So, I would guess the likely candidates are RIFTS or TMNT, but what do people here think is the best of all the various (separate) RPGs Palladium has put out over the years?
RPGPundit
Palladium Fantasy, especially 1e, is the only one I really like. Much of the fluff from 2e is good as well.
Come to think of it, I enjoyed playing a couple of sessions of Beyond the Supernatural, which at the time scratched a horror itch that CoC didn't quite satisfy.
Quote from: The_Shadow;461195Palladium Fantasy, especially 1e, is the only one I really like.
That sums it up for me, too.
I've always had a soft spot for Ninjas and Superspies. I thought is was a really fun extension of Palladiums goofy level based combat system. I have good memories of my kung-fu master leaping between tables in a fancy hotel restaurant kicking goons while the rest of the party broke into somebodies room upstairs.
It was self-contained, which I also appreciated. I like RIFTS, but felt the number of supplements really turned it into a munchkin playland. On that note, Beyond the Supernatural was also fun.
First ed. Palladium Fantasy is classic.
I like Nightbane, in particular all the random tables for your character's monster form.
I don't know if it quite counts, since it's not the house system, but it was published by Palladium: Recon. Very focused, very good at what it does, and it has a section on 'Tavern Combat.'
i like palladium fantasy 1e, but my vote for best has to go to the valley of the pharaohs.
My favorite three by order.
1. Palladium Fantasy 2nd
2. System Failure
3. Nightbane
RIFTS was always one of those games that frustrated us when playing it but we still enjoyed the hell out of it and return to it once in a while.
Palladium Fantasy (1st ed) was our go-to fantasy system until the coming of WFRPG 2nd ed.
And Nightbane is still my favourite horror game.
RIFTS is inseperable from Heroes Unlimited and TMNT. As I found out, only in conjunction do they cover all necessary rules. TMNT has Timelords and TIme Machine Construction Rules as well as a neat Time-Travel concept, and HU has Robot and Vehicle Construction rules.
If RIFTS is understood as encompassing HU, BTS and TMNT (which is actually a HU supplement as is Ninjas & Superspies)...then I say: RIFTS.
Beyond the Supernatural was always my favorite from them. Ninja's and Super Spies was pretty fun to.
Ninjas & Superspies and Mystic China for me.
I gotta go with Mechanoids. All the goodness of PF 1e, but with all the crazy awesome of the science fiction setting.
For me, it's Rifts or Palladium Fantasy 2e. I have a ton of books for each, and a lot of playing time.
Nightbane is my favorite. I use it more for dark urban fantasy than horror though.
This is tough, I'm no expert on Palladium Games.
My favorite sessions came from TMNT&OS and Dead Reign.
I think the best game they've put out is Robotech Shadow Chronicles.
Much as I love Ninjas & Superspies, I'll go with Rifts.
I don't think any other RPG out there, past or present, can match the Rifts Earth setting in sheer gonzo kitchen-sink awesomeness.
Ninjas & Superspies is a game which gets very little love, though, for the gem that it is.
TMNT was the first Palladium game I ever played, and Robotech was the first RPG I ever bought/collected.
Rifts was my standard game for nigh on a decade.
The most world-building and detailed campaign setting I've ever created was for Heroes Unlimited.
But I will have to go with Ninja's & Superspies/Mystic China. N&S is just... fucking cool. Mystic China had awesome ideas (like the playable Demon character that LOST power as he goes up in levels)
I think a new edition of N&S (just cleaning up the book: editing, layout, putting in an index) would sell like hotcakes.
Hands down, TMNTaOS!!!!
-clash
Beyond the Supernatural 1 ed. followed closely by the Mechanoids. BTS is an interesting middle ground between the relatively weak investigators of CoC and the superpowered monsters of White Wolf. I like Mechanoids because it was my first Palladium game and I had a blast running it.
Mechanoid Invasion Book III, clean, clear, straight forward, and the plot centers around a gigantic psychic hate bomb. Actually it's better for having less Mechanoids really. It's not so much, hi you're first level so here's a wing of Wasps bearing down on you.
Quote from: Settembrini;461248RIFTS is inseperable from Heroes Unlimited and TMNT. As I found out, only in conjunction do they cover all necessary rules. TMNT has Timelords and TIme Machine Construction Rules as well as a neat Time-Travel concept, and HU has Robot and Vehicle Construction rules.
If RIFTS is understood as encompassing HU, BTS and TMNT (which is actually a HU supplement as is Ninjas & Superspies)...then I say: RIFTS.
This.
Beyond the Supernasty is my favorite one, out of personal interest.
The one I LOVE to run the most and possibly the game I've gotten the most good GMing out of is Nightbane. All four source books were great. Its like everything I liked about Palladium and WW put into one setting.
