Palladium Books® – Weekly Update – March 8, 2024

One game system – every genre – countless worlds – endless adventure

By Kevin Siembieda

We are on fire here at Palladium Books.

A lot of exciting stuff is happening here in Palladiumville as we continue to make all kinds of moves behind the scenes. I have been knocking out art and writing for the TMNT & Other Strangeness Redux, Yin-Sloth Expeditions, and Rifts® Bestiary 2.

Sean has been hammering away on the TMNT & Other Strangeness Redux coordinating and submitting the last of the hundreds of color illustrations and dozens of tribute art pages as well as the remastering of the text and layout, among other things.

NEW on DriveThru – Rifts® Titan Robotics PDF now available on DriveThruRPG.com – Wayne has made Titan Robotics available as a bookmarked PDF on DriveThru. Rifts® Manhunters, all issues of The Rifter®, and most of Palladium’s 300+ titles are available as PDFs.

NEWS! The TMNT couldn’t be hotter. The new comic book series, The Last Ronin II: Re-Evolution #1 was released Wednesday this week and has sold out its 140,000 copy print run! (Glad I bought two copies!) Publisher IDW has already sent it out for a second printing.

HURRY! Ninja Turtles collector items from Palladium’s TMNT & Other Strangeness RPG Kickstarter/BackerKit Pledge Manager are still available to Backers! But only for a few more weeks. The variant book covers – one by Kevin Eastman, one by Sophie Campbell, and the two Mutagen Green Foil covers by Eastman and Laird – as well as those two incredible miniature sets, are certain to become collector items! Get ‘em while you can for yourself and for your gaming friends (think ahead to birthdays, Christmas, etc.). Because when we say Kickstarter Exclusives, we mean Kickstarter Exclusives! They are beautiful, very limited in the number of copies being printed, and will NOT be for general sale!

Backers, please fill out your TMNT and Other Strangeness RPG Backerkit survey and use the Pledge Manager to get every Kickstarter Exclusive you and your friends may want. Remember, you have until early April to upgrade your pledge level and get more add-ons before the Pledge Manager closes.

Backers, click here to start your survey.

NEWS! Remembrance Sneak Preview – The written remembrances for the Turtles and Erick Wujcik appearing in the TMNT & Other Strangeness RPG Redux editions are so fun and wonderful that starting with this Weekly Update, we are going offer a sneak preview of one just before Closing Thoughts, plus additional thoughts and memories by me and/or Sean. We hope you enjoy them.

Please, please help if you can. If only 1,000 of you pledged a $5 donation, it would be $5,000 dollars to a noble cause that saves lives. This is one of Sean and my (Kevin Siembieda) favorite charities. All the money goes to the people being helped by the charity and it truly saves and improves lives. Please find it in your heart to support the downtrodden through these valiant efforts help in an often forgotten part of the world. These are vulnerable people with no voice. They need our help. Thank you. See complete details elsewhere in this Update. This fund-raiser ends in a week or so.

GiveSendGo – BRIC and Goma Citizens need help

The Pre-Order Store for TMNT and Other Strangeness RPG is open!

Even if you did not back the TMNT & Other Strangeness Kickstarter, you can pre-order the mainstream books at the lower Kickstarter prices. Available items include the following.

- Redux TMNT & Other Strangeness RPG (remastered RPG with bonus content, Truckin’ Turtles, Turtles Go Hollywood, plus loads of tribute and behind the scenes art, history, remembrances, and information; full color).

- Transdimensional TMNT (remastered Transdimensional TMNT with bonus content, TMNT Adventures, TMNT Guide to the Universe, plus loads of tribute art and behind the scenes information; full color).

- TMNT & Other Strangeness RPG Game Master Screen – Featuring fan favorite art by Kevin Eastman, Freddie E. Williams II, and Michael Majestic. It includes plastic pockets for changing the information as the G.M. desires.

- Mutagen Green Dice – Unique and radical. WARNING: Palladium Books is not liable for any mutations or super abilities that may result from the use of these dice.

