Rifts Power and Quality Survey Results!

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Re: Rifts Power and Quality Survey Results!

Unread post by Akashic Soldier »

The lowest statistic is Africa, which has a quality of 4 (just below average).
The highest statistic is South American 2 which has a power of 8 (one off maximum!).

Honestly, I am shocked. People must not have read or play tested Lemuria. Their technology, magic, and mounts make them Gods. :lol:
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Re: Rifts Power and Quality Survey Results!

Unread post by Eashamahel »

Never seen Lemuria in real life. Only person I know who was interested in it gave up waiting a few years after Siege of Tolkeen.


Sad to see England so low down on the Quality scale. It's a very neat book.
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Re: Rifts Power and Quality Survey Results!

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Eashamahel wrote:Never seen Lemuria in real life. Only person I know who was interested in it gave up waiting a few years after Siege of Tolkeen.


That is a real pity, it is a beautiful book and filled with a lot of great artwork and setting material. It updates the setting ever so slightly and gives us a lot of information about some new unexplored regions and the activities of the Lord of the Deep and his minions along with some other new menaces. However, its a very high powered book. Statistically, most of the stuff is on par with Triax II or just below. Which from a large scale skirmish point of view is okay because their numbers are so much smaller. However, in a small group-type role-playing setting having high power bio-armors that regenerate, grow back from destruction, and have self-replenishing ammo is extremely noticeable with other characters that are still using more limited resources. Especially when EVERY O.C.C. gets them and some have multiple sitting in reserve that they can access at any time. Its essentially like everyone in the party having their own suit of Power Armor that bio-regenerates and replenishes its ammunition.

The book itself is incredible though. I really enjoy it and I have to admit I've never tested it as a stand alone setting where everyone was a Lemurian. In that situation it'd obviously be much more "fair" to all the Player Characters because they'd all have regenerating ammunition and armors.

Eashamahel wrote:Sad to see England so low down on the Quality scale. It's a very neat book.


True but I can see why. Australia on the other hand, it is an amazing book with a terrible reputation. The art is fantastic, the setting is dynamic, the monsters are really interesting takes on native myth and legend. You have vast regions to explore that are descolate wilder--

Ah I could just go on and on. I really like the Australia book.
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Re: Rifts Power and Quality Survey Results!

Unread post by Akashic Soldier »

Zachary The First wrote:I actually really like the England book, but I figured it would probably rate low. I'll be honest, I'm not 100% crazy about King Arthur's court, but I like just about everything else in there.

Probably the biggest surprise personally was Spirit West being rated so low on quality. I always thought it was a pretty good book.


Its a fantastic book, my G.M. sings its praises almost weekly. However, it is universally hated for a number of reasons. Everything from accusing the laser bow's mere existence of destroying the entire believability of the game...

... :| (Sorry, that always warrants a long pause. :lol:).

To it being "racist" against Native Americans, which is equally preposterous in my opinion.

I really enjoy the book overall and its a real pity it got rated so low too.
EDIT: comment edited. - NMI
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Re: Rifts Power and Quality Survey Results!

Unread post by flatline »

England is the book that I wish was used as the model for all other world books. Lots of region information (including maps!), little space wasted on toys that are nearly identical to toys already defined, and new character classes that aren't just regional clones of classes already defined.

It did not advance the time line.
It did not advance the power level of equipment.

It's not all gold, but the ratio of good to bad is way better than most of the other Rifts books I own.

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Re: Rifts Power and Quality Survey Results!

Unread post by Alrik Vas »

If MDC and SDC had a child that everyone liked better, England would be my favorite book. The problem is they shoved PF into Rifts and painted King Arthur over it, then gave everyone SDC gear with tons of unstoppable supernaturals about.

Creates a problem.

Though, flatline, i agree with your points for liking the book, very much. The setting information, maps and lack of unnecesary class/gear cloning make it a great book over all.
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Re: Rifts Power and Quality Survey Results!

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Eashamahel wrote:Never seen Lemuria in real life. Only person I know who was interested in it gave up waiting a few years after Siege of Tolkeen.


Sad to see England so low down on the Quality scale. It's a very neat book.


That is a shame sir. Lemuria is my favorite world book Palladium has ever put out. Although I admit the very first time I glanced through it, I just thought, 'meh the content is okay.' After I sat down and actually read the whole thing, I think it's the best written, and most thought out book Palladium has put out. Also contains my favorite art (Walton's at his best in Lemuria, the 3 pieces from Ashbaugh are great, and Mumah 's awesome underwater works add a lot to the book). It is more detailed alone on society and diet than anything else Palladium has out. The background info throughout is great, as are the creatures, and it contains my favorite Dragons, such as the Sand Dragon.

Lemurians are a look at what genetic engineering and manipulation can do when put to good in the megaverse. They're like the opposite of the Slugorth in this regard. Atlantians went one way, Lemurians went on a different path. Since their return they increasingly see themselves as the defenders of humanity on our chaotic planet.

I can understand if someone says they are not hyped up about the content of Lemuria, genetic engineering, gene manipulation, a war against underwater undead and the Lord of the Deep may not be for everyone. But as to writing quality and art content, to my humble opinion, Lemuria has set the standard by which I will judge all further RPG supplements.

