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ONE GAME SYSTEM – EVERY GENRE – COUNTLESS WORLDS – ENDLESS ADVENTURE
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Palladium Books’ Future – Special Report – January 10, 2025
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It’s the time of year when many companies talk about the past year and plans for the New Year. That’s the focus of this Special Report, except I only briefly touch upon the past year in order to share with you some of what is going on behind the scenes and coming in the New Year. It’s exciting and we want you, our extended Palladium family, to be in the loop. I hope I manage to answer many of your questions.
2024 was a strange year for everyone at Palladium. The unexpected loss of our dear Kathy Simmons had us all reeling. I was devastated and grief stricken. Unable to summon my creative energy to write books, somehow I was still able to function at conventions, do interviews, write the Weekly Updates, and participate in business matters and strategic planning. It all felt like a hazy dream, but I managed to survive. We all did. Best of all, my head continues to clear, my spirit continues to rise, and though brokenhearted, it too continues to heal a little bit every day. Moreover, I am happy to report my creative energy has returned and I am anxious to get back to writing books.
Even in our shared grief, we managed to keep the wheels on the bus and move forward on many fronts. Sean has remained heavily focused on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness RPG Redux editions. The full color redux editions as well as the Black, White and Red editions are gorgeous. Heck, all the Kickstarter items look amazing: The Game Master Screen, Mutagen Green Dice, Kickstarter exclusive edition books, miniatures, FanRoll dice and dice bags, poker decks, and all the rest – coming in 2025. We have pulled out all the stops for these TMNT & Other Strangeness RPG Redux books and Kickstarter exclusives. Sean and I both believe all are destined to become instant, beloved collector items.
Sean and I have also been championing a number of other projects and making moves to rebuild and fortify Palladium Books from the ground up. All while preserving the legacy that has come before. This has required a lot of work spent on research, planning, recruiting, and foundational restructuring. Our goal is to make Palladium Books stronger than it has ever been, clearly mapping out the formula for our secret sauce, and preserving the company you know and love as we grow and expand. In short, setting the groundwork for the next 40 years. No easy task, but it has been fun and creative in its own way.
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New and Existing Partners
– Moving forward with a little help from our friends and associates
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We are looking at a wide spectrum of opportunities when it comes to new products, marketing, and growth. Palladium Books is making moves with new and existing partners on many fronts to help grow our market share and carry Palladium Books to new heights. Here are some of the things we have put into place, are working on, or are considering.
- NEW! An exciting product in a new market category with an old friend! Palladium RPG Audio Books! Studio 2 is a dynamic company that has its fingers in everything from publishing to warehousing and distribution and a lot of other ventures. Their newest exploit is RPG audio books complete with sound effects and voice actors. I looked into doing audio books for RPGs 5-6 years ago, so when the President of Studio 2 asked if we’d like to give it a try, Sean and I jumped at the opportunity. You can expect the first Palladium Books RPG audio books to appear in 2025, starting with our Horror/Urban Fantasy RPG series: Nightbane®, coming soon.
Why Nightbane® first? Because horror seems to be heating up, Nightbane® is one of the few (only?!) Urban Fantasy RPGs on the market, and we thought it offered wide appeal to our existing fan-base and a potentially new RPG audience. We will notify you in an upcoming Weekly Update when the Nightbane® audio book Backerkit crowdfunder goes live (soon). And if it does well, you can expect many other Palladium RPG lines adapted into thrilling audio books. Note: Studio 2 is one of Palladium’s long-time distributors, so they have been an existing partner with an expanding presence behind the scenes for years.
- NEW Ancillary Products. Role-playing games and sourcebooks will always be Palladium’s primary focus, but we recognize that many of our fans also want related RPG products. Even more since the TMNT & Other Strangeness Kickstarter we’ve been fielding questions if we might do more Game Master screens, game line specific dice sets, dice bags, dice trays, character sheets, cards, miniatures, novels, digital playing aids, and even videogames, toys, and ... well, you name it, we’ve probably been asked about it.
