Book Reviews

Rifts RPG: The quintessential book. When I got it so long ago, I was hooked to the Rifts universe. But I really don't use many of the O.C.C.s anymore, or many of the weapons (except for the NG-P7 Particle Beam Rifle). After this book, power levels escalate, so much that entire books must be devoted to making the original O.C.C.s or groups stronger (Coalition War Campaign, Juicer Uprising, and Cyber-Knights come to mind; what should they have next, Neo Glitter Boys? Oh, I forgot: Triax, Republic of Japan...) However, some OCCs I do still use: Mystic (even though it was sort of rendered semi-useless by Mystic Knights), the traditional Ley Line Walker, Techno-Wizard, Headhunter, and Glitter Boy. Shifters don't interest me that much. Overall Rating: 9.5; for it's time, it was good.

Rifts Sourcebook: The IAR-2 Abolisher is pretty cool, and the robot creation guidelines are good (although the ones in Heroes Unlimited are better). Archie is pretty cool, although increasingly outclassed. Some of the bizarre Northern Gun products were interesting. Besides that, not much of note (I also like the Lord Fromoleus). Overall Rating: 8.5. It claimed to be a sourcebook, it was a sourcebook.

Rifts Sourcebook Two: The Mechanoids: I personally liked the Mechanoids. But it is hard to do a campaign of them. The little quests they mention are pretty generic and not that useful. Overall Rating: 7.0. Glitzy, but not too easy to use.

Rifts Sourcebook Three: Mindwerks: Damn, I love this book. Cool robots, awesome psynetics, more info on the Gargoyles, and the Mobile Infantry Strike Base. The Kingdom of Tarnow was a little cheesy, but I liked the Tarnow Crystal. Overall Rating: 8.8. Useful in European campaigns.

Rifts Sourcebook Four: The Coalition Navy: I have yet to get this book.

Rifts Conversion Book: You probably all have it; this was one of the other essential products. I loved Conversion Book, but many of the creatures appear quite weak now. I personally would have opted for a MUCH stronger Minotaur, personally. Oh well; I'll just steal a page from Palladium's book and make a hitherto-unknown species of Minotaur known as Ultra Minotaur. However, the Warlock is one of my favorite magic classes; in fact, given the P.P.E. costs for several of the spells (Earthquake costs 50!), I'd say they are quite cheap and are probably one of the few early classes to need toning down. Overall Rating: 9.5. It's absolutely essential.

Rifts Conversion Book Two: Pantheons of the Megaverse: This wasn't a bad little book. If you knew where to look, you could probably farm about 10 or 20 campaigns. Regrettably, you have to know where to look. Frankly, this book just makes you want to generate a super-powered campaign, meaning it's a little book all of it's own. It's worth it to buy, mainly because you can use the statistics for the gods in a few rare instances, but besides that, get Japan, Phase World, and so on first. Overall Rating: 7.5; more interesting than Mechanoids, but even harder to use.

Rifts World Book One: Vampire Kingdoms: Vampires remain strong; in fact, they're one of the few groups to remain powerful. The descriptions of the various vampire cities, Reid's Rangers, and a few other things were interesting. Most everything else was hit-and-miss. Overall Rating: 8.0.

Rifts World Book Two: Atlantis: This is probably one of the best books of the series. Many interesting races, cool symbiotes, interesting power armor, and fairly intriguing storyline. The Sunaj story was interesting, but I found the Metzla to be quite unfair. A race where the average M.D.C. is in the thousands?! The Splugorth are one of my favorites: conniving supernatural cheats. The rampant distrust of handsome races appears to be quite against the concept of Splynn being a free market, although I did find it realistic. Overall Rating: 9.0.

Rifts World Book Three: England: This was a mediocre book. The Millenium Trees were cool, some of the Druids were interesting niche players, the Temporal magic was interesting (although remarkably devoid of combat magic, and remarkably underpopulated in general), but the Arthurian thing was cheesy. They pulled an interesting twist, but it still didn't quite work. I'd personally like to make a REAL Arthurian kingdom and then have Mrrlyn and Merlin battle it out. Overall Rating: 7.0. About as easy to use as Mechanoids.

