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Rifts Chaos Earth: A Complete Role Playing Game
Chaos Earth puts the player in the center of the Great Cataclysm – the apocalyptic upheaval that, in the end, creates what we know as Rifts Earth.
Player Characters live through the death throes of human civilization, the reshaping of the very planet, and the birth of Rifts Earth. You bear angry witness to the Earth's fiery rebirth as it goes screaming to become a cauldron of mystic energy, a multi-dimensional doorway to infinite alien worlds and the catalyst for endless possibilities.
Player Characters live through the death throes of human civilization, the reshaping of the very planet, and the birth of Rifts Earth. You bear angry witness to the Earth's fiery rebirth as it goes screaming to become a cauldron of mystic energy, a multi-dimensional doorway to infinite alien worlds and the catalyst for endless possibilities.
Paperback
Published January 1, 2003
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About the author
Kevin Siembieda
206 books52 followersKevin 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).
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).
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 17, 2024
Nice all in one game book. Easy and fun. Recommended
August 2, 2011
The good:
The setting is interesting, and offers a lot of options for adventures. Seeing the origin of some stuff from Rifts is kinda cool.
The section at the very back with adventure ideas is very well written.
The bad:
It's the Palladium system, so the mechanics are weird at best.
There aren't very many character options, and nothing not aligned with NEMA, the local military organization.
The book spends too much time on equipment and skills and not enough time developing the setting. This is especially egregious since only two supplements have ever been released, one of which was a monster book.
Speaking of which, the skills section alone takes up an eighth of the book, which is ridiculous considering my next point, along with the fact that many of the skills are not particularly important for military characters in the apocalypse.
The most frustrating thing is all the omissions. There are absolutely no monster stats in the core book, which is annoying. Worse is the lack of stats for the various bionics mentioned in the book. Much worse is the lack of psionics rules, for two reasons:
1. They are referenced in character creation, with nothing but a note to see one of the other Palladium RPGs.
2. The sourcebook that was going to deal with them in a Chaos Earth context never materialized and the line is seemingly dead, at least for now.
These omissions make this very clearly not a full roleplaying game. While it is interesting, I will most likely stick to the original Rifts if I wish to play in that universe, or far more likely use some other universal or semi-universal system to make my own post-apocalyptic setting.
The setting is interesting, and offers a lot of options for adventures. Seeing the origin of some stuff from Rifts is kinda cool.
The section at the very back with adventure ideas is very well written.
The bad:
It's the Palladium system, so the mechanics are weird at best.
There aren't very many character options, and nothing not aligned with NEMA, the local military organization.
The book spends too much time on equipment and skills and not enough time developing the setting. This is especially egregious since only two supplements have ever been released, one of which was a monster book.
Speaking of which, the skills section alone takes up an eighth of the book, which is ridiculous considering my next point, along with the fact that many of the skills are not particularly important for military characters in the apocalypse.
The most frustrating thing is all the omissions. There are absolutely no monster stats in the core book, which is annoying. Worse is the lack of stats for the various bionics mentioned in the book. Much worse is the lack of psionics rules, for two reasons:
1. They are referenced in character creation, with nothing but a note to see one of the other Palladium RPGs.
2. The sourcebook that was going to deal with them in a Chaos Earth context never materialized and the line is seemingly dead, at least for now.
These omissions make this very clearly not a full roleplaying game. While it is interesting, I will most likely stick to the original Rifts if I wish to play in that universe, or far more likely use some other universal or semi-universal system to make my own post-apocalyptic setting.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews