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There have been many threads over the years about Palladium revamping this or that to draw in new players. However, revamps cost money and they are always a gamble. Many RPGs have created new editions without drawing in new players. Many RPGs have revamped their format and still did not draw in new players. Sometimes, revamps certainly do work wonders, but not always.

Thus, this thread.

What could Palladium do FOR FREE to attract new players?

Of course, time is money and any use of an employee's time has a financial cost. But while this is true, salary is different from capital investment. So for this thread, let's define FOR FREE as not requiring costs beyond the current normal expenditures.

Go crazy. Be imaginative. Let's brainstorm!

If theres one thing I wish there were more of its playtest or game session or instructional youtubes of palladium products... I feel like theres a possibility that nobody makes them because monetization of those videos might attract Kevins attention in undesirable ways. One of the best ways to get started in a system is seeing other people using it and I can count the number of heroes unlimited vids on youtube on one hand.

A VERY basic rules set with pregen characters on dtrpg.

Like I've said for several years, and like I've told Kevin:
Get Rifts (and other Palladium properties) into the Kindle Worlds program.

Fans will do the work, writing fan-fiction.
They will make money.
Palladium will make money.

Palladium won't have to lift a finger beyond getting things set up.

^and this. So much this.

KC - would this allow for fanfic comics as well?

jaymz wrote:^and this. So much this.

KC - would this allow for fanfic comics as well?

I don't know. Never looked into that aspect of it.
I know that Valiant Comics is one of the Kindle Worlds, but I don't know if people are writing text stories, comics, or both.

Support their Megaversal Ambassador program. Focus on gaming at conventions outside of the Midwest and use the MA program to do that. MA's are already a bunch of volunteers willing to run Palladium games for free - use them and support them. Advertise for them. Get them out and spreading the word.

Glistam wrote:Support their Megaversal Ambassador program. Focus on gaming at conventions outside of the Midwest and use the MA program to do that. MA's are already a bunch of volunteers willing to run Palladium games for free - use them and support them. Advertise for them. Get them out and spreading the word.

Funny you mention that... look for an email in early April for all MA's....

jaymz wrote:A VERY basic rules set with pregen characters on dtrpg.

In general and for http://www.freerpgday.com/

Natasha wrote:

jaymz wrote:A VERY basic rules set with pregen characters on dtrpg.

In general and for http://www.freerpgday.com/

Free RPG Day may be free for consumers/gamers, but it definitely has a cost for the publishers. Getting in at the lowest tier (Sample) means providing around 500 copies of whatever you want distributed, and that only covers one per participating store. It just goes up from there. ~1500 copies for Bronze; ~2500 copies for Silver; ~5000 copies for Gold; and ~7500 copies for Platinum. I imagine that each copy is going to cost at least a few bucks to produce, so it can become quite the investment.

As far as attracting new players? I'd second the basic rules and pregens. Additionally, encourage conversions of Palladium IP to every system under the sun. Put together a Bundle of Holding or two. Get as many eyeballs on Palladium's games as possible. Finally, spend time (a few minutes each day) on the forums actually interacting with fans as fellow gamers, not just shoppers - make this a welcoming place for new players and share your passion with them individually. That last bit is less about getting new players here than keeping them here. But positive experiences garner mindshare, and when people talk about friendly designers, I know I'm inclined to learn more.

Have your products sold in game stores. New players will never hear about Palladium if nothing ever tells them about it.

Glistam wrote:Support their Megaversal Ambassador program. Focus on gaming at conventions outside of the Midwest and use the MA program to do that. MA's are already a bunch of volunteers willing to run Palladium games for free - use them and support them. Advertise for them. Get them out and spreading the word.

And give them discounts. Maybe determine discount based on a point system based on number of sessions. Maybe based on new player responses in surveys, corroberated by store employee. MAYBE get official stores where the store also gets discounts based on both sales and hosted games.

Since free implies little to no actual costs...as suggested by others...the single biggest item would be to create some type of FREE primer game and rules for one or two lines. This should be an all in one 30-40 page pdf. However...it needs to be written from scratch using modern, 21st century RPG writing and layout. It can certainly be in black and white...but must be modern and not a cut and paste of the same old paragraphs used for 30 years. It must clearly and concisely state the relevant rules for introductory play. No unclarity...ie spell out things like actions and movement clearly. The current verbiage is NOT good enough for today.

