Kickstarters Thread

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How is Savage Rifts? We played Rifts in high school and had an absolute blast with it. Of course, this was when all we had were the main rulebook, Vampire Kingdoms and I think the Coalition sourcebook. I played a Deveel techno wizard from the Bazaar on Deva from the Robert Asprin Myth books. We also had a Sleestak from Land of the Lost, a werewolf, a Glitter Boy and a half dragon. Crazy whackball stuff. Does Savage Rifts capture that without getting too ridiculous?
 
Man, I really wish there was a tier that was less than $150 that got all six of the books. That sucker's expensive, and I don't even want the box, dice, gm screen, bennies... :tongue:

I know it's a good deal in real terms, but that doesn't make my wallet happier.
 
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The first expansion for the game is unlocked already, but there are three more to unlock as stretch goals, so hop in and help us unlock those additional decks!

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How is Savage Rifts? We played Rifts in high school and had an absolute blast with it. Of course, this was when all we had were the main rulebook, Vampire Kingdoms and I think the Coalition sourcebook. I played a Deveel techno wizard from the Bazaar on Deva from the Robert Asprin Myth books. We also had a Sleestak from Land of the Lost, a werewolf, a Glitter Boy and a half dragon. Crazy whackball stuff. Does Savage Rifts capture that without getting too ridiculous?

I *think* I played Rifts once. Never got around to playing Savage Rifts. They certainly pushed the envelope on the power level compared to standard Savage Worlds. Design team wasn't afraid to twist the mechanics around, but it's still recognizably Savage Worlds.

Main Savage Rifts book has Combat Cyborgs, Crazies, Cyber-Knights, Glitter Boys, Juicers, Bursters, Mind Melters, Ley Line Walkers, Mystics, Techno-Wizards, Flame Dragon Hatchlings, Altara, D'Norr, Dog Boys, Fennodi, Grackle Teeth, Lyn-Srial, Psi-Stalkers, Simvan and Trimadore all as character options.
 
I got a whole lot of mileage out of the Nature and Science libraries done in the '60s. At age 4 the Time-Life Universe book was my favourite, and I used to draw small-child style pictures with promenences on the sun. I would really like to find something like the Time-Life books for my spawn but I don't think anything similar has been published since then - and the originals are something like 50 years out of date.

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Fortunately science is cyclical so pretty soon those books will be current again! :clown:
 
Fortunately science is cyclical so pretty soon those books will be current again! :clown:
"The Mind" (Life Science Library) is a wonderful vignette of the state of the art in Psychology about 1964, a period not long after Kennedy managed to routine use of lobotomies banned. However, instead of such drastic surgical intervention we had this new wonder drug Chloropromazine, better known by its brand Thorazine.

"Man and Space" (Life Science Library) was compiled by Arthur C Clarke and is a fabulous vignette of the early stages of the Apollo programme, along with some pictures of really gonzo space suit prototypes[1]

Sadly, they are badly outdated. However, they were lovely books with production values that you really don't see today.
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[1] fun fact: I did a human factors paper taught by someone who had worked on the space suits for the Apollo programme.
 
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"The Mind" (Life Science Library) is a wonderful vignette of the state of the art in Psychology about 1964, a period not long after Kennedy managed to routine use of lobotomies banned. However, instead of such drastic surgical intervention we had this new wonder drug Chloropromazine, better known by its brand Thorazine.

"Man and Space" (Life Science Library) was compiled by Arthur C Clarke and is a fabulous vignette of the early stages of the Apollo programme, along with some pictures of really gonzo space suit prototypes[1]

Sadly, they are badly outdated. However, they were lovely books with production values that you really don't see today.
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[1] fun fact: I did a human factors paper taught by someone who had worked on the space suits for the Apollo programme.
Once in a while I come across books of that type and generally buy them if they're in good shape and inexpensive. They're great for setting an RPG in a particular era. I have a book on San Francisco published by Sunset Magazine in 1969 and it was perfect for running a superhero game set there and then. Great photos and details of the area, along with maps.

