Warning! Violence and the Supernatural The fictional worlds of Palladium Books® are violent, deadly and filled with supernatural monsters. Other-dimensional beings, often referred to as “demons,” torment, stalk and prey on humans. Other alien life forms, monsters, gods and demigods, as well as magic, insanity, and war are all elements in these books. Some parents may find the violence, magic and supernatural elements of the games inappropriate for young readers/players. We suggest parental discretion. Please note that none of us at Palladium Books® condone or encourage the occult, the practice of magic, the use of drugs, or violence. Sample file The Rifter® Number 75 Your Guide to the Palladium Megaverse®! 1 Dedication – In memory of Erick Wujcik, Kathyrn Kozora, and the Detroit Gaming Center. Awesome people, wonderful memories. In a lot of ways, the DGC was the birthplace of Palladium Books. It was certainly the origin of Kevin Siembieda, Game Master and game designer. – Kevin Siembieda, 2016 PDF Edition – January 2018 Copyright 2016 Palladium Books® Inc. All rights reserved, world wide, under the Universal Copyright Convention. No part of this book may be reproduced in part or whole, in any form or by any means, without permission from the publisher, except for brief quotes for use in reviews. All incidents, situations, institutions, governments and people are fictional and any similarity, without satiric intent, of characters or persons living or dead, is strictly coincidental. Robotech® and Robotech® The Shadow Chronicles® are Registered Trademarks of Harmony Gold USA, Inc. Palladium Books®, Rifts®, The Rifter®, Chaos Earth®, Coalition Wars®, After the Bomb®, Dead Reign®, The Mechanoids®, The Mechanoid Invasion®, Megaverse®, Nightbane®, Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game®, Phase World®, Powers Unlimited®, RECON®, and Splicers® are registered trademarks owned and licensed by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books Inc. The slogan “A Megaverse of adventure – limited only by your imagination,” RPG Tactics, and titles and names such as Bizantium and the Northern Islands, Armageddon Unlimited, Aliens Unlimited, Arzno, Atorian Empire, ARCHIE-3, Beyond Arcanum, Beyond the Supernatural, BTS-2, Brodkil, Biomancy, Biomancer, Bio-Wizardry, ‘Burbs, ‘Borg, ‘Bot, Dimensional Outbreak, Dinosaur Swamp, Dyval, Elf-Dwarf War, Heroes Unlimited, I.S.P., Land of the Damned, Lazlo, Victor Lazlo, Lazlo Agency, Lazlo Society, Palladium of Desires, C.A.M.E.L.O.T., Chi-Town, CS, Coalition States, Cosmo-Knight, Crazy, Cyber-Knight, D-Bee, Dark Day, Dead Boy, Doc Reid, Dog Boy, Dog Pack, Dweomer, Emperor Prosek, Erin Tarn, Fadetown, Free Quebec, Gadgets Unlimited, Gargoyle Empire, Glit- ter Boy, Gramercy Island, Hardware Unlimited, Heroes of the Megaverse, Heroes Unlimited, HU2, Juicer, Ley Line Walker, M.D.C., Mechanoid Space, Mega-Damage, Mega-Hero, Megaversal, MercTown, Minion War, Moorcroft, Morphus, Mutant Underground, Mys- teries of Magic, Merc Ops, Naruni, Naruni Enterprises, NEMA, Ninjas & Superspies, NGR, Northern Gun, The Nursery, P.P.E., Pow- ers Unlimited, Psi-Stalker, Psyscape, SAMAS, S.D.C., Secrets of the Coalition States, Shifter, Siege on Tolkeen, Skelebot, Skraypers, Sorcerer’s Forge, Splugorth, Splynncryth, Splynn, Techno-Wizard, Temporal Magic, Temporal Wizard, The Disavowed, Three Galax- ies, Tome Grotesque, Triax, Vampire Kingdoms, Warpath: Urban Jungle, Void Runners, Wilk’s, Wolfen, Wolfen Wars, Wormwood, Wulfen, Xiticix, and other names, titles, slogans, and the likenesses of characters are trademarks owned by Kevin Siembieda and Pal- ladium Books Inc. PalladiumSample Online www.palladiumbooks.com file Also visit us at facebook.com/PalladiumBooks The Rifter® #75 is part of an RPG sourcebook series published by Palladium Books Inc., 39074 Webb Court, Westland, MI 48185. Printed in the USA by McNaughton & Gunn of Saline, Michigan. 2 Palladium Books® Presents: #75 Sourcebook and Guide to the Palladium Megaverse® Coordinator & Editor in Chief: Wayne Smith Editor: Alex Marciniszyn Contributing Writers: Lance Colley Sean Patrick Fannon Scott Fowler Carl Gleba Christopher Kluge Kevin Siembieda Todd Spencley Charles Walton II Proofreader: Julius Rosenstein Cover Illustration: Garrie Gastonny Chris Bivins Interior Artists: Angela Deland-Baldwin Mark Dudley Michael Leonard Kevin Long Kevin Siembieda Charles Walton II Cover Logo Design: Steve Edwards Credits Page Logo: Niklas Brandt Typesetting & Layout: Wayne Smith Art Direction: Kevin Siembieda Based on the RPG rules, characters, conceptsSample and Megaverse® created by Kevin Siembieda. file Special Thanks to all our contributors, writers and artists this issue, especially new contributors, as well as to Sean, Shane, Ross, Aaron, Alida, Jodi and all the Pinnacle folks bringing Rifts® to life for Savage Worlds®. Our apologies to anybody who may have gotten accidentally left out or their name misspelled. – Kevin