Quote from: Zachary The First;688350Lista is a pretty cool goddess. Bit of a cold fish, but it isn't as if she doesn't have her reasons.

Agreed.

Quote from: everloss;688378I always thought Panath was cool; especially the description in Dragons and Gods.

That's a book I didn't have. How did they describe him there?

Now we move on to Aco and the Juggernaut.  

Aco is the goddess  of the sun, moon and stars, symbolizing fertility and birth.  The Juggernaut is a godling of primal strength who can never die, but can be defeated.

Kirgi the Rat God appears in the form of a giant rat.  A god of thieves, betrayers and dishonorable folk, he is most often worshipped by goblins, hobgoblins, orcs and changelings.

Vlad-Tegor, lord of the undead is a vampire godling.  Worshipped primarily by death cults.

Utu is the lord of the dead, known mostly as the grim reaper.

Tolmet the cruel is the goddess of depravity, cruelty (her namesake), persecution, and agony.  She is an expert in seduction.  According to the description, her church was more powerful in times past, especially amongst the dwarves, goblins kobolds.  A proponent of frequent human sacrifice, her current followers are all quite evil.

The Pantheon of the Northern Gods should be familiar to those with a passing knowledge of the Norse Gods.  I fully disclose that I have nothing more than a passing knowledge in Norse Mythology.  In the book, dimensional gateways are mentioned enough where one can conclude that at some point, the Norse gods, at least some of them, made an appearance on the Palladium world.  In brief, they are Od- the All Father, Epim- the All Mother, Locknar- god of mischief, and his brother Hocknar- god of thunder (in this world wields a lightning ax), Heim the huntress, Belimar the dwarf, and Algor the giant, god of the sea.

The primary group of evil gods are found within the Church of Taut, which like the Pantheon of the Northern Gods, borrows heavily from Egyptian mythos.  That being said, my knowledge of Egyptian mythos is more hazy than that of the Norse.  Here the gods are Set with his Black Rod of the Seven Winds, Anubis with his rune sword, the sword of Anubis, Apepi the immortal, Amon the Hidden One, Auhur the slayer of enemies, Ammit the Beast, and Bes the Depraved with his twin rune daggers Mea and Fea.

On the side of good we have Ra the Lord of Light, Thoth the Lord of Wisdom (rumored to be the creator of rune magic), Isis the All Mother with sword of Isis, longbow and eternal torch, Osiris the Lawgiver who has a interesting enough story that he gets his own detail….

Osiris was slain by his brother Set, who then tore his body into fourteen pieces and scattered them across the world.  Isis began to search for the pieces of Osiris and each time she found one, she made a guarded temple to safe keep it.  If one was looking to sell the parts, they are worth a cool 100,000 gold each.

The following is a list of those parts and what powers they bestow upon the carrier.

1-   The right hand (sans index finger)- +2 PS, telekinesis (200lbs) and crushing grip.
2-   Right index finger- finds secret doors and hidden objects.
3-   Left hand,  Healing touch and dispels magic barriers 3 times a day.
4-   Left foot- doubles speed and gives bonuses to dodge, jump farther.
5-   Rib cage, forms around the wearer providing armor, resistance to heat/cold and bonuses to saves.
6-   Right eye- xray vision, see invisible, see astral projections, magic aura and aura of truth.
7-   Left eye- tracking, finding secret doors/compartments, sense evil, tears neutralize poison.
8-   Right femur- staff sized, shoots lightning.
9-   Left femur- staff or javelin, shoots fire, returns to sender when thrown.
10-   Tongue- speak and understand all languages, detect lies.
11-   Skull- wear as a mask to gain bonuses to all saves, increase IQ by +2, understand all languages, invoke fear and bio-regeneration.  Once put on, the mask cannot be taken off until death.  Wearing the mask can cause side effects, insanity rolls are made every 8 months-phobia, alcoholism, psychosis, or an affective disorder.  Depressing wearing a skull face.
12-   Lungs- wind rush, miasma, dust storm, cloud of smoke.
13-   Kidney- +3 to all saves, detect & neutralize poison.
14-   Heart of Osiris- +5 to all saves, sense evil, turn the dead, remove curse, resurrection, healing touch and can damage evil and selfish creatures (more damage to evil).

