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I'm interested in how this works out. I emailed them and they told me it should be around xmas. Also they normaly give pdfs to people that but their books.

I know the author (Sean) and the lead designer (Ross). There both big Rifts fans and I am sure there going to give it the love and respect it deserves. On top of that all us old players from the 1990s have a reason to come back and enjoy a world we have been too long away from. Everybody wins this way.

This is really interesting to me, I wonder how they'll handle SDC vs MDC, the 4 or so different levels of physical strength, different power pools for different power types and all that...

or if they'll just discard all of those ideas and go with "Here's the savage worlds system, and here's some information on Rifts Earth. Have fun fighting the CS."

Alrik Vas wrote:This is really interesting to me, I wonder how they'll handle SDC vs MDC, the 4 or so different levels of physical strength, different power pools for different power types and all that...

or if they'll just discard all of those ideas and go with "Here's the savage worlds system, and here's some information on Rifts Earth. Have fun fighting the CS."

prolly SDC and MDC will be in terms of penetration rather than damage. SD can hurt SDC. MD can hurt SDC and MDC.

Strength is easy. Strength is strength. One chart. SN and Robots simply have higher values.

But I speculate. My rulebook still hasnt come in so I have no idea.

Kagashi wrote:prolly SDC and MDC will be in terms of penetration rather than damage. SD can hurt SDC. MD can hurt SDC and MDC.

Yep. Savage Worlds already has the concept of "Heavy Armor" and "Heavy Weapons" in the main rule book. Standard weapons can't touch heavy armor (ever), but heavy weapons can hit both but don't have any extra benefits against non-heavy armor.

Kagashi wrote:Strength is easy. Strength is strength. One chart. SN and Robots simply have higher values.

Yep Savage Worlds Main Rule Book handles Strength to semi-truck pulling power. The Super Powers Companion has a much more epic scale of strength (which makes sense)

Kagashi wrote:But I speculate. My rulebook still hasnt come in so I have no idea.

It's not the best read from cover to cover. The best thing to do is jump right in and 'figuring it out.'
My best suggestion is: Don't houserule ANYTHING until you've got a solid feel for the game.

at higher levels (say, around 20+) the main difference between strength categories is damage and what they can hurt.

neither of those inherently need to be represented with different types of strength. you just give things higher damage, and let them hurt things that are vulnerable to damage as appropriate.

I saw some suggestions on using the extant idea of "Heavy Weapons" in SW to represent MD/SD, but I tend to agree... it isn't really needed to convey a lot of Rifts.

I've had some xp with Savage Worlds and IMO, it is an OK system. I initially bought it because I really enjoyed the Rippers miniature game and wanted to roleplay in that setting.

It is my go to generic system but in my own personal attempt at a RIFTS conversion, I gave up trying for a straight conversion. I did not think I could do it justice with trying to convert the feel of it also. Just so you know where I'm coming from, I am a huge classic Deadlands fan and the conversion to its new home felt pretty bland to me. Savage World's reliance on effect based mechanic and the oversimplification were a major cause of it.

Going back to RIFTS, I see a couple of hurdles. One is that Savage Worlds is a passive defense system whereas RIFTS is active. I suspect the HtH combat will be a casualty. The other is that IMHO, it is weak in the martial arts genre. I'm afraid, the conversion will give me flashbacks of what I felt with Deadlands.

Having said all that, Savage Worlds has surprised me. I thought it could not due Supers genre well but Necessary Evil proved that it could be done. Now there are genre workbook supplements to assist GMs to do better conversions.

I wish PEG luck! Despite my trepidation, I'll probably pick this up when it becomes available.