Rifts Sourcebook 1

When Rifts was in its early stages, this book provided much needed information on the Coalition, the Burbs, and introduced to us the horrors of A.R.C.H.I.E. It still stands as a must have for a Rifts gamer.

The first sourcebook gives you some added perspective on gameplay and some handy new tools, including the Triax line of weapons and useful tools for characters. In the beginning there are some FAQs and tips for gameplay which are especially nice for greenhorns, and just help everyone get a better feel for the flavor of Rifts.I like how they give further data on the Coalition States military organization and give us info on the Brodkil, Simvan and Splugorth Slavers--those three are some great standy-by villains. The A.R.C.H.I.E. story and mini-campaign I did not particularly like, but even if you don't the story of a pre-Rifts artificial intelligence creating a small automated city-state (or just find it unconvincing, like I did), there are some cool robots and ideas for GMs to scavenge.This book is pretty small compared to later Rifts releases, and I gather from the beginning of the book that Siembieda et al. released this one in a bit of a hurry as a sop to Rifts fans. Still, this is a great companion for the original book, and even if you aren't hot on the idea of blowing hundreds on the umpteen supplements Palladium ground out during the past decade, this should be on your shelf next to the main Rifts Book.

A terrific source to go along with rifts

This book is basicly everything that was left out of the main Rifts book. More power armor, creatures, an adventure, and most importantly, the rules for making robot characters.