Rifts Chaos Earth Sourcebook 2: Rise of Magic

by Kevin Siembieda

The return of magic has empowered humans with strange and wondrous powers unlike anything quite seen (and different from conventional types of magic). This only complicates things for Earth's defenders as the line of distinction between "good guys" and "bad guys" begins to blur. The Demon Plagues still rage and with them come demon worshipers, Witches, Necromancers, and cult figures all drawing magic from dark forces. Some make a bid to be kings over frightened survivors, others serve the lords of chaos and work to tear human civilization apart. - New types of magic - New magical O.C.C.s - More on NEMA and the Demon Plagues - Completely compatible with Rifts.

Genres: Role Playing Games

64 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2003

About the author

Kevin Siembieda (born April 2, 1956) is an American artist, writer, designer, and publisher of role-playing games, as well as being the founder and president of Palladium Books.

Palladium Books, founded in southeast Michigan, claims to be the first to implement a role-playing system intended to work for all genres and to introduce the perfect-bound trade paperback format to the RPG industry.

Some of the role-playing games Siembieda helped produce include Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness (1985), Robotech RPG (1986), After The Bomb (1986), and Rifts (1990).

Siembieda is also an artist, best known for occasionally illustrating Palladium Books' products. In 1978, he started the now-defunct Megaton Publications in Detroit, publishing a digest style title called A+ Plus and several other titles. He also contributed art and cartography to several early Judges Guild products (for both their Traveller and Dungeons & Dragons lines).

Reviews

[Max · Rating 2 out of 5]

As with the other Chaos Earth books, it's interesting but not great. The D-Shifter is an intriguing character concept, a person who has become one with the universe and can thus do various things relating to the ley lines that have appeared all over the world. The Chaos Wizards make me realize that a teen gang focused campaign in this world could be interesting, but I'm not sure where I'd find rules to fill out the rest of the party for the non-magic users. Speaking of rule holes, the book includes the spell information for Chaos Wizards, but all other spellcasters are referred to the Rifts Book of Magic, once again showing that this series is often a mix of reprinted material and plugs for other sourcebooks. It would've been easy enough to include even just a few pages of spells, enough for someone interested in playing a wizard character to just use this book rather than having to pay 27 dollars for a further supplement. Overall, while Chaos Earth is an interesting setting, I'd probably convert it to a different system rather than use the Palladium rules if I decided I wanted to run a game set in this vision of the apocalypse.

[Little Timmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though the Palladium role-playing system is not the one I use in my games the source books are fantastic. Tons of great ideas and characters are scattered throughout the books. Very recommended for any gamer.

[Abraham Ray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice chaos earth book!

[Bradley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Delightfully fun magic for Chaos Earth I will have to draft into my campaign sometime.