So, at some point in the relatively near future I'll be running a RIFTS campaign.
I have a pretty clear idea what my position will be about which books I will be using (and allowing player use of), and its pretty much the books I actually own.

But let's see, in your opinions, RIFTS-fans, which would you say would be the essential books for a RIFTS campaign?

RPGPundit

A while back I ran an extremely successful Rifts game for a couple of years (the one I had the really popular AP thread on rpgnet for).  I used a wide variety of books, but the only one I truly thought was "essential" was the main rulebook (Rifts Ultimate Edition).  After that, you just need a book or two for some monsters and location information on where your campaign takes place.

For the PCs in my campaign, I made everybody just use what was in the core book.  There's plenty of options in it, and I didn't want to deal with all of the supplement creep.  I think one replacement character came out of a supplement late in the campaign, and that was when I created the character for the guy myself (in my group, the more casual players just had me create the characters because it was easier for everyone).

As an example, here's all I used for my campaign (I actually own quite a lot more Rifts books, but most weren't used in the campaign):

• Conversion Book 1: Used a few monsters out of here, not a lot (didn't want to get too heavy into fantasy creatures, I prefer a more post-apoc theme).
• Sourcebook 1: Used a most of the monsters from this one because they have a very Rifts feel to them.
• Sourcebook 2 - The Mechanoids: Used this one a lot because I had a large Mechanoid story arc.  But if you don't want mechanoids, its useless.
• Sourcebook 3 - Mindwerks: I used a little background info from this for the final chapter of my campaign.  But overall, I didn't really care for the book.
• World Book 10 - Juicer Uprising: I had a juicer subplot in the beginning of the campaign, so I used this a little for PCs.  Not an overly useful book outside of the main topic.
• World Book 14 - New West: Again, being in Arizona made this book very useful, too.  It has some interesting monsters here and there (though I don't really care for the PC options)
• World Book 20 - Canada: I used one class from this for a PC.  Otherwise, I find this to be one of (if not the) worst Rifts books ever and strongly recommend against it.
• World Book 28 - Arzno: A big part of the campaign ended up taking place in Arizona, so I used this one a lot.
• Dimension Book 10 - Hades: The penultimate campaign arc went here.  It had a good collection of demons, but overall I was underwhelmed by the setting.

Where do you want your campaign to take place?  

I am looking forward to running a campaign that is primarily South America with a variety of rifts that lead to Russia and Atlantis and vice versa in a semi-closed loop so those books would be the mainstays.

Supplement creep doesn't worry me much because I can cast Power Word No and Power Word Houserule to keep everything workable for me.   My rule with players is that we agree on a general campaign power level and we go from there.   If during the campaign they decide to amp it up or tone it down, I go along with it.   Personally, I like the ebb and flow of power.

The only essential book is the core book (R:UE or the original) and maybe one of the Conversion books as your monster manual.    Everything else depends on what you like.  If you love magic in your post-apocalypse, then their Book of Magic is worth it.  If you love lots of hardware, buy the GM's Guide.

Quote from: Spinachcat;274455I am looking forward to running a campaign that is primarily South America

You have to wonder what Pundy's group (being South Americans) would think of the South America books...

Quote from: jgants;274492You have to wonder what Pundy's group (being South Americans) would think of the South America books...

I personally was not impressed with them at all. I thought the Robotech RPG's handling of south america was much better than RIFTS'.

RPGPundit

Depends on how much you wanna stick to canon and all.

I would say Chaos Earth is Rifts only cooler and with a good setup.  

But that's probably not an option so Rifts, Conversion Book, Sourcebook One.  Then tell canon to bugger off and make your own cool world off that framework.

My campaign in the Navy involved the One Ring's pieces being found by various factions and the PCs trying to find them first and then take it to Hawaii to throw it in the Pit of Doom.  (I was inspired by some book saying Middle Earth was our Earth far in the past.  Hawaii has lots of volcanoes.  Sweet.)

They had help from a bunch of Robotech forces whose ships had been Rifted in and crashed in the swampy areas that were formerly Alabama/Georgia, with their main opponents being the Witch Queen of the Splugorth (a chick who was pretty much jacked up on as many bio upgrades as Atlantis provided), and those Chi Town badguy army whose official name I forget.  I used a villian from that Mekton 2 adventure as the regional boss who was in charge.

Throw in the odd demon attack, mutant MDC Velociraptors, and Wolfen Death Metal bands and it was quite fun till that vile card game Magic sort of took hold of most of the gamers I knew including myself.  And it was mostly my fault getting it going too.

I HAVE SINNED AGAINST YOU GAMING!

I can't really say how bad or good the more recent books went.  I got up to world book 4-5.  England or Africa I think.  

From what I have seen in Rifters and all that the official US south is nothing like the one I did and obviously that whole Coalition Wars thing changed the whole region.

For the record, I'm going to be using:

The RIFTS main book (deluxe edition)
The Game Master's guide
The Conversion Guide
Mutatns in orbit
The Megaverse Builder

And then a number of Robotech RPG books (including, obviously, the new Shadow Chronicles RPG book).

RPGPundit

Quote from: Captain Rufus;274566I would say Chaos Earth is Rifts only cooler and with a good setup.

CE rocks if you want a "Man Versus the Inhuman Invasion at the End of the World" campaign.   If disaster movies give you wood, Chaos Earth is worth a gander.

Quote from: Captain Rufus;274566I HAVE SINNED AGAINST YOU GAMING!

Your atonement involves 50 "Hail Gygaxes" and three sessions of playing Swords & Wizardry: White Box edition to cleanse your soul.

Quote from: RPGPundit;274702For the record, I'm going to be using:

You're good, especially since your game is going to be heavily Robotech influenced.