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I mean let's not forget the fact that one of Sembieda's favorite pastimes is loving over freelancers by pulling the old "I've suddenly decided that the material you've written for me that I've had no problems up until now is riddled with such massive problems that only I, Kevin Sembieda, can salvage it, but don't worry, I'll be happy to only dock your promised payment by a third, and also I'll be claiming primary writing credit as a result of my rewrites" trick. Maybe Sembieda is able to present himself as just a regular ol' nice guy in public but everything I've ever read about him, or from him for that matter to once again beat the drum of him using a friend's suicide attempt as a soapbox to stand on, paints the picture of a colossal dickhead in just about every respect.
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May 11, 2017 08:28
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Rand Brittain posted:I have no idea why people like Rifts. I don't know of anybody who likes it. Everything I have ever heard about it is either people complaining about it, or people with a post count of three appearing to explain why they're wrong. Everything I've ever heard about Kevin Simbieda suggests that he is a pain in the neck to deal with. That said, it's deeply problematic in places, poorly written, and I'm also doing it to riff with said friend for comedy. And I certainly wouldn't have gotten the copies myself if I couldn't borrow them. So yeah, not sure if I count as a fan or not. Edit: Also, it is the surrealist thing to switch between discussing Rifts and the other work of fiction commonly coming up that I introduced him to, Legend of the Galactic Heros. gourdcaptain fucked around with this message at 09:21 on May 11, 2017 |
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May 11, 2017 09:18
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I like the way the setting is basically dumping all the action figures in Siembada's toybox and having them fight. Conceptually, that's fun and rad as hell. Fight dragons with mechs? See how your wizard does against killer robots? That's all kinds of fun. There should be more settings willing to go as whackadoo as Rifts. Doesn't mean I would play it, but I can definitely see how it drew people in and why people who are already invested in the system would stick with it.
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May 11, 2017 09:56
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I like how everyone spells his name differently.
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May 11, 2017 10:01
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Rand Brittain posted:Palladium is a mystery to me. It's probably all NGage fans loyal to them for being the console's killer app.
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May 11, 2017 10:41
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Alien Rope Burn posted:It was one of those things that hit at just the right time, right before White Wolf really started to tilt the industry towards more modernized rules, so the clunkiness of the mechanics was still a very normal thing. It also had a surprisingly coherent art direction early on (when most games outside of TSR still looked awfully ugly) and gave people a freedom of character choice that may seem quaint now, but really was somewhat groundbreaking around the same time most games would tut-tut at you for wanting to play a dragon or vampire or whatever. Putting ads in comic books certainly helped matters. I saw those a lot as a kid, well before I even saw a single Palladium book out in the wild, and I always wanted to know more about that robot smashing the head of another robot in some Blood Sport-looking fist-fight.
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May 11, 2017 11:52
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Atlas Hugged posted:I wonder if having a partner betray him as badly as he got betrayed drove him over the edge when it came to paranoia and "protecting" his products. Was he always impossible to deal with or did he get worse after Palladium was robbed blind? He has always been nigh-impossible to deal with. He threatened to sue a young Wizards of the Coast once, just because Palladium Fantasy was mentioned on the back cover of a booklet, in a list of 'Compatible With...' games. When the mailing list asked about fansites way back when ISPs offered a few megs of hosting, we were told that they were verboten. It was literally months, if not an entire year, before they came down with the very same 'MDC/SDC/your mother is property Palladium Games...' boilerplate from the start of each book, that you had to append to every page that referred to their material. I'm surprised they didn't require us to put it in our mailing list .sigs.
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May 11, 2017 12:37
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quote:I wiped my a-- after my morning dump with $28 because $28 IS NOTHING!
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May 11, 2017 14:05
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berzerkmonkey posted:"$28 is nothing"
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May 11, 2017 14:30
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Slimnoid posted:Putting ads in comic books certainly helped matters. I saw those a lot as a kid, well before I even saw a single Palladium book out in the wild, and I always wanted to know more about that robot smashing the head of another robot in some Blood Sport-looking fist-fight. I played a fair amount of Rifts back in the day and the comic ads were absolutely what brought me in.  That's an evocative image for a 12 year old to see. There were some others including one showing Skelebots walking through a city ruin. I feel like those ads were the perfect place to advertise at the perfect time - the height of the comic book speculator boom that brought comic sales to their highest point in history. Siembieda got lucky for a number of reasons and is still reaping some probably undeserved goodwill.