Note, I am not talking about rewriting or changing the rules...but new language to describe the same things and address all the common questions people always have.

Unfortunately the above may need an outside resource costing money as I do not know if any of the payroll staff have what it takes to do anything remotely looking like modern layout.

An alternative may be to ask the fan community to work on something like this for them. We all...myself included have our starter rewrite drafts of the rules.


I would suggest 3 primer products.
Fantasy
Rifts
Dead Reign


The 2nd item they should work on is...support for Savage Rifts. Why the heck hasnt palladium released anything for SR...or even announced it. My gosh....there is enough old module content they could repackage and update to SR as a nice little book. SR fans would be all over an SR Yawning Portal of old Palladium Rifts module content. I know there isnt a lot but there was a book or two of mission content as I recall.


My biggest concern is Spinachats OP is is his question reaching out on Palladiums behalf or megaversal ambassador driven. Is Palladium actually looking for ideas and help? It is hard to know what they are thinking or doing or wanting or is the focus at any point in time.

If Palladium is really and genuinely looking for ideas they should be on here themselves.

I think that the question is somewhat irrelevant, because they already ARE providing a free level of support to their various game lines - which is nothing. By not doing anything, there is no expenditure of capital, goodwill, or time.

Now, if we're going to be a little more specific and eliminate one of those three - likely the capital one - then we have to examine what could be done with existing resources either by their employees (time expenditure) or by various volunteers (goodwill expenditure).

Want more easy adventure modules to pull in cross-system folks? Have somebody go through and convert the game system info from books like the Adventure Sourcebooks or Rifters to Savage Worlds; sell 'em for a couple of bucks apiece, PDF. If there's enough demand, they could be bundled POD.

Want more exposure? Have Kevin or Wayne contact local game stores and offer to run a game like once a month or something to pull in possible players; have somebody then livestream/take videos so that the more entertaining bits could be assembled into a montage for advertising.

But it's important to note that none of that is "free." Someone needs to actually do something to accomplish any of those tasks, and without that the only support you're likely to see is the kind that's already being undertaken.

I think the biggest thing they could do is a revision to their major game lines. I know that isn't a popular answer but I think revising the lines and improving the layout/organization would be a good "entry" or "re entry" point for players.

On what they could do for free? I think it was Ritter 74/75 that had an introduction to Rifts in it. Make that a free PDF with some characters. That can become more like a Rifts Lite similar to GURPS lite.

So I had a thought when reading the threads on people getting into palladium and what palladium could do for free. The above post reinforces exactly what I was thinking.

I got thinking about the rifter and Palladium.

I am not knocking it as publication in and of itself...but more questioning its purpose and what would be better use of those resources.

Clearly it must be successful enough to continue to warrant publication. I imagine its production cost is low (being partially fan produced, partially Kevin and partially freelancers) plus layout is done inhouse.  And there must be enough existing fan base buying it.

But is it doing anything to bring in new fans. My guess is probably not. And the above posting illustrates exactly why. Exactly what is being talked about potentially already exists(rifts introduction)...hidden in the Rifter...not talked about...publicised anywhere...given away for free anywhere.

There is undoubtedly other useful content in the Rifter. But it is not the type of thing new players will buy or even try.

Yet the Rifter is hiding good other content(missions, etc) that could be used to drive new interest. But the Rifter magazine format is just not the product the market needs anymore.

I also fear the Rifter allows an easy outlet for what content Palladium can produce. Ie it is easy to write a few pages of "official" content for the rifter, and claim Palladium Rpg, After the Bomb, Rifts, Splicers, etc are being supported. To me this is not the case. Support is new products on the shelf and in the online stores. Rifters IMO may have become a crutch for Palladium as justification for why they are not producing actual saleable new content.



I would suggest Palladium should stop producing the Rifter and put those resources to actual shelf product. It will not of course happen as it is a driver of some revenue.

At the very least...the Rifter (or select issues) should be released for free.

Now...having said that...it may be the only product they can make on a regular basis because they have no staff writers aside from Kevin so I am not really expecting any changes. And I could also be way off on my thoughts what the Rifter nowmeans.

