The Rifter, in general, is a series of sourcebooks published by Palladium Books to support their lines of role-playing games. Contributions are garnered from full-time writers, freelancers, and Palladium fans to contribute to the growth of Palladium’s “Megaverse”.
The series itself is a good idea coming from one of the giants of the role-playing game industry. For years, players have customized rules, created new game mechanics and offered up interesting new takes on RPG classics. However, nobody knows these fantastic creations. I find the Rifter the best way to submit ideas for the Palladium line of games and to have those works published and recognized.
Rifter 15 is the (duh) 15th in the line of series. This issue contains support for the Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game, Heroes Unlimited, Nightbane, and RIFTS, arguably their 4 most popular games.
Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game
Cut-out of the Eastern Territories world book, Steve Edwards provides some official PFRPG knightly orders based out of the Domain of Man. The orders are divided by political lines and reside in either the North or the South. Southern orders are the traditional knights of old, born into the position of power they hold. The Northern orders are champions of chivalry, earning their titles by deed alone. Each order is described with their crest, who the “Grand Master” or grand knight is, their complement, where their stronghold or “commanderie” is located, and how a character or N.P.C. can become a knight of the order. Each order of knights is also given special bonuses depending on their training; some have combat bonuses, some have skill bonuses, and some have special perks. The description details their role as an Order and their history and triumphs (or downfalls).
Richard Thomassen presents Blade Law, optional rules for handling and treating rune weapons in the fantasy setting. The “Book of Blade Law” presents several spells that were created by ancient Elves in an attempt to control the rising rune weapon threat presented by the Dwarves, during the time of the Elf-Dwarf war. Seventeen spells were created to control and stem the affect these rune weapons had on the Elves. These spells are not recommended for everyday casting as Richard mentions, but could ultimately become the subject of an adventure.
Heroes Unlimited
James Cannon presents some thoughts for fleshing out world creation for the Heroes Unlimited environment. He mentions some things to keep in mind while fleshing out the world you plan to use for your Heroes campaign, including culture, technology, and magic.
Nightbane
Brain Fry is a drug-dealing, criminal organization run by psychics brought to us by David Haendler. The source material for this new force includes the Brain Fry Ganger O.C.C., a powerful psychic thug. The Brain Fry group pass out designer drugs including the multi-purpose drug, burner-6 that unleashes psychic powers on those that are fortunate to survive it’s deadly side effects. Included as well are the high-level members of group.
Various authors also contribute 14(!) new Morphus tables for your Nightbane character to use and abuse. Some are excellent, like the Undead, Unusual Blood, Aura, and Alien Appendages. Others, are well, odd. Pasta? Several new mundane and elite talents are added to the list of Nightbane powers as well.
RIFTS
For the fan of RIFTS, Ted Dimitry presents four new top-secret Coalition States cyborgs, and the project they’re being constructed under, ”Operation Ironskull”. The cyborgs come complete with stats for all you techno-RIFTS fans.
The under-exposed Shifter O.C.C. is the focus of the submission by Alex Miller with a couple of new Shifter variants and some new magic spells for Shifters, including two new Spells of Legend. The Traveller O.C.C. is a Shifter whose focus is to use their shifting ability in order to explore and encounter new civilizations. The Seneschal O.C.C. is a shifter focused on enslaving supernatural beings or allying themselves in a link with another supernatural being.
Fan fiction abounds with a part one of a piece by Paul Sillanpää, entitled “One Chance in a Million” and Chapter 15 of “The Hammer of the Forge”, by James Cannon.
Other Stuff
Kevin Siembieda posts some notes about the Palladium production schedule and some explanations why things are later than he’d like.
The News & Coming Attractions details the up and coming titles and when they’re due to come out ... It’s funny that they put the schedule of upcoming releases right beside the column by Kevin indicating why things will be late :-).
We’re treated to a sneak preview of the After the Bomb RPG (based upon the old TMNT RPG post-apocalyptic setting), which I’m eagerly looking forward to.
Rodney Stott and Shawn Merrow present some answers to some fan questions.
Conclusion
A very intense and very loaded Rifter, one definitely for the collection. Personally, I’m not a fan of the fan fiction or techno-RIFTS submissions, but the material presented is excellent.
The reason for the average rating for the style is because, as with standard Palladium production, it’s soft-cover and black-and-white. Not a bad thing, because it’s easy to read and you don’t feel bad when you drip your Psi-Cola on it - plus, it keeps the cost down. However, the soft cover does make the book a little less wear resistant especially when you’re stuffing it into your game bag on top of you’re old gym socks ... ew.
The meaty rating for content is simply that. There’s a lot of meat in there, for only a 112-page book. I'm a big fan of new mechanics and source material, and this issue has a lot. I'm not such a fan of the fiction and game master tools sections, but that's okay, there's some folks who do and there's some of that for you too.
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(Due to spamming, old forum discussions are no linked.)