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My image of a post apocalyptic setting is probably characterized by three main features:

Small Population - abandoned rural and urban areas

Skill Desert - Finding people who know how to do anything technical is a challenge

Dangerous Traveling - For some reason, hitting the road is dangerous. Despite the road being dangerous, people can still live along it rurally.

If you don't know, the setting for Rifts is a post nuclear war setting where the deaths of billions of people all at once resulted in portals to other universes opening up along laylines, spilling demons and aliens out, and those same portals causing environmental disasters, which together depopulated the planet.

It occurred to me that if cities were to be built anywhere, that it would be more likely that they would be built on top of a layline or places where they cross. When the Rifts opened up to demons and aliens, they would have mostly opened over very populated areas just targeted by the nuclear weapons themselves.

Long Term: For the Rifts setting to get the feel right, that final fantasy mix of high tech and low population, there needs to be something going on keeping people from connecting the infrastructure or populating heavily.

The relatively low number of military assets capable of fighting aliens would keep people huddled around them. The rifts and creatures themselves destroying most of what was left of the old infrastructure, including power plants and cities.

The impossibility of growing GMOs or getting high quality fertilizer, and the demons making it more difficult to transport anything long distance without armed escort means people will need to eat local much more often.

A colossal amount of space junk proceeding a futuristic world war could prevent satellites from being used.

A part of what the world needs in its description is how that homeostasis is maintained. I don't think it would take 100 years to repopulate and rebuild society of universities, trains, cargo ships, mining and farming all got started again. There has to be powerful forces keeping people down.

A part of it could be that a HUGE portion of the resources are being used, maybe all of the power from power plants, to make and charge the batteries that are needed to power Mega Damage lasers and Rail Guns you need to kill demons.

If the materials for those weapons aren't normally available to humans, but come from getting alien technology and materials from things that come through the Rifts, it would put a hard limit on how much armor is around, and how big an area you can protect from demons.

If there are various territorial creatures who claim vast areas of the earth, preventing humans from fixing roads or repairing rail lines. "The principality of North Dakota does not permit humans from traveling through his lands," would be a big problem.

Excellent thread – the subject is near and dear to my heart – and great posts.

One of the things that seems to never gain a shred of attention in Rifts is the absolute wreck that Earth's ecosystem must be with the massive, widespread introduction of virtually indestructible (read: MDC) creatures.

Seriously. Every wild place on Rifts Earth should be covered in alien flora and fauna unless you severely downplay the frequency of rifts opening and of things coming through them.

I'll post more stuff as I remember it, later.

Isn't a major theme of Rifts that the apocalypse is being left behind with infrastructure and population centers being rebuilt?  North America has a population somewhere in the tens of millions.

RIFTS speaks directly to the issue of MDC being the rule of law.  How villains move into towns, kill those that can oppose them and dominate the rest.  Splugorth slave raids and all that.  Yes they huddle around the guns that can keep them safe.

Then there's the Coalition, Federation of Magic, Kingsdale, Worth, etc who actively patrol their territories.  They keep baddies in check and, in the case of ChiTown, keep the population in check as well.  No schools, no art, no culture, etc.

That is exactly how it works.  Civilized places like Atlantis and Tolkeen are also high-mana centers unless you're dealing with magic-phobes like the Coalition.  Outside of those centers, there isn't much civilization to speak of, certainly not a networked one like today.

JG

Quote from: Old One Eye;719760Isn't a major theme of Rifts that the apocalypse is being left behind with infrastructure and population centers being rebuilt?  North America has a population somewhere in the tens of millions.

"Tens of millions" is pretty freaking depopulated.  Europe post-Black Death had many tens of millions of people in a smaller area than North America.

As far as cities built on laylines, wouldn't a bunch of cities be built as far away from them as possible?  Look, if the San Andreas fault opened up apocalyptically, and California sank into the sea, the survivors sure wouldn't just shrug and move to the next fault line over.

Quote from: ForumScavenger;719686My image of a post apocalyptic setting is probably characterized by three main features:

Small Population - abandoned rural and urban areas

Skill Desert - Finding people who know how to do anything technical is a challenge

Dangerous Traveling - For some reason, hitting the road is dangerous. Despite the road being dangerous, people can still live along it rurally.

The core book, at least the original one (cover depicts a tentacle monster with hot chick honor guard) implies all of these conditions. However, the information is scattered about haphazardly. IIRC, the description of the Operator class makes the existence of the skill desert quite clear.

