Warning! Violence and the Supernatural The fictional worlds of ® 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 ® Number 83 Your Guide to the Palladium Megaverse®!

1 Dedication – To all our wonderful contributors over the many years – writers and artists – for sharing your imaginings with us, whether they be heroes, villains, monsters, rules, comic strips, stories, or adventures from across the Megaverse®. Keep those imaginations burning bright and the adventures coming. – , 2019

PDF Edition – January 2020

Copyright 2019 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.

Palladium Books®, Rifts®, The Rifter®, Chaos Earth®, Coalition Wars®, After the Bomb®, ®, The Mechanoids®, ®, Megaverse®, ®, Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game®, Phase World®, Powers Unlimited®, RECON®, and ® 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, , BTS-2, Brodkil, Biomancy, Biomancer, Bio-Wizardry, ‘Burbs, ‘Borg, ‘Bot, Dimensional Outbreak, Dinosaur Swamp, Dyval, Elf-Dwarf War, , 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, Devil Worm, Doctor Feral, Dog Boy, Dog Pack, Dweomer, Emperor Prosek, Erin Tarn, Fadetown, Free Quebec, Gadgets Unlimited, Gargoyle Empire, Glitter Boy, Gramercy Island, Hardware Unlimited, Heroes of the Megaverse, Heroes Unlimited, HU2, Juicer, Khemennu, Ley Line Walker, M.D.C., Mechanoid Space, Mega-Damage, Mega-Hero, Megaversal, MercTown, Minion War, Moorcroft, Morphus, Mu- tant Underground, Mysteries of Magic, Merc Ops, Naruni, Naruni Enterprises, NEMA, Ninjas & Superspies, NGR, Northern Gun, The Nursery, P.P.E., Powers 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 Dis- avowed, Three Galaxies, 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 Palladium Books Inc. PalladiumSample Online www.palladiumbooks.com file Also visit us at facebook.com/PalladiumBooks

The Rifter® #83 is part of an RPG sourcebook series published by Palladium Books Inc., 39074 Webb Court, Westland, MI 48185. Printed in the USA by Bradford and Bigelow of Massachusetts.

2 Palladium Books® Presents: #83

Sourcebook and Guide to the Palladium Megaverse®

Coordinator & Editor in Chief: Wayne Smith

Editor: Alex Marciniszyn

Contributing Writers: Carl Gleba Hendrik Härterich Ian Herbert Matt Reed Kevin Siembieda

Proofreader: Julius Rosenstein

Cover Illustration: Kevin Long

Interior Artists: Sires Jan Black Mark Dudley Michael Mumah Benjamin Rodriguez

Cover Logo Design: Steve Edwards

Credits Page Logo: Niklas Brandt

Typesetting & Layout: Wayne Smith Art Direction: Kevin Siembieda

Based on the RPG rules, characters, concepts and Megaverse® created by Kevin Siembieda.

SpecialSample Thanks to Carl, Hendrik, Ian, Matt, Julius and all our contributing writers andfile artists this issue, intro- ducing Sires Jan Black (you’ll see more of her work in Garden of the Gods and other books), and to the hardwork- ing Palladium staff. Our apologies to anybody who may have gotten accidentally left out or their name misspelled. – Kevin Siembieda, 2019

