Review: Rifts Vampires

[Dunia]

I have been really excited about this book since it was announced over a year ago and of all books I have read to Rifts only a few has ever really interested me as much as the original Vampire Kingdoms and later the revised version. It is obvious that when you look at the first version that Kevin from the start had big plans with Rifts and the world books that was to come after.

This book, Rifts Vampires, is the second part of the revised and greatly expanded version of Vampire Kingdoms and yet again, more than 20 years later, Kevin again has shown his vision in how unique, terrifying and interesting vampires can be in the world of Rifts Earth.

The Revised Vampire Kingdoms that we got a year ago, felt a bit incomplete and lacking in some information. However with this Rifts Vampires, the holes have been patched and together they form a complete saga of Mexico and Central America (Especially if you add the Black Market Sourcebook as well as Lemuria, which makes it feel more complete if you have all four as well as the first edition of the Vampire Kingdoms from 1991.

Cchopps did an excellent review on the Revised book, and I will try to follow his style in breaking it down this review into "Good, Bad and Ugly".

Overall, I give this book a B+, almost an A.


The Good!

• The book is massive 176 pages and together with Vampire Kingdoms revised, we have a total of 400 pages filled with everything and more that Mexico has to offer!

• The art seems to be new, as I do not recognize it from anywhere else, it is to most pictures excellent, and some that I do not appreciate as much, but as with art, everything is in the eye of the beholder and not all of us can love the same form of art. But all in all, I love it.

• I love it that Dr Reid is the main narrator and not Erin Tarn as well as the introduction that shows how Dr Reid and his friends thinks and acts towards Vampires. The letter from Erin Tarn was nice and it is good that she did not get a big role in this book. This book feels as it should be Dr Reids and it is. So it gives a good atmosphere to the setting with him being in center.

• Reid's Rangers, before in the first version of Vampire Kingdoms, we got basic information of the leaders of the Rangers, but with this book, we get almost 30 pages full of information about them, their base of operation and also it is nice to see that things have actually happened with the NPCs and the effects of this upon other NPCs. This is one of the biggest highlights for me in this book, to see that these persons are not immune to the years that has passed. his section of the book, deserves a better grade than an A+ if such a grade exists.

• The same things comes with what has happened in Yucatan, where nothing is the same any more. I will try not to spoil anything, but as with Reid's Rangers, the time has moved in Yucatan and the powers there are not scratching themselves in their navels, they are plotting and they are changing the political map. This, Kevin, is what we need in revised books, to show that the world is not stable - it gives a dynamic world and for all those who has played Rifts for years and been to Rifts Mexico over and over and knows what happens in Mexico, Copan, Coba, Palenque will be surprised when they get to play what happens there in PA 109. So Kevin, from the bottom of my heart - Thank you - you have outdone yourself now!

• New Monsters, with various new were-creatures - so lovely!

• Bone Jaguars, to be honest, I debeted long before i placed them in the good section. But yes, they do belong here and it was good to see that they are a bit different from the other were-creatures.

• Strongholds of Humans. This section was really fun to read, especially about Tampico and how you incorporated the Sons of Quetzalquatl into the story from the old Pantheons of the Megaverse. I like when books are tied together like this.

• I like all the hidden powers within the book, how some powers and groups do no fight in the open as Reid's Rangers do.

• Interesting O.C.Cs: Silver Sword Militia, this one I like, it is a class that all have before they choose a "real" O.C.C. and get the starting skills of the militia and then have chosen other classes to play. It can be a great for to unify a group of PCs to have them Ex-Militia.

• Connections with Lemuria, Black Market & Vampire Kingdoms (old and new), I have all these books and I love that I can go from one book to the others and see a red line.

• Deathspike! Although I loved the Bloodwatch name better, this section is really interesting, and probably in my eyes the best part of the book. To me it shows that Vampires are adapting to the "war" against them and that they will be an even bigger threat in the future than they were before.

• Soulcrafting/magic - really interesting.

• The metaplots with what Camazotz is planning and doing, the insane?! plans of an even more insane Dr Reid that is possible to incorporate the PCs into.

The Bad!
• All new Vampire Slayer O.C.Cs: I would rather see a "template" like the abilities in the Black Market Book that you can attach to any other R.C.C or O.C.C. I mean why take up all the abilities of the Hero Necromancer when all it says is: "just as the same as normal Necromancers"

• The Desert Survival should belong in the GM guide along with Arctic Survival from the Canada book and other such. The rules were good, but if you ever do a revised version of the GM guide, incorporate all "environmental survival rules" in that.

• The sheer amount of Lemurians I do not understand, and why they would like o work with necromancers.

• The Lemrian pets seems a bit OP in how far they sense vampires.

• Better proofreading than usual, but still it lacks a lot.

The Ugly!

• After their failure with the missing Experience tables in Black Market Book, it is repeated in this book.

• No need to repeat the true nature of the Shemarrians every time that they are mentioned, once is enough.

