Just ranting here.

[GenThunderfist]

Well, Rifts Earth is in fact teeming with MD creatures to kill people, however - most don't really care to. Some are animals, others are preoccupied. Like Earth today, is literally teeming with animals and things that can kill and / or maim us, however they don't. Rifts is, honestly, first and foremost a post-apocalyptic wasteland filled with supernatural and magically dangers and enemies. Some people are in more danger than others, anyone of the NGR can tell you that, while Japan has it's **** together, seeing as they *technically* were "lucky" enough to be rifted through time and not have to endure the dark age. It's honestly very closely realted to today's world, not everyone owns or habitually uses firearms, even though they are available. MD is more rare than that, obviously due to price, but it's the same general principal.

[Nekira Sudacne]

Well, Rifts Earth is in fact teeming with MD creatures to kill people, however - most don't really care to. Some are animals, others are preoccupied. Like Earth today, is literally teeming with animals and things that can kill and / or maim us, however they don't. Rifts is, honestly, first and foremost a post-apocalyptic wasteland filled with supernatural and magically dangers and enemies. Some people are in more danger than others, anyone of the NGR can tell you that, while Japan has it's **** together, seeing as they *technically* were "lucky" enough to be rifted through time and not have to endure the dark age. It's honestly very closely realted to today's world, not everyone owns or habitually uses firearms, even though they are available. MD is more rare than that, obviously due to price, but it's the same general principal.

Ironically, in my opinion, it's because the New Republic in japan got rifted through time that the people there are usually in far more danger from their fellow man than monsters.

They have all the infastructure intact, two mega weapons manufacturers competing to sell gear, and then H-brand who will sell MDC gear to anyone at all.

Suddenly, there's a real chance you can walk down the street and run into someone who has a laser pistol hidden in their jacket. Maybe some punk who got a laser finger installed. either way, you have no way to know who in the room can turn your torso into red paste with one shot.

[Killer Cyborg]

One of the things that always bugs me is the constant argument that everyone in the Rifts setting is in immediate danger of dying. They seem to think the Rifts Earth is TEEMING with Mega Damage monsters ready to kill anyone who steps outside of the mega damage walls of their city. My games are not like that. The average person doesn't own MD weapons or armor. But that's because they aren't really in any more danger than they would be in our time if they were stranded in the wilderness. If you were alone and unarmed in the wilderness, you'd be in just as much danger of dying being confronted by a hungry grizzly bear as you would being confronted by a angry Rhino-Buffalo.

Yup.

[Mech-Viper Prime]

One of the things that always bugs me is the constant argument that everyone in the Rifts setting is in immediate danger of dying. They seem to think the Rifts Earth is TEEMING with Mega Damage monsters ready to kill anyone who steps outside of the mega damage walls of their city. My games are not like that. The average person doesn't own MD weapons or armor. But that's because they aren't really in any more danger than they would be in our time if they were stranded in the wilderness. If you were alone and unarmed in the wilderness, you'd be in just as much danger of dying being confronted by a hungry grizzly bear as you would being confronted by a angry Rhino-Buffalo.

I think it more of GMs going overboard on how dangerous the world is.

[Jake Postlewaite]

Power exists where it is. I do agree that it should not always be ever present in the universe, but realizing that it exists and can come out of the woodwork. Think of your daily life knowing that there exists nuclear weapons and all sorts of very heavy things that exist in our world. People may not encounter it everyday, but it is out there and there are those that do see and interact with it. The monsters roam and exist in their own groups. This is where the games comes into play in that the players have to explore all of this and see where the connections are.

[nilgravity]

I would say that it has to be at least as dangerous as Mogadishu is now or even Afghanistan. Sure lots of people live some sembilence of a normal life but it never leaves your thoughts that it can all be gone in a heartbeat.

[Pepsi Jedi]

I think that we're around to play role playing games and weeks of travel through unclaimed wildnerness where animals smell and avoid you and the monsters avoid you because it's just easier to eat md prey animals than mess with humans would make for a very boring game.

So while the 'percentage' may be low the incidents are high, so that... you don't go weeks with out seeing monsters or criminals or stuff to do.

[Killer Cyborg]

I think that we're around to play role playing games and weeks of travel through unclaimed wildnerness where animals smell and avoid you and the monsters avoid you because it's just easier to eat md prey animals than mess with humans would make for a very boring game.

So while the 'percentage' may be low the incidents are high, so that... you don't go weeks with out seeing monsters or criminals or stuff to do.

I agree with this as well.

The thing is, in my games, those weeks are generally there, we just skim through them instead of focusing on them heavily.
In other games, from the way people talk in the forums, those weeks aren't there. MDC monsters are a daily or hourly occurrence, and not just for the PCs.

[everloss]

I think it more of GMs going overboard on how dangerous the world is.

This.

