Anybody

[Jaymz]

Problem is he is the one who has fucked it up not his people. He is the one making the claims based on his own total disconnect from reality and the actuality of this project.

[MacrossMike]

May 10, 2014 1:08:02 GMT Jaymz said:

Problem is he is the one who has fucked it up not his people. He is the one making the claims based on his own total disconnect from reality and the actuality of this project.

Eh... I wouldn't say Kevin's the one who fucked it up.

Or, at least, he didn't do it alone.  Most of what he's done has exacerbated existing fuck-ups to an almost comical extent with well-meaning idiocy, bewildering ignorance, and an overabundance of misplaced enthusiasm.  In a lot of ways, he's like a used car salesman who's not any good at his job.

[ninjabunny]

HA!

[Jaymz]

Thing is mike nothing happens and I mean nothing happens without Kevin's stamp on it regardless if what may be said. That leaves the blame squarely on his shoulders as HE is the one approving the sculpts and designs prior to HG. It is HE the has say on how the damn things are cut to ribbons for the source layout and it us HE who threw Nd under the bus for of all things not knowing about a fairly significant game con. That's like blaming Wayne for not telling him about gencon. It all smells and as far as I'm concerned based on what I have seem of Nd's work on things non RRT and pb's standard operating procedure that the smell emanates ftom Kevin's office.

[MacrossMike]

May 11, 2014 0:27:37 GMT Jaymz said:

Thing is mike nothing happens and I mean nothing happens without Kevin's stamp on it regardless if what may be said. That leaves the blame squarely on his shoulders as HE is the one approving the sculpts and designs prior to HG.

Jaymz old buddy, old pal o' mine... if you want to look at it from that perspective, then the blame still resides with Ninja Division.

Simply put, the headwiz at Ninja Division whose name I cannot be bothered to look up would have had to approve all of the stuff that the backers are upset about before anyone ever let Kevin see it.  Kevin can at least hide behind the excuse that he has zero experience with tabletop war game miniatures.  Ninja Division has no excuse for letting that shit out the door, because that field is their bread and butter, while the idiots at Palladium Books and Harmony Gold arguably don't know any better because fun and competence are alien concepts for their employees.

It's a cock-up conga line, and Ninja Division is leading it.

[Jaymz]

It wasn't ninja Division that changed the model sculpts that they had done over a year ago Mike. That leads us back to Kevin and/or HG and NOT ND. Jesus Christ we haven't even seen the final "sculpts" for the VF-1 yet even though they also had THOSE done well enough to be used for demo games a year ago....so again it isn't ND that is fucking around here but whoever is making them change whatever needs changing.

Also just to point out, ND at this point is not actually making the game. Last I had seen or heard Palladium ended up doing the rules by and large themselves and again they are the ones making the approvals for the sculpts aside from HG. If ND sends them what they ask for and Kevin says nuhuh change it (and we KNOW he is known to do just that in other areas) for what ever reason that STILL Lies with Kevin more than it does with ND. As of this moment ND is nothing but a subcontractor that is sculpting the minis that is it.

Add to that the fact ND has essentially distanced itself to the point they point all comments and questions to Palladium and field nothing as well as the fact they have NOTHING on their official website about RRT at all and I smell something and it STILL emanates from Kevin's office.

Now I do NOT subscribe to the notion that Kevin is trying to make off with the money in any way but from where I sit here, via Facebook, the PB forums and KS comment section for RRT everything points to Kevin/PB (and to a lesser extent HG) being the problem in all this and not ND.

[writersblock]

Since there it still some question as to what happened, and why, I will give a few more details by way of explanation.

All I know is this: as I was writing it freelance, I had to come up with the concept, pitch it, get that pitch ok'd, then write up a prospective 30 some odd pages and send them in. That was then ok'd, and I was put under contract for the book. Those pages included the introduction, which explained for the reader the intent and purpose of the book and what would be found in it. As well, I am pretty sure it included a preliminary table of contents, but I could be wrong there (it has been a while). Kevin had three chances to say "No" to what I wanted to write, and said "Yes" at each one.

I pitched it as an end all, be all, one stop shopping source book for all the rules, tech and the like for all the high tech character classes of Heroes Unlimited; Hardware, Robotics, Bionics/Cyborgs, and even N&S Super classes like Gizmoteer. I pitched it as a compilation and update with new rules, tech and the like. I even came up with the name "Hardware Unlimited" as a tentative title and I still have the letter where he told me that was a great title and stick with that since he was going to secure/trademark it.

I did not then somehow change what I was writing to be something else, and he got exactly what I pitched to him.

I talked to Kevin several times a year, over phone/email/letters, for the next two years (contact with him tapered off after that to once every 6 months or so, then less, until it stopped all together), not including contact with editors and others who contacted me with questions and such. NO ONE suggested any changes or content. Kevin asked some questions (Why alter this, why include that)but they were more in the vein of the gaming aspects of the classes than anything relate to the book or its content.

There were some content discussions, but none were about inclusions or exclusions at the time.

For example, one of the elements of the book was a revised and updated skills section; a compiled skills list from across the entire line and modified education system, new charts, rules on rushing, new skill acquisition rules, etc. The whole education system was revamped. I pitched and began this book before HU2 came out, and they did not tell me HU2 was being done, did not tell me NOT to worry about an education system, etc.

