Palladium to sell Swamp to make money

[abtex]

Well that what the Press release says:
http://www.palladiumbooks.com/press/press2008-12e.html

Rifts® Sourcebooks:

Rifts® Delta Blues/Deep South™
Rifts® Dark Woods™
Rifts® Voodoo

I hope they make it this year.
Josh Singsapaugh should be happy if they do. Along with many others, put me at the head of the list.

[rat_bastard]

Good Job Singsapaugh...

wait, these books where written in new york!

NEW YORK!

[abtex]

Good Job Singsapaugh...

wait, these books where written in new york!

NEW YORK!

Yes, I had the very same thought.
I hope not based on New Jersey's swamp.

[taalismn]

Bayonne: City of Adventure!

[Crazy Lou]

thx for posting the link too, I probably wouldn't have noticed this for a long time otherwise.

This is great! Thanks so much PB!

[Balabanto]

It's really annoying that we don't have Lazlo. That should have been the center of the whole blooming campaign setting.

[Josh Sinsapaugh]

Hey now, half of that "trilogy" was written in Virginia.



~ Josh

[abtex]

Hey now, half of that "trilogy" was written in Virginia.



~ Josh

Can it be rewritten into English?
Great JoyJoy for you if it makes it this year.
Do you have any Adventure book(s) for the set in the works yet?

[Prince Artemis]

It's really annoying that we don't have Lazlo. That should have been the center of the whole blooming campaign setting.

Get to work then.

Seriously.

Generally speaking, Palladium has been printing what the freelancers have been writing. There isn't much 'assigned work' involved.

So, until someone gets it in their head to actually write a manuscript, it ain't happening. And believe me, writting the Lazlo book would be a pain in the @$$. Think about it. Shining bastion of civilization, literally surrounded by enemy territory and purported to be basically a paradise regained.

Now write it so people don't think it's over powered but also that it's too gritty. I honestly think the reason that no one really tries the lazlo and chi town books is because everyone has long since made their minds up about the place and any writer that tries is in for a stomping because unless he's a mind reader the books are going to p/o a lot of people regardless.

[Josh Sinsapaugh]

Hey now, half of that "trilogy" was written in Virginia.



~ Josh

Can it be rewritten into English?
Great JoyJoy for you if it makes it this year.
Do you have any Adventure book(s) for the set in the works yet?

Not yet.

Though I always thought adventure books were a good way to release additional material on a setting (i.e. what is left on the cutting room floor).

~ Josh

[taalismn]

I prefer that Lazlo be kept deliberately ambigious so GMs can cast their own utopian view upon it...

[Josh Sinsapaugh]

To address the tangential topic: I really only think Kevin can do Lazlo, and do it justice. It needs to be the bastion of truth, justice, and the Ameri... err... post-apocalyptic Canadian way like it has been portrayed as since the first printing of the original Rifts Main Book. In my opinion, only Kevin would deliver that.

For example, if I did Lazlo, I would be too tempted to give it some internal rot or seething underbelly, like cold iron rusting and staining pure white alabaster. Sure, Kevin would probably have something to that effect to, but definitely not to the extent that I would probably take it. My Lazlo would be like an impressionist painting: beautiful from a distance, but muddied and sometimes downright ugly when you get right up close to it.

And even though that is how I would do it, that is not the Lazlo I would want to see.

~ Josh

[csbioborg]

hell ya

I've been waiting for a book that did the South. Dino Swamp is awazing but it is dosen't give the South that antebeluum feel. I hope the South truly rises again in these books.

As for Lazlo I want something for it. I don't want a utopia I want a nemeis for the CS. There needs to be a power bloc that can to it. Do at least the Dweonor treatment for Lazlo.

[Talavar]

As for Lazlo I want something for it. I don't want a utopia I want a nemeis for the CS. There needs to be a power bloc that can to it. Do at least the Dweonor treatment for Lazlo.

