Palladium Games

[Mr_Pleasington]

Biased review! Biased review!    

A large group of my friends in undergrad started roleplaying with Rifts and absolutely loved Palladium games.  I had cut my teeth on AD&D and had never been introduced to any Palladium products until I had met them.

So I hopped into their rifts game and from that and playing occasionally throughout the years I've come to two conclusions:

1) Palladium has great settings.  A little cheesy at times, but anything that I disagree with can usually be easily removed.  There's a lot of wiggle room and a good combination of broad descriptions mixed with good detail.  I love the Rifts setting.

2) Palladium rules flat out suck.  This is one of the clunkiest rule sets ever made.  Combat looks like it would run great on paper, but it just takes forever...even with an experienced GM. It's sooooooooo slooooooooooooooooooow.   And sure, there are a ton of character classes and combos to pick at the start, but thats pretty near the last choice you'll make as what you get when you go up in level is fairly fixed.   And don't get me started on the ever increasing power levels in the supplements.There's a reason that Palladium games have a reputation of being a munchkin's dream.

The rules really need a drastic revision, but the Siembieda's are dead against it with a "if it ain't broke, don't fix it attitude.  And don't even think about putting rules conversion up on the web as their rule gestappo will shut you down.

Rifts setting with BESM rules would be awesome, though.

Still, I've never even looked at the fantasy setting.  I don't plan on picking it up either, but I am keeping my mind open.  If someone runs a good game of it for me then I will happily tell everyone I was wrong.  

[Fellfrosch]

I agree on every point. Palladium was named "Best line to steal ideas from" one year, simply because their ideas are incredible and they're rules are clunky. So yeah, we're biased, but life's tough all around, isn't it?

[Mr_Pleasington]

Well there's no such thing as a non-biased review after all.

You'll note the smiley above.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

avid Robotech gamer
sadly no longer
would they move with the times

A palladium Haiku

[Spriggan]

I have a problem with their skill system but love the combat.  I've never had any of the problems you talk about.  Anyway I e-mail Fell after I submited the article and asked if it was two one sided and he posted it anyway.  Anyway the Fantasy game isn't as cluttard as Rifts.  There aren't, for example, skills spread across 20 book like there.   I actualy think it's the best game they have.

And I'm not sure what you mean there El Jeffe.  But as far as Robotech goes, fun game but wasn't selling much in the 90's and Harmony Gold wanted the same amount for the licence then as they did back when it was realy popular.  Same thing with TMNT, why pay for these dead liences.

[Mr_Pleasington]

You guys shouldn't be worried about too much subjectivity in your reviews.  The review style here is actually a lot more interesting than at other places on the net.  I like to hear people's anecdotes and playtest stories in a review.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

 Well just about every major RPG has gone through a Major revision in the last 10 years which addresses the basic problems of the game except palladium. I loved Robotech and thought Rifts was cool before it became a munchkins dream (around book 3). Unfortunately there is a very broken aspect of Palladiums system. Combat, its really a drag running a combat with palladiums rules....
For example In Robotech you had giant robots shooting each other with huge guns in the show one shot would turn a battlepod or Veritech to shards of flying metal, unless you happen to be playing Palladiums Robotech. A missle does a whopping 4d6 damage (on a 100 or 150 mdc Veritech almost no damage at all) a gun pod does 1d6 3d6 or 1d6 X10 (at the expense of all ammo). Now whens the last time you emptied a gatling gun into a jet and it took 3 reloads to bring it down. Multiply that by the hours of tedious combat and the fact that an sdc character can be killed by 1 MDC point but even a hundred sdc points (which are supposed to = an mdc point) wont kill a tank.  If you dont have mecha in Robotech killing a tank is well nigh impossible. A bazooka does 1d6 md and tanks rate at about 100 MDC.

arrrg and the Simbiada's dont think anythings broken....
Palladium RPG was ok since there were no MDC/SDC rules.

I loved TMNT and After The Bomb.
Palladium just needs a facelift.

[Spriggan]

they're allready on thier 3rd revision in about 17 years.  I personaly like the SDC rules, if used right they add a realistic element to the game.  Haveing spells/weapons that bypas SDC and hurt HP make wizards realy cool.  The fact that 1st and revised Palladuim RPG didn't have SDC is one reason me and my friends didn't like it.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

SDC works in their games that dont have mega damage though.
And their revisons dont seem to incorperate any major changes. To be honest They also need to hire someone else to do layout.

I like Palladium Fantasy (even if it is a little boring)

[Spriggan]

your right about revisons not changing much, so far it's just been some minor combat rules and moslty skills.  But one reason people play games is for the rules. If every few years the system changed people would get annoyed with it.  Just look a D&D 3.5, it's just a skam to get more money.  If it anit broke don't fix it is a good policy for games like this.  How ever I wouldn't mind a new game setting that tryed new rules.

[Fellfrosch]

What are your problems with MDC, exactly? It seems fairly realistic to me that you can spend all day shooting bullets at a tank without hurting it. Their combat system is weird, I'll grant you that, and their damage values are a little unbalanced (weapons don't do nearly enough damage), but that's not MDC's fault. Besides, every game in the world has damage problems--how many sword strikes does it take to kill a D&D character? If we're going for realism, one or two will be completely debilitating.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

In robotech (at least in macross) there were weapons that should do MDC, but do sdc - like Bazookas.
Plus MDC hand weapons completly invalidate the need for SDC handweapons especially with MDC armor. Lets say your wearing said suit of armor and you get hit with a blast that puts you a point over the limit. Your dead, D E A D Dead. So in rifts If I have a laser pistol that wings a guy and it does 1d6 mdc it will kill him according to the rules. MDC should only be for vehicles.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

It was MDC v SDC in one of the two Palladium games I've played in the last 4 years that ruined that particular campaign. Well, at least partially. There are a  lot of specific problems with that. The system is wiggy.

And the whole idea of hit points is why I don't think it should be used for an SF or modern game. It works great for simulating an epic sword battle a la Conan. It doesn't make any sense at all in a gun battle. Which is the biggest reason why I voted for WEG SW over Palladium anything. You didn't use hit points. Because when you're hit in the head with a gun, you die.

then again, WEG SW is the ONLY sci fi game I like at all anymore. Some are much more tolerable than others (T20 Traveller for example), but so many others make me think "feh."

Spriggan has interested me in trying PFRPG though. I'll check it out.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Id like to see a good no point oriented gun system somewhere...
like Grazed, Bruised, Fracture, Sucking Chest Wound, Vitals, Dead. Wearing Armor bumps it down one grade

[Mr_Pleasington]

Both White Wolf and Pinnacle have systems remarkably similar to that.