The Rifter is a quarterly sourcebook/magazine produced by Palladium Books to provide a printed forum for their fans to expand their games, along with testing out ideas, off cuts from completed books, new official information, and just general stuff about what Palladium are planning. Geared primarily towards the company best seller Rifts, it also provides a valuable outlet for material on their smaller and less well supported lines such as Recon, Ninjas & Superspies, Beyond the Shadows and Nightbane.
Number 16 features a good, if Nightbane slanted, mixture without overridingly Rifts based content. In order of size…
Nightbane
The largest section in this issue is devoted to Jason Vey’s Dark Revelations, with information about the Athanatos. The Athanatos, who on the most basic level resemble angelic Nightbane, seem more keenly attuned to the battle between good and evil, to the point that the big bad guys of Nightbane are but footnotes. Full rules for the various species of Athanatos/R.C.C., the Choma (goldern winged giants) the Aeras (Cherubs) the Pyros (lanky angels) the Hydros (Humanoid Sea-Horses) the Necrosis (bat-winged demon-angels) along with the various Paths/O.C.C. they can take. Other forces of good and evil are glossed over, including their opinion and knowledge of Athanatos and the war they fight. To help set the scene is long piece of fan fiction, and a section describing Nightbane Pittsburgh and the main players from the story.
Ninjas & Superspies
Hell: Frozen Over by Erik Growen is effectively a sequel to his earlier submission Destiny’s Call from Rifter #14, once again delving into past wars and combining aspects of the mystic side of Ninjas & Superspies with real world events. This time it’s during the Chinese counter-offensive in the Korean War in the last months of 1950. If the players escape the closing noose around the US forces, they stumble upon massacred village that appears to have be attacked by flesh eating zombies… The stat side covers the skill restrictions and weaponry of the era, along with altered Battlefield Horror factor section and rules for what will quickly become an enemy greater than the Chinese or flesh eating Immortals, the incredible cold. At the end of the article is conversion information for use with Deluxe Revised Recon.
Heroes Unlimited
Teen Heroes Unlimited by Kurt Charonnier provides rules and modifications to drop the age limits of game’s character creation to make teenaged characters along with the restrictions (powers are kinda flaky, education isn’t advanced, likewise money and employment options are greatly reduced) that entails. Also included is the new Special Training category of Sidekick (a.k.a. Portable Self-Propelled Human Shield) so players can emulate Robin, in the purest sense too, as it is geared more for the non-super powered sidekick.
Rifts
Bill Coffin presents a collection of Hook, Line & Sinker Adventures that were cut from the sixth and final Coalition War book, presented in four sections covering the final stages of the Siege on Tolkeen and the initial aftermath, each with 2-3 adventures. Traitors Among Us covers the actions of a bitter traitor inside Tolkeen who opens the walls to let the Coalition troops into the city. Operation Sore Loser has Tolkeen zealots pulling spoilsport tactics that backfire for both sides. For King and Country deals with the final pull out and escape attempts of Tolkeen citizens, while Final Reckoning concentrates on the initial colonization of Minnesota by the Coalition and various instances to try and whack the High Command and Emperor Prosek himself. As a final afterthought from Kevin Siembieda is the classic “would you change history?” time travel gambit, with escaping Tolkeenites falling through a rift and landing at the feet of a young Erin Tarn in Tolkeen 40 years before the Siege.
Palladium Fantasy
Young, Dumb, and Ugly by Mark Hall expands upon the origins and motivations of the Orks, Goblins and Hob-Goblins of the Palladium Fantasy world, but mostly serves to introduce the Cobbler or Goblin Mages and their specialized magic into mix, detailing their role and place in the Goblin hierarchy.
After the Bomb
The second in a series of sneak peaks at the new things in the After the Bomb RPG, Erick Wujcik presents the full stats for the Spider-Goat. One of the Chimera, new kinds of animals created via genetic manipulation, the spider-goat is based on real world genetic engineering attempts to produce greater volumes of spider webbing via the milk of goats. The information on their various mutant spider powers (Web spinnerets, Web shooters, Spider adhesion, Spider Venom) is highly detailed, and most could be just as easily borrowed to emulate the more organic web slinger super-heroes (Spiderman: the movie/Spiderman 2099) in Heroes Unlimited.
The Rest
Kevin Siembieda speaks on his view of New York post-September 11and his intention to return to the city of so many wonderful things he’s seen in the past. The News section has info on various licensing items for Rifts such as the hype and success around the Rifts CCG (hindsight eh? The CCG has been killed not long before I write this review). Coming Attractions details upcoming books for 2002, most of the larger more detailed ones actually making it, but as always the title only list will slip, slip, slip (BTS 2ed in 2002? I’ll believe it when I see it…).
The Questions and Answers section in this issue covers a few hand to hand and ranged combat issues to do with dodging and various forms of attacks, including the classic “How does Auto-Dodge work?” chestnut. On the fan fiction front, there is chapter sixteen of the continuing Hammer of the Forge and the middle chapter of the three part One Chance in a Million.
As always the Rifter provides a solid mix of a value for money with an array of new and varied ideas, as long as you’re a Palladium gamer. That’s not to say that those who aren’t won’t find good things, but part of Rifter’s goodness is having most of the these ideas almost ready to go out of the book.
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