Do you play MDC games but ignore MDC?

[sasha]

If you play an MDC game, do you ignore MDC?

Yes or No.

[sasha]

What motivates the choice to drop it?

[Killer Cyborg]

Nekira's Rifts/Nightbane is SDC and I've run an SDC Rifts before.

You have run SDC Rifts before... but is that how you normally do it?

[jade von delioch]

i found that you lose some of the more interesting situations in a MDC environment that you could do in SDC setting. For instance, I had a werewolf attack a group of players and unfortunately there would have been on consequence of any of the players being turned into one since if the werewolf's bite got past the character armor it would have killed him as per the rules.

[Sentinel]

When I ran Rifts, I ignored MDC.
I have used it, and found I didn't care for the system mechanic.

[jade von delioch]

i was going to do the whole conversion thing the next time i ran the game, but i decided that i will not be running rifts any more because 1) i rather not have to go though with the whole conversion thing- i'm lazy like that, and 2) out of all the games Palladium has rifts is the most unbalanced. As proof i can sum everything up in one word: Cosmo-knight. its not the only unbalance thing in rifts but its one that should never had existed.

[The Beast]

How many people here have to respond until the pool is considered big enough?

[Killer Cyborg]

i was going to do the whole conversion thing the next time i ran the game, but i decided that i will not be running rifts any more because 1) i rather not have to go though with the whole conversion thing- i'm lazy like that, and 2) out of all the games Palladium has rifts is the most unbalanced. As proof i can sum everything up in one word: Cosmo-knight. its not the only unbalance thing in rifts but its one that should never had existed.

That's from Phase World.
Don't like it, don't use it.

[Killer Cyborg]

i found that you lose some of the more interesting situations in a MDC environment that you could do in SDC setting. For instance, I had a werewolf attack a group of players and unfortunately there would have been on consequence of any of the players being turned into one since if the werewolf's bite got past the character armor it would have killed him as per the rules.

That's generally not how Werewolfism works in Palladium games anyway.

Personally, I find that the opposite is true; that you lose a lot of what's interesting about Rifts if you take away Mega-Damage.

[jade von delioch]

its not the only unbalance thing in rifts but its one that should never had existed.

As i stated there is more out there.. And i find it amazing that you can say its not rifts proper.. Sorry but it says "rifts" on the cover.

I reread the werewolf stuff: The curse of lycanthropy is apparently separate from the were-beast RCC; which kind of sucks.

[Sentinel]

i was going to do the whole conversion thing the next time i ran the game, but i decided that i will not be running rifts any more because 1) i rather not have to go though with the whole conversion thing- i'm lazy like that, and 2) out of all the games Palladium has rifts is the most unbalanced. As proof i can sum everything up in one word: Cosmo-knight. its not the only unbalance thing in rifts but its one that should never had existed.

That's from Phase World.
Don't like it, don't use it.

That's pretty much my attitude about MDC.

Personally, I find that the opposite is true; that you lose a lot of what's interesting about Rifts if you take away Mega-Damage.

For me, what's interesting about Rifts is:

The post-apocalyptic enviornment. There is a lot of room to work with here in the broken and shattered Earth of the future.

The O.C.C.s
There are a lot of interesting character archetypes, from the Rogue Scholar to the Ley Line Walker to the Juicer, to the Totem Warrior. Really, there's so much to choose from.

The game mechanic of Rifting.
Anything from across the Megaverse is fair game really.

I find that MDC is only good for blowing stuff up in a hurry, and I can do that with SDC stuff. There are high tech weapons that do a crap ton of damage in Aliens Unlimited, there are super-abilities from HU, and so on. There are miltary weapons, explosives, etc. in N&SS, and HU.

I was somewhat amused by Tim Trumans' approach in Wormwood: make everything MDC, and then, nothing is.

[sasha]

How many people here have to respond until the pool is considered big enough?

Personally, it's open ended. Just curious to see how many cast this vote.

Could be over simplified but hey...

[Armorlord]

That's generally not how Werewolfism works in Palladium games anyway.

Aye, Palladium doesn't use the stereotypical therianthropes at all.

Personally, I find that the opposite is true; that you lose a lot of what's interesting about Rifts if you take away Mega-Damage.

I couldn't imagine Rifts being Rifts without MDC, it's part of how the world works. It's like taking the meat out of a BLT, it'd be missing a main part of the flavor. Take it out and you have no excuse for any of the supernatural menaces gaining an upper hand.
Cut to Chaos Earth:
"..Demons, General! Thank God bullets still drop them! We're coordinating with police and arming every citizen we can. We may not know where they come from, but we'll drive 'em back!"
"Good work, Colonel Nelson. I almost feel sorry for the ones in the areas with more lax gun laws!"

Seriously though, if you want MDC, just play on one of the SDC worlds. Palladium Fantasy, Nightbane, Beyond the Supernatural, Ninjas & Super-Spies are all good as well.

[Sentinel]

And certainly there are simple ways to keep menacing creatures menacing.
A vampire is still threatening in SDC or MDC terms.
Other creatures might be made Impervious to normal weapons, or simply given high(er) ARs.
There are lots of ways to achieve to goal.

[The Beast]

I think the AR system is more broke than MDC.

[DhAkael]

without reading any other posts or voting; NO!
MDC is MDC, SDC is SDC.
I will occasionaly shuffle things around, but for the most part, modern high-tech and super powered magic will kill you dead dead dead dead in less than half a shot/blast/thump.
Read any David Webber, John Ringo, or David Drake novel to see MDC inaction in a non Pal-Books setting.

Quit whining you posers. You don't like MDC?, don't play with the big toys.
Simple.

[Killer Cyborg]

I think the AR system is more broke than MDC.

I agree.
This is one reason I prefer MDC over SDC in general.

[Killer Cyborg]

its not the only unbalance thing in rifts but its one that should never had existed.

As i stated there is more out there.. And i find it amazing that you can say its not rifts proper.. Sorry but it says "rifts" on the cover.

It's not Rifts proper because it's a dimension book.
Meaning, it's an entirely different dimension.
Just like PFRPG, or any other dimension in the Megaverse.

I reread the werewolf stuff: The curse of lycanthropy is apparently separate from the were-beast RCC; which kind of sucks.

I like it, because it's different.
I dislike it, because it's muddled.

[Killer Cyborg]

Personally, I find that the opposite is true; that you lose a lot of what's interesting about Rifts if you take away Mega-Damage.

For me, what's interesting about Rifts is:

The post-apocalyptic enviornment. There is a lot of room to work with here in the broken and shattered Earth of the future.

The O.C.C.s
There are a lot of interesting character archetypes, from the Rogue Scholar to the Ley Line Walker to the Juicer, to the Totem Warrior. Really, there's so much to choose from.

The game mechanic of Rifting.
Anything from across the Megaverse is fair game really.

All that's good too, but if you scrap MDC the face of the game changes.
A lot.

I find that MDC is only good for blowing stuff up in a hurry, and I can do that with SDC stuff.

Not sure what you mean by that.

I was somewhat amused by Tim Trumans' approach in Wormwood: make everything MDC, and then, nothing is.

THAT was a bad idea.

[Killer Cyborg]

And certainly there are simple ways to keep menacing creatures menacing.
A vampire is still threatening in SDC or MDC terms.
Other creatures might be made Impervious to normal weapons, or simply given high(er) ARs.
There are lots of ways to achieve to goal.

But they're MORE menacing if they're Mega-damage.

Don't get me wrong, there's a lot of good stuff you can do with SDC foes... but for the most part modern weapons are just going to snuff them.
Unless you go the route of making damn near everything impervious to everything but a handful of specific vulnerabilities (like vampires), in which case things get pretty boring pretty quick.

[Dustin Fireblade]

Going forward I'll be scrapping both MDC and changing SDC as well, using a Hit Point only system for creatures, SDC for objects. Armor Rating is also dropped.

