Scholar's Review 50: Baseline Documents for New GM

[desrocfc]

So this is something I've been building up to with my Scholar's Review blog posts that covered the books for the Palladium Rifts RPG. As we hit the 50th post, I thought I would do a bit of a round-up of all the reviews. I decided to add in the context of showing where I believe the new Rifts GM should start buying, dependent on the region of Rifts Earth they wish to start adventuring in.

It is broken down into
- Baseline documents; those required to start playing the game and can be leveraged across the various settings; and
- Setting document; those books specific to a region in Rifts Earth.

After that, they are ranked as Required, Recommended and Optional, dependent on whether you wish to use the information they contain.

Bear in mind this is, currently, exclusively limited to the Rifts World Books, Sourcebooks and Conversion Books; no Dimension Books, HU, PFRPG, AtB, BtS or any of the other games - yet.

The post is simply too expansive to cut-and-paste here, so I'll ask you indulgence to check out the blog post and give me your opinion. Anything missed or some glaring error you take umbrage with?

https://www.scholarlyadventures.com/pos ... or-new-gms

Cheers.

[desrocfc]

After having looked at it for a spell, I see nothing outlandish or seemingly out of place. The choices you presented were put into logical categories and was consistent as far as I was able to tell.

Smiling_Bandit - Impressed with the volume of work presented

Thanks for the input Smiling_Bandit!

[Zer0 Kay]

Baseline:
(Required) RUE. Indeed the ONLY book required to play Rifts
(Recommended) Conversion Books (All 3). One of the best things about Rifts is bringing in characters from any setting... this is how.
(Recommended) BOM. Best resource for mages
(Recommended) Psyscape. Best resource for psychics
(Recommended) Bionics. Best resource for bionics
(Recommended) Indexi. Better way to find stuff in earlier books, wish they'd keep updating these
(Recommended) Regionally specific weapons and equipment book
(Recommended) Megaverse Builder. Your on Rifts but have never rifted anywhere? What's the point? That is just Shadowrun crossed with Mad Max with some D&D added in.
(Opt) RMB. Only place to get MD Dragon hatchlings for the primary PB dragons
(Opt) GMG. Helpful
(Opt) AG. Slightly less helpful
(Opt) Bestiaries (Any). Great source for MDC critters
(Opt) D-Bees. Best source for D-Bees.
(Opt) Palladium FRPG Monsters & Animals. Best place to get SDC critters
(Opt) PFRPG Dragons & Gods. Best Dragon Resource.
(Opt) Compendium of Contemporary Weapons. If you can find it great source for SDC weapons
(Opt) Compendium of Weapons, Armors and Castles. If you can find it great source for SDC weapons or used for defining what kind of sword or melee weapon ones psisword is shaped like.
(Opt) PFRPG Library of Bletherad. Other spells and Magic items
(Opt) PFRPG Island at the End of the World. Crystal (Psionic) Items
(Opt) All of PB's other game lines. Used as places to rift to an from.
(Opt) All other game lines. No reason to limit it to just Palladium... just can't show your conversions on the forums.

[Zer0 Kay]

IIRC shouldn't the Black Market book be part of the New West section seeing as how their main source is Groom Lake in Nevada?

[desrocfc]

IIRC shouldn't the Black Market book be part of the New West section seeing as how their main source is Groom Lake in Nevada?

A fair point. Given the BM covers a wide swath of ground with the majority of the book, it *does* specifically speak to the Bandito Arms site. At the very least, it could go in as Optional, which I'll amend.

Good catch, and thanks.

[Blue_Lion]

So this is something I've been building up to with my Scholar's Review blog posts that covered the books for the Palladium Rifts RPG. As we hit the 50th post, I thought I would do a bit of a round-up of all the reviews. I decided to add in the context of showing where I believe the new Rifts GM should start buying, dependent on the region of Rifts Earth they wish to start adventuring in.

It is broken down into
- Baseline documents; those required to start playing the game and can be leveraged across the various settings; and
- Setting document; those books specific to a region in Rifts Earth.

After that, they are ranked as Required, Recommended and Optional, dependent on whether you wish to use the information they contain.

Bear in mind this is, currently, exclusively limited to the Rifts World Books, Sourcebooks and Conversion Books; no Dimension Books, HU, PFRPG, AtB, BtS or any of the other games - yet.

The post is simply too expansive to cut-and-paste here, so I'll ask you indulgence to check out the blog post and give me your opinion. Anything missed or some glaring error you take umbrage with?

https://www.scholarlyadventures.com/pos ... or-new-gms

Cheers.

Honestly it is wrong and will make people think you need more books than you do. I have never used adventure book, conversion book 1 is nice and recommended but not required. All you need to start playing is the core book. So that is the base line required and can let you play in NA other areas you will need the setting book.
When I started running the game all I had was the core book.
It is clear the bloated required is not truly knowing what is needed and what you just like to have.
Adventure book and conversion book should be recommended not required as they are not required to play or run the game. People can play the game just fine without ever touching them.

