Excitement continues to mount at Palladium Books as deadlines approach, are met, and work builds. We are making tremendous progress on several projects. Deluxe Robotech® RPG is on track to go to the printer soon and The Rifter® #43 Swimsuit Spectacular is looking fantastic as artwork comes in and writers gather to stat it out.
Publisher, Kevin Siembieda, has begun to look over and edit the Rifts® short stories for the Rifts® Chi-Town ‘Burbs anthology book, posting Murmurs, reviewing Dead Reign™ (zombie RPG), writing, and meeting with and talking with artists, writers, creators and business people around the clock about numerous projects, while coordinating work on the other Robotech® sourcebooks and handling the day to day business. Frankly, we don’t know how he keeps it all straight. He’s also been talking about doing a pin-up page for The Rifter® #43 featuring Doc Feral and his new mutant Sex Kittens/Wild Cats. Sounds fun, we hope he finds the time to do it.
Jason Marker is busy finishing his contributions to the Deluxe Robotech® RPG as well as researching and writing The Masters Saga Robotech® sourcebook, editing work on Dimensional Outbreak and other odds and ends.
Wayne Smith is always the guy behind the scenes helping it all come together. He’s been doing sell sheets for upcoming products, advertising and promotional hype with distributors, new T-Shirt designs, coordination on various projects, typesetting, editing and, well, a lot.
Alex Marciniszyn is busy handling the Ebay auction, the online store, correspondences, moderating the boards, a little research, helping wherever needed, in addition to his editing chores.
Kathy Simmons has been busy processing orders, taking care of bookkeeping, doing payroll, and handling consumer questions and stuff.
Margaret Hailey (our part-time volunteer) has been answering phones, scanning art, and helping wherever she can.
As you can see, everyone is working hard and things are coming together. Summer and Fall product releases are going be outstanding.
Just as planned, the following books have gone to the printer and their release date has been confirmed by the printer.
Powers Unlimited™ One – $14.95 retail. Will be back in print June 5, 2008.
Rifts® Dimension Book™ 8: Naruni™ Wave Two – $14.95 retail. Will be back in print June 5, 2008.
Rifts® World Book 10: Juicer Uprising™ – $18.95 retail. Will be back in print June 5, 2008.
Rifts® Ultimate Edition – The Second Printing is down to the last few hundred copies so we are sending it in for reprinting. That means we might run out at some point, but it shouldn’t be for more than 2-3 weeks. Still available at $35.95 retail.
Next in line: Aliens Unlimited™ – Rifts® Japan – Rifts® Lone Star – are probably the books to follow in a few weeks.
The new artwork (something like 15 pages) for the Deluxe Edition of Robotech® The Shadow Chronicles® RPG is finished and has been sent to Harmony Gold for their approval.
The new text is almost done, too. Jason Marker has been busy writing the bulk of it, including select spaceship stats and a few new vehicles. Tommy Yune is providing us with insight into the Haydonite space vessels. That has left Kevin free to coordinate and work on other aspects of the book. It’s gonna be a beauty.
Why are we working on it now? Because it takes 10 weeks to get a hardcover book manufactured, so if we want it for Gen Con in August, we need to get the book to the printer SOON!
Meanwhile, work on art for the Robotech® The Macross Saga sourcebook has begun and writing, notes and research for it and the Robotech® The Masters Saga sourcebook are well underway.
We have an excellent booth location for Gen Con and are already making plans and lining up guests, plotting giveaways, and making all sorts of plans.
The artwork for The Rifter® #43 Swimsuit Issue is already coming in and looking FANTASTIC! Boy oh boy, do we have great artists at Palladium Books. And many of these illustrations are exactly the kind of tribute we want for Erick Wujcik, mutant animals, fabulous fantasy women, sorcerers, oriental beauties, and majestic goddesses. Nice.
Writers have been contacted and are lining up to describe and stat out these beauties with delicious malevolence. This will be another memorable Swimsuit Issue.
Palladium’s current Collectibles Auction ends Saturday (May 24). There are 20 choice items, many rare or unique, out of print or one-of-a-kind items, including the following:
- 11x14 Nine Princes in Amber™ Audio-Book Poster signed by Roger Zelazny!!!!
– Amberzine™ #11 & 12-15.
- Castle Amber™ Pencil (really!).
- 20th Anniversary Tote Bag package.
- Robotech® RPG (signed) with two limited photo-prints.
- Robotech® the “original” 1988 Invid Invasion sourcebook proofreader’s copy (signed)!!
– Rifts® Triax proofreader copy (signed).
– Rifts® Ultimate Gold Edition #678 (signed).
- RiftsworkZ Portfolio #50 (of 2000).
- Palladium Books® Dice Bags (Rifts, Fantasy, Real Gamers)
- 3XL Palladium Muscle T-Shirt (only 54 total copies of this shirt were made).
– Some out of print issues of The Rifter®, weird keepsakes and more. Click here for more details.
Ends Saturday, May 24, 2008.
Kevin spoke with Erick Wujcik on Monday and said he sounded wonderful. If you didn’t know better, you’d never know there was anything wrong. Erick, being his indomitable self, reported how he drove himself to the dentist office to get his teeth checked and cleaned. An action that surprised many of the people around him.
No, Erick is not enjoying some miraculous recovery. The cancer is killing him. He just refuses to lie down and die. According to Kevin, Erick is softly, subtly, telling us to live our lives with no regret. To be happy, love and be loved. Live life well with sincerity, openness and honesty. Leave no words left unsaid. Find the humor, kindness, compassion and joy people have to offer. Live life to the fullest, and live it to the very, very end.
