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Rifts Ultimate Edition
Not exactly a Second Edition, because most of the rules will remain unchanged, Rifts Ultimate Edition is expanded and improved. There will be more world information, tips on how to use the time-line and World Books, rewrites on O.C.C.s, and in some cases, expansions of and more details on O.C.C.s such as the Headhunter, Mercenaries, the Techno-Wizard and Shifter, as well as a few new O.C.C.s. Our goal is to make Rifts® more exciting and compelling than ever, while at the same time making the rules better organized, clearer and easier to use. The wonder and infinite possibilities of Rifts® all brought to pulse-pounding life like never before. Of course, there will be a few fun changes and additions, but nothing so dramatic as to make the 40+ available sourcebooks obsolete.
Approximately 30 unique Occupational and Racial Character Classes, including Cyber-Knights, cyborgs, Glitter Boys, Psi-Stalkers, Dog Boys (mutant humanoid dogs), Juicers, Crazies, Techno-Wizards, Ley Line Walkers, Mystics, Shifters, Elemental Fusionists, Mind Melters, and many others.
Supernatural and magical creatures, like dragons, available as player characters, others are horrifying menaces from the Rifts.
Bionics and cybernetics offer a vast range of mechanical augmentation, meanwhile chemical enhancement (Juicers) and brain implants (Crazies) can turn a human into a superman, though with tragic results.
Psychic powers are the source of the Burster, Mind Melter and Mystics abilities.
Strange forms of magic are at the command of characters like the Ley Line Walker, Shifter, Elemental Fusionist, Rifter and Techno-Wizard (who combine magic and technology).
Super-technology with Mega-DamageTM body armor, energy weapons, rail guns, power armor, and human augmentation.
The Coalition States. Humankind's salvation, or its own worst nightmare?
Character sheets.
Color end sheets by John Zeleznik.
New artwork and color pages throughout.
Written and created by Kevin Siembieda.
Approximately 30 unique Occupational and Racial Character Classes, including Cyber-Knights, cyborgs, Glitter Boys, Psi-Stalkers, Dog Boys (mutant humanoid dogs), Juicers, Crazies, Techno-Wizards, Ley Line Walkers, Mystics, Shifters, Elemental Fusionists, Mind Melters, and many others.
Supernatural and magical creatures, like dragons, available as player characters, others are horrifying menaces from the Rifts.
Bionics and cybernetics offer a vast range of mechanical augmentation, meanwhile chemical enhancement (Juicers) and brain implants (Crazies) can turn a human into a superman, though with tragic results.
Psychic powers are the source of the Burster, Mind Melter and Mystics abilities.
Strange forms of magic are at the command of characters like the Ley Line Walker, Shifter, Elemental Fusionist, Rifter and Techno-Wizard (who combine magic and technology).
Super-technology with Mega-DamageTM body armor, energy weapons, rail guns, power armor, and human augmentation.
The Coalition States. Humankind's salvation, or its own worst nightmare?
Character sheets.
Color end sheets by John Zeleznik.
New artwork and color pages throughout.
Written and created by Kevin Siembieda.
376 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2005
7 people are currently reading
53 people want to read
About the author
David Martin
933 books22 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 16, 2023
Nice update and revised edition of the game. Well laid out with a tons of great pics throughout. recommended
May 17, 2010
One of the best and most versatile RPG systems out there, in my humble opinion. Has a lot of rule problems and contradictions in-between books, yes, but very fun nonetheless.
March 27, 2016
The Rifts Ultimate Guide is many things. Incredibly imagined dreamscape for any roleplayer. The book is a set of rules for playing in Kevin Siembieda's megaverse. A bunch of linked setting books with the same ruleset other then a few minor tweaks. With it, you are able to create any kind of hero, from a fantasy magician to a Vertitech pilot, a techno wizard or others. The illustrations and artwork are top notch, and the text layout is actually fairly pleasing to the eye. There are several small editorial errors but nothing so severe that it broke your concentration or anything. My only complaint is the layout in terms of where chapters are placed. The first section giving the history from Erin Tarn is excellent. While quite long it reads well, and really helps to get your mind wrapped around this war torn magic ridden dystopian version of earth. However instead of next moving into character creation we move instead to classes without any real discussion as to game mechanics. For veterans of the game this is a non issue, but for new players, such as my son, it made the experience a bit confusing as he was reading about character classes before he understood what half the skills and attributes were. Again for veterans of the system, which I think this guide was really a gift to, this is a non issue. The setup of chapters is just a little confusing for a new player, but hell with art this good and a background plot this dynamic still worth the price of admission.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 10, 2023
Okay, the 5 stars is a lie. In terms of 2023 game design, Rifts is a complete disaster. Systemwise it is absolutely horrible. But here’s the thing: Rifts is historically important to the RPG hobby. Although it is in no way the first game about magic and technology in a huge multiverse (that likely falls to another horrible and deservedly obscure game called Lords of Creation), but it definitely popularized the idea. In the early 90’s, this was THE game besides AD&D 2e.
There are amazing ideas here. No matter your feelings on Kevin Siembieda as a person, he’s massively creative and an excellent writer when it comes to RPGs. He reminds me a great deal of Stan Lee - a big idea man but not great at the details of execution.
Although I would never again play or run the Palladium version of Rifts, it’s worth reading for understanding the hobby of that particular time period when it was successful.