Consider though, that Rifts  isn't strictly post-apocalypse, but just barely post-post-apocalypse, so civilization has started to rebuild. However, the days when humanity was the uncontested dominant species are gone.

QuoteIf you don't know, the setting for Rifts is a post nuclear war setting where the deaths of billions of people all at once resulted in portals to other universes opening up along laylines, spilling demons and aliens out, and those same portals causing environmental disasters, which together depopulated the planet.

It occurred to me that if cities were to be built anywhere, that it would be more likely that they would be built on top of a layline or places where they cross. When the Rifts opened up to demons and aliens, they would have mostly opened over very populated areas just targeted by the nuclear weapons themselves.

According to the book, magic-using civilizations (e.g. Tolkeen or Atlantis) generally do build on a nexus, use the available energy, and take steps to minimize or mitigate the attendant dangers. Those civilizations which can't or won't make productive use of ley line energy (e.g. the Coalition) generally build as far away from it as they can.

QuoteLong Term: For the Rifts setting to get the feel right, that final fantasy mix of high tech and low population, there needs to be something going on keeping people from connecting the infrastructure or populating heavily.

The relatively low number of military assets capable of fighting aliens would keep people huddled around them. The rifts and creatures themselves destroying most of what was left of the old infrastructure, including power plants and cities.

The impossibility of growing GMOs or getting high quality fertilizer, and the demons making it more difficult to transport anything long distance without armed escort means people will need to eat local much more often.

This is implied here and there in the book. In my campaign, parts of what used to be rural Pennsylvania cultivated a pre-rifts genetically modified grass whence to synthesize fuel. This was a small operation by pre-rifts standards, but enough for a town full of NPCs to go Red Harvest on each other.

Keep in mind also that Rifts player characters are deliberately not reflective of the world as a whole. They're ahead of the general curve in terms of access to high tech weaponry, while at the same time not necessarily being beholden to any of the major powers of the setting. In the quasi-feudal society the book posits, this is unusual.

QuoteA colossal amount of space junk proceeding a futuristic world war could prevent satellites from being used.

IIRC the core book explicitly provides this as one explanation for why space travel and satellite communications are a no-go.

QuoteA part of what the world needs in its description is how that homeostasis is maintained. I don't think it would take 100 years to repopulate and rebuild society of universities, trains, cargo ships, mining and farming all got started again. There has to be powerful forces keeping people down.

A part of it could be that a HUGE portion of the resources are being used, maybe all of the power from power plants, to make and charge the batteries that are needed to power Mega Damage lasers and Rail Guns you need to kill demons.

If the materials for those weapons aren't normally available to humans, but come from getting alien technology and materials from things that come through the Rifts, it would put a hard limit on how much armor is around, and how big an area you can protect from demons.

Agreed, it would be nice if Palladium did a bit more of this legwork for the GM, or at least provided some good tools to make it easier.

In my own campaign, I had freelance salvage crews cannibalizing a pre-rifts maglev subway to sell the materials (superconductors, MDC alloys, etc) to armed caravans, who later sell them to the various small and middling powers of North America. This is dangerous work, so not everybody is up to it. Naturally there's a limited supply of materials in circulation.
The players only stopped to ask for directions, but they could have stuck their noses in had they wanted.

QuoteIf there are various territorial creatures who claim vast areas of the earth, preventing humans from fixing roads or repairing rail lines. "The principality of North Dakota does not permit humans from traveling through his lands," would be a big problem.

Yes. Atlantis is one example of this in the setting. Xiticix territory is probably a better example, as human travelers could conceivably try to cross it on their way from one city to another.

Quote from: Ravenswing;719802"Tens of millions" is pretty freaking depopulated.  Europe post-Black Death had many tens of millions of people in a smaller area than North America.

As far as cities built on laylines, wouldn't a bunch of cities be built as far away from them as possible?  Look, if the San Andreas fault opened up apocalyptically, and California sank into the sea, the survivors sure wouldn't just shrug and move to the next fault line over.

It depends. If you have the means to make productive use of all that magic energy and minimize the risks, building on a ley line nexus starts looking pretty good.

