Palladium Books® Weekly Update – August 2, 2011

By Kevin Siembieda

I have been going nonstop all weekend through now, getting ready for Gen Con Indy – making and setting up displays, pulling books and T-shirts, framing artwork and prints, and everything else that goes into a show like this. Whew. I am beat and Gen Con hasn’t even started. Everything is packed up in the truck and ready to go. Most of the rest of the crew having working till 10:30 PM to get everything ready for the big event. Thanks, guys.

Nick Bradshaw has flown in so he can ride down with us and help set up, and Mike Mumah arrives this evening.

UPDATE: Rifts® Vampire Kingdoms is at the PRINTER and ships a week after Gen Con, around August 12 or 15. We will have 110 advance, top quality POD (print on demand) copies at Gen Con. Keep those pre-orders coming so that whatever day the book arrives we can ship it to you immediately.

FREE Rifts® Vampire KingdomsSneak Preview available now from DriveThruRPG.com. Check it out. Remember, it is just a taste of what’s in the book. There is so much more. To get the free PDF download of the Rifts® Vampire Kingdoms™ Sneak Preview, go to DriveThruRPG.com. It is easy to create a free account and only takes a couple of minutes. Sneak Previews of Armageddon Unlimited™ and Rifts® Thundercloud Galaxy™ are also available. DriveThruRPG.com is a good resource for getting the Hades & Dyval Map Pack, The Rifter® Number Zero, The Rifter® #1-48 and to fill in your RPG library with first edition copies of Rifts®, Palladium Fantasy®, Heroes Unlimited™, and other game lines, as well as books such as Nightbane® Book Four: Shadows of Light™ and both versions of the The Mechanoids® RPG (1985) and The Collected Mechanoid Invasion® Trilogy (1981-1983).

UPDATE: Rifts® Lemuria. We are already at work on Rifts® Lemuria and the Robotech® New Generation Sourcebook. The initial edit of Lemuria has been done, and now we are in the rewrite and final editing stage. I spoke with Chuck Walton and approved the rest of his final pieces of artwork, all of which look amazing. The rest of the artwork from the other artists is in and it rocks. This book is going to surprise a lot of people. Place your pre-orders, because this baby will ship in August.

UPDATE: Rifts® Vampires Sourcebook. Writer Matthew Clements has been bouncing between the Vampires Sourcebook and the Rifts® Black Market book all week. This 128 page book is already half done! Should be out in September. And you will love it. Everything that couldn’t fit in the Vampire Kingdoms™ World Book is here: Fort Reid and more on Reid’s Rangers, Techno-Wizard weapons and a whole lot more. See the new description for it in this Weekly Update.

UPDATE: Robotech® New Generation Sourcebook. Spoke with Tommy Yune at Harmony Gold and they are excited about this and probably another Robotech® Sourcebook™ coming out this fall. Us too.

UPDATE: Back in Print: The three new back in print titles have been flying out the Palladium warehouse door, especially Rifts® World Book 23: Xiticix Invasion™.

The following books are back in print and available now. We’ll have them at Gen Con, too.

Available Now:

Note: All six books in the Coalition Wars/Siege on Tolkeen series are in print.

The following titles are also recently back in print and ready to ship:

UPDATE: Online sales. So far, we’ve seen stronger sales this week with pre-orders coming in at a steady pace for Rifts® Vampire Kingdoms, Rifts® Lemuria, as well as Rifts® World Book 23: Xiticix Invasion™, Sedition™ and Coalition Overkill™. Cool. I suspect we’ll see a sales bump for Rifts® New West™, Spirit West™ and Rifts® Arzno™: Vampire Incursion™ when Rifts® Vampire Kingdoms™ comes out as they are all ideal companions for it, Rifts® Lone Star too.

