Palladium Books® – Weekly Update – February 1, 2024

One game system – every genre – countless worlds – endless adventure

By Kevin Siembieda and Sean Owen Roberson

“Last year was the first time I ordered from you guys. I am a long time player and have gotten my 30 year old daughter, her boyfriend and a group of her friends playing. Even my wife is into it. It has been an awesome year (2023) thanks to you guys and your wonderful series of games.”

– C.L. in Newark Valley, New York

We enjoy these kinds of messages and especially love seeing multiple generations playing our games. Sean and I appreciate the growing excitement over the games and sourcebooks we are releasing in 2024. Everything from the Redux TMNT RPG (later this summer) to Rifts® Bestiary and more. We have such big plans and high hopes for the new year. We’ll be sharing those plans with you in these updates and upcoming YouTube interviews and videos, so keep your eyes peeled.

NEW SALE – All Heroes Unlimited titles, After the Bomb®, Ninjas & Superspies and a few other titles are on sale! A similar sale is also offered on DriveThruRPG.com – both for a limited time. Sorry, the softcover After the Bomb® RPG is still at the printer, but the hardcover is available and part of the sale. See complete details below.

BACK in Stock – Rifts® Cyberworks™ Collection hardcover. This super-popular title sold out the first few days of December. Though we sent it in for reprint immediately, it is only now available. It is on a truck and heading to the Palladium warehouse even as I write this, and should arrive Thursday or Friday.

Special Offer: To celebrate the hotly anticipated return of the Cyberworks hardcover, we are putting the high quality Cyberworks Poker Deck, Cat. No. 2609, on sale for only $10 – get them both in one order. Enjoy!

COMING SOON! Glitterbois Interview Series with Kevin Siembieda on the early days of Palladium Books. NPC and I are planning to do a series of interviews about the early days of Palladium Books and reveal fun details and information that may surprise many of you. For example, The Mechanoid Invasion (1981) was Palladium’s first published role-playing game, but it was not the RPG I created first. Which was it? How did The Mechanoid Invasion come about? What motivated the creation of the Palladium Weapon Series? Did you know Weapons & Armor, Weapons & Castles, and Weapons & Assassins each sold more than 100,000 copies? These and other fun facts will all be revealed as we go back in time and talk about Palladium’s origins and the early years of Palladium Fantasy, the Defilers, TMNT, Robotech, Rifts, and so much more. The first Early Days interview happens next week. Not sure when it will air on the Glitterbois YouTube channel.

COMING! More YouTube Interviews – Sean and I will continue to do chats and interviews with Legion of Myth, the Glitterbois, and other YouTube channels that are crazy enough to want us to talk about games. By the way, both of these platforms have other cool interviews with me and Sean about TMNT and other Palladium RPGs you may enjoy. Check ‘em out.

TMNT Backerkit Pledge Manager will launch in February. This is where you’ll be able to change your pledge, get add-ons and see shipping. Sean and I are working hard at getting the best shipping prices we can for our Backers outside the USA.

SALE! Heroes, Ninjas & Mutants Super-Sale – 20-50% savings

Heroes Unlimited Hardcover – Cat. No. 500HC – 20% savings
Heroes Unlimited RPG (softcover) and sourcebooks – 30% savings
After the Bomb® RPG Hardcover – Cat. No. 503HC – 20% savings
ALL After the Bomb® sourcebooks – 50% savings
Ninjas & Superspies RPG Hardcover – 20% savings
Ninjas & Superspies RPG (softcover) – 30% savings
Mystic China (N&S sourcebook; epic) – 30% savings
RECON® RPG – 30% savings
Systems Failure RPG (science fiction, alien invasion) – 30% savings
The Rifter® #85 (a spectacular 224 page issue) – 50% savings and a steal!
A similar sale of PDF books is taking place on DriveThruRPG.com

Get some titles for yourself, get some as a Valentine’s Day or birthday gift, get some as collectibles, but get at least one or two. We have been seeing so much excitement for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness, the Heroes Unlimited RPG series, and Ninjas & Superspies, Sean suggested we put these titles on sale for two short weeks. Get them while you can and enjoy.

Cyberworks^™ Collection Hardcover – Available now

Back in stock! It features must-have ARCHIE-Three™ source material gathered into one, big, attractive hardcover edition. This beautifully remastered, redux edition collects three Archie and Rifts® robot sourcebooks plus some extra, related source material for your easy reference. Remastered artwork and typesetting, fan-fave Kevin Long color cover, color end sheets, a five page index, and a great price has made this hardcover collection super-popular. Which is why we can’t keep it in stock for more than a few months at a time. Get yours now. Special offer: To celebrate this book’s return, we have put the Cyberworks Poker Deck on sale (a separate purchase) – Cat. No. 2609 – $10 – a savings of $5 – so get both.