Realistically (yes I know that is an ironic statement for a fantasy PA setting) it would take about 50 years to be back to the early 20th century. A solid 19th century tech base with early electrical system up and running. Radios, train systems, small hydro-plants, wind power, etc. And with some high tech centers still functioning it might take less time than that. But we love the 'primitive' PA setting. We play with entropy. Things work after decades or centuries of disuse when realistically they would completely fail after only a year or even a few months of downtime. Heck, in my factory you leave a machine down for a month and it might take two maintenance guys hours to get it running. We love out techy toys.

Slightly off-topic: Is Rifts worth picking up and playing? If so, which version (Are there more than one?) and if not using the original mechanics, which substitute?

Quote from: BarefootGaijin;719855Slightly off-topic: Is Rifts worth picking up and playing? If so, which version (Are there more than one?) and if not using the original mechanics, which substitute?

I like the original honestly.

It is a pretty solid game too once you come to grips with the system. It really gives the player alot of freedom of choice in character progress.

The game though is not novice-GM friendly. You have to guess what monsters would be good opponents for a group with XYZ loadouts. In general expect to underestimate just what the PCs can dole out in damage.

Once you get the hang of it though the game rolls along fairly well. A few expansion books and things can really get crazy. Personal favorite is Rifts Underseas for opening up some interesting aquatic adventures and cetacian PCs.

If you just want one complete game though then possibly look at the After the Bomb RPG as it in its original TMNT PA setting and especially Beyond the Supernatural RPG were the foundations for Rifts. The ATB RPG though is now a standalone RPG sans most of the TMNT stuff.

Quote from: Dan Vincze;719812It depends. If you have the means to make productive use of all that magic energy and minimize the risks, building on a ley line nexus starts looking pretty good.

I didn't mean really that people were building on laylines for a benefit intentionally, but that cities would just happen to be on the nexus of the lines, because that's where river crossings, river forks, valleys, and things like that would also / could also be. On top of that, people might in general be drawn there, out of conscious / unconscious feelings of religious significance.

The layline at Jerusalem. The layline at Rome. The layline the runs along the Ohio River. The laylines that cross in Las Vegas' valley.

In that way, when the Rifts opened, they opened right on top of where most people were living.

Dan, a part of why I feel the world needs to be chopped up in the way it is, is that I think having a lot of anarchy is important in the setting. There has to be limits on how information travels and how resources and people get around.

If Frank is playing a Mind Melter, and he fries a Coalition soldier, the other Coalition troops are going to radio your position to base. A Robot flies over and spots you. A hover craft is then deployed full of robots to come and waste you. If you escape them, they just radio ahead to the next base and they send people after you. It would be worse than real life because everything flies.

The fact that you solve problems in this game with mini missiles makes me think there is some reason the CS can't just come after you. The whole idea of the CS having these boarders of claimed territory doesn't sit right with me. Are they collecting taxes or providing services to be inside those boarders? Do they have some capacity to maintain them from anything walking through? If someone gets into trouble 200 miles from Chi Town, can they just deploy a bunch of spider walkers or are they too few to spend that way?

Quote from: Omega;719863

Quote from: BarefootGaijin;719855Slightly off-topic: Is Rifts worth picking up and playing? If so, which version (Are there more than one?) and if not using the original mechanics, which substitute?

I like the original honestly.

It is a pretty solid game too once you come to grips with the system. It really gives the player alot of freedom of choice in character progress.

The game though is not novice-GM friendly. You have to guess what monsters would be good opponents for a group with XYZ loadouts. In general expect to underestimate just what the PCs can dole out in damage.

Once you get the hang of it though the game rolls along fairly well. A few expansion books and things can really get crazy. Personal favorite is Rifts Underseas for opening up some interesting aquatic adventures and cetacian PCs.

I have little to add to Omega's fine run-down:

The system is not really bad in and of itself, just abysmally presented in both writing and layout. PFRPG 1e made great use of charts for both hand-to-hand and percentile-based non-combat skills, and God only know why KS decided to do away with those somewhere along the evolution of the Palladium house system.

The game as a whole, both setting and system, requires a GM who's not afraid to step up and let the players know what's kosher and what's not. This is particularly true once you start piling on the supplements, where the power creep gets out of hand real fast.

Speaking of supplements, Rifts World Book 2: Atlantis is where the power creep really got started, but it's such an iconic piece of Rifts lore that I cannot in good conscience recommend against picking it up.

Conversion Book 1, in addition to conversion notes for other Palladium games, is a useful bestiary. Conversion Book 2 has a couple good ideas but it's mostly just stats for gods plus a Priest class. Conversion Book 3 is another bestiary, plus conversion notes.