You can read more about Erick and Kevin Siembieda’s thoughts on him, life, love and living in his May 21 Murmur from the Megaverse®, What Erick Wujcik says to me. Words spoken from the heart.
After much hard work and planning, The Rifter® Zero will be Palladium’s first downloadable “product.” As a product it will cost a small fee of $3.00 to purchase and download. With any luck, we will get it posted for purchase for the Holiday weekend. (If not, next week.)
The way our store is set up, you will probably have to order it like you would a book, using a credit card. It may take up to 48 hours for the order to be processed and made available to you for download.
The Rifter® Zero is only the first of such digital products. Future downloadable products are tentatively to include color maps of our two favorite Hells, Hades and Dyval, a Carl Gleba Game Master’s Kit, and adventures.
therifter.com will be Palladium’s online version of The Rifter® publication where fan writers and artists will be able to post appropriate Palladium-based (and all-age appropriate) material online for Palladium fans, worldwide, to see and share. Cool. We hope to get it up and running in a few weeks.
Black on grey T-shirt, this shirt could be a real world undergarment of a CS soldier. And now it can be yours!
Yellow/gold triangle with the word Triax in red on a black T-shirt. The first in a series of shirts that will offer company logos. (Naruni Enterprises, Northern Gun, Wilk’s, and others will be coming.)
Probably Wilk’s Laser Technology, Naruni Enterprises and Northern Gun. Hmmm, and we should probably do some shirts for other RPG lines too.
The Rifter® #43 – Summer
Rifts® Anthology: Tales of the Chi-Town ‘Burbs™ – Summer
Robotech® The Macross Saga™ – Summer
Robotech® The Masters Saga™ – Summer
Robotech® The Shadow Chronicles® RPG “Deluxe Edition” – Summer
Rifts® Dimension Book™ 11: Dyval™, Hell Unleashed – Summer
Rifts® Dimension Book™ 12: Dimensional Outbreak™ – Summer
Rifts® Heroes of the Megaverse® (Minion War) – Summer or Fall
Heroes Unlimited™/Rifts®: Armageddon Unlimited™ (Minion War) – Fall
Rifts® Megaverse® in Flames™ – Fall
Dead Reign™ RPG – Fall
Mysteries of Magic™ – Summer or Fall
Nightbane® Sourcebook – Fall
And More!
Editing and writing has started on this product. This 6x9 inch trade paperback will offer a collection of short stories done special for this book. Stories are by Kevin Siembieda and a host of known Palladium writers.
Each story shows what it’s like to live in the shadowy no-man’s land of the Chi-Town ‘Burbs. A collection of hopeful people waiting for admission into one of the fortified city havens of the Coalition States, and the people who prey upon them. The Chi-Town ‘Burbs are the most famous of these tent cities that officially don’t exist, and therefore have no formal government or laws. Refugees, D-Bees, fugitives, and outlaws of every stripe make their home in the ‘Burbs or visit to sell their wares or get a little R&R.
Femme fatales statted out for various Palladium RPGs. Each full page pin-up is of a sexy but dangerous lady illustrated by one of Palladium’s fan fave artists and described and statted by one of our freelance writers for settings from Rifts® to After the Bomb®.
It is a tribute to Erick Wujcik, because many of the pinups, characters and settings are inspired by his RPG writing: Ninjas & Superspies™, HU2™, Mystic China™, After the Bomb®, Beyond the Supernatural™, Palldium Fantasy RPG®, Rifts®, RECON® and others. All a fun tribute to Palladium role-playing games and Erick’s creative genius and contributions to the Palladium Megaverse®.
The first swimsuit issue of The Rifter® is a SOLD OUT collector’s item, and the second Swimsuit issue is selling out fast. This third one will be even more special to us all.
The Rifter® is your doorway to unlimited imagination and numerous Palladium role-playing worlds. It offers new heroes, powers, weapons, magic and adventure for your games. It presents new villains, monsters and dangers to battle, and new ideas to consider.
This book contains the mecha, vehicles, weapons and characters that made Robotech famous. This also comprises the spectacular origin of Robotech that fans are widely speculating the live action movie will be based on. Packed with giant mecha, weapons, heroes, villains and fun, this sourcebook features quality artwork by the dynamic Manning brothers and the same bold approach to the writing as presented in the Shadow Chronicles® RPG.
This overlooked chapter of Robotech history will finally receive the royal treatment: in-depth coverage and updated information with fresh new artwork, including never-before-published mecha designs. Veteran RPG contributor Jason Marker has already begun research and development for this sourcebook.
A deluxe, expanded, 8½ x 11 inch, hardcover edition of the hit Robotech®: The Shadow Chronicles® RPG is in development and is tentatively scheduled for release in August, just before Gen Con.
Have a fun and safe holiday weekend and keep those imaginations burning bright.
Robotech® and Robotech® The Shadow Chronicles® are Registered Trademarks of Harmony Gold USA, Inc.
© Copyright 2008 Palladium Books Inc. All rights reserved.
This press release may be reprinted, reposted, linked and shared for the sole purpose of advertising, promotion and sales solicitation.
Rifts®, The Rifter®, RECON®, Splicers®, Palladium Books®, Phase World®, The Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game®, Megaverse®, Nightbane®, The Mechanoids®, The Mechanoid Invasion®, Coalition Wars® and After the Bomb® are Registered Trademarks of Palladium Books Inc. Heroes Unlimited, Beyond the Supernatural, and other published book titles, names, slogans and likenesses are trademarks of Palladium Books Inc., and Kevin Siembieda.