Board game at the 2012 Open House

[Scott Gibbons]

I'm starting this thread for anyone who played the Rifts-based board game at the Open House this year/2012 (I brought an earlier, less developed version to the '10 POH, so that is why I'm distinguishing the year) or who has questions about it. Specifically what I'm looking for is your feedback on what you thought of the game, what Character won when you played (not necessarily the last man standing), which Character was your favorite & why, suggestions for what other characters you'd like to see introduced, what you thought of the rules (both clarity and mechanics), thoughts on the Cards of Fate, etc. For those who didn't get a chance to play it or weren't at the OH this year feel free to chime in with thoughts and questions as well.

Some background: I originally started work on Rifts: Battlefield (its newest working title) about six and a half years ago. At the time I was GM for a fairly small group that could only meet about once a month. Due to the size of the group & the nature of the campaign if even one person couldn't make the session we couldn't play. After a stretch of several months of real life interfering with our fun I started looking for alternative things we could do. Thus began an off-and-on quest that has led to this point.

As it stands Rifts: Battlefield is my personal effort to develop something fun to do when real life interferes with the chance to role play. I'd never thought it would become something I'd share outside my own little gaming circle until several years back when I saw an Open House report about how a PB freelancer (I think it was Carmen Bellaire, but I could be wrong) brought a board game he'd made. That opened my eyes a bit and made me think that, if I could ever get a chance to go to an OH I would ask PB if I could bring my board game. 2010 rolled around, the stars aligned and the rest, as they say, is history.

To answer some of the most frequent questions - Rifts: Battlefield is an independently developed board game not based on any other board game. It is player-vs-player, but winning is based on accumulating experience points, not necessarily being the last man standing. Average play time is 1 to 2 hours, with 1 & 1/2 seeming to be the norm. As closely as possible I've tried to mirror the rules & feel of the actual RPG. I am definitely open to suggestions as well as criticisms of the game.

Most frequent question - am I trying to sell Rifts: Battlefield to PB and/or get them to produce it?

This is a complicated and somewhat loaded question, so I'll try to be as forthright and transparent as I can. As I stated above I began development on the game as a lark, just something to address a need of my game group. I built it to be as close a representation of the Rifts RPG as I could - as such I personally consider it to already be owned by Palladium Books and Kevin Siembieda. Would I be excited if PB were to take it and make it one of their products? I would be absolutely thrilled! But if they never do I would not be disappointed nor disillusioned. I consider it an honor that Kevin allowed me (twice) to bring it to an OH and have been deeply humbled and gratified by the wonderful responses to my humble effort. I love Rifts and all the other wonderful games PB produces and I'm thrilled to have been a part of bringing enjoyment to peoples lives. Just as I did at the last Open House I left one of the copies of the game for PB to use as they see fit. To my knowledge Wayne has played (and liked it) but Kevin has not. Whether he eventually does or not, I leave that entirely up to him. Kevin is a wonderful man going through an incredibly difficult time (as are all the PB staff and freelancers both wonderful and generous), so if he never gets around to playing the game I will still consider myself to be lucky to have met him and had his influence in my life.

Of course, if PB did decide to publish Rifts: Battlefield and offer me gobs of money for it, I wouldn't turn them down. After all, I'd just turn around & buy more PB stuff!

So I hope that the above answers your questions, piques your interest and prompts your response. Thank you to everyone who has supported me (especially my wonderful wife!). Game on!

[kevarin]

well my experience with the rifts battlefield board game was good. the rules were easy to understand the char sheets gave you all the information for your char and were clear and to the point. start up is easy and game play is fast and fun ( got to love those fumble cards)

i managed to be in games ranging from 2 players to 6 and had fun in all of them

i played all the chars but the juicer and thought the chars were pretty even with there pros and cons

char i liked the best power armor pilot , second was the ley line walker,


in all i for one would love to see palladium make a version of this game and managed to catch Kevin alone for a few min sunday morning and mentioned it while talking to him i really hope he gets a few min to try this game out i think once he does he will be hooked


ps. if you need any play testers i could find a home for one of these game boards

[kevarin]

forgot i was last person standing with the power armor and glitter boy lost on points tho and almost won with the shifter.

only won one game and that was with the cs soldier but several of the games i was in stooped early when people had to go join other games they had signed up for

i liked the power armor pilot because it had a good mix of mdc, speed, and damage and had that last gasp option when you lost the armor and got the pilot to play

[keir451]

I only played it once, but I had a lot of fun doing so. I played the CS soldier and technically won by default as we stopped early to go listen to Kevin. At the time I had the most points (230 exp.) but I probably would've lost out to the GB and the PA pilot.
The rules were easy to understand and the critical hit and failure cards were fun and amusing.
If you'd had an extra copy I would've been willing to buy it off of you!

[Scott Gibbons]

Kevarin & Keir451,

Thanks for the input and compliments. I was tempted to ask Kevin if he'd like to put one copy of the game up in the auction, but that would have meant not going home with one myself! It would have been interesting to see if people would have bid on it, and if so how much...

Anyone else want to give feedback? I'm especially interested in which character classes won and any interesting anecdotes from your games. I'll even share one of my own - I took a copy of the game on Saturday evening because I was spending Sunday with my brother & his family. My brother invited some friends over to play the game after the kids were in bed. After a hard fought battle it was down to the Glitter Boy and the Mercenary - it looked like the GB would win when he backed the Merc into a corner, but then a Critical Strike card was played, Rifting the Merc to the Nexus and allowing him to get away just long enough to accumulate enough EPs to win!

