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Rifts® Treacherous Awakenings™
Publisher: Palladium Books
by JR P. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/10/2024 11:09:41

I bought this in paperback years ago when they first came out. I was a young man then and thought it was such a dark, depressing interpretation of the world I was gaming in.

Recently, I purchased them in PDF and decided to give all three books another read. Wow, I was surprised how much I enjoyed them and eagerly turned each page. It's not perfect writing, but it was still a ton of fun. They made me want to run a Coalition squad in the game as I could see many of the challenges and moral ambiguities that would cause one to both hate and love the complex Coalition States. The high-tech action scenes actually caused me to make some minor rules adjustments at my table regarding "active" and "passive" sensors/radar.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Rifts® Treacherous Awakenings™
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Rifts® Deception's Web™
Publisher: Palladium Books
by JR P. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/10/2024 11:09:13

I bought this in paperback years ago when they first came out. I was a young man then and thought it was such a dark, depressing interpretation of the world I was gaming in.

Recently, I purchased them in PDF and decided to give all three books another read. Wow, I was surprised how much I enjoyed them and eagerly turned each page. It's not perfect writing, but it was still a ton of fun. They made me want to run a Coalition squad in the game as I could see many of the challenges and moral ambiguities that would cause one to both hate and love the complex Coalition States. The high-tech action scenes actually caused me to make some minor rules adjustments at my table regarding "active" and "passive" sensors/radar.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Rifts® Deception's Web™
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Rifts® Sonic Boom™
Publisher: Palladium Books
by JR P. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/10/2024 11:08:03

I bought this in paperback years ago when they first came out. I was a young man then and thought it was such a dark, depressing interpretation of the world I was gaming in.

Recently, I purchased them in PDF and decided to give all three books another read. Wow, I was surprised how much I enjoyed them and eagerly turned each page. It's not perfect writing, but it was still a ton of fun. They made me want to run a Coalition squad in the game as I could see many of the challenges and moral ambiguities that would cause one to both hate and love the complex Coalition States. The high-tech action scenes actually caused me to make some minor rules adjustments at my table regarding "active" and "passive" sensors/radar.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Rifts® Sonic Boom™
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Rifts® Duty's Edge™
Publisher: Palladium Books
by JR [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/09/2024 14:38:46

I really enjoyed this book. Reading about characters in Rifts Middle East really set the standard for anyone who might professionally write in that region in the future (looks to Sean and Kevin). Seeing the character grow from an obedient soldier to a faceted and independent character was a fun journey. Seeing the Phoenix Empire a bit more closely was enjoyable too. Made me really appreciate how depressing it might be to be human there!

Being a long-time player of Rifts, it made me consider running a game in the Middle East for the first time in my 30+ years of enjoying this unique world. Look forward to anything else your mind conjures.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Rifts® Duty's Edge™
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Rifts® Automated Character Sheet
Publisher: Palladium Books
by John [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 01/09/2024 14:29:53

The best I've seen yet for Rifts character sheets. Greatly increases the speed at which I can make characters and NPCs. Takes much of the thought process out of calculating bonuses and setting up skills. The extra notes on how things were calculated, or appropriate reminders are greatly appreciated.

I also appreciate the regular updates as improvements continue to roll out. The YouTube instructions are fantastic, almost like having a virtual instruction manual.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Rifts® Automated Character Sheet
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ICONS Superpowered Roleplaying: The Assembled Edition
Publisher: Ad Infinitum Adventures
by John P. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 11/14/2017 16:14:36

I've been on the lookout for a new supers RPG for a couple years now and have often seen this title. After much consideration I went for the plunge and purchased it along with the other helpful titles of Origins, Great Power, and A-Z. I've run a couple sessions with my gaming group and here's what I found I think is worthing mentioning.

