Rifts (role-playing game)
Encyclopedia
Rifts is a multi-genre role-playing game
created by Kevin Siembieda
in 1990 and published continuously by Palladium Books
since then. Rifts takes place in a post-apocalyptic future, deriving elements from cyberpunk
, science fiction
, fantasy
, horror
, western
, mythology
and many other genres.
Rifts serves as a cross-over environment for a variety of other Palladium games with different universes connected through "rifts" on earth that lead to different spaces, times, and realities. Through Palladium's universal combat and conversion system, characters and elements from different games can interact and combine in new ways, resulting in a completely unique role-playing setting that Palladium calls the "Rifts Megaverse".
Rifts describes itself as an "advanced" role-playing game and not an introduction for those new to the concept.
Palladium continues to publish books for the Rifts series, with about 80 books published between 1990 and 2011. Rifts Ultimate Edition was released in August 2005 and designed to update the game with Palladium's incremental changes to its system, changes in the game world, and additional information and character types. The web site is quick to point out that this is not a second edition but an improvement and expansion of the original role playing game.
(first released in 1987), which uses Lovecraftian
storytelling techniques for a role-playing experience based on horror fiction.
This setting is very versatile; almost anything can happen in a Rifts game, and Rifts stories can be anything from dark and haunting to odd and whimsical. The rifts allow characters to travel through time and space to new worlds or to parallel universes. Alien magic far beyond the fairy tales of Earth's past exists alongside futuristic hyper-advanced technology capable of giving the user something of a chance against these supernatural forces. It is not uncommon for a game of Rifts to involve a wizard battling a fleet of flying robot
s, nor unthinkable for an elf or dwarf to receive a bionic arm. Another unique factor, known as "Techno Wizardry" is a bridge-point between modern technology and ancient magic, allowing magically powered weapons, armor and vehicles.
Some of the important concepts upon which the Rifts setting is based:
nuclear war
that starts with a border incursion by NEMA (North American Economic Military Alliance, comprising Canada, The U.S., and Mexico) forces in South America
during the year 2098. The special circumstances of Earth's mystic position in the Universe at that time (namely, a multi-planetary alignment combined with the naturally higher levels of mystic energy present during the Winter Solstice at exactly midnight) changes what would "normally" be the deaths of a few million living beings into a psychic energy flood that triggers the eruption of ley lines and triggering natural disasters across the world and also causes the return of Atlantis which raised the water levels causing even more death. The additional deaths in turn releases even more mystic energy in a vicious cycle. Ultimately, the PPE of billions of human beings dying nearly simultaneously, multiplied by the mystic alignments mentioned earlier, energized the ley line networks criscrossing the globe and caused many rifts to open, both on Earth and throughout the Megaverse -while simultaneously ripping untold millions of alien beings from their own homeworld and alerting the Great Powers of the megaverse of a new planet to conquer. Many creatures, both mythical beasts and alien beings, come through the Rifts -some of them now permanently opened and incapable of being shut down again -to wreak havoc. This period is covered in Palladium's Rifts: Chaos Earth spin-off series (Which was originally slated to be an alternate reality rather than Rifts' history where the Golden Age survived because the first nuke hit 1 minute after midnight). The old world is gone, a new dark age has dawned and humanity's shrinking population is reduced, due to catastrophe and domestic failure, immeasurably.
Rifts game play takes place roughly 300 years after this event, described as 103 P.A., or "Post-Apocalypse", a calendar established at the formation of the Coalition States. This is equivalent to the year 2389, according to the New German Republic. Although different story lines may begin before or after, such as with the invasion of Chi-Town by the Federation of Magic (before) or as the Four Horsemen appear in Africa (after), most of the series "World Books" are described with a kind of snapshot of 103-109 P.A. At the latest World Books, the current date is around 110 P.A.(2396).
By this time most of the disasters have quieted down Earth is still bathed in the released PPE. The planet's mystical energy has added untold numbers of alien beings from other dimensions, who continue to arrive through the Rifts both accidentally and deliberately. These creatures include humanoid Dimensional Beings (called D-Bees). Some are familiar fantasy races, such as elves and dwarfs, others have never before been seen (created specifically for the game setting). Also now sharing the planet are monstrous creatures and mystical demons with hides as strong as tank armor. The most powerful (and a common theme in the Palladium Megaverse) are the "Alien Intelligences," Lovecraftian, living mountains of flesh, lidless eyes and wriggling tentacles with great supernatural powers. In some rare cases, even the ancient gods of mythology have returned to reclaim their former lands.
To cope with these natural, supernatural, and alien menaces, the human race has tried to change in a variety of ways, many of them borrowed from the technological developments of the lost golden age. Augmentation of the human body has become common with three basic categories: the "Juicers" do it chemically, the "Borgs
" do it mechanically, and the "Crazies" make use of performance-enhancing brain implants. All such augmentations boost strength, speed, endurance and dexterity to superhuman levels. However, they all come at great cost. Chemicals cause the body to wear out faster, decreasing life span to a few short years. Mechanical Borg augmentation causes a loss of humanity, causing those with multiple limb and organ replacements to become more machine than human, also making use of magic impossible. Brain implants cause mental instability ranging from mild phobias to crippling neurosis
or psychosis
. Those people who choose to be augmented in these ways accept these risks in order to become powerful. Some are required to receive these augmentations either for self defense, or for work, or even against their will by another individual. The minimalistic, needy and weak are often forced or coerced into these roles to serve their rulers. Another popular theme used by humans to combat the dangers of Rifts Earth are powered armor suits, and giant robot vehicles.
Some turn to other means to become "more" than human. Magic abounds on Rifts Earth, and many people turn to the magical arts. Others form pacts with alien intelligences or deities in exchange for great magical knowledge, almost always becoming pawns of the beings they dared turn to for power. Still others discover that they have great psionic potential, and dedicate their lives to discovering the abilities of their own minds.
The Ley Lines, formerly invisible, now dominate the landscape, appearing as massive lines of bluish energy half a mile wide, some twice that tall, stretching thousands of miles, crisscrossing the globe. The largest can even be seen from space.
is the Coalition States (CS). The governing body of the Coalition States is based in the arcology
city of Chi-Town and lays claim to northern Illinois (the southern part being controlled by the "Federation of Magic") and all of Iowa. Other member states consist of "Lone Star", formed from the Texas Panhandle
, who specialize in mutating animals into talking servants considered by many players as cannon fodder but is one of their primary weapons against the supernatural as without them they would have to rely solely on human psychics; Missouri; and Iron Heart which consists of the eastern half of Ontario, Canada. The Coalition States are most often described as a technologically advanced fascist human supremacists with a totalitarian government, restrictive internal media, restrictive education (such as enforced illiteracy), and a massive military. The Coalition is ruled by Emperor Karl Prosek, and is genocidally opposed to all aliens, D-bees (Dimensional Beings, to include humans from other times and even unlucky CS troops that have traveled through a Rift and survived to return... only to be "contained" by his former comrades), human mutations, and Magic. His ultimate goal is to control the Earth by humans and for humans, and do so by attacking anything and everyone that is foreign to Earth as it was before the cataclysm. Nevertheless, Prosek allows some of the less threatening non-humans live alongside lesser-privileged humans in the burbs surrounding Chi-Town. Most of these poor souls think that they may eventually gain citizenship so they can live within the protective walls of the arcology.
The second greatest power is "Free Quebec
". At one time it was a Coalition State, but constant disagreement with Chi-Town over issues like Glitter Boy production, education level of the populace led, use of mutant animals, secession and eventually a short civil war. A cease-fire was signed (mainly due to the CS's bigger problem with Tolkeen), but distrust has remained.
Mexico
is ruled by a group of vampire
kingdoms, who treat humans as little more than cattle to feed upon. North of the Rio Grande, west of Texas
and roaming most of the American Southwest are large nomadic bands/tribes of bandits who collectively form the "Pecos Empire" which incorporates the cities of El Paso
, Los Alamos (formerly Austin
) and "Houstown", its unofficial capital. Though the nation is not part of a cohesive power structure or political organization, "Emperor Sabre Laser" is attempting to unite the city-states under his banner. Much of the western United States has more or less willingly reverted to a mix of modern and past technology, and the days of the Wild West
, where outlaws ride hovercycles into battle, cowboys are as likely to raise dinosaurs as they are cattle, cyborgs prospect for gold and other minerals, and wild buffalo, sent to another dimension to prevent their extinction, have returned to the plains in the millions. American Natives have taken up two banners there are the Traditionalist which were also taken by the spirit people and returned to Earth with the Bison, they refuse to use most items of technology, preferring the old ways. Then there is the modern camp which have designed many technological marvels of their own. The pockets of civilization include the "Colorado Baronies", Hope, Testament, Wilmington, and Charity, a collective of small and a few large towns, founded by the survivors of the Denver area. In Arizona
, the "Clarkdale Confederacy" (Clarkdale, Jerome, and Cottonwood), has managed to survive even as Flagstaff, Prescott and Phoenix have collapsed around them; there is also the town founded and run by mercenaries known as "Arzno".