MDC is replaced with a damage reduction/soak mechanic. Vehicles will pretty much be immune to small arms fire, while vehicle weapons will make a smear out of infantry.

[jade von delioch]

i thinking your just spliting hairs at this point cyborg.. Your trying to treat a rifts dimensional book like any non-rifts game like BTS or TMNT.

[jade von delioch]

its still splitting hairs. If we follow your logic then World books are not rifts either. As an example: China. China must not be rifts proper becuase if contains things that you would find no where else much like a dimensional book.

[The Beast]

its still splitting hairs. If we follow your logic then World books are not rifts either. As an example: China. China must not be rifts proper becuase if contains things that you would find no where else much like a dimensional book.

Well if you're gonna say that, then KC wouldn't consider most world books Rifts proper. I think it has to do with population creep.

[Killer Cyborg]

its still splitting hairs. If we follow your logic then World books are not rifts either. As an example: China. China must not be rifts proper becuase if contains things that you would find no where else much like a dimensional book.

No... Rifts: China is still on Rifts Earth, in the Rifts dimension.
Phase world?
It's only connection to the Rifts dimension is that Phase world is part of the Megaverse... just like every other dimension in Palladium's games.

[jade von delioch]

thats like saying the Ravenloft or Eberon are not D&D.. whatever, you can make up all the new terminology you want doesn't change anything. Anything with Rifts on the cover (either dimensional book, world book, or source book) still counts as rifts.



Oh, and i thought of one other thing that is broken in rifts (though there are more than just this): Credits. Theres a hole big enough to drive a Mac truck through. there are only 3 kingdoms/governmental bodies on the rifts earth that should have them- the rest of the world would use hard currency. Credits don't work well enough to be a currency without some way to inter link all the readers and such into a network either by wires on telephone poles, buried wires, or satellites.

[Armorlord]

:lol:

thats like saying the Ravenloft or Eberon are not D&D.. whatever, you can make up all the new terminology you want doesn't change anything. Anything with Rifts on the cover (either dimensional book, world book, or source book) still counts as rifts.

Technically what he's saying is closer to saying Ravenloft is not Eberron. You could bring things from one into the other, but that is at the discretion of the GM.

Oh, and i thought of one other thing that is broken in rifts (though there are more than just this): Credits. Theres a hole big enough to drive a Mac truck through. there are only 3 kingdoms/governmental bodies on the rifts earth that should have them- the rest of the world would use hard currency. Credits don't work well enough to be a currency without some way to inter link all the readers and such into a network either by wires on telephone poles, buried wires, or satellites.

That's why we carry black market trade goods and other supplies and there's a dozen different types of credits scattered around, not counting one's used by individual little kingdoms to feel more important.

[jade von delioch]

yes, but thats just trade good and two different types of creds, cs and universal. I think people would be using a more medieval style coinage- or some similar type of currency. Especially since Tech based currency can be- as we have seen people argue about on the boards- be hacked, rewritten, or fried pretty easily. one such way would be technology based psionics.

[Sentinel]

Presumably there places in Rifts North America where CS Credits are worthless.
A lot of that would have to do with what level of detail regarding Economics the GM wanted.
I like to have Credits as a simple system to determine relative value of things, but otherwise not every little town, independant kingdom, and collective village is going to honor CS Creds.

[jade von delioch]

yes, i know that; it5 was oneof the best parts of New west.

[Sentinel]

yes, i know that; it5 was oneof the best parts of New west.

New West was one of my favorite World Books. Many of my Rifts scenarios started in the New West.

[jade von delioch]

Realism sacrificed for game-play.

it amazing how often people say that without thinking. if that was true shadowrun would not the koolest setting every with all its setting info, history, other such support so you don't end up with Mac truck sized holes.

[Killer Cyborg]

:lol:

thats like saying the Ravenloft or Eberon are not D&D..