[Zer0 Kay]

So this is something I've been building up to with my Scholar's Review blog posts that covered the books for the Palladium Rifts RPG. As we hit the 50th post, I thought I would do a bit of a round-up of all the reviews. I decided to add in the context of showing where I believe the new Rifts GM should start buying, dependent on the region of Rifts Earth they wish to start adventuring in.

It is broken down into
- Baseline documents; those required to start playing the game and can be leveraged across the various settings; and
- Setting document; those books specific to a region in Rifts Earth.

After that, they are ranked as Required, Recommended and Optional, dependent on whether you wish to use the information they contain.

Bear in mind this is, currently, exclusively limited to the Rifts World Books, Sourcebooks and Conversion Books; no Dimension Books, HU, PFRPG, AtB, BtS or any of the other games - yet.

The post is simply too expansive to cut-and-paste here, so I'll ask you indulgence to check out the blog post and give me your opinion. Anything missed or some glaring error you take umbrage with?

https://www.scholarlyadventures.com/pos ... or-new-gms

Cheers.

Honestly it is wrong and will make people think you need more books than you do. I have never used adventure book, conversion book 1 is nice and recommended but not required. All you need to start playing is the core book. So that is the base line required and can let you play in NA other areas you will need the setting book.
When I started running the game all I had was the core book.
It is clear the bloated required is not truly knowing what is needed and what you just like to have.
Adventure book and conversion book should be recommended not required as they are not required to play or run the game. People can play the game just fine without ever touching them.

What did you think of my list?
I figured "baseline" is books that can be used everywhere. Not required everywhere. That would make the required note redundant within the baseline catagory.

[Blue_Lion]

So this is something I've been building up to with my Scholar's Review blog posts that covered the books for the Palladium Rifts RPG. As we hit the 50th post, I thought I would do a bit of a round-up of all the reviews. I decided to add in the context of showing where I believe the new Rifts GM should start buying, dependent on the region of Rifts Earth they wish to start adventuring in.

It is broken down into
- Baseline documents; those required to start playing the game and can be leveraged across the various settings; and
- Setting document; those books specific to a region in Rifts Earth.

After that, they are ranked as Required, Recommended and Optional, dependent on whether you wish to use the information they contain.

Bear in mind this is, currently, exclusively limited to the Rifts World Books, Sourcebooks and Conversion Books; no Dimension Books, HU, PFRPG, AtB, BtS or any of the other games - yet.

The post is simply too expansive to cut-and-paste here, so I'll ask you indulgence to check out the blog post and give me your opinion. Anything missed or some glaring error you take umbrage with?

https://www.scholarlyadventures.com/pos ... or-new-gms

Cheers.

Honestly it is wrong and will make people think you need more books than you do. I have never used adventure book, conversion book 1 is nice and recommended but not required. All you need to start playing is the core book. So that is the base line required and can let you play in NA other areas you will need the setting book.
When I started running the game all I had was the core book.
It is clear the bloated required is not truly knowing what is needed and what you just like to have.
Adventure book and conversion book should be recommended not required as they are not required to play or run the game. People can play the game just fine without ever touching them.

What did you think of my list?
I figured "baseline" is books that can be used everywhere. Not required everywhere. That would make the required note redundant within the baseline catagory.

You got the required right the books that you listed as recommended where all good to have.

I would say the GMG as the big book of equipment and having most the equipment from out of the way places would be recommended. In addition to brand specific it has some general equipment in it that can be found in most of rifts earth.
The index I would probably place as optional. Having a book to tell you where something is without having the source book makes it a shopping list book.
Unless they have other game lines i would recommend D-bees and rifts bestiary over the conversion books 1 & 3. 2 being gods will depend on much the gm wants to include them so that seams more optional.

I will agree that rifts should be more about the megaverse than just out of the way settings in a bottle on rifts earth.

[Warshield73]

Great article, I would only make two additions.

1) If you are the GM, especially a new one, The Rifts Adventure Guide is a must read. This is a great book to help develop a campaign and even creating NPCs.

2) If you want to have a world traveling campaign World Book 7: Underseas should moved up to an essential book.

Great articles though, keep it up.

[Hotrod]

Suggestion: consider doing a sequel to this post focused on online resources, both official and fan-made.

[desrocfc]

Suggestion: consider doing a sequel to this post focused on online resources, both official and fan-made.

I did do a post on the online fandom, which includes those sites producing third party content in support of Palladium Books. The Bazaar #25: The Palladium Books Online Fandom covers most of the current podcasts, YouTube, Facebook and blogs one can find out there. I haven't found much out there for official online resources, short of PB coming out and officially sponsoring some of the sites out there....

Link: https://www.scholarlyadventures.com/post/the-bazaar-25-the-palladium-books-online-fandom