I think the reason I don't have the aversion to playing or even running the game that others might is because I started with TMNT and worked my way through Palladium Fantasy, Heroes Unlimited, Ninjas and Superspies and of course Rifts. i was running Palladium games for years before I ever played AD&D for the first time. We started with 2E AD&D as players and I remember being *dumbfounded* that if an enemy was attacking you that you just had to 'stand there' and hope he rolls low with no opportunity to defend. Obviously, now I understand that premise of 'abstract combat', but going from the complexity of Palladium combat to "just standing there in a circle like a moron while stuff swings at you" was a pretty drastic shift. So I guess that's why I also get why people who started out with more streamlined games are put off by the weird complexities in Rifts that can certainly contradict itself or have little focus as to why certain things work the way it does. I think when Kevin was dreaming up some of these rules and gave a quick primer for how anything worked he didn't really consider all possible outcomes, but rather thought it up in his head with the one situation that would apply to the explanation of how something worked that he would have his characters put in. Which ultimately meant the GMs had to decide for themselves quite often how things should work in their own unique situations since it wasn't covered that well in some of the books. And that depends on which page you're on because it might be mentioned in one chapter, but then mentioned in another with a different explanation as to how it might work.

Not only is it a fun RPG but the stories written in each of the books is great! I agree about the business practices and the ‘great betrayal’ stuff!

Game Mastering Rifts for 30 years. First started out as GM for TSR DnD Red box up to ADnD. Jumped over to Palladium through Robotech (was big fan, never missed a episode at risk of missing school bus). Eventually transitioned to Rifts. When asked what Rifts is. "Rifts is the Major League of Role-play games." The complexity is what sets it above most. Have disagree with the rules being outdated with out any reference/information to the reason why other than just because was released in the 90s. May be just from experience. Rifts is easy enough to wean the simple player through the game mechanics. Would get the Savage Worlds version just for the new story elements. The new "good guy" faction sounded interesting. Got to hold and play test Robotect minis at my local store. They were nice sculpts. Is sad what happen, though glad I've never put any money towards a product not called Macross. So I'm not jaded towards Palladium and never been a fan of Kickstarter idea anyways.

Just subscribed. I appreciate the nuanced stance in response to Palladium's objectively incompetent and antagonistic actions towards their customers. Too many youtubers who cover Palladium are blinded by their fandom and don't care about how their fellow gamers were affected by the Robotech fiasco (until Palladium eventually turns on them eventually somehow). I'm roughly in the same boat as you but am struggling to support the Savage Worlds Rifts projects as Palladium is indirectly still getting some portion of my money via licensing fees if I do so. I had planned to get the Savage Rifts books used on the secondary market but then the news of the new edition of Savage Worlds came out and I figured that they'd soon be invalidated (which they now are with the 2nd edition kickstarter ongoing right now at the time of this post). I have nothing against the PEG crew as I have no experience with them and I should be the ideal target customer for this project. I was hugely nostalgic towards both Rifts and Robotech with them being my first experience in tabletop gaming (playing a Robotech character in a Rifts campaign back in 1990); I still have a complete robotech RPG collection (the original run) and a mostly complete 2nd edition run (until it was obvious that Palladium was misleading backers). I had a complete rifts collection as well (plus HU and TMNT) until the early 2000's when I was disillusioned with their rules never being properly updated and years long delays in announced books. I decided to give them a second chance during the time around the Robotech kickstarter buying a few robotech books and missing rifts titles that came out during the interim decade and clearly that leopard never changed its spots.

I am 26 minutes into this video waiting for the comparison between the Palladium version and the Pinnacle version, but all I know so far is you view on each company’s business model and who should use kickstarter or not. Would be nice to have the content announced on the title first. Just an honest criticism to improve the quality of your content.

Your comments about Kevin's relationship to his IP are spot on. Very much over values it. I have to believe something has changed for him to allow someone else to use his IP.

I am sitting here watching my old video, while on the Palladium website ordering the Excel Generator as my local gaming group wants me to run Rifts!!! I will eat crow! I just ordered a few books that I was missing direct from Palladium! Times change! So must we all!

I have been playing since 1979. I know that I played Rifts a few times, but stopped because the damage vs. mega damage seemed to break the game for us. Anyway, just saying that I am a long term gamer, but I don't have any Rifts or Palladium in my collection. And I have a substantial collection.

After watching your vids on SW Rifts, I'm really trying to resist the urge to pick them up. I already have so many RPG books that I need to read. LOL And BTW, althother awesome vid!! Thank you sir!

I've always make a basic template for NPCs then go from there.

Cool you are from Bug City central 🐜

How do you convert from Palladium to Pinnacle? There are adventures in Rifts' South America source book setting that I would LOVE to GM.

Are you open to review 5e products?

One thing I hate about Savage Rifts is how fast it was the out of date edition. I have suck stupid money into it to keep up. Exact opposite problem Rifts had originally of rarely updating the rule and when they did it was rather minor and often did not help much. Can there be a middle ground?

I wonder if his wife left him due to his handling the Kickstarter?

