What’s in the pipeline at Palladium

[Kevin]

We spent most of December 2005 and January 2006 setting up our 2006 schedule of new releases and getting several projects into various stages of production.

You’d be amazed at how much time and energy goes into planning and getting projects to a point where we can even begin to start working on them.

The toughest part of scheduling is figuring out what we “can not” or should not do, and then in what order. There’s all kinds of considerations beyond who does what, too. There are money issues, timing concerns, competition, potential sales, cost of development, market and advertising, and many other considerations.

The decision of which projects get the “green light” is complicated by all of us being idiots (I’d prefer to think we’re “geniuses,” but idiocy seems more likely the case) and suffering from overactive imaginations!

You see, imagination is contagious, and when somebody (me, Wayne, Alex, Julius, Kathy, Hank, a freelancer or fan) comes up with a great idea, our minds start to spin and one great idea breeds another. This creates palpable excitement. Adrenaline begins to pump, and the next thing we know, we have one or more (usually many more) ideas for new products. The problem is reining in the emotions and excitement to finish up projects already on the schedule and putting the new ideas on the back burner.

Some, like the Palladium Open House, get slotted in because the timing is right (I mean, it is our 25 Year Anniversary), others get shelved (I have a handful of epic, new game settings and ideas that would set the world on fire and I’m dying to work on them now!), or delayed and delayed, like poor ol’ Mechanoid Space™ and Palladium Fantasy and Chaos Earth™ sourcebooks (of which I have exciting ideas for a solid half dozen, not just NEMA Mission Book One™ and Psychic Storm™ and a bunch o' Fantasy books too). On one hand, I love having this crazy, wonderful imagination and drive to write, write, write. On the other hand, it kills me sometimes because I have to be a smart business person and a) honor my previous commitments, and b) do things smart, and that often means putting my own pet projects on hold or waiting till the time is ripe.

But I digress . . .

We have a lot of great books in the pipeline – check out the various Press Releases for the full descriptions, info, price and target dates. Here’s what you can count on.

Adventures in Dinosaur Swamp shipped early, today, February 7, to mail order people, and tomorrow, February 8, to distributors, as our printer tries to reduce some of the delays we’ve experienced due to their extended schedule (told you this printer is a great outfit).

The Best of the Rifter® & The Rifter® Index is . . . well, the best. It was difficult selecting what we thought was the best, and really, the ones that made the cut could have been switched with a slew of other great material. I have to confess, I forgot how fun and great a lot of the material in The Rifter really is. Every issue is unique, informative and spans the Palladium Megaverse® of games and world settings. I hope more Palladium fans give The Rifter® a try, discover how useful it is, and find many more hours of gaming enjoyment as the result. I also hope more fans send in submissions to showcase their talent and share their ideas.
The following is what we squeezed into the Best of the Rifter®:
- P.P.E. Channelling by Jason Richards.
- G.M. Tips by Erick Wujcik.
- The Ludicrous Mage & Magic combined from two different issues, by Daniel Denis.
- Trickster Mage & Magic by yours truly, Kevin Siembieda.
- Nightbane Morphus Tables by Aaron Oliver.
- 13 Deadly Magicks by James Calder.
- Three Words by Jason Marker.
- Into the Shadows by Jon Thompson and more!
- A hilarious episode of the Knights of the Dinner Table by Jolly Blackburn.
- Where’s Wayne, a goofy HU2 adventure.
- A 23 page comprehensive index of The Rifter® issues #1-33! There is a picture of each cover and the contents of each issue, followed by an Index by Category (BTS, HU2, Rifts, Magic, Adventures, etc.), an Index by Author, and a list of all cover artists.
- 128 pages of fun, adventure and ideas!

The John Zeleznik Rifts® Collectors’ Coloring Book is just plain cool and different. It is one of Palladium’s special “25 Year Anniversary items” which is unique and different.
I had asked Johnny Z for some product ideas for Palladium’s year long anniversary celebration, and one of them was a coloring book. I instantly fell in love with the idea, and when John offered to put one together based on his covers, I took him up on it.
The idea is that you not only get to see what John’s original pencil drawing looks like, but if you so desire, you can color up your own version. So on one level, this is a nice collectable, especially for fans of John Zeleznik’s artwork, and on another, it is a coloring book.
When my son, Adam, was a kid, he used to insist on my making him photocopies of the black and white artwork for him to color. Now you can too!
Consider the coloring book a teaser for the Art of John Zeleznik coming this Summer. Full color throughout, concept sketches, color preliminaries, finished paintings, quality printing, hardcover, with a mass market version and a signed collector’s edition.