Continuing on….  Horus or Harmahkis the Great Sphinx, and Apis the Sacred Cow round out the rest of this pantheon.


These are the gods of the Southern Jungles-

Yin Sloth the Terrible- god of evil, corruption, destruction and treachery.  Hates all humans and is primarily worshipped by the subhuman races.

Pith the Snake God- symbol of death, murder, suicide, assassination ect…

Tark the Spider Goddess- not evil per se (anarchist), she is a goddess of greed, deceit and cunning.
Ippotomi the Water Goddess- goddess of the sea, storm, and wind.

Lopnel the Red- god of war, warriors and conflict.


Here ends the gods, next up is the section of Demons and Devils.

Quote from: RunningLaser;688495That's a book I didn't have. How did they describe him there?

Each entry for each god in Rurga's pantheon has a lengthy write-up, starting with a short story narrated by the god in question. Rurga's story is about love and honesty. Cirga's is about hunting and not always winning a fight. Panath's story is actually about Cirga killing his own mother. See, he knows all the dirty secrets of all the other gods. Followers of the pantheon plant trees for the gods. Each one has a different tree followers plant in their name. I think they're all walnut-based trees; except Panath's. His tree is the most useful. It can be burned for fuel, the seeds eaten, and most importantly to his followers - the bark is sinewy and makes an excellent garrote cord.

His write-up just makes him seem more pragmatic and less evil than other "death" gods.

everloss-  that does sound good.  Might have to pick that one up at some point and give it a read.  Thank you.

I forgot to mention something earlier, but will do so now.  The gods, demons & devils part of the books marks a transition into an overall bestiary for the game.  For the next 83 pages (give or take), all of the entries are statted out for the gods, demons, elementals, races, animals, ect.  Should also make things a bit easier for me to go over.

Demons and Devils-  This section divides demons and devils into four broad categories- Sub-Demons, Lesser Demons, Greater Demons and Lords of Hades.  

Starting off with Sub-Demons, we have different variations of gargoyles.  Gargoyles are considered a sub-class of demons (hence the sub-demon title) gargoyles are thought to be mutated demons, and as such, less capable in the arts of magic.  As the lowest on the totem pole in demon kind, they are treated harshly by true demons.  They enjoy torturing and killing humans, elves, dwarves, wolfen, ect and tend to be worshipped by the more wicked sub humans- orcs, goblins, hobgoblins and kobolds.  They are large, 12-14 feet tall and winged.   Gargoyle Lords are considered royalty amongst gargoylekind and are have the power to breath flame, turn to stone and teleport.  Gurgoyles are much like their larger gargoyle cousins except that they are slighty smaller (7-9 feet) and wingless.  Gargoylites are 3 foot tall winged versions of gargoyles.  Gargoyle mages are the tallest at 15 feet, and capable of casting spells – turn to stone, dimensional teleport and invisibility and have the casting abilities of a 4th level warlock.  
The last entries here are Lord Erloc, Lord of Gargoyles, his wife Lady Leeves- the Queen of Gargoyles and her mother, Powmer the Mystic Archmage (and power behind it all).

Lesser Demons-

Alu are giant demons that resemble wolfen and are often used as trackers by other demon kind.

Aquatics are fish/octopus hybrids that terrorize the seas.

Banshees are invisible demons who (if you can see invisible or they choose to be seen) resemble old women.  There are four sounds a banshee can make, each with it's own effect if one fails their standard save.  
Cry of the Banshee creates emotional pain.
Moan- creates feelings of panic.  Roll under a 6 and you flee.
The Weeping puts those who fail their save into a state of deep despair.
And lastly, the Wail.  Their most potent attack, a failed save requires one to randomly roll on a chart that can result in being dazed, paralyzed or having one attempt suicide.

Couril are small demons that enjoy song and dance.  Those who fail a save while listening to them are forced to dance until they drop.

Ghouls and Nasu are wretched demons resembling humans that feed on corpses.  Ghouls are male and Nasu are female.

The Labassu are the evil spirits of those who have died, but have refused to pass over.  These are the spirits that make noises and move objects.  They look for bodies to possess.