Let me say this without giving anything away: EVERYTHING is on the table. The sky is the limit as we move forward. We will consider anything and everything, provided it makes good sense and we know you want it. We listen to you, our fans and customers. We hear you and appreciate your valuable suggestions and feedback. Nothing is off the table in this new era of Palladium Books, just don’t expect it to happen overnight. We aren’t rushing into anything. Whatever we undertake, we intend to do it correctly with the right business partners. That means quality products that build upon the existing Palladium Megaverse®. To that end we have been talking with a number of new potential business associates. FanRoll, Studio 2, Pinnacle, and Paramount/Nickelodeon are just a few examples that you already know about.
All of the above notwithstanding, Palladium’s top priorities are building a strong foundation, making the right alliances with business and creative forces, and releasing many long-awaited sourcebooks. See 2025 Releases below for more details about upcoming sourcebooks.
- NEW Marketplaces. We have been exploring additional ways to reach and sell our products to gamers. Selling through distributors is one way and increasing direct sales to retailers is another. Selling direct to the consumer via the Palladium online store (www.palladiumbooks.com) is yet another, as are conventions and shows like the GAMA and Alliance Trade Shows. But what about an official Palladium Books Amazon Store and other market avenues? We’re looking into a number of options and will keep you informed in these Weekly Updates as things develop.
- NEW Partnership! Palladium at GAMA Trade Show – February 24-27. Yep, we’ve joined GAMA and will be present at the GAMA Trade Show. We’ve heard nothing but great things about this Louisville, Kentucky event. It’s our first time attending this new show, so we only have one, small booth (#1176) toward the back, across from Wet Ink Games and next to Monte Cook Games. Note: We have no plans to attend Origins this year, but maybe in the future.
- Expanding Partnership! Gen Con Indy – July 31-August 3. With the anticipated springtime release of the TMNT & Other Strangeness RPG Redux editions, Kickstarter exclusives, and other new Palladium releases, we expect to have a larger presence at Gen Con this year. By the way, we always need volunteer Game Masters to run game events at Gen Con. If you are interested, please commit and submit your games to us in January so we can get you free Game Master admission badges. Sean and I will try to do at least a couple of panel talks, and maybe a few other things.
- Expanding Partnership! Alliance Distribution and Alliance Open House/Trade Show – September 4-6. Alliance is one of Palladium’s oldest allies and largest distributor. We expect to expand our relationship with them with article contributions to GTM (Game Trade Monthly) magazine, special promos, and our attendance at their September Open House for retailers, etc.
- Expanding Partnership! Granite State Comic Con – September 19-21. Sean and I were impressed when we attended as guests last year, so we are expanding our involvement with this convention. Sean and I will be back, but this time he and I will be more involved in events and Palladium Books will have a larger presence. Of course, we’ll have piles of TMNT & Other Strangeness RPG Redux books, and more. Those of you on the East Coast, start planning now because we’d love to see you.
- Expanding Palladium Open House (POH)? Perhaps. There have been numerous inquiries about the next Palladium Open House (the last one being in 2022). Traditionally, the POH is a gathering of a few hundred super-fans at the Palladium Warehouse for a nonstop weekend of Palladium gaming plus a lot of Palladium creator guests. It’s a ton of fun, but also a ton of work. With the passing of Kathy and Julius who contributed so much to this event, we aren’t sure if or when we may host a new one. We are considering 2026 or 2027, but we have not yet decided. We’re also not sure whether we would host it at the Palladium warehouse (part of the charm) or off-site (a hotel or other location). Sean has suggested we turn the POH into a mini-convention away from the office. Like so much else, we are exploring our options and considering every possibility. That said, our focus for 2025 is on building a strong foundation, improved marketing, and the release of new products.
- Expanded Crowdfunding! You can expect to see more crowdfunding opportunities and events on both Backerkit and Kickstarter.