---

So that was that!

I hope that I have not spoiled too much, and as you can see, the positive seriously outweighs the negative - and if you like the Vampire Kingdoms Revised and the new Kingdoms book, this is a great buy.

The last 4 books you have produced has raised the standard of published work from Palladium Books, keep it up!

Dunia!

[glitterboy2098]

would someone like to fill me in on the Bone Jaguars? i won't be able to buy this book for awhile (after that kickstarter), and since i've been doing a lot of thinking on were-creatures lately, i'm curious as to what their backstory is and why they are distinct from plain were-jag's..

[Grell]

• After their failure with the missing Experience tables in Black Market Book, it is repeated in this book.

Experience Tables are located in the very back of the Vampires Sourcebook on page 176 and include O.C.C.'s from Revised Vampire Kingdoms.

[DBX]

would someone like to fill me in on the Bone Jaguars? i won't be able to buy this book for awhile (after that kickstarter), and since i've been doing a lot of thinking on were-creatures lately, i'm curious as to what their backstory is and why they are distinct from plain were-jag's..

the VSB free preview on drivethru is on bonejaguars. think they are an intelligent race from another world, who are able to morph into a jaguar

and thanks Dunia for a well written review

[Subjugator]

I got it today and I frickin' ADORE it.

/Sub

[Dunia]

• After their failure with the missing Experience tables in Black Market Book, it is repeated in this book.

Experience Tables are located in the very back of the Vampires Sourcebook on page 176 and include O.C.C.'s from Revised Vampire Kingdoms.

Hmm, strange. not in my copy. That page must be missing for some reason. My copy ends with the map of Mexico.
I have called the shop that I ordered it from and they will get me a new copy and I will get a free freight as well.

[arthurfallz]

Excellent review. I agree on most of the points. And now I have to check my book when I get home to see if mine has the experience tables or not.

[Jorel]

• The art seems to be new, as I do not recognize it from anywhere else, it is to most pictures excellent, and some that I do not appreciate as much, but as with art, everything is in the eye of the beholder and not all of us can love the same form of art. But all in all, I love it.

Take another look at the original, as there is a lot of recycled art. There was a lot of new art, but I felt like maybe 20% were from the original. It was mostly stuff I liked from the original. Just thought it worth pointing out. A bunch of Long artwork. Most of Reids Rangers except a few pics were the original pics from 20 years ago. Even the new girl is just an old picture of her mom. Little Meetal in the group pic is Meetal the Butcher in the pic from the Original.

[Premier]

I have been really excited about this book since it was announced over a year ago and of all books I have read to Rifts only a few has ever really interested me as much as the original Vampire Kingdoms and later the revised version. It is obvious that when you look at the first version that Kevin from the start had big plans with Rifts and the world books that was to come after.

This book, Rifts Vampires, is the second part of the revised and greatly expanded version of Vampire Kingdoms and yet again, more than 20 years later, Kevin again has shown his vision in how unique, terrifying and interesting vampires can be in the world of Rifts Earth.

The Revised Vampire Kingdoms that we got a year ago, felt a bit incomplete and lacking in some information. However with this Rifts Vampires, the holes have been patched and together they form a complete saga of Mexico and Central America (Especially if you add the Black Market Sourcebook as well as Lemuria, which makes it feel more complete if you have all four as well as the first edition of the Vampire Kingdoms from 1991.

Cchopps did an excellent review on the Revised book, and I will try to follow his style in breaking it down this review into "Good, Bad and Ugly".

Overall, I give this book a B+, almost an A.


The Good!

• The book is massive 176 pages and together with Vampire Kingdoms revised, we have a total of 400 pages filled with everything and more that Mexico has to offer!

• The art seems to be new, as I do not recognize it from anywhere else, it is to most pictures excellent, and some that I do not appreciate as much, but as with art, everything is in the eye of the beholder and not all of us can love the same form of art. But all in all, I love it.

• I love it that Dr Reid is the main narrator and not Erin Tarn as well as the introduction that shows how Dr Reid and his friends thinks and acts towards Vampires. The letter from Erin Tarn was nice and it is good that she did not get a big role in this book. This book feels as it should be Dr Reids and it is. So it gives a good atmosphere to the setting with him being in center.

• Reid's Rangers, before in the first version of Vampire Kingdoms, we got basic information of the leaders of the Rangers, but with this book, we get almost 30 pages full of information about them, their base of operation and also it is nice to see that things have actually happened with the NPCs and the effects of this upon other NPCs. This is one of the biggest highlights for me in this book, to see that these persons are not immune to the years that has passed. his section of the book, deserves a better grade than an A+ if such a grade exists.

• The same things comes with what has happened in Yucatan, where nothing is the same any more. I will try not to spoil anything, but as with Reid's Rangers, the time has moved in Yucatan and the powers there are not scratching themselves in their navels, they are plotting and they are changing the political map. This, Kevin, is what we need in revised books, to show that the world is not stable - it gives a dynamic world and for all those who has played Rifts for years and been to Rifts Mexico over and over and knows what happens in Mexico, Copan, Coba, Palenque will be surprised when they get to play what happens there in PA 109. So Kevin, from the bottom of my heart - Thank you - you have outdone yourself now!