The Lasae are tiny insect like demons under a foot tall that more than make up for their diminutive size by being nasty.    I suggest wearing a jock strap around them.

Mares are hag-like demons who enjoy tormenting folk.

The Shedim resemble large wingless raptors (but do have clawed hands), whose lord is Abrasax the Insatiable.  They are described as being more of a less intelligent enforcer type for other demons.

Lastly we have Succubus and Incubus, which  I'm sure most already know of.

This ends the lesser demons, next we will get into the greater demons.

Now we are on to the Greater Demons

The first listed greater demon are Baal-Rogs, large winged  creatures wielding whips of flame.  Not all are evil (some may be selfish)

Demon locust resemble devil faced locusts with a stinger tail reminiscent of a scorpion.  They are described as the greatest of all demons save for the demon lords themselves.  It is rare if any more than two are ever on the Palladium world, most waiting patiently on their hellish plane for Armageddon to arrive so that they can unleash destruction.

Gallu the Demon Bull resemble a demonic minotaur.  There's never more than a few on Palladium and said to be no more than a dozen in Hades.

 There are four types of Jinn listed, earth, water, air and fire.  Depending on the Jinn type, all elemental spells of that class are known up to 7th level (save for fire which is listed up to 8th).  Jinn here are described as being the children of demon high lords in ages past.  No weapons made by mortals can harm them, though pure silver can inflict some damage.  Any Jinn captured by a mortal must grant them three wishes.  Details about the wishes is listed after.

Magots are monstrous demons that have three trunk like legs, a huge gaping mouth and eyes on three stalks.  Each eye fan shoot a beam that temporarily turn things to stone (20 minutes).  They roam in herds looking for things to eat.

Night Owls resemble large owls with a human head.

Raksashas are humanoids with tiger heads who enjoy eating people.

Vampires in the PRPG are demons, and extremely tough to destroy.  Unless as stake is driven through their heart of their head removed and mouth filled with garlic, they will return.  Only holy, silver or magic (weapons) will affect them.

Here ends the greater demons, next up are the demon lords.

It's been a while.  I've lost the original word file for this.  This readalong has been by far, the longest thing I have written.  As much as I love the game, the writing part - not so much:)  To keep my sanity, the entries are going to be a bit more brief, unless it's something I feel like detailing further.

Demon lords are individuals.  Starting of we Have the lord of Hades- Modeus, Andras the marquis of Hades (usually with Marloo the black wolf), Radbos the strangler, Kubera-Loe, Mictla the devourer,Succor Bemoth, Charun the cruel, Abdul Ra, Belphegor of the Demon pits and the Four Demon Beetles.  Also listed is Mantus King of the dead and Mania Queen of the Dead, Murmur, Mormo lord of ghouls, and lastly Abrasax the insatiable.

Now we are at the section of Devils, which has three major groupings- Lesser Devils, Greater Devils and Devil Lords.

For Lesser Devils we have Deevils, Devilkins, Dire Harpy, Fenry (wolves of hell), Fiends, Gorgons and Imps.

Greater Devils consist of Arch Fiends, Beasts, Horrors, Pandemoniums, Serpents and Wraiths.

Devil Lords are individuals.  Here we have Satan, Hel, Mephisto, Old Nick, Leviathan , Rhada, and Diabolus.

Races-

This section starts off with a small pre-history of the world involving the Old Ones and the war with the races and creatures that chose to oppose them.

Here the book goes into the races, also giving just a bit of info on each race and their place in the Palladium world.  After a briefing of each race, there is a stat block listed giving you a general overview of appearance, OCCs available, special/natural abilities, enemies, allies and any sort of special weapons associated with said race.  The race stat blocks ends with a basic notes list going over any odds and ends that fit no where else.

Humans are gone over first.  Humans are the dominant peoples of the Palladium world.  It is emphasized that they are not the most numerous, in fact many races will rival or exceed humankind in numbers, but humans are considered to have the mightiest empires and most advanced civilizations.

The text sheds a bit more light on the Palladium world saying that it's a mix of Greek and pre-christian Roman empire, with a healthy dose of medieval times, Conan, Prince Valiant, ect- but at the same time none of those.  

