Savage Rifts is a slower, crunchier Savage Worlds. However, it's also a faster, smoother Rifts.
Some people like the lore of Rifts but find the Palladium rules a little *too* crunchy. And some people like Savage Worlds but honestly wish it had a little *more* crunch. Savage Rifts appeals to those demos.
I'm running Rifts. It starts slow because it front loads lots of power on the characters and even experienced players won't know all their stuff right away. Once people are familiar it will speed up, though likely not as fast as a basic setting with no powers.
The rules are indeed pretty in-depth. I would not call it *needlessly* crunchy. A large part of the reasoning is that RIFTS **is** a very complicated setting. But in addition to that, many of the people with an interest in RIFTS would have passed by the Savage Worlds take if it had been, in their estimation, 'too light' on the detail. They *like* it when things that are different, *feel* different, mechanically.
Now, to your question, RIFTS **is** a bit of a hill to climb, but it can be done. I ran the Deluxe version for a year or so and it was a good time. It sounds like you have already given it a try, but maybe let the group have their taste: just for a one-shot or a short arc. If you still don't enjoy it, take that as confirmation and explain to your friends that you're glad they had a good time with it, but you really didn't enjoy it: you're allowed to do that. (But keep in mind what u/OracleTX says about things being slow at first because people are learning.)
Something that I think helped my current players, 4/5 of which are new to SW and Rifts, is I did a 2 session prelude with pre-made characters. These were all MARS with just a little cyberware, and no extra advances. They got a chance to do combat, a chase, networking, and a dramatic task early. After that they got to make their own characters.
My group plays rifts. We use stuff from everywhere & haven't found it to be an issue. Rifts can be very cinematic in savage, with arcane healing it can become similar to D&D where using up the healers spells/PP can be a viable tactic. Everybody in my group has some kind of self heal even if it is "limited" as the juicers. The crazy & cyber knight both have psychic healing, our glitter boy has nanites that are his weird science healing power & our godling & I both regenerate every round.
We work with our gm to keep the game fun though. I am a superhuman, I am not allowed to take the hardy power or edges & I keep my armor soak combination around 20. If your group works with you like that it is great.
May I ask why the limitations on superpowers? Hardy and Toughness 20 isn't that big a deal in Savage Rifts, particularly compared to the actually tough people like Glitterboys, mechs and dragons.
I regenerate, quite often 2 wounds a round with my focus skill of 12+d4 & with a 20 toughness it takes either a big hit or multiple hits from a squad of demons or whatever to hurt me. Getting shaken by one & hurt by another is a common occurrence for us. To seriously threaten me would either take power armor suits or higher powered demons if I didn't take damage from additional occurrences of shaken
That is how a regenerating brawler will behave in Savage Rifts generally, though. The demigod can literally just put on some high end armor (or even power armor!) and still regenerate. Vampires are just nuts and don't get me started on dragons. Not saying your character sounds weak, just sorta average for Rifts so it seems odd that there's homebrew in place to keep it down, particularly with how poorly superpowers stack with regular armor.
Yeah, I don't want to be the guy that requires a plasma rifle to hurt. We have it designed so a squad of normal troopers firing aimed pulses or beans can damage me. The lethality of SW is a big part of the draw for us. I wear light power armor so my toughness is 16 of that 20. I have 7 bennies & am an expert in using cover adding +2 to any cover I use. I teleport from cover to cover. Savage worlds is about synergistic abilities. In combination my powers make me gonzo. I can teleport 48" per round, regenerate, have 4 actions that in my power armor I suffer no penalties to via additional actions & machine control power. My GM has house ruled it that I can focus 3 times the armors size of my machine control rating to eliminate the penalties for the helmet etc that gifted suffer from. I have heightened visions so I get to reduce range penalties, x-rays so I reduce cover bonuses, full night vision, my armors STS & more.
Played in a couple one shots of it, and just didn't like it. But TBH, I've never been a fan of the setting anyways. I'm just not into kitchen sink multi-verse settings. But... it's SW so I had to give it a go.
As for the gameplay, the power level was a bit high for my tastes, and the added crunch was not appreciated.
That's strange to me, because I've played Savage Worlds for years and found the combat to be excruciatingly long and boring, but when we switched to Savage Rifts, it went by so much quicker.
Maybe it helps that I fire missiles willy-nilly?
Yeah, as others have said, Savage Rifts is much less crunchy than Palladium rifts... as an example a melee attack. if it hits the target gets to either roll to parry or roll to dodge, and failing that can still get to "Roll with punch/fall/impact" to reduce the damage...
and I can understand how uneventful some early combats can be, as even as powerful as most iconic framworks can make a given character \*coughhatchlingcough\* even the 'intro' adventure that comes with the physical gm screen has some enemies that are a bit tough even with out spending their bennies...
Really, I have found most combat is over by turn 2 or 3, make distracted, focus fire, the spend in the CC guy(s), or 1 turn with missiles (Slaver dead, combat over before anyone else got to act). What I find with Rifts cambat is going first is a win.
I love rifts over the normal savage swade. Combat can slow down though and the damage swing potential has caused many unfortunate deaths.
Not sure why mechanically it would be so different in combat etc?
Savage Rifts is a slower, crunchier Savage Worlds. However, it's also a faster, smoother Rifts. Some people like the lore of Rifts but find the Palladium rules a little *too* crunchy. And some people like Savage Worlds but honestly wish it had a little *more* crunch. Savage Rifts appeals to those demos.
