Palladium Books® Weekly Update – March 17, 2015

By Kevin Siembieda

We are posting this Update early because Wayne, Jeff and I are all leaving for AdeptiCon Wednesday morning and will not be back until Sunday night. We are excited to be part of this awesome event as a new member of the war game community. So without further ado, here’s the latest.

UPDATE: Bizantium and the Northern Islands – Ships next week – March 24, 2015

I can’t say enough about this book. It inspired me so much that I spent part of my only day off in weeks, working on my games for the Palladium Open House. If you’re a fan of the Palladium Fantasy RPG® you want Bizantium and the Northern Islands™. And don’t forget, you can get a FREE sneak preview of it on DriveThruRPG.com – and it is just a small fraction of the entire 192 page book. Pre-orders ship out the day Bizantium hits our warehouse next week. Kathy Simmons will start processing pre-orders (charging credit cards) this week. Have you ordered yours?

UPDATE: The Rifter® #69 – Ships next week – March 25, 2015

I approved the digital proofs at the printer for the cover and interior pages on Monday. The printer thinks they might be able to get us The Rifter® #69 as soon as March 25 and no later than March 27; shipping right around the same time as Bizantium™. Subscribers and pre-orders ship as soon as the book arrives at the warehouse next week. Place your orders for both books now.

UPDATE: Robotech®: Expeditionary Force Marines Sourcebook – in production

Wow, is this a great book – new mecha, aliens, new character classes, the Invid and more. Author Irvin Jackson has struck gold with this bad boy. You will love it. I will be giving this title my full attention when I get back from AdeptiCon.

UPDATE: Chaos Earth® Resurrection sourcebook – spring release

I’ve assigned out some more of the art and will be working on this as soon as I finish Robotech® Marines!

UPDATE: Robotech® RPG Tactics

So far, the overwhelming majority of Kickstarter backers and people who have purchased Robotech® RPG Tactics™ are enjoying it. That’s great because we have big plans for Robotech® RPG Tactics™ and expanding the game line and gaming experience. As we add to the game line there will be infinite possibilities for battles and adventure, on Earth and on distant planets.

Robotech® RPG Tactics™ has been shipping to our European Kickstarter backers for the past week, and many are already getting theirs in the mail.

The other container arrived at port in Australia last week and we anticipate packages starting to get mailed out to our Kickstarter backers and the rest of the world by the end of this week and next.

Much more about our plans for Robotech® RPG Tactics™ in the weeks to follow. Keep having fun building and painting Robotech® RPG Tactics™ game pieces, playing the game, and spreading the word about how much fun this game is to play. The FREE Robotech® RPG Tactics™ Color Guide Resource is available on DriveThruRPG.com along with an ever increasing number of comprehensive building instructions, with more coming in the weeks ahead as we ratchet up the excitement for RRT.

See you at AdeptiCon – March 19-22, 2015, Chicago – www.adepticon.org

The vans are packed up and we head out to ApeptiCon Wednesday morning. Palladium will be there with plenty of Robotech® RPG Tactics™ products (the main game, expansion sets, rule books, Battle Foam Bags and more) along with a small selection of Rifts® and other RPG titles and a sneak preview of Bizantium. Jeff Burke will be running demos while Wayne Smith and I handle sales. Please come on over to see the items on display, enjoy a demo and visit our tables to see painted minis and check out the product. http://www.adepticon.org

Robotech® RPG Tactics™ Tournament – Battle for Macross Island is the tournament being run by Kyle Toth at the convention. It sounds fantastic. It’s big. It’s fun. There are five winners and prizes.

IMPORTANT REMINDER: Before April 1, 2015, you MUST make your HOTEL ROOM reservations for the Palladium Open House. Do it now! Rooms are going fast.

