My Open House experience

[Carl Gleba]

Open House Review

Wow, another Open House. How do they go by so fast? Yeah this year was great.

I arrived Wednesday evening so I could spend all of Thursday at the warehouse. In the morning I arrived early enough to go to breakfast with Kevin, Kathy and Joe Bergman. After getting back to the warehouse I helped out with Steven Dawes (Rifter contributor and new Palladium freelance writer) by cleaning the bathrooms, placing t-shirts on stands, and hanging the open house signs. That all took about an hour. The rest of the day was spent milling around and chatting.

The guest for VIP night started arriving between 3 and 4 PM and by 5 PM I think they were all there. I met the two gentlemen from Germany, Daniel and Andreas, and had dinner with my gaming buddy Jacob. I tell ya the VIP food is always spectacular! This was the menu from what I can remember: Salad, ham, turkey and tuna sandwiches on croissants (dressed with tomato and lettuce with plenty of condiments on the side), Fried chicken (this was great, I had a huge breast…yum), macaroni (ziti or goulash, depends on what you call it), Swedish meatballs (wow these were awesome), macaroni salad, potato salad, rolls, Coke and Pepsi products to drink as well as water and coffee. Desert was chocolate cake or carrot cake and a few plates of cookies. There was probably more choices, but at this point I can’t recall. Dinner was awesome and there was plenty for seconds and thirds. I even say some leftovers the next day.

Naturally Kevin spoke and answered questions. People ask about Palladium acquiring other licenses which gee, Kevin is not too crazy about! Go figure considering the hoops you have to jump through. At the end of Kevin speaking I witnessed the true generosity of Palladium’s fans. Poor Mark Oberle had an accident on the way to the Open House. Don’t worry everyone is fine including Mark. Kevin asked for those that could to throw a few bucks into bucket that was going to be passed around to help Mark out to get his car fixed since he didn’t have collision insurance. It was humbling to see 5’s, 10’s, and 20’s being tossed in. Yeah, Palladium fans are truely the best. After Kevin speech was when the games got started.

I ran a Phase World game called the Darkest Hour. It takes place during a battle in Phase World between the demons and deevils. It’s mass chaos as demons fight deevils and the Splugorth attack the Prometheans trying to gain control of Center. The players were a random collection at a bar that were thrown together to help save Center. Highlights from the game include Fred playing the CAF Fleet officer names Tiberous Kirk and talking like William Shatner all night. Thanks Fred, I loved that! Our damage magnet of the group was the Skaa Imperial Legionnaire. He took the brunt of the damage, lost his armor and had his left arm blown off and that was before leaving the bar! Daniel (the gentlemen from Germany) played the Promethean Phase Adept and bought the group time by using his phase powers and delaying a group of shock troops from advancing and killing everyone in the bar. The Warlock Marine was battling with a Deevil Beast and pretty much kicked the crap out of him single handedly! (note to self, remove Demon/Deevil slaying sword from Warlock Marine Pre-gen character). Our Turbo Jockey thought he could drive a Tiger Beast and it ended up being the other way around. When the dust settled the group had saved a Promethean driver and a Promethean commander who was KO’d. After assisting the two NPC’s the group found out that they needed to help restore Center’s primary power matrix. So the group took the APC that had crashed into the bar and proceeded to the Central Station. Of course the ride there was no cake walk. Kittani troops proceeded to lock on to the APC. Players manned various weapon systems, but due to some damage (sabotage) there were complications. A weapons console exploded in a players face from a piece of debris (phased in to the counsel) and power to the weapon systems went off line and the Skaa in the back had the floor phase out from beneath him. Fortunately the Operator was able to get power back on line and the players used all the tricks they could to dodge the pursuers. The WM was able to blast one of the Kittani ATV’s that was trying to get in front of the APC and the players used a variety of tricks to get rid of the Kittani on Uni-cycles that were following them. My friend who played the space warlock cast an Energy field in front of them launching some of the bikes, Daniel playing the Phase Adept dismembered his limb and close lined one of the flying bikes. Yeah it was fun. Once at the central station the group descended into the depths of Center. Floor after floor they would essentially flip breakers to restore power, but someone was stalling them. At this point the Promethean commander was the primary suspect. It became obvious when yet another group of Splugorth Minions arrived and he said “It’s about damn time, kill these #@$%$. So a battle started while some PC’s tried to hack into Center’s system to restore power. I believe that was Grand Paladin playing the CAF scientist. The remaining players battled a Kittani Serpent Power Armor, a squad of Kittani foot soldiers, and two Metzela. Grenades and magic played a big part in blasting the hell out of the troopers. The SPA went after the WM. After a melee or two the Scientist was able to restore enough power to bring the defenses on line which included a Phase Transporter. The Promethean commander and the SPA pilot were beamed into space. The other bag guys were defeated or tossed over the railing to fall to their deaths. With power restored to Center the main Promethean forces were able to repel the attacks and restore order to Center. It was a fun game and everyone seemed to enjoy it.

