Kickstarters Thread

Best Selling RPGs - Available Now @ DriveThruRPG.com
I was fine with the differentiation between the ABs in the original Deadlands: Reloaded. I felt the claim that they were "all the same" was seriously overblown. The underlying mechanics were more unified than in the original game, but they all worked differently. As I bought it at the same time as Savage Worlds, I found it to be a useful set of examples on how to customize ABs.

I ran Deadlands Classic back in the '90s, and it generally bogged down at the table. Combats were so slow, and a lot of the rules really weren't all the practical. For example the rules for mad scientists spending months designing inventions, making blueprints and working on protoypes were "flavorful" but utterly useless in the context of a group of PCs wandering around the Weird West having adventures. The Classic splatbooks had that '90s feel of someone cooking up a bunch of rules without really playing them much.

We ended up having a lot more fun with The Great Rail Wars, the Deadlands mini skirmish game which became the foundation for the Savage Worlds system.
 
Baulderstone said:
I was fine with the differentiation between the ABs in the original Deadlands: Reloaded. I felt the claim that they were "all the same" was seriously overblown. The underlying mechanics were more unified than in the original game, but they all worked differently. As I bought it at the same time as Savage Worlds, I found it to be a useful set of examples on how to customize ABs.
Click to expand...

My concern was that the Arcane Backgrounds in SWADE felt more generic and streamlined, and they promised "streamlined Arcane Backgrounds" in the new Deadlands Kickstarter as well.

But they all still have different powers/backlashes/etc. Blessed have to worry about Sinnin', that sort of thing. Hucksters still have their Deal with The Devil, etc.
 
I'm interested to see Voodooists. They used to be a cool modification of Blessed in Reloaded, but have been more ho hum since Noir.
 
Séadna said:
Sounds good. I like Voodooists but I suppose they're more suited to the 20s-30s New Orleans based Noir than being in the West in the 1880s. I like the idea of having the Hexslingers be a kind of specialised Huckster.
Click to expand...

My biggest issue with the new version of the Hexslinger is the Seasoned requirement. They are different enough, story wise, from Hucksters that it should be something you can do from the beginning (like you can a Huckster).
 
Tommy Brownell said:
My biggest issue with the new version of the Hexslinger is the Seasoned requirement. They are different enough, story wise, from Hucksters that it should be something you can do from the beginning (like you can a Huckster).
Click to expand...
You could always start a game at the Seasoned level if you want Hexslingers to be an option at the start of a campaign. Westerns are a good genre for characters that already have some experience anyway.
 
It's more the idea that someone had to be a Huckster first and then a Hexslinger. It doesn't fit with the fiction, since Hexslingers whole schtick (magic bullets) doesn't feel like a natural progression from the Hucksters and theirs. And I'm not convinced a Hexslinger's "worth" two Advances (buying AB: Huckster first, then the Hexslinger Edge).
 
But maybe I'm looking at it wrong since Doc Holliday did go from a Huckster to a Hexslinger.
 
If my memory is correct from our Stone and a Hard Place game there's a kind of synergy from the Hexslinger combat edges that potentially makes them very powerful. Pushing their entry edge up to seasoned might have been to balance that.
 
I did also notice that they now skip a multiaction penalty for some of their normal spells (like Aim and Smite). That's pretty stout.

FYI, I hear tell voodoo isn't just being folded into Blessed, but that they have something coming in the Companion...
 
Well, I've since warmed up to the idea of DCC and picked up the book. I recently also decided on a whim to late-back for Dark Trails so we'll see. There's just something about this weird west game that makes it seem appealing.
 
Last edited:
I love DCC so I'm looking forward to trying this out. There was a 'zine for western DCC... I think this is born from that.
Deadlands never clicked for me... I mostly blame the group I was playing with. But that just put me off of Deadlands, not the 'weird west' subgenre.