But that's not Lazlo. Everything that's been written to date about Lazlo - admittedly, not much (a blurb in RMB & RUE, a bit in the Canada World Book, some snippets in a handful of other world books) - presents a peaceful nation-state that's more of an alternative to the CS rather than an antagonist. Lazlo "fights" the CS by teaching people to read and preaching tolerance, not by killing Dead Boys. They help free slaves from Atlantis, they had a major debate about the morality of killing the Xiticix, they offered to help relocate all of Tolkeen's population rather than go to war with the CS, they make people go to counselling before they let them become juicers, they tolerate a pair of human supremacist towns within close proximity - nothing suggests a hostile or aggressive city.

I think that's why we haven't seen a Lazlo book yet (though I do want one, just one done right) is that it's hard to write a nation-state that's so fundamentally goody-good and still make it interesting. In fiction & particularly fantasy, good's a lot harder to work with than evil or the morally amibiguous.

That might not be what you'd want for your games, but the books so far don't support it. The Federation of Magic is a better fit as an outright CS antagonist in my opinion.

[Crazy Lou]

As for Lazlo I want something for it. I don't want a utopia I want a nemeis for the CS. There needs to be a power bloc that can to it. Do at least the Dweonor treatment for Lazlo.

But that's not Lazlo. Everything that's been written to date about Lazlo - admittedly, not much (a blurb in RMB & RUE, a bit in the Canada World Book, some snippets in a handful of other world books) - presents a peaceful nation-state that's more of an alternative to the CS rather than an antagonist. Lazlo "fights" the CS by teaching people to read and preaching tolerance, not by killing Dead Boys. They help free slaves from Atlantis, they had a major debate about the morality of killing the Xiticix, they offered to help relocate all of Tolkeen's population rather than go to war with the CS, they make people go to counselling before they let them become juicers, they tolerate a pair of human supremacist towns within close proximity - nothing suggests a hostile or aggressive city.

I think that's why we haven't seen a Lazlo book yet (though I do want one, just one done right) is that it's hard to write a nation-state that's so fundamentally goody-good and still make it interesting. In fiction & particularly fantasy, good's a lot harder to work with than evil or the morally amibiguous.

That might not be what you'd want for your games, but the books so far don't support it. The Federation of Magic is a better fit as an outright CS antagonist in my opinion.

that's pretty much just what I was thinking.

[Jason Richards]

It's really annoying that we don't have Lazlo. That should have been the center of the whole blooming campaign setting.

Get to work then.

Seriously.

Generally speaking, Palladium has been printing what the freelancers have been writing. There isn't much 'assigned work' involved.

Well, it's not quite like that.

For starters, I wouldn't advise anyone to spend the time to just write a manuscript and then pitch it to Kevin with the expectation that he might read it or publish it. It's a major undertaking to write a ready-for-print book. Todd and I once mused on how much more work we each put into our books than we did our Masters Theses. Besides, to blindside Palladium with a complete manuscript out of the blue, in my experience and estimation, would be a very low-percentage way to get published. I know we're all fans here, and Palladium keeps things informal, but you need to approach things in a professional manner.

We freelancers often come up with our own ideas for projects, but we all (or at least, as far as I know) do professional proposals to pitch ideas. Sometimes Kevin digs 'em, but very often in my experience he directs us elsewhere instead, even if only to another proposal of our own making.

When I wrote Arzno, I actually pitched two different books and Arzno is what Kevin assigned me (Arzno was my second choice, actually; almost an afterthought). I had been published a number of times already, and I wrote Kevin a letter detailing my pitch and what I wanted to include. That's the proper way to begin.

When I pitched my new Chaos Earth book shortly before Arzno was done, I also had pitches for at least BTS and HU, and maybe some more Rifts as well. Kevin took my CE pitch and pushed it in a slightly different direction, and there you go.

