Silvercat Moonpaw
Adventurer
Sorry, but I do need more information than that. Because that's the description I get for more than half the settings I've ever heard about.
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Running Palladium Fantasy RPG
- Thread starter tylerthehobo
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Ed_Laprade
Adventurer
The (original) PFRPG is still my favorite RPG, and one of the groups I played with used it often. (Now if only we could get back together!)
As for the world? There's the (sorta evil) Western Empire (Human), the Eastern Territory, The Great Northern Wilderness (Wolfen Empire), The Old (Kobolds, Orcs, etc.) Kingdom, Timiro Kingdom (Humans), Land of the South Winds and Yin-Sloth Jungles, Ophid's Grasslands, the Baalgor Wastelands (Orcs), etc. Although reading about it might lead one to believe that its a very humanocentric world (or continent, anyway), it isn't. A glance at the population percentages given with the map leaves one wondering how they've hung on for so long. (And the Wolfen, at least, are trying to do something about it!)
And that's just off the top of my head with a peek at the map to make sure I got the names right.
As for the world? There's the (sorta evil) Western Empire (Human), the Eastern Territory, The Great Northern Wilderness (Wolfen Empire), The Old (Kobolds, Orcs, etc.) Kingdom, Timiro Kingdom (Humans), Land of the South Winds and Yin-Sloth Jungles, Ophid's Grasslands, the Baalgor Wastelands (Orcs), etc. Although reading about it might lead one to believe that its a very humanocentric world (or continent, anyway), it isn't. A glance at the population percentages given with the map leaves one wondering how they've hung on for so long. (And the Wolfen, at least, are trying to do something about it!)
And that's just off the top of my head with a peek at the map to make sure I got the names right.
Well going from memory, It is many years since I read the source books.
In the beginning was the Old Ones, you know, Cthulu, Thoth, and so forth and they made the world their plaything but the Dragons and Titans rebelled and you had a big war.
Death and destruction on a cosmic scale, in the end the Old Ones were imprisioned and the Dragons and Titians were pretty much anihilliated.
Then the rise of the Elf and Dwarf kingdoms, but they had a falling out and more collapse of civilisation. Parts of the world still getting over the fallout of some of those battles.
Now there is a decaying and very corrupt (lots of demon summoning/barganing) human empire, a couple of strong human kingdoms and a rising Wolfen empire and some desolation between filled with monsters and the blasted remains of the Elven and Dwarf cities.
Lots of gods, all organised in to pantheons and so forth.
Treebore
First Post
You have many races to play, not only the wolfen and coyle, but changelings, pixies, and many others. Then there are the classes, Knights, Diabolists, Summoners, Wizards, and many more. Most definitely not Tolkien. Cthulhu is definitely an element of influence in terms of the gods. Now Paladium does have Balrogs, so they weren't afraid to take cool monsters from any setting, even Tolkien.
This setting definitely is not Greyhawk, Faerun, Aeroth, Eberron, Athas, or any other setting TSR/WOTC has done. The closest setting, in my opinion, would be the Wilderlands, but Paladium's detailed their whole world. All of it. Not just a continent, but all continents, giving you a wide variety of flavors from jungle settings, to desert, european, wolfen, etc...
This setting definitely is not Greyhawk, Faerun, Aeroth, Eberron, Athas, or any other setting TSR/WOTC has done. The closest setting, in my opinion, would be the Wilderlands, but Paladium's detailed their whole world. All of it. Not just a continent, but all continents, giving you a wide variety of flavors from jungle settings, to desert, european, wolfen, etc...
jdrakeh
Front Range Warlock
A slight nitpick. The Old Ones of Palldium Fantasy are not Lovecraft's Great Old Ones but, rather, deities inspired by them (and the work of Charles Fort, apparently).
As for you, Silvercatmoonpaw2, the wikipedia entry for Palladium Fantasy is very detailed and may give you what you want.
It was the 1st edition rules I cut my teeth on, and I also ran with that rule set for our group game.
As stated in many of the previous posts Palladium leaves alot of the rules up to the GM, it has a basic frame work for the general items but uses most of the 273 pages of the main book for fluff.
A lot of the level progression and class abilities lack balance, and the races are so unbalanced that most players that don't choose to be one of the demi races will be at a serious disadvantage during game play.
The layout of the main rule book also lacked a cohesive set up of the rules information, often leaving the reader to have to hunt for it.
But the game made up for it in flavor ten fold, giving you a lot of options in wich to steer the direction of the campaign you wanted to present to your players.
While the areas in the game are given rich racial and historical background, they left a lot of it open for you and your players to explore.
