I.S.C.'s - April of 1998 News

April - 1998

30th @7:44 P.M. CST:

Edgar: Edgar, the Royal Magistrate for I.S.C., now has his stats up. Thanks goes to Ash for the help. -Rehlman

Townhall Forum: Ah yes, the Townhall Forum problems continue. If you look at it right now, it looks like a huge directory from an FTP site. Wonder what the heck's going on over there... If this continues, we'll have to find another place to hang out... -Rehlman (Editted: It's fixed now...)

Wishing Well: The Wishing Well has a total of 1 wish added to it. -Rehlman

Graveyard: Lord Julian Marik has been added to the Graveyard. Lord Marik looks like he was one kickass character! -Rehlman

Merlin: Anybody see the entire movie on NBC a couple nights ago? They played one half the first night, and then finished it the next night. I only got to see the end of it, but from what I heard, they stayed really close to the Arthenian Legend. From what I saw, the movie looked pretty cool, I guess you can buy it for like, $30 from NBC. Too rich for my blood ;) -Rehlman

Fushugi Yuugi: I finally finished watching all 52 episodes of Fushugi Yuugi, a rock'n anime series. If you ever get the chance, make sure you check it out! -Rehlman

28th @10:47 P.M. CST:

Palladium Adventures: I wrote up the Palladium Exploits so go and check them out, it isn't the greatest write up we have had, but it's the best I can do writing it up 2 weeks after it happened =). -Wallace

27th @8:25 P.M. CST:

Heroes Adventures: I finally brought the Heroes exploits up to date, well, basically up to date. One of us will get the Palladium adventures updated soon. -Rehlman

E-mail: Well, I think Wallace died or something ;) I'll drive over to his house later on and kick his ass for not giving you all the I.S.C. goodness. He's holding back... I know he is, must be part of that Witness Protection Program thinger that he's in ;)

Anyway, the real reason for this post is that the E-mail button way at the bottom is now fixed so you'll mail both of us swanky guys instead of just little 'ole me. Btw, don't be afraid to mail us either, that story about me hunting down and repeatedly beating the last guy that e-mailed me with my clipboard is only partially true ;) -Rehlman

26th @7:03 P.M. CST:

Graveyard: Well, we're cruising right along, today we got 2 more entries into the graveyard. Lady Petra and Raven Lightlean have been added. Be sure to check them out! -Rehlman

Old Kingdom's Cover: On the back of the Rifter there is a book cover picture next to the 2 titles, Old Kingdom Mts. and Old Kingdom Lowlands. So, I'm guessing the picture will be the cover for one of the two. I'll have to have Wallace scan it for you to see, but basically picture's of an elf standing standing at the peak of a cliff, shooting a longbow into the sky. It's a pretty swank drawing if you ask me. -Rehlman

Palladium Updates: As promised yesturday, I pulled all of the latest information off of Palladium's website, however their wasn't much about the books or even specific dates... the next sentence basically says what this press release was about..

The Official Word from Palladium: "Please don't hate us because we're late on releases"

According to Palladium, Old Kingdom Mts. and Old Kingdom Lowlands should see a June and July release. Now Palladium, please don't hate me, but I think that sucks (Call me ungrateful ;). I know they've had a few problems here and there and I'm a pretty understanding guy, but c'mon now, they were supposed to have these books out over half a year ago. How long could it take to edit a manuscript for changes? I also think it's also unfair to Randi Cartier who worked damn hard to write the books. Palladium, however, does site reasons for their delays and says this about it, "Once we get past our current logjam, new product should come out fairly rapidly and hopefully on time. Additionally, we're already working on our 1999 production and release schedule, and hiring additional people to finally eliminate late releases once and for all!" Let's hope the Rifter (which has been getting out on time) is a sign of what's to come...

Oh, and Palladium, I don't hate you, although the I.S.C. lawyer's might have something else to say. Hehe ;)

Some Palladium Points of interest:

• Wayne Smith, Editor and organizer of The Rifter™ , joins the Palladium staff, full time, as of April 20th.

• Increased Advertising. Palladium is placing more advertisements in more publications, as well as sending out direct mailings to over 15,000 gamers and stores, producing new PR posters, supporting conventions, getting The Rifter™ out on time, and maintaining our popular Web site.

