Review of Rifts: China 1: The Yama Kings
Summary
Overall this book has excellent potential, but fails to carry through with that potential. This does seem to be a common problem with both Kevin Siembieda and Erick Wujcik's work, which is unfortunate since both have excellent ideas. On a scale of one to ten, I give this book a four. (Yes, this is a direct cut and paste from my review of Rifts: Japan. I saw no reason to change it since it pretty much sums up everything.)
General Review
Page 7: Mythology & High Fantasy. I'd just like to say for Kevin's comment, "...and it may be time for me to think about writing Japan Two: The Oni..." DON'T! Japan 1 was bad enough, until Kevin actually cleans up his gaming system and Rifts in particular, there's no point in writing this book.
Technical Note on China, Language & History. Yeah, I can understand why they put the disclaimer here (all those complaints they receive), but it's up to the reader to decide whether or not they actually accomplished their goal of giving this book "an atmosphere that feels like China." As for me, they only partly succeeded.
Chinese Language on the other hand I'd almost have a beef with for them using "Wujcik Romanization," however, unlike Mystic China, I didn't see enough Chinese words in use for it to matter much.
As for being inspired by this work, I was in a way. Some of the ideas are like those in Rifts Japan, really great.
Page 8: However, on par with Palladium standards, the execution of those ideas was horrid, so I was inspired to fix all the little problems.
Page 9: Okay, since this is the only place with real information (sic), what in the hell are the "Dragonlands"?!? We know they exist, THAT'S IT!!!
Page 11: Ten Yama Kings. Uhm, yeah "Difu Shiwang." These are more commonly known as the Shi-Tien Yen-Wang or Shih Wang.
I'll probably provide alternate names for all 10 Yama Kings as well as Emperor Huang Di eventually.
Page 12: While I like the idea that some of the Yama Kings have been deposed, I still would have liked to see the stats for Chin Kuang.
Huan Shih: This guy's supposed to be a Taoist immortal with lots of "Chi," why is only PPE listed for his stats?
Page 14: While the stats listed for Wu Je Nao are interesting, I would have like to have the stats to create other Bai Long/White Dragons. Likewise, no "Chi" listing, just PPE is not a good thing.
Page 17: Chu Chiang. Ah, the first actual stats for a Yama King. Note that PPE and ISP are both present.
The Mandate of the Jade Emperor. Nice idea, but all the versions of this I've seen are badly done. This is the first actual Yama King we get stats for and they tell us, "As with all Yama Kings..." What all Yama Kings? There haven't been any others.
Page 18: Chu Chiang continued. Hmm...if Chi is supposed to be ISP in Rifts China, why is Chu Chiang considered a Master Psychic?
Pages 19-20: Xian Ya the Immortal Raven. What in the hell kind of Raven is "angelic," has "golden plummage," and "huge, beautiful wings with yellow, orange, and gold feathers"? Hell, what about "eight small tentacles just inside her mouth"? Maybe they should dup the "Immortal Raven" part of her description and just label her a D-bee.
Pages 20-22: King Qin Kuai. This guy is a flat out joke. Get this, he's a 7th level Chi Mage, yet Magic is listed as "None, except by reading scrolls written in Chinese or via a magic item."
Pages 25-27: Wu Kuan. It's interesting to note that the Mandate of the Jade Emperor has no effect on him since he follows it and that he's not listed as being a Master Psychic.
Pages 29-30: Yen Lo. Nice to know he's found a way around his Mandate. Another Yama King who's considered a Master Psychic. Personally, my favorite thing about Yen Lo is that he isn't using Techno-Wizardry because "it's indigenous to North America." WOO HOO! Rifts Japan is avenged (partially) at last. This means that there are NO TW Ninjas in Japan and the Chinese TW Power Shuriken do NOT exist!
Pages 34-36: Pien Cheng. Since it's psionic based, his Spirit Wrack is whack. Seriously, how are psionics related to "spirit" (remember good old Rifts Japan, they claimed spirit was PPE there)? I also like that he's another Yama King immune to the Mandate. He's also another Master Psychic.
On a side note, my first thought when reading about the Revolution was, Pien Cheng should get a computer from Yen Lo and put it up in his hell, then force everyone inside a huge complex run by the computer, which looks for capitalist mutant traitors and clones every person in the complex....oh wait, that's a reverse of the Paranoia RPG.
Pages 38-39: Tai Shan Chun. The substitute Yama King. While he has a Mandate, his is a special case (yet another "yama king" that skips out). Interestingly enough, this Demon Overlord is also a Master Psychic.
