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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[HardcoreDandDGirl]

oh my god...oh my god I must be dreaming...

no body wake me

 

[Stacie GmrGrl]

I bet it will be easier to convert SvW Rifts to other games than Original Rifts itself.

 

[GMforPowergamers]

I started my rpg life playing rifts... I always hoped for a d20 version, but this is almost as good....

 

[innerdude]

When I saw this announcement I thought to myself - "I need to switch to D&D 5e - their slower release schedule might fit my gaming budget better." Between Pinnacle and some Hellfrost stuff from Triple Ace Games, I just cannot keep up with them these days!

The RIFTS art in the past has always intrigued me - so perhaps I will check it out when the SW version comes along.

Oh my gosh, and Lankhmar too!!! .... Still haven't picked up any of the Deadlands: Noir stuff. Still haven't picked up the new Shaintar: Legends and Shaintar: Unleashed.

**mumble grumble** Gaming budget woes **mumble grumble**

Oh, and by the way, [MENTION=26651]amerigoV[/MENTION] --- If you haven't picked up Interface Zero 2.0 in hardcover, you're missing out. That book is EASILY one of my Top 3 favorite RPG source books of all time.

 

[Morlock]

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.

I don't have to visit the Moon to know I don't want to live there. Same goes for a lot of Earth locations. Most of them, actually, now that I think about it.

Not that I care if any given product is produced on the Moon, mind you.

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".

Forgive me, I only rarely pay attention to what's going on in Gaming News; what's the big Green Ronin news? (Edit: I'm guessing it's the Dragon Age Core Book?)

 

[amerigoV]

**mumble grumble** Gaming budget woes **mumble grumble**

Oh, and by the way, [MENTION=26651]amerigoV[/MENTION] --- If you haven't picked up Interface Zero 2.0 in hardcover, you're missing out. That book is EASILY one of my Top 3 favorite RPG source books of all time.

Back in December Amazon had a half off book deal one day. I had my wife get IZ2.0 for me as a Christmas present. Between the normal Amazon discounted price and the half off, the book is in my hands for nicely under $30. I have browsed it - I need to give it a good hard read. Cyberpunk has not been a "must play" genre for me but I have heard too many good things about IZ2.0 to pass it up. Its a such a hefty tome that it would double for home defense, along with the Deadlands Lost Sons book.

 

[Dahak]

Forgive me, I only rarely pay attention to what's going on in Gaming News; what's the big Green Ronin news? (Edit: I'm guessing it's the Dragon Age Core Book?)

Wil Wheaton is co-writing a worldbook for Fantasy AGE, and the Tabletop series spin-off will feature that system and setting.

 

[HardcoreDandDGirl]

so the more I think about it the more worried I am that it might not work. MDC/SDC and RCC are all elements that don't fit well in dead lands... but I am totally going to give it a chance. I love Rifts, and want to play in that world with Dogboys and Glitterboys... and Captain Nimo and the Nautalist II... I just hope it works out.

My main problem is that No one I know right now is willing to play Palladium system... so this could be a dream come true, but I wonder if all that complexity can be simplified without loosing the feel?

 

[Zadmar]

so the more I think about it the more worried I am that it might not work. MDC/SDC and RCC are all elements that don't fit well in dead lands...

I've never played Deadlands, but Savage Worlds has "Heavy Armor" which is conceptually similar to MDC, and races with Racial Edges are already a bit like RCCs.

 

[Von Ether]

so the more I think about it the more worried I am that it might not work. MDC/SDC and RCC are all elements that don't fit well in dead lands... but I am totally going to give it a chance. I love Rifts, and want to play in that world with Dogboys and Glitterboys... and Captain Nimo and the Nautalist II... I just hope it works out.

My main problem is that No one I know right now is willing to play Palladium system... so this could be a dream come true, but I wonder if all that complexity can be simplified without loosing the feel?

The real question is whether a player's perception of Rifts is tied to the actual setting or the rule set. Rifts, as a setting, has a lot of variety, but it's not overly complex. If anything, SW might be a better fit on getting different PC concepts on the same playing field, even if they are on different power levels.

As for the system, Rifts psionics is not that different in execution to Rifts magic. Both are just a level based mana-point system. Savage Worlds does something similar, they are just much for straightforward about it in their core rules set.

If your GM cut and pasted the core powers into a separate power list for each different Arcane Background along with renaming Power Points into ISP, EEP and Mojo-Mojo, added trappings and then gave you the list for your particular concept, you'd probably be convinced that you had a unique power set as compared to your fellow players and their own supernatural powers.