Rifts and D20 Modern

A compare and Contrast Review

By Elton Robb

"Min-Maxing and Munchkinism aren't problems with the game; they are problems with the player."

--- Guardians of Order, inc. Roleplaying Manifesto

Truer words haven't been spoken about the roleplaying community.  Min-Maxing and munchkinism, the practice of creating a more powerful character than your fellows, aren't problems with any roleplaying game.  But what if there was a game that encouraged this?

Indeed, one exists.  We all know its name, it's Rifts.  However, game designers have grown wiser since then.  Since the release of Rifts, we all witnessed the near death of Dungeons and Dragons parent company, TSR.  In the intevening years, Ryan Dancy conceived of a business model that will prevent history repeating itself with WotC.  This is called the open gaming movement.  It's flagship roleplaying game is still, Dungeons and Dragons.  Since then, the open gaming movement has benefited us all with providing several RPG systems, including the D20 System and the ACTION! system, where writers, GMs, and Designers can all benefit without fear of breaching Wizards of the Coast's copyright, or Wizards of the Coast breaching theirs.  As a result, the D20 system is as multi-genre as the Megaversal system, or the Palladium System as it henceforth will be known.  to compare and contrast Rifts with with the D20 System, I shall use the third of Wizards of the Coast's flagship games: D20 Modern.  So, lets begin with something simple.

First Impressions -- Rifts

My first impression of Rifts was, in a word, awesome.  I was a teenager back then, around 16 years of age.  Awesome was the word.  The game combined several genres at once that I couldn't keep track of it all.  I can play a magic user against a mecha pilot; and so forth.  I felt totally blown away, and I had to play a shifter. So I created one.  Shifters, as you can tell, are my all time favorite type of character to play in Rifts.  After all, they can control the rifts into time and space itself.  However, as Palladium rolled out the products, it seemed that my favorite character was being pushed out of the picture.  I would have to create a new character with more powerful abilities JUST TO KEEP UP!  Needless to say, around 25, I stopped buying Rifts because I found other games; and I was watching the development of the D20 System closely.  To tell the truth, I was apprehensive at first; but I became converted when I picked up the D20 System's Flagship game, Dungeons and Dragons, 3rd Edition and fell in love with it.  But I remained connected to the RPG Market, watching everyone closely, especially the open gaming movement, hoping that Palladium Books would come out with a d20 version of Rifts and gain their fans back.  I learned later that this was a hope betrayed!

First Impressions -- D20 Modern

D20 Modern is much better than Dungeons and Dragon's, 3rd Edition, as it handles things differently in the modern world.  I like it simply because of the way it works. You can create a generic hero based off of one of the attributes, and then create an advanced class for specialization later.  The d20 system's main system was even tweeked a bit to work in the modern era.  This was done so that it offered compatibility to the D20 Fantasy Roleplaying game.  D20 modern includes four campaigns: the base campaign based off of our own modern world, Urban Arcana (D&D goes modern), Agents of Psi, and Shadow Slayers (D&D meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer).  Some good ideas, some bad, D20 Modern was like Dungeons and Dragons, as it provided a jumping off point for adventuring in the modern world.

THE GOOD ABOUT RIFTS

What is good about Rifts anyway?  What makes it better than the d20 System?  Well, Rifts is a world system.  A very good one at that too.  Rifts has some great ideas to it, being multi-genre.  The ideas in the whole Rifts family of books have very good ideas and adventure hooks loaded into them.  Theoretically, Rifts plays like a good Anime television show.  So you know that you and your players can collectively tell great stories using the many adventure seeds that the world system provides.  I even still have Palladium's Siege on Tolkeen book 1, which provides you the basics in the war between the two states.  It's a good adventure seed, able to propell your characters into a bloody war.  So Rifts has a good formula for a great roleplaying game based on the ideas within the pages of the Main book and the rest of the Rifts family.  It's something that can be turned into an evening's A+ entertainment by you and your troupe.  This is something a good published World System should set out to do.  D20 modern doesn't have this, but the potential is there, or if you create it yourself.

THE GOOD ABOUT D20 MODERN

Now That I discussed whats good about Rifts, lets take a look at what makes D20 Modern, and hence the d20 System, better than Rifts.   Well, D20 Modern laxes in the idea department.  Urban Arcana, Agents of Psi, and Shadow Slayers can't compare to the awesome amount of ideas that are in Rifts.  There is just too much done with Rifts for either of these three campaign settings to eclipse the world of Rifts.  But where D20 Modern, and the d20 System, excels over Rifts can be found in the Palladium System itself.

