Palladium Books Going Out of Business 126
kainewynd2 writes to mention a public plea put out in the Palladium books forums by the company owner Kevin Siembada. He bemoans the Rifts publisher's poor financial outlook, and asks people to buy a $50 print to save the company. From the post: "The truly wonderful Rifts® videogame - Rifts® Promise of Power - was stillborn. The N-Gage platform never took off in North America. That meant the N-Gage and Rifts® Promise of Power would NOT be available on the mass market in the USA and Canada. Finding it anywhere in North America required an act of God. There would be no Nokia royalty-based revenue stream. Nor would there be a Nokia videogame sequel and the money that might come from it. Nokia treated me nothing short of GREAT. They lost truckloads of money on this venture. We're both the victims of marketing fallout. Please don't blame these wonderful people for Palladium's woes - circumstance just didn't make them part of our solution." Wow, they made a game for the N-Gage and then lost a bunch of money. Who ever could have forseen that?
Finally? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Finally? (Score:2)
Palladium (Score:5, Insightful)
I am a huge fan of the Rifts setting and I love the Robotech material, but the character and combat systems are unwieldy. If they had better game mechanics, I'd start buying and playing their stuff again.
Re:Palladium (Score:4, Interesting)
Alternatively, they could/should have jumped on the d20 system when it became popular.
Re:Palladium (Score:2)
On Palladium, however and strangely enough, my biggest dislike was how their systems interacted together, followed by the perpetual inclusion of misb
Re:Palladium (Score:2)
Re:Palladium (Score:2)
Re:Palladium (Score:3, Informative)
In any event, the pen and paper RPG companies have been declining for years. There's a small number of gamers who are big fans, but there's not a lot of them. And the books seem to cost a fortune
Re:Palladium (Score:3, Interesting)
The first "real" RPG I ever played was Palladium's RIFTS and Palladium worlds, I had most of their books. I agree that the system was somewhat unyieldy mostly due to the lack of clear-cut classifications and categories. Rolemaster is a lot more complex, yet has an inherent structure
Re:Palladium (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Palladium (Score:2)
Sera
This post is official rules. I am a DM, I am not your DM, and this is not rule advice.
Sorry - I just had to ;)
Re:Palladium (Score:2)
Re:Palladium (Score:2)
It was similiar with Space Opera, one of the less known games out there. You could spend a lot of time designing a character and a ship. Combat was slow at times, because you had to have everyone understanding the rules.
I think one of the reasons that DnD, AD
Re:Palladium (Score:2)
As terrible as the game mechanics are, I still think there's a place for them. I, for one, don't want to see every rpg run the d20 system (as good as that system may be). Variety is good. Whether the market can support variety is another question altogether.
MISLEADING HEADLINE! (Score:1, Informative)
They are NOT going out of business. RTFA, submitter! (You too, Zonk!)
Yet. Kevin is asking for help to keep them afloat. Signed & numbered prints. Your name in a book.
Read the article.
Re:MISLEADING HEADLINE! (Score:3, Insightful)
However you want to spin it: Not afloat = out of business.
Re:MISLEADING HEADLINE! (Score:5, Insightful)
I have very, very little sympathy for Palladium. They're a business. They may be selling fantasy, but they work in the real world. In the real world, if you want to call yourself a business, you don't go screaming to the people who have been propping you up all these years because you have some financial troubles.
That's what Chapter 11 is for.
Re:MISLEADING HEADLINE! (Score:1, Flamebait)
Don't get me wrong, I can't stand their overcomplex game system, and the NGage bet was a mark of stupidity. I'm not defending them in any way. But a fact is a fact, and your headline isn't. They might be swirling the drain, but they aren't down it. All your headline needs is "might be".
Re:MISLEADING HEADLINE! (Score:2)
The "may be" you want is implied in the headline. The word "going" before "out of business" tells you two things: 1) They're not out of business yet and b) that they are on the way out of business - both true. If the words "may be" were inserted into the headline, it seems like they would minimize how much trouble the company is in, and the company is in deep trouble. Considering the desperation of begging customers (and the words like "crisis" and "out of option
Re:MISLEADING HEADLINE! (Score:1)
Re:MISLEADING HEADLINE! (Score:2)
Re:MISLEADING HEADLINE! (Score:2)
Somewhat misleading headline... (Score:2)
He laid it all on the table as best as he could, because of litigation demands preventing the whole story from being told (Which I believe is higly possible...).
It doesn't matter WHERE the money comes from, they just need a serious cash influx to keep them afloat for the longer-term cashflow item
Re:MISLEADING HEADLINE! (Score:2)
This sounds a little more like 'we are seriously going out of business' than the local furniture store sale.
From parent: Read the article. Touche.
Please mod the parent down.
Re:MISLEADING HEADLINE! (Score:2)
I think it 's a little late (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:I think it 's a little late (Score:2)
MMO Material (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:MMO Material (Score:2)
Re:MMO Material (Score:1)
Re:MMO Material (Score:2)
There's actually a group that has a Neverwinter Nights server and module based on the Palladium fantasy world.
I liked the Palladium games that I played.
Yeah, the mechanics were a bit wonky, but the mechanics of most RPGs are wonky in spots.
Re:MMO Material (Score:2)
Sure, you can make a 150pt uber-juicer orc, but he'll have one eye, alcoholism, and the shakes. And would still be taken out by a lucky kid with a sling.
But the most fun was playing the Aeon Flux setting.... surveilance cameras made out of telepathic rat-brains, etc.
Re:MMO Material (Score:2, Insightful)
While I agree, putting different archtypes up against one another could be a slaughterfest, I never found this to be a detriment to the game. Or, at least to how my group played it. We stuck pretty close to the combat rules, but the game was a lot more about role playing and exploring the incredible world of the game.
My characters always tended to be "squishy" -- a technomancer
I didn't know who they were (Score:3, Informative)
Honestly, I thought myself an avid RPer, being a fan of cyberpunk and D&D for the past few years. I've been to many a game store, but somehow never noticed *any* of their books:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palladium_Books [wikipedia.org]
^Information on who they are, and what they sell^
Who They Are (Score:1)
Palladium made a pretty big impact back then by taking their truly awful system but applying it to some very well chosen material. Robotech was crying out for someone to do it. TMNT was at that time an
Re:Who They Are (Score:2)
Re:Who They Are (Score:2)
Don't Harsh on KSiembieda (Score:1)
I never played Rifts, but I did play the earliest version of Mechanoids and their fantasy RPG (the first refreshing view of kobolds and orcs, pre-Blizzard).
Anyways, it's a good deed to do if
Re:Don't Harsh on KSiembieda (Score:2, Interesting)
Take a good look at the core rules-- you know, the ones that change with every book, despite the claims that all of them use the same rulebase. Compare it to the D&D rewrites that you did when you were fifteen (everyone did it, so don't deny it). Notice any similarities? How about the sidelong rants about 'neutral alignments are stupid!' or the two
Palladium Fantasy RPG (Score:1)
Re:Palladium Fantasy RPG (Score:2)
Re:Palladium Fantasy RPG (Score:2, Funny)
Sorry, dude. (Score:1)
Re:Sorry, dude. (Score:1)
Rifts (Score:2, Interesting)
BTW: Jerry Bruckheimer was also in talks to make a movie set in the Rifts universe at one point.
Re:Rifts (Score:2)
Please update the post with important information (Score:5, Informative)
1.) Palladium is close to going out of business, but not out just yet.
2.) Their primary reason for being on the brink appears to be embezzlement, or some related crime. Their real business isn't enough to overcome the loss incurred due to that legal trouble.
I'm not a big RIFTS fan, but I'm all for responsible reporting.
Re:Please update the post with important informati (Score:3, Informative)
It appears that they were just the victim of theft [palladiumbooks.com] of some inventory and a lot of collectables, like someone robbed a warehouse or their offices. Insurance? I guess not.
Re:Please update the post with important informati (Score:2)
" Palladium suffered a crippling blow last year involving employee theft and embezzlement. We thought we could weather the storm, but the damage was deeper and more severe than we ever imagined.
