Do you want to know how it all began? Whether your interest is in the development of role-playing game publishers, game systems, or specifically in Palladium Books and their 'multiverse' ruleset that culminated in Rifts, there is a treat here for you. Back in the mists of time (well, 1981) Palladium Books published its very first game, The Mechanoid Invasion, which not only got them off to a flying start but also laid the groundwork for what was to become their house ruleset. Here, some 17 years later (this book came out in 1998), that book and its two sequels are presented in updated form, now fully-compatable with the entire Rifts megaverse and with an added bonus of some historical notes as well.

The book opens with some of those historical notes, a fascinating insight to those long-ago one-man-band efforts which over the course of time, inspiration and hard work grew into the company that we know today. In the late 1970s/early 1980s, when a lot of gamers wrote or modified systems to suit their tastes, Siembieda went a step beyond: when attempting to sell his idea to existing game companies, his gaming group talked him into going into business as a publisher for himself. Having already worked in publishing, he was aware of a new and cheaper production method, the 'perfect-bound' trade paperback, as large as other game books but not as expensive to make as hardbacks or full boxed sets; but even that was more costly than he could manage at the outset (Palladium claim the first game books in that format, but not until 1983). The discussion of production is interwoven with the game design choices that made that first product be a science-fiction epic rather than the fantasy that Siembieda mostly played, and yet the seeds were set for what developed into the entire megaverse.

The original plotline was simple, elegant and innovative. In the distant future, a remote colony of Earth settlers get attacked by overwhelming numbers of aliens, bent on eradicating these pesky bipeds. They're too far from the nearest military support to get help, so whatever they do to survive is up to them. Some did survive, against the odds, as the second book The Journey covers their solution: to hide out on their attackers' mother ship, rat-style behind panels and in access shafts... and this worked, given that the final volume Homeworld gives a glimpse of where the aliens came from, and showed that they too had problems, unconnected with pesky bipeds. That has not changed, indeed as you leaf through, the original books have been presented much as first written - although the spelling and proof-reading have improved. Notes are also provided to convert the material herein so that it may be used with other Rifts or Robotech books that you might have. Otherwise the compilation pretty much gives the effect of the original three books stuck together, rather than a major re-edit into a single coherent whole.

So what is presented is a sweeping epic in three parts spanning several hundred years or more. You'll need different characters for each of the three phases, and a clever Game Master will interlace connections which may not become apparent until the final die has been rolled. Here's a framework for memorable adventures, that has stood the test of time well.