1) The gaming system is simple and fast. I've read that ICONS has its roots in FATE (which I've never played). Its resolution of attacks is simple, can be done in a single roll (using some options) and each round can go very quickly. If you like to focus on the story more than the numbers, you might like the way ICONS plays out. Because the system is fairly easy to understand, even a new player can join in readily. 2) Character Creation is very fast an intuitive. I found I could already "see" my character as I'm creating him/her and within about 10-15 minutes I was ready to go. Once you understand the range of 1-10, the GM can create villains and challengers withing moments. Some people enjoy the number crunching within a game vs the story within it. You might be a bit disappointed here, but this fits right within my expectations and hopes. 3) Qualities and Determination. Many games try to provide rules and options for running everything. ICONS likes to use Qualities and Determination points to accomplish many complex tasks. When I first started working with these, I struggled for a bit. But once I started realizing that Determination is basically Bennies in Savage Worlds and Qualities are ways to come up with quantifiable story elements to bonus or negative your results, it was pretty fun. Its also a great way to give those Determination points to a character that you always seem to "pick on" as the GM.

I have been very impressed by this game. I'm a veteran of Champions, Classic Marvel, M&M, Savage Worlds Super Powers Companion, Heroes Unlimited, and have found ICONS to be a great way to play a supers game. Too many times supers end up being so big for some systems that it overwhelms the rules or creates awkward mechanics. ICONS take it all in very well. We are able to have a meaningful adventure and get so much done in a short amount of time.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
ICONS Superpowered Roleplaying: The Assembled Edition
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Super Powers Unleashed
Publisher: Daring Entertainment
by John P. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/29/2017 12:47:40

When one considers all the optional and support material for the various Savage Worlds genres, you will find tons of books and PDFs for Fantasy, Sci-Fi, and Horror/Goth. But I've always found the “Supers” line to be a bit anemic. I was very pleased to see that someone (Daring Entertainment) decided to tackle this and offer a wealth of ideas. In this tome you’ll find numerous options andI’ll try to summarize my thoughts about some of the key points:

• Tone and Level for your campaign: After all a Punisher/Batman comic is certainly a different power level and tone than a Superman/Thor one. Starting power points, Bennies, and healing rates help tweak this feel. • Introduction of a Controlling Skill and the Psyche Secondary Statistic. Both of these were dearly needed to help determine success and level of it for your super powers and some way to deal with psychic combat that didn’t cause you to learn a whole new set of rules. • Motivations and Backgrounds: Ever have those players that could never flesh out their character, never knowing why he/she fought the good fight? These various charts have certainly helped us. • New Hindrances and Edges: What resource book for Savage Worlds would be complete without these? Some of them are really innovative and cool. • Genre Rules: These optional rules help move the game along or capture much of the comic book feel. Among my favorites are the Collateral Damage (using your scenery to help mitigate damage), GM Bennies (saves me from having that intimidating stack in front of me), and Reputation (this should matter to heroes). • Super Teams: I really, really like this section. Most superhero RPG games don’t do much with this, but the options for working together and building a meaningful team and name is really slick. Ever have those players that insist on making six characters each? Then the Expanded Super Team options just might be for you with a meaningful way of involving them without taking over the evening. • Powers: My, oh my, talk about options. There are a ton of new powers and ways to see the old ones differently. I wouldn’t use these to completely replace the ones from PEG’s excellent Super Powers Companion, but I haven’t found a super yet that I couldn’t now create while using both resources. There’s also a section on a few more enhancements and restrictions for your powers that help to customize yours. • Super Science Devices (and headquarters/power armors): Lots of times a supers book doesn’t really help the brains out there feel viable or fun to play. Here’s some great ways to be in the lab and in the field, making a difference to both. The Headquarters rules are very similar to PEG’s, if a bit trimmed down for simplicity. The Power Armor guide is quite good, as many times I’ve seen players struggle to keep the power armor "feel" for these types of heroes. • Telling Comic Book Stories: There are a dozen pages for the GM to better play his bad guys, use different environments, and get the group to go where you need/want them to go. I think it would be particularly helpful to newer GM’s to the genre, with great advice on creating the bedrock for a good adventure or campaign.