Only if "D&D" was a single dimension, which it isn't.

[Killer Cyborg]

i forgot that heavy time rifts players tend to be munchkins and don't understand game balance

Dude, you're the one claiming that Cosmo Knights are a standard part of the Rifts setting.
So enjoy your extra drafty glass house.

[Armorlord]

Black market credits are the closest to being universal, Universal works in the handful of major cities that choose to acknowledge it, and CS credits are primarily good in the CS, gold is the standard in the west, credits and non-precious coinage are worthless in any village and many small kingdoms. Individual merchants in the some town will vary as to what payment's they'll accept, and the occasional 'money changer' who is basically engaged in private money futures speculation. Most trade between cultures is in solid goods. Before the 'universal' credit, those kingdoms each used their own credit system, and many more distant kingdoms still would. And that's just the former United States. Past that there's Free Quebec after the split, the Vampire Kingdom Credit (people), etc. Having the 'right' kind of pay is a major concern for my more 'world traveling' players.

[bigbobsr6000]

Personally, I find that the opposite is true; that you lose a lot of what's interesting about Rifts if you take away Mega-Damage.

I agree . I have played a normal SDC human either a Merc or Ley Line Walker usually. My PCs have never been killed. When the MDC armor/protection got low I would leave battle. I enjoy coming up with creative ways to survive in a MDC envirnoment as a SDC human.

Most my players usually have SDC PCs when I GM or low MDC PCs. And reading some of my posts you see I can be a "deadly" GM . They come up with ideas that don't result in battles or know when it is time to cut and run.

Taking MDC out of Rifts, to me, really degrades the intent and the fun of the game.

Big Bob..............................

[Sentinel]

Taking MDC out of Rifts, to me, really degrades the intent and the fun of the game.

So I've heard, but really, keeping to SDC in Rifts has not impacted the level of lethality for me, with everything else in scale.
It can be just as deadly as a high-end HU game (and add in Aliens Unlimited for even more hi-tech goodness), and a little moreso with the large numbers of things to threaten players (hordes of vampires or gargoyles, stampedes of dinosaurs, etc).

[bigbobsr6000]

It's all just a roll of the dice.

[Killer Cyborg]

Taking MDC out of Rifts, to me, really degrades the intent and the fun of the game.

So I've heard, but really, keeping to SDC in Rifts has not impacted the level of lethality for me, with everything else in scale.
It can be just as deadly as a high-end HU game (and add in Aliens Unlimited for even more hi-tech goodness), and a little moreso with the large numbers of things to threaten players (hordes of vampires or gargoyles, stampedes of dinosaurs, etc).

Lethality isn't the only intent of the game.
Part of it is to explore a world where technology has gotten vastly out of hand, where an average handgun can level a building.

I don't know what measures you took to eliminate Mega-Damage, but if you just dropped all MDC to SDC at a 1:1 conversion, that changes a hell of a lot.
Suddenly you need a Boom Gun to take out a Juicer, for example.
Unless you nerf the Juicer too, in which case now that class has lost a lot of it's badassery.
Not to mention the issue that an M-16 is just as good as a super-high-tech laser rifle under that kind of conversion.

If you just nerfed Mega-Damage down to x10 SDC instead of x100, that isn't so bad. It's still super-deadly for SDC characters, but there's a lot less chance of leveling a building if you get into a shootout inside.
And Juicers face something of the same issue.
With MD, Juicers are so unbelievably badass that they might survive a single shot from a Wilk's 320 pistol.
Nerfed down to x10 SDC, and the weakest Juicer is likely to survive 3-4 blasts from that weapon. The strongest Juicer is likely to survive 10 or more shots.

The only way you could really keep the flavor of the game would be to convert MD to SDC at the same ratio it is now; 1 MD becomes 100 SDC.
Which would seem pretty pointless.

[Sentinel]

I don't know what measures you took to eliminate Mega-Damage, but if you just dropped all MDC to SDC at a 1:1 conversion, that changes a hell of a lot.

