But we do have super fans/friends

[Kevin]

But we do have super fans/friends

In my Saturday Murmur, I talked about how I wish the Palladium crew and I were superhuman so we could get all the delayed sourcebooks and product finished and into your hands.

It has been very frustrating for us to be working like crazy and putting in such long hours, and still being so late with releases. It’s disappointing for you and, I suspect in many ways, even more disappointing for us. I mean, who likes to let people down? Nobody I know.

Well, we may not be superhuman, but we sure do have some super fans/friends. “Super” as in “awesome” and “caring.”

It has been awhile since I’ve posted a Murmur expressing my personal feelings, so I wasn’t sure how people would react. I just wanted to let folks know what is going on at Palladium and in our minds. I expected to see comments like, “Boo hoo, quit complaining and writing Murmurs, and get those damn books finished, Slackers!”

To my surprise, I received a number of emails and Private Messages that were not negative or angry, but concerned and caring. The gist of them was, “We appreciate you guys working so hard, but please take care of yourselves. If games are late, they’re late. We need you and the Palladium crew healthy and around for many years to come.”

Thank you so much. I don’t know why, but I was very surprised by that reaction. It was nice to hear and made my day. In fact, I got a lot of work done Saturday, I suspect in part, from the good vibes. Thank you for being so kind and super about it.

That said, we’re still working hard to get late books finished and new books flowing out. HOWEVER, I’m not going to push us into an early grave to do it. I’m going to take your advice and ratchet our work schedule down to something more “human.” I put in 10 hours of solid work Saturday. Knocked off around 5:00 PM, went out for dinner with my sweetheart, Kathy, and enjoyed a quiet evening together. It was nice.

This morning, I slept in, helped clean the house, fed the squirrels (we have a million of them at home and in all sizes and colors: Red, Silver, Black, Gold, and a few that look hybrid to us). A couple dozen of the squirrels will come right up to the window where we toss the peanuts out to them. A trio of squirrels and one of the chipmunks will take a peanut right out of your hand. I know feeding squirrels may sound stupid, but it’s fun and relaxing. Kathy made me a delicious breakfast, we chatted, I showered, and dragged my butt to work around 11:00 AM and I’m only going to work till 5:00. I mean, it is a dang holiday, right?

Please don’t get me wrong, we’ll be working hard, but the 14-18 hour days, seven days a week need to stop. I don’t work the guys that hard, but 10-12 hour days, 6-7 days a week are not uncommon. Still shooting to have various reprint titles, Rifter® #63 and Rifts® Northern Gun™ One all done and available in time for Gen Con®. With any luck, that will include Rifts® Northern Gun™ Two as well. If not, very soon thereafter.

I’m at the office on Sunday because I want to finish up my portion of The Rifter® #63 so I can devote as much time as I can on Rifts® Northern Gun One for the rest of the week.

Gen Con Indy – August 15-18, 2013 – Booth #1025

I think we are as pumped up as one can be about Gen Con this year. While I wish we had more new releases, there is so much excitement about what’s coming that I think the convention is going to be incredible. Heck, I’m dying to see the actual, finished 1/285th scale game pieces for Robotech® RPG Tactics™ myself. (Geez, we are such fan-boy geeks.) We’ll have many, if not ALL, on display at the booth, as well as running non-stop demos. On top of that, the booth will have a larger number of Palladium creators than usual.

- Me – Kevin Siembieda – Publisher, writer and lead game designer at Palladium Books.
- Carmen Bellaire – Writer (Splicers®, Powers Unlimited™ series, etc.) and co-game designer of Robotech® RPG Tactics™ to run demos, talk about the game and sign autographs.
- David Freeman – Lead game designer of Robotech® RPG Tactics™ to run demos, talk about the game and sign autographs.
- Various other Ninja Division personalities and creators.
- Wayne Smith – Palladium editor and Editor-in-Chief of The Rifter®.
- Matthew Clements – Writer (Rifts® Black Market, Northern Gun™ 1 & 2, The Rifter®, etc.).
- Charles Walton – Artist (Rifts® Lemuria, NG 1 & 2, and many others).
- Brandon Aten – Writer (Rifts® Triax™ 2, Madhaven™, Sovietski™, and The Rifter®).
- Mark Oberle – Writer (Nightbane® Survival Guide, The Rifter®, etc.).
- Mike Leonard – Writer and artist (The Rifter®).
- Jeff Burke – Palladium staffer, Robotech® consultant, artist and writer.
- Thomas Roache – Play-tester, Robotech® demonstrator and writer.

Cool, eh?

I sure hope a lot of you swing by the booth (#1025) to pick up new product, back stock items, chat, play a demo, and get autographs.

There will also be a pair of convention exclusive game pieces for Robotech® RPG Tactics™ at Gen Con® (while supplies last). They are Max Sterling’s Valkyrie and Myria’s Female Power Armor.

Robotech® RPG Tactics™ is hot! You know you have something hot when almost anything you say or do with that product line creates a buzz. We announced in our Gen Con Blast email that the above pair of game pieces would be available for sale at Gen Con, and people went wild. Note: For those of you who have been asking, we have not decided if we’ll be offering these figures for sale to the Kickstarter participants in the upcoming Robotech® Kickstarter Pledge Manger. We’ll discuss the possibility and consider it, but no promises.

I better get back to work on The Rifter® #63 – another great issue, by the way. Hope you enjoyed a nice, fun-filled holiday weekend.

Sincerely,
Kevin Siembieda
Publisher, Writer and Game Designer

© Copyright July 7, 2013 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™, RPG Tactics™, Beyond the Supernatural, Northern Gun, Dead Reign, Warpath, Shemarrian Nation, and other published book titles, names, slogans and likenesses are trademarks of Palladium Books Inc., and Kevin Siembieda.

Robotech® and Robotech® The Shadow Chronicles® are Registered Trademarks of Harmony Gold USA, Inc.