UPDATE: 2012 Palladium Open House. Don’t forget about this cool event. We plan to make it an epic celebration. There are still a few VIP Night admissions available. Folks have also been reserving their hotel rooms. Excellent. We already have gamers coming from across the USA, Canada, England and Germany! Join the fun.

UPDATE: Gen Con Indy August 4-7

Palladium Books is Booth 1125

We’ll be there. We hope you will too. Swing by and say hello, get some autographs, play in demo games, get the latest products, buy books to fill in your collection and have fun.

Palladium Creators You Can Meet at Gen Con:

And maybe a few others.

Mike Mumah will be doing convention character sketches (maybe Bradshaw too), plus there will be prints and original art for sale. Brandon Aten plans to run a Rifts® Triax game and Zachary Houghton and Lonnie Langston are running demos of Palladium games. Join the fun.

Most of us are at Palladium Booth 1125 for much of the day so you’ll have easy access to us. Stop by to say hello, get books autographed, character sketches, original art, and buy the latest releases, back stock titles, some out of print books (like Ninja Turtles® RPG titles, Rifts® Ultimate Gold and others), collectibles, T-Shirts and other goodies. The guys and I are happy to sign books and chit chat for a little while with everyone who swings by the booth, so come on over and join the fun.

I’ll give you all a full Gen Con Report in the next Weekly Update.

UPDATE: Alex is doing well. I’m happy to report Alex is doing much better.

QueenofGhouls.com – Palladium’s very own Kathy Simmons plans to crank out more zombies, witches, werewolves and monsters for her online store. She’s working away on a couple of zombies and has plans for much more cool stuff. Check it out in her online store. Kathy continues to whip up new creations with more life sized Halloween props going up this weekend. Halloween is creeping up fast.

Palladium to attend Detroit Fanfare, September 24 & 25

Palladium’s booth space has been reserved and we will be at the Detroit Fanfare, September 24 & 25 at Cobo Hall, downtown Detroit. One of the guests is Kevin Eastman – co-creator of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles®. So this fun comic book and media convention will be a great chance to get your Ninja Turtles® game books (and comics) signed by one of the creators. Other guests include fan boy favorite actor, Bruce Campbell, and dozens and dozens of comic book guests. Palladium fans may be interested to know Dave Dorman (Palladium cover artist), Tim Bradstreet, and pal, Defiler and Palladium contributor of old, William Messner Loebs will also be attending, among many other guests. I’ll keep you posted as we firm up the details.

Click here for more information about Detroit Fanfare.

Alliance Trade Show, October in Fort Wayne, Indiana

This is a trade show for retailers, but many hard working store owners and their employees are gamers and Palladium fans. I invite you to bring books for us to sign for your own collections and/or to put in your store as an extra selling feature. We’re happy to do it. I, Kevin Siembieda, and Wayne Smith will be present at the event. Also, please drop by to chat and get the latest news and developments at Palladium.

– Kevin Siembieda, Publisher

The Rifter #55

NEW! The Rifter® #55

– Available now

The Rifter® shipped last week and is available now. It is your doorway to unlimited imagination and numerous Palladium role-playing worlds. It offers new heroes, powers, weapons, magic and adventure for your games. It presents new villains, monsters and dangers to battle, and new ideas to consider.

The Rifter® #55: Looks fantastic. Packed with adventure and game ideas for your campaigns.

Rifts World Book 23: Xiticix Invasion

BACK IN PRINT

Rifts® World Book 23: Xiticix Invasion

Earth is home to thousands of alien species from beyond the Rifts, but one of the strangest and most dangerous is the Xiticix. A danger nobody seemed to realize until the sprawling Hivelands began to encroach on the territories of other people. Armed with new breeds of aggressive warriors, new weapons and legions of insectoids willing to fight to the death, people are beginning to wonder if they are the next threat to humanity.

