[Question] Conversion Book 1

[Banana Prince]

Hi. I'm new here.
What I really need to know (the reason I gave in and made my account) is because I was wondering if the Conversion Book for Rifts is what I want.
What I want from it is something that adds new content and character possibilities to the original Rifts book I have now - more specifically adds more OCCs, races, and RCCs (hopefully more interesting dragon classes). I noticed, for a world that's basically a blend of Fallout and Skyrim, I was a little disappointed that there was only about three races in the book - let alone no elven or orc races despite the presence of their languages. I was REALLY disappointed with how unbalanced dragons were and the lack of variety in dragon classes. I was wondering if the Conversion Book included the higher variety of races I'm looking for (perhaps centaurs?) as well as classes, equipment, etc.

And on the side of "converting" from other Megaverse games, I own Ninjas and Superspies as well as Heroes Unlimited and stats for the original centaur race.

Would the Conversion Book have a lot to offer me and what I'm looking for?

[drewkitty ~..~]

snip...
What I want from it is something that adds new content and character possibilities to the original Rifts book I have now - more specifically adds more OCCs, races, and RCCs (hopefully more interesting dragon classes).

The RCB1revised has PC races and monsters from a few of the other settings (no, dragons).
The only OCCs that are in the RCB1r are the witch and warlock OCC's.
There is text about bringing in the Heros Unlimited Superpowers, converting between MDC and SDC settings. and some basic FAQ.

I noticed, for a world that's basically a blend of Fallout and Skyrim, I was a little disappointed that there was only about three races in the book - let alone no elven or orc races despite the presence of their languages. I was REALLY disappointed with how unbalanced dragons were and the lack of variety in dragon classes. I was wondering if the Conversion Book included the higher variety of races I'm looking for (perhaps centaurs?) as well as classes, equipment, etc.

The reason for the lack of PC races is that the core book was written for beginners. I suspect to keep things simple and to keep the page count down. So only humans, dogboys and dragons. Elves and dwarves along with more PC races are found in the RCB1(r). For more races the D-Bees of North America has all of the races that were detailed out for NA since WB1.
For more dragons the PF2 Dragons and Gods book. it has MDC setting stats imbedded in it.

And on the side of "converting" from other Megaverse games, I own Ninjas and Superspies as well as Heroes Unlimited and stats for the original centaur race.

Would the Conversion Book have a lot to offer me and what I'm looking for?

The RCB1(r) talks about converting the other settings to rifts.

[Alrik Vas]

Saying you were disappointed doesn't do a great job of telling us what you were actually looking for, though.

[dragonfett]

New West is worth a look at as it adds new OCC's, RCC's, Races, magic, technological gear, TW Gear, and monsters (plus they threw a pretty cool setting in there if you ask me)!

[Bill]

The first Conversion Book offers a nice selection of fantasy races and some useful information on converting material from other Palladium RPGs. However I recommend that you pick up one or more World Books or Dimension Books. With only a couple exceptions, each offers a selection of races and classes that are common in the described region and usable with the world as a whole. One of the exceptions, World Book 30, includes more than 60 races and may be your best choice to start with. About half are reprinted from earlier books, which can save you a little cash.

[eliakon]

Conversion Book #1
World Book #30 D-Bees of North America
Book of Magic (More magic than you will ever use)
Game Masters Guide (TONS of skills, psionics, equipment, weapons, vehicles, robots, and all the other trimmings)
Bionics Source book (more bionics than you will ever need)
Grab a world book for the location you want to play and your going to have more than enough to run many many campaigns.
Keep adding bit by bit as you need
A world book here or there
Dark Conversions and Juicer Uprisings are good options (in my opinion)

[Banana Prince]

snip...
What I want from it is something that adds new content and character possibilities to the original Rifts book I have now - more specifically adds more OCCs, races, and RCCs (hopefully more interesting dragon classes).

The RCB1revised has PC races and monsters from a few of the other settings (no, dragons).
The only OCCs that are in the RCB1r are the witch and warlock OCC's.
There is text about bringing in the Heros Unlimited Superpowers, converting between MDC and SDC settings. and some basic FAQ.

I noticed, for a world that's basically a blend of Fallout and Skyrim, I was a little disappointed that there was only about three races in the book - let alone no elven or orc races despite the presence of their languages. I was REALLY disappointed with how unbalanced dragons were and the lack of variety in dragon classes. I was wondering if the Conversion Book included the higher variety of races I'm looking for (perhaps centaurs?) as well as classes, equipment, etc.

The reason for the lack of PC races is that the core book was written for beginners. I suspect to keep things simple and to keep the page count down. So only humans, dogboys and dragons. Elves and dwarves along with more PC races are found in the RCB1(r). For more races the D-Bees of North America has all of the races that were detailed out for NA since WB1.
For more dragons the PF2 Dragons and Gods book. it has MDC setting stats imbedded in it.