• New Monsters, with various new were-creatures - so lovely!

• Bone Jaguars, to be honest, I debeted long before i placed them in the good section. But yes, they do belong here and it was good to see that they are a bit different from the other were-creatures.

• Strongholds of Humans. This section was really fun to read, especially about Tampico and how you incorporated the Sons of Quetzalquatl into the story from the old Pantheons of the Megaverse. I like when books are tied together like this.

• I like all the hidden powers within the book, how some powers and groups do no fight in the open as Reid's Rangers do.

• Interesting O.C.Cs: Silver Sword Militia, this one I like, it is a class that all have before they choose a "real" O.C.C. and get the starting skills of the militia and then have chosen other classes to play. It can be a great for to unify a group of PCs to have them Ex-Militia.

• Connections with Lemuria, Black Market & Vampire Kingdoms (old and new), I have all these books and I love that I can go from one book to the others and see a red line.

• Deathspike! Although I loved the Bloodwatch name better, this section is really interesting, and probably in my eyes the best part of the book. To me it shows that Vampires are adapting to the "war" against them and that they will be an even bigger threat in the future than they were before.

• Soulcrafting/magic - really interesting.

• The metaplots with what Camazotz is planning and doing, the insane?! plans of an even more insane Dr Reid that is possible to incorporate the PCs into.

The Bad!
• All new Vampire Slayer O.C.Cs: I would rather see a "template" like the abilities in the Black Market Book that you can attach to any other R.C.C or O.C.C. I mean why take up all the abilities of the Hero Necromancer when all it says is: "just as the same as normal Necromancers"

• The Desert Survival should belong in the GM guide along with Arctic Survival from the Canada book and other such. The rules were good, but if you ever do a revised version of the GM guide, incorporate all "environmental survival rules" in that.

• The sheer amount of Lemurians I do not understand, and why they would like o work with necromancers.

• The Lemrian pets seems a bit OP in how far they sense vampires.

• Better proofreading than usual, but still it lacks a lot.

The Ugly!

• After their failure with the missing Experience tables in Black Market Book, it is repeated in this book.

• No need to repeat the true nature of the Shemarrians every time that they are mentioned, once is enough.

---

So that was that!

I hope that I have not spoiled too much, and as you can see, the positive seriously outweighs the negative - and if you like the Vampire Kingdoms Revised and the new Kingdoms book, this is a great buy.

The last 4 books you have produced has raised the standard of published work from Palladium Books, keep it up!

Dunia!

As one of freelance Artists and concept contributors for the book, I am thrilled to see you are enjoying the book and that it go such a good review and remarks from you. I am also glad your peeping the woven storylines between the recent book releases and how everything is really tying in. May I asks, what your plans are with the current hints and material for your own campaigns or if you aren't a GM (but a Player), what do you thin your GM has in store for you and how do you think the events that are unfolding will play out in your campaign?

[Dunia]

I have been really excited about this book since it was announced over a year ago and of all books I have read to Rifts only a few has ever really interested me as much as the original Vampire Kingdoms and later the revised version. It is obvious that when you look at the first version that Kevin from the start had big plans with Rifts and the world books that was to come after.

This book, Rifts Vampires, is the second part of the revised and greatly expanded version of Vampire Kingdoms and yet again, more than 20 years later, Kevin again has shown his vision in how unique, terrifying and interesting vampires can be in the world of Rifts Earth.

The Revised Vampire Kingdoms that we got a year ago, felt a bit incomplete and lacking in some information. However with this Rifts Vampires, the holes have been patched and together they form a complete saga of Mexico and Central America (Especially if you add the Black Market Sourcebook as well as Lemuria, which makes it feel more complete if you have all four as well as the first edition of the Vampire Kingdoms from 1991.

Cchopps did an excellent review on the Revised book, and I will try to follow his style in breaking it down this review into "Good, Bad and Ugly".

Overall, I give this book a B+, almost an A.


The Good!

• The book is massive 176 pages and together with Vampire Kingdoms revised, we have a total of 400 pages filled with everything and more that Mexico has to offer!

• The art seems to be new, as I do not recognize it from anywhere else, it is to most pictures excellent, and some that I do not appreciate as much, but as with art, everything is in the eye of the beholder and not all of us can love the same form of art. But all in all, I love it.

• I love it that Dr Reid is the main narrator and not Erin Tarn as well as the introduction that shows how Dr Reid and his friends thinks and acts towards Vampires. The letter from Erin Tarn was nice and it is good that she did not get a big role in this book. This book feels as it should be Dr Reids and it is. So it gives a good atmosphere to the setting with him being in center.