Wolfen were once disorganized warring tribes in the roaming the vast expanses of the Northern Wilderness until the twelve tribes were united and they built a very roman type of civilization.  The Wolfen are slowly expanding their empire.

Elves are an incredibly ancient race whose civilization has crumbled- the result from a long war with the dwarves over the secrets of rune magic (which the dwarves did not want to share).  All of the great elven kingdoms of old are now gone.

Dwarves didn't fare well during the war with the elves.  From the text, it appears as if there are no more dwarven kingdoms, instead handfuls of dwarves live amongst humans.  I might be missing something here.

Gnomes seem pretty standard here.  One thing I'll note is that in all of the 1st edition supplements I read, I never saw anything about a gnome.  Can't recall much of anything about dwarves either.  

Troglodytes are a gentle monster type race that I don't think I've read about anywhere except the core book.  They seem like an odd duck race to have- they don't really wear clothes, only have simple tools and there's not much of a social structure.

Kobolds are described as smaller, uglier cousins to goblins, but meaner and more vicious.  They are a subterranean race and seem to be dominating the the depths of the world as the dwarves once did.  Kobold are great workers of metal items, just a rung or two beneath the dwarves.

Goblins are a subterranean race, who at one point were miners.  They despise their kobold cousins.
There's two types of goblins listed- regular goblins and cobblers.  Cobblers have a unique ability to polymorph themselves.

Hobgoblins are mutated goblins.

Orcs are large muscled brutish humanoids with sharp teeth and pig noses.

Changelings are a nearly extinct race of shapechangers.  They are an ancient race, almost equaling the elves in that regard, but due to their abilities, hunted down.

Ogres are listed to be a possible neanderthal-ic offshoot of humans.

Trolls are smaller giants, but violent, cunning and "given to deeds most foul".  One of my favorite pictures in the book is of the troll sitting by a tree with his sword on his lap.

This ends the races section listed in the book.  It's also the beginning of the creature section. Next up will be the first creature sections on Dragons.  There is a book called monsters and animals for the game- I'm not a fan of it at all.  I feel that the monster section in the book is all that one would need.

Dragons starts on page 203- I'm just over 2/3's of the way through with this.  

There are 12 different types of dragons listed in the book along with 32 numerated facts about dragons.  A few of those facts are that all dragons are magic, intelligent, greedy (even the good ones), parts of the dragon are highly magical and prized, dragon meat is tasty, ect.  The following dragons are listed- Serpent of the wind, the mighty wooly dragon, night stalkers, basilisk, the seven headed hydra, thunder lizards, kukulcan, ice dragon, the great horned dragon, fire dragon, sea serpent and cockatrice.  At the end of the section is a map of the Palladium world showing what parts dragons and sea serpents may be found.

The next section details the true elementals.  There are four types, earth, air, water, fire- with each type having a major and minor category.  Also included are two other elemental types- mud and ice.

Angels, beings of truth, justice and light, are in the next category.  They are linked to the elemental dimension, though they are not true elementals.  The types of angels listed are cherubs (air), Ariel (earth), Seraph (fire), and Tharsis (water).

Next, we are on to the section on Faeries.  The section on faeries gets pretty detailed.  There are sections on faeries in general, faerie mounds, dance- food and drink (enchanted), weapons and such.  There's a neat section on how to protect oneself from faeries by turning and wearing one's clothes inside out, red ribbons, horseshoes and crucifixes being used amongst other things.

A full listing of faeries are -Faeries, Silver-Bells, Green-Wood, Night-elves
Pixies, Frost-pixies, Brownies, Leprechauns, Tree sprites, Water sprites, Wind-puffs, Nymphs, Satyrs, Spriggans ,Toad-stools, Pucks, Bogies, Will-o-the wisp, Mermaids, Merrows, Goblins, Hob-goblins, Kobolds, and Orcs.

From here we get to the Creatures of Magic section.  One thing that stands out here are how the creatures are statted out.  In all of the other sections writing about gods, demons, dragons angels ect- they are written in standard Palladium format of telling you how many dice to roll for their stats.   For the creatures of magic, the stat blocks are much simpler.  Here's the first creature, the minotaur to show you what I mean.