And on the side of "converting" from other Megaverse games, I own Ninjas and Superspies as well as Heroes Unlimited and stats for the original centaur race.

Would the Conversion Book have a lot to offer me and what I'm looking for?

The RCB1(r) talks about converting the other settings to rifts.

Thank you. I've learned a good bit. This will really help me in deciding what book I want to buy.

[flatline]

Go on Amazon and buy a used copy of the original Rifts Conversion Book (not the revised edition). It's currently selling for about $9 including shipping.

It has player races. It has dragons. It has monsters. It has Warlock and Witch character classes.

I've never seen the revised CB1, but from what I've heard, it's way less interesting than the original CB1.

[Blue_Lion]

Go on Amazon and buy a used copy of the original Rifts Conversion Book (not the revised edition). It's currently selling for about $9 including shipping.

It has player races. It has dragons. It has monsters. It has Warlock and Witch character classes.

I've never seen the revised CB1, but from what I've heard, it's way less interesting than the original CB1.

Half the dark conversion book is stuff that got dropped from the original cb1. In addition if you want to play a shifter not just as summing demons it has elementals and spirits of light that got cut in the revised.

[ShadowLogan]

What I want from it is something that adds new content and character possibilities to the original Rifts book I have now...

Rifts Conversion Book 1 Revised is not your only option, as others have said the Rifts World Book system might be more what you are looking for as each WB generally have a mix of equipment (tech &/or magical), OCCs, RCC/races, and creatures. New dragons are pretty sparse in Rifts (Japan, Psycape, Engalnd, possibly elsewhere), for additional options you would need to look at Palladium Fantasy's Dragons & Gods which has Rifts notes, though all these dragons follow the same basic template.

Really though if you are after new equipment and OCCs, Rifts Conversion Book 1 is not the place to look for that stuff, WBs, SBs, DBs would be the place to look. The GM's Guide has "clif note" version of a lot of equipment to (it won't have more recent WBs), but really at best might only have an index to look OCCs up in their respective places.

Remember that the Rifts Ulitimate Edition and Main Book are the same thing, to really see additional fleshing out you need to look at various Rifts World and Source Books. Rifts Conversion Book 1revised, does bring in and flesh out a variety of races from Palladium Fantasy into one place and makes them usable for Rifts (I'd say 1/2 the book is this, maybe more), but OCCs aren't really done. Basically Rifts World Books can be thought of as "heavy weight" source books, and normal source books are "light weight" as page counts are higher in WBs IINM (and Dimension Books are WB in weight class, but aren't focused on Rifts Earth).

I was REALLY disappointed with how unbalanced dragons were and the lack of variety in dragon classes. I was wondering if the Conversion Book included the higher variety of races I'm looking for (perhaps centaurs?) as well as classes, equipment, etc.

Centaurs are in Conversion Book 1r, they are also reprinted in the Canada World Book and the D-Bees of North America World Book.

Rifts, and Palladium in general, is not about blance as things are skewed all over the place and don't necessarily fit in with the mental idea of "scale". As said other dragon races exist in a few places, what did you mean by lack of variety and them being "unbalanced".

[Banana Prince]

What I want from it is something that adds new content and character possibilities to the original Rifts book I have now...

Rifts Conversion Book 1 Revised is not your only option, as others have said the Rifts World Book system might be more what you are looking for as each WB generally have a mix of equipment (tech &/or magical), OCCs, RCC/races, and creatures. New dragons are pretty sparse in Rifts (Japan, Psycape, Engalnd, possibly elsewhere), for additional options you would need to look at Palladium Fantasy's Dragons & Gods which has Rifts notes, though all these dragons follow the same basic template.

Really though if you are after new equipment and OCCs, Rifts Conversion Book 1 is not the place to look for that stuff, WBs, SBs, DBs would be the place to look. The GM's Guide has "clif note" version of a lot of equipment to (it won't have more recent WBs), but really at best might only have an index to look OCCs up in their respective places.

Remember that the Rifts Ulitimate Edition and Main Book are the same thing, to really see additional fleshing out you need to look at various Rifts World and Source Books. Rifts Conversion Book 1revised, does bring in and flesh out a variety of races from Palladium Fantasy into one place and makes them usable for Rifts (I'd say 1/2 the book is this, maybe more), but OCCs aren't really done. Basically Rifts World Books can be thought of as "heavy weight" source books, and normal source books are "light weight" as page counts are higher in WBs IINM (and Dimension Books are WB in weight class, but aren't focused on Rifts Earth).

