Been a while. Time to start up a game again. What I'm reading right now, And planing to run is palladium. I'm really digging palladium fantasy. I ran Rifts for a few years back in the day. Really liked the system. I really didn't run it for the right group back then. Instead of running it for my close friends I could trust I ran it open with any one and every one who showed up at the shop/club he hung out at.
A game like Rifts is not the most balanced of games. By that I mean not all the classes are equal in power. Now imagine the group you are running for is a large group made up of more than one group of friends. Who are not really friends with each other.At some point the group splits into two cliques and turn on each other.
Up to this point the game was a lot of fun. And I ran things very loose with very little restrictions. Allowing players to play anything they wanted. So after almost two years of running Rifts (as well as some TMNT, Robotech and Heroes unlimited.) we had all out PC vs PC war.
After a few weeks of the fighting and infighting out of game I had enough of it. I traded in all the books for shadowrun (which was my other game at the time.)
This lead me to two conclusions. One I thought every game needed to be balanced. Thinking characters being some how balanced in power would curb character on character violence.
Second I realized I didn't have time for dealing with people I didn't enjoy running games for. From that point on I didn't run games in clubs or shops for just any one but only for close friends and family.
Now I realize that all I really needed was number two. If I run for just people I can trust my games don't need character balance.
I'm really looking forward to giving Palladium system another shot. And giving my players a lot of freedom and seeing where they take it.
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