Rifts is a multi-genre role-playing game from Palladium Books and is the company's flagship game. The setting is a post-apocalyptic future after a nuclear causes a magical holocaust opening gates between Earth and other dimensions. It is a kitchen sink comic style universe where manga like robots mix with deities from nearly all religions while fighting psychics who are allied with wizards while human purist tyrants snipe from the side.
Rifts is a multi-genre role-playing game from Palladium Books and is the company's flagship game. The setting is a post-apocalyptic future after a nuclear causes a magical holocaust opening gates between Earth and other dimensions. It is several hundred years in the future and roughly 200 since humanity has recovered enough to start a new calendar. It is a possible future of the earlier Palladium game Beyond the Supernatural which introduced the system of ley lines and rifts which drove the magical diaster.
In keeping Kevin Siembieda's background it is a kitchen sink comic style universe where manga like robots mix with deities from nearly all religions while fighting psychics who are allied with wizards while human purist tyrants snipe from the side. The setting sacrifices a degree of believability for a "gee, wow" factor that again parallels comics, especially of the 70s.
The system is Palladium's house system using the MDC rules first introduced in the Robotech RPG. However, instead of being limited to heavy equipment MDC applies to magical beings, personal armor, and even hand guns.
Palladium has published over 80 books for the system. Most are setting books detailing parts of Earth but dimension books cover alternate dimensions, compilations of material such as spells, a couple of books of GM's advice, and conversion material from other Palladium settings. Using material from other setting is fairly seamless although the ease does vary by other Palladium setting.
