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I wish I could feel bad for them.
Apr. 23rd, 2006 10:45 pmPalladium Books is on the verge of bankruptcy, allegedly because of employee theft and embezzlement (Naturally, poor business decisions and production values that are mediocre, at best, have nothing to do with this situation at all). They want fans to help out by buying stuff, specifically a special 'limited edition' print. My reaction to this is to wish that I could work up the energy to care. If they were to loosen up their internet policy (specifically, stop threatening lawsuits to fans who post conversion rules), I'd buy some stuff off 'em, but if they keep their current draconian "We own the very WORD 'Rifts'! We own every last little thing that anyone writes about us, including reviews and private emails! We own everything the fans posts about our system, and we can muzzle the fans at WILL!!!!!!!!!!" policies, I ain't gonna spend any more of my money on 'em.
Oddly enough, back when TSR was sending "cease and desist" letters to every DnD fan site on the net, Kevin Siembieda wrote about Palladium's more 'enlightened' internet policy in a very self-congratulatory manner. And he sure complained loudly when Todd McFarlane threatened to sue Palladium over the name of the "Nightspawn" RPG (One of the most baseless lawsuits in the history of geekdom, IMO). The really annoying thing is that they claim their policy is necessary to "protect their Intellectual Property", that they don't want to have to threaten legal action, but they have to, or they might lose their rights. Ya know, like how certain authors claim they have to sue fanficcers. This is, to be blunt, bullshit. A copyright holder can easily say "anyone who wants to can use my characters/settings/private language/etc, so long as it's not for profit", and doing to will not "weaken their property". The reality is, some of them simply don't want to permit it. Legally, they can do this, but they think that just saying that might make them look like Bad Guys, so they make up some bullshit about how they HAVE to sue. And it is bullshit, because no other RPG company currently has such a policy, yet their IP seems as secure as ever. Ditto for authors (Unless Joss Whedon somehow lost the rights to Buffy while I wasn't paying attention).
While we're on the subject of conversions, I will very carefully point out how trivially easy it would be to use DnD/D20 Modern to 'simulate' what a Rifts game _would_ be like, in the hypothetical instance that someone were to do such a conversion. All the stats except for Speed and Physical Beauty are direct knockoffs of DnD stats, and translate 1-for-1 at most power levels. All the character races have existing DnD cognates. The existing character classes can _all_ be simulating by assuming that a beginning Rifts character is equal in power level to a 8th level DnD character (which is incidentally the level adjustment for some hatchling DnD dragons) and by allowing unrestricted multi-classing. Magic would convert simply by changing existing classes to a point-based system (1/2 point for a 0-level spell slot, 1 point for a 1st level spell slot, 3 points for a 2nd level slot, etc), getting rid of the Sorcerer class, and making all magic users spontaneous casters; And psionic characters would have one or more levels of a psionic class, in addition to their primary class. _Every_ Rifts character could be simulated as a D20 character, with minimal effort. Cybernights are Soulknifes, Mindmelters are Psions, Line Walkers are Wizards, etc. Even for high-tech character types that don't exist in default DnD, there are more than enough variant classes out there. ALL of this can be done simply by mixing and matching rules that have already been published by WoTC. The only rules mechanic that would require any thought whatsoever to convert would be the "Ley lines"/Magic level bit, and I really doubt Palladium could assert a copyright there. (Personally, I'd simulate that by allowing casters to apply free metamagic feats to spells as they're cast, with more levels worth of metamagic being possible, the closer to the Ley Line and/or Nexus the caster is. SEVERAL published D20 rulesets have mechanics like this, BTW.)
Such conversions are so easy because the Palladium system is itself a blatant rip-off of 1st edition DnD. It's so close I'm surprised TSR never sued them, because, if Palladium's own legal 'reasoning' is valid, then TSR would have won easily. In any case, 3.5 edition does everything that Palladium's serial-number-filed-off version does, and does it better. The _only_ thing that Rifts has going for it is a decent setting, and I can get that just by borrowing the books from friends, or buying them at used book stores. I'm not going to give them any more of my money, and there are plenty of gamers out there who agree, as the steadily diminishing popularity of Palladium attests. In contrast, WoTC has tolerant web policy, and a fanbase that continues to grow. Coincidence? While Palladium probably has a legal right to have such a restrictive policy, it's hurting them in the long run, so they really deserve whatever the market does to them. Which isn't to say they deserve being robbed. If it's actually true (and I have some doubts), then I have sympathy for them, but not enough to actually help out unless they bend to my will and loosen their net policy. If they don't, oh well, I'll just wait for their increasingly inevitable bankruptcy, at which point they won't be able to sue anyone, and the fans will be able to post conversions to their hearts content. There's a moral about customer relations in here somewhere...