I should say, I've never run or played Palladium without using N&S. That's the core rules as far as I'm concerned.
Advanced Recon!
Oh and TMNT!
Well, I'm going fight against the current here and vote for Robotech, myself. There's something about your first loves...
RPGPundit
Hmm...maybe you're onto something.
Has there been a lot of the younger guys getting into Palladium? When's the last time you saw a guy playing a Palladium game who isn't 25+?
How much of the current market do you think they get? Or is it mostly older gents who reminisce about early rpgs on web forums?
Quote from: Blackhand;461405Hmm...maybe you're onto something.
Has there been a lot of the younger guys getting into Palladium? When's the last time you saw a guy playing a Palladium game who isn't 25+?
How much of the current market do you think they get? Or is it mostly older gents who reminisce about early rpgs on web forums?
From my entirely non-empirical Convention experience, it's about 1/3 die-hards, 1/3 lapsed gamers, and 1/3 new gamers willing to try it out.
Of the lapsed gamers, the majority "played the hell" out of the system, before moving onto other systems or just away from RPGing altogether for several years/decades...
My Palladium con-game experience has been primarily lapsed PB gamers and noobs. Outside the Palladium Open House, I've met only a handful of current PB players at California cons, usually other GMs.
The reaction among lapsed gamers has been mixed. While they enjoy the con event, some say the system keeps them from getting back into PB games as they've moved on to whatever. The others however get charged up having forgotten how much fun PB stuff can be when you handwaive past the system.
The noobs have been mostly teens / young adults and I've had my best luck with them. After a session, they are the most likely to go buy a Palladium game from the dealer's room.
If PB could clean up the system AND back a new edition with real advertising and outreach, they could do well with the under 25 crowd.
TMNT, from the setting materials to the production values, was my favorite; however, I've always had the most fun making characters for Heroes Unlimited -- 2e or revised, I can't remember. I enjoyed Robotech a lot, but the fact that you can't, by the rules, one-shot kill a Zentradi pod brings it down a couple of notches. I'm small and petty that way....
I don't have much experience with Palladium, never played any of the games. I do own Palladium 1e (i.e. Fantasy 1e) and Recon/Advanced Recon. I'd say, on reading, both are inspired and make me want to play.
I bought the Robotech book when it came out, since I was a RT fan, and I have to say it didn't do anything for me, either in terms of capturing the tactical dogfights or the sci-fi-soap-opera aspect.
TMNT is the best for one-book accessibility. It's an incredibly well put-togethr game. Rifts is great. I love Beyond the Supernatural. But Ninjas and Superspies is my favorite. And, I think, the second most accessible.
I've never gone any length of time, though, without mixing and matching. My longest campaign was Ninjas and Superspies with Beyond the Supernatural and Nightspawn all happening, as well. It was crazy cool.
I have recently succumbed to Elliot's mild pressure and watched the whole of Robotech, also got me many Robotech RPG books.
I must say though, that I find the RPG material to be a mixed bag. Mostly stuff is statted out and not in a highly inspiring way.
The RDF training manual is pretty good for adventure material, as well as Strike Force Nine and New World Order. Both three do not capture the Robotech feel in my eyes, but are great with Mechwarrior/Battletech.
So I would ask the RPGPundit to show us the awesome in the RPG books.
Quote from: greylond;461385Advanced Recon!
Oh and TMNT!
Great minds think alike!
After the Bomb Second Edition. Simply because of the mutant animal creation rules.
TMNT, with Systems Failure coming in a close second.
For pure great fluff Chaos Earth or Beyond the Supernatural 2nd edition.
Quote from: Settembrini;461248RIFTS is inseperable from Heroes Unlimited and TMNT. As I found out, only in conjunction do they cover all necessary rules. TMNT has Timelords and TIme Machine Construction Rules as well as a neat Time-Travel concept, and HU has Robot and Vehicle Construction rules.
If RIFTS is understood as encompassing HU, BTS and TMNT (which is actually a HU supplement as is Ninjas & Superspies)...then I say: RIFTS.
Palladium is a strange beast -I'd say 'Rifts' but that would almost be the same as saying 'every Palladium game ever!' The traditional 'game' limits don't hold up well with the sourcebooks since the Rifts world books are their own little hidden mini-games - Wormwood doesn't benefit any from MDC IMHO and could probably just be an alternate Palladium Fantasy, Three Galaxies/Phase World is its own space opera thing.
Other than that, I do sort of have a thing for TMNT (the only Palladium game I've played this year, actually, and it was awesome), particularly Transdimensional. Palladium Fantasy I haven't played since high school, but I thought it was great back then.
Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;461795Wormwood doesn't benefit any from MDC IMHO and could probably just be an alternate Palladium Fantasy
Interesting assertion. I'll have to look over those and see how I thought that might play out. Wormwood was a clever setting.