- NEW! A Palladium Operations Manager. We have been quietly working with a gentleman who is an experienced, top professional when it comes to operations management. He also knows Palladium’s games and is very passionate about the company’s future, its games, and its continuing legacy. After a number of considerations for this position, Sean and I are increasingly convinced he is the right person for the job. The three of us have been working and strategizing for a while now. We anticipate he will relocate to Michigan and join the Palladium core team sometime this spring. Just one more piece to make Palladium more productive and efficient.
- Expanding Partnership! Caleb the Palladium warehouse guy. This is a relatively new and expanding relationship. Caleb came onboard in March last year and has proven to be an excellent addition to the Palladium family in ways that go beyond warehouse operations. Caleb is doing a great job and quickly becoming an invaluable asset. We love him, you should too.
- Expanding Partnership! J-M DeFoggi, videographer (and more). J-M was recommended to us by Christopher Landauer and is another person who has quickly become a friend and asset to Palladium Books. J-M is spearheading the Palladium Books YouTube video series memorializing the history of Palladium. He asks the questions, does the editing, and sets the scheduling. A writer and game designer in his own right, don’t be surprised if you see J-M contribute in other ways. For now, our focus is on creating a vast array of interviews and chats about Palladium’s history and the people behind it as well as subjects pertaining to running games, game design, writing, etc. A shout-out to Molly for all she does behind the camera.
- Other Business Partners. Palladium has wide range of industry friends and associates such as Steve Jackson, Phil Reed, Rick Meintz (Chaosium), Jason Masherah (Upper Deck), Doug Shute (GAMA/Granite State Comic Con), and countless others from retailers and distributors to you, our fans and customers. There are also a number of new partners on both the creative and business ends of Palladium operations. People and companies we don’t want to reveal here for strategic reasons. All of whom are quick to share tips and information, offer advice and suggestions, and even lend a direct hand. Our aspirations are high and we want to give you the RPG books and related products you want, but we need to do so without stretching ourselves thin or sacrificing quality, so give us a few years.
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Palladium’s increasing Social Media Presence
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We have been dramatically increasing our social media presence and will continue to do more. Here’s what is in place at the moment. We’ll be improving and expanding all of them in the months ahead. These are the platforms in which we are most involved, but there are many other gaming and Palladium fan sites.
- Palladium Books website and Online Store – www.palladiumbooks.com – we’ve teased about a new website coming, so watch for it. Also, if you have order questions, call the Palladium office (734-721-2900). For less urgent matters, use the Help Desk.
- Palladium Books® Weekly Update – Whether you give it a quick scan or devour every word, you should check out the Weekly Update on a regular basis to learn about new product releases, sneak previews, promotions and sales, crowdfunding events, podcasts, convention appearances, news, and our thoughts on life and various gaming subjects. Palladium’s Weekly Update is emailed to 15,000+ Palladium fans as well as posted on the Palladium Books Website. Please encourage your fellow gamers to join up, especially if they enjoy our games.
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Palladium Books® YouTube Channel – I am currently doing a comprehensive ongoing series hosted by the affable J-M DeFoggi on the Official History of Palladium Books. A new episode posts every other week, plus the occasional bonus episode. It is being presented in rough chronological order and includes Secret Stories of the Defilers. The Defilers are my legendary, first campaign at the Detroit Gaming Center (DGC) where I ran 26 regular players for 12 hours every Saturday night for three and a half years. The DGC is also where I met folks like Erick Wujcik, Matthew Balent, Julius Rosenstein, my first wife Maryann, and developed concepts and play-tested many Palladium rules and RPGs. We will also be sliding into topics about running games, writing, game design, character and monster creation, and lots of other themes as well as interviewing other people such as Matthew Balent, Ramon K. Perez, Freddie E. Williams II, etc., and a host of Palladium staff and creators. Please don’t hesitate to offer topic suggestions to any of the social media outlets listed here.