- Black, White & Red TMNT & Other Strangeness RPG – Sensational black, grayscale, and red color treatment to the art plus the full color bonus material (includes remastered RPG, Truckin’ Turtles, Turtles Go Hollywood, plus loads of color tribute and behind the scenes artwork, history, remembrances, and information; special and dynamic).

- Black, White & Red Transdimensional TMNT – Black, grayscale, and red color treatment to the art plus the full color bonus material (includes remastered Transdimensional TMNT, TMNT Adventures, TMNT Guide to the Universe, plus loads of color tribute art, behind the scenes art, remembrances, and information; special and dynamic).

Note #1: The variant cover edition books (gorgeous), two miniature sets, FanRoll dice sets and accessories, poker deck, art prints, etc., are only available to Kickstarter Backers. If you are not a Backer, you’ll need to find a friend who did back it and see if they are willing to add the items you want to their pledge. As originally announced in the Kickstarter, we anticipate the books and exclusives all shipping to Backers in September.

Note #2: Remember, you can supplement your TMNT adventures (or get a jump on them now) with the Heroes Unlimited RPG and sourcebooks like Mutant Underground, Ninjas & Superspies RPG, Mystic China, and the After the Bomb® RPG and sourcebooks. Mutants! Mutants everywhere!

Non-Backers, click here to go to the Pre-Order store.

The Valley of the Pharaohs - Expanded 40th Anniversary Edition KICKSTARTER

– Role-playing in the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt (1450 BCE) – by Matthew Balent

This is NOT a Palladium Books Kickstarter, but I fully endorse it. Valley of the Pharaohs was Palladium’s first boxed game released back in 1984 and has become something of a Holy Grail acquisition for collectors. When Matthew Balent, the original creator and author of the game, asked me if he could build on the original game and do a new, expanded 40th Anniversary Edition of it as a Kickstarter offer, I said, “absolutely yes.”

Well, Matt has gone and done it. From what I can tell, it still features artwork, diagrams and maps by me (Kevin Siembieda), additional art by me and Mary Walsh, and the original text and concepts extensively expanded with new material by the original author. How much new stuff? I think the original book (plus 12 or 14 pull outs) was 64 pages. The 40th Anniversary Valley of the Pharaohs is a 250 page, 8 1/2 x 11 inch book with new magic spells, new skills, enemies, history, and lots of world information. Remember, this will be a book rather than a boxed game. It looks fun and is a piece of Palladium history. I know I want a copy! Matt is also the author of much of the Weapons and Armor book series. All historically accurate and suitable for any game systems from D&D and Pathfinder to Palladium Fantasy and Rifts.

You can learn more about what Matthew Balent has to offer by clicking on the link below. Enjoy.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mbalent/the-valley-of-the-pharaohs-40th-anniversary-edition

Another interesting Kickstarter – Savage Worlds Science Fiction Companion

Fully compatible with Rifts® for Savage Worlds, the SWADE Science Fiction Companion is funding now on Kickstarter from Pinnacle Entertainment Group! This 200+ page hardcover expands options for space travel, giant war-walkers, cyberware, transhumanism, exploration gear, and more to help you add everything from Space Opera to the hardest Sci-Fi to your games. The Sci-Fi Bundle pledge includes the companion, a hardcover adventure book, Pawns, Archetype Cards, an Action Deck, and Vehicle Cards. Go to the Kickstarter for more detail.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/545820095/savage-worlds-sci-fi-companion?ref=8zboc0

BRIC and Goma Citizens need our help

Hello, my name is Larry Nelson, Vice President for RIGHT – Relief in the Congo for God's Children from Human Trafficking. We are a non-profit 501(C)(3) organization working to protect children and help families in the Congo.

RIGHT's mission is to raise funds to assist the BRIC Foundation (Building Resilience in the Congo Foundation) in their rescue efforts to save young boys being stolen from their families and forced to become child-soldiers against their will. BRIC also rescues young girls whose bodies are often used as commodities by the armed rebel factions that plague the eastern portion of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

RIGHT has managed to raise funds to build enclosures for BRIC sanctuaries including fortified walls, gates, classrooms, teachers, and more to protect children while giving them an education, a safe place where they can function during the day. At night, many BRIC associates take the children into their own homes to feed and care for them as they would their own families.

