Palladium Fantasy: Hugely Underrated

The Palladium FRPG is one of gaming's most underrated gems. The advice on role-playing, gaming, and the fantasy genre in general - on what it means to be a player - is second only to Gygax's words in the original AD&D. The book itself reads like a continuation of the ideas presented in the original AD&D, the midwestern wisdom we all crave, what it means to have an alignment, how to play, how to be a hero, this is all amazing, inspirational stuff here.

And the combat system is far easier than D&D. Roll a d20, and 4 or less is a miss. Roll between 5 and the armor value, and you hit the armor. Roll over the armor value, and you penetrate the armor and damage the target directly. If the AC system of D&D is a sound combat system, this is a great combat system.

You can parry, dodge, or entangle an attack.

After damage, if it is a blunt attack, you can try to roll with the impact.

The combat is simple, heroic, gritty, has armor damage, and it just works very well. Different fighting styles fight differently.

The magic system is amazing: most circles of magic work differently and have their own powers, lingo, and rituals. This isn't "spellcasting classes that pull from spell lists" but complete classes, each one different, that do wildly different things, and their magic follows different systems, beliefs, and ways of working. All the casters in this game are amazing, and each one is so different that you could play the game as one, learn its ways and secrets, and play another and feel like you are in an entirely different world where things work in a wholly new way.

Experience is not gold; it is taking actions, making skill rolls, clever ideas, saving others, avoiding fights, daring, playing in character, following your alignment, and dealing with the bad guys. The XP system is very organic and way ahead of its time.

And the alignment system beats D&D, AD&D, and everything Wizards put out until they dropped alignment altogether. These are role-playing alignments, with good, selfish, and evil flavors. This is the best alignment system in role-playing games, and possibly the best in history. It does not serve an artificial grid or double axis of cosmic order; it is driven by the character's morality and personal beliefs. You are not a slave to a nine-square grid of planar forces; you are a real person with motivation and things you will and won't do.

And like many old-school games, the basic book keeps you grounded in fantasy, with traditional fantasy options. The game is more about crafting a real person in the world than it is a fantasy superhero with an exotic race. While there are plenty of fantastical choices here, they all fit within the world and feel grounded and real. This is not a game that serves an artificial, external need for identity; you are creating a traditional fantasy hero and telling their story in an amazing, varied world full of dangers and plots.

The game feels like AD&D Second Edition's focus on story, narrative, and sword-swinging adventure, as it moves from location to location. This is a game that tells stories like you would read in novels, not sim out on a VTT square by square, maximizing damage and spending action types in a wargame-inspired dance of hit-point bag reduction.

Palladium FRPG is a game about heroes.

How they react to situations and stories based on their core beliefs. The choices they make. Sacrifice. And the slow crawl to becoming stronger and wiser in the ways of the world. This is a very personal game where your character's choices matter, and the danger you put yourself in front of for others makes all the difference in the world. The game is driven by characters and their choices, guided by alignment and that mystical spark within each player that propels them onward.

That sounds like Tolkien and any other number of classic fantasy authors. The stories I can tell in this game are much more personal and meaningful than AD&D, OSR games, or even storytelling games. While the rules guide your choices, they are not who you are as a person. In AD&D or BX games, the rules can drive your options, and they boil down to cold, mechanical calculations of treasure, torch timers, weight allowance, and managing hit points. You are constrained by the math in D&D, and the math becomes the driving force in that game.

This is not a game of rules to conquer and master.

This is a toolbox to unlock the power of your imagination.

And your tools are the characters you create, and the passions that drive them.

Rolemaster: Still Awesome

Rolemaster is still awesome.

This is sort of a "this is not AD&D" mixed with a "super real combat" crossed with "this is not Lord of the Rings," and we have a game from the early 1980s that could stand up to AD&D and trade blows pretty effectively. Although with AD&D, the blows were taking down bags of hit points, and in Rolemaster, you were stabbing orcs in the spleen, stunning them, and having the cleric give them a skull fracture with a flanged mace.

It is always good stuff here in Rolemaster land.

Rolemaster, like GURPS, is a great solo game. All you really need is one hyper-detailed character, let them figure their way through life, survive, fight a few thugs, and go on these street-level adventures where it isn't some big "put on" battle between your party, 100 orcs, and a dragon. Just one fight in an alley against a thug or two could kill or seriously wound your character, and surviving was thrilling.

The more gritty and detailed the rules are, the fewer fights and monsters you need in an adventure to be exciting and enjoyable. Just an orc and a few goblins would be a fun fight for a solo character, and provide maximum impact with a detailed, blow-by-blow combat system. I get more satisfaction from in-depth systems than from games "designed to be easy," like 5E.

There is more "meat on the bones" here than 5E, at least to hack off in interesting ways. I can lose myself in these books, enjoy them, read them, work through them, and immerse myself in a game with decades of depth. There is a deeper level of enjoyment here than in 5E, which pretends to be D&D, but it is just a pale imitation and wannabe story game at heart. The roleplaying parts and story hooks in 5E were always weak compared to games like FATE, and the inspiration system is uninspired and too easy to abuse. If I want a story game, forget Daggerheart; I will play Cypher System and have it all.

But Rolemaster is a sound, solid system and has recently been updated. We have the four core hardcovers, and another, hopefully more, are coming. Yes, the game is deep, but I am not afraid of depth, nor would I criticize it. I like depth in my games, and there are plenty of times when I make 5E characters, play with them for a few adventures, and end up saying "so what?"

It is hard to say the same thing about Rolemaster characters.