A few of my measures included:

Adding a Constant Damage modifier (+5, +8, +10, etc depending on weapon size) to energy weapons, and providing certain advantages to e-beams (like ignoring A.R. and PV, while standard conventional weapons still had to abide by A.R. and P.V.).
Use of special abilities from HU, such as Energy Reistance and Impact Resistance which provide additional layers of constant numerical protection to creatures that are "resistant to" or "impervious to" normal weapons.
Using the greater values of dice-of-damage from books like Aliens Unlimited.
And, re-scaling and re-evaluating base damage from the majority of weapons because they weren't scaled well to begin with.

Suddenly you need a Boom Gun to take out a Juicer, for example.

No more difficult than taking down a super-soldier in HUII, really.
The majority of characters are themselves going to benefit and suffer evenly from this. Now if the player group is all Adventurers and Scholars, then yes, a Juicer is a serious threat, but if the party is made of Cyber-Knights, Borgs, Crazies, and yes Juicers as well, then all is "equal", more or less.

Not to mention the issue that an M-16 is just as good as a super-high-tech laser rifle under that kind of conversion.

Finding ammunition was a lot harder in my campaign, because no one was manufacturing it anymore. Besides, lasers also had better range and ammo capacity.

[Wōdwulf Seaxaning]

Personally I'd prefer SDC in RIFTS.I'd just up the SDC for certain creatures or add immunities to certain weapons.I'd also come up with my own enconomic system for the game.Jade has a point on that subject.Since he's my friend in the real world I'm not going to get involved with his argument with KC.Both have valid points & I disagree with BOTH on some of the subjects raised.
Sgt. Leo MacKenzie CSA Commando

[bigbobsr6000]

If your armor is destroyed in ANY of the RPGs, you are subject to be killed.

MDC armor gone in MDC setting can get killed.
SDC armor gone in SDC setting can get killed.

It doesn't matter if I am in 100 MDC armor and I get hit with 100MD damage. Or if I am in 100 SDC armor and I get hit with 100SD damage, the result is the same. Armor gone, next hit will probably kill me or do serious damage.

Another example: I am a SDC creature and I get hit with 1MD. Dead.
I am a 100 SDC/HPs creature and I get hit with 100SD. Dead.

All this MDC/SDC/HP stuff is just numbers that the end result is the same, they go to zero or below, character is dead. The formula for getting to zero just varies from setting to setting. Mostly, if not all, the time decided by a roll of the dice.

It is just a matter of preference as to how one wants to play it. I'm all for anyone doing things different in their settings. In fantasy RPG all things and no things are possible.

Enjoy however you want to do it, I know I do.

[bigbobsr6000]

My main point I was trying to convey, it doesn't matter how your armor gets to zero. Once there, the character can be killed in any RPG. Sorry if I didn't explain that clearly. Gettin' on in years.

In the case of AR, if the rolls to hit keep going under the AR, the armor takes the damage. Again I roll under the 100SDC armor's AR and hit with a whopping 100 SD, the armor is gone. The only difference I see in the AR SDC armor system it just may take a little longer to destroy the armor than MDC armor being hit in a similar manner to take it down to zero. I have played/GM just about every RPG since the 1970's in all of them, armor gone, can get killed. Some are more lethal than others. Some take longer to destroy armor than others. And I know another melee or two with intact armor can make a big difference in the eventual out come of the battle at hand.

Still it is all number crunching and dice rolling. The important thing is that the GM and gamers have fun and enjoy the game sessions. To keep it from becoming "Roll-Playing" and keeping it role-playing can be a challange sometimes.

Anyway, thanks for your input and Good Gaming to all.

Big Bob......................

[SkyeFyre]

I leave MDC as is. I find it a rather nice game mechanic to be honest. Nothing says you better know how to roleplay and be able to think and plan and work as a team than "That pistol can level a building".

[sasha]

MDC started out as an interesting idea but its execution over time has been severely flawed and poorly implemented.

