Book recommendations

Big Red · Unread post by **Big Red** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 8:28 am

I took my son out to get some new Rifts books yesterday, and realized that I've been out of it for so long that I have no idea what the best, more recent books are. We picked up the RUE, Madhaven, Powers Unlimited 1, and an old issue of the Rifter (forget which one). Before yesterday, the last book I picked up was at least 5 years ago (After the Bomb RPG, possibly). Based on a few things I've read, the Naruni Dimension book sounds like one I'd like to get, as well as Dark Conversions. I'll likely get the other two Powers Unlimited books, since I like throwing the occasional super-powered character into the game. Are there any other books from the last few years that are considered real essentials?

Also, I'm looking to get the best deals possible. If anyone could point me to a reliable discount retailer, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Chaos · Unread post by **Chaos** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 8:32 am

i recommend the Rifts Game Masters Guide and Rifts Adventure Guide myself they are 2 books I use quite often not sure if they fall into the last 5 years category or not but if you don't have them ...

Big Red · Unread post by **Big Red** » Tue Jan 16, 2007 8:43 am

I have the Game Master Guide, not sure about the Adventure Guide. I'll doublecheck on that. Also, any recommendations for back issue of the Rifter would be appreciated as well. I'd mostly be looking for issues with really good Heroes Unlimited and ATB info, but I'll consider anything noteworthy. Reading through the ATB/TMNT forum, it sounds like #29 is a must.

Dustin Fireblade · Tue Jan 16, 2007 8:45 am

Merc Ops and Merc Town are two good books to get. World Books include the two Dinosaur Swamp books and Arzno.

Giant2005 · Unread post by **Giant2005** » Thu Jan 18, 2007 10:41 pm

The Powers Unlimited books aren't enough to make your super heroes, you will need the Heroes Unlimited main book also.
Also on the note of recommended books, it all depends on what you plan on running. The Phase World books are imperative if you plan on running any galactic missions, if you plan on sticking to Rifts Earth, I'd suggest buying all the Atlantis books as well as underseas.
It also depends on what sort of OCCs/RCCs you want available, if you are big on magic I'd recommend the book of magic, Federation of magic and maybe the Three Galaxies Dimension book. Psyscape should take care of the majority of your Psionic needs.
If you plan on having a multiversal plot, I'd recommend all of the dimension books, along with the Nightbane series and possibly Pantheons of the Megaverse.

NovenTheHero · Fri Jan 19, 2007 12:29 am

Its a tough choice having all the Rifts books lol

Big Red · Unread post by **Big Red** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 2:34 am

I probably should have given a bit of an idea of what we already have. I started playing Palladium games back in the TMNT days. It didn't take long to get hooked on everything Palladium. At one point, I sold off pretty much my entire collection (except for the TMNT, Rifts core book, and a few others), then found myself getting back into them a couple years later. Right now, I have all the TMNT stuff (including 3-4 original issues of The Magic Of Palladium Books, and the bound collection), most of the Robotech stuff (Macross II included), the Rifts core book 1st edition, Rifts Ultimate Edition, all the Rifts World Books through #23, Madhaven, the Coalition Wars books 1-6, the first two Conversion Books, Sourcebook 1-4, Mercenaries, GM's Guide, I think I have the Book of Magic, Rifter 1-16 (pretty sure I have them all, plus #26), Rifts: Manhunter, both Rifts Indexes, Heroes Unlimited, HU GM Guide, Villains Unlimited (1st edition), Aliens Unlimited (1st edition), the Justice Machine supplement, Powers Unlimited 1, Ninjas & Superspies, Mystic China, Nightbane and the 3 supplements, Systems Failure, the Collected Mechanoid Invasion (I used to have the originals, and regret selling them off), Beyond the Supernatural 1st edition, Boxed Nightmares, PFRPG 2nd Edition (used to have all the 1st edition books), Dragons & Gods, Monsters & Animals, the Compendium of Weapons and Armor, the Compendium of Modern Weapons, Weapons & Assassins and Revised Recon.

