Palladium Books^® – Press Release – December 28, 2007

By Kevin Siembieda

I’ve been staring at a blank computer screen for about an hour.

Damn, the last few years at Palladium Books have been turbulent and exhausting. Maybe I’m just feeling tired today. I’m not depressed or sick, though I have a stinking head cold, just tired and a little reflective.

I’m supposed to write our final Press Release for 2007. This is where we usually talk about major achievements of the past year and hype up new books coming in the New Year. Only I feel like you already know all that stuff, so I’ll keep the hype turned down and cover things in brief. More details to come in the weeks ahead.

Highlights of 2007

A lot of product shipped in the first half of the year. Folks loved Nightmares of a Tin Man, the online prelude to Rifts® Sourcebook One, Revised and Expanded, as well as the book itself. D-Bees of North America was another smash hit, and gamers embraced Ramon Perez’s graphic novel and Rifts® sourcebook, Machinations of Doom™. The 2007 Palladium Open House was fantastic, and Erick Wujcik was one of the featured guests.

Second half of the year – Rifts® and the Megaverse®: The Art of John Zeleznik is beautiful. Hades, Pits of Hell™, the first book in the Minion War™ series, shipped in August to rave reviews. The Rifter® keeps getting better, and celebrated its 10 Year Anniversary with issue number 40 and included extra pages of material.

We’ve laid the groundwork for what should be a spectacular year of releases in 2008. Getting the Robotech® RPG license back is one prime example.

Palladium survived another year and got a little stronger.

Finally, not exactly a pleasant highlight, but certainly big news, we learned only a few weeks ago that our dear friend, author and legendary game designer, Erick Wujcik, is dying of pancreatic cancer.

2008 – the Coming New Year

We continue to celebrate Erick Wujcik’s life and work, and try to make whatever time he has left as pleasant and rewarding as we can. You may contribute to that by reading and posting on the blog erickwujcik.com and/or the Palladium website, among others.

While facing down mortality with Erick is humbling and sad (because we’ll all miss him on so many levels), it has also been inspiring and heartwarming. Erick, being Erick, even suggested Palladium do a commemorative collection of Erick Wujcik RPG titles as a series of limited edition hardcover books. They’d be done in our traditional black leatherette material and using red metallic printing like the Palladium Fantasy RPG Crimson Edition; red and black are Erick’s favorite color combination. “And charge a lot,” he said, “because Palladium still needs the money and I’m worth it.”

God, I love that guy. Still thinking of others and looking out for Palladium. Erick would especially like to see the collection to include his TMNT and Amber titles too. I like the idea, because Erick is worth it, and they are great books. We’ll have to contact Mirage Studio and see if we can do a special limited run collecting the original TMNT Wujcik titles. If we can swing it, we’ll do it. Release a new one every 2-3 months. It would be a nice tribute. Could sell each 200-300 page volume for $60 or $70. Limit them to about 600-1000 copies. What do you think?

Is Palladium 100% okay? Not yet, but we’re getting there pretty fast. We’re behind in paying freelance writers and artists, though they ALL continue to do work for us, and I haven’t been able to reduce our debt load as much as I would have liked. But all in all, we’re doing okay and feeling very positive.

Historically, first quarter sales are always a little sluggish, so we’re a little worried about scrimping by through April.

Then again, we’d better have some strong titles coming out soon, including Dyval: Hell Unleashed™ (Minion War™), Dimensional Outbreak™ (Minion War™), Armageddon Unlimited™ (Minion War™), Robotech® Shadow Chronicles® RPG, at least one Robotech® Sourcebook, Fleets of the Three Galaxies™, Heroes of the Megaverse® (Minion War™ tie-in), and Dead Reign™ (zombies RPG) all coming out by May or June. And I know I have forgotten a couple titles. Nice line up, eh?

We will also be starting our subscription drive for The Rifter® around January 8-10, 2008 and we’re hoping to get a record number of subscribers (1000 would be amazing).

There are also some new, limited edition prints (one is a must have item by Mark Evans) and new T-shirt designs we’ll be offering exclusively online starting January or February.

We also hope to launch our downloadable adventures, a second podcast program Echoes from the Rifts® (featuring interviews with Erick Wujcik, me/Kevin Siembieda, and others) and therifter.com.

For the many of you who continue to ask how you can help Palladium Books grow stronger, it’s simple: Keep doing what you are doing.

1. Buy, buy, buy. Keep buying those new releases and pick up those backstock items you’ve been meaning to get.

2. Talk, talk, talk. Keep spreading the word about Palladium Books, and how fun our games and world settings are. Share your excitement for the games/book titles you enjoy or are waiting for. Run events at conventions.

3. Embrace your hobby. If nothing else, Palladium’s Crisis of Treachery in 2006, Erick Wujcik’s terminal illness, and the loss of tent pole RPG products like Dragon Magazine and (in the trade) Comics and Games Retailer, have shown us that we can’t take our hobby for granted. We should cherish, embrace and promote it.

4. Start saving your money now, for the 2009 Palladium Open House. We can’t host the Open House in 2008. Palladium is moving to a new, somewhat smaller, and less expensive location, so we won’t have time (or the energy) to do the Open House in 2008. That means we’ll want to make the 2009 event a real blowout to make up for the skipped year! More on that next year. :)

5. Cherish your friends and the pure joy of role-playing. There is nothing like the excitement, fun, and camaraderie of role-playing games. Drink it in and enjoy. Be good to friends and appreciate them while you have them.

The good news is, these simple, grassroots tactics all work. Palladium is getting stronger. We saw more newcomers join the Palladium family and more past players return to playing Palladium RPGs than we’ve seen in years! We know, because a lot of people tell us so when they call to place their order, in private messages, and in the comments of Christmas Surprise Package orders. Meanwhile, our most steadfast fans are as dedicated as ever.

All of this suggests if Palladium can get new product out on a monthly basis, we’ll be running strong in no time!

We are excited about the year to come. If all goes well, 2008 should be awesome. The excitement in the air at Palladium Books and among our freelancers is electric. We have so many great ideas for books and other products that it’s not funny.

What follows are just some reminders.

May the New Year bring you grand adventures, prosperity and happiness.

– Kevin Siembieda, Publisher

Christmas Surprise Package
offer EXTENDED to January 8, 2008

It has become something of tradition to extend the Surprise Package offer for a week or two AFTER Christmas. We know some people can’t afford to order them before Christmas, because they are spending their money on gifts for other people (very nice), some wait till it’s too late, and some need to wait till they get money as Christmas gifts before they can place their order. Well, you have an extra couple of weeks – till January 8, 2008.

Now get those Surprise Package orders in before you really do miss out. Merry Christmas. :)

The Rifter^® #41
At the Printer – Ships January 8, 2008

The Rifter® 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 danger to battle, and new ideas to consider. It helps you unlock your imagination by showing you what other gamers, just like you, have created. That’s right, many of the articles and source material are written by ordinary gamers and fans like you.