Rifts for Savage Worlds

Rifts for Savage Worlds, often called Savage Rifts, is the best way into Rifts for a table that loves the setting's anything-goes mix of power armor, cyborgs, dragons, ley-line magic and monsters from other dimensions but does not want the original Palladium rules. It suits groups that already play or are happy to learn Savage Worlds and want big, loud heroic action: characters start far stronger than a normal Savage Worlds hero, and the game expects them to fight tanks, demons and dimensional horrors from the first session.

It is not a standalone purchase. You need the Savage Worlds Adventure Edition core rules plus the Rifts books, and the Game Master will also want the Game Master's Handbook and Savage Foes of North America. It is also a poor fit for groups that want gritty survival on scarce resources or a slim book: the player's guide alone holds a large stack of new Edges, gear, cybernetics and power rules on top of Savage Worlds.

What the game is

Rifts for Savage Worlds is Pinnacle Entertainment Group's licensed version of Rifts, the setting Kevin Siembieda created for Palladium Books in 1990, rebuilt on the Savage Worlds rules. The lead writer is Sean Patrick Fannon, with Ross Watson and Sean Roberson credited on the core player's guide.

The setting is Rifts Earth, three centuries after the Great Cataclysm. Magic came back, tears in space and time opened across the planet, and almost anything can now come through them. The core books focus on North America, where the technological, anti-magic Coalition States and the Federation of Magic are the two big powers, with independent towns, mercenaries, bandits and alien D-Bees (dimensional beings) in between. The player characters are, by default, members of the Tomorrow Legion, a new organization based at Castle Refuge that tries to protect people and build a better future in the ruins. That gives every group a built-in reason to work together and take missions.

Publication history and editions

Pinnacle announced the license in 2015 and funded the first books through a Kickstarter that ran from April 26 to May 19, 2016 and raised $438,076 from 4,238 backers. That first wave was The Tomorrow Legion Player's Guide, the Game Master's Handbook, Savage Foes of North America, and The Garnet Town Gambit adventure with a GM screen. Backers received the player's guide PDF in June 2016.

When Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (SWADE) came out, Pinnacle ran a second campaign, American Armageddon (April 16 to May 6, 2019, $230,387 from 1,976 backers). It funded three new North America worldbooks and revised the three core books for SWADE. Final PDFs of the revised line arrived in October 2019, and this SWADE version is the current edition. The changes were not just cosmetic: reviewers noted fewer free starting Edges, tighter power lists, and limits on stacking free actions, which together pull the power level a little closer to normal Savage Worlds.

The line is still active. A Europa Kickstarter (November 12 to December 5, 2024, $146,482) funded a 200-plus-page Europa sourcebook and the 128-page Savage Foes of Europa, and revised hardcover reprints of the core books and the Adventure Boxed Set were offered alongside it. Pinnacle's current store lists all of these, plus official Foundry VTT modules.

What you need to play

Pinnacle's own getting-started list names four books:

• Savage Worlds Adventure Edition: the core rules. Rifts does not reprint them.
• Rifts: The Tomorrow Legion Player's Guide (about 144 pages): setting overview, character creation, Iconic Frameworks, races, Edges, gear, setting rules, psionics and magic, and the Hero's Journey tables. It is the book every player needs.
• Rifts: Game Master's Handbook: a fuller world overview, ley lines and Rifts, factions, an adventure generator for North America and campaign advice, including a way to tune the power level up or down.
• Rifts: Savage Foes of North America: Coalition soldiers, the Federation of Magic, the Black Market, the Pecos Empire bandits, key villains and a random Creatures from the Rifts generator.

The Adventure Boxed Set collects those three Rifts hardcovers with the GM screen and Garnet Town Gambit, dice, Bennies, a North America poster map and the PDFs (it still needs SWADE). For a digital start, the player's guide is on DriveThruRPG and Pinnacle sells a revised core digital bundle that adds the Tomorrow Legion Field Manual.