I wouldn't presume to speak for all of the freelancers, but even though we all take our writing careers to differing degrees, the one thing that we all strive for to a man is professionalism in our presentation. Many of us are or are at least attempting to make our way as full-time, professional authors, and we don't approach our writing for Palladium that much differently than we would any other publisher.

My advice, as always, is for aspiring authors to use Palladium's talent-evaluation farm system: The Rifter. Once you show consistent, publishable quality and solid fan response, that gives you an "in" to write up that book proposal.

Just my two cents.

[Prince Artemis]

To address the tangential topic: I really only think Kevin can do Lazlo, and do it justice. It needs to be the bastion of truth, justice, and the Ameri... err... post-apocalyptic Canadian way like it has been portrayed as since the first printing of the original Rifts Main Book. In my opinion, only Kevin would deliver that.

For example, if I did Lazlo, I would be too tempted to give it some internal rot or seething underbelly, like cold iron rusting and staining pure white alabaster. Sure, Kevin would probably have something to that effect to, but definitely not to the extent that I would probably take it. My Lazlo would be like an impressionist painting: beautiful from a distance, but muddied and sometimes downright ugly when you get right up close to it.

And even though that is how I would do it, that is not the Lazlo I would want to see.

~ Josh

Actually, you could still do that for some degree and keep it as is. Write them as the bastion, but remember that the influx of too many refugees is starting to cause more than a few problems.

[glitterboy2098]

As for Lazlo I want something for it. I don't want a utopia I want a nemeis for the CS. There needs to be a power bloc that can to it. Do at least the Dweonor treatment for Lazlo.

But that's not Lazlo. Everything that's been written to date about Lazlo - admittedly, not much (a blurb in RMB & RUE, a bit in the Canada World Book, some snippets in a handful of other world books) - presents a peaceful nation-state that's more of an alternative to the CS rather than an antagonist. Lazlo "fights" the CS by teaching people to read and preaching tolerance, not by killing Dead Boys. They help free slaves from Atlantis, they had a major debate about the morality of killing the Xiticix, they offered to help relocate all of Tolkeen's population rather than go to war with the CS, they make people go to counselling before they let them become juicers, they tolerate a pair of human supremacist towns within close proximity - nothing suggests a hostile or aggressive city.

I think that's why we haven't seen a Lazlo book yet (though I do want one, just one done right) is that it's hard to write a nation-state that's so fundamentally goody-good and still make it interesting. In fiction & particularly fantasy, good's a lot harder to work with than evil or the morally amibiguous.

That might not be what you'd want for your games, but the books so far don't support it. The Federation of Magic is a better fit as an outright CS antagonist in my opinion.

to be honest, i see Lazlo as the above....but like Switzerland, having a rediculously tough military force for defense. lets face it, Lazlo should have been destroyed long ago. it's surrounded by the CS, and the CS Hates them. the only reason the CS wouldn't have already rolled right over them is if they thought the effort would cost too much for too little reward.

this would also color Tolkeen's annoyance at lazlo not getting involved in the SoT. with this version of lazlo on tolkeen's side militarily, the CS would have had little chance at taking on tolkeen. but lazlo knew that taking sides would mean the CS would shift lazlo from " major annoyance but too tough to deal with currently" to "major threat, deal with soonest". thus lazlo takes the nuetral path and tries to give tolkeen a way to save it's population..

[Talavar]

to be honest, i see Lazlo as the above....but like Switzerland, having a rediculously tough military force for defense. lets face it, Lazlo should have been destroyed long ago. it's surrounded by the CS, and the CS Hates them. the only reason the CS wouldn't have already rolled right over them is if they thought the effort would cost too much for too little reward.

this would also color Tolkeen's annoyance at lazlo not getting involved in the SoT. with this version of lazlo on tolkeen's side militarily, the CS would have had little chance at taking on tolkeen. but lazlo knew that taking sides would mean the CS would shift lazlo from " major annoyance but too tough to deal with currently" to "major threat, deal with soonest". thus lazlo takes the nuetral path and tries to give tolkeen a way to save it's population..

