I have to say that I have heard plenty of bad things about Kevin before, but have never had the chance to meet him. Also heard bad things and actually met Steve Jackson, and while the meeting was pleasant, I don't really care for his attitude. But in both cases, I've purchased products from both of these business owners.

While I might not care for the personality of the individual, I am interested in supporting the industry that they cater to. I probably won't be purchasing anything from Paladium books, mostly because I really don't like the product, but I have purchased it and run it in the past.

I agree that the look of the product doesn't match what is out there today, but I find some of the rules from the product useful and while I might not have the latest revision of them, I have used portions of the rules for my own games, adapting them to suit what I'm interested in doing.

So I would be sad if Paladium Books disappears, more because we loose another producer of RPG products than for a loss of a product I like. But it's a personal opinion, and doesn't mean that someone else might like it and want to buy it. I just don't feel loyalty to his product like I do to Denny's product.

I'd also like to thank Denny for allowing this thread to be here and Warhippo for posting it! Otherwise like others, I would have never known that this had happened to Kevin.

Skunk

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is the current progress report from Palladium books for those of you interested. I hope any game system has this many supportive fans, it's good to know that people can pull together to save something they like. While I still have some misgivings about the amount asked for, it's good to see a roleplaying community pull together like this. It speaks volumes for the fans of any game system (especially since many who play the Palladium system also play many other games out there, which translates into all kinds of sales for everything from game systems, to terrain, to mini's, etc...).

Okay, now I officially feel bad for Kevin and Palladium.

This news has like spread like wildfire, and there are real people trying to go out and actively DESTROY the efforts of fans to save their favorite RPG company.

It starts with Slashdot (yay, the dreaded /.) getting ahold of the news (mostly they reported it because it was geek and NGage news):



Then everyone who doesn't like RIFTS starts taking a potshot at the game. One reply has been like cut and paste now in 50+ blogs I've seen:



Now the cry is to stop Kevin's fundraiser by informing people sititng on the fence to not buy his "hokey crap" because of a number of ill-informed reasons.

It's one thing to sink on your own, and not get help because your reputation proceeds you, but it's another when people who have a grudge to go out of their way to spread their grudge and don't care about the fans or other people working at Palladium.

>_0

That is a little low. Let people decide for themselves, for Pete's sake!

Horrors! A game system gets a bad review.

I'm all for KS saving his company, and if people want to buy $50 prints (the cost of two pricey t-shirts), they are perfectly in their rights to do so. However, when you can often buy the original art from the artists for the same price, this is hardly a bargain.

I just went and looked at the website. While you can't judge a book by its cover, you can judge a cover. The new cover of The Rifter is very nice, looks quite professional and up to current industry standards. It's pretty and I like it. The cover of Villains Unlimited, OTOH, looks like aspiring comics fan art. And the type design (or lack of same) on "After the Bomb"? It appears that "After the Bomb," the only typeface they'll have is an overused mid-50s all caps brush face.

slash-dot was also perfectly on-target mocking anyone who hitches their fortunes to a cel-phone-based video game.

I think what we're seeing here is what killed TSR in its second edition D&D phase--printing more books than the fan-base would buy.