The last big convention of the year for Palladium Books will be UberCon VIII.
UberCon should be a lot of fun! The convention is anticipating 700-1000 gamers to show up, and it is one of the last conventions around dedicated to “gaming” with an emphasis on role-playing.
This is Palladium’s first visit to a New Jersey convention EVER, and my first time being back in the New York vicinity in five years (my last appearance was December, 2001 at the Compleat Strategist after 9/11). We hope a lot of Palladium fans in the New Jersey/New York area come down to join us because we have no idea when we’ll be back to the area, so take advantage of this appearance if you can.
Artist Mark Evans (he did the cover to Madhaven and others), Wayne Smith (Editor/Rifter®) and Kevin Siembieda, will be guests. Brandon Aten, Carl Gleba and a few other Palladium creators have talked about coming to UberCon as well. All will be at the sizable Palladium booth full of back stock books, new titles, prints, artwork and other good stuff. Mark Evans is bringing some original artwork and signed prints, and we will all be available to chat, sign autographs and goof around. Kevin is participating in several panel talks throughout the show, and running one game on Saturday night. Author Mike Stackpole is the gaming guest of honor at the convention.
The UberCon organizers, Kevin and Andrea Jagh, are big fans of Palladium and are giving Palladium the booth space for FREE to help us through our Crisis of Treachery. (Actually, several other generous convention organizers and pals offered us free tables too, but we could only attend so many shows. Thanks everyone.) Kevin returned the favor by illustrating the Convention Program Cover, a fun cartoon-style cover featuring the Convention’s dragon mascot and some Rifts characters. Apollo Okamura helped out by digitally coloring Kevin’s black and white illustration.
Ubercon VIII – October 20-22
Wyndham Suites – Secaucus, New Jersey
Inquiries: (866) 823-7366
www.UberCon.com
Come on down to UberCon VIII, and tell ‘em Palladium sent you.
Other Shows in 2006: Palladium has one more trade show in October (Fort Wayne, Indiana), followed by UberCon VIII (New Jersey) and two local, Michigan, conventions we’re considering in November, Youmacon (if we can get a booth; waiting to find out) and U-Con (Ann Arbor, MI).
At this time, we don’t think Kevin and other Palladium creators will be able to attend more than 2-3 shows plus the 2007 Palladium Open House. That’s how busy we expect to be fighting to keep Palladium alive and getting back on its feet. So come see us where you can in 2006.
This is actually good news, because a couple of the projects we hope to be working will a) thrill you, b) could insure Palladium’s future, and c) keep reading to see all the books we have planned for 2007. We plan to pull out all the stops to get Palladium back on its feet and running at top speed by the end of 2007.
Ironically, Palladium Books will actually be represented by the Megaversal Ambassadors™ running more games and Adventure Retail (a high quality convention vendor) carrying our products at MORE conventions than ever in 2007. Hopefully, by 2008 Palladium will be stronger than ever and we’ll be able to attend more conventions in person.
It’s getting close to that time of year again when Palladium offers its Christmas Surprise Package/Grab Bag.
Goodies include a selection of books from your “want list,” autographs from the staff if you want them, recent “gold” editions, original art, T-shirts, back issues of The Rifter®, weird stuff like proofreader copies of books (signed by the guys), 25 Year Anniversary Laser-Etched Glasses, bumper stickers, wooden pins, prints, posters and other odds and ends.
All the details will be posted in a couple of weeks.
Each issue of The Rifter® presents official and unofficial adventures, characters, powers, weapons, equipment and fiction for Rifts® and 3-5 different Palladium games and world settings. It’s also a forum where we test new ideas, showcase new talent and new sourcebooks and games, and it is a way for fans to get the latest news and sneak previews of upcoming Palladium products, events and secret projects.
In short, if you’re into one or more of Palladium’s role-playing games and like to explore optional source material, and new realms of possibility, then The Rifter® is for you.
Issue #36 Horror Special includes:
“I hope the redo of this book is going to surprise and please a great many Palladium fans,” said author, Kevin Siembieda, adding, “I’ve tried to really go all out with this one and I think fans will love it.”
The original Rifts® Sourcebook One sold more than 100,000 copies. Now, 16 years later, the original author, Kevin Siembieda, expands and updates this out-of-print classic, giving it the same kind of treatment he gave the Rifts® Ultimate Edition.