Estimated damage and losses are at least one million dollars. It has been a struggle to stay afloat. "
This from http://www.palladiumbooks.com/press/press2006-04.h tml [palladiumbooks.com]
Re:Please update the post with important informati (Score:2)
Palladium's writers and artists have been troopers, waiting months to get paid, but their generosity is not enough.
You didn't pay people and they stole shit from you Kevin? WTF did you expect?
Bad Things about Paladium Products. (Score:3, Insightful)
2. The books would reprint lots of information. At least a third of the info in any book you could find in just about every other book. They definitly liked to recycle as much content as possible.
3. All the settings were lame. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Yeah, OK. Rifts? "It is like D&D, but with Cyberpunk thrown in, but with Cthulhu thrown in, but with Vampires thrown in, but with Sci-Fi thrown in.."... no thank you. Ninjas and Super Spys? Uh.
4. They had a terrible, hard to use game system.
Sorry, a company making products that no-one likes will go out of buisness. Role playing games are already an extremly small niche product as it is... so there is no longer any room in the industry for people making crappy product. They could cut it in the 1980s, when expectations weren't that hight, and we were all 9 years old and didn't know any better. But the market is more competitive today, the expectations and production values are higher, and no-one is going to pay for that crap.
Re:Bad Things about Paladium Products. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Bad Things about Paladium Products. (Score:3, Insightful)
They are cheap and ugly....If I am going to buy a product, I want the product to be high quality, and have an instant "cool" value.
No gamer, you are. "Cool" is in the product, not the packaging. Sheesh. If you have to have "Ooooh, shiny" to appreciate it, well... i guess that's why "cool" rhymes with "tool".
The books would reprint lots of information.
Like every D20 game ever written.
Rifts? "It is like D&D, but with Cyberpunk thrown in, but with
Re:Bad Things about Paladium Products. (Score:2)
Re:Bad Things about Paladium Products. (Score:2)
Damn you Sega, Damn you!!! Thanks for the "wonderful" games like Night Trap, INXS, and Double Switch but can we get Shadowrun CD [eidolons-inn.net]? Of course not... bastards!!!
Re:Bad Things about Paladium Products. (Score:2)
*sobsobsob* It's based on the Genesis Shadowrun game! But a new story and enhancements! *sobsob* The Genesis Shadowrun was amazingly fun. *waaaaah*
Re:Bad Things about Paladium Products. (Score:2)
Re:Bad Things about Paladium Products. (Score:2)
(Closest thing I've found to the Genesis Shadowrun in a modern PC-RPG is Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines but it is too linear.)
Re:Bad Things about Paladium Products. (Score:1)
Reiterating the other reply to the parent here
SHADOWRUN = originally a FASA property (never TSR)
Re:Bad Things about Paladium Products. (Score:2)
Meh. Hardbacks are nice, but I loathe color in RPGs. It's about as pointless as having a color dictionary. They're mostly text, and benefit little from color. I don't mind illustrations, but they should be of something useful, e.g. diagrams, rather than just being miscellaneous artwork. After all, when you're playing an RPG, you're mostly using your imagination. You don't need a picture book for that.
It's pretty rare that color is useful in an RPG, an
Re:Bad Things about Paladium Products. (Score:2, Interesting)
I grew up role playing with TMNT - the rules were pretty complicated to the point that we had no idea what we were doing. In one instance we had characters where the stat bonuses were added directly to the stat to acheive some ugly numbers (80 STR on a first lvl character!!) But we figured out enough to make characters, resolve conflicts, use skills and have fun. The campa
Re:Bad Things about Paladium Products. (Score:2)
Re:Bad Things about Paladium Products. (Score:2)
There was a running joke in my group about the Rainbow spell which was re-printed in just about every book that contained spells. I think they've fixed it since, but about 10 years ago the spell looked like this:
Rainbow
Range: One mite (1.6 km).
Duration: 15 minutes per level of the Warlock.
Saving Throw: Standard.