Rifts World Book Four: Africa: Badass Horseman. I'd say it's worth it to get this book for the Horseman alone. Besides that, there isn't a lot interesting. A pretty good amount of continent data, some okay D-Bees, but most of the O.C.C.s were stupid (the Rain Maker is my one exception, due to the 20 M.D. per level lightning bolt; I'd like to see more of that kind of magic). Personally, I liked the spells, but there were too few of them. These Medicine Men and Rain Makers protect against the African Witches (which I liked, by the way) and the Pheonix Empire... how? Overall Rating: 8.0. Absent the Horsemen, it would be about 6.0 or lower.

Rifts World Book Five: Triax & the NGR: Precious little world data, but LOTS and LOTS of big guns. Personally, I like some world data, but not so much that I don't have room to fill in my own spaces. Palladium either likes to go completely all-out and create uninteresting books full of world data or books with too little, one of my few complaints against Rifts books. However, the guns, armor, and such is really interesting and gives GMs all sorts of ideas. Furthermore, it's VERY easy to farm a campaign from this book on it's own. Add Rifts Conversion Book and the first few pages on the rules of the first book and you have a worthy campaign. Overall Rating: 9.0. Definitely worth it.

Rifts World Book Six: South America: This wasn't a bad book. Some of it was remarkably twinkish, but it at least populated half of a continent, had good world data and politics and some good ideas. Another irritation I have with Palladium is how little certain O.C.C.s develop and how much others develop. My personal favorite R.C.C. is the Hunter Cat... hehehe... Overall Rating: 8.5

Rifts World Book Seven: Underseas: I liked the Naut'Yll and the Horune. The Horune's usage of dolphins as combat troopers was disgusting and furthered their image as evil pirates. Frankly, I liked the cetacean O.C.C.s, but who is going to play them as their first player? I personally allow people to earn additional characters, but dolphins are not going to be at the top of the list. In addition, you might be hard-pressed to add some of this stuff to your campaign. Overall Rating: 8.0.

Rifts World Book Eight: Japan: Probably the best book I own. If I had to choose one area to run a campaign, I'd choose Japan. You have an entire oni-populated north, a traditionalist New Empire coexisting with some of the best technology on the planet in the New Republic, some of the best power armor designs in Rifts, and some good new O.C.C.s. Overall Rating: 10.0; an RPG in itself.

Rifts World Book Nine: South America 2: I don't own it, but I expect a pretty good book.

Rifts World Book Ten: Juicer Uprising: This is another sparkling gem in my collection. I'd always loved the Juicer, and the Juicer Uprising gave us incredible variants. The variants alone made the book good, but they also packed in new Juicer psychology to help balance the Juicer with the Crazy. The plasma napalm flamethrower and Juicer vehicles are good tech stuff. The Juicer Sports looked fun... if I could ever get a game. Nonetheless, they'd be perfect for battle arenas. The entire Juicer Uprising section is very good and has many twists and turns; this is one of Palladium's few good quests. Overall Rating: 9.6.

Rifts World Book Thirteen: Lone Star: I dunno. It was a little iffy. The Desmond Bradford background, some of the mutants (particularly the Xiticix Killer), and others were interesting. But the justification for the Dog Pack's existence was repetitive, and some of the raider clans were annoying (anyone else irritated by the recycling of pictures for Lianna?) I'd say buy it, but several other go before it.

Rifts World Book Fifteen: Spirit West: The gods were interesting, and the new magic and abilities made it worth it to play the Native Americans. For those feeling the myriad abilities of the Indians was a little unfair, remember a few things. Not all tribes will have all of the types of Shamans; this book is intending to encapsulate the beliefs of many Indian tribes, each little miniature cultures. Furthermore, they lose the ability to use most any technology, a potentially deadly weakness on Rifts Earth. It also populated the West Coast and the area traditionally ignored by Palladium. Nonetheless, several more expansions need to be done in this area of the world, and they aren't coming soon. Apparently, both the Xiticix and the Indians exist in North Dakota; can anyone say experienced Xiticix fighters? Overall Rating: 8.5.

Rifts World Book Sixteen: Federation of Magic: I have nothing but praise for this book. Easily one of my most commonly used books. For much time now, the conventional Ley Line Walker and his companions in the first book had been suffering as new magicians came... Warlocks, Diabolists, Summoners, Stone Masters, Tattooed Men, the myriad Shamans, Ocean Wizards... finally, Palladium made the traditional mage worthy for combat. The book started strong with descriptions of the True Federation, Dweomer, and Magestar, begin sagging a little in the Fadetowns section, but picked back up and finished with TW weapons and the spells as the frosting. Automatons and O.C.C.s are worth looking at for themselves. If this was only a spell sourcebook, or a Dweomer book, or a Stormspire book, it'd be a 7.9. But with the element working together... Overall Rating: 9.7. Yes, I know other people had made spells on the 'Net, but this is just as good.

Rifts World Book Seventeen: Warlords of Russia: Another gem in my collection. Political intrigue, a cold and forbidding environment, and most importantly, the best cyborgs this side of the Prime Meridian. Not as classic as Federation of Magic, but definitely on a par with Juicer Uprising. Overall Rating: 9.6.

Rifts World Book Eighteen: Mystic Russia: This book shows the other side of Russia. It is another high-quality book, with new magic O.C.C.s and expansions on the Necromancer spells, in addition to demons and some more technology. Not quite as good as Warlords of Russia, but definitely a good buy, as you can expand your Necromancers. Overall Rating: 9.5.

Rifts World Book Twenty: Canada: This is a fairly mediocre book. There's a lot of background and not much else. Personally, I love the new demons and dragons, the expansion of the Headhunter O.C.C., and the Momano Headhunter, but everything else is just background. It's useful, but not really worth buying for itself. I'd get it anyways, but be warned. This is not a huge techbook ala Japan or Triax. It's a lot of background. The book could have been great given a little more hard data. Oh yeah, and now one of my player characters wants to wage a war of genocide on the Wishpoosh Demon Beavers. Overall Rating: 7.5.

Rifts World Book Twenty-One: Splynn Dimensional Market: I drooled over this book for days. Granted, some of the sample sellers and the Liberated Underground were a little cheesy (although definitely easy to farm material out of). But the new symbiotes, the new tattoos, the bio-wizard weapons, and the R.C.C.s made it all worthwhile. If you want to have Atlantis at all, DEFINITELY get this book. Overall Rating: 9.0

Rifts World Book Twenty-Three: Xiticix Invasion:

Rifts Siege on Tolkeen Four: Cyber-Knights: I personally liked this book. For being so few pages (and so inexpensive, $12.95), it contained a LOT of material. Several quite good HLS adventures were nice, but the highlight was the new Cyber-Knight stuff. The Cyber-Knights used to be quite weak, but with the new abilities, they're quite comparable. I know many Cyber-Knight modifications can be found on the Internet. But remember that for a class of warriors with no entrance requirement of psionics, the ability to even get a psi-sword is incredible. I'd add some psionic abilities and up the power of the swords, but besides that, the Cyber-Knight Zen Combat makes them a desirable O.C.C. once more. Overall Rating: 8.7; if it was bigger, it'd probably get 9.3.

Rifts Mercenaries: This is also a classic book. Some of the mercenary outfits are interesting. Other people are somewhat annoyed by several NPCs, but I personally enjoy seeing individual NPCs, because they can then be converted to other RPGs if they're interesting enough. However, they're not exactly the best to farm adventures out of, and some of the characters (Ursus and a few others) can have the Super NPC stigma to starting players. However, it's nice to pack them in as a trump card in case players need some cavalry against some force or if the player characters are making fools out of an entire kingdom. Can anyone say Armageddon Unlimited? Overall Rating: 9.0.

Heroes Unlimited: Revised Second Edition: One of the prized books in my collection. Although for a hefty $25 bucks, you get cool powers like Multiple Lives, the new Mega-Hero, vehicle combat rules (including "chicken" rules and crash damage tables), interesting aliens, and even Ancient Master proficiencies! Definitely worth it to get, even if all you run is a Rifts campaign. Overall Rating: 9.5.

Mutants in Orbit: A hateable book. It's not bad, but considering what it could be, it's not good either. First of all, straddling the two RPGs (After the Bomb and Rifts) annoyed me. I would like the insects more if I had instant generation tables, but spending Bio-E points while trying to keep your PCs occupied before the battle does not strike me as fun. The GB variants and the intrigue were interesting, but it's not a good enough world to start an entire new campaign, and given the unlikelihood the PCs would ever be here... Overall Rating: 6.5. Not a stinker, but not good.

Rifter #6: Eh, it was okay. The Knights of the Dinner Table was funny, the Russian Gods were badass (Svarog and Svarogvich in particular), the stories were fairly interesting, but too much time was spent on the GM advice. I'd say they should split that stuff in half and add more gods, guns and glory! Overall Rating: 7.2.