• Reid's Rangers, before in the first version of Vampire Kingdoms, we got basic information of the leaders of the Rangers, but with this book, we get almost 30 pages full of information about them, their base of operation and also it is nice to see that things have actually happened with the NPCs and the effects of this upon other NPCs. This is one of the biggest highlights for me in this book, to see that these persons are not immune to the years that has passed. his section of the book, deserves a better grade than an A+ if such a grade exists.

• The same things comes with what has happened in Yucatan, where nothing is the same any more. I will try not to spoil anything, but as with Reid's Rangers, the time has moved in Yucatan and the powers there are not scratching themselves in their navels, they are plotting and they are changing the political map. This, Kevin, is what we need in revised books, to show that the world is not stable - it gives a dynamic world and for all those who has played Rifts for years and been to Rifts Mexico over and over and knows what happens in Mexico, Copan, Coba, Palenque will be surprised when they get to play what happens there in PA 109. So Kevin, from the bottom of my heart - Thank you - you have outdone yourself now!

• New Monsters, with various new were-creatures - so lovely!

• Bone Jaguars, to be honest, I debeted long before i placed them in the good section. But yes, they do belong here and it was good to see that they are a bit different from the other were-creatures.

• Strongholds of Humans. This section was really fun to read, especially about Tampico and how you incorporated the Sons of Quetzalquatl into the story from the old Pantheons of the Megaverse. I like when books are tied together like this.

• I like all the hidden powers within the book, how some powers and groups do no fight in the open as Reid's Rangers do.

• Interesting O.C.Cs: Silver Sword Militia, this one I like, it is a class that all have before they choose a "real" O.C.C. and get the starting skills of the militia and then have chosen other classes to play. It can be a great for to unify a group of PCs to have them Ex-Militia.

• Connections with Lemuria, Black Market & Vampire Kingdoms (old and new), I have all these books and I love that I can go from one book to the others and see a red line.

• Deathspike! Although I loved the Bloodwatch name better, this section is really interesting, and probably in my eyes the best part of the book. To me it shows that Vampires are adapting to the "war" against them and that they will be an even bigger threat in the future than they were before.

• Soulcrafting/magic - really interesting.

• The metaplots with what Camazotz is planning and doing, the insane?! plans of an even more insane Dr Reid that is possible to incorporate the PCs into.

The Bad!
• All new Vampire Slayer O.C.Cs: I would rather see a "template" like the abilities in the Black Market Book that you can attach to any other R.C.C or O.C.C. I mean why take up all the abilities of the Hero Necromancer when all it says is: "just as the same as normal Necromancers"

• The Desert Survival should belong in the GM guide along with Arctic Survival from the Canada book and other such. The rules were good, but if you ever do a revised version of the GM guide, incorporate all "environmental survival rules" in that.

• The sheer amount of Lemurians I do not understand, and why they would like o work with necromancers.

• The Lemrian pets seems a bit OP in how far they sense vampires.

• Better proofreading than usual, but still it lacks a lot.

The Ugly!

• After their failure with the missing Experience tables in Black Market Book, it is repeated in this book.

• No need to repeat the true nature of the Shemarrians every time that they are mentioned, once is enough.

---

So that was that!

I hope that I have not spoiled too much, and as you can see, the positive seriously outweighs the negative - and if you like the Vampire Kingdoms Revised and the new Kingdoms book, this is a great buy.

The last 4 books you have produced has raised the standard of published work from Palladium Books, keep it up!

Dunia!

As one of freelance Artists and concept contributors for the book, I am thrilled to see you are enjoying the book and that it go such a good review and remarks from you. I am also glad your peeping the woven storylines between the recent book releases and how everything is really tying in. May I asks, what your plans are with the current hints and material for your own campaigns or if you aren't a GM (but a Player), what do you thin your GM has in store for you and how do you think the events that are unfolding will play out in your campaign?

In my campaign that I GM, I did a long backstory of one of my players.

All that she knew when creating her character was that she was taken as a 6-year old by the coalition for being a Ley Line Walker (she manifested magic early) and since then she has never seen her parents. However in the 5 year that she has played that character, she has gotten memory flashes a few times of her father boarding a Death Head's Transport and of a Psi Stalker as well of a house in the middle of nowhere.
Last summer I started a new mini-campaign within the campaign which started with the Ley Line Walker getting a letter in New Lazlo that an old friend and employer wants her to come to her garage as fast as possible. When she gets there she learns that there is a border collie there with a letter to her from someone close to her father, which she has not seen in almost 15 years (she is 21 at the moment). It tells her that this dog belongs to the character (and looks like a puppy she used to have).
She akes the dog with her and later they find a rift that leads them to the New West. after 2 sessions in the New West, the dog finds a rack and leads the characters to a RSCG-team that is out in the field, and some action later, they disable the RSCG team (only 5 persons) without killing them and learns that one of them, a female, was the one sending the dog.
She tells the LLW that she has been working for the LLWs father inside Lone Star Complex and that her father was away on a mission in a place called Guatemala, but has gone missing. She herself, is not rained for this, but she believes that the father wants to defect and as she is more loyal to him than to CS, she wants to take the LLW to the father.

