The Rifter Article Review Volume Two

(Version 1.00 - Last Modified: 04/28/2003)

• Introduction
• The Rifter #21
• The Rifter #22
• The Rifter #23

Introduction

Issue #21 seemed to represent a new era for The Rifter. The book celebrated its fifth year of being published, but it became shorter, going from 112 pages to 96, and the cost of the book increased from $7.95 to $9.95. However, the good material still continues and this document continues on from where the previous one finished, using the same format to review each article with RPG material from each issue of the Rifter.

The Rifter #21

• Release Date: January 2003
  
  
• Article One - P.P.E. Channeling
  • Author: Jason Richards
  • Setting: All
  • Page Count: 4
  • Rating: Above Average
  • Description: This is an interesting article that provides an alternative to the number of spells that a wizard can cast per melee. Instead of the normal two spells per melee, a wizard can "channel" a certain amount of PPE per melee action based on their level and the type of wizard they are. While I do not prefer a channelling method for casting spells, I found this article to be well written and I found the division between the different types of casters, such as Full Mages, Specialists, and Dabblers, to be especially useful.
  
  
• Article Two - The Motherframe
  • Author: Joseph Larson
  • Setting: Heroes Unlimited
  • Page Count: 10
  • Rating: Average
  • Description: This is an interesting article that combines many elements. First, the concept behind the article is the combination of a living, psionic creature and a computer mainframe, which is called a Motherframe. The Motherframe can be telepathically connected to people through its offspring, which are surgically implanted into the hosts, but people that are connected get access to all of the knowledge in the Motherframe, a variety of psionic powers, skills, can communicate to anyone else connected to the same Motherframe. Personally, I do not know how useful this will be for adventures, because creating a Motherframe and the necessary surgery to implant the "Offspring," is quite expensive, but it would certainly be useful for villains and agencies that the players must interact with.
  
  
• Article Three - Familiars of Rifts Earth
  • Author: C.N. Constantin
  • Setting: Rifts
  • Page Count: 13
  • Rating: Above Average
  • Description: I like familiars and I like how this article presents a wide variety of new and mostly original familiars as well as providing ways for mages to improve their familiars by spending PPE. While some of the familiars listed would have very little useful purpose, most are both useful and original.
  
  
• Article Four - Techno-Wizardry: Form and Function
  • Author: Shawn Therrien
  • Setting: Rifts
  • Page Count: 8
  • Rating: Excellent
  • Description: I really liked this article; it provided new material for the techno-wizard without adding anything too powerful or silly. These rules can be used to create any type of techno-wizard item and they are straightforward and simplistic, or as simplistic as you can expect from a complex topic like creating techno-wizard items.
  
  
• Article Five - The Long Forgotten Quest (Adventure)
  • Author: Andrew Rusling
  • Setting: Palladium Fantasy
  • Page Count: 40
  • Rating: Average
  • Description: This adventure takes up almost half of this issue of the Rifter and is built like a campaign, or a series of connected adventures. Set in one of the most wild sections of the Western Empire from the Palladium Fantasy world, this adventure appears reasonably organized and well written and there are several maps to help the GM and the players through certain parts of the campaign. There is also a small section at the end of the adventure for Hook, Like & Sinker adventures in case the GM needs to have small, one session type adventures to fill out the campaign. As with most adventures, the Long Forgotten Quest does not have a recommended character level, so it is up to the GM to read the entire adventure and figure that out or to constantly tweek every section of the adventure as play progresses to ensure that the adventure is of the appropriate level of difficulty.

The Rifter #22

• Release Date: April 2003
  
  
• Article One - Mage Armor
  • Author: Kevin Siembieda
  • Setting: Rifts
  • Page Count: 1
  • Rating: Above Average
  • Description: A single page article, extremely short even by the standards of The Rifter. This article, however short it may be, covers a very important topic, armor that can be worn by mages without interfering with this spells. I liked the fact that there was basically two types of Mage Armor, the first type was non-magical and more affordable to lower level characters, but it didn't offer anywhere near the level of protection as the magically enhanced, expensive Mage Armor.
  
