2010 Christmas Surprise Package
Every year for the last 13 years now, Palladium has been doing its Christmas Surprise Package – our way of saying thank you to our fans and making your Christmas a little bit more fun and special.

What is a Palladium Christmas Surprise Package?

• $80-$90 (or more!) worth of Palladium Books product for only $37 plus shipping and handling!


• Get role-playing games, sourcebooks, back issues of The Rifter®, art prints, greeting cards, coffee mugs, T-shirts, magnets, and other products, as well as original artwork and sketches – all items "handpicked" by Kevin Siembieda from YOUR "wish list." Upon request, we are happy to autograph all items; signed by Kevin Siembieda and available staff members and freelancers.


• It's a surprise package because you never know exactly what you're going to get or who will sign your books. We try to include many of the items on your "wish list," but we'll surprise you with stuff you are not expecting.

//www.palladiumbooks.com

This year, with the economy still in a slump and so many people with limited cash, Kevin decided to make the Christmas Surprise Package the same price and just as spectacular as last year to brighten up your holiday season. Game on and spread the holiday cheer!

That's all from their website.   Here's my thoughts.

I have bought the Christmas Grab Bag a few times and its always been great.  Not only do you get books about half off, you can get artwork as well and everything is autographed which is actually a very fun addition.

I don't own a single Paladium product; I don't think I've ever even really looked through one.
Maybe I'll do this.

It's a cool way to go.   Take a look at their catalog and if you need any recommendations, just holler.  I'm a Palladium fan, but I am very clear on their strengths and weaknesses.

The base Rifts book and the first couple supplements are great. All of Palladium Fantasy is great except the Yin Sloth book, which is good except for some of the classes.
Nightbane is great.
Don't know about anything else.

Really wanted to take advantage of this deal but al im really into is robotech and dead reign and for some reason the robotech books are unavailable to UK and EU customers due to licencing issues(ie harmony gold being dicks no doubt) so theres not much point in taking this offer up...also the shipping is terribly overpriced.

Here's my Palladium Best-Of list...

SPLICERS = Bio-Armor + Dune + Terminator.  It's the most original sci-fi setting I've seen in years.  

NIGHTBANE = WoD via Superheroes.  You are a twisted monster who is actually humanity's only hope in the modern world which has been taken over by soul-devouring evil.   Half the angst, twice the kickass of White Wolf.

RIFTS = the King of Kitchen-Sink Gonzo.  The Rifts Ultimate Edition is a nice chunky book with everything you need to play...except foes.  

PHASE WORLD = Rifts in Spaaaace!  

SYSTEMS FAILURE = remember Y2K?  It turns out the bugs in the system are actually...giant alien bugs who implant larvae in people's head to make them slaves/food and the bugs can travel through electrical lines and lightning strikes.  You...are fucked.  I mean, you play remnants of civilization desperately trying to stay alive outside the cities without electricity while fighting back as a resistance.   It's Red Dawn if the Soviets were giant magic cockroaches.

As for splats, I highly recommend RIFTS ATLANTIS and WORMWOOD because they are probably the most gonzo.   If you like gear and goodies, the RIFTS GAMEMASTERS GUIDE is worthwhile.  If you are looking for something old school, then see if they have any MECHANOIDS COLLECTION books leftover in the warehouse which compile the original trilogy.

I bought 2 of these in July (for their Christmas in July Grab-Bags) and I can throw in my recommendation for them. Kev&Co. autograph everything and each of my books had a cute little hand written message (like my After the Bomb which says 'Be an Animal! -Kevin Siembieda'. I've been having trouble figuring out what else to put down on my wants list from Palladium, as I have most of what I want that has been released so far.

My recommendations if you don't have anything Palladium are:

Dead Reign: Zombie Post Apocalypse. It doesn't do anything mind bending Genre wise but is incredibly solid on ideas. The Palladium combat makes the fighting pretty intense.
I change around a few rules regarding killing zombies (making head shots a little easier, and making MDC depletion kill them as well).

After the Bomb: It's all the rules from TMNT, cleaned up, expanded and attached to a pretty cool all Mutant Animal setting. Blends well with Heroes Unlimited too. There's not a whole lot of supplements, although to be fair this is Ninja Turtles + almost all of those supplements combined in to one book.

Robotech: the Shadow Chronicles: This book has the most concise and understandable write-up of Palladium's rules. Also, it's a cool Sci-Fi game to boot. It comes in a handy Digest size (think manga comics) and is pretty inexpensive ($17) for a core RPG book. It's also a Mega Damage setting, so it blends well with RIFTS. It's pretty well supported with more support in the pipeline.

Nightbane: Awesome horror setting. Things that go bump in the night bumping against things hat go bump in the night. It's a lot like WOD (especially if you're familiar with Demon: the Fallen) with clear cut bad guys and good guys.

A lot of people love RIFTS (I'm not one of them, although I definitely don't hate it). I think that AtB and Nightbane have some of the most fun character generation rules in print.

I've never been into any of the Palladium stuff, but all the buzz/yelling about the company and Kevin in particular has almost made me curious enough to check it out and from description both Nigthbane and Dead Reign they might be something of interest to me.
Unfortunately I'm also with B-Serinity, the S&H for Europe is just over the top, no matter how good a deal the actual books are.

I notice the books are signed by KS and alll available staff - so that will be just one signature then....sorry for being sarky.

I used to love Palladium and a lot of the new settings have me wanting to try them but after a decade or more of people who make rpg books with some concept of layout, trying to read a Palladium book literally gives me a headache.

Loved me some Mechanoids back in the day. Still have my 1st ed. books and the reprint they did later that combined them.

Also really liked Beyond The Supernatural. Did they ever wind up publishing anymore of the second edition of that game?

BTS 2e stalled, but supposedly its getting a re-focus in the future.  Their new horror game is Dead Reign - all zombies, all the time - and its got 2 supplements.   I was surprised they launched DR as its own line instead of just making it a BTS supplement / alternate world.

Here are my Palladium top picks:

After The Bomb. Erick Wujcik's Gamma World campaign using TMNT rules. And if that doesn't sell you the game, I don't know what will.

Ninjas & Superspies. Cold War espionage with Shaolin monks and cyborg assassins. More varieties of Kung Fu than you can shake a stick at.

Mystic China. Nominally a sourcebook for Beyond The Supernatural and/or Ninjas & Superspies. Great for a "Big Trouble in Little China" sort of game, i.e. with Chinese supernatural weirdness infiltrating everyday life.

Palladium Fantasy. A motherlode of great and eminently gameable ideas. Diabolism and Summoning are great magic styles. Book II: Old Ones is has some nice cities and adventures. Book III: High Seas has some nifty ideas too. And anything with Bill Coffin's name on the cover is a good buy.

Rifts. The cross-genre RPG to end all cross-genre RPGs. Start your collection with the core book, Conversion Book 1 (mostly for the monsters), Sourcebook 1 (nice world info and NPCs), Mercenaries (great new OCCs), World Books 1 (vampires!) and 2 (Atlantis!).

I own a ton of Rifts books (almost everything up to World Book 18), and I haven't bought a new one in some 12 years; but I still think those should make for a good start. You may then customize your collection depending on which corner of the world interests you.