I was REALLY disappointed with how unbalanced dragons were and the lack of variety in dragon classes. I was wondering if the Conversion Book included the higher variety of races I'm looking for (perhaps centaurs?) as well as classes, equipment, etc.

Centaurs are in Conversion Book 1r, they are also reprinted in the Canada World Book and the D-Bees of North America World Book.

Rifts, and Palladium in general, is not about blance as things are skewed all over the place and don't necessarily fit in with the mental idea of "scale". As said other dragon races exist in a few places, what did you mean by lack of variety and them being "unbalanced".

Ice Dragon = Fire Dragon with a lower-damage breath attack.
Great Horned Dragon = Fire Dragon with better stats and more psionics.
Thunder Dragon = Ice Dragon without wings, different stats, and a "stun" breath attack.

I'm alright with playing a character with MDC armor/equipment/powers like a Wilderness Scout or a Mystic Mage (for example's sake) because it's not like the MDC armor is a part of the character or regenerates without needing repair and the MD attacks for both of these characters are limited by ammo or PPE.

I guess they'd be okay in an MD adventure and the way Rifts describes dragon behavior seems like a dragon's personality would be it's own nerf. I guess it mostly comes down my personal preference to play characters that can also work in an SDC adventure.

[Blue_Lion]

Dragons are powerful but they have there draw backs. Personality in RP. They do not really get new toys as they adventure as much as other PCs.

PA pilots can have unlimited attack weapons. There is a spell to fix armor without spending any money.

There are lots of charters besides dragons that are always MD, including Borgs in the main book, mega juicers, MD DBs, demons ext.

Group ballance is something for GMs and players achieve.

[Banana Prince]

Conversion Book #1
World Book #30 D-Bees of North America
Book of Magic (More magic than you will ever use)
Game Masters Guide (TONS of skills, psionics, equipment, weapons, vehicles, robots, and all the other trimmings)
Bionics Source book (more bionics than you will ever need)
Grab a world book for the location you want to play and your going to have more than enough to run many many campaigns.
Keep adding bit by bit as you need
A world book here or there
Dark Conversions and Juicer Uprisings are good options (in my opinion)

Props for making a list.

[Bill]

A shopping list can be a nice thing to have. However, unless you're planning to run the game often, I really recommend sticking to the core book and one world book that you find exciting while you're getting started. The rules aren't terribly complex and they encourage the GM to make rulings as they see fit to keep the game moving, but there are a lot of them and they're not always easy to find. Getting too many books at once can make it difficult to go through them thoroughly in my experience.

[ShadowLogan]

@Banana Prince
Okay your looking at the Rifts Main book dragons. Yes, they are pretty similar in that respect. Rifts Ultimate Edition Dragons I think they attempted to give more individuality to each type. Rifts Main Book is the old main book, Ultimate Edition is a revised and updated main book.

I do see your point about working MDC creatures into an SDC adventure can be a challenge. Just remember that in these cases the MDC creature won't be getting as much XP for the adventure as a SDC one. A Dragon swatting unarmored people left and right won't even qualify as a minor menace IMHO, so their XP will likely come from RPing situation (ideas, avoiding violence, etc).

The Conversion Book does have rules for converting the entire setting into an SDC setting avoiding the issue of Mega Damage entirely, though IMHO the rules are a bit to loose in one or two areas. So you could simply just convert the setting whole sale to an SDC setting and not have to worry about MDC/SDC interactions.

[drewkitty ~..~]

Dragons....

The Rifts Main Book (the original core book) has different dragons in it then what is in RUE. The Dragons in RUE are unique to RUE and have not been reprinted anywhere yet. Yet I have don't have the very newest PB game books so I might be incorrect. The RMB dragons were reprinted into the PF2 Dragons and gods book (with Rifts notes) since they are PB's core set of dragon types.

[Killer Cyborg]

Hi. I'm new here.
What I really need to know (the reason I gave in and made my account) is because I was wondering if the Conversion Book for Rifts is what I want.
What I want from it is something that adds new content and character possibilities to the original Rifts book I have now - more specifically adds more OCCs, races, and RCCs (hopefully more interesting dragon classes). I noticed, for a world that's basically a blend of Fallout and Skyrim, I was a little disappointed that there was only about three races in the book - let alone no elven or orc races despite the presence of their languages. I was REALLY disappointed with how unbalanced dragons were and the lack of variety in dragon classes. I was wondering if the Conversion Book included the higher variety of races I'm looking for (perhaps centaurs?) as well as classes, equipment, etc.

And on the side of "converting" from other Megaverse games, I own Ninjas and Superspies as well as Heroes Unlimited and stats for the original centaur race.

Would the Conversion Book have a lot to offer me and what I'm looking for?

Yes.