The first Rifts dimension book Manhunter is a sourcebook that was made by Myrmidon Press. In my experience, it did not get the use or fame that other dimension books got. My first impression when reading through the book and looking at the art was that it has a bit of a Terminator feel to it or Rifts Earth Coalition deaths head. Let’s get into the different sections of the review.
Rifts explode into a new dimension bringing them in contact with unforeseen races, and evils. Check out the new races, OCCs, gear, and fight evil on many planets.
GM material
There are a lot of things a GM could use to put together a story. Each race has a breakdown of its society, some planets, and relations with others. That alone allows for a lot of variety in where to start a game.
While I don’t care much for the backstory, it gives a lot of ways for a GM to go with their view on the Manhunters. Do they team up with the Mechanoids? Do the Splugoth invalid and take over? Does a group of Atlanteans (Players???) show up first after escaping a Naruni Repo Bot, only to sense them checking the Rift behind them?
I think the equipment, races, and classes would make for great extra flavor stuff for use in the standard Rifts setting. The spacecraft wouldn’t work for Rifts Earth but you could add them for any other Rifts space setting for much more variety.
Player material
Arms and equipment for the game I think are sub-par, yes that is a comparison to the regular Rifts setting as well as other space settings. Everyone is going to compare them which is why I don’t use Manhunter much.
Rifts dimension book manhunter Story material
The back story of Rifts dimension book manhunter is that Rifts broke open around different worlds and people were afraid of them. Some people went to research them. After finding a stable one they went through it, and as chance would have it the darn thing closed.
They weren’t able to figure out how to get back to their home dimension until finding some alien tech, which they still didn’t understand but somehow understood enough to make it open a Rift. Upon return, they were attacked, and all but 2 people were massacred.
Those 2 people were allowed to live in return for helping the attackers by opening portals to other dimensions that they could go and pillage. This turns them into dimensional raiders, which is not a new concept as in Rifts World Book England the Temporal Raider is first described. It is however I think the first race not led by supernatural beings, sort of (arguably Atlanteans are, as with other races that dimensionally travel).
Main setting conflict
However, there is a more malevolent part to the rifts; other supernatural forces will eventually find their way to the Manhunter universe. Beings of immense power like the Evil Splugorth (though if one’s nature is that of enslaving, the powerful rule, deception manipulation, and the like are the status quo, can you really still call them evil.. I digress though).
Meanwhile, there is racial tension throughout the Manhunter dimension as humans see a race called the Aglians “as a hostile and technologically superior race that posed a threat to the freedom for which the Exiles colonies stood” -page 2 Rifts: Manhunter. After a bad exchange, the Aglians decided they must build war machines to stop the bloodthirsty humans.
Final thoughts on the story
My thoughts: The story for Manhunter is an alright setting, but just “alright”. I don’t find it to be so neat a setting that I would make games in the setting on a regular basis. Personally, I find it to be a bit cliche and lackluster. This only gets compounded even further when looking at the races, classes, and equipment.
There are some fun ideas I think, mostly in the realm of players having to broker peace between the races so they can build defenses against the coming forces. You could focus a game solely on players being sent to stop the splugorth from entering, or perhaps you could play it as a power game with players defeating a Splugoth that has already arrived.
Originality
I see this as yet another “machines against humans” plot line and I turn away from it. I don’t find it to be intriguing because ultimately it’s not really any different than fighting a brick wall. What I mean by that is simply that it’s not a living, breathing human. Machines have no emotion, no creativity, and well maybe it’s really the lack of humanity. I don’t relate to them in any way.
The overall backstory and types of robots and such however I think are pretty different than in other settings. Though the book stats leave a lot to be desired. That being said if you take the GM notes into account where it states that Manhunters are supposed to be extremely powerful then it would be wise for GMs in modern days to beef them up significantly.
Rifts dimension book manhunter weapon art and equipment art is very unique to Manhunter only. I really like the looks of blades and power armor throughout the book. Some images are gorier than you normally see in Rifts books but I thought that a fitting change to the setting.
Game breaking
Nothing in the book is game-breaking, in my view, in any way. Weapons of all types follow the standard 1d6-5d6 damage range most Rifts books use. Most armor and other equipment are on par with what I would call sub-ideal gear.
How good are the OCCs(classes)
Page 2 of the Cannibal OCC says “Survival of the fittest defines the Mnahunter universe”. I find the OCCs to be rather ridiculous. They did their best to make the class sound cool, but I find many of them to be totally out of place and plain silly.
The Bloodletter for example is a swordsman class that is described as being good for spaceship boarding but is then pictured without any gear that you would consider to be space worthy. They do however at least list appropriate equipment so that’s.. something I guess. Classes feel like watered-down versions of those already available in other books.
The main challenge I have with the classes and races is that I see no way they could stand up to the Manhunters in any way. To me, the entire situation is a war of attrition that the humanoid races have no hope of winning. For the Manhunters it’s a guaranteed slow win.
How does Rifts dimension book manhunter mix with the core Rifts game?
Mixes quite well with the standard OCCs in Rifts though perhaps a little lacking in comparison. Weapons and armor are fairly comparable. Spaceships do not fit Rifts Earth at all, though you could have a Mutants in Orbit style game where they would need considerable alterations or be considered top of the line (no FTL drives exist so they would be light years ahead-haha..see what I did there).
The bounty system is already in Rifts with the addition of Rifts Mercenaries, and maybe also Merc Ops. So to that end, the ones listed at the end of Manhunter may be a good addition for a town you add. Perhaps instead of Duluth hives full of Xiticixohiasdf.. or whatever the bugs are called… you have a bunch of Manhunters. Maybe they got rifted in and the bugs rifted out.
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Buy Rifts Manhunter from Amazon
For a different though short alternate review check out RPGnet