Savage Saturday

[gamedave]

The new Savage Worlds Deluxe Edition PDF (and hard-copy pre-order) goes on sale this Saturday.

More details here:

peginc.com

The Deluxe Edition will contain some new rules (such as for social challenges), a few tweaks and revisions (the chase rules, which I don't think I ever used, were singled out to be completely rewritten from the ground up), a few new Edges, Hindrances, and Powers, and designers' notes throughout.

When Pinnacle orginally announced SWDE, they indicated a free Errata would be available detailing all of the changes from the Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition, but no word yet on when that might become available.

On a related note, I'm going to be starting a Deadlands Reloaded campaign with my Wednesday D&D Encounters group, which I'll be running after the Encounters session (which usually runs about 7-8:15 or so). If anyone's interested, let me know. There's also always a chair open for the Encounters session.

And I'm now running demos every Monday for Cape Fear Games' "RPG of the Month." In observance of the release of "Green Lantern" (and "Thor", "X-Men: First Class", and "Captain America"), the RPG of the Month for June/July is DC Adventures.

[moviedave]

Thanks for the heads up Dave.

I bought the bundle, so I just got the PDF. They will ship the hard copy in August when it is in print. I'll be ready to play.

[moviedave]

I have not read everything. But the system doesn't look very changed. The most interesting thing so far are the designer notes.

[gamedave]

Jun 26, 2011 15:44:00 GMT -5 moviedave said:

I have not read everything. But the system doesn't look very changed. The most interesting thing so far are the designer notes.

Yeah, this was never supposed to be a major revamp (sorry if I somehow gave that impression). It includes a few tweaks and clarifications, but the core rules are unchanged.

Significant changes/additions:

• "Races". A new race, "android", but more significantly rules for designing new player races have been added (previously seen in somewhat different form in the Slipstream game and the Fantasy Toolkit).
  
• "Archetypes". A number of archetypal starting characters, ready to be played in a One-Sheet Adventure (see below). Not actually very useful to a veteran, but a nice addition for those new to the game.
  
• "Chases".The chase rules have been completely re-written (they look simpler to run now, obviously the intention).
  
• "Dramatic Tasks" (i.e., skill challenges). It's a simple (perhaps overly simplistic) system, and, a bit oddly considering it's obviously influenced by 4E skill challenges, appears to be entirely focused on a single character, rather than a group-based resolution. Still, it's simple enough (like most of SW) that a GM could easily tweak it to a more group-centric procedure.
  
• "Dramatic Interludes" (these previously appeared in a PDF supplement). Basically, during adventuring down time, a player draws a card to get a topic, narrates (in character) a significant event from the character's past before joining the party, and gets a benny.
  
• "Social Conflict". These are presented completely separately from Dramatic Tasks, but seem like a variant of that system. Again, pretty simple (Fast! Fun! Furious!), and easily tweaked and added to by an interested GM.
  
• "Setting Rules". A bunch of optional rules variants to "fine-tune" the rules and add flavor to settings. Kinda interesting, nothing earth-shattering, although the "No Power Points" variant would make spell-casting a lot different.
  
• "Creating Worlds". The section of GM advice on world-building has been partially re-written, including more advice on how to use the Setting Rules variants. Again, nothing earth-shaking.
  
• "One Sheet Adventures". 4 mini-adventures (modern investigation/horror, dark fantasy, sci-fi horror, and high fantasy). They are "one-sheet", btw, only if you print duplex. I really like this addition for new GMs - it gives an idea of the range of settings SW can handle (although I'd have liked a bit more variance - 3 of the 4 are more or less horror, and none are really the high adventure SW handles so well), and gives new GMs some ready made adventures to just plop characters into with minimal preparation. BTW, PEG has a bunch of these One Sheet Adventures for free on its website, covering most of their games and a few genres without official SW books.
  
• Artwork. Pretty much all of the artwork is different from that featured in the previous core book or Explorer's Edition, although, like those, a lot of it is recycled from their other books. For some reason, a lot of features space marines (who don't even have a SW book). Not particularly bad or good - but it did get me jonesing to run a SW space marines game. And no Smilin' Jack! WTF? I miss his ugly mug.
  
• Designer's Notes. As Movie Dave mentioned, these are spread throughout the book. They're not actually as plentiful or detailed as I had hoped for - they are mainly notes from the designers, rather than notes about the design of the game, but still interesting and useful.
  
• Edges and Powers. A few new Edges (Extraction - you can now withdraw from combat without provoking a free attack!). Oh, and you can now take Background Edges after character creation - although the GM may request a plausible reason for suddenly becoming Attractive. A bunch of new powers, albeit most if not all of them had previously appeared in the "Fantasy Toolkit" PDF. A few got tweaks, as well. Note to Jeremy - bolt got nerfed. You can now either increase the number of bolts, or the damage of the bolt, but not both. Note to Movie Dave - quickness got clarified. You get two completely separate turns with their own actions, but both take place on the same Initiative card. Also, more discussion on Trappings and how to use them, and several example themes and effects.
  
• Combat. A few sections have been edited for greater clarity (yes, you can use a benny to remove the Shaken condition even just after failing a Spirit roll to do so). The only significant change is a new basic maneuver (no Edge needed) has been added - Rapid Attack. Now, anyone can make 3(!) melee or 6(!!) ranged attacks as a single action, with a -4 penalty. Don't know why this was added (would have been a really good place for a Designer's Note) - maybe to make combat against Extras go faster and seem more heroic? It really seems like it should have been a "Setting Rule", rather than a core rule, but oh, well.
  

All-in-all, I'm quite satisfied with the book (would really have liked more, and more in-depth, Designer's Notes, though). If you already have a copy of the core rules, and are a player, there's really not much reason to buy it. If you are a GM, though, there's a pretty good amount of new and useful material. And if you don't have a copy of the core rules yet, it's definitely worth picking up. Savage Worlds is, I think, my favorite RPG ruleset.

[moviedave]

I am happy with my purchase, as well. I have become a fan of the system. And it will be very useful if I ever get that G.I. Joe campaign going.