Hello? I hope there’re still people reading
this blog. Apologies for my latest absence. Of late, at my excruciating small chances
of spare time, I decided to give priority to my Curse of the Crimson Throne
campaign instead of this blog. We’re in the middle of Skeletons of Scarwall (the
5th book) and just finished our 26th session. The entire
game has been an awesome experience, with episodes of both exhilarating fun and
heartbreaking choices. In other words: the perfect campaign. And exactly
because of this I’m getting anxious to give my players a proper and cool ending
to the entire ride. So, again, apologies for the radio silence. Time to quickly
share my last game reading:
Before proceeding, let me backtrack a little. I
bought RIFTs some 15 years ago. At the time I had just discovered AD&D 2nd
(besides learned English) and Vampire the Masquerade. I was hunting “big
classics” for my RPG collection. After reading a few DRAGON Magazines and
certain sites (oh, my first years of Internet…) I discovered RIFTs and found
the entire “magic-technological post-apocalyptic multiverse” premise awesome
and bold (I was a teenager). So I snatched a copy from Amazon and…
…what a mess. I was hugely disappointed. The
book was a disaster in terms of rules and presentation and the setting made no
sense (I was a teenager that had just read Vampire and Castle Falkenstein… RPGs
were supposed to be “setting-serious” and mechanically elegant for me).
The end of the tale: RIFTs was one of those rare
RPGs that I decided to sell back (and I only did that thrice so far. Yeah, I regretted
two of those sells and was forced to buy stuff back).
Lets advance a few (quite a few) years. Today I’m
older and wiser… OK, not wiser, but I take myself (and my hobbies) less
serious. I’m also more curious and I learned a lot. RIFTs is still an
irreparable mess for me, but I learned to love its kitchen-skin insanity (and
Savage World my save the setting). I enjoy RIFTs especially for fun-crazy games
and post-apocalyptic mayhem (I have Apocalypse World for more “personal/dramatic”
stuff).
After Swords & Wizardry brought the first
RPGs to my attention, I discovered the Palladium Fantasy Role-Playing Game Revised
Edition. I even managed to grab a used (but NM) copy here in Brazil. Boy, what
a beautiful piece of work! Now I see where Siembieda got his fans from. This
RPG is basically a considerably house-ruled version of D&D (much like the beginnings
of Runequest/BRP), with lots and lots of great ideas.
You got 8 attributes and lots of classes (or
O.C.C.s) with many prerequisites, reminding me of AD&D 1st. And
Siembieda’s way of painfully detailing each class is really nice for flavor (if
sometimes tiresome). Skills are %-based and go up with each level (useful, but
nothing new). You even got saving throws. Now, some of the bits that I really
liked to see in such an old game:
- Your initial hit points are equal to your Constitution (called here P.E.) and all PCs gain 1d6 hit points per level after that;
- Multiclass rules are relatively simply and (sort of) make sense;
- There isn’t a general combat matrix, THAC0 or BAB; instead of those each class gains different bonus to damage, strike, dodge, parry, critical hits, extra attacks and other stuff at different levels; and those bonuses aren’t high, capping around +5/+6 (take that D&D Next!);
- Fighting man classes are the only ones to attack more than once per round (and also gain an automatic parry);
- Attacks are deadly simple: roll d20 and score 4+; if the enemy is wearing armor you have to beat the armor’s AC (usually 5-19); if you hit an armored enemy you must first pass through his armor’s hit points;
- The rules for spellcasting are simple and (better yet!) make the presence of allied fighters almost obligatory;
- Most spellcasters have a limited number of spells per day, that they can cast in any combination; their spells also get stronger (Spell Strength) through small bonus gained at different levels;
- There’re rules for traditional wizards (with some cool innovations like the magic cauldron ritual); warlocks (exotic elemental priest/mages); witches (your usual Salem-satanic breed); diabolists (very cool take on a symbol/glyph-based caster); summoners (the most dangerous and cool archetype, that deals with circles and summoning); clerics (your base priest); druids (with cool rules for shapechanging); and shamans. Each class has the same basic structure, but the various mini-systems are very fun;
- The wizards have a very simple rule that is totally vancian and deserves to be mentioned: they can cast spells of ANY level. They just need to find and learn the dweomer (found a 9th level spell? You lucky punk). Totally Dying Earth;
- Many spells or O.C.C.’s abilities have detrimental or dangerous side-effects in case of failure (lots of sadistic tables);
- Simple rules for monsters (with very few stats) and deities (with useful stats!).
Of course, we’re talking about a Palladium RPG
book, so you also have all kinds of eccentricities from its author (like ‘Homosexuality’
as a type of insanity, probably its most famous example). But what I found very
interesting is how many of Palladium Fantasy’s rules are excellent “fixes” (or
house rules) for many D&D campaigns. This is a medium-crunch yet simple and
engaging fantasy RPG, with lots of open space to be filled by the Gamemaster
and players who’re interested in Old School games and don’t mind trying
something different (there’s even a setting at the book’s end).
P.S.: I’m aware that Palladium Fantasy 2nd
and following books are considerably different and that the supplements really bloated
this game in terms of setting and rules. However, the core book alone is a
wonderful RPG (like the Forgotten Realms “Grey Box”, which taken as a “one book
setting” is a such an amazing resource).