It even works well in 3G, I've taken a Lemurian city, and dropped it in the Thunder Cloud Galaxy, and my players have been having a fantastic time with the campaign. I urge anyone to take a close look and actually read through the book as opposed to just glancing through (as I first did). It may not be the most popular to browse through and cheery pick mega high damage goodies to plop into a game, but it's King where background information and setting up actual role playing in a fictional society is concerned. Lemuria is extremely well done.
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Re: Rifts Power and Quality Survey Results!

Unread post by Jerell »

And to think I missed the vote...

Recount? :lol:
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Re: Rifts Power and Quality Survey Results!

Unread post by Tiree »

The one thing I would have loved to see is the: "How Useful is this Book to You?"
9 - I use it lock, stock, and barrel. The whole book is used, it should have been added to the main book.
7 - I use large sections of the book. Campaigns are set here.
5 - I use Equipment and OCC's, or Regional Information
3 - I use a good chunk of Equipment or OCC's and small bits of Regional Information
1 - I use maybe one or two OCC's or pieces of equipment
0 - It collects dust on my shelf, it could also double up as a coaster.

For me, I'd rate SB1 and VK1 as a 9. England is a 5, Atlantis a 4. Triax is a solid 3, I'm hoping NG1 will end up a 7. But Africa on a good day is a 1, but in truth it's a coaster.
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Re: Rifts Power and Quality Survey Results!

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Nice info.
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Re: Rifts Power and Quality Survey Results!

Unread post by Eashamahel »

flatline wrote:England is the book that I wish was used as the model for all other world books. Lots of region information (including maps!), little space wasted on toys that are nearly identical to toys already defined, and new character classes that aren't just regional clones of classes already defined.

It did not advance the time line.
It did not advance the power level of equipment.

It's not all gold, but the ratio of good to bad is way better than most of the other Rifts books I own.

--flatline



You've just perfectly summed up what I was always mulling about. Between that and the fact that it fits in perfectly with the RMB power level it's one of my favourites.
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Re: Rifts Power and Quality Survey Results!

Unread post by jreece06 »

I did like the England book, but not as much as I liked others. Spirit West was cool, but there was DEFINITELY some weird stuff in it that completely misrepresented actual indigenous belief structures.
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Re: Rifts Power and Quality Survey Results!

Unread post by Eashamahel »

If you take it as a fictional book about a bunch of fictional things it's much more reasonable. In no way is it a representation of real life, in fact much like the Witch in the old Conversion book, it is more representational of the 'Hollywood' depiction than the reality, just like Australia or Japan or pretty much any other book.
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Re: Rifts Power and Quality Survey Results!

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Very surprising results.
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Re: Rifts Power and Quality Survey Results!

Unread post by Eashamahel »

Well, there are books and books of robots and guns, and there are likely better robots and guns out there than the majority of what appeared in Triax 1, where Psychic powers and classes probably hit their peak in Psyscape.
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Re: Rifts Power and Quality Survey Results!

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Akashic Soldier wrote:The lowest statistic is Africa, which has a quality of 4 (just below average).
The highest statistic is South American 2 which has a power of 8 (one off maximum!).

Honestly, I am shocked. People must not have read or play tested Lemuria. Their technology, magic, and mounts make them Gods. :lol:



They are strong but their damage ratings are pretty reigned in with most of their ranged weapons doing 4d6 damage. Their forces are very durable with great survivability but their offense is pretty limited compared to a comprable tech force. The warmounts are nifty but compared to tech options most are slow with limited ranged attacks.

I think the thing that makes them gods is just the sheer amount the classes start with. Any one of the items is not that crazy but hey lets start with 1d3 warmounts 2 or 3 bio power armor suites a few armor skins that are as good as medium/heavy EBA and then an assortment of weapons and extra stuff like squid arms.

I am a bit surprised though that their power level did not average a bit higher.


I am not surprised to see atlantis is one of the most loved books in the line. Its an amazingly interesting take on the atlantis myth, Interesting monsters, new tech stuff, new magic stuff, tattoo magic which is just super fun, and a great setting to utilize in the game world it really was one of the best rounded game books to date.
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Re: Rifts Power and Quality Survey Results!

Unread post by kaid »

Tiree wrote:The one thing I would have loved to see is the: "How Useful is this Book to You?"
9 - I use it lock, stock, and barrel. The whole book is used, it should have been added to the main book.
7 - I use large sections of the book. Campaigns are set here.
5 - I use Equipment and OCC's, or Regional Information
3 - I use a good chunk of Equipment or OCC's and small bits of Regional Information
1 - I use maybe one or two OCC's or pieces of equipment
0 - It collects dust on my shelf, it could also double up as a coaster.

For me, I'd rate SB1 and VK1 as a 9. England is a 5, Atlantis a 4. Triax is a solid 3, I'm hoping NG1 will end up a 7. But Africa on a good day is a 1, but in truth it's a coaster.



Africa had two useful things in it the witch and the necromancer which were pretty much the only reasons it ever got any use from me at all over the years and that ended with mystic russia which had the OCCs and updated them to the point there was no reason to ever go back to the africa source book.

I still hope someday there may be a pheonix empire source book that could do some justice to africa.
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