So I have been a fan of the tabletop roleplaying game “Rifts” for decades. Well, that’s not entirely accurate. I’m a huge fan of the setting and style of the game. I have only tolerated the game itself, because the system in the original Palladium Books version is barely playable. Regardless, I still bought a lot of those original books, and my old group played that game for years, off and on, just because of the setting alone.
When I eventually found out that a new version of “Rifts” was released using the “Savage Worlds” rules, I was a bit excited. Unfortunately, by that time it was pretty much impossible to buy the Adventure Edition (also known as SWADE) version, as most of the books were sold out, as was the boxed set. But last year Pinnacle Entertainment did a Kickstarter for a new printing of the “Savage Rifts” SWADE boxed set, which I of course backed (as well as the 20th edition of SWADE itself, in a separate Kickstarter), so now I’m pretty well set, right?
Right?
The thing is, “Rifts” is as much about the different Dimension and World books, as it was for the core game, and that’s something that “Savage Rifts” definitely lacked… Until now.
Star Anvil (the folks behind the TTRPG version of “The Secret World”) is doing a Kickstarter for a SWADE version of the “Rifts” setting, “Phase World”. Now I was a huge fan of “Phase World” in the original “Rifts”, and will definitely be backing this project when it launches soon (as of this writing, it has yet to launch). But there was one thing that confused me, looking over the “Coming Soon” page for this project on Kickstarter:
The requirements.
Specifically, it doesn’t require “Savage Rifts”, but does require “Savage Worlds Adventure Edition” (of course), and the SWADE “Science Fiction Companion”.
Seriously? I get that the setting would need the SWADE core rulebook, since “Savage Rifts” does, too, but why wouldn’t “Savage Rifts” be a fair replacement for the “Sci-Fi Companion”, should you not have that book?
Well, I asked the fine folks at Star Anvil about that, and apparently it comes down to certain rules regarding starships construction and so forth. Rules that are in the Companion, that Star Anvil cannot recreate or reproduce (likely due to licensing issues).
Well, fair enough. So I like the SWADE system, so what’s one more book, right?
Right?
Okay, so off I went to Pinnacle Entertainment’s website, to order me a copy of the “Sci-Fi Companion”. And lucky me, turns out they had a sale going on that I might wish to jump on: A boxed set, including all four of the core SWADE companion books. “Super Heroes”, “Horror”, “Science Fiction”, and “Fantasy”, all in one set, plus the SWADE corebook, and the Accessory Box. Basically a perfect companion for “Savage Rifts”, since all four of those companion books would work well with that game.
There were only two problems:
- I already own both the SWADE core rulebook and the Accessory Box.
- $199.99… Yes, that’s basically $40 off of the list price, but still it’s a lot of money.
So, instead of buying that perfectly-awesome companion boxed set, I only ordered the “Science Fiction Companion”, at least for now. I’d like to get at least the Horror and Fantasy companion books in time, as “Rifts” is just a mish-mash of Sci-Fi, Horror, and Fantasy, anyway.
Are they necessary? No. But is “Phase World” necessary? No, but it is for me.
I have a feeling soon my “Savage Rifts” collection will be as large as my regular “Rifts” collection.