• New promo-posters for stores. Two new point of purchase posters are in the works and should be available to distributors and stores in May. -Rehlman

Xiticix Under Attack!: What!, Rifts stuff! What's this guy think he's doing... Well, hold on one sec., I'm going to cross the sacred border for those of you who like swank pictures and may *gulp* even like Rifts ;) The image wasn't orginally made for Rifts or even an RPG, the Xiticix just happen to be exactly like the "Zerg" in Starcraft, which was made by Blizzard Entertainment. It never even crossed my mind until a few days ago, when I saw this picture up at Area-S (Real Time Strategy Gaming Site) Anyway, just click on the picture, and it will bring it up full screen. It also makes kick-ass wallpaper for Windows95, not sure what you have to do for other operating systems so don't ask ;) Enjoy!!! -Rehlman

Archives: We've started archiving all of our older news to the request of a few people. So, now if you get REAL bored someday, you can go read 'em all. -Rehlman

Axis & Allies: As you all know, or at least know now, I'm an Axis & Allies junkie. We just played another game and the Axis were victorious once again. Axis & Allies is one of the only real board games out there for us older, more difficult to entertain, type of people. I mean, let's face it, "Candy Land" and "Chutes and Ladders" just doesn't cut it anymore ;) -Rehlman

25th @5:30 P.M. CST:

Palladium Updates: The official Palladium Books website was actually updated! Maryann S. (the spiffed webmaster over at Palladium Books) redesigned the bad boy, and it looks like she's going to try and update the site a little more often now.

The down side of everything is across the top, in big bold letters, of April's Press release it says this:

Please don't hate us because we're late on releases -Rehlman

No, I'm actually not making that up ;) I'll make sure all the new information off of the press release gets posted here soon, but for now I have to go. One last thing though, Maryann is aware that some of the links on the page are messed up, and I'm assuming she have everything fixed soon. -Rehlman

Graveyard: Hey hey, we got our 1st character for the graveyard since it's big move. Thanks goes out to the player of Xacatis. -Rehlman

Southwind Keep: Members of our RPG group spent the better part of the afternoon working on drawing up Southwind Keep, the castle on the Isle of the Southern Cross. Neptune, who plays Shroud and K'traal, is also a big fan of Quake 2 and Q2 Level Editor extrodinare. He's promised that once the castle's all draw up, he'll make it into a Quake 2 board. Now is that swank or what? -Rehlman

24th @11:50 P.M. CST:

Stuff: Multiple updates in one day! My god...is there really that much that can be said about the Palladium RPG's? Well, it's happened and will again because we've been busy. Also, either that graveyard isn't working right or you aren't sending us your dead P.C.'s because we haven't gotten any submissions yet. I believe it to be the later of the two, so get out that favorite P.C. of yours that's dead and send 'em in! You know the P.C. I'm talking about, the one that has just been sitting in the back of your folder (probably in multiple copies) because you have to bring him / her to every meeting "Just in case" ;) -Rehlman

Lawsuits: Ah yeah, I've been busy bringing you all the I.S.C. goodness! You may recall awhile ago we had our 2nd lawsuit against Palladium. I decided that before it was erased by some moron (me) like the 1st lawsuit was (that's ok though, the 1st lawsuit sucked anyway), I would get up a swank Lawsuit Archives page. Check it out! (Btw, it helps if you're in a good mood when you go there ;) -Rehlman

Priest Spells: Kevin (I wanna be David Letterman) Thorn has a great clarification about Preist Spells up on his webpage that he worked out with Brin. -Rehlman

23rd @10:30 P.M. CST:

Graveyard: Ho hum... nothing big going on around *whistles*.... O.k. fine. We got the Graveyard up!!! And it actually works! (we think). Anyways, if you see any problems with it, let us know please ;)

22nd @9:58 P.M. CST:

Rifter #2: The 2nd Rifter is reviewed and in the Palladium Books Rating. Overall, I gave it a C-, find out why in the review. -Rehlman

Rifter #3: There was mention of what the 3rd Rifter will contain in the current Rifter, all of that information is integrated into the Upcoming Books Section. -Rehlman

BTS: I've never followed BTS that closely, but for those of you who do, you'll be happy to hear Palladium's coming out with BTS 2nd Ed. in '99. -Rehlman

5,000: Well, the old counter just rolled over 5,000 hits. You know what that means right? Yep, absolutely nothing ;) Well...It may mean nothing to you, but I appreciate your support. Thanks! -Rehlman

Necrolyte: After a few threats on my life by Wallace, I gave credit to the correct name for the Warcraft quote: "Doro Nestra Gaga Torum" It's not the Necromancer that said that, but the Necrolyte....sheesh! ;) -Rehlman

21st @11:58 P.M. CST:

Wow: Go away for a mere day and look what happens! Wallace and I are still futzing with things here and there to get this co-host thing working better. Once we get things move'n, we have some really swank stuff lined up for the site! But for now, on with the news.... -Rehlman

