In defense of the term "Gonzo," the thing that people overlook is that the character that inspired it, Gonzo the Great from The Muppet Show, always took his act seriously. No matter how ridiculous what he was trying to do was, or how doomed to failure it may be, he always approached it with dead earnestness as if it was the the most important thing in the world. That's how the term "Gonzo" plays to me - yes, it's over the top and often bizarre, but no matter how far over the line it gets, no matter how weird the combination of elements involved, it's always played completely straight. To me, that's the very definition of what Rifts does - you have these bizarre combinations of ideas that absolutely shouldn't work together - heck, a lot of them are completely antithetical to each other - but because of how "out there" the rest of the series is and how straight it plays everything, it just kinda works. As such, it is perhaps the definition of a "Gonzo" setting.
This is still my favorite TH-cam deep dive into the Rifts setting. Your love of the source material is palpable, and your advice related to the administration of the Rifts game is invaluable.
I hate to be "that guy" but I completely disagree about your breakdown of The Legion. It is possible that I am looking at a newer edition, just got the books a few weeks ago because of my love for the Rifts setting. In my copy they talk about the Legion being formed from the refugees of the Tolkeen Wars that Lord Coake brought. How that Erin Tarn and Lord Coake felt that they needed to train people how to fight and defend themself because peace will have to be fought for on Rifts Earth. At worst they are just a different take on Merctown with a leaning towards helping all people. That aside, I agree. I love the Rifts setting and I am excited to get some games under my belt in the Savage Worlds system.
I 100% accept the accusation that I am judging the Legion too harshly. I still think they're a pretty thin character group, but they're definitely more interesting than I gave them credit for.
@@danwells9305 The Legion is great for newcomers to Rifts. They don’t need to know the thirty years of the Palladium Books story to understand this faction, since it’s less than a year old. From there, new players or new GMs can slowly explore the pieces of the long established factions and lore. But also you can ignore the Legion or modify it into whatever you want as GM.
I find that Savage Rifts fills a void that needs to be talked about. How many game systems peter out or start to drag on after level 10 or so? If you want to play a game for characters that are similar to say DnD lvls 15-20, Savage Rifts is a better way to go. It doesn't have hit point bloat, the powers remain fairly constant throughout the game and other than the amount of abilities you have to remember it's fairly simple. If anyone played dnd 3.5 and was ok with it, then this'll be easier.
That's a funny take. The castle is a real castle in northern Arkansas near the Missouri border. A group of people were trying to recreate a real French castle with the tools that they used in medieval France until they ran out of money about a decade ago. The RIFTS story is that the dwarves found it partially built and finished it to use as a home and the do gooders came later after Lord coake got in his feels about the fall of tolkeen. So not exactly "no reason" but hey.
You beat me to it! There was logic behind the tomorrow legion. And just to add, Kevin Siembieda has stated he liked the Tomorrow Legion and was planning on incorporating them into the core Palladium Rifts. I am a huge fan of Rifts, have been since the first book was released in 1990. But it always lacked a good, well founded heroic starting point for those who want a high heroic type game. the TL adds that.
Sometimes the best way to sell the ridiculous is to play it completely straight. It's why Airplane is comedy gold. Also, related to the GB. In the first version, where the boom gun had a blast radius, they had to hit a demon lord... while the Cyberknight was grappled with it. So the CK chose Maxim 20, "If you're not willing to shell your own position, you're not willing to win."
Agreed on the whole rifts obsession. At one point I loved the world so much that I ported all that I had to shadowrun 3rd edition rules. I love palladium, hate the system XD. That world is rich, and it is my absolute favorite.
From an operational security viewpoint, the location of Castle Refuge, in relation to Coalition territory, bases, and staging points, makes absolutely no sense. If Loard Coake were a halfway decent strategist, he'd abandon that position asap.
I'm not sure calling Rifts gonzo is looking down on it. Its like saying water is wet. I'm an old school Rifts fan that was elated it was being ported to my favorite rules engine. My only issue is a Rifts character is more complicated than a straight Savage Worlds character. I had a Dragon, Cyberknight and a Crazy in my group and none of them could remember all their abilities without me reminding them. Still, a fun time was had by all!
