Warning! Violence and the Supernatural

The fictional worlds of Palladium Books® are violent, deadly and filled with supernatural monsters. Other-dimensional beings, often referred to as "demons," torment, stalk and prey on humans. Other alien life forms , monsters, gods and demigods , as well as magic, insanity, and war are all elements in these books.

Some parents may find the violence, magic and supernatural elements of the games inappropriate for young readers/players. We suggest parental discretion.

Please note that none of us at Palladium Books® condone or encourage the occult, the practice of magic, the use of drugs, or violence.

The Rifter® Number 30 Your guide to the Palladium Megaverse®!

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First Printing - April, 2005

Copyright 2005 Palladium Books Inc.

All rights reserved, world wide, under the Universal Copyright Convention. No part of this book may be reproduced in part or whole, in any form or by any means, without permission from the publisher, except for brief quotes for use in reviews . All incidents, situations, institutions, governments and people are fictional and any similarity, without satiric intent, of char­acters or persons living or dead , is strictly coincidental.

Palladium Books®, Rifts®, The Rifter®, Coalition Wars®, RECON®, Nightbane®, The Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game®, The Mechanoids®, The Mechanoid Invasion®, After the Bomb®, Phase World® and Megaverse® are registered trademarks owned and licensed by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books Inc.

The slogan "A Megaverse of adventure - limited only by your imagination" and titles and names such as Rifts®: Promise of Power, Beyond the Supernatural, BTS-2, HU2, Splicers, Chaos Earth, NEMA, MercTown, Merc Ops, Tome Grotesque, Arcanum, Naruni, United Worlds of Warlock, Geofront, Mechanoid Space, Dinosaur Swamp, Arzno, Lazlo, Victor Lazlo, Lazlo Agency, Lazlo Society, Heroes Unlimited, Powers Unlimited, Ninjas & Superspies, A liens Unlimited, Mutant Under­ground, The Nursery, Hardware Unlimited , Gadgets Unlimited, Three Galaxies, Void Runners, Gramercy Island, Skraypers, Atorian Empire, Wormwood, Land of the Damned, The Citadel, Wolfen Wars, Wolfen, Wulfen, Cosmo-Knights, Cyber-Knight, Dragonlands, Triax, Gargoyle Empire, Free Quebec, Xiticix Invasion, Fadetown, Hammer of the Forge, Siege On Tolkeen, Psyscape, Dweomer, ARCHIE-3, Northern Gun, Coalition States, Erin Tarn, Emperor Prosek, Splugorth, Splynncryth, Mega-Damage, Skelebot, SAMAS, Glitter Boy, Dog Boys, Dog Pack, Techno-Wizard, Ley Line Walker, Shifter, Bio-Wizardry, Psi-Stalker, Brodkil, Juicer, Crazy, 'Burbs, 'Borg, 'Bot, D-Bee, Chi-Town, Triax, NGR, and other names, titles, slogans, and likenesses of characters are trademarks owned by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books Jnc.

Palladium Online www.palladiumbooks.com

The Rifter® #30 RPG sourcebook series is published by Palladium Books Inc., 12455 Universal Drive, Taylor, MI 48180. Printed in the USA.

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Palladium Books® Presents:

THE #30 Sourcebook and guide to the Palladium Megaverse®

Coordinator & Editor in Chief: Wayne Smith

Editor: Alex Marciniszyn

Contributing Writers:

Josh Blackwell

Samson Blackwell

James M.G. Cannon

Levi Johnstone

Chris Kluge

John C. Philpott

Kevin Siembieda

Josh Sinsapaugh

Proofreader: Julius Rosenstein

Cover Illustration: John Zeleznik

Cover Logo Design: Steve Edwards

Credits Page Logo: Niklas Brandt

Typesetting: Wayne Smith

Keylining: Kevin Siembieda

Interior Artists:

Kent Buries

Drunken Style Studio (DSS)

Brandon C. Clark (DSS)

Mark Dudley (DDS)

Allen Manning

Brian Manning

Apollo Okamura

Jeff Russell

Ryan Stegman (DSS)

Chuck Walton (DSS)

and other Palladium Madmen

Based on the RPG rules, characters,

concepts and Megaverse® created by Kevin Siembieda.

Special Thanks to all our contributors, writers and artists - and a special welcome on board to the artists and writers making their debut in this issue. Our apologies to anybody who got accidentally left out or their name misspelled.

