10 Underrated Palladium Books

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Glistam
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Re: 10 Underrated Palladium Books

Unread post by Glistam »

I've never really been interested in the idea of Recon, but I agree with the rest of your list and comments. Maybe I'll finally give Recon more than just a cursory look...
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Re: 10 Underrated Palladium Books

Unread post by Sureshot »

I don't feel that Splicers nor System Failure as underrated. I think that a lack of support does not help imo. While there is enough material to run a game with both. There also is a need for more material. That is why I buy Rifts books. I like them yet it's also more material I can draw upon if I ever run a game.
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Re: 10 Underrated Palladium Books

Unread post by Shark_Force »

i don't know that i would consider splicers underrated.

nearly unheard-of, certainly, but underrated implies people are aware of the game and just don't think much of it, which is not quite the case.

having said that, i would add nightbane: between the shadows to your list.

it's the only palladium book i know of that actually fleshes out the astral plane, and as an added bonus, it has rules for the dreamstream too, if you're interested in that.

and nightbane: through the glass darkly is a great sourcebook if you're looking for ways to make magic more than just "i pay PPE, and the effect happens", as well as having rules for modifying spells and creating new spells (though as you might expect, there's a lot of GM discretion involved).
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Re: 10 Underrated Palladium Books

Unread post by zyanitevp »

I love that you included 2 books, Northern Hinterlands and Baalgor Wastelands, that have seen heavy use in my long-running fantasy game.
I also would like to second the Through the Glass Darkly book- absolutely a must have!
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Re: 10 Underrated Palladium Books

Unread post by Daniel Stoker »

Zachary The First wrote:2) Gramercy Island (Heroes Unlimited)
Heroes Unlimited gets two big nods on this list, with the first being Gramercy Island, a sourcebook detailing a max-security special prison set up for super villains and criminal masterminds. If you want a host of bad guys to use in your game, this book is a fantastic resource. The baddies in here can stop even the toughest hero in their tracks, and there’s something to attack just about any sort of vulnerability. This is a fine sourcebook for inspiration, regardless of your Supers RPG of choice.

1) Century Station (Heroes Unlimited)
I have perhaps used no Palladium product with other games as much as I have used Century Station. This packed sourcebook details a massive city setting, complete with districts, local personalities, industry, entertainment, and an array of heroes and villains to round everything out. I consider it perhaps the best superhero RPG sourcebook of all time. Bill Coffin’s writing here was top-notch, and the entire book is an absolute idea factory.

Comments? Arguments? Your own Top 10 list? Fire away!


I'm at a loss how either of those 2 books can be under-rated as they're pretty much not only the best (and really only) setting book we have for Heroes but offer a wealth of NPC's to steal.. um... be inspired by in your own games even if you don't make use of the setting info as presented. I've used bits and pieces of both books for my own games taking place in my Marvel inspired world and find them both to be really fantastic sources.


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Re: 10 Underrated Palladium Books

Unread post by flatline »

Glistam wrote:I've never really been interested in the idea of Recon, but I agree with the rest of your list and comments. Maybe I'll finally give Recon more than just a cursory look...


I never plan to play Recon, but the book is one of my favorites to pick up and read through. It contains ideas that apply well to any other game that you might play.

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Re: 10 Underrated Palladium Books

Unread post by Cybermancer »

Daniel Stoker wrote:
Zachary The First wrote:2) Gramercy Island (Heroes Unlimited)
Heroes Unlimited gets two big nods on this list, with the first being Gramercy Island, a sourcebook detailing a max-security special prison set up for super villains and criminal masterminds. If you want a host of bad guys to use in your game, this book is a fantastic resource. The baddies in here can stop even the toughest hero in their tracks, and there’s something to attack just about any sort of vulnerability. This is a fine sourcebook for inspiration, regardless of your Supers RPG of choice.

1) Century Station (Heroes Unlimited)
I have perhaps used no Palladium product with other games as much as I have used Century Station. This packed sourcebook details a massive city setting, complete with districts, local personalities, industry, entertainment, and an array of heroes and villains to round everything out. I consider it perhaps the best superhero RPG sourcebook of all time. Bill Coffin’s writing here was top-notch, and the entire book is an absolute idea factory.

Comments? Arguments? Your own Top 10 list? Fire away!


I'm at a loss how either of those 2 books can be under-rated as they're pretty much not only the best (and really only) setting book we have for Heroes but offer a wealth of NPC's to steal.. um... be inspired by in your own games even if you don't make use of the setting info as presented. I've used bits and pieces of both books for my own games taking place in my Marvel inspired world and find them both to be really fantastic sources.


Daniel Stoker


Yeah, I wouldn't call these books underrated at all. Unless people are underselling their level of awesome.
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Re: 10 Underrated Palladium Books

Unread post by Cybermancer »

I do have to say that I think a lot of them are under rated.

Ophids Grasslands and Baalgor Wastelands for two. Mystic Russia and even Rifts: England (I always liked it despite its faults) for another two.

