Win Free Stuff

DriveThruRPG is kindly offering a 20% discount on some products for readers of DriveThru affiliates, such as The Savage Troll. Check out the products below. If you decide to purchase any, use the code DriveThruApril at checkout to receive your 20% discount.

Savage Worlds Fantasy Companion [Pinnacle Entertainment]

Realms of Cthulhu [Reality Blurs]  Review

Karma Roleplaying System Core [Bards and Sages] 

FantasyCraft [Crafty Games]

Fat Dragon's Dragonshire Deluxe [Fat Dragon Games] 

Paths of Power (Pathfinder System) [4 Winds Fantasy]

Spycraft: Real American H.E.R.O.es [Crafty Games]

Fellowship of the White Star Campaign Book [Thenodrin Presents] 

Ninja Burger RPG (2nd Edition) [aetherial FORGE] 

Heavy Gear Blitz! Locked & Loaded [Dream Pod 9]

Hero's Handbook: Dragonborn [Goodman Games]

Splicers RPG [Palladium Books] 

Noir Knights (Savage Worlds) [Savage Mojo]

As a bonus, anyone that comments on a post between now and June first will be eligible to win a $10 gift certificate to DriveThruRPG. The only criteria is that you be a follower of this blog (see friend connect in the side bar) and you have a DriveThruRPG account.

A Savage Thanks,

Keith and Derek

Kickstarter is new for Pinnacle, but not Savage Worlds

Pinnacle Entertainment Group used Kickstarter for its latest project: Deadlands: Noir.  A very active support base pushed the project well past it's $8,000 goal in a matter of hours.  Kickstarter fits well in with the close community feeling of Savage Worlds.  While this is a new direction for Pinnacle, it's certainly not new for others in the Savage Worlds family.

I am no longer a Kickstarter newbie.  I've supported 6 projects and enjoyed them all. I have, however, started to see some interesting differences in the various approaches. With Pinnacle entering the fray, I'm both excited and a bit quizical.

Note: This blog is only concerned with the gaming projects on Kickstarter with a special focus on Savage Worlds projects.

Felicia Day Wielding a Chainsaw

Felicia Day Wielding a Chainsaw

We're getting a fair number of hits for Felicia Day with a chainsaw thanks to our reviews of Geek and Sundry along with this odd post (I honestly don't know what I was thinking when I put that one up). So, for those looking for the actual Felicia Day with a chainsaw video, it's posted here in hopes the gods of Google will become distracted by this clever ploy.

Duck Note: This is from the G&S Channel Flog (Felicia's Blog).

The video also has stuff on cute animals with Felicia hitting glass-breaking pitch yelling "They're so CUTE!" Of course we, being savages, aren't into that sort of thing.
(but they are cute).

Duck Note 2: Since we are wayyy off track but having fun: Shout out to fellow Savage Blogger: Wine And Savages! (you'll see why in a second)  According to Felicia's Flog above, she is a big Lord Darcy fan! AND, before she plays with the chainsaw, #2 on her Fave Five is the Lizzie Bennet Diaries on youtube. So, to Sean B. at Wine and Savages, we're discovering more Jane Austen gamer fans all the time. Your idea for a Regency / Gothic Savage setting potential audience is getting bigger and bigger!  I now return you to your regular programming.

Tabletop Episode #2 Settlers of Catan - 5 Fun things I learned

 by Savage Duck
(returning to Savage Worlds and MapTool soon)

Geek and Sundry and Tabletop YouTube Channel

Host: Wil Wheaton - Dr. Isaac Parrish on Eureka

Neil Grayston - Douglas Fargo from Eureka

James Kyson - Ando from Heroes

Jane Espenson - writer/producer Buffy, Caprica, Game of Thrones

Game Blurb: The Settlers of Catan from Mayfair Games is an award-winning strategy game where players collect resources and use them to build roads, settlements, and cities on their way to victory. The board itself is variable, making each game a little different from the next. Each round of The Settlers of Catan is intended to keep three or four players ages 10 and above engaged for up to 90 minutes.

