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Kev' should probably never have been the boss.

But would anyone have put with Kev' as an employee?

Perhaps in an alternative world, he'd have been the genius creative director, kept focused and timely by more sensible guiding hands...
 
Kev' should probably never have been the boss.

But would anyone have put with Kev' as an employee?

Perhaps in an alternative world, he'd have been the genius creative director, kept focused and timely by more sensible guiding hands...
Kev needed what many businesses owners need. A co-owner who compliments their abilities. I think duos succeed higher than most individuals because it allows a nice balance between tight control and different opinions.
 
I wonder if Kev' would have flourished or floundered if he had been answerable to a co-owner or partner from the start.

It would have needed to be someone with an iron will to keep him on track. Imagine what could have been...

As a throwaway question, when do folks think that Kev' and Palladium Books went out of control? I've always thought that right after the success of RIFTS and those fantastic early supplements we really started to see what would become the tradition of unfulfilled promises.

Up until then, it seemed to be late books and a somewhat creaky system due an update. DTP wasn't an industry standard, so none of the output looked bad, plus Palladium Books' stuff always had the coolest covers on the shelves.
 
Unca Kev was always there in the background, waiting to take control.

Things basically went wrong somewhere in the mid-90s when he started half-assing everything, and it still sold well because he slapped Rifts on the cover. That just festered until the whole post-Crisis® thing of fans throwing money at him for nothing and otherwise praising him. Kevin was seduced by the dark side. He ceased to be Kevin Siembieda and became Unca Kev.
 
I firmly believe that Palladium Books' early success (and for a small creator-owned/operated publisher they had great success through the eighties/early nineties) paved the way for Kev's blinkered view of the industry and his/his company's place in it.

The Crisis of Treachery® sucked for all involved, no doubt. But the company should have collapsed. Ideally to be restructured or bought out and the opportunity used to revitalize the game lines, with or without Kev'. But the fans confirmed (in Kev's mind) that he could do no wrong and keep their support.

It's a shame because post-Crisis® Palladium Books did get a motivational kick up the arse and release Dead Reign, which I think is great, but the momentum didn't last or was squandered on Robotech. The roleplaying game line was good, but Tactics became an industry joke.
 
For a long time I loved the Palladium books ideas and strongly disliked Kevin S. for his litigious nature. The later seems to have faded away so I'm inclined to like the company more now than ever. That said I wouldn't pre order a thing from them because that's just not their strong suit. Wait until it comes out.
 
Unca Kev was always there in the background, waiting to take control.

Things basically went wrong somewhere in the mid-90s when he started half-assing everything, and it still sold well because he slapped Rifts on the cover. That just festered until the whole post-Crisis® thing of fans throwing money at him for nothing and otherwise praising him. Kevin was seduced by the dark side. He ceased to be Kevin Siembieda and became Unca Kev.

Yeah I would agree with this. Look at the older books Palladium Fantasy 1st ed, Revised Heroes Unlimited, BTS 1st ed etc. They were all compete in one book. Extra stuff came out but it was gravy to the base meal.

Look at Heroes Unlimited 2nd Ed. There were some cool additions to the various classes, especially the Physical Training and Special training ones. But the quick roll villians, magic creatures, guns (bar a section of gun caliber damage) and from memory military vehicles all went onto the Heroes Unlimited Game Master’s Guide. Same with a bunch of stuff from Palladium Fantasy 1st ed when second ed hit. It really culminated in BTS 2 which is a joke given the second two core books were never released.

You used to get a lot of bang for your buck in older 80's/early 90's Palladium, but it felt like even though the books got bigger you really didn't get any extra in them after the mid 90's. Now it was probably great for Unca Kev's bottom line for a while, but it really seemed to piss a lot of people off. For a LONG while in Sydney you had palladium stuff fall over the place, but gradually it shrank away to nothing as people just gave up on it. A few places got in Robotech when it was re-released and Rifts Ultimate Edition, but after the first couple of years of the 2010's they all just stopped getting it in. no more core books unless you special ordered.
 
Over in the Game Balance thread, Black Leaf indirectly reminded me of something I've wanted to vent about for a while regarding Kevin Siembieda and game design.

Every Palladium book during the 1e Revised era had the justification of the experience system. That justification may still be in the more recent books. I don't recall. However, to summarize, the justification for the experience system is that it's realistic because that's what happens in comic books.

And this probably first appeared in Heroes Unlimited, so it does make a certain amount of sense there. What KS is trying to say is that he's using an experience system because he feels it emulates comic books.

But...

