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Discussions and Optional Rules for Rifts

Contents: Rifts Earth Phase World / Three Galaxies

As stated in the title, these rules are optional. They are designed to be useful for games, both to fill loopholes in rules and make certain areas more playable and more enjoyable. In some cases, they are also designed to deal with situation which make case serious game balance issues. Of specific interest are rules to make starship combat more dynamic with higher speeds and longer ranged. All of my starship write-ups use my revised starship rules. Some rules written for Rifts Earth are also applicable for the Phase World / Three Galaxies setting and the reverse is true with some as well. Date in Parentheses () is the last date modified or when the file was added to the website.

Sections:

Rifts Earth

Depth Charge Penalties by Kitsune. (08/18/1998)
Depth Charges cannot be considers very accurate weapons and only when used in large numbers have a good chance of hitting their target. Most navies have abandoned them in favor of using torpedoes. These are rules to apply penalties to depth charges.

Defined Talents - Additional by Kitsune. (05/28/2016)
These give additional defined talents with respect to the special ability of Defined Talents from Rifts - World Book 13 - Lone Star.

E-Clip Rules by Kitsune. (08/31/2005)
Some relatively simple rules to convert the use of E-clips from a number of shots per weapon to use a set number of charges.

Extended Range Rules by Mischa. (08/19/2001)
Some relatively simple rules to extend the range of weapons with increasing penalties as the range increases.

General Detection Penalties / Bonuses by Kitsune. (12/18/1998)
Some relatively simple rules to govern the detection of targets and has a special section for stealth vehicles. These rules can be used for all of Palladium Games set in modern or high tech settings.

Holy Water Paintball Rounds by Kitsune. (10/15/2007)
Rules for special rounds against vampires.

Iron Heart Vehicles (Revisions) by Kitsune. (04/06/2009)
A variety of revisions to Iron Heart Armament' vehicles to make them more like modern vehicles, make them more playable, and make them more useful.

Learning Spells by Kitsune. (03/18/2012)
Set of rules to guide the time a mage requires to learn new spells. Designed to be both quick and simple. These rules can be used for all of Palladium Games setting that have magic within them.

Missile Blast Damage by Kitsune. (01/28/1999)
Simple rule governing missile blast radius and damage while still being fair and balanced.

Multiple Missile Warheads by Kitsune. (05/28/2016)
Rules for treatment for missiles with multiple warheads.

New Aircraft Maneuvers by Kitsune. (07/14/2001)
These rules give new maneuvers for aircraft.

Modified Vampire Rules by Kitsune. (10/15/2007)
Slightly modified rules revising treatment of holy water and holy symbols with vampires.

Non-Human Zombies and Mummies by Kitsune. (10/13/2008)
Palladium fantasy and Rifts only describe Zombies and Mummies of basic human origin. There are many other possibilities including monster races and animals. This is a list of just a few alternate mummy and zombie type.

Optional Major Psychic Rules by Kitsune. (09/26/2014)
By the standard rules, major psychics lose a number of skills. This optional rule allows characters to retain all of their skills however pays more experience per level.

Raising P.P.E. through Ritual by Kitsune. (12/30/2001)
Rules for Spell Casters to gain more magic energy by the use of Rituals. Some rituals are fairly benign while others are considered quite evil.

Revised bomb and missile tables by Chris Curtis, Mad Dog, and Kitsune (10/25/2009)
Revises the damage and ranges of missile in Rifts. It also adds special warheads for both missile and bombs, and special rules concerning nuclear warheads, and rules concerning missile guidance systems.

Revised Pre-Rifts Timeline by Kitsune & Mischa. (06/27/2003)
Time for Pre-Rifts created by Kitsune and Mischa designed to fit into the time-line the various creations on the website and to better explain the Pre-Rifts events.

Silver Rounds vs Supernatural by Kitsune. (11/10/2001)
These rules are for special effect of silver rounds against supernatural beings.

Supernatural Zombies and Mummies by Kitsune. (11/28/2008)
Palladium fantasy and Rifts only describe Zombies and Mummies of basic human origin. In addition to using other humanoid races and animals, some supernatural creatures make extremely dangerous mummies and zombies.

