World Books that inspired me most

[RPGRelicHunter]

Hello, I did a video on my YouTube channel on the Top 5 World Books that inspired my games. I will put a link here to check it out, hopefully that isn't against the rules: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm8dNf5LD_w&t=1s

For those that can't get on to see it, here is my list: Atlantis, New West, Free Quebec, Juicer Uprising, Japan.

I am interested to see what everyone else was inspired by! Let me know, and what you think of my reasons.

thanks!
RPGRelicHunter

[Fenris2020]

Mercenaries, Japan, Xiticix Invasion, Atlantis, New West.

[RPGRelicHunter]

Mercenaries, Japan, Xiticix Invasion, Atlantis, New West.

I didn't count Mercenaries since it wasn't a "world book" but Juicer Uprising shouldn't be either. What did you think of Arzno?

[Warshield73]

If we are just talking World Books then, in order of release:

1 - Atlantis - To me this is the standard that all Rifts World Books should be measured by. It gives a really good overview of the continent, plenty of information on the Splugorth and there level of power on Earth. New magic and Technology. There is no Palladium book that I have used even half as much as Atlantis using it in both Rifts and Phase World

2 - Underseas - This book was great because at the time it opened up the world to travel. What I wish most is this was the 3rd or 4th WB not the 7th.

3 - England - I know most people hate this place but my players had a lot of fun there and I loved how Ireland was portrayed.

4 - Xiticix Invasion - When I first bought RMB there were only 3 antagonists: the CS, bandits using the exact same gear as my PC, and the Xiticix. (Yes there was a random roll monster chart but that got old quick. I used the Xiticix against my PCs every time so I was really excited to see the Original Rifts monster get this incredible upgrade.

5 - Juicer Uprising - While I find most of the Juicer variants in this book overpowered I love the Uprising and world information in this book and I used that for years in my campaigns.

[HWalsh]

I liked Atlantis - Too bad oversaturation killed the book for me. You can't join a Rifts game these days without someone playing a "True Atlantean Undead Slayer."

1. Japan - Interesting look at the Golden Age technology.

2. Mystic China - Truly another world within the setting.

3. Arzno - Just well done.

4. Xiticix - Just a great update to a unique enemy.

5. Free Quebec - A great pseudo-antagonist. They are a more tolerable and principled version of the CS.

[Fenris2020]

Mercenaries, Japan, Xiticix Invasion, Atlantis, New West.

I didn't count Mercenaries since it wasn't a "world book" but Juicer Uprising shouldn't be either. What did you think of Arzno?

Arzno's ok, they're just going to lengths to make an OP monster (vamps) even more OP.

[Warshield73]

Mercenaries, Japan, Xiticix Invasion, Atlantis, New West.

I didn't count Mercenaries since it wasn't a "world book" but Juicer Uprising shouldn't be either. What did you think of Arzno?

Arzno's ok, they're just going to lengths to make an OP monster (vamps) even more OP.

I do agree that PB vamps are over powered and that the Arzno vamps are more so, but I love Arzno itself and the new Techno-Wizardy stuff is great.

[Colonel_Tetsuya]

Mercenaries, Japan, Xiticix Invasion, Atlantis, New West.

I didn't count Mercenaries since it wasn't a "world book" but Juicer Uprising shouldn't be either. What did you think of Arzno?

Arzno's ok, they're just going to lengths to make an OP monster (vamps) even more OP.

Ive never found vamps to be that OP, as a player or a GM.

A prepared party has so many ways to deal with them that if we're talking even numbers (PCs vs Vamps) the Vamps are pooched. They dont inflict a lot of damage, and while they can take a fair bit of damage, there are LOTS of options for weapons that also INFLICT a lot of damage on them.

If your party is balanced (has some psychics/magic users) and prepared (silver/wooden ammunition or water guns)... vamps are pretty weaksauce. A vamp up against someone armed with a TW Lightblade is in serious trouble.

