Warning! Violence and the Supernatural

The fictional Worlds of Palladium Books® are violent, deadly and filled with supernatural monsters. Other dimensional beings, often referred to as "demons," torment, stalk and prey on humans. Other alien life forms, monsters, gods and demigod, as well as magic, insanity, and war are all elements in this book.

Some parents may find the violence, magic and supernatural elements of the game inappropriate for young readers/players. We suggest parental discretion.

- ..J \

The RifterTM Number Six

Your guide to the Palladium Megaverse® 1

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Second Printing - June, 2001

Copyright 1999 Palladium Books Inc. & Kevin Siembieda

All rights reserved, world wide, under the Universal Copyright Convention. No part of this book may be reproduced in part or whole, in any fonn or by any means, without penniss ion from the publisher, except for brief quotes for use in reviews. All incidents, situations, institutions, governments and people are fictional and any similarity, without satiric intent, of char­acters or persons living or dead, is strictly coincidental.

Palladium Books®, Rifts®, RECON®, Nightbane®, The Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game®, The Mechanoids®, The Mechanoid Invasion®, and Megaverse® are registered trademarks owned and licensed by Kevin Siembieda and Palla­dium Books Inc.

Ninjas & Superspies, Heroes Unlimited, Skraypers, Warlords of Russia, Mystic Russia, Mystic Australia, Phase World, Wonnwood, Western Empire, Baalgor Wastelands, Eastern Territory, Songjuicer, Hammer of The Forge, The Siege Against Tolkeen, Psyscape, Splynn, Mechanoids Space, ARCHIE-3, Northern Gun, Coalition States, Erin Tarn, Emperor Prosek, Splugorth, Mega-Damage, Skelebots, SAMAS, Dog Boys, Dog Pack, Techno-Wizard, Ley Line Walker, Shifter, Cyber-Knight, Mystic Knight, Battle Magus, Psi-Stalker, Simvan, Brodkil, Juicer, Crazy, 'Borg, 'Bot, D-Bee, Chi-Town, Triax, NGR, Xiticix, Spatial Mage, Blood Shaman, and other names, titles and likenesses of characters are trademarks owned by Kevin Siembieda and Palladium Books Inc.

Knights of the Dinner Table™ is a trademark of Kenzer Co. and the creation of Jolly Blackburn.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles® is a registered trademark of Mirage Studio.

Robotech® is a registered trademark of Hannony Gold USA, Inc.

Palladium On-Line www.palladiumbooks.com

The Rifter™ #6 RPG sourcebook series is published by Palladium Books Inc., 12455 Universal Drive, Taylor, MI 48180. Printed in the USA.

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Palladium Books® Presents:

THE #6 Sourcebook and guide to the Palladium Megaverse®

Coordinator & Editor in Chief: Wayne Smith

Supervising Coordinator & Typesetting:

Maryann Siembieda

Contributing Writers:

James M.G. Cannon

Matthew M. Foster

David Haendler

Christopher Jones

Hugh King

John Maher

David Philips

Kevin Siembieda

Richard Thomassen

Knights of the Dinner Table: Jolly Blackburn

Rifts® Comic Strip: Ramon Perez

Coleen Laxalt

Contributing Editors:

Alex Marciniszyn Jim Osten Julius Rosenstein

Cover Painting: Ramon Perez & Joachim Gmoser

Interior Artists:

Apollo Okamura

Ryan Beres

Wayne Breaux Jr.

Kent Buries

Ramon Perez

Mike Wilson

Brandon C. Clark (DSS)

Ka Xiong (DSS)

Mark Dudley

Drunken Style Studio

and other Palladium Madmen

Cover Logo Design: Steve Edwards

Credits Page Logo: Niklas Brandt

Keylining: Kevin Siembieda

Base on the RPG rules, characters,

concepts and Megaverse® created by Kevin Siembieda.

Special Thanks to Mike "Midnght" Hawthorne and Shawn "Answer Man" Merrow for making our Web Page a more organized, happy and fun place to visit and play. And to Maryann Siembieda: dip­lomat, organizer, rabble rouser and "Goddess" of Palladium On Line!

Our apologies to anybody who got accidentally left out or their name misspelled.

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Contents - The Rifter™ #6 - April, 1999

Page 6 - From the Desk of Kevin Siembieda Publisher, Kevin Siembieda, wonders just how many people

actually read The Rifter®. Using time honored magazine for­mulas, there could be as many as 30,000-50,000 readers! You can help us find the truth.