I think you're right about that - Lazlo is the biggest magic-using kingdom in North America by far, and supposedly the origin point for techno-wizardry, they by no means should be push-overs.

I do find it somewhat odd that in several Rifts sources they discuss various cities of the Magic Zone & New Lazlo as if they're on the same level of Lazlo, when Lazlo has not 10 times, but 50 to 100 times the population of them. Even Tolkeen was half the size.

[abtex]

Do you have any Adventure book(s) for the set in the works yet?

Not yet.

Though I always thought adventure books were a good way to release additional material on a setting (i.e. what is left on the cutting room floor).

Having two or more books on the shelf at one time, would never hurt All having a 2nd book supporting the first or a group all it does is add to setting and to the money that can be made as well. Does not matter if it's 32 or 128 pages it's there on the shelf and in the customer mind as well.

[Crazy Lou]

I would say that 32 might be a bit small...

[Marrowlight]

Get to work then.

Seriously.

Generally speaking, Palladium has been printing what the freelancers have been writing. There isn't much 'assigned work' involved.

So, until someone gets it in their head to actually write a manuscript, it ain't happening.

I'm confused here -- I thought the door to Palladium was shut close, and that everyone who was freelancing these days (outside of previous published authors who just meet KS, a la the Urban Jungle book) got in through the Rifter forever ago and as such has access to KS that just isn't available otherwise. I know a couple of folks got a foothold through pitching to him at Cons, but otherwise, I thought it was a big no no to submit unsolicited material. Has that been changed and I just never noticed?

[abtex]

I would say that 32 might be a bit small...

I would too, but it's a book. PB needs all the life it can get right now. 256 would be better.

I hope that this year is very good for them.

[Josh Sinsapaugh]

Get to work then.

Seriously.

Generally speaking, Palladium has been printing what the freelancers have been writing. There isn't much 'assigned work' involved.

So, until someone gets it in their head to actually write a manuscript, it ain't happening.

I'm confused here -- I thought the door to Palladium was shut close, and that everyone who was freelancing these days (outside of previous published authors who just meet KS, a la the Urban Jungle book) got in through the Rifter forever ago and as such has access to KS that just isn't available otherwise. I know a couple of folks got a foothold through pitching to him at Cons, but otherwise, I thought it was a big no no to submit unsolicited material. Has that been changed and I just never noticed?

It hasn't been changed. You're 100% correct.

The Rifter remains a talent scout of sorts, while unsolicited manuscripts being sent in out of the blue is a huge no no.

~ Josh

[Marrowlight]

OK cool, thanks Josh. I didn't think that had been changed, but given PA's title I thought maybe there'd been something on the podcast that I missed.

[Mack]

Don't know if I want to see a Lazlo book. Imagine a whole city of Erin Tarn's...

[Danger]

Though I always thought adventure books were a good way to release additional material on a setting (i.e. what is left on the cutting room floor).

~ Josh

I agree, and I still love your idea to do an adventure book based on the Simvan. Have you still been considering that, or did it go the way of the dodo with the DeeBee sourcebook release?

[Josh Sinsapaugh]

Though I always thought adventure books were a good way to release additional material on a setting (i.e. what is left on the cutting room floor).

~ Josh

I agree, and I still love your idea to do an adventure book based on the Simvan. Have you still been considering that, or did it go the way of the dodo with the DeeBee sourcebook release?

I'm still considering that, along with some other Adventure Sourcebooks - though the others would be closer looks at certain organizations and places.

Rifts gets a lot of love from the Freelancers though, so I'm considering dating another Palladium system for a short while. If it works out - great, if not - we can still be friends.

~ Josh

[Jason Richards]

Josh, furry that he is, should write for ATB2.

[Aramanthus]

So do the Swamp's denizens know they are being sold?

Seriously, congrats Josh!