As for not having many 'straight' western games... how many 'straight' games are there of any historical era? Most anything historical I can think of makes a nod toward the mythology/folklore of the time/place.
 
Great summary Tommy!

Stoked, I say! I am stoked.

The Mad Scientist thing has me a little worried...but I'll figure it out. My first character was Dr. Ricardo /burrrrrp, "fuck that Hellstromme guy" Sanchez... he's itching for a rez.
 
Sheesh. The last thing Deadlands needs is the “streamlining” of AB’s. Completely different types of magic coming from different sources of power all working the same way, oh joy...I mean zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
 
CRKrueger said:
Sheesh. The last thing Deadlands needs is the “streamlining” of AB’s. Completely different types of magic coming from different sources of power all working the same way, oh joy...I mean zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Click to expand...

Well... and don't hold me to this, we're still at the start of SWADE. The idea is to streamline at the *core rule*. Settings individually are supposed to be where the real differentiation takes place in order to be authentic to that specific setting. Naturally since you're customizing from that Core SWADE ruleset, this means cross-pollination from one setting to another *should* be easier or at least easier to tweak.

Outside of Rifts, which is it's own "thing" with Iconic Frameworks etc. Deadlands is the first real "test" of the new SWADE paradigm in my opinion.

Edit for emphasis: But I totally agree with you on the presentation of AB being... "samey". I liked the Reloaded implementation of AB's with a heavy emphasis on Trappings to make that differentiation. Especially in other settings where they tuned that up/down as needed. Nothing prevents us from bring that back into SWADE, but I'm going to hold off until Deadlands and the genre-splats drop to see where they wanna go with it.
 
At least the copy I reviewed, powers more or less worked the same as they did in Reloaded. The biggest exception being Mad Scientists, who no longer make Devices that have their own power pool, but devices are just trappings for their existing powers unless they take the Artificer Edge.

And Blessed, which moved to using Power Points after the Good Intentions plot point campaign.

So, if you didn't mind the way they worked in Reloaded, you shouldn't much mind the way they work here. If you hated the way they worked in Reloaded, then you won't much like the way they work here, but you're also complaining about something that's been true for close to ten years now.
 
Simlasa said:
As for not having many 'straight' western games... how many 'straight' games are there of any historical era? Most anything historical I can think of makes a nod toward the mythology/folklore of the time/place.
Click to expand...

It's a bit different though because the Western exists as its own genre in American pulps, literature and most importantly film. They aren't really 'historical' in any meaningful sense.

It is really just a generational thing, I love the classic Ford and Mann Westerns but that is a fan of film including classic films of the Hollywood era. Westerns were once a hugely popular genre form, particularly in the US but hardly without impact around the world but that really hasn't been true since the 70s, the last great period of Westerns in film.
 
Voros said:
It's a bit different though because the Western exists as its own genre in American pulps, literature and most importantly film. They aren't really 'historical' in any meaningful sense.

It is really just a generational thing, I love the classic Ford and Mann Westerns but that is a fan of film including classic films of the Hollywood era. Westerns were once a hugely popular genre form, particularly in the US but hardly without impact around the world but that really hasn't been true since the 70s, the last great period of Westerns in film.
Click to expand...


Now you went and hurt their feelings.

1588143058808.png

1588142936946.png

1588143455280.png

1588142782159.png

1588143378937.png
 
I caved and backed... The list of achieved stretch goals means you are getting one hell of a lot of value out of the two ‘Marshal’ pledge levels. Savage Worlds is very quickly becoming my go-to system so there will be stuff to plunder even if we don’t play an ‘official’ Deadlands game.

Savage Worlds Adventure Edition reminds me a lot of GURPS 3e (in a good way). GURPS 3e had world books with new systems that could be loosely coupled together to put the emphasis on different parts of game play as you wanted for any particular campaign. 4e by comparison is a finely engineered system, and that is a double edged sword. It means you can bolt sub-system together with confidence and they will fit, but there are more unexpected consequences given how tight those integrations are.

