Rifts as Space Opera? Part One

Can Rifts be played as a space opera-style game? Let's ignore Earth for now, and just focus on intergalactic adventures, star hopping, getting into trouble in deep space, fighting space pirates, and battling all types of space monsters on missions across the galaxy.

Surprisingly, the answer is yes. And not only a weak yes, but a very strong yes. Let's start with the Dimension Book Two: Phase World, and this is the nexus of any space opera-style campaign for Rifts, since this thematically replaces Earth and acts as our intergalactic hub that connects everything together. This place connects infinite dimensions across a massive planet and city, serving as a transit point for travel from anywhere to anywhere.

You are likely playing a strict MDC game here, and it will be a lot safer to deck out in MDC armor (even light MDC) when going anywhere, and carrying MDC weapons. There may be the occasional SDC encounter and need for weapons, but due to the high power level of everything in this part of the universe, MDC feels like the default mode to be in when campaigning. You could play the MDC vs. SDC game, but it may be easier to ignore SDC creatures and monsters and stick to MDC as the default.

The Phase World book has it all: the setting, OCCs, gear, weapons, armor, starships, organizations, factions, and even aliens. This is the best book to grab when starting a Rifts space opera-style campaign, and it will give you a hub that ties everything together.

The best part of Phase World is that it is everything you love about the mixed magic-plus-technology of games like Starfinder, but turned up to 11 million. You could have a starship crew made out of a dragon, a superhero, a space wizard, an android, a mutant animal, a psionic, and just about any character in the Multiverse.  You can even pull in characters from fiction and drop them in there, like space Sherlock Holmes. Where Starfinder tends to stick to its own limited pool of IP as the default class and race options, Rifts shrugs its shoulders and tells you, "anything you can imagine or want."

What is even better is that any of the enemies, factions, and monsters in the setting, including demons and gods, are fair game to include in your games.

From here, the Phase World Sourcebook is the next book to get, in line with the theory of "more is more." This is an excellent expansion of the original book; it gives us a lot more to play with and goes into greater depth on each faction, empire, and organization, which is perfect. We even get more starships, weapons, armors, and gear in here. This is a must-have if you are serious about Rifts' space opera settings and games.

From here, there are a few more books to discuss, such as:

• Rifts Dimension Book Six: Three Galaxies
• Rifts Dimension Book Thirteen: Fleets of the Three Galaxies
• Rifts Dimension Book Five: Anvil Galaxy
• Rifts Dimension Book Fourteen: Thundercloud Galaxy

The only one I would highlight early is the Thundercloud Galaxy book, which has a nice chapter on random space monster creation and lots of tables. Of course, the Rufts Ultimate Edition core book, Rifts Book of Magic, and the Rifts Bestiary will also be needed. The rest of these books go into further detail on fleets, factions, OCCs, races, and the three galaxies (there is no book yet for the third, the Corkscrew Galaxy), so they can come later.

On page 173 of the Phase World book is an excellent chapter on campaign ideas. Any type of science fiction campaign will fit in here, and the most challenging part of a game like this will be in "breaking the ice" and getting started. You will need to pick a theme and go from there. Let's consider one campaign type, the stranded or marooned game.

The stranded-on-a-strange-alien-world type will be easier than others, as this is a classic campaign start for survival, combat, meeting the locals, discovering the mysteries of the world, and finding a way to escape. There may be an alien invasion and a fight for freedom involved. The classic Volturnus series of adventures for Star Frontiers followed this model perfectly, and it was also a variation of the John Carter model of golden-age science fiction.

If you run a marooned campaign, I would suggest making the world a strange nexus itself, with ley lines and rifts that pull in creatures, characters, and groups from across the multiverse into its twisted reality and savage setting. A world with its own chaos, storms, and rifts would be an exciting and valuable place in its own right. It would eventually become a battleground for various factions trying to control this highly lucrative and powerful nexus point and resource.

I would also put dinosaurs in it, just because. Making your own sandbox world to start in lets you start with a smaller-scale survival-focused game to get your feet wet. Then you can gradually expand your scope outward, pulling in villains, enemy factions, splurgoth slavers, and other OCCs from sourcebooks you rarely use. You can meet local factions, both friendly and not, and make allies and go on missions for them. You can meet the invaders from space, fight them off when they show up, and try to steal their ships. You can then explore other planets in the system, and then gradually move out to the nearby stars and see what is out there.

That Born Mystic OCC from the Mystic Russia sourcebook? Yeah, that is the NPC mage you find. Try to get them on your side, and figure out how to use their powers to help you all survive. This type of strange alien world, plus random rift setting, is ideal for throwing curveballs at players and forcing them to play with OCCs and character types they would never typically gravitate towards, or you as a GM would ever consider throwing into an adventure. At least they have a horse and know how to douse for water, which may be a massive survival advantage you would have never considered. Throw around MDC all you want, dehydration will kill you pretty fast, too.

A great resource guide for this type of campaign would be to grab a copy of the brilliant Stars Without Number and shamelessly use its random charts to generate planets, stars, and other worlds nearby. All of these expanded places should have the Rifts flavor, but if you need ideas and inspiration, you could borrow from the best and start here. This book will fill in the larger blanks on "what is there," and then you will move back to the Rifts books to fill in the finer details.

Taking a step back, why not just play Star Frontiers, Starfinder, or Stars Without Number? Well, that insanely cool crew of the dragon, superhero, psionic, mage, android, or any other character in the multiverse means you have the best of the best when it comes to a crazy crew with diverse abilities and backgrounds. With Star Frontiers and Starfinder, I am constrained to character types and races in those games. With Stars Without Number, I can pull from all of BX, but it is still a smaller selection of possible character types when it comes to the Palladium Megaverse.

Now, you have a familiar homeworld that serves as your home base, a starship, and enemy fleets on the prowl looking for you. You may find another colony out there to ally with and help out, linking them to the friendly factions back home, and starting to fight a space war against the evil empire's starfleet. Star by star and planet by planet, you will slowly expand out, and this will be a great campaign with a solid Rifts flavor, and plenty of character types and random elements thrown in to keep people on their feet.