Hi, the following was originally posted on another forum. I was asked to re-post here. I haven't finished this yet and haven't added much in a bit, but hopefully I will be able to continue time permitting.
I’ve been thinking of this for a while, and finally have decided to take the plunge and write a “Let’s read! The Palladium Role-Playing Game 1st Edition Revised”.
There was a “Let’s read!” here about Champions The Roleplaying Game (aka the BBB, and the thread is here if you’re interested) that had a very nice line at the beginning that I’d like to have my own version of-
“Palladium can be very polarizing. I cannot enforce anything, but I do hope that the posts are kept civil. It’s about The Palladium Role-Playing Game 1st Edition Revised and nothing more. If things start going south, I’ll bail. “
Throughout these posts, I will reference the pdf I bought online, which states that it was from the 12th printing of the game, and my book, an 10th printing (which is complete with house rules from the previous owner penciled in)
I’ve never played any of Palladium’s games, though I have many years experience drooling over them. TPRPG1ER (as it will be referred to from here on out) has been winning me over in a huge way. To players who have had experience with AD&D 1st and 2nd editions, the game may be very familiar to you. It’s been said that PRPG1ER can indeed be seen as the authors attempt to “improve” or heavily house rule AD&D. I can see that. There’s something about TPRPG1ER that makes me feel right at home. The game gives me the right amount of eagerness to play, a relatively easy rules set, and the feeling that “handwavium” is A-OK and encouraged. There are only two rules that I can think of in the book that the author is adamant that you adhere to- hopefully I will remember to bring those up at the appropriate time going through the book. Reading the book cover to cover for the first time (and this was very recently) it occurred to me that I found that fantasy rpg that I've been looking for the past 25 (and then some) years.
The book starts off with a blurb about rpg’s being fictional, and that the game is just there for fun make believe. The belief and practice in the occult is condemned. Guessing this was a general “cover thy ass” line for them.
There is no table of contents in the book, nor are there chapters. There are headers, but that’s about it.
The next page has a rather long poem about a group called the Defilers with a picture* showing the Defilers in all their glory. This was a group that KS GMed for. If you had any questions about what kind of games KS played, the pic would give you an excellent idea We have a giant, a wolfen, men in armor with guns, a robot, a man named Lt. Death, a little bunny rabbit and a bunch of others. A motley crew indeed. The picture is sweet, black and white, drawn and inked (I assume) by the author, Kevin Siembieda. KS’s art happens to feature prominently throughout the book and I figure now is as good a time as any to say that he’s a damn good artist. Most of his art here is pencil, and does a great job of conveying a fantasy feel. The other artists in the book are also very good.
*note- this picture and poem are not in the pdf of the game. I don’t know why it was left out, and think that if possible, should be put back in.
Next up is the official introduction for the game and a standard “what is a (fantasy) role playing game”, but with the assumption that you already know what such a game is and that the author will not plow over that same ground with you. I like that. Maybe it’s not “newbie-intro” friendly, but not every game has to hold your hand. Once past the intro, there is a small list of materials needed to play and then a glossary of terms which is about 3/4th’s of a page long.
We then get into character creation. Here we are introduced to the bare bones of making a character- attributes. There are eight attributes in TPRPG1ER- IQ, Mental Endurance, Mental Affinity, Physical Strength, Physical Prowess, Physical Endurance, Physical Beauty and Speed- with a description of what each attribute entails. Attributes are rolled via random generation, with your race determining how many dice you will roll for each attribute. Humans being the standard in the game, roll 3d6 for each attribute. Depending on what race you choose, you may roll more or less d6’s to determine those values. The author heartily recommends playing a character with lower than normal values.
One thing that should be noted is that there are no penalties for having low attribute scores- just bonuses for attributes with a score of 16 or higher. There is an odd rule for having naturally rolled attribute of 17-18 (but only if you used 3d6 to generate the number) or 12 (but only if you used 2d6 to generate the number). If the above circumstance happens, you roll an additional 1d6, add it to the number you rolled previously just for the purpose of consulting a chart to see what your bonus is. If I am reading correctly, you could have someone with an 18 PS(physical strength) with the same bonus as a creature with a PS of 24 if they rolled well on the bonus chart. They wouldn’t have the same stat, but the same bonus. If anyone out there can correct me on that, please do so. Anyway, there are different bonus’s that can be applied to skills (which are percentile based) or to other rolls (which are d20 based).*** I've since been corrected on this. You just add the 1d6 to your total and go with that.
We’ll end this post with the next chart, the Racial Attribute Chart, which details the various races in the game- which there are many, and the amount of dice that each race gets to roll for each attribute. The chart also lists the average lifespan of each race and the percentage of cannabilism to be expected. There are thirteen races to choose from here- Human, Elf, Dwarf, Goblin, Hob-Goblin, Kobold, Orc, Ogre, Troll, Troglodyte, Changeling, Gnome and Wolfen. In my next post I’ll get into the different races and start touching on just what makes TPRPG1ER so damn special to me.