I like the Arzno World Book because it seems like a deliberate throwback to what Rifts was supposed to be - its a "major settlement" that is sub 100,000 people mostly surrounded by wilderness, the stuff presented in the book is not overpowered (and a lot of it was stuff that should have existed for a long while, like Ironwood Armor), and the setting/NPCs are internally consistent.

The only thing that isn't is the implication that somehow the Vampires could actually successfully attack Arzno... which just doesn't make sense. Given that almost all of the adult population has anti-vampire weapons, even non-magic using, non-psychic adults native to Arzno can often still use TW devices (from being able to do so as a child), and a large portion of the adult populace also owns the basic MD body armor....

There's no way even an "Army" of ~1000 vampires could do real, long-term damage.

Lets also not forget that Arzno has a Pyramid.... Vampires attack... and they could literally just blanket the entire city in a major thunderstorm.

But the "Major Threat" being a completely unrealistic threat and not really a threat at all seems to be a common Rifts trope/mistake. (Gargoyle Empire cannot possibly be a threat to the NGR, Demons from Megaverse in Flames/Minion War being a complete joke, etc).

[Colonel_Tetsuya]

If we're sticking to "World Books", id go:

Juicer Uprising (both for the fluff and the crunch, but the fluff is amazing.) As an RPG book, its probably one of the best "get inside the head of your character" books out there, second only, IMO to the 2nd Edition AD&D Complete Paladin's handbook (which had only a SINGLE chapter of crunch - relatively weak crunch at that - and was ENTIRELY about how to get inside the head of a Paladin). Its got a few blemishes (CJ likes his weapons to be one-shot wonders, ahem, JA-12 im looking at you), but as a whole its easily the best World/Setting expanding book of the bunch.

CWC for finally fleshing out the CS as a real threat. I think the book provided just enough info, a good background into how the CS works internally, and added enough new toys to make them an interesting and challenging foe at just about any power level.

Atlantis but.. mostly for the addition of Tattoo Magic and the basic concepts of the book. The actual fluff of Atlantis is nearly unusable (all those goodies.. your presumably good-aligned party of adventurers is just gonna jaunt to Atlantis and spend some time in slave-filled markets and buy stuff from the evil alien invaders?) except to provide stuff for PCs to fight, but its got enough usable stuff, and kind of set the bar for what a World Book should be. (WB1 was, and still is, even in WB1r, pretty awful).

Free Quebec I really like this book because it provides a great look at how different the CS states COULD potentially be from one another, something that is hinted at (even to this day) but never fleshed out except for FQ after they broke away. Its also got some decent new crunch (though why Free Quebec, who has the plans to produce CS-standard weapons pre-CWC, would produce guns that are actually inferior to those weapons merely to "be different".), though i can take or leave the new GB outside of the Glitter Girl (the idea of a slightly lighter, guerilla-warfare GB is good... the others like the Taurus and stuff are... meh; Sidekick is good though).

Federation of Magic and Psyscape, i kinda count these as one. In both instances, i think the setting fluff is nonsensical in a lot of ways (the Federation of Magic is absolutely no threat of any kind to the CS, period/end, full stop; while the fluff DOES make it clear why the CS attacking the FoM would be pointless (nothing to attack, really) it also makes it clear the Fed is basically just a boogeyman with no real teeth), and Psyscape's self-contained "fighting the evil souless Xombies just doesn't really add much to the setting because its so otherwise divorced from the rest of the setting... but the CRUNCH here is .... this stuff needed to be out earlier.

If we're going to go with "Sourcebooks of any kind"...

Mercenaries (well written fluff, lots of new goodies at a time when there was almost no equipment variety in Rifts)
Bionics Sourcebook (actually made playing a non-prebuilt chasis viable and not utterly confusing on how to build)
SB1 - same reason as Bionics (SB1r is sorta trash)
Converion Book One (non-revised) - for expanding the options in the early life of Rifts past "Human, Dog Boy, Psi-stalker, or Dragon", and providing Warlocks and setting-appropriate ways to use super-powers to create D-bee races.

all make it into the top.

[Fenris2020]

Mercenaries, Japan, Xiticix Invasion, Atlantis, New West.

