World Book recommendations

[flatline]

I've recently realized that I only have 4 world books: Atlantis, England, Psyscape, and Federation of Magic.

I've started making a list of books that look interesting in an attempt to round out the collection. Here's what I'm thinking of getting so far:
South America 1
South America 2
Underseas
Japan
New West
Warlords of Russia
Triax

I'm also considering Mercenaries and Coalition War Campaign simply because they have material that people talk about so often here on the forums.

Any others that I should consider?

--flatline

[tundro]

I would recommend Arzno and Lone Star to round out your New West. Also the Dino Swamp books are pretty cool, IMO.

[kaid]

Of those my favorites are warlords of russia/new west and triax.

Mercs is an overall very useful book it is primarily full of stuff that your players can reasonably acquire if they have the resources. The combo of mercs/merc town and merc ops is an pretty amazing combo if you want to run a merc group type campaign or even for a normal adventuring group.

[kaid]

I would recommend Arzno and Lone Star to round out your New West. Also the Dino Swamp books are pretty cool, IMO.

Arzno/new west/lone star and maybe the vampire kingdoms and brand new vampire source book makes for a really well fleshed out campaign area. Maybe throw in spirit west if you want to add some native american goodness to the bunch.

[Giant2005]

D-Bees of North America is mandatory.

[Icefalcon]

If you are looking at Triax, then Triax 2 would be a logical next step and happens to be a good book.

Mercenaries, MercOps, and MercTown are good for a standard adventuring party.

CWC sees a lot of use in my games because I use the Coalition as bad guys.

[kaid]

Triax 1 and 2 is a good start to a european campaign and easy to add mindworks/NGR or england depending where players try to wander.

[flatline]

Triax 1 and 2 is a good start to a european campaign and easy to add mindworks/NGR or england depending where players try to wander.

Does Triax 2 provide more setting information or is it just a gear update and a time line advancement?

--flatline

[glitterboy2098]

Triax 1 and 2 is a good start to a european campaign and easy to add mindworks/NGR or england depending where players try to wander.

Does Triax 2 provide more setting information or is it just a gear update and a time line advancement?

--flatline

it adds a bunch of new info on the NGR's society and setting, not just new toys and the timeline progression.

[Killer Cyborg]

I've recently realized that I only have 4 world books: Atlantis, England, Psyscape, and Federation of Magic.

I've started making a list of books that look interesting in an attempt to round out the collection. Here's what I'm thinking of getting so far:
South America 1
South America 2
Underseas
Japan
New West
Warlords of Russia
Triax

I'm also considering Mercenaries and Coalition War Campaign simply because they have material that people talk about so often here on the forums.

Any others that I should consider?

--flatline

Ultimately, all of them.

For right now... what kind of stuff specifically are you looking for?


Edit: No Vampire Kingdoms?

[tundro]

D-Bees of North America is mandatory.

I agree with this statement.

[flatline]

For right now... what kind of stuff specifically are you looking for?

I'm most interested in new settings rather than books that simply expand on setting that already have some definition. My secondary interest in character classes (that's why SA2 is there...reputedly has lots of interesting character classes in it).

The world books I currently own were totally determined by the information I wanted to have in order to make my characters (England for temporal magic, FoM for new invocations, psyscape for new psionics, and Atlantis for tattoo magic? I don't remember buying Atlantis, maybe it was given to me).

Edit: No Vampire Kingdoms?

I remember reading the original Vampire Kingdoms almost 20 years ago and don't remember seeing anything that I liked. As I recall, the only thing I found remotely interesting was the new TW devices since the only other examples I had at the time were from RMB.

Is there good stuff in VK that I'm not recalling?

--flatline

[Killer Cyborg]

For right now... what kind of stuff specifically are you looking for?

I'm most interested in new settings rather than books that simply expand on setting that already have some definition. My secondary interest in character classes (that's why SA2 is there...reputedly has lots of interesting character classes in it).

The world books I currently own were totally determined by the information I wanted to have in order to make my characters (England for temporal magic, FoM for new invocations, psyscape for new psionics, and Atlantis for tattoo magic? I don't remember buying Atlantis, maybe it was given to me).

You'll probably want WB 21: Splynn Dimensional Market, since you mentioned Atlantis.

For settings... I kind of like Arzno. Madhaven seems intriguing, although I have not yet read that one.

Edit: No Vampire Kingdoms?

I remember reading the original Vampire Kingdoms almost 20 years ago and don't remember seeing anything that I liked. As I recall, the only thing I found remotely interesting was the new TW devices since the only other examples I had at the time were from RMB.