There was a podcast sometime after the release of Dead Reign. I guess this was somewhere around 2010. The hosts of the show asked Siembieda about his design process for a game and how he brainstormed ideas. And what was interesting is how he never talked anything about a creative process. Everything he spoke about and connected with "game design" was solely what I'd call business concerns. It was all about advertising, getting pre-orders up, making sure the book would pull in certain numbers, negotiating rates for art. I don't think he mentioned writing even a single time. It was really all focused on how much he had to pay to produce it and how much money he predicted the product would bring in.

And OK, maybe that's fair. He's a businessman. And he is still in business.

But then they got to Dead Reign. And this was far more interesting, because Kevin lit up. This was the moment of the podcast where it was visible there was someone who really did have some portion of his being who was excited about and interested in games. He wasn't just advertising the game. Instead, he was talking about a game he played.

Now, maybe he was putting on an act. Maybe he wasn't as psyched as he came across. Who knows. Since I can't point you to the podcast, all I can do is tell you that in this moment I felt Kevin was being genuine.

Then the most interesting thing happened. He started talking about a rule in Dead Reign. It seems in Dead Reign that zombies have shitloads of HP (really? In a Palladium game? I'm shocked), but a hit to the head will eliminate them immediately. The catch is that in Dead Reign, the aiming rules have been removed, and headshots only occur on naturally high die rolls (like a natural 20 or something). Kevin stated that he had severe misgivings about this rule and didn't agree with it at first. Setting aside that KS was claiming he had written this rule all on his own and it was entirely his creation, he clearly stated he didn't see the purpose for the rule. Then he played.

He stated that the rule in question made combat far more frantic. It added more tension. It encouraged players to spray fire in desperation, hoping for that lucky hit. He stated that this was the very first time he had ever realized that game mechanics can encourage players into genre appropriate behaviour and simulate genre reality.

He had been in RPGs for about 30 years. He had written a licensed game. This was allegedly the first time he had ever considered that mechanics reinforce setting, encourage player behaviour, and simulate the game world reality.

So, if you take that at face value... Once again, it's iffy if you ever can... Then the XP system of Heroes Unlimited isn't simulating comic books. The XP system of Heroes Unlimited is doing exactly what it says. It's realistic because that's what happens in comic books. It's not a genre emulating mechanic because KS didn't realize that mechanics could do that kind of thing.
 
Over in the Game Balance thread, Black Leaf indirectly reminded me of something I've wanted to vent about for a while regarding Kevin Siembieda and game design.

Every Palladium book during the 1e Revised era had the justification of the experience system. That justification may still be in the more recent books. I don't recall. However, to summarize, the justification for the experience system is that it's realistic because that's what happens in comic books.

And this probably first appeared in Heroes Unlimited, so it does make a certain amount of sense there. What KS is trying to say is that he's using an experience system because he feels it emulates comic books.

But...

There was a podcast sometime after the release of Dead Reign. I guess this was somewhere around 2010. The hosts of the show asked Siembieda about his design process for a game and how he brainstormed ideas. And what was interesting is how he never talked anything about a creative process. Everything he spoke about and connected with "game design" was solely what I'd call business concerns. It was all about advertising, getting pre-orders up, making sure the book would pull in certain numbers, negotiating rates for art. I don't think he mentioned writing even a single time. It was really all focused on how much he had to pay to produce it and how much money he predicted the product would bring in.

And OK, maybe that's fair. He's a businessman. And he is still in business.

But then they got to Dead Reign. And this was far more interesting, because Kevin lit up. This was the moment of the podcast where it was visible there was someone who really did have some portion of his being who was excited about and interested in games. He wasn't just advertising the game. Instead, he was talking about a game he played.

Now, maybe he was putting on an act. Maybe he wasn't as psyched as he came across. Who knows. Since I can't point you to the podcast, all I can do is tell you that in this moment I felt Kevin was being genuine.

Then the most interesting thing happened. He started talking about a rule in Dead Reign. It seems in Dead Reign that zombies have shitloads of HP (really? In a Palladium game? I'm shocked), but a hit to the head will eliminate them immediately. The catch is that in Dead Reign, the aiming rules have been removed, and headshots only occur on naturally high die rolls (like a natural 20 or something). Kevin stated that he had severe misgivings about this rule and didn't agree with it at first. Setting aside that KS was claiming he had written this rule all on his own and it was entirely his creation, he clearly stated he didn't see the purpose for the rule. Then he played.

He stated that the rule in question made combat far more frantic. It added more tension. It encouraged players to spray fire in desperation, hoping for that lucky hit. He stated that this was the very first time he had ever realized that game mechanics can encourage players into genre appropriate behaviour and simulate genre reality.

