The Fall of Palladium Books

Unlike most people who dabble in tabletop gaming, I cut my teeth on something other than D&D. The first RPG game I played regularly was a little game called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness by Palladium Books. Of course the game was based on the soon-to-be popular comic series which hadn't really blown up yet. In fact, the game was based on the original Mirage Comics version of the Turtles, which was dark, gritty and more than a little bit nuts. Likewise, the game itself was quite dark and the world created for it absolutely fascinated me and still does to this day.

Not only was TMNT one of my first experiences with RPGs, but it was also my first experience with the games of Palladium Books. For those who don't know, Palladium is a small game company out of Michigan that was started by Kevin Siembieda back in 1981. Like a lot of game companies at the time, it was started by RPG enthusiasts who developed their own system and thought it would sell. Its first RPG was a sci-fi game called The Mechanoid Invasion in 1981. Soon after, the company published many more games in a number of genres. If you were a comic book fan, there was TMNT or Heroes Unlimited. Prefer horror? well there was Beyond the Supernatural. Sci-fi more your thing? There was Robotech, based on the popular anime. How about espionage or martial arts? You could always try Ninjas and Superspies. It also had it's own fantasy game called The Palladium Role-Playing Game, which took a darker look at a high fantasy world. By far, the company's most successful game was Rifts, which is what some in the business call, a kitchen sink game because it took all of the previously mentioned genres and combined them into one completely bonkers game.

The company really hit its stride in the early 90s, I think due partly to its darker take on many genres, which was the way pop culture was shifting at the time. However, that wasn't all, as Palladium was doing something very different with their games at the time, something that most companies back then weren't doing and something that still isn't done all that often today. You see, Palladium's rule-set was such that all of their games had used the same rules with very little variation, so if you new how to play one, you could play them all. Not only that, but because of the excellent world-building done by Siembieda and company, you could take a character made in one game and put it into another with very little conversion. The company referred to this as the Megaverse.

Unfortunately, as the decade rolled on Palladium's popularity began to wane and the combination of increased competition, as well as some financial issues caused by an embezzlement scandal almost brought the company to ruin. The company managed to survive but it didn't seem to have the same cache that it once did in the community. I think there are few reasons why and to help illustrate them I'm going to reference what D&D is currently doing as a comparison:

1. Failure to embrace technology: 
• As many of you may know, D&D is more popular now than it has ever been. While there are a number of reasons for this, one of the primary ones is Wizards of the Coast's decision to charge headfirst into the digital age. It has a number of applications and online tools to provide players and DMs with a wealth of reference materials. Its website is also well designed and it has an easy to use online store. The company has even licensed its materials to remote tabletop platforms such as Fantasy Ground allowing players from anywhere in the world to play with each other.
• Conversely, Palladium remains stuck firmly in the early 90s when it comes to embracing technology. It's website looks pretty much the same way it did back in 2002 and it has precious little available in the way of online tools. The only thing the website provides is some printable character sheets and some errata that was left out of some books.
2. Failure to embrace homebrew: 
• Once again, D&D crushes it here. Not only are the game's basic rules available for free on it's website, but it's also an open license rule set, which means anybody can adapt the rules to make their own game. The most famous example of this is, of course, Pathfinder. Not only that, but WoTC encourages players to develop their own races and classes for use in the game and even lets it's entire player base play-test new material before its officially released.
• Palladium, on the other hand, strongly discourages player-created content to the point where some player have even received cease & desist letters from the company when they post their own content on the internet. 
3. Resistant to change:
• It's a well know fact that D&D has had its fair share of editions. In total there have been eight distinct versions of the game (nine if you include Pathfinder). while coming out with a new edition, can be irksome to many players, D&D has always been smart about its timing, allowing for around a decade in between editions. With each new edition, many rules are tweaked and some are just outright overhauled in an effort to keep the game fresh and modern players interested. While I dislike a lot of these changes personally, it still shows that the company is always looking to move forward.
• While D&D moves forward, Palladium remains stagnant. The game has operated on the same basic rule system since the early 80s, with very little change. In the mid 90s the company released second editions for some of its older games to bring them more in line with the other games in the Megaverese. Personally, I find the rule system charming and very cinematic, but they're damn clunky and almost unmanageable for a large group (5 or more). It's this reluctance to change that I think is the biggest thing keeping Palladium from its former glory.
4. Art & Editing:
• If there's one thing you can say about D&D, especially the more current editions, is that the books are edited well and the art is fantastic. The layout makes it easy to find rules and all of the books have indexes to make looking up more obscure rules easier. As far as the art goes, D&D books nowadays are usually in full colour and in the past, the game has employed some of the best artists in the genre, including Clyde Caldwell, Jeff Easley and Larry Elmore.
• Don't get me wrong, Palladium has had some fine artists in its own right, including Kevin Long, Kevin Eastman and even Kevin Siembieda himself (boy, that's a lot of Kevins). By and large the art in most palladium books is pretty good but the books are edited very poorly in some cases. Information is not always in logical places and sometimes it's been left out altogether. Most egregious, for me though, is the fact that Palladium tends to copy and paste a lot of its text from its previous games and reuses its artwork frequently. It just makes it seem like those in charge just don't give a damn.

So that's it, that's my reasons why Palladium has lost so much popularity over the years. Please keep in mind that this post wasn't meant to disparage Palladium in any way (I still love their games). I'd love to see them rise back to go toe-to-toe with the beast that is D&D. Hopefully one day they will.