My opinions on Palladium Fantasy

[Hallows]

I haven't played PF in awhile now so I took out my books the other day and started to read them again. It's been awhile but I would like to sum up my opinions on this game.

The game world itself is the best I've ever seen. The history is well done and the locales are fleshed out nicely. The only game that came close as far as settings go was Ravenloft.

The classes are well done too. D&D classes are pretty generic in comparison. There are some balance issues but with some tweaking it's not bad. Plus you can play a class that can SUMMON AND CONTROL DEMONS!!!! D&D doesn't have that.

The only gripe I have with PF is the combat mechanics. It seems there has to be some heavy modifying of the rules to run smoothly, especially if you plan on using miniatures which me and my group always use in every game we play. This is where D20 is better than PF. D20 is ready to play with little to no modifications and has excellent miniature rules. I do however like the whole parry and dodge in PF. D20 defense is passive and the attacker just rolls to hit a target number. PF gets a defense roll too which I think adds to the exictment of battle.

Another concern I have is the lack of books being published. I wish they would concentrate more on PF then releasing books like Splicers or System Failure which to me doesnt seem like they will ever get big. They should instead concentrate on making more books for Pallidium Fantasy which has a descent size fanbase as far as I can tell. I would love to see Wolfen Wars come out since I was planing on starting a campaign in the Eastern Territory. I hope all the reprints coming out that I read on this website means they are going to start publishing alot more material for this awesome game.

Ohwell I've gone on long enough just wanted to write how i felt. I still love this game despite some of the negatives which are minor compared to the enjoyment I get from it.

Cyas.

[Shin Kenshiro]

number 10,732 to dislike Palladium's combat system.

Don't think it's gonna change, either adapt D20's system to it, or use the setting in something else. I'm pretty sure Palladium's never going to change it.

[Adam of the Old Kingdom]

Accualy, PF is about the best place for PBs combat system to work. any mods I made to it were for other games (like rifts) or imported rubbish (like -10).

to counter hallows statement that D20 has a static defence. how about you replace the base 10 with a D20 defence roll.
Conan has seperate Parry and dodge scores and uses the base 10 (which is your 50% mark). easy.

D&Ds classes are supposed to be generic. but I do like the fact that PB puts ballance into the GMs hands and not into the class and exp structure.

I hope wolfen war is handled better than Rifts:SOT.

Now if we can have the last 1st ed books converted and the last few parts of the world made into world books......but alas, "rifts pays the bills". I wonder how PF would go if given a desent run at "paying the bills". we know the setting rocks even with all the other fantasy setting out there.

[Entiago]

In my humble opinion, I do not want to see Wolven Wars come into print. At least not yet. Flesh out Old Kingdom, Phi, Lopan, Land of the South Winds, Land of the Damned 3 (am i forgetting any one?). Fully flesh out the rest of the "world" give some time (2-5 years) then release the Wolven Wars book. This way it gives us GM's time to get all this info in and say "OK I see that". Plus it would be like a 'rebirth' - ok you have the world chapter 1-19, now for chapter 20 wolven wars - type deal.


Really I could care less about Wolven Wars now, or ever.

[highpriestrsw2]

I really like the combat system for PFRPG...I think that D20 mechanics feel a little bit too much like a miniatures game trying to be an RPG...I don't use minis much...
I LOVE the amount of character classes in PFRPG! There isn't a lot of diversity among the D20 classes-they all seem like carbon copies of the starting classes with minute changes- and the D20 classes feel less balanced.
I Love the ability to take OCCs out of other Palladium games and drop them into ANY other Palladium game-try doing that with D20!
I love the attention to detail in PFRPG releases! Things don't change sourcebook to sourcebook and there is very little tweaking done to even updated editions of the game besides necessary rule tweaks-the story stays the same! THAT IS THE REASON THAT I DON'T GRIPE IF PFRPG BOOKS ARE LATE OR DELAYED...BECAUSE I KNOW THAT THEY WILL BE GREAT! THESE GUYS REALLY TAKE THE TIME TO GET EVERY LITTLE DETAIL RIGHT BEFORE THEY RELEASE THINGS! PALLADIUM DOESN'T RELEASE CRAP! TAKE A LOOK AT ALL THE CRAP OUT THERE WITH THE D20 LOGO ON IT OUT THERE!
Try playing D20 without the DMG or DM shield! with PFRPG you don't really need one...the rules are that east to understand!
how many posts have there been asking if something that was never fully explained was part of Kevin's game?... I like those little details...that they guys who write this stuff actually play it...and have played it and keep playing it...they don't do it for the money...they really love their game and it shows!

and last but not least....I LOVE THIS GAME!

[Veknironth]

Well, I don't think you'll get much disagreement here on the paucity of books. We have complained about that here for years. As has been said, the bills need to be paid and Rifts is the big seller.

I like the combat system. It is open to house rules and I like that. I believe the attack/parry dynamic is fantastic. It's what initialy drew me to the system. I much prefer the 1st edition combat tables over the revised 2nd edition "everything compatiable with Rifts" ones.

