Are you familiar with Alan Moore? From what I understand it, he has resented every attempt to make a movie out of anything he ever created; do you think he has a point?
Is there a musician that you wanted to see live and regretted missing the chance because he/she died?
Who would you say is the most truly evil character you've ever encountered in..well ANY work of fiction, someone that you thought "Wow, this is the very epitome of evil" about?
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No way dude! That's unpossible! Pirates and Ninjas are age old adversaries. Their interbreeding is against the laws of the universe and would cause all reality to imploSpeaking of which, the famous (and originally Japanese) Pirates called Wako (or in Chinese, Wokou) might have been both (or at least it's possible...).James,
When are we going to see a "pirates versus ninjas" adventure? Who do you think would win?
Pirates vs. Ninjas? The Gunslinger is already basically a pirate, and the Ninja is a, well, a ninja. Ultimate Combat is the harbinger of the Apocalypse, I tells ya!
What about KQ/OD's clockwork folk? (Can't remember the exact name.)
Creative Director
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I haven't had the chance to read through all of the posts on this thread so I'm not sure if you've answered this already or not...
Of all of the adventure paths that Paizo has created over the years, WotC days included, which is your favorite and why?
I'm asked this several times. I like when the person asking me this is a parent, because my answer is in the form of a question: "Which of your children do you like the best?"
I've been a significant part of the adventure paths since Shackled City as author, editor, and developer. I can give you a list of my ten favorite things that AP did better than the other dozen or so we've got to pick from, and a list of the ten largest regrets for the same. But I can't really pick one that I would say is my favorite.
That's not quite true. The one that's my favorite tends to be the one we're about to start next, because I'm so excited to see a new idea take shape. Which, right this instant, would be the Jade Regent AP.
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Creative Director
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Are you familiar with Alan Moore? From what I understand it, he has resented every attempt to make a movie out of anything he ever created; do you think he has a point?
I think "From Hell" was a really good adaptation of a brilliant graphic novel. I think Alan Moore is a bit too precious and egotistic as well. That's part of what makes him brilliant, I suppose, but it also makes him annoying.
Is there a musician that you wanted to see live and regretted missing the chance because he/she died?
Not really. Not yet. Mostly because I don't really feel the need to SEE a musician to appreciate what they do.
Who would you say is the most truly evil character you've ever encountered in..well ANY work of fiction, someone that you thought "Wow, this is the very epitome of evil" about?
Hmmm... Some of the characters in George R. R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire books would qualify, but then he goes and makes them likable characters at some point, which really points to his strengths as a writer.
The villainess from "Audition" and the mad scientist from "Human Centipede" are recent examples of incredibly evil characters that pop into mind from movies I've seen in the last decade or so. I'd add some of the antagonists from "Agora" to the list as well. (Trying to be a little vague here to avoid spoilers...)
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Creative Director
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Will there be a pirate class to combat the ninja?Nope. Not until we do a robust set of rules for naval combat, at least.
Will there be a robust set of rules for naval combat?
Please?
Yarrr.
* thrusts flintlock into breeches and stumps away on peg-leg *
I hope so, some day. Until then, hopefully the simple naval combat rules I designed for the GameMastery Guide will suffice.
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Creative Director
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One part of my own home brewed world is very much like Iron Kingdoms. Do you have any intention of doing a set of rules for fantasy "robots", like Iron Kingdom's Steamjacks or Eberron Warforged?
Someday, yes. We've actually already done some fantasy "robots" (aka clockworks, or steampowerd gizmos) in some adventures; Pathfinder #4 comes to mind.
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Creative Director
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One part of my own home brewed world is very much like Iron Kingdoms. Do you have any intention of doing a set of rules for fantasy "robots", like Iron Kingdom's Steamjacks or Eberron Warforged?Or historical/mythological Brass-men??
Pathfinder #23 has brass men in it. Picked up from Tome of Horrors II.
I'd be curious to see how you did your list of skills w/o it being bloated in the same fashion the conversion was done from 3.5 to Pathfinder.What do you mean by "bloated"?
I just re-read what I wrote and I may have miscommunicated.
For instance, I thought that wrapping Listen & Spot from 3.5 into Perception for Pathfinder was brilliant. The same thing where a number of skills were rolled into Acrobatics. So, in a sense, 3.5 had the skills bloat and Pathfinder reduced the number of them ... as well as getting rid of redundant ones (Use Rope, anyone?).
So, I had wondered if there were skills that were unique to Modern D20 that you thought you could omit or group them into a single skill group. Maybe Pilot would be Fly?
