And has appeal for those among us who happen to play a lot of poker, so invested in great piles of chips & cards. Quality chips & cards.
Deadlands & Earthdawn
- Thread starter deganawida
- Start date
Connorsrpg
Adventurer
That sounds great.
i was just looking at the products on Pinnacle Entertainment's website and noticed there is a new Players Guide and a Marshal's Guide - BUT it says you need the Savage Worlds core rulebook to play.
So which rulebook is this - the new Explorer's edition? OR are all the rules included in the Deadlands: Reloaded? This is a little confusing, as I am sure you don't need ALL books to play. Could someone help here please
C
i was just looking at the products on Pinnacle Entertainment's website and noticed there is a new Players Guide and a Marshal's Guide - BUT it says you need the Savage Worlds core rulebook to play.
So which rulebook is this - the new Explorer's edition? OR are all the rules included in the Deadlands: Reloaded? This is a little confusing, as I am sure you don't need ALL books to play. Could someone help here please
C
Templeton580
Explorer
*
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The original Deadlands system that used playing cards and poker chips was awesome. It wasn't just a fun system, but it really helped to evoke an atmosphere and in addition, was a very deadly system but had 'outs' with Fate points so you could put your characters in scary situations and still get out alive.
I've never played the d20 version but I just don't see how it could possibly translate or give the same play experience. Just having such a codified set of rules would really water down the concepts in the setting, let alone the atmosphere of intense horror, danger and excitement.
Connorsrpg
Adventurer
Thanks Cutter XXIII.
I intend to run the game, so I would need all three...BUT I would also need the Deadlands: Reloaded too, right? Or is all of the info from their split between Players and Marshal Guides?
I would then need an avd or 2 obviously and/or a campaign guide like 'The Flood' I guess.
Sorry I know so little about the history of this product line, but I am very intrigued to try something new....something I have not done much of due to my huge investment in 1-2 lines of rpg and very little time to play
C
I intend to run the game, so I would need all three...BUT I would also need the Deadlands: Reloaded too, right? Or is all of the info from their split between Players and Marshal Guides?
I would then need an avd or 2 obviously and/or a campaign guide like 'The Flood' I guess.
Sorry I know so little about the history of this product line, but I am very intrigued to try something new....something I have not done much of due to my huge investment in 1-2 lines of rpg and very little time to play
C
Wik
First Post
You know, I have this theory that Earthdawn was one of the primary influences on two of the big RPGs of this decade: Savage Worlds, and Fourth Edition.
Savage Worlds' similarity is primarily in the dice mechanics - dice "explode" in earthdawn just as they do in SW, players can spend points to improve their rolls, and the game plays rather fast.
The similarities to 4e are pretty strong, too. Earthdawn has the equivalent of powers, has a points-of-light setting, posits that even martial characters are innately magical (and does a better job of this than in 4e), has the equivalent of healing surges, makes all races "equal" but interesting, and has non-random character generation.
What's really interesting is that the way I see it, Earthdawn was FASA's attempt to steal some D&D players from TSR. Remember at the time, there was a large number of fans who were getting sick of 2e D&D, and felt that the system was showing its age, lacked a unified mechanics system, didn't really encourage roleplaying, and often didn't explain WHY things were the way they were. Earthdawn presented a system that explained why casters "memorize" spells, why "Dungeons" exist, and why PCs are heroes.
It also fixed a lot of the perceived problems of 2nd edition D&D. It removed "racial level limits", and broadened the classes available to each race (Earthdawn 3e would completely remove them, if memory serves). It had a hit point system that didn't start painfully low as in 2e, but that didn't get ridiculously high during play - low level monsters could always hurt you in earthdawn. And it didn't require a "balanced party" to work - it could run solo players and large groups, and no one would be forced to play the cleric (there are no healing classes in the game). It was a very well thought out system.
And of course, we hated it.
When my best friend at the time bought Earthdawn, we were around fourteen, and were absolute FASA fanboys. We had already played in countless Shadowrun campaigns, and had even done a Mechwarrior campaign or three. We made up characters in Earthdawn (I made an Archer), ran a few test games, and just didn't "get" it. I felt that it was thematically like D&D, only because it had a world built into it, was less useful. I also didn't like the high magic tone, as at the time, I was purely a low-magic sort of guy (I still am, but I make an exception for Earthdawn these days).
And I hated many of the assumptions the game made about the world, and the classes. Dwarves as master tradesmen bugged me. Swashbuckling lizard pirates were annoying. Humans with a "Versatility" talent was no good. And why were dwarves the race with highest population? As the 2e DMG plainly says, this is a crazy idea and will ruin campaigns! And let's not even get started on the magical classes!
A few years back, I picked up the first edition Earthdawn Book, and re-read it. I fell in love with it instantly, and now I snatch up sourcebooks as I see them. I have the PDF for the third edition, and the third edition is a HUGE improvement over the rules. Because while Earthdawn is cool, there are some real flaws in the powers (there are powers that not at all balanced to one another, and some that will never be used in play... and the way the game is built, thieves do not get any trap-detecting talents until halfway through their progression track, which means that thieves will wind up being the WORST trap detecters in the first half of the campaign!).
Third edition removes some of the straight-jacket nature of the disciplines, allowing the player to customize his character's advancement. It gets rid of the varying karma die values for the races, which I feel is a good step. It also makes a much more interesting gear table, which was a nice touch. And it incorporates some sourcebook info that makes playing orcs much more interesting than "Core" 1e Earthdawn presents.
One of these days I'll get my group together and we'll give this game a try. But until then, I'm just enjoying reading the sourcebooks and admiring the system from afar.
Savage Worlds' similarity is primarily in the dice mechanics - dice "explode" in earthdawn just as they do in SW, players can spend points to improve their rolls, and the game plays rather fast.
The similarities to 4e are pretty strong, too. Earthdawn has the equivalent of powers, has a points-of-light setting, posits that even martial characters are innately magical (and does a better job of this than in 4e), has the equivalent of healing surges, makes all races "equal" but interesting, and has non-random character generation.
What's really interesting is that the way I see it, Earthdawn was FASA's attempt to steal some D&D players from TSR. Remember at the time, there was a large number of fans who were getting sick of 2e D&D, and felt that the system was showing its age, lacked a unified mechanics system, didn't really encourage roleplaying, and often didn't explain WHY things were the way they were. Earthdawn presented a system that explained why casters "memorize" spells, why "Dungeons" exist, and why PCs are heroes.
It also fixed a lot of the perceived problems of 2nd edition D&D. It removed "racial level limits", and broadened the classes available to each race (Earthdawn 3e would completely remove them, if memory serves). It had a hit point system that didn't start painfully low as in 2e, but that didn't get ridiculously high during play - low level monsters could always hurt you in earthdawn. And it didn't require a "balanced party" to work - it could run solo players and large groups, and no one would be forced to play the cleric (there are no healing classes in the game). It was a very well thought out system.
And of course, we hated it.
When my best friend at the time bought Earthdawn, we were around fourteen, and were absolute FASA fanboys. We had already played in countless Shadowrun campaigns, and had even done a Mechwarrior campaign or three. We made up characters in Earthdawn (I made an Archer), ran a few test games, and just didn't "get" it. I felt that it was thematically like D&D, only because it had a world built into it, was less useful. I also didn't like the high magic tone, as at the time, I was purely a low-magic sort of guy (I still am, but I make an exception for Earthdawn these days).
And I hated many of the assumptions the game made about the world, and the classes. Dwarves as master tradesmen bugged me. Swashbuckling lizard pirates were annoying. Humans with a "Versatility" talent was no good. And why were dwarves the race with highest population? As the 2e DMG plainly says, this is a crazy idea and will ruin campaigns! And let's not even get started on the magical classes!
A few years back, I picked up the first edition Earthdawn Book, and re-read it. I fell in love with it instantly, and now I snatch up sourcebooks as I see them. I have the PDF for the third edition, and the third edition is a HUGE improvement over the rules. Because while Earthdawn is cool, there are some real flaws in the powers (there are powers that not at all balanced to one another, and some that will never be used in play... and the way the game is built, thieves do not get any trap-detecting talents until halfway through their progression track, which means that thieves will wind up being the WORST trap detecters in the first half of the campaign!).
Third edition removes some of the straight-jacket nature of the disciplines, allowing the player to customize his character's advancement. It gets rid of the varying karma die values for the races, which I feel is a good step. It also makes a much more interesting gear table, which was a nice touch. And it incorporates some sourcebook info that makes playing orcs much more interesting than "Core" 1e Earthdawn presents.
One of these days I'll get my group together and we'll give this game a try. But until then, I'm just enjoying reading the sourcebooks and admiring the system from afar.
ValhallaGH
Explorer
Split between, so no worries there.
In addition to being a campaign, the Flood has a number of ideas for side adventures in the Great Maze region. Also, there are the free one sheet adventures. There are also the DL: Classic adventures (Dime Novels, stuff in the Tombstone Epitaphs, and the stuff at the back of most of the supplement books), which will take a bit of conversion but not much. And then there's the stuff that you come up with yourself (inevitable when you feat upon that much flavor text).
Savage Worlds is pretty danged easy to GM for. If you make something too mean, ensure that your posse can run away and it's all good. Then their horrible deaths are entirely their own faults.
Good luck.
coyote6
Adventurer
PEG's been posting some conversion documents for Classic adventures, too. They have four done so far, and more to come; they're on the downloads page, under Deadlands Reloaded.
They also have several other PDF adventures on sale (Coffin Rock, Saddle Sore, Don't Drink the Water, Murder on the Hellstromme Express, and South o' the Border -- which is a mini-campaign, I think), and three other plot-point campaign books coming out. The next of those is called Last Sons, and there's a thread with more info. Those plot-point campaigns won't be out for a while, though.
Connorsrpg
Adventurer
Thanks guys - I see there is s lot of adventure support for Deadlands - which is great (and essential for me to 'buy into').
But just to make things clear - the 'Setting' IS IN the Player's Guide and Marshall's HBs? I don't need the Reloaded if I get these two books, right?
Sorry, to be so annoying. I have not played this or SW before. I live in rural Australia, so I have no means of checking out open books, etc. And of course will have to spend a bit of $ getting this stuff. I want to get the initial order right, so I don't have to go paying for shipping often
C
But just to make things clear - the 'Setting' IS IN the Player's Guide and Marshall's HBs? I don't need the Reloaded if I get these two books, right?
Sorry, to be so annoying. I have not played this or SW before. I live in rural Australia, so I have no means of checking out open books, etc. And of course will have to spend a bit of $ getting this stuff. I want to get the initial order right, so I don't have to go paying for shipping often
C
Templeton580
Explorer
*
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