Rifter 2

I am still geeking out from my initial article that I wrote some weeks ago. I am still attempting to find a way to portray the Rifter with the best light and really encourage fans of Rifter Magazine to get a copy of every Rifter available. 

Rifter 2 did everything just as as Rifter 1 did in my opinion. When it was released I was blown away by the great art and articles that we as fans and Palladium staff would produce. We started with some rumors and such but I feel the real meat started with Erick Wujcik’s article called Thinking Big. For years I had been doing small adventures, little one night shows but Erick had big plans and he wanted to insure that fans would catch the vision he had. In his article he mentions that he accidently thought too big for his campaign with a dungeon called “KiddieDungeon”. He had caught an idea that blossomed into some great suggestions for gamers everywhere. He had us think not just about something like Coalition occupied territory but the whole Rifts world and what our one pebble could do in the Rifts world pond. A friend of mine has a campaign that reflects just that, a world impact on a group of adventurers.  Erick gave us ideas that we will never forget.

In this Rifter, I don’t know how he did it but Kevin got Jolly R. Blackburn to give us stories that we could all relate to with his Knights of the Dinner Table. Eight magazines his genius graced us and I really wished that it was more.

In the Palladium news that came next I have forgotten how young Palladium was in that we didn't have Rifts: Warlords of Russia (that’s a great world book) with it came hints of future books like Rifts: Mystic Russia and a sneak peek of this newly created book. Again I was geeking out when it came out. I found out later in an interview that the book wasn't even supposed to be an idea but when a manuscript came to Kevin's desk the wheels started turning and we got two great books.

Kevin, who doesn’t do a lot of articles in the magazine, had a real good article called The Rifts Connection where he showed the various game lines that were produced by Palladium Books and how they were they tied to the world of Rifts. I know that dominated their sales so it would make sense that this article would come out. Kevin wanted to show a parallel that tied all the worlds that we played in together. Rifts: Conversion was already out so we knew what the stats looked like but I think that this article ironed out some of the loose ends as to why such people like Lazlo had influence on the world that by itself seemed to have no ties. I’m just surprised that there is not more influence of Heroes Unlimited (than again there was an advertisement of Skraypers in the same magazine).

I'm not sure that is was put in for space but there is an article by William Muench about Imps but it was a creature that could be used in almost any setting so I am glad it was included. Here was some fantastic creatures that could slip into society and leave a message or assassinate people etc without really getting caught. They were both the magic creature and the insider at the same time. Love those changlings!

Palladium Pirates by Shawn Merrow was next. Fantastic piece as it went over the concept that there are good pirates, the various codes of honor and a few NPC’s that we could use in our Palladium: Adventures on the High Seas. There were also Hook, Line and Sinkers that we all could have for use and really enrich our game play. It’s funny how I used the combination of this article and an article in Rifter 13 together to create an adventure that carried for several nights about the Cards of Fate and in the end it turned out that the chasing pirates were the guardians of the box and they were attempting to keep it out of other people’s hands. Fun adventure.

Wayne Breaux a frequent artist in the various books that we enjoy from Palladium wrote an article called Hacking, Cyberjacking and Supernatural Data Theft Across the Megaverse. I know that it’s a long title but the content was so rich I had to read it over and over. I still read it occasionally (mainly because I am attempting to capture the spirit of the article in a net-source book that I am scratching out). In it Wayne explored the rich tapestry that is cyberspace and what kind of crimes, discoveries, and all around mischief that players and villains could get themselves into. What magnified its influence was he didn’t just stick to Rifts or Heroes Unlimited but went into nearly every world that had technology and how this could spand over perhaps worlds or dimensions. He touched on magic, psionics, superpowers and even talents (of the Nightbane). He gave a great base that everyone could work with rules, penalties and bonuses; pages and pages of what I consider gold.

The next article I thought was awesome but incomplete because I would come into the picture in Rifter 17 to add to the ‘magic’ of the world of the Blood Shaman. This article by Steven Trustrum talked about the world of Wormwood (Palladium Books’ first world book) I was intrigued by the idea that a world that had no rifts on the surface (I know that they are underground) that would, like Rifts: Australia, create an alternate means of magic. Steven’s article gave us a full fleshed out O.C.C. and some serious magic. I thought that the spells were deliciously horrific; quite a visual spectacle.

When Rifts came out we didn't fully understand the Techno-Wizard but we loved what they could do. Mark Sumimoto and Jayson Richards both had do fill that void and what came of it was a beautiful conglomeration of the two melding into one. Jason and Mark had figured out a way to make something convoluted into something concrete so that GMs everywhere could ask their players to do the math and not go crazy on creating tons of weapons and armor for their team without recourse. The amount of time, energy and components were nailed down by these two geniuses and they even gave some great examples of their weapons (some that would make it into the book Rifts: Federation of Magic). There was a subculture and a history that was created that really made the character fun to play (not that it wasn't before). With new O.C.C.s, weapons and armor we could dive right back into the world of cyberknights and dragons and really do some more discovery. One of my favorite creations was by Mark called the Ice sword (page 93).

Finally, like I said in Rifter 1, there were two stories that carried from Rifter to Rifter and Siege Against Tolkeen continued as did The Hammer of the Forge. As a side note I really enjoyed the stories because like an old beat around the table we could imagine the stories and the O.C.C’s that we played had a place to come to life. I have really loved the stories.

I feel that between the first two Rifters I would say that as a fan of the Rifter and Palladium Books this magazine has really encouraged us fans all to really push the envelope. We have gamed and imagined the endless possibility; some of us even have put it to script and sent it to Palladium Books for publishing. Great stuff, I hope that we continue the tradition.