BACK IN PRINT

The “complete” Coalition Wars® Siege on Tolkeen Series

Magic vs Technology. All-out war between the Coalition and the Magic Kingdom of Tolkeen. Even if you don’t play the war, the series offers fantastic source material: magic artifacts, Spells of Legend, Techno-Wizard war machines, maps, cities, towns, monsters and scores of NPCs you can drop into any campaign. All six titles are in print.

The Books in the Siege on Tolkeen Series: All are available now.

Rifts Coalition Wars One: Sedition

BACK IN PRINT

Coalition Wars® One: Sedition

The Coalition Army is in place and waging war on Tolkeen, a Kingdom of Magic. This sourcebook lays the groundwork for an epic conflict and ongoing campaign. If you don’t want to play out the war, it provides all kinds of valuable stand-alone source material, magic items, magic spells, magic weapons, TW Iron Juggernauts, monsters, villains and adventure ideas.

Rifts Coalition Wars Two: Coalition Overkill

BACK IN PRINT

Coalition Wars® Two: Coalition Overkill

The war escalates on both sides. A new breed of Coalition officers begin to come to the forefront, and with them cruelty, murder and genocide. The Coalition Army is ruthless, but Tolkeen has a few tricks up its sleeve, like an alliance with a race of ancient demons known as the Daemonix.

Rifts World Book 1 Vampire Kingdoms New Revised Edition

NEW! Rifts® World Book One:

Vampire Kingdoms, New Revised Edition

–At the printer – ships August 12, 2011

Trust us, you want this book.

For centuries, Mexico has been considered the realm of monsters best left alone. A land dominated by packs of Wild Vampires and rumored to be home of Vampire Kingdoms in the south. Most of the northern civilizations have stayed away, but over the last 20 years, a growing number of heroes, vampire slayers and adventurers have been waging something of a secret war against the undead. As that battle escalates, stories of heroes, vampires and entire human populations enslaved by the undead or penned, raised and slaughtered like cattle, are starting to leak out. Come see for yourself if the rumors are true and join the battle for humanity in Mexico.

Rifts World Book: Lemuria

NEW! Rifts® World Book: Lemuria

– Ships August, 2011

The power, secrets and magic of the underwater realm of Lemuria revealed. Player characters can use symbiotes, magic and technology to breathe underwater and spend time below the waves.

Lemuria is more than an underwater civilization of aquatic beings. They can trace their lineage as far back as the Atlanteans and can survive on dry land as well as underwater. In fact, their greatest secret is that there is no one resting place for the Lemurians, their great cities are always moving. Learn about the people of Lemuria, new Biomancy magic and weapons, Biomancy engineered riding animals, sea herbs, new powers of healing, sea monsters, and more. Epic adventure awaits.

Rifts Vampires Sourcebook

NEW! Rifts® Vampires Sourcebook

Trouble is stirring in the Vampire Kingdoms as ambitious vampire lords, ladies and misanthropes seek to expand their power to dominate more mortal life forms.

Kevin Siembieda, here. I was dealing with so many other things (Alex’s health and house, coordinating the next several books, Gen Con prep, business, etc.) and lost track of how much I had written for Vampire Kingdoms™, and went over by more than 100 manuscript pages (plus notes and ideas for more)! The good news is, Rifts® Vampires Sourcebook is at least half written and we should easily make the September release date. I have Matthew Clements doing writing and editing for that book right now. Best of all, it’s going to be just as exciting and packed with cool stuff as Rifts® Vampire Kingdoms™.

NEW! Robotech® New Generation Sourcebook

This Robotech® sourcebook will be a 2011 release.

Note: With any luck, there will be companion Robotech® sourcebook released by the end of the year.

NEW! Rifts® Megaverse® in Flames

The Minion War spills across Rifts Earth, where demons and infernals hope to recruit allies and use the Rifts as gateways of destruction. Their influence shakes things up across the planet, especially at locations where demons and Deevils already have a strong presence. More details to follow, but for now, ‘nuff said.