Hotel rooms for the POH are only being held at the $109.00 per night rate (two Queen beds or one King with pull-out sofa-bed) until April First! After that, the rate jumps waaaay up and is likely to sell out overnight due to a number of sporting events and conventions happening that same weekend. Palladium’s block of rooms are going fast. Once they are gone, finding ANY hotel rooms within 20 miles of the Palladium warehouse, at any price, is unlikely. So PLEASE place your room reservations as soon as possible. Note: Your credit card will not be charged until a few days before your arrival in May.

$109.00 per night only till April 1 – Reserve your room as soon as possible. If you know you are coming, please reserve your room NOW. The hotel does not charge your credit card till the day of the event and you can cancel a few days before the event. No risk. No cost to you today. Get your room “guaranteed” reserved. Furthermore, the number of rooms with double beds is limited. Book your room NOW to get this price and great location five minutes from the Palladium office. Special Group Rate ENDS April 1, 2015.

Palladium Open House Hotel information:

$109.00 (plus tax) per night at the Comfort Inn, a.k.a. “Plymouth Clock Tower Hotel.” That’s $109 (plus tax) for a room with two queen beds or one king with a sofa that has a pull-out sleeper. ALL rooms have a microwave & fridge, FREE high-speed wired/wireless Internet and there is a FREE hot breakfast from 6 A.M. to 10 A.M. near the lobby.

Comfort Inn – MUST Reserve by April 1 to get Group Rate

40455 Ann Arbor Road
Plymouth, MI 48170
Phone: 734-455-8100

Group Code “Palladium Books” – you MUST request the Group Code “Palladium Books” at the time of booking to ensure the correct rate will be quoted and billed to you.

Dates of the 2015 Palladium Open House (POH): May 15-17, 2015. May 14 is V.I.P. Night. Open gaming continues at the hotel each night. Plenty of places to eat just down the road (Denny’s, Wendy’s, McDonald’s, and many others).

– Palladium Books – 39074 Webb Court – Westland, MI 48185

For more info and to purchase tickets to the Palladium Open House, click here.

UPDATE: POH Game Masters and Gaming Events still needed for the Palladium Open House – May 14-17, 2015

Game Masters WANTED. It is not too late to volunteer to run games at the Palladium Open House. For some reason, after the Open House Update was sent last weekend, a number of people seemed to think it was too late to volunteer to run games. It is NOT to late too sign up to run gaming events at the Palladium Open House. The more Game Masters and games, the better. We can use more Game Masters to run game events for ALL of our game lines. We saw a few G.M.s calling and emailing earlier this week to ask if they could run events for us. YES, please do. The more the merrier! Let us know as soon as possible so that we can work out a solid schedule in advance, but we’ll take gaming events anytime.

Get Free Stuff and Discounts if you run games. POH Game Masters run three or more games and get a FREE special G.M. T-shirt unveiled for the first time at the POH and a 30% Game Master Supreme discount on Palladium’s RPG books, T-shirts and most other items (sorry, excludes original art, limited editions, art prints, auction items and Robotech® RPG Tactics products). We need plenty of games to satisfy 300 gamers, so . . . HELP! Your help is appreciated and welcomed. Contact us by telephone (734-721-2903) or by email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Please contact us as SOON as possible. We want to post updates to the schedule well in advance. Thanks.

What we will need from G.M.s:

NOTE: If you commit to running games at the POH you must be serious and MUST be available to run your games. Do not disappoint gamers from around the globe by being unprepared or absent. You also have to purchase your own admission ticket.

Send Game Event e-mails to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

– or call – (734) 721-2903 – and ask for Wayne, Jeff, Julius or Alex.

