Running Palladium for the first time

[talmor]

I finally managed to convince my gaming group to give Palladium a try, and I'm very excited about it. However, I've never run Palladium Fantasy before, and I do have a few questions and am thinking about a few house rules.

1 I'm thinking of nixing WP Paired Weapons. In general, I don't like dual wielding for characters in general, especially when it seems so intrinsically better than fighting with one weapon, and at such a low cost. Also, the aesthetics of it bothers me in a Medieval Era style game. Renaissance-era swashbuckling? Sure. Otherwise, meh.

2 Shields seem a bit too weak. Or, at least, for me, as I really want to encourage my players to use shields. I was thinking either of having them add a passive AR or just give a flat bonus of +1 for small and +3 for large shields to parry attempts.

3 Are there rules for using a one handed weapons with two hands? Like, a bonus to hit or damage?

4 What about fighting with just a one handed weapon?

5 Healing seems too easy, esp. with a Priest character in the group. If they can really use their Healing Touch as often as they like (well, ok, once every 30 seconds), why would a character who ever did get hurt stay hurt?

6 How fast can a character move in an action? I'm assuming, and please correct me if I'm wrong, that it works like this:

Spd: 10 (reasonable result on 3d6, and a good rough number for examples.)
Can move Spd x 20 in yards in one minute, so this character can run 200 yards in a minute.
As such, he can run 50 yards in a combat round (15 seconds).
Assuming he is a 1st level character who knows HTH: Basic (but not boxing), that means he had two attacks per round. Therefore, he can move 25 yards in exchange for one attach...correct?

In general, I would assume that anything within say 5 yards or so is a "free" movement. Rushing over to help your buddy 10 feet away shouldn't cost you a full action, right? But more than that, you have to give up one of your attacks.

If our example character ended up getting a third attack (leveling up, magic, learned boxing, whatever), but not increasing his speed, this would mean that he could move roughly 17 yards per movement, correct? As such, becoming a better/faster/more agile combatant (if not necessarily a faster runner) would result in you being better able to control your movement.

So, in reality, if two characters are both running towards an idol that's 10 yards away, but have the same speed. 1 has two attacks, 2 has three per melee. They both get there, 1 has one attack remaining, while 2 has two left--and that's the advantage of having more attacks in a round, when it come to racing someone somewhere.

7 Horses? How much do they cost, where do you get them, and how does mounted combat work? I know the Knight and Paladin list a horse as their equipment, and that their horses are QUITE valuable, but how much for a beaten down plow horse? Is this information in another book? I only have the base book and the GM's kit, but Monsters & Animals and Book II: Old Ones are on their way to me.

8 I was thinking of setting the game in my little world, basically based on the aftermath of the Lord of The Rings--you conquered the Evil Overlord, but his armies and legions are still around, and where never truly defeated in the field--the unlikely hero destroyed the artifact and wiped out the Overlord, but the Legions of Darkness were never really beaten by the Army of Light. The players job is to colonize the former Forbidden Land--good luck with that.

Will this cause any issues with using Palladium.

9 Also, elves and dwarves are all dead. Dead. Dead. DEAD! Seriously, screw those guys.

10 Seguing from the "non-humans are mechanically better/cooler than humans", I was thinking of changing the die rolls from 3d6 to 2d6+6 for humans. Yes, this makes human PC's better than the bell curve of 3d6 should imply, but I'm ok with that. I'm fine with characters being "better" than normal people, and this will hopefully cut down on rerolls.

11 Are there any rules or guidelines for villages/manors/towns? I have a Rifts book that has rules for town creation (Adventure Guide? I think), and I was going to use that, but it'd be nice to have Fantasy rules for such things. I like the idea of, to quote the poet, "Get Rick or Die Trying" as being a major goal of the game, and as such the players job is build up a lucrative colony for themselves. So, I was thinking of doing a thing where they get bonus XP every year based on how much income their barony or the like brings in (after taxes and tithes and everything else to their bosses).