More later...

[Carl Gleba]

Friday

Friday morning I spent milling around talking with fans and other freelancers. In the afternoon I played in Brandon Aten’s Splicers game. That was fun, I played the Outrider and got to pilot that giant lobster robot with a beefed up hydro cannon. Our group was sent to look for a runner from a retro-village. Come to find out a Rook had popped up between the village and their nearest neighbor and the machine entity Kali had taken it over. We had a few minor encounters and we creatively dispatched two of the flying machines. Carmen’s Dread Guard managed to snag one of the fliers and started to steer it toward the ground. I tossed a tree into the intake of the other one with a called shot and a high roll. We formulated a plan to take the tower, but you know how those plans go…out the window as soon as you engage. As we approached the tower its main cannon began to deploy. Carmen had our power armor pilot do a bombing run using Carmen’s Dread Guard as the bomb. The rest of us attack the base trying to get through the numerous pop up bombs around its base. Glad I had a force field! As Carmen’s Dread Guard was falling toward the top of the tower he did an alpha strike before hitting it. Firing all his weapons he managed to take out the cannon and blow a big hole at the top. He then proceeded to poke his electro thingie into the machines guts and had my character blast him with the hydro cannon. Yes he took damage, but the water was enough to create a power surge to fry the cannon. Brandon was an awesome GM and we all had fun. Right after that game I had to go and run my game, The Cost of Victory.

This game was an experiment to see how a game would play out with all the players playing demons! Yes you read right, each and every player was a greater demon expect for the gentlemen playing the Lasae. Each was summoned before Modeus and commanded to collect two souls to be brought back to Hades and they had to be brought back alive. To locate their mark the character that had See Aura could also see (and sense) a special aura indicated a “marked” target. The demons arrived on the outskirts of Tolkeen during the Final Siege

The first target was one of my old characters. He was a 13th level Palladium Wizard. The character was a minor supernatural being from having found the circle of immortality plus some Splugorth tampering. I figured I knew how to play the character well enough that I should give these guys a good challenge. Before I forget here was the cast of characters: We had a Baal-Rog (Brass Guard II member), a Raksasha, Lasae, Jinn (air elemental powers), and a Brek-Shall. Ok the Raksasha basically came up with the plan and metamorphosed into basically a shifter with his enthralled demons! :wow: The Jinn turned into a bug and off they went. Well when they arrived it was assumed they were reinforcements (or even lost or misplaced troops from Tolkeen). The Jinn headed toward the target and was going to teleport him back to Hades. Well the wizard had sixth sense so he got a dodge and failed. In less than a melee the first mark was in Hades and the defenders on the tower were put out of their misery. The demons left the tower as a volley of CS missiles leveled the area.