SWADE is building up some great product lines (first RIFTS, now a new version of Deadlands) and that gives a huge amount of material to work with. But based on my experience to date the system is more forgiving than GURPS when you put them together.
 
I backed at...the physical core and sandbox box sets, but pdf-only pawn set level. Ranger?

My group at the time jumped straight on Deadlands in 1997 - I think only the corebook and the companion were out at the time. Played that first campaign long enough for all but one of us to die in Devil's Tower. I like the clean-ups to the setting (the ongoing Civil War really was just backdrop) and I haven't paid much attention to Savage Worlds since just after Deluxe dropped. I'll snag the SWADE second printing as an add-on and catch up.

What intrigues me the most is the reversion from ham-fisted metaplot to local spaghetti-western/horror tales. The former made the sourcebooks more fun to read to piece together an ongoing story, but the latter was waaaaaay more fun in actual play. 90's metaplot was a great tool for hooking story-followers into buying (or at least reading) every sourcebook, but would have been more enjoyable if presented as novel lines and/or storybook supplements in retrospect.
 
Oh boy, Deadlands. I am a huge fan of Deadlands. For many, many years the Weird west was my go-to game for my group. I think we ultimately spent more time slinging sixguns and fighting the Agents of the Reckoners than we ever did with any fantasy world. My collection is a testament to this as I think I own every single Deadlands and Hell on Earth book ever published. Yeah, the original rules were kind of a mess, but I liked them. It felt really appropriate that each Arcane Background had its own rules.

Hoo boy do I have some mixed feelings about this new edition.

For starters, I'm not a big fan of the "streamlining" being discussed. I don't see how the Reloaded ABs could be any more streamlined without losing whatever remnants of their unique flavor they still had. This goes double if the SWADE backgrounds are as dry as described. As much as I have enjoyed Savage Worlds, I have found some of the mechanics to be quite dry or too abstracted. SWADE sounds like a step in the wrong direction to me.

My other big issue is this Setting Revamp. I'm trying to think how to communicate this without violating the "no politics" rule but here goes. Removing the Confederacy just doesn't sit right with me. It feels like a cop-out and it's such a transparent concession to Twitter culture wars. I'm not some Neo Confederate type, but as someone who's a fan of the Westerns Deadlands is based on it really grates. To say nothing of the various ways this completely screws over the Weird West to Hell on Earth timeline, it also fundamentally changes the flavor of the setting and IMHO not for the better. It's like trying to write a Weird World War 2 gonzo pulp action RPG but not allowing yourself to have any Nazis in it. Confederates were such satisfying bad guys in OG Deadlands. Nobody feels bad for shooting Calvin Candie in the face.

That said, these aren't deal breakers and I'm willing to see what the word of mouth is. I'll probably pick it up in PDF at least.
 
1) Regarding backgrounds...as I covered in my review I linked above, Arcane Backgrounds are fine. If you hated the existing ones, you'll still hate these. If you liked the existing ones, it's all pretty much the same. In fact, it looks like Voodooists got removed from Blessed and back into their own "thing", even.

2) I don't see any big deal in ending the Civil War in their timeline. Yeah, it affects Hell on Earth, which is getting a substantial revision down the line. But you can still have Confederate sympathizers as bad guys if you like. South Gonna Rise Again never stopped in the real world, either. If anything, it gives you even more reason to have them ever present in the West. Since the Civil War is over, someone is probably all too eager to go out and regroup in those places until they can head Back East and fight the war some more.
 
dbm said:
GURPS 3e had world books with new systems that could be loosely coupled together to put the emphasis on different parts of game play as you wanted for any particular campaign. 4e by comparison is a finely engineered system, and that is a double edged sword. It means you can bolt sub-system together with confidence and they will fit, but there are more unexpected consequences given how tight those integrations are.
Click to expand...
This is very interesting. Do you have an example where 4E's integrated nature affects bolting on rules compared with 3E?
 