[TheGameMaster]

I might be able to help with a couple

I finally managed to convince my gaming group to give Palladium a try, and I'm very excited about it. However, I've never run Palladium Fantasy before, and I do have a few questions and am thinking about a few house rules.

1 I'm thinking of nixing WP Paired Weapons. In general, I don't like dual wielding for characters in general, especially when it seems so intrinsically better than fighting with one weapon, and at such a low cost. Also, the aesthetics of it bothers me in a Medieval Era style game. Renaissance-era swashbuckling? Sure. Otherwise, meh.

2 Shields seem a bit too weak. Or, at least, for me, as I really want to encourage my players to use shields. I was thinking either of having them add a passive AR or just give a flat bonus of +1 for small and +3 for large shields to parry attempts.

3 Are there rules for using a one handed weapons with two hands? Like, a bonus to hit or damage?

1)I personaly like Paired weapons, but it is your game

2)I usualy give some + to block or parry when using a shield even if they don't have it as a WP

3)There are power attacks that use up 2 attacks, but no bonuses for fighting with 2 hands all the time

5 Healing seems too easy, esp. with a Priest character in the group. If they can really use their Healing Touch as often as they like (well, ok, once every 30 seconds), why would a character who ever did get hurt stay hurt?

Other than healing touch, regaining health is acctualy really slow

So, in reality, if two characters are both running towards an idol that's 10 yards away, but have the same speed. 1 has two attacks, 2 has three per melee. They both get there, 1 has one attack remaining, while 2 has two left--and that's the advantage of having more attacks in a round, when it come to racing someone somewhere.

In this case I would have both characters roll a d20 under their speed, if one makes their roll and the other didn't, the one who made the roll wins. If they both make the roll, the one with the lowest roll wins

7 Horses? How much do they cost, where do you get them, and how does mounted combat work? I know the Knight and Paladin list a horse as their equipment, and that their horses are QUITE valuable, but how much for a beaten down plow horse? Is this information in another book? I only have the base book and the GM's kit, but Monsters & Animals and Book II: Old Ones are on their way to me.

I don't have my book with me, but I belive the cost of horses is near the equipment section or near the back

8 I was thinking of setting the game in my little world, basically based on the aftermath of the Lord of The Rings--you conquered the Evil Overlord, but his armies and legions are still around, and where never truly defeated in the field--the unlikely hero destroyed the artifact and wiped out the Overlord, but the Legions of Darkness were never really beaten by the Army of Light. The players job is to colonize the former Forbidden Land--good luck with that.

Will this cause any issues with using Palladium.

9 Also, elves and dwarves are all dead. Dead. Dead. DEAD! Seriously, screw those guys.

10 Seguing from the "non-humans are mechanically better/cooler than humans", I was thinking of changing the die rolls from 3d6 to 2d6+6 for humans. Yes, this makes human PC's better than the bell curve of 3d6 should imply, but I'm ok with that. I'm fine with characters being "better" than normal people, and this will hopefully cut down on rerolls.

Why are you playing Palladium if you're killing off half the population (not only from the world of Palladium, but from Middle Earth as well). If you don't want you players to play as them, tell them it's a humans only game. Though in my opinion, that sort of takes the "Fantasy" out of it and just makes it Medevil England. As for how you roll humans, that is your choice, I like the way it is in the book. Having some high and some low stats are what make it roll playing.

11 Are there any rules or guidelines for villages/manors/towns? I have a Rifts book that has rules for town creation (Adventure Guide? I think), and I was going to use that, but it'd be nice to have Fantasy rules for such things. I like the idea of, to quote the poet, "Get Rick or Die Trying" as being a major goal of the game, and as such the players job is build up a lucrative colony for themselves. So, I was thinking of doing a thing where they get bonus XP every year based on how much income their barony or the like brings in (after taxes and tithes and everything else to their bosses).

Yes there are and they are in the Western Empire book

[Cinos]

1 As it stands Paired Weapons is pretty much strictly better then other forms. Dropping it, or at least reducing it's power is a fine move.

