Product Description
Not exactly a Second Edition, because most of the rules will remain unchanged, Rifts Ultimate Edition is expanded and improved. There will be more world information, tips on how to use the time-line and World Books, rewrites on O.C.C.s, and in some cases, expansions of and more details on O.C.C.s such as the Headhunter, Mercenaries, the Techno-Wizard and Shifter, as well as a few new O.C.C.s. Our goal is to make Rifts® more exciting and compelling than ever, while at the same time making the rules better organized, clearer and easier to use. The wonder and infinite possibilities of Rifts® all brought to pulse-pounding life like never before. Of course, there will be a few fun changes and additions, but nothing so dramatic as to make the 40+ available sourcebooks obsolete. Approximately 30 unique Occupational and Racial Character Classes, including Cyber-Knights, cyborgs, Glitter Boys, Psi-Stalkers, Dog Boys (mutant humanoid dogs), Juicers, Crazies, Techno-Wizards, Ley Line Walkers, Mystics, Shifters, Elemental Fusionists, Mind Melters, and many others. Supernatural and magical creatures, like dragons, available as player characters, others are horrifying menaces from the Rifts. Bionics and cybernetics offer a vast range of mechanical augmentation, meanwhile chemical enhancement (Juicers) and brain implants (Crazies) can turn a human into a superman, though with tragic results. Psychic powers are the source of the Burster, Mind Melter and Mystics abilities. Strange forms of magic are at the command of characters like the Ley Line Walker, Shifter, Elemental Fusionist, Rifter and Techno-Wizard (who combine magic and technology). Super-technology with Mega-DamageTM body armor, energy weapons, rail guns, power armor, and human augmentation. The Coalition States. Humankind's salvation, or its own worst nightmare? Character sheets. Color end sheets by John Zeleznik. New artwork and color pages throughout. Written and created by Kevin Siembieda.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 53 reviews)

Excellent Version of Rifts

Just a quick review of this version of rifts. I think that it is very good indeed and I have been running it since it came out, I have to say that it improves on the original game in so many ways it defies description. Many of the changes are small but they have far reaching consequences. However there are two bug bears...as the old DM used to say. The magic system is unbalanced and completely ridiculous there are spells that should be first level and cost almost nothing which are considered powerful (shape bones) and there are lots of spells in the first few levels (agony is a good example) that are completely overpowered instantly incapacitating an opponent and spelling his doom.

Secondly the thing where you have to flick here there and everywhere when someone goes up a level to check what plus he has gained on melee and and some where completely different for what he has gained for another aspect of combat is quick frankly these days (in the time of WOD and AD&D 3.5 etc) farcical. However if you are experienced you can get past these things and then you can basically have any type of adventure ranging from horror (Event Horizon style or otherwise) to Roadwarrior style or any japanese manga inbetween and ultimately there is no other game that can do this with as much style as this one.

Overall I wouldn't have given it 4 stars if I didn't think you should buy it. Buy it now!

October 04, 2008

Kaylec

I used to play Rifts way back when it first came out in High School, I became disillusioned with the out of balance characters and over the top MDC system and sought out more physics friendly games. After all this time, I've decided to return to my role playing roots, mainly because too much realism isn't fun anymore, and that imbalance is good. I haven't read the entrie book yet, but a few negative things that are different from the original, everyone seems a lot faster in combat now, at least 2 more attacks for everybody, and then there are the mdc rules. If you have armor with 1 mdc left and are hit by a weapon causing 1 or 100,000,000,000 mdc damage you still live, you just lose your armor?!?!?! Okay, that's simple enough, I'll just pretend I didn't read that rule, and go by the old system. Also, all of the body armor has now undergone massive upgrades, the urban warrior armor used to be 50 mdc total, now it's 212 MDC?!?!? I don't know if the original book had it misprinted, but that's a serious change for the same armor. I always thought the enemies in Rifts had way too much armor and firepower, maybe this is their way of giving the players a fighting chance....but then the bad guys get some of these benefits too, so it doesn't even out. Again, I'll have to do some more reading, I'll try all of the new changes except the unlimited 1 mdc armor rule, that's just crazy. If the new body armor is just too imbalanced, I can always use the main body as the overall mdc of the armor. Despite these oddities, the book is well laid out, more streamlined and extra stuff from other books are added that should have been in the book in the first place. The few items that were removed aren't sorely missed. I realize you can't have a book with everything in it. It would have been 5 stars, but it's not a perfect gaming system, but that's what makes it good. I wanted imbalance again, and boy I sure got it.
February 08, 2008

A great game, still going strong...