Rifter #2: Got the 2nd Rifter yesturday. Some spiffed looking things at first glance are Erick Wujcik's article (or course). The Knight's of the Dinner Table comic strip and the PF Pirates section. I'll review the 2nd Rifter more indepth tomorrow. -Rehlman

Royal Assassins: The Royal Assassins position for the I.S.C. High Counsel has been writen up by none other then Ash. Big thanks goes out to him! -Rehlman

Top Ten List: Kevin (Forum King) Thorn has another awesome Top Ten List up over at his Palladium Website. Word has it that the list came straight from his "1001 Wizardry Spell Applications" handbook ;) Anyway, check it out! -Rehlman

E-mail: Finally cleared out all my e-mail and wrote everyone back who send me stuff. So if I missed you, please send it again. -Rehlman

It's nice to see the webpage is still here after my editing last night =). So I decided to do a little more, Tristan from our high counsel has his history written up, it isn't much, but it's better than what was there =) -Wallace

20th @10:20 P.M. CST:

Hi to all! This is my (Wallace) first update and I just spent the last 41/2 hours updating and spiffing up my graveyard to move over here, and with any luck maybe even by tomorrow it will be up for public display. Just for future reference if you need to contact me click here.

I'm still waiting for my couple hundred dollars of bribe money from Rehlman, and to set the record straight (or not) I disavow any knowledge of teaching Rehlman how to make webpages =).

On a more serious note, I'm really glad to be a part of this website and will do my best to keep it thriving and a great place to visit.

And yes I'll kick Rehlman in the butt to get him to type up the Palladium Exploits =).

19th @11:34 P.M. CST:

Merger: I.S.C. has managed to swallow up the Palladium section at Sir Edrick and Wallace's Domain in a brave attempt at taking another step in our ever-going conquest for World Domination! I've captured webmaster Wallace and chained him to a chair to become my thoughtless updating monkey boy! Muahahaha ;)

Or maybe what really happened is I begged and pleaded with my long time friend and fellow roleplayer Wallace to become co-webmaster of I.S.C. and after a few hundred dollars of bribery money he said he would.

Ok, what really happened is boring and those just sounded a whole let better then the truth. Basically, I asked him if he wanted to help me out and he said he would ;)

Who is Wallace? I'll let him tell you about himself but I have to mention that he's one of the people who originally showed me how to make a webpage... I swear I'll get him back for that one of these days ;)

What our little merger means is that we'll be getting more updates, more sections up, and more of everything including his revamped PC graveyard! However, this also means we might have a few problems here and there until we get this co-hosting thing down. Welcome Aboard Wallace!

Meeting: We had a short Palladium Fantasy meeting the other night, I'll get it typed up soon!

18th @9:34 P.M. CST:

Heroes 2nd Ed.: Ah yeah, I just got my hands on Heroes 2nd Ed. I've only had a chance to glance through 352 page monster, but it's looking pretty swank. It kept the alive the spirit of Heroes 1st Ed. with only updating prices, text, and whatnot in most areas. However Magic and Psionics went Megaverse on us as was expected. Kevin Siembieda combined a few things from older books, for instance ALL the super powers are listed in this book, not like the few here, a few there from the 1st Ed. set and he also threw in a few "Tips on Roleplaying" type of things in there too (looks like it will be great reading!). A few new O.C.C.'s were added and we now have actual martial arts kicks and moves instead of the cheesy all-encompasing "kick" from 1st Ed. ;) It's basically everything I expected, and now I want to tell you it's the greatest book ever, but I can't honestly do that until I've explored it fully in campaign and by just reading it.

Btw, if you think you'll miss all the typing errors from 1st Ed. Don't worry! There's plenty to be found. Hehe ;)

Meeting: I have a meeting tonight, and it looks like I'm getting behind on the exploits. Doah! Life's been a bitch lately so have patience please...

16th @9:34 P.M. CST:

Adventuring: Oh my god, I updated the Heroes Adventures ;) Check 'em out!

Rifter #2: Heard Palladium Fantasy got the shaft in the Rifter again, I guess I'll find out as soon as I get my copy. At least there'll be something be Erick Wujcik in there.

Sexual Assualt Week?: This week is National Sexual Assualt Week, so go out and se... hmm, maybe not ;)

15th @5:31 P.M. CST:

Rifter #2: The 2nd Rifter should be shipping as of tomorrow. With the guys on the listserver submitting stuff like crazy we should be getting some PFRPG stuff this time and also with the next 3rd Rifter.