Come to the Palladium Open House – May 15-17, 2015. Like I said last week. There is NO other time, place or event that has such a huge number of Palladium creators (the staff, writers, artists, game designers, editors, Rifter® contributors, etc.) gathered in one place. The Palladium Open House was one of the last events where fans got to meet the indomitable Erick Wujcik before he died. The same was true about meeting my father, Henry Siembieda. Many of us are getting older, and who knows how long any of us have left. This Open House is a wonderful way to meet dozens of Palladium creators in a pleasant, boisterous and fun environment. The smallness of the venue and the few hundred people in attendance means you can meet and actually hang out with many of these awesome people. Not just a five minute chat, but some real, one-on-one time. And the Palladium crew, they really are “awesome.” Smart, caring, friendly, wonderful people you’ll enjoy spending time with. Maybe it’s just me, because I have lost so many friends and family members in just the last 10 years, many like Erick Wujcik, Kevin Lowry, Rob Justice and Keith Parkinson, at a young age, that I see even more value in this kind of unique gathering. I see it for the rare opportunity it is, and cherish it. Spend a weekend with the Palladium staff, its wonderful fellow creators, friends and fans from around the globe. You can ask any questions, enjoy long chats and plenty of laughs that you’ll remember for years to come.

UPDATE: PenguiCon – April 24, 25 & 26, 2015 – Southfield, Michigan

A reminder that Palladium has added PenguiCon to its convention schedule – April 24-26. We’ll be there selling Robotech® RPG Tactics™, our latest book releases and other select RPG titles. Chuck Walton will be present selling original art and prints, too. And since the Palladium warehouse is only 30 minutes away, tell us your special wants, and we can have one of the Palladium crew drive them in later that afternoon or evening. Swing by to say hello, get some autographs and buy the latest releases.

UPDATE: DriveThruRPG.com – more Palladium items going up even while we’re out of town

The Palladium Fantasy® Bizantium and the Northern Islands™ free preview is posted and available now. So is The Rifter® #61 and five new sets of Fantasy Paper Miniatures (with 20+ figures in most sets) being posted every few days. Palladium continues to provide FREE support to Robotech® RPG Tactics™ and other Palladium game lines with supplemental material. And this is just the beginning. So far, that includes some RRT game cards, the massive mecha painting/color design templates (more than 100 images in color and black and white – and an awesome resource for any Robotech fan), and some detailed assembly instructions, with MUCH more coming. There is much more to come for Robotech® RPG Tactics™ and other Palladium game lines.

The Rifter® #60 and #61 have both been added to the titles available. Much, much more is coming in the weeks ahead for Robotech® and other Palladium game lines. We plan to add a bunch of new material to DriveThruRPG.com over the next several weeks, so keep an eye on it. DriveThruRPG.com already offers 90+ Palladium Books titles available as PDFs with more to be made available soon. They currently include the Coalition Wars®/Siege on Tolkeen™ series, Splicers® RPG, The Rifter® issues #1-61 (with more to come), and first edition rules of the Rifts® RPG, Beyond the Supernatural™ RPG, Heroes Unlimited™ RPG, The Palladium Fantasy RPG®, and related 1st edition sourcebooks for each. And more! Like what? Like Fantasy Paper Miniatures (see below) and Game Master Kits for digital download. They are available only as PDF files and were designed special to help you run your games and build campaigns. There are also sneak previews of books and other good stuff. Check it out! And let other gamers know they are available too. We’ll be making more available on DriveThruRPG in the weeks and months to come, so take a look on a regular basis.

NEW Palladium Fantasy RPG® “Paper Miniatures” – on DriveThruRPG.com

Three new Volumes are already waiting for you, another is coming this weekend and more soon after that. Palladium Fantasy RPG® “Paper Miniatures” are a quick, fun “online only” product for gamers who want inexpensive game pieces for their Palladium Fantasy® game – only $5.99 for 20+ figures in each set. All are colorful, dynamic and attractive figures available via PDF download that you print on a card stock, cut out and slide into a paper stand (all part of the pack you purchase). A FREE Sample and the first THREE sets of Palladium Fantasy RPG® Paper Miniatures are available NOW on DriveThruRPG.com, but many more are coming over the next few weeks. Including a set or two for Bizantium and the Northern Islands.