Major supplements and adventures

• North America worldbooks: Arcana and Mysticism (Federation of Magic, Psyscape, Techno-Wizard enclaves), Blood and Banes (Xiticix Hivelands, Vampire Kingdoms, Dinosaur Swamp) and Empires of Humanity (the Coalition States, the New West and the east coast).
• Tomorrow Legion Field Manual: expedition and trade rules, new options such as dragon races and the Bounty Hunter framework, and four revised adventures, including the A Fine Solution Plot Point Campaign.
• Beyond North America: Atlantis and the Demon Seas, South America: Land of a Thousand Islands, and the Europa books.
• Terror on the Dark Frontier: a boxed set for North America, plus map packs, pawns and pregenerated Archetype Dossiers.
• Free downloads: one-sheet adventures such as The Call in the Night, a form-fillable character sheet, Savaging Your Favorite Rifts Ideas for converting your own material, and a free guide for Palladium GMs who want to borrow Savage Rifts material for the original system.

Digital tools and VTT support

Pinnacle sells official Foundry VTT modules for the player's guide, Game Master's Handbook, Savage Foes, the worldbooks and the Europa box set. They are separate purchases from the PDFs. Character creation involves many layered choices and random tables, so many groups will find a VTT or a form-fillable sheet helpful.

Core rules and play structure

Play uses ordinary Savage Worlds: attributes and skills are rated as dice from d4 to d12, Wild Cards roll an extra Wild Die, dice explode on their maximum, initiative comes from a deck of playing cards, and Bennies let players reroll or shrug off damage. Damage works through Shaken status, Wounds and Soak rolls.

Rifts adds its own layer on top. Mega Damage weapons and M.D.C. armor play the role of Savage Worlds' heavy weapons and heavy armor, so a laser rifle can hurt a robot that would shrug off bullets. Magic uses P.P.E. and psionics use I.S.P., and both get stronger near ley lines and nexus points. The player's guide uses the core Born a Hero, Conviction, More Skill Points and Wound Cap rules and adds new setting rules: Blaze of Glory (a heroic last stand), Blood and Gore (Mega Damage against ordinary flesh is brutal), Death and Defeat, Siphoning P.P.E., Technical Difficulties for high-tech gear, and Vehicle Fatigue.

Characters and advancement

Most characters start from an Iconic Framework, a package of Edges, abilities, gear and random rolls that recreates a classic Rifts character type: the Glitter Boy in reflective power armor, the drug-boosted Juicer, the Crazy, the Cyber-Knight with a psi-sword, the Ley Line Walker, the Mind Melter, the Burster, the Mystic, the Techno-Wizard, combat cyborgs and even a dragon hatchling. The MARS option (mercenaries, adventurers, rogues and scholars) builds more ordinary characters from skills and Edges, and is also how you bring a hero over from another Savage Worlds setting.

Frameworks then roll on the Hero's Journey tables, d20 lifepath tables that add background hooks, skills, Edges or better gear. There are also D-Bee and mutant races, a Strain trait that limits how much cybernetics a body can take, and many new Edges for each framework as characters advance through the normal Savage Worlds ranks. Frameworks work much like classes, so players get a clear role straight away, but advancement after creation uses the usual classless Savage Worlds Edges.

Signature mechanics

• Iconic Frameworks: front-loaded, high-power character packages that keep each Rifts archetype distinct.
• Hero's Journey tables: random lifepath rolls that make two characters from the same framework different.
• Mega Powers: Master of Magic and Master Psionic open Mega Power modifiers that push spells and psionics to superheroic scale.
• Techno-Wizardry: gear that runs on magical energy, charged and used under its own rules.
• Blaze of Glory and Death and Defeat: rules that make dramatic sacrifices and narrow escapes part of the default tone.

What play feels like

A typical session is a Tomorrow Legion mission: a town asks for help, a Rift opens somewhere it should not, a Coalition patrol appears, and the team argues over whether to talk, run or fight a war machine with whatever it brought. Fights are fast by Savage Worlds standards but the numbers are big, and a mixed party of a Glitter Boy, a Juicer and a ley-line mage can feel more like a superhero team than a post-apocalyptic survival crew. The setting is kitchen-sink by design, so horror, science fiction, fantasy and politics can share one evening.