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police
managed to survive the great cataclysm, though Canada itself did not. The Mounties have become an independent law enforcement force called the Tundra Rangers, patrolling the northern wilderness.
The Midwest, both upper and central, is home to most of North America's population. The Manistique Imperium and Northern Gun in Michigan
's Upper Peninsula, both Coalition allies, are among the biggest weapons manufacturing areas on the continent. "New Lazlo" is one of the largest cities in Michigan's southern portion. Chillicothe in Missouri
is a large supplier of Coalition food processing and growing. However, Missouri's southern half, home to the city-states of "Whykin" (Poplar Bluff) and "Kingsdale" (West Plains) are in constant opposition to the CS and claim independence. North Dakota is home to the Wilk's firearms corporation, though not much else. Arkansas is home to the independent CS ally "El Dorado". Southern Illinois
and the Ohio Valley is home to the "Federation of Magic". Also in the Ohio Valley is "Psyscape": a city-state founded by Psychics.
"Tolkeen" was a major city in the former Minneapolis region in early Rifts books; the city welcomed users of magic. Recently, a military campaign made by the Coalition States (which is the primary event of 109 PA) resulted in the magic-user kingdom being wiped off the map (this is covered in the highly debated six-volume series of source/storybooks "Coalition Wars: Siege on Tolkeen").
In the Northeast
, the city-state of "Lazlo", named after the great 20th century supernatural researcher and writer Victor Lazlo (from another Palladium RPG, "Beyond The Supernatural"), was built upon the ruins of the Canadian city of Toronto
. This major center of civilization is well known as a melting pot of humans, D-Bees and other, stranger beings, and is the home of Techno-Wizardry. "Mad Haven" is what the ruins of Manhattan
Island is now known as although tectonic forces during the cataclysm have moved it into the coast creating a peninsula, and is seen by most denizens of Rifts Earth as a refuge of demons and madness.
basin to flood most of the western part of South America
, giving it the nickname "The Land of a Thousand Islands". In Colombia
, a nation of humans and Dwarves fight against a kingdom of Vampire
s. The gods of the Inca have returned to their ancient holdings in the Andes
, and fight a battle against alien invaders known as the "Arkons". Coming together as one, the "Empire of the Sun" has created a wide range of technology and magic, including "Nazca Line Magic", exclusive to the Empire. The Empire incorporates the cities of Cuzco, Nazca
, Arequipa
and Lima
. Much of the rest of the continent is a wide collection of states ranging from democracies, corrupt oligarchies, and communist guerrillas known as Shining Path
, to Mutants, Amazons
, Aliens, Transdimensional Mercenaries, pre-historic creatures and dozens of others.
In what was once Argentina
, the "Silver River Republics" of Cordoba (the "South American Chi-Town"), Santiago (one of the most tolerant Human nations on Rifts Earth), Achilles (a nation founded by Mutants) and New Babylon (a nation where Humans and a race of Aliens live side by side) have thrived and created nations whose strength rivals that of the CS.
In what was once Bolivia
freed Human and D-Bees slave soldiers, of the race called "Dakir", have formed the "Megaversial Legion": a mercenary company with one of the highest levels of technology on Rifts Earth (possibly even the Megaverse). Their Inertia Beam weapons are truly one of a kind, allowing them to keep the edge over all opponents they face.
has been overrun by demons. The remnants of the People's Republic of China live in the pre-Rifts subterranean city Geofront, possessing pre-rifts technology equal or exceeding any other human nation on Rifts Earth, fighting to free their nation from the grip of the Yama Kings.
Japan
has become a mixture of tradition and technology. The Samurai
and warrior monks of the New Empire battle Oni demons and high-tech raiders from the Otomo Shogunate. Despite their ardent anti-technology sentiments, one of the New Empire's closest allies is the Republic of Japan, an alliance centered on three pre-Rifts cities (Hiroshima
, Iwakuni
, and Kure
) accidentally rifted off the planet at the exact moment of the Great Cataclysm, and sent hundreds of years into their future. The rest of the archipelago
(which now has the pre-Rifts main island of Honshū
divided into two islands from the risen sea levels) is dominated by smaller breakaway governments; a significant portion of the northern half of Japan is dominated by Oni and other denizens from Rifts called the Zone.
Korea - both North and South - has been completely overrun by demons with nothing remaining of the pre-Rifts nations.
has gone back to nature, making the land a wild, mysterious Dark Continent again, where only those foolhardy enough to ignore the cautionary tales would willingly go.
In Egypt
, the ley lines coursing through the pyramids have brought Rama-Set, an evil oriental-type Dragon
who has conquered the locals and established the Phoenix Empire (with him leading it as Pharaoh).
Meanwhile, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
(the powerful supernatural beings legends named War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death) are traveling across the continent, seeking to reunite and combine their powers into an ultimate destroyer of a monster; but a group of powerful adventurers is hot on their tails, including the legendary rogue scholar Erin Tarn (marked for death by the Coalition States for her writings, which criticize the Coalition States), and the 20th century's most accomplished time-displaced expert on the paranormal, Victor Lazlo (whose writings were so popular among P.A. magic-users that they named a kingdom after him), and even the disguised (and unfortunately amnesiac) Egyptian Goddess Isis
. (See Rifts: World Book 4: Africa)
The lost continent of Atlantis
appeared after the cataclysm that caused the rifts. According to some it rose from the sea, but more accurately it returned from an alternate dimension to which it had shifted to ages ago.
Now controlled by the Splugorth, a race of Supernatural Intelligences, Atlantis is a land ruled by magic and monsters. An inter-dimensional marketplace where any number of creatures, including humans, are bought and sold as slaves, and often serve as fodder in gladiatorial arenas. Enhanced by parasites or other magic, they are then pitted against one another or bizarre, monstrous creatures.
The Splugorth are evil, trans-dimensional conquerors that are reminiscent of supernatural entities described in the works of H. P. Lovecraft
. They are huge, tentacled monstrosities with a giant eye atop their massive, amorphous bodies. The Splugorth rule through the use of subject races enslaved by Bio-Wizardry, a form of mysticism that involves the use of parasites and symbiotes to enhance one's abilities. The Splugorth are also masters of Rune Magic (such as the creation of the fabled rune weapons), an offshoot of Bio-Wizardry. They are an evil power that spans many dimensions and are the sworn enemies of the True Atlanteans who have been banished from Atlantis. The Splugorth minions are a particular threat on the coast lines of adjacent North and South America, conducting slave raids against human and D-Bee settlements to feed the insatiable hunger of the Atlantean slave markets, and in some cases, the hunger (often literal) of Atlantis' extradimensional visitors.
completely submerged. With the return of magic to the land, the Aborigines have enjoyed resurgence and many practice Dreamtime magic. The "civilized" world has devolved into often competing city-states, with Melbourne
and Perth
the most technologically advanced. In the "Northland" exist the races known as the Mokoloi and Shadow People.
or Leviathan
) slowly grows ever larger in size and may someday try to devour every living thing on the planet. It is opposed by the Whale Singers, rebellious creations of the monster, and the descendants of the United States Navy
, now called the "New Navy". Other forces above and below the waves include a floating city known as Tritonia, pirates including the ruthless aliens known as the "Horune", monsters, dolphins/orca/whales, and extradimensional invaders.
Additionally any other Palladium RPG can become the setting for a Rifts style campaign.
The most prolific weapons on Rifts Earth, in nearly all regions, are energy weapons. The most common are lasers, ion beams, plasma cannons, and particle beams. Also popular are rail guns
, and miniaturized rockets inappropriately called Mini-Missiles, as they have no guidance system. Due to the proliferation of supernatural monsters such as vampires, silver
-plated melee weapons and silver plated bullets have also risen in popularity. Also the Flamethrower
, which is often confused with the more advanced plasma weapons available in the game, have once again becoming a useful weapon due to its effectiveness against certain types of supernatural demons who are vulnerable to the basic element of fire. Plasma DOES NOT launch a stream of fire as many believe but a super excited gasses which produces a lot of heat and must be contained in a magnetic bottle which is the limiting factor of their range. For more conventional opponents, vibro-blades are the weapon of choice for hand to hand combat.
