Palladium Books® Weekly Update – Jan. 23, 2014

By Kevin Siembieda

The Rifter® Super-Subscription Drive – Low Price – Free Gift

It only happens once a year – for a limited time – The Rifter® Super-Subscription Drive. And it starts today.

Here are four reasons why this is the perfect time to try The Rifter® or renew or start your subscription:

  1. Superior discount and each issue is delivered right to your door.
  2. FREE gift worth $22 or more when you order now!
  3. The price of The Rifter® is going up $2-$3 an issue in the spring or summer. Order during the Super-Subscription Drive and you lock in your low, low subscription price for the next year.
  4. The Rifter® has been outstanding and is the place to find regular source material for Beyond the Supernatural, Palladium Fantasy®, Splicers®, and Heroes Unlimited™. I’m happy to report that The Rifter® #65 continues that trend of great source material, with 60 new Necromancy spells for Rifts® and other magic settings, HU2 source material, along with a ton of other great stuff. So the 2014 series of Rifters is off to a great start.

If you haven’t taken a look at The Rifter® lately (if ever), I suggest you try an issue. The Rifter® is an excellent source for ideas, characters, monsters, villains, powers, magic and adventures for your own game. Even articles designed for settings you don’t play are likely to offer ideas and material you can easily modify and incorporate into your campaign. In fact, drawing on concepts from outside the usual setting can spice up your game and keep players guessing. The Rifter® is a great tool for that. That’s the beauty of the Palladium Megaversal Game System; often you can take characters, gear and such from ANY world setting and drop it into any of the others without any work whatsoever. Other times, the amount of tweaking and modification is minimal to make it work in a new setting. That means a monster from Palladium Fantasy® can be easily used as a monster, mutant or alien in Heroes Unlimited™, After the Bomb®, Robotech®, Rifts®, Nightbane®, The Mechanoids®, Chaos Earth® or Splicers®, and vice versa. What needs to be adjusted? Perhaps just changing Hit Points/S.D.C. and damage to Mega-Damage, or M.D.C. and M.D. to Hit Points/S.D.C., or some other minor tweak.

Characters from Heroes Unlimited™ and After the Bomb® can be from the future, or the past (depending on the setting), or they can be mutants, or aliens, or beings from another or parallel world. As I am so wont to say, you are limited only by your imagination. The same holds true of towns, cities and adventures – use that place and the adventure ideas tailored to a different setting. Sure you may have to swap out monsters and treasure, or adjust motives, but you might be surprised how easy, fun and different that adventure plays out in a different world environment. And The Rifter® is the ultimate source for alternative, new and different ideas, adventures, characters, and story ideas. All of which can be tweaked to fit most settings, as can optional rules. The Rifter® is a factory for alternative ideas.

The Rifter® Super-Subscription Offer is your chance to try The Rifter® at a discount price and get a FREE gift. Offer ENDS February 28, 2014.

Click here to see the full description for your subscription options and choice of free gift in the Palladium Online Store.

UPDATE: The Rifter® #65 – Ships end of January

The Rifter® #65 was sent to the printer on Monday and I drove in to approve the proof copy of the book first thing this morning. This issue blew me away. And that’s saying a lot considering how excellent the last several issues have been. In my opinion, The Rifter® #65 is worth the cover price for the 60 new Necromancy spells, new O.C.C.s and the Bone Merchant all by itself. Talk about immediately useful and inspiring source material galore. And it is material that can be used in Palladium Fantasy®, Rifts®, Chaos Earth®, and even Nightbane® and BTS™. Nice. And the other contributions to the rest of the book are all excellent as well – high-tech gadgets and ideas as well as a new group of superhumans for Heroes Unlimited™, a spooky adventure and the Soul Merchant for Beyond the Supernatural™, and fascinating information and detail about one Faction’s rise to power within the Rifts® Black Market. Not to mention a Chaos Earth® short story, news and coming attractions. This issue is rich with great material. Sensational.