NEW! Rifts® Chaos Earth Sourcebook: First Responders

Data about the chaos and madness of the early days of the Great Cataclysm, and the brave men and women who tried to stem the tide of destruction and save lives, the First Responders.

Rifts Book of Magic

Rifts® Book of Magic

– Back in Print – Available Now

This is the ultimate guide to magic on Rifts Earth. All the magic spells, magic tattoos, Techno-Wizard items, magic weapons, equipment, body armor, restraints, parasites, symbiotes, magic items, Automatons, Iron Juggernauts, and more from Rifts® World Books 1-23, Sourcebooks 1-4, and Siege on Tolkeen 1-6, collected into one big reference. This is a great reference book. Kevin and all of us at Palladium use it and the Rifts® Game Master Guide constantly.

Rifts World Book 8 Japan

Rifts® World Book 8: Rifts® Japan

– Back in Print – Available now

This fan-favorite sourcebook is filled with high-tech wonders, magic and monsters. There are 20 O.C.C.s (Occupational Character Classes) that range from the traditional ninja and samurai to power armor, giant robots and cyborgs.

Rifts World Book 13 Lone Star

Rifts® World Book 13: Lone Star

– Back in Print – Available now

The Coalition State of Lone Star is a wild and woolly place of contrast and conflict. The Coalition States claims the entire State of Texas as their own, but they only control a small corner of it. It is here, at the Lone Star Complex, that the CS engages in genetic engineering and creates the famous Dog Boys and a host of other mutants. The rest of the state is held by the Pecos Empire – an empire of bandits, outlaws and rebels. The perfect companion to Rifts® New West™, Rifts® Spirit West™ and Rifts® Machinations of Doom™.

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 90 titles available as PDF digital downloads fromDriveThruRPG.com. This is a great way to try Palladium products and get access to out of print RPG source material. Some notable titles include. 
Splicers® RPG
Beyond the Supernatural™ RPG, First Edition Rules. 
Boxed Nightmares™ for BTS, First Edition Rules. 
Nightbane® Book Four: Shadows of Light™.
The Mechanoids® RPG and The Mechanoid Invasion® RPG Trilogy.
Palladium Fantasy RPG®, First Edition Rules and select 1st Edition sourcebooks. 
After the Bomb® RPG and sourcebooks
The Rifter® issues 1-48.
The Best of The Rifter®
Deluxe Revised RECON® RPG and Advanced RECON® Sourcebook.
- And more – go to DriveThruRPG.com and check ‘em out.

2011 Palladium Releases

2011 New Releases & Back in Print

Rifts® Dimension Book™ 14: Thundercloud Galaxy™ – New – Available now!
Armageddon Unlimited™ – New – Available now!
The Rifter® #53 – New – Available now!
The Rifter® #54 – New – Available now!
Aliens Unlimited™ – A Heroes Unlimited™ sourcebook – Back in print – Available now
Rifts® World Book 20: Canada – Back in print – Available now
Rifts® Dark Conversions™ – Back in print – Available now
Palladium Fantasy RPG® – Back in print – Available now
Rifts® Game Master Guide – Back in print – Available now
Rifts® World Book 5: Triax & The NGR™ – Back in print – Available now
Rifts® Bionics Sourcebook – Back in print – Available now
Rifts® China One – Back in print – Available now
Rifts® Megaverse® Builder – Back in print – Available now
Rifts® Baseball Cap – Back in stock – Available now
Rifts® Dimension Book™ 6: Three Galaxies™ – Back in print – Available now
Rifts® Black Vault™ – Back in print – Available now
Rifts® Mercenaries™ – Back in print – Available now
Rifts® World Book 8: Rifts® Japan™ – Back in print – Available now
Rifts® World Book 13: Lone Star™ – Back in print – Available now
- Rifts® Book of MagicBack in print – Available now

