YMMV / Rifts

• Awesome Art: While most aspects of the game, from the mechanics to character creation, have received moderate levels of criticism over the years most folks agree that the art is generally fantastic, especially the cover illustrations. One of the main reasons to pick up the original Rifts game book is a series of full color art pages depicting the Coalition States, ley lines, D-Bees and much more in exquisite detail.
• Balance Buff: The Savage Worlds port put serious effort into rebalancing the classes, particularly rescuing from the scrappy heap all the Low-Tier Letdown "mere human" classes that players of the original game invariably shunned. These are grouped into MARS (Mercenary, Adventurer, Rogue, and Scholar) packages, and each offers a special perk that makes them worth considering, on top of getting to start at Seasoned Rank and receive more stats and skills — in a system where skills are all broad and (almost all) useful. No, your Rogue Scholar or your Vagabond still isn't going to beat a Juicer or a Dragon Hatchling in a straight fight, but now they're going to be a hell of a lot more useful outside of a fight, and creative players in Savage Worlds combat can perform all kinds of tests or stunts to influence a battle even when they're not the strongest fighter.
• Broken Base: Between the Fandom, the constant calls it was ruined following any new Sourcebook, rules change, the rules not changing for decades, or Canon Defilement (perceived or real)... and the occasional (rare) rational disagreement over an issue related to the game or setting... the Rifts fanbase has split more times than a sequoia's root system.
• Complacent Gaming Syndrome: Pretty much inevitable due to the fact that there are so many classes and no effort is made to balance them out against each other. Sure, you could play as a Techno-Wizard, a Rouge Scientist, Psy-Stalker Mystic or one of literally dozens of other cool and diverse classes... or you could just roll up a Glitter Boy, Juicer or some other similarly OP class and actually stand a chance when the MEGADAMAGE starts rolling in.
  • The Glitter Boys get most of the heat for this trope for being a clear author favorite. Palladium tries to make out that they're just Mighty Glaciers, but seem to forget that the Glitter Boy can still travel 60 MPH and has a gun with a range of 2 miles which is only slow by mech standards. Moreover, Rifts combat is far too abstract for anyone to take advantage of flanking or the Glitter Boy needing to stand and plant before firing.
• Contested Sequel: Though pretty much every new sourcebook released for this game is hit with some degree of disagreement among the fanbase few examples can compare to the release of South America and South America 2 (World Books 6 & 9 respectively) by C.J. Carella. Proponents of these books will often point to the powerful new character classes, equipment and lore as being superior to most of what came before it while detractors will counter that much of the content added is ''too'' powerful, even by Rifts Standards and that many of the actual designs and artwork are too silly to be taken seriously. Even fans that have no trouble discussing their favorite books in the series are often wary about bringing both of these titles up on either end of the spectrum for fear of the potential backlash.
• Creator's Pet: The designers love the Glitter Boys — the initial name for the game was going to be their original name (“Boomers”, after their guns). Numerous books will have references to them, and countries from all over have access to Glitter Boy technology (said to be very rare) — Japan, the NGR, and more all have their own variations.
  • True Atlanteans were a big part of Rifts Atlantis, and mentions of them are everywhere in later books. Most things mentioning human modification make note of them.
  • Insanity and Insanity Tables. KS is definitely a huge fan of the idea of a crazy hero, as every Palladium game includes random tables for specific insanities. Many classes are expected to have some insanity to them. Many players are expected to be cackling madmen or have crippling phobias. How annoying this might be to play across from at the table is never brought up.
  • Towards the end of the original game, the Coalition went from Villain Has a Point to this, being portrayed as objectively in the right for their utter hate of all magic. The Savage Worlds edition quickly changed that, with it being assumed the Coalition is about as friendly to the Tomorrow Legion as the Federation of Magic (ie, not very).
• Draco in Leather Pants:
  • For all the atrocities they commit, the Coalition can be surprisingly easy to sympathize with. After all, the vast majority of the world's problems actually are caused by magic and/or creatures from other dimensions. If it weren't for their zero tolerance policies and ceaseless propaganda, they would easily come off as The Federation. Specific examples include:
  • The introduction to the second book in the Siege on Tolkeen series. Siembieda states flat out that "die-hard fans of the Coalition" will probably be displeased with the way the CS is portrayed in this book. But nothing in the book is coming out of nowhere, it all fits previously-established techniques and doctrines used by the CS for decades now.
  • On at least two occasions CS troopers have saved the life of Erin Tarn (admittedly not knowing who she was other than an old human lady) from monstrous threats. It is actually possible for CS characters to be good, because so much of the world around them is filled with evil monsters, while they themselves are deliberately undereducated and ignorant of politics. Thus they do not know enough to realize their government is evil until it really gets rubbed in their faces.
