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Warning!IB?The fictional world of Rifts is quite violent anddeadly. It is an exotic realm where magic is as realas technology, and demonic creatures plaguehumankind.Some parents may find the violence and supernatural elements of the game inappropriate foryoung readers/players. We suggest parental discretion.Note that none of us at Palladium Books condonenor encourage the occult, the practice of magic,the use of drugs, or violence.
Dedicated with great fondness to Julius Rosenstein who is the friend and the "source" whointroduced me to role-playing.Other titles in the Rifts'1' series include:Rifts* RPGRifts* Sourcebook Two: Mechanoids*Rifts* Sourcebook Three: MindwerksRifts* Conversion Book OneRifts* Conversion Book Two: Pantheons of the Megaverse*Rifts* World Book One: Vampire Kingdoms Rifts* World Book Two: AtlantisRifts* World Book Three: EnglandRifts* World Book Four: AfricaRifts* World Book Five: Triax and the NCRRifts* World Book Six: South AmericaOther Palladium RPG titles include:Rifts*: Mercenaries1"'The Compendium of Weapons, Armor, and Castles1"1Rifts* Dimension Book One: Wormwood"The Compendium of Contemporary Weapons Rifts* Dimension Book Two: Phaseworld The Palladium* RPGRevised Heroes Unlimited Coming in 1995!Villains Unlimited Rifts* World Book Seven: Rifts* UnderseaAliens Unlimited Rifts* Phase World* SourcebookTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles* and Other StrangenessRifts*: The Juicer Uprisings After the Bomb*Rifts*: Chi-Town World BookNinjas and Superspies Rifts*: The New West World BookRobotech* RPGRifts*: Lone Star World BookMacross H RPGRifts* NovelsBeyond the Supernatural Sixth Printing — March 1995Copyright 1991, 1990, 1988, 1986, 1983 by Kevin SiembiedaPalladium Books, Rifts, The Mechanoids and Megaverse are registered trademarks owned and licensed by Kevin Siembieda. Megadamage, M.D.C., S.D.C., Erin Tarn, A.R.C.H.I.E. Three, Hagan Lanovich, Splugorth, and their likenesses and other book titles aretrademarks owned and licensed by Kevin Siembieda.Copyright 1991 by Kevin Siembieda. All rights reserved under the Universal Copyright Convention. No part of this book may be reproducedin part or whole, in any form or by any means, without permission 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 deadis strictly coincidental.Rifts Sourcebook No. One is published by Palladium Books Inc., 12455 Universal Drive, Taylor MI 48180.Printed in the United States of America.
Palladium Books Presents:Written By: Kevin SiembiedaEditors: Alex MarciniszynThomas BartoldCover Art: Kevin LongInterior Art: Kevin LongAdditional Art:Newton EwellKevin SiembiedaIMumber OneLarry MacDougallArt Direction & Keylining: Kevin SiembiedaTypography: Maryann SiembiedaSpecial Thanks To: Kev, Al, Thorn, Steve, Matt, Maryann, and Newton. Also thanks toMark Grismer who designed the character sheet and to the rest of the Oakland Universitygang, William, Daryl, Thomas, Robert, and Lesley, for their intelligent questions,comments and support.ContentsAnswers to Questions about Rifts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Northern America . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11The Coalition States . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Map: The Coalition & Humanity . . . . . . . . . . . 13The Roots of Civilization: Villages . . . . . . . . . . 13Map: The Old American Empire . . . . . . . . . . . 14The Roots of Civilization: Towns & Cities . . . . . 13Wildlife . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16The Coalition: Good or Evil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17The Coalition Government: The Source of Evil . . . . . 19Emperor Karl Prosek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Joseph Prosek II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21General Cabot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22Genera Ross Underbill . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Colonel Thaddius Lyboc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24Headhunter Kyle Wilport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24Typical Coalition Squadrons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26Coalition Skelebots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Coalition Abolisher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35Power Armor and Robots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38Triax Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38Other Bots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47Coalition's View on Robots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54Robot and Armor Repair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Weapons & Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56Coalition CV-212 Variable Light Laser Rifle . . . 57Triax Weapons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57Arrowheads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58Explorer Body Armor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59Other Odds & Ends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59Game Master Section Begins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60Experiments in Artificial Intelligence . . . . . . . . 60The Face of Evil (Adventure) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63Encounter One: The Mechanized Monsters . . . . 63Encounter Two: The Freak Show . . . . . . . . . . 64Talking with James T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66Encounter Three: The Lord of Finton . . . . . . . . 69Lord Frommalaine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71The Final Destination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72Non-Player Characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74Archie The Machine Entity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75James T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77Hagan Lonovich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79The Robot Legion of Cyberworks/Archie . . . . . . 79Bots: Optional Robot R.C.C . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94Step One: Determining the Type of Intelligence . 95Step Two: Developing theIntelligence (Alignments) . . . . . . . . . 96Step Three: Skill Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96Step Four: Robot Budget . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97Step Five: Body Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98Step Six: Power Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101Step Seven: Legs & Locomotion . . . . . . . . . . 101Step Eight: Sensors & Optics . . . . . . . . . . . . 102Step Nine: Weapons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104Step Ten: Special Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105Monsters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106Minion of Splugorth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106Minion Warrior Slave Women . . . . . . . . . . . 108Simvan Monster Riders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110Ostrosaurus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112Black Faerie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113Brodkil Demon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114Neuron Beast Demon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115Witchling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117Thornhead Demon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118Map: Geography of the Americas . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119Rifts Character Sheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120Quick Find TableBlack MarketRobot & Armor Repair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55Robot Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56Coalition StatesCitizen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17Coalition MFCs begin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Villain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Good Guy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Government . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19Population . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Skelebot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Soldier . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17Squads: Air . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30Squads: Mechanized . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29Squads: Reconnaissance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Squads: Seek & Destroy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28Squads: Skelebot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30View on Robots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54Robots & Power ArmorA.R.C.H.I.E. Three Origin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61A.R.C.H.I.E. 3-OZ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74Archie the Machine Entity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75A-49 Combat Drone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80A-51 Reconnaissance Drone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81A-63 All Purpose Heavy Robot . . . . . . . . . . . . 83A-64 All Purpose Master Robot . . . . . . . . . . . . 84AA-10 Rottweiler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86AA-50 Insecton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92A-001 & A-002 Monst-Rex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87A-003 Shemarrian Warrior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90Bots as an Optional R.C.C. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94CS Abolisher . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35CS Skelebots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Cyberworks Network Origin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60NG-V7 Hunter Mobile Gun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47NG-M56 Multi-Bot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48NG-W9 Light Labor Bot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50NG-W10 Heavy Labor Bot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51NG-V10 Super Robot Vehicle . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53Questions about Bionic Conversion . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Questions about Glitter Boys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Robot & Armor Repair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55Robot Rhino-Buffalo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64Triax Industries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38Triax T-21 Terrain Hopper Power Armor . . . . . 38Triax X-10 Predator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Triax X-1000 Ulti-Max Power Armor . . . . . . . . 41Triax X-500 Forager Battlebot . . . . . . . . . . . . 44Triax DV-12 Dyna-bot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45Triax Weapons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57MonstersMinion of Splugorth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106Rhino-Buffalo (Animal) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109Witchling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117Lord Frommalaine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71Archie The Machine Entity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75James T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77Hagan Lonovich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79Wildlife . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
sented as a direct response to our fans' requests. In order to dothis, we had to slot the source book in before the RIFTS WorldBook or RIFTS Conversion Book.Now as foolish as this will sound, somehow I originallythought there would be one, all encompassing, world book. Ha!The world of Rifts is so rich and colorful, with zillions (yeszillions) of great, new ideas, that there will have to be severalworld books. Books like the RIFTS World Book One: TheVampire Kingdoms. You'll see aspects of vampires (and vampire society) that you've never dreamt about!! This book willalso depict some specific cities, ley lines, villains, monsters,new O.C.C.s, races, etc., throughout Central America (maybeparts of South America too). Future World Books will includeAtlantis, the New West, the Magic Zone, England, and otherparts of the planet.How soon will these books come out? Probably not as quicklyas most fans would like, but I assure you they will be worth thewait. Three Rifts books are scheduled for 1992.The RIFTS Conversion Book was released after the firstworld book, only because it seems that most of the Rifts playerswant to see more of the world than conversions. So you got it.Watch out for Mutants in Orbit which has data on Rifts Spaceand Rifts Sourcebook Two: The Mechanoids and Rifts Atlantis.Things to ComeAnswers to some often askedQuestions about RIFTS As many of you stalwart fans may already know, Rifts is aOver the past months, since Rifts' release, we've been buriedunder a ton of joyous fan letters. Along with glorious praiserunaway mega-hit! Of course we thought it would be a hit, butwe're not exactly unbiased, you know. After all, we were thepeople who had spent years breathing life into this baby. Butwe never expected to sell the first press run of ten thousandcopies within the first three weeks and nearly another tenthousand over the next few months. Whew! And there is no signof the excitement letting up either. Needless to say we are delighted.With such an instant hit, the fans want instant supplements.The first words out of everybody's mouth, fan and retailer alike,is "When's the first supplement coming out?" Followed by,"When's the world book coming out?" followed by, "We wantmore . and we want it now!"Well, as you know, Palladium Books never rushes out productjust to make a buck. Likewise, I have a very complete visionof the Rifts world and ideas for tons of source material to exciteand tantalize. Unfortunately, I also supervise the production ofevery Palladium product, as well as run the company; so you'llhave to be a bit patient, 'cause I ain't no super powered D-Beeor time-distorting wizard (boy, I wish I was).Now, here's the plan. The flood of fan letters and inquiriesseem to indicate that everybody wants more data on the world,along with more robots, equipment and monsters. To satisfy thisdemand, I have written the book you hold in your hands, theRIFTS Source Book. In it, I have included the section on robotsdeleted from the RPG due to lack of space, along with moreweapons and equipment, monsters, and some additional insightinto the world and the Coalition. Much of this material is pre-there are often questions. The following are some of the questionswe seem to hear time and time again.Question: Does the P.S. damage bonus apply to M.D.C.weapons like the vibro-blade? swer: NO! P.S. damage is S.D.C.
Rifts* Novels Other Palladium RPG titles include: The Compendium of Weapons, Armor, and Castles1" The Compendium of Contemporary Weapons The Palladium* RPG Revised Heroes Unlimited Villains Unlimited Aliens Unlimited Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles* and Other Strangeness After the Bomb* Ninjas and Superspies Robotech* RPG Macross H RPG Beyond the Supernatural Sixth