I didn't count Mercenaries since it wasn't a "world book" but Juicer Uprising shouldn't be either. What did you think of Arzno?

Arzno's ok, they're just going to lengths to make an OP monster (vamps) even more OP.

Ive never found vamps to be that OP, as a player or a GM.

A prepared party has so many ways to deal with them that if we're talking even numbers (PCs vs Vamps) the Vamps are pooched. They dont inflict a lot of damage, and while they can take a fair bit of damage, there are LOTS of options for weapons that also INFLICT a lot of damage on them.

If your party is balanced (has some psychics/magic users) and prepared (silver/wooden ammunition or water guns)... vamps are pretty weaksauce. A vamp up against someone armed with a TW Lightblade is in serious trouble.

I like the Arzno World Book because it seems like a deliberate throwback to what Rifts was supposed to be - its a "major settlement" that is sub 100,000 people mostly surrounded by wilderness, the stuff presented in the book is not overpowered (and a lot of it was stuff that should have existed for a long while, like Ironwood Armor), and the setting/NPCs are internally consistent.

The only thing that isn't is the implication that somehow the Vampires could actually successfully attack Arzno... which just doesn't make sense. Given that almost all of the adult population has anti-vampire weapons, even non-magic using, non-psychic adults native to Arzno can often still use TW devices (from being able to do so as a child), and a large portion of the adult populace also owns the basic MD body armor....

There's no way even an "Army" of ~1000 vampires could do real, long-term damage.

Lets also not forget that Arzno has a Pyramid.... Vampires attack... and they could literally just blanket the entire city in a major thunderstorm.

But the "Major Threat" being a completely unrealistic threat and not really a threat at all seems to be a common Rifts trope/mistake. (Gargoyle Empire cannot possibly be a threat to the NGR, Demons from Megaverse in Flames/Minion War being a complete joke, etc).

People underestimate the vampire's physical strength.
I don't.
"I stab the vampire with my silver-plated dagger, but miss the heart."
"The vampire rugby-kicks you off the cliff."

[RPGRelicHunter]

Free Quebec I really like this book because it provides a great look at how different the CS states COULD potentially be from one another, something that is hinted at (even to this day) but never fleshed out except for FQ after they broke away. Its also got some decent new crunch (though why Free Quebec, who has the plans to produce CS-standard weapons pre-CWC, would produce guns that are actually inferior to those weapons merely to "be different".), though i can take or leave the new GB outside of the Glitter Girl (the idea of a slightly lighter, guerilla-warfare GB is good... the others like the Taurus and stuff are... meh; Sidekick is good though).

You nailed what I like about it! I also just love that V-Sam.

[Riftmaker]

vampire kingdoms

cs war campaign

mechanoids

phase world

mutants in orbit

[Colonel_Tetsuya]

Mercenaries, Japan, Xiticix Invasion, Atlantis, New West.

I didn't count Mercenaries since it wasn't a "world book" but Juicer Uprising shouldn't be either. What did you think of Arzno?

Arzno's ok, they're just going to lengths to make an OP monster (vamps) even more OP.

Ive never found vamps to be that OP, as a player or a GM.

A prepared party has so many ways to deal with them that if we're talking even numbers (PCs vs Vamps) the Vamps are pooched. They dont inflict a lot of damage, and while they can take a fair bit of damage, there are LOTS of options for weapons that also INFLICT a lot of damage on them.

If your party is balanced (has some psychics/magic users) and prepared (silver/wooden ammunition or water guns)... vamps are pretty weaksauce. A vamp up against someone armed with a TW Lightblade is in serious trouble.

I like the Arzno World Book because it seems like a deliberate throwback to what Rifts was supposed to be - its a "major settlement" that is sub 100,000 people mostly surrounded by wilderness, the stuff presented in the book is not overpowered (and a lot of it was stuff that should have existed for a long while, like Ironwood Armor), and the setting/NPCs are internally consistent.

The only thing that isn't is the implication that somehow the Vampires could actually successfully attack Arzno... which just doesn't make sense. Given that almost all of the adult population has anti-vampire weapons, even non-magic using, non-psychic adults native to Arzno can often still use TW devices (from being able to do so as a child), and a large portion of the adult populace also owns the basic MD body armor....

There's no way even an "Army" of ~1000 vampires could do real, long-term damage.

Lets also not forget that Arzno has a Pyramid.... Vampires attack... and they could literally just blanket the entire city in a major thunderstorm.

But the "Major Threat" being a completely unrealistic threat and not really a threat at all seems to be a common Rifts trope/mistake. (Gargoyle Empire cannot possibly be a threat to the NGR, Demons from Megaverse in Flames/Minion War being a complete joke, etc).

People underestimate the vampire's physical strength.
I don't.
"I stab the vampire with my silver-plated dagger, but miss the heart."
"The vampire rugby-kicks you off the cliff."

Show me the rules for supernatural PS causing knockdown or knockback... ever?

And why are we fighting near a cliff?

And why am I so totally unprepared all i have is a silver knife if im hunting vampires?

try again.

More like: I hit the vampire for 40+ damage with my Lightblade. He hits me for 5 MD with his fist.

[Fenris2020]

People underestimate the vampire's physical strength.
I don't.
"I stab the vampire with my silver-plated dagger, but miss the heart."
"The vampire rugby-kicks you off the cliff."

Show me the rules for supernatural PS causing knockdown or knockback... ever?

And why are we fighting near a cliff?

And why am I so totally unprepared all i have is a silver knife if im hunting vampires?

try again.

More like: I hit the vampire for 40+ damage with my Lightblade. He hits me for 5 MD with his fist.

Since when is a Lightblade common gear, even for actual Vampire Hunters, let alone every other OCC?
Never had a character ambushed, or all of your characters omniscient?
It may be a house-rule in 4 different games, but it's a logical thing that a supernaturally strong character would be at least as good at knock-down as those silly Big Bore weapons.
Try again,

[Hotrod]

My favorite world books

1. Triax: it effectively provides a new setting with a more focused, high-intensity war.
2. Atlantis: I actually like this place as a setting to play in as visitors or as slaves. Thanks to its global and interdimensional trade center status, it's fairly accessible, and the Splugorth minions make nice villains all over the world.
3. England: it's a hot mess, but I got inspired by the low-tech, high-magic focus, the druid O.C.C.'s, the millennium trees, and the Chiang-Ku, the parts where they didn't vamp on cultural/historical stereotypes or throw in unrelated debees. I like the herbology section so much that I've used it in the PFRPG setting.
4. Juicer Uprising: this was one of their best-conceived and best-executed books. It broadens and enhances the Juicer as a character type without making the original Juicer irrelevant or obsolete. The built-in adventure is good, too. I've never played a Juicer, but this book made me appreciate them a lot more.
5. Lone Star: rather like Juicer Uprising, this book broadened and explored the Dog Boy class, and I really liked that. Whereas Juicer Uprising focused more on an event than a location, Lone Star focused more on building the setting, and it does that really well. Nearly everything in the book felt relevant and useful.
6. Psyscape: Though the actual community of Psyscape seems a bit incoherent to me (I have no sense of what the place or its inhabitants are like), this expanded the scope of psychic classes in ways that inspired Duty's Edge.
7. Coalition War Campaign: The exploration of the Coalition military, its new look, its more-aggressive stance, and the deeper exploration of this dominant faction inspires me, whether I'm approaching them as the group's faction or as an antagonist faction.
8. Megaverse in Flames. This one inspires a lot of adventuring ideas and plenty of straight-up villainy.

[desrocfc]

Free Quebec I really like this book because it provides a great look at how different the CS states COULD potentially be from one another, something that is hinted at (even to this day) but never fleshed out except for FQ after they broke away. Its also got some decent new crunch (though why Free Quebec, who has the plans to produce CS-standard weapons pre-CWC, would produce guns that are actually inferior to those weapons merely to "be different".), though i can take or leave the new GB outside of the Glitter Girl (the idea of a slightly lighter, guerilla-warfare GB is good... the others like the Taurus and stuff are... meh; Sidekick is good though).

