ISC's Interview with Maryann

An Interview with Maryann Siembieda of Palladium Books - 5/23/98

Awe Yeah folks, more of the best from your very own Rehlman of I.S.C.!! Maryann Siembieda of Palladium Books recently took the time out of her busy day to chat us and answer a few of those questions that all us diehard fans just had to know. Many thanks goes out to Maryann for her time, now enough talk, let's get down to what you came here for......

General Questions:

Rehlman : Just how much better does the famous Rifts genre sell better then your other RPG's?

Maryann Siembieda : Rifts is just another extension of the Megaverse. More of our market are college age males who happen to be into the science fiction genre.

R : Why do you think it sells so much better?

MS : We try to give the consumer what they want at a fair price.

R : What are your future plans for the Palladium Website?

MS : God only knows, we'll just fly by out pants on this one and develope it as we go.

R : Do you think you’ll ever run out of ideas for your current Rifts projects or any of your other projects? Are there plans for an entire new genre of books?

MS : Never, as long as Kevin can keep his thoughts straight.

R : Are their plans to expand Palladium Books in the hiring of more writers, artists, etc.. or keep the company at the relatively same size?

MS : We just recently hired Wayne Smith as a full time editor and computer guru. We're always looking for talent, but we much prefer to work with freelancers.

R : How much re-writing does Kevin actually do once he gets freelance manuscripts in? Do the manuscripts often require mass amounts of work from receiving them to going to print?

MS : Theres usually a pretty good amount of rewriting done on each book. This is mainly to keep the continuity of the game.

R : About what percentage of Freelance material do you accept (vs. rejected) for books, and the Rifter?

MS : We only accept about 5% of all the material which is submitted.

R : Are the work days at Palladium a strict 8 hours, or do you often find yourself staying long into the night?

MS : I usually work 6 to 7 days a week, anywhere from 8 to 12 hours a day. On the weekends though I usually only come in for a few hours.

R : Do you still Role-play much any more?

MS : Not really, we used to run a game every Saturday night. Kev says when he starts working on the Wolfen Wars we'll play that as he develops it.

R : Do you, Kevin, or any of the other people on the staff ever visit some of the fan-based websites on the Internet?

MS : Wayne keeps pretty good tabs on the sites that go up. He often looks around to see if there's anything that might be used in The Rifter.

R : In all honesty, what is your favorite Palladium role-playing game?

MS : The Palladium Fantasy Game has always been Kevin's and my first love.

Rifter:

R : Does Kevin S. and the rest of the Palladium Staff agree with all the material that’s put into the Rifter? Basically, would he allow it to be used in his campaign?

MS : Most of it is unofficial and Kev probably wouldn't use most of it.

R : Along with the stories in the Rifter, are their plans in the future to support freelance fiction for all of your games?

MS : Hopefully, we're still working on getting an outside publisher for novels.

Palladium Fantasy Questions:

R : When Kevin created the Palladium Fantasy map, the map specifically said "The Map of the <Known> World". Has he ever considered expanding the map to possibly other parts of the Palladium World, through an adventure book or source book?

MS : There may be more, who knows:)

R : Is the Palladium Fantasy World Round or Flat?

MS : Again, who knows:)

R : Why is there a large effort to standardize Palladium Fantasy, along with Heroes and Beyond the Supernatural with Rifts? How often do you find your own group going from one genre to the next through dimensional rifts?

MS : Because our system is one system that can be used with any of the genres'. Kevin and the guys often cross the systems when they get a chance to play. From what I can tell most players like to cross Robotech and Rifts or bring in Heroes characters to Rifts.

R : Why are Magic Spells in levels of progression and categorized (general, necromancer, elemental, wards, circles, etc), but psionics are only separated into categories?

MS : Cause thats the way they were originally done. It would be kinda difficult to divide the psionics by catagories like the spells.

Palladium Fantasy Books

R : With the large number of people still playing the 1st Ed. because of it’s non-standardized rules have you considered reprinting the 1st Ed. Books?

MS : Nope

R : Do you have any plans on creating a book about the customs and holidays that people do and practice in each area of the world for the PFRPG?

MS : Not really, the freelancers that are working on various areas of the world may include some of this stuff in their projects.

R : Do you plan to transfer Yin-Sloth Jungles into a 2nd Edition Book?

MS : Yes

R : Currently I understand that Western Empires, Old Kingdom Mountains, Old Kingdom Lowlands, Wolfen Wars, Eastern Empire and Baalgor Wastelands are being worked on. Are their plans in the future to expand to more source books like the Land of the Damned?

MS : Yes

Possibilities:

R : We all know that Kevin was revolutionary in releasing books in soft cover. Has Palladium ever entertained the thought of releasing books in hard cover possibly as a collector’s item?

MS : We've done that. The Rifts silver and gold collectors editions have been available for a while.

R : Has Palladium considered going to any other conventions since it won't be going to Gen Con? Or even having a RPG convention of your own in Michigan?

MS : We aren't in the convention business and its a nightmare to start one. We will be going to a convention in Spokane Washington in October and well as popping into a few regional shows this fall.

R : With Palladium opening the gates for a Random Character Generator for the computer, have you considered also opening up the fields for PF Map Generators or PF Graphics Generators?

MS : We opened submissions for a character generator about two months ago. I'm not real optimistic about this project, but we'll see what comes of it.

R : Along the line of computers, is there plans in the future to contract a company to create a Palladium RPG for the computer or an entertainment system?

MS : We'll see what happens with the Rifts game first.

R : Also, have you considered making an Anime or Movie based on any of your genre's?

MS : We haven't been approached about a movie at this time.

R : Has the idea of creating figurines (made of pewter or otherwise) to be used to visualize battles come up?

MS : Agents of Gaming are doing a mini game based on Rifts. It should be out around Gen Con time.

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