Some of the negative parts of the book might be editing. Not quite sure what happened, but parts (not too much) of the book just needed to be edited a bit better. I also noted a lack of a couple super powers from the Super Powers Companion that weren’t included here. Equivalent powers for such as Altered Forms, Broadcast, Energy Control, Earthquake, Fear (and Fearless), Gifted, Stun, Super Sorcery, and most especially Extra Actions were oddly missing. Construct and Undead was gone too, but those were odd anyways. I was never a fan of a few of these and I think most of them can be built from the options within this book and which is why I stated at the beginning that it worked great “with” the SPC and doesn’t entirely replace it.

Those interested in Supers would likely love this book. I haven’t found another Supers book that offers this many powers and options and would highly recommend it. Since it’s come out, our group has not played a supers game without it.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Super Powers Unleashed
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Dawn of Legends (Re-Release Bundle)
Publisher: Daring Entertainment
by John P. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 12/13/2016 11:13:13

Being a latecomer to Savage Worlds I realized pretty quickly that I missed out on some products that had been released earlier. I thought some of these were gone forever and wouldn't be found in my collection. I was pleased to see this re-released and then more pleased to see what all we got.

I have not found another super powers bundle containing so much goodness for this price point. As listed in the description, you receive a large number of well-thought out Edges, Hindrances, super powers, NPC villains, NPC heroes, a fully fleshed out adventure ranging in difficulty from Novice to Legendary (you know how rare those are), and the equivalent of a one page adventure. Additionally, Daring Entertainment further provides you a few summaries/cheat sheets to keep much of the new information straight. You get all of that for $10! Try finding that much value anywhere else for the Super Powers Companion by Pinnacle.

I’ve spent the last two days going through this information and still haven’t read it all. I’ve not found this much Super Power goodness anywhere else or published by anyone else. Further, it’s high quality in step with what we’ve come to expect anytime Lee is at the wheel and writing. There is not a single purchase you can make anywhere on RPGNow and DriveThru that is made for this rule set, covering this genre, providing you this much material, and at this price point.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Dawn of Legends (Re-Release Bundle)
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Savage Rifts: The Tomorrow Legion Player's Guide (SWADE Edition)
Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment
by John P. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/29/2016 13:56:25

I wanted to wait until I had a chance to play the game before I rated it. Now that my gaming group has six sessions under their belt, I figured it was a good time to chime in. I too played Rifts in the 90's and a bit after. I have a wall full of books that I just love. However, I've not really played much in the last 15-20 years simply because I couldn't get past the power creep and I couldn't find a group that wanted to deal with some of the older-style rules. No more! This has become a favorite of my group and they've already forgotten the last campaign we left so we could try out Savage Rifts. This book kicks it all off and in great fashion. I'll do my best to summarize what you get with this book.

Chapter One Characters: The creating of a character is slick and easy. The inevitable support from Hero Labs and similar is likely coming and will turn a half hour process (once you know what you're doing) to about 10 minutes. They have it all from the Classic Core Book and a few different takes to keep it interesting. Iconic Frameworks (think classes) are introduced and help to guide your character creation. Juicers, MOM’s, Cyber-Knights, Ley Line Walkers, etc., still feel like the classes that you hoped you were making. Some classes are more powerful at certain times than others, but not obnoxiously so. My group likes that the Scholar and City Rat can still be viable on the battlefield without becoming a red mist on the first stray shot. The races make sense and easily meld with the classes.

Chapter Two Gear: As has been mentioned in other reviews, they took the MDC concept and used their Heavy Weapons/Armor rules. This has been a boon as instant death isn’t your first worry. Sure, a hard hit and terrible rolls can happen, but not so much. Going from wearing your MDC suit of personal armor to an instant death penetration isn’t as fearful now. The gear is a pretty good mix of old and new equipment and the explanation and use of Techo-Wizard items fits pretty logically. Power Armor is treated exactly as its name implies; heavier, stronger, faster, and more powerful versions of body armor. Robots and Vehicles share their own realm of being separate from the pilot and passengers; just like you’d expect logically. Cybernetics feel like meaningful improvements to the human/D-Bee body and share similar Strain and cost rules as enjoyed in the well-loved Sci-Fi Companion. Rules are introduced to convert most gear to Techno-Wizardry if desired.

