I've always been curious about Palladium Fantasy, but never had the inspiration to buy. I don't think I ever will

But, like I mentioned, I do want to get the new Robotech stuff. I'll look for cheap copies of TMNTaOS and Rifts on ebay.

Does the new Robotech stuff at least look prettier (layout, etc.) than the original material?

I don't get much time to play, since my own games need attention, but I occasionally like to get new print books for bathroom reading :teehee:

Quote from: brettmb;262299Is there anything at all good in Pallladium Fantasy? Is the system pretty much the same in all books?

Palladium Fantasy is pretty much the definition of a fantasy heartbreaker.

It's 1E D&D, except it addresses some of the problems with D&D -- lack of skills, no parrying or dodging, variable character speeds, multiple spell systems -- and adds a whole host of it's own idiosyncratic problems, all which are compounded by Palladium's absolute steadfast refusal to use professional layout designers.  It's seriously amateurish in its production values.

There are some cool things in the game world supplements, including the main book.  The coinage system is way more realistic than D&D, as an example.  But it's really nothing unique or special enough to mention.

I'd say you already have some of the best.

Mystic China is my favorite Palladium book by far. Chi magic, variants of immortality, the role playing notes, the wacky demon hunters... all classic stuff I've reused in two other systems.

Ninjas & Superspies is also good. Martials arts, chi magic, the humorous take on contacts and covers, and spy cyberware built a vision of high flying action-espionage that seemed like a lot of fun.

Lastly TMNT&OS still is somewhat unrivaled in the genre it staked out... the anthropomorphic animal genre. I still have yet to encounter a game that presents such a menagerie of animals for use as characters so effectively.

RIFTS Atlantis also inspired me to rip off liberally. The history of the Atlanteans, tattoo magic, the alien metropolis of the Splugorth, bio-magic, and rune magic also painted a cool picture of a world that sounds like tons of fun to game in.

Somedays, I think if I could ever get a group that could grasp HERO, I'd stat up the RIFTS stuff in HERO and use it to run a bang up game. It's about the only system I can think of that would really capture the RIFTS feel without the wonky mechanics.

I dig Palladium Fantasy 1st ed. The game screams fun and has such amazing energy and wahooness in it! If you can buy it used cheap, I recommend picking it up. I picked up a used copy for $3. Great buy!

The reason I like it:
1. Active defense - Roll >= attacker's roll to parry it or dodge it. Same in all games.
2. Well-defined alignment system. Same in all games.
3. A very good objective experience system. Same in all games.
4. Wolfen. These critters just rock.
5. Very different types of magic systems.
6. Self-contained in one book. All those supplementary books are gravy.
7. The art is just cool but I enjoy cartoony art.

One gaffe I remember was that there were no rules for shields in the first ed. Nada, zip, "oops, forgot to be included".

The past two Christmases, I have bought Palladium's gift basket and got some great books. A good deal!

What, nobody mentions these :

• Book IV - Adventures in the Northern Wilderness
  
  
• Book V - Further Adventures in the Northern Wilderness
  
  
• Wolfen Empire
  
  
• Book X -  Mount Nimro.
  

Regards,
David R

What is Rifts Conversion?

Quote from: brettmb;262348What is Rifts Conversion?

Basically, taking a rifts book gathering almost everything else published by Palladium and providing conversions making it usable in RIFTS.

As is the norm for RIFTS, very uneven. But it's really dense, giving you tons of options. For a second, it almost had me considering using it for a one-off game with my kids, one who wanted to play a fairy, the other who wanted to play a wizard.

After buying Robotech and a few supplements in the 80's, I avoided Palladium like the plague. Now that you find a lot of it dirt cheap, I figure what the hell.

Thanks.

I love Palladium. Nightbane is my favorite setting. It is just as uneven as Rifts, if not more so... but I like it because it has character. The classes are exactly what the designers wanted them to be... a scientist is just how it should be, and a supernatural spell slinging world hopper is just what it should be. You can decide to play as either, but one of the options has a lot fewer options.

One nice feature of Palladium's fantasy world is that the elves and dwarves border on extinction.  They destroyed each other's kindgdoms long ago and live among humans.  There are no elven or dwarven nations or armies.  The world is divided between human empires and the growing wolfen empire in the north.

There's still plenty of orcs and goblins around too.

So you can do most of the normal fantasy stuff or ignore it at your leisure while letting PCs be elves and dwarfs if they must.

Quote from: brettmb;262088I really don't like the Palladium system, but I have the original Robotech, Ninjas and Superspies, and Mystic China. I'll eventually get the new Robotech stuff. I really like the Eric Wujcik stuff.

So my question is... what are the best books produced by Palladium? What's good and worthwhile?

Add TMNT & After the Bomb, and you've pretty much listed my favorites.

Quote from: REZcat;263338Add TMNT & After the Bomb, and you've pretty much listed my favorites.

I love all Palladium modern day... TMNT, Ninja and Superspies, Heroes Unlimited, and Nightbane.

Gawd do I love Nightbane.

I'll toss in my two cents for TMNT.  Never ran it myself but loved playing it.  The mutant creation process alone was fun to do.  Add in the crazy setting and NPCs supplied in the main book and it's a winner.  Not to mention art work by Eastman and Liard in the original book (I think a few others as well but it's been years).

I've never used the vast plethora of RIFTS books out there: I use precisely three RIFTS books as my "core": the main book, the GM guide, and the Conversion book.

Aside from those, the only other RIFTS books I own are the multiverse guide book (which I'm still unsure of how good or bad it might be, haven't had the chance to use it yet) and Mutants in Orbit (which is awesome).

RPGPundit

Quote from: RPGPundit;264048I've never used the vast plethora of RIFTS books out there: I use precisely three RIFTS books as my "core": the main book, the GM guide, and the Conversion book.

Aside from those, the only other RIFTS books I own are the multiverse guide book (which I'm still unsure of how good or bad it might be, haven't had the chance to use it yet) and Mutants in Orbit (which is awesome).

RPGPundit

Mutants in Orbit is a TMNT source book, all of which are superb. The multiverse guide may be a TMNT sourcebook as well. All the paladium games used the same system and could use each others sourcebooks.

-clash