A dozen freelancers contributed to create a book with 30+ new D-Bees along with updated stats and information on 60+ D-Bees of North America collected from other Rifts® World Books.
This will be a handy reference for players (especially those looking to play a particular D-Bee) and Game Masters.
The demons and monsters of Hades have been part of Palladium role-playing games for 25 years. Now, for the first time ever, we explore the demons’ home dimension, the landscape of Hades, the evil denizens who populate it, and their plans for conquest and war across the Megaverse®.
A stand-alone sourcebook designed for use in Rifts®, Rifts® Chaos Earth™, Phase World®, and Heroes Unlimited™, but easily adapted to the Palladium Fantasy RPG®, Beyond the Supernatural™ and all other Palladium games. Part one of the Megaverse® spanning Minion War saga.
Rifts® Hades also sets the stage for an epic, five or six book crossover adventure theme called the Minion War. The Minion War series will have Dimension Book Hades, Dimension Book Dyval, Dimensional Outbreak (Phase World®), Armageddon Unlimited (Heroes Unlimited), and a Rifts Earth finale, Megaverse in Flames, plus a possible Minion War Aftermath book. Keep your eyes peeled, it all starts with Hades.
This will be a magnificent, full color, hardcover book collecting John Zeleznik’s Rifts® and other Palladium paintings, and also includes color concept pieces, sketches and pencil drawings.
A must for fans of Rifts® and the artistry of John Zeleznik. A great Christmas gift and Palladium 25 Year Anniversary item.
Note: Unfortunately, the high cost to produce this book will require Palladium to wait and see what pre-order numbers are before we can send it to the printer.
This is the most unbelievable deal we have ever heard. In fact, we don’t think anybody has EVER done anything like this before, and it’s all John Zeleznik’s idea.
Each copy of the Collector’s Masterwork Limited Edition will include an original piece of artwork by John Zeleznik! Most will be concept sketches tipped (glued) into the book itself, by hand, done personally by Kevin Siembieda. That’s right, YOU will have an original sketch/drawing/concept artwork from one of John Zeleznik’s paintings or illustrations that appears in this very book!
“I’ve never heard of anything like this,” said Publisher, Kevin Siembieda. “It’s remarkable. A true collectible and piece of art and Palladium history all rolled into one. This is a deal of a lifetime. And because John is such a great guy, he wants us to keep the price low so Palladium fans can afford one. I was dumbstruck when he made the offer. I still am.”
The following is the most comprehensive listing of books Palladium has ever revealed so early in advance. We feel confident in doing so because most are already in the process of being written even as you read this.
We hope to support ALL of Palladium’s RPG lines in 2007, as you can see from this line up.
Rifts® Dimension Book 11, Minion War™ 2: Dyval, Minion War 3: Dimensional Outbreak™, The Atorian Empire™ for Heroes Unlimited™ as well as a new Phase World® submission by a new freelance writer are all sitting in my office waiting to be reviewed, edited and assigned artwork. All are likely to be appear early 2007.
A retooled, beefed up manuscript for Mysteries of Magic™ for Palladium Fantasy RPG® is in the works, and Rifts® Deep South/Dark Woods™, Rifts® Delta Blues™ and Rifts® Voodoo are all nearly finished and expected to hit my desk by the end of December if not sooner.
Todd Yoho, author of the two Rifts® Dinosaur Swamp™ books, is working on a secret project.
Jason Richards, author of Rifts® Arzno™, is working on a secret project that I’ll reveal right now, a butt-kicking Chaos Earth™ sourcebook that will surprise and please everyone. Jason also helped to coordinate the writing of the Rifts® book, D-Bees of North America™, scheduled for a Fall release.
Carl Gleba, the author of Three Galaxies, Megaverse Builder and other books, is also the madman behind the Minion War™ series. The cool aspect about the Minion War books is that the first two, Hades and Dyval™, are stand-alone Dimension Books that map and describe these two planes of Hell! They also present more demonic minions, magic and weapons used by these fiends, as well as set the stage for the “Minion War.” What is the Minion War? Hades and Dyval at war. One trying to conquer the other, and their battle spills across the Megaverse! Thus, each of the Hell books is suitable for ALL of Palladium’s settings from Rifts®, Phase World® and the Three Galaxies™ to the Palladium Fantasy RPG®, Heroes Unlimited™, Nightbane® and Beyond the Supernatural™! Minion War™ 3: Dimensional Outbreak™ takes place at and around Phase World®, Minion War™ 4 carries the adventure to the Heroes Unlimited™ setting, Minion War™ 5 goes to Rifts Earth, and Carl’s thinking about a possible sixth book in the series. We’ll see. Right now, Minion War™ books 1, 2, 3 are written and awaiting rapid-fire release every month or two, starting November 2006. This should give Carl enough time to finish books four and five on schedule. (No repeat of Coalition Wars: Siege on Tolkeen where books were late by 2-5 months.) Of course, I’ve already seen the first three books and have an overview of the entire series, so I can tell you this will be an epic adventure that spans the Megaverse®.
