In November 2022 we revived the January 2022 Palladium Fantasy 2E Bundle featuring .PDF ebooks for the 1996 Second Edition of The Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game, Kevin Siembieda‘s long-lived fantasy RPG from Palladium Books. The mystical world of Palladium is a land rich in magic. The Wolfen Empire prepares for war in the Great Northern Wilderness, and the Giant kingdom of Mount Nimro threatens nearby human, elven, and dwarven settlements. Mystics, Knights, and Barbarians call upon the gods for powers both new and arcane to bend the world to their will. On the high seas, pirates sail to islands like the Isle of Zy and the Island of the Cyclops. Against a host of legendary creatures, and the backstabbing intrigues of the high courts, you’ll need dragon-forged will, deceptive guile, and a stout backbone to survive.
Palladium’s FRPG launched the company and served as its flagship game before Rifts. James Maliszewski, on his Grognardia blog, discussed The Palladium Role-Playing Game in the context of the Old School Revival: “Re-reading the game recently, I was struck less by its specific affinity with D&D and more by its connection to Old School design principles more generally. The Palladium Role-Playing Game is not one that frets about ‘balance’ or shies away from ‘swinginess’ or any of the other buzzwords of contemporary RPG design. This is a game very much in the mold of the early days of the hobby, a joyous goulash, equal parts randomness and brilliance, that wasn’t tailored to provide a particular kind of play experience. It’s a toolbox, filled with more than any single referee could ever possibly need for a single campaign; but, since its designer doesn’t know – let alone mandate – what each referee might need, he includes it all and allows the referee to pick and choose as he wishes. […] When Dungeons & Dragons was abandoning the Old Ways, Palladium was still there, keeping the faith and providing gamers with the kind of stuff that attracted me to the hobby in the first place.”
The 1996 Palladium Fantasy Second Edition retrofits rules systems Kevin Siembieda introduced in later games such as Rifts: Structural Damage Capacity (SDC) for living characters, Potential Psychic Energy (PPE, psionics spell points), and a few other changes that improve compatibility with other Palladium game lines.
The Palladium system inspires a lot of discussion. A 16-month “Let’s Read Palladium Fantasy 2nd Edition” thread (Dec 2018 – March 2020) on the RPG.net Tabletop Roleplaying Open forum got only as far as page 115 of the 2E core rulebook, but the discussion drew 400+ posts from many deeply informed commenters. This revival gave customers a new chance to get the book that inspired them, plus a dozen supplements and sourcebooks, for an unbeatable bargain price.
There were six titles in this revived offer’s Starter Collection (retail value $71.50) as DRM-free .PDF ebooks, including the complete Palladium Fantasy RPG 2E core rulebook, the rules expansion The Heart of Magic, the sourcebooks Monsters and Animals and Dragons & Gods, and the introductory setting guides The Western Empire and Library of Bletherad.
Those who paid more than the threshold (average) price also got this revival’s entire Bonus Collection with ten more setting sourcebooks worth an additional $125, including Wolfen Empire, Eastern Territory, Land of the Damned 1 – Chaos Lands and 2 – Eternal Torment, Mount Nimro, Baalgor Wastelands, Northern Hinterlands, Bizantium and the Northern Islands, Old Ones 2E, and Adventures on the High Seas 2E.
