GENERAL
Third party content producers and the fandom's support of whatever your slice of geek culture happens to be is one of the key ways to demonstrate your support. In the case of most role-playing games, the creation and content analyzing and supporting the various games out there can make a significant difference in outreach for new players, while giving those that are already engaged in the game something additional to their weekly gaming sessions to discuss and follow. Certain genres definitely get more traffic that others (e.g. Youtube), while certain games are generally easier to find content for (e.g. D&D/Pathfinder). Palladium Books could never be accused of actively leveraging the various mediums for player outreach, but it isn't necessarily fair to compare Palladium Books to some of the giants in the field, like Wizards of the Coast. Despite this, Palladium Books has started making some inroads into the online community, and one key element has been embracing online third-party content producers; full disclosure, this includes Scholarly Adventures.
ONLINE COMMUNITIES
Palladium Books Online. Well, of course we need to start this by identifying the Palladium Books website and the Forums they host. First introduced in the late 90s, they have gone through a couple of iterations and formatting changes.
Forums. Not near as active as it was in the heyday it was first introduced back in the late 90s, it has gone through at least a couple of revisions for formatting and how content is divided.
Traversing the Megaverse. More of a generalist announcement portion dealing with non-game specific items, such as the Palladium Open House, and the Megaversal Ambassadors.
Expanding the Megaverse. Touches on the Board Game (no posts since 2018) and then Savage Rifts.
MDC Worlds. Here we finds the obvious rogue's gallery of games, including Rifts, Splicers, Dimension Books, and Chaos Earth. Also has a couple of Robotech-themed boards.
SDC Worlds. Your usual suspects, including Palladium Fantasy, Heroes Unlimited, Dead Reign, Ninjas & Superspies, Nightbane, Beyond the Supernatural, After the Bomb & TMNT, Systems Failure, Mechanoids and Recon.
Across the Megaverse. A more cross-game spanning section, including boards on Magic, Game Mastering, The Rifter and others.
Chat Server. Links to the Palladium Books themed Discord server. Not officially monitored by them, but if you fancy yourself a chat room aficionado, this is definitely a place to go and hang-out and chat with like-minded players.
Facebook Groups. There are a number of gaming groups on Facebook for players and GM’s to connect and discuss their favourite PB games. Some are more active than others, and some are much more free-form with how they discuss the issues, but these are all great spaces to go engage with fellow players and fans of the game. Depending on your style and personality, there surely is a group in here for you!
Palladium Books. The corporate Facebook site, which has a steady stream of posts from some of the more current content producers.
Podcasts. Certainly one of the more common mediums for players and fans to produce and interact, the podcast below provide a varied look at the Palladium Books range of games and the products.
The Guides to the Megaverse. A series of gameplay podcast episodes from a variety of the Palladium Books systems.
Through Gamer Goggles. A portal site discussing various gaming systems, the Tag Cloud on the right-hand column allows you to filter to the Palladium Books content. Some interviews and a couple of reviews, with mostly aged content examining the Robotech Tactics Kickstarter.
Roll High or Die. Currently presents a series of podcasts recorded during some actual game play of a Palladium Fantasy adventure. Podcast recordings range from just under an hour to over 90 minutes
The Glitterbois. A podcast dedicated to the spectrum of the Palladium Books games, they do free-form reviews of the various games, their systems and the supplementary releases (World Books, Sourcebooks, etc). They also are doing a review of various OCCs and RCCs throughout the systems. A fun, lighthearted listen that I thoroughly enjoy while commuting to-and-fro from work.
Real Play Games Pod. A series of recorded game play sessions for an After the Bomb campaign.
Youtube/Twitch. Whereas podcasts are essentially radio broadcasts recorded only in the audio medium, Youtube adds in the complexity of visual editing, as well as on occasion having to deal with Youtube's notoriously labyrinthine rules and regulations. That said, when you find yourself watching a quality production on Youtube about your favorite geek culture, it can become incredibly immersive. Here are a few notable ones I was able to track down.
