Sample file 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," tonnent, stalk and prey on humans. Other alien life fonns, monsters, gods and demigod, as well as magic, insanity, and war are all elements in this book. Some parents may find the violence, magic and supernatural elements of the game 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. TM Sample file Number One A G.M. & Player's guide and sourcebook for Rifts®and the entire Palladium Books® Megaverse®! 1 Special Thanks to everybody involved and the intrepid souls who sent in logo designs in The Rifter Logo Contest (the winner graces this page and the cov~!1 _____ ___ _ Our apologies to anybody who got accidentally left out or their name misspelled. Based on the RPG rules, characters, concepts and Megaverse® created by Kevin Siembieda. Second Printing - October, 1998 Sample file Copyright 1998 Palladium Books Inc. & Kevin Siembieda All rights reserved, world wide, under the Universal Copyright Convention. No part of this book may be reproduced in part or whole, in any fonn or by any means, without pennission 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®, RECON®, Nightbane®, The Palladium Fantasy RPG® and Megaverse® are registered trademarks owned and licensed by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books Inc. Federation of Magic, Psyscape, Scraypers, Warlords of Russia, He­ roes Unlimited, Phase World, Coalition States, Erin Tarn, Emperor Prosek, Splugorth, Mega-Damage, Alistair Dunscon, Skelebots, SAMAS, Dog Boys, Dog Pack, Techno-Wizard, Ley Line Walker, Shifter, Cyber-Knight, Mystic Knight, Battle Magus, Psi-Stalker, Simvan, Brodkil, Juicer, Crazy, 'Borg, 'Bot, D-Bee, Chi-Town, Triax, Fadetowns, Dweomer, and other names, titles and likenesses of characters are trademarks owned by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books Inc. Knights of the Dinner Table™ is a trademark of Kenzer Co. and the creation of Jolly Blackburn. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles® is a registered trademark of Mirage Studio. Robotech® is a registered trademark of Hannony Gold USA, Inc. Palladium On-Line www.palladiumbooks.com The Rifter™ RPG sourcebook series is published by Palladium Books Inc., 12455 Universal Drive, Taylor, MI 48180. Printed in the USA. 2 Palladium Books® Presents: THE #1 RPG Guide and Megaverse® Sourcebook Coordinator & Editor in Chief: Wayne Smith Supervising Coordinator & Typesetting: Maryann Siembieda Contributing Writers: James Calder James Cannon David Haendler Chad Uskoski Eric Lind Shawn Merrow William Muench Aaron Oliver (aka Dream Fox) Kevin Siembieda Sample file Rodney Stott Steven Trustrum Erick Wujcik Knights of the Dinner Table: Jolly Blackburn Contributing Editors: Alex Marciniszyn Jim Osten Julius Rosenstein Cover Painting: Kevin Long Interior Artists: Kent BurIes Wayne Breaux Jr. Scott Johnson Paulo Parente Ramon Perez Jr. John Zeleznik and other Palladium Madmen Logo Design: Steve Edwards 3 Contents Page 6 - From Behind the Desk Page 66 - Heroes Unlimited™ of Kevin Siembieda New Major Super Powers A sort of editorial about The Rifter and hints of things to Some of these super abilities are awesome, others clever, and come - every issue of The RifterTM will be different. Accompa­ some silly, but all are fun, optional abilities that will make a fine nying art by Apollo Okamura. addition to any super-powered campaign. Siembieda was so im­ pressed by some, that he's considering adding a number of them Page 9 - The Name Giver to the official Heroes UnlimiteclfM RPG! By Aaron Oliver and Game designer and consummate Game Master, Erick Wujcik, Steve Trustrum. offers suggestions and humor on how to come up with names for RPG characters. Page 84 - Nightbane®: New Morphus Tables Aaron Oliver strikes again, with some outrageous (but usu­ Page 13 - Knights of the Dinner Table™ ally cool) ideas for optional Nightbane® Morphus'. Warning: Our long time pal, Jolly Blackburn, and the good folks at Some of this material, like the Gross Stigmata Table, is a bit ... KenzerCo have agreed to let us publish new and continuing well ... gross, and may be inappropriate for young readers. KoDT strips! Cool! Plug lime: The KoDT is published as a (monthly?) black and white comic book. Issues #4 to present are Page 93 - Nightbane®: The Inlustris available for around $4.00 each from Kenzer and Company, A new, optional, faction for Nightbane® by William R. 1935 S. Plum Grove Rd., Suite 194, Palatine, IL 60067 Muench. Includes the optional Uziel R.C.C., Psiren P.C.C., magical Page 15 - Palladium News, Info, Psiren songs and characters of note. & Coming Attractions