Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Don’t get too crazy out there today, but have fun. ;)
As I wrote in a Murmur from the Megaverse I posted yesterday, I’ve been buried in the Thundercloud Galaxy™ manuscript, tweaking and writing away. My focus is to make this book epic, and get it to the printer by the end of next week. There are a lot of opportunities for unique and wild adventures in this Dimension Book, and we want to make sure all the possibilities are covered. The book may be different from what some people may be expecting, but I think the end result will knock your socks off.
When I work on a book, I more or less go from front to back, but on Thundercloud Galaxy™ I’ve been working Erick Wujcik style, jumping from section to section as the ideas hit me. That means I’m working on something like 7-9 files at a time, all in various states of completion, but none of them quite finished. I’m finally at a point where I can start wrapping up sections and hand them to Alex and Wayne for final editing. The Colony Creation section is much expanded, but should be finished today. Tomorrow, I hope to be done with the Monster Creation Tables and maybe the section on the mysterious Exiles. I expect to have a good sized chunk of the new Alien R.C.C.s ready for editing over the weekend – there are 20 of them plus new information about the Dominators, Gene-Tech and Elder Races. There are now a ton of adventure suggestions, adventure tables and wild opportunities you would expect from an unhinged setting like the Thundercloud Galaxy™. I know this title is delayed (which has set back everything else in our schedule, grrrr), but it will be worth the wait. We’ll be working through the weekend to wrap this bad boy up.
The disappearance of Kevin Siembieda. Like I said, I have been so absorbed in my work on Thundercloud Galaxy™ that I have been absent from the Palladium Website. As a result, I have not been posting Murmurs from the Megaverse (until yesterday), I’ve been MIA on Facebook, nor have I been answering my private messages. I’ve even been dodging some telephone calls, or keeping them short, as I’ve been pounding away every second I have on Thundercloud Galaxy™ (okay, only 80% of my time has been spent on the book these past couple weeks). I’ve been putting in so many hours (8:00 AM till 11:00 PM most nights) that I even had a mini-burnout on Tuesday and had to go home at 5:00 PM to crash, rest and get some sleep. I’m fine. I just pushed myself a little too hard. We need to keep new product coming to keep everyone happy, so I’m feeling the pressure.
Online sales were pretty lousy this week. Without a new release in six weeks, sales went from excellent in February to in the toilet the past two weeks. I hope the release of four popular out of print titles and the Rifts® Baseball Cap next week will help boost sales. Of course, we’ll see sales rebound in April with the release of The Rifter® #54 (another great issue) and Thundercloud Galaxy™ around April 12. (I hope to send Thundercloud to the printer by the end of next week.)
BACK IN PRINT: The following out of prints books will be back in print next week (scheduled for March 24 release):
- Rifts® Baseball Cap
- Rifts® Dimension Book™ 6: Three Galaxies™
- Rifts® Black Vault™
- Rifts® Mercenaries™
- Aliens Unlimited™ – A Heroes Unlimited™ sourcebook
I just spoke to the printer and all of these titles are on schedule. In fact, we might get them as SOON as Monday!
UPDATE: The Rifter® #54. Wayne is working away on The Rifter®, the cover, by Mike Leonard, is done and is a fitting tribute to the end of the long running Hammer of the Forge™ series. Artwork has been assigned and is in the process of being drawn right now.
UPDATE: Palladium Website. As I think most of you know, we’ve been busy working on giving the Palladium website a new look. Our goal is to make it look great, offer more functionality, be easy to use, and be fun. Rex Barkdoll is the chief designer and has been a dynamo on this project. Thom Bartold has been working hard on it too. While Wayne and I weigh in on issues of look, form and function, as well as a number of technical and content issues, Rex and Thom have been doing all the heavy lifting on this project and they are kicking . . . um, they are doing a great job. Rex has been a godsend. Not only is he very talented and hard working, but he’s a great guy. The new website is really getting there, but there are still more tests, tweaks and fine tuning before it can go live, but we are getting close. A lot of content changes and additions have to be done too, but those may be more of a work in progress. I want to say the site will be up by my birthday, April 2nd, but I do NOT want to rush the guys. Besides, with the Creators Conference starting April 7, and with Wayne and I still banging away on the next two book releases, I doubt we’ll have time to get the necessary content done by then. Whew. A lot of activity going on at Palladium these days and all of it good.