2 Shields can use a buff, Passive AR bonus is a good starting point.

3 Newp.

4 Newp. 0 Reason not to Paired or Sword and Board.

5 Assuming you have a priest, there's no reason they should stay hurt. Now a lot of people will go around saying "Oh well gods will get angry if you just keep spamming heals frivolousnessly". But there's no game mechanic for this, and it's all GM writ.

6 That's about as close to a real rule on movement as you'll find.

7 I think Horses and their costs are split between the Knight description, the skill entry for Horsemanship in the core book, and Monsters and Animals.

8 Well this is the one point I'd disagree with you, as you're discarding the gem of Palladium Games. But it will not cause many issues aside a few conflicts; A: Wards and Summoning Circle are pretty different from what's seen in LotRs. Warlocks and Witches as well if I'm right in my understanding of things. And Wizards / Magic in general is presented as extremely rare in LotR, and extremely common in Palladium Fantasy.

9 Hey! Don't hate on Dwarves just because elves are over used.

10 This is not a bad idea, it also lets the PC's use that Attribute bonus thing a bit more commonly. Another idea to toy around with which I've used for ages is Humans get to roll their stats, then place the numbers in the stats they want, rather then getting locked into areas like other races do for the cost of more dice in some stats. Once this change was made, humans quickly became a popular choice.

11 Oh man, this I'm not sure on. A lot of Rifters have stuff like this, I know there's a Fantasy Medieval Army Combat Rule block that I highly suggest, but can't recall which rifter its in.

[The Dark Elf]

Why play Palladium?

the setting is an aftermath of LotR.
elves and dwarves are dead.
combat rules are disliked.

What's exciting?

[MurderCityDisciple]

Why play Palladium?

the setting is an aftermath of LotR.
elves and dwarves are dead.
combat rules are disliked.

What's exciting?

Damn for a second I thought the middle part was a Haiku.
That would actually make a cool character concept. They only reply to things on the internet in the form of a Haiku.

[MADMANMIKE]

I finally managed to convince my gaming group to give Palladium a try, and I'm very excited about it. However, I've never run Palladium Fantasy before, and I do have a few questions and am thinking about a few house rules.

Welcome to the club and I hope it goes well. Keep in mind that the rules are written so you can run it however you please; don't hesitate to run it your way.

1 I'm thinking of nixing WP Paired Weapons. In general, I don't like dual wielding for characters in general, especially when it seems so intrinsically better than fighting with one weapon, and at such a low cost. Also, the aesthetics of it bothers me in a Medieval Era style game. Renaissance-era swashbuckling? Sure. Otherwise, meh.

If you don't like paired weapons, then don't allow it. But keep in mind the Fantasy setting covers a wide range of historical era settings, from Medieval to Renaissance-era to the age of clipper ships; don't sell the setting short by pigeon-holing your concept of it into a narrow field.

2 Shields seem a bit too weak. Or, at least, for me, as I really want to encourage my players to use shields. I was thinking either of having them add a passive AR or just give a flat bonus of +1 for small and +3 for large shields to parry attempts.

Additional bonuses to parry are your prerogative as GM, and this is where dumping the Paired Weapons skill gains ground. The rules say they only take 10% of the damage when used to parry, and that they can be used with the offhand while a weapon is used in the other, so if you take Paired Weapons out of the mix (or at least limit it to certain O.C.C.'s that would likely have it), then the shield becomes more attractive.

3 Are there rules for using a one handed weapons with two hands? Like, a bonus to hit or damage?

Another GM prerogative, if you want to give a bonus, that's up to you. As mentioned before, the rules allow for a Power Attack that uses two actions, but don't cover changing how you use a weapon. One handed weapons are called one handed weapons for a reason; generally speaking, there's only room on their handle for one hand. It's also why two-handed weapons do more damage, because they actually are two handed..