He had been in RPGs for about 30 years. He had written a licensed game. This was allegedly the first time he had ever considered that mechanics reinforce setting, encourage player behaviour, and simulate the game world reality.

So, if you take that at face value... Once again, it's iffy if you ever can... Then the XP system of Heroes Unlimited isn't simulating comic books. The XP system of Heroes Unlimited is doing exactly what it says. It's realistic because that's what happens in comic books. It's not a genre emulating mechanic because KS didn't realize that mechanics could do that kind of thing.
System...matters? :clown:
 
He had been in RPGs for about 30 years. He had written a licensed game. This was allegedly the first time he had ever considered that mechanics reinforce setting, encourage player behaviour, and simulate the game world reality.

I’m not surprised. There have been several stories over the decades that when he runs a game he takes a fast and loose approach to the rules. Someone on another forum once speculated the reason that we don’t see certain rules changes in the Palladium system is that Kevin handwaves them when he runs, and has been doing it for so long that he’s forgotten detailed mechanics exist in the rules for those situations.
 
It looks like sometime between the last I posted about the hardcover reprints and when the first ones became real, the commemorative Rifts hardcover went from a reprint of Ultimate to instead to a reprint of the original 1e. That makes the new Rifts hardcover significantly more interesting.

Sadly, the Palladium Fantasy hardcover is still 2e. I'm not a big "rah, rah, PF 1e" person, but it would have been nice to have a 1e hardcover for that. Another one I'd much rather see as 1e rules would be Beyond the Supernatural, as the 1e book is vastly better than the 2e book. And, yeah, Heroes Unlimited would be good to have a 1e Revised hardcover, as that edition never had anything other than softcover.

After the Bomb is getting a hardcover. It seems the new book will integrate the text from the original first After the bomb supplement as a historical reprint as well as material from the Yucatan book. I'm not super knowledgable about AtB, but I think when the book became the new TMNT with the serial numbers filed off, the main book absorbed most of the animals from the supplements except for a few from Yucatan and Australia?
 
It looks like sometime between the last I posted about the hardcover reprints and when the first ones became real, the commemorative Rifts hardcover went from a reprint of Ultimate to instead to a reprint of the original 1e. That makes the new Rifts hardcover significantly more interesting.

Sadly, the Palladium Fantasy hardcover is still 2e. I'm not a big "rah, rah, PF 1e" person, but it would have been nice to have a 1e hardcover for that. Another one I'd much rather see as 1e rules would be Beyond the Supernatural, as the 1e book is vastly better than the 2e book. And, yeah, Heroes Unlimited would be good to have a 1e Revised hardcover, as that edition never had anything other than softcover.

After the Bomb is getting a hardcover. It seems the new book will integrate the text from the original first After the bomb supplement as a historical reprint as well as material from the Yucatan book. I'm not super knowledgable about AtB, but I think when the book became the new TMNT with the serial numbers filed off, the main book absorbed most of the animals from the supplements except for a few from Yucatan and Australia?

Full list of animals in After the Bomb:

Alligator (and Crocodile)
Armadillo
Badger
Bat
Bear
Beaver
Birds of Prey
Birds of Prey: Owl
Budgie & Parakeet
Chicken
Crown & Raven
Ducks & Geese
Parrot
Perching & Songbirds
Pheasant, Partride, Grouse & Quail
Pigeon
Mutant Passenger Pigeon
Seagull or Herring Gull (Pelagic Seabirds)
Sparrow, Wren & Finches
Turkey
Buffalo
Camel
Canine: Coyote
Fox
Wolf
Dogs and Hounds
Bounders (Purebreed)
Jack Russells (Purebreed)
Cattle: Cow or Bull
Angus (Purebreed)
Florida Crackers (Purebreed)
Holsteins (Purebreed)
Texas Longhorns (Purebreed)
Chicken: Bantams (Purebreed)
Chicken: Jersey Giant (Purebreed)
Chicken: Rhode Island Reds (Purebreed)
Chicken: Allosaurdoid (Throwback)
Chimpanzee
Chipmunk
Deer & Elk
Elephant
African Lion
Bobcat & Lynx
Jaguar & Leopard
Mountain Lion/Cougar/Puma
Domestic Cat
Cat: Egyptian (Purebreed)
Cat: Pixie-Bobs (Purebreed)
Frog
Goat
Spider-Goat (Chimera)
Horse: Mustang
Horse: American Cream (Purebreed)
Horse: Appaloosa (Purebreed)
Horse: Morgans (Purebreed)
Horse: Tennessee Walkers (Purebreed)
Human Mutant
Marten, Mink & Fisher
Mole
Monkey
Moose
Muskrat
Opossum
Otter
Porcupine
Rabbit
Pleasure Bunnies (Purebreed)
Raccoon
Rodent: Chameleon Mouse (Chimera)
Rodent: Shifter Mouse (Chimera)
Sheep
Sheep: Bighorns (Purebreed)
Sheep: Wensleydale (Purebreed)
Sheep: Jacobs (Purebreed)
Skunk
Squirrel
Swine: Pigs, Hogs & Boars
Swine: Arkansas Razorback (Purebreed)
Swine: Chesters (Purebreed)
Swine: Mulefoot Mutant (Purebreed)
Swine: Okefenokee Hog (Throwback)
Swine: Pennsylvaina Bluebacks (Purebreed)
Swine: Pig People (Purebreed)
Swine: Porkopolis Flying Pigs (Chimera)
Turtles
Weasel and Ferret
Wolverine
 
