I want to take a break from my Rifts book reviews and discuss a controversial subject: Rifts’ combat system.
It seems like it’s impossible to play Rifts without an opinion of its combat system. One can’t deny that it is old — created back in the 80s. Many game systems back then were complicated and, for lack of better words, kludgy. Many of these systems have evolved over the years resulting in a smoother, more streamlined player experience. A popular example of this is Dungeons & Dragons 5e.
In fairness, there is a difference between Palladium and companies like Wizards of the Coast. Dungeons & Dragons is on its 5th Edition (or higher if you count basic D&D, boxed sets, etc…) A company like TSR/Wizards of the Coast has no problem writing a new edition, incompatible with the previous editions, and requiring players to buy new Handbooks, DM Guides, Monster Manuals, etc.
Palladium, on the other hand, takes a different approach. Let’s suppose Kevin Siembieda and Palladium writers came up with a whole new, kick-ass combat system — and I don’t mean minor revisions like Rifts Ultimate Edition. Well, that means every publication they have made in any game instantly becomes obsolete. Not just Rifts, either. Palladium prides itself on keeping its systems compatible with their other game; you can lift-and-shift between universes. Imagine if all of that broke overnight. We’re talking dozens upon dozens of core books, world books, sourcebooks, and others that instantly become obsolete.
Could Palladium do that? Sure. Would they? I doubt it. First, they could risk losing their fan base, which is already limited. Unfortunately, most Rifts players fall into a certain demographic: experienced gamers that grew up in the 1980s. I do not think it would be in Palladium’s best interest to alienate a large portion of them. Palladium would have to either 1) Re-write many of their books, which means fans would have to shell out money to buy what they already had, or 2) Branch off and have two product lines: the older edition and the newer edition.
The problem with the first approach is straightforward. As for the second approach, it would be doable I suppose… except it’s already been done: Savage Rifts. There you go, there’s your other version.
I want to take a few minutes and discuss the existing system in some detail. This will only apply to the Palladium version, not Savage Rifts.
If you remove the Mega-Damage rules, the Palladium combat system isn’t that complicated. I’m serious. Let’s assume simple S.D.C. (not M.D.C.) damage for this example.
Melee Combat
When combat commences, all combatants roll for initiative and factor in any initiative bonuses they may have. So far, so good. The first player swings their sword at their opponent by rolling a d20 (err.. D20. I can’t stand that Palladium capitalized the ‘d’ in dice notation) and factors in their strike bonus. Roll and 5 or higher in melee combat and you hit! That sounds easy at first, but the opponent may then choose to take the hit, parry, dodge, or entangle. If the opponent is wielding an object, they may parry the attack by counter running 1D20 and adding their parry bonus. If you beat the roll, you parry. If you want to dodge, it’s the same thing — except you lose one of your attacks that round. Now roll for damage and add any damage modifiers you may have. The opponent may attempt to take half damage by using “Roll with Impact”. They do this by rolling 1D20 and beating the attacker’s strike roll.
Now, the combatant that was under attack may then counter-attack using the same rules as above. This goes back and forth until both/all combatants have used up their attacks. Then a new round begins.
This brings me to the “number of attacks” variable, and this is where Palladium diverges from many systems. Every combatant has a specified number of attacks/actions per round. Depending on the O.C.C., race, skills, etc… that number varies from character to character. A character starts with a minimum of two attacks per round but often starts with at least four if the player selects a hand-to-hand combat skill.
That is a very simplified version of melee combat.
Ranged Combat
Ranged combat is similar — sort of. The attacker needs to roll an 8 or higher to hit their opponent. However, the strike and damage bonuses used in melee combat do not apply to range combat. Instead, bonuses come from weapon proficiencies. The Rifts Ultimate Edition core book says it well: anyone can pick up a gun and use it, but unless they have the training they will receive no bonuses.
With ranged combat, other bonuses and penalties come into play. For example, the combatant may perform an “aimed shot” to receive a strike bonus. Or the combatant may be shooting in wild bursts and will receive a significant penalty. In general, ranged attacks cannot be parried. In very specific cases, a bullet or laser can be dodged.
Inflicting Damage
Okay, you scored a successful hit against your opponent. If the opponent does not have armor on, the damage is inflicted directly to hit points. However, if the opponent has non-mega-damage armor (S.D.C. armor), the armor comes with an Armor Rating (A.R.). If the attacker’s strike roll is greater than the Armor Rating of the armor, the damage goes straight to the opponent's personal S.D.C., then to hit points after S.D.C. is depleted. But if the attack hits, but is lower than the A.R., the attack does damage only to the armor. After the armor’s S.D.C. is depleted, the armor is destroyed.
