I realize that this is an old thread, but since I found it, I thought I would put in my 2 cp about PB. The biggest negative from my point of view (and SuperSlayer can put the blinders on and go LA-LA-LA-LA-LA all he wants, it's still a fact), is that the next Palladium Book that goes out to the gaming stores on time, will practically be the first. Siembeida has never been on time with anything. I personally don't care that he is a micro-managing feminine hygiene product that you use on a summer's eve. It seems physically impossible for the man to let anything go the printers on time.
Care for an example? Lemuria. Oh yea, it looks nice (haven't seen it myself, but I hear its cool), and Siembeida finally came into the 21st century by doing some crowdfunding, but anyone wanna guess when Palladium first mentioned releasing the book? That would be in Rifts Underseas, in the section about the New Navy and Captain Nemo. Remember when the book came out? 1994...
A more recent example? Rifts Northern Guns (now in 2 volumes!!). That has been floated around for years too, and the company said that it would be out this year. Even did 2 crowd funds. I personally paid for the pdf copies (I just didn't have 50/50 for each hardcover at the time). So guess what? It went from: the next two books out to; we're not going to make it before GenCon (kinda figured on that one) to; yay we just released Black Market (after another 15 year delay) to; well it will be out after the Vampire Sourcebook to; we'll take a look at it after both Vampire and Robotech: Genesis Pits. From my point of view, it was money wasted. What happened this time, did the NG authors make a rude comment about Siembeida's shoes or something?
Look, I am aware that there are people out there who love them some Palladium. I get it. I also know that they are not WoTC/Hasbeen (the George Lucas of DnD as far as I am concerned). That being said, a lot of crap has oozed out of PB over the last several years, and not all of it has to do with the embezzlement disaster (call it what you want, but a turd is still a turd). I wore the blinders for a long time to, long after everyone else around gave up and moved onto PF, Shadowrun, or WH40K. Those blinders do get heavy though, and I think it's time that people realize that, while Palladium can put out a great product, the company would be a whole lot better if Siembeida had better business sense.
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Agreed Lord Manticore. Not to mention a lck of focus with the yway the publish books. The two Beyond the Supernatural books that fans have been waiting for years are now being pushed further back. All because their freelancers have a sudden urge to write material for Splicers. So we have the core BTS2 book which is unusable with the missing BTS2 books yet somehow splicers gets more priority. Before anyone says "they are working on those books" these books have been in the process of being worked on for the last five years. It's not only delayed books it just feels like he runs the bsuiness less as a buisness and more a hobby. Then wonders why things are going well. I also will never crowdfund any of their products because who knows when I will see the book I put money in for.
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Brian E. Harris doesn't exactly seem rational on the subject, since in another thread he's accusing the Megaversal system (first used in the early 80s) of being a ripoff of the d20 system.Uhhh, no.
I said it SEEMED to be a ripoff of D&D mechanics - not d20.
There's a big difference there, considering that the system known as d20 didn't exist until D&D 3E, and Palladium was around longer than that.
I found it to be a similar setup, and that's what I said. But, hey, you know, irrational, woo.
I've always considered Palladium as rip off/mash up of D&D with a modified runequest skill set.
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Here's the exact quote I was talking about:
First, Palladium always seemed to be a ripoff of D&D mechanics in the first place - while not actually 3E/d20, it's a pretty similar setup in a LOT of ways.
The bolding is mine.
Maybe you were talking about AD&D...but if so, why do you immediately follow up by talking about 3E/d20?
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that it was just incredibly poorly worded.
I was attempting to indicate that I was aware that it wasn't the 3E/d20 system, before someone jumped on me for claiming that it was.
We can see how well that worked out.
If you think it's poorly worded, that's fine. I think it was read poorly, myself.
Sometime after buying Mechanoids ( the compiled version from way before RIFTS) I realized that Paladium books were going to be great source material, and I could/should just give up on the rule set. Sad about that, but even with tons of adjustments and restrictions, I just could never get a good game going on using the book systems.
My two fave campaigns were a Traveler game based upon Mechanoids, and a Heros Unlimited "M TVs Real 'Hero' world" using an Amber diceless method.
Done lots of AD&D, AD&D2nd, and 3.x using Paladium Fantasy campaign material. As for the forums and law suits and such...never got involved.
Though, one of the finest reads was a recomendation in Ninja's and Superspies. Autumn Lightning. Great read and I was so glad to have learned about it from those books.
So majorly off topic, as most of the post. :P
Greg ( nowhere near Montreal, nor in need of more source books :P )