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Palladium Books presents--the Mechanoids
Book by KEVIN SIEMBIEDA, ALEX MARCINISZYN
- GenresRole Playing Games
149 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1985
About the author
Kevin Siembieda
206 books52 followersKevin Siembieda (born April 2, 1956) is an American artist, writer, designer, and publisher of role-playing games, as well as being the founder and president of Palladium Books.
Palladium Books, founded in southeast Michigan, claims to be the first to implement a role-playing system intended to work for all genres and to introduce the perfect-bound trade paperback format to the RPG industry.
Some of the role-playing games Siembieda helped produce include Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness (1985), Robotech RPG (1986), After The Bomb (1986), and Rifts (1990).
Siembieda is also an artist, best known for occasionally illustrating Palladium Books' products. In 1978, he started the now-defunct Megaton Publications in Detroit, publishing a digest style title called A+ Plus and several other titles. He also contributed art and cartography to several early Judges Guild products (for both their Traveller and Dungeons & Dragons lines).
Palladium Books, founded in southeast Michigan, claims to be the first to implement a role-playing system intended to work for all genres and to introduce the perfect-bound trade paperback format to the RPG industry.
Some of the role-playing games Siembieda helped produce include Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness (1985), Robotech RPG (1986), After The Bomb (1986), and Rifts (1990).
Siembieda is also an artist, best known for occasionally illustrating Palladium Books' products. In 1978, he started the now-defunct Megaton Publications in Detroit, publishing a digest style title called A+ Plus and several other titles. He also contributed art and cartography to several early Judges Guild products (for both their Traveller and Dungeons & Dragons lines).
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
July 13, 2020
This is the 1985 remake of the first Palladium game book the Mechanoids Invasion (1981). detailing the situation of the colonists of Gideon-E. This uses more or less the original version of the Palladium rule set as seen in the original Palladium Fantasy game with some slight differences. No personal SDC for characters, psionics are generic and allocated by levels 1-3 plus an extraordinary category. Most of the OCCs are for various colonist occupations. The rovers, nomadic humanoids who play the role of native guide are also detailed. Of course the main attraction of the book are the weird, wild and wicked Mechanoids a motley assortment of genetically engineered psychic killer aliens wrapped in deadly cyborg armour.
In addition to the basic rules for creating characters and deciding battles the book contains information on the setting including stats for all the Mechanoids, various equipment used by the colonists and some local wildlife. There is also a timeline of events and a few maps of the planet. The tenor of game is one of tenacious but doomed struggle by the humans against a basically insurmountable foe that has them outnumbered and outgunned. The Mechanoids are essentially toying with the humans before their destruction, however a few slivers of hope remain.
I admit one of the main attractions of this for me was seeing where drawings and ideas reused later were first deployed (although much of it is recycled from the original book). Although a relatively straightforward expansion on the original Mechanoids you still see the weird scenarios and ideas that are Palladium's trademark. Such as a plan to use supersized local aquatic life to attack the Mechanoids. Also of interest are stats on the original founder of the Gideon-E colony who awakened from a Rip van Winkle like slumber to help fight the Mechanoids and the mysterious last of the Ancient Ones a race of ancient advanced aliens who left a few weird artifacts that are used in this war for survival.
I own this as a watermarked pdf from Drive Thru RPG, the quality of the scans and so on are fine, everything is readable. Note it in no way is edited or improved from the original publication, but is just a straight reprint of the 1985 book with the front and back covers in colour (the rest is black and white).
As of July 12th, 2020, Goodreads has the wrong cover image for this book, instead showing the cover of the Mechanoid Invasion Trilogy, the reprint of the original 1981 Mechanoid books.
In addition to the basic rules for creating characters and deciding battles the book contains information on the setting including stats for all the Mechanoids, various equipment used by the colonists and some local wildlife. There is also a timeline of events and a few maps of the planet. The tenor of game is one of tenacious but doomed struggle by the humans against a basically insurmountable foe that has them outnumbered and outgunned. The Mechanoids are essentially toying with the humans before their destruction, however a few slivers of hope remain.
I admit one of the main attractions of this for me was seeing where drawings and ideas reused later were first deployed (although much of it is recycled from the original book). Although a relatively straightforward expansion on the original Mechanoids you still see the weird scenarios and ideas that are Palladium's trademark. Such as a plan to use supersized local aquatic life to attack the Mechanoids. Also of interest are stats on the original founder of the Gideon-E colony who awakened from a Rip van Winkle like slumber to help fight the Mechanoids and the mysterious last of the Ancient Ones a race of ancient advanced aliens who left a few weird artifacts that are used in this war for survival.
I own this as a watermarked pdf from Drive Thru RPG, the quality of the scans and so on are fine, everything is readable. Note it in no way is edited or improved from the original publication, but is just a straight reprint of the 1985 book with the front and back covers in colour (the rest is black and white).
As of July 12th, 2020, Goodreads has the wrong cover image for this book, instead showing the cover of the Mechanoid Invasion Trilogy, the reprint of the original 1981 Mechanoid books.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review