4 What about fighting with just a one handed weapon?

Yes, the rules allow for fighting with just a one handed weapon. You roll to strike, parry, and damage the same as you would with any other weapon...

5 Healing seems too easy, esp. with a Priest character in the group. If they can really use their Healing Touch as often as they like (well, ok, once every 30 seconds), why would a character who ever did get hurt stay hurt?

I'm not sure where your coming from with this... Of course, I've never had a player that was interested in having a Priest character, so it hasn't come up. Offhand, though I'd point out that Priests charge 25 to 600G per laying of the hands; why would their deity allow them to not charge their friends? Especially if there are characters in the group who don't worship the same deity? That said, healing potions cost 400 to 800G per use, and scrolls 2500G; so as you can see, it's not necessarily that easy to run around getting nearly killed all the time, as long as you as the GM enforce the rules.

So they have a Priest and all worship his God... that's when you bring out the followers of that God's enemies and put the whooping on. Every 30 seconds may not seem like a long time to wait, but with characters having 2APM to start, most combat doesn't take very long; in 60 seconds the party could get killed. If they win and are all wounded horribly, how long can they rest before the next combat starts? Page 20 of the Palladium® Fantasy Role-Playing Game 2E has some great Optional Damage rules that can be applied even if the characters get healed by magic means...

6 How fast can a character move in an action? I'm assuming, and please correct me if I'm wrong, that it works like this:

Spd: 10 (reasonable result on 3d6, and a good rough number for examples.)
Can move Spd x 20 in yards in one minute, so this character can run 200 yards in a minute.
As such, he can run 50 yards in a combat round (15 seconds).
Assuming he is a 1st level character who knows HTH: Basic (but not boxing), that means he had two attacks per round. Therefore, he can move 25 yards in exchange for one attach...correct?

In general, I would assume that anything within say 5 yards or so is a "free" movement. Rushing over to help your buddy 10 feet away shouldn't cost you a full action, right? But more than that, you have to give up one of your attacks.

If our example character ended up getting a third attack (leveling up, magic, learned boxing, whatever), but not increasing his speed, this would mean that he could move roughly 17 yards per movement, correct? As such, becoming a better/faster/more agile combatant (if not necessarily a faster runner) would result in you being better able to control your movement.

So, in reality, if two characters are both running towards an idol that's 10 yards away, but have the same speed. 1 has two attacks, 2 has three per melee. They both get there, 1 has one attack remaining, while 2 has two left--and that's the advantage of having more attacks in a round, when it come to racing someone somewhere.

You've got a good handle on it. Spd. x5 = feet per melee, divided by APM = feet per attack; I generally point out that a character isn't always moving around at their top speed and halve that again for combat situations, or if they don't have the Running skill or Forced March, even take it down to 30%. So a character with a decent Spd. of 15 and 2APM can (during combat) move 25 to 50 feet per attack; yeah, I'll give the 5 to 15 ft freebie movement, but full speed I reserve for when they aren't wearing full armor and carrying 50lbs of weapons.

7 Horses? How much do they cost, where do you get them, and how does mounted combat work? I know the Knight and Paladin list a horse as their equipment, and that their horses are QUITE valuable, but how much for a beaten down plow horse? Is this information in another book? I only have the base book and the GM's kit, but Monsters & Animals and Book II: Old Ones are on their way to me.

Monster & Animals pages 204 to 207; Horses are anywhere from 1000G to 4000G on average, but can go as high as 24,000G for specialty breeds. Ponies are a bit cheaper, but smaller and naturally can't carry as much.

8 I was thinking of setting the game in my little world, basically based on the aftermath of the Lord of The Rings--you conquered the Evil Overlord, but his armies and legions are still around, and where never truly defeated in the field--the unlikely hero destroyed the artifact and wiped out the Overlord, but the Legions of Darkness were never really beaten by the Army of Light. The players job is to colonize the former Forbidden Land--good luck with that.

Will this cause any issues with using Palladium.