And just to clarify: a person has an S.D.C. value as well as armor. In fact, every object technically has an S.D.C. rating.
What About Mega-Damage?
The combat I described above applies not just to Rifts, but to most Palladium games. Wonderful. But Rifts has an additional mechanic known as Mega-Damage Capacity or M.D.C. Technically speaking, 1 M.D.C. is equivalent to 100 S.D.C. What bothers me about this is that the prefix “mega” means “multiple by 1,000,000.” If we’re multiplying by 100, the mega prefix is mathematically incorrect. Then again, Mega-Damage sounds a lot better than Hecto-Damage, which is what a multiplier of 100 is.
So you have M.D.C. armor or are a creature with a nature M.D.C. rating. First off, M.D.C. is immune to all S.D.C. damage unless it’s 100 or greater in a single shot. Remember, 1 M.D.C. is equivalent to 100 S.D.C. Also, M.D.C. armor has no Armor Rating, unless the S.D.C. armor used above. That means if you hit M.D.C. material with an M.D.C. weapon, the damage is applied directly to the M.D.C. no matter what.
There’s one more small, but important, detail to remember with Mega-Damage armor. When the armor is destroyed in a single attack, the excess damage does NOT overflow to the wearer’s personal S.D.C./Hit Points. Instead, the character loses their protection and will be unarmored the next turn. For example, suppose you’re wearing M.D.C. armor that has 5 M.D.C. remaining. The attack delivers 10 points of damage to you, which is higher than the 5 that remain. The armor is destroyed, but it absorbs that final hit. The character does not take the overflow damage.
Other Combat
There are rules for missile combat, magic combat, psychic combat, and probably others. I’m not going to get into those in this article, but just know they exist. There are even rules for surviving an aircraft crash landing.
Additional Rules
All of that above is a simplified version of combat in Rifts. There are additional factors and rules to consider. For example, what if the combatant has four arms? (Yes, that happens.) What if the combatant has the Paired Weapons proficiency? Or the Sharpshooter proficiency? Worse yet, what if the combatant has four arms AND the Paired Weapons proficiency? That provides the attacker with a whole set of additional options.
House Rules
Now that you’ve read all of the above (hopefully), you may be wondering if there are common house rules. Yes! In fact, I’ve yet to meet someone who follows the combat system verbatim. I had the pleasure of playing in a Palladium Fantasy adventure run by Kevin Siembieda, and even he house rules it.
Here’s how I run combat:
Everyone rolls initiative. The highest initiative goes first. In their turn, a combatant may use as many of their attacks as they choose. If you want t o use all four attacks to blow away your opponent, go for it. But then you will have no attacks left to dodge, etc… So you have to manage your attacks.
People have found that this keeps the combat exciting and easier to follow.
I’ve played with other house rules. None of them have been “bad.” They each have their pros and cons. What it ultimately comes down to is this: is everyone having fun?
The Verdict
What do I think of the Rifts combat system? I say it is “sufficient.” It’s not great, and it certainly reflects the 80s style combat systems. As a person in their mid-40s, I can handle that. In fact, it’s nostalgic for me. So from a non-practical standpoint, I like that system.
As far as mechanics, it leaves something to be desired. At its core, it is really not that complicated. However, it gets complicated really fast. Then again, Rifts is a complicated game. There are so many possibilities to keep track of. Some would say that’s true of any RPG, but I disagree. Some of it depends on the environment. In general, Dungeons & Dragons 5e doesn’t need to factor in aircraft missiles, velocity, energy beams, etc. One does not “shoot wild” with a bow. A player does not stream multiple rounds of bullets with their crossbow.
This may sound a bit odd, but a part of me enjoys the nitty-gritty rules. There are many exceptions and special cases to take into consideration, and in a way, it’s fun to discover some of those rules. In performing research for this article, I was reminded of rules that I hadn’t seen (or used) in years. I was running an event at the Palladium Open House a few years ago, and one of my pre-gens had W.P. Quick Draw. It was a skill that came with the O.C.C. that I just didn’t read up on. Well, Quick Draw grants initiative bonuses depending on your Physical Prowess (P.P.) attribute. One of my players pointed it out to me. I let him use it. The same character also had W.P. Sharpshooter, which is a mechanic from the Rifts World Book 14: New West book. Yet another rule that I had forgotten about.
So, in summary, there are several factors to consider:
- Palladium needs to maintain compatibility with its older books.
- Palladium needs to maintain compatibility with its other RPGs.
- The mechanics themselves.
- How and why the Rifts setting needs these mechanics.
- The “fun factor” of sorting all of this out.
That said, I give the Rifts combat system a 6 out of 10.