I'd avoid the South America books, which feature both nasty power creep and horrible, poorly thought-out fluff.

Vampire Kingdoms is mandatory for games with, well, vampires, Mexico or the American Southwest. It's also got a great write-up of Ciudad Juarez as a wretched hive of scum and villainy.

England and Africa are forgettable but not guilty of power creep.

I am very, very fond of Triax & the NGR, Mindwerks and both Russia books. I also enjoyed the Underseas book. Juicer Uprising was cool for the world info and new toys, but I wasn't crazy about the adventure.

Coalition War Campaign seriously cranks up the Coalition power creep.

I can't comment on anything post-Russia becuase that's when I jumped off of the Rifts supplement treadmill.

RIFTS isn't a traditional RPG.  It defies a lot of expectations.  Character advancement, for example, is almost nonexistent. The power levels between the characters and NPCs skew wildly.  The setting itself is very much in flux.

If you are a "make it up as you go, and what the GM says goes" type of group, then RIFTS can be a lot of fun.  But it's genuinely closer to a story game than it is to, say D&D. Not that the players control the plot, but that their characters probably can't. You're along for the ride, doing what you can until you screw up royally.

Quote from: mcbobbo;720106RIFTS isn't a traditional RPG.  It defies a lot of expectations.  

I disagree, but I'm willing to see where you're going with this.

Quote from: mcbobbo;720106Character advancement, for example, is almost nonexistent.

That's just crazy talk. It's got experience levels, and skills scale with them.

Your Glitter Boy or SAMAS might not gain extra MDC, but that's a ton more "character advancement" than Traveller or even BRP.

Quote from: mcbobbo;720106The power levels between the characters and NPCs skew wildly.  

Also between PCs and PCs. Not sure what's "not traditional" with this.

Quote from: mcbobbo;720106The setting itself is very much in flux.

Also not sure what's that supposed to mean. Every good setting should change with time.

Quote from: mcbobbo;720106If you are a "make it up as you go, and what the GM says goes" type of group, then RIFTS can be a lot of fun.

Absolutely. Part of the reason I stuck with Rifts for so long is that it complemented my GMing style very well.

Well, except for character generation but that's another story.

Quote from: mcbobbo;720106But it's genuinely closer to a story game than it is to, say D&D. Not that the players control the plot, but that their characters probably can't. You're along for the ride, doing what you can until you screw up royally.

Now you're making no sense whatsoever, at least to me.

This sounds less like an intrinsic property of the game, and more like your Rifts GM's stylistic quirks.

Care to elaborate?

Two Words: Glitter Boy.

The power creep was there from the beginning, I also got off the roundabout when the Russian cyborgs came along, but it was all good as long as the party is all MDC creatures or juicers or whatever.

A Juicer, baby dragon and cosmo knight walk into a bar ...



..then fall through the floor cause it was sdc!

Quote from: The Butcher;720184That's just crazy talk. It's got experience levels, and skills scale with them.

Your Glitter Boy or SAMAS might not gain extra MDC, but that's a ton more "character advancement" than Traveller or even BRP.

Some examples:
+3% to Prowl is not meaningful. Nor are additional HPs under mega damage.
A 5th level character is not necessarily more powerful than a 1st.

It reminds me of "Whose Line is it Anyway, where the points don't matter".  If you want character advancement in RIFTS, wait for a new book to come out and reroll.

Even CRPGs have the RPG concept of a level up.

Quote from: The Butcher;720184Also between PCs and PCs. Not sure what's "not traditional" with this.

As above. A 'max level' Vagabond is inferior to a first level Dragon.  Without knowing your party, it's basically impossible to plan an adventure. You can do a sandbox, but even still the amount of fun will vary a lot based on character selection.  This is why RIFTS does not have an eqivalent to the D&D style module.  In D&D you can have rough expectations of relative character power based on level.

Quote from: The Butcher;720184Also not sure what's that supposed to mean. Every good setting should change with time.

I didn't say "changes" I said "in flux".  As in what you knew yesterday isn't true today.  Entire cities can go poof.  A new book invalidates physics or depicts a landscape changing war.  Demons appear from nowhere.  Stuff like that.  Your typical RPG is more static.

Quote from: mcbobbo;720195Some examples:
+3% to Prowl is not meaningful. Nor are additional HPs under mega damage.
A 5th level character is not necessarily more powerful than a 1st.