The Cyberworks Collection contains:

Rifts® Sourcebook One, Revised & Expanded.
Rifts® Sourcebook Two: The Mechanoids®.
Rifts® Shemarrian Nation™ Sourcebook.
Rifts® Aftermath Archie-Three™ source material.
5 page index in the back of the book.
Color cover.
Color end sheets.
384 pages – $49.99 retail – color cover hardcover – Cat. No. 900 – available now.

Cyberworks^™ Poker Deck – On Sale for $10 for a limited time

The cover art from the original Rifts® Sourcebook One is featured on the back of each card. Color throughout. Attractive and durable.

Face cards feature iconic Rifts® Cyberworks/Archie 3 artwork (Spades: Cyberworks, Hearts: Shemarrians, Clubs: Mechanoids, Diamonds: Titan Robotics).
Number cards feature a color energy swirl in the suit and a circuit board pattern.
Linen textured cards for a nice touch and durability.
Professional quality playing cards.
52 cards plus two Jokers – on SALE for $10.00 (normally $14.99 retail) – Cat. No. 2609 – available now!

Upcoming T-shirts

T-Shirts Coming Soon

Due to popular demand, Palladium is bringing back two fan-favorite T-Shirts plus a brand new Heroes Unlimited shirt. All available in most sizes. All shirts should become available in February.

Rifts® Logo T-shirt – The ever-popular Kevin Long Rifts Logo; white printing on a black T-shirt.
Living the Fantasy T-shirt – Kevin Siembieda’s iconic dragon battling a knight from the original RPG book cover; red printing on a black T-shirt.
NEW! Heroes Unlimited: Unleash Your Power T-shirt – Heroes Unlimited logo, superhero artwork and the slogan “Unleash Your Power;” white printing on a black T-shirt.

Coffee Mugs Coming Soon

Due to popular demand, Palladium is bringing back two fan-favorite coffee mugs plus a new Heroes Unlimited coffee mug. All items should be become available in February or March.

Rifts® Logo – The ever-popular Rifts Logo; white printing on a black coffee mug.
Living the Fantasy – Kevin Siembieda’s iconic dragon battling a knight from the original RPG book cover; red printing on a black mug.
NEW! Heroes Unlimited: Unleash Your Power – Heroes Unlimited logo and artwork; white printing on a black coffee mug.

Palladium Game Masters Wanted

We need G.M.s to run games at Gen Con. If you were planning or thinking about running games at Gen Con, please coordinate with Palladium Books in order to get a dedicated room and other perks like a discount on your purchase at the Palladium Books Booth!

We are hoping to get our usual crew of Gen Con Game Masters to run Palladium game events again. This can be any Palladium setting:

Rifts (Palladium or Savage Worlds)
Chaos Earth
Palladium Fantasy RPG
Heroes Unlimited
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
After the Bomb
Ninjas & Superspies
Nightbane
Dead Reign
Beyond the Supernatural and any of our other settings.

We need your commitment, game description and info by February 28. Send to Jeff Ruiz, aka NMI, via email at nmi {at} thedeificnmi.com

Palladium is always looking for NEW Game Masters who would like to run events. As long as you are confident running 6 players at conventions and have experience running good convention games, Palladium Wants YOU!

Run 4 or more games (with 6 or more players in each game) and your Gen Con Admission is free. Plus, Palladium gives its G.M.s a discount on books at our booth!

Game Masters and Game Event Descriptions NEEDED by February 28, 2024. (See Gen Con’s website for details about the info needed for each game listing; G.M.’s name, number of players, length of time, name of game, difficulty level, etc.) This enables us to coordinate and submit them as a batch to Gen Con and guarantees to have your event listed in the onsite Gen Con Program Book. Being listed onsite is very important to have full attendance for your event. This date gives us enough time to compile and send Gen Con everything they need.

Prospective Game Masters, please contact Jeff Ruiz, aka NMI, via email at nmi {at} thedeificnmi.com

2024 is Heroes Unlimited RPG’s 40th Anniversary

We have hit another landmark with Heroes Unlimited’s 40th anniversary. We have a few ideas on how we might celebrate this rare achievement, but we would LOVE to hear your ideas. Please submit them to Palladium via our Help Desk as well as chat about it online. Thanks!