Looking for similar great source material for future issues

Writers, Artists and G.M.s, contribute to The Rifter®: More than half of Palladium’s regular writers and many artists started by getting work printed in The Rifter®. Quality fan and semi-professional work is always wanted. This is your chance to be published. The Rifter® is, after all, a sort of fanzine with official and unofficial source material. Articles on gaming tips, Game Mastering, adventures and source material (new adventures, characters, villains, monsters, powers, magic, gear, and setting info) for Heroes Unlimited™, Palladium Fantasy®, Beyond the Supernatural™, Nightbane®, Splicers®, Ninjas and Superspies, After the Bomb®, Chaos Earth® and Rifts® are always in demand. Gaming material is most sought after. Short stories are less desirable and should be kept ‘short’ – 4-10 pages, but we often publish a short story in most issues. Come on, write something and send it in.

BACK IN STOCK: Heroes Unlimited RPG – Available now

Heroes Unlimited™ RPG is back in stock and ready to ship. This is the game that lets you create every type of superhuman and hero you can think of. And Heroes Unlimited turns 30 years old this year. To celebrate, each issue of The Rifter® will contain material for HU2 and we are releasing a commemorative limited edition, signed and numbered, 30th Anniversary Hardcover in a few weeks. See complete details in the Palladium online store and elsewhere in this Update.

ALSO BACK IN PRINT and available now

Just a reminder that these books are also back in print and waiting for you.

UPDATE: Rifts® Northern Gun Two

We’ve been swamped all week with many different matters, so I’ve only put in a few hours of work on it so far this week. Plan to dive back into it as soon as I finish writing this Update. NG-2 is going to please and impress on the same level as NG-1. I plan to work on it and little else from this point forward until it is done.

UPDATE: Robotech® RPG Tactics

Things continue to move forward on this front as the engineering is being fine tuned for final mold-making and mass production. The engineering layout for the Valkyries was reviewed this week and we were very pleased. There were only a few minor details to be addressed but otherwise they looked freakin’ gorgeous. What a relief.

Meanwhile, the intrepid (and somewhat beleaguered) Jeff Burke continues to hammer away at creating images for the Robotech® RPG Tactics™ color guide which we’ll be adding to the back of the rule book. That’s front, side and back views of . . . well, everything Macross mecha.

We are still unable to lock down a likely release date at this time, and may have to wait until after the Chinese New Year (a celebration that lasts a couple of weeks!) before we have something concrete to tell you. You’ll know when we know. Keep the faith. Robotech® RPG Tactics™ is absolutely coming out in 2014, Kickstarter supporters will get product before retail, and this game is going to be epic fun.

Join the Gen Con Palladium Team NOW – Gen Con Indy, August 14-17, 2014

As reported last week, Palladium is pulling out all the stops for the 2014 Gen Con Indy. Our booth is twice the size, there will be a special display, tons of product, and we already have many Palladium creators committed to help out and make themselves available to sign books, chat with fans and in some cases, run games. Oh, and there are dozens and dozens of gaming events for Palladium settings.

It is looking like 50+ Palladium Books RPG events will be part of the official Gen Con program. My heartfelt thanks to the Megaversal Ambassadors spearheading this project as well as the Game Masters volunteering to run so many events for our many game lines. Awesome.

There’s still time for YOU to represent Palladium with your role-playing game event at Gen Con. GAME MASTERS who are attending Gen Con and plan to run one or more games in any of Palladium’s settings, make it official by contacting the Megaversal Ambassador Coordinators at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Do it before February 7 to get the FULL benefit of early Gen Con registration. You rock.

Palladium’s presence will be strong in the Exhibitor Hall too, as we’ll have a cool looking booth display, guests and product galore. In addition to Robotech® RPG Tacticsproducts, we’ll also have some surprise products, art prints, original artwork, and our usual array of role-playing game products: Rifts®, Robotech®, Splicers®, Palladium Fantasy®, Heroes Unlimited™, Nightbane®, Dead Reign, Beyond the Supernatural™, The Mechanoids®, Ninjas and Superspies™, After the Bomb® and all the rest.