MINOTAUR
Alignments: evil or selfish
Size: 8 feet tall
A.R.: 12
Hit points: 7-56
Number of attacks: 2 hand/claws do 2-12 points each. charge with horns does 4-24, or by weapon (large sword or axe) Bonuses: + 6 to damage, + 2 to strike, + 2 to parry or dodge
Natural abilities: night vision 60 feet, fire and cold resistant (half damage)
Spd: 20, Low I.Q.
Average life span: 400 years
Description: This is another rare race of beast-men. The minotaurs have the head of a bull and the body of a human with dark skin and blazing yellow-orange eyes. They are usually seen alone or in pairs, living in small bands or tribes of 4-24. They are found only in the southern hemisphere.

Nice and clean and ready for immediate use.  I kinda wish they did more things like that and I wonder why it was changed?  To let people play everything maybe?  Anyway, here we have minotaurs, unicorns, scarecrows, spectres, pegasus, harpies, mummies, gryphons, chimeras, ghosts, werebeasts, sphinxes, green molds and bug bears (which interestingly enough, are statted out in the standard way).

Giants are written about next.  There are six giant species listed- Algor (frost giants), Cyclops (lightning- and have the secret to forging javelins and arrows out of lightning), Jotan (earth giants), Gigantes (mutant giants), Nimro (fire giants) and Titans.  There's a GM note that says player's can choose to be a giant, but only under certain conditions.

The last creature section details the mostly normal animals that inhabit the land.  Here we have bears, birds, different wild cat and wolf/dog breeds, horses, rats, beavers, ect.  Some of the creatures have a hostility index where depending on the roll of the percentile dice, when the creature will attack.

This ends the section on Monsters and Animals.  The next part will get into more of the Palladium world.

As noted earlier, here's where we get some more information on the Palladium World.  It begins with a map, and I hope Benoist doesn't mind me re-posting his picture of the book here, but the image is really worth a thousand words:



Each geographical area is given a small paragraph giving you the most general of overviews of it.  There's also a list showing the location and population distribution of the various races.  I like the brief entries for each area- not so much a fan of later books that detailed some of these areas further.  

For those who do not wish to strain their eyes looking at the pic, the areas listed are the Land of the Damned, the Northern Mountains, Ophid Grasslands, the Island Kingdom of Byzantium, the Northern Wilderness, the Eastern Territory, Timro Kingdom, Old Kingdom Mountains, the Old Kingdom, Land of the South Winds, Mount Nimro, Phi and Lopan, the Baalgor Wastelands, the Western Empire and the Yin-Sloth Jungles.

The next two pages show pictures detailing the common currencies encountered for a nice bit of added flavor.  There are differences between eastern and western coins, along with those used by the old kingdom and northern kingdom (which are rectangular and hung from strings).

We've now nearly made it through the entire book.  The last part is an included adventure called the Tombs of Gersidi written by Erick Wujcik.

The Tombs of Gersidi is a 17 page adventure (including maps) where the characters enter the haunted home of the evil Gersidi family for the treasures within.  There are three levels to the place with over 30 rooms.  

Since it's a small adventure, I don't want to give much of anything away, but man, reading it, I can't see many characters getting through it alive.  It's definitely not your run of the mill "kobolds and goblins are causing trouble in Smith Grove" type of thing.  There's a lot of treasure to be had- a lot of treasure.  For an included module, you also get a shot at getting a rune weapon- the famed Doubling Sword Of Chaos- a mighty weapon indeed.  You'll need that sword, because you really don't have much of a chance living through this one:)


The book has a pretty decent index after this and the last page or two are ads for various Palladium games.  I don't have the original book I started with here- I've traded some away, given others away and have gotten new ones in between.  

I'd like to thank those people who've taken the time to read these posts.  Hopefully some who have read it, have gotten a better appreciation of the game.  I really do believe that it's Palladium's best game.  Overall, it's well written, understandable, and on the easy side to learn.  If you've had any experience with D&D, it's that much simpler to grok.  

The game has been around for a while now- 31 years. From what I can tell, it did well too -with 12 printings done.  Reading it, I know why.  It's a damn good game.


That wraps up the Palladium Role-Playing Game First Edition Revised.  Again, thanks for reading it.