The Rifts role playing game was first published in 1990 and has been continuously published since then in spite of changes in the hobby, the economy and various business oriented road bumps suffered by the company. As of the writing of this review there are a large number of books concerning all aspects of the Rifts game and background information about the game world.

Rifts is a science fiction game that incorporates elements of fantasy and a post apocalyptic future world. One of its premier strengths is the variety of opportunites for different kinds of adventure and fun.

Why Rifts?
1) Consistency: This game, though improving continuously, has maintained the same rule set, the same level of editting and the same high quality material since its inception. Under the guidance of the games creator, Rifts has maintained the same direction since day one while so many other games find it necessary to reinvent themselves every few years.
2) Completeness: Though there is infinite room for individual creativity, the author has provided us with broadstroke background information, ever growing back story for the world, and detailed information about the lands and peoples of the Rifts world.
3) Value: In an age of super-expensive games, Palladium Book has kept its prices fair and accessible to all. Unlike some of its competitors you never have to fear for wasting your money on a book simply to discover it is devoid of useful information.

Obviously this book is necessary when playing Rifts... Additionally I would suggest the "Rifts Game Master Guide" as well as the "Rifts Book of Magic" and the "Rifts Adventure Guide". With these four books in hand you have all you need to not just play the game but plan your next purchases in an intelligent fashion.
December 26, 2007

Could have been so much better

I've played Palladium games since I was first introduced to the system in 1986 by way of the Robotech RPG. I was one of the first adopters of the original Rifts in 1990, and followed the line fanatically and faithfully for many years. I'm no stranger to Palladium products. As they say, familiarity breeds contempt, so I lost my enthusiasm for Palladium products and stayed away for several years. When I heard about a new edition of Rifts, the hype was enough to bring me back.

Big Ol' Overview

As you may have guessed by now (the title may have been a hint), this is a review of Rifts Ultimate Edition, the latest version of Palladiumbooks' most popular RPG. Occasionally in my review, I'll save a few keystrokes by abbreviating references to Rifts Ultimate Edition as "RUE."

The first thing I'll get out of the way in this review is the debate on whether this is genuinely a new edition of the game or not. In my opinion, it is. There are many drastic changes in the rules, and the timeline has been advanced almost 10 years from the original starting point of the old Rifts rule book. "Ultimate" is code for second edition. Keep that in mind.

The presentation is a mixed bag. There are two versions of the book. One is a collectors' or "Gold" edition and the other one is the regular version. The only differences between the two variants are the covers and the prices. The regular version has an art cover and is $33.95 US MSRP, while the "Gold" version has a leatherette cover and is $70.00 US MSRP. The book itself is 376 pages long with simple double column text. There are also 3 color plate sections of 8 pages each spaced evenly through the book. Art is generally placed well, common enough to break things up, but not so common as to feel obtrusive. The book feels durable whatever cover variant you have, and my copies have already endured a LOT of page flipping with no sign of stress. However, most formatting looks like it was done by tab spacing in Word. Charts are not offset and placed in actual formatted charts, for example. They are simply absorbed as part of the text and look like large paragraphs.

To continue with the bad, errors abound in the book. Many of these are typos which existed in text copied from the 15 year old first edition of the book. There's at least one instance of columns being randomly switched around, and many errors have the appearance of being things which were overlooked while cutting and pasting from other sources. I have to say the sheer number of errors ranks as the highest I've seen in an RPG product, and I have a collection of between 600 and 700 RPG products. It really gives the whole thing an amateurish instead of "Ultimate" feel. However, I should note that while a multitude of blunders exist, the editors made sure that every trademark and registered trademark symbol is in place. For instance, the Glitter Boy Pilot character class (a character type devoted to piloting a legendary suit of mechanized power armor) may not get the skill to pilot their power armor, but the editors made damn sure to let the reader know that "Glitter Boy" is trademarked by Palladiumbooks, and every use of the word Rifts has a registered trademark symbol next to it. It's nice to see what was considered important in the editing and proofreading process.