It should be noted that Rifts is one of the few universes that recognizes that laser weapons do not produce visible flying projectiles of colored light, and do not have recoil in real life, and the beams travel at the speed of light. Consequently lasers are often more accurate than other types of energy weapons of a similar size and weight. However, in-universe, it also mentions that people tend to dislike the relatively quiet snapping sounds that powerful lasers generate. Thus, weapon manufacturers such as "Wilk's" and "Northern Gun" actually install devices into their weapons that provide appropriate sound effects when the trigger is pulled for an "intimidation effect."
Rail guns are highly advanced in Rifts, and are used in a way similar to machine guns in modern times. However, the weapon, ammunition belts/drums/clips, and energy packs to power the weapon make most rail guns very heavy, and are usually restricted to Powered Armor, 'Borgs, and vehicles. One of the most famous rail guns on Rifts Earth is the RG13 Rapid Acceleration Electro-Magnetic Rail Gun known as the"Boom Gun" used famously by the USA-G10 Glitter Boy power armor. It is a weapon so powerful that it creates an immensely deafening sonic booms whenever it is fired that shatters glass for hundreds of yards around.
Ion weapons are also popular, presumably because they do provide sound and recoil unlike lasers.
Heavy weapons are generally Plasma or Particle-beam weapons, which have great stopping power, but also generally have a short range.
Alongside hover vehicles and Powered Armor, a common vehicle used in battle in Rifts Earth is the Giant Robot
. In addition to their role as war machines, Giant Robots are also intimidating, and turned out to be good in combating very large supernatural creatures (such as dragons, demons, and giants).
An increasingly popular use of technology is Techno-Wizardry, which is a fusion of magic and technology. The aims of Techno-Wizardry are to use magic not only to power technology, but to make it more effective than it was prior to magic infusion. Techno-Wizardry also encompasses the creation of more traditional magic weapons, so a Techno-Wizard can make both a flaming sword or a plasma cannon, often with many of the same components and spells.
The ultimate in magic are Rune Weapons, indestructible, extremely powerful weapons with the life-force of an intelligent being driving them. Rune weapons are capable of communicating with their wielders, animating and fighting by themselves, casting magic, and may harm potential users if they don't like their motives and personality (based on the RPG tradition of assigning an "alignment" to a character of good, selfish or evil), and can bind themselves psychically to those they do. Some of the strongest Rune Weapons, reminiscent of Michael Moorcock
's fictional sword Stormbringer
, are Soul Drinkers, capable of tearing the soul out of their victims, irrevocably killing them with only the slightest scratch.
1. Men of Arms are the combat specialists of the game. The include cyborgs, freelance warriors called Headhunters, the Coalition Army, the Glitterboy powered armor pilot (the Glitterboy named for its laser proof chrome alloy armor), the Cyber-Knight psychic warrior, the drug enhanced Juicer who will die in a few years as a side effect, and the Crazy who has microchips installed into their brains to force higher performance and psychic abilities at the expense of their sanity.
2. Scholars and Adventurers. These are the wilderness scout, the rogue scientist, the rogue scholar, the Cyber-doctor, the Operator (a mechanic second to none), City-Rat street punk and computer hacker, and even a vagabond who has minimal gear and skills.
3. Racial Character Classes. These are not trades or skills you learn, but a group of classes that were born with their powers. They include hatchling dragons, the Dog-Boy from the Coalition which is a mutated dog that walks upright, talks, and can psychically detect the supernatural, the Psi-Stalker which is more powerful than a Dog-Boy, but must also feed on mystic energy which a Dog-Boy does not, the Burster with psychic powers over fire, and the Mind Melter with large amounts of psychic power.
4. Men of Magic. These are the Ley Line Walker with special abilities when on Ley Lines and normal magic spell casting, the Shifter who is taught their magic by an external supernatural creature and specialize in travel magic, the Mystic who is instinctive and self taught and half psychic, the Techno-Wizard who can install magical properties into technological devices
inflicts between 1 and 4 "points" of damage. This point system makes sense when considering a small animal killed has between 1 and 4 "hit points," which make it realistic that it could be killed by a single strike. Yet even a basic Rifts-era laser pistol will cause between 100 and 400 points of damage (more than enough to totally destroy a small car in one shot). This means someone shot by such a laser pistol would be literally cut in half without protective armor and trees, bystanders, or anything else in the line of fire would meet a similar fate. Thus, an average player character in Rifts Earth with standard-issue armor and weapons has the effective durability and firepower of a modern tank. Even minimal skirmishes may leave deep craters, level towns, and kill many bystanders.
To accommodate this scale, Mega Damage Capacity or MDC is an important game concept. Each point of mega-damage is equal to 100 points of "Structural Damage" or SDC, enough to destroy a small car. For example most personal body armor in the Rifts setting has on average 40 to 80 MDC, and armored vehicles start around 200 MDC and go up from there. Exceedingly powerful beings such as Dragon
s, gods and alien intelligences have mega-damage skin caused by the high levels of magic energy present in this game setting, and their MDC can soar into the thousands, if not tens of thousands.
As Rifts has no systematic method of designing weaponry, the game is criticized frequently for severe power escalation; often magic, equipment, and character classes from new books are drastically more powerful than those from an earlier one (sometimes even with the same character class), requiring players to buy the most recent supplement to keep up with the power curve
(This is parodied in an 8-bit Theater
episode fittingly titled "Glitter Boy"). Rifts Conversion Books are designed to help facilitate the transition of magic and psychic characters into this new landscape, for which many automatically gain increased benefits due to the magic-rich environment. But a pistol that fires projectiles in our time fires the same bullets with the same effects during Rifts times and is effectively useless in most combat situations. It does retain certain value as an antique, and from a survival standpoint can be desirable as a hunting weapon.
while Palladium defends their method as allowing for a wider variety of skills.
However, Combat is determined through the use of 20 sided dice. In its most basic form the combat system is an opposed roll of two dice, with additions and subtractions for character skills and environmental factors. One character will generally be offensive, the other defensive, and the highest dice roll will determine if the defender is struck by the offensive character's attack.
s, a MUD
, several mush/muxs and large amounts of fan fiction
have been based on the world of Rifts. A licensed Rifts video game (Rifts: Promise of Power
), was released in November 2005 for the Nokia
N-Gage
, as was Rifts Collectible Card Game, a short-lived collectible card game
.
Siembieda has stated that he would like to see Rifts games developed for other consoles. However, he has stated that the niche nature of the role-playing game industry means it is hard to attract prospective developers to the property.
Role-playing game
A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...
created by Kevin Siembieda
Kevin Siembieda
Kevin Siembieda is an American artist, writer, designer, and publisher of role-playing games, and the co-founder and president of Palladium Books....
in 1990 and published continuously by Palladium Books
Palladium Books
Palladium Books is a publisher of role-playing games perhaps best known for its popular, expansive Rifts series . Palladium was founded April 1981 in Detroit, Michigan by current president and lead game designer Kevin Siembieda, and is presently based in Westland, Michigan...
since then. Rifts takes place in a post-apocalyptic future, deriving elements from cyberpunk
Cyberpunk
Cyberpunk is a postmodern and science fiction genre noted for its focus on "high tech and low life." The name is a portmanteau of cybernetics and punk, and was originally coined by Bruce Bethke as the title of his short story "Cyberpunk," published in 1983...
, science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
, fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
, horror
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
, western
Western (genre)
The Western is a genre of various visual arts, such as film, television, radio, literature, painting and others. Westerns are devoted to telling stories set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West, hence the name. Some Westerns are set as early as the Battle of...
, mythology
Mythology
The term mythology can refer either to the study of myths, or to a body or collection of myths. As examples, comparative mythology is the study of connections between myths from different cultures, whereas Greek mythology is the body of myths from ancient Greece...
and many other genres.
Rifts serves as a cross-over environment for a variety of other Palladium games with different universes connected through "rifts" on earth that lead to different spaces, times, and realities. Through Palladium's universal combat and conversion system, characters and elements from different games can interact and combine in new ways, resulting in a completely unique role-playing setting that Palladium calls the "Rifts Megaverse".
Rifts describes itself as an "advanced" role-playing game and not an introduction for those new to the concept.
Palladium continues to publish books for the Rifts series, with about 80 books published between 1990 and 2011. Rifts Ultimate Edition was released in August 2005 and designed to update the game with Palladium's incremental changes to its system, changes in the game world, and additional information and character types. The web site is quick to point out that this is not a second edition but an improvement and expansion of the original role playing game.