P.P.E.: Sixty
The Warlock creates a rainbow extraordinary in its prismatic color
displ
Why not port their game to a different system? (Score:1)
N-Gage exclusive game... (Score:2)
Palladium lawsuit-happy prehistory. (Score:1)
Re:Palladium lawsuit-happy prehistory. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Palladium lawsuit-happy prehistory. (Score:2)
Re:Palladium lawsuit-happy prehistory. (Score:2)
Re:Palladium lawsuit-happy prehistory. (Score:2)
The Rifts world is fantastic, but the system has to get cleaned up. First of all, there are continuity errors about some significant areas (major human settlements existing where Xiticix have allegedly swept the area clean), and second, the combat syst
Re:Palladium lawsuit-happy prehistory. (Score:1)
Re:Palladium lawsuit-happy prehistory. (Score:1)
Not true, my FLGS dedicates about an eighth of their store to Magic. They also have organized events on at least a weekly basis.
Re:Palladium lawsuit-happy prehistory. (Score:1)
Re:Palladium lawsuit-happy prehistory. (Score:1)
Sorry, but... (Score:2)
Re:Sorry, but... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Sorry, but... (Score:1)
Re:Sorry, but... (Score:1)
If I could find it anywhere, I actually would buy the N-Gage game. I got an N-Gage because it was free, and it was a decent smartphone that can sync with a Mac. I have never bought any games for it, though. When I heard about Rifts being made for it, I've been trying to find it locally, but it looks like I won't be able to.
Re:Sorry, but... (Score:2)
Palladium... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Palladium... (Score:2)
Re:Palladium... (Score:2)
ahh memories (Score:1)
I can remember spending hours reading the books, because the stories were so good - intriguing, with engaging stories, varied themes, etc.
It would be nice to see a company with a well-developed game system like White Wolf take over the company and adapt the worlds to their game system.
On the other hand, if it weren't for Palladiu
FYI: Where to find the N-Gage game... (Score:1)
Palladium, the company that could have been (Score:1)
Understatment of the day (Score:1, Offtopic)
Hmm, 'transitional phase'?
* Moment of Death:
1} The heart stops
2} The skin gets tight and grey in color
3} All the muscles relax
4} The bladder and bowels empty
. .
Rifts MMORPG (Score:2)
Wizards of the Coast should buy Palladium (Score:3, Insightful)
The writing has been on the wall for awhile (Score:2)
The real problems came when they started throwing everything including the kitchen sink into their new sourcebooks for just about every game. Rifts was really a groundbreaking and thrilling RPG until it started ranging WAY farther afield, and the world started looking like a GURPS campaign where every single published sourcebook was part of the game world. Too much conf
For the Love of the Game! (Score:2)
I also do an RPG webcomic called Fuzzy Knights ( http://www.fuzzyknights.com/ [fuzzyknights.com] ), and this situation moved me enough that Friday's strip is going to be about the Palladi
Poor Quality... (Score:2)
Re:Poor Quality... (Score:2)
But to me this is different, because what dealt the near-death blow was a betrayal of trust, and embezzelment. That's just not right.
RPGs have never been a lucrative business. Most companies are lucky to make a profit and even if you prosper you're probably never going to be rich. You don't publish RPGs to beomce rich, you do it because you love the
Re:It's about time (Score:2)
And then I moved cross country twice and lost all my gamer buddies. :(
--
Evan
Re:It's about time (Score:2)
Re:It's about time (Score:2)
In almost every system other than D&D, the term is Game Master (or GM). Sometimes you see 'referee' or very game specific terms, e.g. Toon used 'animator,' IIRC. But really, DM or GM, everyone knows what you mean.
Re:It's about time (Score:2)
Re:It's about time (Score:2)
I haven't been able to play the game in a very long time, but th
Re:It's about time (Score:1)
Me (Score:2)
One of my favorite things about it is the books never go out of date, they don't rewrite the same stuff over and over with a couple tweaks so they can resell it to you. That's also a big problem, because over the 10+ years since the first book was written, new rules have come out that clash with old, restrictions detailed in older books are broken in newer ones, and no correction
Re:Me (Score:1)
I havent looked into the new edition of the mainbook which supposedly offers a much clearer revised edition of the rules.