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What are some books, movies, comics, or games that having a setting similar to Rifts? I really like the weird genre-bending Rifts world, but there isn't very much official Rifts media. I'd love some more sources of inspiration.

The anime, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust has elements that are Rifts-like.

Since Rifts includes potentially all genres,
Potentially all genres can resemble Rifts.

Willy Elektrix wrote:What are some books, movies, comics, or games that having a setting similar to Rifts? I really like the weird genre-bending Rifts world, but there isn't very much official Rifts media. I'd love some more sources of inspiration.

One of the things I tend to do is look at things that have an element or two that is Rifts like and see what they do with it.
For example:
-I will watch an Anime with a civilization based on magic as technology (the Nanoha series) and go "hmmm, so that is what a TW based civilization might look like"
-I will play a game with a post apocalypse theme where the characters scrounge for high tech weapons to fight monsters (Wild Arms) and go "hmm, this side arc here might be useful for my New West game:
-I might read a comic about a ninja fighting robots and demons with the help of a sorcerer to save a demi-god (Blade Bunny)and think "oh yeah, this is totally a PC group"

None of it is really "Rifts"... but at the same time it is all Rifts. I just have to take the inspirational bits that I like, mix them together like Rifts does and taste the result once I have hit Puree. Its a 'season to taste" sort of thing.

tobefrnk wrote:The anime, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust has elements that are Rifts-like.

Oh yeah, totally. How could I forget about this? The Vampire Hunter D movies and novels are an obvious inspiration for Rifts. Vampire Hunter D has a post-apocalypse/Wild West setting where vampires overlords rule isolated villages of humans. It is impossible that this series was not an inspiration for the vampire kingdoms of Mexico.

eliakon wrote:None of it is really "Rifts"... but at the same time it is all Rifts. I just have to take the inspirational bits that I like, mix them together like Rifts does and taste the result once I have hit Puree. Its a 'season to taste" sort of thing.

True, although I think Rifts has a sort of unique flavor because it combines all its different genres in a wild and exciting way. Very few sci-fi settings seems to do this.

I thought of another one... Did anyone else read that 80s comic called Grimjack? Grimjack is a mercenary in a "pan-dimensional" city where all kinds of aliens, gods, cartoon characters, and other wacky beings all live together. It certainly captures some of the feel of Rifts.

I think you can literally use anything for inspiration from just about any anime or Manga to things like mad max, to judge dread and even the big Star franchise's you can also throw in things like bsg westworld, Trigun and Appleseed etc.

tobefrnk wrote:The anime, Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust has elements that are Rifts-like.

the first Vampire Hunter D film from 1985 is even more so in many ways. it even has laser rifles and such.

another one is Battle Angel Alita.. the Manga has a real Rifts feel when you read it, and the OVA from 1993 is a pretty faithful (if condensed) rendition of it. theOVA is also somewhat easier to find nowadays. there is going to be a Live Action soon, and it looks to be just as faithful to the Manga's feel as the OVA, give or take a few details.

While not set post apocalypse, the Bubblegum Crisis series's have a lot of rifts like elements.. in part because PB drew on them for a lot of early rifts gear. personally i prefer the BGC Tokyo 2040 remake, because it had an overarching story and developed the characters a bit better, but the original OVA's are really good as well. either one would be a good source for inspiration into Burbs type games especially.

another one that seems to have heavily inspired Palladium is the Appleseed series of Manga's and films. a lot of Triax seems to have the stylistic DNA of Duenan and Briarieos inside. it is a post-apoc setting, although much of the Manga and most of the films end up focusing on the surviving tech-city of olympus rather than the wastelands. i highly recommend readign the Manga, but it can be tricky to find at a good price. film wise i'd suggest avoiding the one from 1988 (it is just not that great and really dates itself), and go for the CGI film from 2004, or the recent Appleseed Alpha film, which is more about the char's life in the wastelands before reaching Olympus.

also Silent Möbius. while it is sort of a cop show, it is a cop show about special agent cops that use magic and psionics and such to fight demonic monsters in a world that barely survived a cataclysmic event, so it definitely has some rifts feel to it. with this one i'd suggest just watching the TV series from 1998.. it it much easier to watch and does a much better job of explaining what the heck is going on than the OVA's from the early 90's.

for those who prefer a more western source (really, the older Anime stuff is awesome though, give it a try), the Samurai Jack series is so Rifts it is easy to forget it isn't, sometimes.