UPDATE: Creators Conference. It is coming up too fast. Where does the time go? We are all very excited about this event and expect good things to come from it.
TODAY is the last day for those attending the Conference to reserve a hotel room at the special rate. If you haven’t done so, do it today.
UPDATE: Colt the Outlander™/Rifts® Crossover Part Two. Wayne and I reviewed and approved the final version of the Colt/Rifts® comic crossover in Heavy Metal® Magazine. It looks great. Plus it means something special for me as Part Two is dedicated to “the memory of two fallen fathers,” my Dad, Henry Siembieda and Dante J. Pacella. Thank you for doing that, RC and Dominic, it means a lot to me. We will let you know what issue the strip is to appear in as soon as we know, but it should be soon. The Rifts® Juicer story will also appear in an upcoming Colt the Outlander™ Collection from Heavy Metal®.
UPDATE: Hammer of the Forge™. Most people seem to like the idea of collecting the Hammer of the Forge™ and presenting it as a novelization with a game section featuring the stats for key characters, aliens, weapons, and other elements from the Forge series. It’s an idea Wayne Smith and some fans have suggested and I’m thinking about. Is this a product you would buy?
UPDATE: Rifts® Lemuria. John Zeleznik submitted his tight pencil drawing and color sketch of the cover. Wow, is all I can say.
UPDATE: Robotech® New Generation™ Sourcebook. Apollo Okamura should be working on the cover. I spoke to Tommy Yune and he’s excited about the upcoming book and our ideas for additional sourcebooks.
UPDATE: Kathy Simmons is feeling better and plans to work on a couple of new creations this weekend for her online store, queenofghouls.com. As most of you know, Kathy creates and sells one of a kind, life-sized Halloween props of zombies and other monsters.
UPDATE: Alex Marciniszyn. Alex and family continue to hang tough.
I think that’s it for now. Have a fun weekend and game on.
– Kevin Siembieda, Publisher
Aliens Unlimited™ brings alien beings to your Earth-based Heroes Unlimited™ setting and enables you to take your Earth heroes to alien worlds. This sourcebook has everything you need to launch an alien based campaign, galactic adventures or introduce alien invaders, villains, heroes and campaign ideas.
Aliens Unlimited™ makes the perfect resource and companion to the Thundercloud Galaxy™ or any of the Rifts® Dimension Books and Minion War™ series. Looking for some new space aliens, villains and monsters to add to your Thundercloud Galaxy™ or Minion War™ campaign? Need some unique Splugorth slaves? Demon henchmen? Take a look at Aliens Unlimited™ (and the Aliens Unlimited™ Galaxy Guide™ companion sourcebook); easy to adapt.
A guide to the Three Galaxies, this book takes a look at dozens of solar systems, notable planets, select alien races, people, civilizations and monsters, as well as space anomalies, spaceships and more. This is another sourcebook that is ideal for campaigns involving the Minion War™, the Thundercloud Galaxy™, Phase World® and adventures in the Three Galaxies.
For generations it has been rumored the Coalition States maintains a Top Secret facility where it locks away and stores all the magic weapons and items it confiscates from adventurers and mages. The CS, of course, denies these rumors, but they are true. And the truth is revealed for the first time in this epic sourcebook packed with secrets and magic items. Do your characters dare to rob the Black Vault?
This fan-favorite sourcebook presents everything you need to create and run a mercenary company on Rifts Earth. It includes creation rules, new Occupational Character Classes such as the Professional Smuggler, Thief, Safecracker, Spy, Bounty Hunter, Master Assassin, and others, plus a treasure trove of mercenary weapons, vehicles, gear and arms dealers.
Back by popular demand. A black Rifts® Logo on a khaki baseball cap with black trim. Looks great and fans love it! Makes a great gift.
Gold print on a rich black, faux velvet material. Looks gorgeous, a sturdy and well made drawstring bag. A big 7x9 inches, can hold a lot of dice.
The Thundercloud Galaxy™ is a place of unparalleled adventure. It is where the Dominators once thrived and where the godlike beings were (mostly) destroyed. The people of the Thundercloud have suffered great adversity and more than one mass extinction, yet somehow the galaxy seems to have more habitable planets and diverse life forms than anywhere else in the Three Galaxies. Strange beings like the feline Shing, insectoid CheDive, and Whetu, who defy description, and monsters like the devouring Yboor are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg when it comes to life in this galaxy. It is also home to the Bushi Federation and the Splugorth Kingdom of Desslyth, and is a playground for space pirates, raiders, the mysterious Exiles and the dark forces of the Minion War.
