The Glitterbois
by Nathanael Cole - NPC at Breakfast Puppies
The Glitterbois are two blokes (and then some) with an intense and long-lived love for the rich role-playing game worlds created by Palladium Books. Join us as we talk about the vast imaginative possibilities of the Palladium Books RPG "Megaverse" in a quest to spread appreciation for their games, meet established wanderers of their worlds, and hopefully bring new players into the fold. We'll look into the workings and histories of all of their games, including Rifts, Palladium Fantasy, Nightbane, Dead Reign, Macross, Ninja Turtles, and more! Step through the rift and Unleash Your Imagination along with us!
Episodes
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#227 – Acrobatics and Gymnastics (Physical Skills)
Read transcript This is another shorter discussion on the various rules options of Palladium's role-playing games. Today we're looking at two of the more popular "must-have!" selections from the Physical Skills list: Acrobatics and Gynmastics. They are very similar skills on the surface, so join…
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#226 – Critical Success and Failure
Read transcript Critical Strike, yes! TWENTYYYY!!! Today we're talking about everyone's favorite die roll results: the Crits! How does Palladium handle them in the rules? Give us a listen, the answers might surprise you! Drop us a line! You can follow us (sporadically) on Facebook, and we'd love…
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#225 – Horror Factor
Read transcript Today's round-table discussion is a look at how the "Horror Factor" system works in Palladium games. It's a rather nifty take on implementing a comic book-style Fear system, similar to but also very different from the sanity systems in other games. Drop us a line! You can follow…
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The Glitterbois Play Rifts 17: Bargains
Read transcript Donna and the Boys get into some wild hijinks involving explosions, demons, sewers, and inevitable Coalition betrayals! Their destination: Hartsby. Their mission: break the blockade and protect the people against the psi-stalker tribes. The only obstacle: The Broken Grid, and the...
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#224 – Automatic Dodge
Read transcript As if the distinction between Parry and Dodge in Palladium weren't already confusing for some new players, Rifts then had to go and add a whole new "automatic dodge" ability to the mix. In this short discussion, we talk about the Automatic Dodge, with a look at who gets it, how it...
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#223 – Set the Scene 4 - Beyond the Supernatural with Steven Dawes
Read transcript Finally, our third episode of a trilogy with Steven Dawes! Steven Sets the Scene as a guest GM for us, with the Beyond the Supernatural 2nd Edition RPG! If you have ever wondered how the game works, give this one a listen. Also check out your prior release of the character…
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#222 – House Rules: Holding and Readying Actions
Read transcript Today's discussion is on a mechanic that doesn't actually exist in the Palladium game rules, but should: how to "hold" or "ready" an action to occur after your initiative order in a combat round. This means we're focusing on our own house rules, with advice on how you might want…
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#221 – What's On Your Character Sheet
Read transcript We're here for another free-form chat on general role-playing, this time with a focus on the concept of the Character Sheet, and how it should be structured. While we do focus heavily on Palladium systems, the scope can easily cover most other "traditional" RPGs in play today.…
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#220 – Beyond the Supernatural Chargen Session
Read transcript Special guest Steven Dawes joins us again for a character creation session for Beyond the Supernatural! What are we going to do with these characters? HMMMMM... Drop us a line! You can follow us (sporadically) on Facebook, and we'd love to see you on our Discord Channel too. And…
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#219 – Talking BtS with Steven Dawes
Read transcript Today we're joined by special guest Steven Dawes! Steven is the long time admin of the "House of BtS" fan website for Beyond the Supernatural, and also the author of the "Creature Feature" book for that same game. We spend time talking about the game and the fandom. Stick around…
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The Glitterbois Play Rifts 16: VODKA.EXE
Read transcript In this latest episode of our campaign, Riley earns his Fairy Wings for making a young boy's dreams come true. Drop us a line! You can follow us (sporadically) on Facebook, and we'd love to see you on our Discord Channel too. And let us know your thoughts by leaving a review on...
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#218 – Called Shots
Read transcript Today's episode continues our Combat Options series with a discussion on how "called shots" work in Palladium, with a heavy focus on the two major editions of Rifts. As with previous discussions on these options, we largely talk about how to do things using the rules as written,...