Fallout Game series (at least for a tech heavy look without magic/psi), more for the non big players in the wastes.

80s 'toons: Thundarr the Barbarian (post-apocolypse world: super science and magic, no major powers), Masters of the Universe (tech & magic), Visionaries (more magic in a post-apolocypse tech world)

Anime: Blue Gender, Genesis Climber Mospedea (aka Robotech: NG arc)

Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen.
It's subtle, but it's there.

Killer Cyborg wrote:Since Rifts includes potentially all genres,
Potentially all genres can resemble Rifts.

I think that it's because of this that whenever this question is asked here my answer is nothing.

try the original Buck Rogers books. Bar the magic and rifts/psychics, its pretty similar.

When I saw the promos for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aftermath_(2016_TV_series) it made me think of rifts, since it's natural disasters + rise of supernatural beings. I still haven't watched it. Taped it all on the PVR but when I saw Crave TV picked it up, I deleted it to clear room for other stuff, figuring I would watch it next time I got a free demo of the channel.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wynonna_Earp_(TV_series) would probably be good fuel for a New West game.

Neither of these have the far-future high-tech elements of Rifts AFAIK though, just the supernatural society stuff. WE isn't even post-apoc like Aftermath so it might be more suited for a Beyond the Supernatural game.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernatu ... _TV_series) could be good inspiration for Beyond the Supernatural or Nightbane, not post-apoc or future tech so extrapolations to Rifts would need modifications.

I've seen almost all of the anime people are mentioning here (Vampire Hunter D, Battle Angel, Silent Moebius, Bubblegum Crisis, Appleseed, etc.). I never really thought about how much Rifts is inspired by anime. It sure is though.

It's interesting that almost everything that anyone has mentioned has been cartoons. Here's another one. Wizards is a 1970s American animated film that is about war in a post-apocalyptic world. One side is a mechanized army (that resemble Nazis). The other side are magic-users, pixies, and forest dwellers.

I haven't seen Samurai Jack, but it looks cool. I can see the Rifts parallels.

Turbokid also looks cool too. Manborg is another live-action sci-fi movie that is also Rifts-like. It is about cyborg hero overthrowing a race of Nazi-like vampires. The whole thing is like a live-action anime. It's pretty awesome.

Defiance, both the video game and tv series has a very rifts vibe (except no magic or psychics)

Willy Elektrix wrote:I've seen almost all of the anime people are mentioning here (Vampire Hunter D, Battle Angel, Silent Moebius, Bubblegum Crisis, Appleseed, etc.). I never really thought about how much Rifts is inspired by anime. It sure is though.

The manga of Battle Angel Alita / Gunmu began in December 1990 so Rifts preceded it by 4 months, so it couldn't have inspired the core book, not sure about later supplements.

Ultimate Edition mentioned awareness of Bubblegum Crisis explicitly, if I recall, as the reason they chose not to call Glitter Boys "Boomers" because they found out the term had been used by BGC?

Actually wasn't the entire RPG going to be named Boomers too, instead of Rifts?

Which is all strange since while the anime OVA did begin in 1987, the earliest english VHS release I could find was in 1995: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encycl ... p?id=33400 so I have no idea how Siembieda found out about this.

Check out Daemonium only one which contains most of the elements for rifts

Robotech and other giant robot anime of the 70s and 80s are obviously an influence.

Willy Elektrix wrote:I'

It's interesting that almost everything that anyone has mentioned has been cartoons. Here's another one. Wizards is a 1970s American animated film that is about war in a post-apocalyptic world. One side is a mechanized army (that resemble Nazis). The other side are magic-users, pixies, and forest dwellers..

Longest extended lead-up to the Indy Solution.

how bout https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inhumanoids and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_Zone ?