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Palladium system question
- Thread starter daddystabz
- Start date
I have a huge selection of RIFTS, and some Palladium Fantasy stuff. I've played a little, but quickly learned that I disliked the rules just as much as I loved the setting concepts.
As far as crunch goes... I'd put it right in line with D&D (any edition in my mind). That is.. more crunchy than WoD and less crunchy than Shdowrun. But I'd add that what was more distracting than the crnch for me is the outdated feel of the rules in general. It lacks the streamlining of core mechanics that modern game systems employ. I don't know how else to say it.
I'm also a fan of balanced systems, which Palladium is not. This was horribly onvious in RIFTS. I don't necessarily need every class balanced to a single base mind you. If they just adopted a tier structure and labeled each class with which tier it was balanced against... a GM could just as easily say which tier he or she was running and players could pick from among those classes.
As far as crunch goes... I'd put it right in line with D&D (any edition in my mind). That is.. more crunchy than WoD and less crunchy than Shdowrun. But I'd add that what was more distracting than the crnch for me is the outdated feel of the rules in general. It lacks the streamlining of core mechanics that modern game systems employ. I don't know how else to say it.
I'm also a fan of balanced systems, which Palladium is not. This was horribly onvious in RIFTS. I don't necessarily need every class balanced to a single base mind you. If they just adopted a tier structure and labeled each class with which tier it was balanced against... a GM could just as easily say which tier he or she was running and players could pick from among those classes.
daddystabz
Explorer
Robotech seems to be better than the rest. It seems to work better than the other Palladium games, given the setting.
having played RIFTS i must say that i love the setting. the rule system on the other hand is... well... just for decoration.
one thing that turned me off was the claim that the game has this huge amount of classes. and it does have an amazing amount of classes, but does it really need 6 different basic infantry private classes? not really.
in the end we felt that the rule system would be balanced if it was reduced to "get 2 toy soldiers and smash them together".
one thing that turned me off was the claim that the game has this huge amount of classes. and it does have an amazing amount of classes, but does it really need 6 different basic infantry private classes? not really.
in the end we felt that the rule system would be balanced if it was reduced to "get 2 toy soldiers and smash them together".
Spinachcat
First Post
I just ran 4 Palladium events at OrcCon this weekend (Mechanoids and Ninjas & SuperSpies) and the games were fun and easy to run and my players (mostly Palladium noobs) had a great time.
Palladium, like AD&D and many other early RPGs, really shines when you houserule them to fit your own GM style. Palladium has a strong balance mechanic - it's called the GM and the GM is expected to challenge each character and group appropriately. But Palladium was born back when Traveller, RuneQuest and AD&D ruled the earth so there are different expectations of play than modern RPGs.
Here's my three key houserules:
1) Fast and Furious
I find Palladium runs best when you run it with a comic book atmosphere and action movie sensibility by going gonzo. The core system becomes invisible in gameplay (much like OD&D and CoC) so it is important to capitalize on that and keep the game moving at very fast pace. If you bog down in rules worries, it's over.
2) Momentum of Combat
I read "Attacks per Melee" as "Actions per Round". When your Initiative comes up, you do your stuff - any movements, skill usage and attacks - and then decide how many actions you hold in reserve for defenses. You may always spend actions on defenses before your Initiative comes up, but any unused actions at the end of the round are lost and we reset all our actions for the next round. I use tokens to let people visualize and move them about like an attack / defense pool.
BTW, I give people the option to spend an action on making a called shot or just taking -3. Also, I make sure that when a specific part is hit on a vehicle, I take the same damage off the Main Body as well to keep the combat going quickly.
3) Chop that NPC in half!
I like quick, brutal combats where stuff explodes. Everything that is not a PC or PC gear gets its SDC / MDC / HP cut in half. If it was 300, it's now 150 at most and most living things are smart enough to bail when 50% of their life/defense is gone so that 300 MDC monster in the book may retreat to fight again after 75 damage in my games.
Palladium, like AD&D and many other early RPGs, really shines when you houserule them to fit your own GM style. Palladium has a strong balance mechanic - it's called the GM and the GM is expected to challenge each character and group appropriately. But Palladium was born back when Traveller, RuneQuest and AD&D ruled the earth so there are different expectations of play than modern RPGs.
Here's my three key houserules:
1) Fast and Furious
I find Palladium runs best when you run it with a comic book atmosphere and action movie sensibility by going gonzo. The core system becomes invisible in gameplay (much like OD&D and CoC) so it is important to capitalize on that and keep the game moving at very fast pace. If you bog down in rules worries, it's over.
2) Momentum of Combat
I read "Attacks per Melee" as "Actions per Round". When your Initiative comes up, you do your stuff - any movements, skill usage and attacks - and then decide how many actions you hold in reserve for defenses. You may always spend actions on defenses before your Initiative comes up, but any unused actions at the end of the round are lost and we reset all our actions for the next round. I use tokens to let people visualize and move them about like an attack / defense pool.
BTW, I give people the option to spend an action on making a called shot or just taking -3. Also, I make sure that when a specific part is hit on a vehicle, I take the same damage off the Main Body as well to keep the combat going quickly.
3) Chop that NPC in half!
I like quick, brutal combats where stuff explodes. Everything that is not a PC or PC gear gets its SDC / MDC / HP cut in half. If it was 300, it's now 150 at most and most living things are smart enough to bail when 50% of their life/defense is gone so that 300 MDC monster in the book may retreat to fight again after 75 damage in my games.
Crothian
First Post
When we did it it wasn't the scale that was the biggest problem, it was trying to represent a 3D map. We played with Veritechs so with combat always in the air or space it was impossible to do it on a flat surface.