Kevin needs to be way more proactive and enthusiastic about giving public interaction. Plays his cards close to his chest. Nobody knows whats going on. Look at Chris Perkins... Paizo employees. Doesnt take me 15 minutes to reach them and I know they'll respond within a few days with direct answers to direct questions. Modern gamers hold publishers to a higher standard of engagement. If Bernie sanders can figure out how to use twitter... I think Kevin can figure it out.

Dont get me wrong.. The 'Weekly update' is good. But thats saying one thing... Once a week. To everyone. Its talking at us instead of talking with us.... One time... Once a week.

I had a look around...and I may have missed something...but aside from Alex M's new product announcements...and one post from Wayne in 2017 about updating addresses in kickstarter...I find 0 meaningfull communications from Palladium staff on any subject...in well...years actually....many years...years and years.

This is something Palladium could do for free. Actually engage their fan community on their own forum for their fans.

*edit*
And anyone...including Palladium staff who suggests there isnt the time to answer some forum questions I heartily disagree. There are 5 full time staff as I read their website...someone could find the time to answer one question a day. Or even one question a week. If that is too much effort...then workshare the responses.
Alex can respond to one question week 1.
Wayne can respond to one question week 2.
Julius has known KS since highschool. He must have a good idea of the official rules. He could respond to something on the 3rd week.
Kevin could even take the time to respond to one question a month...or every 2 months...or ...well... ever.

This is the same Kevin that said, on a live podcast, that it would weeks and all sorts of man hours to create, maintain, and run a company facebook page then got upset when proven how very very wrong he was going so far as admitting to having alex "misdirect" fans in conversations about a company facebook page.

wizardofthenorth wrote:I had a look around...and I may have missed something...but aside from Alex M's new product announcements...and one post from Wayne in 2017 about updating addresses in kickstarter...I find 0 meaningfull communications from Palladium staff on any subject...in well...years actually....many years...years and years.

This is something Palladium could do for free. Actually engage their fan community on their own forum for their fans.

*edit*
And anyone...including Palladium staff who suggests there isnt the time to answer some forum questions I heartily disagree. There are 5 full time staff as I read their website...someone could find the time to answer one question a day. Or even one question a week. If that is too much effort...then workshare the responses.
Alex can respond to one question week 1.
Wayne can respond to one question week 2.
Julius has known KS since highschool. He must have a good idea of the official rules. He could respond to something on the 3rd week.
Kevin could even take the time to respond to one question a month...or every 2 months...or ...well... ever.

Answering questions seems to often cause Palladium more problems than it solves.

What question was asked that Palladium answered here on the forum that caused more problems.

Have there been many issues of turmoil? Sure. Some self inflicted...some not.

But I am talking generally engaging fans in a back and forth about relevant topics of interest (even setting aside Robotech Tactics for the sake of argument).

There is no engagement with the fans on any level aside from perhaps a con now and again. That includes here and facebook.

wizardofthenorth wrote:What question was asked that Palladium answered here on the forum that caused more problems.

"Why doesn't Palladium have a Facebook page?"
"Does a character have 2 attacks with 1st level HTH basic, or 4 attacks?"
"Why's the Robotech stuff so late?"
"What does the Palladium staff do with their time?"
"Why doesn't Kevin work more?"
"Why doesn't Kevin work less?"
"Why doesn't Palladium have high-quality PDFs of everything, for 1/4 of the hardcopy price?"

And so forth.
Not to mention any number of should-be-simple rules or setting questions.

Anybody who's been here for any amount of time should be aware of any number of times that trying to answer a simple question has either ended up with backlash, made Palladium look bad, or only led to a bunch more questions.

There is no engagement with the fans on any level aside from perhaps a con now and again. That includes here and facebook.

I guess you're not counting Carmen's recent attempt to get people interested in the Rifts Board Game, which resulted in his suicide attempt?
I mean, that was some level of engagement.

Edit:
Granted, yes, Carmen isn't an official representative of the company.
But it's still kind of the epitome of Palladium/Fan interactions.

You are correct...I was not including Carmen...being not a Palladium emp. or representative.

But in general...IMO the above examples are excuses for not communicating.

If there is backlash it is often the message is wrong (facebook,timelines). Actually get better at the message.
And I see nothing wrong with asking when a product is due. Especially if it has been communicated to expect it. If you cannot meet a timeline...communicate this. If a book is dropped...communicate this...and a why would be nice. A suggestion for Palladium...do not announce a product is coming until it is at the printers.

