New Printing of Phase World: Why the (incomplete) Switch?

Library Ogre · Unread post by **Library Ogre** » Sat May 06, 2006 3:20 pm

I got a new copy of Phase World with my CJ bundle, and I noticed that, in the section on the Wolfen, the word has been frequently replaced with "wulfen". It's quite obviously a replacement... you can see, in some places, where the new word was placed imperfectly over the old word. DOes anyone know what printing this went into effect with, or why? (Especially given that they didn't do it with most of the references in the book... just the ones on pages 65-67, and not all of them. In the Motherhome description, they're still called "wolfen", and the term is even used on page 65.)

DhAkael · Unread post by **DhAkael** » Sat May 06, 2006 4:32 pm

darkmax wrote:Is this a really big deal?

Palladium Books have always been known to have errors, nothing new at all.

Just another example of half-a**ed cut & paste edit of a perfectly (so to speak) fine manuscript, all in the name of "keeping everything the same with all the rest".

It's niether a big deal, nor a small matter; it's just stupid

Really WOLFEN / WULFEN; doesn't matter except that KS really wants to keep everything in his supposedly interconnected megaverse, seperate. Think 'Military Inteligence'; same sorta oxymoronical thinking...emphasis on moron.

Josh Sinsapaugh · Sat May 06, 2006 4:40 pm

I believe it was one of the changes that Bill Coffin wrought (as it first appears in his books), in order to differentiate the Wulfen of the Three Galaxies from the Wolfen of the Palladium World (though I thought the moniker "Space Wolfen" worked just fine).

~ Josh

Braden Campbell · Mon May 08, 2006 9:12 am

At the Friday night VIP Q&A, someone asked kevin what his plans were for Wolfen Wars (PFRPG) and for the Wolfen Republic in Rifts Italy.

He replied to the effect that he would do nothing with the Italian Wolfen, instead changing them so that they were different from the original, Palladium Fantasy Wolfen...something about not confusing the lines.

It most likely has to do with Rifts becoming (or trying to become) a movie property. So I guess, in the Three Galaxies, they are now Wulfen: another canine race.

:shrugs:

Whatever.

DhAkael · Unread post by **DhAkael** » Mon May 08, 2006 5:22 pm

gadrin wrote:At this point my reply would probably be: "Because it's Palladium..."

Yeah... anytime something just doesn't make (censored) sense, it's called a "Siembiada".
It's a catch-all phrase for absurdity for absurdity's sake.

Josh Sinsapaugh · Mon May 08, 2006 8:15 pm

DhAkael wrote:
gadrin wrote:At this point my reply would probably be: "Because it's Palladium..."

Yeah... anytime something just doesn't make (censored) sense, it's called a "Siembiada".
It's a catch-all phrase for absurdity for absurdity's sake.

Except the change from Wolfen to Wulfen was done by Bill Coffin.

~ Josh

Sureshot · Unread post by **Sureshot** » Mon May 08, 2006 11:55 pm

If there were any changes done to Phase World in terms of terminalogy it was decided by KS period. Not by Bill Coffin. As KS has the final say on everything. So the blame cannot be placed on Bill Coffin.

DhAkael I rather not see another thread closed so calm down with the personal attacks towards Josh please.

Tinker Dragoon · Tue May 09, 2006 12:28 am

For the sake of steering this topic back to the game:

gadrin wrote:]did they try and fix the Cosmo-knight, by telling us how fast their FTL powers work, or how fast they recover all that PPE ?

Nope, their travel ability still gives distance, but doesn't relate it to time. As for PPE, according to page 186 of RUE, everyone regains 5 PPE per hour of rest or 10 PPE per hour of meditation, unless specifically stated otherwise.

Having never owned the earlier edition of Phase World, I can't vouch for what's different. On the other hand, errata in the Phase World Sourcebook are easily detected by their lighter typeface and page references to newer books (Warlock Marine Magic Specialists have PPE now, yay!

).

Library Ogre · Unread post by **Library Ogre** » Tue May 09, 2006 3:44 am

darkmax wrote:Is it so far fetch that part of an ancient race who migrated to other dimension, over centuries, decide to change their racial name? Or isn't it possible, the word just got corrupted over the centuries? Perhaps a different slang that resulted in the variant spelling.

I mean afterall, we humans, too corrupt some of our own words.

Not in the least. In fact, if it didn't happen, I would be surprised.

What threw me more was that there were two different spellings of the same name in the same paragraph, and one of them was obviously a later edit.

Braden Campbell · Wed May 10, 2006 10:10 am

I'm still calling them "Wolfen"....

Josh Sinsapaugh · Wed May 10, 2006 1:08 pm

el magico -- darklorddc wrote:At the open house Kevin said that was done to separate Palladium's intellectual properties.
If someone options one property, like rifts, it can't be tangled up with the others, like Palladium fantasy. So no interspecies transferring in books. So no (more) elves in Rifts, no glitterboys in nightbane and no wolfen in phaseworld. That's why they changed it from wolfen to wulfen.

I grudgingly understand Wolfen....

...however Elves and Dwarves?

They are properties that are totally free from liability that they are something akin to "uber-public domain" properties.

To say that Elves or Dwarves cannot be used in Rifts and Palladium Fantasy seems equally as ludicrous as saying that Humans cannot.

~ Josh

Josh Sinsapaugh · Wed May 10, 2006 1:46 pm

gadrin wrote:Perhaps one of the writers can give us something clearer.

Officially it is "no more Elves, Dwarves, Ogres, etc. (Palladium Fantasy Races) in Rifts."

They can exist on Rifts Earth (and do), but from now on, the Freelancers can not include them canonically.

That's why I posted the lamentation about Elves and Dwarves.