3 Contents – The Rifter® #83 – Summer 2019

Page 6 – From the Desk of Kevin Siembieda Page 30 – Caproni Flight Page 32 – Canopy Up Books are coming your way! This issue of The Rifter®, Page 34 – The Greek Resistance Rifts® Bestiary™ Volume One, and Garden of the Gods™ Page 36 – What Cretans Know are available right now! All July releases. (A hardcover edition of Page 36 – A visit by Hungry Soldiers the Rifts® Bestiary, too.) In the Face of Death™, The Rifter® Page 37 – BTS Flair Info #84, Titan Robotics™, Chaos Earth® Psychic Scream™, and Page 38 – Atlanteans & Red Herrings more are in production. With even more in development. Page 38 – The Gorge of the Dead Page 7 – Palladium News Page 38 – Meeting a Minoan Page 39 – The Nazi Encampment Get more information about recent releases, the Palladium Page 41 – Frankenstein Moment Fantasy RPG® Interactive Character Sheet, new artists, and Pin- Page 42 – Deal with the Devil nacle Rift® Savage Worlds titles. Page 44 – The Dig, Ruin & Ritual Page 45 – New Monsters Page 8 – Coming Attractions Page 45 – The Minotaur Not just books are available now and coming soon, but so Page 45 – Scientific Draugur are new baseball caps, mugs and a Rifts pen. Books like Rifts® Page 46 – To New Horizons Bestiary™ Volume One, Garden of the Gods™, In the Face Page 47 Turning Operation Minotaur into a Campaign of Death™, Rifts® Bestiary™ Volume Two, Rifts® Chaos Art by Benjamin Rodriguez. Earth®: Psychic Scream™, Rifts® Antarctica, Fantasy ti- tles, and many others are in production, along with a lot of other Page 48 – Saving the World... books. Read all about them here. with the Secret Operative – Optional Source Material for Heroes Unlimited™ Page 15 – The Prophet O.C.C. ® Matt Reed gives us a new look at Superspies and Secret Op- – Optional Material for Palladium Fantasy RPG eratives for Heroes Unlimited™ RPG complete with Superskills, Ian Herbert present a new, optional O.C.C. that is not a Priest Gadgets, and new abilities. in the traditional sense, but a character who can be something of Page 48 – Perception, Intuition & Contested Skill a wild card and a maverick. And a lot of fun as a player character Page 50 – Chase Scene & Vehicular Combat or as an NPC (Non-Player Character). Page 50 – Chase Meter Art by Benjamin Rodriguez. Page 51 – Resolving Chase Rounds Page 52 – Step One: The Usual Page 19 – Half-Ogres or “Hogres” Page 52 – Step Two: Education and Skills – Optional Material for Palladium Fantasy RPG® Page 52 – Superskills Page 53 – Step Three: Define Abilities Ian Herbert takes a comprehensive look at the Hogre – a half- Page 53 – Advanced human and half-Ogre subspecies. Ogres and humans are similar Page 55 – Assassin enough to mate and bear offspring. Sadly, these people are neither Page 55 – Faceman accepted by humans nor Ogres and often become outcasts living Page 56 – Covers on the fringe of society or bitter monsters angry at the world. Page 56 – Gadgetry Page 21 – Independent Hogres. Page 57 – General Page 22 – The Hogre as a player character. Page 59 – Pointman Art by Mark Dudley. Page 60 – Wheelman Page 23 – Operation Minotaur Page 60 – Step Four: Special Equipment Page 61 – Gadgetry & Creation Rules ™ – Optional Adventure for Beyond the Supernatural Page 62 – Gadget Examples Hendrik Härterich presents an epic, wartime Beyond the Su- Page 63 – Step Five: Background Data pernatural™ adventure that is like Indiana Jones meets The Page 63 – Sample Characters Dirty Dozen filled with horror and dangerous secrets. Page 66 – In Conclusion Page 23 – Introduction Artwork by Sires Jan Black. Page 25 – Setting the Stage PageSample 26 – Task Force “O” Page 67 – On the Trail ... withfile the Hunter/Vigilante Page 26 – Welcome to the Army – Optional Source Material for Heroes Unlimited™ Page 27 – Orders in Aldershot Matt Reed gives us a new look at The Hunter/Vigilante for Page 28 – Theseus