Page 39: Chi Chou Lu. Another Taoist Immortal with PPE and no ISP.
Pages 41-43: Ping Teng. Ah yes, the insane Yama King. His Mandate of the Jade Emperor is the laziest bit of writing I've seen in the book. "As with other Yama Kings" Uhm...okay, disregarding Huan Shi (Taoist Immortal), Qin Kuai (wannabe), and Tai Shan Chun (demon overlord), we've got 4 previous Yama Kings. Of those, three aren't affected by the Mandate of the Jade Emperor! So we must conclude that Ping Teng is immune to the effects as well.
Pages 45-46: Tu Shis. What fun and excitement with this Yama King's Mandate. As with Ping Teng, he gets the lame "As with other Yama Kings" for Point of Correction under the Mandate, however, like the other Yama Kings, he's pretty much made himself immune to the other effects of the Mandate. Big surprise that. This Yama King is also considered a Master Psychic.
Page 47: White Lead Leopards. Damn, these poor guys are considered Master Psychics as well, but that's no change from their original stats. Which means that *gasp* Psionics doesn't have a thing to do with Chi!
Pages 48-49: Yet another missing Yama King. However, we do have the goddess Meng P'o Niang Niang. She's considered a Master Psychic as well.
Pages 49-51: Emperor Huang Di. Nothing to see here, move along.
Page 51: Terra-Cotta Warriors. Okay, I understand that the designers are trying to keep the exact numbers of TCWs vague, but we see on page 49 that there are about 800,000 of them, which jibes with the "hundreds of thousands (or perhaps more!)" we see here. Later we see that Huang Di only controls "at least 100,000". Yeah.
As much as I despise how Chi gets treated in Rifts, I don't mind that these guys are PPE powered. It just makes them magical critters like specialized golems.
Chi Magic technicians. So what, are these guys like Techno-Chi-Wizards? (More fun with this later).
Pages 54-60: Demonic Curses. Okay, these are magical abilities of Demons. Personally, while I found them interesting and having Chinese flavor, I didn't really see the point in them.
Page 61: Ch'iang Shih. Okay, is it just me or does Palladium have a problem acknowledging "undead"? I mean seriously. Oh look Ghosts. "Though not truly a ghost, we felt the undead belong in this section." So why in the hell didn't you just label the section "Undead"?
Page 64: Ch'iang Shih continued. Is it just me or were "Garlic" and "Holy Symbol" just thrown in to give these guys more weaknesses? Sure Incense I could buy as a weakness, it fits with the Chinese flavor, but Garlic?
Pages 68-70: Preta. Okay, first note, Preta is Sanskrit (that's one of the main written languages of India for those of you who don't know) for Yaksa. The Chinese word is "gwei."
Pages 72-74. Vapours. It would have been nice to have the Chinese names for these, if, indeed they are Chinese.
Page 74: Goblins. Creatures of Mischief & Trouble. Interesting that the word "shen" is used here for spirits. Looking it up in a Chinese-English Dictionary gets us "Spirit" instead.
Pages 74-76: Fox Spirits. Okay, we know about fox spirits from Mystic China. Interestingly, these Fox Spirits (Hu Yao Kuai) are definitely different than MC's fox spirits (Hu Ching). Both seem to be derived from Chinese versions of Kitsune to me (Kitsune being more widely known than Chinese versions), but that's okay. However, to avoid confusion, perhaps they should have called these fox spirits something else.
Pages 76-77: Goat Goblin. Okay, was anyone besides me disappointed that they used a chopped Spider-Goat (from ATB2) pic for this creature? Again, a Chinese name would have really helped out here.
Pages 77-79: Shadow Goblins. Another Chinese monster without a Chinese name. Hmm...seems like Bakemono to me.
Pages 79-81: Mountain Goblin. Yet another no-Chinese-name monster.
Pages 81-82: One-Horned Mountain Goblin. Okay, after seeing the pic, my first thought was naturally, "Oh look, more Ogre Magi conversions from D&D." Naturally this monster has no listed Chinese name.
Pages 82-84: Tall Man Goblin. This is almost as bad as the number of ninja in Rifts Japan. Yet another no-Chinese-name monster.
Page 84: Demons. I gotta admit it, this section was seriously disappointing to me. Sure, there's lots of demons packed in there, but most of them had the "we borrowed this from Buddhism" feel than "Taoist bad ass Yama King servant demons" feel.
Pages 84-86: Ch'uan Ti. Hmm..Ch'uan Ti...Yuan Ti...Dogs?...Tieh Gou (Iron Dogs)...Time to go back to the CE dictionary.
