The Palladium Fantasy Thread

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The Butcher

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Per Ulairi’s suggestion.

I came into the hobby in the early 1990s, the heyday of AD&D 2nd Edition, and picked up Palladium Fantasy circa 1996, if I recall correctly — 2nd edition had just come out and the improved compatibility with Rifts was a plus for me.

I picked it up maybe more as a Rifts supplement but I quickly realized there was a lot more to like about the game. To wit, the character classes, the magic and the setting. I really, really dig the setting. Palladium is right up there with Mystara as an influence that seeps into just about every fantasy setting I've ever created.

Also the monsters. Demons and devils (sorry, "deevils") all over the place, no punches pulled. I wonder how many (if any) AD&D1 fans might have migrated to Palladium with the advent of AD&D2?
 
I picked up Palladium Fantasy in a Bundle of Holding and was underwhelmed by the rules set but look forward to digging into the setting material.
 
I picked up Palladium Fantasy in a Bundle of Holding and was underwhelmed by the rules set but look forward to digging into the setting material.
How big of a fan are you if AD&D?

I’ll post linger when I’m not on my iPhone
 
PF1e was such tremendous fun. It pushed aside RQ for us (and I migrated to Stormbringer) and definitely affected our playtests of Fantasy Hero. Back then, the opposed rolls + ablative armor was a hit. Don't know how I'd feel about that today for a fantasy campaign. Many players loved the toughness of the low level characters.

I haven't played enough 2e to comment. The little 2e I have played has been fun, but the GMs involved ran it very off the cuff (which is how I prefer using the Palladium system).
 
How big of a fan are you if AD&D?

I’ll post linger when I’m not on my iPhone

I played the usual mash-up of B/X and AD&D that many of us called 'AD&D' in the 80s. It was only on revisiting AD&D later that I found how clumsy the system would be if played BTB. So put me down as a fan of AD&D spells, magic items and monsters but lukewarm on the system.

I think that is what I found uninteresting about Palladium's system, it seems too close to D&D to me, why not just play D&D? I have heard praise of the magic system in Palladium though so I do intend to go back and give it a closer read as well.
 
I played the usual mash-up of B/X and AD&D that many of us called 'AD&D' in the 80s. It was only on revisiting AD&D later that I found how clumsy the system would be if played BTB. So put me down as a fan of AD&D spells, magic items and monsters but lukewarm on the system.

I think that is what I found uninteresting about Palladium's system, it seems too close to D&D to me, why not just play D&D? I have heard praise of the magic system in Palladium though so I do intend to go back and give it a closer read as well.


And the alignment system. At the time it was the first to have a fleshed our skill systems and more active combat.

I play it because it’s comfortable and for the setting.
 
I'm definitely a 1e guy. Much better game, no PPE no SDC for people, no physical skills, nice handy skill charts.

So the big thing about Palladium combat is that it does a good job of modelling the advantages of weapons in terms of how they're used. A sword's good at striking and parrying while an axe is just good at striking and shield's good a parrying. The combat system in 1e flows well because it hasn't been drowned in cruft like second edition. It's like two or three pages long and works well in play. The magic is a bit of a mixed bag. The thing is it has around five different magic systems. A wizard's magic is different than a diabolist's magic is different from a summoner's magic is different from a cleric's magic. Personally I still like spell books but the way wizards really have to struggle to get new spells because nobody wants to share their power is very flavorful.
 
If you want setting bits you can adapt to D&D or another fantasy game, which supplements are worth getting?
 
...why not just play D&D? I have heard praise of the magic system in Palladium though so I do intend to go back and give it a closer read as well.

Palladium combat is about 20 times more interactive and fun would be a reason.

An alignment system that reflects real people and how they act would be another.
 
I think that is what I found uninteresting about Palladium's system, it seems too close to D&D to me, why not just play D&D?

Palladium uses active defense and ablative armor. So my leather armor has armor rating (AR) 12 and 20 SDC (structural damage capacity.
You attack, I parry or dodge. If you roll 12 or less and I fail my defense, you damage my armor. Over 12 and I take damage. Back in the day, that was pretty radical. PCs had far more HP and armor gave them even more protection, so you got the back and forth of RuneQuest with even more PC protection than D&D, but somehow Palladium Fantasy threats were nasty enough that you were still on your toes at all times.

The original Mechanoids uses AR differently. High tech armor ignored any hit less than its AR and took damage for you if the AR was exceeded. Thus Light Battle Armor (LBA) with AR 10 and 40 SDC deflected attack rolls of 10 or under and took damage from hits over 11. So effectively, it was armor as bonus HP. In Mechanoids, that works because high tech weapons do lots of damage and Mechanoids can easily chew up PCs. They are psycho-dangerous as opponents.
 
If you want setting bits you can adapt to D&D or another fantasy game, which supplements are worth getting?

Start with the core rule book for the general overview of the world and buy any supplements that support the areas of the world that interest you. I like the Western Empire a lot as a great starting point
 
If you roll 10 or less to hit with a particle beam it's a graze and only does d% damage.
 
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