More fun & experimentation as Ramon Perez tries his hand at drawing a Rifts® comic strip, more new contributors see print and Palladium launches a trilogy of Rifts® Novels. Enjoy the issue.

Page 7 - Palladium News, Info,

& Coming Attractions Palladium's new 1999 Catalog is bigger than ever and ready

for you. Rifts® Novels are a reality, we won't be at Gen Con® (but had a blast at SimCon a few weeks ago), more Web Site improvements, and more Coming Attractions for hot stuff like Mount Nimro : Kingdom ojGiants and The Eastern Territory for The Palladium Fantasy RPG® series, Deluxe Revised RECON® (you gotta check it out), and upcoming Rifts® World Books, in­cluding RiJts® Canada and the Splynn Dimensional Market (Atlantis 2) . And check out the "Glitter Girl" power annor, part of Free Quebec's female Anny Corps (illustrated by Ryan Beres).

Page 13 - Knights of the Dinner Table™ Jolly Blackburn's KoDT strip keep 'em laughing.

Don't forget the KoDT comic books are available from Kenzer & Company, 1935 S. Plum Grove Rd., Suite 194, Pala­tine, IL, 60067.

Page 15 - Cloak & DaggerTM

A look at Assassins in

the Palladium Fantasy RPG® Optional rules and source material by Richard Thomassen. A

unique overview of assassins in the Western Empire, Timiro, Lopan, Bizantium, Eastern Territory and The Wolfen Empire. Plus creation rules and guidelines for making Assassin Guilds. Artwork by Mike Wilson.

Page 30 - Russian Gods

Official Gods for use in Rifts® Russia A selection of notable Russian Gods were cut from Rifts®

Mystic Russia due to space limitations. Siembieda felt the gods were interesting enough and the artwork by Kent Buries so breathtaking, that it would be a shame not to publish them some place. So here they are in a\1 their glory.

Written by Kevin Siembieda; inspired by real Russian (mainly Kievian) mythology.

Artwork by Kent Buries, a burgeoning art-god himself.

Page 50 - Focus on Fun

G.M. tips for playing Rifts®, Heroes Unlimited™,

& other games.

Hugh King offers some excellent advice, tips and observa­tions about Game Mastering in Rifts®, Heroes Unlimited 2nd Ed. and all role-playing game settings in general.

The information is thorough, well thought out and incredibly helpful. It includes Stuff Besides Combat, Encouraging Re­sourcefulness, Combat with Personality, the many uses of NPCs, Team Leaders, The Player's Perspective, Rewards and much more! Illustrated by Wayne Breaux Jr.

Page 67 - Intrigue in Singapore

Optional material for Ninjas & Superspies® Victor Russof presents a role-playing scenario for use with

Ninjas & Superspies, plus source material, adventure ideas, and stats for Kenpo Karate. Art by Mark Dudley of Drunken Style Studio.

Page 71 - The Old Ways

Optional material for use in Nightbane® David Solon Philips takes an interesting look at the Mafia af­

ter Dark Day. How do organized crime syndicates fit into the world ofNightbane®? Includes the Wise Guy and a pair of As­sassin O.c.c.s.

Page 76 - Hunter Robotics

Optional material for Heroes Unlimited™, 2nd Ed.

Matthew M. Foster whips up a robotics manufacturer and a handful of robots for use in HU2. Not to mention a couple of Hook, Line and SinkerTM adventures. Art by Ryan Beres.

Page 83 - The Khans of Mongolia

Optional material for Rifts® The irrepressible Christopher Jones offers optional material

for Rifts Mongolia and introduces a new (optional) D-Bee race called the Gragundi. Plus calling upon spirits, new weapons, monsters and R.c.c.s. Note that Kevin Siembieda may have other plans for Rifts Mongolia, but it is cool seeing how other folks might approach the same subject matter. Who knows, maybe Kev will actually incorporate some of this in the future. Art is by Drunken Style Studio (DSS).

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Page 95 - Rifts® Lone Star Comic Strip Part One of Six installments illustrated by Ramon Perez. Our

story starts out with a bang (literally) and will eventually in­volve the mad genius who runs the CS Lone Star Complex, Doctor Desmond Bradford. We've seen the plot outline and it's gooooood. Really good! So don't miss a single issue.

Ramon Perez - Plot, pencils, inks and lettering (what a guy).

Coleen Laxalt - Plot and script.

Perez and Gmoser - Burster cover painting.

Kevin Siembieda gives it a big thumbs up and smiles a lot.