Then there's the overall organization of the book. The big picture of the organization can be summarized as: Setting, Characters, Kewl Powers, Enemies, Equipment, and finally Rules. This, I suppose, makes enough sense. However, the book frequently references terms you would not know unless you were already familiar with Rifts (much like this review probably does, but hopefully not as prevalent). Some things are buried in places which might make sense but aren't where you'd actually expect them to be. Reading and referencing the book becomes a sort of hunting exercise. This is especially true when reading it straight through, as nearly every game concept and mechanic is hurled at the reader before the idea (usually expressed as abbreviation) is explained or defined.

An omnipresent huckster atmosphere permeates the book. Every character class description features one or more blurbs to run out and buy some Palladiumbooks product or other. The Elemental Fusionist class is itself a sort of advertisement for an upcoming Rifts video game, and the book lacks some of the class's basic spells in order to direct the reader to purchase a Palladiumbooks product called Book of Magic. Then there is a sort of "catalog" of all Rifts products which takes up 3 pages near the end of the book, explaining why you should buy all of them. To top it all off, the book also features a 2 page color advertisement for the upcoming Nokia Rifts video game, a Palladiumbooks mail order form, and back cover blurbs for other Palladiumbooks games. It's excessive by any measure you care to use.

Oh, and here's a note for old timers who get the book. The advertising blurbs said this book would be 95% new. That's technically true. The book is about 95% different from the old Rifts corebook, but it isn't because of brand new writing. Nearly everything in RUE can be traced to another Palladiumbooks product where it was cut & pasted from. This is good if you aren't a completist, as RUE has now absorbed updates from dozens of books worth of material. If you are a completist, this may not seem too cool. Nevertheless, it does turn out to be something of a benefit to have all that stuff concentrated in this brand new corebook rather than scattered over a zillion other books.

The question now is how do I proceed with the rest of this review? I think I'll take a cue from Kevin Siembieda himself, the author of Rifts Ultimate. In one of his designer's notes he says the most important things in RPGs are, in order of priority, characters, followed by a setting for them to romp in for continuing adventures, and finally a rule system to accommodate their actions. Let's see how the rest of the review goes following those same criteria.

Characters

Once again, in RUE, Kevin Siembieda says that characters are the most important thing about a RPG. He certainly attempts to deliver on that. Characters are randomly generated and class based, but there are a wide variety (30 or so) of character types to choose from.

Rifts has a little bit of everything. There are knights, hard-bitten mercenaries, combat cyborgs, mecha pilots, Indiana Jones types, cyberpunks, wilderness rangers, spell casters, magic device technicians, psionics, and even freakin' DRAGONS. I'm going to get completely subjective here. If you can't find a character template you want from all that, something is wrong! The character section is probably the best section of the RUE book.

While parts of character generation are random, random roll seldom restricts a player from the class they'd like to play, as requirements are fairly low, but it can happen. Plus, players get to pick from a large list of skills and selectable powers to customize their characters.

Buried in this section is a note by the author about how Rifts is perfectly balanced and playtested. While he defends his sentiment by saying that balanced does not mean equal, I can't say I agree with his application of the statement. While some classes have their particular niche protected, and are indeed balanced against others in different ways, there are some areas where things just aren't developed very well. For instance, the Robot Pilot O.C.C. is no better at piloting a robot than some other character who happens to choose the skills, and is, in many ways, worse than other character options for piloting robots. Then there are characters like the Rogue Scientist and Rogue Scholar. Where does one niche end and the other begin? Some classes have tons of fluff text describing them and numerous bonuses and special abilities while others get tiny descriptions and nearly no perks for their job choice. It seems a bit unbalanced to me.

If anything, the one thing that unmitigatedly mucks up making characters is the author's admitted equation of time spent making a character to character depth. Characters in Rifts take a long time to roll and write up. My playtesters took about an hour per character. There are a few other glitches as well, the major examples of which are references to cybernetics when cybernetics are not defined in the text and references to equipment like robotic horses which aren't in the book.

In the final analysis, I think this section deserves a rave. You get tons of character templates and a decent degree of customizability. There are definitely some problems with how the characters are balanced against each other, and the previously mentioned pervasiveness of advertising is troublesome. Overall though, I think it's pretty fair to say that the sheer variety in the selection of characters definitely delivers on the promise of characters as the most important and detailed element of the game.

