I discovered Splicers about 2 years after it was first published and I was very surprised this interesting sci-fi RPG did not make a bigger splash.  

If you never heard of Splicers, here's some info.

From the Palladium site

QuoteSplicers® is a science fiction role-playing game set on a devastated world where machines rule, and human beings are vermin who are hunted and exterminated. The human struggle is complicated by a nano-virus that instantly turns metal objects touched by human flesh into killing machines. Consequently, humans have been forced to turn to organic technology to battle the world-dominating machines if they hope to reclaim any portion of their planet back for themselves.

Wikipedia Breakdown
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splicers

RPGnet Review
http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/12/12550.phtml

I like Splicers a great deal.  The setting is a fun combo of Terminator + Dune + BioGuyver.  The most interesting aspect is the weird biotech armor and weapons, along with the political dynamics of the Great Houses.  

Like a Palladium systems, there is a deliberate lack of balance.  However, the strong individual archetypes of the various OCCs are backed with a great imagination.   The ability to customize your Bio-Host Armor allows for new ways to specialize characters that isn't present in Rifts.

Unfortunately, the game has not received any follow-up supplements but this has led to the Splicers forum on the Palladium site to be extremely creative and a great resource for fans.  

So...has anybody given it a spin?

My theory:
1) it's by Palladium, so it uses the Palladium System
2) posthumanism has always been iffy in RPGs
3) Palladium was undergoing a lot of internal BS* so they mishandled it
4) it wasn't Rifts nor Palladium Fantasy, so it was unlikely to even get ordered at many game stores.

Add them up, and you get a product being overlooked.

*the big embezzlement.

Well...

it sounds fucking ridiculous

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;337967Well...

it sounds fucking ridiculous

Quite unlike a game of pretending to be an elf who fights monsters with magic spells and prayer.

do you seriously mean to tell me that such a setting is no less ridiculous than this? Seriously?

Quote from: Ghost Whistler;337967it sounds fucking ridiculous

It is!

Splicers is 100% "turn it to 11 and break off the knob" gonzo.

What makes it very playable is that there is not one single ridiculous element, but a massive cascade of gonzo bits which when added together create a very interesting tableau.

Having played lots of sci-fi RPGs over the years, Splicers was a fun eye-opener where metal was replaced with bio-tech and "squishy tech" and the nano-plague while silly, adds some interesting complications in gameplay.

Here are some pics from the Game Art.

http://madjaguar.deviantart.com/art/Splicers-Dreadguard-host-armor-27747536

http://madjaguar.deviantart.com/art/Dreadguard-OConnor-with-Brutus-123690244

http://madjaguar.deviantart.com/art/Splicers-Packmaster-27746746

Huh. I once made a character for a mutants and masterminds game whose powers came from an alien symbiote that looked something like that third illustration (minus the arm-blades).

Is it an SDC or MDC setting? Personally, I would always convert to SDC in the unlikely event of ever running/playing a palladium game again, but I'm curious.

Splicers is easily summed up as "Guyver vs. Terminator w/ a side order of Dune".

I didn't find it even a little bit interesting.

RPGPundit

Quote from: Rubio;338345Is it an SDC or MDC setting? Personally, I would always convert to SDC in the unlikely event of ever running/playing a palladium game again, but I'm curious.

MDC - but I know people who just convert everything to SDC.   If you wanted to add AR to the host armors, I am sure it wouldn't be a big deal.