Just KIDDING!
I know it may not seem like it, but Palladium Fantasy is my favorite game of all time. Ask anyone who has played with me at conventions throughout the ages, it is usually Palladium Fantasy that I run (and recently BTS). Palladium Fantasy is what launched my company and it was Palladium Fantasy that I played for years and years (as in just about every weekend throughout the entire 1980's and into the early 1990's). It was the favorite campaign setting of my friends and the birthplace of the Defilers as well as Palladium Books, the company.
You know, come to think of it, that may be why, in part, I’ve focused on so many other types of RPGs for the last decade or so. I’m just soooooo familiar with Palladium Fantasy – it was so close to my heart – that I subconsciously focused on other game settings. I suspect too, that because of Dungeons & Dragons, Runequest and a host of other fantasy RPGs (the most recent being a slew of D20 game books) it just didn’t seem challenging and I, personally gravitated toward other things. Robotech for a while, Heroes Unlimited for a bit, and Rifts for a looong time, Chaos Earth, and BTS-2. Then there was business stuff, kids, divorce, and, um, life.
I was thrilled when Bill Coffin took over the reins for a couple years, because he seemed to have a good feel for the setting and did some nice work (Western Empire, Baalgor Wastelands and Library of Bletherad being my three faves), but all good things come to an end.
I never meant to abandon Palladium Fantasy, it’s the love of my career, but somehow, the siren calls of Rifts (a blast to write) and other projects (Chaos Earth, BTS-2, etc.) seemed to attract my attention more.
Well, I’m writing this murmur to assure you loyal Palladium Fantasy RPG fans that YOU are NOT forgotten, nor is Palladium Fantasy forgotten or abandoned. (Although poor Mark Hall must think so, I’ve been sitting on his Mysteries of Magic for a zillion years now. Sorry, fella. That will change within the next year.)
Remember how I mentioned that overactive imagination, percolating, excitement thing that goes on with us creative types in one of my earlier posts? Well, I have been getting pumped up on doing Palladium Fantasy for the last year, year and a half. I don’t know, maybe it was seeing the Lord of the Rings movies, or reading the new Conan comic books, or seeing some of the amazing visuals being done in video games . . . or maybe it has been being away from my baby for much of the last 15 years that my creative juices for fantasy have been flowing again.
I hesitate to even mention some of my ideas, because you’ll get all excited and it will be a solid year or so before I think I can dive back into Palladium Fantasy with both feet. And I mean both feet. You see, despite the fact that there’s a lot of fantasy products on the market, the vast majority are second rate or just the same old, same old. I’m dying to bring the “epic,” and the “sword and sorcery” back to fantasy. I want people to look at the upcoming Palladium Fantasy RPG products and drool and whimper in ecstacy.
I have ideas for the Wolfen War, for defining the Old Kingdom, a book dedicated entirely to Dwarves, and the Land of the South Wind, and what about what lies beyond the “Edge of the World?” What happens if the magical barrier weakens and the “Other Side of the World” starts to leak into the Palladium World we know?! Betcha didn’t even know there was another side/part of the Palladium World, did ya? Well, there is, and it’s strange and wonderful, magical and dangerous, violent and monstrous, and much more. And those are just a few of the ideas I’ve been kicking around for Palladium Fantasy.
Cue the moans of disappointment . . . because you still have to wait awhile. With a little luck, I hope Palladium will release at least two new Palladium Fantasy RPG titles this Fall. Probably a couple small, fun sourcebooks, but nothing that takes the world into a new, epic direction or fills in any voids. But in 2007, I hope to unleash 3-4 books that will amaze and surprise you. At least that’s my plan.
FIRST, however, I need to address some of my other commitments, like the Beyond the Supernatural sourcebooks Tome Grotesque and Beyond Arcanum (I’d also like to slip a nifty little adventure sourcebook in by year’s end), as well as 2-3 Chaos Earth books that are screaming to get out of my head, and a few Rifts books I wanna do.
I hope you understand and can wait a little while longer.
Thanks for listening to my rants and murmurings.
– Kevin Siembieda
President, Publisher, Writer and Victim of an overactive imagination