A Kickstarter to take a look at: Through Gamer Googles

Matt Lemke is a gaming geek and all-around nice guy with a passion to share his love for the gaming industry. His website and Kickstarter are not the slickest or glossiest out there, but they are most certainly sincere and honest. Every time I meet Matt I walk away smiling. He’s good people and he’s hoping to expand his Through Gamer Googles website and videos with more about Palladium Books and other game companies. To do that, he has a launched a Kickstarter to fund his traveling to several different game conventions where he can conduct interviews and get review copies. His Stretch Goal #8 is to get enough funds to come to the Palladium Open House (obviously we’ll comp him admission) where he intends to do dozens of video interviews with as many Palladium creators as possible, as well as video other POH events. That’s pretty cool, so we’re pointing out his efforts, Kickstarter and website. Check ‘em out and maybe pledge a few sheckles so we gamers can continue to have another place where we can hangout at on the web. Palladium will pledge to his Kickstarter when we get back from AdeptiCon.

Click here to visit the Through Gamer Goggles Kickstarter page.

That’s it for now . . .

It continues to be a madhouse at Palladium as we prep for a few conventions and the Open House, and work toward releasing more product for Rifts®, Robotech®, Robotech® RPG Tactics™, Chaos Earth® and more. Got so much to do before we head out. Gotta run. Get those orders in for Bizantium™ and The Rifter® #69, and we’ll see some of you at AdeptiCon.

– Kevin Siembieda, Game Designer, Writer, Publisher

Bizantium and the Northern Islands

NEW! Palladium Fantasy RPG® Sourcebook: Bizantium and the Northern Islands – Ships March 24 – At the printer

To the civilized world, Bizantium and the waters and lands around it are frightening. A realm of sea serpents, monsters, and barbarians. To the heroes and people who live there, it is a realm of adventure, beauty and opportunity.

One might consider Bizantium as the center of adventure and mystery in the North. Many are the myths of ancient gods, lost treasures and strange creatures. On the mainland, there are the Wolfen and their canine kin, the Kiridin barbarians, the turbulent Shadow Coast colonies, and all manner of monsters and secrets in the Northern Hinterlands and Great Northern Mountains. Living near the edge of the Sea of Despair and in the shadow of the Land of the Damned, sea monsters and danger are but a short voyage away and make all too frequent visits to the Bizantium islands.

North of Bizantium are the Icy Ocean and Great Ice Shelf, places where only a handful of the bravest Bizantian sailors have ever set sail, and the rest of the world knows nothing about. For kingdoms in the south, only a few scholars have ever heard of the Great Ice Shelf or the cannibalistic Necromancers known as the Iceborn who make the frozen wasteland their home. Those who have heard tales of the land of ice and death are convinced they are nothing but the stuff of myth. Very soon, they will find out otherwise.

And these are but a few of the revelations presented in Bizantium and the Northern Islands™. Discover for yourself the wonders and horrors that await.

The Rifter #69

NEW! The Rifter® #69 – At the printer – Ships March 25

The Rifter® #69 is packed with exciting and fun material for Rifts®, Chaos Earth®, After the Bomb®, Dead Reign®, Heroes Unlimited™ and more!

Every issue of The Rifter® is an idea factory for players and Game Masters to generate new ideas and find new avenues of adventure. It provides useful, ready to go source material you can just drop into your ongoing games. A doorway to new possibilities and numerous Palladium role-playing worlds. And the many new characters, O.C.C.s, powers, magic, weapons, villains, monsters, adventures and ideas for one setting can be easily adapted to any Palladium setting. Every issue has material for Rifts® and at least 2-3 other Palladium game lines. With 2015 being the 25th Anniversary of Rifts®, every issue of The Rifter® will feature a Rifts® inspired cover and contain at least one Rifts® article.

The Rifter® #69 – Winter, 2015:

The Rifter #70

COMING! The Rifter® #70 – Ships end of April 2015

The Rifter® #70, Spring issue will present a nice variety of new source material for Rifts® and other Palladium RPG settings. Celebrating the Rifts® 25th Anniversary, there will be an emphasis on Rifts® material and each cover will be Rifts®.

