My Life As A Gamer: The True Failure of RIFTS

Why am I going on about RIFTS? Because this is what the game promises to its users.

The #BrOSR has more players than you.
The #BrOSR offers more ways for players to engage with their campaigns and engage with each other.
The #BrOSR has a means of coordinating multiple campaigns that is fundamental to how D&D is designed and conceived. https://t.co/xyBIXodMs5

— Jeffro Johnson (@JohnsonJeffro) September 22, 2022

The video in question is from Jon Mollison's channel.

This is how RIFTS should be run.

One group of character romps around North America, with the action concentrating around the Coalition States and its rivals/enemies. Then we have the European States vs. the Gargoyle Empire, Atlantis playing all sides, Atlantis and Tolkeen (and a few others) plugging into the Cosmic level where Center is exactly what it says it is and massive fleet battles go down while cosmic-powered beings act like Super Robots (think Dairugger XV or Heroic Age when the fleets launch their giant monsters/robots), literal gods make moves and countermoves, and every single campaign is interconnected which makes Patron-level character very important and Domain Play fundamental.

The reality is that you have a very scuffed Critical Role or worse.

What a waste.

This is a result of Kevin Siembieda discarding the wargaming elements of the medium because, as shown by his own words and deeds and confirmed by witness testimony, he does not compreheand any of it.

There should be routine rounds of Diplomacy-style play. There should be constant back-and-forth of worlds and regions all playing the exact same ruleset where players and characters move around and do things, the consequences of which reverberate far beyond the immediate and the obvious, and only now with the Internet--even in its current degraded form--is the full potential of such a game now possible to realize.

And you don't need to pay a subscription fee, need a PC at all (a smartphone or tablet will do), or spend hours doing theorycrafting to optimize a fucking build or as much time grinding away at pointless bitchwork to get to play the game.

This terrifies certain people, and that's going to play into the freakout reactions that some have to the #BROSR. We're done having to waste time and money making something that ought to work as intended actually do so, and we're done wasting time playing games that don't deliver as real RPGs do. If I want your typical Pink Slime Fake D&D/Fake RPG, then a videogame will do that far better than any tabletop version ever will.

For tabletop, I want the real thing and that's the #BROSR and Braunstein. Sooner than you think, you will too, and the games that should deliver but don't--like RIFTS--will be seen popularly as the failures that they are. Those who take the chance to put out real games that do what the failures don't have viable products to sell, so get on that now and be ready when the moment comes.