Rifts is no doubt one of the more difficult settings to GM because of the lack of adventure material produced and the almost endless possibilities it offers. Luckily, the latter can be seen more as a plus than a minus. Because of the flexibility of setting, a GM can borrow and steal most of the elements to run sessions from week to week from other sources.

First, take what has been given. More recently, Palladium has put out a few supplements that are more adventure and less sourcebook. The Chi-Town 'Burbs series is one example. The Coalition Wars: Siege on Tolkeen is another. But a GM shouldn't be bound to the way in which characters and settings are presented. Need a cyber-knight NPC on the fly? Flip through Coalition Wars Four: Cyber-Knights. Looking for a magic item that might be found in a shop on Phase World? Check out Chi-Town 'Brubs: The Black Vault. Even older source books have NPCs that can be renamed and used elsewhere.

To avoid sounding like a paid advertisement for Palladuim books, my next piece of advice it to convert adventures from other game systems. This might sound like a pain, but strict ability score by ability score conversion isn't necessary. Again the GM is just looking for settings, maps in particular, and this time plot points. Have a fantasy adventure that's all about tracking down an evil necromancer? With a little substitution, it becomes a covert operation to take down a Coalition bigwig. Just replace undead minions with skelebots, dogboys, and appropriately decked out grunts. The substitution doesn't even have to go that far. The evil necromancer just becomes diabolical and might have an arsenal to help out where magic is weak. Modern or space based adventures offer even more possibilities.

The third place to borrow material from is sites on the Internet. The Internet is full of sites featuring two of the things GMs need: NPCs and adventure kernels. It's time-consuming to create every NPC a party might encounter. It's much easier to appropriate what characters might be needed from other sources. The same goes for adventure material. It's difficult to have every twist of a plot and every random encounter planned. It's helpful to keep a small stock of hooks for when one is needed.

GMing Rifts is no doubt a challenging exercise, even with all the possible tools gathered. It's also one of the most rewarding to both the players and the GM. It can be as rich in roleplay as it is in mega-damage equipment. It offers opportunities for characters to interact with a diverse setting... and to really blow things up. Enjoy!

Easy Download Version: Surviving as a GM