A lot of the Knowledge skills come to mind as well. Other skills such as Computer Use, Demolitions ... etc. Do you bring them straight over Modern D20 to Pathfinder as-is or did you manage to find a more streamlined skill set?
Hope that makes a bit more sense.
James,
When are we going to see a "pirates versus ninjas" adventure? Who do you think would win?
Well... we'll do the next best thing and give you "vikings versus ninjas" in Pathfinder #50. That count?
As for who wins? Depends on who wins initiative.
Oh come one. Everyone knows the vikings will walk all over those poor ninjas. Especially when the adventure is published by a company with people from Minnesota high up in the food chain.
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Creative Director
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So, I had wondered if there were skills that were unique to Modern D20 that you thought you could omit or group them into a single skill group. Maybe Pilot would be Fly?
A lot of the Knowledge skills come to mind as well. Other skills such as Computer Use, Demolitions ... etc. Do you bring them straight over Modern D20 to Pathfinder as-is or did you manage to find a more streamlined skill set?
Hope that makes a bit more sense.
OH! Yeah; makes more sense now.
"Unspeakable Futures" has actually gone through several reincarnations. Its first one was created using 3.0 rules and built off the additional rules from the d20 Call of Cthulhu rules. When d20 Modern came along, I rebuilt the rules into "2nd edition," using the d20 Modern stuff as the baseline. It didn't take me long to realize I didn't like the d20 Modern rules at all, and so along came 3rd Edition, which used the 3.5 rules as the baseline again, with mostly my own rules for things to cover the sci-fi/futuristic element.
Finally, with Paizocon 2009, I updated the rules again to the 4th edition, using the Pathfinder rules. That's where the game lives now, pretty far from d20 Modern, in fact. The skills use the Pathfinder skill set as a baseline, and add to that baseline the following:
Demolitions, Drive, Hacking, Pilot, Psychoanalysis, and Research. These skills certainly had their initial draft influenced by d20 Modern, but they've been pretty heavily revised since then.
The Knowledge skills are now broken up to: arcana, biological sciences, engineering, history, local, physical sciences, religion, and technology.
The Psychoanalysis skill's in there mostly because I have an on-and-off again relationship with using sanity rules in the game. In the end, I'll probably just remove the sanity rules and go with the simpler variant of them (the rules for insanity I designed for the GameMastery Guide), which would mean that the Psychoanalysis skill would go away. And I could see rolling Drive and Pilot into one skill... although, currently, Drive is a Dex skill and Pilot is an Int skill.
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Creative Director
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So without giving to much detail, is it a good chance that AP after Jade Regent will focus on areas in Golarion outside the inner Sea region?
Nope. Jade Regent spends 2/3 of its time outside of the Inner Sea. And that's proving to be a HECK of a job to get off the ground; not having 3 years of established material to build off of is gonna be scary. Furthermore, the Inner Sea region IS the core of our setting, and staying away from it isn't in the cards.
So, after Jade Regent, you can expect the next few APs to stay in the Inner Sea region for at least a year or two.
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Creative Director
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What do you do when the party consists of two CN characters, 2 CG characters, and a paladin?
If I'm the GM, I take a deep breath and hope that paladin's looking forward to a roleplaying challenge, periodically giving the player the opportunity to build a new character if he wants.
I'f I'm the player, I'm one of the CG characters, and I'll be doing my best to convince that paladin to join the winning team and live wild and free.
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What do you do when the party consists of two CN characters, 2 CG characters, and a paladin?If I'm the GM, I take a deep breath and hope that paladin's looking forward to a roleplaying challenge, periodically giving the player the opportunity to build a new character if he wants.
I'f I'm the player, I'm one of the CG characters, and I'll be doing my best to convince that paladin to join the winning team and live wild and free.
Well, the paladin as just offered a job by the campaign's version of the maffia, so we will see how it goes.
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James,
When are we going to see a "pirates versus ninjas" adventure? Who do you think would win?
Well... we'll do the next best thing and give you "vikings versus ninjas" in Pathfinder #50. That count?
As for who wins? Depends on who wins initiative.
Vikings vs ninjas? Should be cool! I look forward to it.
I updated the rules again to the 4th edition, using the Pathfinder rules. That's where the game lives now, pretty far from d20 Modern, in fact. The skills use the Pathfinder skill set as a baseline, and add to that baseline the following:
Demolitions, Drive, Hacking, Pilot, Psychoanalysis, and Research. These skills certainly had their initial draft influenced by d20 Modern, but they've been pretty heavily revised since then.
The Knowledge skills are now broken up to: arcana, biological sciences, engineering, history, local, physical sciences, religion, and technology.