A trip later (the RCSG has a airplaine) and 3 RSCG operatines mindwiped later, they fly away south and they find themselves in guatemala with a high-tech plane without any fuel :)
Here they adventure a bit, trying to find clues of the father and his CS ranger/RCSG team and later finds him. At the same time they earn that the RCSG team has found that there is a local myth about a Dark God (Camazotz) who will rule the world, swallow the sun and cast the earth into an eternal night.

Here I use my two master's degrees in ancient religions and archaeology and brings a big story related to the Mayan faith, the placement of the Mayan pyramids, myths and legends as well as an entire story based on the Mayan mythology and its collection of "holy texts" called the Popol Vol (by the way, a fantastic text to use while designing RIFT stories in Yucatan and Guatemala - I recommend it).

Here the players face the "normal" terrors of VB 1: VK as well as creatures from the Mayan mythology and the LLW and her father becomes friends, she learns what happened and why he wish to defect. though before they leave for US soil again, they decide to follow the myths here about the dark God and the more they do so, the more they decide to stop him.

MY players are not super beings, all are humans and around level 5-7, and they realize that they will not stand a chance against a God, so they ry to build alliances with various groups that exists. Mayan Indian tribes, Jaguar-shapeshifers, the start to follow leads about strange monster riders who hunts vampires and finds a few Lemurians, and start to befriend those in order to gain allies. They later come to Belize City where Lupe, Sir Anthony the Mad and their gang is (see VK) and they meet a small elvish kingdom with specially trained vampire hunters (I stole deathdealers from Underworld movies) and during the 8 months (in real time - with 1-2 sessions per week), they build more and more alliances, delve deeper into the myhts surrounding Camazotz and in these they learn of a statue that was made for Camazotz by a Mayan priest of his, but unbenowst to the dark God, this symbol could be used to banish him as well (the priest was in fact a priest of Chac - Mayan lightning God and enemy of Camazotz) so they decide to try to find this.

A long story short, they form together a rag-tag army made of Lupe and her vampire killers, Mayan Indians, Lemurians, Quetzelquatl (the real one), Champions of light and Good and attack him at Chitzen Itza.

Though they banish him to the underworld, they do not kill him, but for now, the Lemurians are guarding Chitzen Itza and the characters has left for US and played up there for some time.

Camazotz is stuck in the Underworld, but has escaped through the gate of Tikal and annihilated the demons there and workd to reclaim Chitzen Itza. Only time will tell when he will break free from the barrier around Tikal and take back his old kingdom.

That is how I did it

[Dunia]

• The art seems to be new, as I do not recognize it from anywhere else, it is to most pictures excellent, and some that I do not appreciate as much, but as with art, everything is in the eye of the beholder and not all of us can love the same form of art. But all in all, I love it.

Take another look at the original, as there is a lot of recycled art. There was a lot of new art, but I felt like maybe 20% were from the original. It was mostly stuff I liked from the original. Just thought it worth pointing out. A bunch of Long artwork. Most of Reids Rangers except a few pics were the original pics from 20 years ago. Even the new girl is just an old picture of her mom. Little Meetal in the group pic is Meetal the Butcher in the pic from the Original.

I forgot a "Most" in that sentence. But most of the art is new.

[Jorel]

True. I just didn't want people getting the impression it was all new and then being let down when they realize there is some reused art from the original Vampire Kingdoms. I felt it worth clarifying. I like almost all the art in the Vampires Sourcebook, minus the usual goopy ones. Really don't care for those. All of the work done by Ashbough, Walton, Bradshaw, The Manning Bros, Mumah, Dudley is outstanding. (That better Premier?) Who doesn't love the old Long artwork, even if we've seen it before. There is even a Bat done by Burles that I think is well done and the style isn't the goopy snot style. Least I think that one is him. It is very much opposite of the rest of his pieces in the book, all of which I dislike. All in all I like the art throughout the book. Even the pieces with artists I was unfamiliar with. Everything but the goop.

[Premier]

In my campaign that I GM, I did a long backstory of one of my players.

All that she knew when creating her character was that she was taken as a 6-year old by the coalition for being a Ley Line Walker (she manifested magic early) and since then she has never seen her parents. However in the 5 year that she has played that character, she has gotten memory flashes a few times of her father boarding a Death Head's Transport and of a Psi Stalker as well of a house in the middle of nowhere.
Last summer I started a new mini-campaign within the campaign which started with the Ley Line Walker getting a letter in New Lazlo that an old friend and employer wants her to come to her garage as fast as possible. When she gets there she learns that there is a border collie there with a letter to her from someone close to her father, which she has not seen in almost 15 years (she is 21 at the moment). It tells her that this dog belongs to the character (and looks like a puppy she used to have).
She akes the dog with her and later they find a rift that leads them to the New West. after 2 sessions in the New West, the dog finds a rack and leads the characters to a RSCG-team that is out in the field, and some action later, they disable the RSCG team (only 5 persons) without killing them and learns that one of them, a female, was the one sending the dog.
She tells the LLW that she has been working for the LLWs father inside Lone Star Complex and that her father was away on a mission in a place called Guatemala, but has gone missing. She herself, is not rained for this, but she believes that the father wants to defect and as she is more loyal to him than to CS, she wants to take the LLW to the father.

