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 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. – Kevin Siembieda, 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®, 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, 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.