• Enjoy the Story, Skip the Game: Probably one of the most famous examples in tabletop gaming history if not gaming history in general. While the game has plenty of dedicated fans most people seem to buy the books more for their impressive artwork, deep lore and cool gear rather than the actual gameplay mechanics. This has earned Rifts the title of "Most Popular Game That Nobody Plays" in some RPG fandoms.
• Fan Nickname: Illinois Nazis for the Coalition States, due to their capital being just outside of Chicago(and controlling pretty much the entire state).
• Funny Moment: Has its own page.
• Game-Breaker: Has its own page.
• Harsher in Hindsight: World Book 9 (South America 2) has an American armored calvary unit at war in the Iraqi desert in the then-future year of 2004 when they get kidnapped by aliens. Yeah, they weren't that far off the mark, were they?
• High-Tier Scrappy:
  • Glitter Boys are pretty much the face of the game and have tons of importance in the lore, story and general gameplay. In addition to hitting like a tank they can soak up Mega-Damage like its confetti and have both a cool and intimidating design. Unfortunately, this means players are more likely to gravitate towards them than the other classes and they regularly steal the spotlight from everyone else.
  • Dragons, unlike most human or even D-Bee classes, start off with several extremely OP powers and abilities including access to both psionics and magic from the moment of birth. They are also a base game R.C.C. that quite frankly outclass many of the newer R.C.C. added in later supplemental material and give even Glitter Boys a run for their money in the sheer brokenness department. One of their only real drawbacks is that they tend to dislike others of their kind, which greatly limits the number of dragons that can be in an adventuring party without them literally being at each others throats the whole time. This can easily lead to arguments if more than one player wants to play as one... and as mentioned above this is pretty likely given that they're an available starting class in the base game.
  • Mind Melters are some of the most powerful psychics in the entire series and are first introduced in the core rulebook alongside a small handful of others. They get over a dozen useful Psychic Powers at level one and only grow stronger from there, quickly outclassing and eclipsing the other psionic characters rather quickly. Even the unique special abilities of the other psychic R.C.C. like the Burster's immunity and mastery over fire do little to dissuade players from just rolling up a Mind Melter and having an answer to 90% of the problems the game can throw at them. After all, why bother to specialize when you can have quality and quantity in the form of over thirty psychic abilities at higher levels, including super class ones like Hypnotic Suggestion or Electrokinesis?
  • Juicers haven't quite reached the same level of infamy as Glitter Boys but are often brought up in discussions of the more completely unbalanced character classes in the game. Juicers are super soldiers that use chemical enhancements to boost their natural abilities to superhero levels. In addition to massive bonuses to strength and endurance they get a ton of useful powers such as heightened reflexes that give them a deadly edge in combat. The price for all this OP power? An unavoidable expiration date in... just over five years. Plenty of time for them to completely curbstomp a campaign or two and still have plenty of mileage to spare. In oneshots or shorter play sessions their one major disadvantage becomes a complete moot point, making them warriors with near godlike power at no real cost.
  • Ever since True Atlanteans first showed up all the way back in World Book 2: Atlantis they've overshadowed the rest of humanity more and more as the years rolled on. Not only are they a creator favorite but they are, for the most part, an all around upgrade and improvement over normal human beings. They are Long-Lived, have access to tattoo powers and various magical abilities that other humans do not and can also take on many of the same O.C.C. available to regular humans while also improving them with their own natural abilities. Honestly, once a player picks up the Atlantis world book and any of their additional sourcebooks there really isn't any reason to ever go back to wimpy standard humans ever again.
  • Gizmoteers are basically what happens when you put a Techno-Wizard on steroids and turn them into a One-Man Army. Gizmoteers are one of, if not the, most broken classes in the entire game and are often held up as an example of how World Book 9: South America 2 was way too overpowered compared to previous world books. In addition to having a slew of useful psychic abilities the Gizmoteer can modify and improve weapons, including the already OP ones introduced in that same book. As one can imagine, all but the most diehard munchkins felt the class was simply too broken to be fair... even by Rifts standards.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The Chinese military claims to have invented anti-laser coatings made of "rare earths, carbon fiber, silver, and diamonds that have been processed to fine sheens and tailored against specific laser weapon systems". Yes, they claim to have made Glitter Boy armor (mostly for ships but the principle is the same). Link here.