There are amazing ideas here. No matter your feelings on Kevin Siembieda as a person, he’s massively creative and an excellent writer when it comes to RPGs. He reminds me a great deal of Stan Lee - a big idea man but not great at the details of execution.
Although I would never again play or run the Palladium version of Rifts, it’s worth reading for understanding the hobby of that particular time period when it was successful.
April 9, 2017
This is effectively the 15th anniversary edition of Rifts, and is much more of a version 1.5 or even 1.25 than a proper second edition. In comparison to the original 1990 edition, this book is over 100 pages longer, though it honestly doesn't add too much new information. Instead, the focus is largely on updating and revising the core material. There are a few new classes and major options, including the rather underwhelming and generic robot pilot and mercenary classes and the much cooler Elemental Fusionist (think Avatar the Last Airbender). The setting material is updated to 109 PA, to put the core book in line with various metaplot changes, and most of the old classes have been given new skill lists and some new abilities to bring them in line with the myriad sourcebooks that have been published for Rifts. Probably the most significant update is clarifying the Headhunter as a partial cyborg character, but it's nice to give the scholar classes small boosts (even if they still kinda suck) and have revised skill lists for everyone.
Rifts in general is a big mess of different concepts and characters and ideas. Over three hundred years after a nuclear/magic catastrophe ended the Golden Age of Humanity, we're only slowly clawing our way back into civilized shape. And thanks to holes in reality, the titular Rifts, Earth is filled with elves, dwarves, vampires, dragons, gods, and all sorts of other sci-fi and fantasy beasties. The game is designed not only to provide rules for all sorts of setting and genre elements, but to put them together into one world. In North America alone, you can do Star Wars style fighting against the evil empire of the fascist Coalition States, wander into a horror film courtesy of tons of vampires in Mexico, have fantasy adventures in the wilderness, and do cyberpunk type stuff in the handful of megacities that have sprung up.
There's a nice variety of character concepts and classes, ranging from rogue historians to knights in shining hypertech armor to basically Jedi to wizards that blend magic and technology. The classes aren't balanced too well, though I think if you go off of just this book, the fighters are likely to come out ahead of the wizards, which is a nice change from much of D&D. And, really, the system is a lot like old-school D&D with some improvements. Armor reduces damage rather than making it harder to hit, all attack rolls are sensibly about rolling high, there's a percentile skill system, and magic points instead of spells per day.
Admittedly I worry that combat might end up dragging, especially since the guys that don't go down in one hit have a lot of HP, and the attacks per round kinda stack up. However, the combat system is kinda cool and manages to have some neat bits to it. Plus, while the system has definite warts and flaws, that's what you get from something that hasn't changed much since the 90s. And, more importantly, there's more than enough flavor in the setting that I can forgive the potential clunkiness of the mechanics. If there's one flaw with reading this book it's that all the references to different parts of the world and setting make me want to go out and buy lots more Rifts books. Unfortunately, some of this is almost necessary, as key useful stats and spells have been left out, clearly to sell more books. Still, if you're willing to make stuff up, or just stick to a campaign of fighting raiders and future Nazis, you could do a fun game with just this core book. I feel like the original gray softcover was a bit more complete in some ways, but the Ultimate Edition of Rifts is a pretty good book for a wonderfully gonzo campaign world and definitely worth getting if you want to give Rifts a go. I know I certainly want to get a game going after having read this.
Rifts in general is a big mess of different concepts and characters and ideas. Over three hundred years after a nuclear/magic catastrophe ended the Golden Age of Humanity, we're only slowly clawing our way back into civilized shape. And thanks to holes in reality, the titular Rifts, Earth is filled with elves, dwarves, vampires, dragons, gods, and all sorts of other sci-fi and fantasy beasties. The game is designed not only to provide rules for all sorts of setting and genre elements, but to put them together into one world. In North America alone, you can do Star Wars style fighting against the evil empire of the fascist Coalition States, wander into a horror film courtesy of tons of vampires in Mexico, have fantasy adventures in the wilderness, and do cyberpunk type stuff in the handful of megacities that have sprung up.
There's a nice variety of character concepts and classes, ranging from rogue historians to knights in shining hypertech armor to basically Jedi to wizards that blend magic and technology. The classes aren't balanced too well, though I think if you go off of just this book, the fighters are likely to come out ahead of the wizards, which is a nice change from much of D&D. And, really, the system is a lot like old-school D&D with some improvements. Armor reduces damage rather than making it harder to hit, all attack rolls are sensibly about rolling high, there's a percentile skill system, and magic points instead of spells per day.
Admittedly I worry that combat might end up dragging, especially since the guys that don't go down in one hit have a lot of HP, and the attacks per round kinda stack up. However, the combat system is kinda cool and manages to have some neat bits to it. Plus, while the system has definite warts and flaws, that's what you get from something that hasn't changed much since the 90s. And, more importantly, there's more than enough flavor in the setting that I can forgive the potential clunkiness of the mechanics. If there's one flaw with reading this book it's that all the references to different parts of the world and setting make me want to go out and buy lots more Rifts books. Unfortunately, some of this is almost necessary, as key useful stats and spells have been left out, clearly to sell more books. Still, if you're willing to make stuff up, or just stick to a campaign of fighting raiders and future Nazis, you could do a fun game with just this core book. I feel like the original gray softcover was a bit more complete in some ways, but the Ultimate Edition of Rifts is a pretty good book for a wonderfully gonzo campaign world and definitely worth getting if you want to give Rifts a go. I know I certainly want to get a game going after having read this.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews