The Galactus Kid wrote:Just a quick question, and i don't mean to be a smart ass, but what does it matter what his original intent was? Everything that has come out has his seal of approval AND has seen the work of his hand (except Manuhunter)
It's not a big deal, or rather it shouldn't be.
What happens is this:
I complain when a change (to the setting or the rules) is made.
People get offended and come out of the woodwork claiming that no actual change has been made.
For example, I personally think that the Japan book should never have been written. I think that having a significant lack of Japan is something that made Rifts Earth unique in futuristic quasi-cyberpunk settings. I got sick to death of cyber-ninjas back when Robocop III came out, and Street Samurai became a fast cliche after Shadowrun and other cyberpunk games got ahold of the idea.
Now all of that is my opinion, and I should be free to express my opinion here... just as people should be free to disagree with my opinion.
Ideally, we can all have a fun little discussion (or argument) over the quality of the book (or, in other cases, the rule/etc).
BUT it's hard to have any decent conversation when people are so eager to defend Palladium that they try to rewrite history by claiming that there has been no change.
That does nobody any good.. it only serves to waste time and bog down productive communication.
For example, YOU happen to like Rifts Japan. A lot of people do. I don't agree with that position, but I can certainly respect it.
You and I could, theoretically, chat about the book. I could point out all the many problems with the book and you could point out many of the things that you like about the book.
We could share, and learn.
This happened recently between Preacher (somebody whom I constantly disagree with) and I in a discussion about CS Armor (New Style vs. Old Style). I hate the new armor and love the original. Preacher has the opposite view.
We discussed it a bit (and likely will discuss it more) and he pointed out that the mouthpiece on the old armor looks pretty funky.
I never noticed it before, really... but I found myself agreeing with him on this aspect (though not the argument overall).
It's a nice conversation and people on both sides have a chance to learn from the other.
This would not be possible if Preacher had jumped up and claimed, "There has been no change. The CS armor is the same now as it originally was. You're just mistaken."
Same with Japan.
Maybe there's some good in that book that I'm missing... but I likely won't find out because every time the subject comes up, somebody crawls out of the woodwork to argue that there has been no change... that KS always intended for Rifts Japan to be populated, etc. etc.
And we end up arguing about whether or not the fictional character of Erin Tarn was mistaken or not, rather than spending the time on something more worthwhile.
And it was the same with the old "Two Attacks For Living" rule...
I say "Why was there a change?"
Somebody says, "There wasn't a change. It's always been that way."
I say "Then why does every NPC, sample character, and sample combat in the main book ignore those two attacks?"
They say, "Because not every NPC uses the same rules for character creation that player characters do."
I point out why that's nonsense.
And we get into a prolonged debate about whether or not that rule has always existed instead of a discussion about the particular merits and flaws of that rule.
Basically, the whole "It's always been that way" nonsense disrupts and derails interesting conversations. That's how this thread started, by the way... I, in another thread, mentioned in passing Japan having changed from the original version and somebody felt the need to "call me on it".
I see it as symptomatic of the over-zealousness that some Palladium super-fans have... they feel such a strong desire to defend their favorite company that they do more damage than good.
As I said, talking to KS about things was an extremely refreshing change.
He argued that he likes Rifts Japan, and he listened why I don't like it.
Whether or not it was his original vision never came up, except for me mentioning that I prefered Japan the way it originally was (not there).
We had a nice conversation, we both (hopefully) learned something new, and we moved on to other fun conversations.