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#217 – Simultaneous Attack
Read transcript We continue our deep dive into the various Rifts extended combat options today with a focused look at the oft-forgotten "Simultaneous Attack" defense option. What's your favorite story of using this one in a game? Drop us a line! You can follow us (sporadically) on Facebook, and...
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The Glitterbois Play Rifts 15: Schrodinger's Tits
Read transcript In this episode, the four most responsible and upstanding members of the party do some recon while carrying deep conversations on whether the Tits are or are not truly in the air. Drop us a line! You can follow us (sporadically) on Facebook, and we'd love to see you on our Discord...
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#216 – Body Block and Tackle
Read transcript We're continuing this new exploration of combat rules options with an episode dedicated to one that - we've been told - doesn't get used nearly as often as it should these days. So let's bring it back! This one is the rather brutal and insidious "Body Block & Tackle" move, found…
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#215 – Rules Talk: The Initiative Bubble Theory
Read transcript We're back to another Rules Talk episode! This time, NPC presents a different take on handling the combat initiative flow in Palladium games, inspired by the "pair them off" concepts from the more recent rules books. Some of you may scoff at this, others may even already do this…
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The Glitterbois Play Rifts 14: He's a Slurmph!
Read transcript You are probably wondering, what the heck is a Slurmph? Dustin is. He's a Slurmph. And he'll let you know, in case you forgot. It's time to meet Dustin and Edmundo, best friends forever! EDITOR'S NOTES: A couple of additional tech notes here. Ironically, although we all touted the...
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#214 – TMNT Redux Game Play Retrospective
Read transcript In this episode, the three of us take some time to collect our thoughts on the recent "Set the Scene" episode, in which we played the new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles & Other Strangeness REDUX Edition (with Sean Roberson as a quest). We talk about how it worked, what we liked, and...
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#213 – Beyond the Megaverse: Breachworld
Today we are once again venturing BEYOOONNNND THE MEGAVERRRRSSSEE (echo echo echo), to take a look at the D6 Breachworld RPG, written by Palladium freelancer Jason Richards. It's a very heavily Rifts-inspired game, but with unique twists on the core premise of the game world. If you've played it,...
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The Glitterbois Play Rifts 13: Look Who's Gorshkovving!
Read transcript The Greatest Family Adventure of the Century continues! An old friend returns, after a harrowing encounter with a temptress from the nether depths of Atlantis. Bronson learns to play Cricket, while Henry, Drom, and Mister Cat try to start a barbershop quartet - Riley was too...
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#212 – Set the Scene 3: TMNT Redux with Sean Owen Roberson
Read transcript We've got Sean Owen Roberson of Palladium Books with us again, for this awesome third installment of our new Set the Scene series! This time around, Buckley leads us through a TERROR-filled scene using the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness REDUX RPG. Listen in as…
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#211 – Compendium of Weapons Armor and Castles
Read transcript Today we take a look through one of the more awesome books in the Palladium catalog: the Compendium of Weapons, Armor, and Castles, by Matthew Balent. This is a damn useful book for pretty much every fantasy RPG under the sun, and we strongly urge everyone out there to make sure...
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#210 – State of the Podcast 2026
Read transcript In this round table chat, we take some time to look back at the things we've done on the podcast in the last year, including our favorite moments and accomplishments. We also talk about things we have coming up soon, and things we'd like to do if we had our druthers. Drop us a…
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The Glitterbois Play Rifts 12: A Villain is Born
Read transcript The Coalition is upon us! The confrontation with the Coalition has finally arrived! Will our heroes somehow find a way out of this deadly pickle of an encounter against such overwhelming force? Listen and find out! On a tech note, this one's pretty epic. We are normally keeping…
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#209 – Looking Back and Looking Forward with Sean Roberson
Read transcript We're once again joined by Sean Owen Roberson of Palladium Books, who's talking with us about events both recent and upcoming. In addition to a lengthy post-mortem look back at the recently-concluded TMNT Redux Kickstarter, Sean tells us about some exciting events happening in...
