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Kevin Siembieda

Kevin Siembieda is founder of Palladium Books, a designer of role playing games, a game publisher, Game Master extraordinaire and a huge supporter of Penguicon 2.0.

The story of Kevin Siembieda's accomplishments seems to be a series of firsts. The game publishing company he founded here in southeast Michigan, Palladium Books¨, was the first to implement a role-playing system intended to work for all genres, and has done it for the longest duration with a string of hit RPGs. Kevin was also the first to introduce the perfect-bound trade paperback format to the RPG industry, holding down printing costs and keeping the selling price low for products that are slick, colorful and accessable.

The Palladium RolePlaying Game¨ started with fantasy in 1983 and expanded its Megaverse to include Heroes UnlimitedTM in 1984, years before Steve Jackson Games released its Generic Universal Role Playing System. Heroes UnlimitedTM was published the same year as William Gibson's Neuromancer inspired the cyber-punk genre, scant years after Ridley Scott's Blade Runner, and included rules for cyborg bionics. So it could be that Palladium could also be credited with the first cyber-punk RPG. The firsts just keep on coming.

In 1985, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles¨ was a risky RPG project intended to break Palladium into the (then comics only) comic book shop market. The risk paid off as their first megahit. Kevin was the one who introduced and hyped the Ninja Turtles in 1986 to the marketing company that made it one of the most widely promoted and merchandised licenses in the history of licensing.

In 1986, Kevin was persuaded to watch ROBOTECH¨, and six months later produced another bestselling megahit, Robotech¨ the RolePlaying Game (Book One: Macross). 1986 also saw the release of After the Bomb¨, a nuclear holocaust setting of mutant animals. Of course, like the TMNT RPG, these used the same basic rules as their other books (along with new rules and ideas). Likewise Robotech¨ (which made its debut Fall 1986), Beyond the SupernaturalTM, Ninjas & SuperspiesTM, Rifts¨, Systems FailureTM and just about everything Palladium has ever done ALL use the same, "one," basic RPG system. In 1988, Beyond the SupernaturalTM was is the first "contemporary" horror RPG, presenting supernatural and psychic powers in a unique light with ley lines as a magic system that works in our modern world. All the games can be combined and interchanged to create a truly infinite Megaverse of possibilities and adventure.

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Last modified 2005-04-09 11:10 PM
 

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