I'm pretty sure that's the complete list, although I did leave off the Rifts & TMNT game shields, plus a book I wrote back in college. I'm mainly interested in stuff from the last few years (which is really all I'm missing). I don't have either of the China books, or the more recent Dimension books (the Naruni book sounds interesting). Dark Conversions sounds interesting, as do the next two Dimension books and D-Bees of North America. I'll be starting with a pretty low-level game for my son and his friends, but I always like throwing in mutant animals and super-powered beings (PU2&3 are definite upcoming purchases). I'm considering a subscription to the Rifter for my son for his birthday, and am looking into getting #18, 23, 24 and 29 for the AtB related stuff (this would also help get me back into writing some of the stuff that's been on the back-back-back-back-back-burner for the last 10 years or so).

One thing I'm looking for is good deals on everything, and I've found a few sites with good prices, but didn't know if they were reliable, or if it was okay to bring up online retailers on the forum.

Pepsi Jedi · Unread post by **Pepsi Jedi** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 4:07 am

I didn't like dark conversions at all. Coupled with the fact we're going on a tour to hades in this big arc this year, I'd wait for the new books if you want demons and stuff. The Art in Dark conversions, I found... (( Just me)) Visually lacking in a lot of cases. It's one of the ones I picked up, flipped though and put back

One you DO want is Rifts Aftermath. It updates the world to 109PA and goes really REALLY Well with the RUE. There's no guns, no OOCs or anything but it fleshes out the world of the first 25 or so world books very very nicely. It's in my top 5 rifts books.

Merc ops and Merc Town are nice for setting work. Merc Adventures (( Very cheep)) Has some nice OOCs and a great intro adventure for younger players. (( it's a boot camp, where the GM can help TEACH his players how to fully play their chars. Heck it'd help some old hats.))

The Dino swamp books are good but they're very .... Hurm... Post apocolyptic. No big cities. Barbarians and dinos running rampid. Some cool stuff to be found and I personally like Todd's work.

Definatly pick up powers unlimited 3 for HU. Powers unlmited 2 is nice as well but should be called "Power CATAGORIES" PU3 has some of the best Alter Physical Structure powers ever.

APS BLOOD! APS Goo or Gel! APS Pebbles/Buckshot.

Rifts Madhaven and Rifts Arzno are very site specific places, but I can't honestly comment on them. I haven't read them yet. (( I got 3 grab bags worth of books for christmas myself so... I'm wading though them.
I'll get to yours soon Jason, don't worry))

Chaos · Unread post by **Chaos** » Fri Jan 19, 2007 4:32 am

Well with a current collection like that ...

Why not fill all your gaps looks like you are only missing about 10 titles or so and with tax-time just around the corner ... :rolleyes:

Thats what I plan on doing and my collection is very similar to yours, though I don't have any of the really old stuff

I need about 15-20 titles myself but I filed my taxes last week and have already got several on the way

so far 7 books and I'm only out about $40 but ebay was my friend :oops:

I actually ordered them before taxes came in and now plan to close my gaps with the online store

Big Red · Unread post by **Big Red** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 4:10 am

Thanks to some auctions and a bit of splurging, I picked up Rifter 18, 23, 24, 29 and 36, as well as Powers Unlimited 3, Anvil Galaxy, Naruni Wave Two, Dinosaur Swamp and Adventures in Dinosaur Swamp. I've only managed to do a bit of indepth reading, but from what I've seen so far, the Dinosaur Swamp books are great. I like some of the stuff in the AtB-related Rifters, but it wasn't quite as earth-shattering as I thought it'd be. Powers Unlimited has some good stuff in it, as does the Naruni book. I've only skimmed through the others.

I did look at a couple other books without buying. Is there any new material in Dark Conversions? It looked to me like almost the entire book was copied from Conversion Book 1. I flipped through China 1 as well. I didn't see much that caught my eye. Any opinions on whether China 2 is any better?