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May 11, 2017 14:41
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Atlas Hugged posted:I wonder if having a partner betray him as badly as he got betrayed drove him over the edge when it came to paranoia and "protecting" his products. Was he always impossible to deal with or did he get worse after Palladium was robbed blind? I remember a story by the editors of White Wolf Magazine in the '90s where they got a complaint from him that Palladium didn't get any coverage in their magazine... and it wasn't intentional according to them, they just hadn't gotten any article submissions for Palladium games, so they actively sought them out and published a Rifts adventure. He then threatened them with a suit over not asking him permission and letting him review the content before publication. After that, they just decided not to publish any Palladium content in White Wolf Magazine ever again. "Impossible" is an apt description there. Honestly if anything he's lightened up. I haven't heard of Palladium filing a cease & desist in ages to webpages and it's probably been over a decade now since they largely stopped doing that. He doesn't really do things like jumping on rpg.net to defend himself or being as hyper-defensive as he was on his own forums. And Savage Rifts happened, which was a big deal. Haven't heard of any lawsuits since the one against Trion. I'm not saying he's necessarily changed, but he at least doesn't put the effort into it he used to into attacks. I think things like the betrayal by Steve Sheiring and the famous Bill Coffin rant did a lot to change how Palladium acted publicly, honestly. That Old Tree posted:He's also one of those "but he's super nice in person" kind of guys. Which is no excuse, but he can clearly be a human being toward people. What I've heard from ex-employees I get the impression he ends up being too friendly and sharing and doesn't have a lot of boundaries. When he dicks people over I don't get the impression it's calculating, I think he completely buys into his own self-serving narratives. Bieeardo posted:He has always been nigh-impossible to deal with. He threatened to sue a young Wizards of the Coast once, just because Palladium Fantasy was mentioned on the back cover of a booklet, in a list of 'Compatible With...' games. That's not quite... he actually did sue Wizards of the Coast and nearly destroyed them as a company (this was shortly before Magic would upend the industry - they actually created a shell company at the time to protect it from the lawsuit). Wizards of the Coast had put out a multi-system supplement with deity rules called The Primal Order with conversion rules for multiple systems, including Palladium's, intending to start a line of multi-system supplements (there was going to be The Military Order, The City Order, etc.). Peter Adkison had decided it was easier to ask forgiveness than permission when including other game names and systems, against the advice of others, and Siembieda sued. The big issue Wizards faced was that Siembieda demanded a public acknowledgement of guilt, but Wizards couldn't do that without basically becoming liable to every company whose copyrights they'd breached (and it wasn't a short list). Wizards of the Coast was a small company at the time and it was Mike Pondsmith (of R. Talorsian and Cyberpunk fame, and then-head of GAMA) that stepped in and got the two to agree to a settlement. For awhile Wizards of the Coast was playing its employees with IOUs and stock. Magic saved the company, though, and it and other CCGs made that stock worth more than anybody could have imagined in the end.
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May 11, 2017 15:23
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My bad. That's what I get from relying on Swiss cheese memories of what I think was an interview with the man himself.
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May 11, 2017 16:18
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I got into Rifts because Robotech was the gateway RPG for me and my friends, and it was natural to try other stuff from the same publisher with the same system. Even if I was still willing to put up with their lack of game design and bizarre worldbuilding, having watched stuff like New West being delayed for something like 10 years and Mechanoids Space STILL not being out in TYOOL 2017, I wouldn't give them money for a product in advance. I actually bought the Savage Worlds Rifts books, because although I'm not really a fan of the system, the book is just so much better at hyping you up to actually have adventures. I'm still amazed that those actually happened considering Palladium's long history of dumb legal stuff.