Palladium Books Gen Con Highlights:

Palladium Collectibles Available in Kevin’s Online Toy & Collectibles Store

We have finally added some of those new collectibles and out of print titles to my online store, including a couple of rare copies of The Rifter® #4 we recently uncovered, and a couple copies of Rifts® Northern Gun™ One hardcovers. We’ll keep adding items as supplies allow and as I scrounge items up. As usual, there are out of print titles, redlined proofreader photocopies signed by me and the staff, signed manuscripts with editors’ corrections, some original art, hardcover books (including Rifts® Northern Gun™ One) and other items you’ll enjoy. There are also hundreds of toys and action figures, all from my personal collection. All items in the store are from my own personal archives and collection. Take a look every few days as new items are added. There may be some items that are perfect for upcoming birthdays and anniversaries.

http://stores.ebay.com/kevinstoys-artandcollectibles

Dragons and Gods Sneak Preview – available now on DriveThruRPG.com

A FREE Sneak Preview of Dragons and Gods™ is now available on DriveThruRPG.com. There are also previews available for Rifts® Northern Gun™ One, Rifts® Vampires Sourcebook, Rifts® Vampire Kingdoms (Revised Edition), Rifts® Black Market, Rifts® Lemuria, Dead Reign™ RPG, Endless Dead™ sourcebook and others. Plus we plan to add other sneak previews. The original Rifts® Vampire Kingdoms World Book is also available as a PDF on DriveThruRPG, for those of you who may be interested. More is coming.

More than 90 other Palladium titles can be found on DriveThruRPG.com as PDFs, including Splicers®, Rifts® RPG (the edition before RUE), The Rifter® #1-52, and first edition rule books and sourcebooks for Palladium Fantasy RPG®, Heroes Unlimited™, The Mechanoid Invasion® Trilogy, Beyond the Supernatural™ and lots of other good titles. DriveThruRPG.com also offers the Rifts® and Palladium Fantasy® Game Master Kits ($5 each; both written by Carl Gleba and complete with maps, combat matrix, character sheets, spell list, and 20 pre-rolled characters created by Julius Rosenstein).

In other news

I’m feeling much better and I think my monster head cold is mostly gone. I was in rough shape Friday through Sunday, but still came into the office to get much needed work done over the weekend. Put in nine hours on Saturday and seven on Sunday. I slept a lot Saturday night and most of Sunday morning, and went to bed early Sunday night. The rest did me good because I've been raring to go since Monday. I’ve got all kinds of balls in the air and am getting all sorts of things done or moving forward. Feeling good about our progress on many fronts. We’re still in deep freeze, making road conditions treacherous and scary at times. On my way to the printer this morning, I saw an 8-10 car pile-up and vehicles that had skidded off the highway every few miles. Yikes. Took it slow and safe. I think the arctic cold is supposed to stay with us for another week.

Looking out the window of my office it is a beautiful, sunny, if frigid day. A Downy woodpecker, Blue Jay, Nuthatch and cadre of sparrows are at the bird feeder and on the suet cake. It’s a charming scene. At least until the Chicken Hawk makes a strafing run. Snow is supposed be on the way though, and the coldest day of the week is tomorrow. Brrrr. Stay warm, positive and keep gaming while we put together the next batch of RPG releases coming your way very soon.

– Kevin Siembieda, Publisher & Game Designer

Heroes Unlimited 2nd Edition

BACK IN PRINT! Heroes Unlimited RPG, 2nd Edition

If you love playing smart games with heroic super beings in possession of strange and wondrous powers or technology, then Heroes Unlimited™ is the role-playing game for you. This RPG has unleashed the superheroes inside gamers for three decades and counting.

Heroes Unlimited™ RPG is probably most famous for rules and abilities that enable you to play ALL types of heroes while capturing the feel of comic books, and for being a thinking-gamer’s setting. All of this adds up to super-fun and epic comic book-style adventure.

Just a few notable Heroes Unlimited Sourcebooks:

Instantly expand your playing experience with these and other HU2 sourcebooks.

Heroes Unlimited 30th Anniversary Hardcover

NEW! Heroes Unlimited Special 30th Anniversary Hardcover Edition – only $40 while supplies last – At the printer & taking pre-orders now!

Palladium Books is 33 years old and the Heroes UnlimitedRPG turns 30 this year. To celebrate, Palladium is releasing a special, commemorative, Gold Heroes Unlimited™ 30th Anniversary Hardcover in February, for only $40. The original HU2 hardcover sold for $50 and has since become a collector’s item that sells for $200-$350 on the secondary market.

To preserve the value of the “original” Heroes Unlimited™ Hardcover Edition, we have made the HU2 30th Anniversary Edition as visibly different (and cool) looking on the outside, as possible. The material used for the cover is different (not leatherette), the blue is a different, more vibrant shade of blue, and the cover is imprinted in gold foil but features artwork depicting a superhero and the words “Special 30th Anniversary Edition.” Even the spine is different looking and the end sheets are red and without art. The red, white and blue cover represents the United States of America, the birthplace of superhero comic books, and the colors of costumed heroes.

