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As far as Rifts World Books go, this World Supplement for Rifts is average in it's style and presentation. However, I find it worthwhile to get if your Campaign is including or is going to include Atlantis.

What it really does is expand on a peculiar aspect of the culture of Rifts® Atlantis and why a Rifts character can get anything they want there.

The Good

From a World Building Perspective, I found the book to be a gem. It intergrates nicely into the Rifts® setting with little problems. It's not a disappointment in that regard.

The book really turns Splynn into a Cosmopolitan, if evil and corrupt, place. It also makes Atlantis the First World Nation of the Rifts® World, as the city of Splynn is a Commodities Market for the Rich and Priviledged of the so called "Megaverse."

It's description of commodity merchants at the beginning really makes Splynn come alive. In the book several merchants, their shops, and what they sell, be it a commodity, good, or service, are described in detail. It also expands on the various goods, slaves, and commodities traded in Splynn. Among the things players can attempt to get is a Were-Dragon slave, a choice of new Symbiotes and Parasites, new weapons that uses Faeries as a power source, and new Kittani equipment.

The Bad

From a buyer's perspective, the book is not economical to get. Problems arise in the beginning when you get to the various descriptions of what to buy. I hated the fact that the book referenced the player to many different world books (12, I believe), in order to use the full value of the book. Unless you have these books, like Rifts®: Africa, or Rifts®: South America, you won't be able to get the full value out of this book. And these books aren't always what you need for your personal Rifts Campaign.

Still, with a little imagination, you can fill in the holes with some adjustment. For example, the Cat Market, one can create his own supernatural cat races and have them up for sale. Another example is the Bone Merchant, if you don't have Rifts Africa, you can fill in the holes with the Bone Merchant passing along another quest. And so on, and so forth.

You can even create your own market places for the Splynn Dimensional Market. You can have your own regular, semi-regular, and transient merchants.

The Ugly

The Ugliest thing about this supplement is it's power level. I.e. if you are looking to play a moderate or low-level powered campaign with this book, you would definitely make some major changes.

First of all, the Scope of the book is WAY TO HIGH for these types of games. To adjust it perfectly, you have to take out all the demons who frequent the marketplace and remove Zeus' Influence with the Liberated Underground (who needs the LU when Zeus and White Raven are around to take care of things). You also have to populate it with just aliens. But for Power Gamers and Munchkins, the Scope of the setting is perfect.

Overall

Overall, I find the book to be useful in my personal campaign, and GMs will also find the book useful if they are running a campaign in Atlantis, or are looking for new ideas for building their own exotic bazzars for their games. For GMs who are running in Rifts in places other than Atlantis and it's sphere of influence, buying it would be a waste of money.

Style: 3 (Average)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Rifts world Book 21: Splynn Dimensional Market
Author: Mark Sumimoto Category: game Company/Publisher: Palladium Books, inc. Line: RIFTS® Cost: $20.95 Page count: 192 ISBN: 1-57457-027-7 SKU: 836 Capsule Review by Elton Robb on 11/26/99. Genre tags: Fantasy Science_fiction Post-apocalypse	As far as Rifts World Books go, this World Supplement for Rifts is average in it's style and presentation. However, I find it worthwhile to get if your Campaign is including or is going to include Atlantis. What it really does is expand on a peculiar aspect of the culture of Rifts® Atlantis and why a Rifts character can get anything they want there. The Good From a World Building Perspective, I found the book to be a gem. It intergrates nicely into the Rifts® setting with little problems. It's not a disappointment in that regard. The book really turns Splynn into a Cosmopolitan, if evil and corrupt, place. It also makes Atlantis the First World Nation of the Rifts® World, as the city of Splynn is a Commodities Market for the Rich and Priviledged of the so called "Megaverse." It's description of commodity merchants at the beginning really makes Splynn come alive. In the book several merchants, their shops, and what they sell, be it a commodity, good, or service, are described in detail. It also expands on the various goods, slaves, and commodities traded in Splynn. Among the things players can attempt to get is a Were-Dragon slave, a choice of new Symbiotes and Parasites, new weapons that uses Faeries as a power source, and new Kittani equipment. The Bad From a buyer's perspective, the book is not economical to get. Problems arise in the beginning when you get to the various descriptions of what to buy. I hated the fact that the book referenced the player to many different world books (12, I believe), in order to use the full value of the book. Unless you have these books, like Rifts®: Africa, or Rifts®: South America, you won't be able to get the full value out of this book. And these books aren't always what you need for your personal Rifts Campaign. Still, with a little imagination, you can fill in the holes with some adjustment. For example, the Cat Market, one can create his own supernatural cat races and have them up for sale. Another example is the Bone Merchant, if you don't have Rifts Africa, you can fill in the holes with the Bone Merchant passing along another quest. And so on, and so forth. You can even create your own market places for the Splynn Dimensional Market. You can have your own regular, semi-regular, and transient merchants. The Ugly The Ugliest thing about this supplement is it's power level. I.e. if you are looking to play a moderate or low-level powered campaign with this book, you would definitely make some major changes. First of all, the Scope of the book is WAY TO HIGH for these types of games. To adjust it perfectly, you have to take out all the demons who frequent the marketplace and remove Zeus' Influence with the Liberated Underground (who needs the LU when Zeus and White Raven are around to take care of things). You also have to populate it with just aliens. But for Power Gamers and Munchkins, the Scope of the setting is perfect. Overall Overall, I find the book to be useful in my personal campaign, and GMs will also find the book useful if they are running a campaign in Atlantis, or are looking for new ideas for building their own exotic bazzars for their games. For GMs who are running in Rifts in places other than Atlantis and it's sphere of influence, buying it would be a waste of money. Style: 3 (Average) Substance: 4 (Meaty)

Rifts world Book 21: Splynn Dimensional Market