The Raksasha could sense the second mark within the burning and besieged city. In fact the target was in the large tower in the center where CS troops were converging. The demons moved in quickly and flew up to one of the upper levels that was a docking bay with numerous Ley Line skimmers. Their mark was being moved to a ley line skimmer at the end of the bay and…escaping! It turned out that the mark was not escaping, he was just captured by a group of deevils. The mark had a funny aura about him, black from the demons mark and purple? The battle commenced. I had anticipated a chase type battle, but once again my smart players played their characters well. Anna playing the Jinn cast a wall of Air in front of the skimmer! Well it came to a crashing halt sending deevils flying and allowing the demons to quickly board. In fact they had grabbed a skimmer and pulled up behind it. The battle was on. The beast battled the Baal-Rog and the Brek-Shall was wreaking havoc. The Raksasha ended up paralyzing the beast and with their leader “disabled” the other deevils decided to retreat! So the demons were able to return to Hades with their mark, which turned out to be King Creed and a Deevil Regent. Yeah it was fun, but I’ll need to amp up the opposition a bit next time. The players did a great job and I think they had fun!

[Carl Gleba]

I had a blast playing the air demon! I didn't think it would be so much fun and ironcly easy to play.

Thanks for the chance!

Anna

I'm glad you enjoyed the game Anna

Also the way you played the Com Officer in the Mechanoids game gave me some ideas when I revamp the O.C.C. for Mechanoids Space

Carl

[Warwolf]

At the end of Kevin speaking I witnessed the true generosity of Palladium’s fans. Poor Mark Oberle had an accident on the way to the Open House. Don’t worry everyone is fine including Mark. Kevin asked for those that could to throw a few bucks into bucket that was going to be passed around to help Mark out to get his car fixed since he didn’t have collision insurance. It was humbling to see 5’s, 10’s, and 20’s being tossed in. Yeah, Palladium fans are truely the best.

Just to clarify so that people don't think I'm an irresponsible clod, I do have collision insurance. The only problem is that I can only afford liability coverage right now.

For more on this topic, though, see part 2 of A Warwolf's Tale.

[tenknifefoot]

The demon game was great! I'm going to enjoy using Cinder (that's the Baal-Rog for those who weren't there) against my PC's when I get around to running Dimensional Outbreak.

[mrloucifer]

After getting back to the warehouse I helped out with Steven Dawes (Rifter contributor and new Palladium freelance writer) by cleaning the bathrooms, placing t-shirts on stands, and hanging the open house signs.

-Steve here... and I gotta say that meeting and hanging out with Carl was one of the highlights of my OH experiences.

As my genres of choice are modern day horror oriented (BTS, Dead Reign, NightBane) I was only vaguely familiar with Carl’s work as his hood is more Rifts/Phase World etc. Coincidentally I’ve gotten much more familiar with his work this week as I picked up both Hades and Dyval for BTS use while I was up there and had him sign them both, but I digress.

However, Carl turned out a very cool, creative guy who offered me LOTS of good advice with the upcoming BTS sourcebooks I’m working on.

You’re good people Carl… don’t ever change bro!

[Slag]

Great meeting everyone!

Had a blast. Hope to see everyone next year.

John C. Philpott...

[Lucas]

except me right

[tenknifefoot]

The demon game was great! I'm going to enjoy using Cinder (that's the Baal-Rog for those who weren't there) against my PC's when I get around to running Dimensional Outbreak.

Dude, that this is a menace!!! Think they can hanle it?

Let us know how it turns out.

Anna

Hey, better to fight a Baal-Rog than to get teleport-abducted into Modeus' throneroom by a Jinn...

[Spinachcat]

Tell us about your Mechanoids game!!!

[Carl Gleba]

Tell us about your Mechanoids game!!!

Will do. I have to finish up writing about saturday.

[Carl Gleba]

Saturday

I was planning on playing in a game on Saturday, but I wanted to have time to get into costume later so I decided against it. I was really looking forward to Julius Rosenstein’s game, perhaps next year. So I think I stayed around and chatted with some of the freelancers, took pictures and talked with a lot of people and signed a lot of books.