Quote from: Cole;461809Interesting assertion. I'll have to look over those and see how I thought that might play out. Wormwood was a clever setting.
I quite liked it. The book has all the native people on the planet be innately MDC, but this really just puts them on an even keel with the demons and things - the main real effect of it as compared to having everyone be SDC would be that when you run a crossover with regular Rifts, normal Earth humans become unexpectedly squishy.
Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;461795Wormwood doesn't benefit any from MDC IMHO and could probably just be an alternate Palladium Fantasy
Not only it doesn't benefit from MDC, but it introduces the whole "MDC humans" thing, which is atrociously stupid, and gets repeated a couple of times in other Rifts Dimension Books.
Seriously, Palladium, WTF?
Palladium Fantasy 1e is a fucking classic, and some of the books for 2e are good if you strip out the Rifts inspired crap
I liked Palladium Fantasy, I just had a few quibbles with some of the rules(only played 1st Ed), some things seemed clumsy. However, one of the BEST EVAH Fantasy adventures was the one from the book, can't remember the name of it. It had the group going down into a old/collapsed dungeon that was many levels. Had a permanent camp on top of it. Very deep, first level or so was flooded. I remember it fondly enough that now I'm wondering about finding a copy somewhere and converting it to some other game, like HM4 or something...
Can anyone give me the name based on my description?
Quote from: greylond;461943I liked Palladium Fantasy, I just had a few quibbles with some of the rules(only played 1st Ed), some things seemed clumsy. However, one of the BEST EVAH Fantasy adventures was the one from the book, can't remember the name of it. It had the group going down into a old/collapsed dungeon that was many levels. Had a permanent camp on top of it. Very deep, first level or so was flooded. I remember it fondly enough that now I'm wondering about finding a copy somewhere and converting it to some other game, like HM4 or something...
Can anyone give me the name based on my description?
Tombs of Gersidi? A deadly place.
Quote from: Randaconda;461940Palladium Fantasy 1e is a fucking classic, and some of the books for 2e are good if you strip out the Rifts inspired crap
I agree that PFRPG 2e is pretty much Rifts Dimension Book X: Palladium Fantasy World, which was precisely what I was looking for at the time (1997?). I'm not terribly familiar with the PFRPG 1e rules system, but from what little I've heard, I suspect I'd like it much better than 2e.
The setting, though, which AFAIK remains the same between both editions, is awesome. Very much in the spirit of pulp fantasy. At one time I was actually going to run it with C&C; and I'm still looking for a chance to recycle several of the ideas for my next long-running D&D game.
Quote from: Cole;461944Tombs of Gersidi? A deadly place.
No, I had forgotten about that one but it's also good. I think it was the one from the Old Ones book. Just googled it, The Place of Magic.
Quote from: greylond;461947No, I had forgotten about that one but it's also good. I think it was the one from the Old Ones book. Just googled it, The Place of Magic.
you are correct, sir! That was the first pre-made adventure I ever ran - less than 5 years ago; and I've been GMing for almost 17 years. Half the party contracted the "curse" and started turning into demons. I think I took it too easy on the group though - should have used some sort of random monster table or something. I especially liked the level with the Basilisk who could speak to the group remotely as they explored the dungeon. Misdirecting them into traps and such.
That adventure is in the Old Ones book.
I'm not really sure I can "show the awesome" of the Robotech RPG; save to say maybe two things about it. First, like a few other licensed RPGs, Robotech works best if you aren't looking at it as a loyal interpretation of the tv series but as its own entity; in particular the descriptions of the setting that go far beyond anything covered by the show create an environment perfect for that type of adventuring.
Second, it obviously helps if you look at it through the eyes of someone for whom it was the first sci-fi RPG they ever played or ran.
RPGPundit
Quote from: Settembrini;461585I have recently succumbed to Elliot's mild pressure and watched the whole of Robotech, also got me many Robotech RPG books.
I must say though, that I find the RPG material to be a mixed bag. Mostly stuff is statted out and not in a highly inspiring way.
The RDF training manual is pretty good for adventure material, as well as Strike Force Nine and New World Order. Both three do not capture the Robotech feel in my eyes, but are great with Mechwarrior/Battletech
This. I watched the original series as a kid and I am a big fan of the Robotech Universe. I think, however as Settembrini said it just doesnt capture the feel.
While I like Mechwarrior and Battletech I actually had to go a different direction to get the Mecha look and feel I was looking for. But that's a different thread.
Who was the GM for your early Robotech exploits, and what did he get out of the books in terms of prepping/ad-hocing adventures?
Quote from: Settembrini;462176Who was the GM for your early Robotech exploits, and what did he get out of the books in terms of prepping/ad-hocing adventures?