A trip later (the RCSG has a airplaine) and 3 RSCG operatines mindwiped later, they fly away south and they find themselves in guatemala with a high-tech plane without any fuel
Here they adventure a bit, trying to find clues of the father and his CS ranger/RCSG team and later finds him. At the same time they earn that the RCSG team has found that there is a local myth about a Dark God (Camazotz) who will rule the world, swallow the sun and cast the earth into an eternal night.

Here I use my two master's degrees in ancient religions and archaeology and brings a big story related to the Mayan faith, the placement of the Mayan pyramids, myths and legends as well as an entire story based on the Mayan mythology and its collection of "holy texts" called the Popol Vol (by the way, a fantastic text to use while designing RIFT stories in Yucatan and Guatemala - I recommend it).

Here the players face the "normal" terrors of VB 1: VK as well as creatures from the Mayan mythology and the LLW and her father becomes friends, she learns what happened and why he wish to defect. though before they leave for US soil again, they decide to follow the myths here about the dark God and the more they do so, the more they decide to stop him.

MY players are not super beings, all are humans and around level 5-7, and they realize that they will not stand a chance against a God, so they ry to build alliances with various groups that exists. Mayan Indian tribes, Jaguar-shapeshifers, the start to follow leads about strange monster riders who hunts vampires and finds a few Lemurians, and start to befriend those in order to gain allies. They later come to Belize City where Lupe, Sir Anthony the Mad and their gang is (see VK) and they meet a small elvish kingdom with specially trained vampire hunters (I stole deathdealers from Underworld movies) and during the 8 months (in real time - with 1-2 sessions per week), they build more and more alliances, delve deeper into the myhts surrounding Camazotz and in these they learn of a statue that was made for Camazotz by a Mayan priest of his, but unbenowst to the dark God, this symbol could be used to banish him as well (the priest was in fact a priest of Chac - Mayan lightning God and enemy of Camazotz) so they decide to try to find this.

A long story short, they form together a rag-tag army made of Lupe and her vampire killers, Mayan Indians, Lemurians, Quetzelquatl (the real one), Champions of light and Good and attack him at Chitzen Itza.

Though they banish him to the underworld, they do not kill him, but for now, the Lemurians are guarding Chitzen Itza and the characters has left for US and played up there for some time.

Camazotz is stuck in the Underworld, but has escaped through the gate of Tikal and annihilated the demons there and workd to reclaim Chitzen Itza. Only time will tell when he will break free from the barrier around Tikal and take back his old kingdom.

That is how I did it

Wow,.. Man...do I love a good story driven campaign, and one that preserves unpredictability and respect for the setting. Dunia you have outdone yourself and I know your gamers are drinking the thrilling experience as if it were koolaid! I know I would be. I would love to lure your players back down into Chichen Itza, as Camazotz having escaped and now having the Soul Crafter and Soul forge to re-build is wicked intentions, I am sure he may seek some ill gotten vengeance on someone or some of the players or hose who are in alliance with them, which would be perfect bait.

I love how your players chose to seek alliances to help their cause as opposed to trying to be Captain Do-it-alls. Such a true ye rare gem ingredient in campaign experiences. Usually players wan o fix the challenge solely by themselves and often have little respect for higher end NPCs (unless their enemies) or relationships with others, unless it solely benefits their progression.

BY any chance, has the Lemurians become more influential in your campaign direction as you recognize the links in the recent books? Just imagining the epic battle of Camazotz reclaiming Chichen Itza from the guarding Lemurians sounds like it would be a horrific, yet jaw dropping battle. Maybe Camazotz was able to successfully pull this off with the new alliance of the SoulCrafter and his minions...? With Camazotz back in Chichen Itza, what are your plays going to do, "if" at all? If Camazotz reclaimed the land, and if Lemurians were here guarding it, it could be a likelihood that the "survivors" would now be prisoners in the Soul Forge and oh....ewwwwww....this just gets good......

Man..I love your set up

Also what Champions of Light and Good did you use or were they homebrew NPCs?

Also, BTW, if you enjoyed the Bone Werejaguars, as I hope you did, since you listed them as a part of the Good section in your review then you may like this:

http://chuckwalton.deviantart.com/art/B ... -373604755

[Dunia]

In my campaign that I GM, I did a long backstory of one of my players.