It reminds me of "Whose Line is it Anyway, where the points don't matter".  If you want character advancement in RIFTS, wait for a new book to come out and reroll.

Your arguments hold water if and only if your Rifts game is a succession of MDC firefights or monster melees. But there are many, many ways to play Rifts.

If you have to infiltrate the Vault at Chi-Town to recover the Greater Rune Macguffin of Awesome, the Dragon is useless and 10 percentile points with Prowl (or Surveillance Systems, or Computer Hacking) can make a huge difference.

Quote from: mcbobbo;720195Even CRPGs have the RPG concept of a level up.

So by that rationale, World of Warcraft is a "traditional RPG", and Classic Traveller isn't? Fascinating.

Quote from: mcbobbo;720195As above. A 'max level' Vagabond is inferior to a first level Dragon.  Without knowing your party, it's basically impossible to plan an adventure. You can do a sandbox, but even still the amount of fun will vary a lot based on character selection.  This is why RIFTS does not have an eqivalent to the D&D style module.  In D&D you can have rough expectations of relative character power based on level.

Different characters appeal to different players. Again, if your campaign is set in Chi-Town, the Vagabond PC will have a much easier time doing things and merely existing than the Dragon.

And even if it's a loosely knit sequence of combats in the vast unending wilderness, some people still enjoy playing characters that live by their wits rather than superior firepower.
 

Quote from: mcbobbo;720195I didn't say "changes" I said "in flux".  As in what you knew yesterday isn't true today.  Entire cities can go poof.  A new book invalidates physics or depicts a landscape changing war.  Demons appear from nowhere.  Stuff like that.  Your typical RPG is more static.

There's certainly plenty of justification for these things to happen in the setting, but really, other than the Tolkeen books (which I've skipped entirely), I don't see them happening a lot over the course of Rifts. Again, it really, really depends on how the GM's running the game.

And I still don't get what any of this has to do with Rifts not being a traditional RPG.

Quote from: ForumScavenger;719878Dan, a part of why I feel the world needs to be chopped up in the way it is, is that I think having a lot of anarchy is important in the setting. There has to be limits on how information travels and how resources and people get around.

Yes, that is necessary for the setting to make sense. So, I don't mean to be rude, but what's your point? If you're arguing that Palladium hasn't built an internally consistent setting or could do a better job of it, I'm inclined to agree.

QuoteIf Frank is playing a Mind Melter, and he fries a Coalition soldier, the other Coalition troops are going to radio your position to base. A Robot flies over and spots you. A hover craft is then deployed full of robots to come and waste you. If you escape them, they just radio ahead to the next base and they send people after you. It would be worse than real life because everything flies.

The fact that you solve problems in this game with mini missiles makes me think there is some reason the CS can't just come after you. The whole idea of the CS having these boarders of claimed territory doesn't sit right with me. Are they collecting taxes or providing services to be inside those boarders? Do they have some capacity to maintain them from anything walking through? If someone gets into trouble 200 miles from Chi Town, can they just deploy a bunch of spider walkers or are they too few to spend that way?

I've always run it as the Coalition States having just enough power to maintain order within their own borders, and even then only really in and around the fortified cities. In theory, the Coalition might claim a swath of territory and enforce the claim by force if they catch an intruder. But, that's a pretty big "if." In practice, much of that territory is a buffer zone between the Coalition and its (actual or perceived) enemies, and it's possible for those small bands of anomic weirdos we all know and love to slip through the cracks.

So, no the Coalition does not have the resources to realistically project its power hither and yon. Karl Prosek may dream of conquering Tolkeen, but he's a megalomaniac.

Granted, the official fluff (at least post-CWC) disagrees, with the CS having the means to fight a two front war and mostly win. I ignore this.

Quote from: ForumScavenger;719878Dan, a part of why I feel the world needs to be chopped up in the way it is, is that I think having a lot of anarchy is important in the setting. There has to be limits on how information travels and how resources and people get around.

If Frank is playing a Mind Melter, and he fries a Coalition soldier, the other Coalition troops are going to radio your position to base. A Robot flies over and spots you. A hover craft is then deployed full of robots to come and waste you. If you escape them, they just radio ahead to the next base and they send people after you. It would be worse than real life because everything flies.

The fact that you solve problems in this game with mini missiles makes me think there is some reason the CS can't just come after you. The whole idea of the CS having these boarders of claimed territory doesn't sit right with me. Are they collecting taxes or providing services to be inside those boarders? Do they have some capacity to maintain them from anything walking through? If someone gets into trouble 200 miles from Chi Town, can they just deploy a bunch of spider walkers or are they too few to spend that way?

