Curbludgeon wrote:One thing to note in using Ultimate Edition with those RMB period books is the increased PPE of primary casters as compared to, say, the Temporal classes.
This is, to me at least, something of a non-issue. The Temporal Mage got higher PPE than RMB-era LLWs, so the fact that they now get potentially less (you can vary a lot with that 3d6x10) is offset by the fact that they get a MUCH better spell selection and can simply start the game with Energy Sphere and/or Talisman (or both!) to offset any potential PPE problems.
OR, if you feel it is a problem, the best way to solve it is probably to just upgrade all Pre-RUE era dedicated-mage classes (Temporal Wizard yes, Temporal Warrior no, as they are -supposed- to have less PPE, same with Mystic Knights, etc) to use the same base as RUE Ley Line Walkers.
If youre going to set the game in North America, Atlantis and England are easily the two best books to add simply because the classes presented in them are meant to be used setting-wide and not in one area like a lot of the others.
I'd also recommend Sourcebook One (revised or not, like a lot of others i kind of find the revised version to be somewhat inferior) as it has a lot of good basic equipment that was left out of RUE/RMB due to space.
Most of the other World Books end up with Classes that are usually limited to (or least, make very little sense to be elsewhere) that area.
Mercenaries is an excellent choice, though the OCCs are kind of dated (as there are basically better versions of every presented class in other books and they are pretty plain), but it has tons of equipment especially for low-rent PCs (Ramjet ammo, Explosive Ammo, rebuilt pre-Rifts vehicles, etc).
Coalition War Campaign is another good choice for any game set in NA (as it has a lot of good tech-based Man At Arms classes that players can use as either CS deserters/retiree's, or simply use the classes as an "equivalent to" the CS class. Lots of good equipment, too, for PCs to get as loot.
I'd add
New West to that as well as the OCCs are viable anywhere in the NA setting. It also has a lot of Non-CS equipment (which a lot of the early books were lacking variety in) including a lot of new non-CS body armors and weapons (including a lot of variety for Wilks) and a decent array of new Techno-Wizard gear.
All of those books are -relatively- "time" agnostic; they are all assumed to be around ~105-106PA (with the RMB being 104, and RUE being updated to be vaguely 105-ish) so you dont have to worry about "is this available yet" problems.
Those will add a LOT of variety for gear and OCC choice, though it does leave magic users a bit out in the cold.
Psyscape and the Book of Magic both add a ton of choices for those types of characters. (Seriously, how did Warlock not make it into RUE, despite being all over the setting by the boatload...). A lot of people might also say to add Federation of Magic if you want to give your guys some more options, but the spells (and TW gear) from it are in Book of Magic and the OCCs themselves are somewhat lackluster, so you can get by without it.
If i had to put them in order of what i'd buy/acquire first, i'd go something like this:
RUE/RMB (core rulebook of choice; ironically, you might find the RMB to be more friendly to new players, as RUE - somewhat notoriously, around here - is EXTREMELY poorly laid out for new player friendliness and if they aren't already familiar with making a Palladium character, trying to follow the creation rules in RUE can make it impossible to actually be able to create a character)
- Sourcebook One (revised/non-revised, your choice)
- Atlantis (Atlanteans are a great race, Tatoo'ed men are great, simple-to-use, powerful combatant characters)
- England (Useful for the Temporal Magic classes alone)
- Mercenaries
- Coalition War Campaign or New West
- whichever one of the two above you didn't pick first
- Psyscape (move this up above Mercs if people are super interested in Psionics)
- Book of Magic (move this up below Mercs if people are super interested in Magic; Magic users are already well represented so they can get by without it, but Psyscape is really what makes playing something other than a Mind Melter even viable, so id rather that higher).
- Conversion Book One (non-Revised); i suggest non-revised because the revised version actually has less content in it and some nonsensical changes. The changes are meh, live with or without, whatever, but the cutting of the additional Dragon Hatchlings, etc, makes the revised version less useful for what you're doing. You can move this book up to right under Sourcebook One if you want to give the PCs lots of options for races (as it has tons of the Palladium Fantasy races and, as noted, more Dragon Hatchlings). If this isn't that important, then you can do without, though it does also a decent bestiary of supernatural menaces as well. Youll probably have to buy this used.