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Message: <blockquote data-quote="aramis erak" data-source="post: 8807575" data-attributes="member: 6779310">I'm going out on a limb here... as I have a few dislikes about Palladium...  but the early version of the system is generally rather good.Palladium's The Mechanoids (TM) and The Mechanoid Invasion (TMI). (2nd and 1st editions of the Gideon E setting, respectively.) The setting is well expressed, the rules are quite playable, the art is consistent in tone and quality. It's a high combat, implacable enemy, fight or die setting. (I am explicitly not discussing the RIFTS adaptation; I think people needlessly pan Palladium's engine; it is simple, dual mechanic, playable, and cinematic in tone, including dodging bullets and lots of missing the target...Attributes are scaled a bit differently than D&D - I have an issue with how the 4th die is triggered, but not that it's got a means of doing so: 3d6, in line. Any that rolled a 16, 17, or 18 is given an additional 1d6. (This is my #1 gripe. Solution? If all listed dice — as rovers don't roll 3d6 for all atts — for that attribute are the same, roll one extra) Attribute mods only happen for high (16+) attributes.  (Gripe #2 - I like attributes to matter more.)Mechanic 1 is skill use: 1d100 ≤ skill rating. One has to read all the skills to find that, however. (PAV, PGV, and  PPT in TM; WP in TMI.)Mechanic 2 is combat skill use. 1d20 + skill modifier; 5+ is a hit. If the roll is under the Armor Rating (AR) it hits the armor; if over, it skips the armor. If the target has actions left, they can try an active defense: Dodge (Both), or vs melee attacks, Parry. Dodge: Forfeit next attack, and roll 1d20+mods ≥ Attacker's to-hit die.Parry: do not forfeit next, otherwise like dodge.Not obvious, but built in, most PCs get 1 free dodge per turn.Hits to armor deplete its SDC; if it's run out, the remainder pass through to the wearer.It's use of PE as the base for hit points is a great way to keep the damage dice low, yet give them teeth. Damages are pretty much D&D compatible... noting that typical weapons are "blasters" in the 2d6 to 4d6 range... that all OCCs add 1d6 HP per level makes levels all that much more equal across classes. (Something that RIFTS changes...)Character gen is 1980-standard: roll atts in order, pick class (OCC - Occupational Character Class), note abilities. Unlike 1980 standard, it expresses these almost exclusively as discrete skills, and it gives elective skill selections. All characters' skills advance at the same rate by skill; specific OCCs have one-time bonuses to its core skills. (Gripe #3: lockstep advancement. Easily houseruled.) Advancement is  by level-up, with increasing cost per level, but flat rate experience awards based upon relative difficulty of encounters. I love the experience point awards table. I've used it in D&D (BX & Cyclopedia) as an alternate for when I want to make combat less important in D&D. 25 XP for a "clever but futile" idea? Yup!Mechanoids also lacks the later MegaDamage concept; all the Mechanoids are SDC armor on very wimpy HP critters.TM and TMI also lack the Personal SDC... [SPOILER="digression on PSDC in Robotech"]TM and TMI both give just HP and worn armor SDC. So, a starting PC has 3 to 30 HP, usually around 14, and typical weapons doing double damage to HP on success (explicit choice on double number of dice or double rolled on standard number of dice)... it takes 2-3 melee attacks to drop a foe. But only 1-2 attacks with a pistol to put down most starting PCs.Later Palladium games give a number of non-combat skills a boost to "Physical SDC" (more often dubbed Personal SDC, since it's the form people have, which leads later games' players to lean towards the "Full Physical Package" in elective skills - Body Building (10 PSDC), Boxing (3d6 PSDC), Wrestling (4d6 PSDC), Gymnastics (3d6 PSDC). Robotech also gives 20 to 30, by class. So, a starting Robotech PC has PE+1d6 HP (so 4 to 30 HP at level 1) - this doubles to triples the damage needed to drop a human target. It also eats up all the electives with the Full Physical Package - most Palladium games are conflict-heavy. So Robotech PCs can often take upwards of 50 points of damage before dropping.IMO, Robotech is where Palladium goes wrong; adding the physical SDC and MDC are both problems that lead to Palladium being seen as a munchkin's game of choice. [/SPOILER]TMI launched Palladium Books as a company... with good reason, as it's a solid game. Just be warned: it was printed on cheap newsprint. and most copies suffer medium to severe acid migration, rendering the pages red-brown, and the ink is cheap stuff, which also ages to a red-brown... the changes also make the pages brittle.But all is not lost - the text - in a fresh layout with good modern fonts - of TMI is available in a reprint edition, The Mechanoid Trilogy. Modern low-acid paper, non-acid ink, more easily read fonts... (The original is typed. On a Typewriter. Then optically typeset.)TM is available in PDF, in its (better than TMI's) typed layout - it appears to have been done with a daisywheel or typeball printer, or perhaps typed.The art in both shows Kevin Siembieda had the art skills to do comics... and much of the art in early Palladium books are his.</blockquote>

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