Brandon Aten is working on Triax™ 2 while plotting a couple other projects that include the Sovietski and other settings.
Taylor White is working on a secret project or two with me, one of which is a sourcebook for Chaos Earth™.
A pair of freelance writers (a two-man team) are writing a Nightbane® sourcebook on spec. I they do a good job (and they seem to have a good handle on the setting) we are optimistic Palladium can release at least one new Nightbane® book in 2007 with more to come.
Kevin has another freelance writer working on a secret project that he says will knock the socks off Rifts® fans. This project is so secret, the material so unexpected, so wild, so different, that for now, he’s even keeping the writer’s name secret.
Beyond the Supernatural™, Heroes Unlimited™ and Palladium Fantasy RPG® are NOT forgotten, and there are plans release at least 2-3 sourcebooks for each. We hesitate to go into details until the manuscripts are in only because we don’t to get Palladium Fantasy® fans’ excited about books that might get delayed or cancelled if the manuscripts fall short. And this is in addition to Mysteries of Magic™ (which may be released as a series of books). With luck, the Palladium Fantasy RPG® will finally get the attention it deserves.
Wayne Breaux Jr. has been fooling around with a couple of new themes for HU2 that we hope will be available for publication in 2007.
Kevin Siembieda hopes to finally write the next two BTS-2 core books, Tome Grotesque™ and Beyond Arcanum™, in 2007.
Note: Much of 2006 has been spent on rebuilding Palladium’s foundation and that includes establishing a network of committed freelance artists and writers the likes of which Palladium has never before seen. Creators dedicated to consistently producing high quality sourcebooks for all of Palladium’s game lines for years to come.
That’s the plan.
In case you haven’t heard, Kevin Siembieda is working with the good folks at Harmony Gold to acquire a new licensing agreement that will enable Palladium Books to produce a series of new Robotech® RPGs.
The new series build upon the original Robotech® Role-Playing game books from the 1980s, rewritten, expanded and improved to create a sort of Robotech® RPG Ultimate Edition (don’t know if that’s what we’ll call it or not) in a similar way as what we did with Rifts® last year. There will be new artwork, new rules, new information, new time-line, new mecha and we may also experiment with the format. In addition to the retooled RPG, we also expect to offer sourcebooks with entirely new material.
If all goes well, the new Robotech RPG should hit store shelves around February or March of 2007. Stay tuned for updates.
Warpath: Urban Jungle™ has been delayed to 2007 because co-creator and co-author Jeffry Scott Hansen is caught up in a big project that is a previous commitment for him and super-amazing. A project bigger than anything you could imagine (no, not film or TV and not for Palladium, but wow). Hmm, “secret” seems to be a running theme here, because we can’t tell you a word about what it is, and neither can Jeff, so please don’t badger him about it on-line. Good luck Jeff, and go get ‘em!
Anyway, with Jeff tied up on this other project and Robotech sneaking into our line up, Warpath: Urban Jungle™ will probably be delayed till Spring or Summer 2007. And yes, it will be hardcore and gritty like you’ve not seen from Palladium in the past; nothing like Ninjas & Superspies or HU2, but plenty of fun to play for those of you who ain’t squeamish girly-men.
Copyright 2006 Palladium Books Inc. All rights reserved.
This Press Release may be used and portions reprinted with Palladium's permission for the purpose of news and promotion. Rifts®, Megaverse® and Palladium Books® are registered trademarks of Palladium Books Inc. and Kevin Siembieda. Heroes Unlimited, Powers Unlimited, Beyond the Supernatural, Tome Grotesque, Beyond Arcanum, Splicers, MercTown, Merc Ops, Dinosaur Swamp, Chaos Earth, NEMA and all other titles and names are trademarks of Palladium Books.