A to Z 10 Year Update: P is for Palladium Books

This post has been updated since it was originally posted on April 18, 2012,

A to Z 2012: Gaming in the 1980s

Palladium Books

Ok, I admit it, I somewhat procrastinated on this post.  I actually thought of several P words - print magazines and player character, for example - before deciding on Palladium Books.  I should have thought of that much sooner because they provided many hours of gaming fun for my old gaming group.  I have talked about Palladium Fantasy and some general thoughts about Palladium Books in my blog before.  Rather than repeat much of what I have already said I will advise any interested parties to follow the link above and read that post for the main points.

It's been a rough two days at work so far this week and I admit that I procrastinated and put off doing the P post.  Suffice it to say that Palladium Books provided several games for our gaming group:

• Robotech - It all started with this.  I bought the core book and one of my buddies bought some of the old Robotech VHS tapes because we used to rush home to watch it after school.
• Palladium Fantasy - Jamie bought the original first edition black cover rule book.  I would probably pay top dollar for this today because we had so much fun with it.  Yeah, it's basically a very heavily house D&D but our campaign switched to this system for a long time.
• Heroes Unlimited - I got the first editon and would be interested in playing the second edition.
• RIFTS - The awesome! Look for R is for RIFTS to hear some thoughts...

R is for RIFTS did not happen back in 2012 because I checked ethe date and it was published in e. That fact means RIFTS falls outside of "gaming in the 1980s" so I went with something else.  I'm still a big fan of RIFTS and still have several of the supplements.  If only I could find a group...

I forgot to mention Valley of the Pharaohs in my original post.  It was an ancient Egypti role-playing game and was published before Palladium started using their Megaversal system.  I answered an ad in Dragon magazine for a free copy if you paid postage.  History was always my favorite subject in school but this game didn't quite scratch any gaming itch we had.  It was an interesting read.

I do have a copy of Palladium Fantasy 2nd Edition and Palladium Fantasy 1st Edition Revised so I just need to get a copy of the original edition.  There are several supplements that might be of interest so I may pick up some of them.

I have also added Dead Reign to my collection.  It is a zombie apocalypse game with some differences from the typical setting of that type.  I have the complete line except for the last two supplements but I will be picking them up sometime "soon".  I am also working on some Dead Reign specific house rules to implement a few of the standard zombie tropes such as getting infected by a bite.

Unfortunately, it's been years since I've seen any Palladium products on the store shelves locally. I remember having a wide variety of Palladium products to browse at the local gaming stores in my teen years.  There might be good changes in the future for Palladium Books according to a video I watched the other day.  They have hired a new creative director and it was claimed that "nothing is off the table" when Kevin Siembieda was asked about a new edition and other subjects.   Hopefully, they can get headed back to the on shelf presence they once enjoyed.