I'd agree.

But I don't think overcoming anything you said is not difficult.

It's pretty easy to make it so that MD is rare and that shooting holes in a door whether with a laster pistol or a M-249 doesn't actually destroy the door.

[The Beast]

I leave MDC as is. I find it a rather nice game mechanic to be honest. Nothing says you better know how to roleplay and be able to think and plan and work as a team than "That pistol can level a building".

Except that pistol can't unless it's some super shanty town...and given the distribution of MD weapons & armor versus everything else, you're far more likely to be running into situations where your pistol is nothing to people. The application of how MDC works makes no sense and that's what bugs me about it. A pistol, for example, shoots a 3d6 shot. Ok, sounds lovely...we'll even say you're shooting at a door with 50 SDC. By all rights and respects according to the system that door is gone. It suffers, at bare minimum, 600% of its durability. The problem lies in the description of the weapons and the pictures drawn of them. Sure you just punched a hole in the door...no argument there. However, unless that pistol's beam is a 6'x3' spread, the door is still very much there even though by the MD mechanics it shouldn't be.

Uh, I'd just have the door with a very large (and possibly still slowly expanding) hole in it and whatever's on the other side of it taking all the damage. (Coincidently just like description of the door on page 10 of the RMB, under Inanimate Objects)

[Killer Cyborg]

I leave MDC as is. I find it a rather nice game mechanic to be honest. Nothing says you better know how to roleplay and be able to think and plan and work as a team than "That pistol can level a building".

Except that pistol can't unless it's some super shanty town...and given the distribution of MD weapons & armor versus everything else, you're far more likely to be running into situations where your pistol is nothing to people.

Most places are still SDC, and most people have little to no MD capability.
It's not that there's not a lot of SDC people and places in Rifts, it's that there's not many of them in Rifts Books.

The application of how MDC works makes no sense and that's what bugs me about it. A pistol, for example, shoots a 3d6 shot. Ok, sounds lovely...we'll even say you're shooting at a door with 50 SDC. By all rights and respects according to the system that door is gone. It suffers, at bare minimum, 600% of its durability. The problem lies in the description of the weapons and the pictures drawn of them. Sure you just punched a hole in the door...no argument there. However, unless that pistol's beam is a 6'x3' spread, the door is still very much there even though by the MD mechanics it shouldn't be.

An average MD energy pistol is described as leaving holes "the size of a volleyball" in SDC structures.
An average MD energy rifle is described as leaving holes "the size of a basketball."

So that gives you an idea of the effect it would have on a door.

(Of course, that's only mentioned in SB1, and it's the type of thing that could use a heck of a lot more elaboration.
So I don't entirely disagree with you in this.)

The thing is, the same problems apply just as well to SDC.
An Armor Piercing bullet that does 1d6x10 SDC (or 6d6 SDC even) can easily take up half the SDC value of a door, but realistically one AP round isn't going to actually blow away half a door.
This is addressed in the books, in one of the sections talking about common sense, by stating that shooting a door full of bullets just puts a lot of bulllet-holes in the door.
The same thing would apply with MD weapons and doors. The only difference being that MD weapons leave bigger holes.

Before you even start on the whole "MD items should be rare", that might have been a good argument back when there were only 4 world books. Now it's maybe 1 SDC weapon for every 30 MDC weapons in the books and the world is saturated with MD equipment. You can't spit without hitting them and it has long since ceased to be the exception and is now very much the rule. There's nothing impressive about MD technology if everyone has it from the mightiest of empires to some shanty town on the Mexican border.

The books are saturated, the world is not.
Not unless your GM chooses to saturate the world with mega-damage, in which case it's not the fault of the writers.
(Well, not entirely. I've been griping for years that they need to focus a lot more on the SDC aspects of the setting, simply to cut back on power creep).
This is covered pretty well in the Adventure Guide, although I forget the page numbers.

MDC started out as an interesting idea but its execution over time has been severely flawed and poorly implemented.