In 2023 RIGHT purchased property in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo where the enclosure pictured is built. Here BRIC holds classes on auto repair, sewing, hairdressing for men and women, as well as crafting musical instruments and other items to sell as income-generating opportunities. They have also held creative workshops to help the children and people of surrounding communities, like Goma, address their substantial trauma.

However, military conflict in this region has increased over the past year, making BRIC's local efforts all the more essential to protect innocent people. As we speak, the city of Goma is surrounded by violent rebel factions who regularly block the passage of people, food, and medicines.

Food supply lines from other communities have been cut off by these warring rebel forces, forcing Goma's citizens to either forage for food in the rainforest or starve. However, mothers and fathers cannot leave their children home while they forage for food, because if left alone, the children are at great risk of being kidnaped and trafficked, turned into child-soldiers, or worse.

Thankfully, BRIC provides a refuge for the area’s children. BRIC associates are now accepting neighboring Goma children into their sanctuary's enclosure during the day so their parents can sneak out into the wilderness in search of food to feed their families.

It is a grim situation, but your contributions to this crowdfunding campaign will help immeasurably.

Your contributions over the last few years have provided the fortified walls and iron gate to the BRIC enclosure, as well as the school, educational programs, and necessary supplies for all who seek help and safe haven there. You are making a direct and lifesaving difference to these families in need.

It is a blessing that, with your previous contributions, BRIC was able to complete construction of the Goma sanctuary's thick walls and armored security gate in the nick of time before this latest outbreak of war and violence.

Now more than ever, money is needed to provide emergency food, shelter, and basic necessities for those who seek help from BRIC during this time of strife. Another imperative that RIGHT is looking to help fund is the installation of security lights and barbed wire atop the sanctuary's walls to better protect those within – any funds donated in excess of immediate needs will go towards these improved safety measures.

We pray that the rebel forces, Congolese Army, and Congolese leaders can find a way to bring peace back to the area. Until then, RIGHT will need to raise funds to help BRIC protect and assist as many children and families as possible.

Please support this worthy cause. Donations of any size, even a few dollars, are welcome. God Bless you for your prayers and support.

– On behalf the RIGHT Board Members, and supporters helping the Building Resilience in the Congo Foundation (BRIC) to save lives – Dan & Kayna Stout, Traycee Shepard, Larry & Yvonne Nelson

GiveSendGo - BRIC and Goma Citizens need help

T-Shirts Coming Soon

Due to popular demand, Palladium is bringing back two fan-favorite T-Shirts plus a brand new Heroes Unlimited shirt. All available in most sizes. All shirts should become available in February.

• Rifts® Logo T-shirt – The ever-popular Kevin Long Rifts Logo; white printing on a black T-shirt.
• Living the Fantasy T-shirt – Kevin Siembieda’s iconic dragon battling a knight from the original RPG book cover; red printing on a black T-shirt.
• NEW! Heroes Unlimited: Unleash Your Power T-shirt – Heroes Unlimited logo, superhero artwork and the slogan “Unleash Your Power;” white printing on a black T-shirt.

Coffee Mugs Coming Soon

Due to popular demand, Palladium is bringing back two fan-favorite coffee mugs plus a new Heroes Unlimited coffee mug. All items should be become available in February or March.

• Rifts® Logo – The ever-popular Rifts Logo; white printing on a black coffee mug.
• Living the Fantasy – Kevin Siembieda’s iconic dragon battling a knight from the original RPG book cover; red printing on a black mug.
• NEW! Heroes Unlimited: Unleash Your Power – Heroes Unlimited logo and artwork; white printing on a black coffee mug.