  
• Article Two - Building a Better Super-Soldier
  • Author: John Polojac
  • Setting: Heroes Unlimited
  • Page Count: 6
  • Rating: Above Average
  • Description: This is a very nice article that, as the title suggests, is used to create Super Soldiers in a different way from the rules presented in the second edition of Heroes Unlimited. Super soldiers now roll on a chart that provides them with a number of super powers and/or enhancements, but there are generally side effects from the process that transformed them, and tables are provided for that as well.
  
  
• Article Three - New Ludicrous Magic
  • Author: Daniel Denis
  • Setting: Rifts
  • Page Count: 23
  • Rating: Above Average
  • Description: It is a shame that this article covers such a large portion of this issue of the Rifter, but at least it is well written and as funny as the original Ludicrous Magic was in The Rifter 9 1/2. Of course, there are many good and many useless spells in this section, but that is what the Ludicrous Mage is for. My particular favorite spell in this hole section has got to be the spell of legend Create Carnies. That has got to be one of the funniest spells I have every seen.
  
  
• Article Four - Medieval Army Combat Rules
  • Author: Dan Felkins
  • Setting: Palladium Fantasy
  • Page Count: 16
  • Rating: Excellent
  • Description: Simple, but effective rules to simulate large combat with medieval troops. This article surpassed my initial skepticism quite handily. The only area of trouble in the entire would have to be the process of performing a siege against a fortification, but this is a very complex task and the article does a sufficient job in describing it. The rules are based around the same combat system that Palladium Book uses for normal combat, but these rules create "units," which make up an army, and these units fight as a single person would in normal combat.
  
  
• Article Five - Flashing Blades: Fencing in Palladium Fantasy
  • Author: Richard Thomassen
  • Setting: Palladium Fantasy
  • Page Count: 5
  • Rating: Above Average
  • Description: This article describes fencing in a number of ways. First there is actually fencing, which has different combat rules then normal fighting, and only bonuses for the fencing skills apply. The second way it describes fencing is through the two fencing skills, Hand-to-Hand: Fencing and W.P.: Fencing Blade, of course there is also W.P.: Fencing Off-Hand, but it is presented as an optional skill. The last section of the article presents various combat rules and options that can be used while fencing, such as Dueling, Poison, and Off-Hand Weapons. Overall, the article is well written, and can be an interesting addition to a game based around the nobility, because it would have little practical application against monsters.

The Rifter #23

• Release Date: July 2003
  
  
• Article One - The Spell Breather
  • Author: Ed Woodward III
  • Setting: Nightbane
  • Page Count: 6
  • Rating:
  • Description:
  
  
• Article Two - Palladium Astronomy
  • Author: Carl Gleba
  • Setting: Palladium Fantasy
  • Page Count: 7
  • Rating:
  • Description:
  
  
• Article Three - The Blade Mage
  • Author: A.J. Pickett
  • Setting: Palladium Fantasy
  • Page Count: 11
  • Rating:
  • Description:
  
  
• Article Four - Mesozoic Land Part One
  • Author: Todd S. Yoho
  • Setting: After the Bomb
  • Page Count: 20
  • Rating:
  • Description:
  
  
• Article Five - The Faerie Harvest
  • Author: Ted Dimitry
  • Setting: Rifts
  • Page Count: 15
  • Rating:
  • Description:
  
  
• Article Six - CS Target Acquisition Groups
  • Author: John Stevens
  • Setting: Rifts
  • Page Count: 4
  • Rating:
  • Description:
  
  
• Article Seven - Modern Army Combat Rules
  • Author: Dan Felkins
  • Setting: Rifts
  • Page Count: 15
  • Rating:
  • Description: