FLASHCHAT     LOGIN
    INVITE     HELP GUIDE      LANGUAGE:
HOME BLOGS FORUM CONVENTIONS News comic
GALLERY SEARCH POLLS VIDEOS GROUPS CLASSIFIEDS QUIZZES MAP SIGNUP ARCADE TOP USERS e-STORE
BLOGS   WRITE NEW BLOG   EDIT BLOGS  
 
RSS

30
Sep/2008

Robotech RPG, Manga Size, and Lies
by Gabriel

Time for another frothing Palladiumbooks rant.
Lately, Kevin Siembieda has been getting some backlash about his decision to make the new Robotech RPG books manga sized.  It seems a good number of fans don't like this format for the RPG and are complaining about it.

Of course, ol' KS never does anything wrong, and never came up with an unpopular idea in his life.  He's just a victim of circumstance.  So, fans have been told that Palladiumbooks was contractually ordered to release the books in the manga format.  KS didn't have any choice.  If fans have complaints, they should go complain to Harmony Gold because Kevin's hands are tied.

So, there has been a thread on Robotech.com regarding the manga format.  There have been the typical rabid Palladiumbooks defenders who say all the flaws of the new Robotech RPG are Harmony Gold's fault.  Then recently, Tommy Yune, one of the big Harmony Gold Robotech head honchos visited the thread.  He states:

http://www.robotech.com/community/forum/read.php?id=1899492&forumid=10&pagenumber=2

For the folks who do not prefer their manga size, there's no malice behind the introduction. Kevin Siembieda's always prided himself in trying out new ideas and wanted to experiment with a new format. Of course, Harmony Gold has to approve such proposals, and we ran the format poll (after discussion with Kevin) to see if enough of the fan base was open to the idea. The numbers didn't indicate a majority, but didn't reflect enough opposition to rule out giving it a try and it ended up selling quite well.

When asked for a little clarification, he adds:


There is no contractual mandate for a specific format other than it simply being a conventional role-playing game.

In other words, the manga format was never something Harmony Gold dictated.  It was Kevin Siembieda's pet idea.  Now that it's unpopular, he's trying to shift the blame, like he always does.

Tags: Robotech Siembieda

Bookmark:



Viewing 1 - 6 out of 6 Comments

From: micronconvoy
10/22/2008 00:53:37
I hate to say I actually bought that book. I was hoping that with the new veritechs and villians maybe they would fix the rules a bit. They didn't.

I'm right ther with you man. I can't stand Palladium. Their robotech system made me hate veritechs. No lie or exaggeration. I simply don't like them now. Everytime I see one all I can think about is how horribly under powered they were, how half the rules never really made sense, and a whole host of other problems.


From: rogue-z
10/01/2008 21:14:25
Man. I'm always bummed when this crap happens. I cut my RPG teeth on Palladium, but it's not matured at all in 20 years. And the worst part is there are some good ideas (I would say the manga format is actually one of them!) and some very nice worlds in the Megaverse, but man, the DRAMA and the SUCKY rules really drag it down. Just so long as Palladium doesn't somehow get it's claws into the Macross franchise, we're ok!

From: Cosmic_Emu
10/01/2008 01:21:32
I personally like the manga format, but that's just a little leftover from my serious anime fan days. However, I cannot abide Palladium's seeming need to do a thousand editions of the same book - special, delux, super boffo hardbound, etc.. I just don't think the company is is good enough financial shape to be thinning out its production elements. Add ot this the fact that they keep having delays on ther regular releases, and it's a pretyt bleh situation.

-Eli


From: Darkforce
09/30/2008 14:25:52
Hey, I like Manga size and current marketing research shows it's popular....... People just like to complain about the big Kev...


From: calico_jack73
09/30/2008 09:33:58

To tell the truth... as long as it is a good game or system the format doesn't really matter to me. 

That said, personally I couldn't stand the perfect bound format he has always used.  The clear coating on the cover always started peeling off after about a year.  I'd end up using packing tape to "seal" the edges as soon as I bought one of his books to prevent it from happening.  I much prefer the hardcover format like the new Rifts book.  I love that they put some decent artwork within the front and back covers.  THAT is how a book should be published IMHO.

From: TwoGunBob
09/30/2008 09:23:44
Typical Palladium. I haven't even kept up if Kevin is still milking the Crisis of Tree-ETCH-ARR-EEEEEeeeEEEE!!! as the root source of Palladium's woes. Personally, that hat out begging forever soured me on ever buying a Palladium product again. Well, okay it added to the already full bowl of soured milk. Well, that's not true exactly. I found the original TMNT game book at Half Price Books for like $2.00 and bought it since mine was stolen back in high school some 15 or so years ago.



MY BLOGS
Posted On: 10/25/2008 15:15:22
Posted On: 10/20/2008 01:14:12
Posted On: 10/03/2008 20:58:20
Posted On: 10/03/2008 13:06:19
Posted On: 09/30/2008 08:46:38
Posted On: 09/30/2008 00:46:12
Posted On: 09/28/2008 20:24:15
Posted On: 09/27/2008 13:15:31
Posted On: 09/21/2008 21:49:32
Posted On: 09/19/2008 19:05:07
Posted On: 09/19/2008 00:14:41
Posted On: 09/15/2008 20:40:03
Posted On: 09/12/2008 14:52:39
Posted On: 09/10/2008 22:09:53


NEWS / ANNOUNCEMENTS

12/29/08 The New Look


The new style, Celestial, has gone live! We hope you like it. If you preferred the old look you can go to your account page and set it as your default style. To do this scroll down your account page, look on the left hand side of your screen, and you will see a box called Themes. You can choose between the classic RPGBomb style or the fresh new Celestial look. We will be updating the themes list with more styles as time goes on, so keep an eye out!

Thank you and have a Happy New Year!, Staff

Copyright©2008 RPGBomb. All rights reserved.