My best find to date has been the 26-volume Time-Life Books The Old West series:
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Once in a while I come across books of that type and generally buy them if they're in good shape and inexpensive. They're great for setting an RPG in a particular era. I have a book on San Francisco published by Sunset Magazine in 1969 and it was perfect for running a superhero game set there and then. Great photos and details of the area, along with maps.
Sunset really got around. My folks had a whole load of DIY books published by Sunset (not that they really did much with them), but they got as far as New Zealand. Very much of an era - from what I remember the aesthetic was very '70s California, although I haven't read them since the '70s or not long after.

Time-Life did produce stuff into the 1980s; maybe some of their later collections haven't dated so badly.

You can often find them on Ebay or Amazon - sometimes they're someone's treasured collection and still in good condition. Occasionally I consider getting some sets but they're pretty big and you could go through several feet of shelf space with them.
 
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Sunset really got around. My folks had a whole load of DIY books published by Sunset (not that they really did much with them), but they got as far as New Zealand. Very much of an era - from what I remember the aesthetic was very '70s California, although I haven't read them since the '70s or not long after.

Time-Life did produce stuff into the 1980s; maybe some of their later collections haven't dated so badly.
This is the San Francisco book. It's a nice hardcover still in fantastic shape. The only way it could be better would be if the interior photos were in color. Not bad for 50¢.
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Got to play this tonight. Was quite enjoyable. The player phase is nice and fliexible and the action economy is fun. I like the art (Mignola of course) and the tile design is nice and colourful. The dice system is pretty straightforward.

We only played the intro scenario so there wasn't a huge amount of tactical depth. But that's to be expected. The Big Boss monster was reasonably challenging.

I played Johan and my only real complaint was that he was really only geared for examining clues. I like that the characters have their own shtick, it's just he was a bit monotonous. Possession is cool, but he doesn't do much else. Perhaps with a more challenging adventure he might shine a bit more.

Oddly despite having the full kickstarter package we couldn't find any clue tokens. There were none of the cardboard ones that the normal retail version would get and nothing appearing as a sculpt (like the inferno tokens).
 
One of my absolute favourite "old books" I own is Reader's Digest's Folklore, Myths, and Legends of Britain

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This hefty volume is so jam-packed with information it's like a set of encyclopedias unto itself.

Each section starts with a map that identifies the locations of various local legends, ruins, mythical happenings, etc

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Thiis is followed up by in-depth explanations, folk tales, primitive beliefs, archaeological evidence, etc. Not to mention overviews of various related folklore subjects, beastiary-like entries on monsters and fantastical creatures, and biographies of significant people

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One of my absolute favourite "old books" I own is Reader's Digest's Folklore, Legends, and Myths of Britain

View attachment 8488

This hefty volume is so jam-packed with information it's like a set of encyclopedias unto itself.

Each section starts with a map that identifies the locations of various local legends, ruins, mythical happenings, etc

View attachment 8489


Thiis is followed up by in-depth explanations, folk tales, primitive beliefs, archaeological evidence, etc. Not to mention overviews of various related folklore subjects, beastiary-like entries on monsters and fantastical creatures, and biographies of significant people

View attachment 8490

View attachment 8491

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Want!
 
Those theme encyclopedias can be really hit or miss, but the TL Old West, and the WW2 series are really quite good and provide great fodder for gaming. They can be found dirt cheap, particularly incomplete sets.


One of my absolute favourite "old books" I own is Reader's Digest's Folklore, Myths, and Legends of Britain

View attachment 8488

Never seen this one, and pretty neat. Nice to see an "everyman" type book on something other than the standard Greek or Norse Mythology.
 
I got into Savage Worlds with the $10 Explorers Edition. It's hard for me to pay more for Savage Worlds stuff for some reason.
 