New on DriveThruRPG.com – Rifts^® Titan Robotics^™ joins 300+ RPG titles, and more from Palladium Books

Rifts® Titan Robotics is a high-tech toy box filled with new types of Titan Robotics power armor, giant robots, vehicles, weapons, and gear. Shrouded in secrecy and rumor, the true story of Titan Robotics is finally revealed. The enigmatic arms manufacturer’s undisclosed operations and special projects unveil the shocking truth - androids walk among us and enact a mysterious plan with goals unknown to the unsuspecting world. While their existence is hidden from the public, Titan’s powerful robots and power armor suits are becoming more popular than ever before. Go on covert missions, engage in industrial espionage, uncover shocking truths, get awesome new gear, and enjoy wild adventures.

• Visit the gleaming steel and metal of a Titan Robotics™ showroom, and test-drive their newest models.
• 18 giant robots.
• 12 power armors.
• Weapons, gear and notable vehicles.
• Gunny’s Depots – arms dealer and part of Titan’s hidden network.
• Play a Syntharoid sentient human replica android.
• Play a Titan Dispatcher and join a Titan Robotics Courier Team.
• Discover ARCHIE and Hagan’s hidden agendas and secret operations.
• Explore Titan’s shadowy web of informants and how it prospers and grows.
• Intrigue, espionage, adventure prompts and ideas, NPCs, and more.
• 192 pages written by Sean Owen Roberson and Matthew Clements. Cover by Mike Majestic.

No other game company offers more game worlds for so many different genres. Best of all, learn to play one Palladium RPG and you can play them all, because each uses the same basic core rules and combat. There are differences, but the fundamentals are the same. This also means you can bring characters, villains, monsters, powers, magic, weapons, gear, and adventure ideas from one setting into another or mash them together!

• Rifts® RPG Megaverse®. Rifts® is the ultimate setting in which you can combine any number of genres and style of game play you may desire: science fiction and technology, fantasy and magic, horror and the supernatural, noir, cowboy adventures, space opera, and more. Play humans, aliens, dimensional beings, modern knights, cyborgs, giant robots, mages, psychics, mutant animals, dinosaur tamers, dragon hatchlings, vampires, werebeasts, dimensional travelers, cowboys, and more to become heroes of legend. Combine any and all of these genres and characters into a wild and fun, yet plausible setting. There has never been a game quite like Rifts®.
• Rifts® Chaos Earth® titles. Live through the Great Cataclysm and the Coming of the Rifts that created Rifts Earth. Rifts® Chaos Earth® RPG, Creatures of Chaos™, Rise of Magic™, and Chaos Earth® Resurrection™ are all available.
• The Rifter® #1-85. Each issue is a wealth of source material for Rifts® and 3-5 other Palladium game settings. More than 8,600 pages of source material and counting. Most issues are only available in digital form.
• Palladium Fantasy RPG® titles. A rich, original setting in which you can play humans or any number of nonhuman species of people in a world of magic, heroes and wonder. All of it epic.
• Dead Reign® RPG and sourcebooks. The Zombie Apocalypse unleashed. A great introductory RPG that is surprisingly uplifting, fun, fast, and easy to learn.
• Heroes Unlimited™ RPG Second Edition titles. Create any type of superhuman you can imagine to build your own super-hero universe.
• Ninjas & Superspies™ RPG and the Mystic China™ sourcebook. 41 types of martial arts, ninjas, super-spies, gizmos, mystic powers, and magic in the main book, plus even more in Mystic China.
• Beyond the Supernatural™ RPG and sourcebooks. Modern horror; 14 character classes, 42 occupations for “ordinary people,” 100+ psychic abilities, 16 monsters, and more.
• Nightbane® RPG and sourcebooks – Urban Fantasy. Only you know the truth. Only you can see the Nightlords and their demonic minions. Only you have the power to stop the spreading evil and save lives. But you are just a teen or young adult. There’s no manual on how to use your special powers and magic, and you must transform into your monstrous Morphus to use them. Trust no one.
• After the Bomb® RPG series and world setting. A post-apocalypse Earth where human civilization has crumbled and legions of mutant animals are the heirs apparent. The RPG presents stats for 100+ mutant animals, 52 animal powers, 33 animal psionics, Chimeras, and rules for creating any mutant animal you can imagine – plus the Empire of Humanity and the ruins of North America. Each sourcebook offers new mutants, world information, and adventure ideas. Or create mutant animals for use in TMNT, Heroes Unlimited, Rifts, and others.
• Rifts® Phase World® and the Three Galaxies – sprawling space opera! Dozens of alien worlds and their people, Cosmo-Knights, Atlanteans, Prometheans, dimensional gateways, evil empires, villains, heroes, strange beings, alien tech, alien magic, rules for creating spacecraft, planets and dimensions (see Megaverse Builder), and much, much more.
• The Mechanoid Invasion® RPG Trilogy (The Mechanoid Invasion, The Journey and Home World). Dystopian science fiction at its best. This is the very first RPG (1981) published by Palladium Books, about planet devouring, robotic invaders from outer space. They target all humanoids, but loathe humans most of all. Three generations of galactic heroes battle the Mechanoid® invaders. Also see Rifts® Sourcebook 2: The Mechanoids® featuring a Mechanoid threat to Rifts® Earth unless you and Archie Three can stop them.
• Splicers® RPG. More dystopian science fiction as humans must turn to living weapons, living power armor, and genetically engineered war mounts to battle the self-appointed caretaker of humanity. The insane artificial intelligence known as Nexus and her many multiple personalities. Think Guyver meets the Terminator with elements of horror, epic and different.
• Systems Failure™ RPG. You play rough and tumble survivors of an alien invasion that has ravaged Earth and “turned off” technology. It is time to fight back, kill “the Bugs,” and reclaim our world for humanity. A standalone RPG designed to poke fun at the fears about the end of the world. A cult favorite and lots of fun. Kill the bugs!
• Wormwood, a Rifts® Dimension Book setting. A strange and alien fantasy world inspired by the twisted and fun concepts and art of comic book legends Timothy Truman and Flint Henry. Be a Holy Terror, Wormspeaker, or Apok to battle the demonic beings threatening to overtake the world.
• RECON®, Deluxe Revised RPG. Fast military combat and action set in a fictional era of the Vietnam War. Different game rules by Joe Martin and Erick Wujcik.
• The Palladium Weapons & Castles Series – for use with any game system. Nearly 1,000 weapons, scores of castles and floor plans. All historically accurate, real world weapons and castles throughout the ages.

