Palladium Fantasy RPG Second Edition

Overall score:

When the Palladium Fantasy RPG second edition came out in 1996 (PFRPG), my friends and I were ecstatic. We had spent a few years playing the original PFRPG but we got sick of the confusing rules, skills, and book layout—especially with Rifts out and gaining popularity. The new rules in the Rifts system were clearer and lot more fun, not to mention the world being so unique. But we were never able to completely drop PFRPG despite its flaws, since we still liked it better than AD&D second edition.

While it was no surprise that Palladium updated all their game systems to the Rifts version, it was kind of a surprise that the PFRPG was one of the first. But to just call this book "Rifts Fantasy" doesn't do it justice. Not only is it one of the best fantasy RPGs on the market, the Palladium world itself is argubly the best "pre-constructed" fantasy setting in role-playing.

Those of you familiar with Palladium's games, or who have read previous reviews by me or Fellfrosch, know how much we love them for their rich settings. PFRPG isn't much of a "read for the fun of it" book, but it's a competent rule book. There's practically no filler at all in this 336 page book, except for a few pages at the end that give you an overview of the Palladium world and it's races. Like your standard Palladium game you have your 8 attributes, 3 mental and 5 physical, that are determined by multiple 6 sided dice (how many dice depends on your race). There are two different life gauges, S.D.C. (Structal Damage Capacity) which stays at a base amount unless chaged by skills or magic, and Hit Points which go up every level.

There are plenty of classes to go around in the Palladium world. There are actualy as many different Magic classes are there are fighter classes—more if you include clergy and psionics. They try to make the fighting classes different by more then just skill selection, and with the exception of the mercenary and soldier this is done pretty well. Some are just slight modifactions of each other, however, such as Knight/Paladin and Longbowman/Ranger. (For example, a knight has lots of money and a noble family, while a paladin might be but has a few extra abilitys that help in combat with monsters.)

The magic classes are probably the most creative ones in the game. While you have your traditional Wizard, you also have Warlocks (elemental magic), Diabolists (wards and runes) and Summoners (Summoning and protection/power circles) and Mind Mages (who use really powerful psionics). No two play alike. There are also the clergy and lesser psychic classes, which I throw together because they are about on par with each other: the cleric heals by divine power and the Psi-healer does it by other means. The other classes (druid, Psi-mystic and Psysic sensitive) don't match up that nicely but they're about equal in power.

One problem with the PFRPG is that some classes are blatantly more powerful than others. A Wizard, Warlock and Mind Mage are incredably powerful, while the other psycic and magic classes aren't. A Summoner or Diabolist are completely useless unless they have a long time to prepare something (most players don't play one of these two classes unless they really want a challenge). The other Psionic classes, while not as weak as the Summoner or Diabolist, aren't very powerfull either, mainly because of their limited power selection compared to the others.

The Magic system in Palladium games is one of its strongest points. Instead of the clunky system of "spells per level per day," you have base magic points or P.P.E. (Potential Psychic Energy). Each spell requires a certain number of points to cast, and you gain points back by resting or meditating. Psionics work much in the same way, except they use I.S.P (Inner Strength Points). If a low level wizard has enough P.P.E (either naturally or form other sources like magic items) he could cast the most powerful spell in the game—assuming he knew it. Learning magic isn't level based, either, so it can be an adventure in itself to seek out ancient secrets and experiment with possible spells.

Combat in PFRPG consists of your standard turns. The attacker rolls a d20 to hit (that's the only similarity to the d20 system) and the defender rolls the same to defend. If the Defender's modified roll is higher than the attacker's modified roll then the attack fails. There are two different types of defence: Parry and Dodge. Parries are limited but can be used for free (ie, they don't use up one of your actions), while dodges cost an action but can be applied to any attack. This is an overly simple view of combat, but it's enough to get a feel of what it's like.

While the book is very large, 336 pages, there's not much of a Gamemaster section; a mere 8 pages is about all you get on how to be a GM and run a game. This might be a little intimidating to a new GM, though the actual game mechanics are explained very well. A lot of people these days are accustomed to a walkthough or a second book that helps in this aspect. There's also no adventure included. [editor's note: it's true that the book lacks a lot of 'standard' GM info, but the organization is above average for an RPG and that really helps. Plus, if we're being honest, any game system that doesn't force you to buy an extra hardbound book just to GM earns major extra points.]

The last 100+ pages are equipment and creatures, mostly the latter. There are a decent amount of magic items described in about 20 pages but not as much as you would like. (Hopefully this summer we'll see the new book on magic and items released.) As a GM you'll end up making a lot of your magic items yourself. The monster section is also very small, more or less limited to the player races. You have to buy another book in order to get all the monsters, but that's pretty standard.

The last section of the book describes the standard playing races: Human, Elf, Dwarf, Gnome, and Wolfen (this time in alphabetical order unlike the last version), and if your GM lets you play as them races we also have Troglodytes, Kobolds, Goblins and their kin, Orc, Ogres, Trolls, and Changelings. Optional character races can be fun to play and even monsters from other books can be easily turned into a player.

Overall, the Palladium Fantasy RPG second edition is an excellent buy, about $25 for the book. The Palladium system is a very fun one; if you've played Rifts or one other their other games then you'll enjoy this one. If you've never played a Palladium game it's a great place to start. And while you only need this book to play, having Monsters and Animals is nice (I also recommend Adventures on the High Seas, which I will review soon).

Written by Spriggan on April 16th, 2003