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Contents The Rifter® #30 - April, 2005 Page 6 - Art - Jeff Russell

This trio of hideous beings are just a few of the horrors awaiting you in Tome Grotesque™, the first big sourcebook for Beyond the Supernatural™, Second Edition. The art is by a Canadian, Jeff Russell, whose dynamic artwork, along with Michael Dubisch and Brandon C. Clark, fill the book .

Jeffs story may be of interest to you budding young artists out there. You see, this is Jeffs first professional job. This tal­ented young artist has dabbled with drawing for his own fun and pleasure for years, but he hadn't ever submitted his artwork to anyone for publication. Being a looong time fan of Palladium Books, Jeff finally decided to send some samples of his art over for our consideration. Perhaps needless to say, Kevin Siembieda took one look at the outstanding quality, originality and detail and shouted, "Quick, hire this guy before someone else snaps him up!" And we did .

Now Jeffs story is not a typical one and his level of skill is unusually high, so don't every one of you artists out there think you'll get hired your first try out the door. The point is, if Jeff hadn't taken that first, difficult step (it's scary putting yourself out there for rejection), he'd never have gotten hired. Now he's drawing monsters and creepy stuff for Palladium. With a little luck, you'll be seeing this talented gent's artwork for years to come.

Page 7 - From the Desk of Kevin Siem bieda Birthday Boy, Kevin , gets a little retrospective and personal

as he gushes about the exciting projects Palladium has in store for our fans and gamers at large. Part of this is brought about by the Nokia videogame which, as it nears completion, looks fabu­lous and is getting us all pumped up. The other part comes from the creative dynamics and aura of excitement that is building and building among the people at Palladium . Led by Kevin Siembieda, freelance writers and artists, along with the entire Palladium staff, are boiling with bold, new ideas and new heights of enthusiasm. Beyond the Supernatural™, Second Edition and its supplements, is one set of books that exemplify this creative energy, so is Rifts® Ultimate Edition and virtually everything on Palladium's drawing board. The start ofa new era of cutting edge RPGs and epic fun . Spread the word.

Page 8 - Palladium News Rifts® Promise of Power™ read all about it (and then head

right on over to the website and see glimpses for yourself; www .rifts-promiseofpower.com). Hey, come on down to Gen Con Indy and a number of other conventions to meet and game with Kevin Siembieda and other Palladium creators and pals. It's all laid out for you on page 9.

Page 10 - National Games Week Have you heard of National Games Week? No? Well, we

present the lowdown way in advance so you and your favorite stores can be part of the excitement this November.

Page 11 - Coming Attractions Get the insider perspective on upcoming projects like Tome

Grotesques™ and Arcanum™ for Beyond the Supernatu­rarrM , Second Edition as well as the series of mercenary books coming out for Rifts®, and Rifts® Ultimate Edition, an ex­panded and rewritten, updated edition of the Rifts® RPG . (The pencil sketch is the concept drawing for one of the double-page, color end sheets being created by John Zeleznik .) Villains Un­limited™ for HU2 is back in print (with 16 pages of new mate­rial) after a two year hiatus, and Rifts® Pantheons of the Megaverse® is back after seven years! Our entire (tentative) re­lease schedule is found on page IS .

Page 16 - A Cut Above

Optional Rules for ALL Palladium Games

This comprehensive offering of optional rules and rules mod­ifications for Palladium's Megaversal Game System is not for everyone, but you detail rules freaks will go crazy over it! Plus there's probably something that almost everyone will find in­triguing, desirable, and useful or thought provoking. Madmen Levi Johnstone & John C. Philpott have really given this a lot of thought and present a number of interesting ideas and game me­chanics for implementing them into your Palladium games - if you want to.

Page 17 - Superstars: Characters of phenomenal skill and ability.

Page 20 - New, Specialized Advanced Skills begin.

Page 27 - New Magic Skills .

Page 30 - Focused Magic .

Page 3 I - Arcomi - new mystic martial art for Rifts® (op­tional).

Page 33 - Further Custom izing Your Character.

Page 35 - New Optional Rules for Weapons, Combat & Stealth .

Page 44 - Additional Missile Weapon Combat Modifiers.

Page 45 - M .D.C. Armor Pass-Through Damage .

Artwork is by the incomparable Kent Buries.