Rising Heroes Unlimited™ RPG. Complete with traps, new abilities, Page 29 – Parachuting into Crete and equipment. Page 33 – An Italian Welcome Page 67 – The Hunter Compared 4 Page 69 – Step One: The Usual The Cover Page 69 – Step Two: Education & Skills The cover is a portion of Kevin Long’s famous cover to Page 69 – Special Skills Rifts® Conversion Book One. It was one of the early Rifts® Page 70 – Traps book releases way back in 1996. We thought it was nice to harken Page 71 – Trap Traits back to our beginning as we launch a new era of Rifts titles and Page 72 – The Predator System books for other settings. Page 74 – Predator Point Abilities Page 74 – Advanced Optional and Unofficial Rules & Source Material Page 75 – General Page 77 – Scrapper Much of the material presented in The Rifter® is “optional,” Page 78 – Predator but that doesn’t make it any less exciting, fun, or useful. It is Page 78 – Trapper source material written by role-playing gamers just like you (and Page 79 – Step Three: Equipment a couple of pros). It’s how we have found many of the artists and Page 80 – Sample Characters writes who have gone on to work for Palladium. We wouldn’t Artwork by Mike Mumah. present the material if we didn’t think it was worth sharing. If we thought it sounded cool or fun we included them for your gaming Page 82 – Treasures of the Megaverse® enjoyment. Use what you like, ignore the rest. And remember, – Optional Material for Rifts® and other settings you can usually adapt material designed for one setting in many others, like Rifts® magic and monsters for Palladium Fantasy or Carl Gleba knocks it out of the park with this diverse and Heroes Unlimited, and vice versa. Even settings and adventures spectacular treasure trove of magic items. Rune Weapons, Magic can be tweaked and used in many different settings. We hope all Rings Elixirs, Cloaks, TW devices, and much more, including a of it ignites your imagination and inspires you to create your own few warships! wonders. Page 82 – TW items Page 84 – Magic Rings www.palladiumbooks.com – Palladium Online Page 85 – Magic Staves Page 87 – Magic Elixirs Page 88 – Magic Cloaks COMING – The Rifter® #84 Page 90 – Amulet of Armor Page 90 – Magic Horse Gear ! Golems in the Myst, source material for Rifts® Page 91 – Elemental Stones by Greg Diaczyk. Page 92 – Magic Arrows ! The Kingdom of Raf-Chalon for the Palladium Page 92 – Magic Vehicles . Page 95 – The Infinity Tome Fantasy RPG® ! The Dark City of Cascade for Heroes Unlimit- The Theme for this Issue ed™. The theme for The Rifter® #83 is mysterious people, places ! Spellbound O.C.C. for Nightbane® RPG. and devices (including magic items galore). Many of them misfits ! All Quiet on the Western... What? An Adventure and people and magic that lurk in the shadows or on the fringe of for Beyond the Supernatural™. society. Enjoy. ! The Dimma, a short story for Beyond the Super- Become a Writer for Palladium Books® natural™. ! cover. The Rifter® is going on hiatus, but if you like, you can still continue to submit articles for our consideration like always, just ! News, coming attractions, product descriptions like you did for The Rifter®. and more. Why, if there is no publication? Because Kevin and crew may ! 96 pages – $14.99 retail – Cat. No. 184. Fall re- decide to use your adventure, setting, new magic, new psionics, lease. new super abilities, monsters, villains, heroes, high-tech weap- ons, vehicles, robots, etc., in an upcoming sourcebook, that’s why. All such submissions are unsolicited and entirely on specu- One game system, infinite possibilities lation, with no promise of publication or payment. Always look- ing for material for Rifts®, Chaos Earth®, Palladium Fantasy limited only by your imagination™ RPG®, Heroes Unlimited™, Ninjas & Superspies™, Beyond the Supernatural™,Sample Dead Reign®, Splicers® and Nightbane®. file