I think my son would like us to get everything that's out there (including all the issues of the Rifter we don't have), but I don't know how soon that will happen. I'll likely get the D-Bees book, and maybe the revised Sourcebook 1, and I'm leaning toward getting him a subscription to the Rifter for his birthday. I think at this point we can probably wait on the others.

Rayven · Unread post by **Rayven** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 4:24 am

I recommend getting the novels, just so your son will have a headache and learn how to nitpick. Make him a better rules lawyer.

:lol:

KLM · Unread post by **KLM** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 5:11 am

Yepp, the Sonic Boom trilogy is great.

Adios
KLM

MASTERMIND · Unread post by **MASTERMIND** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 9:53 am

Um, the Rifts novels aren't very good. I mean, they aren't bad but they really aren't good either. Of all the Rifts products I have ever owned the novels were my least favorite.

If you ever get a chance email Adam Chilson and ask him about 1) how he used dice and character sheets to figure out the combat scenes in the first novel - thus, producing the very random and sometimes absurd way combat played out 2) Nim and ??? - while it appears they switch personalities during the novels Adam explains it was an editing mistake and the names were switched 3) one of the major characters disappears in the third novel, never to return and without explanation - Adam explains this was also an editing mistake while trying to reduce the number of pages in the book they cut scenes and accidentally cut the character out of the rest of the story.

These are just three examples. Someone mentioned nitpicking and if you examine these novels in any depth you will find all sorts of, "What the heck?" issues. I sent Adam Chilson a long email a few years back and the really cool thing is he answered my email and really did answer all my questions. He is more into photography these days I hear and I am told he has a real talent for it. I'm not saying don't buy them. They are okay for a one time read and buying them supports Palladium which is EXTREMELY important right now. I'm just suggesting you wait until you have everything else you want... Or even don't want... Then get the novels.

*****

Now as for books I would recommend. CWC is a 100% must have. The West books are all good. I havent read the Dinosaur books but with all the hype I am seeing I think I will pick them up myself. Rifts GMs guide. Madhaven is getting "mad" reviews, hehe. I personally love the Atlantis book but that is definitely old school Rifts. NGR/Triax was huge for my group but then again, we spent a good deal of time there.

Kagashi · Unread post by **Kagashi** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 9:49 pm

Floopers...get anything with floopers in it.

The Galactus Kid · Fri Feb 02, 2007 12:29 am

Well, I'm glad that you got Madhaven. That makes me happy.

Big Red · Unread post by **Big Red** » Fri Feb 02, 2007 1:06 am

The Galactus Kid wrote:Well, I'm glad that you got Madhaven. That makes me happy.

The more I read of Madhaven, the more I enjoy it. I'm also leaning toward getting China 2 and Dimension Book 7. I flipped through DB7 the other day, and it looked pretty interesting. I haven't seen China 2, though, and I'm hesitant to buy it blind after a couple other things I've looked at.

Sureshot · Unread post by **Sureshot** » Fri Feb 02, 2007 10:51 am

I will also say that Madhaven is a pretty good book.

TechnoGothic · Unread post by **TechnoGothic** » Fri Feb 02, 2007 3:48 pm

SPLICERS is a great sourcebook for RIFTS also.

The Bio-Armors/Host Armors would be perfect in RIFTS.
You just need to ignore the nano-plague stuff...

TechnoGothic · Unread post by **TechnoGothic** » Fri Feb 02, 2007 5:46 pm

Citizen Lazlo wrote:
TechnoGothic wrote:SPLICERS is a great sourcebook for RIFTS also.

The Bio-Armors/Host Armors would be perfect in RIFTS.
You just need to ignore the nano-plague stuff...

OK in all fairness Splicers is just awesome. Rifts or no Rifts.

Ohh Splicers is an the awesomnest :ok:

Rayven · Unread post by **Rayven** » Sat Feb 03, 2007 2:49 pm

Citizen Lazlo wrote:
TechnoGothic wrote:SPLICERS is a great sourcebook for RIFTS also.

The Bio-Armors/Host Armors would be perfect in RIFTS.
You just need to ignore the nano-plague stuff...