One of the phone conversations with Kevin was "Why would a superhero need Carpentry? Or Law? Or Business?" I answered with "To build secret bases and compartments to hide their costume. To be a cop or lawyer (Daredevil?). To own a business (Tony Stark? Bruce Wayne?). At NO time did he say "Don't include this section because we are redoing HU and you won't need this. I also had to point out to him the Carpentry skill was one that already existed in Rifts and I was just adding it to the list compilation of skills.

HU2 came out while I was finishing another draft of Hardware. I found this out when Kev sent me an advance copy. Would have been nice to know the changes they were making to the high tech classes, don't you think? The inclusion of a brand new class for example? Anyway, Some of what I did for it appeared in the HU2 education system, uncredited, and some of it word for word what I wrote, but that is another issue. There was tons of stuff in HU2 that was word for word what I put into Hardware. There are many other places stuff from Hardware has popped up in Pally products since then.

So, while what I am saying is only my side, I can say this:

Having had bad problems with publishers in the past (I had done other freelance writing, but not RPG type) I kept (and still have) every piece of correspondence I ever sent Pally or received from them. Several of those are letters from Kev (heck, I have a handwritten letter from him, from 1986, when I asked him a bunch of technical questions about Robotech). I even put emails to disk and kept them. The only thing I don't have is recordings of phone conversations, but several of those were witnessed by room mates because at the time the house phones were in public spaces.

I also have a copy of the original draft of Hardware Unlimited which I mailed via registered mail to myself the same day I sent the copy to Pally. It is exactly the same, in a still double sealed, envelope within an envelope envelope, as what they got and is dated etc. I did this for legal reasons in case there was ever a problem related to who wrote what.

Years after it got canned, I was contacted by the person (I will not name names) who had been assigned, cold, to go over Hardware. They were given it cold, with no introduction to the product, no history, nothing. They had no idea Pally had been sitting on it for 5 years and no idea it was intended to be a compilation, or that it was done BEFORE HU2. They were told to look it over and say yes or no to running it.

The had no familiarity with the project, and little familiarity with the OCCs and rules covered in it. They flipped through, thought it looked like a lot of reprint, and said no to putting it out.

Now here is the thing: there WAS reprint. I used all the existing chart formats and listings, I had just updated them, added new ones, altered prices/numbers/capacities...etc.

Some examples: in the Hardware section, there is the chart showing Basic price, SDC, Load, Seats....I added to that chart, altered prices to put them more in line with today, expanded it, etc. In all the Hardware classes there are the gimmicks/modifications/equipment sections listing the custom items they have to work with and add to their creations. Well, again, existing ones were added to/altered/expanded on, and new ones added. For example, in the Hardware Weapons section I more than doubled their list with brand new items, let alone the addition of stuff from N&S and the like.

Thing is, to this editor, they were entirely unfamiliar with the class. On cursory glance, it appeared to be the same list. They did not go through it item by item, and had no idea the book was intended to be a one stop resource. They looked at the totally new and improved list and THOUGHT it was complete reprint.

Now here's the thing: I have a letter from Kev from about a year after I sent it in, saying it was already being looked at (I don't recall off hand if he said he was the one looking at it) and it looked great. Yet he told this editor no one had looked at it yet.

Weird, no?

Oh, and the editor told me that, had he known what the intent was and such, he would have approached it totally different. Done something like had the Hardware section open beside him for comparison or something....

[writersblock]

Oh, and Sci Fi, if you look in books around the time of 2000 or so, it is all over the coming soons. You can see it, with my name, in several early Rifters as well as others.

[writersblock]

Oh, and I posted those before discovering this entire thread had become a bitch session about who is responsible for the RTT fiasco.

All I can say about it is this:

Pally launched to project and selected the partners/contributors.

Pally would have to ok the designs and all other elements at every stage.

Pally is the one putting their name on the final product, and selling it under their flag.

Even if a partner screws things up, as it is Pally's product it is Pally's responsibility to make sure a quality product goes out with their name on it, as it is their responsibility to protect their brand and their flag.

If ND dropped the ball in any way, it is Pally's responsibility (as the product initiator/ advertiser/end unit seller) to pick the ball up and fix the issue. Pally is the service provider that involved ND in the process of providing the service. They chose to work with ND. If in any way ND is not up to it, then Pally has to step up and find a way to meet their obligations as provider.

Pally set the expectation and introduced the product. How and through who they supply the product is not the problem of the consumer.

Plain and simple:

Whether or not the issue is because of something they themselves did or did not do ultimately, as the end unit provider, Pally is responsible to its consumers.

[kryptt]

Amen!

[juce734]

I just wish they would focus on putting out gaming books for the lines they already have. The game lines that would get me most excited are Heroes Unlimited and Palladium Fantasy. Oh how excited I would be if I just got 1 book for each per year. Then if they could do a book or two for Rifts each year too that would be awesome. If I knew I could rely on them I would probably get more invested in Rifts for example.

[joshuagoliath]

Best business practice at their 4 books per year average would be 2 releases for Rifts each year, with two books for OTHER game lines.

Quarter 1- RIFTs
Quarter 2- Mish-mash
Quarter 3- RIFTs
Quarter 4- mish-mash

With the mish-mash rotating through the other options... PF, NB, CE, HU, etc....

This way, they don't get "over worked" trying to get out more than their 4 books. They still manage to support their other lines, with a book every 3 years or so(instead of every decade or longer), they still primarily put out Rifts books (which you know, "pays the bills")....