Is there good stuff in VK that I'm not recalling?
--flatline

Well, that's the thing... I think that it's probably THE best World Book to date, but that's because it has what I'm looking for in a World Book.
Ciudad Juarez has some pretty decent maps, and a LONG list of the different kinds of shops and other businesses in the city, along with profiles for the various gangs that live there, and descriptions of their turf. Also, it has the best description of an actual magic guild, the Guild For The Gifted.
Also, there were the Side Show generation rules... which I found to be kind of inexplicable and useless at the time, but revisited after watching Carnivale.
There were also a few neat races, like the Pogtal (which I believe are again covered in D-Bees of North America), and were-jaguars and such.
And I like the Rifts take on vampires.
If you don't like the Rifts Vampires, then you still might enjoy the city information, if that sounds like the kind of setting info you're interested in.
You can probably pick up a used copy of the original VK on Amazon for cheap, if you're not willing to wager a lot on it.

[flatline]

For right now... what kind of stuff specifically are you looking for?

I'm most interested in new settings rather than books that simply expand on setting that already have some definition. My secondary interest in character classes (that's why SA2 is there...reputedly has lots of interesting character classes in it).

The world books I currently own were totally determined by the information I wanted to have in order to make my characters (England for temporal magic, FoM for new invocations, psyscape for new psionics, and Atlantis for tattoo magic? I don't remember buying Atlantis, maybe it was given to me).

You'll probably want WB 21: Splynn Dimensional Market, since you mentioned Atlantis.

For settings... I kind of like Arzno. Madhaven seems intriguing, although I have not yet read that one.

Edit: No Vampire Kingdoms?

I remember reading the original Vampire Kingdoms almost 20 years ago and don't remember seeing anything that I liked. As I recall, the only thing I found remotely interesting was the new TW devices since the only other examples I had at the time were from RMB.

Is there good stuff in VK that I'm not recalling?
--flatline

Well, that's the thing... I think that it's probably THE best World Book to date, but that's because it has what I'm looking for in a World Book.
Ciudad Juarez has some pretty decent maps, and a LONG list of the different kinds of shops and other businesses in the city, along with profiles for the various gangs that live there, and descriptions of their turf. Also, it has the best description of an actual magic guild, the Guild For The Gifted.
Also, there were the Side Show generation rules... which I found to be kind of inexplicable and useless at the time, but revisited after watching Carnivale.
There were also a few neat races, like the Pogtal (which I believe are again covered in D-Bees of North America), and were-jaguars and such.
And I like the Rifts take on vampires.
If you don't like the Rifts Vampires, then you still might enjoy the city information, if that sounds like the kind of setting info you're interested in.
You can probably pick up a used copy of the original VK on Amazon for cheap, if you're not willing to wager a lot on it.[/quote]

Perhaps I'll take a look at it. Most of the world books on my list so far can be had used on Amazon for about $7 (including s&h). I'm trying to see what all I can get if I set my budget at $100 or so.

--flatline

[Hotrod]

It all depends on what your regional interest is. If you want to go North America, there is a LOT of material; most of the world books are centered there. Europe only has 4-6 books (depending on if you count the Russia books), so it's a bit cheaper to cover all the published material. Then there are the isolated settings of China, Japan, and Australia. They're easy to cover, but you'll have to come up with a lot of your own material to fill in the gaps. If the ocean interests you, you can cover the high seas of Rifts with 4-5 books pretty well.

I rather enjoy Europe's setting, myself. North America is getting a bit crowded.

[Mack]

Arzno. One could run a whole campaign with that book.

[tundro]

Arzno. One could run a whole campaign with that book.

Arzno is one of my favorites as well. The descriptions of the city and the AMC are terrific, the info about Fort Tombestone and Bisbee is good, and the Lyn-Srial (sp?) are a really cool race of DBees. The techno-wizard gear is also top notch.

[drewkitty ~..~]

Japan
Mercenaries
Triax
Underseas
South America 1
New West
Warlords of Russia

These are the one I would recomend in order of the recomending.

[cyberdon]

Canada's nice, to round out North America.

[flatline]

What all is in Canada?

--flatline

[jaymz]

VKL Revised and now with Vampires out....I have no doubt it will be avast improvement over the original VK.

[Balabanto]

Just get them all. You won't be disappointed.

[flatline]

Just get them all. You won't be disappointed.

If only I had the shelf space required to own all the books I'd like to get...

...I'm already pushing the limits with the wife as it is.

--flatline

[Killer Cyborg]

What all is in Canada?

--flatline

MDC Eskimos and MDC Mounties.

