Possibly trying Savage Worlds: Deadlands or other Settings

[catsclaw227]

Started up a Solomon Kane campaign just yesterday. Most of my group seems excited about it. The rest are willing, so a good start for a group of 7.

Tell me about your setup.


Unless your players are Lurkers.......................................

 

[amerigoV]

Thanks for all the responses. I have SW Explorer (print and pdf), But I am going to get the PRNT-PDF bundle of SW Deluxe* because I am concerned the updates are more important.

SWD is a very good product and has some nice new items (especially Dramatic Tasks and a new take on the Chase rules), but the change to the core are very minor. In the download section they printed the new stuff as pdf's downloads.

 

[scourger]

I have no experience with playing Deadlands Reloaded (DLR), but I read it and The Flood. We played the original game and had fun with it. The new version is good, but the setting and adventure are not really to my taste. A little weird goes a long way for me in a Western game, and DLR is way weird.

As for other settings, I have read many of them. The best success I've had is running Tour of Darkness. The players really bought into it and that game morphed into Necropolis (less sucessful) and my own Weird War Rome (currently successful). I expect this game to transfer again into another genre, possibly the Civil War/Wild West where I will use a mix of DLR rules, Aces & Eights setting & adventure, and an old school Boot Hill module. Another published possibility is Weird War Two, which is good.

As noted in one of the other threads, we have a great Realms of Cthulhu campaign ongoing.

Have fun with DLR.

 

[Umbran]

I've no experience with Savage Worlds, yet. However, the primary game I run now is classic Deadlands (the original rules, not that d20 crud).

I am wary of the older published campaign stuff for Deadlands - while the individual steps are good, on the whole the original campaign runs the characters into a situation where, as written, they cannot be expected to win. However, the setting and books are so laced with tidbits that putting together a campaign based on a few of those points is easy as pie.

 

[ValhallaGH]

I am also curious about a Plot Point campaign or setting for SW and I was eying Deadlands since I think our group might like a Weird West kind of setting to play in while we're on a D&D hiatus.

Plot Point Campaigns are a kind of "build your own Adventure Path." The Plot Points are the key adventures for the main story of the campaign, and they tell you what order they need to be in. In between those plot points go the Savage Tales, various side adventures; most of the campaign books contain one to two dozen Savage Tales and the GM is encouraged to write their own for the individual characters in play.
The cool thing is that a skilled and ambitious GM can weave multiple Plot Point Campaigns into a single game. So the party is trying to Fight the Evil Empire and Recover the God's Eye Ruby as part of the same epic-scope campaign.

What are your experiences with Deadlands?

Lots of fun mixed with some unusual character deaths.

Are the two new books basically a split of the Reloaded rules?

Basically, though the errata has been included.

What one-page adventures have you tried?

Most of the Deadlands ones and a few of the others. Envy is the most "normal" of the bunch - a jealous brother comes back to torture and murder his sibling; the twist is that the jealous brother is already dead, and so are his minions. The others are much Weirder, but they have been well received by my players.

Have you looked at The Flood (I assume it's a detailed area for Weird West California). Or any of the Trail Guide's for Deadlands yet?

I have. In fact, I'm running the Flood right now. Great stuff.

I know there are a lot of Pinnacle and 3PP settings for SW. What are your favorite and which ones should I avoid?

That's a bit like asking which ice cream is my favorite, or which cheese cake you should avoid. It depends upon your mood.

If you want specific advice and input, the Pinnacle Entertainment Group forums are a friendly place. Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group :: Index

 

[Octarinewolf]

What I've been wanting to try to build is somewhat of a gaslamp fantasy setting. I'm pretty sure I could borrow pieces of information from Space 1889, Iron Dynasty, Rippers, and/or Deadlands.

Without raiding into those books to check out prices for certain period items and weaponry, or seeing how they handled airships/constructs, the only bit of rules I would need beyond the Deluxe edition and the Fantasy Companion would be rules for building/upgrading vehicles/mecha, which I assume would be in a Sci-Fi companion if it were ever released.

Reasonably simple design rules for vehicles and mecha are in the SF Gear Toolkit, Zepplins, Aircraft, Rocketship and Ground vehicles are also in the Pulp gear Toolkit.

If by constructs you mean things like Golems I'd suggest the Pulp Gear Toolkit, since it has stats for Animated Terracotta Warriors among its fabulous treasures as well as a dedicated section on Zeppelins.

 

[Relique du Madde]

That Pulp Toolkit was just what I was looking for. It looks like my gaslamp fantasy pbp will end up being savage worlds.



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[Dannyalcatraz]

Here's a question for the Savage Worlds gurus: how consistent are the game mechanics across settings? IOW, how easy would it be to fuse Space:1889 with Deadlands and Solomon Kane, for instance?

 

[Treebore]

Here's a question for the Savage Worlds gurus: how consistent are the game mechanics across settings? IOW, how easy would it be to fuse Space:1889 with Deadlands and Solomon Kane, for instance?

The mechanics are identical, you just tweak things to give the "flavor" you want. As an example, how they did the two spell casting types in Solomon Kane, if you have it. The PDF is only $12 for about 2 more days at drivethru right now.

 

[Greg K]

First, if you have been playing a lot D&D, you might want to run something other than fantasy first. That said, there are a lot of good setting choices for fantasy depending upon what you want.

Beasts and Barbarians (GRAmel): already mentioned
Iron Dynasty (Gun Metal Games):already mentioned

Hellfrost (Triple Ace Games): However, you will not need one additional book, but 2: The Players Guide and the Bestiary

Sundered Skies (Triple Ace Games): Post Cataclysmic Fantasy with floating islands and sky pirates

Sherwood: The Legend of Robin Hood (Battlefield Press): by the author who did the Robin Hood for d20 article in Dragon (note: there are two versions: one for d20 and one for Savage Worlds)


Outside of fantasy, you also have a lot of good things:

Agents of Oblivion (Reality Blurs) traditional spies to X-Files

Darwin's World (RPGObjects): the d20 Apocalypse game now in Savage Worlds (Note: 2 books)

Gaslight (Battlefield Press) : Urban Victorian Fantasy

Interface Zero (Gun Metal Games): Cyberpunk

Mars: Savage Edition (Adamant Entertaiment) Savage Worlds version of the d20Modern supplement abot Planetary Romance along the lines Edgar Rice Burroughs Barsoom.

Pirates of the Spanish Main (PEG): Running pirates in a licensed game

Realms of Cthulhu (Reality Blurs) : offers for different styles of Cthulu. Demonstrates that Savage Worlds does not have to be "pulp" in the sense of high action.

Thrilling Tales 2e (Adamant Entertainment): The Savage Worlds version of the d20Modern toolkit/sourcebook for the Pulp genre.

War of the Dead (Daring Entertainment) : 52 adventures in 4 books (13 adventures per book) as the setting for the events leading to a zombie apocalypse world. Starts from the initial outbreak and leads up to a campaign setting that is supposed to follow the four books.


You also have some free games from Triple Ace Games
Daring Tales of Adventure: A small pulp game that is supported by pay for supplements

Daring Tales of the Space Lanes : as Daring Tales of Adventure, but space

Daring Tales of the Sprawl: as Daring Tales of Adventure, but cyberpunk


You also have free one sheets and supplements on the PEG site including:

Crime City Moscow Connection which is a free genre supplement from PEG designed to show how Savage Worlds can be altered to be Gritty. it is located on the page linked above. Scroll down.