. Should be an interesting combo.

Calling Grunker

 

[Magellan]

I remember Rifts from way back in the day, but what is Savage Worlds?

 

[LeStryfe79]

Savage Worlds is a generic system based on Deadlands. It's okay. Many people call it the tits. I thinks it's a fun and easy system, but lacks complexity.

 

[Magellan]

Oh, it's a pen and paper system? Why would they license Rifts, which is already a pen and paper system... to another pen and paper system?

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

Oh, it's a pen and paper system? Why would they license Rifts, which is already a pen and paper system... to another pen and paper system?

Because Savage Worlds is a rather popular system and by making a SW version of Rift they can sell their universe to the people who normally wouldn't buy it, because of the rules. It's actually not that weird to release your RPG system using rules that are popular at the time. There was a Call of Cthulhu d20 games at one time for example.

 

[Alex]

Heh, I bet you didn't think they would license rifts for a system that is actually worse than the cobbled mess they made, right.





...




I didn't either.


And you know what?

That makes me freaking furious!

Of all the good systems out there they could have ported, they choose Savage Worlds?

Gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Sorry, I guess I just got a bit carried away. But why couldn't it be GURPS? Why couldn't it be Burning Wheel? Why couldn't it be HERO? Why couldn't it just be a lousy D20 game? The only good thing I can think of SW is that it at least isn't Fate. Good grief, I know this is a real silly thing to get annoyed over and all, but I think RIFTS has a lot of love put into it. If only its ideas were transported to a somewhat more usable form, it would make a pretty amazing game, I think. Silly, to be sure, but amazing all the same.

 

[Magellan]

Oh, it's a pen and paper system? Why would they license Rifts, which is already a pen and paper system... to another pen and paper system?

Because Savage Worlds is a rather popular system and by making a SW version of Rift they can sell their universe to the people who normally wouldn't buy it, because of the rules. It's actually not that weird to release your RPG system using rules that are popular at the time. There was a Call of Cthulhu d20 games at one time for example.

Oh ok, that makes sense then. I didn't know that isn't so uncommon.

 

[Night Goat]

Someone wanna give me a lowdown on Savage Worlds?

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

It's a very easy to learn and fast system which many people dislike for being too simplistic.

Pros
+classless character creation
+easy to learn
+feats and shit for all your min-maxing desires, but not enough of them to overwhelm noobies
+shitmobs go down fast, every shitmob in the combat area is either A-OK, shaken (can only crawl, cannot attack) or dead, every other character has 3 wounds to go through
Cons
-Game assumes that you are using miniatures, you can play the game without them, but the game loses a bit
-Shaken mechanics is wonky sometimes, may lead to fight where people fall on the ground all the time, but go back-up the next turn, fun in fantasy gaming but looks ridiculous in gunfights, where situation where character gets shot, falls on the ground, gets up, gets shot again, gets up etc. without problems. Because everyone has either 1 or 3 wounds to go through you can't just chip away someone's HP over time. You can either kill someone pretty fast or just not be able to harm him at all

 

[Havoc]

Some of the mechanics also aren't really clear, than means when you have a person that likes to abuse it and a GM that can't really say "no, the interpretation is this". I've had this situation when we played superheroes. The GM was the quiet type, but was a good RP player. A player wanted to abuse the system and become Xavier+GreenLatern+WhateverMore. If it wasn't for the rest of the players that told him STFU, you're reading it wrong, it would be a horrible experience.

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

I've never played with superhero supplement so I wouldn't know. I've only played Deadlands Reloaded and had no such problems, might be an issue with the supplement and not the base game.

 

[Havoc]

Maybe. Or maybe you never had people who abuse the system for their benefit.

 

[lightbane]

I really didn't expect this to happen. Does this mean they'll fix the many, many, many broken mechanics, starting with the Mega-Health thing (which ensured that people without power armor or super-powers, would not survive the first round of combat, no matter what)?
Who knows, perhaps they end up adapting other Palladium games, such as Nightbane, which's worth a look if only for its crazy random character generator.

 

[Tripicus]

-Game assumes that you are using miniatures, you can play the game without them, but the game loses a bit
-Shaken mechanics is wonky sometimes, may lead to fight where people fall on the ground all the time, but go back-up the next turn, fun in fantasy gaming but looks ridiculous in gunfights, where situation where character gets shot, falls on the ground, gets up, gets shot again, gets up etc. without problems. Because everyone has either 1 or 3 wounds to go through you can't just chip away someone's HP over time. You can either kill someone pretty fast or just not be able to harm him at all

They changed how shaken works in the newest edition (Deluxe). You can now do a free action, which includes moving up to your full pace. Shaken is basically being rattled/distracted thematically.

I would go so far as to say that Savage Worlds is a RPG wrapped around a fast paced miniatures game, where character creation is largely focused on Edges and Hindrances as defining aspects of your character. The strength of the game I feel is that combat mechanics are nailed down, and combat even with a large number of combatants is quick. This works quite well with Deadlands gunfights, unlike its hideous d20 incarnation.

It's worth mentioning SavageWorlds has an exploding dice mechanic. If you have issues with players/ villains being incapacitated by a freak dice occurrence I recommend staying away.


With my limited experience with Palladium mechanics, I found the SW conversion surprising...

