Why so anti-Palladium

[slaughterj]

Weeeellll... That's not quite what I said. They do threaten litigation against fans (wizards of the coast's bulletin boards have a "no conversions of palladium's games" rule for instance).

LOL, really? That's hilarious, I'm surprised they would capitulate like that, on what in most all circumstances (note, there are exceptions), is perfectly legal. Bullies are great! :\

Slaughter, an intellectual property attorney

 

[Storm Raven]

LOL, really? That's hilarious, I'm surprised they would capitulate like that, on what in most all circumstances (note, there are exceptions), is perfectly legal. Bullies are great! :\

Slaughter, an intellectual property attorney

My guess is that WotC probably believes it would win an actual suit brought by Palladium over such an issue, but doesn't think the gain they would get by provoking such litigation outweighs the headache it would cause to deal with it.

 

[kenobi65]

The missing 22% wasn't stated in the either the article or the post. So I assumed that the math was wrong. That means the Forge (www.indie-rpgs.com) caters to one of the largest game communities out there, everyone else.

Mmmmmmaybe. Keep in mind that the missing 22% *also* includes all the smaller d20 publishers.

And, I might argue that "everyone else" isn't one game community, but a group of different communities, linked largely by the fact that they *aren't* playing one of the major game systems.

 

[Davelozzi]

Seen the book at FLGS...first page, by Kevin S “1988 before the X-Files, before Buffy, Before Vampire: the Masquerade there was Beyond the Supernatural!”

Reminds me of the ad for Willow that I saw in Dragon sometime in the past couple of years that was along the lines of "Before there were hobbits, there was Willow"

Now, that's a stretch.

 

[TDRandall]

Well, I'm coming into this thread late and really just skimmed the ones before. Perhaps worse, my history with it is rather old - if they've made any significant changes "recently" (last decade?) then I've missed it.

First, I don't hate Palladium. Just could never find anyone to play it with. Considered HERO, but didn't want to go RIFTS.

I remember having a problem with people get hit on any roll over a 4. Yes, armor ratings compensated significantly, but I don't remember that anyone got bonuses for avoiding hits if they were extremely quick/dextrous which is what you would want for a rogue/swashbuckler type game.

I also specifically remember being bummed at the 15 level classes. Perhaps they were meant to show the progression and could go on for infinite levels, but it wasn't specifically declared anywhere so I presumed that they capped off.

I remember liking the magic somewhat - you could know as many spells as you found and were limited in the number you could cast each day. I liked the concept of the circles and wards, but IIRC they were still somewhat ill-defined.

 

[Crothian]

Er, Hero pre-dated both of them, and is still going strong.

Hero has also had more then one edition. They stay current.

 

[slaughterj]

My guess is that WotC probably believes it would win an actual suit brought by Palladium over such an issue, but doesn't think the gain they would get by provoking such litigation outweighs the headache it would cause to deal with it.

Perhaps. But for a large company like WotC, if they just called Palladium's bluff, it's unlikely Palladium would actually do anything, because if they got a negative court ruling out of it, then their ability to threaten others would be significantly diminished.

 

[Crothian]

I remember having a problem with people get hit on any roll over a 4. Yes, armor ratings compensated significantly, but I don't remember that anyone got bonuses for avoiding hits if they were extremely quick/dextrous which is what you would want for a rogue/swashbuckler type game.

Everyone could have a dodge/parry roll and that made it more difficult to be hit. If you aren't actively defending yourself, then you were really easy to be hit.

 

[Sammael]

Yes. However, parrying/dodging (IIRC) reduced the number of things you could do in the following round.

 

[Crothian]

Yes. However, parrying/dodging (IIRC) reduced the number of things you could do in the following round.

correct, you only had so many actions. Many people got an auto parry, but the auto dodge was much harder to aquire. the game was designed to use actions for both defense and offense is what it seemed to me.