• Low-Tier Letdown:
  • Vegabonds are basically apocalyptic hobos that start out with a pathetically low amount of skills and no special powers or abilities. Their only saving grace is that they earn XP at roughly twice the rate of the higher tier O.C.C. available... but that does little to help when their power level is so abysmally low to begin with. What really sealed their fate however, is that they are a base game class available without the need of any additional sourcebooks to play. Yes, the RPG book that just waved power armored juggernauts, godlike psychics and literal dragons in front of the players fully expects them to consider playing a basic unskilled human being. No points for guessing which O.C.C. keeps getting passed up time and time again with each new campaign.
  • Saloon Bums & Saloon Girls, first introduced in World book 14: New West, are often held up as an example of Rifts often lopsided character class power levels. In a sourcebook filled with all manner of cool gunslingers and cowboys these O.C.C. stick out like a sore thumb and feel like they were only added in at the last minute to provide some additional flavor for the book's western setting. Both are basically normal human rouges who get boosted alcohol tolerance and a few minor stats buffs as their only bonuses... and that's it. No fancy gun tricks or special skills beyond what was already stated. Saloon Girl's even have an additional, completely unneeded weakness that restricts them even further as if they were some sort of OP class that needed balancing... that is, their aversion to cybernetics. Because they need to look "harmless and pretty" to properly do their job they tend to avoid any external cybernetic implants... something that even the other basic human classes have access to.
  • Russian Villagers debuted in World Book 17: Warlords of Russia and were designed to represent the common Russian citizen. The main problem with this? Warlords of Russia, as its name would imply, is a sourcebook built around a group of powerful cyborg warlords and their ongoing conflicts with each other. There are soldier classes, adventurer classes and even a few classes that deal with the supernatural. Now, after having read all that... who in their right mind would ever want to play as a basic farm peasant when they could be a cool and badass Russian cyborg or soldier?!
• Mainstream Obscurity: Within the RPG community, Rifts has a reputation of "the most popular game that no one plays." It's Palladium's most popular game, and people are very fond of its artwork and setting, but there are very few gaming groups out there regularly playing it.
• Memetic Mutation: MOAR MEGADAMAGE!
• Misaimed Fandom: The Coalition States provokes arguments about this: some hold they cannot possibly be good, others note that integration is effectively impossible so they just might be what they claim.
• Narm Charm: Honestly, the game runs on this. It's a mix of absolutely every single thing that, say, a twelve-year-old boy would think was cool, all crammed together, turned up to eleven and treated as absolute Serious Business. It's impossible to look at it without laughing, but very hard to not simultaneously be charmed by how sincere (and confident) it is in its gonzo inanity.
• Nightmare Fuel: Has its own page.
• Popular Game Variant: The game is often modified. It's intentionally created with no balance to speak of, and each power, spell, and piece of technology is written without considering how it interacts with the rest of the system. Most of the rules were initially created for other Palladium games that focused on human (or human-ish) characters: Ninjas & Superspies, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Robotech, etc. Since Rifts has everything from super-powered humans to giant mecha to demons to gods in it, there aren't any guidelines for, say, when your martial arts stop being effective. (6-foot human throwing a 7-foot insect with Judo? Not mentioned, but probably okay. 6-foot human throwing a 25-foot demon? Still not mentioned.) For bonus points, the rules are (intentionally?) just slightly vague. For extra special bonus points, the entire Palladium game system (of which Rifts is a member) is supposedly cross-compatible, but each particular game uses slightly different rules. House Rules to the rescue! Even the creator of Rifts uses house rules in his own campaign, though he refuses to put them in an update supplement, even as optional rules.
• Protection from Editors: More like "Kevin Siembieda doesn't hire any editors," leading to occasional Rouge Angles of Satin, Author Filibusters and playtest anecdotes filling up space in the books. If you come upon something that doesn't quite meet that standard, chances are it was drawn by Siembieda himself. Before their divorce, Kevin's wife Maryanne was usually listed as the editor. One wonders if she did anything beyond typesetting and posing for various pictures.
  • Of note, Rifts Atlantis says that High Lords can be Bio-Wizards, with a note to "see new O.C.C." Apparently there was supposed to be one, but there is not.
  • A few books contain some very odd type-setting, including tiny slivers of text at the top corner and a huge picture taking up the rest of the page, or a small paragraph and a small picture being the only things visible on another.
• Strawman Has a Point: The Coalition States is portrayed as a Nazi-esque pro-tech anti-magic big bad who are racist against aliens/psychics/mages. Their views are promoted as being irrationally paranoid and intolerant. Actually examining the powers and abilities of something like a dragon or a high-powered psychic makes them sound a lot more sane.
• What Do You Mean, It's Not for Kids?: Every book in the series has a stern warning at the very beginning the game is not for children and contains graphic violence and sexual references. Even so the publishers still get complaints from parents who think it's family friendly like Dungeons & Dragons.