Pages 86-88: Falcon Demon. Yeah, right. The pic just screams "Garuda" at me.
Pages 88-91: Fox Faerie. Hmm...Fox Faerie (no Chinese name interestingly enough)...Fox Spirit...Ha Yao Kuei...Hu Ching...yeah.
Pages 91-93: Headless One. What, another no-Chinese-name monster? That's okay folks, this one I know. They are the Hsing-T'ien.
Pages 93-94: Long-Armed Giants. Hmm...not another no-Chinese-name monster.
Pages 95-96: Ma T-ou. These have got to be Buddhist. I've run into the Japanese version.
Pages 97-98: Monkey-Wolf. Great, we get really descriptive names, but nothing in Chinese for most of the monsters in this book.
Pages 99-100: Ox-Head Demon. Another Buddhist demon. These run around with the Ma T-ou above.
Pages 100-102: Pig Demon. At this point I started to wonder if we were going to get Chinese 12 Zodiac Animal Demons.
Pages 103-104: Were-Beasts. Yay, no reprinted stats for once. Having some Chinese names for different varieties of these would have been cool though.
Pages 104-105: Yang Ching, the Goat Demon. You see what I mean about 12 Zodiac Animals? At least we get a Chinese name for these.
Page 105: The Dead & the Damned of the Yama Hells. Would it have been too much trouble to print some actual stats for these?
Pages 106-108: Kinnaras/Chin-na-lo. Well, at least we get the Chinese name for these Buddhist demons.
Page 108-112: Kou Ching, the Dog Spirit. Is it just me or are we seeing WAY too many dog creatures...with different Chinese names? How many ways can there be to spell dog in Chinese?
Pages 112-114: Mahoragas. Another Sanskrit word for a Buddhist demon.
Pages 114-116: Monkey Spirt. *Sigh* No fun with Monkey. Why is this in with Demons anyway?
Page 116-121. Naga. Yay! Another Sanskrit Buddhist Demon. It's Wang Lung (or wang long) in Chinese.
Page 118: Naga-Spawn. Don't you love how many half-breeds show up in Palladium games despite their so-called "No Half-breeds rule"?
Page 119: How come we get a Chinese name for Water Devils, but none for Water Goblins?
Pages 121-123: Red Child Demon. Another monster that came across more as Japanese than Chinese.
Pages 123-126: Shen Wu, Wise Warrior. Okay, these are definitely NOT demons, despite whoever screwed up their alignment. "Diabolic" just isn't backed up by the description. In fact, it's pretty much contradicted by the description.
Pages 126-128: White Monkey. Uhm...okay...are these supposed to be evil Yeti-like deomns?
Pages 128-131: Yaksha. Remember what I said earlier under Preta? Yeah.
Pages 131-132: Ying Husan Shang. Sure, okay.
Pages 133-136: Mo-lo/Mara. Mara's the head of the heavenly demons, ruling the Sixth Heaven of the Buddhist Cosmology (that weird heaven of bliss where pure enjoyment is used to torture people).
Pages 136-138: Mara Asuras. Again we're back to Sanskrit Buddhist Demons.
Pages 143-144: Check this section out, it goes into great detail on areas of positive and negative chi.
Pages 144-145: Okay, sure, we saw a lot of 'new' Chinese monsters in this book (as in, new compared to what's in Mystic China), but most of them really didn't fit. These demons are supposed to be the minions of the Yama Kings, not the punishment detail crew of the Buddhist hells (though I should point out that in China, the Buddhist and Taoist hells are pretty much interlinked through the Chinese synthesis of beliefs). What happened to the Infernals?
The Unique Demonic Quirks & Personality Flaws table pretty much underscores this lack.
Pages 145-148: Unique Demonic Powers. Again, this fits more with the Infernals than the Demons presented in China 1, since they are more suited to customization than demons who are already broken down into different types with specific powers.
Pages 149-150: Expanded Infernal Rank table from Mystic China.
Page 150: Rural Human Communities. Okay sure, China is NOT Japan or Southeast Asia. HOWEVER, while many people MAY think of China this way, those of us who actually do research on the subject know that, while different, China is similar (for different reasons) to both Japan AND Southeast Asia. The rice paddies and lifestyle of Vietnam is quite similar to that of Southern China. Japan has been heavily influenced by China, though they tend to take their version of the ideas in a different direction.
Missing Stuff
Rifts Australia Note, page 210: Free Yunnan: This region is labelled on the maps on pages 158-159, but I couldn't find any other references to it. It's in limbo just like the Dragonlands. There were no new technological weapons and such released as part of the "Fifth Hell". Maybe we'll see them in Rifts China 3 or a Rifter article.
