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Hey everybody! I just recently got out a couple of Palladium books (2 copies of the 2nd Edition Rulebook, 2nd Edition Monsters and Animals, and 2nd Edition Dragons and Gods) and am planning a campaign for three of my friends to play, who are all very excited to start after creating their characters. Does anyone else play Palladium Fantasy or have any advice or resources for a first time GM? Any general advice (perhaps from other game GM experience) would also be helpful! So far I have a little map printed out and notes with characters and whatnot to use while I GM. Hopefully I can also buy some sourcebooks pretty soon, possibly Adventures on the High Seas or The Old Ones. Any suggestions on which sourcebooks to get? Any help would be much appreciated. Also, I know that a lot of people dislike the rules mechanics in Palladium Fantasy, but my group of friends really like it and so do I. My older brother used to play this game when he was in boyscouts (80s) so I learned it from him.

Hey,

Long time palladium player and fan here. The second edition has quite a few changes from the version you played back I the 80s, but its close enough that adaptation should be fast and easy. I recommend you pick up Monsters and Animals along with Dragons and Gods to fill out the bestiary for your games first, then decide if there is a particular part of the world you want to play in.

Unfortunately the Yin Sloth Jungles and Island at the Edge of the world have not upgraded to Second Edition yet, so those can't be used without a bit of work, but a lot of new areas have been opened up by new sourcebooks since you last played including the Western Empire, Eastern Territories, Northern Hinterlands, Balagor Wastelands, Nimro Giant Kingdom and the Land of the Damned.

Finally, Library of Blethariad and Mysteries of Magic have a bunch of magic in them.

I've never played Palladium Fantasy so I can't give you any useful advice, but wanted to say that Palladium's absolutely god-awful terrible system never stopped me from playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness, which remains my favorite RPG to this day.

Have fun!

Thanks for the response! I haven't played any other Pen and Paper RPGs so I still don't entirely understand why Palladium's system is so messed up, but it seems to work for our group so we like it. And you can always throw in some House rules!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Jefffar wrote:
Hey,

Long time palladium player and fan here. The second edition has quite a few changes from the version you played back I the 80s, but its close enough that adaptation should be fast and easy. I recommend you pick up Monsters and Animals along with Dragons and Gods to fill out the bestiary for your games first, then decide if there is a particular part of the world you want to play in.

Unfortunately the Yin Sloth Jungles and Island at the Edge of the world have not upgraded to Second Edition yet, so those can't be used without a bit of work, but a lot of new areas have been opened up by new sourcebooks since you last played including the Western Empire, Eastern Territories, Northern Hinterlands, Balagor Wastelands, Nimro Giant Kingdom and the Land of the Damned.

Finally, Library of Blethariad and Mysteries of Magic have a bunch of magic in them.

Thanks a lot for the information! I will definitely check out those books!

 streamdragon wrote:
I've never played Palladium Fantasy so I can't give you any useful advice, but wanted to say that Palladium's absolutely god-awful terrible system never stopped me from playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness, which remains my favorite RPG to this day.

Have fun!

It's better, or at least more passable, for Palladium Fantasy to my understanding. A lot of the infamous Palladium Wokniness comes up from the attempt to take a 1980-something D&D knock-off and add a lot of modern/sci-fi bits to it, like the need for a skill system, vehicle rules (including damage, of course), and similar. From reading it years ago, it's about as playable as the weird mix of Basic/1st Edition AD&D/2nd Edition AD&D my friends tended to play back in the era due to the lack of the Internet and limited funds for books.

(I've been reading 'Playing at the World' which is a history of early D&D and stuff that leads into it as well as looking at some of the relics of my own gaming collection, and realizing how often we fudged using materials from one D&D edition in another, which would really not fly as well today.)

Palladium games have two stats which drive everything, physical prowess and IQ. All other stats are secondary to those two. I also seem to remember the magic system not being all that good.

Palladium Games typically has a fairly good world setting with marginal to bad rules. I'd use the Palladium setting and GURPs for the rules.

While I have not used any PB system in 15+ years. I loved the "Island at the Edge of the World" book, It and the wasteland one are just fun. I stolen so much from those book and even ran nearly the whole Island campaign.