= The problem we see is they [Palladium] built
= the roof of the house before they built the foundation.
= Over the years Palladium has tried to establish a solid
= foundation, but it's still weak and shaky. I say give
= them the chance to prove themselves, if they don't appeal
= to the masses don't buy their stuff.
I think it's too late for them to prove themselves. I had a serious debate last night with another gamer about Rifts and Palladium games in general. What I heard wasn't too encouraging. The game mechanics suck. The books get more powerful as they progress. Great art, little content. Et cetera, et cetera. The sad thing is that I see or hear the same and more complaints wherever I go. It seems Palladium has established a negative image about itself.
Even on Usenet, I read probably the most comprehensive one yet: Palladium, the RPG company that does no research.
When reading articles about Palladium's releases, you can't escape the negativity. I was reading an article about Rifts: South America the other day on how this book was better than "the usual stuff Palladium puts out".
No matter where you go, besides this list, Palladium's RPGs get little or no respect. I dare you to discuss Rifts mecha on the mecha newsgroup. Ask yourself why few gaming mags have regular articles on Palladium's games, despite the fact that they are one of the most successful ones out?
Why do they get little respect? Because the critics are right. Most of the game mechanics do suck. The books do get more munchkin as they progress. More often than not, the art makes the book, and the content is lacking. Finally, there are many errors because the writers didn't do _enough_ research.
Normally, if this was a new gaming company, I'd let it slide. Unfortunately, Palladium has been around for at least a decade and things haven't gotten much better over the years. To me, it seems that they had a great design for a house, but they kept building on the same bad foundation.
What I feel the company should do is get together with its players and come to a consensus as to what the "Palladium Megaverse" should be. If the games should share the same gaming rules, find all the inconsistencies and fix them. If they decide that different games have different rules, but there can be conversions, make the conversion rules.
Once they have decided on what their gaming system(s) is all about, build on that. Once you have a game idea, focus on that idea and build on that in the future. I'm sure the gamers here would prefer to have a fully detailed North America by now, with all the info for the Coalition, Cyber-Knight Monestary, Lazlo, and Psyscape(sp?). I would have been incredibly happy with a series of books on the North American cultures, societies, history, people, heroes, villains, myths, places, and such, instead of hack jobs like Rifts England or Africa. Some great concepts, like Cyber-Knights, have been referenced to in almost every Rifts book, from Atlantis to Phase World, yet you haven't done anything with them since the two pages about them in the main book seven years ago. Don't be in such a hurry to expand your coverage of the megaverse, you're spreading your talents too thin.
Plus, it wouldn't hurt to really look at what you're thinking about releasing. A lot of times, what you put out insults the intelligence of the gamers, then you have to give out the generic excuse: "If you don't like it, change it". We shouldn't have to change things so often.
I guess what I am trying to say is: work on your quality of work instead of the quantity of works. The other gaming systems are putting up some high standards and I would love to see the Palladium system finally catch up.
By Edward Paul