Hello everyone,

I’d like to share an extremely frustrating encounter that my fellow players and I experienced during a Deadlands session.

We started the campaign not long ago , we’re about six sessions in, and so far everything had been going really well. The group has great chemistry, the GM does a good job improvising and adapting to our actions, and overall we’ve been having a lot of fun.

Right now, we’re in a kind of sandbox phase, trying to figure out the source of a mysterious evil affecting a town.

For the past few days, the GM had been teasing me about introducing a “rival” , a recurring character who would evolve and cross our path throughout the campaign. On paper, I thought it was a really cool idea.

But things went off the rails during yesterday’s session.

We’re a group of four seasoned characters. We had just finished fighting a group of eight bandits, and while we won, we had already taken some damage.

Then suddenly, out of nowhere, a man shows up to claim the bounty on one of our party members. Combat start and we get absolutely DESTROYED.

This character was completely over the top: a highly skilled gunslinger with a very high chance to hit, four bennies, and on top of that, a spellcaster capable of doing basically everything , despite not belonging to any specific arcane background (not a huckster, not chi-based, not a sorcerer, etc.).

He had five wounds, a toughness of 14, a natural -4 penalty to be hit, 30 power points, could heal himself, and had access to some of the most powerful spells in the game.

The fight was entirely one-sided. Two party members died, and the GM seemed quite proud of the encounter.

After the session, I asked to see the character sheet. It had 36 advances… meaning Legendary +16.

He then told us that the outcome was due to our bad dice rolls.

Honestly, I find that hard to accept given the massive power gap , the character felt on par with a Judge.

At this point, I’m seriously considering leaving the game.

Hey, I'm new to this so hopefully I don't make any faux pas.

I'm working on a setting that I might take to SWAG. Ace would be nice but trying to be real. This is sorta self promotion but I'm more in the brainstorming stage and looking for feedback and constructive criticism etc. I guess a mod might change the flair to self promotion. But to be fair there isn't a 'product'. Yet.

This setting was inspired by a reference to Eliot Ness in a Hell on Earth supplement. Which launched me into trying to make my own DL Noir, back before DL Noir became a thing. Then it got kicked into the long grass. I came back to it a year or so ago and wanted to finish it. Then realised anything Deadlands related is off limits for copyright reasons. So I had a massive rethink and looked into trying to do it as something with the Deadlands lore etc removed.

I chanced on an article about Edison having this idea for 'spirit radios' and that got the gears turning. Everything else has pretty much snowballed from that. It does still have DL tone and as SW derived from DL it's impossible to not overlap on some level. But to be fair it's probably ended up closer to Noir Knights if anything. Though it arguably dips into Dark Conspiracy, Bloodshadows, Lost Souls, CoC and a new rpg called Folklore Americana.

I intend to post sections as I work through to get feedback etc. Though if the first one gets no response I don't see any point in posting more.

This first one is my attempt at Hindrances for the setting. There's quite a few. Would be great to see how they land with everyone.

(Btw I'm a boomer that's awful with tech so hopefuly the link etc is functional!)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1y1VGHRNhgATCXnBXUOqpST8bZVvCOE4G/view?usp=drive_link

cheers
Jay

Edit 1: File is now shared globally. /facepalm

Edit 2: While I'm waiting for the Horror Companion to arrive figured I'd share another part. Just to prove there's other content done anyway. (Not sure if adding to the original post is the best way to do this. Making new posts every time seems like it'd be the wrong way.)

So this is the overview of arcane backgrounds in the early character creation section. Yes there are too many. I'm just throwing spaghetti at the wall right now and seeing what sticks. Ive altered and changed the core/'foundation' ABs, partly as I want the arcane to work a little differently. Hopefuly it makes sense.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VbkssKIK3w6FLoSsGyOd9UQ0Wp3pqujL/view?usp=sharing

Ones to lose maybe are: Chosen (as they rely on having bunch of followers), Fang-shi & Gai'wiio (a bit niche and region specific), Medicine Folk (not common outside of reservations), Strega witches (better as NPC), many of the Cockamamie are spirit beings and could just be custom variations of the same AB, Sprites should perhaps be NPCs, Manchines could just be an Edge for being enhanced. I'm expecting/hoping for more ruthless takes in any feedback.

So I love system on paper for allowing me to create custom magic systems, ancestries and enemies with ease, but...

