Rifts sourcebook 3 Mindwerks reviews the extra content that Kevin Siembieda was unable to fit into the Triax world book. If you are looking for ways to expand your Rifts campaign in Europe, Russia, or China, this book could be helpful.
Rifts sourcebook 3 includes nearly a dozen OCCs and RCCs. It is the birthplace of M.O.M. implants and powers, plus has new robots, equipment, and power armor. As for areas, it includes maps for the New German Republic, detailed information on the Angels of Death and Vengeance, plus more on evil trees and gene splicers.
Mindwerks™ is a companion to Triax & The NGR™ with the techno-horrors of the Mindwerks Corporation and its insane mastermind, the Angel of Death. More on the NGR, Gargoyle and Brodkil Empires, robots and equipment, plus the Gene-Splicers, a dozen D-Bee races (optional player characters), an evil Millennium Tree and mind altering cybernetic implants that provide incredible psionic and other abilities!
Rifts Mindwerks Gm Material
This book is rather expansive in regards to describing Mindwerks itself but also how the Angel of Death and Vengeance are using it. If a GM is looking for an evil bad guy in the shadows then this makes for a good villain book. If not using Mindwerks then you can always use the many Brodkil at their disposal or look at the Millenium Tree, or other Villains in the area.
Rifts Sourcebook 3 Player Material
Players could use the RCCs and maybe some OCCs though most gear and robots are off-limits. The psinetics are probably something players would like to get their hands on most but that will be difficult. They are not readily available though maybe “given” by the GM as an experiment as well.
Story material in Rifts Sourcebook 3 Mindwerks
The story of Mindwerks starts with the Angel of Death who is utterly sadistic, has little regard for life in general, and sees herself as a god, to name a few things. She is the creator of M.O.M. technology on Rifts Earth which is incredible psychic implants.
To begin with, Angel Herrenisel began rather blandly as a researcher and owner of the Mindwerks facility. The research was losing funding until someone saw value in her work and paid to have Mindwerks created. While at the site shortly after its creation the ley lines erupted and chaos ensued as we all know.
To know more about the background and inner workings of this utterly insane woman pick up the book. That said she is not the only one that operates at the Mindwerks facility. She has a daughter, after a fashion, and several million Bodkil sub-demons accept her as their leader.
The originality of Rifts Sourcebook 3
I think it’s a rather original piece of work. Here’s one example: the obsessions of Angel and her rationale are perfectly portrayed as being utterly crazy because they have literally no connection, and yet the evil cyborg thinks it makes total sense. She wants to have everyone praise her and the ancestors of Mindwerks for their brilliant work, yet nobody knows about the work they do there as they keep it secret. They plan on getting this by making others fear them with the use of an augmented brodkil army. While she is augmenting the Brodkil with M.O.M. technology only a dozen people even know where Mindwerks is, much less what it does.
She makes for a really good crazy bad girl.
How game breaking is Sourcebook 3
As far as the standard use of psionics go, Psinetics, and M.O.M. implants could be considered game-breaking. For instance, the Angels both have a psinetic implant that stops the deterioration of their brains, effectively making each of them immortal.
That said, they don’t tell others about that device, much less many others. Nor do they really sell their inventions. You could arguably get them from defeating some brodkil, or some experimental OCC they let loose. Most likely though the stuff in this book should stay in the hands of the NPCs and GM characters only.
There are two exceptions that can be utterly game-breaking. The two exceptions are the Demon Mage and the Gene Splicers. Luckily they are both NPCs but what you can do with them is rather unparalleled. Gene Splicers are incredible genetic engineers and can do almost anything you want, while the Demon mage just has crazy amounts of power at his disposal.
How good are the occs in Mindwerks
The OCCs are really different and could be interesting. They go as far as making me rethink the possibilities of cyborgs having psionics and perhaps magic. Most of the OCCs will only be usable by players if they also take the idea that they were experiments. Therefore they may not have any gear to start with, especially if in Europe, those making their way elsewhere will have picked up some things most likely.
If you are a shifter, or anyone looking for a good supernatural minion then the Seeker RCC makes a great option. They are not super powerful but they have a lot of useful bits to them. Plus they are big and you can use them as a mount, so overall pretty fun race.
How well does it mix with the core book
This is a “meh” book for me. The entire description of Mindwerks and its secrecy make it seem like a fart in the wind. It’s “out there” but there’s nothing you can do to stop the evil women and nobody knows where they are. In addition, the same can be said of their technology. It’s out there but it’s not going to become mainstream by any means. It mixes with the core book fine but does also require a couple of other books from Europe to be fully useable.