Taxes: Well, I got the shaft this year. For those of you lost in our fantasy land you better drag your butt out and get those taxes in reaaaal quick ;)

Enya: I'm going to go out on a limb here and tell ya that I think Enya would make the most kick ass PFRPG meeting music backround. Enya's more of your soft music type of stuff with out any real words in it. I guess it's kind of in the same class as Yoni. I know what your thinking, but at least give it a shot and don't reject the music until you've really listened to it. At least if you used the music you would no longer have to worry about your players breaking out of character to sing along with a song...oh wait, I'm the only one that does that ;)

Heroes Unlimited music on the other hand has to be more of the popular upbeat music (I refuse to listen to rap and Heavy Metal) There's nothing like a little wheezer or the soundtrack from Boogie Nights ;)

14th @11:56 P.M. CST:

Adventures: The PF adventures are all caught up now. Next up is Heroes.

Adventures: The Palladium Fantasy adventures have been mostly written up. Check 'em out!

Rashidi: Rashidi has been updated. Big thanks goes out to Wallace for the update.

Holidays: Yesturday in Thailand it was Songkran Day, a day that honors Monks. Cool eh?

12th @9:50 P.M. CST: -Happy Easter-

Stuff: I worked on my damnable English paper all night, but it's finally finished! This hopefully means I'll have some spare time so I can get to some serious html editing ;)

Meeting: We had a kick arss Heroes meeting last night. We met an old friend ;) I'll try and write both that adventuring up and the Palladium adventure up on Tuesday night. I'm gone all day tomorrow.

Forum Watch: I'll do this from time to time now on some of the better subjects in the PF Townhall Forum..

Novice to PFRPG - What's it like? - Some good Replies on why people think it's better than D&D etc. (I agree)

Wizardry 101 - Tips on playing the "classic" wizard.

Improving Men at Arms - Revisited again. He has a good idea though.

10th @11:58 P.M. CST:

Meeting: The drought hath been broken. We got in a PFRPG meeting this afternoon! I'll get it typed up tomorrow hopefully. Tommorow night we'll get to dive into the world of Heroes once again. I can't wait to see what Ash is going to come up with! Btw, I'm going to be logging the Heroes adventures again, so stay tuned!

Note: The quote from Maryann about the Character Generator below is true and she actually did write it. The rest of it, well.....maybe I got a little out of hand ;)

Lawsuit Continued (See Part 1 here): The I.S.C. team of lawyers were preparing day and night, seeing the fear in Palladium's eye for they relized their blatant disregard for PARLPA. About noon yesturday, we recieved a call from an anonamous source (ok, it was Maryann) telling us to meet her at the local pool hall. After she kicked our butts in a few games of pool (who would have known) we went went down to the bar to talk. The I.S.C. staff was represented by 5 of our finest lawyers and me of course. Maryann had her accountant / book writer / lawyer with her as well. We all sat down and got a drink and Maryann began to grovel (yes, grovel!) with us to settle out of court. I couldn't resist her pleading eyes and life-time subscribtion to the Rifter. We accepted. The deal was that Palladium would leave their statement in large print for as long as they wished, but they'd open up to accepting computer Character Generators that would then be dispersed by Palladium.

Palladium wasted no time in pleasing I.S.C. and got the general statement out to the public as early as yesturday evening as it was first discovered and reported by Midnght. Here's the full statement:

"Okay, I know I'll regret this at some point, but here goes. For all of you programmers out there. We (Kevin and I) are opening up submissions for computer character generators for Rifts, Palladium FRPG, Nightbane and Heroes 2nd edition. The people working on computer stuff aren't really that interested in doing programs for the games and interest for such a program has once again reared its ugly head. The program would have to be for WIN95/98 and must be easy to use and expandable. The Unsolicited Manuscript Form MUST accompany any submission that is sent in. I don't know how this program would be marketed, but I have a bunch of ideas. PLEASE don't use our old RGMC (Rifts Game Master Companion) as a guideline (if any of you have it) we don't want to do that again. Good luck and if you have any questions let me know."

Maryann

Palladium

Palladium has been foiled this time at their evil attempts to turn our PFRPG into Rifts, but those crafty people over at Palladiukm are already cooking up another nasty scheme, I can just feel it. No matter, wherever justice needs to be served, wherever people are flocking to Rifts because it's got neato guns, and wherever the word Rifts makes it on the cover a good book (a.k.a. Not a Rifts book ;), I.S.C. will be there!