Weapons for Larger Humanoids by Kitsune. (09/26/2014)
Alternate rules for the damage of weapons used by races which are larger than normal humans.

Phase World / Three Galaxies

Anti-Matter by Mischa & Kitsune. (08/12/1998)
Anti-Matter is more dangerous that Star Trek (TM) shows. This addresses the problems with anti-matter and the best ways to solve the problems with having anti-matter in Phase World. While these suggestions may not be for all groups, I suggested them because they should be available.

Cosmic Ley Line Sailing (F.T.L. Travel) by Kitsune. (03/10/2017)
There are a number of less commonly described means of faster than light travel in the Three Galaxies. One of these is Ley Line Sailing where starships travel along Cosmic Ley Lines.

Force Fields & Disruption Weapons by Kitsune. (02/06/1999)
These are general rules to explain certain situations with shield disruption style weapons. They prevent force fields as being reduced greatly in usefulness while still keeping shield disruption style weapons are useful.

Phase World / Three Galaxies Background Skills by Kitsune. (06/12/1998)
While the Phase World Gamebooks do not give beings from advanced areas any background skills, it is logal that they would have some due to the fact that people from the NGR and the Republic of Japan do so this is a list of background skills for Phase World.

Realistic Space Maneuvering by Kitsune and Mischa. (09/24/2000)
There are many people who have an unclear idea about how vehicles ships maneuver in space. These opinions are often based on Star Trek, Star Wars, and other similar programs. This discussion is designed to straighten out information on this.

Revised Rules on Robotech/Macross Heavy Particle Beam Strikes by Kitsune. (04/08/1998)
These rules allow Phase World ships with heavy shields to protect themselves from the Robotech and Macross heavy particle beams as well as allowing large ships to make partial dodges to survive a particle beam blast even if they are too large.

Revised Starship Rules for Phase World / Three Galaxies (Inertia Based) by Kitsune. (06/04/2015)
The speed of starships in Phase World are so slow that it would take a starship years without using its FTL engine for travel from the Earth to Mars and Phase World Starships would be defeated by any Robotech or Macross starship without being able to fire a shot. These rule address these problems.

Revised Starship Rules for Phase World / Three Galaxies (Inertia-Less) by Kitsune. (06/04/2015)
Alternate rules for starships which are less realistic but are less complex to use. Very similar to the original revised starship rules but are simplified.

Acceleration Spreadsheets (Zipped) by Kitsune. (01/01/1999)
Spreadsheets to make for easier calculations of starship speeds for Phase World or Mutants in Orbit. the Acceleration spreadsheet is meant for vehicles that accelerate in G and Combat Acceleration is mean for starships that accelerate in percentages of light. They are saved in Excel, Lotus, and Qpro versions. They were originally written in Qpro

Starship Classes for Phase World / Three Galaxies by Kitsune. (02/22/2016)
To clear up what a starship of a specific size should be called, the author have created a list of starship sizes and classes. This list includes both carriers and non carrier type vessels. In addition, the lists include a number of specialized classes.

Starship Ice Armor by Kitsune. (04/27/2015)
An interesting tactic is to put ice on a relatively large starship to be able to withstand additional damage. Useful for both cruisers and battleships.

Phase World / Three Galaxies Techno Wizard Enchantments & Equipment by Kitsune. (05/28/2016)
Many people have stated that the costs of Techno-wizard Enchantments should not be the same for large ships as it is for fighters and other small vehicles. Because of this, these optional rules that are useful in both Phase World and on Rifts Earth that increase P.P.E. costs. Also list includes special techno-wizard equipment for Phase World starships, Techno-Wizard sensors for Phase World starships, and how to calculate the cost of P.P.E. Generators.

UFO Intruder Vessel Revisions by Kitsune. (10/06/2001)
The UFO Aliens are meant as a major menace for the Phase World / Three Galaxies. The problem is that the statistics for their equipment do not show them to be as powerful as they are described as being. The second problem is that the abilities described under UFO alien vessels simply do not mesh with the revised starship rules created by the author. These revisions are designed to solve both problems.

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