I got into Savage Worlds with the $10 Explorers Edition. It's hard for me to pay more for Savage Worlds stuff for some reason.
Weeealp, given that $10 books are basically economically impossible for them now, and they've determined that softcovers at all aren't financially worth it, you'll have to if you ever want another physical SW product :grin:
 
It was a great loss leader...but it was just that. Luckily for Pinnacle, if the Adventure Edition KS was any indication, they have successfully built up a fanbase that'll pay market price for their books.

I was a huge fan of the $10 entry, but also understand why they had to give it up.
 
I picked that Readers Digest book up in a second hand shop a few years back for £1. It isn't rare, so should be easy enough to find (on this side of the pond at any rate).
 
How is Savage Rifts? We played Rifts in high school and had an absolute blast with it. Of course, this was when all we had were the main rulebook, Vampire Kingdoms and I think the Coalition sourcebook. I played a Deveel techno wizard from the Bazaar on Deva from the Robert Asprin Myth books. We also had a Sleestak from Land of the Lost, a werewolf, a Glitter Boy and a half dragon. Crazy whackball stuff. Does Savage Rifts capture that without getting too ridiculous?

So the original rules that came out a couple of years ago (I think) are very much SAVAGE WORLDS using the Rifts setting. They have definitely upped the ante in terms of the ruleset. In fact a lot of the material from Savage Rifts I feel leaked into the new SWADE rules.

But imo - it is a very faithful rendition of Rifts using the Savage World mechanics though it couldn't *possibly* cover the massive amount of material in Rifts. It hits the high-points.

This new outing appears to give us all a LOT more. It does capture the Gonzo insanity of Rifts... it even lets you create your own races and guidelines for creating your own "Iconic Frameworks" (the closest you'll get to OCC's). So you can *really* go hog-wild. Just remember it's Savage Worlds - not Palladium mechanics. So don't expect to be getting into the crazy levels of tit-for-tat combat. Rather Savage Worlds evokes the *essence* of what these Rifts elements mean. Juicers are SUPER combat killers, able to fight like the Punisher and Spiderman's love-child. Glitterboy's are *INSANELY* dangerous if they can get that Boom-Gun on you. If you play a Dragon - you'll feel like an immortal flying plasm-flame breathing, super-genius arch-mage that can eat whole villages...

It has all of it in there. With far less rules-bloat.

I backed it for the full $150. I want all my SW books to be in-line with SWADE.
 
I’m still debating whether or not I’m going to back. Ultimately, I’m not sure I’ll ever RUN it...but I love playing with the mechanics.
 
I’m still debating whether or not I’m going to back. Ultimately, I’m not sure I’ll ever RUN it...but I love playing with the mechanics.

Well that's your answer right there. If you're reasonably not going to use it - why buy it? Unless you just like collecting games. Which I say in full observance to the fact that if most people saw my office, they'd assume I just collect "games". When in fact, I only purchase games I actually run...

Getting rid of them once I've stopped running them is an entirely different story... LOL
 
Hard to say for sure. I do game a lot, and primarily Savage Worlds, so when I say “I don’t know”, it’s literally because “will we get to it?”

And, ultimately, my group is badass and will play literally anything once, and Savage Worlds makes that even easier to get them to go along with.
 
Hard to say for sure. I do game a lot, and primarily Savage Worlds, so when I say “I don’t know”, it’s literally because “will we get to it?”

And, ultimately, my group is badass and will play literally anything once, and Savage Worlds makes that even easier to get them to go along with.

Well that's a different story. After all - Savage Worlds is such a cohesive ruleset you can easily just use the sub-systems of Savage Rifts in your other games (if appropriate). For example, I'm currently using the Cyberknight mechanics (but slightly scaled down) for my fantasy game where I have "psychic warriors", and I'm going to use "Mega-Magic" for "Archmage" level play for casters.

So you could still get some use of out it without playing actual Rifts.
 
Well that's a different story. After all - Savage Worlds is such a cohesive ruleset you can easily just use the sub-systems of Savage Rifts in your other games (if appropriate). For example, I'm currently using the Cyberknight mechanics (but slightly scaled down) for my fantasy game where I have "psychic warriors", and I'm going to use "Mega-Magic" for "Archmage" level play for casters.

