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While I've always been a fan of the RIFTS game, I've never been a fan of its magic system. In general, the spells are fairly limited, ideal for only one or two specific situations. They proved to be adequate for the original Palladium game, but for the most part, they have not been adapted well for RIFTS. Magic has always been a weakness for RIFTS, not one of its strengths.

I was hoping that RIFTS World Book 16: Federation of Magic would expand the magic systems of RIFTS greatly. I wasn't expecting the rules for magic to be overhauled to any great extent, but I was hoping to see new spells or new supplemental rules that could add a lot of versatility to a magic-wielding character's arsenal. Unfortunately, this didn't happen. Yes, the book contains a lot of new spells and a lot of new magic-wielding character classes. These new items also don't really add anything to the game. There are no new combat spells, for example, that do anything much differently than the combat spells in the original rulebook. The new character classes are nice, but don't offer anything wildly out of the ordinary. Quantity rather than quality seems to be the theme for this book.

To be fair, the concept of the Federation of Magic is pretty cool. One would expect the Federation of Magic, a group opposed to the evil Coaltion States, to be a group fighting for truth and justice. Instead, the Federation is led by ruthless bastards as well -- these bastards just happen to have a different agenda. However, while a good portion of the book is spent explaining the leaders of the Federation and what the goals of the Federation are, not must is spent on what player characters would encounter in the Federation -- namely, how do NPCs react to characters? Are outsiders unviersally hated, or does the Federation actively seek new members? This sort of information is never explicitly stated in the book, and this sort of information would be much more useful to a GM. Still, the background and detailed information about the Federation is well-written, and the book's main strength.

Actually, one of my biggest peeves about this book is covered right in the foreword. Palladium admits that this book doesn't cover everything that they had hoped to cover regarding the RIFTS magic system and the Federation of Magic, and promises to cover this additional material in future books. This book was published over a year ago, and there's no sign of additional Federation of Magic books in sight. I'd rather pay $25 to $30 for a good, solid sourcebook than $17 for a sourcebook that only covers new material sparsely and makes a vague promise of new material in the future.

RIFTS World Book 16: Federation of Magic comes across as a half-hearted effort. It's as though Palladium had some good, basic ideas for this sourcebook, but quickly ran out of steam during its writing efforts. Instead of giving this book the time and effort it deserved, it got published too fast. Too bad. Instead of coming out with a solid, definitive book of magic for the RIFTS game, a sourcebook that doesn't add anything innovative or original to the game came out instead. The book is okay, but unless you're using a lot of magic-wielding characters in your RIFTS campaign, it's certainly isn't necessary for a good campaign. It's a nice, boring supplement that can easily be done without.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 2 (Sparse)

RIFTS World Book 16: Federation of Magic
Author: Kevin Siembieda & Peter Murphy Category: game Company/Publisher: Palladium Books Cost: $16.95 Page count: 160 ISBN: 157457-005-6 Capsule Review by Mike Ferguson on 03/29/99. Genre tags: Fantasy Science_fiction Far_Future Post-apocalypse	While I've always been a fan of the RIFTS game, I've never been a fan of its magic system. In general, the spells are fairly limited, ideal for only one or two specific situations. They proved to be adequate for the original Palladium game, but for the most part, they have not been adapted well for RIFTS. Magic has always been a weakness for RIFTS, not one of its strengths. I was hoping that RIFTS World Book 16: Federation of Magic would expand the magic systems of RIFTS greatly. I wasn't expecting the rules for magic to be overhauled to any great extent, but I was hoping to see new spells or new supplemental rules that could add a lot of versatility to a magic-wielding character's arsenal. Unfortunately, this didn't happen. Yes, the book contains a lot of new spells and a lot of new magic-wielding character classes. These new items also don't really add anything to the game. There are no new combat spells, for example, that do anything much differently than the combat spells in the original rulebook. The new character classes are nice, but don't offer anything wildly out of the ordinary. Quantity rather than quality seems to be the theme for this book. To be fair, the concept of the Federation of Magic is pretty cool. One would expect the Federation of Magic, a group opposed to the evil Coaltion States, to be a group fighting for truth and justice. Instead, the Federation is led by ruthless bastards as well -- these bastards just happen to have a different agenda. However, while a good portion of the book is spent explaining the leaders of the Federation and what the goals of the Federation are, not must is spent on what player characters would encounter in the Federation -- namely, how do NPCs react to characters? Are outsiders unviersally hated, or does the Federation actively seek new members? This sort of information is never explicitly stated in the book, and this sort of information would be much more useful to a GM. Still, the background and detailed information about the Federation is well-written, and the book's main strength. Actually, one of my biggest peeves about this book is covered right in the foreword. Palladium admits that this book doesn't cover everything that they had hoped to cover regarding the RIFTS magic system and the Federation of Magic, and promises to cover this additional material in future books. This book was published over a year ago, and there's no sign of additional Federation of Magic books in sight. I'd rather pay $25 to $30 for a good, solid sourcebook than $17 for a sourcebook that only covers new material sparsely and makes a vague promise of new material in the future. RIFTS World Book 16: Federation of Magic comes across as a half-hearted effort. It's as though Palladium had some good, basic ideas for this sourcebook, but quickly ran out of steam during its writing efforts. Instead of giving this book the time and effort it deserved, it got published too fast. Too bad. Instead of coming out with a solid, definitive book of magic for the RIFTS game, a sourcebook that doesn't add anything innovative or original to the game came out instead. The book is okay, but unless you're using a lot of magic-wielding characters in your RIFTS campaign, it's certainly isn't necessary for a good campaign. It's a nice, boring supplement that can easily be done without. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 2 (Sparse)