The Culture: The Limits Of Aesthetics In The Hobby

Jeffro's exploration of Palladium has been entertaining to watch, as he's walking down the same path I have and will--in time--arrive at the same conclusions.

We get actual play when I ignore everything but an immediately gameable situation-- for which I am required to do the majority of the actual game design work. https://t.co/rR4SGHN7ml

— Cardinal Jefforieu (@JohnsonJeffro) September 21, 2023

Yes, Palladium has sizzle for days. Artwork and Rhetorical language have been a Palladium strength since the beginning. The Mechanoids ran off its sizzle. Palladium Fantasy still runs off its sizzle. RIFTS is a masterpiece of long-form aethestics powering the growth of an entire property over 30+ years. Spilcers, System Failure, Dead Reign, and to lesser extents Nightbane, Beyond The Supernatural, RECON, and After The Bomb all exhibit this mastery.

That's what captures attention. There is no argument about that.

But what holds attention is the substance under the hood. Your supercar can look like the slickest thing on the track, but if it runs like a bunch baboons hammered an engine together from scrap then aesthetics don't matter.

You can say the same for a lot of the indie crowd, throwing out product that looks cool but neither doesn't perform better than the standard nor produces a different result of any merit. The hobby standardized around AD&D1e, Call of Cthulhu, HERO (via Champions), and Traveller because of this fact. Lots of also-rans, never-wears, and complete clusterfucks suck up precious retail shelf space- but rare are those that justify their existence as commercial businesses. (I keep saying that most should just be self-funding hobbies like Gonnerman's Basic Fantasy for this reason.)

You don't put up with this from a car, a plane, a power drill, or a rifle. Why in God's name do you put with this from people publishing hobby game products?

Sure, Palladium's stuff makes for thrilling reading, but reading is not playing. When I think of publishers falling into the Setting Bible trap, Palladium comes to mind right after Magic-Users By The Water because that's what all that aesthetic appeal is really about- and, in typical Palladium fashion, has failed to execute properly.

A proper RIFTS campaign could be had just fine by playing AD&D1e and going full Thundar with it, and you'd get a machine that actually works to boot.

If you have to fight the rules to make it work as intended, the game is shit no matter how cool its aesthetics are. Be Turnkey-ready or be gone.