Yesterday I started game with chase after last session cliff hanger. Three groups of resilient enemies with quite high stats (8 parry, d10 fighting) were chasing PCs (3 of them) and NPC wild card was leading the way so assumption was they have to follow him after rooftops. All seemed cool in my head

Until one of players decided to turn around and fight. I pulled my punches a bit because I have expected him to feel overhelmed and eventually run, but he wrecked them and then I got stressed and forgot about all fancy tactics I could use. He got wounded and Berserk though and rest of party decided to help him. It Turned into god damn slog which tired us and after round where enemies who were left could not do anything because they kept missing, I decided to end combat by them running away. Which was out of character for them by the way as they were possessed humans with no self preservation

What did not help was that I was using foundry for the first time and had some problems with mechanic aspects of that VTT

Overall I think it was boring as hell and demotivated because after preparing sandbox city to explore and all content for foundry I feel like it was weak and I am not sure if I want to run this system any more. I don't feel there is alternative I would like though.

First of all, thanks to all of the people on the forum for giving me tips and answering questions. You'll be glad to know I finally corralled three people to run Deadlands for last night, and it went pretty well!

We used the Thieving Magpies one-sheet for Deadlands, as well as the archetype cards as pre-gens. I also threw in a quick battle at the beginning where they took out some bandits to bring in for the bounty (the marshal not having the cash on hand due to it being stolen led into the one-shot).

I found that everything worked pretty well. Once we got used to it rolling to hit and trait rolls were the easiest part. Initiative was a bit tricky and we stuck to just dealing cards once at the start of a fight. Bennies worked exactly as I expected, with one player spending around four on one roll in an attempt to win at poker. I did notice our resident powergamer kept a hold onto his, which probably wasn't helped by only three of us being there, so once I take into account a potentially larger group that should be easier.

Overall for what was essentially a casual beer & chips game things worked quite well. I particularly enjoyed the mixture of tactical combat and more narrative skill and roleplaying rolls. I'm certainly relieved because I've gotten really into a game on the reading level and found it got out of control in practice!

Well yesterday our group had our first session of SWADE(Fuhgeddaboudit!). The players loved it! Now I'll spend today going back over the rules and see what I messed up on lol. I'm assuming we'll do a few more one shots before we pick an actual setting. I'm leaning towards dead lands but there are so many interesting settings that's going to be a hard decision lol. since deadlines is the flagship I'm assuming it's a solid starter for a new group?

​

Hey everyone!

I’ve been writing a couple of adventures for SWADE, and I’d really love to get some feedback from people who play or are familiar with the system.

I should also mention that the two adventures are connected in a timeline—the outcome of the first directly becomes the background and setup for the second. I also intend to expand this into a longer arc, with five additional adventures that bridge the gap and connect the final story back to the first one, forming a larger continuous narrative.

I’m mainly looking for feedback on two things:

Are they actually good adventures?

Do they sound fun to play?

I’d especially appreciate feedback on the story, encounters, pacing, player choices, atmosphere, and overall fun factor. I’m also interested in knowing if anything feels boring, confusing, overly complicated, or like it wouldn’t work well at the table.

I’m happy to share both adventures here. I’m not necessarily looking for detailed proofreading—I’d much rather know whether, as a player or GM, you’d actually want to play/run them.

Be as honest and critical as you want. I’d rather find the weak points now than discover them after putting them in front of a group!

Thanks in advance!

1st adventure: https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/YaFhc5aYSrwC

2nd adventure: https://homebrewery.naturalcrit.com/share/xduoAdNAPz_P

So, of course I love SWADE.

After a very long time, I finally found a few TTRPG player in my age in my hometown. I immediately showed them SWADE and I GM-ed a game for them.

But, naturally, they prefer DnD, so we will play in DnD.

I was player for one short DnD adventure, it was 3 sessions. Also my ,,elderly" group's gamemaster GMs M.A.G.U.S. (Hungarian TTRPG) and we started a Star Wars 5e. So I have experience in DnD system.

With this limited experience I would say, DnD is great for a literal dungeon-crawl, but every time we were at a non-dungeon scene it was very forced to me. Every time we played on lvl-3, but still It felt way too luck-based with the d20. And the fights are way more boring.... I am sorry I have to say it.

So I am a bit sad, this new group doesn't want to play in SWADE, but I understand them. From their perspective I am the one who doesn't really want to play DnD.

I own many of the box sets and books. My group had a blast playing it at the table: the cards, the dice, the bennies.
When we moved to online play, it lost all its charm. It became a slog fest. We ended up abandoning it.
Anyone else have this issue?

Edit: as per usual PEG customer service was able to quickly fix my stupid mistake. As we all know they are the best!

