Coming back to Palladium - what books should I add?

[Tannhauser]

Greetings! I'm a new member to this board but a long time ago player of Palladium. I spent many hours playing and running Palladium Fantasy back in my high school days (I'll date myself here, that was late 80's/early 90's).

I eventually moved on to new systems, but eventually moved on to other hobbies after supplement/balance fatigue set in during the D&D 3.0/3.5/4e wars.

There is a resurgence of "retro" style gaming among my social circle, with a lot of folks going towards some of the new incarnations of OD&D, but I started thinking about Palladium. Looking through my bookshelves I found tucked away my old Palladium core book plus Ild zones and High Seas. Apparently my Monsters and Animals was lost in the mists of time, but a quick check on Amazon has rectified that issue.

I didn't realize Palladium supplements continued to be produced, so I was pleasantly surprised to see a lot of Palladium options available. I have Western Empire on order as well. Any other Palladium "must haves" I should put on my list?

[Veknironth]

Well, in terms of "must haves" I don't think so. The world books are good and you are essentially deciding which area you think would be most interesting to adventure in and what sort of adventure you prefer. I think for urban adventuring, Western Empire is great. For more rural settings, Northern Hinterlands, Yin-sloth (1st edition only). For super high power gaming, Land of the Damned.

-Vek
"I was so hoping you'd ask about the Old Kingdoms book."

[Lord Malachdrim]

If it's been awhile I think one of the first things that we need to establish is which edition of Palladium Fantasy do you have?

[Tannhauser]

If it's been awhile I think one of the first things that we need to establish is which edition of Palladium Fantasy do you have?

1st edition. Purchased new off the shelf by a much younger me around 1990.

[kiralon]

Depends if you want to go full second ed or not. I prefer first ed myself, never liking pc's having sdc and the generic hth styles and kung fu pandas oops I mean paladins. Not to mention other largish imbalances cough mind melter oops mage cough, and wizards starting with way to much ppe to begin with and then not really having enough at the end and other foibles.

The order I would go.
Palladium main book
a land book or 2 (old ones for timiro/western empire/eastern territories/yin sloth if playing first ed still)
Monsters and animals
dragons and gods
adventures on the high seas

[Tannhauser]

Depends if you want to go full second ed or not. I prefer first ed myself, never liking pc's having sdc and the generic hth styles and kung fu pandas oops I mean paladins. Not to mention other largish imbalances cough mind melter oops mage cough, and wizards starting with way to much ppe to begin with and then not really having enough at the end and other foibles.

The order I would go.
Palladium main book
a land book or 2 (old ones for timiro/western empire/eastern territories/yin sloth if playing first ed still)
Monsters and animals
dragons and gods
adventures on the high seas

I plan to stay with playing with 1st Edition rules. While I wouldn't claim it to be perfect, the original Palladium gets a lot right.

I'm not opposed to sourcebooks from the later revision that are good to mine for ideas or to convert enough to be compatible with 1st Ed.

[Veknironth]

Well, that brings up the question of merging the two systems. IF you stick with only 1st edition, it'll be tough to use any of the 2nd edition world books.

-Vek
"2nd Edition magic is much better."

[kiralon]

Its fairly easy to convert, just reduce hp a bit and get rid of sdc. Skills are fairly easy to do as you still usually know the class. Second Ed magic lets you cast a lot more small spells at low level but a lot less big spells at high level. But you can do what I do and make a sorcerer, just roll up a wizard and replace his magic with the second ed version, but keep level limits, i.e a level 1 mage can't learn a 5th level spell.
Some people prefer second, others first. To me second ed was the rifting of palladium and making some of the classes ridiculously tough to try and get the munchkins playing, and they took away the individual hth styles, which was one of the cools things about palladium, and turned paladins (or pretty much any fighter class) into Jackie chan which wasn't.
However 2nd ed is more compatible with the megaversal supplements so if you are going to go dimension wandering 2nd ed is easier.

[Tannhauser]

Its fairly easy to convert, just reduce hp a bit and get rid of sdc. Skills are fairly easy to do as you still usually know the class. Second Ed magic lets you cast a lot more small spells at low level but a lot less big spells at high level. But you can do what I do and make a sorcerer, just roll up a wizard and replace his magic with the second ed version, but keep level limits, i.e a level 1 mage can't learn a 5th level spell.
Some people prefer second, others first. To me second ed was the rifting of palladium and making some of the classes ridiculously tough to try and get the munchkins playing, and they took away the individual hth styles, which was one of the cools things about palladium, and turned paladins (or pretty much any fighter class) into Jackie chan which wasn't.
However 2nd ed is more compatible with the megaversal supplements so if you are going to go dimension wandering 2nd ed is easier.

I have no desire to mix my Palladium with the Megaverse, so I'll only be using 1sr Edition rules. I've always thought Palladium strong point was ideas, so I'm happy to grab 2nd ed supplements to mine for ideas, and apply quick and dirty conversions as needed.

[kiralon]

Drive thru rpg will get you the first ed pdf's. Ebay will get you the books themselves
The following 5 are the critical books in my opinion.
Main book
Old ones
monsters and animals
High seas
Yin Sloth


High seas and yin sloth have more skills and classes (plus boat info and more classes)
Old ones has timiro plotted out and some fun adventures.
monsters and animals for extra critters.

[Lukterran]

Honestly, you will want every book eventually. However, in order of must have. These are pretty much the books I use the most in order.

The Core:
1. Main Book
2. Monsters and Animals
3. IMO - Dragon's and God's
(I also would consider picking up the Rift Book of Magic.)

To cover the basic's and get most Races, OCC's and Magic:
4. Western Empire's
5. Adventure's on the High Seas
6. Northern Hinterlands
7. Eastern Territories
8. Library of Bletherad
9. Land of the Damned I & II
10. Mysteries and Magic

World Books:
11. Mount Nimiro
12. Baalgor Wastelands
13. Yin-Sloth Jungles
14. Island at the Edge of the World
15. Adventure's in Northern Wilderness (Wolfen Empires)
16. Old Ones
17. Byzantium and Northern Islands
18 & 19. Hades and Dyval (These are really PF books. Marketing choices made it a Rifts book)

However, for 1st Edition you will want Adventure's in Northern Wilderness, Adventures on the High Seas, Yin-Sloth Jungles and Island at the Edge of the World and Old Ones. You can pretty much run a full epic campaign just from the adventures in the book linked up on after the other.

Btw you can pick up most of the 1st edition material in PDF form here. It is all legal and legit. http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/606 ... tion-Rules

[kiralon]

Also, old old ones and high seas are available in 1st and 2nd editions so be careful when getting them. The first ed versions are only available as pdf, or second hand.