~ Josh

Josh Sinsapaugh · Wed May 10, 2006 2:07 pm

gadrin wrote:right, which is what I meant (believe it or not).

so I guess no more Pantheons of the Megaverse which has Elf & Dwarf Conversions...

unless Conversion books (since the other CB books are "exempt") are exempt.

hopefully that muddied the issue further.

Well Pantheons has Asgardian Dwarves and High Elves, a distinguishment from normal Dwarves and Elves (similar to how Star Elves and Anvil Dwarves should be considered seperate entities)...thus I think that that would make it exempt even if Conversion Books are not inherently exempt.

Though, my best guess is that Conversion Books are exempt as they are conversions...if that makes any sense...

~ Josh

Marrowlight · Unread post by **Marrowlight** » Wed May 10, 2006 3:08 pm

el magico -- darklorddc wrote:At the open house Kevin said that was done to separate Palladium's intellectual properties.
If someone options one property, like rifts, it can't be tangled up with the others, like Palladium fantasy. So no interspecies transferring in books. So no (more) elves in Rifts, no glitterboys in nightbane and no wolfen in phaseworld. That's why they changed it from wolfen to wulfen.

While this doesn't surprise me in the least (I've been a DC fan for too long to be shocked when stuff starts getting declared off limits because of this deal with this licenser, etc, etc) it does make me a little sad. I'm surprised no one else seems as bothered by this as me.

King Chopper · Unread post by **King Chopper** » Sat May 13, 2006 8:03 am

Ok, this is giving me a headake.

Elfs and what not can be in Rifts, but you can't wright about them? So if I made a worldbook, every single NPC would need to be either Human, or a race that has only appeared in another Rifts book?

Josh Sinsapaugh · Sun May 14, 2006 12:51 pm

darkmax wrote:Why no Elves?! They are nice and friendly, if you don't go chopping down trees.....

Could it be that they feel there are already far too many races in Rifts Earth? Or are they restricting the use of the Elven race to PFRPG? Or both....

Neither.

It has to do with liscencing and legal issues, which I find silly, seeing that Elves and Dwarves are pretty much uber-public domain properties.

~ Josh

Josh Sinsapaugh · Sun May 14, 2006 1:01 pm

darkmax wrote:But they are! So who is having the license on the elves? Some ancient european myth makers? If so, then I conceit.

Elves would be public domain. So I really can't explain it logically...though I grudgingly except the legal rationale of it (ow...legal and rationale in the same sentence!).

In any case, I don't like elves anyways and would prefer to have their use limited, as it stands now, Rifts Earth and the Phase World Dimension are sorely lacking in both number and variety of original races.

~ Josh

Sureshot · Unread post by **Sureshot** » Thu May 18, 2006 8:37 pm

Misfit KotLD wrote:
el magico -- darklorddc wrote:At the open house Kevin said that was done to separate Palladium's intellectual properties.
If someone options one property, like rifts, it can't be tangled up with the others, like Palladium fantasy. So no interspecies transferring in books. So no (more) elves in Rifts, no glitterboys in nightbane and no wolfen in phaseworld. That's why they changed it from wolfen to wulfen.

So more proof Palladium's line of "megaversal" is a line of
********?

Colorful response to say the least Misfit but I agree. Are the games all interconnected or are they not? Should it even be called the megaverse anymore? Strange and confusing to say the least.

Sureshot · Unread post by **Sureshot** » Fri May 19, 2006 11:18 pm

Misfit KotLD wrote:
With this decision, no, "Megaversal" no longer applies. Maybe "Cluster of Near Universes" would work better?

Interesting title. The problem is Megaversal or Megaverse rules of the tongue easier.

Crushing Hand of Jupiter · Mon May 22, 2006 1:46 pm

el magico -- darklorddc wrote:
darkmax wrote:But Elves are in Rifts earth......

Yeah, the first character that popped to mind for me was the elf in Reid's Rangers. This is a recent development and obviously earlier books do not adhere to it. But there aren't going to be any more. I THINK this is why we got those new, distinctly different, dragon species in RUE.

FYI, the elf in Reid's Rangers is listed as being a Palladium elf

kamikazzijoe · Tue Jul 11, 2006 11:18 pm

Braden, GMPhD wrote:At the Friday night VIP Q&A, someone asked kevin what his plans were for Wolfen Wars (PFRPG) and for the Wolfen Republic in Rifts Italy.

He replied to the effect that he would do nothing with the Italian Wolfen, instead changing them so that they were different from the original, Palladium Fantasy Wolfen...something about not confusing the lines.

It most likely has to do with Rifts becoming (or trying to become) a movie property. So I guess, in the Three Galaxies, they are now Wulfen: another canine race.

:shrugs:

Whatever.

Yeah, he said thy have to very careful about crossing game lines with al the propietary stuff they're trying to license out. Even the miniatures could caus ethem problems.

runebeo · Unread post by **runebeo** » Sun Jul 30, 2006 9:31 pm

Copy rights can get out of hand. Just ask China.

shadrak · Unread post by **shadrak** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 1:41 am

China knows about copyrights?

LOL!!!

Warwolf · Unread post by **Warwolf** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 4:35 pm

I think I need to get more information on this topic straight from the source. As it stands I feel as if I need to write a funeral dirge for one of the greatest things I admired about Palladium's material.

shadrak · Unread post by **shadrak** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 4:47 pm

Well, it is supposed to be megaversal...that kinda implies you can't seperate the lines...doing so would void the warranty on the Megaversalness...LOL!

Wolfen, Wulfen...either way, they are not very imaginative.

shadrak · Unread post by **shadrak** » Tue Aug 01, 2006 4:48 pm

The other races are much better, both in palladium and in Rifts.