Though despised, tears flow when the giant falls

5 From the Desk of Kevin Siembieda We are thrilled so many of you enjoyed the trib- Other books not quite as far along include Rifts® The Dis- ute in The Rifter® #82. Ten years after his untimely death, I still avowed™, Rifts® Antarctica, Rifts® CS Arsenal™, Rifts® miss him every day. So that was a very special issue for all of us. Living Nowhere™, Chaos Earth® First Responders™, Be- Glad you enjoyed it. If you missed it, there are still copies avail- yond the Supernatural™ sourcebooks, more Fantasy source- able, but probably not for long. books (a whole bunch of them!) and other titles. These titles This issue is outstanding. A number of our regular con- and several others are NOT forgotten and are in various stages of tributors have submitted outstanding articles and source ma- active development or waiting for production. As always, just be- terial to The Rifter #83 (and #84) just in time before The cause a book is not specifically discussed here, or listed in every Rifter® goes on hiatus for at least two years. We love the ma- Weekly Update, it does not mean it is discontinued or in limbo, terial they submitted, and know you will too. With any luck, it means there are more immediate things to talk about or there’s we’ll all be seeing these talented people contributing to future no substantive news to report. We are anxious to put as many of sourcebooks. the books you’ve been waiting for into your hands as soon as pos- Why is The Rifter® going on hiatus? A number of rea- sible over the next 18 months. sons, but the main one is because we need to spend the time So if a book you are waiting for is not mentioned here or in one usually allotted for The Rifter® on producing official source- of Palladium Books’ Weekly Updates on our website, it means books. And we have a lot of ideas for all kinds of exciting there is nothing new to report, but it should still be in the pipeline sourcebooks for Rifts®, Palladium Fantasy®, Heroes Un- and news for it will be coming in the months ahead. Right now, limited™, Beyond the Supernatural™, and ... well ... every- we are focused on releases slated for the next six months, which thing. As a result, we intend to take a couple years off from by our count is 6-7 titles. And many of them are in various stages producing The Rifter® to give our full attention to knocking of production or development. out a bunch of sourcebooks, including a number of titles you have wanted for a very long time. I don’t even want to list Lines of contact them. You’ll find out when we announce their release dates. But most of you will be pleased. Very pleased. After we’ve For those of you who count on The Rifter® for info about spent a couple years pounding out books, we will revisit new releases, we apologize for you losing this lifeline to Palla- whether or not we should return to doing The Rifter® or keep dium Books. If you can, we encourage you to visit the Palladium our focus on new books. As always, we appreciate your sug- Books website at least once a month. For those of you we know gestions and want to know what you think. do not have access to the Internet, we will try to send out periodic newsletters and our latest catalog. You can also mail us a request for a current catalog or product checklist, whenever you need Books are coming your way starting now one, and we’ll send one out to you. ! Rifts® Bestiary™ Volume One – July ! The Rifter® #83 – July Rifts® Bestiary™ Volume One ! Garden of the Gods™ (Fantasy) – July or August ! In the Face of Death™ (Dead Reign®/Zombies) – August Available now – in stores everywhere or September Yep, Rifts® Bestiary™ Volume One is finally hot off the ! The Rifter® #84 – September press and shipping to stores everywhere. 256 pages of awesome- ! Rifts® Titan Robotics™ – October or November ness. 82 creatures. Maps. Great art. Comprehensive creature de- ! Rifts® Chaos Earth®: Psychic Scream™ – September or scriptions. Source material for Players and Game Masters alike. October Ideas for encounters and adventure. ! Rifts® Bestiary™ Volume Two – Winter Editor Alex Marciniszyn called Rifts® Bestiary™ Volume ! With a whole lot more in the pipeline. The books listed above One, “A monster book unlike any you have ever quite seen be- are just what are actually in active stages of production. fore. A Guide to Rifts® monsters and animals written as if it were a real field guide about real animals. All fitting into a complete If you are reading this in The Rifter® #83 it means Rifts® ecosystem.” Bestiary™ Volume One has already been released and is avail- Proofreader Julius Rosenstein felt the same way. Adding able at stores everywhere! It also means Garden of the Gods™ that he loved the Erin Tarn opening and many of the expanded (for Palladium Fantasy RPG®) is either also in stores (shooting descriptions of familiar monsters like the Darkhound and Fury for a July release) or will be available very soon (August). That Beetle. He also loved the new critters. The one beast that creeped will be followed by In the Face of Death™ for Dead Reign®, Julius out the most: the Ee-Bee Gee-Bee. The one he wants his our zombie apocalypse game. ALL of these titles and other books character to acquire: the Cerebro-Scrambler. Alex said the Ee- in development are described in the Coming Attractions section SampleBee Gee-Bee is at the top of his listfile of beasts that creep him out of this issue. And ALL of these books are in some stage of ac- too, but that for him, the Dream Butcher was the worst. Mean- tive production. Meaning a manuscript has been submitted and while, the Dinostang was the beast Alex said he’d like his charac- is undergoing final tweaks, additions and rewrites, art has been ter to have. See the new description for Rifts® Bestiary™ Vol- assigned (or is coming in) and these books WILL see release in ume One and other books elsewhere in this issue. 2019.

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