Or often at the end of the day not actually just responding to questions on facebook or here...but actually listening to your customers and responding to their wants and needs (pdf versions of books(eventually addressed...and look...people kinda happy about them)...or in the case of rules...not addressed in their actual product...so same frustrations over and over still.

Looking back around a decade...I see Alex M was actally quite responsive...good on him.

wizardofthenorth wrote:You are correct...I was not including Carmen...being not a Palladium emp. or representative.

But in general...IMO the above examples are excuses for not communicating.

If there is backlash it is often the message is wrong (facebook,timelines). Actually get better at the message.
And I see nothing wrong with asking when a product is due. Especially if it has been communicated to expect it. If you cannot meet a timeline...communicate this. If a book is dropped...communicate this...and a why would be nice. A suggestion for Palladium...do not announce a product is coming until it is at the printers.

Or often at the end of the day not actually just responding to questions on facebook or here...but actually listening to your customers and responding to their wants and needs (pdf versions of books(eventually addressed...and look...people kinda happy about them)...or in the case of rules...not addressed in their actual product...so same frustrations over and over still.

Looking back around a decade...I see Alex M was actally quite responsive...good on him.

It's a commitment/complacency issue that seems to be endemic. Your point regarding not announcing until it's finished, doesn't just apply to book releases. It applies to everything they want to accomplish.

Kevin back on January 20, 2016 made a New Year's Resolution to do 2-3 Murmurs a week, specifically "to keep you guys informed". That lasted a week, and there have been six Murmurs since. Wayne promised back in July 2015 that he'd do a "big breakdown of where each and every component is in its development". That's still pending, having been mentioned occasionally, but otherwise ignored. Heck, the Wave 2 cards that have finally been released, took something like 14 months to get started from when it was initially promised (started release in late August, 2016, initially promised "in the weeks ahead" in June 2015. The Conventional Forces rules and the basic set of rules in PDF that were promised in the same June 2015 Update do not appear to have happened, despite the former being almost complete, and the latter just being an edit of the existing material.

But even on the book front, as you mentioned, of the four books slated for release by the end of May in the latest PBWU, three of those (Atlanteans, Gardens and Disavowed) were promised at least as early as the first half of 2016, and the fourth (Arsenal) is the second half of the one book they did release in the first half of 2016, that was supposed to be released a month after Heroes of Humanity.

The problem is, Kevin seems to tend to flit from one project to another, constantly. The number of times I've seen a book "in final production" to see it delayed as he works on another project that caught his attention, is excessive. Now, I'm not saying he needs to only concentrate on one thing at a time. I expect some fluidity of thought from creative people. But I also expect when someone says a project is THAT close to completion (rather than still in the ideas phase, where I expect it to be inspiration driven), they'll buckle down and finish it, so as to lift the weight from their shoulders, and to fulfill promises and commitments made.

wizardofthenorth wrote:You are correct...I was not including Carmen...being not a Palladium emp. or representative.

But in general...IMO the above examples are excuses for not communicating.

Only if Palladium starts referring to them as reasons for their lack of communication.
Until then, they're only what you asked for--examples of Palladium trying to answer questions, and causing more problems than they solved.

If there is backlash it is often the message is wrong (facebook,timelines). Actually get better at the message.

Sure.
Maybe Kevin should take time off from his day job, and take a few classes on public relations and clear communication.
That'd be free, right?

And I see nothing wrong with asking when a product is due.

a) I never said there was anything wrong with the question, only that Palladium's attempts to answer that kind of question often cause more problems than it solves.
b) If you've got a broken clock on your wall, how many years before you should stop looking at it to guess the time?

Especially if it has been communicated to expect it. If you cannot meet a timeline...communicate this. If a book is dropped...communicate this...and a why would be nice.

That kind of thing just leads to more questions.

A suggestion for Palladium...do not announce a product is coming until it is at the printers.

I've been saying that one for about two decades now.
I don't think they're going to change their behavior there any time soon.

This one has been stated by a few people:

Publish basic engine rules and encourage forum users to write ad hoc modules.
Heck even give some contributors a prize.
The ideas could be along the lines of various hook line and sinker adventures that are in a lot of the books. I liked those.
They can be in PDF format so once made it costs virtually nothing.
*edit* I agree with previous posts about rewording those rules to be clear. Do not cut and paste the old rules.


