Palladium system is old school part. 2

 What are some of the things about Palladium system that I contribute to it being old school or even just old school flavor?

Palladium doesn't not have a rule for every possible action by a player. That is up to the GM to come up with.
Maybe this is not to your taste and you like more rules. But palladium is what it is.

Palladium uses alignment, Its not the good/evil, Law/chaos axis from AD&D. But its not so removed any D&D player cant find a parallel to D&D.

Palladium has hit point. Sure it also has structural points, no matter how you split it thought its hit points.

Palladium has saving throws. while all editions of D&D have saving throws. Palladium's saving throws are way closer to AD&D saves than 3E saves, that is old school flavor to me.

Palladium's system is not obsessed with balance is classes. While this is a turn off to some. I think its great. For a good group it just fine. For a bad group you can always restrict what you don't want. As a GM I would rather have the freedom to choose than have the design of the game choose what is acceptable for a player character. To me this is also old school.

I could go on and on. But the funny thing is I don't think any one else thinks of Palladium as an old school system. Because its still in print. Still the same old system. There is no new palladium system, so I cant go to the forums of the new game and post about how the new edition raped my child hood. There is no out of print edition for me to retro clone.

Can a game be old school if it has not weathered at least one edition war? do you think an in print game be old school?

Palladium system is old school

I was flipping through stars with out numbers and it got me thinking. With so many new nostalgia and retro clones games being written and played based on older edition of D&D and AD&D. This is an excellent time for palladium books to make a resurgence. After all it started as a set of house rules to expand and customize 1e AD&D.

Despite all the internet rumblings about Palladium books, they really have put out a lot of really fun products in the last few years. System failure, Chaos earth, and Splicers, just to name a few.

Despite being known for power gaming paradise the whole character creation processes really is story driven. With a lot of work going into characters background and info.

Palladium system has been in print in one form or another since '83. Very few old school games have gone so long and still using the same system. While some don't like that fact and feel it needs to be updated. Personally I think its great that I just picked up 11 palladium books and as I started flipping through them I'm looking at the exact game I used to run near 15 years ago.  Does it get more nostalgia than that.

It also seems that Palladium books made a recovery from almost going under back in 2005 and was only saved because of its fans. Which is a testament in and of its self as to its fan base. Palladium was at Gen Con this year, first time in a long time. Palladium books is back on track reprinting a lot of its older books and bringing out not just new products but also its in house magazine "The Rifter". Seems Palladium is making its way back on to the gaming market. Maybe its not as big as it once was, But to its fans its a company worth sticking with and fighting for.

Balence of classes in Rifts.

I think one of the big complaints in Rifts is that the OCCs/RCCs are not balanced to each other. While I don't see this as a huge problem myself I guess I can understand how some people look at it. As the GM I usually let the players know what kind of game I'm about to run. I don't feel bad one bit restricting an OOC or RCC if I feel its not with in the power level of the game I want to run. You dont have to allow it just because its in the book.

As a matter of a fact I've been thinking about running a street level game set in chi town. With all street level characters. Imagine a group of bounty hunters ducking coalition patrols. Taking on clandestine missions for one group or another.

I recently picked up chaos earth. Its basically the prequel to Rifts. Set at the beginning of the end of the world. While a lot of the same tech is available the power level of the whole game is a lot lower. Its really a great way to run lower powered games. A lot of OOCs from bionics source book and other books that are considered underpowered for Rifts would be great for Chaos earth. I think a fun game would be to start players as SDC only characters. Sure military gear is out there...but you don't get to just start with it.