June 2011 Releases

- Rifts® WB 23: Free Quebec – BACK IN PRINT – Available now

July 2011 Releases

- The Rifter® #55 – New – Available now
- Rifts® Coalition Wars® Book One: Sedition– BACK IN PRINT – Available now
- Rifts® Coalition Wars® Book Two: Coalition Overkill – BACK IN PRINT – Available now
Rifts® World Book 23: Xiticix Invasion™ – BACK IN PRINT – Available now 

August 2011 Releases

- Rifts® World Book 1: Vampire Kingdoms™, New Revised Edition – New – August 10 – At the printer
- Rifts® World Book: Lemuria – New – August – in final production
- Heroes Unlimited™: Mutant Underground™ – coming back in print

September 2011 Releases

- Robotech® New Generation™ Sourcebook – New
- Rifts® Vampires Sourcebook™ – New (tentative)
- Rifts® Chaos Earth™: Rise of Magic – coming back in print

October 2011 Releases

- Dead Reign™ Sourcebook Three – New
- Rifts® Megaverse® in Flames (Minion War™ crossover) – New
- Another new title may be added or substituted

November 2011 Releases

- Rifts® Chaos Earth™ Sourcebook: First Responders – New

In the Pipeline

- Robotech® UEEF Marines and other Robotech® sourcebooks.
- Rifts® sourcebooks
- Rifts® Chaos Earth™ sourcebooks
- Palladium Fantasy®: Mysteries of Magic™ Two & Three
- Palladium Fantasy® other sourcebooks
- Warpath™ Urban Jungle RPG
- And other good stuff. Lots of other good stuff!

Recently Back in Print

HU Aliens Unlimited Rifts Phase World The Three Galaxies Rifts Adventure Sourcebook Three The Black Vault Rifts Mercenaries Rifts Book of Magic Rifts World Book 22 Free Quebec

Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game®

Rifts® World Book 20: Rifts® Canada

Rifts® Dark Conversions

Rifts® Game Master Guide

Rifts® Bionics Sourcebook

Rifts® World Book Five: Triax & the NGR

Rifts® World Book 8: Rifts® Japan

Rifts® World Book 13: Lone Star

Rifts® World Book 24: Rifts® China One

Rifts® Dimension Book 7: Megaverse® Builder

Aliens Unlimited – For Heroes Unlimited

Rifts® Dimension Book™ 6: Three Galaxies

Rifts® Adventure Sourcebook: The Black Vault

Rifts® Mercenaries

Rifts® Book of Magic™

Rifts® World Book 23: Rifts® Free Quebec™

New Books in Development

(listed in alphabetical order):

Beyond the Supernatural™: Arcanum
Beyond the Supernatural™: Tome Grotesque
Beyond the Supernatural™ Sourcebook

Chaos Earth™ First Responders
Chaos Earth™ – Zombie Apocalyse Rifts-style during the Great Cataclysm.

Heroes Unlimited™ – Had two people who were supposed to be working on a pair of books, but they disappeared on me, so we are looking for folks to write a couple HU2 sourcebooks.

Nightbane® – An as of yet untitled project, and looking for more.

Palladium Fantasy® – Mysteries of Magic 2 & 3
Palladium Fantasy® – Tombs of Gersidi expanded and new.
Plus I have a few ideas on this front myself to revitalize this line.

Phase World®: United Worlds of Warlock
Phase World®: Pirates of the Three Galaxies

Rifts® Antarctica
Rifts® Black Market
Rifts® China Three
Rifts® Deep South
Rifts® New Navy™
Rifts® Northern Gun™ – may be a series of books.
Rifts® Sovietski™
Rifts® Titan Industries™
Rifts® Vampires Sourcebook™

Robotech® Genesis Pits™ adventure sourcebook.
Robotech® UEEF Marines

Splicers® Sourcebook One – concepts and art by Charles Walton.
Splicers® Sourcebook Two – concepts and art by Charles Walton.