OK in all fairness Splicers is just awesome. Rifts or no Rifts.

I only see one problem with Splicers as a stand-alone - nobody wants to run, as all the people I know want to be players in the game.

Kagashi · Unread post by **Kagashi** » Sun Feb 04, 2007 12:30 pm

I liked the novels. Nothing is perfect, although there WERE glaring editing problems in the books. Anyway, I liked most aspects of the books. I could have done without the "virtual" techno battle and everything to do with "cyer punk".

Why is it so good? Tell me where I can find another series of Rifts Novels....

Big Red · Unread post by **Big Red** » Wed May 09, 2007 9:39 am

This morning, I decided to take the plunge on a couple books I'd been considering for a while. I ordered the Revised Conversion Book, Rifts: China 2, as well as Rifter 34 & 35. It's been a long, rough week (among other things, just coming off a bout of insomnia, the guys who finished our drywall decided to cut corners (i.e., not do half of what they were supposed to) so now my one day job is turning into at least 3 days, and we just found out my sister-in-law has cervical cancer), so I figurred I was due for a diversion. I'll probably hit the local game shop this morning, too, to see if they have D-Bees of North America. Looking forward to that and Machinations of Doom, and since it will be at least 2 days before my order gets here, I really want something new to read. I've had the old Conversion Book 1 for years, I think since the day it was released, so I'm hoping the Revised one has at least enough in there that I won't kick myself over it. I've flipped through China 1 but have yet to see China 2, so I'm eager to see that. As for the Rifters, they were the two most recent ones we (my son & I) needed, and this gets us a couple steps closer to completing our collection (I think we have 24 or 25 total, so after this order we'll be within a dozen or so).

Big Red · Unread post by **Big Red** » Sun May 13, 2007 8:53 am

My box-o-books arrived yesterday, and I've flipped through them (and D-bees) several times now, but haven't had a chance to do any real in-depth reading. My initial impressions are that China 2 & D-Bees are fantastic. Revised CB1 isn't that bad, and combined with Dark Conversions, I guess would be a decent, if somewhat superfluous, upgrade to the original. I might actually pick up Dark Conversions at some point now. I've only scanned through the Rifters, so I can't say much about those. Overall, a pleasing batch of books. Can't wait for Mechanations of Doom.

Big Red · Unread post by **Big Red** » Sun May 13, 2007 7:10 pm

The Minion Wars books are must-buys for me. I'm definitely looking forward to them. I'd love to see Rifts: Gods & Dragons finally see the light of day. That's one I read about during my gaming hiatus and considered picking up. I personally enjoyed the Dinosaur Swamp books & Madhaven. I've always enjoyed the different monsters and whatnot, so those three were all a kick for me. My son's been flipping through all the books, so I'm going to have to put a little thought into throwing something at him he hasn't seen. If I pick up anything else between now and when we finally start playing (likely early June) I'll have to hide it from him so I can throw a few twists at him.

Big Red · Unread post by **Big Red** » Tue May 15, 2007 2:07 pm

I'm thinking about placing another order this week (and should be getting MoD locally tomorrow). I'm looking at getting Arzno & Mutant Underground, and am considering The Black Vault and a few Rifters. I need to have my son look through our Rifters and see what we do and don't have, but am trying to decide on whether to get more recent ones (30-33), or the oldest ones we need (17-20). Any input would be appreciated. Of course, over the last week or so, I've come to realize that I really need to get a spreadsheet together to keep track of this stuff better.

Big Red · Unread post by **Big Red** » Wed May 16, 2007 8:56 pm

I went a little overboard today, but I decided I wanted to fill in some gaps. I picked up Machinations of Doom at the local game shop this morning, then came home and placed orders for three Rifters I was missing (21, 22 & 25). I followed that up just now with another order for Rifters 17, 19 & 20, Arzno, MercTown & Mutant Underground. This will leave us needing just 6 issues of the Rifter (27, 28, 30-33), and maybe 16 total Rifts books.

