Palladium Games

[Prime]

Makes me wonder if any other company will bother to release a new Robotech RPG, and if the market is even there anymore for anyone to buy it.

Consider that AFAIK both video games only had modest sales at best, I can't imagine that there would be much of a market for a PnP RPG...

[F-ZeroOne]

I totally agree. I think at the time the original Robotech game was being put together, the only system that could have done it justice was Mekton and that had all the rules for making your own mecha, so it was kind of irrelevant.

Actually, at the time Robotech the RPG was being put together I don't think Mekton would have done either - I have the Mekton II book and its quite basic. You might have been able to produce a specific Macross system based on the rules, but the actual Mekton Techbook didn't - as far as I'm aware - get published until sometime after the first Robotech RPG, and the Mekton Zeta and Zeta Plus didn't arrive until even later. You'd very probably have needed the Techbook at the very least to take a good stab at Valkyries using Mekton.

[Zor Primus]

When I played the Palladium rpg in high school I thought it was fun. Couldnt really gripe about tech specs since our GM was very fair. Also it was fun as hell to blast Hellcats and Invid in an AGAC!

For its purpose the RT/Macross/ASC/New Gen/Sentinals game did very well, and considering the horrid showing in the gaming consoles. I'd take the pen & paper versions any day. I still got my character sheets too...anyone wanna game? hehe.

I even tried out Rifts for a while, had a Coalition Military Specialist...GM tried to throw in some Zentraedi against us one night walking too close to a ley line.

[Guest Bromgrev]

I guess, when it comes down to it, it's having fun that counts. I just have less fun if I don't like the rules. Explains all those man-hours spent writing house-rules ...

[pyrrhonist]

Explains all those man-hours spent writing house-rules ...

This was something our little RPG group always had to do, regardless of game. Each RPG we played seemed to have some sort of rule that needed to be tweaked to make the game play smoothly. The rules are just a guideline, not written in stone!

[Lestat]

Are the games inaccurate? God, yes. Are they the best example of an RPG? Not really. Are they fun, giant robot carnage games? Absolutly. Most of the changes PB made, aside from stats and such, were mostly for game balance, I find.

Palladium and game balance? Are you joking? There is no such thing. In my experience (And I played Rifts and Robotech for about 5 years back in the day) Palladium Books if anything is about variety, but not balance. Each successive book had better and better OCCs (which really offered no variety except for the skills you could pick), then RCCs, and of course mecha, etc.

There is no balance system whatsoever. Even the experience system sucks (and looks like old style D&D anyway).

Having said that I really enjoyed those formative years of gaming. The robotech RPG game was the first I ever played. Now I write d20 Material, so that's kind of a milestone for me. But I must say, I was fifteen at the time, and brought the Robotech RPG and the Sentinels. Needless to say, we played the Sentinels, because the mecha was (statistically) tougher.

Later generation mecha are so weak compared to VF's in comparison. I mean, they move from starships that can deal literally millions of mega damage (the SDF-1 is like the toughest opponent Rifts has ever seen because of it's main gun) and mecha with 20-year power supplies, to pissy new generation ships that can do a lousy 1d4x1000 mega damage and mecha that run out of batteries in less than six months.

But hey, on the plus side, they had more MDC!

God my early gaming experience was so about being the biggest munchkin.

[Lestat]

I totally hate Palladium's game system. Sucks monkey nuts.

There was a Kevin Siembada Hate site out there on the web somewhere.

That's sad. The system sucks, true, but the gaming ideas, the concept of rifts, was and still is awesome. I think the author is nostaligic, and would never switch systems (I think also he's one of the few authors that is still price conscious of how much Palladium's books cost on the market) because he's both stubborn and it's been there for so long.

The only problem with Rifts is it's a munchkin parade.

If Palladium still had the licence for Robotech/Macross, I'm sure they'd have made new editions by now.

Especially now.

Still, because of the system, it's good they haven't.

[Guest Bromgrev]

That's sad. The system sucks, true, but the gaming ideas, the concept of rifts, was and still is awesome. I think the author is nostaligic, and would never switch systems (I think also he's one of the few authors that is still price conscious of how much Palladium's books cost on the market) because he's both stubborn and it's been there for so long.

Yeh, I and a lot of people have numerous Palladium books on the game shelf, but in the 'reference only' section. They produced a lot of excellent ideas and background materials, but their games system has to be one of the worst on the planet.

If they sell as well as they do with what they've got, Wizards had better watch out if Palladium ever sees the light and publishes a decent set of rules. All they need to do is team up with Chaosium, and I'll bulk-buy every Palladium/Basic Role Play reprint going!

[JELEINEN]

I've seen the D20 mecha book, I didn't like it much either, they really need to hire somebody that knows something about engineering for when they do these books.

They did: David Pulver. Not that I agree with you. Engineering has jack to do with making a good game.

[yellowlightman]

If Palladium still had the licence for Robotech/Macross, I'm sure they'd have made new editions by now.

Kind of doubtful, given that the Robotech RPG had gone down in popularity since it's heydey in the late 80's/early 90's. They had wanted to do a second edition of the TMNT book, but couldn't get enough pre-orders to justify it.

Although Palladium has gone on record saying they wanted to make more source books, but Harmony Gold wouldn't let them. This was around the time Robotech 3000 was in the works and HG was hesitant about approving new source material (same reason AP lost the comic license). What it came down to was Palladium still had the license, but couldn't do anything with it... and when it came time ot renew, and HG still didn't want them to do anything with the license it just wasn't cost effective to keep it.

[Roy Focker]

The basic Palladium system could use a revamping or at least a huge book of just the rules for a generic setting (don't want to play Rifts).

I just bought my fast D20 book and so far I don't understand what so great about D20. The Action! System is not bad. Someone made a decent mecha version of it. Still best, easy, deadly and fun system I ever played was the WEG D6 for Starwars.

[Lestat]

Well, if they still had the licence now, I really think they would have rereleased the old material. They get questions all the time asking about it. Robotech has also increased in popularity again (probably due by no small part to actually having a web presence and a place where it's fanbase can interact). I think now, a new edition would do well.

It's too bad that Palladium isn't much into new editions. I read they're releasing a new version of the original Rifts rpg, but that's after 15 years! It's only a set of rules clarifications, rewrites to encompass a more modern Coalition Army, and a few other updates.

Their press statement sounds alot like Wizards when they announced the 3.5 rules, but something tells me there's not going to be that much of a change. While I admire their notions to keep their customers happy, I really liked Rifts, but I refuse to play it because of the system.

Megadamage seemed to make some sense in Robotech due to its applications, but it's just pointless in Rifts.