the right book at the right time

[Vidynn]

after reading most of Book 5: Nightbane Survival Guide I want to congratulate the authors and the publisher, this is really a fine book, an important addition to the game and just the right book at the right time! to re-new interest in what I consider to be Palladium Books best and most interesting Roleplaying game a "players book" that leads us back to the major characters in the game, the Bane themselves, was the right choice!

I just hope its not too late - after years of laying dormant and being neglected by the company for way too long I hope it can find new fans and do at least okay on the market (I kinda doubt the latter, with the market-situation being bad as it is a small RPG like Nighbane that had no support in years has very tough competition!).

a few impressions on each section:

the general blurb on the Bane and the Hidden War sets the mood nicely, the Nightbane Survival Guide works both as an in-game "handout" to players and as a GM-guidebook full of ideas.

Theories of Origin: fine with me as they are clearly marked as theories. some interesting ideas!

the stuff on Kafka's Lost Diary, the Puzzle Book etc. is a highlight, introducing lots of gaming ideas and scenario hooks. both thumbs up! only Franz Kafka being called a "Famous German author" hurts - he was born in Prague (therefore in the Austro-Hungarian empire) and though is nationality may therefore be questioned (Austrian? Czech?) he certainly wasnt a German! (he spoke german, yes, but that doesnt make him a german!).

The Becoming is excellent stuff especially for beginners - people who played Nightbane for years may find it a little less useful.

Transformation Rules are a nice addition to the game mechanics, as are the random character detail tables. I will let my existing playercharacters roll on the special aptitude bonuses table or we choose something that makes sense. It would have been nice if - finally - the Birth Order table would be complemented with a table how MANY brothers/sisters exist, its still quite useless as it is (e.g. second born of how many?? middle of how many - automatically three??). I strongly advise against rolling Alignment randomly.

New Skills: most of them are good additions to the game. is it true that you wanted to include 40 pages of skills descriptions?? almost cant believe that. some new skills may go into too much detail, for instance Demolitions: Underwater (a character into demolitions has to choose THREE skills now!), or Firefighting. the bonuses for Seduction seem quite harsh starting at MA 20 and PB 17 - as attribute bonuses start with 17 this should have been handled in accordance to the general spirit of the rules in my humble opinion. Lore:Factions isnt exactly new, as it was already introduced in SoL. History and Philosophy should probably have been categorized as Science-Skills (or should at least be made available in both skills categories). General Repair would probably have fitted better into the Domestic category.
Also, it would have been nice if there would have been a paragraph on how the new skills fit in with existing OCCs etc. (>> info on which skill should be included in which skill list). The way it is it leaves a lot of work to the GM.
Still, this is a very good chapter!

I liked the Education Modifiers a lot, making an offer to substitute the "general" skill programme for a more detailed one which also provides some background ideas is excellent!

Psychology - nice one.

Morphus Table: I am not a fan of new Morphus Tables...there are too many already in my opinion. Still, some are interesting like Victims, Undead and Unusual.

New Talents: a good selection, though limitations to specific Morphus categories seem a little harsh/restricted sometimes. Also, not all talents are clear wether its just Morphus or Facade (e.g. Air Swim - sounds like Morphus only, but doesnt say so clearly).

Factions: nice stuff. am not into creating factions along the rules presented (am no fan of such rules in BTS, N&SS etc. either....) but I guess its useful for many GMs and players! the examples are interesting though and ready-to-use in a game!

parts of "A dangerous Life" would probably have fitted better into the first chapter(s), I found the organisation weird in this part of the book. still, excellent work.

the adventure: yesss. exactly what I wanted. a nice big adventure. two thumbs up!!

[Vidynn]

oh yeah, forgot to mention the artwork: the cover painting is stunning - in my opinion the best since the rulesbook!! perfectly sets the mood. also, excellent work by Amy Ashbaugh, my new favorite PB-artist. beautiful, sad, creepy, all on one. on the other hand, I dont like the comic book style of a lot of the pics in the book (I guess those were created by Stephen Fox?) and they dont mix well with the Amy Ashbough stuff in any case. but, of course, thats a question of personal taste.

[krate]

Not sure if I ever posted this anywhere... but let me join the band wagon and say: Thank you for such a great book. Thank you to the writers and artists that put the cool back in Nightbane.
This is a great book, probably the best this year. Thank you!

[Warwolf]

after reading most of Book 5: Nightbane Survival Guide I want to congratulate the authors and the publisher, this is really a fine book, an important addition to the game and just the right book at the right time! to re-new interest in what I consider to be Palladium Books best and most interesting Roleplaying game a "players book" that leads us back to the major characters in the game, the Bane themselves, was the right choice!

I just hope its not too late - after years of laying dormant and being neglected by the company for way too long I hope it can find new fans and do at least okay on the market (I kinda doubt the latter, with the market-situation being bad as it is a small RPG like Nighbane that had no support in years has very tough competition!).

First of all, thanks for the kudos, it really makes the work worthwhile when I hear that the fans are digging the material as much as they seem to be. I would tend to agree that Nightbane has a tough row to hoe, especially in this market. However, I’m hoping that as more material is released for the line that more and more people will sit up and take notice. I know I’ve been doing what I can to hit the street and promote Nightbane, and I’m sure our Megaversal Ambassadors have been doing so as well. Kev obviously has big plans for Nightbane, as do Irvin and myself, and this all starts with the Survival Guide.

the general blurb on the Bane and the Hidden War sets the mood nicely, the Nightbane Survival Guide works both as an in-game "handout" to players and as a GM-guidebook full of ideas.

Theories of Origin: fine with me as they are clearly marked as theories. some interesting ideas!

the stuff on Kafka's Lost Diary, the Puzzle Book etc. is a highlight, introducing lots of gaming ideas and scenario hooks. both thumbs up! only Franz Kafka being called a "Famous German author" hurts - he was born in Prague (therefore in the Austro-Hungarian empire) and though is nationality may therefore be questioned (Austrian? Czech?) he certainly wasnt a German! (he spoke german, yes, but that doesnt make him a german!).

The Becoming is excellent stuff especially for beginners - people who played Nightbane for years may find it a little less useful.

Transformation Rules are a nice addition to the game mechanics, as are the random character detail tables. I will let my existing playercharacters roll on the special aptitude bonuses table or we choose something that makes sense. It would have been nice if - finally - the Birth Order table would be complemented with a table how MANY brothers/sisters exist, its still quite useless as it is (e.g. second born of how many?? middle of how many - automatically three??). I strongly advise against rolling Alignment randomly.

New Skills: most of them are good additions to the game. is it true that you wanted to include 40 pages of skills descriptions?? almost cant believe that. some new skills may go into too much detail, for instance Demolitions: Underwater (a character into demolitions has to choose THREE skills now!), or Firefighting. the bonuses for Seduction seem quite harsh starting at MA 20 and PB 17 - as attribute bonuses start with 17 this should have been handled in accordance to the general spirit of the rules in my humble opinion. Lore:Factions isnt exactly new, as it was already introduced in SoL. History and Philosophy should probably have been categorized as Science-Skills (or should at least be made available in both skills categories). General Repair would probably have fitted better into the Domestic category.
Also, it would have been nice if there would have been a paragraph on how the new skills fit in with existing OCCs etc. (>> info on which skill should be included in which skill list). The way it is it leaves a lot of work to the GM.
Still, this is a very good chapter!

I liked the Education Modifiers a lot, making an offer to substitute the "general" skill programme for a more detailed one which also provides some background ideas is excellent!

Psychology - nice one.

Morphus Table: I am not a fan of new Morphus Tables...there are too many already in my opinion. Still, some are interesting like Victims, Undead and Unusual.

New Talents: a good selection, though limitations to specific Morphus categories seem a little harsh/restricted sometimes. Also, not all talents are clear wether its just Morphus or Facade (e.g. Air Swim - sounds like Morphus only, but doesnt say so clearly).

Factions: nice stuff. am not into creating factions along the rules presented (am no fan of such rules in BTS, N&SS etc. either....) but I guess its useful for many GMs and players! the examples are interesting though and ready-to-use in a game!

parts of "A dangerous Life" would probably have fitted better into the first chapter(s), I found the organisation weird in this part of the book. still, excellent work.

the adventure: yesss. exactly what I wanted. a nice big adventure. two thumbs up!!

I’m going to echo Irvin’s sentiments here, I’ve kind-of been fiending for some good, critical feedback (most of what I get these days is purely positive, which is nice and has bolstered my confidence in my writing ability but it doesn’t help me to work on things much). I want to thank you for taking the time to go section by section and let us know what you think.

There are a couple of things you brought up that I want to respond to. First, the mislabeling of Kafka’s nationality is wholly my bad. I’m relatively certain that the couple of sources I referenced for that section actually referred to him as a German author. I actually remember wanting to go back and triple check that fact, but I was stuck at that point without an internet connection or a library to go to. To anyone offended by this error, I apologize. Although, with Nightbane being an alternate Earth, he could just as easily be thought of as a German author there.

Regarding the random “fleshing out” tables, I’m pretty sure they are copied over from some of the newer core books (such as Dead Reign). I actually have a recently created “loved ones” table that I worked up that is much like what you seem to be wanting. I’m not sure if Kev will publish it anywhere, but we’ll have to see where it might fit.

As far as the new skills section goes, I have a few thoughts on it myself. I haven’t had a chance to discuss these with Kev, but I do want to try and set the record straight on something right here, right now. First, the massive amount of skills was meant to bring the Nightbane line into much greater cohesion with the newer systems. If I had my way, we would have seen a revised main book before even this book, but I can completely understand why Kev didn’t want to go that route (he knows his business, so I don’t argue or even begrudge that decision). However, since we didn’t have that luxury, I tried to do the best patch-job I could.

EVEN WITH THAT SAID, neither Irvin or myself EVER expected ALL of those skills to be published in this book! Did I lobby for more than what was put in? Yes. Did I want or expect 40 pages of skills to be included? NO. That’s why when Kev asked me to cut the section down, I did so without much reservation. After speaking with Kev a couple times about these edits, I not only understood why he had me cut as much as I had to, but I agreed almost completely with his logic behind doing so. People also should understand that Irvin and I approached this from the standpoint of “give Kev more than he needs and let him make the cuts.” I figured while I was neck-deep in bringing skills up to date, I might as well do it system-wide so that they were available for future books (and you will almost definitely see some in future books) and were internally consistent.

Also, on an interesting note, I did do a revision of the Demolitions skill set. However, Kev didn’t use it in the interest of inter-system compatibility. When it comes to how the new skills fit in, there just wasn’t room for something like that (not to mention that Rifts and all the other systems have progressed with new skills without much in the way of retroactive directions).

I will have to go back and examine the Talents again for lack of clarity. That would be something that would be errata for a second printing.

Anway, I would just like to thank you, Krate, and Sharoth for your comments (as well as those that have come to me via PM). I hope you all continue to enjoy this book, and expect that you’ll probably be seeing a lot more from Irvin and I in the future.

[Vidynn]

hello, thanks a lot for answering a lot of my questions asked / points raised. I thought you might like to see something more than "awesome book" (although it boils down to this for me!). also, I think its important - even within the Palladium-fanbase - to tell people just how good this book and the whole game-line is. this is a series that deserves PB's full support - glad to hear that you and KS have more plans for it!! keep up the good work.

PS: please put Kafka in the Errata!