Rifts world book 6 South America 1 is one of those books that changed the face of Rifts. Some say it’s a power gaming book, shouldn’t have been made, or loved it. I Fit mostly in the last category as I think it really brought a different feel and vibe to Rifts Earth.
Rifts South America review short summary brings us close to 20 new OCCs, biomancy magic, eight kingdoms, interdimensional merchants, gods, and invaders. To complete the kingdoms we have their weapons, equipment, and unique histories. Story information includes hints about vampires, Atlantis, the Coalition, and more.
In short, I want to say.. wow. CJ Carella did a great job here of envisioning an entirely different, and unique area. He did all that and brought a ton of new stuff to us all.
Explore the jungles of South America and discover the secrets of biomancy, living power armor, anti-monster cyborgs, bio-modified female super-warriors, reptilian D-Bees, pincer warriors, voodoo priests, and dark conspiracies. Plus, pirates, insectoid D-Bees, dragons, new weapons and equipment, magic, adventure and more!
Gm Material from South America 1
GMs will be able to pull from 8 totally new areas with full histories. Before getting into the kingdoms though the book goes into some good detail about the area as a whole, as far as weather, terrain, environment, etc.
World Book 6 Player Material
This book gives players more of what they already have, but never get enough of races, classes, and equipment. South America 1 is one of the top books for most races and equipment to be offered in a Rifts book. There are others with far more in one area or another, but those are usually specific books targeted only at one topic like D-bees of North America, or book of magic, or fleets of the three galaxies.
Story material in Rifts world book 6
Some of the areas in South America have plots going on that you would not expect for the environment. For example, Vampires are killed by running water so you wouldn’t expect them in a rainforest area, but they are indeed in South America, with some help of course. Other things include pirates, Splugorth slavers, and a slavers port city.
World Book 6 has a lot of intriguing angles from available story arcs. As mentioned above but also with alien intelligence, dragons, gods, dragon slayers, high-tech combat options, and more.
Rifts world book 6 south America 1 originality
Totally new take on a lush tropical rain forest. There is a lot that South America offers that just can’t be found in other books. Not just can’t be offered but done in ways that are enjoyable and make you want to create games in the area.
How game-breaking is Rifts South America 1
This world book isn’t so much as game-breaking as it is what many call the start of the “power creep”. It introduces weapons, equipment, races, and occs that have more powerful abilities, and/or MDC (Rifts high tech version of hit points), than previous books offered. I think the book is just fine and fits in quite well offering a totally new set of challenges and ways of defeating them.
How good are the occs in Rifts world book 6
Rifts South America 1 OCcs are by far much different than other world books brought us. The Anti-monster for example is arguably stronger than any other OCC in the world books. It is the first cyborg that gets magical powers, supernatural powers, a psychic sense, and supernatural attributes. This makes them very formidable, able to wield weapons that are normally reserved to power armor and robot (if awkward to carry). That’s not all there is either.
A new magic OCC called the Biomancer brings new magic options using plant life to create with and cast through. You can shape plants, teleport through trees, or make armor from plants just to name some of their spells. They have powers to match though like healing touch, creating bioweapons, and half a dozen more. Are there others still?
Yes indeed, as stated above close to 20. Some of which are races but they all still offer many new opportunities. Some of the races available include the fierce Amazonian warrior woman, Hunter Cat RCC, Oracle Cat RCC, Gatherers, and many more. Are they good though?
Well, that really depends on the game one is playing. As this is a book about South America then it stands to reason setting wise they survived where others did not. If you are wondering if they would be usable outside of South America then I would mostly say no, except for the were-cats and the like. It doesn’t mean you couldn’t bring a race or class from South America because players are generally considered the exception, but these are the races and occs specific TO South America.
How well does Rifts South America 1 mix with the core book
The stuff listed in South America often gets an iffy vibe from most Gms when playing Rifts Earth because many things are outliers from the norm. If you are playing Rifts Earth where the Coalition is at the top of the technology level then South America kind of throws that thought out the window. So what do you do?
What I tend to do is bring stuff from other world books into the mix after several levels of play. That is assuming the game started in North America, which most do. Alternately you can play in setting South America provides and limit OCC and race selection to the book itself. Either of these methods is going to be the simplest way of maintaining the setting feel or maintaining the game balance a GM wants.