Palladium Books® Weekly Update – Jan. 19, 2017

By Kevin Siembieda

Whew, we’ve spent a lot of time in the warehouse this week with the last of the Surprise Packages. When not, we’ve been working on one product or another. For me that means coordination, assigning art, writing, editing, and wheeling and dealing. In short, we have been busy as all get out.

Surprise Package offer ended with a bang. A great many of you waited to purchase your Palladium Surprise Package until the last weekend. Kathy had been processing orders all weekend, so she was not expecting to see 119 pages of orders Monday morning from just Sunday sales alone! It was a welcomed surprise, but it meant a very busy start to our week.

We signed and packed more than 600 books in just the first two days of the week. As you might imagine, that took pretty much an entire day by itself. Julius spent one day just pulling the books. Then, I spent hours double-checking and signing them all, writing notes and trying to make sure they were all special. The rest of the available crew were right behind me, signing away. Many of the UPS orders went out on Monday. Regular orders, Priority and remaining UPS Grab Bag orders when out on Tuesday. Wednesday, the rest of the orders (60 or 70) went out. Only a handful requiring a bit more time and finesse went out today. So if you ordered a Surprise Package last weekend, it is on its way to you.

As always, your brief comments were fun, funny, touching and appreciated. It was nice to see a good number of new customers, a trend we’ve noticed for the last few years now. It was even more rewarding to see names and read comments from those of you who had left gaming for awhile, but are getting back into it. For many it was a matter of work, or marriage and children, or life in general getting in the way and stealing your time away from gaming. Whatever the reason, welcome back! It is great to see you again. Stick around because we are going to blow your minds with what we have in mind for ALL our games.

Two of our four heating units in the warehouse stopped working last Friday afternoon, so it has been chilling in the warehouse. I think Julius must be part Eskimo by now. One needed a new thermostat, the other requires repairs yet to be determined. Our heating repair guy can’t get to it till early next week, so we’re all happy it is supposed to be unseasonably warm the next several days; 40s and low 50s. Crazy weather. Other than that, we have been working on many titles and projects I spoke about in the last Weekly Update.

UPDATE: The Rifter® #76

Still waiting for a ship date. The Rifter® #76 is another great issue with a mix of official and optional source material. I don’t think I mentioned this yet, there is so much good source material – much of it “official” – that we had to go 9 point type to squeeze it all in. “Official” for Rifts® and Palladium Fantasy®: The Primorda presents new Elemental beings and their monstrous riding animals (and some magic items that can be made from them). For Heroes Unlimited™ and Ninjas & Superspies™ there is an adventure of villainy and terrorism that can serve as a springboard for many more adventures across the globe. Splicers® gets the next big chapter in the I am Legion adventure source material as we wind up toward the big climax. And more! This issue is jam-packed with good material.

UPDATE: The Rifter® #77 – February release (tentative)

Already in final development and tentatively slated for a February release. It will contain Heroes Unlimited™ (new trouble from Doc Feral), Palladium Fantasy®, Splicers®, Rifts® material and more. Cover has been assigned.

UPDATE: Rifts® CS Arsenal – coming soon.

Chuck has been out sick for most of the last two weeks, poor guy, but that hasn’t stopped him from whipping up some new concept drawings for Rifts® CS Arsenal. Good stuff too. I’m telling you, our imaginations are off the hook and working overtime.

Rifts Secrets of the Atlanteans

UPDATE: Rifts® Secrets of the Atlanteans – March release

Working on some magic spells for Rifts® Secrets of the Atlanteans™ this week. How about the cover? Sweet. I need to get artists working on the rest of this book and several other projects.

Rifts Sovietski

UPDATE: Rifts® Sovietski – Spring Release

Nothing new on this front.

UPDATE: Garden of the Gods – a Palladium Fantasy RPG® Sourcebook – March or April release

I have been swamped with other things, but still managed to jot down a few notes for Garden of the Gods.