As the civilizations of the Anvil and Corkscrew Galaxies scramble to colonize the Thundercloud Galaxy in a mad rush to grab as much as they can, they are beginning to realize the galaxy holds more riches, beauty, horrors and secrets than anyone has ever imagined, making it a place of exploration, discovery, adventure and treachery like no other.
Thundercloud Galaxy™ is a perfect companion to the rest of the Phase World®/Three Galaxies™ based Dimension Books as well as the Minion War™ series. Players can be pirates, raiders, brigands or hired guns, or they may be explorers, adventurers, Spacers, or any number of heroes trying to protect the colonists or the indigenous people of countless worlds and colonies. The possibilities are truly limited only by your imagination.
Publisher Kevin Siembieda vows the book will go to the printer by the end of March, which means a mid-April ship date. We apologize for the delay, but as is Palladium’s policy, we will not release a book until we think it is worthy of our audience, and that means epic source material, adventure and fun.
This is going to be another landmark issue of The Rifter® filled with epic source material, exotic places, strange critters, adventure settings and ideas.
The Rifter® is your doorway to unlimited imagination and numerous Palladium role-playing worlds. It offers new heroes, powers, weapons, magic and adventure for your games. It presents new villains, monsters and dangers to battle, and new ideas to consider.
The Rifter® #54 includes:
Kevin Siembieda is reorganizing, tweaking, expanding and updating one of the most popular Rifts® World Books ever published: Vampire Kingdoms™. This will include some new artwork and an expanded page count. The book will be updated and expanded in much the same way as Kevin did with Rifts® Sourcebook One a few years ago. Best of all, it will be accompanied by the Rifts® Vampires Sourcebook™.
Trouble is stirring in the Vampire Kingdoms as ambitious vampire lords, ladies and misanthropes seek to expand their power to dominate more mortal life forms.
Written by Kevin Siembieda and a handpicked selection of other writers, this sourcebook explores the vampires of Mexico and their kingdoms in ways you never imagined. Tons of new data, adventure ideas and revelations.
This Robotech® sourcebook will be an early 2011 release.
At last, the underwater realm of Lemuria. The people and history of Lemuria, new magic, sea herbs and healing, sea monsters, and more.
The Minion War spills across Rifts Earth, where demons and infernals hope to recruit allies and use the Rifts as gateways of destruction. Their influence shakes things up across the planet, especially at locations where demons and Deevils already have a strong presence. More details to follow, but for now, ‘nuff said.
Data about the chaos and madness of the early days of the Great Cataclysm, and the brave men and women who tried to stem the tide of destruction and save lives, the First Responders.
Armageddon Unlimited™ is the ultimate good vs evil setting and adventure. The fate of the world hangs in the balance and only you can stop its destruction as demons and Deevils fight for control of the Earth and bringing about the end of life as we know it.
Armageddon Unlimited™ is more than an epic world-saving adventure, it is also a sourcebook jam-packed with new powers, magic, weapons and Power Categories that can be incorporated into any Heroes Unlimited™ campaign. This book can be used as a standalone adventure sourcebook for Heroes Unlimited™ or as a pivotal plot in an expansive Minion War™ campaign. Get a free sneak preview of the book from DriveThruRPG.com.
This is a great resource for getting out of print Palladium titles and other select books. We’ve made 90 titles available as PDF digital downloads from DriveThruRPG.com. This is a great way to try Palladium products and get access to out of print RPG source material. Some notable titles include.
- Splicers® RPG
- Beyond the Supernatural™ RPG, First Edition Rules.
- Boxed Nightmares™ for BTS, First Edition Rules.
- Nightbane® Book Four: Shadows of Light™.
- The Mechanoids® RPG and The Mechanoid Invasion® RPG Trilogy.
- Palladium Fantasy RPG®, First Edition Rules and select 1st Edition sourcebooks.
- After the Bomb® RPG and sourcebooks.
- The Rifter® issues 1-48.
- The Best of The Rifter®
- Deluxe Revised RECON® RPG and Advanced RECON® Sourcebook.
