As usual, Rifter 18 begins with a few pages of ads, a column by Kevin Siembieda (soliciting writers for the Rifter this time around), and a nice thick section of Frequently Asked Questions. The FAQ's contain stats for black powder weapons and a few rules concerning character aging. Nothing flashy, but well-written and useful material all around.
I am a sucker for self-deprecating humor, and in this case, Maryann Siembieda serves up a heaping helping in "What would I do with 2,000,000 CCG Cards?" As you may know, Precedence Entertainment went out of business shortly after the Rifts CCG was released, leaving Palladium with an surplus of useless cards. This article presents the winning suggestions of how to use all those cards. My favorite: a life-sized model of Chi-Town.
The real meat of this issue begins with three articles for Palladium Fantasy. Kevin Christensen introduces "Wand Magic" with useful rules for wand creation and four examples of unique wands. Nicholas Mueller gives us "The Magic of Ophid's Grasslands," a collection of 18 new spells that range from the usefully mundane (Summon Grains and Create Rope) to truly impressive (Phantom Stampede and Permafrost). I intend to use these to augment the abilities of my nomadic Centaur shamans, but they have a wide variety of uses, even to your basic Elementalists. Finally, Richard Thomassen takes to the air with "By Lance and Speed of Wing." Richard explores the skills and precautions necessary when dealing with aerial mounts, such as the Hippogriff and Pegasus. Horsemanship: Aerial and Mounted Archery are new skills available to airborne knights, and Flight: Basic and Flight: Expert define the capabilities of their mounts and monstrous foes.
The next article makes this issue of the Rifter a MUST-BUY for all Palladium GMs and players. (Yes, I know I'm shouting, but I'm very excited.) One of the most distinctive (and abused) aspects of character generation in Palladium RPGs is the ability to add skills that increase your basic attribute levels. Most of these skills are physical, such as boxing, wrestling, and weight lifting. John Charles Philpott now addresses the imbalance with "Go Mental," adding 12 optional skills and modifying 7 older skills, adding bonuses for I.Q. (Philosophy and Strategy Games), P.B. (Beautification and Image Enhancement), and M.A. (Etiquette and Socialization). Art, Meditation, and Public Speaking are among the older skills that receive stat bonus upgrades. Also, he adds 9 new Physical skills, such as Hard Labor, Ambidextrous, and Contortionism. The Running skill gets a makeover, with 5 different variants, such as Sprinting and Cross-Country. Finally, John deals with fixing the min-maxing aspects of Physical skills by suggesting level caps based on the idea of diminishing returns.
Rifts is also well represented, with Ed Sauerland providing us with three new Psychic R.C.C.s in "We're Not All Mind-Readers, You Know!" The Blaster causes things to explode, as opposed to the Burster's fire starting capabilities. (You know, someone should write a book about a little girl who can start fires with her mind. That would be sooo kewl!) The Freezer's abilities are fairly obvious, as is the Soaker's. However, both R.C.C.s have much potential for serious damage. Next, Wayne Field describes "Coalition Support Vehicles." Just as the M113 APC or the German Sdkfz 250 half-track received numerous modifications for different tasks, Wayne extrapolates similar variants for the Coalition Mark V APC, including a Mobile Kitchen and a Hazmat Recovery Vehicle. He also introduces a gunship variant for the Death's Head Transport, inspired by the AC-130. That's right: Puff the Magic Death's Head.
James M.G. Cannon delivers the next nineteenth installment of "The Hammer of the Forge." Caleb continues his search for Kassy against the opposition of the Naruni. James has a subtle touch. He highlights the damage done to innocent bystanders even as he paints a vivid combat scene. Nicely done.
Todd Yoho brings us "Fort Folsom," a thoroughly rendered post-apocalyptic community for Systems Failure. With only minor adjustments, it can be directly transferred to Rifts or Chaos Earth, along with the 10 NPCs detailed in the article. Unlike the sample NPCs offered by some authors, Todd obviously put a lot of thought into the relationships between the characters. Again, they can be used in almost any modern or post-crash Palladium game. Just remember to give them some MDC toys to play with.
For you Buffy and Angel fans out there, Mike Richardson introduces the Demon Hunter R.C.C. for Nightbane. Yes, you too can whip demonic tail, but watch out for the Dark Riders, fallen Demon Hunter NPCs. As with all Palladium character classes, conversion is quick and simple, although you will need the Nightbane book for reference.
Finally, Kevin Siembieda brings us the third installment of "Chaos Earth." Magic finally enters the world through the Line Wizard, Chaos Wizard, and Chaos Witch. Due to the recent arrival of magic, all three classes are undisciplined and inexperienced. Line Wizards are limited to Ley Line locations when performing magic. The article also includes an interesting Blue Line random effects table. When a Chaos Wizard casts a spell, there is often a random side effect, assuming the spell works at all. The Chaos Witch, however, relies on an outside demonic force to power their magic. Unfortunately, in my copy, the Chaos Witch O.C.C. is partially missing, due to a misprint.
All in all, despite the Chaos Witch glitch (I know, I just couldn't help it), this issue of the Rifter is the first one that I would absolutely recommend as a must-buy for any Palladium GM.
