Wednesday, January 26, 2005
Palladium, Part One
I had an IM discussion yesterday with a guy named Kyle, who is someone I used to hang out with a lot when I was in the SCA. He and some friends (all other people I used to hang out with during my SCA time) have been playing various Palladium games, and I ended up slamming the system. To quote, I called it "broken."
Thankfully, although Kyle really likes the game, he's not a rabid Palladium yes-gamer. I only pointed out a couple of things that bug me about the game, such as the ridiculous way attacks per melee are handled (so if I've got eight APM and you have three APM, we'll exchange attacks evenly three times in a row and then I get to hit you five more times -- what???) and the ridiculously long time it takes to make up a simple character.
While I really think Palladium has come up with some interesting game worlds and concepts, the system is horribly broken, mangled and a danger to the mental health of gamers everywhere. The so-called system was built back in the early 1980s, and it really shows its age. It hasn't had an update since Rifts launched around 1990/1991, and even then, it wasn't much of an update. The only real update was the changes made from Palladium Fantasy 1st Edition to 2nd Edition and from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness 1st Edition to 2nd Edition. Otherwise, the game has more or less remained the same ever since it was created -- even though Palladium keeps mangling the system and creating more problems with every new product release.
The above text was just a rant to start off my dissection of the Palladium system. Think of it as the opening diatribe that kicked off my Shadowrun rant. However, I'm much more capable of dissecting Palladium and pointing out its stupidities, so once the true dissection begins, it could last weeks. ;)
EDIT (01/27): I should point out that there's a slight error above. TMNT&OS never had a 2nd Edition. It had a Revised Edition. The Law also pointed out that Heroes Unlimited had a Revised Edition before TMNT&OS.
Thankfully, although Kyle really likes the game, he's not a rabid Palladium yes-gamer. I only pointed out a couple of things that bug me about the game, such as the ridiculous way attacks per melee are handled (so if I've got eight APM and you have three APM, we'll exchange attacks evenly three times in a row and then I get to hit you five more times -- what???) and the ridiculously long time it takes to make up a simple character.
While I really think Palladium has come up with some interesting game worlds and concepts, the system is horribly broken, mangled and a danger to the mental health of gamers everywhere. The so-called system was built back in the early 1980s, and it really shows its age. It hasn't had an update since Rifts launched around 1990/1991, and even then, it wasn't much of an update. The only real update was the changes made from Palladium Fantasy 1st Edition to 2nd Edition and from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness 1st Edition to 2nd Edition. Otherwise, the game has more or less remained the same ever since it was created -- even though Palladium keeps mangling the system and creating more problems with every new product release.
The above text was just a rant to start off my dissection of the Palladium system. Think of it as the opening diatribe that kicked off my Shadowrun rant. However, I'm much more capable of dissecting Palladium and pointing out its stupidities, so once the true dissection begins, it could last weeks. ;)
EDIT (01/27): I should point out that there's a slight error above. TMNT&OS never had a 2nd Edition. It had a Revised Edition. The Law also pointed out that Heroes Unlimited had a Revised Edition before TMNT&OS.
// posted by Chris @ 1:29 PM 
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