Show up at more conventions. The last few times I went to Motor City Comic Con there was no Palladium Booth (this may have changed). I was shocked.
The first time I went to Motor City Comic Con there was a booth and I had a great time talking to the fellas. Hey that looks like a neat book, sell me one please.

Reach out to nearby stores. Give them cool posters to put out. Generate buzz.
Give them demo copies to let people leaf through. Start an arrangement to sell books and other materials.

I asked for Palladium Books in Windsor last year at a gaming store and they didn’t even know who the company was……

That’s a far cry from when everyone roleplaying in Windsor was buzzing about Palladium products.

b) If you've got a broken clock on your wall, how many years before you should stop looking at it to guess the time?

Sorry but I had to answer this one. You can use said clock correctly twice a day. Unless it’s digital.

Killer Cyborg wrote:Get Rifts (and other Palladium properties) into the Kindle Worlds program.

This. Without a doubt the best part of Rifts is the setting.


Also just hosting some fan made stuff official somewhere on the site would be nice. A few of the better character sheets, just simple form ones with some basic auto fill. Maybe a few dozen pregenerated characters for some of the more iconic classes such as a Juicer, Crazy, Mystic and Dogboy. I get why they don't want to put up stuff because it 'discourages people from buying the book' but I suspect that if hey stuck to RMB and RUE they wouldn't have that problem.

Killer Cyborg wrote:Like I've said for several years, and like I've told Kevin:
Get Rifts (and other Palladium properties) into the Kindle Worlds program.

Fans will do the work, writing fan-fiction.
They will make money.
Palladium will make money.

Palladium won't have to lift a finger beyond getting things set up.

Yep. The ebook market is a no-brainer. They have so much material that is ripe for books. They would be printing their own money.

Truely free, take 3 minutes to publish in the murmurs and on the site something to effect of...."we are no longer against character generation programs"
Someone else has one made, this second for multiple platforms. A web based site would take seconds to appear, an android app maybe a week and an ios one maybe two at the most.
One compliant over the years has always been how long it takes to make a character. Online games would become more viable if all bonuses and stats wete derived from a program that the gm didnt have to personally verify, new players have a working char in 15 minutes instead of 1 to 4 hours.

How about actually putting product out?

The year will be 6 months in before we see an actual new book (no sorry rifters do not count in this regard)

It is a small thing...and maybe I could just not find it, but there does not seem to be a public email address for Palladium posted on their website.

They do have a trouble ticket entry system.

Just one more example of building up the walls.

XarXar wrote:Have your products sold in game stores. New players will never hear about Palladium if nothing ever tells them about it.

Agreed. I've scoured game stores in Las Vegas and the only thing I've ever seen made by Palladium was one Robotech RPG Tactics game. What's even more frustrating is asking employees of the stores if they carry Palladium products and the common response is "What's that?" In fact, when I was in the store I saw the Robotech RPG Tactics in, the employee I dealt with didn't know who made it or had ever heard of Palladium. He should of known since he works there, but that just illustrates how there's a disconnect between PB and the local game stores.

I wonder if there's some sort of minimum a game store has to buy in order to order form PB? Maybe if they offered a sample package to get their foot in the doors of these shops? Kinda like an appetizer sampler plate at Applebees? hahahaha I'm just speculating at this point...

wizardofthenorth wrote:It is a small thing...and maybe I could just not find it, but there does not seem to be a public email address for Palladium posted on their website.

They do have a trouble ticket entry system.

Just one more example of building up the walls.

I noticed that, too. Not having an "info@palladiumbooks.com" email address is not very user-friendly. I can't ever think of a situation when I'd need to create a "trouble ticket" to ask a question. I suspect that's by design, though. Sort of like the hand grenade sitting on the desk with a number "1" on the tag that's attached to its pin. Underneath the grenade on its base, it's written, "Complaint Dept.-Take a Number".

Spinachcat wrote:There have been many threads over the years about Palladium revamping this or that to draw in new players. However, revamps cost money and they are always a gamble. Many RPGs have created new editions without drawing in new players. Many RPGs have revamped their format and still did not draw in new players. Sometimes, revamps certainly do work wonders, but not always.