 

[Darth Roxor]

Heh, I bet you didn't think they would license rifts for a system that is actually worse than the cobbled mess they made, right.

I wouldn't call it worse. In my view it's hard to find something that's really worse than the clusterfuck that is Palladium's original ruleset.

But it certainly isn't very good either, that's for sure

 

[Gangrelrumbler]

@Tripicus
Interpreting "shaken" as distracted is even worse. A character gets shot, which may distract it for 3 turns or more if he has low spirit and no luck. This is very gamey and may trigger some players. You are right about the exploding dice, it can get characters killed prematurely. I'm not saying that it's a bad system, but it has its flaws.

 

[Alex]

Heh, I bet you didn't think they would license rifts for a system that is actually worse than the cobbled mess they made, right.

I wouldn't call it worse. In my view it's hard to find something that's really worse than the clusterfuck that is Palladium's original ruleset.

But it certainly isn't very good either, that's for sure

Well, it is a mess. But if you decided to take your time, you can dive into that mess and pluck parts that, when pieced together, play, well, very much like D&D (with some stuff that is at the same time, brilliant and idiotic). I don't think you can do the Savage Worlds rules. SW rules might make sense if you are playing some kind of huge battle, but for normal combat, I would rather try to make sense out of Palladium's ruleset.

I really didn't expect this to happen. Does this mean they'll fix the many, many, many broken mechanics, starting with the Mega-Health thing (which ensured that people without power armor or super-powers, would not survive the first round of combat, no matter what)?
(snip...)

They fixed mega damage in Rifter 9.5 by introducing the Giga-Damage concept. (This is a joke, by the way. Rifter 9.5 is an april's fools edition of the official magazine). To be honest, I don't see the problem with the idea of Mega Damage, per se. All it says is that certain kinds of weapons are in a different scale, and going against them without a tank, or a giant robot, or whatever, is a bad idea. The real problem, I think, lies in how common this stuff becomes, especially later on with all the supplements, and how limited some of the races and classes are. I am far from a fan of strict balance, but some classes don't have anything at all going for them except maybe a cool concept. While one class can summon a potentially unlimited variety of demons (or D-Bees, if you want to use the right term), another may only get the use of a skill others can actually use too. I think Rifts character creation may be its weakest aspect, and it probably wouldn't be too hard to fix, actually (might be a lot of work, though). But I guess it also has a kind of attraction to people. It is a bit like 3.5, in that there is a lot of fun to be had in finding the right build, only the "build" here is much more straightforward, as you can't really multi-class (or maybe you can, since the book doesn't say anything one way or the other, and there have been conflicting official stances).

 

[Alex]

@Tripicus
(...snip)You are right about the exploding dice, it can get characters killed prematurely. (snip...)

The players too, depending on the blast radius!

 

[udm]

What don't you like about Savage Worlds, Alex?
(genuine edit: genuinely curious)

 

[Alex]

What don't you like about Savage Worlds, Alex?
(genuine edit: genuinely curious)

Well, if I am to actually explain my dislike rather than rant, let me start by making clear my experience with it. I've never played a Savage Worlds game, and I've only read the game as a new version of the Deadlands game, as well as having given a cursory look on the test drive sheet. Still, I want nothing to do with it, for two main reasons:

First, Savage Worlds is like a crippled Deadlands. The original Deadlands was a quirky game with a system that started a bit odd, and got some pretty quirky rules on how to deal with some aspects. Combat is pretty detailed, for instance, and magic has you literally playing poker with the devil (well, a devil) in order to get it to do what you want. The new edition of Deadlands (called Deadlands: Reloaded), remains pretty similar, except it is dumbed down in parts. It has been a while since I read it, and I no longer have access to it, so sorry if I am being vague. But SW's own motto is "Fast, Furious, Fun". Which translates into making any mechanics that are a bit more complicated into a simpler version. I think the best parts* of Deadlands, however, were exactly the more complicated subsystems! So of course I din't like it.

*As far as the system itself goes. I am not considering setting or other story elements here.

Second, it is about the motto. It isn't that I like complication for its own sake, but the philosophy behind SW seems to be to hide a complex situation behind simple rules so that the rules won't get in the way of the action. I would much rather have a game like, say, Hackmaster, with its huge item list, its crunchy combat, its weird character advancemente rules, etc. Or maybe the new Traveller. The fifth edition of traveller is a book that is not very easy to use. Sometimes, it seems to give you a whole lot of needless details. But it is usually easy enough to ignore details if they don't matter. But trying to take into consideration what details might change a roll, on the other hand, or making those changes matter when the system was built to be fast rather than having verisimilitude is hard. In this, Rifts and SW are probably very opposite.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Rifts and Palladium still exist? Ugh.

Party: MDC based dragon, Glitter Boy (basically a mech pilot if you're not familiar with it), Psi Knight (Jedi-ish), MDC Power Armour Soldier Guy, Ley Line Mage and... Hobo.

 

[tuluse]

I never played Savage Worlds, but one thing that seemed cool to me was that increasing a skill means getting to roll a bigger die. I always like the aspect of PnP of using various sided dies for different things so this appeals to me a lot. Also, one reason I can never love GURPS or Burning Wheel with their only one sized die.