Palladium Books has published many Rifts world books providing rich, detailed information on many lands in Rifts Earth. Many of these books focus on North America, especially around the Midwest. Well, in Rifts World Book 14: New West, Palladium takes us across the Mississippi River to learn about the “Old West” on Rifts Earth. However, many centuries have passed since the romanticized era of cowboys and saloons of the old west. So what do you call the old west of Rifts Earth? “New West,” of course!
I’ll be honest, when I first looked at this book I thought it was dumb. Yeah, we learn about the people of New West, the technology levels, residents, invaders, etc… But the overarching theme is basically the Old West. Apparently, many of the old west classics like Buffalo Bill, Wyatt Earp, Billy the Kid, etc are still legendary figures. How could this be??? Well, many of those classic films were preserved and rediscovered. In order to preserve this part of history, the locals modeled their lives — architecture, clothing, mannerisms, etc — to that of the American “Old West.” Even the mega-damage weapons and techno-wizard devices are modeled after classic gun manufacturers like Colt and Remington. This extends to the culture of the locals, the law (or lack thereof at times), the O.C.C.s, etc… It all seemed too corny and I almost stopped reading after page 15. But I persevered and gave it a shot.
And you know what? It works. Somehow, Christopher Kornmann and Kevin Siembieda (the authors) made it work.
If you can get past the whole notion that pre-Rifts movies with an old west theme somehow influenced a quarter of a continent, then you’ll have a lot of fun with this book.
First off, after the overview, there’s an extensive section on the geography of the New West. We get blurbs about many of the states: Kansas, the Dakotas, New Mexico, Nevadas, etc… Extra attention is paid to Arizona and Colorado (more on them later.)
We then get an overview of notable groups in the New West, including Pecos bandits, Cyber-Knights, the Coalition States, etc. The book also touches briefly on the native American populations in the New West, but are discussed in much greater detail in World Book 15: Spirit West. (Review coming soon!)
I enjoyed the section on Arizona. There’s a special place in my heart for modern-day Arizona; it’s someplace I eventually hope to move to. I would not want to live in Rifts Arizona, however, but I did appreciate reading about it! There’s a lot of scary stuff in Arizona, and even the presence of the benevolent Lyn-Srial, described in this book, wouldn’t put me at ease. I mean I can’t even handle spiders in real life, so I don’t know how I’d deal with Worm Wraiths!
Speaking of Lyn-Srial, they’re discussed in detail in this book, including their use of Cloud Magic. There’s a vast selection of Cloud Magic spells from which to choose should be worthy enough to learn it!
Then the book takes us to Colorado and the Colorado Baronies. These baronies are a group of communities in relatively close proximity to one another. These cities are described in some detail. Also described with some detail are rodeos!
New West provides us with some new skills. I’m not going to discuss these here, however, because most of these are now included in the Rifts Ultimate Edition book.
Then we get to my favorite part of the book: the O.C.C.s of the New West. You can probably what some of these are without even looking. For example, there is the Bandit. The Bounty Hunter. The Sheriff/Lawman, the Professional Gambler, among others — including one of my favorite Rifts O.C.C.s of all time: the Gunslinger.
The book also introduces several playable R.C.C.s: the Fennodi, the Cactus People, and various types of Lyn-Srial.
Of course, New West also has new threats! Devil Unicorns, Grigleapers, and other nasty monsters aroma the New West searching for victims. My personal favorites are the Grigleapers and Worm Wraiths!
No Rifts book is complete without a new set of available hardware for purchase! In New West, we are provided detailed information on Bandito Arms and their offerings. BigBore weapons, armor, Power armor, robot vehicles, other vehicles, etc. While we’re on the subject of Bandito Arms, the book references the Black Market several times. At the time of New West’s writing, the Rifts Black Market sourcebook (reviewed here) did not exist. If you read the Rifts Black Market sourcebook along with New West, they work very well together. Check it out!
There’s also information and product descriptions of Wilk’s Laser Weapons. This makes me happy because Wilk’s is my favorite weapons manufacturer in Rifts. There’s something about their sleek black look that appeals to me.
Last, but not least, there is an extensive selection of techno-wizardry weapons, equipment and, well, horses. Yes, there are TW horses. Why not, right???
Overall, great book. It’s a bit light-hearted in some ways, but also has great villains, monsters, some fun adventure hooks. As I said in the beginning, if you keep an open mind and can get past the origin of the New West, you will probably have a very good time with this book.