UPDATED Rifts® Automated Character Sheet now available. Three updates, in fact. This EXCEL template provides automation to your Rifts® character creation process. Done in Microsoft Excel, this character template will allow you to build your character with substantial ease and speed. Ideal for the new gamer who doesn’t know all of the Palladium Books® rules just yet, it’s also a highly effective tool for Game Masters and advanced players alike who make multiple characters, NPCs, or just like to min/max or theory craft characters between games. Note: If you already purchased this item, you can download the updated version for free. Enjoy.

FREE Nightbane® RPG digital Sneak Preview on DriveThruRPG.com – Have you been wondering what the buzz is all about for Nightbane® and Urban Fantasy? Well, now you can see for yourself with this fun Preview of the core rule book. There are also free Sneak Previews of Creature Feature™, Dead Reign®, BTS, and numerous Rifts® books and other titles, including Rifts® Manhunters™, Titan Robotics™, Northern Gun™ One and Two, Lemuria, and more.

Remembrance Sneak Preview

Remembering the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness RPG and its author Erick Wujcik

Erick Wujcik was a prominent figure throughout my childhood. I knew him as my parents’ colleague, a gamer, a writer, but mostly, as family.

I can’t speak to Erick as a writer or a game master, but what I can say is that he was one of the biggest dreamers I have ever known. Erick lived large and unapologetically through a beautiful imagination and shared that gift with everyone around him.

Erick lived in the world of possibilities as a matter of fact. Growing up, I can remember the indelible imprint this had on me - that anything is possible.

