We are all so crazy . . .

[Kevin]

We are all so crazy . . . and Machinations of Doom proves it.

I have decided we are crazy. Every last person at Palladium Books is crazy, right down to the freelance artists and writers.

And that’s why you love us. Which makes you crazy too.

Rifts® Machinations of Doom brought about this keen observation. This book coulda, shoulda been a quick and easy reprint of the serialized comic strip that appeared in The Rifter® something like 8 years ago. Throw it all in a book with an introduction by me, and it's done. Right?

Wrong.

Some crazy person (um, that would be me) says, “We should turn it into a graphic novel and sourcebook. You know, stat out the heroes, villains, monsters. The fan’s will love it.” The only problem is, Palladium can’t afford to pay the artist, Ramon Perez, the money he deserves to publish it. The idea is shelved.

Some years later (and a few months ago), Crazy Person #2, the artist, Ramon Perez, contacts me, and says,

“You know that compilation of the Lone Star comic strip we talked about years ago? Let’s do it. Don’t worry about paying me, I don’t want any money. I just want to see it collected and in print. I get people asking me about it all the time. Let’s compile it, you write the sourcebook part, I’ll do a new cover and I’ll even put the entire book together in Quark for you. All Palladium has to do is print it and give me some copies.”

We talk, because that’s just not fair and I feel I must pay Ramon something reasonable. Ramon is the same great guy he’s always been. We’ve stayed in touch over the years and he is dead set on doing this even if he doesn’t see a penny. We work out the money angle and cement a deal. There’s not too much work, up-front money or risk involved, and the fans want the book, so what the heck. We’ll do it.

We decide the book must debut at the Palladium Open House where Ramon will be a guest and the fans who attend will get a kick outta being the first to get a copy of this book. Plus they can get it signed by Ramon and I, making it all that much more special. Cool.

None of that is too crazy, the madness is still coming.

A few months later, Ramon and I are both behind deadline, have other commitments and we’re dealing with other things life has tossed our way. I’ve already come off of one killer book, D-Bees of North America, and Ramon has a DC Comics job that’s due. But we are still committed to the project and the original timetable. All reasons to just crap out something halfway decent and move on. Heck, that’s what any other company would do.

We can’t. We can’t do crap. It’s not in our genetic structure. And it's not just me. It’s Ramon and Wayne and Alex and Julius and (in regard to other books and projects) Palladium’s entire crew of writers and artists!

Don’t believe me? Here comes the madness . . .

We are facing a killer deadline. I’ve already begged the printer to give us a rush print job even though they aren’t supposed to, and they’ve said yes. We’ve got four days to do 2-3 WEEKS worth of work. Another reason for short cuts, but we can’t do it. Crazy.

- Ramon re-letters the entire 72 page comic strip. You wouldn’t think it would make that much difference, but it does. Crazy.

- He also tweaks the story a little here and there, and has big plans for the layout and design, all of which will take more time. Crazy.

- He has already done ALL new artwork for the characters and they look great, but he does a few additional new pieces as well, even when he could have just stripped out art from the comic. Crazy.

- Here’s the real crazy part for Ramon. The new, color cover . . . is a wrap around! That’s like doing TWO covers. And it is action-packed with a lot of figures and stuff going on, not something simple and easy. The cover art is drop dead gorgeous!!! But a ton of work. He wants to do this. He knows the fans will love it. Doing something else is NOT an option. Super-Crazy!

- And he still has the layout of the sourcebook to do. The craziness continues.

- I have Julius Rosenstein help me by doing some notes, make suggestions and stat out the CS villains. He spends the next two days working till midnight to get it done on top of his other work at Palladium. Crazy.

- Okay, I could have just hacked out the stats. Heck, I could have just turned them over to a couple freelancers who volunteered to write ‘em for me. Maybe I should have. I have plenty of other late books to do. Only I promised Ramon “I” would do them. And after re-reading the comic strip (I forgot how great it was), I have some great ideas for the sourcebook portion.

1. I want to make the time-line current, 109 P.A.

2. I want to make sure the characters are unique, interesting and fit together smoothly as a family just like Ramon envisions.

3. I want to present some continuing adventure ideas involving the comic strip characters and future storylines.

4. I want the strip and source material to meld hand in hand to create a flawless adventure setting, villains, heroes and story arc. Stuff G.M.s and players can really use and enjoy.

5. I want to finish the story that Ramon started in the comic strip.[/b] And not just something obligatory or cute. I want it to be epic. I want fans to read it and gasp. After all, it involves one of my other favorite villains, Doctor Desmond Bradford. Ramon’s ideas and suggestions fit right in with my own. It will be epic.

In short, I want Machinations of Doom to be a real sourcebook with meat.

Crazy. Especially given the time we have.

- To pull it off, I have to sleep over at the office three nights in a row and work truly insane hours. Thursday, I wake up on the couch in my office at 5:30 A.M. and work till 1:30 A.M. Friday morning. I grab 5 hours sleep and I’m up again writing like a madman. I’m as hot as can be, though by afternoon I’m writing slow. Crazy.

- Kathy doesn’t complain one bit and encourages me to do what I have to do. Crazy.

- Alex, Wayne, and Julius are there every night till 11 or 12 editing pages as I peel them off in batches of 2-6 pages at a time. Crazy.

- My Dad, Hank, stays outta our way. Smart. And thinks what we’re doing is great. Crazy.

- When I hand in the last part of the monsters and adventure material, we are all pretty raw. My vision has been blurry since noon. It’s now 10:00 PM Friday night. I’m done. Ramon will have to work through the weekend to finish the cover and layout by Monday. He’s been grabbing only 3-4 hours of sleep a night, but promises it will be done. As of Saturday, 7:00 PM, he's almost there. Crazy.

– Wayne Smith’s final assessment of the night inspired this murmur. “Geez Kev, you realize none of our fans are expecting anything like this. Not only is this a great sourcebook, you present a story arc that could change the future of Rifts Earth forever. That’s crazy! Good stuff. They’ll love it, but it’s crazy.”

- And as if that isn’t enough, I decided to reduce the price from $20.95 to $18.95 – and if that isn’t crazy, I don’t know what is.

Yep, we’re all crazy and this book proves it. We can’t just hack something out no matter what. We look at everything we do from the eyes of artists and epic storytellers. We want to make you guys and gals ooh and ah with every book. We want to surprise and please, tantalize and give you hours of gaming enjoyment.

Craziest of all, YOU love us for it. You appreciate that we give our work our all. And we love you right back by doing more. It’s sick I tell you. Sick! But I can’t stop. None of us can. I've warped them all. Must create epic books people will remember and enjoy for years to come. Bwah, ha, ha, ha.

Time to go now.

Thanks for listening to my crazy outcry. You’re gonna love Machinations of Doom, and D-Bees of North America, and Hades and all the Minion War books, and Warpath and . . .

Kevin Siembieda
President, Writer, Artist, Visionary and, well, Lunatic
© Copyright April 14, 2007