RIFTS Is Coming To SAVAGE WORLDS!

Palladium Books has licensed its Rifts roleplaying game to Pinnacle Entertainment Group in order to produce a Savage World version of the Rifts RPG. There's no date yet announced. Rifts is a multi-genre post-apocalyptic game which dates back to 1990.

Palladium's weekly update contained the first hints of this information:

Something new and exciting. In an effort to truly expand Rifts® across the Megaverse®, in cooperation with Palladium Books, another role-playing game company is currently adapting the Rifts® Earth setting to that company’s RPG system of rules, as well as producing adventure sourcebooks. This is only the second time in Palladium’s history that an outside company will create new game material under a different set of rules. Rumor Squashing: No, Palladium is NOT going to stop publishing Rifts®, nor change to a completely different set of rules. Far from it. In fact, Palladium expects to release six new Rifts® titles in 2015 and 98% of all Rifts® titles are in stock and available for purchase right now! The idea is that by offering Rifts® via another game company’s set of popular rules it creates a parallel dimension of gaming enjoyment. An expanding Megaverse®, if you will. This is a bit of an experiment, but we are excited to see how it all unfolds.
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And today PEG issued a press release:

News from Pinnacle Entertainment Group

For Immediate Release--April 21, 2015

Pinnacle Entertainment Group announced today the development of Rifts for Savage Worlds, their award-winning tabletop roleplaying game system.

Pinnacle released a mock cover, using art from Palladium’s 2005 Rifts Ultimate Edition with permission. The cover artist for the book was Scott Johnson.

“We are thrilled to follow up Kevin’s post with this announcement that we do, indeed, have the license to develop Rifts for Savage Worlds,” said Savage Worlds creator Shane Hensley. “We are early in the process, but anticipate having a core rulebook for the setting released in time for Christmas.”

The Palladium Books Weekly Update--April 19, 2015, written by Kevin Siembieda, recently made mention of a new roleplaying game system for the beloved setting:

“In an effort to truly expand Rifts® across the Megaverse®, in cooperation with Palladium Books, another role-playing game company is currently adapting the Rifts® Earth setting to that company’s RPG system of rules, as well as producing adventure sourcebooks.”

Rifts is an exciting multi-genre post-apocalypse game that began publishing in 1990. Featuring elements of everything from cyberpunk and fantasy to mecha and mythology, Rifts has always been Siembieda's vision of a game with everything for everyone, tied together with a strong narrative.

"I'm really excited to see what Rifts will look like in the Savage Worlds system," said Siembieda. "The Savage fans are great folks, and I think Rifts is going to be an amazing amount of fun for them, letting them explore all the possibilities of both the system and the setting."

Savage Worlds was created by Shane Lacy Hensley. Savage Worlds and the Pinnacle logo are all trademarks of Pinnacle Entertainment Group. For more information, visit www.peginc.com or contact Jodi Black, Marketing Manager for Pinnacle, at PEGJodi@gmail.com. More about Palladium and the Rifts setting can be found on their website here: http://www.palladiumbooks.com/.
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[Warunsun]

Good thing they didn't announce this on April 1st because I am totally shocked! I am a Michigan native and former RIFTS player that still buys and reads occasional Palladium Books products. I don't really have a desire to play the RIFTS system anymore and I definitely don't have the players. But on the average Palladium Books products are very economical buys and worth buying a few here and there just to read them. As it happens I am a big fan of both Deadlands and the entire Savage Worlds line. I have been able to get my D&D players to actually play Savage Worlds occasionally. I hugely prefer the Savage Worlds approach to the multiple genre rules presentation. Some of my D&D players were former RIFTS players when they were back in high school (more than a decade ago). I bet I could get them to try this. I keep up on the Great White Games/PEG book releases and they are also generally affordable. GWG/PEG does a great thing where they sell a copy of the main rules basically at cost in a full-color perfect bound paperback called the Explorer's Edition. It is less than $9 right now on Amazon! I just purchased their Hell on Earth companion book and I can definitely see use of both RIFTS concepts in Hell on Earth or HOE stuff in RIFTS.

This is a smart move for both companies! Palladium Books could easily end up selling a few source books to Savage Worlds gamers. I plan to keep my eyes on this. I will definitely buy the main book release.

 

[miniaturehoarder]

" Detroit-based Palladium Books, owned by Kevin Siembieda."

That explains a few things.

 

[Warunsun]

That explains a few things.

What is up with folks on the Internet knocking cities that they have probably never been to? Game companies are about the folks that work for them. Not so much about where they live. Printing, distributions, the Internet, and the minimization of conventions have made where the company is far less important.

