The Palladium Role-Playing Game was my one of my earlier non-D&D Fantasy RPGs (WFRP, MERP and Runequest II were the others). Palladium RPG seemed to stick pretty close to D&D to my eyes, what with levels, hit points, classes, races - but it took everything up a notch.It wan't the prettiest game in my collection at the time, but i found that there was always something I could steal from Palladium for D&D - Wolfen NPCs, Insanity Tables, alignment definitions - for an imperfect game, there was one heck of a lot of good stuff in this book (and the later source books).
I have a signed copy of the 2nd edition somewhere, to go along with my first print signed at GenCon RIFTS rpg. Yep, lots of awesomely broken games from Palladium in my collection, including Recon and Mechanoids. I just need to refind them ;)
That is truly AWESOME! I wish I could find mine.
ReplyDeleteI really liked the non-game specific little booklets from Palladium. I don't remember to much about them other than the weapons one had tons of weapons with stats that gave you a rough idea of what the weapon did...pierce? Impact? I think stats like that. I also agree that the Palladium system pretty much is broken, but the game worlds are awesome. I loved Mechanoids, wish I still had the little books.
ReplyDeleteI used to have a 1st print and to my regret sold it back in the 80s. I've never seen another one since. :-(
ReplyDeleteYea I liked Paladium but what I enjoyed even more where the supplimental books: Weapons & Armor, Weapons & Castles, European Castles, Weapons & Assassins, Exotic Weapons were the ones I owned and were the first conversion I had seen of this nature into D&D like mechanics. The pictures of the armor and weapons and such really exposed me to the differences between cultures and how I would apply those same differences to the cultures I was creating for my worlds. Instead of it a sword being a long sword or short sword, It was a Ninjato ( ninja sword) from the Black Hand Assassins from city of LOH, or instead of just a shield, it was a lantern shield used by the elite guardsmen of the night watch of the Lord Emperors palace in Magnibar, or instead of throwing dagger it was a specialized iron throwing knife used by the warriors of Mongor.
ReplyDeleteI had a ton of fun playing Palladium Fantasy back in the day.
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