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The Glitterbois Play Rifts 11: Chuckling in Russian
Read transcript The heist is on! Our heroes finally don their sneaky shoes, roll up their sleeves, and do the deeds they were paid to do. Crime is afoot, dear listener, and complex dastardly plans are the theme of the evening! Will this hodge podge team be able to pull off THE CRIME OF THE…
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#208 – TMNT Redux Edition Book Review
Read transcript In this second part of our TMNT Redux Kickstarter retrospective, we take a deeper look at the books that were ultimately the main focus of the project. Our primary focus here is on the first book, its content, its art, and its ultimate value to us and our gaming tables (and...
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#207 – TMNT Kickstarter Post-Mortem and Swag
Read transcript This episode is part one of what turned into a two-parter, wherein we look at the Kickstarter for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Other Strangeness Redux, and its deliverings. We start with a brief informal port-mortem on the project, and then dive right into our thoughts on all...
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The Glitterbois Play Rifts 10: Murdercat with a Jet Pack
Read transcript In the far future town of Muskegon, the planning of crime is afoot. On a mission from the robotic arms merchant Alexander of Macedon, the Cincinnati Four (Five? Six? Who's keeping count at this point) face their biggest threat yet: the All You Can Eat Buffet Table. Also there's a...
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#206 – Having Fun
Today's topic is: How to have fun playing in a RPG session. It's a subject that a lot of us either take for granted, or don't even think about at all. But it's an important conversation to be had nonetheless. This talk focuses on how to realize when you are or are not having fun, how to talk…
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#205 – Physical Skills and the Skill Tax
In response to another post from a fine upstanding member of our Discord community, we're talking about the concept of the "skill tax" in Palladium RPGs. This extends into a greater discussion of Physical Skills, how they work, and how we feel about them in our own games and experiences. This...
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#204 – Set the Scene 2 - Palladium Fantasy 1E (with Kevin Siembieda)
Listener response to the first "Set the Scene" episode was so overwhelmingly positive that we decided to get another one in the feed as soon as possible. This time we're taking things back to the roots, with Palladium Fantasy 1st Edition, and a little ol' dungeon called the Tombs of Gersidi. For...
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#203 – A Discussion on Player Table Roles
We're back for another system-agnostic, round-table discussion, this time focusing on the idea of using "Player Table Roles" in your games. For the unaware, these are meta-roles that the players can take to help facilitate better play, and also ease the load of work on the GM's shoulders. Did we...
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The Glitterbois Play Rifts 9: The Darkest of Falcons
The story continues when the party meets THE DARK FALCON. Who is THE DARK FALCON? You can only find out by listening to THE DARKEST OF FALCONS, so you too can experience the revelation of the true identity of THE DARK FALCON. Insert falcon screech here! Also we do a lot of shopping. GRENADES!...
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#202 – Revisiting RECON
Today we're talking about RECON again, a deeper dive than the last time. Enjoy! Drop us a line! You can follow us (sporadically) on Facebook, and we'd love to see you on our Discord Channel too. And let us know your thoughts by leaving a review on iTunes or any other podcast aggregate sites. For...
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#201 – Set the Scene #1 (After the Bomb)
Picking up right after our last session, we're starting our first of what we plan on being a regularly-recurring new themed episode format for the show. GM John from Real Play Games again joins us to kick off what we're calling "The Glitterbois Set the Scene," a series of episodes that show how…
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#200 – After the Bomb Character Jam w/ GM John
To celebrate our 200th main series episode of this cast, we're joined by special guest and friend of the show, GM John from the Real Play Games Podcast. Given that cast's several seasons of After the Bomb actual play stories, we felt he was the perfect choice to guest on this special episode...