So you could still get some use of out it without playing actual Rifts.

I am convinced that Savage Rifts could be used for a Fallout game with no changes at all, other than restricting the unthematic character types.
 
Well that's a different story. After all - Savage Worlds is such a cohesive ruleset you can easily just use the sub-systems of Savage Rifts in your other games (if appropriate). For example, I'm currently using the Cyberknight mechanics (but slightly scaled down) for my fantasy game where I have "psychic warriors", and I'm going to use "Mega-Magic" for "Archmage" level play for casters.

So you could still get some use of out it without playing actual Rifts.

Sure. I've plucked liberally from various books for mechanics, stat blocks and etc.

Just trying to decide how bad I want/need all the bells and whistles of the boxed set (which is a GREAT deal if you're definitely running it at your table, since it's all six books).
 
Since nobody stepped up to convince me this game is terrible, I failed my willpower roll in the 11th hour and jumped in at the Wanderer level.


So any other weak willed individuals here besides me?
 
I picked up the PDF only level.
 
I backed it. Hopefully it will get here in time for next Christmas.
It's Riotminds, it will probably get delayed once or twice. The company gives a lot of attention to the production values, in the end the wait is worth. Just saying, don't create any expectations on the release date.
 
It's Riotminds, it will probably get delayed once or twice. The company gives a lot of attention to the production values, in the end the wait is worth. Just saying, don't create any expectations on the release date.

Yeah, looking at Trudvang is what got me to pull the trigger on this. Trudvang is probably too complicated for me but it looks beautiful. I just hope that they put more care into the rules than they did with the management of their ks. It could have been much better if they would have had more of the game ready to talk about and with better stretch goals. I do worry that this game is too early in development for them to have done a ks on yet.

I wonder why they didn't just do a ks for a direct translation of DoD? Did they think it wouldn't sell in the US?
 
Yeah, looking at Trudvang is what got me to pull the trigger on this. Trudvang is probably too complicated for me but it looks beautiful. I just hope that they put more care into the rules than they did with the management of their ks. It could have been much better if they would have had more of the game ready to talk about and with better stretch goals. I do worry that this game is too early in development for them to have done a ks on yet.

I wonder why they didn't just do a ks for a direct translation of DoD? Did they think it wouldn't sell in the US?
Can't comment on that. The way I see it, Ruin Masters doesn't even have a final rules set yet. I do like the art a lot, and thought about baking it sorely because of it. But I didn't saw this game bringing anything new or consolidated to the table, I do believe we already have tons of games on that spirit, even some new games going retro like Forbidden Lands.

Trudvang is actually simple, but after reading the books once more and creating a doc file with all the errors in the book, I have to agree that even If I do believe that the rules are simple, they aren't well organized at all. I remember spending at least 1-2 hours figuring out the sacred forging of the dwarfs because It isn't written in a clear way. My problem at the moment, is that I can't sell Trudvang Chronicles idea to other people, I was trying hard to ran It but I couldn't figure a way to talk about it and be natural at all. I wasn't able to hype people about it, and in the end kind of lost a bit interest myself. I'm having mixed feelings about it at the moment. Like when you are torn between something you like, and sometimes you don't like.
 
Can't comment on that. The way I see it, Ruin Masters doesn't even have a final rules set yet. I do like the art a lot, and thought about baking it sorely because of it.

I'll admit I basically succumbed for two reasons, 1) the art, I figure even if I don't like the rules it will be a nice art book to flip through, and 2) it is Swedish. I have a Danish friend coming to visit next year. The Danes and Swedes have a bit of a rivalry so it will be fun to make his head explode trying to get him to play a Swedish game in America.
 
Example of play is up on the project page and Quickstart rules for trying out combat will be out later this week.
 
It's pretty fun. I'd be tempted to pick up myself if I found £150 lying around somewhere :grin:
 
Only about half that, £74.99, for the retail version
 
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