Ridley · Unread post by **Ridley** » Thu May 17, 2007 12:36 am

you might want to check out nightbane, prolly the best palladium game ever, esspically through the glass darkly, best magic book ever.

Big Red · Unread post by **Big Red** » Thu May 17, 2007 12:51 am

Ridley wrote:you might want to check out nightbane, prolly the best palladium game ever, esspically through the glass darkly, best magic book ever.

Got it. In fact, IIRC (I haven't looked at it in a while), I'm pretty positive I have Nightspawn. Guess that makes me cooler than the other side of the pillow. :lol:

Actually, I might dig my Nightspawn/bane book out to use as a ringer against my son and his friends. I know that's one book he hasn't looked at yet.

Carl Gleba · Unread post by **Carl Gleba** » Fri May 18, 2007 10:31 pm

Big Red, sounds like you're filling in your missing books pretty quick.

As far as good deals watch the Classified" forums. You have folks on there that occasionally sell off PB books at reasonable prices. There is also ebay.
The best deal starts around october when Palladium starts doing its "grab bags" Its the best deal you'll get and you get to list the stuff that you want and Palladium usually fills the request pretty well. I think they go for $30 to $35 and you'll get $60 to $70 dollars worth of books (ar what ever merchandise you ask for), sometimes more. All signed from the PB staff of course.

Oh and its probably a little late, but welcome to the boards :ok:

Carl

Big Red · Unread post by **Big Red** » Sat May 19, 2007 4:34 am

Carl Gleba wrote:The best deal starts around october when Palladium starts doing its "grab bags" Its the best deal you'll get and you get to list the stuff that you want and Palladium usually fills the request pretty well. Oh and its probably a little late, but welcome to the boards

Thanks a lot. I'll have to pick one of those up. I've seen them in the past, but that was back when I wasn't buying books, so I never took advantage of them. I'm hoping to take a little time this week to figure out exactly what else I'm missing. I think I overlooked a couple things when I did my spreadsheet the other night.

Big Red · Unread post by **Big Red** » Mon May 21, 2007 7:57 pm

I got Rifter 22 on Saturday, and 21 today. So far, I'm really enjoying both books. I always intended on using the Ludicrous Mage to some degree once I got a game going again, and 22 really expanded on the possibilities. And I can now see why 21 was so popular. Lots of really good stuff in there.

Big Red · Unread post by **Big Red** » Fri May 25, 2007 12:28 am

I got my biggest order today, with MercTown, Mutant Underground, Arzno and Rifter 17, 19 & 20. Everything looks good from my first skim-through. I'm looking forward to spending a little more in-depth time with the books over the next few days. I'm also hoping to have my son (and possibly my wife :eek:

) roll up some characters Sunday night, so it should be pretty fun.

Big Red · Unread post by **Big Red** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 8:47 am

Yesterday I got Rifter 30-33 in the mail, bringing our Rifter collection up to date. I think I'm content as far as book-buying goes until Hades comes out.

sHaka · Unread post by **sHaka** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 8:55 am

With Big Red on the case, Palladium's financial future looks rosy!

Well done that man! :ok:

Big Red · Unread post by **Big Red** » Tue Jul 17, 2007 9:42 am

Crap, crap, crap! I looked over the list of stuff I mentioned buying in this thread, along with the stuff I said I needed, and noticed a couple glaring omissions: Rifters 27 & 28. Looking at the covers (especially 27), I feel certain that I got them, but I just took a quick look through the house and can't find them. I'll have to do a more thorough search later. This really annoys me, though.

Big Red · Unread post by **Big Red** » Sat Aug 11, 2007 4:55 pm

I was finally able to verify that I'm missing Rifter 27 & 28, so I ordered those this afternoon. That leaves me with just a few major books I'm missing, notably Dark Conversions, China 1, Three Galaxies, the smaller sourcebooks (Black Vault, etc.), and the adventures books. I'm also missing BTS2 and Splicers, plus I don't think I have any PFRPG supplements other than Dragons & Gods and Monsters and Animals (not much interest in the PFRPG stuff, though). I'm thinking about ordering BTS2 and Splicers soon, though.