All that she knew when creating her character was that she was taken as a 6-year old by the coalition for being a Ley Line Walker (she manifested magic early) and since then she has never seen her parents. However in the 5 year that she has played that character, she has gotten memory flashes a few times of her father boarding a Death Head's Transport and of a Psi Stalker as well of a house in the middle of nowhere.
Last summer I started a new mini-campaign within the campaign which started with the Ley Line Walker getting a letter in New Lazlo that an old friend and employer wants her to come to her garage as fast as possible. When she gets there she learns that there is a border collie there with a letter to her from someone close to her father, which she has not seen in almost 15 years (she is 21 at the moment). It tells her that this dog belongs to the character (and looks like a puppy she used to have).
She akes the dog with her and later they find a rift that leads them to the New West. after 2 sessions in the New West, the dog finds a rack and leads the characters to a RSCG-team that is out in the field, and some action later, they disable the RSCG team (only 5 persons) without killing them and learns that one of them, a female, was the one sending the dog.
She tells the LLW that she has been working for the LLWs father inside Lone Star Complex and that her father was away on a mission in a place called Guatemala, but has gone missing. She herself, is not rained for this, but she believes that the father wants to defect and as she is more loyal to him than to CS, she wants to take the LLW to the father.

A trip later (the RCSG has a airplaine) and 3 RSCG operatines mindwiped later, they fly away south and they find themselves in guatemala with a high-tech plane without any fuel :)
Here they adventure a bit, trying to find clues of the father and his CS ranger/RCSG team and later finds him. At the same time they earn that the RCSG team has found that there is a local myth about a Dark God (Camazotz) who will rule the world, swallow the sun and cast the earth into an eternal night.

Here I use my two master's degrees in ancient religions and archaeology and brings a big story related to the Mayan faith, the placement of the Mayan pyramids, myths and legends as well as an entire story based on the Mayan mythology and its collection of "holy texts" called the Popol Vol (by the way, a fantastic text to use while designing RIFT stories in Yucatan and Guatemala - I recommend it).

Here the players face the "normal" terrors of VB 1: VK as well as creatures from the Mayan mythology and the LLW and her father becomes friends, she learns what happened and why he wish to defect. though before they leave for US soil again, they decide to follow the myths here about the dark God and the more they do so, the more they decide to stop him.

MY players are not super beings, all are humans and around level 5-7, and they realize that they will not stand a chance against a God, so they ry to build alliances with various groups that exists. Mayan Indian tribes, Jaguar-shapeshifers, the start to follow leads about strange monster riders who hunts vampires and finds a few Lemurians, and start to befriend those in order to gain allies. They later come to Belize City where Lupe, Sir Anthony the Mad and their gang is (see VK) and they meet a small elvish kingdom with specially trained vampire hunters (I stole deathdealers from Underworld movies) and during the 8 months (in real time - with 1-2 sessions per week), they build more and more alliances, delve deeper into the myhts surrounding Camazotz and in these they learn of a statue that was made for Camazotz by a Mayan priest of his, but unbenowst to the dark God, this symbol could be used to banish him as well (the priest was in fact a priest of Chac - Mayan lightning God and enemy of Camazotz) so they decide to try to find this.

A long story short, they form together a rag-tag army made of Lupe and her vampire killers, Mayan Indians, Lemurians, Quetzelquatl (the real one), Champions of light and Good and attack him at Chitzen Itza.

Though they banish him to the underworld, they do not kill him, but for now, the Lemurians are guarding Chitzen Itza and the characters has left for US and played up there for some time.

Camazotz is stuck in the Underworld, but has escaped through the gate of Tikal and annihilated the demons there and workd to reclaim Chitzen Itza. Only time will tell when he will break free from the barrier around Tikal and take back his old kingdom.

That is how I did it

Wow,.. Man...do I love a good story driven campaign, and one that preserves unpredictability and respect for the setting. Dunia you have outdone yourself and I know your gamers are drinking the thrilling experience as if it were koolaid! I know I would be. I would love to lure your players back down into Chichen Itza, as Camazotz having escaped and now having the Soul Crafter and Soul forge to re-build is wicked intentions, I am sure he may seek some ill gotten vengeance on someone or some of the players or hose who are in alliance with them, which would be perfect bait.

I love how your players chose to seek alliances to help their cause as opposed to trying to be Captain Do-it-alls. Such a true ye rare gem ingredient in campaign experiences. Usually players wan o fix the challenge solely by themselves and often have little respect for higher end NPCs (unless their enemies) or relationships with others, unless it solely benefits their progression.

BY any chance, has the Lemurians become more influential in your campaign direction as you recognize the links in the recent books? Just imagining the epic battle of Camazotz reclaiming Chichen Itza from the guarding Lemurians sounds like it would be a horrific, yet jaw dropping battle. Maybe Camazotz was able to successfully pull this off with the new alliance of the SoulCrafter and his minions...? With Camazotz back in Chichen Itza, what are your plays going to do, "if" at all? If Camazotz reclaimed the land, and if Lemurians were here guarding it, it could be a likelihood that the "survivors" would now be prisoners in the Soul Forge and oh....ewwwwww....this just gets good......

