Prolly been discussed numerous times...

[runebeo]

Think of how many miniatures their could be. Theres a lot art too work from and so many robots and vehicles. a Mini-CS Firestorm or a Juggernaut Hover tank would be so cool for our campaign, we always uses miniatures when we play, but could always use better ones that look closer to the real thing. My AT-AT is no true replacement for our squad's Mastodon Battle Robot.

[Starmage21]

Then the question arises:

Do they make chrome paint for miniatures so you can paint your glitter boy?

[MikelAmroni]

Simple fact is that unless Paladium liscenses with someone who will do the production and initial modeling, not to mention marketting and such, and unless the game has enough commonality with some other game (so as to win converts) or unless it has some unique and awesome mechanic that sets it apart (and yet is easy to use and play), then it will end up in the pile of failed miniature games.

I don't see any big studios giving up creative control to the degree that Palladium would demand, and I don't see any new studios being able to meet the needs of a palladium mini wargame line. But what do I know, maybe someone will want to start up a new game and have some awesome idea they'll pitch to Kev and he'll love it. One can dream right?

[drewkitty ~..~]

I realize that the economy is in the stinker, and the last thing Kev and the gang want to think about is a NEW game.
...snip

They just introduced the Dead Reign™ setting and they are getting ready with DR's 1st source book and the Warpath™: Urban Jungle™ RPG.

PB already makes mini's, but as far as I'm hearing, has no plans to make rules for mini combat. There are many games out there who's minis rules can be adapted to work with the rest of the PB system, by individual GMs. Maybe you could work up a mini's rules system that works with the PB system.
But since I game online in chats and pbp's, I'm not in to mini's.

As for getting more mini's to play with....yah can steal..... I mean co-op minis from other games into you game quite nicely cause most games use the same basic types, orks, elves, humans,..etc...etc...

[Necrite]

"No conversions" means no converting Palladium intellectual property to other systems, nor converting others' IP to the Palladium system for any form of distribution, free or otherwise.

If the rules you're working with are for personal use only, then you're free and clear.

Another option would be to write up generic rules, letting players supply their own minis, and then submit it as a Rifter article.

[Marcethus]

I know that they briefly made a Mini's line but it died just like the Video game, and the CCG line.

[MikelAmroni]

There is another option as well. If you contact Kevin and pitch the idea, and he gets behidn it, you won't be making conversions, you'll be working with the express consent of the publisher. They'll want to see a pitch and likely an example of how their stuff would be used, but it'd be worth your time to do. And if you want to keep it to specifically your own stuff, use generic unit types, and suggest types of minis for folks to use until you can get a mini manufacturer behind your rules. Rifle Infantry, Infantry Scouts, Flying Power Armor, Ground Power Armor, Robot Artilery Vehicle, APC Vehicle, Tank, Flying Patrol Craft are all generic, and can be used to describe many things. Then, you allow your play testers to use whatever they want, and make your rules work before you get your story set, and then once you have your rules as done as you're goign to get them, start shopping around to game companies, including Palladium. I'd love to see a Rifts based mini war game. The models alone for an Atlantean Army would be gorgeous. And the ones for Archie would be really fun, and the Coalition models would the most impressive on the table. It'd be even more fun if you could make the merc company rules work in concert with the army building rules, so you could produce a merc company and get the models for it.

Rifts: Mercenary Wars
The fun game of miniature war gaming, with a wide line of minis for your collecting pleasure. Play it for the game or collect it for your RPG games.

[Marcethus]

CS War Campaign
CS Navy
Mercenaries (The original) (Don't know about the newer merc books as I don't have them other than Merctown)
Triax & the NGR (I think)
Those are the ones that I know about off the top of my head.
Underseas has a lot of Naval Info too.

[Marcethus]

CS War Campaign
CS Navy
Mercenaries (The original) (Don't know about the newer merc books as I don't have them other than Merctown)
Triax & the NGR (I think)
Those are the ones that I know about off the top of my head.
Underseas has a lot of Naval Info too.

Cool thanks for the info, I have CS war campaign, and i was thinking Triax would have some good info.. i will check out the others.

thanks again

Just remembered a really old book that had a full list of ranks. the old Robotech RDF Manual.