Chapter Three Psionics and Magic: This section will look very familiar to those already comfortable with Savage Worlds. A few extra powers and then Mega Power equivalents for most standard powers are found within. This allows for fantastic feats to be accomplished via magic/psionics. Utility powers are limited, similar to what is found in other Savage Worlds products. Most of the powers are combat related and a couple of them don’t translate very well. Summon Ally (Force Multiplication), for example, doesn’t translate as well as could be hoped. You’re in a gonzo, over-the-top battlefield and still summoning the exact same lower power allies you would in any other standard setting. The Zombie Power isn’t even listed and seems to be reserved for the bad guys. That’s too bad as your gaming group will likely be made up of Feral Dog-Boys, morally naïve Dragon Hatchlings, power-driven Mind Melters, psychotic Crazies, drug-dependent Juicers, and thieving City Rats. But heroes don’t summon supernatural allies or raise zombies?

Chapter Four Setting Rules: This chapter does a great job of explaining how to deal with death. Death & Defeat (a chart similar to the Super Powers Companion Defeat Table), Extra Effort (another way to use Bennies), and Technical Difficulties are introduced. These are all loved by our gaming group and keep some of the “feel” of the original Rifts games we played years ago.

Chapter Five Rifts Earth: This chapter takes a few pages to explain the world, the history, and some of the players from around the globe. It takes an extra bit of time explaining North America and Castle Refuge.

Chapter Six The Hero’s Journey: Here we find options and charts to get your players hooked into the main story. It also helps characters start off with things different than each other so that two of the same Iconic Frameworks won’t usually start the same. Twelve new charts using the d20 for randomness help to round out or advantage your characters in hundreds of different ways. It really helps speed along the character creation instead of going through 35+ skills like we used to have to do in the old days with almost everyone taking the Physical Skills only for the clear advantages that they gave.

I’m in love with Rifts once more. Pinnacle has done what I thought was impossible and melded their system to one of the most challenging yet well-loved settings of all time. If you like fantasy and magic, Savage Rifts might be fore you. If you like high-tech and cybernetics, Savage Rifts might be for you. If you like psionics and mutations, Savage Rifts might still be for you. If you like to play in a future where anything is possible and anything can be found yet do so in a balanced, entertaining, and easily played way, you would do well to check out Savage Rifts.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Savage Rifts: The Tomorrow Legion Player's Guide (SWADE Edition)
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Savage Rifts: Game Master's Handbook (SWADE Edition)
Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment
by John P. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/29/2016 09:52:51

It's my opinion that GM Guides are usually the toughest products to write. You've already shared everything to play the game in your Player's Handbook and the monsters are going to be found in your Monster Manuals. So exactly what do you put in this sourcebook? Here’s what Pinnacle did:

Chapter One: The Walk Around the Block. Here we are shown a snapshot of the world and its major players with some guides on how the average person lives. We’re given a one page chronology all written in an information dump without any real crunch. Its fine, it works, and it sets up much of the attitude and groundwork of the key factions your group will likely see.

Chapter Two: Meet the Neighbors. Pinnacle gives us greater detail of the Tomorrow Legion and all of its movers and shakers. Who will your group report to? This can be found in addition to some simple maps of the grounds. The Coalition States are also detailed a bit more with a couple paragraphs given to each State. The Federation of Magic is given similar treatment with each major city and the Magic Zone receiving its own couple paragraphs.

Chapter Three: Running Savage Rifts. Most of this is fluff and really goes into the way you might present general life and some of the fantastic things your players will see. They do a good job of telling a new GM and Player what to expect if you haven’t played Rifts before. They have a great write-up on how to reconcile some of the common difficulties of combining magic and technology.

