Rifts: Siege on Tolkeen Chapter One: Sedition

Every time I start thinking Rifts is getting better, they put out a weak product that makes me wonder why I even bother. What really makes Sedition hard to review is that it is another weak product, but with some good material that could have been put elsewhere. Anyway, this book begins the conflict between the Coalition States and Tolkeen over Tolkeen's continued existance. A conflict that will cover six books.

The Weak

To start off, the book feels like it's about 10% filler. Want a breakdown? Eight pages of spell indexes listing every spell from every book, eight pages reprinting the monsters from Rifts Sourcebook One (with maybe half of a page of new material, and a few new pictures), and another eight sheets for Techno-Wizard items and Ley Line storm information. I understand the desire to have everything in one place and all, and some of this stuff could be useful for some, but what would probably have been more useful is new stuff like information on Daemonix (mentioned and pictured in Sedition, but detailed in the next book). While I don't think people like having to refer to "book X" for information, I think they dislike paying $2 for stuff they' ve already got in another book even more.

Then there's the author's whole attitude towards the sides involved. On the one hand we have the Coalition, who are portrayed as stupid racists with artillery, and on the other are the Tolkeenites who feel like moronic fanatics. And to top it off is Kevin Siembeda wanting Tolkeen to be wrong for waging a defensive war instead of running away. Let's look at the Coalition at first. They have Xiticix, Free Quebec, the Federation of Magic, and scores of other threats all knocking on their borders. They know they've got bigger threats to deal with, and they know they lack information on Tolkeen, but I don't know why they want to fight now and wage war on two fronts. Tolkeen on the other hand can simply pack up and run away to Lazlo rather than stay and fight and die. Sounds sensible enough, except I can't really see the Coalition thinking, "we wanted to kill you, but since you ran away we'll just grow a little and leave you alone forever". Of course, Siembeda has the most wisest and most bestest people think that retreat is the way to go, to imply that that is the choice that players should support. Not to mention that Tolkeen is further vilified by accepting of just about whatever dark magics they can to defend themselves without hesitation. I wish this book had explained why Tolkeen was jumping on the demon summoning bandwagon (and why their allies like the Cyber Knights don't seem to mind), or why the Coalition thought that fighting Quebec and Tolkeen at the same time was a good idea.

Finally, is there really a need for six books? I can see two big books maybe, but six just feels like an attempt to generate more sales. I mean, with filler and reprints in this book, I expect I'll find a list of every piece of Coalition equipment in a later book, and lots of reprinted art through the series. Oh yeah, and since this is Palladium, expect to be waiting for a year or so after they're promised. I'm still wondering what happened to Underseas 2, or Australia 2, or Japan 2, or Wormwood 2, or&.

The Good

All that said, there are some parts that I liked. The new magic items are interesting and made relevant to the Siege. I especially liked the Iron Juggernauts; magical robots powered by elemental fury and imprisoned souls. I don't find the stuff to be collections of spells, but rather collections of spells -and- how they're going to be used in the war. We also have a timeline which helps explain -why- the two nations hate each other. It doesn't explain why the Coalition wants to fight a two front war, but it does a good job of setting the stage otherwise. I also enjoyed the glimpses into some of the tactics that both sides intend to use, and elements like the Skelebot Graveyards, or the town descriptions, but these were all short little setting ideas that would be easy to make into full blown adventures. Most of these ideas would work regardless of the Siege really, and could easily be incorporated into someone's already ongoing game.

Ok, the art was good on average, and I even liked Kent Burles few pieces. There also seemed to be no reprinted art from other books. Then again, I don't read the Rifter. Writing was of typical quality with a few superior pieces, and it seemed like somebody did a passable job proofreading this one. No grammatical errors leaped out of the page at me at least.

Basically though, I just don't care about the Siege. The Coalition is acting stupidly, and the Tolkeenites are being vilified to make some statement about war. The material isn't developed enough to make a good sourcebook or specific enough to make a good adventure; it tries to be both and kind of fails. As a hodge podge of stuff it's just okay. Future information may correct this, but how many other books does one really need to make use of this one? For now, I'd say go read Rifts Japan or South America 2 if you want lots of neat ideas and setting material, or Juicer Uprising if you want a campaign.