Making a "Basic" Palladium Core/Setting Book

[Captain_Nibbz]

Hey All,

This is an evolution of a bunch of ideas that I'm turning over. I want to make my own Palladium Setting book, including core rules and an overview of the area. However, I'm running into a couple of issues with this as the scale of everything is a bit overwhelming. So here is what I'm thinking: I want to emulate the old "Moldvay/Cook" edition of Dungeons & Dragons in the sense that the core rules are a very limited scope with a very particular focus. I want this version for my setting to hit the core "pillars" of Palladium, and really give a good feel for an all inclusive setting. I also want to present it in a cleaner, easier to read and reference format rather than the normal stream of consciousness that Palladium Books are normally presented in (not that there is anything wrong with that, I just have a tick in my brain for organization).

Problem is that I'm not sure how to do that or where to start

So far I have the following:

Chapter 1: Setting Introduction and Basic Mechanics

- Setting Intro
- Explanation of Role-Playing
- Definitions of Common Terms
- D20 vs D100 Mechanics

Chapter 2: Character Creation
- A step by step guide to making characters.
- Explanation of Attributes

Chapter 3: Character Classes
- 2 Man at Arms Type
- 1 Magic-User Type
- 1 Psychic Type
- 1 Skill Monkey
- 1 Racial Character Class (I'm thinking maybe a playable werewolf-type class based off of a combination of Werewolf and Wolfen, any thoughts?)

Chapter 4: Skills
- Listing of skills and their uses

Chapter 5: Equipment and Services
- Listing of equipment and services

Chapter 6: Adventuring and Exploration
- Rules on travel and exploration (Does anyone know if Palladium has codified rules on this kind of thing?)
-

Chapter 7: Combat
- Rules on combat (is there a good, concise explanation of how combat works in Palladium? I've never been able to fully wrap my mind around this one)
- Saving Throws
- Damage & Death

Chapter 8: Spells and Psionics
- Rules on how magic and psionics work
- Listing of Spells and Psionics available by level/type
- Alphabetical listing of all spells and psionic abilities

Chapter 9: Game Master Section
- Advice for running the game
- Sample dungeon exploration
- Hook, Lines, and Sinkers
- Random Treasure Tables

Chapter 10: Monsters
- Monster Abilities
- Alphabetical Listing of Monsters w/ Descriptions

After this I think that I want to have several appendices fleshing out different parts of the game, such as techno-wizardry, spell research, nightbane style characters, high technology, etc. These wouldn't be essential to the core game but would be something that I want to include as I go on.

After listing this out, it seems like a solid place to start, but does anyone see any glaring flaws in what I've got so far? Any advice from those who have tried something similar before?

Any help is appreciated

[Father Goose]

Nothing is jumping out at me as being flawed. Are you just looking for confirmation that you are on the right track, or did you have something specific you were concerned about?

[Captain_Nibbz]

Both?

Right now I think I'm mainly asking to see if anyone has any advice or if there was any glaring issues with my layout idea or if there was a glaring gap in what I'm planning

[Father Goose]

As a basic layout, it looks clean and clear to me. I like your stated goals for the book, and you have already done the hardest part - planning your outline. I have every confidence in you.

[Captain_Nibbz]

As a basic layout, it looks clean and clear to me. I like your stated goals for the book, and you have already done the hardest part - planning your outline. I have every confidence in you.

Thanks! This actually makes me feel pretty good going forward. I hope that I can use this thread as a way to get advice when I run into issues, as well as to share links to what I'm working on to get feedback. Working in a vacuum sucks . . .

[Father Goose]

As a basic layout, it looks clean and clear to me. I like your stated goals for the book, and you have already done the hardest part - planning your outline. I have every confidence in you.

Thanks! This actually makes me feel pretty good going forward. I hope that I can use this thread as a way to get advice when I run into issues, as well as to share links to what I'm working on to get feedback. Working in a vacuum sucks . . .

Believe me, I know exactly what you mean.
Please do post here as needed. And you can find me (and many others) on Discord as well. Just look in the Palladium server.
https://discord.gg/9ZHESwYb

[The Beast]

...Chapter 2: Character Creation
- A step by step guide to making characters.
- Explanation of Attributes

Are you going to go with the normal Palladium write-up for this or are you going to make a better thought-out version? I only ask because KC once explained in thorough detail how broken RAW character creation actually is.

Chapter 6: Adventuring and Exploration
- Rules on travel and exploration (Does anyone know if Palladium has codified rules on this kind of thing?)

Travel rules are all over the place, depending on what means you're using and the setting.

Chapter 7: Combat
- Rules on combat (is there a good, concise explanation of how combat works in Palladium? I've never been able to fully wrap my mind around this one)

Original conversion book had a fairly good example, as did the RMB. I'm sure original HU and RT books did as well since those were the first two I started playing and my group seemed to pick up on combat rather quickly.

After listing this out, it seems like a solid place to start, but does anyone see any glaring flaws in what I've got so far? Any advice from those who have tried something similar before?

