As far as useful stuff for Gamma World goes here's my take on it.

1. Some useful tables on background, appearance, disposition, you can even roll up a Psychosis if you want a truly deranged PC/NPC.

2. The Skill list is fairly extensive (more than in GW 4th ed.) and many are not very detailed, but for those new skill seekers out there, I'm sure you'll find some useful stuff.

3. The character classes are cool but most are too powerful for GW.

Glitter-Boy -(see power armor below)

I love the Juicer "live fast, die young" super-soldier/assassins over-loaded on chemicals and nano-drugs! hard to use in a traditional low-tech Gamma setting. Would be more feasible in a pre-cataclysmic setting or mish-mash campaign like traditional Rifts.

The Psychic classes are awesome! Burster (pyromancer extraordinaire), Psi-Stalker (Lives off the mental energy of other psychics!) Cool concept! Lots of potential here. (Tormentor is working on a GW4 version of the Psi-Stalker) + I hope to do a GW5 version,as well.

Dog-Boy (cool mutant dog information)

4. Lots of Magic . If you don't use magic in your GW , not alot you can use here. But if your a Thundarresque type you can go crazy with the info provided. Imagine Post-Apocalyptic Stonehenge.

5. Psionics - I think GW has most of the powers listed. Except for some of the Special abilities the Burster and such have.

6. World info. vague in core book. but definately some tidbits to be had.

7. Weapons and Equipment. This is where Rifts shines (even goes overboard at times). The Coalition (main human survivors/also bad guys) has some really cool stuff. Problem is it's very recognizable to anyone who's familiar with Rifts, if you don't care about your players knowing where you steal from fine.

The light body armours are cool and very useful (pics are nice) However the Power Armours get way powerful very fast! One of the most powerful is the Glitter-Boy suit (3m. tall complete environmental suit), complete with "Boom Gun" powerful rail-gun that fires 200 projectiles simultaneoulsy at Mach 2 !! Basically a Gamma-Knight on steroids!

8. vehicle section is lite but pics are useful.

9. Cybernetics/Bionics section fairly extensive (very useful for those traditional Borgs!

10. small section on misc. equipment. (a few tid bits for Gamma here)

11. Xiticix , a nasty alien insectoid race! (could make for an interesting mutant insect race for Gamma World).

12. Fury Beetles , enormous beetle-like beasts that rove the wastes. (perfect for a Wasted/New West Gamma World campaign).

Well that's the Rifts core book in a Nut-shell. Let me know if this is at all helpful!!

Later,

Brutorz Bill