Mutants in Orbit (1992) is an odd one and I am not entirely sure how it fits into Palladium’s assorted lines.

So, right after the release of TMNT and Other Strangeness, Palladium put out a campaign setting called After the Bomb, a post-apocalyptic earth that heavily integrates TMNT’s mutation rules. Mutants in Orbit is the last supplement for After the Bomb, but it is also a Rifts sourcebook. Honestly, it feels like in its heart it is a Rifts book. It also feels like a half-hearted revisiting of The TMNT Guide to the Universe.

I have read, but can’t confirm, that After the Bomb was developed as a way to bypass the TMNT license in order to make more money off the mutant rules – I guess using less stuff that appeared in the comics made it more lucrative for Palladium. This, however, is contradicted by the fact that when Palladium lost the TMNT license in 2000, it forced the release of a new version of After the Bomb. I feel like both these things probably explain why Mutants in Orbit is such a weirdly confused book.

Anyway, the name says it all. Its about near orbit earth after the apocalypse and details various space stations. There’s new rules for how to survive in space. And lots of kind of ridiculous ships and robots in the Rifts style. No dinosaurs, though. Boo.