Note: A handful of Glitter Boys salvaged from pre-Rifts military bases either allied with or supported by the Old American Empire can occasionally be found in the wilderness and settlements of Australia, New Zealand, and periodically, throughout the Pacific. Likewise, occasional old (and new) Japanese, Hong Kong and Korean power armor, robots, vehicles and weapons are unearthed, but a rarity.
Overall Review
Appearance: After seeing Mystic China I can't even say this book looked good. While we get data on more Yama Kings, we still don't get the full deal. When is Erick Wujcik going to cover ALL TEN Yama Kings in one place?!? Also, while this book had lots of demons and monsters (there must be at least half a dozen quick-stat demons running around here and there), this book suffered from two key things in that area. Lack of Chinese Dragons and replacing Taoist monsters with Buddhist monsters. Come to think of it, using a Notable O.C.C.s & R.C.C.s list like Rifts Japan did to include monsters like the Kilin, Chiang-Ku, Hindu Gods and Monsters, and a few other odds and ends would have really helped this book out.
Artwork: Awesome Zeleznik cover. With interior artwork by Kent Burles, Michale Dubsich, Brian Manning, Apollo Okamura, Freddie Willains II, and Brandon C. Clark of DSS, you'd expect
some really awesome artwork. Some is exactly what you get. Kent Burles and Dubisch have no business doing artwork for this book as they simply can NOT capture the oriental feel with their
styles of artwork. Freddie Williams has always come across as an artist with hit or miss pictures, and Rifts China 1 is no exception. In fact, Freddie missed in this case. Other unlisted artists like
Gustovich could and should have had no artwork in this book with no impact on it's visuals.
Brian Manning on the other hand provides excellent artwork with a distinctly Chinese feel. Sadly, Vince Martin's excellent Mystic China reprints get no credit in the contents of this book. Apollo Okamura is another artist who can capture the oriental feel with his work, however, I gotta say Apollo, if you're going to put your name in Japanese in your image signatures, at least you could do it right, while I personally prefer hiragana to katakana, if you're translating a foreign name like "aporo" it's done in katakana.
Structure: For China 1 & 2 I'm going to use this to comment on the product summary rather than Palladium's lack of structure in pre-Splicers books.
Yes, you do get an overview of Rifts China and the Yama Kings.
The More than 20 "Chinese" supernatural horrors is debatable as many of the monsters presented within were derived from Indian Buddhism.
The more than 20 curses are there, but with no real purpose.
The return of the first emperor and terra cotta warriors made it in.
Dragonlands, sacred mountains, magical places and more were more or less present (the less being the amount of detail devoted to the Dragonlands).
The eight Hells on Earth, sure.
Ideal for use with Rifts Japan, Warlords of Russia, and Mystic Russia, NO. This book is almost completely NON-compatible with Rifts Japan or Warlords of Russia, however several of the so-called Chinese Demons look like they'd be more at home in Rifts Mystic Russia.
Written by Kevin Siembieda & Erick Wujcik...yeah, pretty much the only part of the credits that's accurate.
160 pages of ideas, monsters, and magic...again no, while the book is 160 pages, not all of it is devoted to ideas, monsters or magic.
Editing: Standard Palladium books lack thereof.
Continuity: This was the perfect chance to tie in Rifts Japan with other parts of the world, and it failed.
Pinyin English Def. Cantonese
hu2 species of fox wu4 --
li2 mai2 fox lei4 --
li2 mai2 a fox-like animal lei4
shen2 shen1 spirit, god, supernatural being san4
ling2 ling4 spirit, soul; spiritual world ling4 --
gui3 ghost; spirit of dead; devil gwai2 --
hun2 soul, spirit wan4 --
sui4 evil spirit; evil influence seui6 --
xiao1 mischevious, one footed spirit that dwells in the mountains siu1
mo2 demon, evil spirits; magic power mo1 --
wang3 demons, mountain spirits mong5
mo2 demon, evil spirits; magic power mo1 --
mei4 kind of forest demon, elf mei6 --
chi1 a montain demon resembling tiger chi1
gui3 ghost; spirit of dead; devil gwai2
gou3 dog, canis familiaris gau2 --
quan3 dog; radical number 94 hyun2 --
he2 hao2 mo4 hao2 ma4 badger; raccoon dog hok6 --
ao2 mastiff, large fierce dog ngou1 --
tong2 name of a variety of dog; wild tribes in South China tung4