NEW SALE on DriveThruRPG.com – Heroes, Ninjas & Mutants Super-Sale

All Heroes Unlimited titles, After the Bomb®, Ninjas & Superspies, and other PDF books are on sale till the morning of Valentine’s Day because we love you. Create and unleash any superhero you can imagine - mutants, aliens, martial arts masters, immortals, and more. A similar sale of physical books is offered at palladiumbooks.com for a limited time.

UPDATED Rifts® Automated Character Sheet now available. Three updates, in fact. This EXCEL template provides automation to your Rifts® character creation process. Done in Microsoft Excel, this character template will allow you to build your character with substantial ease and speed. Ideal for the new gamer who doesn’t know all of the Palladium Books® rules just yet, it’s also a highly effective tool for Game Masters and advanced players alike who make multiple characters, NPCs, or just like to min/max or theory craft characters between games. Note: If you already purchased this item, you can download the updated version for free. Enjoy.

NEW! Creature Feature™ PDF book on DriveThruRPG.com – due to popular request, this epic Beyond the Supernatural(BTS) sourcebook is now available on DriveThru for your digital enjoyment.

Creature Feature is for players and Game Masters alike and a fun read for anyone.

15 detailed and expansive supernatural horrors unlike any you see in most other horror games.
Creature encounter tables.
Tips on making (and playing) better creatures.
Rules clarifications (lots of them).
Player and G.M. tips.
BTS world information.
One full adventure and numerous adventure hooks.
Dynamic art by Steven Cummings, Phil Stone, and Siembieda.

Also available on DriveThru: The 1st and 2nd Edition Beyond the Supernatural RPG, and Boxed Nightmares sourcebook; not to mention Dead Reign® (zombies) and Nightbane® (Urban Fantasy/superhero horror). All these books, including BTS 2nd Edition (softcover and hardcover), BTS RPG 1st Edition hardcover, and the Boxed Nightmares™ (1st edition rules) are available as physical books from PalladiumBooks.com offering a Megaverse® of adventure.

NEW! FREE Nightbane® RPG digital Sneak Preview on DriveThruRPG.com – Have you been wondering what the buzz is all about for Nightbane® and Urban Fantasy? Well, now you can see for yourself with this fun Preview of the core rule book. There are also free Sneak Previews of Creature Feature™, Dead Reign®, BTS, and numerous Rifts® books and other titles, including Rifts® Manhunters™, Titan Robotics™, Northern Gun™ One and Two, Lemuria, and more.

300+ RPG titles from Palladium Books

No other game company offers game worlds for so many different genres. Best of all, learn to play one Palladium RPG and you can play them all, because each uses the same basic core rules and combat. There are differences, but the fundamentals are the same. This also means you can bring characters, villains, monsters, powers, magic, weapons, gear, and adventure ideas from one setting into another or mash them together!

Rifts® titles. Rifts® is the ultimate setting in which you can combine any number of genres and play any style of gaming you may desire: science fiction, fantasy, supernatural horror, heroic adventure, dimensional travel, modern knights, cyborgs, giant robots, dinosaur taming, sleuthing, magic, monsters, heroes and legends. Or combine them all. There has never been a game quite like Rifts®.
Rifts® Chaos Earth® titles. Live through the Great Cataclysm and the Coming of the Rifts. Rifts® Chaos Earth® RPG, Creatures of Chaos™, Rise of Magic™, and Chaos Earth® Resurrection™ are all available.
The Rifter® #1-85. Each issue is a wealth of source material for Rifts® and 3-5 other Palladium game settings. More than 8,600 pages of source material and counting. Most issues are only available in digital form.
Palladium Fantasy RPG® titles. A rich, original setting in which you can play humans or any number of nonhuman species of people in a world of magic, heroes and wonder. All of it epic.
Dead Reign® RPG and sourcebooks. The Zombie Apocalypse unleashed. A great introductory RPG that is surprisingly uplifting, fun, fast, and easy to learn.
Heroes Unlimited™ RPG Second Edition titles. Create any type of superhuman you can imagine to build your own super-hero universe.
After the Bomb® RPG and sourcebooks. Play anthropomorphic, intelligent, mutant animals as crime-fighting mutants and super-heroes or survivors of a crumbling post-apocalyptic Earth.
Ninjas & Superspies™ RPG and the Mystic China™ sourcebook. 41 types of martial arts, ninjas, super-spies, gizmos, mystic powers, and magic in the main book, plus even more in Mystic China.
Nightbane® RPG and sourcebooks – Urban Fantasy. Only you know the truth. Only you can see the Nightlords and their demonic minions, and you have the power to stop them. But you must transform into a monster yourself in order to use your powers. Trust no one.
Beyond the Supernatural™ RPG and sourcebooks. Modern horror; 14 character classes, 42 occupations for “ordinary people,” 100+ psychic abilities, 16 monsters, and more.
300+ Palladium titles in all, plus G.M. kits, paper miniatures and more. Palladium Books has settings for every genre: Fantasy RPG, science fiction (Rifts®, Splicers®, and The Mechanoids®), super-heroes (Heroes Unlimited and After the Bomb), superhero horror (Nightbane®), modern horror (Beyond the Supernatural), zombies (Dead Reign®), The Rifter® sourcebook series, novels, paper minis, and more.