Siembieda, 2016 3 Contents – The Rifter® #75 – Summer, 2016 Page 6 – From the Desk of Kevin Siembieda Page 32 – How to Play Rifts®, a Rifts® Primer Publisher Kevin Siembieda talks about Rifts® for Savage – Official source material for Rifts®; Worlds®, how and why this license came about, and why we suitable for other settings are excited to be expanding the Rifts® Megaverse® into a new Carl Gleba and Kevin Siembieda join forces to create a tour de rules set. He also talks about the fun time we had at GrandCon in force of information about Game Mastering games and creating Grand Rapids, Michigan, and the Savage Rifts® game we played adventures. This article should help both G.M.s and players enjoy in with main writer Sean Patrick Fannon. the storytelling experience of role-playing games, as well as help- ing them better understand the game rules. The second adventure, Page 8 – Palladium News Rescue the Rogue Scholar, should help people in the creation of There is some exciting news this issue, like a Hollywood pro- adventures and plot. ducer inquiring about developing one of Palladium’s intellectual Page 34 – Getting Started, The Game Master properties into a movie or TV series. And this time the guy is a Page 34 – Setting the Scene (The Rusty Cup Pub) gamer who understands RPGs, so we are excited about the pros- Page 35 – G.M. also controls all of the NPCs pects. There is also some news about Robotech® and a pair of Page 35 – NPCs create atmosphere and further the story very cool Rifts® Poker Decks that you must own. And it’s that Page 35 – More Game Master Tips and Tricks time of year for the Palladium Surprise Package offer, so be ex- Page 36 – (Siembieda) Know your NPCs cited about that too. With everything else going on, Kevin forgot Page 36 So the basics are ... to mention that a Rifts® board game is being developed by Car- Page 36 – Tip Number Four – Be Flexible men Bellaire, under license, for Rogue Heroes LLC. More on it Page 37 – Sometimes you have to just wing it next issue. Page 38 – Tip Six – It should never be G.M. vs Players Page 39 – (Siembieda) Prison break scenario Page 9 – Coming Attractions Page 39 – Tip Eight – Keep it simple What’s out – Rifts® Heroes of Humanity™, Robotech® Page 40 – Player Character Tips The Masters Saga™ Sourcebook (8½ x 11 size) and Rifts® Page 42 – A Rifts® Adventure by Gleba and Siembieda Poker Decks – and what’s coming, like Hell Followed for Dead Page 42 – The Adventure Begins (King’s Fall) Reign®, Rifts® CS Heroes of Humanity Arsenal, The Dis- Page 43 – Rolling Some Dice (for using skills) avowed and Rifts® Secrets of the Atlanteans, among other Page 44 – First Encounter titles. Get all the details in the News and Coming Attractions Page 45 – The Battle Begins section of this issue. The complete Palladium Check List can be Page 45 – Rifts® Combat Terms (and examples) found on pages 18 and 19. Page 46 – Offensive Actions Page 46 – Defensive Actions Page 16 – Christmas Surprise Package™ Page 47 – Damage and the M.D.C. System – ‘Tis the season to game, game, game Page 48 – Combat Recap Page 48 – The Bandits It is the deal of the holidays, especially if you are a gamer! Page 49 – The Town of River Side And because this Summer issue is coming out so late (sorry), Page 50 – Meeting Lady Cleo you are the first to know that we’ll be extending the availability Page 50 – Fire Fly, the Kidnaping Dragon of the 2016 Christmas Surprise Package till January 3, 2017. Page 51 – The Scoop Order now and after the holidays. The Christmas Surprise Pack- Page 52 – Returning to Town age with autographs and plenty of good cheer is our way of Page 53 – The Mercenaries saying, “Thank you, we appreciate you, our loyal fans. Happy Page 54 – Aftermath of the Adventure Holidays!” Page 54 – Non-Player Characters (NPCs) Page 57 – The Player Characters ® Page 20 – Savaging Rifts Page 64 – Adventure Building: Rescue the Rogue Scholar – A Preview of Rifts® for Savage Worlds® Page 66 – Keeping it All Organized In case you haven’t heard the news, Palladium has licensed Opening Artwork by Mark Dudley. Character artwork by An- Rifts® to be adapted to the Savage Worlds rules. We will con- gela Deland-Baldwin. tinue to publish our own Rifts® games and books (and we have some big plans for 2017), but we thought it would be fun to ex- Page 67 – I am Legion, Episode Four pand the Megaverse® by adapting Rifts® for another popular – Official adventure & source material for Splicers® game system.Sample Read all about it and then see the sample pages. Chris Kluge, Lance Colley andfile Charles Walton II, team up to The actual Savage World books will be in printed in full color present the next chapter of I am Legion, an episodic adventure and arrive in stores sometime in the first quarter of 2017. ushering in the new rogue Nexus personality, Legion. More ad- 4 venture, surprises and horror awaits. Special thanks to Jeff Ruiz The Cover and Todd Spencley for their assistance and input.