You nailed what I like about it! I also just love that V-Sam.

I love the V-SAM too!

For me, the 5 most influential were (in no particular order):

Coalition War Campaign. Provides a great leap forward in the storyline, giving the CS and political friction event that gives endless opportunities for a GM. Chalk full of OCCs, weapons, power armour and robots, this thing really launched the North American context along. That and, well, it gave me the incentive to write-up what the other side of the conflict may have looked like.

Atlantis. Splugorth were (still are) a great adversary with a huge (HOOOJ) cadre of minions to exploit as protagonists. That they pretty much can influence all the way up the Atlantic Seaboard gives them a wide range to mess around with PCs and the background plot in general.

Lone Star. A look at the secretive labs and bases that make up this unique Coalition State; genetic engineering to produce Dog Boys and Xiticix Hunters; the Pecos Empire. 'Nuff said.

Xiticix Invasion. Who doesn't love a good death-by-massive-bug-alien story? Well, maybe a guy with a provenance for insect phobias (yeah, this guy). That said, gives a great expansion on these classic beasts; and I love squishing me some bugs!

Triax and the NGR. Yeah, your garden-variety "guns and ammo" edition for Rifts, gives a surprisingly insightful description of the NGR and their struggles against the magnitude of D-Bees and monsters arrayed against them. They are, for lack of a better term, in a pickle.

Honourable Mentions:

Rifts Sourcebook 1 (Revised and Expanded Edition). The ARCHIE-03 and Hagan, as well as the recently added Republicans give a great sideline story.

Rifts Mercenaries. Gave us the original expansion into the mercenary's world of the Rifts world. Love this book.

Rifts Sourcebook 4: Coalition Navy. What can I say, it gave me a source for material to show Free Quebec sticking it to the Coalition military.....

[Colonel_Tetsuya]

People underestimate the vampire's physical strength.
I don't.
"I stab the vampire with my silver-plated dagger, but miss the heart."
"The vampire rugby-kicks you off the cliff."

Show me the rules for supernatural PS causing knockdown or knockback... ever?

And why are we fighting near a cliff?

And why am I so totally unprepared all i have is a silver knife if im hunting vampires?

try again.

More like: I hit the vampire for 40+ damage with my Lightblade. He hits me for 5 MD with his fist.

Since when is a Lightblade common gear, even for actual Vampire Hunters, let alone every other OCC?

Since they are cheap, readily available in Arzno, The Baronies, and Kingsdale (and one assumes Lazlo and New Lazlo), and activatable for HP, so literally anyone can use them. Or a TW Flame Blade... or a Psi-Sword (if the right class), or having supernatural strength (like a Dragon Hatchling, Titan Juicer, Mega Juicer, Dragon Juicer, T-man..)

All of whom will out-damage the Vampire, because they average like... 2D6 per hit. And can be parried. And have junk attributes.

Never had a character ambushed, or all of your characters omniscient?

The point of being prepared for the enemy you're fighting is to minimize the consequences of being ambushed. Vampire ambushes me... and then i activate my Lightblade and carve him up. Or i pull out my water gun and hose him down. I dont go hunting vampires or into vampire territory armed with just a silver knife unless im looking to die

It may be a house-rule in 4 different games, but it's a logical thing that a supernaturally strong character would be at least as good at knock-down as those silly Big Bore weapons.
Try again,

So.. you admit its a house rule and not something in Palladium (that would make dozens of PCs, including Dragon Hatchlings, absolute deathmonsters because they have supernatural PS by default) but are you using it in an argument about how in canon Vampires are OP?

Cant have it both ways, kiddo. (And FWIW, Big Bore weapons are pure cheese and i know of literally no one who plays with the KD rules, but even then.. being punched is not the same as being hit with a concussive shaped charge deliberately designed to knock you down).