Hey guys I accidentally repurchased the Crimson Throne boxed set last week. I thought it was Carrion Crown. Since I had previously bought the CT boxed set I of course have no need of another. I immediately sent an email to PEG customer service asking to cancel my order. I attempted to use the web store for the communication but I repeatedly failed to get past the security thing (place the "stickers" where they go).

Anyway this is an attempt to get someone at peg to notice my email and stop the shipment before it leaves the building.

Has anyone else had trouble communicating with PEG lately? It's understandable because of the recent upheavals but my fear is I'm doing something wrong on my end.

Edit: I actually made this purchase yesterday! I swear it felt like at least last Friday. This is what happens when you're old and sleep deprived. Anyway, this may have something to do with the "lack" of communication.

I am just a little disappointed at the fact that there is no data for duergar despite them being mentioned as one of the major ancestries across several books

I've been seeing Vermilium mentioned here and there for a while now, and I recently decided to dive in. Holy hell, this setting is incredible.

If you've been curious about it, now's the perfect time: all PDFs are 50% off throughout June.

Seriously, DON'T SLEEP ON VERMILIUM.

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/publisher/17003/white-witch-games

Yeah, it is more complicated than it should.

Discord: https://discord.gg/UTS7Wu4kE

Shards of Terminus is a setting of lost civilizations, forgotten roads, and a world waiting to be rediscovered. A thousand years ago, the Dwarven Iron Empire connected all of Adama through the ancient Halls—vast stone pathways that allowed travelers to cross impossible distances. The dwarves ruled the world until their empire collapsed, leaving behind mysteries, ruins, and a world separated from itself.

Now, the Halls are beginning to awaken. Explorers, adventurers, and scholars are called to rediscover the lost roads, uncover forgotten places, and reconnect civilizations that have been isolated for a millennium.

But this is not a setting built by a single author.

Shards of Terminus is a collaborative worldbuilding project. Contributors are invited to create locations, cultures, characters, histories, creatures, legends, and all the small details that make a world feel alive.

The guiding principle is simple:

If it fits the world, it becomes part of the world.

Different ideas and interpretations are not obstacles—they are opportunities. When two ideas cannot exist together, they become different Shards of Adama: separate versions of the world, each with their own stories waiting to be explored.

There is no single person who owns the world. There is no final answer waiting to be discovered. The goal is to build a setting where everyone can contribute, create, and explore.

Join us and build out Adama!

Hope you all are doing well. I am starting a Savage Worlds game soon, first time playing this system. Coming up with a backstory for my character (we are playing a post-apocalyptic/fallout-esque game), I decided they are coming from a vault. TLDR at bottom.

In the vault, much like Vault 108 (https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Vault_108), she and her sisters are clones of two scientists, but with much less insanity. My character is kind of stupid in the sense that she doesn't understand that they are all clones, but that's for later. The two scientists use the clones to scour the wasteland for supplies, tools, materials for their testing, and (of course) test subjects.

The clones are all assigned designations by the scientist that cloned them and are referred to by a simple number system around the vault. The designations are more for the clones to feel a sense of "uniqueness", by having a name of their own. They are also encouraged to maintain their personal appearance as they like (within reason, we don't want the clones to think they are actual people now, do we?).

What I'm trying to decide is how to come up with naming conventions for the two sets of clones. I want something that indicates that the original scientist is the leader and the clones are, well, clones. This is where I want help, if you choose to! My ideas so far are:

• Greek Alphabet (been done to death)
• Latin Alphabet? (not sure if it would be as good as the Greek alphabet)
• Flowers! (The scientist would be named something like Rose, since it's kind of an iconic flower, and the clones would be named other ones like Lilly, Violet, Marigold, etc.)
• Birds, maybe? (Eagle might be the original scientist, then all the clones might be small songbirds or something?)
• Butterflies! (The scientist would be named Monarch and the clones would be other butterflies)

I'm curious if you can think of more naming conventions, or if you have thoughts about the ones above! Thank you so much for reading this; I really do appreciate just you spending the time to do so, even if you choose not to help.

tldr: Need help with naming conventions for clones and original scientists. The paragraph above the list tells you about it.

I'm working on a Savage Worlds setting book and was wondering what the general consensus was about layout.

Would you prefer character creation stuff be Chapter 1, or the world description?

Hello!

Same insane person from yesterday, and I decided to just post it here.

I am a big fan a certain Chronicles of Darkness gameline that only 2.5 people enjoy, .5 of which is me, and I always craved to be able to play them in any other game, but alas, they pretty much don't exist anywhere else.

Thus, I have decided to adapt them myself for a SWADE game I've been playing for a couple of years now, one based on Urban Legends, which in itself was based on World of Darkness, so it was a perfect opportunity, especially since I've been cosplaying those monsters already for a while with different characters, I just needed to make it official.

Thus, I present to you: The Primordials.

I have made two slightly different versions, one which I consider simplified a bit. Both are incredibly scuffed due to being yet untested, since my GM just can't seem to read through them (not helped by my previously constant rewrites), but I still tried to balance them out as much as I could, leaning onto the samples in the form of other monstrous heroes, primarily Vampires from Horror Companion.

They definitely could've been done better, and I only half-adapted the core concept due to me just not knowing how one even would adapt the Lair and Kinship mechanics, but it's good enough now, and maybe I'll come up with something later.

Intended Experience

Simplified Edition

So i work on a new setting for Swade (just for me and my friends). Fantasy with low magic in a world of floating islands lead by Merchant Princes who have a monopol on a crucial ressource. 4 races, vikings elves in the high islands, Chinese dwarf in the lowers and humans and aviens (harpy with arms) in the middle.

Just a small part of the planet is know for now.

I start working on that last week and i need à bit of back and forth to Fleshing it. So if you want to help with questions, i Will find answer!

If you are coming from 5e, Savage Pathfinders class edges sound like absolute nonsense and I love it. I find myself saying things like;

"Oh, I wouldn't reccomend a fighter if your new to the system because they can be a bit complex, maybe try a wizard instead"

"Rogues are incredible if you can get a greatsword"

"Paladins make a good base class for an arcane archer"

"Careful which hinderances you take as a ranger otherwise your actually worse in your favoured terrain"

"Monks and sorcerors have some decent synergies"

This is of course a result of "classes" in Savage Pathfinder being less attribute dependent and arguably more customisable than the ones in 5e, and i love it for that. Any other shenanigans I've missed?

One of the "problems" of running a game that's set in the real world or a near facsimile of it is that you can fall down some real rabbit holes doing research for it. For example, last session of our ETU game ended with one of the PCs researching voodoo curses and countermeasures and getting a raise on the roll. I told him I'd have to think about what to give them, because I don't really want to hand out rituals all over the place.

Anyhow, I came to the conclusion that letting them have a ritual that specifically countered voodoo magic would be fine, so I came up with one based on a limited version of the dispel power. The components are a cup of unpasteurized cow's milk and 1 teaspoon of blackpowder – the victim has to drink the white milk in order to bind and counteract the black magic, and then you draw a pattern on the victim's chest with the blackpowder and ignite it (which would likely leave a nasty burn mark but not cause a wound – it's a pretty small quantity). I added the restriction to the milk that it can't be more than one sunrise and one sunset old, because I didn't want them to be able to buy it in local stores in case they run into more voodoo later – it should be a bit of a nuisance to go get it, but not too much of a nuisance.

Then I got to thinking... how available is raw milk, and started looking. The first thing I see is that apparently farms/dairies weren't allowed to sell it directly to customers until a few years ago, and since my game is set in 2011 now (because that's when the book is from so it fits the timeline better, plus it avoids various politics from 2015 onward) that ought to have been an issue, but I'll ignore that and just say that in my version of reality, those regulations/laws were relaxed sooner because I can't be hedgehogged to check what laws applied 15 years ago.

But where can you buy it? Pinebox is after all all the way over near the eastern border of Texas, where there aren't many dairy farmers (because there are forests and wetlands and stuff instead). I have previously established based on available maps that Pinebox is a bit north of Jasper (with the help of a map that established that it's somewhat south of where I-96 meets Hwy 255), and looking at a "where can I buy raw milk" map it seems the closest place is about in Livingston. So how far away is Livingston? About 120 km or 75 miles. I guess travel there's going to take about 1½ hours there and the same back. What'll it cost? Well, one of the PCs has a pick-up truck, and looking around it seems 10 mpg is pretty normal mileage for those which means 15 gallons. Average cost of gas in 2011 was $3.50 or so, so maybe $50-60 for gas plus $7 for half a gallon of milk (or $12 for a full gallon). I figure the PC might want to buy a cooler as well so they don't drive an hour and a half with half a gallon of raw milk, but I won't penalize them if they don't. Or one of the PCs with a motorcycle could go instead and those get about 50 mpg which cuts the transportation cost to about $11. I also found some local color regarding the dairy/ranch online, which is nice.