8th @11:43 P.M. CST:

Lawsuit: The crack team (or is that on crack) of lawyers over at I.S.C. have just filed suit with Palladium Books over a direct violation of Section 132b, of the Protection Against Rifts in Large Print Act passed down by Congress in 1995. The bill was better known as PARLPA and was supported largely by the right wing conservatives. The suit refers to the lettering size of the following statement on this page on the Palladium Books site right under the Palladium Fantasy 2nd Ed. main book. (Lettering size has been decreased dramatically for legal purposes)

[The Palladium Fantasy RPG] 2nd Edition: The “Rifts®” of fantasy gaming

The suit was only filed after much debate over at the I.S.C. main headquarters. But as chairman Al Shaft said,

"We've got to protect the rights of the Palladium Fantasy 2nd Edition, because one never knows how far this could go. Soon the Palladium Fantasy Books may just be called Rifts World books in Another Dimension!"

The tiny room on 37th floor on South Bank St. was in uproar for the next hour or two discussing strategy and eating free pizza. We will not be insulted! How dare they compare this to Rifts even if there were good intentions. What's worse is that it's right under the main book title! We've got to fight it folks, not just for us, but for all the future Palladium Fantasy roleplayers.

I'll keep you updated as to how the lawsuit pans out!

(I hope that you realize that the preceeding lawsuit is fictional)

Heroes Reactions?: I've haven't gotten my hands on Heroes 2nd Ed. yet. Anybody else have it, reactions???

Meeting: Ah yes, the Easter holidays are coming up. A time to rejoice in the glory of God, and in being able to Roleplay! We're finally going to get in some decent roleplaying time for the first time in a while. Can't wait to do some old fashioned P.C. kil... umm, guiding ;)

Art: Ron Nutter just got up a revised picture of his original Minotaur at his Art Gallary. It's looking really sweet.

7th @6:30 P.M. CST:

I'm Back: Hello everyone, I'm at the right place I think.. ;), anyway, I'm getting back into the webpage updating groove! I'm sure other webmasters can relate, every once in a while you just need a nice short break. It's not like it's that strenuous or anything, it's just that I use at least an hour a day putzing around with stuff, and maybe you'll see half of what I do. Anyway, if you have any comments about Palladium or anything ya want to say, write me and I'll throw it up on the site, I need you guys to pitch in to make this one rock'n place ;) Other then that, on with the news!

Baalgor Wastelands: Freelance writer Bill Coffin just got the go ahead from Palladium to write a sourcebook on the Baalgor Wastelands. He's also the author of the "Western Empire" which we should see sometime this fall. Go Bill! (News from the Palladium Listserver)

I believe somebody else is working on a book for the Eastern Empire right now.

Starr's Palladium Page: Sites just keep on popping out of the woodwork. Kevin pointed out another gem in the sea called Starr's Palladium Page, the place looks pretty complete so I'm guessing it's been out on web for awhile. Well, head on over and give it a look ;)

4th @4:42 P.M. CST:

Been busy: Sorry folks, I've been real busy lately with my English report (ugh!) and there really isn't all that much to say right now because players from our group have been gone for the last 2 weeks so we've done no roleplay'n.

Ash: Here's wishing Ash a happy (day late) Birthday! Ash plays the justice fighter Sir Garland! I'm sure Ash is having a good time in N.Y. city :)

TownHall Forum: The Townhall forum's been rolling again lately with some pretty cool stuff, check it out!

Ward's: Kevin Thorn of Thorn's Palladium Page updated his site with a little clarification about Ward's on weapons.

Get'n Burned by the Ash: I've gone throughout the website and found all the articles and stories written by that kickass writer you know as Ash. In some of the stories Ihsan also helped out. I've made the list go somewhat in the order they were written. Enjoy!!!

-Fall of King Jeremy

-History of Sir Garland

-Story of Drog "The Destroyer" written in the book "Tales of the Border".

-History of Edgar, the future Royal Magistrate.

-History of Dark Rider (Heroes)

-Vehicle stories (Heroes) for Dark Rider's Super Go-Cart and his Super Van

-When Titans Clash: The Dark Rider vs. Lukewarm (Heroes)

-An Enemy Among Friends, a small conversation between Sir Garland and Drog.

-And finally, Ash's greatest work yet, Sir Garland's Repent.

Ash has not only done all of those above stores but has also helped write up the Current Exploits quite a few times (you can read through all our written up advetures here) and he maintains the Heroes Contacts List with all the latest allies and enemies.

2nd @1:34 A.M. CST:

Uh...Yeah: April Fool's, no update yesturday! Hahaha... Ok, sorry, that was really lame :)

Starcraft: I got the game yesturday, and here I sit in the wee hours of the morning after 7 straight hours of playing. Yes, you could fry an egg on my monitor and my eyes hurt like hell, but every second of it was worth it :) The game rocks of course, and umm... I'll see ya all around!

March of 1998

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