Setting

The book describes its default setting by comparing it to the two movies Nightmare on Elm Street and The Day After Tomorrow crossed together. I don't think that's a very good way to summarize it. I'd compare it to Road Warrior crossed with Hellraiser crossed with Fist of the North Star crossed with Robotech, but that may be just me. The point is that the world of Rifts is our Earth transformed by a magic cataclysm of cosmic proportions. It has become a world of high powered technology and unbelievable supernatural power. Magic lines of energy crisscross the planet, and where they intersect they form nexus points where periodic Rifts to other dimensions form. Creatures that can only be called Demons roam the earth. It's a pretty bad situation all around.

The setting is presented as a sort of geography lesson where each location on the globe is given a brief mention, and some flavor text is provided for that spot. North America is the campaign focus, but Germany is a land where high tech wars against gargoyles, Russia is a land of warring cyborgs, Mexico is packed with wall to wall vampires, etc. It's a sketchy picture of the world. I think it promotes creativity and ideas.

Of course, the major part of the setting are the BAD GUYS. In Rifts Ultimate, these baddies are the Coalition States. They're modeled after Nazi Germany and the Empire from Star Wars. They're a nation of human supremacists who rule a large swath of North America from the Great Lakes to Texas. They wage a genocidal war against all that isn't human or whoever uses magic. They don't bother asking if you're naughty or nice, and they're generally oppressive. In fact, they've just concluded a horrible war against a magic using kingdom in Minnesota where they razed the city to the ground, killed civilians, and operated death camps.

Nice guys, eh?

That's about it for the setting. Here is as good a place as any to note that RUE makes a big deal of all the demons and supernatural creatures in the world, but then provides nearly no guidelines for these beings. Well, I guess you could buy another book...

Other than that, I found the setting to be a fun sounding place to adventure. I'd be lying if I said it didn't make me want to play.

Rules

Most RPGers have a passing familiarity with the Palladium system which Rifts uses. The Palladium system is a sort of aged Advanced Dungeons & Dragons first edition derivative. Like AD&D1, combat is handled by d20 rolls and hit point mechanics. Non-combat skills are percentile based with increasing scores based on character level. There's also a crude d20 plus modifiers against a difficulty mechanic which is used for Saving Throws and Perception checks. There are also somewhat modular rules for magic, psionics, and mecha. The idea being that any Palladium games which need these subsystems will just plug them in. Rifts uses all the subsystems.

The combat engine is where the Palladium system really shines. While non-combat abilities are given percentiles and merely glossed over, combat is given a baroque grandeur. Not only are there multiple combat styles and a multitude of bonuses to stack, but there are tons of boosting skills and powers which can be combined in nearly limitless numbers to create the combat monster of your heart's desire. In combat all characters have multiple actions and the whole thing is simulated blow by blow with every parry, feint, and evasion accounted for mechanically through an opposed d20 roll system.

Rifts gets a lot of flak for having a little thing called M.D.C., or Mega-Damage Capacity. It represents a sort of higher hit point scale. Each point of M.D.C. represents about 100 points of regular damage. This makes M.D.C. very powerful, and Rifts is a world where a lot of power gets thrown around. Characters without M.D.C. armor and weapons at their disposal won't last long.

This leads to one of the funnier rules in Rifts, something I call the "G.I. Joe Rule." This rule states that when a character is wearing M.D.C. armor, the armor will protect him (or her) completely from whatever final blast destroys the armor. So, if my character's armor has 3 M.D.C. and is hit by a 21 M.D.C. inflicting plasma blast, then my character's armor is destroyed but the character is otherwise unharmed. This is regardless of the amount of damage done. This presents situations where characters wearing tattered body armor can be struck directly by city devastating nuclear bombs and merely end up nude.

There are numerous WTF?? type moments like that throughout the Rifts rules. There are also numerous sections which are really unclear. And, to be perfectly fair, there are numerous parts which work just fine. Overall, I found the Palladium system to work, but the GM has to be willing to house rule on the fly. The system itself is a definite fixer upper opportunity. The best way to phrase it is to say that chunks are "broken" out of the box, but they can be fixed up through a bit of effort. Some people will want to do that. I'm fairly sure that most don't. So, on this point, RUE sort of falls on it's face.