It’s hard to give specific examples, but the kind of thing I am talking about is the highly integrated nature of systems. The practical impact of this is that to achieve objective x you need to adjust variable y and that has a knock-on effect on system z which also uses that variable but is counter to your overall aims...

It’s the kind of system interlock which means that, if the Hulk is strong enough to throw a tank, then his punch should reduce most people to a fine, red mist... That example has always existing in GURPS, including 3e, but it just seems to manifest in more places in 4e given the increased number of finely linked subsystems that have been added to the core. At least, that is my impression, and would offer the existence of a book like GURPS Adaptions as evidence that difficulty in using the rules to achieve an aim is a not-unusual challenge.

It’s a natural byproduct of having a more complex system; you get a higher number of unintended consequences. A game with simply a higher rule count but without these rules interactions might avoid them but have a high cognitive load due to the volume of rules instead. Both are undesirable. :grin:
 
The Trilemma Bestiary for 5e is out today, he's working on a B/X and Dungeon World version as well.

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com www.drivethrurpg.com
 
As an illustrator for tabletop RPGs, the desire of my heart has been to give independent publishers with a limited budget the opportunity to still have quality art for their games.


Modern Mythos and Machine is my fourth Kickstarter project designed to do just that. It will be a collection of 75 to 100 or more illustrations created for Modern, Sci-Fi, and Lovecraft themes. As with all of my crowd-funded projects, the specifics of what I draw will be based upon submitted ideas. I hope it is a blessing to you and your projects. I look forward to your ideas.



Join Modern Mythos and Machine and submit your stock art ideas!
 
More Perilous Journeys Splash Page small-05 SocMed.jpg
On May 19, Gaming Ballistic, LLC launched the More Perilous Journeys Kickstarter campaign. It seeks to fund five new licensed, third-party adventures in support of Steve Jackson Games' The Fantasy Trip.

The campaign ends in seven days, on June 13, at 10pm Central Time.

The campaign funds publication of five new adventures for The Fantasy Trip. See your players battle dragons, fight to stop an evil overlord, and discover wonders and horrors as a shadowy patron leads you in pursuit of powerful magical artifacts. These exciting adventures are already written: The funds pay for editing, layout, art, maps, and a high-quality print run.

Each softcover adventure will sport a unique color cover, and contain black and white interiors on high-quality paper. The binding will be saddle-stitched (stapled).

There are three GM'd adventures designed to be played with a referee and a group of your friends. Two are programmed adventures (solos) that can be played with a small group with GM support . . . or played by yourself on the off chance you're asked to spend months alone with little social contact.

c0e3a4584a25ab6f26bab06e91831990_original.png

The Fantasy Trip is an “old school” RPG created by Steve Jackson. Its first element was released in 1977: the combat game Melee (available FREE from Steve Jackson Games!). That was followed by the magic game Wizard and a full roleplaying rulebook: In the Labyrinth.

The Fantasy Trip is more “cinematic” than “simulationist” — speed and ease of play are the goal, not an exact representation of every swing and every defense. The background is unabashedly swords and sorcery. Elves are noble, dragons are greedy, and gunpowder weapons exist but are very likely to blow up in your face!

TFT was off the market for more than 35 years, until 2017 when Steve Jackson regained the rights to his work and set about creating a new edition. The Legacy Edition came out in 2018 . . . and More Perilous Journeys supports that amazing deluxe edition.

73a802baa0f3d01e1e98f3d64c6a0379_original.png

The campaign features five new adventures. Three expect you to run with a GM at the helm; the other two are solo adventures.

Roc of Sages (Christopher R. Rice and J. Edward Tremlett). Beset by Collectors - assassins from the Indhyna League - the party must journey to the Isle of Greater Zosi to collect items for the semi-corporeal Jok Sevantes. Of course, there are several dangerous stops along the way. Roc of Sages is designed for 4-6 characters of 34-36 points.