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May 11, 2017 16:39
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Atlas Hugged posted:I wonder if having a partner betray him as badly as he got betrayed drove him over the edge when it came to paranoia and "protecting" his products. Was he always impossible to deal with or did he get worse after Palladium was robbed blind? What happened?
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May 11, 2017 17:50
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lifg posted:What happened? A friend/employee embezzled Palladium into insolvency before getting caught. I can't remember if he just stole money, or if he also stole some of Kevin's vast collection of toys to sell on eBay. A real winner of a human being. Once things were initially figured out, Kevin no-fooling named the event like a comic book promotion: The Crisis of Treachery! He spent a lot of time posting about it. Fans bought products as a show of support. It was honestly kind of cool at first, to see the fans rally for the plucky, little company they loved. Of course, Kevin can turn any goodwill around. Things may have been genuinely dire the whole time, but IMMINENT DOOM was the watchword for a long time, and it became harder for people to take seriously after literal years of posts like that. The whole thing understandably put a damper on getting books printed, and while at first Kevin seemed to acknowledge this, after a few years he began promising a return to a breakneck production schedule that kept failing to happen. He also ran a sort of early crowdfunding campaign, to save the company by paying inflated prices to pre-order an art book called Heroes of the Megaverse where (I think, might misremember) depending on how much money you paid, you'd just get your name listed in the book, or you could dictate what one of the art pieces was. I don't know about anyone else, but my mega-Rifts fan friend put a chunk of change down for it, and in return they spelled his name wrong and omitted one of the names he paid to have in it. That was kind of the last straw for him, and now Palladium is just a nostalgia thing for him.
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May 11, 2017 18:51
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That Old Tree posted:Who needs those "real apology"-wanting suckers? He's got this stellar guy in his corner: What exactly are the "right reasons" to support a kickstarter?
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May 11, 2017 18:58
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DalaranJ posted:What exactly are the "right reasons" to support a kickstarter? To happily submit yourself at the feet of God-Emperor Capitalism.
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May 11, 2017 19:03
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GrandpaPants posted:To happily submit yourself at the feet of God-Emperor Capitalism. Seems to me that people who were 'rational' in their 'self-interest' would stay the hell away from kickstarter.
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May 11, 2017 19:11
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I'm amused that the same sort of people who go 'kickstarter is a gamble deal with it!' are also going 'but companies should be able to use kickstarter to make profits'. Usually, if I pay a company money for them to make a profit, I'm expecting them to actually deliver what I pay for. If I'm funding some random dude from loving Czechoslovakia with a wild idea, I might be willing to go 'it's a gamble, but screw it', but if it's a company out for a profit they can drat well give me what I pay for.
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May 11, 2017 19:25
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That Old Tree posted:A friend/employee embezzled Palladium into insolvency before getting caught. I can't remember if he just stole money, or if he also stole some of Kevin's vast collection of toys to sell on eBay. A real winner of a human being. An employee and old gaming buddy of his (many of them are, you'll find) embezzled money over years. It's detailed on their wikipedia page, thankfully. That Old Tree posted:He also ran a sort of early crowdfunding campaign, to save the company by paying inflated prices to pre-order an art book called Heroes of the Megaverse where (I think, might misremember) depending on how much money you paid, you'd just get your name listed in the book, or you could dictate what one of the art pieces was. I don't know about anyone else, but my mega-Rifts fan friend put a chunk of change down for it, and in return they spelled his name wrong and omitted one of the names he paid to have in it. That was kind of the last straw for him, and now Palladium is just a nostalgia thing for him. The most uncomfortable thing for me in that book is that it has an NPC section dedicated to a number of people Kevin wanted to thank as veiled in-universe NPCs and there's "The Wuj" who is a not-even-veiled Erick Wujick after his death, and I promise you any time Siembieda does a dedication for him... don't get me wrong. Wujick was a very influential RPG designer who died far too soon, the industry felt his loss, and I can't even imagine how awful it was for Siembieda to suddenly lose such a close friend. But I'm kind of glad there are so many books between where I write F&F reviews and this point in their history because I'd dread having to cover it, I really would. There's low-hanging fruit on the Palladium tree I've considered covering as a special aside but I couldn't because it's got that kind of raw stuff with an amazing lack of self-awareness that makes me cringe into my socks. DalaranJ posted:Seems to me that people who were 'rational' in their 'self-interest' would stay the hell away from kickstarter. If you ever find such a person, let me know, I'd like to meet them.