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The Glitterbois Play Rifts #008: Chihuahua with a Shotgun
I mean the title really does tell you everything. Someone gives Bronson a shotgun. Hilarity ensues. Give a listen to find out more! Drop us a line! You can follow us (sporadically) on Facebook, and we'd love to see you on our Discord Channel too. And let us know your thoughts by leaving a review…
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#199 – Mutants Down Under
Next up on our dive through the books is Mutants Down Under, the third official title in the "After the Bomb" series of RPG supplements, originally for the TMNT & Other Strangeness game line. This book is awesome. And oh damn, look at that episode number! I wonder what's coming up next... Drop us…
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#198 – Road Hogs
We initially planned to record this as a combo episode talking about both Road Hogs and Mutants Down Under at the same time. After all, we figured, they're both really slim, they can't have more than a half hour combined talk, right? Wrong! So this is just Road Hogs, and we have a lot to say!…
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#197 – The BIO-E System
Today we're talking about the BIO-E system that is present in After the Bomb and the TMNT & Other Strangeness RPG. It's a fantastic point-buy character-crafting tool that we wish was more common in their games. Hopefully we'll get a revival of interest in it with the new TMNT Redux releases! Drop...
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#196 – Skills Acquisition and Adjudication
This one's a fun round table chat on how we manage the awarding, acquisition, and ruling of skills in our games (as usual with a heavy focus on Palladium). Lots of ideas and different opinions here, so give us a listen and then drop by discord to share your own ideas! Drop us a line! You can…
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#195 – Awarding Experience Points
Today we're talking about Experience Points in RPGs (primarily Palladium), some of the common methods for awarding them, and our own preferences as GMs. This round table topic was suggested by one of our Discord users, and provided way more fodder than expected! Thanks for the suggestion, and…
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The Glitterbois Play Rifts #007: All the Da I Need
Disgusting rats! The nerve of those cretins! And more disgusting rats with laser guns! The outrage! Our Rifts game continues, with a very angry cat and a very bad situation, which can only get better, right? ...Right? Drop us a line! You can follow us (sporadically) on Facebook, and we'd love to...
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#194 – After the Bomb RPG 1E vs 2E
Thanks to some helpful listeners, we're now back on track to talk about these books in a roughly chronological publication order. That means the next book on our list is After the Bomb! And since the original was a rather slim tome, we're taking this opportunity to talk about both the original…
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#193 – The Slingers
In this episode, NPC and Buckley take some time to do an extended deeper look at the "Slinger" classes from Rifts New West. We break down the differences, compare their various strengths, and discuss some fun ways to use them in a campaign. Drop us a line! You can follow us (sporadically) on...
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The Glitterbois Play Rifts #006: Broken Concrete Pillows
The Four from Cincinnati venture forth into the irradiated warrens beneath the ruins of old Detroit, in search of clues to the fate and location of their missing game master, Mike. Within these foul depths, they find danger, violence, and vintage 1990s porn cds. Special Note! Patrons of the show…
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#192 – Machinations of Doom
Hoo-eeee we recorded this one months ago, on the same night as our chat with mister Perez himself, but other big episodes kept getting put ahead into the queue. Anyway, here's our chat on the awesome, wonderful, why-don't-you-own-a-copy-ot-this-already Rifts graphic novel, Machinations of Doom!...
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The Glitterbois Play Rifts #005: ALL OF THE BACON
We finally are back on the road once more, seeking adventure and answers! Shortly into this voyage, the party considers murdering Bronson for his crimes against humanity. Okay maybe only Riley and Mister Cat consider it. But the suffering is real. Drop us a line! You can follow us (sporadically)…
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#191 – Rifts World Book 15 Spirit West
We conclude the "Western Trilogy" Rifts World Book review with number 15: Spirit West. Give us a listen, then drop by our Discord and join the discussion! Drop us a line! You can follow us (sporadically) on Facebook, and we'd love to see you on our Discord Channel too. And let us know your…
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About this show
The Glitterbois are two blokes (and then some) with an intense and long-lived love for the rich role-playing game worlds created by Palladium Books. Join us as we talk about the vast imaginative possibilities of the Palladium Books RPG "Megaverse" in a quest to spread appreciation for their games, meet established wanderers of their worlds, and hopefully bring new players into the fold. We'll look into the workings and histories of all of their games, including Rifts, Palladium Fantasy, Nightbane, Dead Reign, Macross, Ninja Turtles, and more! Step through the rift and Unleash Your Imagination along with us!
Hosted by
Nathanael Cole - NPC at Breakfast Puppies