Closing Thoughts – This and That

So much is happening here at Palladium Books, the days are just flying by. I know Sean is planning a TMNT Kickstarter Update next week, but here’s what I can tell you. I have seen the final posed sculpts for the four Ninja Turtles, April O’Neil, and Shredder and I actually cheered out loud, they are so nice. They are being submitted for final approval. Great work by the team at TransPerfect. And as I said last week, the color work by Majestic, Colwell, and Delgado is stellar. Rumor has it, Kevin Eastman will be getting us his finished cover in a couple of weeks! Can’t wait. More tribute art and remembrances are coming in too. Shoot, I need to reach out to a handful of artists yet. We hope to add a few surprises.

Work on other titles is moving along, as well as a couple of secret projects.

Rifts® Bestiary Volume Two: Sean and Matthew Clements are on it. If you loved Volume One, you’ll love Volume Two.

Yin-Sloth Expeditions (Fantasy) – I was excited and pleased to be back working on it, before other matters pulled me away from it the first part of this week. I hope to get back to it by the end of the week. This updated and expanded edition builds upon the original Yin-Sloth Jungles book with 30 redrawn maps, new details, new adventures, and new information. Very cool.

Island at the Edge of the World, 2nd Edition (Fantasy) – The remastered and reedited edition is coming sometime in 2024. This fan favorite, offbeat adventure world book is not a complete redo like Yin-Sloth Jungles 2nd Edition, which was so expanded and updated that it needed a second book, Yin-Sloth Expeditions, to complete it.

Rifts® Antarctica – This is the next Rifts® title I will be finishing up. Matthew Clements did a nice job, but I’m taking it to the next level, and we hope to present some cool stuff nobody is expecting.

I spoke with artists Phil Stone and Mike Gustovich about upcoming projects. I enjoy working with Phil and it is great to be working with my old pal Mike again. I need to reach out to Nick Bradshaw and several others.

Poor Wayne. He fell off a roof and messed up his knee in September and he has spent the last three months in rest and physical therapy to get his muscles strong enough for surgery. That surgery is Friday. It should be pretty standard fare, though they won’t know the severity of the repairs to his ACL and other components until they are inside. That will leave Wayne out of commission for – we don’t know how long – followed by another 2-3 months of rest and physical therapy.

Good news. Writer Carmen Bellaire (Rifts® Black Market, Splicers, Powers Unlimited series) is a private person, so all I can report is that he had a severe, life threatening condition, underwent surgery before Christmas, and though there were grave concerns, the complex surgery went exceedingly well. He is in his long recovery period, but doing well and talking about working on a couple of writing projects for Palladium. I’m looking forward to seeing him in a few weeks.

More good news. First-time father Matthew Clements, mother, and baby girl Meredith are all doing well. So happy for this beautiful family.

As for me, other than putting in too many hours working, stress, and a thousand deadlines, I’m doing well. No health issues I’m aware of. I get a check-up next month. Wish I had more time to just write. We’re working on getting there. I’m so busy, I still have 8-10 Christmas presents I want to send to pals and freelancers – Sorry Rex, Greg, Brian, Allen, Apollo, and others. Next week maybe. Sheesh.

My thanks to my old pal, Richard Cook, for helping out on Sundays on myriad projects – mostly pulling, packing, shipping, inventory, and reorganizing our facility. He’ll be around for play tests and other odds and ends.

I need to get back to work. Enjoy the Heroes Unlimited-After the Bomb-Ninjas & Superspies sale, and those of you waiting for the Cyberworks Collection to come back in stock, snap it up while it’s available, because it keeps selling out. I guess we are underestimating demand. Gotta love Archie-3 and the book is beautiful and useful.

– Kevin Siembieda, Publisher, Game Designer, Friend

© 2024 Palladium Books Inc. All Rights Reserved. Palladium Books®, Rifts®, The Rifter®, RECON®, Dead Reign®, Chaos Earth®, The Mechanoids®, Megaverse®, Nightbane®, Powers Unlimited®, Splicers®, Heroes Unlimited, Ninjas & Superspies, After the Bomb®, and all related titles, names and slogans are trademarks of Palladium Books.

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