No, you can use the mechanics without the setting just fine. But I'd strongly recommend giving the setting a chance, it's pretty cool.

9 Also, elves and dwarves are all dead. Dead. Dead. DEAD! Seriously, screw those guys.

If that's what you want, you can do that. It doesn't fit at all with the Setting presented, but whatever floats your boat; just do me a favor and make it clear to your players that you aren't running Palladium Fantasy, you're just using the mechanics for your setting.

10 Seguing from the "non-humans are mechanically better/cooler than humans", I was thinking of changing the die rolls from 3d6 to 2d6+6 for humans. Yes, this makes human PC's better than the bell curve of 3d6 should imply, but I'm ok with that. I'm fine with characters being "better" than normal people, and this will hopefully cut down on rerolls.

Non-Humans aren't mechanically better/cooler than humans for the simple fact that as humans, we can more readily role-play humans. It's what we know. If your players want an Elf because he gets a better P.P., make them actually play it like an elf, prejudices and haughtiness included. Likewise, humans have the distinct advantage of not being the 'most hated' by any given race; Elves and Dwarves are often the first targeted by non-humans, and each other. Try not to reduce the game to a bunch of dice roles and you'll have a lot more fun. Sure, other races have advantages, but they also have disadvantages built in, use them.

11 Are there any rules or guidelines for villages/manors/towns? I have a Rifts book that has rules for town creation (Adventure Guide? I think), and I was going to use that, but it'd be nice to have Fantasy rules for such things. I like the idea of, to quote the poet, "Get Rick or Die Trying" as being a major goal of the game, and as such the players job is build up a lucrative colony for themselves. So, I was thinking of doing a thing where they get bonus XP every year based on how much income their barony or the like brings in (after taxes and tithes and everything else to their bosses).

As mentioned before, Palladium RPG Book 8: The Western Empire has some pretty extensive city generation rules, specifically on pages 172 to 186.

There are also some cool rules for creating Guilds in Rifter #6, specifically for Assassins but can be used otherwise.

I've got a set of Medieval Organization Rules for building anything from an adventure group to a caravan to a small kingdom with several fiefdoms, that includes formulas for determining Popular Dispersion, but they haven't been published yet; still feel they need some tweaking..

[gdub411]

1st, congratulations on convincing your players in trying out Palladium Fantasy. I still haven't quite pulled that off yet. It looks like a very exciting system and I cannot wait to try out their magic system, since that really looks like its strength. I, also want to point out that PF is the only viable psionic system in the RPG industry IMO. With that said, lets move on....

I don't know if I agree with your idea of eliminating of Paired Weapons. I DO agree that perhaps you should have some clarifications. It is one of the most convoluted rules I have read in PF, and believe me, Palladium has many. Perhaps some houserules ought to be created, just to make it more simple and less unwieldy. Thinking about it right now makes my head hurt. Still, I have always thought that inclusion is always better than exclusion. I think your players would agree as well. Modify it. Don't eliminate it!

I agree completely with shields. As are, they suck. What you proposed seems good. +1 parry for small shields/+3 for large shields, with or without shield proficiency. +1 AR would also be good, as well as being better than weapons at parrying arrows. -3 to parry arrows(instead of -10) is what I have decided on.

I like your idea with one handed weapons being held with 2 hands. Perhaps a +1 or +2 damage bonus would be appropriate.

As far as fighting one handed, I'm not sure. I guess I would just be more open to ideas what someone with a free hand could potentially do., such as attack and close a door behind you, attack and pull out a potion or scroll from your belonging, etc...I cannot see how a fighter with a free hand should get any combat bonuses, however.

I had the same idea as you did with Priest healing. I figure I would see how it plays out before deciding on anything. Right now, it seems PCs will simply spend a small amount of time after combat healing themselves to bring themselves up to normal. Others are right, however, when you start talking about receiving magic healing from other classes, such as the wizard. Very underpowered. Keep in mind, though, during combat, healing 2d4 isn't very fast. Especially compared to some maniac dishing out 3d6+ damage from a Claymore. Things could get ugly very quick and the Priest's measly 2d4 ISN'T going to turn the tide.