One of the problems is that communications lines are limited. The rifts and active laylines make long distance communication either a problem or non-existent. There are probably areas that have been blacked out due to radiation, weird science, aliens, or even magic.

You can come up with lots of reasons why the coalition or anyone else isnt able to spread word like wildfire of trouble. That goes both ways too. Players and resistance groups are limited in how far communication lines can go before something cuts it off.

Quote from: Omega;720436One of the problems is that communications lines are limited. The rifts and active laylines make long distance communication either a problem or non-existent. There are probably areas that have been blacked out due to radiation, weird science, aliens, or even magic.

You can come up with lots of reasons why the coalition or anyone else isnt able to spread word like wildfire of trouble. That goes both ways too. Players and resistance groups are limited in how far communication lines can go before something cuts it off.

For one thing, they've specifically said that there is no GPS.  Who would put up new satellites, for one thing?

JG

Quote from: BarefootGaijin;719855Slightly off-topic: Is Rifts worth picking up and playing? If so, which version (Are there more than one?) and if not using the original mechanics, which substitute?

Yes, absolutely worth picking up. I'd suggest the original book, its still very easy to get; but if you can't find it the RIFTS Ultimate Edition (TM) is also ok.

RPGPundit

Quote from: James Gillen;720444For one thing, they've specifically said that there is no GPS.  Who would put up new satellites, for one thing?

JG

They keep trying. But there are still active killsats that zap attempts. Not sure what book that was in.

Quote from: Omega;721475They keep trying. But there are still active killsats that zap attempts. Not sure what book that was in.

They can't actually create rules for those because then they'd have to make them into an RCC.

JG

Quote from: James Gillen;721488They can't actually create rules for those because then they'd have to make them into an RCC.

JG

Don't you mean R.C.C.?  :)

Quote from: Omega;721475They keep trying. But there are still active killsats that zap attempts. Not sure what book that was in.

Mutants In Orbit. Nominally a TMNT/After The Bomb supplement with a Rifts-specific section.

Too bad they couldn't do the same to Mutants In Avalon. Far better than lame-ass Rifts England.

Not just killsats, but a counter rotating debris field created for area denial.

Quote from: Old One Eye;721613Don't you mean R.C.C.?  :)

Don't you mean R.C.C.™?

*****POSSIBLE METAPLOT SPOILERS ALERT*****
My post will discuss some metaplot topics and reveal information that you may not want to know.






After reading through this thread, let me see if I can offer some insight on what is written:

First off, the explanation of why satellites can't get to space has been mentioned in a few books.  The majority of the population of Earth do not know what is preventing leaving the atmosphere.  The main book offered theories, but I believe that was set that way because they weren't sure where they were going with it.  In Mutants in Orbit, they explain that a series of killer satellites are in orbit and containing the "earth menace" is  the one thing that all space stations collaborate on.

Yes, there is no GPS for the majority of the populace.  Advanced tech centers like Atlantis have means to compensate for it.  ARCHIE 3 does have GPS capability.  It was listed in one of the early Rifter books as official campaign material  I think it was written by Wayne or Bill.  The CS and NGR have the means of communicating long distances, but nothing intercontinental.

On the topic of power levels and role playing Rifts in general.  Well, there is no way around, there isn't an equal power level.  Some classes are far more powerful than others.  Some species are far more powerful than others, etc.  In RIFTS, you can argue why play a human when you can an Atlantean.  To that, I say why play an Atlantean, when you can play an Altess.  The beauty of RIFTS is that you can experience a whole gamut of options.  A good story will take the party composition into consideration when dealing out adversaries.  And just because you're playing a dragon, doesn't mean life is easy.  There are non combat oriented elements that will work against you.  sometimes, you'll be happy to have the human scholar to speak on your behalf.

As far as human populations go, yes there are only 10s of millions of humans left on North America, but there are millions of other mortal humanoids as well.  Part of the concept of role playing RIFTS is that humanity is not alone and we no longer are the dominant species on the planet.  

Is RIFTS worth picking up?  To that I offer this. In my experience RIFTS seem to be most enjoyed by the straight up hack and slasher who love the possible gonzo/super powered world and the hardcore roleplayer who is more into role playing the struggle of RIFTS life.

Just my $.02