Artichoke Dip. Listed on the Palladium Books page, there only appears to be a few recent videos in the last 3-4 years for that are Palladium Books related.
Questwise and the Rifts Explorer’s Guide. Sending you to Questwise’s YouTube page, the Palladium ‘playlist’ hosts a number of interesting and topical reviews and discussions on Palladium Books product lines. Book reviews and advise on Game Mastering. The oldest video I found was published in 2017, and he is relatively current. Some nicely done videos, well worth the attention. And I absolutely LOVE the intro guitar sequence.
The Rifted Gamers. A few recorded gaming sessions.
Coalition DeadBoys Podcast. A series of YouTube videos discussing a variety of topics and in-game play.
Railguns & Dragons. Brought to you by TheEvilDM, he has published a number of videos that fleshes out some Heroes Unlimited and Palladium Fantasy OCCs, among other topics and reviews, as well as some HU in-game play.
Rogue Scholar. A number of fairly current videos that cover a variety of topics from character creation, to dragon lore, and other gaming related issues. Over a dozen videos worth your time to listen and ponder.
SpiffySquee. A gaming session collection for a campaign that spans for 200 episodes, each about 30 minutes in length. Yeppers, over 200 sessions to listen through.
Legion of Myth. The boys over at this YouTube channel have a few topical videos, covering a swatch of topics and reviews for Palladium Books games.
Blood, Dirt and Chrome. A series of Palladium Rifts RPG gameplay sessions, with over 50 episodes, most running around 3 hours in length.
From the Rifts. A series of, admittedly, dated YouTube videos that cover an assortment of topics, mostly from a Game Master’s perspective, dealing with game mechanics and making gaming run more smoothly. There are also a slew of interviews from recorded during of the Palladium Books open houses, and reviews on some of the books. Despite their age, there are some real gems in there.
Freddy @ RPG Gamer. With reviews across the spectrum of Palladium Books games, there are a number of book reviews and system reviews. Videos are mostly shot from a top-down approach as he flips through the products, giving viewers a nice indication of the contents.
Blogosphere. When they sang ‘video killed the radio star,’ the same analogy could be exported to include Youtube’s relationship to the Blogosphere. There are not too many remaining, as most content producers have shifted to YouTube, Twitch, or some other form of visual medium. Despite the continued use of the phrase “print is dead,” there is a certain charm and simplicity to producing a printed article, vice the editing and production issues trying to create a slick YouTube video. I know that I for one am not in a position to spend hours trying to decipher and develop my video editing capabilities, LOL. That said, there are a few still around, but only a few with posts running currency of less than two years ago.
D.Penwood (Palladium Books Blog). A variety of resources, most notably some nicely put together Skills List packages (Rifts, Heroes Unlimited and Dead Reign), a very nice fillable Character Sheet with lots of baseline information (e.g. the various Saving Throws) and a very slick, searchable index tool for the complete Rifter library (thank you!). I’m a fan of all of them!
Scholarly Adventures (A Palladium Rifts RPG Blog). A bit of a shameless plug, but for those who have not yet visited the remainder of the site, there are book reviews of the Rifts RPG products, novels, discussions on the various OCCs, numerous articles on gaming and Game Mastering in general, as well as some fan fiction for your perusal.
CONCLUSION
So there we have it, a relatively up-to-date roundup of the current and relevant past content producers for Palladium Books games. There are a few others out there for sure, but many have fallen off the radar for lack of currency, or the language barrier (e.g. I haven't included a couple of French blogs, and have no capacity to render a decision on anything written in another language). Several of these can be found on the Palladium Books main website, but several of the ones they list are dead links or haven't remained current. By no means an exhaustive list, I would be more than happy to receive any updates for content producers supporting Palladium Books. So by all means, peruse through the list and have a look at what's out there and support these content producers in order to keep the lamps lit, so to speak.
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