Setting
The setting of Rifts forms a unique backdrop for story-telling and role-playing. The foundations for the Rifts world were originally developed in the Palladium game Beyond the SupernaturalBeyond the Supernatural
Beyond the Supernatural is a horror role-playing game published by Palladium Books. It has seen two editions released, both of which have introduced innovations on Palladium's standard mechanics...
(first released in 1987), which uses Lovecraftian
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
storytelling techniques for a role-playing experience based on horror fiction.
This setting is very versatile; almost anything can happen in a Rifts game, and Rifts stories can be anything from dark and haunting to odd and whimsical. The rifts allow characters to travel through time and space to new worlds or to parallel universes. Alien magic far beyond the fairy tales of Earth's past exists alongside futuristic hyper-advanced technology capable of giving the user something of a chance against these supernatural forces. It is not uncommon for a game of Rifts to involve a wizard battling a fleet of flying robot
Robot
A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
s, nor unthinkable for an elf or dwarf to receive a bionic arm. Another unique factor, known as "Techno Wizardry" is a bridge-point between modern technology and ancient magic, allowing magically powered weapons, armor and vehicles.
Some of the important concepts upon which the Rifts setting is based:
- Supernatural events today are rare, generally discounted by science, and difficult or impossible to prove.
- The Rifts world is EarthEarthEarth is the third planet from the Sun, and the densest and fifth-largest of the eight planets in the Solar System. It is also the largest of the Solar System's four terrestrial planets...
, but hundreds of years into the future. - MagicMagic (gaming)Some role-playing games or game systems can include a set of rules that are used to portray magic in the paranormal sense. These rules simulate the effects that magic would have within the game context, according to how the game designer intended the magic to be portrayed...
energy exists, and is called potential psychic energy (PPE). PPE can be found in certain places, objects, and animals, but one of its greatest sources is human beings. While this has a variety of applications, upon a human's death, the energy is doubled, and then released into the surrounding environment. - Ley lineLey lineLey lines are alleged alignments of a number of places of geographical and historical interest, such as ancient monuments and megaliths, natural ridge-tops and water-fords...
s, lines of magic energy, criss-cross the earth forming supernaturalSupernaturalThe supernatural or is that which is not subject to the laws of nature, or more figuratively, that which is said to exist above and beyond nature...
geographic areas such as the Bermuda TriangleBermuda TriangleThe Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle, is a region in the western part of the North Atlantic Ocean where a number of aircraft and surface vessels allegedly disappeared under mysterious circumstances....
. In the Rifts game, points where ley lines intersect, called a nexus, are places of powerful magic, such as the Pyramids of Giza and StonehengeStonehengeStonehenge is a prehistoric monument located in the English county of Wiltshire, about west of Amesbury and north of Salisbury. One of the most famous sites in the world, Stonehenge is composed of a circular setting of large standing stones set within earthworks...
. If a ley line nexus grows very strong, the very fabric of space and time can be torn thus creating a rift, a hole in space-time leading to another place, time or a new or parallel dimension. Ley Lines are normally invisible, but in the magic-saturated world of Rifts Earth, they become visible at night as massive bands of blue-white energy half a mile wide, and stretching for many miles. If the PPE nearby is extremely strong the Ley Lines could be seen during the day too.
Earth
Rifts begins with two future-historical premises: first, that there will be a golden age of humanity with tremendous advances in science, technology, military, and society. Humanity as a whole will get along as a majority of earths nations decide to stop a world war and begin to share ideas and technology freely. Much of the solar system will be conquered, humanity's wars will end, and harmony will reign. Second, this golden age will be followed by an apocalypticApocalypse
An Apocalypse is a disclosure of something hidden from the majority of mankind in an era dominated by falsehood and misconception, i.e. the veil to be lifted. The Apocalypse of John is the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament...
nuclear war
Nuclear warfare
Nuclear warfare, or atomic warfare, is a military conflict or political strategy in which nuclear weaponry is detonated on an opponent. Compared to conventional warfare, nuclear warfare can be vastly more destructive in range and extent of damage...
that starts with a border incursion by NEMA (North American Economic Military Alliance, comprising Canada, The U.S., and Mexico) forces in South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
during the year 2098. The special circumstances of Earth's mystic position in the Universe at that time (namely, a multi-planetary alignment combined with the naturally higher levels of mystic energy present during the Winter Solstice at exactly midnight) changes what would "normally" be the deaths of a few million living beings into a psychic energy flood that triggers the eruption of ley lines and triggering natural disasters across the world and also causes the return of Atlantis which raised the water levels causing even more death. The additional deaths in turn releases even more mystic energy in a vicious cycle. Ultimately, the PPE of billions of human beings dying nearly simultaneously, multiplied by the mystic alignments mentioned earlier, energized the ley line networks criscrossing the globe and caused many rifts to open, both on Earth and throughout the Megaverse -while simultaneously ripping untold millions of alien beings from their own homeworld and alerting the Great Powers of the megaverse of a new planet to conquer. Many creatures, both mythical beasts and alien beings, come through the Rifts -some of them now permanently opened and incapable of being shut down again -to wreak havoc. This period is covered in Palladium's Rifts: Chaos Earth spin-off series (Which was originally slated to be an alternate reality rather than Rifts' history where the Golden Age survived because the first nuke hit 1 minute after midnight). The old world is gone, a new dark age has dawned and humanity's shrinking population is reduced, due to catastrophe and domestic failure, immeasurably.
Rifts game play takes place roughly 300 years after this event, described as 103 P.A., or "Post-Apocalypse", a calendar established at the formation of the Coalition States. This is equivalent to the year 2389, according to the New German Republic. Although different story lines may begin before or after, such as with the invasion of Chi-Town by the Federation of Magic (before) or as the Four Horsemen appear in Africa (after), most of the series "World Books" are described with a kind of snapshot of 103-109 P.A. At the latest World Books, the current date is around 110 P.A.(2396).
By this time most of the disasters have quieted down Earth is still bathed in the released PPE. The planet's mystical energy has added untold numbers of alien beings from other dimensions, who continue to arrive through the Rifts both accidentally and deliberately. These creatures include humanoid Dimensional Beings (called D-Bees). Some are familiar fantasy races, such as elves and dwarfs, others have never before been seen (created specifically for the game setting). Also now sharing the planet are monstrous creatures and mystical demons with hides as strong as tank armor. The most powerful (and a common theme in the Palladium Megaverse) are the "Alien Intelligences," Lovecraftian, living mountains of flesh, lidless eyes and wriggling tentacles with great supernatural powers. In some rare cases, even the ancient gods of mythology have returned to reclaim their former lands.
To cope with these natural, supernatural, and alien menaces, the human race has tried to change in a variety of ways, many of them borrowed from the technological developments of the lost golden age. Augmentation of the human body has become common with three basic categories: the "Juicers" do it chemically, the "Borgs
Cyborg
A cyborg is a being with both biological and artificial parts. The term was coined in 1960 when Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline used it in an article about the advantages of self-regulating human-machine systems in outer space. D. S...
" do it mechanically, and the "Crazies" make use of performance-enhancing brain implants. All such augmentations boost strength, speed, endurance and dexterity to superhuman levels. However, they all come at great cost. Chemicals cause the body to wear out faster, decreasing life span to a few short years. Mechanical Borg augmentation causes a loss of humanity, causing those with multiple limb and organ replacements to become more machine than human, also making use of magic impossible. Brain implants cause mental instability ranging from mild phobias to crippling neurosis
Neurosis
Neurosis is a class of functional mental disorders involving distress but neither delusions nor hallucinations, whereby behavior is not outside socially acceptable norms. It is also known as psychoneurosis or neurotic disorder, and thus those suffering from it are said to be neurotic...
or psychosis
Psychosis
Psychosis means abnormal condition of the mind, and is a generic psychiatric term for a mental state often described as involving a "loss of contact with reality"...
. Those people who choose to be augmented in these ways accept these risks in order to become powerful. Some are required to receive these augmentations either for self defense, or for work, or even against their will by another individual. The minimalistic, needy and weak are often forced or coerced into these roles to serve their rulers. Another popular theme used by humans to combat the dangers of Rifts Earth are powered armor suits, and giant robot vehicles.
Some turn to other means to become "more" than human. Magic abounds on Rifts Earth, and many people turn to the magical arts. Others form pacts with alien intelligences or deities in exchange for great magical knowledge, almost always becoming pawns of the beings they dared turn to for power. Still others discover that they have great psionic potential, and dedicate their lives to discovering the abilities of their own minds.
