The Good . . .
Trade Shows
The two recent trade shows were a great success on a number of levels. We got some valuable industry info and valuable perspective in a number of areas. We spoke to old friends, talked to retailers, met retailers looking to add RPGs to their line up and got a little bit of swag.
We have one more trade show in October (Fort Wayne, Indiana) followed by a gaming con (UberCon VIII, October 20, 21, & 22 in New Jersey), and two local conventions we’re considering in November.
UberCon October 20-22 – New Jersey
UberCon VIII will be great! Artist, Mark Evans (he did the cover to Madhaven and others), Wayne Smith (Editor/Rifter®) and I will be guests. Meanwhile, Brandon Aten, Carl Gleba and a few other Palladium creators have talked about coming to UberCon as well. We will all man a nice-sized Palladium Books booth full of back stock books, new titles, prints, artwork and other good stuff. Mark Evans is bringing some artwork and signed prints, and we will all be available to chat, sign autographs and goof around. I’ll be participating in several panel talks throughout, and running a game on Saturday night. Author, Mike Stackpole, is the Gaming Guest of Honor at the convention.
The UberCon organizers, Kevin and Andrea Jahg, are giving Palladium the booth space for free and I tried to return the favor by illustrating the Convention Program Cover (Apollo Okamura colored it for me). It’s a fun cartoon-style cover that I think turned out nice.
This is Palladium’s first visit to a New Jersey convention EVER, and my first time being back in the New York vicinity in 5 years (my last appearance was December, 2001 at the Compleat Strategist after 9/11). I hope a lot of Palladium fans in the New Jersey/New York area come down to join us as I keep telling people how great our fans are in that part of the country. Then again, Palladium fans world over are pretty darn fantastic, so that’s nothing new.
I have no idea when we’ll be back to the area, so take advantage of our appearance if you can. 2007 will see us cut our convention appearances dramatically.
The down side to doing many conventions is that it plays havoc with Palladium’s schedule and my ability to write books. If even a few of the things we have boiling behind the scenes come to fruition, I suspect I will only attend 2-3 conventions next year (plus Palladium’s 3 days of non-stop role-playing at the 2007 Open House). That’s how busy we’ll be fighting to keep Palladium alive and going. So come see us while you can.
Of course, Palladium expects to be represented by the Megaversal Ambassadors and vendors carrying our product at more conventions than ever in 2007. Unfortunately, me and most of the Palladium crew will not be able to attend them. We have to do what we have to do to overcome this crisis. Besides, you are gonna LOVE what we have in store for you in 2007.
Manuscripts in the pipeline
The Rifter® #36 (Horror Special), Rifts® Sourcebook One Expanded (rewritten +40 pages of new material), Rifts® D-Bees of North America (new and old D-Bees), Dimension Book 10: Minion War One: Hades (suitable for use in Palladium Fantasy®, Heroes Unlimited, Chaos Earth and even BTS-2, as well as Rifts®), and Palladium’s Rifts® & the Megaverse® – The Art of John Zeleznik (128 pages of color, all game lines represented) should come out between now and the end of the year. With a little luck we may be able to slip in one or two other titles and a couple of other cool items (like the Coalition Christmas T-shirt) into the line up.
Minion War 2: Dyval, Minion War 3: Dimensional Outbreak, The Atorian Empire (for Heroes Unlimited) as well as a new Phase World® submission (haven’t had a chance to look at it yet) are all sitting in my office waiting to be reviewed, edited and assigned artwork.
2007 promises to be incredible
A retooled, beefed up manuscript for Mysteries of Magic (Palladium Fantasy RPG®) is in the works, and Rifts® Deep South/Dark Woods, Rifts® Delta Blues and Rifts® Voodoo are all being finished and expected to hit my desk this December.
Meanwhile, Todd Yoho is working on a secret project. Jason Richards is working on a secret project (okay, it’s a butt kicking Chaos Earth sourcebook!), Carl Gleba is busy working on Minion War 4 & 5, Brandon Aten is working on Triax 2 while plotting a couple other projects, Taylor White is working on a secret project with me, and I’m probably forgetting somebody or two (sorry).
I recently spoke to a couple of new freelancers (a two-man team) about writing Nightbane® sourcebooks, and they seem to have a good handle on it. We’ll see how it pans out, but I’m optimistic we’ll have at least one new Nightbane® book released in 2007.
I have another freelancer working on a secret project that is so going to knock the socks off Rifts® fans. This project is so secret, so unexpected, so wild, so different, that I’m even keeping the writer’s name secret for now.
