Starting with Rifts dimension book 5 Anvil Galaxy, Palladium Books expands on the Three Galaxies, each with its own book. There is a lot of stuff hinted at in the first two Phase World books that gets expanded upon in a Dimension book of their own plus new material is included. Lets get into what it gives a GM.
A detailed look at the Anvil Galaxy.
What material does dimension book 5 anvil galaxy give GMs
To start with the Anvil Galaxy book gives direction and background on the Cosmic Forge. It outlines what happened in the past regarding it and then gives 9 myths or possibilities around its whereabouts and powers. After the myths(called heresies in the book) it gives detail on the Forge War and some thoughts about that a GM could use for game creation. After this it goes into some geography about each the Three Galaxies: Corkscrew, Thundercloud, and Anvil.
Through the geography you learn about each galaxies population, politics, languages, and some on money and trade. Afterwards it talks about space travel.
With so much area to cover its a good thing the book talks about space travel in more detail. It goes over types of interstellar threats, and how they affect travel. The section also talks about how long travel usually takes and how repression fields work. Lastly it covers communication in the Three Galaxies. This stuff is useful when reading the other books, but note that its setting specific and if you want to make changes for your games do so. After geography Dimension book 5 covers Anvil Galaxy specific races, equipment, and more detail for the major power blocks within it.
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People of the Three galaxies
Anvil Galaxy covers about 19 different new races. It also covers some new organizations and races only talked about previously like the Altess Dynasty, Golgan Republik, Gene-Tech, and the Omegan Order(an evil opposite of the Cosmo-Knight).
There is a plethora of setting specific information that could be used for entire campaigns like the Altess home world building up an energy surge that will rip the planet from existence. Or you could have a huge game around the Omegan order trying to take down the Cosmo-Knights. This book also expounds on the races that rule Naruni Enterprises. Lets shift and move over to player stuff.
Rifts dimension book 5 Anvil Galaxy Player material
Aside from the races mentioned the major addition for players is.. nope that’s really it. Knowing more about each of these races is actually really cool for players I think. Knowing that something tragic may befall the Altess for example may give your player character opportunities to bargain for a ship that they normally wouldn’t sell. Onto story material.
What story material does Rifts dimension book 5 Anvil Galaxy add?
The primary story addition from the Anvil Galaxy is the Forge War and how the power blocks are responding in regards to it. Its not so much of a story addition though more like it gives you direction as to why say the Consortium of Civilized Worlds has stunted technological growth because of the Forge War. It can be used as story material but its really expanding the explanation of the setting.
How original is Rifts dimension book 5 Anvil Galaxy?
Fully describing all the major power blocks and their inner workings I think this book rates a 5 star for originality. Going as far as it does to describe law and order of the TGE, Naruni Enterprises, CCW, and others makes it just full of fun reading.
Is Dimension book 5 game breaking?
The only somewhat game breaking thing, and its really just a balance to something existing, is the Omegan Order. It explains how some beings are experimented on and made super powerful specifically to fight the Cosmo-Knights. They are not intended as player characters at all.
How good are Anvil Galaxies OCCs(classes)?
There are no new OCCs discussed in the book. No super powerful game breaking class additions, technology, magic items, or other silliness. Its purely a book of setting expansion.
How well does Rifts dimension book 5 mix with the core Rifts game?
If you are considering a crossover from Rifts Earth to Phase World then this is a must have book. It would give you so many ideas for one time games, or for players to get ideas for places to go. With that in mind though let me say that there isn’t anything that will come back with players to Rifts Earth. So in short I would say it doesn’t work with the core Rifts game as its another Galaxy entirely.
The Anvil Galaxy dimension book expands a lot on Naruni Enterprises, The United Worlds of Warlock, the Altess Dynasty and others as far as their demographics, populations, overviews, alliances, etc. If you want to play in the Anvil Galaxy this is a must have book.