The Ley Lines, formerly invisible, now dominate the landscape, appearing as massive lines of bluish energy half a mile wide, some twice that tall, stretching thousands of miles, crisscrossing the globe. The largest can even be seen from space.
North America
The strongest power in North AmericaNorth America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
is the Coalition States (CS). The governing body of the Coalition States is based in the arcology
Arcology
Arcology, a portmanteau of the words "architecture" and "ecology", is a set of architectural design principles aimed toward the design of enormous habitats of extremely high human population density. These largely hypothetical structures would contain a variety of residential, commercial, and...
city of Chi-Town and lays claim to northern Illinois (the southern part being controlled by the "Federation of Magic") and all of Iowa. Other member states consist of "Lone Star", formed from the Texas Panhandle
Texas Panhandle
The Texas Panhandle is a region of the U.S. state of Texas consisting of the northernmost 26 counties in the state. The panhandle is a rectangular area bordered by New Mexico to the west and Oklahoma to the north and east...
, who specialize in mutating animals into talking servants considered by many players as cannon fodder but is one of their primary weapons against the supernatural as without them they would have to rely solely on human psychics; Missouri; and Iron Heart which consists of the eastern half of Ontario, Canada. The Coalition States are most often described as a technologically advanced fascist human supremacists with a totalitarian government, restrictive internal media, restrictive education (such as enforced illiteracy), and a massive military. The Coalition is ruled by Emperor Karl Prosek, and is genocidally opposed to all aliens, D-bees (Dimensional Beings, to include humans from other times and even unlucky CS troops that have traveled through a Rift and survived to return... only to be "contained" by his former comrades), human mutations, and Magic. His ultimate goal is to control the Earth by humans and for humans, and do so by attacking anything and everyone that is foreign to Earth as it was before the cataclysm. Nevertheless, Prosek allows some of the less threatening non-humans live alongside lesser-privileged humans in the burbs surrounding Chi-Town. Most of these poor souls think that they may eventually gain citizenship so they can live within the protective walls of the arcology.
The second greatest power is "Free Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
". At one time it was a Coalition State, but constant disagreement with Chi-Town over issues like Glitter Boy production, education level of the populace led, use of mutant animals, secession and eventually a short civil war. A cease-fire was signed (mainly due to the CS's bigger problem with Tolkeen), but distrust has remained.
Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
is ruled by a group of vampire
Vampire
Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
kingdoms, who treat humans as little more than cattle to feed upon. North of the Rio Grande, west of Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
and roaming most of the American Southwest are large nomadic bands/tribes of bandits who collectively form the "Pecos Empire" which incorporates the cities of El Paso
El Paso
El Paso, a city in the U.S. state of Texas, on the border with Mexico.El Paso may also refer to:-Geography:Colombia:* El Paso, CesarSpain:*El Paso, Santa Cruz de TenerifeUnited States:...
, Los Alamos (formerly Austin
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...
) and "Houstown", its unofficial capital. Though the nation is not part of a cohesive power structure or political organization, "Emperor Sabre Laser" is attempting to unite the city-states under his banner. Much of the western United States has more or less willingly reverted to a mix of modern and past technology, and the days of the Wild West
American Old West
The American Old West, or the Wild West, comprises the history, geography, people, lore, and cultural expression of life in the Western United States, most often referring to the latter half of the 19th century, between the American Civil War and the end of the century...
, where outlaws ride hovercycles into battle, cowboys are as likely to raise dinosaurs as they are cattle, cyborgs prospect for gold and other minerals, and wild buffalo, sent to another dimension to prevent their extinction, have returned to the plains in the millions. American Natives have taken up two banners there are the Traditionalist which were also taken by the spirit people and returned to Earth with the Bison, they refuse to use most items of technology, preferring the old ways. Then there is the modern camp which have designed many technological marvels of their own. The pockets of civilization include the "Colorado Baronies", Hope, Testament, Wilmington, and Charity, a collective of small and a few large towns, founded by the survivors of the Denver area. In Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...
, the "Clarkdale Confederacy" (Clarkdale, Jerome, and Cottonwood), has managed to survive even as Flagstaff, Prescott and Phoenix have collapsed around them; there is also the town founded and run by mercenaries known as "Arzno".
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...
managed to survive the great cataclysm, though Canada itself did not. The Mounties have become an independent law enforcement force called the Tundra Rangers, patrolling the northern wilderness.
The Midwest, both upper and central, is home to most of North America's population. The Manistique Imperium and Northern Gun in Michigan
Michigan
Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....
's Upper Peninsula, both Coalition allies, are among the biggest weapons manufacturing areas on the continent. "New Lazlo" is one of the largest cities in Michigan's southern portion. Chillicothe in Missouri
Missouri
Missouri is a US state located in the Midwestern United States, bordered by Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska. With a 2010 population of 5,988,927, Missouri is the 18th most populous state in the nation and the fifth most populous in the Midwest. It...
is a large supplier of Coalition food processing and growing. However, Missouri's southern half, home to the city-states of "Whykin" (Poplar Bluff) and "Kingsdale" (West Plains) are in constant opposition to the CS and claim independence. North Dakota is home to the Wilk's firearms corporation, though not much else. Arkansas is home to the independent CS ally "El Dorado". Southern Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
and the Ohio Valley is home to the "Federation of Magic". Also in the Ohio Valley is "Psyscape": a city-state founded by Psychics.
"Tolkeen" was a major city in the former Minneapolis region in early Rifts books; the city welcomed users of magic. Recently, a military campaign made by the Coalition States (which is the primary event of 109 PA) resulted in the magic-user kingdom being wiped off the map (this is covered in the highly debated six-volume series of source/storybooks "Coalition Wars: Siege on Tolkeen").
In the Northeast
Atlantic Northeast
The Atlantic Northeast, or Arcadia, is a region of North America, comprising New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine and the Canadian Maritimes. Definitions of the region vary; it may extend to upstate New York and/or all of Atlantic Canada....
, the city-state of "Lazlo", named after the great 20th century supernatural researcher and writer Victor Lazlo (from another Palladium RPG, "Beyond The Supernatural"), was built upon the ruins of the Canadian city of Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
. This major center of civilization is well known as a melting pot of humans, D-Bees and other, stranger beings, and is the home of Techno-Wizardry. "Mad Haven" is what the ruins of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
Island is now known as although tectonic forces during the cataclysm have moved it into the coast creating a peninsula, and is seen by most denizens of Rifts Earth as a refuge of demons and madness.
South America
The return of Atlantis has caused the Amazon RiverAmazon River
The Amazon of South America is the second longest river in the world and by far the largest by waterflow with an average discharge greater than the next seven largest rivers combined...
basin to flood most of the western part of South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
, giving it the nickname "The Land of a Thousand Islands". In Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
, a nation of humans and Dwarves fight against a kingdom of Vampire
Vampire
Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
s. The gods of the Inca have returned to their ancient holdings in the Andes
Andes
The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...
, and fight a battle against alien invaders known as the "Arkons". Coming together as one, the "Empire of the Sun" has created a wide range of technology and magic, including "Nazca Line Magic", exclusive to the Empire. The Empire incorporates the cities of Cuzco, Nazca
Nazca
Nazca is a system of valleys on the southern coast of Peru, and the name of the region's largest existing town in the Nazca Province. It is also the name applied to the Nazca culture that flourished in the area between 300 BC and AD 800...
, Arequipa
Arequipa
Arequipa is the capital city of the Arequipa Region in southern Peru. With a population of 836,859 it is the second most populous city of the country...
and Lima
Lima
Lima is the capital and the largest city of Peru. It is located in the valleys of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, in the central part of the country, on a desert coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Together with the seaport of Callao, it forms a contiguous urban area known as the Lima...
. Much of the rest of the continent is a wide collection of states ranging from democracies, corrupt oligarchies, and communist guerrillas known as Shining Path
Shining Path
Shining Path is a Maoist guerrilla terrorist organization in Peru. The group never refers to itself as "Shining Path", and as several other Peruvian groups, prefers to be called the "Communist Party of Peru" or "PCP-SL" in short...
, to Mutants, Amazons
Amazons
The Amazons are a nation of all-female warriors in Greek mythology and Classical antiquity. Herodotus placed them in a region bordering Scythia in Sarmatia...
, Aliens, Transdimensional Mercenaries, pre-historic creatures and dozens of others.