Robotech for 2007? We hope so. We ran into some unexpected delays, but things are moving forward and Palladium remains very interested in relaunching this property in 2007.
I also hope to have 2-3 releases for Beyond the Supernatural, Palladium Fantasy RPG® and at least one additional Heroes Unlimited product released in 2007. A lot of what I’ve been trying to do these past 6-8 months is establish a strong network of freelancers (artists and writers) to build a foundation that can support all of Palladium’s lines next year and in the future.
Warpath: Urban Jungle has been delayed because co-creator and co-author Jeffry Scott Hansen is caught up in a big project that is a previous commitment for him and super-amazing. A project bigger than anything you could imagine (no, not film or TV and not for Palladium, but wow). Hmm, “secret” seems to be a running theme here, because we can’t tell you a word about what it is, and neither can Jeff, so please don’t badger him about it on-line. Heck, I’m one of maybe 10 people who are in the loop. Good luck Jeff, and go get ‘em!
Anyway, with Jeff tied up on this other project and Robotech sneaking into our line up, Warpath: Urban Jungle will probably be delayed till Spring or Summer 2007. And yes, it will be hardcore and gritty like you can’t imagine; nothing like Ninjas & Superspies or HU2, but plenty fun to play for those of you who ain’t squeamish girly-men.
Palladium’s Annual Christmas Grab Bag is coming . . .
This year more than ever, Palladium is delighted to offer our autograph filled, annual X-Mas Surprise Package/Grab Bag. As usual, the offer will start sometime in October and run till December 24th. Same price as last year. Our way of giving back to you and saying thanks for everything. Details for the X-Mas Grab Bags will appear in a few weeks.
The bad . . .
September Sales Slump
The anticipated September Sales Slump clobbered us last week and will probably continue for the next few weeks. Hopefully it won’t last long, as our online sales are a big part of Palladium’s monthly income these days.
Heroes of the Megaverse® Print sales stalled
We also saw sales of the $10 "Heroes" print and Character Name Contest (each purchase of the print gives you a chance to be selected and have YOUR name become a Palladium character), drop off sharply after a (well meaning) fan posed the question on our message boards as to whether or not the offer might be illegal and violate Michigan Lottery Laws.
Thankfully, that is not the case. Palladium consulted with its attorneys and the offer is legal, valid and a rare opportunity for RPG fans to become part of the very Palladium Megaverse® they love. So get those orders in. The first 10 folks to get their name selected and turned into a published character will be determined October First.
Catch 22 on the Book Trade front
Tony Falzon is fantastic as he "seems" to be making significant headway at getting Palladium’s RPG products into the book trade. The “book trade” are chain stores like Borders, Barnes & Noble, Books a Million, Hastings, Chapters, etc. Prospects are looking very good on that front and we hope to have a selection of our books in some number of such stores for the Christmas sales season. This could double Palladium’s current level of distribution and sales (let’s hope so, eh), making our games available and easier to find across the country!
Catch 22 . . . and it sucks . . . just as Palladium is getting into a position to break into the book trade in a big way, we may not have the resources to do it as comprehensively as we’d like. Although Palladium is doing much better than we were in April (thanks to you), we still have a ways to go. That means Palladium doesn’t have the money to keep all its books in stock at this time. At least 16 vital key titles are out of print, while another dozen titles are running low. This may prevent us from getting all the product we could into the stores, and fear it might discourage the national chain stores from buying as heavily as they might otherwise. Furthermore, while the book trade is promising, they don't pay for 90-120 days, so inventory will be dropping with no money coming in to reprint or pay bills for 4 months after purchase. That’s okay in the long run, but hurts in the short term. The expected, but unwelcome September sales slump isn’t helping our cash flow either. I’m working on trying to secure some loans, but that will be tough under the circumstances. The cash crunch has also slowed down our rate for new releases.
Still, this is all very promising. October usually sees sales climb, and my accountant says I’m a miracle worker so who knows? Keep us in your prayers and keep those fingers crossed too.
Obviously the good outweighs the bad. Palladium’s future seems brighter every day. Hitting a few stumbling blocks is to be expected even under the best of circumstances. If we can just overcome our current cash flow crunch and reprint, and nail down the Robotech license (I actually have a backer for that project), 2007 could be our best year in a while. Heck, thanks to you guys and gals, the second half of 2006 has been nothing short of a life affirming miracle. Thank you.
Sorry if I ran on a bit, but I haven’t had the time to post much lately, and I know you guys and gals want to be kept posted on current news and developments.
Thank you for listening to my thoughts, dreams and murmurs.
Kevin Siembieda
Publisher, Writer, Artist, Conventioneer and Dreamer
© September 16, 2006