Make, or have the players make a character overview describing what the character can do. Changing the rules to natural language makes it easier to recall.
@@ZaWyvern I wrote up their character sheets. Each player had 1.5-2 pages because i wrote out all the rules for every power so no one had to crack open a rule book. I think my players might have had choice paralysis but in the end we had some awesome gonzo adventures. My only advice to anyone wanting to play SW Rifts is to play regular SW for a bit. It will help lay the foundation for your Glitter Boy pilot and the rail gun that turns everything into a fine pink mist.
You might be reading too much into the use of the word "gonzo". Dungeon Crawl Classics wears the description like a badge of honor. Ted Nugent's first live album, Double Live Gonzo, did, too. Hunter S. Thompson was the first known to have used the term about a style of journalism that he himself became known for. They're not looking down on you.
I don't like the tomorrow legion either, lord coake didn't want to sully his hands with coalition blood because he thought tolkeen was wrong to fight for their home, but now he's more than willing to take responsibility for the refugees that may have still had a home had the full might of the cyber knights and their ally's been in the fight ( just my opinion, the rogue cyber knights that fought for tolkeen were the real heroes lol)
Having a touchstone group is a good focal point for groups who may not be sure how to get drastically disparate characters together. We recently started SWADE Deadlands and having the Twilight Legion be the “rug that ties the room together” has made putting a Harrowed gunslinger seeking revenge, a Chi Master seeking redemption, a Huckster seeking belonging and a Ranger seeming lawful justice much easier. To add, it seems the lack of connection for the TL is that you can ignore them or...since they’re a new faction...have a fresh slate where the PCs are the major players for the faction. Having the TL be politically agnostic gives the table the choice of who to ally with or oppose.
I think you are approaching the Tomorrow Legion from the wrong perspective. Are they fully fleshed out? No. But that means they are better able to be made into what you and your players need them to be. They gave you the bones and are allowing you to flesh them out to be what you want or need them to be. Far better for them not to fully develope them into something that clashes with your ideas.
Tomorrow Legion is Gonzo in all the negative ways in my mind. I play Savage Ruleset but Palladium story. I leave Tomorrow Legion as a myth that people want to believe in but likely is just a myth. They are in likely the most hostile zone a group could pick and they are suppose to have a force to be reckon with, if the CS would not challenge them the Federation would. They seem both tacked on to me and just not Rifts it does not mesh with the rest. Feels like something to appease parents who might be buying books for their children to me. I would not tell anyone how to play the game, but to me the Tomorrow Legion is somewhat insulting to me as a fan. Feels so Savage Worlds.
Savage didn't do Rifts any favors with this conversion. The Glitterboy, one of the toughest power armors in the game gets routinely one-shotted by other robot vehicles. Just garbage on the translation. Also, you can't mix non power armor or robot vehicle with anything heavy on any level because the regular characters can't hurt the vehicles and power armor and then it's just a matter of time before the dice catch up to your character and paste them. The way it shakes out is that you either have to play all heavy or all light and can't mix them but what the gameplay suggests is that you'd be stupid to play anything but robot vehicle based characters, especially after that re-polish Savage did where at first I thought they made a decent fix on the Glitterboy but then found that they upgraded all the power armor and robot vehicles to the point that that scene on the cover of the Savage Rifts Player's book where the Juicer has killed an Enforcer robot vehicle is a joke that is so unlikely to happen that the only bigger joke is that I paid money for this half assed product. If you're reading this and like Rifts, just stick with the Palladium version.
In defense of the term "Gonzo," the thing that people overlook is that the character that inspired it, Gonzo the Great from The Muppet Show, always took his act seriously. No matter how ridiculous what he was trying to do was, or how doomed to failure it may be, he always approached it with dead earnestness as if it was the the most important thing in the world. That's how the term "Gonzo" plays to me - yes, it's over the top and often bizarre, but no matter how far over the line it gets, no matter how weird the combination of elements involved, it's always played completely straight.