In what was once Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, the "Silver River Republics" of Cordoba (the "South American Chi-Town"), Santiago (one of the most tolerant Human nations on Rifts Earth), Achilles (a nation founded by Mutants) and New Babylon (a nation where Humans and a race of Aliens live side by side) have thrived and created nations whose strength rivals that of the CS.
In what was once Bolivia
Bolivia
Bolivia officially known as Plurinational State of Bolivia , is a landlocked country in central South America. It is the poorest country in South America...
freed Human and D-Bees slave soldiers, of the race called "Dakir", have formed the "Megaversial Legion": a mercenary company with one of the highest levels of technology on Rifts Earth (possibly even the Megaverse). Their Inertia Beam weapons are truly one of a kind, allowing them to keep the edge over all opponents they face.
Europe
- EnglandEnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
has become a vast wilderness again, broken up by the occasional giant Millennium Tree or feudal kingdom, complete with a New CamelotCamelotCamelot is a castle and court associated with the legendary King Arthur. Absent in the early Arthurian material, Camelot first appeared in 12th-century French romances and eventually came to be described as the fantastic capital of Arthur's realm and a symbol of the Arthurian world...
and a new King ArthurKing ArthurKing Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
, partially being manipulated by the ethereal extension of an alien intelligence (disguised as the wizard Merlin). Also the magic of Druids and Faeries has become commonplace. - In GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, the New German Republic, with assistance from the Triax corporation, battles against an empire of GargoyleGargoyleIn architecture, a gargoyle is a carved stone grotesque, usually made of granite, with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building thereby preventing rainwater from running down masonry walls and eroding the mortar between...
s that has apparently conquered much of Europe. - FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
has already been overrun by Gargoyle hordes and other monsters and cults. New Camelot, the NGR, and the Gargoyle Empire are all making moves into the territory as well. - RussiaRussiaRussia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
is presently ruled by a collection of WarlordWarlordA warlord is a person with power who has both military and civil control over a subnational area due to armed forces loyal to the warlord and not to a central authority. The term can also mean one who espouses the ideal that war is necessary, and has the means and authority to engage in war...
s, who rule through the use of vast armies and CyborgCyborgA cyborg is a being with both biological and artificial parts. The term was coined in 1960 when Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline used it in an article about the advantages of self-regulating human-machine systems in outer space. D. S...
troops. The only major civilized nation is the "Sovietski", all that truly remain of the pre-Rifts Russian Empire and a trade partner of the NGR, who like them, are in constant battle with the Gargoyle and Brodkil Empires.
Asia
Much of ChinaChina
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
has been overrun by demons. The remnants of the People's Republic of China live in the pre-Rifts subterranean city Geofront, possessing pre-rifts technology equal or exceeding any other human nation on Rifts Earth, fighting to free their nation from the grip of the Yama Kings.
Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
has become a mixture of tradition and technology. The Samurai
Samurai
is the term for the military nobility of pre-industrial Japan. According to translator William Scott Wilson: "In Chinese, the character 侍 was originally a verb meaning to wait upon or accompany a person in the upper ranks of society, and this is also true of the original term in Japanese, saburau...
and warrior monks of the New Empire battle Oni demons and high-tech raiders from the Otomo Shogunate. Despite their ardent anti-technology sentiments, one of the New Empire's closest allies is the Republic of Japan, an alliance centered on three pre-Rifts cities (Hiroshima
Hiroshima
is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture, and the largest city in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, the largest island of Japan. It became best known as the first city in history to be destroyed by a nuclear weapon when the United States Army Air Forces dropped an atomic bomb on it at 8:15 A.M...
, Iwakuni
Iwakuni, Yamaguchi
is a city located in Yamaguchi, Japan.On March 20, 2006, the old city of Iwakuni absorbed the towns of Kuga, Mikawa, Miwa, Nishiki, Shūtō and Yū, and the village of Hongō, all from Kuga District, to form the new, expanded city of Iwakuni.- History :...
, and Kure
Kure, Hiroshima
is a city in Hiroshima prefecture, Japan.As of October 1, 2010, the city has an estimated population of 240,820 and a population density of 681 persons per km². The total area is 353.74 km².- History :...
) accidentally rifted off the planet at the exact moment of the Great Cataclysm, and sent hundreds of years into their future. The rest of the archipelago
Archipelago
An archipelago , sometimes called an island group, is a chain or cluster of islands. The word archipelago is derived from the Greek ἄρχι- – arkhi- and πέλαγος – pélagos through the Italian arcipelago...
(which now has the pre-Rifts main island of Honshū
Honshu
is the largest island of Japan. The nation's main island, it is south of Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyushu across the Kanmon Strait...
divided into two islands from the risen sea levels) is dominated by smaller breakaway governments; a significant portion of the northern half of Japan is dominated by Oni and other denizens from Rifts called the Zone.
Korea - both North and South - has been completely overrun by demons with nothing remaining of the pre-Rifts nations.
Africa
Much of AfricaAfrica
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
has gone back to nature, making the land a wild, mysterious Dark Continent again, where only those foolhardy enough to ignore the cautionary tales would willingly go.
In Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, the ley lines coursing through the pyramids have brought Rama-Set, an evil oriental-type Dragon
Dragon
A dragon is a legendary creature, typically with serpentine or reptilian traits, that feature in the myths of many cultures. There are two distinct cultural traditions of dragons: the European dragon, derived from European folk traditions and ultimately related to Greek and Middle Eastern...
who has conquered the locals and established the Phoenix Empire (with him leading it as Pharaoh).
Meanwhile, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse are described in the last book of the New Testament of the Bible, called the Book of Revelation of Jesus Christ to Saint John the Evangelist at 6:1-8. The chapter tells of a "'book'/'scroll' in God's right hand that is sealed with seven seals"...
(the powerful supernatural beings legends named War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death) are traveling across the continent, seeking to reunite and combine their powers into an ultimate destroyer of a monster; but a group of powerful adventurers is hot on their tails, including the legendary rogue scholar Erin Tarn (marked for death by the Coalition States for her writings, which criticize the Coalition States), and the 20th century's most accomplished time-displaced expert on the paranormal, Victor Lazlo (whose writings were so popular among P.A. magic-users that they named a kingdom after him), and even the disguised (and unfortunately amnesiac) Egyptian Goddess Isis
Isis
Isis or in original more likely Aset is a goddess in Ancient Egyptian religious beliefs, whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. She was worshipped as the ideal mother and wife as well as the matron of nature and magic...
. (See Rifts: World Book 4: Africa)
Atlantis
Atlantis
Atlantis is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BC....
appeared after the cataclysm that caused the rifts. According to some it rose from the sea, but more accurately it returned from an alternate dimension to which it had shifted to ages ago.
Now controlled by the Splugorth, a race of Supernatural Intelligences, Atlantis is a land ruled by magic and monsters. An inter-dimensional marketplace where any number of creatures, including humans, are bought and sold as slaves, and often serve as fodder in gladiatorial arenas. Enhanced by parasites or other magic, they are then pitted against one another or bizarre, monstrous creatures.
The Splugorth are evil, trans-dimensional conquerors that are reminiscent of supernatural entities described in the works of H. P. Lovecraft
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
. They are huge, tentacled monstrosities with a giant eye atop their massive, amorphous bodies. The Splugorth rule through the use of subject races enslaved by Bio-Wizardry, a form of mysticism that involves the use of parasites and symbiotes to enhance one's abilities. The Splugorth are also masters of Rune Magic (such as the creation of the fabled rune weapons), an offshoot of Bio-Wizardry. They are an evil power that spans many dimensions and are the sworn enemies of the True Atlanteans who have been banished from Atlantis. The Splugorth minions are a particular threat on the coast lines of adjacent North and South America, conducting slave raids against human and D-Bee settlements to feed the insatiable hunger of the Atlantean slave markets, and in some cases, the hunger (often literal) of Atlantis' extradimensional visitors.
Australia
A vast inland sea has flooded the centre of the continent leaving notable landmarks like UluruUluru
Uluru , also known as Ayers Rock, is a large sandstone rock formation in the southern part of the Northern Territory, central Australia. It lies south west of the nearest large town, Alice Springs; by road. Kata Tjuta and Uluru are the two major features of the Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park....
completely submerged. With the return of magic to the land, the Aborigines have enjoyed resurgence and many practice Dreamtime magic. The "civilized" world has devolved into often competing city-states, with Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
and Perth
Perth, Western Australia
Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia and the fourth most populous city in Australia. The Perth metropolitan area has an estimated population of almost 1,700,000....
the most technologically advanced. In the "Northland" exist the races known as the Mokoloi and Shadow People.
