From: gil@smtc21.engr.scarolina.edu (Gil Young)
Subject: Re: Ars Magica, the best game yet?
Organization: USC  Department of Computer Science
Date: Wed, 22 Jul 92 08:52:29 GMT

cwagner@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (Christian Wagner) writes:

>In article <Bae0NB3w165w@tsoft.sf-bay.org> bbs.techie@tsoft.sf-bay.org (Robert Mc Daniel) writes:
>>

>Oh Gods, not Rifts.......

>My reaction to the Rifts "world" combined with that Palladium psuedo-system
>would have to be placed on alt.tasteless.......

>Is it just me, or does Rifts seem an awful lot like someone's attempt to 
>get several popular genres into one game, in order to increase sales? To whit;

Flame?  Me?  No.  Don't take this as a flame, just an attempt at a
discussion.  How 'bout it, Robert?
First off, Rifts is a complete world.  More than complete, one would
say.  Tasteless?  I feel that it has a texture and feel all its own, and
many of my friends share this opinion.  But your opinion is your
opinion, and I'm not going to bother trying to change it.  As for
several different genres, Rifts is a genre all its own... Complete
Extradimensional Intermingling.  Sure, Torg has a lot of different
dimensions, but it doesn't even approach the Rifts world.  Rifts is
unique that way.

>1) Battletech style giant robots

Oh, pshaw, Robert.  Thinking Battletech was the first to come up with
giant robots.  Rifts robot vehicles aren't even as big as Battletech
robots.

>2) Magic and fantasy critters from any fantasy game on the market

Double pshaw, Robert.  Fantasy games, for the most part, draw on
fantasy literature and acual legends for their critters, and there
are a *lot* of creatures in Rifts that have *never* been seen any-
where else.

>3) Cyberwear and other "dark SF" type stuff

Don't forget bionics all the way up to full conversion and techno-
wizardry, something either unique or rarely seen on the gaming 
scene.  Rifts does have a lot of unique material, Robert.

>It's like someone tried to splice AD&D, Gamma World, and ShadowRun, and got
>something that had none of the good parts of any of them...... 

That, IMHO, is an unfair conclusion.  Rifts is nothing like any of the
above systems.  Sure, it has things in common, but it probably has 
something in common with every game on the market.  That's the point.

>Ecccch..... A completely and utterly worthless product. I'd rather play AD&D
>or (gag) Shadowrun than play Rifts......

If that's your opinion, so be it, but I still think it's unfair.

It looks to me like you found a copy of it (maybe in the store?) and
leafed through and looked at the pictures to get an idea of wha it
was like, and came to this conclusion without so much as reading 10
pages of text.

Maybe the authors just thought, "Hey, what if we make a game world 
where the players can be *anything* they want to be!" and went to
work on a complete world where this took place.  And who cares
about their marketing strategy?  I'm not in RPG's to read their
quarterly reports.  I play games because I think they're fun and
interesting.  If you're buying material because you want to putt
money into the coffers of game companies for what you think are
the right reasons, I think you're missing the point.

But to each his own.  If you're having fun, great.

><flame all you want, I'll make more>

Since I didn't use foul language, make cheap shots at you or anything
you endorse, or just rant about your opinions mindlessly, I don't
think this is a flame...

>-- 
>It is better to be     |      Christian Wagner      | I may make you feel,    
>quotable than honest.  | UT - Austin, CS Dept. (UG) | but I can't make you
>  - Tom Stoppard       | cwagner@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu | think. - JT, "Taab"

Gil, the Quoteless
Newsgroups: rec.games.frp