To me, that's the very definition of what Rifts does - you have these bizarre combinations of ideas that absolutely shouldn't work together - heck, a lot of them are completely antithetical to each other - but because of how "out there" the rest of the series is and how straight it plays everything, it just kinda works. As such, it is perhaps the definition of a "Gonzo" setting.
This is still my favorite TH-cam deep dive into the Rifts setting. Your love of the source material is palpable, and your advice related to the administration of the Rifts game is invaluable.
I hate to be "that guy" but I completely disagree about your breakdown of The Legion. It is possible that I am looking at a newer edition, just got the books a few weeks ago because of my love for the Rifts setting.
In my copy they talk about the Legion being formed from the refugees of the Tolkeen Wars that Lord Coake brought. How that Erin Tarn and Lord Coake felt that they needed to train people how to fight and defend themself because peace will have to be fought for on Rifts Earth.
At worst they are just a different take on Merctown with a leaning towards helping all people.
That aside, I agree. I love the Rifts setting and I am excited to get some games under my belt in the Savage Worlds system.
I 100% accept the accusation that I am judging the Legion too harshly. I still think they're a pretty thin character group, but they're definitely more interesting than I gave them credit for.
@@danwells9305 The Legion is great for newcomers to Rifts. They don’t need to know the thirty years of the Palladium Books story to understand this faction, since it’s less than a year old. From there, new players or new GMs can slowly explore the pieces of the long established factions and lore. But also you can ignore the Legion or modify it into whatever you want as GM.
Loved this review! I was sitting on the fence before but I’m getting this!
I love this video, thanks so much Dan! Not just a great writer, but a man after my own heart :D
Great rundown!
I find that Savage Rifts fills a void that needs to be talked about. How many game systems peter out or start to drag on after level 10 or so? If you want to play a game for characters that are similar to say DnD lvls 15-20, Savage Rifts is a better way to go. It doesn't have hit point bloat, the powers remain fairly constant throughout the game and other than the amount of abilities you have to remember it's fairly simple. If anyone played dnd 3.5 and was ok with it, then this'll be easier.
That's a funny take. The castle is a real castle in northern Arkansas near the Missouri border. A group of people were trying to recreate a real French castle with the tools that they used in medieval France until they ran out of money about a decade ago. The RIFTS story is that the dwarves found it partially built and finished it to use as a home and the do gooders came later after Lord coake got in his feels about the fall of tolkeen. So not exactly "no reason" but hey.
You beat me to it! There was logic behind the tomorrow legion. And just to add, Kevin Siembieda has stated he liked the Tomorrow Legion and was planning on incorporating them into the core Palladium Rifts. I am a huge fan of Rifts, have been since the first book was released in 1990. But it always lacked a good, well founded heroic starting point for those who want a high heroic type game. the TL adds that.
@@greenlawpatrick I disagree vociferously, but to each their own
Sometimes the best way to sell the ridiculous is to play it completely straight. It's why Airplane is comedy gold.
Also, related to the GB. In the first version, where the boom gun had a blast radius, they had to hit a demon lord... while the Cyberknight was grappled with it. So the CK chose Maxim 20, "If you're not willing to shell your own position, you're not willing to win."
I see you are a person of culture and refinement.
Agreed on the whole rifts obsession. At one point I loved the world so much that I ported all that I had to shadowrun 3rd edition rules. I love palladium, hate the system XD. That world is rich, and it is my absolute favorite.
Any chance you could make more specific playlists, like a Rifts playlist?
That's a good idea
"I own almost 70 of them..."
Nice.
Good review.
Saw the Bundle of Holding, searched for reviews, found yours. Excellent sales pitch!
Awesome! And I was just about to ask you about the bundle of holding, but then I remembered that I already bought the entire line :)
@@danwells9305 cool. Of course, now I need a group that's not stuck on d20 variants.
Since Rifts has everything, there must be Alchemists. And if there are alchemists...
Dragon Juicer!!!
I believe they added it in mysticism and arcana.
From an operational security viewpoint, the location of Castle Refuge, in relation to Coalition territory, bases, and staging points, makes absolutely no sense. If Loard Coake were a halfway decent strategist, he'd abandon that position asap.