Page 47 - SplicersTM

New War Mounts Chris Kluge presents a host of very cool and fun War Mounts

for the SplicersTM RPG, including the Abomination, Black Talon War Hawk, Tunnel Rats, and others . Plus some Hook , Line & Sinker™ adventures . An excellent addition to any SplicersTM campaign.

Artwork is by the artists of Drunken Style Studio.

Page 68 - Rifts® Chaos Earth™

Blue Zone Demons Josh Sinsapaugh presents a horde of new, compelling de­

mons to add to your Chaos Earth™ or Rifts® campaigns. The

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Demon Plague continues to spew wicked and terrible monstrosi­ties against the already embattled people of Chaos Earth™. This is just the most recent in a continuing stream of horrors. Five Lesser Demons and three Greater Demons.

Artwork by the demonically talented Apollo Okamura.

Page 83 - Rifts®

Candle Magic Samson & Josh Blackwell offer a new and strange type of

magic that seems to originate from the Palladium World. Easily adaptable to the Palladium Fantasy RPG® (i.e., convert to S.D.C.).

Artwork is by Brian and A Ian Manning.

Page 91 - Rifts® Phase World®

The Hammer of the Forge™

Chapter 30 of James M.G. Cannon's popular ongoing saga. Read and enjoy.

Artwork by Brian Manning.

Page 96 - Congratulations on

Knights of the Dinner Table® #100 Our old pal, Jolly Blackburn, is the writer and artist for

KoDT (old timers will remember that KoDT ran in the first 5 is­sues or so of The Rifter®.) Knights of the Dinner Table has been a long running comic book series and just this February, Jolly and his teammates celebrated their one hundredth issue! That's quite an accomplishment. Congratulations to Jolly, Dave, Brian, Steve and the rest of the Kenzer Company crew.

For those of you who don't know about Jolly's hilarious gamer's comic book, you can ask about it at most comic book stores, or you can write to:

KoDT Magazine 511 West Greenwood Ave. Waukegan, IL 60087 questions@kenzerco.com A one year subscription (12 issues) is $45 (US,. $50 in Can­

ada and $74 US Overseas). Highly recommended by the Palla­dium staff. Oh, and tell 'em Palladium Books sent you.

The Theme for Issue 30

This issue's theme is imagination and unlimited possibilities. Editor Wayne Smith has chosen four, juicy hunks of optional role-playing source material for your enjoyment, all excellently written. Hopefully they will inspire you to experiment with your game settings, villains, monsters and storylines. Enjoy.

The Cover John Zeleznik whipped up this little ditty for fun. We

thought it captured a certain sense of wonder, horror and the imagination that exemplifies the content of this issue. John Zelemik remains one of Palladium's fan favorite artists (we like him, too) and you can see more of John's art on the cover of

Rifts® Mere Ops, inside Rifts® Ultimate Edition and on other covers coming in the future.

Optional and Unofficial Rules & Source Material

Please note that most of the material presented in The Rifter® is "unofficial" or "optional" rules and source material.

They are alternative ideas, homespun adventures and material mostly created by fellow gamers and fans Iike you, the reader. Things one can elect to include in one 's own campaign or sim­ply enjoy reading about. They are not "official" to the main games or world settings.

As for optional tables and adventures, if they sound cool or fun, use them. If they sound funky, too high-powered or inap­propriate for your game, modify them or ignore them com­pletely.

All the material in The Rifter® has been included for two reasons: One, because we thought it was imaginative and fun , and two, we thought it would stimulate your imagination with fun ideas and concepts that you can use (if you want to), or which might inspire you to create your own wonders.

www.palladiumbooks.com - Palladium Online

Coming Next Issue The Rifter® #31

We haven't plotted out everything that's going into this Summer issue, but you can count on it including some fun and interesting things, including:

• More surprises and fun. • A cosmic cover by Apollo Okamura. • Material for Palladium Fantasy® - The Quest

for Castle rake. • Material for Beyond the Supernatura(fM or

Nightbane®.

• Material for Rifts®. • The next, epic chapter of The Hammer of the

Forge™.

• Source material for the entire Palladium Megaverse®.

• New contributors and fun. So please join us.

Palladium Books® role-playing games ... infinite possibilities, limited only by your imagination™

Palladium's games are found in stores everywhere

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Art by Jeff Russell for Tome Grotesque

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