Another Saving Throw is rolled up for you this week with two new hall of fame entires. Our Points of View curator, Derek "Roku" Cavin, tells us a story about a very ridiculous and confusing moment he had while playing in a campaign with a new gamemaster. Meanwhile, Artea earns a golden caret with his submission of a lucky story about a natural 20 rolled at just the right time.

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There is very important news this week for any fans of RIFTS or any other products by Palladium Books. More details can be found below in the Tabletop Gaming News section below, but the company is in dire financial trouble and is requesting help from its fans.

With that, it is time to move on to the rest of the column!

In an open letter to the fan base, Kevin Siembeida, the president and owner of Palladium Books revealed that a "betrayal of trust, theft, and embezzlement" has cost the company an estimated 850,000 to 1.3 million dollars. Despite tens of thousands of dollars in loans and Siembeida's sale of personal possessions to generate funds, Palladium Books is in danger of going under. The company has suffered from many other recent misfortunes as well, including the poor availability of the RIFTS Promise of Power video game for the N-Gage and the stalled status of the RIFTS movie.

He is appealing to fans to help save the company. In particular, he is asking fans to purchase a limited edition print, A Megaverse United. This print will be a pencil drawing by Siembeida converted into a 11 by 14 inch black and white toned piece of artwork featuring key characters from the company's entire game line. Each print will be signed by Mr. Siembedia and he will indicate the number of the print. Those who purchase this print will have their names listed in the back pages of a major future book release as "Heroes of the Megaverse." The prints are being sold for fifty dollars plus two to five dollars in shipping.

The sale of two thousand of these prints should allow the company to make it through the year and possibly release products that will make a difference. Four thousand prints sold will likely free the company from much of the "crushing" debt it currently has, but they are hoping for the sale of five thousand to allow them to release the range of products they hope to.

The full text of the open letter can be found here.

On May 6 and 7 in Columbus, Ohio, Duelists from around the world have the opportunity to attend a Shonen Jump Yu-Gi-Oh! TCG Championship. A new prize card, available only through the advanced format tournament and other side events, will be unveiled at this event. Other prizes include a gaming laptop, Sony PSP and Nintendo DS handhelds, and a 60 GB iPod Photo. The top eight contenders will be invited to attend the Yu-Gi-Oh! National Championships in June. More information can be found here.

Looking up news and release dates for this column can be something of a tedious task most of the time, but today, my search ended up leaving me with a bit of a warm and optimistic feeling. I'm not talking about the fact that Palladium is having trouble. While I'm not personally a fan, I have absolutely nothing against the company and I truly hope they find their way out of this difficulty. It was the fact that I was alerted to this story before I even started to look for news from Palladium. I found my first sign right here on the website for Steve Jackson Games, a competitor. It's nice to see that competition can sometimes be friendly; it doesn't always have to be cutthroat, and a competitor can lend a helping hand, even if it's just helping to spread the word like this.

I figured I'd leave you with that thought before once again asking you to remember to submit for the Saving Throw. Golden carets are still being offered for lucky stories and guides, and more than likely, anyone willing to share their embarrassing stories with all of us will get a golden caret or two as well for being such good sports. With that, the Saving Throw will return next week as always.

Shawn "Neither a psychic nor a dwarf" Bruckner