Past Entertainment Articles.

Article for the week of 6/19/06

RPGs for the world: What's good and what's gone

By, Puns McKenna

Now there are a number of us out there that are avid gamers. We've played everything from AD&D to Stargate. And I'm sure that many of you have even played Palladium games. Rifts...Robotech...TMNT (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Beyond the Supernatural, etc. All of the games I mentioned are at least a decade out of date. They have long since gone towards the more die-hard gamers that will play the old classic till they're naught but dust. Heck I have to admit I played Rifts up until about six years ago, but damnit its time to give up the ghost.

Don't get me wrong the game universes are great, but the mechanics are broken. For a beginner Palladium games are easy to learn. They’re like the D&D of our generations of gamers. But isn't it time for the Palladium game systems to go the way of the Dodo? When we have games like Stargate, D&D v3.5, D20 Modern, Classic Battletech, Mechwarrior Dark Age, etc. What do we need games like Palladium's Rifts, Robotech, etc around for?

D&D v3.5 is a lot clearer and easier to follow than the palladium games, and it's more dynamic. Sure in a game like Rifts you can come from just about any universe or plane of existence. But just how easy are the rules and game mechanics to follow? Personally for me I'd choose D&D over Rifts. Sure you can play danged near any race, but does Rifts have that same feel that D&D has? Not really.

And now you ask why I don't play palladium games anymore. Well that's easy. I don't like the game mechanics. It takes half an hour just to figure out what happens to whom, and what each character is doing, and then there's actually taking the time to do it. I don't prefer a game that says: "wham bam thank you ma'am", but then I don't prefer a game that drags on forever either.

Now we find that Palladium books is going under. Is this a bad thing? Sure, for some. But there are others of us that would just as soon see the whole place go the way of the Dodo. Talk about game systems that have outlived their usefulness. Will there always be someone out there that like Palladium games? Certainly. Will there always be a "fan base" Yes... or at least the remnants of one. In honesty... to each their own.

For me I say out with the old and in with the new. There are multiple other companies out there publishing books that are simply more interesting. Let's let the old company die and see a new one forged in its place.