Ever since the first costume contest in 2007 I knew I wanted to give it a try. I even knew which character I wanted to dress up as…a Juicer. For the last year or so I’ve been collecting pieces for the costume and for the last six months I’ve been assembling and working on it. I built the bio-comp, the armor, and the grenades. My friends, who are model builders, built the laser pistol for me and a Rifle. I didn’t bring the rifle since we had to cross borders to get Palladium. I’ll post some close up shots of the armor and bio-comp later. So I got in costume in the Palladium offices. Lucky for me Kevin Siembieda came back cause I needed help getting into the armor. Thanks Kevin . It was also an opportunity for Kevin to get some action photo’s of a Juicer in action Ok, get the Auto dodge jokes out of the way

I was surprised at the number of contestants this year! Wow it was great seeing iconic characters like the Robotech characters, Reapers and a Ley Line Walker and even Wayne Smith! Madmanmike was even dressed up as a merc with lots of cool weapons. Mike even let me borrow one for the group photo, thanks Mike. I knew judging would be tough and I have to give props where they’re due and the Ley Liner rocked. She took Best in show. The attention to detail was awesome. All that was missing was for her to hover in the air and do the ley line walk! I managed to snag first place in the Sci-Fi category…cool! I’ll have to think about what I want to do next year. I have to give special thanks to Lucas for giving up his boots. I was going to just wear my sneakers (no room for the boots) but Lucas was kind enough to offer his boots to me which I think really added to the costume as a whole. Thanks Lucas and just for you I put on a fresh pair of socks that day No really I appreciate it Lucas, thanks. Good thing we had the same foot size and damn those boots comfortable.

I scored a few items in the auction. I wanted the Game shields but they ended up going for way above my limit. I did get Erick Wujcik’s copy of Boxed Nightmares. I also picked up his Tarrot Cards. They were for my buddies that built the laser pistol. My friend with me ended up with a lot of books and a few printer proofs of Rifters which he gave to me. After the auction I had to run over and run my last game.

The game was the Mechanoids – Supply Run. I ran the game at the 07 POH, so I changed it up a bit and added a new Mechanoid called the Echo, a Mechanoid ECM specialist who was jamming all radio waves. For characters we had a Communication Officer, an Esper, a Commando, Heavy Infantry (basically a group power armor pilot), and a Grunt. The characters were in a transport being delivered to various assignments when a distress call was received from a human base that was over run by the Mechanoids. Since there were obviously survivors and the base was chock full of supplies they were diverted and dropped in to rescue the survivors, get some supplies and get out. A list of supplies was provided along with some objectives. It turns out this base was the main control center for the planets defense satellites. If the they could get the code key from the base commander they could override the satellites at another location. Each player did a great job, as well as playing as a team. The survivors were rescued from two Runners who were in the process of dissecting them. After rescuing the survivors the team split up. The Esper and the Commando went to the control center, and Heavy Infantry went to the launch bay. In the mean time the Comm Officer was doing her thing by hacking into the Mechanoids signals as well as the base mainframe. Through some good planning and EMP grenades the code key was snagged and the two were making their way back to the launch bay when the Heavy Infantry engaged the Echo Mechanoids. I seem to recall two critical strikes when he fired his volleys of mini-missiles? A natural 20 and a 19. Yeah the new Mechanoid was toasted in a matter of seconds even with the half dozen or so thin men rushing in. Everyone made it to the shuttle which was in the launch bay and blasted off with the survivors and a shuttle full of supplies. Incidentally they also learned that the stations reactor was about to go critical and that they had about two hours of time.

The group worked well as a team. I pretty much considered this a test game for the up and coming Mechanoids Space book which I am helping to write with Kevin. Since the group gave me some good feedback after the game and some ideas during the game I’m giving them all credit as play testers.

[Carl Gleba]

Sunday

My last day was short and sweet. My friend and I decided we were ready to go home so he slept in while I went to the warehouse to say my goodbyes. I would have liked to stay but naturally as I was arriving into Detroit Wednesday evening my wife called to tell me one of our cats was sick and she was taking him to the vets. So she had to deal with that the entire weekend. If you’ve ever had to give a dog or a car medication you know what I’m talking about. I’m usually the one who does that so I have experience (Animal Husbandry at level 2?) with giving the cats and dog medication. I was worried a bit as it was our oldest cat. Now picture this. The cat is 15 pounds which is a good size cat. It took four people to hold the cat down to take blood! Yeah I told my wife if he has that much fight in him he’ll be fine and I’m glad to report he is. Who would have thought that the same kind of antibiotics you give to kids you would give to cats. He is not a happy camper when he has to get his bubblegum flavored meds