UPDATE: Robotech® RPG Tactics – 2017 release

Nothing new to report this week.

UPDATE: Rifts® Board Game by Rogue Heroes LLC

Another piece of finished card art came in this week – the Techno-Wizard on a wing board. Wow. 2-4 new digital sculpts also came in and rock. These guys are doing a great job. The Rifts® board game is being developed by Carmen Bellaire for his new company, Rogue Heroes LLC. The Kickstarter for it should be in March or April. The game is shaping up nicely. The sculpts of the heroic 28mm scale game pieces wow everyone who sees them, and the game is fast, fun and looks and feels like Rifts®. Please start spreading the word that the Kickstarter for it is coming March or April.

Now on DriveThruRPG.com – Rifts® Sourcebook One, Expanded and Revised – FREE Hell Followed Preview, Rifts® Black Market, ALL Robotech® RPG Tactics cards and much more

FREE Hell Followed™ Preview, Rifts® Black Market (one of my faves), Rifts® Mercenary Adventures™, Rifts® Mercenaries, MercTown™, Merc Ops™, and so much more, are all available now in PDF. You can also get ALL Robotech® RPG Tactics™ game cards, Robotech® and Rifts® Paper Miniatures along with Rifts® Sourcebook One, Rifts® Mechanoids® Sourcebook, Rifts® Sourcebook 3: Mindwerks, Rifts® Lemuria, Rifts® Triax Two, The Rifter® #1-69, Rifts® World Books 1-30 and many other Rifts®, Heroes Unlimited™, Palladium Fantasy®, Nightbane® and other game line titles. New Robotech® RPG Tactics™ material will be made available in the weeks ahead. All of it adds to the growing list of Rifts®, Robotech® and other Palladium RPG game titles available as PDF books, cards and support. A new title should be added every week or two, so watch for them.

Robotech® RPG Tactics™ Wave 2 Paper Game Pieces, and all RRT game cards, join Rifts® Ultimate Edition and 160+ other PDF Palladium titles, RRT stuff, G.M. helper kits and free material on DriveThruRPG.com right now! More Rifts®, Robotech® and other Palladium game titles, paper miniatures and fun are coming to PDF in the weeks and months ahead. Watch for them.

Recent PDF titles include Rifts® Ultimate Edition, Rifts® Lemuria, Rifts® Triax 2, Rifts® Mercenaries, MercTown™ and Merc Ops™, Rifts® Black Market, Rifts® World Book 30: D-Bees of North America™, Rifts® World Book 29: Madhaven™, Rifts® World Book 28: Arzno™, Rifts® World Book 27: Adventures in Dinosaur Swamp, Rifts® World Book 26: Dinosaur Swamp, World Book 25: Rifts® China Two, and World Book 24: Rifts® China One, among many, many others. There are also previews of Rifts® CS Heroes of Humanity™, The Rifter® #73, Northern Gun 1 & 2, Lemuria, Rifts® Vampire Kingdoms, Bizantium and many other Palladium titles. Check back every week to see which new PDFs of Rifts® World Books and other titles have been added!

In addition to the titles listed above, The Minion War™ series of books, the Rifts® Coalition Wars®/Tolkeen series, Chaos Earth® Resurrection, all of the Dead Reign® (Zombie Apocalypse) titles, Splicers® RPG and most issues of The Rifter® are available NOW! So are first edition rules of the Heroes Unlimited™ RPG and sourcebooks, Palladium Fantasy RPG® and sourcebooks, The Mechanoids®, and much more, available on DriveThruRPG.com.

Available right now:

Palladium Collectibles Available in Kevin’s Online Toy & Collectibles Store

Alex and I have added and continue to add a lot of vintage Star Wars toys and a growing number of all kinds of collectibles – and we’ll be adding more Palladium Books original art and items to the store, so keep an eye out for them.