SN PS doesn't inherently cause knockdown. Therefore, it is not a factor in how dangerous Vampires are other than the damage it allows them to inflict... which is pretty pitiful.

[Fenris2020]

People underestimate the vampire's physical strength.
I don't.
"I stab the vampire with my silver-plated dagger, but miss the heart."
"The vampire rugby-kicks you off the cliff."

Show me the rules for supernatural PS causing knockdown or knockback... ever?

And why are we fighting near a cliff?

And why am I so totally unprepared all i have is a silver knife if im hunting vampires?

try again.

More like: I hit the vampire for 40+ damage with my Lightblade. He hits me for 5 MD with his fist.

Since when is a Lightblade common gear, even for actual Vampire Hunters, let alone every other OCC?

Since they are cheap, readily available in Arzno, The Baronies, and Kingsdale (and one assumes Lazlo and New Lazlo), and activatable for HP, so literally anyone can use them. Or a TW Flame Blade... or a Psi-Sword (if the right class), or having supernatural strength (like a Dragon Hatchling, Titan Juicer, Mega Juicer, Dragon Juicer, T-man..)

All of whom will out-damage the Vampire, because they average like... 2D6 per hit. And can be parried. And have junk attributes.

Never had a character ambushed, or all of your characters omniscient?

The point of being prepared for the enemy you're fighting is to minimize the consequences of being ambushed. Vampire ambushes me... and then i activate my Lightblade and carve him up. Or i pull out my water gun and hose him down. I dont go hunting vampires or into vampire territory armed with just a silver knife unless im looking to die

It may be a house-rule in 4 different games, but it's a logical thing that a supernaturally strong character would be at least as good at knock-down as those silly Big Bore weapons.
Try again,

So.. you admit its a house rule and not something in Palladium (that would make dozens of PCs, including Dragon Hatchlings, absolute deathmonsters because they have supernatural PS by default) but are you using it in an argument about how in canon Vampires are OP?

Cant have it both ways, kiddo. (And FWIW, Big Bore weapons are pure cheese and i know of literally no one who plays with the KD rules, but even then.. being punched is not the same as being hit with a concussive shaped charge deliberately designed to knock you down).

SN PS doesn't inherently cause knockdown. Therefore, it is not a factor in how dangerous Vampires are other than the damage it allows them to inflict... which is pretty pitiful.

Is calling me a kiddo a personal attack?

Anyway, the Lightblade costs 20,000 credits, and I'm not seeing anywhere that it's as common as you seem to claim.
*Shrug* People get knocked down and around by non-supernatural punches and kicks quite a bit.
And as I understand it, vampires can be found pretty much anywhere, and how many 1st level characters start with the awesome gear?
I know, I know, I'm spouting blasphemy; I'll stop.

[Library Ogre]

I never really ran a Rifts game, but England is one I went back to, again and again. Atlantis is so central to so many other parts of the world (anywhere the Splugorth touch) it's pretty hard to NOT need that one. Underseas has a lot of neat things, and it's got the same "touches on everything" aspect.

[Curbludgeon]

I kinda lump books about regions together, so will discuss them at least a little as such:

Atlantis: The quintessential world book. If this isn't on someone's list, they either came to this setting well after its heyday, or are lying. Splynn Dimensional Market is a decent adjunct, but is more of a second fiddle than in some other examples.

Greater Ohio Valley: I've spent a lot of time in Kentucky, and so am biased, but I love to see the state given an out of the ordinary presentation. "Between Nxla and the City of Brass" was in one campaign our group's "Twixt Scylla and Charybdis" or, if you prefer, between a rock and a hard place. With Psi-Ghosts coming out of Fadetowns as an example of the various detailed dimensional anomalies, multiple forms of EEEVIL carving out kingdoms, a large population of mystical and spiritual casters, and one of the best little cities for mercenaries, it's by and large my favorite treatment of the region in RPGs.

