Rifts Source Book One Review

This is (I think, someone correct me if I’m wrong) the first Rifts Book after the Main Book. It gives new information on North America, and some new guns and bots, to supplement the (at the time) slim ammount of them.
There is much needed info on the average Coalition platoon make-ups, populations of Coalition and other towns, the North American wilderness, and a great description of the Coalition’s view point on things and more information leeding into it’s intrisities and main characters.

There are also some more demons (which appear in later books), some early info on Atlantis, some outlandishly expensive (and kind of annoying) robot creation rules, and a few rules clarifications which were needed at the time.

Plus, there is a pretty good adventure included, but as of yet I have NEVER found a player who by this time has not already read most of it’s secrets. But A.R.C.H.I.E.’s robots sure are nifty.

The book is adorned with alot of excelent art, with some of the best pieces including the picture of the new T-1000 (but it’s cut in halph by the page damnit!), the Shemerian Warrior (with the awsome rail gun!), and the NG-V7 Mobile Hunter Gun. There is also the picture of the bad-ass Forager X-500. I think the retro-old style look is awsome, it has turbines!

Overall, this book is a must for any Rifts player. I don’t know any respectable gamer who doesn’t already have one. Back when it first came out (oh so long ago), people were so entraled with Rifts, they gobbled up any new offical info like candy, and this book whetted their needs. Now I think it is more considered an old standby. The equipment and data within is considered standard, it is not a “stand-alone” style book, and the later ones refer to equipment from it pretty frequently.

Noticable Intresting Picture, Quote, or Stat:

The picture on p19 realy helps give a feel for the squalor of the burbs, I especialy liked the brand names and graffiti (they add a little culture).

Noticable Lame Picture, Quote, or Stat:

P. 104, robot weapons section: “Small Claws - 1pt of MD, 60000cr” When I read this I had to think, “what the hell?!”, I mean, why do a pair of crappy claws cost so much? I’d rather have an NG-E4 Plasma Ejector and like 3 long e-clips! The rest of the prices for annoying robot stuff are just as outragously inflated! I guess Mr. Siembada must have been slightly dazed from lack of sleep after writing the other quality information in this book, and he accidenaly added in a couple of 0’s to every thing in the robot section.