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Rifts China RPG Quick Look

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Isaac

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Rifts is an absolutely insane TTRPG setting. In the future, humanity has created a utopia on Earth. Medicine for everything. Hunger and war eliminated. Cybernetic implants for everybody to be able to do anything. And then that prefect society gets destroyed by the opening of the Rifts. Millions of leylines across the planet unlocked portals to a million other realities. Earth was invaded by aliens, demons, angels, monsters, faeries, and every other conceivable being you can think of. Give it a few centuries to settle a little bit and you have the Rifts official setting.

The Rifts rule system was written by the Palladium team and is the same as Palladium with a few changes. The most notable change is a focus on science fiction instead of Medieval fantasy. Cyber-Knight instead of Knight and Psychic instead of Wizard. I’m not a huge fan of the Palladium system as it was presented, so I only skimmed this section of the rulebook.

The intention of Rifts is clear, to have a system that can stimulate everything. Like GURPS but with a more heroic focus. GURPS has the potential to be modified for any sort of story or genre. Rifts has a different angle by throwing every story and angle into the same setting. It’s a universal system by being an even bigger kitchen sink than the Forgotten Realms. A kitchen swimming pool!

For the China portion of Rifts, the Kingdom under Heaven got a bad deal. The portals to Hell opened in China during the Rifts leyline event. The country was overwhelmed by demonic invaders. Eleven demon kings now rule China and compete with each other for how horribly they can abuse their subjects.

So is Rifts a good game for telling stories set in pre-Yuan China? Absolutely not. Laser rifles, cyborgs, demons, and magic portals aren’t exactly period appropriate. Adapting it to what I’d want would essentially be returning to the Palladium system instead of using Rifts. It was actually my quickest “no” in my search, where I don’t think it’s even useful as research material or an idea generator.

If the craziness of Rifts sounds fun to you, the game is available here. And the two China supplements are here and here.

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Hello,

I’m Isaac

Welcome to the GoCorral website! I’m Isaac Shaker and this is a place for me to write about D&D and occasionally other topics. I host a podcast called Setting the Stage that interviews different DMs about their campaigns. I’m currently focused on completing the Cimmeria campaign setting and turning it into a book.

Setting the Stage Podcast

84 – Horseback Riding D&D Camp (Michael and SaddleSnaps) – Setting the Stage, Campaigns for D&D and Other RPGs

Michael tells us about a D&D horseback riding experience at SaddleSnaps! The Chicago-based stable hosted a weekend camping, horseback riding, and D&D event. About 50 players came from across the country for this new experience. During the event, the players were split up into three groups. Each of the groups engaged in the "Exploration" and "Social Interaction" pillars of RPGs as a LARP. They used horses to go out on rides around the area to find clues to a developing mystery. After returning to their base camp they'd set up around tables for the D&D "Combat" pillar. Michael was the main DM of the adventure along with lots of support DMs and NPC actors helping him out.SaddleSnaps is planning to do more rides like this in the future, both single day rides as well as full weekend campouts like this first one. There are evening rides every Thursday for the rest of July 2026 with more to come in future months. You can check out everything about SaddleSnaps on their website.Michael has his own website for his RPG resources called Paragon Provisions that you can check out as well.Michael also runs his own Discord server that you connect with him on if you'd like to keep up with all the cool D&D stuff he's doing.Check out the Setting the Stage website!Want to be on the show? Fill out this survey.Join our Discord!Support Setting the Stage on Patreon! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
  1. 84 – Horseback Riding D&D Camp (Michael and SaddleSnaps)
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  4. 81 – Biopunk 2287 RPG (Seiya and Synesthesia Synthetica)
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