Running the game

The Game Master has a lot to manage. Player characters are very capable from the start, so threats need to be scaled to match, and the GM must know both the Savage Worlds core and the Rifts additions to Mega Damage, power points and vehicles. The Game Master's Handbook helps with an adventure generator and power-level advice, and Savage Foes gives ready-made opposition. Prep is moderate: a mission can be built quickly from the generators, but players who like big fights will expect stat blocks and maps ready. Groups that have never played Savage Worlds should learn the core rules first, ideally with the free Savage Worlds Test Drive rules.

Campaign fit

Rifts for Savage Worlds is built for campaigns. The Tomorrow Legion gives a steady stream of missions, the Field Manual and boxed sets add Plot Point Campaigns, and the worldbooks open up new regions for later arcs. One-shots work best with pregenerated characters, such as the Archetype Dossiers, and a one-sheet adventure, because building a framework character with all its rolls takes time.

Reception and awards

Reception has been warm, especially among fans of the original setting. Geek Native's 2017 review called it more of a loving reboot than a straight conversion and praised the Iconic Frameworks for capturing the classic character types. An EN World play report from a long-time Rifts group said it delivers Rifts the setting inside Savage Worlds the system, and the fan site SavageRifts.com gave the revised SWADE player's guide an A+ for balancing power better than the first version. A 2025 review on the Halfway Station blog liked the Iconic Framework guidance and some social Edges but found the starting characters overpowered and the extra Rifts terms for things Savage Worlds already has (Mega Damage, M.D.C., P.P.E., I.S.P.) confusing. On DriveThruRPG, the SWADE player's guide had a 4.7 average from 109 ratings and a mithral best-seller badge as of October 2026. We found no verified major award for the line.

Where it is strongest

• It keeps the over-the-top Rifts identity, from Glitter Boys to Techno-Wizards, with much faster rules than the original.
• Iconic Frameworks give each player a vivid, powerful role from the first session.
• The Tomorrow Legion gives the party a built-in reason to work together and take missions.
• It is a large, still-growing line with adventures, worldbooks, Plot Point Campaigns and official Foundry modules.
• It works with other Savage Worlds books, so existing Savage Worlds groups can reuse what they know.

Where it can frustrate groups

• It is not standalone: you need SWADE plus at least the player's guide, and in practice the GM books too.
• Starting characters are very strong, which can make balance and challenge hard for the GM.
• The large number of Edges, gear, cybernetics and power rules makes character creation slow.
• Rifts-specific names for familiar Savage Worlds ideas add a learning curve.
• Fans of the Palladium rules will find many original details trimmed or changed.

Content and safety notes

Expect frequent violence, body horror from cybernetics and drug-enhanced Juicers, demons and vampires, genocidal factions that hunt D-Bees and practitioners of magic, and optional rules about ritual sacrifice for power. The tone is pulpy rather than grim, but a session zero is worth having about how graphic the Blood and Gore rule should be and how the group wants to handle prejudice against D-Bees and mutants.

Best starting path

If your group already owns Savage Worlds Adventure Edition, start with the Tomorrow Legion Player's Guide, then add the Game Master's Handbook and Savage Foes of North America for the GM, either separately or through the boxed set or the revised core digital bundle. Run a free one-sheet adventure with pregenerated characters before building full framework characters. New to Savage Worlds? Learn the core with the Savage Worlds rules first, and compare Deadlands if you want another Pinnacle setting with a self-contained 2026 core.

Research notes

Last checked October 29, 2026. This page covers Pinnacle's Rifts for Savage Worlds line (current SWADE revision), not Palladium Books' original Rifts game. Sources:

• Pinnacle Entertainment Group: Savage Rifts landing page and getting-started list
• Pinnacle store: Rifts for Savage Worlds products, boxed set, bundles and Foundry VTT modules
• DriveThruRPG: Savage Rifts: The Tomorrow Legion Player's Guide (SWADE Edition)
• Kickstarter: Rifts for Savage Worlds (2016)
• Kickstarter: Rifts for Savage Worlds: American Armageddon (2019)
• Pinnacle: Rifts for Savage Worlds: Europa Kickstarter announcement (2024)
• ICv2: Pinnacle Unveils Rifts for Savage Worlds (2016)
• Geek Native review of the Tomorrow Legion Player's Guide (2017)
• EN World: Playing With Savage Rifts
• SavageRifts.com review of the SWADE player's guide (2019)
• Halfway Station review of the Tomorrow Legion Player's Guide (2025)