Speed is a real issue and I'm not crazy about it. Too complicated and seems a tad incorrect. I have my solution, which is very complicated and without all my notes I am not going to go into it. It is another convoluted rule that leaves one scratching his head. PS...I hate digging speed. It seems corny and incredibly unrealistic. You're on your own there. I was thinking about going with something simple( and still may) and go with something like this..(you have to be using a battlemap for this)

Speeds 1-5=4 squares or 20 foot movement/action
Speeds 6-10= 5 Squares
Speeds 11-15=6 Squares and so on.

It doesn't follow the speeds correctly, but it seems more logical to me than the idea that someone with a 10 speed with more actions/attacks per round moving less per action than someone with the same speed who has fewer actions/round

Last, Elves and Dwarves gone? Hey its your world, but another strength of PF is that there are many playable races one can choose from. As I said earlier, inclusive is better than exclusive. If you feel like too many players are choosing non-humans, create a race table and have them roll their race. One cannot choose to be black or white, so why allow them to choose their race? That is what I have done, because I DO NOT want a whole group of Ogres, Trolls and Wolfen!!

Oh, and PS...you want to get confused some more? The 2 attacks/round to start isn't right supposedly. Read the Confused about attacks/round thread.

[zyanitevp]

I finally managed to convince my gaming group to give Palladium a try, and I'm very excited about it. However, I've never run Palladium Fantasy before, and I do have a few questions and am thinking about a few house rules.

Congrats on trying Palladium Fantasy!
There are already a lot of suggestions/opinions, so I will offer only this-
Your players, and your, enjoyment of the system is what is important. If the group wants no elves/dwarves, then don't have them. Same with paired weapons, and the rest. If they do want them, you should consider it. If you make the world with player involvement they will have more fun, and so will you.

[The Dark Elf]

What books do you have in regards to the adventure? will it be a book written one?

[talmor]

Hey all,

Thanks for the advice and input. I had a longer reply to everyone, but it's saved on my work computer. But, I am taking what you all said into consideration.

I was thinking, IF I ran it with the base Palladium setting, what areas in the world would be good for a "human conquerors just took over a realm ruled by a Big Bad Evil Guy, and now a new generation is moving in to colonize it?"

Secondly, does Palladium have a default calender?

What books do you have in regards to the adventure? will it be a book written one?

I don't have any adventures planned, yet. This is intended to be a sandbox. I have about a dozen adventure ideas/hooks/locales, but they're still in a pretty rough shape. I put world design on hold when I started looking at rules stuff.

Any you would recommend?

[MADMANMIKE]

Hey all,

Thanks for the advice and input. I had a longer reply to everyone, but it's saved on my work computer. But, I am taking what you all said into consideration.

I was thinking, IF I ran it with the base Palladium setting, what areas in the world would be good for a "human conquerors just took over a realm ruled by a Big Bad Evil Guy, and now a new generation is moving in to colonize it?"

Secondly, does Palladium have a default calender?

What books do you have in regards to the adventure? will it be a book written one?

I don't have any adventures planned, yet. This is intended to be a sandbox. I have about a dozen adventure ideas/hooks/locales, but they're still in a pretty rough shape. I put world design on hold when I started looking at rules stuff.

Any you would recommend?

The Eastern Territory is sort of like the old west, fairly recently colonized by humanity; likewise if you have/get The Western Empire, they are expanding into both Ophid's Grasslands and The Old Kingdom. Or The Northern Hinterlands is now being colonized by Byzantium. All four locales can fit your idea easily.

There is a historical timeline on page 281 of the PF2E main book, but there isn't really an established Calendar, i.e. Palladium months and days. I've never had to run a game where I did much more than "It's early Fall" or "It's the dead of winter" myself...