Hey, Ramon says you can send your comments to him di­rectly at calaverada@hotmail.com as well as to Palladium Books. Be gentle .

Page 103 - The Hammer of the Forge The next chapter in James M. G. Cannon's Phase World™ story. Artwork by Apollo Okamura.

Page 109 - The Siege Against Tolkeen The continuing Rifts® saga as imagined by David Haendler.

Artwork by Apollo Okamura.

The Cover Actually the cover is sort of the lead-in to the Rifts® Lone

Star Comic Strip. It features the central character, a young, bold Burster (and favorite of Ramon's). Ramon Perez con­ceived, laid out and drew the cover, but his buddy, Joachim Gmoser applied the final paints. What do you think of this duo? Should we let them do another cover in the future?

Coming Next Issue ••• Rifter #7 - July, 1999

• Eight more pages of the Rifts® Lone Star comic strip by Ramon Perez and Coleen Laxalt.

• More Knights ofthe Dinner Table™. • More material for the Palladium Fantasy

RPGTM. • Source material for Heroes UnlimitedfM. • The next chapter of the Hammer of the

Forge™. • The continuing saga of the Siege Against

Tolkeen™.

• More G.M. tips. • The latest news and developments at Palladium. ~ \"\\' • Source material for the Palladium Megaverse®. Palladium On-Line \ • And new contributors. - www.palladiumbooks.com

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From the Desk of Kevin Siembieda Are there 30,000-50,000 people reading The Rifter™?

Traditional "magazines" use the following fonnula: For ev­ery one person who buys a copy, 3-5 people actually read it. This estimate is typically done to justify advertising fees. Of course, Palladium doesn't accept outside advertisements, so it doesn't really matter. Still, it got us thinking. How many people actually "read" an average issue of The Rifter™? We've talked to a number of garners who have said that they read their friend's copy, or who let friends read every issue. Is this really a common practice? I know my friends often read some of the magazines I purchase (especially that Alex Marciniszyn).

We typically sen around 8,000 copies of every issue of The Rifter® in just the ftrst month or two. Plus, since it is a valuable and fun sourcebook, not just a magazine, The RJfter™ keeps selling month after month. We had to reprint Number One last year, and I think we've sold around 15,000 copies. So if 10,000 copies is the average, and if three people actually read every copy sold, that means 30,000 Palladium fans are enjoying every issue! 50,000 if five people read every issue! Way Cool!!

You guys and gals could help give us an idea by letting us know how many of your friends (if any) typically "read" the is­sues you buy. We would just like to get an idea of how many of you Riflers are really out there. If you'd be so kind to write us or e-mail us(msiembieda@palladiumbooks.com). we'd appreciate it. Hey, if you're sending for your FREE copy of our latest cata­log (see the News Section for details), include a note regarding how many of your pals read all or part of The RiftersTM you purchase.

More fun & experimentation All of us at Palladium see The Rifter® as a place to experi­

ment and have fun, so when artist Ramon Perez came to me ask­ing if he could do a comic strip based on Rifls® Lone Star, I gave him the go-ahead.

Plans are for the story to run as an eight page comic strip in six issues of The RifterTM. I've seen the first eight pages, char­acter sketches and the outline for the entire story, and I can hardly wait to see the rest of it myself. The last installment may be a double-sized grand finale. Ramon, Coleen, and I all hope you enjoy it. Let us know what you think.

Ramon penciled the cover of this issue too - featuring the lead character, a Burster. His pal, Joachim Gmoser, did the final oil painting.

You can see more pulse pounding Perez art and action in the Baalgor Wastelands™ sourcebook for The Palladium Fantasy RPG, The Splynn Dimensional Market (Rifts® Atlantis 2), Free Quebec and a number of other books throughout the year.

You'll also notice more new names as contributors to this and future issues, as Wayne and I try to give more fans and would-be writers a chance to get published and share their ideas for the Palladium Megaverse®. My only question is, where are the artists looking to get published? Sure the pay is low (about $50 for a full page of art; proportionately less for smaller illoes),

but this is a chance for some of you budding young artists to see yourself in print! We are always looking for Rifter™ artwork featuring Rifls®, Fantasy, Superhero, Nightbane®, and Robotech®. A few humorous cartoons might be cool too. Really nice full pages might be used as an intro-piece here and there, but quarter and half page illoes have a better chance of seeing print. If you have ideas or some nice, finished, black and white art laying around, send us xerox copies of 2-6 for our consider­ation.

Well, that's all I have to say this issue.

- Kevin Siembieda, March, /999

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