For old timers, I'll say that lots of stuff has changed, really too many things to get into here. For a short list of things which are different in RUE from what they used to be:

* Low attributes now impose penalties, but grant characters bonuses to other attributes
* PPE from being near a ley line or nexus has changed
* Damage and effects from Magic or Psionics being used near a ley line or nexus has changed
* the modern weapons rules have been completely revised (replaced by the version in Splicers)
* Magic casting times are defined as 1 action for low level spells, 2 actions for mid level spells, and 3 actions for high level spells
* Many classes have been updated with material from later sourcebooks
* the dragons are all new and all different
* etc.

Play Test and Final Notes

I've done several play tests of the game since I purchased it, with two different groups.

As mentioned earlier, the designer's notes state Kevin Siembieda equates the amount of time spent creating a character to the depth of that character. While I don't agree with that sentiment, he has definitely designed his game system with the goal of lengthy character creation in mind. I made clear in my introduction, I don't consider myself a Palladium newbie. It still took about an hour per character made. Most of this time was spent selecting from the vast array of skills available and cross referencing the book.

In play, the rules work well enough. They get things done. Combat always takes a considerable amount of time. The big thing here is that the book says "Use Common Sense." Those of you who have played more than one RPG know that's code for "You're going to house rule a lot."

The Palladium system is a house-ruler's dream. It is practically unplayable without house ruling. It's a fixer-upper opportunity. There's no way around it. If you're a tinkerer, you will absolutely be in love. If you aren't mechanically inclined, or you're anal (like me) you're going to have some blood pressure problems.

Mainly, there are rough areas in Combat. Some examples would really have helped. (In fact, the old edition DID have a combat example, but the new one lacks it.) Some other questions are: When do you roll a skill check? What skills can substitute for others in a pinch? The GM is given some very minor guidelines and has to wing it for the rest.

When all is said and done, I'm a tinkerer, and I like taking a framework and running with it. So Rifts Ultimate gives me what I need, complete with a focus on mechanics and fiddly bits. Rifts is enjoyable for someone who wants to dig and and do some work. Still, I'm going to give RUE a pretty disappointing review.

The poor organization of the book and all the errors really hurt it, not to mention the all pervasive advertising vibe. Someone not only has to wade through this thing and try to figure out what's up, but they'll have to reference it in play. Both are made more difficult than they should be. I'm going to give it a "1 - Unintelligible " for Style. I feel that's the only fair thing to do on that point. Despite the slick hardcover and some nice art, the book just wasn't polished and was presented poorly overall. The whole thing exudes a lack of professionalism and, in many ways, smacks of being a quickly thrown together first draft.

I want to give the book a "4 - Meaty" for Substance, but I find I can't. While the book offers a springboard to tons of ideas, it really doesn't provide much help implementing those ideas. You really have to dig and do your own work to realize things as a playable game due not only to the poor organization, but also poorly explained elements. The biggest lack of gamer guidance is represented by those demons the text talks about having overrun the world but which are conspicuously absent from the book. At least the original edition had a couple of monsters and a quick roll table to generate demonic bad guys. Now the explicit instruction is, "Buy a supplement for that!" Still, for those who take the effort, it will be a gold-mine. So, I'll just knock the Substance down to a "3 - Average".

There you have it. I recommend the book if you're a tinkerer looking for a framework to start from. Style is "1" while Substance is "3" with a provision that you may find much more than those marks if you dig deeply enough. Quite frankly, it's a poor book with some really good stuff you need a shovel to get to.
November 19, 2007

HELP! Palladium is in TROUBLE!

I'm writing this as another way of raising awareness on Palladiums troubles.
Due to internal treachery Palladium books has recently been taken for close to a million dollars. Not a sum easily absorbed by a publisher of RPG's. The very definition of niche.
At any rate YOU CAN HELP.
GO TO PALLADIUMBOOKS.COM there you will find information on what has happened and how to help.
Please.
If you love Rifts or any other of Palladiums games as much as I do HELP ME SAVE THEM FROM CLOSING THEIR DOORS FOR GOOD!
July 03, 2006

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

Rifts: Game Master Guide (Rifts)
by Kevin Siembieda, Bill Coffin

Rifts World Book 2: Atlantis
by Kevin Siembieda

Rifts Conversion Book 1
by Kevin Siembieda, Kevin Long
by Michael Gustovich

Rifts Mercenaries: A Giant Sourcebook for Rifts
by C. J. Carella, Kevin Siembieda

Rifts: Book of Magic (Rifts Rpg Ser)
by Kevin Siembieda