Palladium and other fantasy RPGs...

[JoeGKushner]

I haven't played Palladium Fantasy in a long time.

In short, it has a lot of elements similiar to 1st edition AD&D which has some similiarity to 3rd edition.

Lots of races, different take on armor and some other good stuff involved with it. Combat tended to bog down due to everyone having automatic parry.

Originally it was hardly supported with about four sourcebooks, a screen and an adventure.

Second edition added Bill Coffin to the line up and the books were fantastic. I was seriously considering another mega-campaign with it. The books were damn good and I wish Bill would join the d20 side.

 

[Aaron L]

There is a setting? I played palladium for maybe 5 years, before I played D&D, and I never knew there was any type of setting buried in those books. I was just so swamped by wolf men, bear men, night elves, etc. that my elven paladin (palladin?) got lost in the shuffle.

Oh, and don't spellcasters get to cast a spell for every melee attack they get? I am almost certain thats the way it is, having just read through the book out of nostalgia a week or so ago.

The greatest part was that every time we got knocked unconscious, our GM had us roll on the Random Insanity Table, and we got such great results as getting knocked out and waking up a hemophiliac. (apparently hemophilia is an insanity)

And then there were all the times we set a rabbit trap to catch dinner, only to find an Old Kingdom Black Bear in the trap when we checked, which killed us all. Happened about 5 times, too.

And don't expect to gain any levels. We were 1st level for 3 years. Playing once a week.

Rifts is friggin' rad, however.

 

[the Jester]

Well, I'd also agree that PFRPG has a great setting- there's tons of detail on it in a multitude of sourcebooks.

However, I also have to say that, in my experience, long-lasting PFRP campaigns end up sucking because of rules issues. EVERY TIME. I recommend using the setting with a different rule set- convert everything to another system! It's a lot of work, but less work than it would be to rebalance the system.

The problem is that not everyone has fun when their characters suffer from wide power discrepancies. It's easy to say 'the DM just forbids the stuff that doesn't work,' but when there are a bazillion books to wade through and judge, you don't end up with time to game. And if you try to do it as you go along you end up with the ol' player comments like:

"If I'd known that, I wouldn't have played x/taken x/whatever."

End result: dissatisfaction.

Again, the setting is great, but switch to a different system.

 

[sfgiants]

I will agree that the settings are often quite interesting. But as has already been said the rules become an issue and overwhelm the setting. I GM'd rifts with a group of 8 players for two years straight (once a week) and while they enjoyed the setting it was a ton of work for me to keep every player happy. I don't blame the system for all of it, but a lot of it. Only one power gamer in the group led to me having to restrict tons of options...As has been said a vagabond (or even standard soldier) doesn't compare in a fight with most mages or a Glitter Boy. They can't contribute in a meaningful way (including in non-combat ways). Also, 2 years of weekly sessions and we were only at lvl 6. Scary.

 

[(Psi)SeveredHead]

Good story-line.

Bad rules. Sorry, but they were really complicated, and the stat-buying system was the worst.

You always roll your stats in order. IME people usually have a character concept before your roll stats. There is no point buy system. Having a stat of less than 16 gives hardly any benefits (sound like 2e?).

To top it off, I have never actually rolled a character with lower Strength than Dex. My DM also practically forced me to take all the physical skills (I only ever wanted Boxing) which just inflated Strength even more.

Oh yeah, I could play a troll or ogre without any kind of ECL.

 

[hellbender]

You know....... the more I think about it, the more sense that conversion makes. 3(.5) already has everything you need. Gnolls could be wolfen, not chaotic evil (as the thirteen tribes are organized similar to ancient Rome and expansionist). Awaken bears and make them bipedal for Bearmen of the north. Really not a bad idea at all. And while 1e PFRPG was missing a bit of story (although the two Northern books had a storyline) 2e PFRPG (with Coffin) is much, much better. Sadly, Bill Coffin, on rpgnet, said that he was getting out of game design. Something about pay scale, like he enjoys eating AND paying bills at the same time.


hellbender

 

[Sejs]

Setting: Cool.


System: Liquid A*s.


To it's credit, however, Palladium Fantasy didn't seem to fall prey to the same Bigger And Better Every Book syndrome that consumed Rifts.

You're the only one that comes screaming "it sucks sucks SUCKS... did I tell you it sucks?"

By the way, did I tell you it sucks?

 

[Particle_Man]

I heard that there are fantasy non d20 systems that have good worlds and whose rules do not suck.

Ars Magica, Harn, etc.

And there are plenty of d20 settings I like (midnight and kalamar among them).

But having played Rifts, if Palladium fantasy is anything like it, then I would be in the "the rules suck, convert the rules to something like d20, or at least something that does not suck" category.

And I really wish that Kevin would let people do a rifts d20 game.

 

[Korin Tempest]

two words - doubling sword... one of the coolest yet most broken weapons i've ever seen...

 

[Foundry of Decay]

If your truly uninterested in the ruleset, the Warhammer Fantasy RPG books, and some of the Mordenhiem books are some of the most detailed I've come by. A LOT of detail has gone into those books.

Please note, I'm not being smarmy here. I'm simply trying to help, since I gather that the original poster is trying to find a game world that is very well written.

Palladium has an alright world. If rules seriously aren't what you'll be worrying about, you will find a lot of unique concepts in Palladium. However In my personal opinion, you might want to re-name some of the places, as it looks as if someone randomly threw darts at a chart of the alphabet to name some of the towns and sites across the world.

For detail, you'll have to buy a lot of world books. I have 3 or 4 books that are pretty decently detailed, including cities and such, and I've only scratched the surface.

My advice is that if your looking for a very well done world, go with Warhammer, though since they are expensive books and I think there would be a few to pick up and such, Palladium is a good runner up, as long as you don't mind the odd silly name and such, and perhaps having to buy a good deal of 'site' books as well. Your best bet is to nab the setting books, and use 1e DND rules (Which you can find for cheap in the used section of a game store). 1e was terribly fast, and had none of the little niggly things that you might worry about with 3e.