The Culture: Until The Boomer Is Gone, No Boom Gun Revival Can Be Had

Attention Span Labs makes an attempt.

ASL is not wrong. I'm on record as agreeing with all of these points, even if I think some of what is published is so non-sensical that only low-IQ non-thinkers can accept those events as plausible. (e.g. Siege On Tolkeen) However, I agree that this is in reality no threat at all.

If this was going to happen, then it would have happened 30+ years ago when RIFTS was the new hotness and neither FightStick39K or Uncle George's Space Opera were the dominant Brands.

The reason for why this did not happen can be reduced to a single line: Kevin is a Boomer Cargo Cultist. He has shown, consistently, that he doesn't understand the medium or the hobby despite making a living pushing product upon that scene for most of my life. This is less a product line for a hobby game than a poorly organized Setting Bible for a Brand.

So long as Siembieda remains in control of the company, this is a non-starter. Even when he's forced to let go, don't expect Palladium's catalog to suddenly turnabout and unfuck itself. Palladium has been Kevin's Bizarro AD&D House Rules for generations, so taking the Brand and divorcing itself from the clusterfuck that is the Palladium AD&D knockoff ruleset will cause issues with the existing cult of whales Kevin cultivated.

My solution is to call up the Japanese whaling fleet, because that is exactly what needs to be done for the good of the Brand.

Strip away all of that, focus upon what RIFTS as a Brand is about. That task alone will take years, and it will involve doing this to the entire Palladium catalog, with the consequence that "The Palladium Megaverse" is going to get butchered because Steak and Chocolate do not go together. Different games involve designing machines that produce different outcomes; hammers are not wrenches, even if both can drive nails.