A bit more perspective?

[Kevin]

As for goals . . . or a target number . . .

Folks keep asking for a target number to make Palladium survive, safe and healthy. Unfortunately, I can't post specific numbers for a variety of reasons, plus the company is like a living, breathing entity so needs change with time and circumstance. But let me repeat what I posted elsewhere to try to provide some perspective.

Remember, Palladium was clobbered by the wrongdoings pretty hard ($800,000 to $1.3 million including damages), so at the risk of sounding flip, we need as much money as we can get!

Now, I don't expect to raise a million bucks, and don't need a million to get Palladium back on its feet. Nor do I expect our awesome fans to raise all the money we need. Heck, the efforts of our amazing fans in just the first couple of months enabled us to deal with the most crippling and immediate debt, but prior to that I had to borrow money to cover a big chunk of those losses/damage and that is yet to be paid off. We also still need to have cash to publish new titles and reprint key books going out of stock (which is a lot).

As long as, our overall sales (online and distributors) stay strong (around where they've been the past month or two, or better yet, improve) Palladium should be able to continue to pay its current bills, release one or two new products a month, and slowly chip away at its remain debt load. That's mainly because ALL of Palladium's private investors are great and being patient, waiting and working with us.

Meanwhile, in addition to new, cool World and Sourcebooks, and RPGs like Warpath: Urban Jungle (which is as much a risk as it is a potential blockbuster), Palladium is trying to do other things that should increase our revenue stream. That includes trying to get a license like Robotech, launching other RPG products, sales and contests (some that have yet to be announced, but are coming), as well as trying to expand into other venues like electronic games. If the option on the Rifts movie is exercised, if we cut one or more new movie option deals, if we cut one or more videogame deals, an MMOG deal, and so on, it all make Palladium stronger and self-sufficient.

HOWEVER, these are all "ifs" -- and I've found that you can't count on options and licenses and ifs from third parties. They can be big and wonderful if they work, but you can't count on them. That means we have to build upon our own foundation, such as new ideas for different RPGs, getting into new markets, producing toys, miniatures, manga, comic books, novels, and many other things -- and all things we have a lot of great ideas for, but currently lack the money to launch them.

I hope by the end of the year Palladium will be in much better position to try some of the above. With a little luck we'll find some new revenue streams via licenses and/or new RPG products or spin-off products that take off and make some big bucks.

Come on, if Palladium can recover from this tragedy within 3 years, we'd be doing great. And I think we can do that. Heck, I think we can do it in two years! Maybe less. Of course, I also tend to be an optimist, but we've already accomplished so much in just these past four months!

All I ask of you, our fans, is that you continue to support us by playing our games, buying our RPGs, books and products that you find appealing, and telling others people how fun our games are and encourage them to give one a try.

Will Palladium survive? I think so. I hope so. But I honestly don't know yet. Let's see how these next 5-6 months shake out.

Keep the faith. We're working hard and appreciate your help.

Kevin Siembieda
Publisher, Writer, and Maniacal Optimist