I mail-ordered a copy of the revised edition of Palladium Fantasy to Blytheville, Arkansas (yes, in the middle of nowhere!). It was so refreshing and fun!!!
I ran my most successful campaign, which lasted 3.5 (no pun intended) years, using the Palladium system. I LOVED the "interactive" nature of the combat. You get to parry opponents' attacks. That really makes it fun. Sure, it might make combat last a little longer, but that extra roll adds so much intensity to combat that it's well worth it. Encounters are JUICY because of that single roll.
When 2nd Ed Palladium Fantasy came out, they essentially imporved upon EVERYTHING. Witches and Palladins and Druids and --well, every class-- were so much richer, and the artwork was spectacular.
D&D might be, by corporate nature, more well funded, more extensive and more MORE MORE... but Palladium holds to its heart what is important, like the exquisite issues of early (EARLY) Dragon Magazine... Palladium holds to its heart the essence of good RPG gaming. The text is printed on black and white. The illustrations are great, yet leave enough to the imaginatioin, and not manga-overstylized (especially in the latest issues of Dungeon Mag).
On the flip-side, most of D&D us NOT bad. But they have royally pi$$ed me off by releasing 3.5 so soon after 3ed, and now 4th ed. They didn't taper off new books prior to announcing the new 4th ed. They don't care about vendors and bookstore owners and hobbyshops that ordered all the 3.5 materials that are now stale on the shelves. Palladium would not do this, in my humble opinion.
A lot of business owners AND PLAYERS just can't keep up with the constant edition "upgrades." Frankly, I like the fact that 2nd ed Palladium is the SAME game system that I played in the mid 90s. Make your money from new creative ideas, not the re-tooling of the system itself.
Anyway, in a nutshell, PALLADIUM is far richer in most all aspects and less "corporate." Palladium Fantasy is NOW what D&D was in the mid 80s. Well, at least that's the view from someone who's played both, and many different systems, since the early 80s, not to date myself.
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