[Cinos]

Hey all,

Thanks for the advice and input. I had a longer reply to everyone, but it's saved on my work computer. But, I am taking what you all said into consideration.

I was thinking, IF I ran it with the base Palladium setting, what areas in the world would be good for a "human conquerors just took over a realm ruled by a Big Bad Evil Guy, and now a new generation is moving in to colonize it?"

Secondly, does Palladium have a default calender?

What books do you have in regards to the adventure? will it be a book written one?

I don't have any adventures planned, yet. This is intended to be a sandbox. I have about a dozen adventure ideas/hooks/locales, but they're still in a pretty rough shape. I put world design on hold when I started looking at rules stuff.

Any you would recommend?

There is a world wide accepted calendar, but PB has never issued a dating system for it in terms of length of weeks / months (the calendar is Royal Timiro Calendar). I know there was a fan made one that was really good, but I've long since lost the link.

[gdub411]

I would buy the Eastern Territory.

[The Dark Elf]

Hey all,

Thanks for the advice and input. I had a longer reply to everyone, but it's saved on my work computer. But, I am taking what you all said into consideration.

I was thinking, IF I ran it with the base Palladium setting, what areas in the world would be good for a "human conquerors just took over a realm ruled by a Big Bad Evil Guy, and now a new generation is moving in to colonize it?"

Secondly, does Palladium have a default calender?

What books do you have in regards to the adventure? will it be a book written one?

I don't have any adventures planned, yet. This is intended to be a sandbox. I have about a dozen adventure ideas/hooks/locales, but they're still in a pretty rough shape. I put world design on hold when I started looking at rules stuff.

Any you would recommend?

Eastern Territory is a good book for your colonisation.

Adventure wise the ones in "Adventures in the Northern Wilderness" are really what got me into the game! But the book is still in first edition. Some of the adventures were put into "The Wolfen empire" sourcebook but not the best ones (IMO).

The latest Rifter has an awesome, short adventure in in based around the olympics on Lopan (but Im biased).

[zyanitevp]

There is a world wide accepted calendar, but PB has never issued a dating system for it in terms of length of weeks / months (the calendar is Royal Timiro Calendar). I know there was a fan made one that was really good, but I've long since lost the link.

Here is the link for the post about the calendar I created for my game. If you go to the site, it will show months, holidays, and the years.
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=125965

I second Dark Elf's comments, that Eastern Territories and Adventures in Northern Wilderness (which for the next few days is on sale at Drive Thru RPG for a ridiculously low price) are great for what you are describing.

You can always do your own thing in the Old Kingdom... Still dreaming of those 2 books, yet to see the light of day.

[URLeader Hobbes]

1 Fair enough just let your players know.

2 Yeah shields in PFRPG could be done better.

3 No strike bonuses and generally two handed weapons will inflict more damage.

4 All bonuses come from Weapon Proficencie, a high Physical Prowess or from the weapon being of superior quality.

5 Priests may not opt to heal someone who gets hurt doing something stupid or something that goes agaist their faith or genearl moral outlook. Trust me you should see the look on players faces when that helpful NPC priest tells them that the wound they suffered, and scars they will get should serve as a reminder to be a better/smarter person. Lots of opportunity for RPing here.

6 How fast can a character move in an action? I'm assuming, and please correct me if I'm wrong, that it works like this:

Speed x 20 is how many yards the character can move in 1 minute. What I make my players do is come up with the number of feet per action. The formula is as follows. (I'll use your example of 10 for the speed atribute)

Spd of 10 x 20 = 200 yards per minute.
200 / 4 Melees = 50 Yards per Melee (Four 15 second Melees per minute)
50 x 3 = 150 feet per melee (3 ft per yard.)
150 / Nubmer of actions (Lets use 5) So 150 / 5 = 30 Feet per action.

Side Note: I use a house rule that a character in combat can move 10 ft per action and still strike with full bonuses. A character who moves 1/2 his total feet peraction attacks with 1/2 bonuses and if they out right move the full distance any attack is without bonuses.