His hug and his laugh and his heart were just as huge as his personality. I am forever grateful for the magic that Erick Wujcik brought into my life. He dreamt big and out loud, and without even trying, showed us all how it’s done.

- Monica Stanfield, Business Person and Family

[Note: Just as I do for the Christmas Surprise Package Comments from Fans Like You, I will include a few of my own thoughts and memories (sometimes Sean will too). I hope you enjoy this new, limited, feature. It was Sean’s idea and I love it. – Kevin Siembieda]

For those of you who wish you could have known Erick Wujcik, now you do. Monica, my daughter, completely captured the essence and beauty of Erick Wujcik with her elegant and simple remembrance.

That was Erick to a T. Bigger than life. A burly, six foot two inch, bear of a man. A thick crop of curly black hair crowned his head and his smiling face was finished off with a complimentary bushy, black beard and a soup-strainer mustache. He looked like the character Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof, complete with the leather fisherman’s cap. I think most people thought that ever present cap was glued to his head. How he loved that cap. I remember he and I driving around metro-Detroit and visiting shoemaker and leatherworks shops in search of someone who could repair or make a new cap based on the deteriorating one.

Some people found Erick to be large and intimidating. That puzzled me, because I always saw him as a sweet Teddy Bear of a man. Smart, kind, generous, cheerful, and the epitome of a gamer. Nah, he was more like the Johnny Appleseed of gaming; quick to run a role-playing game anytime, anywhere. That included from the backseat of a car without books, paper or dice. It was all managed and run from his brilliant mind. The only guy I knew, besides myself, who could run a game as freestyle improv.

And yes, he was family. Erick and I were as close as brothers. Closer. I was one of Erick’s biggest fans and supporters, and he was one of mine. There were two decades when we talked nearly every single day. We could, and did, regularly talk for hours about everything and anything. Gaming, game design, game theory, comic books, movies, new technology, and history were among our favorite subjects, but we talked about so much more – our relationships, our hopes, our dreams, we shared our innermost thoughts. No secrets. We knew each other inside and out and touched each other’s soul.

Six months before Erick died in the summer of 2008, he threw himself a big, catered, 57th birthday party in a sizeable hall. There had to be close to a hundred people present – his Mom and a few family members, but mostly friends. An army of friends who loved and adored him, and were his family. Erick asked me to MC the affair. I told him I didn’t think I was the man for the job, but he said I was the only one who could do it. So I did. It was beautiful. – Kevin Siembieda

Closing Thoughts

Good memories. Warm feelings. Old friends. New friends. Great fans. Illustrious Palladium Books history. Tons of work going on with current projects and stuff you don’t even know about behind the scenes. New books are coming. I love my job, the people I work with, and you, our awesome fans.

Check out that Valley of the Pharaohs RPG Kickstarter by Matthew Balent and help him make his dreams for an expanded 40th Anniversary edition a reality. I can’t believe it has been 40 years since the boxed game was released.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness RPG Kickstarter Backers, we suggest you be kind to your friends who missed out on the Kickstarter when they ask you to order Kickstarter Exclusives on their behalf. It’s the nice thing to do. Besides, they’ll owe you big time. You can change your pledge level and add-ons until the Pledge Manager closes, probably early April.

We are pounding away on several projects and I already said plenty, so these thoughts are brief. Gotta get back to the drawing board. Keep your imaginations burning bright and game on!

– Kevin Siembieda, Writer, Game Designer, Friend

© 2024 Palladium Books Inc. All Rights Reserved. Palladium Books®, Rifts®, The Rifter®, RECON®, Dead Reign®, Chaos Earth®, The Mechanoids®, Megaverse®, Nightbane®, Powers Unlimited®, Splicers®, Heroes Unlimited, Ninjas & Superspies, After the Bomb®, and all related titles, names and slogans are trademarks of Palladium Books.

TMNT © 2024 Viacom International Inc. All Rights Reserved. Nickelodeon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and all related titles, logos, and characters are trademarks of Viacom International Inc.

This Update may be reprinted, reposted, linked and shared for the sole purpose of advertising, promotion and sales solicitation.