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May 11, 2017 19:47
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Loomer posted:I'm amused that the same sort of people who go 'kickstarter is a gamble deal with it!' are also going 'but companies should be able to use kickstarter to make profits'. Usually, if I pay a company money for them to make a profit, I'm expecting them to actually deliver what I pay for. If I'm funding some random dude from loving Czechoslovakia with a wild idea, I might be willing to go 'it's a gamble, but screw it', but if it's a company out for a profit they can drat well give me what I pay for. Yeah if you want profits there are platforms available for crowdfunding which take actual investments and expect returns. You don't hear about them in this thread pretty much ever because they require things like 'business plans' and 'professionalism' which you don't see much in TG, unfortunately.
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May 11, 2017 20:02
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Alien Rope Burn posted:Honestly if anything he's lightened up. I haven't heard of Palladium filing a cease & desist in ages to webpages and it's probably been over a decade now since they largely stopped doing that. I remember something about how Kevin didn't jump on the d20 bandwagon because someone told him that, under the OGL, if he published d20 versions of (say) Rifts, then all that Rifts content would become Open Gaming Content itself and then anyone could republish his Rifts stuff under their own name or some crazy conspiracy bullshit.
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May 11, 2017 20:09
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Evil Mastermind posted:I remember something about how Kevin didn't jump on the d20 bandwagon because someone told him that, under the OGL, if he published d20 versions of (say) Rifts, then all that Rifts content would become Open Gaming Content itself and then anyone could republish his Rifts stuff under their own name or some crazy conspiracy bullshit. You're still not allowed to bring it up on the Palladium forums.
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May 11, 2017 20:49
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In non-Palladium KS news, The Stars on the Shores is trying to send out PDFs but the creator uses Dropbox instead of just uploading to DrivethruRPG like everyone else. The Dropbox account has been disabled due to too much traffic. The creator sen out another link, but the account is still disabled. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/darkcultgames/the-star-on-the-shore-a-call-of-cthulhu-rpg-module/posts/1882945
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May 11, 2017 20:53
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Alien Rope Burn posted:You're still not allowed to bring it up on the Palladium forums. That is both hilarious and sadly unsurprising.
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May 11, 2017 20:53
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That Old Tree posted:If some former employee stories are any indication, he's always had weird control issues. I heard about a lot of those years ago from Rich Tucholka (RIP). Kevin is an obsessive control freak.
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May 11, 2017 23:55
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Evil Mastermind posted:For those of you who like combine-y robots, AEGIS has relaunched with better pricing and a lower goal. I've had the chance to play this at conventions and I really enjoyed it,so I'm hoping it funds this time around. This game is cool and good and you should all play it.
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May 12, 2017 03:01
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chutche2 posted:This game is cool and good and you should all play it. Please elaborate. I'm looking for a reason to jump on it.