What makes it better?
Not who you were asking, but when 2E came out it was noted there’d be a companion volume focused on magic, and IIRC monsters as well. As far as I know that volume is in the same dimension as Mechanoid Space still, and everyone keeps telling me 1E is a complete game in itself while 2e feels like something is missing.

i was good with first edition, so I never investigated myself.
 
Not who you were asking, but when 2E came out it was noted there’d be a companion volume focused on magic, and IIRC monsters as well. As far as I know that volume is in the same dimension as Mechanoid Space still, and everyone keeps telling me 1E is a complete game in itself while 2e feels like something is missing.

i was good with first edition, so I never investigated myself.
2nd edition has literally no rules on magic and IIRC no monsters. 1e had everything.

There is literally no sane reason for that book’s existence.
 
2nd Edition BtS has a lot of psionic classes but no arcanists. It has a bestiary, smaller than 1st Edition, but not entirely lacking as is often stated.

It is playable, but not complete if you must have wizards in your life.

I'll grab my copies and list the monsters in both later.
 
Here you go. Everything listed is from 1st Edition unless it says 2nd Only.

P.C.C.s:
- Autistic Psychic Savant (2nd Only)
- Diviner (2nd Only)
- Fire Walker (2nd Only)
- Ghost Hunter (2nd Only)
Latent Psychic (2nd)
Physical Psychic (2nd)
Psychic Sensitive (2nd)
Psi-Mechanic (2nd)
- Psychic Medium (2nd Only)
Healer/Psychic Healer (2nd)
Nega-Psychic (2nd)
Genius/Natural (2nd)

O.C.C.s:
Parapsychologist (2nd)
Arcanist/Mage
Ordinary People/Victims (2nd, also with 42 ordinary occuptions)

Lesser Supernatural Beings:
Banshee (2nd)
- Bogeyman/Raven's Tear (2nd Only)
Boschala (2nd)
Burrowers/Brain Burrowers (2nd)
Dar'ota (2nd)
- Devil Ghost (2nd Only)
Dimensional Ghoul (2nd)
Dybbuk (2nd)
Entity: Poltergeist (2nd)
Entity: Syphon (2nd)
Entity: Haunting (2nd)
Entity: Tectonic (2nd)
Entity: Possessing (2nd)
Gargoyle
Gurgoyle
Grave Ghoul (2nd)
Gremlin (2nd)
Hell Hound (2nd)
Malignous
Nacarant
Sowki
Spider Demon
Tokolosh
UFOnaut
Werewolf

Supernatural Intelligences:
Elementals
Goqua
Mindolar
Vampire
Ancient God/Demigod

Tome Grotesque will probably never happen, but Creature Feature is out soon (tm) to restock the 2nd Edition monsters and expand on them. I guess Kev' wanted his monster book to be called Tome Grotesque but was happy to put out a book by someone else under a different name.
 
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Basically if you're going to run BtS, it's probably best to own both books and decide what to include. Which doesn't surprise me. Palladium books have always been a mishmash and rather unorganized cluster. Been that way since I bought their first books back in 81'.
 
Run whichever you prefer.

While I wasted half an hour flicking through the books to clarify that 2nd Edition is a useable standalone book, I still prefer 1st Editon. Not for Arcanists, no-one ever plays them in my group, but for the better layout (yes, really!) and simpler rules. Sure, I've included some stuff from 2nd Edition because I have copies of it on the shelf, but nothing I couldn't live without.

Due to the sprawling nature of Palladium Books' rules, I always suggest refereeing with as little as you can get away with.
 
I got a copy of the 30th Anniversary Rifts Commemorative Hardcover.