Rifts® World Book 28: Arzno – Vampire Incursion is in production. The art has been assigned, John Zeleznik is finishing the sexy and scary cover right now, and the text is being edited.
Arzno first appeared in the pages of The Rifter® and has been expanded by the original author, Jason Richards, into a full-blown World Book.
As a World Book, Arzno provides more information about Arizona and the people (and monsters) who inhabit the region. Though largely desolate, there are pockets of civilization, most notably Arzno. The city-state of Arzno grew from a mercenary camp and is still a mercenary stronghold, and a good thing it is, because the vampires are coming. There’s trouble brewing in vampire dominated Tombstone, who wants to make Arizona the newest member of the Vampire Kingdoms. The vampires’ primary obstacle, the mercs of Arzno and you.

Rifts® World Book 29: Madhaven explores the haunted ruins of New York City. The Big Apple of Rifts Earth is rotten to the core and inhabited by mutants, monsters and the Knights of the White Rose.

Tome Grotesque for Beyond the Supernatural. I promise this and Beyond Arcanum will be worth the wait. Together with the Beyond the Supernatural RPG, Second Edition, they will open up an entirely new horizon for horror role-playing games. An approach to modern horror, magic and the supernatural that will keep you playing for years.

Powers Unlimited 3 – new powers, new ideas, random tables, more Carmen Bellaire. I expect to get the completed manuscript in a week or two.

The Art of John Zeleznik – (final title not yet determined) is a 128 page, hardcover, collection of John’s work for Palladium, including the never before seen, concept drawings, alternative cover ideas, pencil sketches, color roughs and other material that should provide the reader with insight to how John (and Palladium) work. We want to make this an epic, full color, hardcover, 81/2 x 11 beauty. Plus a signed and numbered collector’s edition. We are shooting for a July release, but no promises.

The Minion War Saga – a five book Megaversal crossover series by Carl Gleba. Each self-contained book is a standalone title in its own right, but combines to create an epic story that spans the dimensions of Hades and Dyval, to the Three Galaxies, Heroes Unlimited Earth and Rifts Earth. The saga starts this Summer.


Other books under construction for 2006
Rifts® Sourcebook One, expanded page count and new material.
Warpath: Urban Jungle – a secret, for now.
The Shemarrian Sourcebook
Triax Two
Mechanoid Space (2007)
An adventure sourcebook for BTS-2.
Chaos Earth sourcebooks.
Sourcebooks for Heroes Unlimited.
Sourcebooks for Palladium Fantasy.
Even a sourcebook for Nightbane® is under consideration.

There is also a whirlwind of activity concerning projects we dare not yet whisper about outside our offices. Potential new product and avenues that push the envelope or carry us into new and different areas of the market. Exciting possibilities we think you guys and gals would love. With a little luck and hard work we hope to unleash a few by year’s end and 2007.

My Goal

One of my goals for Palladium Books is to push the envelope on settings, characters, design, new ideas and dynamic product. I want to see us living on the cutting edge, experimenting, trying new ideas and taking approaches to restore a sense of wonder and excitement to pen and paper role-playing games.

Somewhere along the way, I think RPGs lost their edge. I don’t know exactly when or how, but they did, even at Palladium Books. Well, my goal is to bring the wow and wonder back to the world of RPGs.

You can see it already in many of our 2005 releases like Beyond the Supernatural, Rifts® Ultimate Edition and even sourcebooks like Rifts® Mercenary Adventures (a title that we have gotten raves about, and plenty of comments like, “I was amazed by the wealth of material in this book”). Well, they are just the beginning.

You want wow? You want to be surprised? Challenged? Then hang on and keep watching Palladium Books. We’ll give you wow!

Oh, a new Press Release will be posted tomorrow, February 8, 2006, so keep an eye out for it.

Thanks again for listening to my rants and murmurings.

– Kevin Siembieda
President, Publisher, Writer and Crazy Guy