This includes one-of-a-kind original artwork, prints, Rifts® and Robotech® artwork by Kevin Long, me and others. There is also a range of limited editions, rare book titles and limited edition hardcovers, toys and more that are all being added to my ebay store over the next several weeks, so keep an eye out. Alex and I will keep adding items as our busy schedules allow, but we have a lot of fun collectibles available now and coming soon. Items include original art, out of print titles, redlined proofreader photocopies signed by me and the staff, signed manuscripts with editors’ corrections, some original art, hardcover books (including Rifts® Lemuria, Northern Gun™ One, Northern Gun™ Two, Megaverse® in Flames™, Beyond the Supernatural™ Gold, Rifts® Machinations of Doom™ Gold and Rifts® Ultimate Gold) and other items available. There are also hundreds of toys and action figures, all from my personal archives and collection. Take a look every weekend for new items added.

http://stores.ebay.com/kevinstoys-artandcollectibles

ALERT: Palladium Game Masters, Gen Con Early Event Submission starts January 22 – Final submission is mid-February

To guarantee a dedicated gaming area and listing in the program book and online schedule, we need your descriptions and details over the next few weeks. Please start sending them in to NMI. Any Megaversal Ambassador can help you, but NMI is the primary Gen Con event coordinator. We had some awesome events the last few years, so let us, please, keep the trend going. Remember, G.M.s running Palladium events get a discount coupon for EACH game they run that they can redeem at the Palladium booth. We are looking for Game Masters to run any and all Palladium game settings: Rifts®, Robotech®, Robotech® RPG Tactics™ Palladium Fantasy®, Heroes Unlimited™, Splicers®, Nightbane®, Dead Reign®, Beyond the Supernatural™ and all the rest! We appreciate ALL of you, and love that you run games for us at Gen Con. Thank you.

CoastCon 40 in Biloxi, Mississippi – March 2017

I (Kevin Siembieda) will be attending CoastCon, along with Sean Patrick Fannon, again, the core writer and architect of Rifts® Savage Worlds®, in Mississippi on March 3-5, 2017. CoastCon and Gen Con are the only two conventions I will be personally attending in 2017; that’s how busy I expect to be banging out new gaming product. Some things that will shock and amaze, too. I hope to see and chat with a lot of Palladium and Pinnacle fans. Bring books for Sean and me to sign.

http://www.coastcon.org

Closing Thoughts

As enjoyable as the holidays and Surprise Packages are, I think we are all glad they are over so we can hunker down and start generating the new product everyone has been waiting for, as well as some big surprises. Wayne, Alex and I will be working through the weekend, so that’s it for now. Much more next week. Game on!

– Kevin Siembieda, Game Designer, Writer, Publisher

The Rifter #76

NEW! The Rifter® #76 – Ships January, 2017

The Rifter® #76 is filled with strange creatures, adventure and fun across the Megaverse® and multiple world settings.

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 usually 2-3 other Palladium game lines. The focus of this issue is Rifts®, Splicers® and RPG advice. Don’t forget, unofficial material can be easily adapted for use in ANY Palladium game setting.

Rifter® #76 Highlights:

Hell Followed

Hell Followed – Now Shipping!

A Dead Reign® Sourcebook – Do more than survive

“This book begins to redefine the zombie genre. It broadens the field of possibilities and expands upon the modern zombie mythos. It is full of twists and surprises I had never imagined. – Alex Marciniszyn, Editor

In the wake of the Zombie Apocalypse, survivors find themselves trapped in a living hell. As everyone struggles to survive against the ravenous dead, some rise up to be heroes fighting for those in need and against all manner of evil – living and dead.

Be more than a survivor. Accept the new world and do something about it.

Coalition States Heroes of Humanity

NEW! Rifts® Secrets of the Coalition States – Heroes of Humanity – Available now!

Rifts® CS Heroes of Humanity™ changes the landscape of Rifts North America and beyond, presents ways to upgrade and improve existing Men-At-Arms characters with Advanced Training, and includes new character classes, weapons, equipment, alliances and conflict to inspire epic new adventures.