All the elements described above should make the Heroes Unlimited30th Anniversary Hardcover impossible to mistake for the original HU2 signed and numbered HC edition. We have kept the price an unprecedented, low $40 for a hardcover Gold Edition of this size. We want to give Heroes Unlimited™ fans a crack at purchasing one before the price skyrockets on the secondary collectors’ market. Enjoy and game on!

Dragons and Gods

BACK IN PRINT – Dragons & Gods – for Rifts® & Palladium Fantasy® – Available now

We sold out during the Christmas season, but this fun book, suitable for use in Rifts® (complete with M.D.C. stat notes) as well as the Palladium Fantasy RPG®, is so popular that we did a full reprint of it.

This is the 3rd printing of a dynamic sourcebook filled with big ideas and insightful rules for creating gods and their followers as well as presenting an array of deities and dragons. The dragon section provides insight to how Palladium Dragons think and function. Great artwork, too. Co-written with Erick Wujcik. With the Minion War™ soon to erupt on Rifts® Earth via Megaverse® in Flames™, you may find a book about dragons and gods to be a very useful sourcebook.

This expansive sourcebook presents detailed information about the mythical dragons and gods common to the Palladium Fantasy® world, but contains notes for use in Rifts® and is easily adapted to the Rifts® setting. It includes sections about Dragonwright, the Gods of Taut, Elementals, Demon Lords, dragons, and the forces of light and dark. Suitable for use with the Palladium Fantasy RPG®, Rifts®, Heroes Unlimited™, and Beyond the Supernatural™, or any fantasy game.

Rifts Mystic Russia

BACK IN PRINT – Rifts® World Book 18: Mystic Russia – Available now

This book is rich in monsters and magic based on Russian mythology and superstition. Rifts Russia is a land unlike anywhere else. The wilderness abounds with mischievous spirits, shape-changers and demons unique to Russia (including a comprehensive look at Necromancy).

The Rifter #50

BACK IN PRINT – The Rifter® #50 – Special Anniversary Issue – Available now

The Rifter® #50 remains in high demand because it contains all kinds of official source material from many of Palladium’s most popular writers. Back in print because you demand it.

The Rifter #64

RECENT RELEASE: The Rifter® #64 – Available now

The Rifter® #64 is our annual horror issue and includes:

The Rifter #65

NEW! The Rifter® #65 – at the printer – ships end of January

The Rifter® #65 is all about the secrets of power. In some cases, dark secrets: 60 new Necromancy spells and magic for Rifts® and other settings, the power of the Soul Merchant for BTS™, rising to power within the Black Market for Rifts®, a Chaos Earth® short story, and for Heroes Unlimited™, a band of superhumans, robotics and gadgets. Plus news, coming attractions, and more.

Every issue of The Rifter® is an idea factory for players and Game Masters to generate new ideas, and find new avenues of adventure. It provides useful, ready to go, source material you can just drop into your ongoing games. A doorway to new possibilities and numerous Palladium role-playing worlds. And the many new characters, O.C.C.s, powers, magic, weapons, villains, monsters, adventures and ideas for one setting can be easily adapted to any Palladium setting. Every issue has material for Rifts® and at least 2-3 other Palladium game lines.

The Rifter® Number 65 includes:

Fear the Reaper

RECENT RELEASE: Dead Reign Sourcebook 4: Fear the Reaper – Available now!

Like knights mounted on motorcycles, the Road Reapers travel the wasteland that Earth has become, searching for survivors, fighting zombies and waging war against the Death Cults that threaten all mankind.

This epic sourcebook explores the nature of heroes and heroism in the Zombie Apocalypse. It contains the secrets of the fabled Road Reapers, their structure, leadership, missions and purpose, as well as gear and combat notes. Plus a horrifying new zombie known as the Terror Zombie, plus Floaters (zombies in water) and which zombies can swim. Survival is one thing. Can you keep your humanity and be a hero?

Rifts Northern Gun One

HOT! Rifts® World Book 33: Northern Gun One – Available Now!

Rifts® Northern Gun™ One is the most tech-filled World Book Palladium has ever produced and gamers are loving every page of new weapons, robots, power armor, vehicles and NG background.