All of the above are being written right now. A few are already finished. Most will be 2012 releases. And this does not include projects I would like to do for Palladium Fantasy®, Dead Reign, Warpath™: Urban Jungle and new mediums.

The Palladium Open House

2012 Palladium Open House – May 4-6, 2012

The Palladium Open House is like nothing you have ever attended. It has a fun, family feel and is three days (four with VIP night) of games, fun and wonderful memories. People talk about it for years, and this may be the last one ever.

● Meet 40+ Palladium creators available throughout the entire event.

● Game with half of the creators present.

● Get autographs from all Palladium creators.

● Have the time of your life.

● We are hosting this event because YOU begged us to do it. So come on over. I promise to make it as special as possible.

● Costume Contest with cool awards and meaty prizes.

● Panel talks that are fun and insightful.

90+ Gaming Events:

This may be our last Open House. Having sufficient parking is becoming a big issue. You may have to car pool from the hotel as it is. And the event is a ton of work that takes four weeks out of our production schedule. It is especially hard on Kathy Simmons, who coordinates most of it and does the catering (we’ll try to help her more). So we may make this our big, final Open House blow out.

V.I.P. Thursday (May 3, 2012). Available now. YOU are the VIP. You get in an afternoon early (doors open at 3:00 PM – catered dinner at 5:30 PM) and are the first to play in special game events, participate in special panel talks, purchase items, and enjoy a dinner catered by Kathy Simmons (and those who have been to past VIP nights know how awesome that is). Reserve your place today.

Weekend Admission is Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Reserve your place today. Placing your order early helps us on many levels, and tells us how many people to expect and how many hotel rooms to reserve.

Individual Day Admission - Friday - Saturday - Sunday might work better for you. If you can only make it one day, that’s cool. Reserve your slot.

Hotel is the location you love at the same 2009 rates ($69.95 a night). The hotel does not charge your card until a day before the event, so reserve NOW. I’m concerned they might run out of rooms. Based on the economy, the hotel has not reserved the entire hotel for us as they have in the past. Book your room fast so you know you have a place to stay. The hotel now offers free hot breakfasts and we will have two conference rooms for late night gaming and open gaming.

We need G.M.s. This means we’ll be looking for volunteer Game Masters (you get a T-shirt and a discount on books if you run three “official” games or more).

Plan to enter the Costume Contest. Winners get a nice plaque and real prizes. Rifts/sci-fi, fantasy, modern (includes horror) and best of show are the categories.

Click here for more details and to reserve your tickets.

The Queen of Ghouls: Life-Sized Halloween Props

Check out the new creations by Palladium’s very own Kathy Simmons. See her zombie doctor and other new zombies, Jack Skellington and Sally, and more. New creations are on the drawing board, and so is a new website. Each Halloween prop is truly life-sized (most are 6 feet or taller – Jack is almost 8 feet) and seems almost alive.

Each is an all-weather, life-sized Halloween prop that can handle rain and snow, and is a one-of-a-kind work of art (no two are exactly the same). Each looks frighteningly “real.” All come apart and fold down to slightly larger than a king-size pillow for easy storage. Comes with easy instructions, a plastic storage bag, and the lawn stake to stand it up in your front yard. Indoor stand sold separately.

Types of “Ghouls” include: Zombies (all kinds!), killer clowns, wizards, witches, devils, grave ghouls, scarecrows, executioners, mad doctors, deadly nurses, vampires, werewolves, and more. Kathy's also now offering an array of hand-painted Halloween signs, signs with heads and bodies hanging from them, witch's brewing pots, Halloween centerpieces and more. Best of all, her high quality creations are much more affordable and imaginative than most competitors or mass produced items in a store, making them affordable Halloween fun.

If you think the photos online look good, you should see them in person. A typical “ghoul,” as she calls her creations, costs $129-$259. You can see some of her work at her Queen of Ghouls™ Ebay store – queenofghouls.com.

© Copyright 2011 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. 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, Warpath, 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.