Gen Con Report Part 4: Splicers® & Future Books

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Kevin
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Gen Con Report Part 4: Splicers® & Future Books

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Gen Con Report Part 4: Splicers® & Future Books

In case you didn’t know it, Chuck Walton is a Splicers® fanatic. He absolutely loves the game. So does Brandon Aten, and the two of them had fans whipped into a frenzy of excitement at Gen Con.

Chuck kept calling me over to speak to various fans. He’d say: “What’s the magic word?” And they’d say, “Splicers!” And Chuck would just grin or say, “See Kevin, a lot of people want new books for Splicers®.” As if I didn’t know that already. :)

The bottom line is that Chuck and Brandon love Splicers® and they have great ideas for it. Chuck and Chris Kluge have turned in a massive manuscript I have yet to review, but I’m confident I can carve 2-3 books out of it. Meanwhile, Brandon Aten has a wide range of ideas himself and I gave him the go-ahead to write 3-4 small (64-96 page) Splicers® Sourcebooks next year. All of these talented guys are passionate about Splicers® and they are the driving force behind its relaunch next year.

The ideas they are proposing are nothing short of spectacular and Chuck already has a mountain of Splicers® artwork done for the books by he and Chris Kluge.

For those of you who wonder how books or game lines at Palladium Books get supported, this is how. I can not write everything myself; nor do I want to. But I need one or two passionate creators to pitch in and push for it, and most importantly, WRITE IT. And write it well.

Writing . . . good, professional writing . . . is not quick or easy. And writing RPG sourcebooks is even more difficult. It takes time, imagination, an understanding of the rules and game balance, energy and painstaking, long hours of work locked in a room all by yourself. After the first draft is written, the author NEEDS to re-read, rewrite and tweak it till he thinks it is as developed and ready for publication as he can take it. Then he sends it to us for publishing consideration where it may go through another rewrite.

I’ve come to realize that Palladium’s approach to writing RPG books is more along the lines of screenwriting movies. Ultimately, it is the final product that is important, and we’ll bring in as many people and do as may rewrites (or rejections) as it takes until we have something that we think is a blockbuster.

Palladium freelancers with a proven track record usually get a quick greenlight on projects that sound exciting and innovative, or fills a void. Guys like Carl Gleba, Carmen Bellaire and Irvin Jackson have an excellent sense of what makes a great book. New writers can benefit by looking at the books written by these gents (and my own); and should look at the newer releases. Guys like Matthew Clements, Brandon Aten, Mark Oberle and Greg Diaczyk, among others, have very good to brilliant ideas, but are still figuring out how to best execute and present their ideas in a final format. Game balance is part of the equation. Of course, any writer should constantly push himself and the envelope, trying and learning new things. The day you think you have nothing more to learn is the day you turn into a hack.

Innovative thinkers who are artists add to the inspiration and ideas of writers (and we have many artists who fall into this category).

So what other books have been approved for development? I’ve given Carmen Bellaire the greenlight to write 3-4 small Rifts® Sourcebooks. Mark Oberle is working on a Nightbane® sourcebook. Irvin Jackson is on 2-3 Robotech® sourcebooks. I’m hoping Carl Gleba will take a run at writing a Fantasy RPG® sourcebook and he and I still want to do Mechanoids® Space. Meanwhile, I want to get the two BTS books to the printer and some Fantasy and HU2 material. Time will tell how successful we’ll be at supporting all our game lines while expanding and growing the company and forging licenses in new mediums.

Sincerely,
Kevin Siembieda
Publisher, Writer, and Game Designer

© Copyright August 24, 2012 Palladium Books Inc. All rights reserved.

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, Dead Reign, Warpath, Shemarrian Nation, 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.
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