Catacombs of Living Death (Christopher R. Rice and J. Edward Tremlett). Following the events of Roc of Sages, Jok Sevantes again calls the party to aid him. They must venture forth through a plague-stricken land, and enter the Catacombs of Eulogia to recover the Helm of Baat. Simple enough . . . but things are not always as they appear. Catacombs of Living Death is designed for 4-6 characters of 36-38 points.

The Sunken Library (Christopher R. Rice and J. Edward Tremlett). Set immediately following Catacombs, the players flee the plague-ridden landscape beset by numerous foes. Sevantes' plans reach their climax as his partners must bring all of the previously found artifacts beneath the depths of a lake in Meloria. There, a lost tome sits in the sunken Great Library of Meloria, and matters become treacherously clear. The Sunken Library is designed for 4-6 characters of 36-38 points.

Dragon Hunt! (David Pulver). Baron Gwalathar's armies marched off to war. Without its defenders, the dragons of the wild sensed weakness, ravaging the realm. The young Baroness Tanith Gwalathar calls for heroes: It’s time for a dragon hunt! This is a solo/programmed adventure for one 37-39 point character or two 35-36 point characters. It can optionally also be run with a GM.

Dark Lord's Doom (David Pulver). Another Dark Lord is on the march, threatening to bring death and destruction to all who oppose, and maybe a few who don't. This solo/programmed adventure features a squad of soldiers fighting in an all-out war to defeat the evil Lord Saethor and his allies before it's too late. Will the Dark Lord's doom fall upon the party, or on the villain himself? Dark Lord's Doom is designed for 4 characters of 33-36 points each.

Help push the campaign over the edge: More Perilous Journeys, now on Kickstarter.

fcd48795ec7185a9d96de5c48ae3b6d2_original.png

What will they look like?

Some samples. Some from this campaign, some from "Five Perilous Journeys," the successful precursor campaign to this one.

This is the finished cover to the 40-page solo/programmed adventure, "Dragon Hunt!" by David Pulver. You can also see a WIP for the cover for Dark Lord's Doom in Update #9 on the KS page.

Dragon Hunt Color WIP 2-01 SocMed.jpg

And a sample of the current WIP for the interior layout. Characters are provides so you can get right to playing . . . or you can make your own.

Dragon Hunt Sample Spread-02 SocMed.jpg

Again, preliminary WIP for the layout of one of the GM'd adventures, Roc of Sages. The map is just a place-holder. ENnie-Award winning cartographer Glynn Seal has agreed to do the maps for the final versions!

Roc of Sages Layout-06 SocMed.jpg

When finished, with art, they'll look more like this screenshot taken from Citadel of Ice, from the prior campaign.

Citadel of Ice - SocMed.jpg

The final products are made with 80# paper with strong, thick covers (cat not included in any pledge level).

Five Perilous Journeys Examples Cat - SocMed.jpg

5PJ Covers - SocMed.jpg

More Perilous Journeys
Five New Adventures for The Fantasy Trip
On Kickstarter through June 13
 
Last edited:
Highly recommended! A great line of adventures for a very fun, fresh-feeling fantasy adventure game.
 
I've been very satisfied with Douglas H. Cole's Dungeon Fantasy RPG kickstarters and with their previous Fantasy Trip kickstarter. I highly recommend this kickstarter!
 
Another satisfied past-backer here :thumbsup:

Doug has great people on his team and is also really good at keeping to a schedule, which is an underrated skill!
 
DLD Cover WIP.jpg

More cover progress by the wonderful Ksenia Kozhevnikova! Dark Lord's Doom follows a small squad of four adventurers through a wartime campaign against the titular Dark Lord. The cover is a WIP, with first coloration and still more details and tweaks to go. The back cover text will be punched up as well, of course...all in good time!

