Odd you mentioned his name, I just found another printing for Book of Ruins that has his name on the bottom cover, and later print removes that (along with another correction)

I also have a few of the Palladium fantasy books as well (Along with the TMNT line) and I suppose they do have a quality similiar to Judges Guild products. They are larger in page count and use b/w pictures, so not sure if that model seemed to work better back then or the time was just right to start the company.

Looking at the products that were not released, you can almost see Judges Guild was trying to evolve: super heroes, even more in depth books dealing with inns/taverns and specific magic items (amulets/talisman). I did buy a small lot of stuff from Fencert that was insdie a box with some of Bob's mail (is where the CSWE no black ink cover came from) that included the Mars book, a couple Task Force Games, Monsters and Treasures III from TSR, Group One's Ironhoof Highlands so I assume various companies other then TSR (since they lost the license) were being considered.

Otherwise, things went the way they did, and Judges Guild survives through here, through the limited d20 products released by various companies, and the couple of things still in development (Tegel, Inferno, etc).
Things have a way of coming around again.

ShaneG.

Yep..thats the one

ShaneG.

MShipley88 wrote:

Plaag wrote:Yep..thats the one

ShaneG.

  Lord, I paid a dollar or five dollars for that thing.  Awful. Bad. Terrible. Yech!  Sort of like a parody of an RPG product.

  (Umm..you didn't design it, did you?)  

Mark  

I'd have done better
Group One put that out:
http://www.acaeum.com/jg/JudgesGuildOtherCompanies.html

ShaneG.

A friend I have been in correspondence with mentioned that Siembieda had once tried to pitch his fantasy RPG to Judges Guild one time, but declined because he thought the price was abysmally low. I assume this is what became Palladium Fantasy later on.

Siembieda's creations owe a lot to JG's production philosophy and "feel"; I certainly agree that Palladium Books is what JG could have evolved into under more favourable circumstances. Likewise, RIFTS was the Arduin of the 1990s.   For all the hate he gets online, Kevin is still the man as far as I am concerned.

By the way:

 Shane...the box you bought from Fencert with the correspondence in it....

 I know Fencert mentioned having some of this stuff, as well as some original artwork.

  Do you mind telling what was in the box and what you got?

  Also, I wonder if Siemieba is a good source on print runs and the like for Judges Guild.  I bet he has a good memory for that stuff.

Mark  

I just suspect that as an artist who later had experience publishing his own work he would have a good head for remembering the small points.

Mark  

I couldn't really find any valid complaints on that strand.  It just seems like they have gripes about game balance or something.

  Sad to hear that Palladium is on the brink of going under.

   I am kind of the Ted McGinley of gaming.  Just as soon as I get interested in something, it seems to be right at the moment when it is about the disappear.

   Mark