So normally the trip home would have been uneventful, but not this time. We crossed into Canada on the way home to New York without issue. We drove through Canada and get to the border at NY. I’m not sure what triggered it, but the guy had us pull the car over for a search. So they pretty much went through everything and had a fit with the Juicer costume. I guess the bio-comp (it had a small LED display) could be confused for a bomb! Well after explaining what it was and getting a dressing down by the border guard we were sent on our way. So word to the wise, even if it is a costume prop declare all that stuff to the border patrol. Just tell them you have mock mega-damage weapons in the trunk and you’ll be fine (yeah right!)

All in all I had a great time at the Open House. It’s great to talk with people about something we all have a common interest in. I always enjoy answering peoples questions so please don’t be shy.

I’m always so blown away by how kind, courteous and friendly people are at the Open House. Kevin has always said to me how Palladium fans are the best in the world and seeing it over and over again is just awesome. You would think well there is bound to be one bad seed in the lot and there isn’t.

Thank you for being the awesome fans that you all are.

I’ll be looking forward to next years POH.

Carl

[Spinachcat]

Good to hear the cat's fine! I have a 16 year old geezer cat who was diagnosed with "only weeks to live" when he saw the vet about 4 years ago. It turns out some cats can live with kidney failure! Or he's a meowing zombie. Who knows?

so I changed it up a bit and added a new Mechanoid called the Echo, a Mechanoid ECM specialist who was jamming all radio waves.

Oooh! Can the Echo imitiate voice patterns and play havoc? Does he have any telemechanical psi ability? Can he counter other electrical functions, such as short-circuiting equipment?

BTW, Echo is a great name for a Mechanoid subtype.

The survivors were rescued from two Runners who were in the process of dissecting them.

Hopefully the rescue happened pre-process?

[Carl Gleba]

Good to hear the cat's fine! I have a 16 year old geezer cat who was diagnosed with "only weeks to live" when he saw the vet about 4 years ago. It turns out some cats can live with kidney failure! Or he's a meowing zombie. Who knows?

Thanks The little demon spawn is 14 and probably has a many more years ahead of him.

so I changed it up a bit and added a new Mechanoid called the Echo, a Mechanoid ECM specialist who was jamming all radio waves.

Oooh! Can the Echo imitiate voice patterns and play havoc? Does he have any telemechanical psi ability? Can he counter other electrical functions, such as short-circuiting equipment?

BTW, Echo is a great name for a Mechanoid subtype.

Yeah it will pretty much be able to just about anything with sound/communications. Think of it as the "Sound Wave" of the Mechanoids

The survivors were rescued from two Runners who were in the process of dissecting them.

Hopefully the rescue happened pre-process?

I can't recall if they managed to rescue him or not. I want to say no, but they did rescue three others.

Carl

[Danger]

so I changed it up a bit and added a new Mechanoid called the Echo, a Mechanoid ECM specialist who was jamming all radio waves.

Oooh! Can the Echo imitiate voice patterns and play havoc? Does he have any telemechanical psi ability? Can he counter other electrical functions, such as short-circuiting equipment?

BTW, Echo is a great name for a Mechanoid subtype.

Yeah it will pretty much be able to just about anything with sound/communications. Think of it as the "Sound Wave" of the Mechanoids

So he can spit out little miniature mechanoids from a compartment in his chest?

Hmm, now that I joke about it, that would be kinda cool. And creepy.

[Carl Gleba]

So he can spit out little miniature mechanoids from a compartment in his chest?

Hmm, now that I joke about it, that would be kinda cool. And creepy.

The Exterminator does.

carl

[Danger]

So he can spit out little miniature mechanoids from a compartment in his chest?

Hmm, now that I joke about it, that would be kinda cool. And creepy.

The Exterminator does.

carl

Funny, cause I was going to joke that the Echo's little mini-mechanoids could be called Bugs.