Post by Jaymz on Apr 7, 2014 13:41:33 GMT
Yes I know full well this is highly unlikely nay damn near impossible to occur BUT
IF I were to become a partner in Palladium Books (it would have to be a 50/50 position as anything else gets nothing accomplished) this is what i would do almost immediately (assuming all funding is there etc)
One - Kevin is no longer actually running the business. He is to write and come up with ideas. That's it.
Two - Hire a proper editor. This person will also be in charge of continuity.
Three - Business manager, with proper credentials (as in not my buddy or Kevin's buddy etc)
Four - Wayne is in charge of the Rifter and assisting in the day to day operation.
Five - Fire the IP lawyer/agent and hire someone competent. This person is to be well schooled in what the properties are as to have the ability to get all preliminary and secondary negotiations done prior to approaching the company about it. Also this would be in an effort to get non RPG product out there.
Six - Freelancers will be assigned work (as opposed to just writing whatever they feel like) and be held to a deadline. If they are coming to the company with a pitch that is good they will still be held to a deadline. I understand they are not doing this for a living but if you are going to commit, then commit. Having a deadline of "whenever" does not work and is partly the cause of books being months to years late in addition to Kevin's own inability to gauge timelines.
Seven - put together a plan as to exactly what books should get put out. As in do not let what the freelancers want to do determine what get's done when. There are books that should have been done years ago but just never did for whatever reason there was.
Eight - Actually run it like a business....not the garage hobby it seems to be treated as.
Other things: (which, in my opinion, would be doable if the above eight things were to happen)
Get Beyond Arcanum and Tome Grotesque done. Once those were out the door, BtS becomes the purview of The Rifter.
Start releasing present material that is less more than 12 months old on PDF.
Set up for Print on Demand.
Start having more online content available. Errata. Changes between printings. So on and so forth.
Hire someone to get Facebook and smartphone apps, and online games done. Also comics and maybe look into relaunching a CCG.
Streamline the product line. Rifts, Fantasy, HU and Robotech. Everything else get relegated to the Rifter. Maybe do a special edition Rifter once a year with only one line's material in it. Also while Kevin would effectively be the head of creative, I would look to put someone in charge of each setting.
Make a new CORE Megaversal Rulebook. Take every single rule we have. Compile them. Clean them up with a bit of a rewrite in order to better explain them. Remove the bloat. Vet them so they work more synergistically. Add anything that seems to be missing. Lay it out more intuitively. BAM 3-400 page rule tome that is all anyone needs to run a game (normal rules, super powers, psionics, magic, technology, basic classes) and allows for just running a generic game without influence of the other settings. This can be done without effectively making all that came before it useless.
A setting bible for each game line that freelancers would be given (for the four primary lines) in order to keep things consistent.
Well.............one can dream anyway.....
IF I were to become a partner in Palladium Books (it would have to be a 50/50 position as anything else gets nothing accomplished) this is what i would do almost immediately (assuming all funding is there etc)
One - Kevin is no longer actually running the business. He is to write and come up with ideas. That's it.
Two - Hire a proper editor. This person will also be in charge of continuity.
Three - Business manager, with proper credentials (as in not my buddy or Kevin's buddy etc)
Four - Wayne is in charge of the Rifter and assisting in the day to day operation.
Five - Fire the IP lawyer/agent and hire someone competent. This person is to be well schooled in what the properties are as to have the ability to get all preliminary and secondary negotiations done prior to approaching the company about it. Also this would be in an effort to get non RPG product out there.
Six - Freelancers will be assigned work (as opposed to just writing whatever they feel like) and be held to a deadline. If they are coming to the company with a pitch that is good they will still be held to a deadline. I understand they are not doing this for a living but if you are going to commit, then commit. Having a deadline of "whenever" does not work and is partly the cause of books being months to years late in addition to Kevin's own inability to gauge timelines.
Seven - put together a plan as to exactly what books should get put out. As in do not let what the freelancers want to do determine what get's done when. There are books that should have been done years ago but just never did for whatever reason there was.
Eight - Actually run it like a business....not the garage hobby it seems to be treated as.
Other things: (which, in my opinion, would be doable if the above eight things were to happen)
Get Beyond Arcanum and Tome Grotesque done. Once those were out the door, BtS becomes the purview of The Rifter.
Start releasing present material that is less more than 12 months old on PDF.
Set up for Print on Demand.
Start having more online content available. Errata. Changes between printings. So on and so forth.
Hire someone to get Facebook and smartphone apps, and online games done. Also comics and maybe look into relaunching a CCG.
Streamline the product line. Rifts, Fantasy, HU and Robotech. Everything else get relegated to the Rifter. Maybe do a special edition Rifter once a year with only one line's material in it. Also while Kevin would effectively be the head of creative, I would look to put someone in charge of each setting.
Make a new CORE Megaversal Rulebook. Take every single rule we have. Compile them. Clean them up with a bit of a rewrite in order to better explain them. Remove the bloat. Vet them so they work more synergistically. Add anything that seems to be missing. Lay it out more intuitively. BAM 3-400 page rule tome that is all anyone needs to run a game (normal rules, super powers, psionics, magic, technology, basic classes) and allows for just running a generic game without influence of the other settings. This can be done without effectively making all that came before it useless.
A setting bible for each game line that freelancers would be given (for the four primary lines) in order to keep things consistent.
Well.............one can dream anyway.....