[dark brandon]

Don't know if I want to see a Lazlo book. Imagine a whole city of Erin Tarn's...

Depends on who's writing it. While on the exterior I'd have it be the shining example of peace, underneath it, I'd make it a complex and 3 dimensional city state. When writing it I would eliminate any thought of "good or evil" and just make a city. I'd also give mention of how the city takes pause and questions their strength when they hear of the flight of dragons of tolkeen who fled rather than fought...leave it open as to how many would actually stay and fight and causing the people to question the "reliability" of lazlo's dragons thus causing distrust among most creatures and dragons themselves. Maybe even have some sort of movement where there is a sort of racial movement. Basically, most SDC creatures and low MDC creatures are trying to make the city "supernatural" free. They would say things like "If we don't have dragons and other supernatural and magical creatures, CS will be less tempted to attack us, maybe even willing to talk peace", perhaps even instigated by CS spies. You'd have the opposite end of the spectrum with those who will use Tolkeen as 'proof' and begin to call that the leaders begin to summon and use demons and elementals en'mas as it is only slightly stronger than tolkeen and it's only a matter of time before Lazlo has to face not only CS, but possibly Free Quebec", this instigated perhaps by the FoM in hopes to corrupt the nation, and instigating a fight with the CS. All of this with Lazlo's leaders held in the middle.

Really, this could be a very interesting political book

[Slag]

Hey now, half of that "trilogy" was written in Virginia.



~ Josh

Can it be rewritten into English?
Great JoyJoy for you if it makes it this year.
Do you have any Adventure book(s) for the set in the works yet?

Y'all crazy. We rite reel good heer in ol' Virginny!

And no, no adventure books written yet, but I'm up if Josh is.

We'll see how things go this year in terms of getting books out. Also, as a new father time is now a really valuable resource for me.

[BookWyrm]

Good Job Singsapaugh...

wait, these books where written in new york!

NEW YORK!

Yes, I had the very same thought.
I hope not based on New Jersey's swamp.

What's wrong with New York? We got swamps. We just don't tell people about 'em.
And could we PLEASE stop with the tiny freakin' font size? I'd like to NOT squint at my screen anymore than I have to already!

[Crazy Lou]

If i don't feel like squinting, I usually just copy it into MSWORD and make the font LARGER.

[abtex]

If i don't feel like squinting, I usually just copy it into MSWORD and make the font LARGER.

I just hit the "quote" button in the corner and read small text.
But I am just lazy.

[abtex]

Good Job Singsapaugh...

wait, these books where written in new york!

NEW YORK!

Yes, I had the very same thought.
I hope not based on New Jersey's swamp.

What's wrong with New York? We got swamps. We just don't tell people about 'em.
And could we PLEASE stop with the tiny freakin' font size? I'd like to NOT squint at my screen anymore than I have to already!

OK, But where is the fun in that?

[Crazy Lou]

If i don't feel like squinting, I usually just copy it into MSWORD and make the font LARGER.

I just hit the "quote" button in the corner and read small text.
But I am just lazy.

That is probably easier...

[abtex]

Singsapaugh, any new news about your work date of maybe release?

[abtex]

Unrelated to the topic, but I had been wondering what happened to Wujick. I kept seeing references to him passing and the news of it completely passed me by. Cancer sucks and losing someone to it that you care about a lot is hard to go through. I know where they're coming from there.

My friend, Erick Wujcik, has passed on
He had has a blog or webpage once that told about what happen can not find the link.
Maybe someone else known or remembers it. Best I can do.

On a completely separate note, is there any way to petition Kevin to change the bloody colors on the press release pages? Every time I try and look, I can't see straight for five minutes after...

Copy and paste to a text editor then you can read it. Have been doing for years.

[Wooly]

This series of books has been my number 1 most anticipated release. Really would like to see them pushed forward before say a rewrite of Vampire Kingdoms.

[abtex]

I have been waiting for them too.