The Oceans
Deep within the Marianas Trench, a massive, evil Alien Intelligence known as the Lord of the Deep (sometimes mistakenly believed by survivors of its rampages on Rifts Earth to be the KrakenKraken
Kraken are legendary sea monsters of giant proportions said to have dwelt off the coasts of Norway and Iceland.In modern German, Krake means octopus but can also refer to the legendary Kraken...
or Leviathan
Leviathan
Leviathan , is a sea monster referred to in the Bible. In Demonology, Leviathan is one of the seven princes of Hell and its gatekeeper . The word has become synonymous with any large sea monster or creature...
) slowly grows ever larger in size and may someday try to devour every living thing on the planet. It is opposed by the Whale Singers, rebellious creations of the monster, and the descendants of the United States Navy
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
, now called the "New Navy". Other forces above and below the waves include a floating city known as Tritonia, pirates including the ruthless aliens known as the "Horune", monsters, dolphins/orca/whales, and extradimensional invaders.
Other settings
Further supplements to the Rifts game have expanded the setting to include:- Mutants in OrbitMutants in OrbitMutants in Orbit is an adventure and sourcebook for the After the Bomb and Rifts role-playing games, authored by James Wallis and Kevin Siembieda. It was released by Palladium Books in March 1992. The book deals with life of space colonies...
- Several Space StationSpace stationA space station is a spacecraft capable of supporting a crew which is designed to remain in space for an extended period of time, and to which other spacecraft can dock. A space station is distinguished from other spacecraft used for human spaceflight by its lack of major propulsion or landing...
s and ColoniesSpace colonizationSpace colonization is the concept of permanent human habitation outside of Earth. Although hypothetical at the present time, there are many proposals and speculations about the first space colony...
existed in orbit at the time of the Great Cataclysm. The descendants of their inhabitants, including many MoreauThe Island of Doctor MoreauThe Island of Doctor Moreau is an 1896 science fiction novel written by H. G. Wells. It is told from the point of view of a man named Edward Prendick who is shipwrecked, rescued by a passing boat, and then left at the ship's destination by the crew along with the ship's cargo of exotic animals...
-style mutant animals, still survive in space, fighting against each other, and trying to prevent any force from entering or leaving Earth. (For use with Rifts & After The Bomb.) - The Three Galaxies - an alternative space operaSpace operaSpace opera is a subgenre of science fiction that emphasizes romantic, often melodramatic adventure, set mainly or entirely in outer space, generally involving conflict between opponents possessing advanced technologies and abilities. The term has no relation to music and it is analogous to "soap...
setting of a series of galaxies centered on the planet and dimensional nexus of Phase World. Several explorers, cults, and interstellar and intergalactic states are presently involved in the search for the Cosmic Forge, a powerful artifact that is said to have created the universe. - Skraypers - Superheroes lead a resistance movement against alien conquerors amongst the massive cities of their home planet. Like Mutants in Orbit, Skraypers is designed for both Rifts (where it is set in the Three Galaxies), and another Palladium game, in this case Heroes UnlimitedHeroes UnlimitedHeroes Unlimited is a superhero role-playing game written by Kevin Siembieda and first published by Palladium Books in 1984. The game is based upon the Palladium Books Megaversal system and is compatible with any other game on the Palladium system, including Aliens Unlimited and Villains...
. - WormwoodWormwood (star)Wormwood, αψίνθιον or άψινθος in Greek, is a star, or angel, that appears in the Biblical New Testament Book of Revelation.-Wormwood in the Bible:...
- Knights and symbiote-bearing warriors fight against demons on a living planet. - Chaos EarthChaos EarthChaos Earth is a post-apocalyptic role-playing game from Palladium Books. It is a spinoff and prequel to their popular game Rifts, which uses a similar form of Palladium's Megaversal system....
- Earth as it was during and immediately after the devastation of the Apocalypse. (Was supposed to be an alternate Earth where the governments and civilizations of the Golden Age were able to stay intact all because the first nuke strike was one minute after midnight.) - Manhunter Universe - an alternative dimension to Rifts:Earth, published as a sourcebook under license from Palladium Books by Myrmidon Press. In this dimension, humankind fights an intense battle against artificially intelligent robots bent on human extermination.
Additionally any other Palladium RPG can become the setting for a Rifts style campaign.
- ALL Palladium Books" - though the above sourcebooks are more specifically related to Rifts all of Palladium's games are considered to be within the same "megaverse" and so all of their other games can be used as source books. Though the canon incarnation of Chaos Earth is Rifts' past it is also commonly accepted that Beyond the Supernatural is the distant past (due to the presence of the same mystic energy AND use of Lazlo's name) which may or may not include Ninjas and Superpies, Heroes Unlimited, After the Bomb (or if you have the books Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), System Failure, Dead Reign and even Nightspawn/bane or Robotech or Macross II. But Palladium Fantasy RPG or Recon happen in entirely different dimensions so could be source books but not Rifts' past. While Splycers on the other hand is intentionally a big mystery and may or may not be Earth or another planet, may or may not be an alternate reality or a completely different dimension so as Kevin likes to point out so often, it is all up to the GM.
- Anything - if you like the system but you have an old favorite character... convert it. Conversions are encouraged but due to copyright issues Kevin doesn't want any conversions that have a basis copyrighted by someone else posted on the Palladium Forums.
Weapons and technology
Despite the near-total collapse of human civilization, most of the powerful technology managed to survive the centuries. There are many reasons given for the survival or rapid development of the high technology. In The New German Republic/Triax Industries the infrastructure survived. In the case of the Coalition States it is suggested that their benefactor is a rogue artificial intelligent computer named ARCHIE 3. In Japan the main technology base is a part of the country that was "rifted" from Earth's past. The technology, regardless of the unlikelyhood of the varied factions obtaining it, is in fact instrumental to the continued survival of mankind in a world where many creatures now can survive being struck by the main gun of a battle tank.The most prolific weapons on Rifts Earth, in nearly all regions, are energy weapons. The most common are lasers, ion beams, plasma cannons, and particle beams. Also popular are rail guns
Railgun
A railgun is an entirely electrical gun that accelerates a conductive projectile along a pair of metal rails using the same principles as the homopolar motor. Railguns use two sliding or rolling contacts that permit a large electric current to pass through the projectile. This current interacts...
, and miniaturized rockets inappropriately called Mini-Missiles, as they have no guidance system. Due to the proliferation of supernatural monsters such as vampires, silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
-plated melee weapons and silver plated bullets have also risen in popularity. Also the Flamethrower
Flamethrower
A flamethrower is a mechanical device designed to project a long controllable stream of fire.Some flamethrowers project a stream of ignited flammable liquid; some project a long gas flame. Most military flamethrowers use liquids, but commercial flamethrowers tend to use high-pressure propane and...
, which is often confused with the more advanced plasma weapons available in the game, have once again becoming a useful weapon due to its effectiveness against certain types of supernatural demons who are vulnerable to the basic element of fire. Plasma DOES NOT launch a stream of fire as many believe but a super excited gasses which produces a lot of heat and must be contained in a magnetic bottle which is the limiting factor of their range. For more conventional opponents, vibro-blades are the weapon of choice for hand to hand combat.
It should be noted that Rifts is one of the few universes that recognizes that laser weapons do not produce visible flying projectiles of colored light, and do not have recoil in real life, and the beams travel at the speed of light. Consequently lasers are often more accurate than other types of energy weapons of a similar size and weight. However, in-universe, it also mentions that people tend to dislike the relatively quiet snapping sounds that powerful lasers generate. Thus, weapon manufacturers such as "Wilk's" and "Northern Gun" actually install devices into their weapons that provide appropriate sound effects when the trigger is pulled for an "intimidation effect."
Rail guns are highly advanced in Rifts, and are used in a way similar to machine guns in modern times. However, the weapon, ammunition belts/drums/clips, and energy packs to power the weapon make most rail guns very heavy, and are usually restricted to Powered Armor, 'Borgs, and vehicles. One of the most famous rail guns on Rifts Earth is the RG13 Rapid Acceleration Electro-Magnetic Rail Gun known as the"Boom Gun" used famously by the USA-G10 Glitter Boy power armor. It is a weapon so powerful that it creates an immensely deafening sonic booms whenever it is fired that shatters glass for hundreds of yards around.
Ion weapons are also popular, presumably because they do provide sound and recoil unlike lasers.
Heavy weapons are generally Plasma or Particle-beam weapons, which have great stopping power, but also generally have a short range.
Alongside hover vehicles and Powered Armor, a common vehicle used in battle in Rifts Earth is the Giant Robot
Mecha
A mech , is a science fiction term for a large walking bipedal tank or robot, including ones on treads and animal shapes.-Characteristics:...
