New book releases, goals and scheduling

[Kevin]

New book releases, goals and scheduling

New Book Releases

We fell way short of our goal of getting 12 or 13 new books out by the end of June.

Are we disappointed?

Yes and no.

First of all, it is good to challenge yourself and, sometimes, it is good to shoot for the stars. Realistically, we thought we’d only be able to get eight or nine new releases out, and with the 2009 Open House and some other things going on, even that was overly optimistic.

However, we did release something like 11-12 new products when you include things like the three new T-shirts, Rifts® dice bags, calculators, sticky notes, magnets, and coffee cups. Furthermore, the Palladium Open House was a big undertaking, it took a lot out of all of us, and it took us a while to ramp back up.

The books that did come out were excellent, and we have many more in the pipeline. In fact, there will we be three out in July: Nightbane® Survival Guide™, The Rifter® #47 and Fleets of the Three Galaxies™, plus a new catalog.

Meanwhile, we are working on four other books even as you read this: Mysteries of Magic™ for the Palladium Fantasy RPG, Dimensional Outbreak™, Robotech® UEEF Marine Sourcebook, and Heroes of the Megaverse®.

Additionally, other titles that are in some degree of development or another include Warpath™ Urban Jungle™, Robotech Book of Spaceships, Chaos Earth: First Responders and several others. In short, a lot of new product will continue to be released throughout the year and into 2010.

Please remember, Palladium is a small company of six people doing the work of a dozen. Our freelancers have hearts of gold and are good, well intentioned people. They help when they can, and many have been a huge help over these tough years since the Crisis of Treachery. However, our wonderful freelance writers often lack the experience, know-how and polish to give us ready to print books, which means their submissions need additional work once they fall into our hands.

Why not just publish the manuscripts as they are? Because that would be irresponsible to YOU and to Palladium as a professional business. Palladium has a reputation for a high level of entertainment and quality. Furthermore, wearing my many hats as Publisher, game designer, writer and editor, if I see things that can be improved I have an obligation to do so. Thus, if I can take something that’s good or even very good (like Nightbane Survival Guide) and make it better, I MUST do so. I owe that to the author(s), I owe it to Palladium Books, and I owe it to YOU. I mean, wouldn’t you prefer to buy a book that is outstanding rather than one that’s pretty good? Of course you would.

In many cases, the authors are simply afraid to cut loose, or lack the experience (or confidence) necessary to take it to the next level. Or they may excel in one area, but struggle in another. That’s the thing about writing for role-playing games, it is a blend of several forms of writing and includes dramatic prose, game stats, technical writing, game play, storytelling, and game design and balance. That’s a heck of a lot to ask of anybody, and I don’t expect a young writer to have it all down pat.

As an editor, writer and Publisher, it is my job to make each and every book as good as it can be. Hopefully, the writers look over the changes and additions, and learn from them so their next manuscript is even better. Like anything else, the more they do, the better they get at their craft. Likewise, the harder you are on yourself (i.e., try to be your own toughest critic, and keep learning and improving) the better you get.

It’s not that I’m a perfectionist, because I’m most definitely not one, it’s a matter of doing it right, and doing your best. Furthermore, from my standpoint, it’s a matter of, I can either rush out a decent product, or I can work on it an extra 2-4 weeks and make it a much better – even great product. I have to go with making it great. Hey, the writer(s) has already done a lot of the heavy lifting by having spent months writing the darn thing in the first place. Now it’s my turn to spend 2-4 weeks polishing that diamond and making it sparkle to its maximum potential.

I know it's frustrating for our fans sometimes, because you want stuff as fast as you can get it. And so do we, but Palladium doesn’t rush out junk. We want to make every book a joy to read and fun to play. Regrettably, that takes time, but the end result is a better product for you.

By the way, the Nightbane® Survival Guide™ is a great product that I think you will love. It is just packed with wonderful ideas, clever and challenging adventures and adventure hooks, it offers a wealth of additional adventure ideas, and brings the Nightbane and the Nightbane setting to vivid life. Authors Irvin Jackson and Mark Oberle did a very good job.

So what was the delay? There were some places where the authors didn’t take the material far enough or didn’t cover all contingencies, so I had to add material. Then, they made the mistake of taking “fan” published work from The Rifter® and putting it into the book with only a few minor tweaks. That was the new Morphus section. I had three major problems with that. 1) Since they had appeared in The Rifter®, these Morphuses weren’t exactly, um, “new.” 2) The material was from 5-6 different authors, each written in a difference style, each in a different format, each at a different level of quality. 3) Many were not fleshed out enough or were not awesome enough. I spent nearly two weeks rewriting the Morphuses, creating a few completely new tables and making them all fully fleshed out, consistent, completely playable (not any of that, "we leave the specifics to the player or G.M." stuff) and fun.

And that’s the other problem with writing, it takes so darn long. Writing is time consuming. I’m always groaning about how long it takes to write. Heck, a fast pace is three manuscript pages an hour, and game mechanics, like designing a Morphus, takes even longer. To grind out one lousy page an hour is typical for game mechanics, and that’s what it took me redoing and adding to the 25 Morphus Tables. But come on, the Morphus is a critical aspect of the Nightbane and a reflection of the character. They have to be well defined, fun and unique. Add into that research time . . . and sheesh, it's two solid weeks of work. For example, I thought there should be a new Elemental Morphus table. So I started reading about elements. There are all kinds of cool elements, so it becomes a question of which ones struck my fancy and which ones would be the most fun to play. Did you know arsenic is an mineral? No? Me either, but it’s cool. Can you imagine playing a rock-like Nightbane whose body is made of up arsenic? What about silver? Or magnetic iron? Well, you’ll be able to as soon as the book comes out.

In fact, the Nightbane® Survival Guide™ is packed with all kinds of wild, new, fun and valuable data about the Nightbane, their powers, their Morphuses, their factions, lives, and survival. Like I said, I think you’re going to love this book.

Anyway, I just wanted to give you a little insight to what goes on behind the scenes, why books are delayed or late, and to let you know we have a lot more new books coming for many of our game lines.

Hmm, speaking of which, I better get back to working on my end of The Rifter® #47, the new catalog and Fleets of the Three Galaxies™. We want all three to the printer by the end of the week.

Happy Father’s Day to all of you proud, gamer Dads out there. Enjoy today with you children and loved ones.

Sincerely,
Kevin Siembieda
Publisher, Writer, Game Designer & Dad

© Copyright June 21, 2009 Palladium Books Inc. All rights reserved.

Rifts®, The Rifter®, RECON®, Splicers®, Palladium Books®, Phase World®, The Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game®, Megaverse®, Nightbane®, The Mechanoids®, The Mechanoid Invasion®, Coalition Wars® and After the Bomb® are Registered Trademarks of Palladium Books Inc. Heroes Unlimited™, Beyond the Supernatural, Dead Reign, Warpath, Shemarrian Nation, and other published book titles, names, slogans and likenesses are trademarks of Palladium Books Inc., and Kevin Siembieda.

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