By Kevin Siembieda

Working on all cylinders and grinding out all kinds of good stuff. Been assigning out artwork, writing away and setting up work on a number of upcoming releases. And boy, oh boy, are we excited about what’s coming your way.

UPDATE: Savage Rifts^® for Savage Worlds^®

I sent in a lot of final approvals and I’m delighted with what I have seen. Savage Rifts® really captures the Rifts® characters and world setting while adding some cool Savage World nuances, tweaks and loads of fun. It’s Rifts with a twist and new opportunities for adventure. I’m loving it.

UPDATE: The Rifter^® #74 – Spring issue

Apollo Okamura is working on the cover as Wayne makes his final selections for the material going into The Rifter® #74. We are always looking for new contributors, so don’t hesitate to send in your material for our consideration. Remember, Palladium has discovered half of its writers and artists from contributors to The Rifter®. At least half of this issue’s content is “official” source material.

By Kevin Siembieda

Our imaginations were truly unleashed this past week, with a lot of final writing and editing for Rifts® Heroes of Humanity™ Sourcebook and The Disavowed getting done. As well as what I think will be a new CS equipment book that goes hand in hand with both titles. The latter is the result of going wild with ideas for Rifts® Heroes of Humanity™ and new CS power armor, weapons and equipment. Chuck and I have cut loose and don’t want to hold back on things we know you will love.

In fact, Chuck Walton and I have been so fired up that we have both been dreaming about the conflicts, characters, demons and new materials going into these books! Tuesday morning I woke up at 4:30 AM, could not fall back to sleep, so I got up, showered, had breakfast and was writing away at the office by 6:00 AM! I also reached out to a bunch of my artists to get them lined up for artwork on this and various projects. There are a lot of interior illustrations and covers needed for upcoming books.

I continue to write like crazy and am trying to wrap up Rifts® Heroes of Humanity™ Sourcebook by the end of next week. Chuck has been drawing so fast and furious that his shoulder has been cramping up. So many fun new concepts, gizmos, equipment, expanded O.C.C.s ... thrilling stuff. And we feel that way as fans of role-playing and Rifts® ourselves. Kinda crazy being a fan of your own creations, but that’s what keeps us so passionate about writing new books for you. It’s all about giving you guys new toys to make your characters more deadly and fun, and new avenues of adventure to explore. The next 4-5 Rifts® and other game titles in the pipeline will do that in spades.

As usual, when I wasn’t writing I was coordinating work for a number of upcoming products and conventions. Dang, conventions are a lot of work. I enjoy exhibiting at them, selling product and interacting with fans, but the actual logistics and prep work take up more time than you might imagine. This has been especially true of Anime North (May), which involves all sorts of Customs documentation, shipping and import paperwork, as well as other documents, on top of determining the product to bring, display materials, panel talks, games, demos, etc. For AdeptiCon (March/April) we’ll have a few more Robotech® RPG Tactics™ prototypes to display at the booth, including the SDF-1.

Read on and happy Saint Patrick’s Day.