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Juce734 wrote:1) I need to give him a run down of the rules up front really. Anyone have a good short way to explain them?

Greetings and Salutations. To explain the Palladium rules quickly, this is how I'd do ...

1: Your character has 8 attributes. These attributes determine your characters strengths and weaknesses. Your character also has Hit Points and S.D.C. which determine how much damage you can take, but we'll discuss that more during character creation.

2: In combat you roll a D20, to attack and defend (you have to select your defense, usually a parry or dodge). You add in any bonuses listed on your character sheet. High roll (with bonuses) wins.

3: If you want to use a skill, check if your character has it. If so, roll 2D10, also called percentile. Declare which is high (the one that'll represent that tens column). If you roll under your skill or tie it, you succeed. Roll over it, you fail.

That's the rules in a nutshell. There's more to it, but you can learn as we go. If anything else comes up, I'll tell you what to roll, but those are a lot of little rules that don't come up as often. Also, playing a Psychic or a Mage will add more rules, but I don't recommend those for beginner players. If you're really interested in one, we can discuss it more. Everything else is just role-playing.

Note: Character creation is probably the hardest part. I recommend being there and walking him through it.

Juce734 wrote:2) I'd like to give him and the rest of the players a rundown of the world without going too into the details but enough that they will get a good idea about the world, races, politics, dangers, etc.

Depends on how brief you really want it. If they don't mind doing a little reading, I'd recommend the Palladium Timeline (page 277-280), or at least the Timeline Summary (found on page 281 if you'd like to keep it briefer) and/or the World Overview (page 282-286, with a map on page 287). For the most part, that highlights the history and the lands of the setting, in only 1 to 3 paragraphs each section (a little longer for some). If you want shorter ... *shrugs* ... I don't think I'm known for my brevity.

Hope some of that helps. Thank you for your time and patience, please have a nice day. Farewell and safe journeys for now.