Yes, there are Palladium collectors, aia.

I have a first edition and they are not hard to get and usually not very expensive, so don't pay a premium for a second edition.

Palladium worked on the philosophy that more is better.  They pumped out large numbers of very large products that are of medium game quality.

For instance, the second installment of The Palladium Roleplaying Game was called, Book II:  Old Ones....

*stands up and walks to bookshelf to double check*

Yes, that is correct.

There are many maps of towns in a medieval kingdom inside this book, but the maps have all been generated using the crude computer graphics of the early 80's.  The towns are groupings of squares (that might actually work for table-top purposes) but not really nice drawings.

The other Palladium fantasy items are quite similar, with races and situations unique to the Palladium fantasy world.

(Some call this world "Palladia," but that is not the company-sanctioned name.)

Palladium is the child of Kevin Siembieda, who was an artist for Judges Guild.  Had Judges Guild survived, they might have gone one to become something very similar to Palladium.

Palladium's really memorable contribution to roleplaying games was Rifts, a science-fantasy mix based upon our own world after a cataclysm had mixed up parallel worlds.  There were approximately 1.3 million different Rifts supplements....and I understand that fans either love or hate the game, with very few neutrals.

So far as I know, recent financial problems have forced Palladium out of business.

Anyone know anything else?

Mark  

I've been able to pick up all the books for Palladium Fantasy for $5-10 with shipping usually..so patiance and shopping around works.

ShaneG.

MShipley88 wrote:So far as I know, recent financial problems have forced Palladium out of business.

It was some crazy thing where the sales manager was embezzling money and stealing stuff -- apparently, he even walked off with artwork and miniature masters, which will make it difficult to rerelease some products in the future.  (He sold most of the stuff on ebay before getting caught, so good luck on finding it again.)

The company is still in businesss, though.  They went through some crazy (and heavily-derided-on-rpg.net) fund-raising drive that involved selling an  ugly $50 art print, and a mini-convention at their warehouse.  Kevin Simbieda has also resorted to selling his personal toy collection to raise money -- the Palladium booth at Gencon had a rack of Star Wars toys!

MShipley88 wrote:Then Palladium and Siembieda have real guts.  I hope they make it.

By all accounts they have guts.  Generating funds by selling art prints and personal items is an unusual way to keep a company afloat.

On a collecting note, I have seen a Palladium softcover book that was subtitled something like The Seige of Tolkien-Five.  Later books (other printings?) change Tolkien to Tolkeen.  Are the books that use the somewhat-famous-fantasy-author's name extremely rare or merely uncommon?

Beyondthebreach wrote:Don't forget about Valley of the Pharaohs . . . this is one of the more valuable Palladium items.  A complete box set should sell between $25- $40.  The rulebook alone I sell for around $12- $15. (It was officially issued as both a box set and the rulebook only)

And if you don't want to spend the money, you can get Valley of the Pharohs for free from Palladium.  It's in PDF in the Cutting Room Floor section.

Beyondthebreach wrote:Hmmph     A pdf might as well not exist as far as I'm concerned.  I have no pdf files on my computer  - I won't read a pdf . . . I'm always at my computer, but I absolutely will not read stories (or rulebooks, books, whatever) from a computer screen.

If I can't read the actual book, then I simply don't read it.  (print outs are no good either - too ugly and not real.)

Btb, while your opinion is noted, perhaps your ire would be better directed at Palladium for making Valley of the Pharohs and the original version of Recon both available for free from their website.  As for me personally, if it's a well done PDF, then I have no problem reading it on a screen or printing it out.  The problem is that most of the PDF's are crap.

And I do have both Valley and Recon in PDF, so that's how I know the two games are there.

Don't a couple of the later FRP books go for a little more. I recall something with Library in the title. I could be wrong though.

Plaag wrote:
Library of Bletherad - Book 12

ShaneG.

Thank you. Does it go for about the same as all the others or does it sell for more?

Thanks for the tip on the Palladium downloads!  

I have Valley of the Pharaohs....bought it years ago by mail...long before I was a collector.

Still, the downloads are nice and I like having the maps in re-producable form.

Mark