Good to know!
Possibly trying Savage Worlds: Deadlands or other Settings
Good to know!
ValhallaGH
Explorer
This issue ties back into Pinnacle's basic design model.
You have to buy the core rules to go with your chosen setting. But, when they update to a new edition they'll reprint the updated Core Rules.
Your setting book(s) remain unchanged. So a setting bought in 2004 is just as valid and almost as mechanically useful as a setting bought in 2012 for players with the (nigh-ancient) Savage Worlds: Revised or the shiny-new Savage Worlds: Deluxe.
The core rules have evolved but this has had minor effects on the various Savage Settings.
(PEG is on their fourth or fifth edition, depending upon how you count these things; but they use the traditional literary definition of "edition" instead of the zany RPG definition.)
The two exceptions are Solomon Kane and Pirates of the Spanish Main; both were licensed properties that had to be complete and independent RPGs. So, both have the then-current version of the Savage Worlds core rules in the text, meaning that you only need those books. Every other savage setting just gives you the rules that are new for that setting and then spends pages talking about the crazy and amazing things that make the setting worthwhile.
I've become a real fan of this approach. Much like the GURPS model, but with a higher ratio of settings instead of the (excellent) genre-books that make up the majority of any GURPS library.
I think we are still waiting on some things.
Well, I've been a HEROphile since Champions first hit the shelves back in the early 1980s- the 4th RPG to grace my shelf after D&D, TFT:ITL, and the original Traveller- and my fave of all time.
But it isn't for everyone...so I'm always looking for systems that can handle multiple genres with minimal tweaking, in order to facilitate cross-genre campaigns. GURPS wasn't my cuppa, and M&M didn't appeal to some of my current gaming buddies even as a supers game...
Who knows, maybe SW will fit the bill?
My 4E group gave SW a try and didn't "get" it the first time around. We tried using the test drive rules and my players tried to play them like 4E. It wasn't great, but we will definitely give it another try.
Someone else said don't start with Fantasy, I can't say that enough. Start with something really different from Fantasy or they'll try to play it like D&D.
Someone else said don't start with Fantasy, I can't say that enough. Start with something really different from Fantasy or they'll try to play it like D&D.
Personally, I would love to 5e designed in a format similar to Explorer or Deluxe.
1. Page Count: There is a lot of stuff in those 160 page books. Deluxe gives you
a. Design Notes
b. Race Creation rules
c. 16 character archetypes
d. A good fast tactical system that with maneuvers, called shots, Tricks, Tests or Wills lets you do nearly all of the stuff you can do in 4e (push, pull, slide, trip, place effects, lure people in) without 100's of powers
e Rules for tailoring lethality
f. By giving base powers and letting people fill in the trappings, you don't waste page count with countless powers. I might have preferred the list looking more like that of Champions or M&M (without the power modifiers), but with the Savage Worlds blast, burst, bolt approach to attacks.
g. The way edges are handled, you are not swamped with endless feats.
h. one sheet adventures
i. other goodies (interludes, chase rules, social conflict rules)
1. Page Count: There is a lot of stuff in those 160 page books. Deluxe gives you
a. Design Notes
b. Race Creation rules
c. 16 character archetypes
d. A good fast tactical system that with maneuvers, called shots, Tricks, Tests or Wills lets you do nearly all of the stuff you can do in 4e (push, pull, slide, trip, place effects, lure people in) without 100's of powers
e Rules for tailoring lethality
f. By giving base powers and letting people fill in the trappings, you don't waste page count with countless powers. I might have preferred the list looking more like that of Champions or M&M (without the power modifiers), but with the Savage Worlds blast, burst, bolt approach to attacks.
g. The way edges are handled, you are not swamped with endless feats.
h. one sheet adventures
i. other goodies (interludes, chase rules, social conflict rules)
If they are like my group they will try to play it like D&D no matter what the genre you pick. We tried playing a game of Agents of Oblivion and the first time they encountered something unusual their first thought was to shoot it or blow it up. That did not end well...
A
amerigoV
Guest
I ran a Deadlanes one-shot recently. The best part was them figuring out this snakeoil salesman was the villian, but they could just not shoot him without proof (they were in a town). So they had to goad him into revealing his villianious self, or sneak around and actually gather evidence.
You could just see them fighting their old D&D ways - "if I could only Detect Evil then I could just attack him!"
It was sweeeeeet.
Another great moment came directly out of how XP is handled. SW you get XP per session (presuming a session is productive), not by killing stuff. I ran a scenario where the PCs came across a ruined town where an Owlbear laired. I set it up so players saw the results of an attack (rended bodies, a body dragged off, etc). The PCs did not need to deal with anything in the town, it was just something along the way. They found the lair in an old barn cellar. Stilll did not know what it was, they hear ominious noises from the cellar.
They plotted a bit, then one player says "ya know, we did not need to kill this for XP. Lets leave it alone and move on." Finally, PCs acting like real people...
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