Splynn Dimensional Market

Back in print – Rifts® World Book 21: Splynn Dimensional Market

This awesome sourcebook is, in effect, Rifts® Atlantis Part Two. It is said that anything you may desire – especially if it is dark, magical or alien – can be purchased, for a price, at the Splynn Dimensional Market. Anything. ‘Nuff said.

Chaos Earth Rise of Magic

Rise of Magic – Rifts® Chaos Earth® Sourcebook – Now shipping

We’ve all played “post” apocalyptic games. Now imagine playing as the apocalypse is happening. As the world you know is crumbling. As magic and monsters from myth become real and your world is reshaped by forces beyond your comprehension. That is the premise behind the Rifts® Chaos Earth® series. That YOU play through the Great Cataclysm as the apocalypse happens.

Rifts® Chaos Earth®: Rise of Magic™ is a key book in that continuing story (new books are coming this Spring and Summer). In Rise of Magic™, humans, particularly children, are discovering they can draw upon mystic energy and cast magic. The thing is, they don’t really know what they are doing. Magic is just part of the chaos and the impossible that is happening all around them. Meanwhile, others have found they can summon and control monsters and demons, while still others make pacts with supernatural beings to become witches and worse. And some have learned they can harness the magic to animate and command the dead. Madness and more chaos ensues. All of this only complicates things for NEMA, Earth’s defenders, as the line of distinction between “good guys” and “bad guys” begins to blur, and things go from bad to worse.

Chaos Earth RPG

Rifts® Chaos Earth® RPG – Available now

The origins of Rifts® start here! It is a new beginning. But first everything that human civilization had become during the Golden Age of Science, more than eighty years in our future, must come to a crashing end. The Earth is in the process of being transformed into a place more alien than a thousand alien worlds. Ley lines erupt with even more power and ambient energy than what is known on Rifts Earth 300 years later. Rifts – tears in space and time – appear along ley lines to unleash legions of aliens, monsters, dragons, supernatural horrors, and ancient gods of myth and legend in a mad symphony of chaos and transformation.

You play survivors or the heroes of NEMA. The men and women of the Northern Eagle Military Alliance equipped with their Chromium Guardsmen (Glitter Boys), Silver Eagles (SAMAS) and host of other robots and power armor to stand against a rising tide of enemies and alien invaders. They are humanity’s last and only hope to survive the apocalypse that will become known as the Great Cataclysm. These are the heroes you play in a world that can only be described as Chaos Earth.

Chaos Earth Resurrection

Rifts® Chaos Earth® Sourcebook: Resurrection – Coming

In the shattered depths of Wisconsin, survivors are besieged by the dead come back to life. Zombies. But not just any type of zombie, zombies done Rifts-style. And unless the source of the zombie plague can be found and neutralized by NEMA defenders, North America may be overrun by the dead.

This was actually something Taylor White and I have been kicking around for years, even before we released the Dead Reign® RPG line. We think you’ll love it.

Robotech RPG Tactics

Robotech® RPG Tactics

– Available now in the USA, Canada, European Union, Australia and New Zealand

If you love Robotech®, you’ll want to take a look at this game. Beautifully detailed game pieces of your favorite Robotech® mecha, and fast playing rules that capture the Robotech® experience in a new, exciting way. And this is just the beginning. We have so much more planned. Available NOW – in game stores across the USA and Canada. Available in stores in the UK, European Union, Australia and New Zealand soon.

Robotech® RPG Tactics™ Boxed Set (Main Box Game) – Cat. No. 55100 – $99.95 retail price. This is the game Robotech® fans have wanted for decades. Robotech® RPG Tactics™ is a fast-paced, tabletop combat game that captures the action and adventure of the Robotech® anime. Two or more players can engage in small squad skirmishes or scale up to massive battles. Relive the clashes of the First Robotech War, engage in stand-alone tactical games, or use the dynamic game pieces to enhance your Robotech® RPG experience. Or simply collect your favorite mecha from an expanding range of top-notch game pieces.

