Palladium

[whitefish]

Does anyone here play palladium? I just started recently, it's fun in a small group but if there are more than about 5 players, it gets rediculous.

[Agent Minivann]

As in the Palladium RPGs? I had a few of them right around when Rifts was released. There were things I liked about the system and there were things that I didn't like about the system. I never could get my gaming group to play, so I can't really offer much beyond just opinions based on my theoretical understanding of the game.

[netherspirit]

Used to play Rifts back in the day. I still have a couple of the books in my closet...

[Wilkerson74]

I use to play a lot of palladium....it was a lot of fun, especially with all the different titles they had.

Don't have time for it now.....which is why I play heroscape.....was thinking about selling my old books if anyone is interested.

[Miniature Geek]

Palladiums Hero's Unlimited is one of my favorite RPG's. I think it offers some of the best Hero Creation system, that and I'm really starting to hate D20.

[whitefish]

was thinking about selling my old books if anyone is interested.

Pick me Pick ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

[Logrey]

Nope - don't play any more. But as a kid, Palladium was it. TMNT, Heroes Unlimited, Ninjas and Superspies, Palladium RPG, After the Bomb/Road Hogs, Beyond the Supernatural, Rifts, Robotech. Played it all. In hindsight - not a great RPG system. Must have liked it at the time, though....

[Tiberius]

I have played quite a bit of palladium, great settings and stories, character creation was a nightmare. It takes on average an hour to two hours to make a character just from all the math and skills and stuff. Unfortunately most RPGs now-a-days lack the creativeness that Palladium had in its story settings. Of course a good game master can always get around that but not much can be done about the character creation system and the unbalance in the different characters available.

[Miniature Geek]

I have played quite a bit of palladium, great settings and stories, character creation was a nightmare. It takes on average an hour to two hours to make a character just from all the math and skills and stuff. Unfortunately most RPGs now-a-days lack the creativeness that Palladium had in its story settings. Of course a good game master can always get around that but not much can be done about the character creation system and the unbalance in the different characters available.

Rifts was majorly unbalanced but made up for it with characters having different leveling up points.

I thought their attribute system was the best because to me it more accurately detailed a human's attributes.

[whitefish]

Has anyone ever seen any Palladium books at a book store? If so, what one, I'm looking for some cheap palladium books.

[Wilkerson74]

what books are you looking for whitefish??

[hextr1p]

Back in the day, my friends and I used to play a LOT of TMNT, getting into all the supplemental books as well. We tried getting into the Robotech game, but never really were able to appreciate the theme as much as TMNT. However, we did play a campaign where we created mutants with mechs!

:D It was friggin' awesome!

[whitefish]

All the basic, how to play, character creation, and create your own quest books.

[Miniature Geek]

Has anyone ever seen any Palladium books at a book store? If so, what one, I'm looking for some cheap palladium books.

Most places don't sell them. Apparently most places think that the only ones that exist are D20. It annoys the crap out of me. However you can get them from there online store.

[Wilkerson74]

Most the books I have are the palladium fanstasy game ...although I may have misplaced the 1st one. most of em are not 2nd edition revisions.

I also have heros unlimited with a few suplements to it, vampire kingdom and mechanoid invasion from the rifts line...as well as the 1980's mechanoid release, and a newer book called nightbane....which was a cool concept.

[LilNewbie]

Palladium also suffered some severe financial set backs in 2006 and that could also be a reason why you don't see a lot of the books in FLGS (at this time).

From Wikipedia:


Financial troubles
On April 19, 2006, Kevin Siembieda published a press release [2] stating Palladium Books' critical financial difficulties due to embezzlement and theft resulting in $850,000 to $1.3 million in damages [2] coupled with a series of delays in licensing their properties for other media (the N-Gage game, the still in-development Jerry Bruckheimer movie, a MMOG license, and other potential deals). They are attempting to raise money to continue operations by selling a signed and numbered (but not, strictly speaking, a "limited edition") art print by Kevin Siembieda, as well as urging fans to buy directly from their online store if their financial situation allows for it.

An April 26, 2006 article [3] in the Kingsport, TN Times-News, revealed that Steve Sheiring, Palladium's former sales manager, had been sentenced in a plea bargain to one year of probation and ordered to pay $47,080 in restitution to Palladium Books in connection with these thefts. It also provided more information about the thefts, which took place from 2002 to 2004 and were only discovered when Palladium took inventory.

Responding to the controversy engendered by such a low settlement amount in relation to the large loss figure claimed in his earlier press release, Kevin Siembieda posted an open letter [3] to the Palladium forum explaining the matter. Siembieda stated that he had not wanted to make public Sheiring's identity out of the fear that overzealous fans might get into trouble by committing acts of reprisal. He explained that the heaviest punishment Sheiring had been likely to receive even without the plea bargain was probation. Siembieda had a choice between getting any amount of settlement money at all to pay critical bills, or spending more time and money to attempt to get his "pound of flesh" from a man who was reportedly broke anyway. Given the urgency of Palladium's situation, Siembieda did not feel he had any real choice but to take what little he could get.

During the week of May 7, Palladium announced that revenues from increased sales of its books, its Open House and the art print sales had covered most of the immediate-term damages incurred by Palladium.


I played in a Robotech campaign for about 2 years and had a blast. The game system is a bit weak but the resource material in the books are fantastic.

Newb.

[whitefish]

I'm working on a way to play HS like you would palladium, its coming along good. I hope i dont ruin hs lol

[Kepler]

I use to play The Palladium Fantasy RPG back in the 80s. I like it. It was a good game.

[kanegrundar]

I used to play the heck out of Rifts until the total lack of a cohesive system drove me away. Unless everyone in the group decided on a power level, there would always be someone either way too low in power or way too high to the rest of the group. It was a great kitchen sink setting, but everything about the rules was, well, crap. I still have much of the Rifts line (you can usually find them pretty cheap online) and use them for ideas and conversion to various D20 games (mostly Modern and Mutants and Masterminds). It could really use a good rules update, but KS refuses to see that his system is overlly flawed. It's a shame. It could become a really popular system again with rules that are streamlined and make sense, rather than just being the niche line that it's become.

While there aren't a lot of shops that carry Palladium anymore, there are still a few. (I've noticed a lot of game shops that have scaled back most of the RPG products they carry in lieu of just selling lines that they know will sell like D&D and Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay 2E, so finding anything beyond those lines at brick and mortar shops is tough these days.) I know that Valhalla's Gate still carries the Palladium product lines.

Plus, the whole fund drive thing left a sour taste in my mouth. I feel sorry for Palladium. Being the victim of such a betrayal is a hard thing to get through. However, a company that asks for donations to keep them afloat (though some of the losses appear to be more personal items rather than actual investments that kept the company solvent) is a company that I refuse to support. When there are non-profit organizations that are in need of donations to help people that are in dire need, it smacks of bad taste for a business to use the same tactics.