Edit:
Oh, and MDC Bears, IIRC.
Not magical bears, mind you... nor mutant bears, nor bear-like creatures... just normal Earth bears that happen to be MDC creatures.

[Icefalcon]

Just get them all. You won't be disappointed.

If only I had the shelf space required to own all the books I'd like to get...

...I'm already pushing the limits with the wife as it is.

--flatline

Really? Mine keeps telling me to buy more roleplaying books, as long as we have the money to spare.

[Killer Cyborg]

Trapper-Woodsman OCC (basically a Wilderness Scout that sounds specialized, but really isn’t.

YEah... that's the one that's supposed to be an everyday, "commoner" OCC, but that's just as geared-up, bonused, and skilled as most standard OCCs.

(Oh, and the Tundra Rangers ARE Mounties; they're specified to be descended from the original Mounties.)

[jaymz]

Trapper-Woodsman OCC (basically a Wilderness Scout that sounds specialized, but really isn’t.

YEah... that's the one that's supposed to be an everyday, "commoner" OCC, but that's just as geared-up, bonused, and skilled as most standard OCCs.

(Oh, and the Tundra Rangers ARE Mounties; they're specified to be descended from the original Mounties.)

AND they have a smaller lone-star like complex as their base of operations not to mention they were apparently fast forwarded thru time a bit too.

[flatline]

Just to be clear, whether or not a particular world book can be useful to a NA-centric campaign is of no consequence to me. I'm primarily looking for interesting settings. I don't care if they're reachable from other settings.

--flatline

[Akashic Soldier]

Just to be clear, whether or not a particular world book can be useful to a NA-centric campaign is of no consequence to me. I'm primarily looking for interesting settings. I don't care if they're reachable from other settings.

--flatline

Australia is a good book. Then again, I'm Australian so maybe I just "got it" better than some of the Americans on the board because I get the culture.

[flatline]

Just to be clear, whether or not a particular world book can be useful to a NA-centric campaign is of no consequence to me. I'm primarily looking for interesting settings. I don't care if they're reachable from other settings.

--flatline

Australia is a good book. Then again, I'm Australian so maybe I just "got it" better than some of the Americans on the board because I get the culture.

I'll add Australia to the list. One of the projects I have in mind is rebooting Wormwood and ideas for the outback might translate nicely.

--flatline

[Akashic Soldier]

I'll add Australia to the list. One of the projects I have in mind is rebooting Wormwood and ideas for the outback might translate nicely.

--flatline

People tend not to like the fact the mega-cities are super high-tech but everywhere else is really low-tech and deadly. However, I think the forget the incredible distances between locations and the fact that other than the NGR, the mega-cities of Australia are some of the few places that made it through relatively unharmed so are pretty advanced. Its not supposed to be like in North America where you live in a city and go out and adventure. In Australia you live in one of the mega-cities, or in the outback, and rarely switch between the two. City Slickers are as good as dead out in the bush, and most true blue Aussies wouldn't be caught dead in a city because of how restrictive and backwards they are.

[boxee]

I really liked VK.
Also you might want to look at DriveThroughRPG has a few books and many rifter mags, AND takes up no shelf space!

[boxee]

I'll add Australia to the list. One of the projects I have in mind is rebooting Wormwood and ideas for the outback might translate nicely.

--flatline

People tend not to like the fact the mega-cities are super high-tech but everywhere else is really low-tech and deadly. However, I think the forget the incredible distances between locations and the fact that other than the NGR, the mega-cities of Australia are some of the few places that made it through relatively unharmed so are pretty advanced. Its not supposed to be like in North America where you live in a city and go out and adventure. In Australia you live in one of the mega-cities, or in the outback, and rarely switch between the two. City Slickers are as good as dead out in the bush, and most true blue Aussies wouldn't be caught dead in a city because of how restrictive and backwards they are.

How big can it be there are only like 5 cities, Perth, Sydney, Brisbane, Darwin, Canberra........ I mean really!


P.S. Hope you take this in the spirit it is in, I love the area, and agree it is HUGE.
Almost 3 billion sq miles!

[Eashamahel]

VKL Revised and now with Vampires out....I have no doubt it will be avast improvement over the original VK.

I have no doubt it will be the other way around, funny that.

I would go with Vampire Kingdoms to have Vampires, one of the key setting elements in N.A. as well as the travelling carnival rules, which were great and highly usefull, as well as the aforementioned guild, city layouts, ect.

Atlantis is a great book, giving a lot of options beyond the standard Slaver to encounter around the world, and Splynn is a great addition to that.

Underseas is great for the same reason, expands the new of Splugorth encounters and influence around the world, and gives a lot of detail and options to cover a huge area (the oceans of the world), as well as info about the various powers and creatures that could interact with seaside communities.

