Rifters 40 & 45 and Dead Reign

[Jefffar]

So I've read the passages in the Rifters and read the main book and I have to say I loved all of them.

In truth though, I do think the book was better off without a definite cause and without the demons. This is in no way intended to be a slight against an author whose talents I respect very much, but a purely subjective call on what felt more like a Zombie game I would have liked to played.

On the other hand, the much more fragile zombies of the Rifter 40 preview are much more along the lines of the way I would have preferred the zombies to be. With the tough zombies, the odds of silencing a lone zombie in time to avoid having a horde descend on your location are pretty much non-existent. Likewise, being able to break through an encirclement of zombies is virtually impossible. While a high likelihood of death should be a part of the game, I think the players need more of a fighting chance than the main book presents itself as.

I also think that DR should have been a module for BTS2, but I also think Recon Modern Combat and Warpath:Urban Jungle should be modules for Ninjas and Superspies.

Anyway, I think that all the parties involved created a book I'm going to enjoy when I can convince my players to roll up some characters and face the horde.

[Jefffar]

Would definitely have been interesting to see that version as well.

In my opinion, Dead Reign owes the awesomeness that it has to the efforts of all it's fathers. Each in their own way inspired the creation of a better product. I've never agreed with every page in a Palladium Book and I have lots of modification notes for each I've spent the time to go through with a fine toothed comb and Dead Reign will undoubtedly have the same.

Nonetheless, congratulations to you and to all the others who brought the project forward into something that I'm sure to enjoy (once I can goad my players into manning up and facing the zombie hordes of course).

[ronekiln]

I know I'd be far more likely to buy it if it were done as a BTS2 expansion. A lot of the book is taken up with basic rules I already own in other books. I also see no value in buying a book for zombie invasion. It's an extremely simple genre. A BTS2 expansion with specific demons and villains is different though. It's something I'd love to have and run a campaign around. Run a few BTS2 adventures, get everyone used to the game, and then BAM! zombie apocalypse. Now the surviving characters have to stop the demon behind the zombie invasion. That's an epic adventure arc I can see playing. Our players could literally save the world. And what if all the zombies collapse once the demon is sealed off from our world once again? Or return to their normal self?

That's campaign worthy.

Stereotypical zombie outbreak is more of a few nights with beer and pretzels kind of game. It's hard (but definately possible) to really make that a serious epic campaign. I can already do that on my own with nearly no extra work with many of the other Palladium books I own.

Wish the original version had been done as an expansion book instead of its own thing. We could have gotten more for our money, and may have brought enough interest back to BTS2 to get the missing books out so it's a complete game. Right now I've been sitting on an incomplete product for years waiting for Palladium to finish it.