The campaign funded on June 7! Now is a perfect time to jump on board. Solo/programmed adventures are a great way to teach yourself game mechanics, or pass the time in the event a global pandemic forces you inside for weeks on end.
 
On May 19, Gaming Ballistic launched the More Perilous Journeys Kickstarter campaign. The campaign funds publication of five new adventures for The Fantasy Trip. See your players battle dragons, fight to stop an evil overlord, and discover wonders and horrors as a shadowy patron leads you in pursuit of powerful magical artifacts. These exciting adventures are already written: The funds pay for editing, layout, art, maps, and a high-quality print run.

Further, as the number of backers increases past 500, the authors per-word rate goes up. This is obviously super-important to them, and if the count goes past 600, the per-word rate is enough to qualify for the Science Fiction Writers' Association. It also helps me pre-load future campaigns and material, and get that much closer to making Gaming Ballistic my Day Job.
More Perilous Journeys
It reached its funding goal on June 7 . . . and the campaign ends on June 13, at 10pm Central Time. There are three GM'd adventures designed to be played with a referee and a group of your friends. Two are programmed adventures (solos) that can be played with a small group with GM support . . . or played by yourself on the off chance you're asked to spend months alone with little social contact.
Roc of Sages (Christopher R. Rice and J. Edward Tremlett). Beset by Collectors – assassins from the Indhyna League – the party must journey to the Isle of Greater Zosi to collect items for the semi-corporeal Jok Sevantes. Of course, there are several dangerous stops along the way. Roc of Sages is designed for 4-6 characters of 34-36 points.
Catacombs of Living Death (Christopher R. Rice and J. Edward Tremlett). Following the events of Roc of Sages, Jok Sevantes again calls the party to aid him. They must venture forth through a plague-stricken land, and enter the Catacombs of Eulogia to recover the Helm of Baat. Simple enough . . . but things are not always as they appear. Catacombs of Living Death is designed for 4-6 characters of 36-38 points.
The Sunken Library (Christopher R. Rice and J. Edward Tremlett). Set immediately following Catacombs, the players flee the plague-ridden landscape beset by many foes. Sevantes' plans reach their climax as his partners must bring all of the previously found artifacts beneath the depths of a lake in Meloria. There, a lost tome sits in the sunken Great Library of Meloria, and matters become treacherously clear. The Sunken Library is designed for 4-6 characters of 36-38 points.
Dragon Hunt
Dragon Hunt! (David Pulver). Baron Gwalathar's armies marched off to war. Left without defenders, the dragons of the wild sensed weakness, ravaging the realm. The young Baroness Tanith Gwalathar calls for heroes: It's time for a dragon hunt! This is a solo/programmed adventure for one 37-39 point character or two 35-36 point characters. It can optionally also be run with a GM.
Dark Lord's Doom (David Pulver). Another Dark Lord is on the march, threatening to bring death and destruction to all who oppose, and maybe a few who don't. This solo/programmed adventure features a squad of soldiers fighting in an all-out war to defeat the evil Lord Saethor and his allies before it's too late. Will the Dark Lord's doom fall upon the party, or on the villain himself? Dark Lord's Doom is designed for 4 characters of 33-36 points each.

Help push this campaign to a new Gaming Ballistic record! More Perilous Journeys, in its last 48 hours on Kickstarter.
 
68% funded in under two days... At this rate, color will be definite!
 
The Black Hack Second Edition Classic Monsters book project is now live on Kickstarter and funded in just 17 minutes. Classic Monsters is designed to support and enhance your Black Hack games. It features over 200 monsters, drawn from B/X and First Edition sources of the The World's Most Popular Fantasy Role Playing Game, all converted for use with The Black Hack.

Check out the project page here:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1730454032/the-black-hack-second-edition-classic-monsters
KSmain.jpg
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Banner: The best cosmic horror & Cthulhu Mythos @ DriveThruRPG.com
Back
Top