The Little Things Matter

Thank you for ordering some of our products. We know times are tight, and yet you’re making a great decision to explore and play in the worlds we’ve created. Your purchase today means we can keep creating for you tomorrow. Be sure to tell your friends about Palladium Books!

I got the above on a shipping notification for a Palladium Books order, and I love the little things companies do to take a moment to thank you. I am rebuilding my long-ignored Rifts library from the early 1990s in a big way, and I bet they saw the orders today and their jaws dropped.

Thank you for keeping Rifts alive.

I hope people out there become fans, too.

Give them a chance.

I will do everything I can with my voice and blog to spread the word. The games you make are cool, equal to 5E in every way, and beloved by many. Even if Rifts is not your thing, check out Palladium Fantasy, Ninjas & Superspies, Heroes Unlimited, Beyond the Supernatural, Dead Reign, After the Bomb, TNMT, Splicers, or Nightbane.

Rifts Chaos Earth is cool too, and a new game in the universe with a different timeline where you play as "the Earth Defence Forces" and rescue people. This is a game where you play the "X-Com-like" group protecting the world from incursions and invasions, and you work to save people and do good. This is the Rifts' origin, but it is not tied into the Rifts timeline, so the outcome can be up to you.

I first ordered that, and it was so cool, I pulled the trigger on rebuilding my entire library.

Dead Reign is also a game that does not get enough attention. This is the best zombie game on the market, and it does things with zombies that no other game does. And there are so many types of zombies in here! There is always a new type of flesh-eater wandering around the next ruined building, and you have no idea what you are encountering next.

There is a game for you on the Palladium Books store.

I have something like this happen with Goodman Games earlier this year, with one of their warehouse people and convention personalities, DJ Foxy. Again, the same thing, it is little touches like this that turn me from a customer into a super fan.

And seriously, there is much more out there than the OSR and D&D. Palladium Fantasy is older than the OSR, and just as old as BX. You want "old school gaming?" Try this! It is just as easy to pick up as BX, and the characters are far more satisfying.

The Rifts game is cool. I am happy to be back on board in a big way. The books and world are among the best speculative, mind-bending, crazy science fiction ever put to paper. This beats any post-apocalyptic setting ever written, hands down.

Wake up! The 1980s were not just D&D and the OSR.

In the last season of Stranger Things, the kids should all be playing Rifts. That is what we did. It was either Rifts, Battletech, or GURPS 3rd Edition. The Rifts game was for the true geeks and nerds, and for the social outcasts who were the coolest kids in school. And the Stranger Things universe is closer to Rifts than it is D&D. Seriously, if your mom got you the RPG with the girls with the thongs on the cover, your mom was the coolest.

She knew, too, that Rifts was cool.

And she wanted her kids to be cool, too.

So she bought us Rifts.

And guess what?

We were instantly cool.

Other kids came over to our house to play Rifts.

Hell yeah.

I fell in love with this game in the 1990s, when it first came out, and I love just how vast and interesting every part of the world was painted. There are dangers everywhere. There is always something interesting going on. Humanity lives in small enclaves, fortress cities, and protected zones. I worked in the university computer lab, and used my paychecks to buy the expansion books, which were the first gaming books that I purchased with my own money.

And here I am, back again.

Instantly cool again.

Thank you, Rifts.

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Originally published 11/25/25, SBRPG blog.