 

[Asatru009]

How can this be occuring due to Kevin Siembieda's history of trying to stop any and all conversions of his system? I could be wrong but from what I've read he has a history of going after any conversion attempts regardless of if they are legal or not, as well as having a micromanaging nature.

The fluff is awesome no doubt, I will wait to see how this turns out. How many other games take a similar angle in regards to their background setting or kitchen sink approach?

Ending on a positive note, I hope that this is the start of more system conversions and hopefully ebooks/pdfs.

 

[Warunsun]

How can this be occuring due to Kevin Siembieda's history of trying to stop any and all conversions of his system?

This is licensed and I would imagine the rulebook will be approved by Kevin and he will make money too. This isn't an Internet fan thing. I'd say it is a good sign.

 

[Abbasax]

What is up with folks on the Internet knocking cities that they have probably never been to? Game companies are about the folks that work for them. Not so much about where they live. Printing, distributions, the Internet, and the minimization of conventions have made where the company is far less important.

Yeah! And Detriot has Robocop!

 

[Abbasax]

How can this be occuring due to Kevin Siembieda's history of trying to stop any and all conversions of his system? I could be wrong but from what I've read he has a history of going after any conversion attempts regardless of if they are legal or not, as well as having a micromanaging nature.

The fluff is awesome no doubt, I will wait to see how this turns out. How many other games take a similar angle in regards to their background setting or kitchen sink approach?

Ending on a positive note, I hope that this is the start of more system conversions and hopefully ebooks/pdfs.

It's that "mircomanaging" thing that concerns me. Palladium doesnt' have a history of being the most... timely, with their books as it is. Hopefully the approval process won't slow down the SW convertions too much.

 

[Dahak]

Did anyone else think it was April 1st when They read this?

 

[paleblade]

Gotta say I'm shocked. Siembieda wouldn't do a d20 conversion during the craze because he thought WoTC would end up owning the rights to Rifts. He must be in a bad place financially (again). Not that I'm knocking it, I can't wait for this. I own 99% of the books, but also remember the last licensed book (Rifts Manhunter) and the legal battle after that was released.

I wish you all the luck and hope this becomes a permanent SW line that I can collect and play for many years (and offer conversions of my library)

 

[GameOgre]

Very excited! Love Rifts but have not bought a rifts book in 15+ years due to the old rule style. will buy everything Rifts/Savage worlds puts out! I already own everything for Deadlands reloaded and Hell on Earth Reloaded.

Rifts is one of the best settings and Savage Worlds is one of the best Systems!

 

[Warunsun]

It's that "mircomanaging" thing that concerns me.

I wouldn't worry about that at all. The Savage Worlds side already has a deep collection of books that show you how to convert your favorite novel, TV show, genre or whatever to the main system without stepping on others toes. Fantasy Companion, Horror Companion, Science Fiction Companion, Super Powers Companion, Online Toolkits for them plus Wizards & Warriors, Crime City, and Pulp! just to name the ones that aren't connected to a setting! When you add the settings it goes from huge to a gigantic resource for kit-bashing. This licensed RIFTS book will add some things that can't be in those books. I think it is a pretty cool development. Really, you could already be playing in New Lazlo or Tolkeen with SW rules if you did all the work yourself. It honestly never occurred to me before I seen the teaser announcement here at enworld.org but it sounds interesting. I might never play it but I will buy the book and read it.

 

[Abbasax]

I wouldn't worry about that at all. The Savage Worlds side already has a deep collection of books that show you how to convert your favorite novel, TV show, genre or whatever to the main system without stepping on others toes. Fantasy Companion, Horror Companion, Science Fiction Companion, Super Powers Companion, Online Toolkits for them plus Wizards & Warriors, Crime City, and Pulp! just to name the ones that aren't connected to a setting! When you add the settings it goes from huge to a gigantic resource for kit-bashing. This licensed RIFTS book will add some things that can't be in those books. I think it is a pretty cool development. Really, you could already be playing in New Lazlo or Tolkeen with SW rules if you did all the work yourself. It honestly never occurred to me before I seen the teaser announcement here at enworld.org but it sounds interesting. I might never play it but I will buy the book and read it.

Oh, SW totally has deep pockets when it comes to resources for converitng. It's just that I rarely get the time to actually play anything anymore, and so I'm looking foward to reading the Plot Point Campaigns, which could be slowed down by the approvel process. Luckily I have a ton of reading as it is, but I'm just excited!

 

[SkidAce]

Not sure if anyone heard that loud "thud". That was my jaw dropping

Yeah, I gave up on something like this happening 20 years ago...

 

[Von Ether]

Please tell me you're going to maintain the lack of balance between races and occupations and allow characters to start at widely variable power levels. Or in other words, can my players form a party consisting of: A knight of the Cosmic Forge, A demigod, A dragon hatchling, a city rat and a glitterboy, and expect the two gonzo classes at the front to be, well gonzo in terms of power but still (with a skilled GM) be able to work with something lower powered like a city rat and a glitterboy (not every day that you get to say a glitterboy is "low" power).

While it wasn't Rifts, I had range of PCs that included a griffin with lazer beam (yes, the z in laser is intentional), an alien scientist and a Tarzan clone all in the same party of equal power and it went pretty well.

... (with a skilled GM) ...

Well, the question is do you want game that's just for your crew or the widest audience possible? When it takes a skilled GM to run something you're narrowing your market. I think SW has already offer gamers very gonzo settings that handle crazy PC concepts and, better yet, keeps them in some sort of same ballpark.

One of my major concerns with Savage Worlds is that maybe things seem a little too cinematic and action-y. One of my favorite things about Rifts is that it tells you exactly how things work, keeping abstraction to a minimum.

I am tentatively looking forward to seeing how this works out. My big fear is that the old-school flavor won't shine through, and the simulation-y feel of Rifts will get buried under some new-age narrative-y agenda from Savage Worlds. (My hope is that it might produce a game of Rifts that remains true to the tone of the original mechanics, but is sufficiently stream-lined to be actually playable.)

YMMY, But I wouldn't call Rifts simulationist OR SW narrative either. But I get your gist from the first paragraph, which reminds me of the time I converted Rifts to the Marvel SHAG RPG system.

We made whole party of PCs in under 20 minutes and we had a crazy multi-dimensional romp with several combats in under 5 hours. Most fights took 10 to 15 minutes at most with lots of crazy action.

I loved it, my players hated it.

They told me they wanted to take hours creating each PC to find each bonus they could use and they wanted the fights to take much longer so they could show how well their builds could dish out -- and take -- the damage. Some players like systems that are complicated and to show their mastery of said systems.

Me? I just want to punch the @#@#$ out of @#$#t!!

Juicers for life! Juicers foreve ... *Falls over from super adrenalized heart attack*

 

[Scrivener of Doom]

About time!

Rifts is such an interesting setting but the ruleset was - to be very kind - absolute garbage. This is a good match, at least until Kevin Siembieda screws up the relationship.

 

[Stacie GmrGrl]

This Rifts game product is going to be the most watched for game in years, mainly because its something Nobody ever saw coming and so many people have been wanting Rifts in a new skin and never believed it possible.

This will bring a lot of new people to Savage Worlds, including me.

This is going to sell big.

 

[Dahak]

This Rifts game product is going to be the most watched for game in years, mainly because its something Nobody ever saw coming and so many people have been wanting Rifts in a new skin and never believed it possible.

Agreed. Still having trouble believing this, even after seeing the PR up on Pinnacle's site. I think this easily has Green Ronin beat as "Gaming News Story of the Year".

 

[DerekSTheRed]

In theory this should work really well. Hopefully they can pull it off in a fun an interesting way. One pet peeve of mine with the Rifts system was that Magic was so clearly inferior to Psionics it was so not worth it to play a Magic PC. The trappings of Savage World should fix that.

 

[Stacie GmrGrl]

In theory this should work really well. Hopefully they can pull it off in a fun an interesting way. One pet peeve of mine with the Rifts system was that Magic was so clearly inferior to Psionics it was so not worth it to play a Magic PC. The trappings of Savage World should fix that.

I really hope that the Magic and Psionics rules in this SW Rifts are not just a difference of trappings. They should have different subsystems of how they work, same for Super/Mutant powers. Using just trappings as some kind of descriptive flavoring is not Rifts.

That's actually one of my biggest problems with SW in gsneral.. It treats all power sources the same.

So this game better have Magic using PPE and Psionics ISP and they should be calculated differently and they better be different mechanically enough to provide really different feels.

Note: I do say all that not having really played SW before and only basing my opinion on reading the main rulebook. Trappings just left me cold when I last read it.

So on this topic I really hope the designer chimes in and let's us know how this will work.

 

[Eminence_Grise]

I'm very happy about this announcement. Any release date accounced?

Like many people, I love the settings, hate the rules. Let's hope the Savage World rules fit the setting well.