HU2 and N&S use skill programs and not OCCs for determining skills (thank God). Also over the years some skills were moved from one category to another (languages started in Technical, now they're in Communications), and some skill categories were removed (despite the skills in them being in the right spot). Getting that part straight may take some time.

For the RCC I'd stick with something official and not homebrewed.

[Captain_Nibbz]

...Chapter 2: Character Creation
- A step by step guide to making characters.
- Explanation of Attributes

Are you going to go with the normal Palladium write-up for this or are you going to make a better thought-out version? I only ask because KC once explained in thorough detail how broken RAW character creation actually is.

I am absolutely wanting to make this from scratch with some help from the forums when I get there (working on setting information currently). I remember stumbling across the argument about RAW character creation and I've never been able to look at it the same way since. I think in the sense that I want to use this book as an introduction to the system that it would make sense for there to be cohesive and easy to follow character creation

Chapter 6: Adventuring and Exploration
- Rules on travel and exploration (Does anyone know if Palladium has codified rules on this kind of thing?)

Travel rules are all over the place, depending on what means you're using and the setting.

I was kind of afraid of this. I might have to do a lot more research than I want to to get this one together. I was hoping that they might have something similar to what AD&D did where there was a set movement, that movement was altered by terrain, and Bob's Your Uncle, done. Maybe I'll have to homebrew something . . . We'll see when we get there I suppose.

Chapter 7: Combat
- Rules on combat (is there a good, concise explanation of how combat works in Palladium? I've never been able to fully wrap my mind around this one)

Original conversion book had a fairly good example, as did the RMB. I'm sure original HU and RT books did as well since those were the first two I started playing and my group seemed to pick up on combat rather quickly.

Sweet, I'll take a closer look at those two books then

After listing this out, it seems like a solid place to start, but does anyone see any glaring flaws in what I've got so far? Any advice from those who have tried something similar before?

HU2 and N&S use skill programs and not OCCs for determining skills (thank God). Also over the years some skills were moved from one category to another (languages started in Technical, now they're in Communications), and some skill categories were removed (despite the skills in them being in the right spot). Getting that part straight may take some time.

For the RCC I'd stick with something official and not homebrewed.

I would much rather use skill programs than OCC's as I like them much better. I'll peek at my HU2 book when I have some time later and see if this is going to fit the bill for what I need. Thanks for pointing me in that direction!

[Warshield73]

After listing this out, it seems like a solid place to start, but does anyone see any glaring flaws in what I've got so far? Any advice from those who have tried something similar before?

HU2 and N&S use skill programs and not OCCs for determining skills (thank God). Also over the years some skills were moved from one category to another (languages started in Technical, now they're in Communications), and some skill categories were removed (despite the skills in them being in the right spot). Getting that part straight may take some time.

For the RCC I'd stick with something official and not homebrewed.

I would much rather use skill programs than OCC's as I like them much better. I'll peek at my HU2 book when I have some time later and see if this is going to fit the bill for what I need. Thanks for pointing me in that direction!

Sorry for the late response but I was just reading through here and I noticed the section on skills and OCCs. As someone who just created 7 HU characters for convention games IMHO it is the most broken of all the skill systems. Rolling education level is effectively a super attribute with the top part being super effect and skilled characters and the bottom part being limited and at times kind of useless.

I do like the idea of skills being separate from your powers but HU is just a pain. I suggest BTS 2e, Dead Reign, and Splicers are good ones to look at.

I am kind of creating a Heroes / Nightbane / BTS homebrew of my own and what I am attempting is a set up with 2 skill programs and then the usual common, related and secondary skills. The first skill program sort of determines your occupation like scientist, police officer, soldier, antique dealer, etc. and it operates sort of like an OCC. The second skill program is smaller and can go two ways. 1) is sort of the MOS, it adds to your main program and they give bonuses to skills in both. So a medical doctor primary could take one in science or engineering and they could have the skills with some additional bonuses. 2) is sort of odd and I often refer to this as the hero skills or maybe just an unrelated interest. So your medical doctor could have a street hero package of Hand to Hand and physical skills or an investigation package for his career as Hero. Or maybe he was in the military before med school so he has military basic.

Haven't finished it yet but that is the direction I'm headed.

Now for skills themselves I have made a few changes to the categories:
First is piloting, I have 3 categories:
1 is basic of course more or less the same as in HU its stuff like cars and even small airplanes
2 is advanced like jets and large boats even things like combat driving and stunt flying
3 is Military Piloting which is just combat skills for various vehicles modeled on the skills in Robotech

So if you are a jet fighter pilot you need Pilot Jet from Pilot Advanced and Jet Fighter Combat from Piloting Military. I like to separate the piloting skills from things like demolitions.

The other is Technical I removed all the Knowledge skills into two categories:
1 Knowledge Academic: so this is history, mythology, philosophy, lore skills that are on mundane subjects, even languages and literacy anything that shouldn't be in Technical
2 Knowledge Arcane: Lore skills and any mystic skills from games like BTS

I hope you post more here as you work on this, I got some good ideas reading through this.