14 thoughts on “Would you be more interested in playing…”

  1. I’m having trouble seeing the distinction between these two choices. What’s the difference between being “inspired by” and “hacked from?”

    Are you saying the hack would be like AW basic moves with a few new playbooks for classic Rifts characters? The other option being a new pbta game from the ground up?

  2. Somehow I missed Rifts when it was a big deal, and so I have never played it and don’t have any nostalgia for it, which flavors my answer.

    That being said from what I’ve seen the setting looks fucking crazy! I’d love a PBTA game that feels as cool as some of the art and concepts I’ve come across; however any references to the Rifts specific setting details or classes or whatever would probably be lost on me.

  3. I’ve said it before, I don’t think you need a new pbta game to do rifts, you can run straight apocalypse world. The maelstrom is basically the rifts and ley lines, the classes translate well into play books and pc’s in AW effectively already have the mega damage benifits.

  4. Justin Phillips I don’t know about that. I’ve heard people say the same thing about Shadowrun, but the super-stripped-down PC games from Harebrained Schemes are crazy good while still being Shadowrun. I think the setting of Rifts is the real source of its charm; the ridiculous amount of crunch is just a product of the time when it was developed, and I wouldn’t consider it essential.

  5. Dirk Detweiler Leichty for a straight hack I’m talking Rifts setting (with Juicers, Ley Line Walkers, the Coalition et al) running on PBTA. For an inspired by game, I’m talking about gonzo magic and technology post apocalypse without those specifics (or with the serial numbers filed off).

  6. Justin Phillips I disagree. For me, Rifts is a great setting with terrible rules. When I run it, I do it mostly free form because the crunch is unusable – I think it’d be good to correct that and have a system that supports the narrative.

  7. David Rothfeder for me, so much of Apocalypse World’s flavour is baked into the rules it’d need hacking. Same with all the PBTA games. Dungeon World and Monsterhearts both have their themes built into their basic moves. Plus you’d need to write new rules for magic, giant robots and so on. I don’t think you can do a reskin and have it feel Riftsy.

  9. Not really. In Rifts the difference between magic and psionics were pretty minimal, and a lot of the freaky stuff in aw could be explained with magic. Giant robots are easily done with either vehicle rules or if you want to get fancy, the rules from the space marine mamal playbook. Mostly a few custom moves will get you what you need to get to the rifts setting. As far as the baked in flavor of AW, there isn’t much. Guns and gas are plentiful but other resources are not, that’s basically what rifts is about. The apocalypse happened 50 years ago, this can be fudged a bit but it’s not too far from the timeline in rifts. The world psycic maelstrom exists and has an agenda also fits with a lot of the freakyness of Rifts. That’s basically it for base game setting requirements. There are one off moves or playbooks that force an element, like the quarentine or the child thing. If there is something that doesn’t fit, then ust remove the option. I’ve heard the game gets a lot better when the mc currates the playbook options (like cutting out the hard holder or the chopper because the two’s cool things can pull the game in the wrong direction or in MH cutting out the chosen in shorter games because monster hunting can dominate the plot)

  12. Robert Burson, I’d love to see them, we were just talking about Rifts the other day, I ran a one shot using just the Basic Moves and 2d6, but just described the setting.

    We didn’t have Playbooks or Moves other than the basics, but I think it would be awesome to have a Rifts Powered by Apocalypse Hack…

  13. There was another thread that went into space combat with various suggestions. I posted a PDF of my hack there. My hack was just one tailored playbook and some moves, so you’re gonna need to work on your own playbooks or reflavor the main books. If I was really gonna do a rifts hack, I’d make a playbook for all the main flavorful character types. Juicer, Glitterboy pilot, etc.

    plus.google.com – Is there a move set somewhere that works for aero/ space fighter combat? I co…

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