Kevin Siembieda reveals the workings and rumblings at Pal­ Page 104 - Nightbane® Hook, Line and Sinker™ ladium Books® Inc. Quickie, HLS adventures by Aaron Oliver and Shawn Mer­ row. Page 24 - Rifts® City Creation Rules An excellent set of optional rules for generating urban com­ Page 118 - The Rifter™ Subscription Info munities in Rifts®. Written by Eric 1. Lind. Suitable for most Page 111 - Beyond the SupernaturaJTM O.C.C.s Rifts® campaign settings and easily adaptable for useSample beyond file Rifts® Earth. A handful of optional Psychic Character Classes (P.c.c.s) by the wily William Muench. Plus the Transcendent P.C.C. by Page 30 - Rifts®: The New Roman Republic James Calder - see you in the next life. Rodney Stott offers his view of Rifts Italy, the Mafia, and the growing New Roman Republic of Rifts Earth. This optional The Cover Rifts® setting can be fun, but is probably different than what The cover painting is an old favorite by Kevin Long. It first Siembieda has planned for the region. Optional R.C.C. and appeared in the Rifts® RPG as one of the interior color plates. equipment. Long is not back with Palladium Books Inc. We always enjoyed his artwork and will be reusing, from time to time, some of the Page 42 - Rifts®: The Knights of Kamnos artwork published by Palladium in the past. Moreover, there is a James M. G. Cannon presents a brief overview of tile heroic pile of Long art done for Palladium that has yet to see publica­ Kamnos Knights who serve the Three Galaxies. A Phase tion. WorldfM setting; Optional O.c.c. and equipment. The Logo Page 46 - Rifts®: The Hammer of the Forge The logo on the cover is the winner of Palladium's "The James M. G. Cannon give:, us a short work of fiction concern­ Rifter™'' Logo Contest. We were surprised by the number of ing the legendary Cosmic Forge. A Phase WorldfM setting. quality submissions. We were also surprised that so many in­ cluded Da Vinci's "Universal Man" as part of the design. Ramon Page 50 - Rifts®: The Siege Against Tolkeen Perez Jr was so impressed by the entries that he didn't even try A wonderful work of fiction revolving around the Tolkeen to compete. conflict, by David Haendler. This story will be serialized over Our selections were made by majority vote of five judges the next several issues of The Rifter®. Warning: This story has (Kevin and Maryann among them). Dynamic design, form, func­ strong language and violence. tion, readability, and versatility (i.e. use in black & white and color) were all major factors. 4 The winner is Steve Edwards (see front cover). The radiant sun pattern representing (to us) a dimensional rift, energy, magic, and a bright future. First runner up who would have been our first choice, except the use of the Universal Man element seemed a bit distracting and large, potentially competing with the cover art. Furthermore, it seemed to work best in color, so it lost in the categories of function and versatility, but man, it was gorgeous. Unfortunately this entry was sent to us via email, and Maryann lost his name and email address. Hopefully, you know who you are, and please contact us to let us know who you are! To verify who you are, resubmit your logo with your name and addrss. Niklas Brandt, in Sweden, (see page three) was the next run­ ner up. A nice crisp, clean design. An honorable mention goes to 1. Lester Guidry II, one of the designs that used the image of the Universal Man (see page one) and to George Purdy who did a sort of T-2 design, nice. Optional and Unofficial Rules & Source Material Please note, that the vast majority of rules, tables, characters, equipment, adventures and stories are "optional" or "alternative" things one can include in his campaign or enjoy reading. They Coming are not "official" to the main games or world settings. For exam­ ple, The excellent story, Siege Against Tolkeen, is likely to be very different than Siembieda's "official" world book(s) when it comes out. Likewise, Siembieda had not considered putting Next Issue ... high-tech Wolfen in Italy and may not include them in any "offi­ cial" sourcebook. As for optional tables (like the Nightbane®Sample file Morphus Tables) and adventures, if they sound cool or fun, use More words of wisdom from Erick Wujcik. them. If they sound funky or inappropriate for your game, ignore them. All the material in The Rifter™ has been included for two More Knights of the Dinner Table™! reasons: One, because we thought it was imaginative and fun, and two, we thought it would stimulate your imagination with More great art! fun stuff that you can use (if you want) or which might inspire you to create your own wonders.