John, first let me just say I really enjoyed this video. It's the first of yours I have listened to. I've subscribed and have about six more queued up, so thank you! I wanted to add a thought to your discussion on Kickstarters. I agree that well funded companies putting their projects up on Kickstarter probably does take away dollars from smaller indies. Both because people's dollars go towards these projects, and because it raises the bar of a Kickstarter to a level that is hard to compete at for someone new. With that said, I suspect the 7% "loss" is well worth it. Some of that money would directly equate to a marketing campaign. On Kickstarter these are pretty well spent marketing dollars since they are hitting their target demographic. The other advantage you mentioned, which is that using Kickstarter gives them a lot of information on how to print. Getting the right amount of books printed maximizes their revenue and profit. It also serves as a signal to other buyers (stores, retailers) as to the interest in the product and can help them with pre-sales elsewhere. All of this may make that 7% a good deal!

Life is savage sport. :)_;

Not only all of the controversy mentioned about Palladium, but the 2nd edition of Beyond the Supernatural is unplayable. It's been since 2005 and they still haven't released Beyond Arcanum or Tome Grotesque which supposedly you need to run 2e, I wouldn't know, when I found out it was incomplete I went for 1e which is actually a finished game. So essentially BTS 2e has been unfinished for 18 YEARS!!

I self-studied and paid for my own exams to become an MS Certified Systems Engineeer back when the dot.com boom was going on and you could write your own ticket with or without a college degree. When I first put my resume online in those days I got half a dozen replies from hiring managers within days. 20 years later when I was looking for a job, the dot.com bubble had burst and there had been an big influx of young professionals with college computer science degrees, and I found it much much harder to find work. Those of us who got in on the ground floor of IT had a golden age, but that golden age is long past now :(

I know you disagree with Kevin and refer to him as have opened up his asshole straps, but the man still owns his own company. Its been here for going on 40 years, and while even D&D is older it is on it's 5th edition (Best Edition imho). He must be doing something right. The rules are super simple even if character creation is a bummer. My only complaint is the Mega Damage is wonky. As for Kevin, cut him some slack. People mess up. I'm sure he feels bad and is just trying to get through it.

I believe this video would have been more beneficial if you could have compared rule and made examples of classes and how magic works, what it's missing ect. You've based your argument to get THIS book because "reasons" rant. PS: I'm not a Palladium books, they're prehistoric and the game mechanics out Tragically out dated

I dunno bruh, kickstarter is anyone needing crowdfunding. Maybe you needa consider facts like publishing rpgs is not all that profitable and kickstarters get smaller companies the much needed resources. Its an equal playing field. Now if they were Paizo or WOTC I might see it but Pinnacle is not selling millions of copies. Most these publishers are smaller teams with outsourced artists and poor money management is a cop out...reality is that most times in our passion and hobby there is little to no money after breaking even and thats a big if too. Agree that SW is the better choice for new players and those looking for a better ruled game and system in general for that genre.

3 years after this video and ~30 years after I first played Rifts, my nostalgia recently got me to pick up hardcover versions of Rifts, Heroes Unlimited, and After the Bomb. After playing Savage Worlds for the past decade, the Palladium combat system is way too crunchy, grindy, and slow for my tastes. I ran a couple sessions for After the Bomb and Heroes Unlimited over the past few weeks, and I realize that the Palladium system might have been the reason my 90's rpg group died. LOVE the worldbuilding and Palladium needs to either overhaul their system or start creating sourcebooks of all their properties for other systems (more Savage Worlds, etc)

Holly crap, I wanted a review of Savage Rifts not a Why Kickstart is Bad bitch fest. Well there goes 45 minutes of my life I can’t get back.

I dont think you are familiar with the harsh realities of publishing... Deserve? No one deserves money they damn well earn it and yeah Palladium are buttmunches for doing their fans dirty on the kickstarter but the costs of releasing anything are pretty steep and 7% is NOTHING if it means faster and smoother funding. Small press needa step up and compete like indie game devs and indie musicians, let them EARN our money. This deserve crap just gets me steamed when we all know a lot of great rpgs or comics that never got to make it because they simply lacked funding. I pledge whatever I can to projects I support and do not need to want to buy a copy to support, its not just a preorder system. It aint cheap competing but compete you must with better content and consistency.

Ok, I haven't played the savage world rifts, but did see a play through inn KZfaq an on the surface look shows me that they totally nerfed the dragon rcc, and the juicer toolsat the beginning off the game to see if he checks out? So, if he fails his roll and is going to check out even though this session is rp heavy. Nah bruh, I'll take Palladium. And you are really going to use " to many options" as a bad thing?

Started to watch a Savage World Rifts game on KZfaq couldn't though, they totally nerffed it. Palladium is way better. I've learned there are very few good/ bad RPGs just ones you like and ones you don't.

Lost me at Rifts Palladium is a no go. Obviously don't really know what you're talking about. Could the system use an update? Sure but mostly in the bloated skills department. The rest of the game plays fairly slickly, barring some odd outliers, and uses mechanics that I wish other games would use(I much prefer their armor system to just about anything else on the market today). The Palladium mega-verse system is very playable even after 30+ years.

RIFT's is actually terrible game.