Thus, this thread.

What could Palladium do FOR FREE to attract new players?

Of course, time is money and any use of an employee's time has a financial cost. But while this is true, salary is different from capital investment. So for this thread, let's define FOR FREE as not requiring costs beyond the current normal expenditures.

Go crazy. Be imaginative. Let's brainstorm!

License some Ebooks. There are a bunch of novel and novella manuscripts floating around, and Amazon has a program for doing this. It would cost Palladium no money, would provide some modest licensing fees, and could stir up some interest.

The PB crew should take a day to go to various gaming stores nearby and present themselves, the company and talk with the storeowners and their customers, maybe contact local gaming clubs and visit them promoting their games. A group of gamedesigners did it here in my hometown and their game (which will be released in august-october) is the latest buzz here. they also gave out free very basic rules and a bunch of PCs as well as few quick adventures (50min-3 hours long). So that is all we are playing now in all my 4 gaming groups.

Dreamstreamer wrote:Put together a Bundle of Holding or two.

What's this?

https://twitter.com/BundleHolding/statu ... 3924872194

"Burster Chi-Town Glitter Boy Juicer Psi-Hound Shifter"

I mean, I've dumped around $50 on Palladium Books PDFs at DriveThruRPG over the last few weeks, but I have this feeling I'm about to drop some more to share the love at Bundle of Holding!

And here it is!

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Rifts

Dreamstreamer wrote:And here it is!

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Rifts

Good call! It's not for free, but a few discounted books in a bundle will help out, I'm sure.

Dreamstreamer wrote:And here it is!

https://bundleofholding.com/presents/Rifts

That's a good deal. I hope its being promoted. I didn't see any mention of it anywhere (but maybe I've missed it).

Hotrod wrote:

Spinachcat wrote:There have been many threads over the years about Palladium revamping this or that to draw in new players. However, revamps cost money and they are always a gamble. Many RPGs have created new editions without drawing in new players. Many RPGs have revamped their format and still did not draw in new players. Sometimes, revamps certainly do work wonders, but not always.

Thus, this thread.

What could Palladium do FOR FREE to attract new players?

Of course, time is money and any use of an employee's time has a financial cost. But while this is true, salary is different from capital investment. So for this thread, let's define FOR FREE as not requiring costs beyond the current normal expenditures.

Go crazy. Be imaginative. Let's brainstorm!

License some Ebooks. There are a bunch of novel and novella manuscripts floating around, and Amazon has a program for doing this. It would cost Palladium no money, would provide some modest licensing fees, and could stir up some interest.

If I could make money at it, I would write the holy **** out of some Rifts fiction.
So yeah, Kindle Worlds or something similar.

Killer Cyborg wrote:

Hotrod wrote:

Spinachcat wrote:There have been many threads over the years about Palladium revamping this or that to draw in new players. However, revamps cost money and they are always a gamble. Many RPGs have created new editions without drawing in new players. Many RPGs have revamped their format and still did not draw in new players. Sometimes, revamps certainly do work wonders, but not always.

Thus, this thread.

What could Palladium do FOR FREE to attract new players?

Of course, time is money and any use of an employee's time has a financial cost. But while this is true, salary is different from capital investment. So for this thread, let's define FOR FREE as not requiring costs beyond the current normal expenditures.

Go crazy. Be imaginative. Let's brainstorm!

License some Ebooks. There are a bunch of novel and novella manuscripts floating around, and Amazon has a program for doing this. It would cost Palladium no money, would provide some modest licensing fees, and could stir up some interest.

If I could make money at it, I would write the holy **** out of some Rifts fiction.
So yeah, Kindle Worlds or something similar.

I would love to also vote for this and I'd be willing to donate some of my time to get it off the ground. Maybe experiment with a periodical of short serials.

I do have some experience in this field and I'm always looking to jump into projects I believe in.

Here is a novel idea i mentioned earlier. Actually put product out on time.

I just signed up for the forums to reply to this thread. Full disclosure I am an Irritated R.R.P.G.T. backer. However Savage Rifts reminded me how much I love the worlds Palladium creates. I do wish the best for the company... That's how I will get my plastic fix after all.