The Psychoanalysis skill's in there mostly because I have an on-and-off again relationship with using sanity rules in the game. In the end, I'll probably just remove the sanity rules and go with the simpler variant of them (the rules for insanity I designed for the GameMastery Guide), which would mean that the Psychoanalysis skill would go away. And I could see rolling Drive and Pilot into one skill... although, currently, Drive is a Dex skill and Pilot is an Int skill.
And Fly is a Dex skill (but Navigate is an Int skill and Pilot was a Dex skill in Modern). Then you have Ride as a Dex skill. This one has been racking my brain as to whether they should all be a single skill, but if you're meshing a 'fantasy' style setting with a 'modern' style setting, I suppose it'd be more likely to take from four skills to two because someone who may be able to ride a horse may not be able to necessarily fly a plane and vice versa.
Hacking, I assume, is related to Computer Use?
Demolitions and Disable Device (as well as Repair) could be bundled as they're all Int skills.
Awesome! Thanks for sharing.
Your skill at answering questions in ways that makes sense makes it hard to come up with questions worth asking ha-ha.
Sean Connery, how would you rate him compared to Clint Eastwood? As far as I know Mr. Connery never directed (but I can be wrong here) so I guess we are talking actor Vs actor in a sense.
Any other dino you like aside from your favorite T-Rex? What do you think for example of the predecessor Allosaurus? I kind of like the name which I understand is Latin for "other lizard".
Can you name three authors that you'd rate above all else, it doesn't matter what sort of books they write.
And for the record, Ninja Vs Viking? The only way that could end is with the Ninja being used as the Vikings toothpick.
The Psychoanalysis skill's in there mostly because I have an on-and-off again relationship with using sanity rules in the game. In the end, I'll probably just remove the sanity rules and go with the simpler variant of them (the rules for insanity I designed for the GameMastery Guide), which would mean that the Psychoanalysis skill would go away. And I could see rolling Drive and Pilot into one...
I'd like to suggest that you call it Psychology rather than psychoanalysis, unless you actually want Freud's baggage.
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Creative Director
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And Fly is a Dex skill (but Navigate is an Int skill and Pilot was a Dex skill in Modern). Then you have Ride as a Dex skill. This one has been racking my brain as to whether they should all be a single skill, but if you're meshing a 'fantasy' style setting with a 'modern' style setting, I suppose it'd be more likely to take from four skills to two because someone who may be able to ride a horse may not be able to necessarily fly a plane and vice versa.
Hacking, I assume, is related to Computer Use?
Demolitions and Disable Device (as well as Repair) could be bundled as they're all Int skills.
The thing is that flying a helicopter or piloting a boat aren't really about reflexes, though. Even small boats don't respond quickly to sudden turns. That's more about your ability to plot courses, anticipate needs to change speed or direction, and otherwise manage a large number of controls in order to keep your vehicle going. Furthermore... if you can drive a car or ride a horse, those skills really don't translate all that well into skillfully piloting an airplane or a boat. Thus, keeping them separate is a good thing.
Hacking is indeed the "Unspeakable Futures" version of Computer Use. Hacking's a better word because it's more exciting, it's shorter (two-word skills sort of annoy me), and because it's more accurate for the setting—most of your computer interaction stuff in the game will be doing things like breaking into old computers, reprogramming robots, and otherwise navigating file structures—all that fits pretty well under the word "Hacking."
Demolitions getting rolled into Disable Device COULD work, but there's an element to Demolitions that's all about building bombs and setting timers and all that that doesn't perfectly fit... but still... I think I could fake a split and put the "building bombs" part of it into Craft (demolitions) pretty easily. Or even better, just add a "Craft Demolitions" feat along with all the other Techcraft feats in the game, like "Craft Cybernetics," "Craft Nanotech," "Craft Advanced Weaponry," and so on.
There is no "Repair" skill in the game—that element's handled by Knowledge checks of the right type or Disable Device.
Also: The "Research" skill is basically a re-skinned Use Magic Device skill. It works the same way, but equally well on magic items as it does with technological items. It's also Int based, I believe, which does re-cast the game's assumption for how you blindly activate magical items a little, but I'm okay with that since Charisma has plenty other things to do in the game.
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Creative Director
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Sean Connery, how would you rate him compared to Clint Eastwood? As far as I know Mr. Connery never directed (but I can be wrong here) so I guess we are talking actor Vs actor in a sense.
Sean Connery is also a great actor... but I think Clint Eastwood's a better one. Clint has more range than Sean Connery, and perhaps more important, over the course of his career, he's made better decisions about what roles to play than Sean Connery.
Any other dino you like aside from your favorite T-Rex? What do you think for example of the predecessor Allosaurus? I kind of like the name which I understand is Latin for "other lizard".