I don't think BtS1 is so much underrated as out of print. If they would have heard of anything, it would have been BtS2 which is I think underrated but also incomplete and unsupported so its not surprising it doesn't get a lot of love out there.

Systems Failures was basically a joke and the joke is over. To clarify I'm not saying it was bad but that it was literally supposed to be a joke. Again, not so much underrated as run its course. Personally I can't see me recommending it to anyone but different strokes for different folks.

Though again on Century Station and Gramercy Island, they're usually the first books recommended to newbies getting into the Heroes Unlimited line. Mutant Underground might qualify as underrated but your miliage may vary on that one. I find the Heroes Unlimited GM's Guide to be very useful though. It's a good utility book that seems to be in the shadow of Century Station and Gramercy Island.
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Re: 10 Underrated Palladium Books

Unread post by kaid »

Sureshot wrote:I don't feel that Splicers nor System Failure as underrated. I think that a lack of support does not help imo. While there is enough material to run a game with both. There also is a need for more material. That is why I buy Rifts books. I like them yet it's also more material I can draw upon if I ever run a game.



I think the one major thing that keeps splicers viable even as is though is the adjustability and modifyable nature of all the gear/equipment. It is less dependent on toy box books adding more bling due to everybodies gear being pretty unique to them as is.

That said splicers really could use some extra support it really is an excellent concept and a really solid implementation of biotech which is something that does not get used enough in games in my opinion.
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Re: 10 Underrated Palladium Books

Unread post by Shark_Force »

happily, support for splicers is on the way. we just have to wait for it to actually arrive =S
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Re: 10 Underrated Palladium Books

Unread post by Jerell »

Hinterlands is a great title and a good read. I especially like the narrator portion at the beginning. I've always been scared to get a character caught out there in the winter.
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Re: 10 Underrated Palladium Books

Unread post by Eashamahel »

BTS is, I still think, one of the best books Palladium has ever put out. It's got a good system, it's well contained, the asides by the author are good, make sense, and can really help people new to the game or the concept.

And I agree with Rifts:England, the book that's remembered for the Temporal classes and forgotten because it's not full of more 3D6MD rifles, still one of the best setting books put out for RIFTS, it introduces a very well done area without the need for a 220pg+ disorganized bloat of re-printed/re-done OCCs and gear.
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Re: 10 Underrated Palladium Books

Unread post by Hendrik »

Eashamahel wrote:BTS is, I still think, one of the best books Palladium has ever put out. It's got a good system, it's well contained, the asides by the author are good, make sense, and can really help people new to the game or the concept.

100%

I really like your list, Zachary.

Hinterlands and Baalgor are great titles, and so are all the others. England is a good book, it just fell short - too great a bend on Arthur - of what I think could have been done with England, and still begs to be done for it and the rest of UK plus Ireland.

Splicers is excellent - if a niche setting - and deserves more support to round it out.
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Re: 10 Underrated Palladium Books

Unread post by flatline »

Hendrik wrote:
Eashamahel wrote:Splicers is excellent - if a niche setting - and deserves more support to round it out.


Splicers has huge potential for a group that likes things a bit more tactical.

My interest in Splicers, however, is as material to reboot the Wormwood setting. I've been playing with the idea ever since I got Splicers last year, but haven't actually made it work yet.

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Re: 10 Underrated Palladium Books

Unread post by Tor »

I come to like PRPG more and more as I read it.
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Re: 10 Underrated Palladium Books

Unread post by Boethermsbrukan »

Definite agreement about Beyond The Supernatural 1st; I even managed to find a shrinkwrapped copy of 'Boxed Nightmares' with the handouts still included in the 'odds 'n' ends' shelf at a long-gone gaming & comic store here in Toronto. BTS 1st I bought gently-used at a convention in 2004; aside from inspiring my own worldbuilding regarding the 'beginnings' of Victor Lazlo and the hints at it being a pre-Rifts Earth, I loved the manner in which Randy McCall and Mr. Siembieda wrote almost everything in the book. There was a satisfying bite of game flavour- I don't have the words to express it any more succinctly than that- in every paragraph or second paragraph. Rifts and Palladium Fantasy were where I cut my Palladium Books' gaming teeth, but I'll never stop rooting for BTS.

I know the bulk of the two books were reprinted in 'Wolfen Empire', but two of the first gaming books I ever bought, period, were the original PFRPG Books IV & V (Adventures In.. & Further Adventures In The Northern Wilderness). For their size- Book V was barely the size of a retail magazine- they inspired me to no end. Ceratus Dominus (Book IV's 'big adventure villain') was the toughest, scariest sod of a Star Dragon I thought I'd come across by then, and even Kchalkch, the 2,000 year old Wolfen reduced to a spirit, his dessicated, mummified corpse and the Dwarven Rune Sword named Mindprancer refusing or unwilling to let him go, simultaneously creeped me out and fascinated me.

As for the human infant Ceratus Dominus failed to slay, his own story is linked with something I've been working on for some time, along with Boethermsbrukan herself. ^_^ Hee.

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