Chapter Four: Crunch Time! For those that were hoping for some crunchy parts will enjoy this chapter. A random encounter generator mostly intended for Tomorrow Legion patrols can easily be made for any group to enjoy. I’m not sure how many variations those charts can give you for encounters, but it easily numbers into the hundreds, perhaps even thousands of ways to make a new adventure/encounter. Contacts are greatly detailed with random charts also given to create them in detail. Appreciated is the Rewards section explaining salvage, ranks, and mercenary options. The last part of the chapter details rifts and gives charts to create random ones throwing in characteristics to make hundreds of different ones. I really enjoyed the random location/time you might go to if you were to journey through one. Some seed ideas are given, but the GM should be prepared to fill in the details on his own. Lastly, they give some guidelines on how a magic user might alter and affect the ley lines and rifts encountered. Something that we know players will inevitably attempt.

I really thought this book was excellent. Considering the challenge of what to put into a GM guide that doesn’t waste the time of the reader, I think they did a good job. Much of it is fluff and setting feel, but Chapter Four gives more than enough to work with for those looking for numbers and adventures.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Savage Rifts: Game Master's Handbook (SWADE Edition)
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Savage Rifts: Archetypes Set 2 (SWADE Edition)
Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment
by John P. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/29/2016 09:21:30

What more can I say? These are exactly what we were promised and they look great. Will be easy to hand these out to new players or use as prepared NPC’s. The picture for each one Archetype is welcome as well. Nothing quite captures the “feel” of a Framework like a picture. I appreciate that they mixed in some races as well that many would not normally try out.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Savage Rifts: Archetypes Set 2 (SWADE Edition)
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Savage Rifts: Archetypes Set 1
Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment
by John P. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/29/2016 09:20:32

What more can I say? These are exactly what we were promised and they look great. Will be easy to hand these out to new players or use as prepared NPC’s. The picture for each one Archetype is welcome as well. Nothing quite captures the “feel” of a Framework like a picture. I appreciate that they mixed in some races as well that many would not normally try out.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Savage Rifts: Archetypes Set 1
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Savage Rifts: Savage Foes of North America (SWADE Edition)
Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment
by John P. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/29/2016 08:53:41

This is exactly what I was hoping for. I even like the way they partitioned the book so that you had the big players and their stats for the most common troops. These include The Coalition States, The Federation of Magic, The Black Market, the 1st Apocalyptic Cavalry, the Pecos Empire, and Atlantis. They even took the time to stat out the leaders of each of those organizations (though I can't imagine letting my group take a crack at those guys anytime soon).

I was most surprised and impressed by the addition of the Mercenaries & Specialists section. Here you will find most of the classes built and ready to go. These can be used to give a new player a class to play with or just create an instant opposing or ally group.

The monsters section was a little light, but very similar to what you get when you purchase the Rifts Ultimate Guide and Sourcebook One from Palladium. The best part of this section is the random creature creation guide. You can create most creatures just using those charts and even use it as a sort of conversion guide for your favorite ones. Give yourself about 5 minutes and you can have a fully random or handcrafted creature/encounter interesting enough for most Savavge Rifts groups.

A final touch that wasn't necessary but appreciated, was the addition of 5 ready to go adventures using these new creatures and troops. These combined with some of the Random Creature/Encounter Generators mean many great and interesting hours of play in the future for my gaming group. It's my opinion that Pinnacle has done an outstanding job with this "Monster Manual" of theirs and the extras they included in a reasonable page count is exactly what we needed to help bring Savage Rifts alive.



Rating:
[5 of 5 Stars!]
Savage Rifts: Savage Foes of North America (SWADE Edition)
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Savage Rifts: Coalition Field Manual
Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment
by John P. [Verified Purchaser]
Date Added: 08/29/2016 08:35:14

I'm a little on the fence on this one. First off, it's great to get some of the new gear for the Coalition. The most common gear is detailed and given to us. However, it was smaller than expected/hoped for, but still useful. I got it as part of the Kickstarter and frankly, I really wasn't expecting a lot. Impressions are that I think they're holding out the rest of the equipment upgrades for a future sourcebook. And also frankly, I'm ok with that. After all, it took 224 pages for Palladium to do the same.



Rating:
[4 of 5 Stars!]
Savage Rifts: Coalition Field Manual
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