We use miniatures and it has always worked well. We just used them for point of reference, so maybe we don't use them in the same way.

-Vek
"It's such a fun game."

[Pro Munchy]

Well, I don't think you'll get much disagreement here on the paucity of books. We have complained about that here for years. As has been said, the bills need to be paid and Rifts is the big seller.

I like the combat system. It is open to house rules and I like that. I believe the attack/parry dynamic is fantastic. It's what initialy drew me to the system. I much prefer the 1st edition combat tables over the revised 2nd edition "everything compatiable with Rifts" ones.

We use miniatures and it has always worked well. We just used them for point of reference, so maybe we don't use them in the same way.

-Vek
"It's such a fun game."

I would halve to agree with Vek here too, I didn't really use attack/parry dynamics that much before Vek played at a couple of my sessions and his buddy Capt. Clown also used them and ever since I have been using them when I play or GM now, and in our last years game of Rifts we had more hand to hand combat then ever before, it was one of the most enjoyable campaigns we've done with Rifts yet.

Nah Vek, you weren't at that one.. Although we missed ya.

As for the miniatures, I believe everybody has an aspect they look for in them, I like the visual aspect as also the point of reference. Over the past year, I have greatly stepped up my miniature use in our games, buildings, town layouts, etc. And it has improved the game greatly for all. Not to mention there is "way" less confussion in combat situations, things are a lot clearer!

Pro M

[Vidynn]

THESE GUYS REALLY TAKE THE TIME TO GET EVERY LITTLE DETAIL RIGHT BEFORE THEY RELEASE THINGS!

I hope thats irony here, right?

"every little detail"...and what about all the mistakes they make in the books???

just to get this straight, I love Palladium Fantasy, but certainly not because of their editing!!

Vid

[Hotrod]

When Rifts comes out with a sourcebook, there are tons of NPC's, new gizmos, new beefed-up weapons, new types of magic, new OCC's and RCC's that outclass existing ones, new armors, new monsters, and perhaps 10 pages of background information.

Palladium's sourcebooks are labors of love. They are rich in background information. They aren't riddled with toys and unneccessary NPC's. The new OCC's and RCC's are well-reasoned and balanced, by and large, and the setting is far more consistent.

[Entiago]

- LOTD book III and Two Old Kingdom books is rumored to be coming out *looks for refrences*

been looking for those Old Kingdom books for about 10 years now,
Land of the Damned 3 book about 2 years

- Phi and Lopan have just enough to make a detailed book... if the cities and history are detialed (w/ colonial notes about the Yin-Sloth city of Phi-Lopandra).

If you look in Eastern Territories book page 109 and 110, it says that more info will be realeased in future books

- Wolfen Tribes Book with detials on their city states and more maps than the northern WIlderness books.

maybe covered in Wolven Empire? I know in Adventures in Northern Wilderness it covers a little about the tribes, military, and other little stuff. Yes I agree on maps of the cities

- Land of the South winds... clear up all the mystery and take Greg's writing and ideas to another level...

Greg?? someone wrote on Land of the South Winds?

1) A Time of a thousand Magiks book for either play or more (frobidden) magics...
2) The Elf Dwarf War book. Yum! Dwarven war engines!

As for those, don't hold yer breath (plus I have no real desire to see 'em)






ok maybe a little

[Entiago]

Time has never progressed in PFRPG. From the core book on time has never gone forward, each new book just tells us about a different part of the world. And until the world is completely drawn, and maybe not even then, should they progress forward. But, seriously, wouldn't take make a whole new game?

Exactly

[J. Lionheart]

I very much enjoy the combat system in Palladium, as it is used in PF. I don't use miniatures, and like the simplicity of a system everybody can understand by the time their first fight is done. I preferred first edition to second (I'm no RIFTS compatibility fan) because I liked it when players didn't have SDC and a slash from a big gnashy sword actually could, ya know, hurt you significantly, but no serious complaints.

I eagerly anticipate LOtD Three, and hope Wolfen Wars will be predominantly information about forces and tactics rather than some silly dictation of how things turn out. The timeline of the game world HAS actually moved ahead somewhat as the books are written (about 10-20 years from the original PF 1E to today) but not enough to justify writing an entire military campaign and giving conclusions that result in the nullification of the info in the old books.

While I would love information about things like the Time of a Thousand Magicks and the Elf-Dwarf War, I really don't want those to get written up because the inevitable result will be huge power-creep in the game (like RIFTS has suffered) as the worlds munchkins crawl out of the woodwork making up ways they mysteriously rediscovered the lost magic described. At worst, it trashes the great balance the writers have managed to keep so far, and at best it is a lot of effort put in to creating books that won't be compatiable with the rest of the series, and as we can see from what people posted here, there are plenty of other contemporary books that need that effort first.

[Omote]

As it's been said before, I love the Palladium System of combat, PARTICULARLY with PF. I love the beauty of the cinematic strikes, parries and dodges. IMO the best system for fantasy melee combat ever. Hands down.

I'd go into it more, but those who like the system already know what I'm going to say. Those that hate the system couldn't care less.

..............................Omote
FPQ