As you level up you can attain more actions, which will also alter your Feet per action but not the SPD attribute. That is up to the player to select physical skills like running which can modify the attribute.

7 Horses are in the Monsters & Animals book. As far as how much they cost, well think of it like buying cars. Younger newer ones are gonna fetch full price and older ones will go cheaper, but won't have the performance that the younger more helathy ones have.

8 Setting is good, no real issues that I can see from a rules stand point. Plus you get a chance to toss all sorts of hidden horrors that the movies or books didn't refrence. (Think monsters that are unique to the Palladium system.)

9 Better let your players know in advance. Afterall most all fantasy settings have elves and dwarves. But keep in mind one of the strengths of the palladium system is being able to play most any race including the monster races.

10 Your call on how to roll up characters.

11 The Western Empire book has rules for City Generation. But if part of your game includes the characters trying to start up a town then let them figure out what to do. As far as bonus EXP I would just dole out EXP as normal. Afterall a lot of issues are going to come up with building and trying to manage a community. So most likely they will get the clever and useful or clever but futile idea EXP rewards failry often.

[Cinos]

There is a world wide accepted calendar, but PB has never issued a dating system for it in terms of length of weeks / months (the calendar is Royal Timiro Calendar). I know there was a fan made one that was really good, but I've long since lost the link.

Here is the link for the post about the calendar I created for my game. If you go to the site, it will show months, holidays, and the years.
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=125965

I second Dark Elf's comments, that Eastern Territories and Adventures in Northern Wilderness (which for the next few days is on sale at Drive Thru RPG for a ridiculously low price) are great for what you are describing.

You can always do your own thing in the Old Kingdom... Still dreaming of those 2 books, yet to see the light of day.

This is not the old one I found back in the days of yore, but it is a good one.

[Veknironth]

Well, I agree that Paired Weapons is a very overpowering skill, but there are few house rules to tone it down. First, I recommend going back to the 1st edition when only men-at-arms could take it. Second, and I think this is Levi's rule, make the character expend a skill for each combination of paired weapons (i.e sword and shield, blunt weapon and dagger, etc). I like it making a difference, however, between trained warriors and people who know how to use the weapons a little bit.

Shields are weak, especially when you can get a dwarven/kobold made weapon with a +3 to parry. Giving an automatic bonus is a good idea. Also, someone mentioned parrying arrows. With a shield, you can try to parry but if any GM ever lets someone parry an arrow with a weapon, that person's dice should be taken from them.

No rules for using a 1 hander with 2 hands, but I'd assume there is a bonus to damage and parrying. You'll be able to move that weapon around more easily. A quick thought would be to add an additional 50% to the existing bonuses.

The priest healing is out of control and I can't believe that hasn't been corrected. Actually, the entire Priest section is sort of messed up. As written, a priest of darkness can receive a spell from his or her deity that the deity might not know. The healing means that within 15 min or so of a fight, everyone is back to full health. Also, any community with a priest would be in full health and could survive most any disease. Limit the # of times a priest can use that ability. Tie it into their level. An example would be 2x per level per day.

Be careful about the speed. People are talking about how far you can go in an action. I think it's better to just figure out the rate per second and apply it that way. It takes x amount of time to travel a distance of y and you will end up using/losing z number of attacks in that period of time. Otherwise you might have someone with fewer attacks but the same speed, win initiative and end up travelling farther because you are doing by feet per attack.

The Old Kingdom is a perfect place for your scenario, since it is currently occupied by Orcs, Goblins, and their ilk.

-Vek
"I like the setting."

[zyanitevp]

There is a world wide accepted calendar, but PB has never issued a dating system for it in terms of length of weeks / months (the calendar is Royal Timiro Calendar). I know there was a fan made one that was really good, but I've long since lost the link.

Here is the link for the post about the calendar I created for my game. If you go to the site, it will show months, holidays, and the years.
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=125965

This is not the old one I found back in the days of yore, but it is a good one.

Thanks Cinos!