Palladium could allow Fantasy Grounds and other V.T.T. systems to produce modules of their books, artwork, and adventures. In this model Palladium gets a cut of the sales of these modules and has to only negotiate royalties with the V.T.T. sites and software generally will get the rest taken care of. After this Get behind Virtual Conventions this saves travel time and expenses.

Create clear guidelines for Fan sites. Put a link to the F.A.Q.s and Errata on the store site preferably with the products themselves having the relevant data links. Organize the data in these F.A.Q.s and errata in such a way that they are easy to read and access. Use this forum info if people are asking a question(s) all the time then it needs to be in those F.A.Q.s.

Create more paper minis there are so many cool things that don't have a mini Paper or Pewter. Consider getting the pewter minis redone sculpting has changed quite a bit this could be done for possibly zero price by allowing a company like Reaper to create a licensed line of figures negotiate royalties (unless Carmen can get his game off the ground).

Consider a format change for a new printing you might be able to scale down some of the dimensions on your books. Try going back to a soft cover possibly with out changing the layout. If this works lowering the cost of entry to the hobby would help to boost sales and interest. "Buzz" could be generated with the "new release".

This will cost money or might be able to be farmed out on a royalty basis (negotiate a fair percentage). Modernize your PDF library. They are pretty much just low quality scans. Make sure they are all fully text searchable and have a working table of contents.

Baufrin wrote:I just signed up for the forums to reply to this thread. Full disclosure I am an Irritated R.R.P.G.T. backer. However Savage Rifts reminded me how much I love the worlds Palladium creates. I do wish the best for the company... That's how I will get my plastic fix after all.
Create more paper minis there are so many cool things that don't have a mini Paper or Pewter. Consider getting the pewter minis redone sculpting has changed quite a bit this could be done for possibly zero price by allowing a company like Reaper to create a licensed line of figures negotiate royalties (unless Carmen can get his game off the ground).

Have you seen the paper minis on Drive Thru RPG here

zyanitevp wrote:

Baufrin wrote:I just signed up for the forums to reply to this thread. Full disclosure I am an Irritated R.R.P.G.T. backer. However Savage Rifts reminded me how much I love the worlds Palladium creates. I do wish the best for the company... That's how I will get my plastic fix after all.
Create more paper minis there are so many cool things that don't have a mini Paper or Pewter. Consider getting the pewter minis redone sculpting has changed quite a bit this could be done for possibly zero price by allowing a company like Reaper to create a licensed line of figures negotiate royalties (unless Carmen can get his game off the ground).

Have you seen the paper minis on Drive Thru RPG here

I Have and bought them all promptly. It is what prompted me to ask for more to be made. Power armors robot armor, and vehicles could use some of the paper treatment as well. I appreciate you looking out.

Killer Cyborg wrote:Like I've said for several years, and like I've told Kevin:
Get Rifts (and other Palladium properties) into the Kindle Worlds program.

Fans will do the work, writing fan-fiction.
They will make money.
Palladium will make money.

Palladium won't have to lift a finger beyond getting things set up.

I like the idea of Palladium licensing E-books. I'm not crazy about Kindle Worlds. It sounds great in concept, but the licensing and copyright details are probably pretty concerning from Palladium's perspective:

Kindle Worlds publishing agreement wrote: (a) Exclusive License to your Work. Effective as of the date we first make your Work available through the Program, you grant us the exclusive, irrevocable license for the full term of copyright protection available (including renewals), to develop, license, reproduce, print, publish, distribute, translate, display, publicly perform and transmit your Work, in whole and in part, in each country in the world, in all languages and formats, and by all means now known or later developed, and the right to prepare derivative works of your Work.


(b) Exclusive License to all New Elements in Your Work. Effective as of the date we first make your Work available through the Program, you grant us the exclusive, irrevocable license for the full term of copyright protection available (including renewals), to all rights you have in the original copyrightable elements included in your Work, such as the original characters, scenes and events, and any rights you may have to any related trademarks, except as otherwise provided in the World Content Guidelines (collectively, the “New Elements”). You agree that the New Elements are available for unrestricted use by us without any additional compensation, notification or attribution, including that we may allow other Kindle Worlds authors, the World Licensor and other third parties to use the New Elements. The licenses that you grant us in Section 4(a) and this Section 4(b) are exclusive. This means that you may not, and may not authorize any other party to, develop, license, reproduce, print, publish, distribute, translate, display, publicly perform, prepare derivative works of, or transmit your Work, in whole or in part, or any work containing any of the New Elements, except with our prior consent. If your work is currently available on other sites, including your blog or website, even if free, you must remove it from those sites before you submit it to Kindle Worlds.