Underseas/Lemuria: Palladium circumvented the Atlantis is Boring trope by not only making Atlantis not aquatic, but eventually making the aquatic group engaging. Some of the other sentient underwater races aren't as developed or numerous as in, say, D&D, but are servicable. The Cthulhu expy is slightly more of an homage than a rip-off, the treatment of cetaceans tends to elicit a love/hate response, Lemuria wouldn't have sold nearly as well without Charles Walton (which honestly can be said for most books to which he's contributed), and Davy Jones is pants-on-head dumb, but it's still evocative as all get out.

South America: The tendency to complain about the numbers being too high is largely getting on a bandwagon to throw a writer under it instead of a bus. Dial them back to get the haters to shut up, and it's a great example of how to detail numerous factions in a kitchen-sink setting.

D-Bees of North America: More grist for the mill, baby. That PB took the wrong idea from this when putting together the Bestiary is disappointing. Extended articles about the ecology of species are fantastic, but if the semi-pro 'zine is on indefinite hiatus then stuff like that gets distributed online. I want more things, given concise and directly applicable background on how to insert them into a game, and accompanied with quality artwork.

[Colonel_Tetsuya]

Is calling me a kiddo a personal attack?

An observation of your attitude. If its uncomfortable, dont act like it.

Anyway, the Lightblade costs 20,000 credits,

Less than a laser rifle.

and I'm not seeing anywhere that it's as common as you seem to claim.

Its mentioned in Arzno that they are extremely common (all anti-vampire weapons; to the point that the plans are shared around freely because Vampires Bad) also in the source material that they came from in the first place (the entire RUE TW system was printed in The Rifter years prior to RUEs release, and all those new items (that were not in the RMB) are from there.)

*Shrug* People get knocked down and around by non-supernatural punches and kicks quite a bit.

Not in the rules they do not. Vampires aren't knocking people around by the rules. That something you're inventing, and then trying to use as a fact in an argument where the facts on the ground state clearly that that ISNT how it works. Knockdown is pretty rare. There are a few spells, Big Bore Rounds (which i agree, are lame), Slammer missiles (Triax).... thats about it for "common" knockdown

And as I understand it, vampires can be found pretty much anywhere,

Not really, no. Not in great numbers. About the farthest north they get outside of Texas/Arizona is the Colorado Baronies, and thats one particular group in Silverino. Mostly they are confined to the Southwest or even further south.

and how many 1st level characters start with the awesome gear?

Without even looking at a book - TWs (can start with a TW sword and other TW weapons), Several of the OCCs from Mercenaries, Mystic Knights, a Rifts Priest, several OCCs from New West (can start with TW weapons), and others. Quite a few OCCs can start with TW items. Lets go with "dozens". A bunch of OCCs can even start with honest to go magic weapons.

I know, I know, I'm spouting blasphemy; I'll stop.

No, just nonsense.

And constantly moving the goalposts. With like rocket assists.

Every time your theory had holes shot in it, twist the circumstances more to make yourself right. (To the point of "well vampires can be anywhere and wil ambush your 1st level PC)" It doesn't wear well.

Also, how many GMs are complete jerkoffs and ambush 1st level PCs nowhere near vampire territory with vampires?

And.. given how powerful a TW Lightblade is, even against non-undead (it still inflicts 1D4x10+(caster level) to EVERYTHING, as well as a potential extra 1D6 from Fencing), and can be activated without needing PPE or ISP, id carry one as a backup. Its a pretty potent weapon.

I think you have the missapprehension that TW items are automatically "rare".

They aren't.

[Zer0 Kay]

Books
1 Vampire Kingdom
2 Atlantis
3 England
5 Triax
7 Rifts Underseas
Honorable non-Rifts Mentions...
TMNT Transdimensional
PFRPG Island at the End of the World and Library of Blethorad
RT
Splicers
Nightspawn

For me Rifts is literally a Megaversal Series so if you play in one of my games you should expect to go anywhere and if I play in one of yours I'll probably try at least once to bring in something from outside. I think the ONLY game I don't use in my Rifts game is Recon.

[Leslie Simpson]

thanks for placing a video. For me as well, give the first place for Japan, and the last maybe for New West