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May 12, 2017 03:13
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S.J. posted:Please elaborate. I'm looking for a reason to jump on it. I've been in contact with the creators on another forum for a while, since the first kickstarter. They've been doing weekly streams of it and the game's looking really well developed. Pretty quick to play, too. I like the resource management aspect of it a lot, and the multiple kinds of damage. You've got your robots health, but also their energy production that's used for all your movement and actions, and some weapons will permanently reduce energy output instead of dealing damage. One of the win conditions is dropping the enemy team to 5 energy output or less. You've also got stuff that can toss enemies around including knocking them out of play. There's a lot of thought that goes into team construction too. You've got the 5 classes of robots which you can bring in any combination, and then also your bench of 5 combined forms. So you want to bring the right combined forms to fit with your strategy, and make sure to keep the stuff alive you need to make those combined forms. So if you bring 1 of each type, you're going to have access to basically any of the dozens of level 2 through 5 robots but can only fit 5 on your bench, so you want to have a strategy from the start of how you're going to use them. You can get games done in like half an hour once you understand the rules, so it's really great for doing quick games. It supports team games and FFAs with 4 or 6 players too. From their idea on how to pitch it: "If classy weeb gamers: It's pretty much advance-wars-fire-emblem on a board! If pop culture nuts: It's Pokémon meets Voltron If wargamers: It's a wargame you can play in well under an hour that's super affordable If MTG/YuGiOh players: these people hate board games 90% of the time, it's really weird. But I try to tell them that it's basically the five colors of magic/synchosummoning monsters, but a tactics game If mecha fans: they're usually sold from the getgo, but I make sure to namedrop Getter Robo, Gurren Lagann, GaoGaiGar, Super Sentai and etc as influences If hardcore boardgamers: "I promise this isn't a normal wargame/card combat game. You should try it, it'll only take 15 minutes" lmao" chutche2 fucked around with this message at 05:18 on May 12, 2017 |
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May 12, 2017 05:10
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Alien Rope Burn posted:You're still not allowed to bring it up on the Palladium forums. North Korea has a more open public discourse than the Palladium forums
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May 12, 2017 05:19
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chutche2 posted:AEGIS stuff It's worth pointing out that they've completed a bunch of their stretch goals; the base $50 game will also come with the first three expansions, extra terrain pieces, and two new gameplay modes. I can effortpost about it tomorrow if people want. I would have originally but I was phoneposting from the hospital while bored out of my skull.
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May 12, 2017 05:37
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Good poo poo. Thanks, guys.
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May 12, 2017 06:33
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Sigil & Sign — Cthulhu Mythos RPG where you play the cultist You are the cultists in this Lovecraftian cosmic horror RPG from award-winning games publishers Cubicle 7 and Make Believe Games! This looks so freaking cool to me. Lovecraft *and* you get to be a 'bad guy'. WHat's not to love? https://youtu.be/UBN3NojXuk4
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May 12, 2017 08:28
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obviously I hosed it posted:This looks so freaking cool to me. Lovecraft *and* you get to be a 'bad guy'. WHat's not to love? Mostly the fact it runs on Mark Rein*Hagen's absolutely atrocious Axiom system? Seriously, I'd recommend reading through the basic system on Make Believe Games' website before you put any money toward this.
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May 12, 2017 10:53
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Newp, it does not run on his. It's the 2.0 version of it. You can have a look at the cards on the KS page and see. obviously I fucked it fucked around with this message at 12:08 on May 12, 2017 |
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May 12, 2017 12:01
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obviously I hosed it posted:Newp, it does not run on his. Given that the Kickstarter page points you to this page to learn more about the game's system, can you expand on what it does differently?
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May 12, 2017 12:07
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Aha, see, the page it points to doesn't say a word about S&S running under the same version as a previous game. In fact, all the information released to date -- including the sample cards put there for all to see on that same KS page, not to mention in comments to backers -- indicates that S&S is the evolution of that base system, and that C.A. Suleiman has streamlined and improved Axiom considerably. Psych! I'm really digging it.
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May 12, 2017 12:14
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obviously I hosed it posted:Aha, see, the page it points to doesn't say a word about S&S running under the same version as a previous game. Yes, silly me for using the system preview linked on the KS page as a preview of the system. Truly, I have been psyched.
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May 12, 2017 12:27
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obviously I hosed it posted:Newp, it does not run on his.
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May 12, 2017 17:23
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I assume most of you who wanted to get in on the Dark Souls board game did so, since it was a rather large KS, but if anyone is interested in buying my copy (core set shipped now, wave 2 shipped when it arrives, just a standard pledge), send me a PM. Otherwise it's off to eBay. To avoid being solely a shilling post, I'll chime in that you should back AEGIS, so we get more stretch goals. And here is Inheritance (well, the bag and one of the staves [the non-richy rich pants version, just the slightly rich version], no spoilers allowed). Anyone in the STL area interested in meeting up to play, let me know, I doubt I have 9 friends that would want to play (I doubt I have 9 friends!). 
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