Which bits and pieces get owned by Amazon, and which get owned by Palladium Books? Which licenses go to Amazon, and which go to Palladium Books?

Understand I'm all for them licensing some fiction, but I'm not sure if this is a good way to do it.

Hotrod wrote:

Killer Cyborg wrote:Like I've said for several years, and like I've told Kevin:
Get Rifts (and other Palladium properties) into the Kindle Worlds program.

Fans will do the work, writing fan-fiction.
They will make money.
Palladium will make money.

Palladium won't have to lift a finger beyond getting things set up.

I like the idea of Palladium licensing E-books. I'm not crazy about Kindle Worlds. It sounds great in concept, but the licensing and copyright details are probably pretty concerning from Palladium's perspective:

Kindle Worlds publishing agreement wrote: (a) Exclusive License to your Work. Effective as of the date we first make your Work available through the Program, you grant us the exclusive, irrevocable license for the full term of copyright protection available (including renewals), to develop, license, reproduce, print, publish, distribute, translate, display, publicly perform and transmit your Work, in whole and in part, in each country in the world, in all languages and formats, and by all means now known or later developed, and the right to prepare derivative works of your Work.


(b) Exclusive License to all New Elements in Your Work. Effective as of the date we first make your Work available through the Program, you grant us the exclusive, irrevocable license for the full term of copyright protection available (including renewals), to all rights you have in the original copyrightable elements included in your Work, such as the original characters, scenes and events, and any rights you may have to any related trademarks, except as otherwise provided in the World Content Guidelines (collectively, the “New Elements”). You agree that the New Elements are available for unrestricted use by us without any additional compensation, notification or attribution, including that we may allow other Kindle Worlds authors, the World Licensor and other third parties to use the New Elements. The licenses that you grant us in Section 4(a) and this Section 4(b) are exclusive. This means that you may not, and may not authorize any other party to, develop, license, reproduce, print, publish, distribute, translate, display, publicly perform, prepare derivative works of, or transmit your Work, in whole or in part, or any work containing any of the New Elements, except with our prior consent. If your work is currently available on other sites, including your blog or website, even if free, you must remove it from those sites before you submit it to Kindle Worlds.

Which bits and pieces get owned by Amazon, and which get owned by Palladium Books? Which licenses go to Amazon, and which go to Palladium Books?

Understand I'm all for them licensing some fiction, but I'm not sure if this is a good way to do it.

Understandable concern!
I can't translate the lawyer-speak accurately enough to be sure what that says, so I'd definitely have a professional go over it.
Or, as you say, Palladium could come up with their own similar system.

Wow...that is a really bad license from amazon. bad for the creator that is.

Your content us effectively owned (technically licensed) by Amazon.
You lose the ability to do anything else with you creation. Amazon effectively has the power to do anything they wish.

They also owe the content creator nothing aside from any revenue garnered from initial kindles sales.

wizardofthenorth wrote:Wow...that is a really bad license from amazon. bad for the creator that is.

Your content us effectively owned (technically licensed) by Amazon.
You lose the ability to do anything else with you creation. Amazon effectively has the power to do anything they wish.

They also owe the content creator nothing aside from any revenue garnered from initial kindles sales.

Eh.
It's either that... or it's necessary legal stuff that allows Kindle to sell other people's property.
I honestly can't tell.
BUT considering the businesses that have signed up for Kindle Worlds, I suspect that their legal teams wouldn't have just signed away all rights to their content.
There are worlds like:

The 100
Wayward Pines
Veronica Mars
The Vampire Diaries
Kurt Vonnegut
Pretty Little Liars
GI Joe
Gossip Girl
X-O Manowar

Etc., etc.

I would strongly urge Palladium to have lawyers check things out, but signing up hasn't seemed to impair the above properties in any way that I'm aware of.

For sure Palladium wouldnt lose the rights to their content. And they presumably get a cut of any sales.

But lets say some really good professionaly fan material comes up...Amazon now effectively owns it...beholding palladium to amazon evermore.

Maybe not a big issue but for sure I would look at it very closely.