• Logic and Balance.  One way that D20 Modern lords over Rifts is the fact that the Palladium System itself is illogically balanced.  Although the two systems are similar to each other in several respects, everything points to the Palladium System being a knocked off fusion of 1st Edition AD&D and Chaosium's Basic Roleplaying System (the original Call of Cthulhu, specifically).  And there are so many things that are illogical about the way things are handled in the Palladium System that is eclipsed by the D20 System.  Where Palladium uses Mega-Damage, the d20 System uses Damage Reduction; where what you know (skills) is handled by a percentile system, the D20 System uses bonuses and a simple d20 roll against a target number.  Even feats is customized, when the Palladium System, the feats you learn has to be a part of a special training you take; and you gain the benefits every level.  The difference can be seen in a Mecha battle.  Someone tries to hit a mech with 400 MDC with a normal Glock 17 (2d6 regular damage) using the Palladium System.  Okay, you're character can't hurt it, so the pilot laughingly blasts you into oblivion. With the D20 System, you have a chance though.  The same mech may have a an armor statistic or damage reduction rating of 5.  So all you have to do is deal damage over 5 points to damage it.
• Combat.  Combat in the D20 System and the Palladium system are very similiar.  But both have their differences.  In the D20 System, you have Attacks of Opportunity, rules handling grappling, and damage that makes sense.  D20 Modern itself has a massive damage rule where someone can get killed by the damage exceeding his constitution in one round.  The Palladium System has something called SDC damage.  When this runs out, then you suffer hit point damage.  Not as brutal as D20 Modern's massive damage rule, but it's like Vitality and Wound Points from Star Wars and Spycraft, though.
• Character Creation.  In Rifts you can play anything from a dragon to a fairy to a normal person running around. In D20 Modern, you can play anything from a dragon to a faerie to a normal person running around.  However, the difference between the two is how this is handled.  In the D20 System, although monster characters may have an advantage over the normal person, the difference between the Palladium System and the D20 System is that the normal person has a chance to defeat a dragon in less than 10 rounds.  Characters built in Rifts with the Palladium System has a clear uberadvantage over the normal person.  Normal humans don't even have a prayer defeating 99.99% of the characters that can be potentially built with Rifts.  So the player has to create a bigger and badder character in order to defeat the nasties that the GM throws at him, OR even stand on equal footing with his fellow PCs.  So, Rifts encourages Munchkinism, from the perspective of the D20 System anyway.  After all, Balance is needed in combat.  And I'm still not done . . .
• The differences in Character Creation is how this is handled. D20 Modern offers a simple method to creating a character.  All you have to do is figure ability scores, a class, your skills, feats, and equipment, total your bonuses and you're ready to go!  Compared to this, the Palladium System is terribly complex.  The first part is simple, but then you have to find out if your psychic, if you are a Dimensional Being, if you are a mutant . . . It can be daunting, but not overwhelming.  After all, I was a Teenager when I created my first rifts character.
• One more point . . . The magic system in Rifts is a little better than the D20 System; but it only works for books.  It doesn't work for a level dependent game like the D20 System.  And the Palladium System is a level dependent system ("The longer you live, the more powerful you are, and the possibility of defeating more bad guys!").  In Rifts, a magic user can use any spell of any level so long as his PPE allows.  In the D20 System, magic casting is dependent on what level you are.  This allows for easy scaling of the threats a D20 character can handle.  In Rifts, threats are not easily scaled.  However, there is a an exception: the Call of Cthulthu d20 roleplaying game.  Since it is designed for horror, the characters in that d20 game can take on any threat --- and be wiped off the face of the earth if they don't watch themselves.

ART AND PRESENTATION

The production values in both books are staggering.  However, D20 Modern is in full living color, and the pages are all glossy; and its a hardbound book.  Rifts is perfect bound, and has color pages on the inside of the book.  It has mostly black and white images that convey the feeling of the Rifts world.  If I were an art critic, I would say that the D20 Modern art is much better since all of it is in full color.  The Rifts art can't compare, but both do the job.

Presentation of the books are also different.  The writers in D20 Modern speek in third person with careful advice and they show as well as tell you how the rules work.  The writer of Rifts, however, talks like an excited teenager at times, and as a mature man at other times, both in first person.  Sometimes the writing in Rifts talks down at you in trying to get a point across, other times the writing takes on a boring figure, or has a conceit to it.  This is unlike the writing in D20 Modern, where the writing never talks you down or has a conceited quality.  The editing needs to be better in Rifts, while there are few editing errors in D20 Modern.

Rifts and D20 Modern, Final Thoughts

So, we see how the two games clearly compare.  Rifts is superior in the idea and story department, D20 Modern (and the D20 System) is much better in the rules mechanics department.  So, would the world benefit from the fusion of the Rifts World System with the D20 System?  I personally think so.  If you combine Rifts with the D20 System, you effectively have a world where you can legitimately tie together just about any D20 System game out there, or use just about any d20 system book there is.  The possibilities can really be endless.  So what is stopping Palladium Books from publishing a d20 version of Rifts?  Especially when there is a potential of oodles of money to be made?

The answer is the Open Gaming License.  Or more specifically, the Palladium Books' staff's interpetation of the Open Gaming License and their Green Eyed Monsters from hell --- Wizards of the Coast and the average roleplayer.  The Palladium Books' staff is sure that if they publish Rifts under the d20 System and the OGL, WotC can steal Rifts right under their noses.  After all, Palladium Books nearly squashed WotC like a bug over a supposed copyright infringement, and years later they WotC has been made Kings of the Hill with their aquisitions of Magic: The Gathering and TSR, inc.  And the average Roleplayer will steal Rifts right under their noses according to the OGL.  So they spend their time, and money, defending their copyrights and squashing everyone who dares publish a D20 System conversion of Rifts on the web.  So they won't publish a d20 Rifts out of paralyzing fear of the Green Eyed Monsters in Wizards of the Coast and on the Internet.

So, what can you do?  If you want to play Rifts, I suggest that you just get the main book and adapt it to a system that makes sense to you if you don't want to use the Palladium System.  If you are planning to use the Palladium System, then by all means do so.  Just don't put up an adaptation on the web or Palladium Books will, rightfully, ask you to take it down.  If you are expecting a d20 Rifts book, don't hold your breath.  Unless we can show Palladium Books that such a move would be wise and that WotC and the Roleplayers on the Internet are not the Green-eyed Monsters that they believe us to be, there won't be one.  However, on a positive note, a Rifts Movie is in preproduction and the studio in charge of it is Walt Disney Pictures.  Jerry Bruckhiemer is the producer.