. In addition to their role as war machines, Giant Robots are also intimidating, and turned out to be good in combating very large supernatural creatures (such as dragons, demons, and giants).
An increasingly popular use of technology is Techno-Wizardry, which is a fusion of magic and technology. The aims of Techno-Wizardry are to use magic not only to power technology, but to make it more effective than it was prior to magic infusion. Techno-Wizardry also encompasses the creation of more traditional magic weapons, so a Techno-Wizard can make both a flaming sword or a plasma cannon, often with many of the same components and spells.
The ultimate in magic are Rune Weapons, indestructible, extremely powerful weapons with the life-force of an intelligent being driving them. Rune weapons are capable of communicating with their wielders, animating and fighting by themselves, casting magic, and may harm potential users if they don't like their motives and personality (based on the RPG tradition of assigning an "alignment" to a character of good, selfish or evil), and can bind themselves psychically to those they do. Some of the strongest Rune Weapons, reminiscent of Michael Moorcock
Michael Moorcock
Michael John Moorcock is an English writer, primarily of science fiction and fantasy, who has also published a number of literary novels....
's fictional sword Stormbringer
Stormbringer
Stormbringer is the name of the infamous black sword featured in a number of fantasy stories by the author Michael Moorcock. Created by the forces of Chaos, it is described as a huge, black sword covered with strange runes carved deep into its blade...
, are Soul Drinkers, capable of tearing the soul out of their victims, irrevocably killing them with only the slightest scratch.
Character Classes
While the game books rapidly expanded the number of character classes to a large number, the original game book contained four overall character groups with approximately 4 to 5 character classes per group.1. Men of Arms are the combat specialists of the game. The include cyborgs, freelance warriors called Headhunters, the Coalition Army, the Glitterboy powered armor pilot (the Glitterboy named for its laser proof chrome alloy armor), the Cyber-Knight psychic warrior, the drug enhanced Juicer who will die in a few years as a side effect, and the Crazy who has microchips installed into their brains to force higher performance and psychic abilities at the expense of their sanity.
2. Scholars and Adventurers. These are the wilderness scout, the rogue scientist, the rogue scholar, the Cyber-doctor, the Operator (a mechanic second to none), City-Rat street punk and computer hacker, and even a vagabond who has minimal gear and skills.
3. Racial Character Classes. These are not trades or skills you learn, but a group of classes that were born with their powers. They include hatchling dragons, the Dog-Boy from the Coalition which is a mutated dog that walks upright, talks, and can psychically detect the supernatural, the Psi-Stalker which is more powerful than a Dog-Boy, but must also feed on mystic energy which a Dog-Boy does not, the Burster with psychic powers over fire, and the Mind Melter with large amounts of psychic power.
4. Men of Magic. These are the Ley Line Walker with special abilities when on Ley Lines and normal magic spell casting, the Shifter who is taught their magic by an external supernatural creature and specialize in travel magic, the Mystic who is instinctive and self taught and half psychic, the Techno-Wizard who can install magical properties into technological devices
Damage and firepower
One important note about Rifts versus other game systems is scale: weaponry and combat in Rifts are far more destructive than in traditional gaming systems. For example, in Rifts and other Palladium games, a simple knifeKnife
A knife is a cutting tool with an exposed cutting edge or blade, hand-held or otherwise, with or without a handle. Knives were used at least two-and-a-half million years ago, as evidenced by the Oldowan tools...
inflicts between 1 and 4 "points" of damage. This point system makes sense when considering a small animal killed has between 1 and 4 "hit points," which make it realistic that it could be killed by a single strike. Yet even a basic Rifts-era laser pistol will cause between 100 and 400 points of damage (more than enough to totally destroy a small car in one shot). This means someone shot by such a laser pistol would be literally cut in half without protective armor and trees, bystanders, or anything else in the line of fire would meet a similar fate. Thus, an average player character in Rifts Earth with standard-issue armor and weapons has the effective durability and firepower of a modern tank. Even minimal skirmishes may leave deep craters, level towns, and kill many bystanders.
To accommodate this scale, Mega Damage Capacity or MDC is an important game concept. Each point of mega-damage is equal to 100 points of "Structural Damage" or SDC, enough to destroy a small car. For example most personal body armor in the Rifts setting has on average 40 to 80 MDC, and armored vehicles start around 200 MDC and go up from there. Exceedingly powerful beings such as Dragon
Dragon
A dragon is a legendary creature, typically with serpentine or reptilian traits, that feature in the myths of many cultures. There are two distinct cultural traditions of dragons: the European dragon, derived from European folk traditions and ultimately related to Greek and Middle Eastern...
s, gods and alien intelligences have mega-damage skin caused by the high levels of magic energy present in this game setting, and their MDC can soar into the thousands, if not tens of thousands.
As Rifts has no systematic method of designing weaponry, the game is criticized frequently for severe power escalation; often magic, equipment, and character classes from new books are drastically more powerful than those from an earlier one (sometimes even with the same character class), requiring players to buy the most recent supplement to keep up with the power curve
Power creep
Power creep is the gradual unbalancing of a game due to successive releases of new content. The phenomenon may be caused by a number of different factors and, in extreme cases, can be damaging to the longevity of the game in which it takes place....
(This is parodied in an 8-bit Theater
8-Bit Theater
8-Bit Theater is a completed sprite comic created by Brian Clevinger, and published in 1,225 episodes from March 2, 2001 to June 1, 2010. One of the most popular web comics, it won the Web Cartoonists' Choice Awards for best fantasy comic in 2002...
episode fittingly titled "Glitter Boy"). Rifts Conversion Books are designed to help facilitate the transition of magic and psychic characters into this new landscape, for which many automatically gain increased benefits due to the magic-rich environment. But a pistol that fires projectiles in our time fires the same bullets with the same effects during Rifts times and is effectively useless in most combat situations. It does retain certain value as an antique, and from a survival standpoint can be desirable as a hunting weapon.
Skills
Rifts, like other Palladium games, use percentile dice to calculate skill success. Each character, based on training, intelligence, and experience level, has a base percentage chance of success. If a number equal to or below a player's percentage is rolled on percentile dice, then the use of the skill is considered to be a success. While modifiers are suggested in cases of unusual difficulty or proficiency, these are rare in the system, usually reserved for special skills. Some criticize this as being more cumbersome than the D&D D20 SystemD20 System
The d20 System is a role-playing game system published in 2000 by Wizards of the Coast originally developed for the third edition of Dungeons & Dragons...
while Palladium defends their method as allowing for a wider variety of skills.
However, Combat is determined through the use of 20 sided dice. In its most basic form the combat system is an opposed roll of two dice, with additions and subtractions for character skills and environmental factors. One character will generally be offensive, the other defensive, and the highest dice roll will determine if the defender is struck by the offensive character's attack.
Spinoffs
Several novelNovel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
s, a MUD
MUD
A MUD , pronounced , is a multiplayer real-time virtual world, with the term usually referring to text-based instances of these. MUDs combine elements of role-playing games, hack and slash, player versus player, interactive fiction, and online chat...
, several mush/muxs and large amounts of fan fiction
Fan fiction
Fan fiction is a broadly-defined term for fan labor regarding stories about characters or settings written by fans of the original work, rather than by the original creator...
have been based on the world of Rifts. A licensed Rifts video game (Rifts: Promise of Power
Rifts: Promise of Power
Rifts: Promise of Power is a video game licensed for the Rifts role-playing game from Palladium Books, released on September 10, 2005 for the Nokia N-Gage. It is currently the first and only adaptation of the Rifts RPG series to an electronic media format...
), was released in November 2005 for the Nokia
Nokia
Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational communications corporation that is headquartered in Keilaniemi, Espoo, a city neighbouring Finland's capital Helsinki...
N-Gage
N-Gage
The N-Gage is a mobile telephone and handheld game system by Nokia, based on the Nokia Series 60 platform, released in October 2003. It began sales on October 7, 2003. The N-Gage QD replaced the original N-Gage in 2004....
, as was Rifts Collectible Card Game, a short-lived collectible card game
Collectible card game
thumb|Players and their decksA collectible card game , also called a trading card game or customizable card game, is a game played using specially designed sets of playing cards...
.
Siembieda has stated that he would like to see Rifts games developed for other consoles. However, he has stated that the niche nature of the role-playing game industry means it is hard to attract prospective developers to the property.
External links
- Palladium Books' online catalog of Rifts products
- Rifts Web Ring Hub