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- Legion of Myth YouTube Channel – Always fun and insightful, but the appearances by me (Kevin Siembieda) and Sean Owen Roberson, Palladium Creative Director and my business partner, are “must see.” Sean and I have been trying to do one chat a month. The range of subjects span all things Palladium role-playing, Game Mastering, player tips, using alignments, wilderness travel, running a horror game, and similar; all from our personal perspective. You can expect more fun in the year ahead.
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- Glitterbois Podcast – Numerous discussions about role-playing and Palladium's many game settings and book titles by the hosts, as well as an ongoing series of chats about the history of Palladium Books with me (Kevin Siembieda, the guy who started the company and has written or co-written 200+ RPG books). These are a blast and sometimes digress to include our views on various aspects of role-playing and Game Mastering. Lots of fun and stories.
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- RealPlayGames Podcast – These talented fans have been creating radio-play style podcasts based on various Palladium RPG worlds for years. Their audience is growing. They are currently at the tail end of their Season One Palladium Fantasy series: Surviving Love. It sees a bunch of sexy dating show singles from the real world flung into the Palladium Fantasy world. The reception to it has been reported as nothing short of fantastic; their biggest and, by a large margin, best-performing podcast release to date! Check it out. They also plan to release their second season of Cozy Caverns Mysteries, based on Beyond the Supernatural 2E, in February, and have plans for other projects in development. Meanwhile, previous podcasts based on After the Bomb, Heroes Unlimited, and BTS remain available for your listening enjoyment.
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- Other Social Media – Palladium also has a modest presence on Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms, and we hope to do much more with them in the future. And as noted, we’ll be doing more crowdfunding on Backerkit and Kickstarter. Of course, there is an ever-growing number of fun fan websites, podcasts, and YouTube channels dedicated to Palladium Books and our games. We appreciate the efforts of everyone who spreads the love and word about Palladium Books and our RPG worlds, just please make sure to give us credit, send your audience to our website (www.palladiumbooks.com), and let us know about your existence.
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2025 RPG Release Overview
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Available now! Valley of the Pharaohs RPG – 40th Anniversary Edition. A big, 200+ page book written by the original author, Matthew Balent (the guy behind the Palladium Weapons series) with more magic, new characters, expanded setting, and new rules and ideas. Available as a hardcover with bonus material and as a softcover. This does not use Palladium’s rules but builds on Palladium’s original 1985 box edition of Valley of the Pharaohs RPG.
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Available now! New! The Rifter® #81 Archival Edition. One of my favorite issues that I contributed a lot to. I wrote a big Wolfen vampire adventure and various other contributions. In addition, I love Hendrik Härterich’s Gnome source material, and enjoy the other material for Chaos Earth, Heroes Unlimited Sleuth, and G.M. advice on navigating game power levels. More Rifter® Archival Editions will be released throughout 2025.
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New Releases Coming in 2025 – in no particular order:
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Yin-Sloth Expeditions (Fantasy) – 30+ maps, many places to explore, 6+ full adventures, NPCs, and adventure ideas.
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Rifts® Bestiary Volume 2 – More Rifts® monsters and animals.
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Rifts® Antarctica – Epic and strange people and places for adventures, ancient secrets, magic, monsters, and more.
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TMNT & Other Strangeness RPG Redux Editions – Cowabunga (see more below).
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Additional Rifter® Archival Editions will be released throughout 2025.
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And more! Our policy is not to announce plans for other intended 2025 releases until they are nearly done and about to go to the printer. We hope to add a number of long-awaited titles to the release schedule this year.
TMNT & Other Strangeness RPG Redux editions! Wow, talk about a phenomenon. The Kickstarter was huge. We knew the TMNT & Other Strangeness RPG was one of the most beloved RPGs of all time, but even we didn’t realize the magnitude of that love and passion for Erick Wujcik’s masterpiece. We do now, and we want to create books worthy of the sentiment. Anticipation for them by gamers and TMNT fans of all kinds is at a fever-pitch, and well deserved. The books, the color, the clarifications, the remastering and layout, the remembrances, 30 pages of brand new tribute art, behind the scenes stories, new mutants and quality are nothing short of top-shelf. The books are beautiful, clean, clear, and fun. We have tried to make the RPG books and Kickstarter exclusives something truly special that fans will love and cherish forever.