England is a great look at how other communities around the world and in Europe survived the Rifts, and a non-tech oriented one at that, which is fairly rare.

[boxee]

VKL Revised and now with Vampires out....I have no doubt it will be avast improvement over the original VK.

I have no doubt it will be the other way around, funny that.

I would go with Vampire Kingdoms to have Vampires, one of the key setting elements in N.A. as well as the travelling carnival rules, which were great and highly usefull, as well as the aforementioned guild, city layouts, ect.

Atlantis is a great book, giving a lot of options beyond the standard Slaver to encounter around the world, and Splynn is a great addition to that.

Underseas is great for the same reason, expands the new of Splugorth encounters and influence around the world, and gives a lot of detail and options to cover a huge area (the oceans of the world), as well as info about the various powers and creatures that could interact with seaside communities.

England is a great look at how other communities around the world and in Europe survived the Rifts, and a non-tech oriented one at that, which is fairly rare.

Like Atlantis, but would make it a world book. The pure sillyness of the number of troops there makes the world look pointless.

[Eashamahel]

Like Atlantis, but would make it a world book. The pure sillyness of the number of troops there makes the world look pointless.

Sorry, I don't understand what you mean? Atlantis is a world book, it was World Book 2.

[cyberdon]

What all is in Canada?

--flatline

Canada for me is the ultimate 'plop your players down and have them walk in a random direction' setting.

It's a place of vast, open expanses, interspersed with strange locales, towns that appear and then fade away, strange, warped creatures, and etcetera.

It's perhaps my favorite wilderness, and is an amazing starting point for Rifts games in general IMHO.

[boxee]

Like Atlantis, but would make it a world book. The pure sillyness of the number of troops there makes the world look pointless.

Sorry, I don't understand what you mean? Atlantis is a world book, it was World Book 2.

As in another world with only a foothold on rifts earth like everyone else. If the cities there were in competition at war then it would work, but it all under one force is too much.

[Eashamahel]

Ah, I get you now, boxee. At first I was going to disagree, but then I remembered telling people who were wondering that I would never put the Metzlans into any game we ran in Atlantis/Splynn (played several games there), because it was all just TOO much for the Splugorth to have the Kydian army, the slavers, the Tatooed men, the Sunaj, the Gargoyles, AND these godly powerful psychic Xiticix monsters and be opposed in any real way.


I actually have a question for anyone in this thread. I was recently thinking about replacing (for the badly damaged ones and the ones I have lost) some of my old Rifts titles, England, Atlantis, Japan, Triax, Underseas, ect, very early on ones. Now, a little while ago I replaced my old Juicer Uprising, but was very dissaponted to see it had been 'Ultimate Editioned' with bonuses for Perception rolls and what not (I was more dissapointed when I tried to replace my first sourcebook with the revised one, but that's another story), so I was wondering, if I buy these from the Palladium Website, will they have the same halfway updating that Juicer Uprising had, or will they be original?

[boxee]

Ah, I get you now, boxee. At first I was going to disagree, but then I remembered telling people who were wondering that I would never put the Metzlans into any game we ran in Atlantis/Splynn (played several games there), because it was all just TOO much for the Splugorth to have the Kydian army, the slavers, the Tatooed men, the Sunaj, the Gargoyles, AND these godly powerful psychic Xiticix monsters and be opposed in any real way.


I actually have a question for anyone in this thread. I was recently thinking about replacing (for the badly damaged ones and the ones I have lost) some of my old Rifts titles, England, Atlantis, Japan, Triax, Underseas, ect, very early on ones. Now, a little while ago I replaced my old Juicer Uprising, but was very dissaponted to see it had been 'Ultimate Editioned' with bonuses for Perception rolls and what not (I was more dissapointed when I tried to replace my first sourcebook with the revised one, but that's another story), so I was wondering, if I buy these from the Palladium Website, will they have the same halfway updating that Juicer Uprising had, or will they be original?

Not sure.

[Eashamahel]

Yeah, not really sure where to ask either. Thanks though.

[boxee]

Yeah, not really sure where to ask either. Thanks though.

I do know that the rifts main rulebook is on drivethroughrpg, not sure if any of the other books there are updated. I Got SOT there and a few rifters as well. You could try to email one of the sysops.

[Jason Richards]

Arzno. One could run a whole campaign with that book.

Awwwwww...

[Marrowlight]

Zombie!

[Daniel Stoker]

Arzno. One could run a whole campaign with that book.

Awwwwww...

You wrote a good book.


Daniel Stoker