The books are tools to help the GM describe the world he/she wants.

My rifts campaigns are generally either very low-powered (original Main Book) or gonzo crazy (all the players are MDC beings from South America, Russia, or Phase World). I've had mixed groups of vagabonds and dragons that worked pretty well, but that's because I'm confident in my abilities as a GM; I've been doing it forever, and constantly try to improve how I run games. Consistency in GM rulings is vitally important in any game, as is being able to not let players walk all over you.

[Pepsi Jedi]

I think that we're around to play role playing games and weeks of travel through unclaimed wildnerness where animals smell and avoid you and the monsters avoid you because it's just easier to eat md prey animals than mess with humans would make for a very boring game.

So while the 'percentage' may be low the incidents are high, so that... you don't go weeks with out seeing monsters or criminals or stuff to do.

I agree with this as well.

The thing is, in my games, those weeks are generally there, we just skim through them instead of focusing on them heavily.
In other games, from the way people talk in the forums, those weeks aren't there. MDC monsters are a daily or hourly occurrence, and not just for the PCs.

Yeah. I misread that last line in Pepsi Jedi's post. In my games, if the PC's are traveling somewhere, I may toss in a random (actually planned, because I don't do random that often) encounter or two if it serves the plot or just seems cool. I don't do the whole "an hour has passed, better roll to see what baddie you're going to bump into next" thing. That level of minutia can get really taxing, really fast, for both the players AND the GM.

For the record I don't do random roll things either. I was just pointing out, that player characters run into baddies or critters more often, because we're all there to sit and play a role playing game. lol

You don't play the weeks between missions or adventures. You play the mission or adventure! What's important to the game.

[Pepsi Jedi]

One of the things that always bugs me is the constant argument that everyone in the Rifts setting is in immediate danger of dying. They seem to think the Rifts Earth is TEEMING with Mega Damage monsters ready to kill anyone who steps outside of the mega damage walls of their city. My games are not like that. The average person doesn't own MD weapons or armor. But that's because they aren't really in any more danger than they would be in our time if they were stranded in the wilderness. If you were alone and unarmed in the wilderness, you'd be in just as much danger of dying being confronted by a hungry grizzly bear as you would being confronted by a angry Rhino-Buffalo.

Yes and no.

Yes, I agree that the Rifts setting isn't full of any more threats than modern earth is full of. The average joe is much more likely to die in a car accident than to die of a mega damage attack.

No, I disagree in the context of the player party. The player party is very likely to encounter MD weapons and armors because they seem to attract it, or, perhaps, it is attracted to them.
-Pax

Well.. there IS more threats than modern earth has. I mean we don't have a dozen kinda dragons or 100s of kinds of hostile DBees, or 100s of kinds of MD monsters, or entire nations of vampires, and thousands of miles filled with bipedal mdc bugs with guns, or roving bands of monster riding cannibals, or an entire contenent of Alien slavers or or or or or...

It IS more dangerous than our earth, with many times more threats.

Those threats just have alot of room to move around in and there's alot fewer people to see them. Your average person probably doesn't die from an attack of MDC monsters. But they'll know someone that has. They'll have known a family that was eaten or taken or something. Even people in the Mega cities will have this, as the CS is hugely hugely built around war footing and supplying the military. They'll know that the Tully family down the street had a son in the Military. His head was ripped off by a dragon in the war. and their neighbors? Lost their mother, daughter and two sons in battle against the Fed! Oh the poor people! And oh. three doors down, the Gomers? They used to live in the burbs and their aunt was sucked dry by a vampire.... and one street over. The Hernandez? That entire FAMILY caught some sort of techno orgainic virus that turned them into freaky cyborg like things before the Dog boys came and took them away!.

That sort of thing. The danger isn't "EVERY SECOND OF EVERY DAY". It's more omnipresent background danger, of very real threats, very real "Monsters" and such.

[Snow Hawk]

I agree with Palladin RIFTS is a dangerous place

[Snow Hawk]

Amen! I've been running Rifts on and off since 92, and I think I'm pretty good at it. My players always have fun. I did get to play in a game once, but the GM was terrible. We we're level one characters and this guys sent over 100 CS Grunts at us. First session and two of the PCs died. When we complained about it his argument was that Rifts was "Lethal" by design. I went into a lecture about being a fair GM, and needless to say, they guy never ran for us again. Which is sad. He was just unwilling to learn or adjust his game to the desires of the players.[/quote

You should have run it is just like Tolkeen.

[Lenwen]

My rifts earth ..

Is obviously more dangerous then most people's on the boards ..

I can and do utilize insta death kills .. in my game .

I also allow the PC's to utilize such things as well.

I do not hold magic back, as tech grow's so does the magic in my world, things that would canonly not effect people in Power Armor's , robots and or vehicles .. does in fact effect even them ..

Enviormental seals is not a just reason as to why magic won't effect them in my world.

EDIT:
Also the range's of my magic are far superior to those offered by the book and are in fact effected by ley lines (double range) and nexus points (doubled again)..

[Mech-Viper Prime]

Rifts Earth is a Dangerous place, and it too can be a deadly place, all GM should realize that. I have tons of ways to kill a character without opening a book and looking for some munchkin creature to did it, but i choose to run adventures for my players, so they can have fun and it doesnt including killing them because they got out of their armor to wash, go tinkle(yes i use that word, BECAUSE ITS FUNNY TO USE) or whatever reason they feel the need to get out they of their armor for or some lame tactic like teleporting rocks into their head.

[Nether]

One of the things that always bugs me is the constant argument that everyone in the Rifts setting is in immediate danger of dying. They seem to think the Rifts Earth is TEEMING with Mega Damage monsters ready to kill anyone who steps outside of the mega damage walls of their city. My games are not like that. The average person doesn't own MD weapons or armor. But that's because they aren't really in any more danger than they would be in our time if they were stranded in the wilderness. If you were alone and unarmed in the wilderness, you'd be in just as much danger of dying being confronted by a hungry grizzly bear as you would being confronted by a angry Rhino-Buffalo.

Yes and no.

Yes, I agree that the Rifts setting isn't full of any more threats than modern earth is full of. The average joe is much more likely to die in a car accident than to die of a mega damage attack.

No, I disagree in the context of the player party. The player party is very likely to encounter MD weapons and armors because they seem to attract it, or, perhaps, it is attracted to them.
-Pax

Well.. there IS more threats than modern earth has. I mean we don't have a dozen kinda dragons or 100s of kinds of hostile DBees, or 100s of kinds of MD monsters, or entire nations of vampires, and thousands of miles filled with bipedal mdc bugs with guns, or roving bands of monster riding cannibals, or an entire contenent of Alien slavers or or or or or...

It IS more dangerous than our earth, with many times more threats.

Those threats just have alot of room to move around in and there's alot fewer people to see them. Your average person probably doesn't die from an attack of MDC monsters. But they'll know someone that has. They'll have known a family that was eaten or taken or something. Even people in the Mega cities will have this, as the CS is hugely hugely built around war footing and supplying the military. They'll know that the Tully family down the street had a son in the Military. His head was ripped off by a dragon in the war. and their neighbors? Lost their mother, daughter and two sons in battle against the Fed! Oh the poor people! And oh. three doors down, the Gomers? They used to live in the burbs and their aunt was sucked dry by a vampire.... and one street over. The Hernandez? That entire FAMILY caught some sort of techno orgainic virus that turned them into freaky cyborg like things before the Dog boys came and took them away!.

That sort of thing. The danger isn't "EVERY SECOND OF EVERY DAY". It's more omnipresent background danger, of very real threats, very real "Monsters" and such.

+1

I completely agree with Pepsi here. I think if you run your Rifts world where weeks go by with no incidents then you have chosen to tone it down from what the books suggest.

We are talking about a world that WAS high tech societies that prolly worked with each other alot in cooperation that still could NOT prevent an apocalypse.
You have Rifts that commonly open at random all over the world to various places.
To add to Pepsi, you have large areas of monster like gargs, vamps, xititic, china, africa horsemen ext ext.

To ignore all of that roaming around is to ignore why Earth is now in a apocalypse, because there IS a lot of bad ju ju out there. Doesnt mean it is a hourly occurence, but the populace should be galvanized and ready for threats on a daily basis. If a farmer hears noise in his barn at night, I would think he would be very cautious to how he handles going to check vs grabbing his shotty and lantern and go take a gander to who trespassing in his barn.

And lastly as mentioned by Amanda, out of all the Rifts books, there is sooo little content on sdc that it reiterates to you that this is a mdc world and dangers are common. Every monster ext in the books is mdc, there is tons of different types of mdc weapons everywhere, and damn rights i expect joe npc that lives in the village and his gf susy to both own at least one md weapon.

[Nether]

One of the things that always bugs me is the constant argument that everyone in the Rifts setting is in immediate danger of dying. They seem to think the Rifts Earth is TEEMING with Mega Damage monsters ready to kill anyone who steps outside of the mega damage walls of their city. My games are not like that. The average person doesn't own MD weapons or armor. But that's because they aren't really in any more danger than they would be in our time if they were stranded in the wilderness. If you were alone and unarmed in the wilderness, you'd be in just as much danger of dying being confronted by a hungry grizzly bear as you would being confronted by a angry Rhino-Buffalo.

I would say your game world is very toned down from the game world presented. I can see your gameworld having more of a Postman movie survival. I think incorporating sdc gear into game and making it meaningful only works on low powered games, and the safety you have in your world that would work.