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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[miniaturehoarder]

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.

There is a certain level of perseverance, stick withitness, and flat out stubbornness I've mentally associated with the Palladium / Rifts. That the company is one of the ones that was in and STAYED in Detroit, pretty much confirms at lest some of those qualities.

As to the city, when I was told by a friend about people tearing down abandoned houses for firewood in Detroit, I took that with a grain of salt. But when the city's own constabulary publicly warned people to stay away from their dangerous city, I take their word for it. usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/08/14294269-visit-detroit-at-your-own-risk-police-union-warns

 

[TrainedMunkey]

Played a lot of Rifts back in the day. Bought the book when it first premiered at GenCon. Had played Robotech and Heroes previously. The system just became too complicated and heavy to run. Hopefully this will make it more playable and I can introduce Rifts to a new generation. The magic system was kinda just ported from their fantasy game, so lagged behind psionics drastically. Most of my players used the conversion book to create characters that could take MDC hits.

 

[Toriel]

This is great news. Like a lot of other people, I really really like the setting but not the rules system. This is a very welcome addition.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

This is actually biggest RPG news in years, for me. Not because I love RIFTS (I kinda do), but holy shazbut, I never thought I'd live to see the day.

 

[Stacie GmrGrl]

After some more perusing of Savage Worlds and reading more about the game on reddit and other forums I feel I can that I am more on board with Rifts Savage Worlds now than I was previously.

 

[Desh-Rae-Halra]

Like many, I loved the Rifts setting, and the rules less so ( or some of the trappings, like there was no reason for any character not to take Gymnastics).

I'm very excited for a SW conversion.I hope they will do Heroes Unlimited after that!
I picked up a ton of Palladium books when they had the fund raiser at the warehouse in Taylor, MI years back. Awesome stuff!

 

[Stacie GmrGrl]

Like many, I loved the Rifts setting, and the rules less so ( or some of the trappings, like there was no reason for any character not to take Gymnastics).

I'm very excited for a SW conversion.I hope they will do Heroes Unlimited after that!
I picked up a ton of Palladium books when they had the fund raiser at the warehouse in Taylor, MI years back. Awesome stuff!

I could see Palladium Books becoming that one company that licenses all the rest of their worlds out to other people to do other hacks of their games.

I could see Nightspawn (bane for those who don't know it's real original name) being a Call of Cthulhu/BRP/Runequest game... could see Palladium Fantasy being a Runequest 6 game, but the Dragon Age AGE system could work really well for it also... could see Heroes Unlimited being Savage Worlds but I'd rather see it using a different system... Ninja's and Superspies could easily be Feng Shui 2 or Cortex Plus Action (Leverage/Firefly).

 

[Desh-Rae-Halra]

There is a certain level of perseverance, stick withitness, and flat out stubbornness I've mentally associated with the Palladium / Rifts. That the company is one of the ones that was in and STAYED in Detroit, pretty much confirms at lest some of those qualities.

As to the city, when I was told by a friend about people tearing down abandoned houses for firewood in Detroit, I took that with a grain of salt. But when the city's own constabulary publicly warned people to stay away from their dangerous city, I take their word for it. usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/10/08/14294269-visit-detroit-at-your-own-risk-police-union-warns

I dont know if it matters, but I live in Metro Detroit, not that far from Palladium. It may not be RPG related, but if you have questions about the city, I can probably share my perspective.
Oddly enough, Taylor, where the Palladium warehouse is, is often referred to as "Taylor-tucky",as apparently there are lots of rednecks and people with mullets that live there.