Palladium Lore Books

[Eric42]

As I have been reading Garden of the Gods and referring back to other books (like Old Ones and Dragons and Gods), I wondered if Kevin has ever thought about releasing books that are just pure lore books and not "game" books. I would love to have something like this to really flesh out the Palladium Fantasy world. Garden of the Gods has me intrigued with various ideas that seem so unfinished.

Anybody else out there like this idea?

[Kraynic]

Maybe?

I still run the 1E Fantasy game, partly because I felt that by the time they got into Book 7 (Yin-Sloth Jungles), there was a lot of game content that was just there to fill books that I had no intention of ever using in my games. As more and more books piled on, it also seemed that there was less and less of the world that you could truly play with as a GM without stepping on the "official" game world, and more things that (to me anyway) just didn't really make much sense. I feel like the Ophids Grasslands (that are basically the North American Great Plains) aren't all that usable between the Devil's Mark, the summoner (plus summons and henchmen) stronghold in the mountains, the roving tusker demi-god, and the influence of those things would have to exert on the wildlife living in great swaths of that area from the Monsters and Animals book. I feel like my version that actually has room for roaming Centaur tribes, settlements strung out on a water and overland trade route, and seasonal trading based on the western "mountain man" fur trade and "rondezvous" being a lot more interesting and usable than the official version. I understand others may not, however. There is also the fact, that I started building certain areas of the setting based on relatively limited (and wide open) descriptions from early books before the regional source book came out (like the Eastern Territories). As a result, I mainly use the 1E core rule book, Book 2 (The Old Ones) for Timiro Kingdom maps, Book 3 (The High Seas) for more classes, skills and Bizantium maps, and the Monsters and Animals book. Anything beyond that I may take snippets from, but that is about it.

I actually prefer the books that leave a lot for the GM to fill in on their own. The more detailed and constraining the source book, the less interested I am in having it. I know there are people that buy Palladium books almost exclusively for the lore, though I have no idea how much of their customer base is that sort. They might certainly have some buyers for books that were just pure setting, and others that like to have a really fully fleshed out lore/setting to go with whatever additions there are to game rules for that area. I'm just not one of them. Might be worth a try on the part of Palladium if they end up with the content and desire for the experiment.

[Sambot]

Eric42
Lore would be nice but someone's going to want to use Lore in their games. That's going to lead to game stats.

Kraynic
I don't mind details being filled in. Its still a big world so there's still room adventures that won't bother canon. Not that I think canon should get in the way of having fun. We are free to use what we like in our games.

[Fenris2020]

A Lore-type book would be good, but... I think novelizations would go a long way towards fulfilling that. For an example, look how the Dragonlance novels and those set in the Forgotten Realms (before the 4E crap) fleshed out the worlds.

[Library Ogre]

A Lore-type book would be good, but... I think novelizations would go a long way towards fulfilling that. For an example, look how the Dragonlance novels and those set in the Forgotten Realms (before the 4E crap) fleshed out the worlds.

I've long held that anthologies are one of the best ways. An anthology will give you several perspectives on the setting, from different authors, and can have several different locations highlighted.

They're also generally easier than full novels.

[Warshield73]

A Lore-type book would be good, but... I think novelizations would go a long way towards fulfilling that. For an example, look how the Dragonlance novels and those set in the Forgotten Realms (before the 4E crap) fleshed out the worlds.

I've long held that anthologies are one of the best ways. An anthology will give you several perspectives on the setting, from different authors, and can have several different locations highlighted.

They're also generally easier than full novels.

Anthologies, novellas, full novels. Format is irrelevant what is important is quality and continuity. That don't have to be perfect but decent editing and don't conflict with the gaming books or each other. They should also have gaming stats for any person, race, monster, or item not already in the books.

They should also all be set in the past. Stories are a great way to build up the lore and history but you don't want things to get in the way of GMs.

[TheEvilDM]

I still run the 1E Fantasy game, partly because I felt that by the time they got into Book 7 (Yin-Sloth Jungles), there was a lot of game content that was just there to fill books that I had no intention of ever using in my games. As more and more books piled on, it also seemed that there was less and less of the world that you could truly play with as a GM without stepping on the "official" game world, and more things that (to me anyway) just didn't really make much sense. I feel like the Ophids Grasslands (that are basically the North American Great Plains) aren't all that usable between the Devil's Mark, the summoner (plus summons and henchmen) stronghold in the mountains, the roving tusker demi-god, and the influence of those things would have to exert on the wildlife living in great swaths of that area from the Monsters and Animals book. I feel like my version that actually has room for roaming Centaur tribes, settlements strung out on a water and overland trade route, and seasonal trading based on the western "mountain man" fur trade and "rondezvous" being a lot more interesting and usable than the official version. I understand others may not, however. There is also the fact, that I started building certain areas of the setting based on relatively limited (and wide open) descriptions from early books before the regional source book came out (like the Eastern Territories). As a result, I mainly use the 1E core rule book, Book 2 (The Old Ones) for Timiro Kingdom maps, Book 3 (The High Seas) for more classes, skills and Bizantium maps, and the Monsters and Animals book. Anything beyond that I may take snippets from, but that is about it.

I actually prefer the books that leave a lot for the GM to fill in on their own. The more detailed and constraining the source book, the less interested I am in having it. I know there are people that buy Palladium books almost exclusively for the lore, though I have no idea how much of their customer base is that sort. They might certainly have some buyers for books that were just pure setting, and others that like to have a really fully fleshed out lore/setting to go with whatever additions there are to game rules for that area. I'm just not one of them. Might be worth a try on the part of Palladium if they end up with the content and desire for the experiment.

I basically feel the same way here. I run Fantasy 1e and I enjoy the freedom of having things kind of blank and allowing me to fill in the details. I am old school so this is how I play.

Though nothing wrong if you want things fleshed out for you, a GM's job is a lot of work, and with some folks, the less they have to worry about the more comfortable they are in running a game.

[Whiskeyjack]

That don't have to be perfect but decent editing and don't conflict with the gaming books or each other.

Having almost finished reading Garden of the Gods, I almost spit out my coffee reading this. I'm quite used to poor editing in PB books, but GotG is by far the worst I've seen yet. I can't understand how a company that produces books, can't get a 2nd grader to give it read to check for spelling and grammar issues before print.

[Fenris2020]

That don't have to be perfect but decent editing and don't conflict with the gaming books or each other.

Having almost finished reading Garden of the Gods, I almost spit out my coffee reading this. I'm quite used to poor editing in PB books, but GotG is by far the worst I've seen yet. I can't understand how a company that produces books, can't get a 2nd grader to give it read to check for spelling and grammar issues before print.

I line-edit for a couple of my friends who are authors; I'd be happy to do the same for Palladium Books.