Allosaurus is a really cool dinosaur. For proof—look in Bestiary 2. There are hundreds of other dinosaurs I could have chosen from to fill the 4 dinosaur spots in that book, and it would have been really easy to just say "Allosaurus is just a Tyrannosaurus with the young creature simple template." But that'd be lame, so Allosaurus went in!
As for my favorite non T-Rex dinosaurs... I'd say that the following five are actually VERY close to being my favorites as well: velociraptor, deinonychus, spinosaurus, styracosaurus, and ceratosaurus. And yes... that skews pretty heavilly toward a specific type of dinosaur... what can I say? Theropods rule!
Can you name three authors that you'd rate above all else, it doesn't matter what sort of books they write.
H. P. Lovecraft, George R. R. Martin, Ramsey Campbell
And for the record, Ninja Vs Viking? The only way that could end is with the Ninja being used as the Vikings toothpick.
Depends... ninjas might not be as strong as vikings, but they're sneaky. It's a simple thing for a ninja to sneak into the moot hall and poison the beer supplies, after all...
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Creative Director
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The Psychoanalysis skill's in there mostly because I have an on-and-off again relationship with using sanity rules in the game. In the end, I'll probably just remove the sanity rules and go with the simpler variant of them (the rules for insanity I designed for the GameMastery Guide), which would mean that the Psychoanalysis skill would go away. And I could see rolling Drive and Pilot into one...I'd like to suggest that you call it Psychology rather than psychoanalysis, unless you actually want Freud's baggage.
It's likely gonna go away the next time I start tinkering with the rules anyway, since insanity doesn't work as well in this game as it does in Call of Cthulhu.
....ninjas might not be as strong as vikings, but they're sneaky. It's a simple thing for a ninja to sneak into the moot hall and poison the beer supplies, after all...
passes through the thread like an errant breeze
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I am sorry if this was asked before, but did you watch Avatar? What is your opinion of the movie? Do you belong in the group that sees the Pandora aliens as ideal wood elves?
Do you read postapocalyptic science fiction? If you do, what are your favorite authors? (For myself, S. M. Stirling and his Change series, which features death of technology and society reverting to feudalism and E. E. Knight's Vampire Earth where planet Earth is conquered by lovecraftian alien vampires...)
I have a character that I am bring into my Pathfinder campaign that started out in the Forgotten Realms. In that game she was born in Waterdeep. Would Korvosa or Magnimar be a better analog for Waterdeep?
RPG Superstar 2010 Top 16
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Sean Connery is also a great actor... but I think Clint Eastwood's a better one. Clint has more range than Sean Connery, and perhaps more important, over the course of his career, he's made better decisions about what roles to play than Sean Connery.
True. As bad as Paint Your Wagon is, it can't hold a candle to Zardoz.
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Sean Connery is also a great actor... but I think Clint Eastwood's a better one. Clint has more range than Sean Connery, and perhaps more important, over the course of his career, he's made better decisions about what roles to play than Sean Connery.True. As bad as Paint Your Wagon is,...
Them sir is fightin words. :-)
So last night I ran an adventure with harpies and I got to thinking. The art in the Bestiary shows the harpy with all her hair replaced with feathers. Does this hold true for all her hair?
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Creative Director
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I am sorry if this was asked before, but did you watch Avatar? What is your opinion of the movie? Do you belong in the group that sees the Pandora aliens as ideal wood elves?
Do you read postapocalyptic science fiction? If you do, what are your favorite authors? (For myself, S. M. Stirling and his Change series, which features death of technology and society reverting to feudalism and E. E. Knight's Vampire Earth where planet Earth is conquered by lovecraftian alien vampires...)
"Avatar" was one of my favorite movies of the year. I wish I'd seen the non 3D version. While I think it's easily the BEST that 3D has ever been in a theater... 3D's interaction with my eyesight/glasses makes for a too-distracting element. It took me half an hour to finally "re learn" how to watch a movie, by which point I'm sure I missed out on some cool stuff.
But yeah... great movie! And the Na'vi do indeed feel like cool wood elves... although about twice as big and much more blue than wood elves I'm used to thinking about...
