Mini-Update: April 14, 2014

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Kevin
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Mini-Update: April 14, 2014

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Mini-Update: April 14, 2014

I'm getting an early start today. Took my walk in a heavy wind and a little rain around 6:30 this morning. Crazy Michigan weather. It was 70 degrees Fahrenheit when I walked this morning (unseasonably warm), but after the storms that should be starting any time now, it turns cold. How cold? They are forecasting an inch of snow tomorrow. Waaaah. That’s okay since it should be back into the seasonal mid-fifties by Wednesday. I just hope the office doesn’t lose power in these high winds (30-40 mph). This area seems to lose power on a regular basis. Fingers crossed.

The weekend was fun and productive.

Friday was a strange day of work and fun. I did a bit of editing and writing, paid a stack of bills, and ran some errands. Then around 1:30 PM, we locked the Palladium office up tight, and I took the guys to see Captain America: The Winter Soldier. My treat. They've all been working hard and putting in long hours, so I felt they deserved a little inspirational R & R. Btw, we loved the movie. Every bit as good as the first.

Then we came back and did some more work for a couple of hours. Around 6:30 PM we closed for the day and everyone went to Kathy’s house to celebrate Julius’ and my birthdays (which were actually a week or so earlier). Before I left for the party (to which I was late), I had a nice visit with a couple of local, Michigan, fan-friends. We had a wonderful and stimulating conversation about Rifts® and Palladium Fantasy® and "the art" of role-playing. I really enjoy these two people, so it was a lot of fun for me. I even bounced some ideas off them concerning a couple of secret projects, which they loved. They also volunteered to help us ship out Wave One of Robotech® RPG Tactics™ later this Summer. Awesome. We are going to need a lot of volunteers for a couple of weeks to get everything shipped as quickly as possible to our 5,300+ Kickstarter people.

Saturday was mostly work. I hung out with Kathy in the morning and arrived at the office a little before noon. Worked till 9:30 PM and did a lot. 40 pages of typing in corrections and 20 pages of editing and writing. Wayne and Alex got in around 3:00 PM and also worked till 9:30. Saturday was a very productive day.

Sunday, I got in around 11:00 AM and worked till 8:00 PM. Work got done but it was not as productive as I had hoped. I think were are all dragging a bit. It has been 4-5 weeks since I had a day off.

Today, Monday, I’m feeling strangely energized, especially considering how I was dragging yesterday. I’m feeling highly motivated and writing is coming well.

I think I was my own worst enemy on Rifts® Northern Gun™ Two . . .

On reason Rifts® Northern Gun™ Two is so late is I couldn’t bring myself to say no to the many great ideas that kept coming my way for it. I probably needed to tell Chuck Walton after six or eight new power armor drawings to stop. Same thing with vehicles and other stuff. But I didn’t. That’s how we ended up with 32 flippin’ power armors, new hovercycles, new Ride Armor, other cool body armor, robots and vehicles.

[b]The end result is
a book that is the equivalent of 300 pages squeezed into 256 pages. That’s 600 manuscript pages and literally twice the material originally planned for NG-2.

That’s the good news and bad news for fans and release schedules. As a businessman, I should have said, tough, we’re keeping the book at 160 pages as planned or just expanding it to 192 pages. Period.

I could have done that and Rifts® Northern Gun Two would have been finished and in your hands last month. There has been many a book with which I have done just that. But Rifts® Northern Gun™ Two felt different. It was one of Palladium’s crowdfunded Megaverse® Insider books, and with the long delay, I felt an obligation to make this book truly epic. Every bit as good as Rifts® Northern Gun™ One — or better.

On top of that, the ideas being offered by Chuck Walton, Matthew Clements, Carl Gleba and others were just too good not to include in Northern Gun™ Two. I kept finding myself saying, "that needs to be in NG-2." That’s part of the problem with having an overactive imagination and being surrounded by talented, imaginative people who keep offering you wonderful ideas and inspirational artwork. It’s hard to stop. Matters are further compounded by the fact that I’m a gaming geek like you, so instead of saying no and stopping, I say, “Oh, gamers will love this! It has to go in this book." "Oh, they’ll love that, too. And this. And I have to include that. Oh, oh, and if that’s included, I must address this.” I think the hardest thing for any writer is being able to stop and put and end to a project. Especially one that’s he’s deeply enjoying.

When you love your work, the setting and the audience you are writing for, you always want to wow and impress. To give them more than they are expecting. As a gamer, myself, I see all these uses for the game material and I want to give you everything I have.

I probably went overboard trying to please my audience with NG-2. Sorry. But you’ll sure be getting a lot of equipment and resources for your games. That includes ideas for adventures that come from the descriptions of power armor and vehicles.

All that said, it is foolish from a business standpoint, because it costs more in time and money to make a big book. Not just the printing cost but the cost for all the artwork and the time lost not getting other books released. But sometimes, as a creator and publisher, you just can't suppress the fan boy inside of you. Sometimes, you just have to give release to your creative energies and hope that the buzz and sales make up for the additional cost and lost time.

I’ll keep Megaverse® in Flames on its target page count. And you’ll be seeing a number of books with smaller page counts (48-160 pages) coming your way in the months ahead.

I sure hope you enjoy Rifts® Northern Gun™ Two. It is a labor of love from me, Matthew Clements, Chuck Walton, the Mannings, Mumah and everyone who contributed to it.

Kevin Siembieda
Publisher, Writer and Game Designer

© Copyright April 14, 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® and After the Bomb® are Registered Trademarks of Palladium Books Inc. RPG Tactics™, Beyond the Supernatural, Chaos Earth, 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.
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