The 12 Days of Rifts-mas: Rifts-mas Eve!

The first Rifts book was always a special part of my game collection. This is a book I could open that unlocks infinite possibilities and adventures. I have only felt that with a handful of games over the last few decades. The original BX red and cyan D&D books were one. Star Frontiers was another. The original Vampire: The Masquerade was another. These are special games where once you crack open the book, you enter another world.

Rifts feels awesome. It is a cultural milestone and an equal of any comic-book universe. This carried science fiction gaming through the 1990s, with Star Wars d6 on the other side. Traveller was floundering with Megatraveller. Star Frontiers, Gamma World, Star Trek roleplaying, and Space Opera were mainly dead. Battletech held its own, but more as a tabletop game. Shadowrun and Cyberpunk were technically science fiction, but still very close to today. There was also Space Master, and GURPS did science fiction.

But Rifts captured imaginations.

I could open up that book at any time during the last few decades and get lost in infinite possibilities.

We have grown jaded and cynical about science fiction over the last 10 to 20 years. Gone is the infinite hope for the future of Star Trek, and the new series are simply current issues that the creator of the series never intended the show's ideals to reflect. Star Trek is now a mindless action movie franchise, and the cerebral elements are gone.

Star Wars has fallen.

All the other science fiction has hardened its heart and become jaded about any hope for the future.

Rifts is a darker future, almost a horror game about unchecked power. We see the beginning of infinite power with AI and the lure of using it for ourselves. AI is like nuclear power: everywhere in its infancy and discovered to be a future terror unless severely reigned in. Rifts reflects a world of infinite personal power, terrors from beyond, unlocked realities, unchecked personal power, and the world to come. It reflects the darkness inside us when we try to turn the clock back and control reality, and how brutal and heartless we must become to maintain control.

The Rifts game is a warning.

We can peer into the world of Rifts like a kaleidoscope and see a billion possible futures.

We can see a world shattered.

We can see the legacy of infinite power.

But in contrast to all of our science fiction, the Rifts universe still depends on its characters to stand for something. That alignment system, the best in gaming, is still around when other games are walking away from the concept of alignment. The Palladium alignment system lays out the rules of how your character acts, their ideals, who they would save, and if they would sacrifice themselves.

In a world that could lose its soul to the pursuit of power, the power of righteous goodness is what stands in the way.

Those characters who stand for something make all the difference in the world.

And through that simple system of alignment, the game holds a mirror to us.

Who are we in this moment?

What do we stand for?

Who am I?

Tonight, step outside and look at the same stars that guided the Wise Men to Bethlehem.

Tomorrow, I hope the joy of the day, meant for the world to know peace and love, visits you.

Merry Christmas.