5 Fun things I learned:

• Each player's dice roll can end up giving others new resources. Nice!
• Roll a 7 and the robber comes out. "The robber is a d*ck," sayeth the Wheaton. There were ALOT of 7's rolled in this game which moves the robber around. If it sits on your property, you can't get any resources from it. Ouch. 20 minutes into the show a 7 was rolled 29% of the time instead of the 18% that statistics say should happen.
• Goals: Build: Settlements, upgrade to Cities, build the longest road, build the largest army, and buy Development cards. Get 10 victory points and you win.
• Coolest trivia discovery - in the Neil Grayston bonus interview: He just finished making a Syfy Movie called "End of the World" with Greg Grunburg (the telepathic cop Matt Parkman in Heroes) where they play two video store clerks trying to avert the end of the world with their disaster movie knowledge. Tongue in cheek fun coming soon.
• Grayston credits his playing DnD in High school for prompting him to become a professional actor. His group loved drama and it was a natural fit.

Blog Bonus: I've seen Jane Espenson on several writers panels at Comic-con San Diego. Here's a writers panel at a Creation Entertainment convention Serenity 2009 in Burbank one with her and  Tim Minear.

Jane came out strong and appeared to really know what she was doing. Then Neil pulled a series of Eureka moves.....just watch and enjoy!

Stay Savage!

Review - Deadlands Reloaded: The Flood

Deadlands Reloaded - The Flood
Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Author: Shane Lacy Hensley, Matt Cutter
Price: $19.99 on DriveThruRPG

The Savage Troll continues its trek through Deadlands and I must admit, it's a scary journey. Those of you who read the reviews of the Player's Guide and Marshal's Handbook will be glad to know this review will ere on the side of brevity. While I believe in exhaustive reviews of rule books, adventures - such as this one - need to remain far more secretive. We don't want to give away any surprises to your posse.

Deadlands is easily the largest property in the Pinnacle Entertainment Group's product line. The 15+ year old setting has seen four RPG systems with a mountain of supplements including rule books, adventures, trail guides, and plot point campaigns. The Flood is a plot point campaign centering around the starved region of the West coast.

Review - Deadlands Reloaded Marshal’s Handbook Explorer's Edition

Deadlands Reloaded Marshal’s Handbook Explorer's Edition
Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Author: Shane Lacy Hensley
Price: $19.99

The only thing to fear is fear itself, unless you’re a character in Deadlands. In that case it isn’t Fear but the thing generating it you have to worry about.

In Deadlands, Fear feeds evil in a very real way. It generates energy to feed the Reckoners. The Manitous bring that energy to the Reckoners who use it to spawn even greater terrors.The Manitou’s job is to Terrorform the Earth for their masters.  It’s a vicious cycle that ends when Earth has turned into a mirror image of the Reckoner's home, called The Deadlands so the they may walk the Earth and feast on humanity's fear first hand.

It’s the job of the heroes - called a posse - to fight the plots, persons, and panics that infest the Weird West. Sadly, humanity generates a great deal of fear on its own. The two American nations may have a truce but their spies and provocateurs cause all sorts of mayhem, especially in the disputed territories of Kansas, Colorado, and what’s left of Oklahoma.

Review - Deadlands Player's Guide

Product: Deadlands Player's Guide - Explorer Edition
Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Authors: Shane Lacy Hensley, B.D. Flory, and Matt Cutter

Price: $14.99

Pinnacle Entertainment Group launched another in the line of their flagship setting, Deadlands. This release contains all the information you need to generate a character, from concept to creation.

Deadlands is a genre mashup of the Wild West, Horror, and Steampunk settings called the Weird West. It features card shark spell casters, mad scientist inventing infernal devices, quick draw gun men, fire and brimstone preachers that can call down actual fire and brimstone, and native American shamans on first name basis with their nature spirits. Oh, and lots of Kung-fu action as well.

The eight-time, award-winning setting began as it's own rule set back in 1996. It's been ported to d20 and GURPs, and finally settled into the Savage Worlds system with Deadlands:Reloaded. The most recent rule books, Player's Guide and Marshal's Handbook, come in the oh-so-convenient explorer's edition format.