Rifts/YMMV

• Broken Base: Between the Fandom, the Fan Dumb and the Hate Dumb complaints by those who don't play it, the constant calls of Ruined FOREVER following any new Sourcebook, rules change, the rules not changing for decades, or Canon Defilement (perceived or real)...and the occasional (rare) rational disagreement over an issue related to the game or setting...the Rifts fanbase has split more times than a sequoia's root system.
  • Feeling cold? Hop on over to rpg.net and post anything about Palladium games. The ensuing flame wars will heat your home for months.
  • The Palladium forums, though, are pretty tame, partly due to strict moderation. (The Fanwork Ban, one of the bigger sources of flamethrower fuel elsewhere, is fully supported and obeyed here.)
• Complete Monster: Many of the principal villains, both literal monsters and humans, fall into this trope.
  • While the Angel of Death and Alistair Dunscon are complete monsters, they have their moments of sympathy in their backstories, Yahuar Huacac the Blood Weeper is practically the epitome of evil and insanity, wanting to rule a continent of the undead where no living thing can survive.
• Draco in Leather Pants: For all the atrocities they commit, the Coalition can be surprisingly easy to sympathize with. After all, the vast majority of the world's problems actually are caused by magic and/or creatures from other dimensions. If it weren't for their zero tolerance policies and ceaseless propaganda, they would easily come off as The Federation.
• Freud Was Right: Some of the robots have... interesting weapon placements.
• Game Breaker: If the character you are playing doesn't break the game in some way, shape, or form, you're doing it wrong. Oddly, although they're really just a Mighty Glacier class writ very large, the Glitter Boys get all the heat for this trope.
  • The Cosmo Knight, however, is simply ridiculous.
    • And the Godling makes the Cosmo-Knight look sane.
      • And the Elder Magelord makes the Godling look like a wimp. First session with one of these, I tore apart a Glitter Boy with my bare hands.
  • Power Levels aside, the Carpet of Adhesion spell is broken because there is effectively no saving throw. If you're caught in the carpet, you're stuck. That's it, no way out.
• Magnificent Bastard: a standard villain or Anti-Villain trope in Rifts
  • Karl Prosek, Emperor of the Coalition, is this merged with Complete Monster, Not to mention his son Joseph, who if anything is worse.
• Memetic Mutation: MOAR MEGADAMAGE!
• Misaimed Fandom: The Coalition States provokes arguments about this: some hold they cannot possibly be good, others note that integration is effectively impossible so they just might be what they claim.
  • Draco in Leather Pants can sometimes result; because they wear cool armor and are indisputably Badass, some people think the Coalition are awesome, and minimize or ignore the evil and atrocities they commit.
    • Or, worse still, glorify the evil and atrocities. This may stem from the fact that, while the Coalition want to commit genocide on every non-human on Earth, many non-humans on Earth actually are evil.
      • Along with What Measure Is a Non-Human? for the vast majority that isn't evil.
• Nightmare Fuel: Some of the things done by Alien Intelligences, Atlantis, Dark Mages, Cults, Evil Gods, Mad Scientists, and the various versions of The Empire are often damned sick and horrifying even by RPG standards!
  • There's some stuff, like the Soul Harvesters (guess what they do) from Psyscape, which is so disturbing that the book has a disclaimer right before that section warning off folks with timid sensibilities.
  • The artwork and concepts of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse in the Africa world book.
  • The mutants in Madhaven. Their freaky appearance is bad enough until you remember that they're all descended from humans.
• Protection From Editors: More like "Kevin doesn't hire any editors," leading to occasional Rouge Angles of Satin, Author Filibusters and playtest anecdotes filling up space in the books.