Palladium Fantasy

[FabesMinis]

I've known for several years that quite a few of the Palladium source books have useful info for other RPGs (in my case 4E). I got the Palladium rulebook and the Old Ones source book for a steal on EBay and they have some nice info, such as city maps, country descriptions, magic runes etc

Any other books from this range that people can recommend?

[gurps]

Adventures on the High Seas (or something like that) was a very nice book.

The whole "northern wilderness" stuff is great,too (both books were reprinted in the wolfen empire ... or was it northern hinterlands? forgot...)

I have them all, played some and read most of it - and like them all, though I don't like the system any more (we played it some years, but better systems came ...).

[FabesMinis]

I had heard High Seas was good. I have no interest in it as a rules system, I have to say. My brain starts to melt looking at it.

[Heathansson]

High Seas and there were two Northern Wilderness books are near and dear to my heart.
I personally love the rules system, but each his own.
The Palladium Fluff is excellent stuff to me. The wolfen are cool as hell.

[Lilith]

Library of Bletherad is good stuffs too. :)

[FabesMinis]

Heathansson wrote:

The wolfen are cool as hell.

Why doesn't that surprise me?

But, yeah, they are.

I love the flavour of the spellcasting classes, but the lay-out of the rules isn't conducive to me grokking them. I do plan on stealing the runes and circles as fluff for my D&D games.

[David Hayden]

It's not actually a bad system, just a little more complicated that 2nd Ed D&D when it comes to combat. It had some interesting points with SDC damage to armor and fighters always having a chance to parry. The spell system was broken though, 3rd level spellcasters could cast epic spells. Definitely a good source of flavor though - circles and runes tend to freak out players.

Other sourcebooks that might be worth looking at:
Island at the Edge of the World - least I think that's the right one. Has some interesting fluff about fairies and such.

Monsters and Animals had a number of interesting creatures that you could easily modify and spring on a party for a "WTF is that?!?" moment if you have players who tend to memorize critters info. I wouldn't bother unless you get a particularly good deal though.

Other sourcebooks might be useful depending on your specific campaign interests - the Yin-Sloth Jungles book might not be too helpful if you're running a mostly arctic campaign, for example.

And the Wolfen are among the coolest creatures out there. Bearmen kick ass too.

[Jason Beardsley]

Hmm, i've never played Palladium Fantasy.. I'm currently playing a game of Robotech with the Palladium rules, and have been curious about the Fantasy..

So, what book could i find these 'wolfen' at..

[Heathansson]

FabesMinis wrote:

Heathansson wrote:

The wolfen are cool as hell.

Why doesn't that surprise me?

But, yeah, they are.

I love the flavour of the spellcasting classes, but the lay-out of the rules isn't conducive to me grokking them. I do plan on stealing the runes and circles as fluff for my D&D games.

Check out the Adventures in the Northern Wilderness and Further Adventures in the Northern Wilderness; it had some really really great stuff. Trippy adventures, a lot was predicated on the idea that the wolfen aren't all evil, but they are in direct competition with humankind. I think they were recompiled into one book.

[Heathansson]

Jason Beardsley wrote:

Hmm, i've never played Palladium Fantasy.. I'm currently playing a game of Robotech with the Palladium rules, and have been curious about the Fantasy..

So, what book could i find these 'wolfen' at..

It's a player character race in the Palladium Fantasy rpg book.

It's like being a half orc, or an elf or something.
Palladium had tons of pc races/monster races before 3.x did it....
They're not all quite so balanced as 3.x is; that's not a big concern a lot of times; it's even more noticeable with Rifts.

[Jason Beardsley]

Heathansson wrote:

Jason Beardsley wrote:

Hmm, i've never played Palladium Fantasy.. I'm currently playing a game of Robotech with the Palladium rules, and have been curious about the Fantasy..

So, what book could i find these 'wolfen' at..

It's a player character race in the Palladium Fantasy rpg book.

It's like being a half orc, or an elf or something.
Palladium had tons of pc races/monster races before 3.x did it....
They're not all quite so balanced as 3.x is; that's not a big concern a lot of times; it's even more noticeable with Rifts.

Thanks, I'll have to get a copy of that..

[Xaaon of Xen'Drik]

Jason Beardsley wrote:

Hmm, i've never played Palladium Fantasy.. I'm currently playing a game of Robotech with the Palladium rules, and have been curious about the Fantasy..

So, what book could i find these 'wolfen' at..

The only time I ever ran a Rifts game was taking my friends in an Alpha and Beta combo disappearing into a Rift...

I ran 1 combat between the Robotech Alpha-Beta and some Samas power suits...man that was enough for me, I love Kevin's creative mind, but the system is tooo bulky...Though Palladium RPG isn't as bad since it doesn't have the MDC system...

[Fiendish Dire Weasel]

Yeah, before 3.0 came along, Palladium Fantasy was probably my favorite RPG rules set. Looking back now in comparison to 3.0 and especially 3.5 and PF, it's kinda clunky. But I did like it better than AD&D certainly.

Now it feels very restrictive on classes and particularly skill progression. Funny how ones perspective can be altered so much over time like that, eh?

Once you get into RIFTS, and the Mega-Damage and Mega-Armor stuff, it loses me, though. No longer a fan at all at that point.

Still, as others have said, if you're not interested in the rules, there is still plenty of really good fluff material to be had in the Palladium Fantasy RPG. The Wolfen Empire is very deep and very rich in it's treatment in the above named supplements. Give them a read and you'll likely not be disappointed.

[Sharoth]

I like both Rifts and the Palladium Fantasy. But yes, the rules need a bit of a revision.