Essential books? (besides the CRB that is...)

[DevastationBob]

Been looking to get into Palladium Fantasy, but the last time I was current, the newest books was Island at the Edge of the World. Are any new ones good, or need skipping?

[drewkitty ~..~]

Sounds like you have not any of the 2nd ed books.

Based on that...PFRPG 2ed MB, PF2 Monsters & Animals, PF2 HighSeas, PF2 Eastern Teritories, PF2 Western Empire would be the better ones to start off with.

After those get the regional books as you go there with the Game. The MoM1, D&G books are not 'really' "needed" but are good for the areas they cover.

You best bet is to brouse PB's on-line store to see what interests you to get. (click on the covers above to get you there.)

[Hotrod]

Honestly, I have yet to see a bad PFRPG book. They're all useful, but the degree of utility each book gives you is highly dependent on where and how you run your adventures.

As second edition goes, there are some key sourcebooks that are useful, regardless of the region you're playing in:

Monsters & Animals 2nd Ed. This is critically important if you want your characters to take on a wider variety of foes (or playable species) than playable races, demons, and deevils. Also necessary for any details on horses and trainable mounts. It's mostly an update from 1st edition.
High Seas, 2nd Ed. If you want a sea-based campaign, this book is a must. Even if you don't, this book has good OCCs like gladiators and entertainers, necromancers, shaman, and regional economic information. There are some changes from 1st edition.
Library of Bletherad: Though it's technically a regional sourcebook, the information inside is chock full of adventure and campaign ideas. It also has some nifty magic spells, siege weapons, air galleons, castle layouts, currency exchange, poisons, nifty rune weapons, and an assortment of rare creatures.
Dragons & Gods: If you want to do anything with dragons, gods, alien intelligences, angels, or elementals, this book is a must.
Mysteries of Magic: I don't have this one... anyone care to weigh in?

The real blessing of 2nd edition was the regional sourcebooks, of which there are several new ones:
Old Ones: It's mostly a straight port from the 1st edition sourcebook. Timiro Kingdom with some window dressing and a couple neat campaign ideas.
Eastern Territory: This is a good spot for variety. It has a bit of everything. There's not much centralized authority, and you can find a pretty wide variety of settings and themes. It's analogous to medieval Europe.
Western Empire: The Empire of Sin has huge cities, lots of magic, political intrigue, and corruption galore. It's analogous to the Roman Empire at its most decadent.
Wolfen Empire: Kevin & crew combined the two adventure books and threw in some extras. It's good for wilderness campaigns, analogous to a young, expanding Roman Republic. Also good for non-human parties.
Northern Hinterlands: It's a great spot for a pure wilderness campaign, an Alaska-like frontier.
Yin-Sloth Jungles is still in its 1st edition, with no update planned (that I know of).

2nd edition also brought some challenging regions. I put the following in their own category of very challenging settings. They're suitable for high-powered characters.
Baalgor Wasteland: If your players get bored, this is a difficult and dangerous setting.
Nimro: It's like the Baalgor Wasteland, but everything is giant and hates you.
Land of the Damned: It's where overpowered characters go to die.

One other book to consider: Rifts England. Though the setting information doesn't really fit in Palladium Fantasy, the druid O.C.C.'s and herbal magic cross over quite nicely. I much prefer them to the 2nd Edition druid in the CRB.

[The Dark Elf]

For any serious playing you do need

Monster and animals
Dragons and gods.

After that I recommend adventures of the high seas as it will give you plenty of little tastes of what pfrpg has to offer (new occ's, islands, civilisations, towns, mapped, ships and ship combat, fully written adventures, obvious plot scenarios to expand on yourself, new magic, and the islands are quite self contained but also trade with neighbouring Islands). It's all there in one book.
After that I recommend buying them in order of release. By the time you get loans of the damned you'll be ready to adventure there and then mysteries of magic will finally be of use.

[pblackcrow]

Honestly, I have yet to see a bad PFRPG book. They're all useful, but the degree of utility each book gives you is highly dependent on where and how you run your adventures.

As second edition goes, there are some key sourcebooks that are useful, regardless of the region you're playing in:

Monsters & Animals 2nd Ed. This is critically important if you want your characters to take on a wider variety of foes (or playable species) than playable races, demons, and deevils. Also necessary for any details on horses and trainable mounts. It's mostly an update from 1st edition.
High Seas, 2nd Ed. If you want a sea-based campaign, this book is a must. Even if you don't, this book has good OCCs like gladiators and entertainers, necromancers, shaman, and regional economic information. There are some changes from 1st edition.
Library of Bletherad: Though it's technically a regional sourcebook, the information inside is chock full of adventure and campaign ideas. It also has some nifty magic spells, siege weapons, air galleons, castle layouts, currency exchange, poisons, nifty rune weapons, and an assortment of rare creatures.
Dragons & Gods: If you want to do anything with dragons, gods, alien intelligences, angels, or elementals, this book is a must.
Mysteries of Magic: I don't have this one... anyone care to weigh in?

The real blessing of 2nd edition was the regional sourcebooks, of which there are several new ones:
Old Ones: It's mostly a straight port from the 1st edition sourcebook. Timiro Kingdom with some window dressing and a couple neat campaign ideas.
Eastern Territory: This is a good spot for variety. It has a bit of everything. There's not much centralized authority, and you can find a pretty wide variety of settings and themes. It's analogous to medieval Europe.
Western Empire: The Empire of Sin has huge cities, lots of magic, political intrigue, and corruption galore. It's analogous to the Roman Empire at its most decadent.
Wolfen Empire: Kevin & crew combined the two adventure books and threw in some extras. It's good for wilderness campaigns, analogous to a young, expanding Roman Republic. Also good for non-human parties.
Northern Hinterlands: It's a great spot for a pure wilderness campaign, an Alaska-like frontier.
Yin-Sloth Jungles is still in its 1st edition, with no update planned (that I know of).

2nd edition also brought some challenging regions. I put the following in their own category of very challenging settings. They're suitable for high-powered characters.
Baalgor Wasteland: If your players get bored, this is a difficult and dangerous setting.
Nimro: It's like the Baalgor Wasteland, but everything is giant and hates you.
Land of the Damned: It's where overpowered characters go to die.

One other book to consider: Rifts England. Though the setting information doesn't really fit in Palladium Fantasy, the druid O.C.C.'s and herbal magic cross over quite nicely. I much prefer them to the 2nd Edition druid in the CRB.

I would add the two Rifts Russia books. Because of there is some worth while information in there that can easily be carried over into PFRPG.

Also, I don't know why you'd think that the Baalgor Wasteland is for a high level/powered campaign setting. Most of my characters do not have a problem with exploring it at 5th level. Heck, I have a nice little town there that 4 brother characters (Earth, air, fire, and water warlocks) of mine established with some the help from the druids from the England book.

[Eashamahel]

Why Dragons and Gods for 'serious play', Dark Elf?

[The Dark Elf]

Why Dragons and Gods for 'serious play', Dark Elf?

Play a priest but you have no idea who u worship or a religion. Or the extra prayers.

Play a warlock but you can't summon an elemental

Play a summoner but you can't summon elementals, angels or a kukulcan.

Play a witch but no idea who your master is.

Too much incomplete without it (IMO).

[Eashamahel]

Ah, I honestly didn't realize that was the only book with the stats for elementals for Fantasy.

[jolt]

On a semi-related note: I've mostly played Heroes Unlimited but I've just acquired 2 copies of the PFRPG core rules (different covers) and Books II through V. It appears, however, that they're all Revised edition. I would really rather not buy 2nd edition copies and I'm not really sure what the differences are (I don't play RIFTS and have no interest in the 'Megaverse'). I've never played any Revised edition game except TMNT a long time ago and so I don't know where it is I'm going to get tripped up. Apart from buying 2nd edition copies of all these books, what's the "easiest" thing for me to do?

[jolt]

*sigh* Nevermind. I now see the stickied thread highlighting the differences between the two editions...directly above this one in fact (for the moment anyway).

[Hotrod]

I would add the two Rifts Russia books. Because of there is some worth while information in there that can easily be carried over into PFRPG.

Also, I don't know why you'd think that the Baalgor Wasteland is for a high level/powered campaign setting. Most of my characters do not have a problem with exploring it at 5th level. Heck, I have a nice little town there that 4 brother characters (Earth, air, fire, and water warlocks) of mine established with some the help from the druids from the England book.

I agree for Mystic Russia. Warlords is pretty tech-heavy, though there might be some useful stuff there, too.

As for Baalgor, you're right that a lower-level party could certainly survive, and even thrive there, but the overall power scale is somewhat elevated over most other regions. I base my subjective assessment of its power level on several factors:
1. The environment itself is very inhospitable to most species. The book spends 11 pages describing in detail how the climate itself is trying to kill you.
2. The indigenous species are tougher than the core game races and generally unfriendly.
3. Western Empire colonies tend to get wiped out quickly. Granted, this happens in the Northern Wilderness too, but it's a contributing factor.
4. The author straight-up says that this is a higher-level, higher-power region on page 7 with the heading, "Now You're Playing with Power", and the opening text backs it up.

[Library Ogre]

Monsters and Animals.
Dragons and Gods.
Any one world book (Western Empire and Eastern Territories are probably the best single-book world books)

Good but not required:
Library of Bletherad (STUFF!)
Adventures on the High Seas (world book, but with neat OCCs)