Again, I don't entirely disagree.
There's too much over-representation of mega-damage in the books, too much stuff that's mega-damage when it shouldn't be, and there's been an incredible lack of explanation for how the physics of it works.
For example, a question I've had since the main book is, "If you fire a Wilk's 320 laser pistol at the ground, what happens?"
Does it leave a 1,000' hole in the ground? A 500' hole? How wide?
Or does it make a bigger crater that's a lot shallower?

It's the kind of thing that's important to know in order to truly understand what's going on in a mega-damage firefight, because all those stray shots are ending up somewhere.

But like some of the other posters who responded to you, I simply don't think that it's that tough to keep things in check.

[SkyeFyre]

I leave MDC as is. I find it a rather nice game mechanic to be honest. Nothing says you better know how to roleplay and be able to think and plan and work as a team than "That pistol can level a building".

Except that pistol can't unless it's some super shanty town...and given the distribution of MD weapons & armor versus everything else, you're far more likely to be running into situations where your pistol is nothing to people. The application of how MDC works makes no sense and that's what bugs me about it. A pistol, for example, shoots a 3d6 shot. Ok, sounds lovely...we'll even say you're shooting at a door with 50 SDC. By all rights and respects according to the system that door is gone. It suffers, at bare minimum, 600% of its durability. The problem lies in the description of the weapons and the pictures drawn of them. Sure you just punched a hole in the door...no argument there. However, unless that pistol's beam is a 6'x3' spread, the door is still very much there even though by the MD mechanics it shouldn't be.

Before you even start on the whole "MD items should be rare", that might have been a good argument back when there were only 4 world books. Now it's maybe 1 SDC weapon for every 30 MDC weapons in the books and the world is saturated with MD equipment. You can't spit without hitting them and it has long since ceased to be the exception and is now very much the rule. There's nothing impressive about MD technology if everyone has it from the mightiest of empires to some shanty town on the Mexican border.

MDC started out as an interesting idea but its execution over time has been severely flawed and poorly implemented.

The same can be said about SDC... it's the fact that it's a point system... period, that makes it difficult to represent things properly. That's why KS says to use common sense in your games.

In my games, MDC is rare. Why is there more MDC than SDC in the books? I don't know, I've honestly wondered that myself but then I think about it. We see SDC stuff all the time. We're already familiar with it. We don't need countless worldbooks and source books to tell us that this and this and this and this exist. When my players go to a gun shop or look to buy armor, the first book I hand them is my Compendium of Contemporary Weapons. If they want that super high tech stuff, they can try and find themselves a black market dealer, or if they're extremely freaking lucky, an outlet.

You might say I house ruled things, you might say I just stuck with the original vision, whatever you say, the problem is with how GMs protray MDC tech. This is my opinion and I'm entitled to it. I use almost all of the MDC tech from the books, and you can ask my players, things are still pleasantly SDC. I've had everything from Wilk's to Naruni pass through my games, and ya know what happens? The players like it because they have variety. "Hey! When we actually deal with a demon, or some high tech bandits or something I'm so going to love trying this baby out!, but for now, I'm not wasting my ammo" ... why? because it's rare. My players all have their favorite distributors. Heck, even the Coalition still uses SDC firearms if there's no point in going nuts.

Having MDC in a lot of books makes for variety, not for quantity. The GM does that. I do agree that I'd like to see more SDC stuff in the books, but I don't see anything wrong with MDC tech.

[SkyeFyre]

Never once did I say you weren't entitled to your opinion, however I am also entitled to mine and I find MDC to be a faulty mechanic that does no good to Rifts given its presentation.

My apologies. I didn't mean to come off as attacking. Just wanted to state that it was an opinion because some forumers tend to forget that a lot of what is said is opinion. Nothing personal or direct.

[Killer Cyborg]

Never once did I say you weren't entitled to your opinion, however I am also entitled to mine and I find MDC to be a faulty mechanic that does no good to Rifts given its presentation.

Of course.