Rifts Northern Gun Two

NEW! Rifts® World Book 34: Northern Gun Two – February 2014

In production! Expanded to 192-224 pages and filled with all kinds of adventuring gear: New environmental body armor, power armor, hovercycles, robot drones, robot haulers, combat vehicles, other vehicles, robot gladiators and much more. More information about the weapons, vehicles and practices of Northern Gun, including the new rage of robot gladiatorial combat. Expanded page count. Epic adventure.

Rifts Megaverse in Flames

NEW! Rifts® World Book 35: Megaverse® in Flames – March, 2014

The Minion War spills across Rifts Earth, where demons and infernals hope to recruit allies and use the Rifts as gateways of destruction. Their influence shakes things up across the planet, especially at locations where demons and Deevils already have a strong presence. Demons, Deevils and supernatural beings run rampant and wreak havoc across the world.

Robotech UEEF Marines Sourcebook One

NEW! Robotech®: Expeditionary Force Marines Sourcebook One

– Name changed from UEEF Marines

Robotech®: Expeditionary Force Marines is a sourcebook that we know will wow and please Robotech® fans.

Robotech RPG Tactics

Robotech® RPG Tactics – Game Description – Coming Spring 2014

This is the game Robotech® fans have wanted for decades.

Robotech® RPG Tactics™ is a fast-paced, tabletop combat game that captures the action and adventure of the Robotech® anime. Two or more players can engage in small squad skirmishes or scale up to massive battles. Relive the clashes of the First Robotech War, engage in stand-alone tactical games, or use the dynamic game pieces to enhance your Robotech® RPG experience. Or simply collect your favorite mecha from an expanding range of top-notch game pieces.

Mecha vs Mecha. Take command of the fighting forces of the United Earth Defense Force (UEDF) valiantly defending Earth from alien annihilation. Or lead the massive clone armies of the Zentraedi Armada to recover an alien artifact of immense power and enslave humankind.

Robotech RPG Tactics

Robotech® RPG Tactics Box Set

The First Six Robotech® RPG Tactics Expansion Packs

The initial expansion packs will also ship at the same time as the main box game. All prices listed are likely, but still tentative. We want most packs to fall in the $25-$35 price range.

Robotech Macross Saga Sourcebook

Robotech® Macross® Saga Sourcebook – New Size

Available now – 8½ x 11 size

All the famous mecha and action of Robotech® starts here with the Macross® Saga when an alien armada enters Earth orbit. They have come to reclaim a lost spacecraft that crash-landed on Earth 10 years earlier. A space fortress that Earth’s protectors have rebuilt into their own flagship against alien invasion. The resulting conflict gives birth to heroes and becomes the stuff of legend, but the Earth will never be the same. Robotech® The Macross® Saga Sourcebook is now available as an 8½ x 11 inch sourcebook.

Note: This is the setting for Robotech® RPG Tactics™, so if you’re looking for more information about the mecha, Earth’s defenders, the Zentraedi invaders, and Macross Saga setting, this is the book for you. Epic adventure awaits.

A Robotech® Role-Playing Game Sourcebook:

DriveThruRPG

PDF downloads from DriveThruRPG.com

This is a great resource for getting out of print Palladium titles and other select books. We’ve made 90 titles available as PDF digital downloads from DriveThruRPG.com. This is a great way to try Palladium products and get access to out of print RPG source material. Some notable titles include:

© Copyright 2014 Palladium Books Inc. All rights reserved.

Rifts®, The Rifter®, RECON®, Splicers®, Palladium Books®, The Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game®, Phase World®, Nightbane®, Megaverse®, The Mechanoids®, The Mechanoid Invasion®, Coalition Wars®, Chaos Earth®, and After the Bomb® are Registered Trademarks of Palladium Books Inc. RPG Tactics™, Beyond the Supernatural, Coalition States, Dead Reign, Heroes Unlimited, Ninjas & Superspies, Minion War, Mysteries of Magic, SAMAS, Thundercloud Galaxy, Three Galaxies, Vampire Kingdoms, and other published book titles, names, slogans and likenesses are trademarks of Palladium Books Inc., and Kevin Siembieda.

Robotech® and Robotech® The Shadow Chronicles® are Registered Trademarks of Harmony Gold USA, Inc.

This press release may be reprinted, reposted, linked and shared for the sole purpose of advertising, promotion and sales solicitation.