Another Obscure S-List Writer
A Once and Future Love was my first time travel romance. Based on it, it will not be my last, nor will it be my last book by Anne Kelleher. It had three big strengths separate from the things that have kept me reading romance on and off.
This post has a rare style, called a “paragrapher” that stems from the introduction to my latest essay collection.
Carella wrote two supplements before moving on from Palladium. The first, Between the Shadows introduced that standard of all urban fantasy, and most fantasy, fiction and games, a dream plane. This particular version is called The Dreamscape.
In the end, however, the Mr. Hyde side of Palladium on the subject of generosity hurts the company more than anyone. Sharing my conversions and materials on the web might get me feedback to make them better. People coming across those conversions and materials, however, might be inspired to buy Palladium books by those derivative works.
This reward for engaging the world being baked into the system is one reason Palladium’s system, for all its warts, appeals to me. Want a super powered hero at level one, then play a Glitterboy or a Knight of the Cosmic Forge. You’ll be a big boy on most blocks, but there will still be other blocks that no matter how much you level up the crazy powers on your character sheet will not be the sole solution there.
I hope I’ve given you a glimpse into the unique things about Palladium that keep me coming back, especially those comic sensibilities and old-school DIY mentality. At the same time, I hope you have a glimpse into what often leads attempts to play Palladium games to fall apart.
The final, and biggest, first is the first Palladium RPG, The Mechanoid Invasion. It is a very cheap comic book sized book printed on newsprint.
On July 4th, 1976, I was nine. The whole year had been consumed by the Bicentennial Celebration. There was the Freedom Train touring the country, though it did not pass close to me. I first saw 1776 on television that year. I would not see it again until a few years ago when I purchased it on BluRay.
From the world of politics and journalism is a lesson that no one is above genre expectations. In writing about it there is also a lesson that to essai is to often not come to the conclusions you thought you would when you started.
I don’t have one. I’m writing this in the older meaning of essay as a verb: “to make an attempt at; try.” I try to find a proposal here, but I find myself still trapped in Einstein’s warning. I cannot get beyond political ideas about moving money around.