Post-apocalyptic sci-fi is, as a matter of fact, my favorite genre of sci-fi. Although I much prefer post-apocalyptic stuff that also brings in elements of the supernatural to exist along with the sci-fi stuff. My favorite post-apocalyptic novels (some of which are more about the events leading UP to the end):
The Stand (Stephen King)
Lucifer's Hammer (Larry Niven/Jerry Pournelle)
I Am Legend (Richard Matheson)
Strange Aeons (Robert Bloch)
The Passage (Justin Cronin)
Year Zero (Jeff Long)
The Road (Cormac McCarthy)
Day of the Triffids (John Wyndham)
The Nature of Balance (Tim Lebbon)
The Time Machine (H. G. Wells)
The Zothique cycle of stories (Clark Ashton Smith)
World War Z (Max Brooks)
Cell (Stephen King)
The Kraken Wakes (John Wyndham)
The Strain Trilogy (Guillarmo Del Toro)
Endymion (Dan Simmons)
My FAVORITE Post-Apocalyptic book though? Nightworld, by F. Paul Wilson.
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Creative Director
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I have a character that I am bring into my Pathfinder campaign that started out in the Forgotten Realms. In that game she was born in Waterdeep. Would Korvosa or Magnimar be a better analog for Waterdeep?
Korvosa. Because it's got a megadungeon below it.
OR
Magnimar. Because it's got a similar shape and personality.
AKA: They're both good choices.
Depends... ninjas might not be as strong as vikings, but they're sneaky. It's a simple thing for a ninja to sneak into the moot hall and poison the beer supplies, after all...
Oh sure, use logic as an argument in a debate like that! Wise guy.... (Ha-ha)
From a theoretical standpoint, what do you think of the old saying "To serve in heaven or rule in hell"?
What is the SCARIEST type of undead?
What is the sensible thing to do when you go to a restaurant and find that you are on the menu?
Which actor would you say have the greatest span in his or her range? Doesn't have to be your favourite?
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Creative Director
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From a theoretical standpoint, what do you think of the old saying "To serve in heaven or rule in hell"?
I think I'd rather rule Hell, to be honest.
What is the SCARIEST type of undead?
The scariest movies about undead are usually ghost movies... so... ghost!
What is the sensible thing to do when you go to a restaurant and find that you are on the menu?
Check the seating area for dinosaurs, because if you're going out, it'd be a shame to miss seeing a real live dinosaur before you go.
Which actor would you say have the greatest span in his or her range? Doesn't have to be your favourite?
Christian Bale, if we're talking PHYSICAL span (compare "The Machinist" to "Batman").
If you're talking ability to play numerous different types of characters? Hmmm... probably a tie between Jodie Foster and Morgan Freeman and Anthony Hopkins and Geoffrey Rush and Ralph Feinnes.
How many people have you met who's IQ would compare unfavourably to that of a glass of water?
Best way to spend the last hour before going to bed?
Is there a country in the world you wouldn't want to go to under ANY circumstance?
What's the most memorable name you have ever heard on a real person?
Post-apocalyptic sci-fi is, as a matter of fact, my favorite genre of sci-fi. Although I much prefer post-apocalyptic stuff that also brings in elements of the supernatural to exist along with the sci-fi stuff.
That being the case I have to ask your opinion about Palladium's Rifts. What do you think, both in terms of the system and the setting? My game group loves it, but I always thought it tried to do too much. The world seemed overpopulated with monstrosities from Starship Troopers bugs to The Four Horsemen. Outside a major city I couldn't imagine humanity lasting a day.
And since it seems to be a hot topic lately, if you're looking at the power curve on class bloat, Rifts seems the perfect example of what not to do. Pathfinder has perfect balance in comparison.
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Creative Director
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How many people have you met who's IQ would compare unfavourably to that of a glass of water?
Plenty. I'd say that movie theaters are where most of them seem to gather. Especially if the movie is a relatively quiet one that I really wanted to see.
Best way to spend the last hour before going to bed?
Reading. Warcraft. Mythbusters.
Or that thing that involves being nekkid, of course.Is there a country in the world you wouldn't want to go to under ANY circumstance?
North Korea.
What's the most memorable name you have ever heard on a real person?
A friend of mine in High School—her name was Ocean Seigel.
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Creative Director
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That being the case I have to ask your opinion about Palladium's Rifts. What do you think, both in terms of the system and the setting? My game group loves it, but I always thought it tried to do too much. The world seemed overpopulated with monstrosities from Starship Troopers bugs to The Four Horsemen. Outside a major city I couldn't imagine humanity lasting a day.
And since it seems to be a hot topic lately, if you're looking at the power curve on class bloat, Rifts seems the perfect example of what not to do. Pathfinder has perfect balance in comparison.
I never really got into Rifts at all. My first experience with Palladium was via "Beyond the Supernatural," which basically struck me as a clumsier, less fun horror game than Call of Cthulhu. Next up was Robotech, which struck me as a clumsier, less fun mech game than Battletech. Next up was Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and that just struck me as clumsy and less fun.
By that point, I didn't really have a high opinion of the Palladium system, and never bothered with Rifts.