Rifts® Heroes of Humanity™ outlines the battle for the soul of humanity. The Minion War™ has spilled onto Rifts Earth. At the epicenter of the invasion is North America. If either of the two rival demonic forces succeeds in conquering the continent, the rest of the world shall follow and Earth will be annexed to Hell. The demon hordes believe no one can stop them. The Coalition States has something to say about that.

For the first time in history, the Coalition States, Northern Gun, the Manistique Imperium, Lazlo, New Lazlo, Free Quebec, the Cyber-Knights, Lemurians, True Atlanteans, D-Bees, mages, mercs and many, many others stand together against a common enemy. Meanwhile, the Splugorth of Atlantis, Archie Three, the Republicans and the Vanguard engage in their own shadow war against the invading demon hordes, and each other.

Rifts Secrets of the Atlanteans

NEW! 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.

Rifts Poker Deck 1

NEW! Rifts® Poker Deck One (Color) – available now

For the first time ever, Rifts® is captured in a deck of playing cards. Each card a powerful image. Perfect for playing cards, collecting, gifts and use as an Action Deck for Pinnacle’s Rifts® Savage Worlds game line.

Gen Con gamers went wild over the two Rifts® Poker Decks and you will too. Both contain iconic Rifts® artwork and characters, and look gorgeous. The color and design of both poker decks makes the artwork pop and a joy to use. Available now.

Rifts Poker Deck 2

New! Rifts® Poker Deck Two (black & white illustrations) – available now

52 iconic images and characters by your favorite artists. This second deck of playing cards captures Rifts® in a different light. Each card features a different iconic, black and white illustration set in a color border of rippling magic energy from the Rifts. Illustrations are by a wide range of fan favorite artists. A fun and attractive item for playing cards, collecting, and other uses.

Robotech The Masters Saga Sourcebook

Robotech®: The Masters Saga Sourcebook – New, large format 8½ x 11 sourcebook – Now available!

Robotech®: The Masters Saga™ Sourcebook has been enlarged to the standard 8½ x 11 inch format and 160 pages. Artwork was given the deluxe treatment – large, clear, and detailed to go along with the wealth of information about the Second Robotech War, the Army of the Southern Cross, its combat forces, mecha, weapons, and vehicles. The same comprehensive treatment was given to the invading Robotech Masters.

Forget the corny drama, the emphasis of this sourcebook is on the Second Robotech War and the equipment on both sides. Making the Masters Saga a big mecha and equipment book that you will want in your collection. Did you know the Army of the Southern Cross used power armor and Battloids in addition to their famous mecha? You’ll find out all about it in this comprehensive 160 page sourcebook. Much of it described and statted out in an “official” capacity for the very first time in this sourcebook. Note: Only the size, size of artwork and layout has changed. The text and data are the same as the manga-sized edition, apart from eratta and minor additions.

Robotech RPG Tactics

Robotech® RPG Tactics

Robotech® is getting hotter and hotter. It is the Number One Anime on Crackle, the Robotech® movie from Sony Pictures sounds like it is going to be become a reality, more Robotech® licensed products are appearing, and Palladium is gearing up toward the release of Robotech® RPG Tactics™ Wave Two and more Robotech® products. Ah, but the core game and expansion packs to get you started are available right now.

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. Get yours now.

Robotech® RPG Tactics Convention Exclusives – now available to anyone

These dynamic pieces are available as a regular item in the Palladium store. They are powerful fun and only have 4-6 parts, so they are easy to put together. They look awesome on your shelf or in your game. Get yours while supplies last.

© Copyright 2017 Palladium Books Inc. All rights reserved.

Rifts®, The Rifter®, RECON®, Splicers®, Powers Unlimited®, Palladium Books®, The Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game®, Phase World®, Powers Unlimited®, Nightbane®, Megaverse®, The Mechanoids®, The Mechanoid Invasion®, Coalition Wars®, Chaos Earth®, Dead Reign®, 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.