With the release of 2nd ed D&D wich most of my friends I were not huge fans of, we needed an alternative and Palladium definatley fit the bill.
pawsplay
Hero
Magic items are pretty rare. Most PCs won't have any, at least early in their careers. Creating a magic item? A character nearing retirement might, just maybe, discover some of those secrets and retire from the campaign in order to work on the enchantment. Most magic items are relics; the rest are made by NPCs, mostly elves or polymorphed dragons, who specialize in collecting, making, and reselling items.
It has the traditional devils and demons, law versus chaos, although the conceptions are Kevin's own. There are soul-sucking runeswords, the mere rumor of which can stir kings and heroes to a frenzy. The main pantheon are the Egyptian deities. Another major influence is the Dragonwright cult, which due to the activities of its evil members has gotten a bad reputation.
Technology is solidly 14th - 16th century or so, minus gunpowder. The setting has psionics sprinkled here and there. Ancient empires abound.
One adventure I remember has the PCs encounter a powerful elven wizard who is seeking immortality. He has made some headway, at the cost of his sanity. PCs can enter his magic circle if they wish, and have the knowledge to activate it. The results are likely unpleasant, but it's theoretically possible to get a reasonable approximation of ageless immortality.
There are some wonderful touches. The Yeeks are pderodactyl like creatures, which happen to be extinct; all that remain are their reanimated bodies, used as steeds by ancient magicians. Shapechanging dragon-men, quasi-demonic Worms of Taut, cold-breathing ice giants, all sorts of goodies.
At the same time, you won't be bored running a could of errant knights and a scout tracking down bandits and orcs. My last campaign featured a wolfen longbowman, a kobold shaman, and an elven paladin, hot on the trail of an infernal witch; the unlikely trio stumbled onto a plot that would bring the entire region under the rule of diabolic cultists.
Whereas Tolkien is Anglo-Saxon, Palladium tends more toward the overtly gothic. It's decidedly in the swords-and-sorcery genre, in the fashion of the Jack Vance, Poul Anderson, Michael Moorcock, and L. Sprague de Camp. Despite the prevalence of tangible evil, the setting lacks D&D's very literal treatment of alignments. While some things are clearly inimical to humanoid life, there is very little in the way of pure, metaphysical evil, and certainly nothing that can be identified as pure, metaphysical good.
It has the traditional devils and demons, law versus chaos, although the conceptions are Kevin's own. There are soul-sucking runeswords, the mere rumor of which can stir kings and heroes to a frenzy. The main pantheon are the Egyptian deities. Another major influence is the Dragonwright cult, which due to the activities of its evil members has gotten a bad reputation.
Technology is solidly 14th - 16th century or so, minus gunpowder. The setting has psionics sprinkled here and there. Ancient empires abound.
One adventure I remember has the PCs encounter a powerful elven wizard who is seeking immortality. He has made some headway, at the cost of his sanity. PCs can enter his magic circle if they wish, and have the knowledge to activate it. The results are likely unpleasant, but it's theoretically possible to get a reasonable approximation of ageless immortality.
There are some wonderful touches. The Yeeks are pderodactyl like creatures, which happen to be extinct; all that remain are their reanimated bodies, used as steeds by ancient magicians. Shapechanging dragon-men, quasi-demonic Worms of Taut, cold-breathing ice giants, all sorts of goodies.
At the same time, you won't be bored running a could of errant knights and a scout tracking down bandits and orcs. My last campaign featured a wolfen longbowman, a kobold shaman, and an elven paladin, hot on the trail of an infernal witch; the unlikely trio stumbled onto a plot that would bring the entire region under the rule of diabolic cultists.
Whereas Tolkien is Anglo-Saxon, Palladium tends more toward the overtly gothic. It's decidedly in the swords-and-sorcery genre, in the fashion of the Jack Vance, Poul Anderson, Michael Moorcock, and L. Sprague de Camp. Despite the prevalence of tangible evil, the setting lacks D&D's very literal treatment of alignments. While some things are clearly inimical to humanoid life, there is very little in the way of pure, metaphysical evil, and certainly nothing that can be identified as pure, metaphysical good.
Andor
First Post
Yeah, that one always annoyed me. The fluff says rune weapons are unbelievably rare and kings will give up their kingdoms just to possess one. The actual treasure tables imply the existence of thousands of the stupid things, and sure enough every 3rd NPC has one.
My favorite magic item was the chaos sword from the short adventure in the original book. It was a short sword that rolled a backgammon doubling dice for damage. 2 to 64 points per hit.
tylerthehobo
Explorer
Thanks for all the context and information that folks have shared. I similarly asked for feedback when starting RuneQuest a while's back, and the experience of my fellow EnWorlders was very valuable. Thanks again!
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