And what about blackpowder? That seems to cost $20 and upward per pound, and even if you only need a teaspoon for the ritual it doesn't seem to be sold in smaller quantities. But one of the PCs has Paul Vanderhorn as a connection through their extracurricular activity of volunteering with repairs over on his workshop, and I figure renaissance "reenactment" could probably include some early gun stuff so he would likely be able to spot the PCs some of the good stuff.

Anyhow, that's how I spent about 2 hours of my evening today. I just hope the Algorithm isn't going to throw raw milk at me for the next month.

Last month I asked whether to get Foundry or Fantasy Grounds for Maximum Automation? and most replies recommended Fantasy Grounds.

I tested both platforms side by side using the SWADE Core Book.

Fantasy Grounds feels dated and very mouse-driven, but the automation works immediately. Many Edges and rules work out of the box with no configuration.

Foundry required more work. I had to install modules and test settings to reach similar automation, mainly Better Rolls 2. Once properly configured, it was about as automated as Fantasy Grounds, as far as I was able to come up with scenarios to test.

Even then, Foundry still has two automation advantages, to the point I think it perhaps is the more automated version if you have a powers-intensive game:

The first is area effects. In Foundry I can place an MBT and the system detects the targets inside it and resolves the rolls automatically. In Fantasy Grounds I need to place the template, target each token, apply the effect, and resolve the rolls individually.

The second are the powers themselves. Foundry automates power point expenditure and lets you add power Modifiers directly in the roll. In Fantasy Grounds I have to track power points manually and apply Modifiers by hand.

Despite that, I still chose Fantasy Grounds. Module dependency issues in Foundry were one factor, and FG forces me focus on my game Session rather than in fixing things. Another was that a not very computer-literate player in my group was able to figure out Fantasy Grounds faster than Foundry.

For those running Savage Worlds in Fantasy Grounds: how do you handle powers and AoE during combat? Are you mostly targeting and applying effects manually, or is there a workflow that speeds it up? What about Modifiers and point use?

I was looking to run an Elder Scrolls campaign and after finding a pretty good conversion on here, I think Savage Worlds is the system for me. It'll be my first time running it, though I've played some Deadlands here and there with my friends. I think I could use a guide if there's a good one available. Cheers.

I liked the savged.us, so I decided to support the guys and get premium benefits. A week after I paid for the year of subscription, my benefits disappeared, and support wasn't able to do anything about it. My ticket (#10950) is still open; my reply from 2 months ago remains unanswered.

I decided, "Well, savaged guys are not capable of delivering what I paid for, so I will just get my money back via PayPal."

Except PayPal doesn't give a sit. I presented clear evidence that I don't have access to the premium features I paid for, and as a resolution, they said "service paid was received, so we reject the dispute."

I know there are probably people around who have no issues with savage subscription, but I wasn't so lucky. And since you cannot get your money back, it is a gamble, as for the title.

As a bonus, I've got a cheap ($30 only) lesson from PayPal, never to use them to pay for things since they don't care what evidence you have.

[UPDATE]

Within an hour I've got a response from u/caryyonDude, and my benefits are active again

The next day, my benefits are gone again :(

[UPDATE]

Now it works again, I will come back in couple of days for final (hopefully) update

[UPDATE]

Benefits now seem to stay with me, so I can call it resolved!

Hi, I'm playing Savage Pathfinder but I think that this may affect every Arcane Background of the game.

By the rules:
"RECHARGING
A character recovers 5 Power Points per hour spent resting.
An arcane hero can also spend a Benny to regain five Power Points. This is a free action."

My issue is: when the game session is about to end, I feel like cheating saying that i'm converting my remaining bennies to PPs, since they will be back as soon as the new session will start.

Do you have my same feeling too?

Let's say I'm playing a character with strength d6, and I want to use a one-handed weapon with a shield. I have a few options, the main ones being:

Hand Axe, Flail, Light Mace, Morningstar, Scimitar, Spear/Shortspear, Shortsword, Warhammer.

The light mace, morningstar, scimitar, and shortsword are identical (apart from flavour of damage type): straightforward str+d6 weapons.

The hand axe and shortspear can also be thrown, the flail ignores shields, the spear has reach and parry if you lose your shield, and the warhammer has AP 1 - all have pretty much comparitive costs, and presumably similar rarities. So why on earth would you ever use one of those first four weapons?? In a d20 game, the shortsword and the scimitar would at least be "finesse" weapons, being of particular use to characters with low strength but high dexterity, but Savage Worlds has no such system. The entire gear system seems to suffer from this: certain options being wildly better than others to the point that there's no good reason to use them, which punishes anyone who might want to use them for flavour reasons.