[The Galactus Kid]

I STILL haven't played the game yet. I wanted to do so 2 years ago, and I want to even more now. How about next time, you run a game for me and I get all the cool prizes? hahaha

[Killer Cyborg]

Kevarin & Keir451,

Thanks for the input and compliments. I was tempted to ask Kevin if he'd like to put one copy of the game up in the auction, but that would have meant not going home with one myself! It would have been interesting to see if people would have bid on it, and if so how much...

Anyone else want to give feedback? I'm especially interested in which character classes won and any interesting anecdotes from your games. I'll even share one of my own - I took a copy of the game on Saturday evening because I was spending Sunday with my brother & his family. My brother invited some friends over to play the game after the kids were in bed. After a hard fought battle it was down to the Glitter Boy and the Mercenary - it looked like the GB would win when he backed the Merc into a corner, but then a Critical Strike card was played, Rifting the Merc to the Nexus and allowing him to get away just long enough to accumulate enough EPs to win!

For those of us who haven't played the game, you might try making a YouTube video of it being played (make sure it's legal/permitted first!), along with explanation of the current rules.
That way, you'd have a larger pool of potential reviewers to draw from.

[Jorel]

That would have been a cool thing for Carmen and Wil (or anyone) to shoot at the Open House.

[Scott Gibbons]

Carmen did pass by with his camera at least once but no one was playing it at that moment. He told me he wanted to film it when people were playing it, but I have no idea if he ever got back to it (he was very busy himself the whole weekend, poor guy looked exhausted).

As for myself filming it, its an interesting idea. I'll see what I can do, but my tech skills are pretty poor so no promises.

[Jorel]

Camera on a tripod. Choose a wide angle. Anything with decent capability will be able to zoom in where needed. You can try multiple cameras/angles and I bet there are people here that would help you combine them. An audio recorder in addition the cameras to make sure what your saying gets heard.

[Prysus]

Greetings and Salutations. Send a copy to Wil Wheaton so they can play it on Table Top (YouTube series). Then you can have them go through the rules and have a video.

Okay, I know, they probably still wouldn't do it (as they're more likely to play games other people can play and buy). But I found the thought amusing (and never know). Have a great day. Farewell and safe journeys for now.

[Scott Gibbons]

Greetings and Salutations. Send a copy to Wil Wheaton so they can play it on Table Top (YouTube series). Then you can have them go through the rules and have a video.

Okay, I know, they probably still wouldn't do it (as they're more likely to play games other people can play and buy). But I found the thought amusing (and never know). Have a great day. Farewell and safe journeys for now.

I thought of that too, but I'd want to get Kevin's permission first and somehow I think he'd want to play it himself first...

[Scott Gibbons]

I got to play this twice while I was there. Great game both times. Overall, everything seemed nicely balanced.

My conocerns:

1) I think the Juicer bleeds out too quickly. Maybe consider his burnout taking effect after his first kill. Considering that it can be up to 3 rounds before first encounter and several more before the dropping the enemy.

2) I hope you got my note about the critical strike card conflict between reflecting damage and the fusion block. For Hardcore rules lawyers, that could be a serious game halter.

Regardless, the game is just plain fun!

Glad you enjoyed!

To go in reverse order - Yes, I got your note about the card conflict. Sorry I couldn't talk with you at the time! I do agree with your thought, and in fact the same thing could be induced by one or two other of the cards as well. I've already re-drafted the card in question, so next time I go to print out the cards the change will be in place. Thanks for the feedback!

As for the Juicer - its an interesting idea and a variation on something I tried early on in the development in the game. Unfortunately, it just doesn't work. The Juicer has been the hardest of all the characters in the game to get dialed in right. You'd be surprised - I've had to play test the heck out of that thing and what I've found is a that the Juicer has a very narrow window for getting it just right. Increase his M.D.C. by as little as 10 points, and he always wins. Decrease it by 5 and he loses every time. Changing the burn out rate does the same thing.

In this case, the problem with starting the Burn Out when he's close in is that, as you may or may not have noticed in the games you played, the character pieces tend to end up congregating in one or two groups on the board. If the Juicer gets a free pass during the process of everyone getting together it ends up giving him a HUGE advantage, especially if his Burn Out doesn't start until he makes a kill. With his Auto-Dodge ability, he can remain relatively untouched until late in the game, at which point the Burn Out becomes a moot point. The Auto-Dodge also gives him an advantage in obtaining Critical Strike Cards, as he can dodge several long range attacks each turn, whereas all the other players can only dodge one (or in some cases none). It may not seem like it, but little advantages like that I've found through play testing make a huge difference in the outcome of the game.

I wish I was better at math. I've heard that there is a branch of mathematics called Game Theory that is devoted to figuring out complex problems with a large number of variables, like "if I change this character's M.D.C. by X, how will it affect the average outcome" or some such. I hear its used for all sorts of complex problems, not just games. It would be interesting to get into and would probably help refine the board game faster, but I really stink at math.

[kevarin]

since i do most of my gaming here in the pb chat rooms started thinking if there was away to play this game online .
kinda got me thinking if you numbered the hex map like they used to do in battle tech would be easier to track movement
placement of obstructions ext and playing online would be possible as long as everyone had the game.

anyway just and idea i thought i would toss in to the battlefield