I'm not sure calling Rifts gonzo is looking down on it. Its like saying water is wet. I'm an old school Rifts fan that was elated it was being ported to my favorite rules engine. My only issue is a Rifts character is more complicated than a straight Savage Worlds character. I had a Dragon, Cyberknight and a Crazy in my group and none of them could remember all their abilities without me reminding them. Still, a fun time was had by all!
Make, or have the players make a character overview describing what the character can do. Changing the rules to natural language makes it easier to recall.
@@ZaWyvern I wrote up their character sheets. Each player had 1.5-2 pages because i wrote out all the rules for every power so no one had to crack open a rule book. I think my players might have had choice paralysis but in the end we had some awesome gonzo adventures. My only advice to anyone wanting to play SW Rifts is to play regular SW for a bit. It will help lay the foundation for your Glitter Boy pilot and the rail gun that turns everything into a fine pink mist.
You might be reading too much into the use of the word "gonzo". Dungeon Crawl Classics wears the description like a badge of honor. Ted Nugent's first live album, Double Live Gonzo, did, too. Hunter S. Thompson was the first known to have used the term about a style of journalism that he himself became known for. They're not looking down on you.
I don't like the tomorrow legion either, lord coake didn't want to sully his hands with coalition blood because he thought tolkeen was wrong to fight for their home, but now he's more than willing to take responsibility for the refugees that may have still had a home had the full might of the cyber knights and their ally's been in the fight ( just my opinion, the rogue cyber knights that fought for tolkeen were the real heroes lol)
Having a touchstone group is a good focal point for groups who may not be sure how to get drastically disparate characters together. We recently started SWADE Deadlands and having the Twilight Legion be the “rug that ties the room together” has made putting a Harrowed gunslinger seeking revenge, a Chi Master seeking redemption, a Huckster seeking belonging and a Ranger seeming lawful justice much easier.
To add, it seems the lack of connection for the TL is that you can ignore them or...since they’re a new faction...have a fresh slate where the PCs are the major players for the faction. Having the TL be politically agnostic gives the table the choice of who to ally with or oppose.
You're absolutely correct, I just don't think the Tomorrow Legion is a good one.
So, since the Tomorrow Legion was too small, i made it use a gigantic Flying ship that travels the world as 2nd base
The Kaiju should have had the Hardy Ability, and been a Wild Card. Would have made him a better fight.
I think you are approaching the Tomorrow Legion from the wrong perspective. Are they fully fleshed out? No. But that means they are better able to be made into what you and your players need them to be. They gave you the bones and are allowing you to flesh them out to be what you want or need them to be. Far better for them not to fully develope them into something that clashes with your ideas.
Tomorrow Legion is Gonzo in all the negative ways in my mind. I play Savage Ruleset but Palladium story. I leave Tomorrow Legion as a myth that people want to believe in but likely is just a myth. They are in likely the most hostile zone a group could pick and they are suppose to have a force to be reckon with, if the CS would not challenge them the Federation would. They seem both tacked on to me and just not Rifts it does not mesh with the rest. Feels like something to appease parents who might be buying books for their children to me. I would not tell anyone how to play the game, but to me the Tomorrow Legion is somewhat insulting to me as a fan. Feels so Savage Worlds.
Savage didn't do Rifts any favors with this conversion. The Glitterboy, one of the toughest power armors in the game gets routinely one-shotted by other robot vehicles. Just garbage on the translation. Also, you can't mix non power armor or robot vehicle with anything heavy on any level because the regular characters can't hurt the vehicles and power armor and then it's just a matter of time before the dice catch up to your character and paste them. The way it shakes out is that you either have to play all heavy or all light and can't mix them but what the gameplay suggests is that you'd be stupid to play anything but robot vehicle based characters, especially after that re-polish Savage did where at first I thought they made a decent fix on the Glitterboy but then found that they upgraded all the power armor and robot vehicles to the point that that scene on the cover of the Savage Rifts Player's book where the Juicer has killed an Enforcer robot vehicle is a joke that is so unlikely to happen that the only bigger joke is that I paid money for this half assed product. If you're reading this and like Rifts, just stick with the Palladium version.