Way back, before I started doing this, I bought like four feet of Palladium books in an eBay lot for next to nothing. It was ridiculous and possibly the very worst way to try to interface with Rifts. A single Rifts book is overwhelming on its own. Two dozen is just static blasting at top volume. I picked about half a foot of books with the best art and sold the rest on eBay. Adventures on the High Seas (1996) was among the ones I sold. But last year, I saw a copy on eBay for five bucks and I bought it again. I had zero memory of the contents of the book, I did this based entirely on the Martin McKenna cover alone. It’s a mighty fine cover.

Looking at this one again, it’s actually good. I don’t think I had any other books from the 2E Palladium Fantasy line aside of the core rules, but if they are all like this one, then it is a pretty strong line, and much improved over the older stuff. It’s well organized and the details on the many islands all make me want to dip in and read a bit whenever I flip through. The majority of the book is islands and ports, with particular detail paid to the isle of the cyclopses, which is cool, because I like cyclopi. There is a big section on ships, too, but that seems secondary. There are a bunch of new classes too, none but Pirate and Sailor seeming particularly themed to oceangoing adventures, but whatever. More is More in Palladia.

Art’s pretty great throughout. Scott Johnson does the lion’s share. There are interiors by Martin McKenna, Wayne Breaux and Peter Simon as well, but no clear credits (Johnson’s got a super obvious signature, though).