There was a group of us, at first we rotated who GMed, though after a while, I ended up becoming permanent GM when the others agreed that I ran the best adventures.
The default starting setting of the book (just after the end of the Macross saga) had a shitload of material to it. The RDF Manual, The Training Guide, Ghost Ship, etc. we made use of all of those. Later on, sourcebooks like New World Order and Zentraedi Breakout were even better at detailing the nature of the setting with its hard-sf post-apocalyptic feel. The random tables in most of those books I named are awesome for encounters and crafting adventures out of them.
The Sentinels, meanwhile, is a great setting for star-trek-style galactic adventure, especially if you figure out that basically you have an entire galaxy you can put into the setting aside from the provided aliens and whatnot. And Southern Cross and Invid Invasion, though they never got the same level of setting coverage, are very rich settings as well.
RPGPundit
Hmm. I've never played a PB game, but RIFTS is the only RPG book I've ever bought because it "looked awesome" from the setting bits and the art, completely in spite of knowing nothing about the system. Very few RPGs have lured me in on premise alone.
I don't know if that counts for anything, but even if I never run RIFTS BtB, it's definitely a gold-mine for crazy over-the-top stuff, because you can tell the author doesn't give a fuck about anything other than having fun.
Quote from: RPGPundit;462285There was a group of us, at first we rotated who GMed, though after a while, I ended up becoming permanent GM when the others agreed that I ran the best adventures.
The default starting setting of the book (just after the end of the Macross saga) had a shitload of material to it. The RDF Manual, The Training Guide, Ghost Ship, etc. we made use of all of those. Later on, sourcebooks like New World Order and Zentraedi Breakout were even better at detailing the nature of the setting with its hard-sf post-apocalyptic feel. The random tables in most of those books I named are awesome for encounters and crafting adventures out of them.
The Sentinels, meanwhile, is a great setting for star-trek-style galactic adventure, especially if you figure out that basically you have an entire galaxy you can put into the setting aside from the provided aliens and whatnot. And Southern Cross and Invid Invasion, though they never got the same level of setting coverage, are very rich settings as well.
RPGPundit
that is pretty much exactly how Robotech was for me. It wasn't my introduction to RPG's but it was the first RPG I bought and played regularly. I didn't care that it didn't capture the feel of the show so much as it was an awesome setting on its own. Plus, at the time, I could barely remember the show anyway. Never cared for Southern Cross at all, and I never owned or really got a chance to look at Invid Invasion.
Palladium is the first system where I learned a very important fact that seems to be lost nowadays -- the GM is very important in how much fun a game will be. System doewn't matter too much.
I played RIFTS twice in my life. The one campaign sucked because the GM wanted us to be badass military guys gunning everything that moves down. we tried to actually think -- he wasn't down with that.
The second RIFTS campaign was incredible. Great GM. We spent some seesions barely rolling dice. Very cool.
I also played NIGHTBANE (I bought it titled NIGHT SPAWN). Very interesting GM, but he was basically taking a break from running WoD and quickly shifted over to that system, so I left the group.
To answer your question RIFTS with a good GM and possibly SPLICERS (I never played it yet, but it looks good.)
My favorite one would be Rifts, despite the giant mess that it is (both in base rules as well as setting and rules bloat from supplements).
Next would probably be Palladium Fantasy 1, a far better game than AD&D 1e IMO.
But I have to agree - the TMNT game was probably the best thing they ever produced. It was tight, is was very complete, it was cheap, and it was just plain cool (despite a subject matter that could have easily been awful). I'd also argue it is hands-down the best licensed product ever produced in the history of RPGs.
It had some cool supplements, too (space, time travel, post-apocalyptic), but without bloating the system. Not to mention the expandability you could get by adding Ninjas and Superspies (a great game in its own right) or Heroes Unlimited (although HU is arguably Palladium's worst game).
RIFTS is certainly my second-favorite.
RPGPundit
Robotech works best either between Macross & Southern Cross (hunting down Zentraedi Malcontents on Earth and nearby space), or with a galaxy-spanning Sentinels campaign, IMHO.
Both are very different games for me, too. Malcontents era has much more a "dark" theme, with a lot of political intrigue playing between the RDF, SC, EBSIS (one of the good additions Palladium added), and Loyalist and Rebel Zentraedi. In many ways, I pattern it after my favorite Gundam series, "08th MS Team", with flawed individuals and patchwork mecha.
Sentinels is classic space opera for me. Freedom to go just about anywhere, but still able to rest on the initial premise (and ultimately, freeing the galaxy from Invid occupation).
That's basically it for me. earthbound Robotech is hardcore political/military sci-fi, and Sentinels is, like I said, Star Trek with Mecha.
RPGpundit