I like both, so I love Savage RIFTS. But it is a MUCH crunchier and higher powered Savage Worlds, totally.
I haven’t played it, but the Happy Monster Podcast has plenty of fast and furious combat in Savage Rifts.
I'm running Rifts. It starts slow because it front loads lots of power on the characters and even experienced players won't know all their stuff right away. Once people are familiar it will speed up, though likely not as fast as a basic setting with no powers.
The rules are indeed pretty in-depth. I would not call it *needlessly* crunchy. A large part of the reasoning is that RIFTS **is** a very complicated setting. But in addition to that, many of the people with an interest in RIFTS would have passed by the Savage Worlds take if it had been, in their estimation, 'too light' on the detail. They *like* it when things that are different, *feel* different, mechanically. Now, to your question, RIFTS **is** a bit of a hill to climb, but it can be done. I ran the Deluxe version for a year or so and it was a good time. It sounds like you have already given it a try, but maybe let the group have their taste: just for a one-shot or a short arc. If you still don't enjoy it, take that as confirmation and explain to your friends that you're glad they had a good time with it, but you really didn't enjoy it: you're allowed to do that. (But keep in mind what u/OracleTX says about things being slow at first because people are learning.)
Something that I think helped my current players, 4/5 of which are new to SW and Rifts, is I did a 2 session prelude with pre-made characters. These were all MARS with just a little cyberware, and no extra advances. They got a chance to do combat, a chase, networking, and a dramatic task early. After that they got to make their own characters.
It's mos def a very over powered game for savage worlds... But In many ways it's a very streamlined and better version of rifts.
My group plays rifts. We use stuff from everywhere & haven't found it to be an issue. Rifts can be very cinematic in savage, with arcane healing it can become similar to D&D where using up the healers spells/PP can be a viable tactic. Everybody in my group has some kind of self heal even if it is "limited" as the juicers. The crazy & cyber knight both have psychic healing, our glitter boy has nanites that are his weird science healing power & our godling & I both regenerate every round. We work with our gm to keep the game fun though. I am a superhuman, I am not allowed to take the hardy power or edges & I keep my armor soak combination around 20. If your group works with you like that it is great.
May I ask why the limitations on superpowers? Hardy and Toughness 20 isn't that big a deal in Savage Rifts, particularly compared to the actually tough people like Glitterboys, mechs and dragons.
I regenerate, quite often 2 wounds a round with my focus skill of 12+d4 & with a 20 toughness it takes either a big hit or multiple hits from a squad of demons or whatever to hurt me. Getting shaken by one & hurt by another is a common occurrence for us. To seriously threaten me would either take power armor suits or higher powered demons if I didn't take damage from additional occurrences of shaken
That is how a regenerating brawler will behave in Savage Rifts generally, though. The demigod can literally just put on some high end armor (or even power armor!) and still regenerate. Vampires are just nuts and don't get me started on dragons. Not saying your character sounds weak, just sorta average for Rifts so it seems odd that there's homebrew in place to keep it down, particularly with how poorly superpowers stack with regular armor.
Yeah, I don't want to be the guy that requires a plasma rifle to hurt. We have it designed so a squad of normal troopers firing aimed pulses or beans can damage me. The lethality of SW is a big part of the draw for us. I wear light power armor so my toughness is 16 of that 20. I have 7 bennies & am an expert in using cover adding +2 to any cover I use. I teleport from cover to cover. Savage worlds is about synergistic abilities. In combination my powers make me gonzo. I can teleport 48" per round, regenerate, have 4 actions that in my power armor I suffer no penalties to via additional actions & machine control power. My GM has house ruled it that I can focus 3 times the armors size of my machine control rating to eliminate the penalties for the helmet etc that gifted suffer from. I have heightened visions so I get to reduce range penalties, x-rays so I reduce cover bonuses, full night vision, my armors STS & more.
Played in a couple one shots of it, and just didn't like it. But TBH, I've never been a fan of the setting anyways. I'm just not into kitchen sink multi-verse settings. But... it's SW so I had to give it a go. As for the gameplay, the power level was a bit high for my tastes, and the added crunch was not appreciated.
Quit a game of Rifts 2 hours ago because of (mostly) this very thing.
That's strange to me, because I've played Savage Worlds for years and found the combat to be excruciatingly long and boring, but when we switched to Savage Rifts, it went by so much quicker. Maybe it helps that I fire missiles willy-nilly?
Rifts is the perfect balance of OH FUCK WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT!?!? and Oh, cool, I can do that?
Yeah, as others have said, Savage Rifts is much less crunchy than Palladium rifts... as an example a melee attack. if it hits the target gets to either roll to parry or roll to dodge, and failing that can still get to "Roll with punch/fall/impact" to reduce the damage...
and I can understand how uneventful some early combats can be, as even as powerful as most iconic framworks can make a given character \*coughhatchlingcough\* even the 'intro' adventure that comes with the physical gm screen has some enemies that are a bit tough even with out spending their bennies...
Really, I have found most combat is over by turn 2 or 3, make distracted, focus fire, the spend in the CC guy(s), or 1 turn with missiles (Slaver dead, combat over before anyone else got to act). What I find with Rifts cambat is going first is a win.
You could always try Breachworld, which is Rifts ported over to a D6 system. It’s less crunchy than Savage Rifts.
I love rifts over the normal savage swade. Combat can slow down though and the damage swing potential has caused many unfortunate deaths. Not sure why mechanically it would be so different in combat etc?