Oddly enough, back when TSR was sending "cease and desist" letters to every DnD fan site on the net, Kevin Siembieda wrote about Palladium's more 'enlightened' internet policy in a very self-congratulatory manner. And he sure complained loudly when Todd McFarlane threatened to sue Palladium over the name of the "Nightspawn" RPG (One of the most baseless lawsuits in the history of geekdom, IMO). The really annoying thing is that they claim their policy is necessary to "protect their Intellectual Property", that they don't want to have to threaten legal action, but they have to, or they might lose their rights. Ya know, like how certain authors claim they have to sue fanficcers. This is, to be blunt, bullshit. A copyright holder can easily say "anyone who wants to can use my characters/settings/private language/etc, so long as it's not for profit", and doing to will not "weaken their property". The reality is, some of them simply don't want to permit it. Legally, they can do this, but they think that just saying that might make them look like Bad Guys, so they make up some bullshit about how they HAVE to sue. And it is bullshit, because no other RPG company currently has such a policy, yet their IP seems as secure as ever. Ditto for authors (Unless Joss Whedon somehow lost the rights to Buffy while I wasn't paying attention).
While we're on the subject of conversions, I will very carefully point out how trivially easy it would be to use DnD/D20 Modern to 'simulate' what a Rifts game _would_ be like, in the hypothetical instance that someone were to do such a conversion. All the stats except for Speed and Physical Beauty are direct knockoffs of DnD stats, and translate 1-for-1 at most power levels. All the character races have existing DnD cognates. The existing character classes can _all_ be simulating by assuming that a beginning Rifts character is equal in power level to a 8th level DnD character (which is incidentally the level adjustment for some hatchling DnD dragons) and by allowing unrestricted multi-classing. Magic would convert simply by changing existing classes to a point-based system (1/2 point for a 0-level spell slot, 1 point for a 1st level spell slot, 3 points for a 2nd level slot, etc), getting rid of the Sorcerer class, and making all magic users spontaneous casters; And psionic characters would have one or more levels of a psionic class, in addition to their primary class. _Every_ Rifts character could be simulated as a D20 character, with minimal effort. Cybernights are Soulknifes, Mindmelters are Psions, Line Walkers are Wizards, etc. Even for high-tech character types that don't exist in default DnD, there are more than enough variant classes out there. ALL of this can be done simply by mixing and matching rules that have already been published by WoTC. The only rules mechanic that would require any thought whatsoever to convert would be the "Ley lines"/Magic level bit, and I really doubt Palladium could assert a copyright there. (Personally, I'd simulate that by allowing casters to apply free metamagic feats to spells as they're cast, with more levels worth of metamagic being possible, the closer to the Ley Line and/or Nexus the caster is. SEVERAL published D20 rulesets have mechanics like this, BTW.)
Such conversions are so easy because the Palladium system is itself a blatant rip-off of 1st edition DnD. It's so close I'm surprised TSR never sued them, because, if Palladium's own legal 'reasoning' is valid, then TSR would have won easily. In any case, 3.5 edition does everything that Palladium's serial-number-filed-off version does, and does it better. The _only_ thing that Rifts has going for it is a decent setting, and I can get that just by borrowing the books from friends, or buying them at used book stores. I'm not going to give them any more of my money, and there are plenty of gamers out there who agree, as the steadily diminishing popularity of Palladium attests. In contrast, WoTC has tolerant web policy, and a fanbase that continues to grow. Coincidence? While Palladium probably has a legal right to have such a restrictive policy, it's hurting them in the long run, so they really deserve whatever the market does to them. Which isn't to say they deserve being robbed. If it's actually true (and I have some doubts), then I have sympathy for them, but not enough to actually help out unless they bend to my will and loosen their net policy. If they don't, oh well, I'll just wait for their increasingly inevitable bankruptcy, at which point they won't be able to sue anyone, and the fans will be able to post conversions to their hearts content. There's a moral about customer relations in here somewhere...