The First Six Robotech® RPG Tactics™ Expansion Packs are available to retail along with the main box game. Here are the SKUs and retail prices.

Battle Foam Robotech® RPG Tactics™ bag/carrying case – Cat. No. 55107 – $120.00 retail (limited supply). Note: We only have about 30 Robotech® RPG Tactics™ Battle Foam bags available. Once they are sold out it will be months before we manufacture more, if ever.

Robotech® RPG Tactics™ Rulebook – Cat. No. 55105 – $20.00 retail. Note: This is the same rulebook that is included in the main game box, and is offered separately for those who want an extra copy, or want to check out the rules before buying the whole game.

Robotech UEEF Marines Sourcebook One

Robotech®: Expeditionary Force Marines Sourcebook One – Coming

Robotech®: Expeditionary Force Marines sourcebook is set in space with the UEEF (United Earth Expeditionary Force) led by Admiral Rick Hunter. This valiant force of mecha-clad heroes travel across the galaxy liberating planets from the bondage of the Invid Regent, the Robotech Masters and other tyrants and monsters.

Coalition States Heroes of Humanity

Rifts® Sourcebook – The Coalition States: Heroes of Humanity

The events unfolding in World Book 35: Megaverse® in Flames threaten to change the entire landscape of Rifts® Earth as the demonic minions of Hades and Dyval seek to bring Hell on Earth, and turn the planet into a dimensional gateway to Armageddon!

The Coalition States, along with Northern Gun and Lazlo, take the lead in the defense of North America. Heroes of Humanity explores the good and bad in the Coalition’s efforts to save humanity and send this new threat back to the pits of Hell.

Rifts® Secrets of the Coalition States: The Disavowed

“Desperate times require desperate measures. War has nothing to do with morality or justice. It’s all about winning or dying. We cannot bind our hands with high ideals, even our own, or worry about the laws of renegade nations or the rights of alien people. We must fight fire with fire. And you are the match.” – Colonel Lyboc addressing a Disavowed team

The Disavowed are so Top Secret that their existence is known only to a handful of the Coalition States’ most elite, top echelon, with Joseph Prosek II the mastermind behind the Disavowed operation, and Colonel Lyboc its shadowy face. Find out who these men and women are. How the Disavowed get away with using magic, traveling to other parts of Rifts Earth and even to other dimensions in pursuit of enemies and strategic information that cannot be had through conventional means. Learn about the secret parameters in which these hard-boiled warriors, secretly hand-picked by Joseph Prosek II, operate, why almost every mission is considered a suicide mission, and why they must forever be the Disavowed.

Rifts® Secrets of the Atlanteans

True Atlanteans are descendants from Earth’s past. The survivors of the sinking of Atlantis (really a dimensional mishap) and travelers of the Megaverse, wielders of Tattoo Magic and other lost mystic arts. Most people regard them as heroes, but are they? The Sunaj Assassins are mythic villains feared by all, yet they too are True Atlanteans who serve dark forces.

For the first time, much of the story behind True Atlanteans and their secrets are revealed.

DriveThruRPG

PDF downloads from DriveThruRPG.com

This is a great resource for getting out of print Palladium titles and other select books. We’ve made 100 titles available as PDF digital downloads from DriveThruRPG.com, as well as Fantasy Paper Miniatures, Game Master resources and other good things with more to come. This is a great way to try Palladium products and get access to out of print RPG source material. Some notable titles include:

Books slated for the first 6 months of 2015

Other titles for 2015 and beyond

© Copyright 2015 Palladium Books Inc. All rights reserved.

Rifts®, The Rifter®, RECON®, Splicers®, Palladium Books®, The Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game®, Phase World®, Powers Unlimited®, Nightbane®, Megaverse®, The Mechanoids®, The Mechanoid Invasion®, Coalition Wars®, Dead Reign®, Chaos Earth®, and After the Bomb® are Registered Trademarks of Palladium Books Inc. RPG Tactics™, Beyond the Supernatural, Coalition States, 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.

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