I have some physical quality issues with the book, but in terms of content, it is what Rifts Ultimate Edition SHOULD have been. There is a section at the end where Kevin Siembieda reminisces about creating Rifts and the people who helped him along the way. It is devoid of Unca Kev. Even though this section is the only new content in the book (the rest being a reprint of the final print version of Rifts 1e from 2004), I felt it was worth the price of admission. The nostalgia and the feeling of celebrating Rifts drips off the page.

I may or may not ramble about it at greater length at some point in the future.
 
I got a copy of the 30th Anniversary Rifts Commemorative Hardcover.

I have some physical quality issues with the book, but in terms of content, it is what Rifts Ultimate Edition SHOULD have been. There is a section at the end where Kevin Siembieda reminisces about creating Rifts and the people who helped him along the way. It is devoid of Unca Kev. Even though this section is the only new content in the book (the rest being a reprint of the final print version of Rifts 1e from 2004), I felt it was worth the price of admission. The nostalgia and the feeling of celebrating Rifts drips off the page.

I may or may not ramble about it at greater length at some point in the future.

What are the quality issues?

I'm not going to get the RIFTS hardback (I've got three different RIFTS books already), but was considering the others. Anything major?
 
I got a copy of the 30th Anniversary Rifts Commemorative Hardcover.

I have some physical quality issues with the book, but in terms of content, it is what Rifts Ultimate Edition SHOULD have been. There is a section at the end where Kevin Siembieda reminisces about creating Rifts and the people who helped him along the way. It is devoid of Unca Kev. Even though this section is the only new content in the book (the rest being a reprint of the final print version of Rifts 1e from 2004), I felt it was worth the price of admission. The nostalgia and the feeling of celebrating Rifts drips off the page.

I may or may not ramble about it at greater length at some point in the future.
images
 
Very short version...

The interior of the book looks like it was run off on a laser printer. It's a clean print, but it is probably a laser print. The page stock feels a bit thin.

The binding itself is similar to previous Palladium Books hardcovers in appearance, but doesn't feel as sturdy. The other Palladium hardcovers I own are rock solid. This... is not in that league.

Not that it will really help anyone, but the nearest quality I can compare it to any book in my hoard is the V&V3e hardcover I got from Lulu. It's like that. The spine feels slightly weak. The cover boards feel a bit thinner than they should.

In short, it's a pretty average POD book in terms of physical quality.
 
Very short version...

The interior of the book looks like it was run off on a laser printer. It's a clean print, but it is probably a laser print. The page stock feels a bit thin.

The binding itself is similar to previous Palladium Books hardcovers in appearance, but doesn't feel as sturdy. The other Palladium hardcovers I own are rock solid. This... is not in that league.

Not that it will really help anyone, but the nearest quality I can compare it to any book in my hoard is the V&V3e hardcover I got from Lulu. It's like that. The spine feels slightly weak. The cover boards feel a bit thinner than they should.

In short, it's a pretty average POD book in terms of physical quality.

That's odd, Palladium Books have used the same printer for decades and the quality has remained constant.

Have they gone to someone else for these hardcovers?
 
That's odd, Palladium Books have used the same printer for decades and the quality has remained constant.

Have they gone to someone else for these hardcovers?

I think it has more to do that Palladium orders much smaller print runs than in the past.

But I have noticed a change in quality ever since I picked up a couple of spares of some key books, and started noticing "Special Printing Month Year" at the front instead of the traditional "Xth Printing Year" which all their older books feature. It's been going on a few years. But this particular commemorative book is the only one where I feel for sure that it was run off on a laser printer.
 
Was looking through a very old Palladium product. I was in the section on generating characters. It starts talking about how readers may be concerned at how high the starting skill percentages are for character skills and GMs might be worried about how capable characters are. KS states that he wanted characters to be competent.

Looking at the percentages, I see 15%. Maybe 25%.

You know. ULTRA COMPETENT. Able to succeed 1 time out of 4 tries.
 
Was looking through a very old Palladium product. I was in the section on generating characters. It starts talking about how readers may be concerned at how high the starting skill percentages are for character skills and GMs might be worried about how capable characters are. KS states that he wanted characters to be competent.

Looking at the percentages, I see 15%. Maybe 25%.

You know. ULTRA COMPETENT. Able to succeed 1 time out of 4 tries.

That is what flummoxed me when I first read Palladium Fantasy (after being familiar with TMNT and Robotech, where the skill percentages are much higher).

When I had the chance to play it in my late teens, the referee's "skill checks" were usually just to ask if our characters had the skill, rolling them was only for challenging situations. It's how I have used skills in most systems ever since.


Palladium Fantasy 2E pulled more of the d20 combat with BRP skills like Robotech and Rifts. Despite it's quirks, I think it could handle settings like Forgotten Realms better than D&D.

Probably, Greyhawk too.
 
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