By the way, TMNT & Other Strangeness RPG Redux was one of Palladium’s many projects kept quiet until we were ready to make the reveal. That’s how we are running things now. No chatter about a project until the title is ready.
Are the Black, White & Red TMNT Redux Editions really that different and impressive? Yes! They are gorgeous and capture a different, moodier feel that hearkens back to the original black and white comics and all red masks of the Turtles. It’s mind blowing how different and cool they look. A noir version, if you will. Most pieces of artwork are given the same black, white and red treatment as the two black, white and red covers. Sean and I were blown away, and you will be too.
Will there be new TMNT & Other Strangeness RPG books and game aids AFTER the Redux editions? I think it is safe for me to say that all parties want to see this happen, but I cannot say anything more at this time. I trust you understand.
NOTE: You can still pre-order select TMNT & Other Strangeness RPG Redux books, Game Screen, and Mutagen Green Dice Set at the lower Kickstarter prices and save money. But not for very much longer, so please spread the word that folks need to preorder to save money soon. We will probably close the Preorder Store at the end of February. Spring 2025 is the anticipated release period.
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About Sean Owen Roberson
You’ll notice that I didn’t talk much about the Palladium staff. Come on, Alex and Wayne are Heroes of the Megaverse and as dedicated to the company as ever. So are our many freelance writers and artists. ‘Nuff said.
As for Sean Owen Roberson, my business partner and Palladium’s Creative Director, I think he has proved his mettle to everyone by this point. For those of you still on the fence, he will win you over with the magnificent TMNT & Other Strangeness Redux editions and Kickstarter exclusives.
What you may not know, is that Sean and I are twin creative powerhouses who work together like hand in glove. We see eye-to-eye on Palladium’s legacy, game design, the company’s future and our shared commitment to the fans. We are constantly inspiring each other and improving the other guy’s ideas. There’s no ego, only teamwork to create the best products. It should be no surprise then, for you to learn that he and I are best friends. Two peas in a pod, as my Mother might have said. What that means for you is a dynamic team of creators who want to push the envelope, blow your minds over and over again, and give you long-promised books and new products that will ignite your imaginations and bring you hours of RPG fun.
I can say with confidence that Palladium Books is in good hands with Sean, and that he will continue delivering the kind of games and sourcebooks you expect from Palladium Books long after I’m gone. Which, God willing, will not be anytime soon. I have no desire to retire. In fact, Sean and I are trying to make it so I can focus on what I do and love best, creating epic RPGs and sourcebooks.
Nor do Sean and I have any desire to sell the company, and we’ve had plenty of offers. Palladium Books will remain a privately held company run by people passionate about games, the Palladium Megaverse, and our awesome fan-base. I wish we could tell you about all our exciting plans for books, but we have wisely adopted a policy of not revealing such information until the project is nearing completion and its release is imminent. Suffice it to say that we hope to make the next 20 years even more exciting than Palladium’s first 20 years, and that’s saying something.
That plan started when Sean agreed to join the company and we caught people’s attention with the TMNT & Other Strangeness RPG Redux Kickstarter. What else is coming? It’s too soon to reveal. Just remember, we hear you and listen to your comments, hopes and dreams for Palladium. We know what you’d like to see from us and we aim to deliver.
Reminder, these are the final few days to snag a 2024 Palladium Surprise Package. The sale ends Wednesday, January 15. They are a fun way to save 40-50% off cover price and get autographs from available staff should you want them. This deal will not be extended further, so get ‘em now or you’ll have to wait till next Christmas season. Besides, it’s a delightful way to start the New Year.
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Keep those beautiful imaginations burning bright and find refuge and adventure in the many RPG worlds of Palladium Books whenever you can. May the New Year be a glorious one for us all.
– Kevin Siembieda, Publisher, Game Designer, and Friend
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