Quote from: DeadUematsu;1046151If anything, I really want to try Microlite Platinum which looks like Palladium System but only the good parts.

I tried it. Prefer the original by far.

Quote from: Nerzenjäger;1046183I tried it. Prefer the original by far.

Any reasons why you didn't like it?

Quote from: Brad;1044909This thread made me pull out my 1st edition Palladium fantasy books. Fuck, these are fantastic. Super dark, eldritch horror stuff, plausible even while having a ton of monster races...this is way better than anything similar made in the past 20 years.

I got a LOT of mileage out of Palladium Fantasy 1e. As soon as it landed, I almost gave D&D up for it.

Loved the setting. Loved the classes, systems, races. But they moved on to supporting other Palladium games - Heroes Unlimited, TMNT, Ninjas and Superspys, etc... and I followed them until I just lost the thread.

Came back for Rifts. Which I still think is amazing. But the system is like toe-nails that got too damn long and no one trimmed them. Now they're crazy. I'm more of an extreme admirer of the settings than anything else. I'll always have deep abiding love for Palladium Fantasy. That's my jam.

Wolfen Empire! C'mon! You know you love it. Roman Werewolf Empire! Sweet Galactus on a stick!

Quote from: VincentTakeda;1046120Can't believe we're 6 pages in and nobody's mentioned heroes unlimited yet.  Its far and away my primary system of choice.

I just roll that into Rifts so I can scare Rifts enthusiasts with what real power looks like.

Quote from: Ratman_tf;1045040Replace the term SDC with Stamina. Structural Damage Capacity sounds like an engineering term for buildings.
Remove or lower the # of HTH attacks per turn. It's escalated. Untrained gets 1, trained gets 2, and military gets 3. Add a few when leveling up.

Lower the range of stat bonuses. This gives a reason for stats below 16 to exist at all.


Generally raise damages and lower the SDC range. I'd eyeball doubling damage dice for all weapons and attacks, and halving the amounts of SDC. I could even go for more, depending on specific examples.

Skills, my god. This is where I throw up my hands. I'd probably want to do a complete overhaul. Simplify the skill categories, and make them all a d20 roll over, so they are compatible with other bonuses/penalties.

Yeah I'd do this:

Unify a core progression based on levels. Tie in your secondary progressions to specific Class-types (Fighter, Caster, Skillmonkey). Keep classes discrete in their special abilities, but the progression has to be uniform to your core trees. There should never be more than one deviation from the core progression.

No more SDC - or tone it waaay down. Or just use MDC or nothing. It needs rescaling from scratch.

Unified skill system, de-couple it from other sub-systems. With good examples for creating skills for specific splats.

Part of why the SDC system is worthwhile I feel is that it can allow for the awesome hand to hand fighting at which Palladium games really excel.  Being able to bash away on each other Hong Kong fooey style and then getting to be badass enough to eventually have the "bad touches" which bypass all of that is sooooo satisfying.  It also really amps up the tension when facing an opponent who has the bad touches.

Man is Ninjas & Superspies so much fun.

I loved Ninjas & Superspies.

I can't say I ever cared for Heroes Unlimited. Suffered from all the same problems most supers rpgs had.

Quote from: RPGPundit;1047231I loved Ninjas & Superspies.

I can't say I ever cared for Heroes Unlimited. Suffered from all the same problems most supers rpgs had.

Sadly, you chose the Greek Myths for your Amber System Game. I think it would've been an obvious fit for "Supers: Diceless".

Quote from: Nerzenjäger;1047274Sadly, you chose the Greek Myths for your Amber System Game. I think it would've been an obvious fit for "Supers: Diceless".

I agree. That system would work wonderfully for Supers. WTF is wrong with you Pundit? Get on it.

Palladium Fantasy 1st, with Old Ones and Adventures on the High Seas.  Always got the feeling Kevin started with his illustrations and built characters and background from them, rather than the other way round. A visual artist's approach to game design.  Enjoy that impression of his game books.

Nightbane is really good.

Also, I have found The Compendium of Weapons, Armor & Castles pretty useful over the years for many games.  It compiles together those individual titles.  It's a handy game reference to have around.

Recon has pretty good replay value.  It's military without trying to simulate the daily life of a Marine.

Quote from: danskmacabre;1043651So yeah, great setting, horrible rules, but if you have a really good GM , the horrible rules can be mitigated somewhat.

This has been my experience with all Palladium games. Great ideas, terrible execution. I find it one of the most frustrating game companies because there is so much unrealized potential.

Quote from: Skarg;1043660I only really liked their illustrated weapons & armor and castles books, and a few details in their RPG (which otherwise rolled & melted my eyes).

Unfortunately most of these weapons books have rather poor research. Really nothing more than cool pictures and shit KS (or in some cases his wife) made up. Some of the info in the firearms books fly in the face of facts reported by actual firearms historians. There are plenty of weapons and armor books available from more knowledgeable sources.

Quote from: Omega;1043846And some more I have/had but never gotten to run.


Recon: This one is weird as it started out as more a wargame than an RPG and then evolved over iterations. Much like Boot Hill did. Interesting game and a look at early Palladium. Original Mechanoids is something I'd like to get ahold of some day.

Recon is the exception to the normal Palladium game, decent rules, terrible fluff. Recon was actually written and published by another company RPG Inc. Palladium bought the rights to the game in the early 80s, took the rules but replaced the reality based Vietnam war setting with a generic jungle conflict as seen through the eyes of a Hollywood blockbuster. Using films to illustrate, the original Recon was Full Metal Jacket and Platoon, Palladium's revised Recon was Rambo 2.


The original was a wargamy RPG. My understanding is that many of the additional RPG rules were just unpublished rules from RPG Inc. Recon also stands out because it is one of the few Palladium games that KS had little to no involvement with. Not the greatest game out there, but by far my favorite game published by Palladium. Sadly with their elimination of the real world Vietnam from the setting they never printed the pretty good Recon supplements done by RPG Inc.

I jealously guard my collection of original RPG Inc published Recon materials. An odd jumble of relics from the early days of RPGs, small Traveler-esqe rule books and news paper like supplements.

Good full account of Recon there Toadmaster.  

I always acknowledge that games are not accurate. I found the weapon armor, castle books fine, with a sort of internal balance.  I or you might know all sorts of historical detail, with resources and all, but in gaming I know that most players just want some idea of things.  I could point to a little sketch, and it was good to go.  It was a product of the preinternet.

I loved Bill Coffin's stuff, especially his fantasy sourcebooks, his stuff for Heroes Unlimited, and Systems Failure.  It's been ages since I played or ran Palladium, but I very much would love to play in something set in one his setting books!

Systems Failure is one I'd dearly love to play in.  I really liked the classes, and it was a good post apoc setting.

Most of Palladium's stuff, as noted earlier, suffers from a clunky system.  No matter what year it is, pick up the newest offering from Palladium and it's still 1983.  It does have its charm, though, there are just other systems I prefer playing.  

I'd really love to convert some of their settings over, though.  There's some gonzo awesome in those pages, and I have to give them props as a company - they do a good job of keeping stuff in print, their books hold together well, and they are good to their fans - I love their Christmas Grab Bag they do each year, and have gotten it several times.