Rifts® is a great roleplaying game about a high-tech post-apocalyptic fantasy world and this is also the center of a multitude of worlds and dimensions - the so called Palladium Books® Megaverse®. I like the idea of running classic high fantasy campaigns as well as sci-fi or even cyberpunk style games with this setting and have done so for many years. While Rifts® and the rules have their merits, they have a lot of flaws as well.
Working through the rules of the latest Edition, the Rifts® Ultimate Edition (from 2005) I feel as traveling back in time because the rules feel like a mix of everything used in the genre in the 1980s or so. Attributes (eight) and skill (more than 700 published in dozens of Megaverse® publications!), each with a complete different set of measurements and dice and a lot of saving throws and derived stats in between. Rifts® also uses character classes and a leveling system where each character class uses a slightly different table of experience points to raise levels.
Don't get me wrong. I believe that the authors knew what they were doing when designing (and redesigning) Rifts® throughout the years. It is more than 20 years old and if the number of published books (50 or more - core rulebooks, world books, dimension books, sourcebooks, conversion guides, ...) indicates the number of players, Rifts® is probably one of the most successful roleplaying games ever. Nevertheless, when I played Rifts® lately the rules felt more and more awkward and I thought about house rules or complete conversions.
So finally I started the latter.
Learning about so many different approaches to rpg-rules (and myself growing older) I also wanted Rifts® to be more streamlined... without losing it's original look and feel. So thoughts about using other generic or universal rules (like GURPS, Savage Worlds or FATE) were out of the question. I thought about a 21st century Rifts® rules setup and started working on it.
What you will find here is the current state of the attempt and it will probably change or grow from time to time. If you are into Rifts® and read though these ideas I really appreciate any criticism and comments.
Rifts®, The Rifter®, RECON®, Splicers®, Palladium Books®, Phase World®, The Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game®, Megaverse®, Nightbane®, The Mechanoids®, The Mechanoid Invasion®, Chaos Earth®, Coalition Wars® and After the Bomb® are Registered Trademarks of Palladium Books Inc. Beyond the Supernatural™, Dead Reign, Heroes Unlimited, Ninjas & Superspies, Minion War, Mysteries of Magic, The Three Galaxies, Warpath, and other published book titles, names, slogans and likenesses are trademarks of Palladium Books Inc., and Kevin Siembieda.
Palladium Books Inc. does not endorse, and is not affiliated with this site or the author in any official capacity whatsoever.