[glitterboy2098]

i've actually thought about a miniatures system for palladium a bit, and have posted my thoughts about it everytime it comes up.

first, find the right niche. Palladium isn't a miniatures company, so it shouldn't try to compete with miniatures companies. games like Warhammer work great for a miniatures company, but Palladium can't hope to compete with Games Workshop, and so shouldn't try to. this doesn't mean palladium can't do a miniatures system, it just means palladoium has ot find its own style, and not try to copy someone else.

i don't think an "army" system is good for palladium. the main focus of palladium settings is on the band of hero's, not the Horde or the regiment or the army. so a "skirmish" system would work better, a game where play is designed around each side having a small number of individual models, playing scenarios that are more roleplay in form. rules for formations, military units, and armies can be added later if the basic game is popular. people forget this is how Gameworkshop started as well. warhammer fantasy started as a handful of models playing what were basically D&D games, 40k started as a squad based skirmish game, lord of the Rings started with small warbands. it was only later, once the game had fans asking for rules to play huge games and there were enough figures to allow people to collect such huge forces, that the games started to add rules for squads, armies, ect..

the second important thing is that whatever miniatures game palladium makes, it needs to help people get into their RPG's, and vice versa. for me, this emans we need to structure the game in such a way that one can take a character made in the RPG and place them on the table, or take a character made for the table and put them in the game. preferably in an easy form.

in this way, palladium doesn't have to struggle through the "game expansions" phase of the development of a miniatures game, as they'd already have hundreds of sourcebooks one could easily use material from. miniatures oriented expansions would definately be written, but the ability to take the miniatures game and use it with your RPG sessions, or take the RPG sessions and bring them to the miniatures game should be available.

third, since palladium is not a miniatures company, it should not try to become one. many things from palladium's RPG's can be represented through "count's as" using figures from other companies. the priority for miniatures needs to be on the unique palladium things, like glitterboys, black faries, ect. the old pewter miniatures are a good example of this. palladium merely needs to have the game written at a scale that is fairly common. (25mm or 28mm is a very comon one, which would make things easier.)

fourth, the game shoud start with just a rulebook, and see how the reaction goes. we have RIFTS miniatures out there, and many who bought them would like to see a ruleset to let them play with them. many of those players have colelctions of other figures from various other companies in the same scale, as well as a colelction of maps or terrain. what we need is rules. without the ruleset, you have no game, and miniatures and terrain are just good looking paperweights..



in regards to rules, i've actually thought about just simplifying the RPG. keep the actions, HP, SDC, MDC, bonuses and penalties, and such, and just give a scale conversion to inches and remove any skills and such that aren't needed for a skirmish level miniatures game. streamlining actions against the melee phase would be needed, but thats not a big deal i think. and most of the necissary rules needed are already present.

provide some "generic OCC's" optimized for the game, using archetypes (warrior, soldier, mage, borg, ect..). ideally these would be useable as NPC "mooks" in the RPG with just a little skill tweaking.


and that's how i'd do it. someday i'm going to sit down and actually work out specific rules, but those are my thoughts.

[Marcethus]

While I like the idea of Mini's for Rifts, I wouldn't be all that interested in a Mini's Game for them. But then again I am not a fan of Miniatures Games such as Warmachine, Hordes and Warhammer. (Though I am do like Iron Kingdoms, the DND supplement for War Machine)

[glitterboy2098]

i didn't think you were suggesting palladium drop making RPG's, i apologise if it sounded that way.

for the game, if i understand your referance correctly i'd say thats probably a good example. start with bands of adventurers or squads of soldiers, with rules for monsters and such, and see if it catches on.
if it earns enough to counter the cost of making it, expand it with new material and start offering rules for larger games, like platoons of soldiers or large bands of adventurers.
frankly, i doubt there will be much call for battles over a company per side, and those would probably be huge multi-player affairs aimed at simulating a major event from the metaplot.

RIFTS combat leans more towards the real world "a platoon of troops with a tank can secure a small city", and less to the WW1 or WW2 massive engagements for small gain, which is the kind of feel 40K uses.
even during the SoT, most battles were still fairly small engagements, you just had many of them spread out over large areas.

[glitterboy2098]

personally, i've been thinking divide the melee round into 3 five second sets of phases. figures can use their attacks to perform various tasks in each phase. numbers of attacks are divided by three, with uneven results being divided into the first few phases. example: soldier has 4 attacks. thus he has 2 available in phase 1, one each in phase 2 and 3.

attacks could be used to shoot weapons, add additional movement over one's base movement per phase, dodge shots, ect..

other than that, the main rules don't need too much change..