- And more – go to DriveThruRPG.com and check ‘em out.
- Armageddon Unlimited™ – New – Available now!
- The Rifter® #53 – New – Available now!
- Rifts® World Book 20: Canada – Back in print – Available now
- Rifts® Dark Conversions – Back in print – Available now
- Palladium Fantasy RPG® – Back in print – Available now
- Rifts® Game Master Guide – Back in print – Available now
- Rifts® World Book 5: Triax & The NGR – Back in print – Available now
- Rifts® Bionics Sourcebook – Back in print – Available now
- Rifts® China One – Back in print – Available now
- Rifts® Megaverse® Builder – Back in print – Available now
Note: All items listed below should be available by March 24.
– Rifts® Baseball Cap – BACK IN STOCK
– Rifts® Dimension Book™ 6: Three Galaxies™ – BACK IN PRINT
- Rifts® Black Vault™ – BACK IN PRINT
– Rifts® Mercenaries™ – BACK IN PRINT
- Aliens Unlimited™ – A Heroes Unlimited™ sourcebook – BACK IN PRINT
- Rifts® Dimension Book™ 14: Thundercloud Galaxy™ – New – April 12
- The Rifter® #54 – New – April 12.
– Additional titles back in print.
- Robotech® New Generation™ Sourcebook (tentative)
- Rifts® WB One: Vampire Kingdoms™, Expanded & Updated
- Rifts® Book of Magic (back in print)
- Rifts® Vampires Sourcebook™ – New
- Rifts® World Book™: Lemuria – New
- The Rifter® #55 – New
- Rifts® Megaverse® in Flames (Minion War™ crossover) – New
- Rifts® Chaos Earth™: First Responders Sourcebook (as soon as we can slot it in)
- Dead Reign™ Sourcebook Three
- Robotech® UEEF Marines and other Robotech® sourcebooks.
- Rifts® sourcebooks
- Rifts® Chaos Earth™ sourcebooks
- Palladium Fantasy®: Mysteries of Magic™ Two & Three
- Palladium Fantasy® other sourcebooks
- Warpath™ Urban Jungle RPG
- And other good stuff. Lots of other good stuff!
Start planning for Halloween early as Palladium’s very own Kathy Simmons will start to offer her 2011 selection of life-sized Halloween props (most are 6 feet or taller) that are to die for.
Each is an all-weather, life-sized Halloween prop that can handle rain and snow, and is a one-of-a-kind work of art (no two are exactly the same). Each looks frighteningly “real.” All come apart and fold down to slightly larger than a king-size pillow for easy storage. Comes with easy instructions, a plastic storage bag, and the lawn stake to stand it up in your front yard. Indoor stand sold separately.
Types of “Ghouls” include: Zombies (all kinds!), killer clowns, wizards, witches, devils, grave ghouls, scarecrows, executioners, mad doctors, deadly nurses, vampires, werewolves, and more. Kathy’s also now offering an array of hand-painted Halloween signs, signs with heads and bodies hanging from them, witch’s brewing pots, Halloween centerpieces and more. Best of all, her high quality creations are much more affordable and imaginative than most competitors or mass produced items in a store, making them affordable Halloween fun.
If you think the photos online look good, you should see them in person. A typical “ghoul,” as she calls her creations, costs $129-$259. You can see some of her work at her Queen of Ghouls™ Ebay store – queenofghouls.com.
© Copyright 2011 Palladium Books Inc. All rights reserved.
Robotech® and Robotech® The Shadow Chronicles® are Registered Trademarks of Harmony Gold USA, Inc.
This press release may be reprinted, reposted, linked and shared for the sole purpose of advertising, promotion and sales solicitation.
Rifts®, The Rifter®, RECON®, Splicers®, Palladium Books®, The Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game®, Phase World®, Nightbane®, Megaverse®, The Mechanoids®, The Mechanoid Invasion®, Coalition Wars® and After the Bomb® are Registered Trademarks of Palladium Books Inc. Beyond the Supernatural™, Chaos Earth, Coalition States, Dead Reign, Heroes Unlimited, Ninjas & Superspies, Minion War, Mysteries of Magic, SAMAS, Thundercloud Galaxy, Three Galaxies, Vampire Kingdoms, Warpath, and other published book titles, names, slogans and likenesses are trademarks of Palladium Books Inc., and Kevin Siembieda.