Man..I love your set up

Also what Champions of Light and Good did you use or were they homebrew NPCs?

Also, BTW, if you enjoyed the Bone Werejaguars, as I hope you did, since you listed them as a part of the Good section in your review then you may like this:

http://chuckwalton.deviantart.com/art/B ... -373604755

I prepared the outcome for Camazotz when I read in a preview-blurb that Kevin made in Vampire Kingdoms that it would contain "The return of Camazotz" so hat he would come back and again become the nemesis for the players. But as a God, he has time on his sides and he will want to reclaim Chichen Itza again. As soon as he is srong enough, he will be able to leave Tikal and battle the Lemurians with the help of the Soulcrafter and as my players did not managed to kill the Vampire Intelligence, but drove him off, Camazotz will recall it to Rifts Earth and again he will have the vampires on his side.

However I found it funny that when my player ended this mini-campaign or part (within my campaign) in Guatemala in February 2013 and returned to New Lazlo - I did not have the book, but one thing that the managed to do was to kill the dragon in Copa, and when I got Vampire Sourcebook in May, I read that the dragon was gone...what a coincidence!

Yes, most of the surviving Lemurains will be captives in the soulforge and Camazotz will reclaim his place of power. Something that I think, if I know my players right, will make them return to fight him again. If not, Camazotz will send greetings to them as he is not happy to have been banished by the players. So he will make them know that he is back, and this time no pesky humans and mutants will stand in his way.


What other Champions of Light? Lets see:
* Quetzalcoatl, the true God was present, most as a mystical advisor at first and he came walking with his canine buddy at the end of the combat, and as Camazotz was sucked into the underworld, Quetzalcoatl and his friend was in the banishment blast range and followed him down there...

* I made a level 8 NPC Cyberknight with a fun retinue (Level 7 Royal Frilled Dragon, level 7 Shifter and level 3 vagabond) that my players befriended before.

* A wannabe-Hero vampire (ex necromancer from Boston, which is a haven for a necromantic family that converts themselves to vampires to be able to live forever, but refuse to make vampires out of non-family members) that the players have met before but did not know was a vampire. She is in mexico to gather intelligence on the vampire kingdoms and the strange rumors of vampire gods (Intelligences) as this family use necromantic spells to become master vampires. She assisted quite a lot and scared the living crap out of the players when they realized that she was a vampire. (they had shared camps and tents with her at a previous time)

* A Lemurian Princess and her bodyguard that was doing a walk-about and her pets (a lemur, a blue otter and her rusted panter-shark) - I played her as a mix from Disney's Ariel of the little mermaid and the fiery Ce-Nedra from the Belgariad by David Eddings...a runaway princess not wanting to marry, but see the world on the surface.

* The players found a small band of mortal/human/Mayan descebdents followers of Chaac, a warlike rain/lightning God, who hunted vampires. A rather doomed group as Chaac had left the world when the Mayan empire fell and forgot about his old priesthood and their children. The players met them and aided them through the ley Line Walker in the group, who is an archaeologist and anthropologist, so she located a relic of Chaac as well as the location of Chaac's old main temple and together with the NPC shifter mentioned above, they managed to convince Chaac to return to his followers, so instead of acting directly, he infused one of the band of his rag-tag followers to become his new priestess (his first in almost 1600 years) and she was allowed o fight the vampires by calling in a few miracles during the battle.

I rather not cast in too many big things instead I want and let my players plan and execute their attacks and after calculating the odds I pretty much did a narrative story about the attack and what happened, but let the players be part of some parts of the battle (so they felt that they could change the outcome.) My players are not combat crazy, they rather Roleplay than have lengthy battles that will take a whole session.

[Dunia]

Also, this is a campaign I started in December 2008/ January 2009 (with a few breaks where we played other games, but this has always been our main-game) and by the time they was down in Yucatan, one player was level 7, the other four were level 6 and only one died in the battle.

He was later resurrected, but that was another mini-campaign as I have severely decreased the availability of resurrection spells in the world. Not many have the level 13-15 spells and they generally want reasons to cast that spell to strangers. It took the rest of the group 7 sessions to do tasks and locate an NPC that could cast such a spell.

[The Galactus Kid]

Excellent review Dunia

[kaid]

• After their failure with the missing Experience tables in Black Market Book, it is repeated in this book.

Experience Tables are located in the very back of the Vampires Sourcebook on page 176 and include O.C.C.'s from Revised Vampire Kingdoms.

Hmm, strange. not in my copy. That page must be missing for some reason. My copy ends with the map of Mexico.
I have called the shop that I ordered it from and they will get me a new copy and I will get a free freight as well.

That is good I know for sure my copy has the XP tables and additional ones for the OCC from the revised vamp kingdoms must have been weird printer fail which does happen from time to time. Overall whoever does printing for palladium usually does a pretty top notch job over the years as unlike many of my D&D books I have never had one of my palladium books fall apart.