Big Red · Unread post by **Big Red** » Mon Apr 07, 2008 6:48 am

For whatever reason, I've been itching to fill in more of my collection recently. Part of it, I think, has to do with the difficulty I've had finding the new Robotech book, and part of it has to do with realizing that my copy of Turtles Go Hollywood disappeared. I ordered those yesterday (along with a spare copy of Transdimensional TMNT), but while doing so, I looked over what I still need, and came up with the following:

Chaos Earth: Creatures of Chaos
Chaos Earth: Rise of Magic
Rifts Adventure Sourcebooks 1, 2 & 4
Rifts Bionics Sourcebook
Rifts Merc Ops (possibly, have to doublecheck)
Rifts Merc Adventures Sourcebook
Rifts Dark Conversions
Rifts Coalition Wars Aftermath (thought I had that)
Rifts China One (possibly, have to doublecheck)
PFRPG 2-13 and LOTD1 (not sure how much I really need those)
Heroes Unlimited Century Station, Gramercy Island, PU2

With the exception of a few of the old Robotech and Macross books, those are the only gaps in my PB collection. I may scour Ebay & Half.com for some, and will likely wait for this year's Grab Bags for some of the rest. I nearly bid on a copy of the old Mechanoids game the other day (sold mine off when I purged my collection back in college), but it was already up to about $60 with a couple days left in the auction. I'll probably focus on the Rifts stuff first, then get around to the rest. At some point, I really need to come up with a checklist so I'm sure of what I do and don't have.

Lenwen · Unread post by **Lenwen** » Mon Apr 07, 2008 3:53 pm

It sounds like your more into the ATB series of gaming .
Taking that into account the books I'd recomend for you for new mutants or creating possibly other variants would be ..

LONESTAR .. Entire 31 sq miles large underground high tech mutant facility .

SOUTH AMERICA BK I Tons of mutant esq styled info in there an entire cities of were-beings .

MONSTERS AN ANIMALS Great buy regaurdless of the setting an it gives you animals galor for which you could use to mutate as you see fit .

DEBEE'S OF NORTH AMERICA Perfect for giving you new styles of lifeforms with which to mutate again as you see fit

Those are the only really good ones I could give to you on advice for what it seems that you want to play my friend .

Big Red · Unread post by **Big Red** » Mon Apr 07, 2008 7:13 pm

Lenwen wrote:It sounds like your more into the ATB series of gaming .
Taking that into account the books I'd recomend for you for new mutants or creating possibly other variants would be ..

LONESTAR .. Entire 31 sq miles large underground high tech mutant facility .

SOUTH AMERICA BK I Tons of mutant esq styled info in there an entire cities of were-beings .

MONSTERS AN ANIMALS Great buy regaurdless of the setting an it gives you animals galor for which you could use to mutate as you see fit .

DEBEE'S OF NORTH AMERICA Perfect for giving you new styles of lifeforms with which to mutate again as you see fit

Those are the only really good ones I could give to you on advice for what it seems that you want to play my friend .

Got 'em all. Great books, although South America is probably my least favorite if the lot. The ones I listed above are the only ones I'm lacking. That includes Justice Machine, Manhunters, Shadows of Light, most of the original Magic of Palladium Books, and some magazines with Palladium material. I used to have all the 1E PFRPG books, original Mechanoids, original Recon and all the Robotech books up through Sentinels. I sold off everything except my TMNT, N&SS, HU and Rifts stuff back in college, then started playing Rifts with some friends and bought the bulk of the stuff back again. I've been slowly building my collection back up for the last couple years. I'm glad to see that I'm down to only about 2 dozen missing books. Hopefully by Christmas I can check the rest off my list.

Big Red · Unread post by **Big Red** » Mon Apr 07, 2008 9:30 pm

I just added something pretty cool to my collection (kind of). I just won an auction for the Caliber Press Mechanoids comic book, #1-3. Not sure what's all in there, game-wise, but I figured it was a good way to round out my PB collection a bit.