Another vote for 50 Fathoms because, basically you get to play this. My players had a blast.

Rippers was pretty cool too :

Quotea game of supernatural horror, where players lead Victorian-era monster hunters—the Rippers—against a confederation of monsters and madmen known as the Cabal. [...] The Rippers are human, but they are far from helpless prey. Some wield arcane biotechnology "ripped" from the very creatures they hunt. Others invest in the latest technology—incredible devices of iron and steel powered either by steam or, more recently, by electricity. Still others practice ancient magic, or perform miracles. A rare few rely on nothing more than their own cunning and courage.

The plot-point campaign is a bit over the top but great in a "Stephen Sommers' Mummy" kind of way

And Savage Justifiers, because I wrote the damn thing.

But to be honest I think there are a lot of great settings for the game (Accursed, Weird War 2, Deadlands Noir, Beasts and Barbarians, Streets of Bedlam...). It's hard to choose !

What´s that Marchland setting about? I can´t find a lot about, except that it might be like Changeling the Dreaming.

I nominate Necessary evil.

Its the setting that makes me want to play savage worlds again even though I had a bad first date with savage worlds.

Quote from: YourSwordisMine;735468Space 1889 Red Sands

Because it is Space 1889

That's all the reason needed.

Space:1889 is magnificent, but I just wish it had been done with a new edition inspired by the original rules, rather than by making it into a SW setting.

It seems to me that Savage Worlds settings in most cases are really broad, but not necessary very deep. That suits me perfectly. It's broad enough to do different things with them. And it's just deep enough to get me interested without giving way too much info. Often they have a small metaplot event (Hellfrost, Day after Ragnarok, 50 Fanthoms) to make it even more interesting.

And I really like Plotpoint Campaigns. The best compromise between sandboxing and storytelling.

Quote from: jan paparazzi;737170And I really like Plotpoint Campaigns. The best compromise between sandboxing and storytelling.

I read an interview with Shane Hensley where he said that, other than the original Plot Point in 50 Fathoms, none of them have worked as well as he'd hoped.

I haven't had a chance to run or play in one, despite desperately wanting to, so I don't know what he's referring to. Anyone have any idea?

Quote from: Daddy Warpig;737193I read an interview with Shane Hensley where he said that, other than the original Plot Point in 50 Fathoms, none of them have worked as well as he'd hoped.

I haven't had a chance to run or play in one, despite desperately wanting to, so I don't know what he's referring to. Anyone have any idea?

The idea behind a Plot Point Campaign is that they give you in the campaign book a mix of full adventures and detailed adventure hooks/summaries, which can be strung together in to a campaign by a party with minimal GM effort, and which put the players broadly in control of the progress of the story.

In broad terms, think of it as them giving you an X-Files season, where they've given you detailed write ups for the five myth arc advancing episodes for that season, and then given you 40 or so ideas for what the other 17 episodes will be.

50 Fathoms, as I recall (not played it and not going to run and double check just to make this post) gives the players a lot of geographical freedom (they have a boat), and dangles in front of them some pirate style mysteries where they're never quite sure which island the clues point to. So the players can decide they just want to do pirate things, in which case when the GM wants to advance the plot he can spring it on them as a complication ("the island you were told is full of buried treasure is actually home to the mysterious witches you were supposed to be chasing"), or they can try to pursue the plot, but likely they still won't go the to the right place first time every time.

The trick is balancing the degree to which the key events are there and in the player's control to aim for is they want, with the degree to which the players are motivated to do anything other than that. Plus of course for obvious reasons Pinnacle don't want to just re-use the 50 Fathoms approach every time.

The one Plot Point I have played is the one in Savage Worlds of Solomon Kane (the other PEG setting I've run is Evernight, but that's a full scripted campaign that pre-dates the plot point concept). The overarching plot of Solomon Kane is essentially "we need five items of mystical power, that a great evil is preventing me from locating at any resolution more precise than which continent they're on. They're spread out one to a continent, so get looking". So basically the party just starts following up on rumours and trekking round the world, getting in to a different adventure every week. When we started the campaign I presented rumours and let them pick, but as time moved on we shifted to running it more as a railroad, as the players were enjoying the campaign but getting increasingly disinterested in the side stories, so it made sense to cut them down and focus more on the key events.

All in all our campaign ended up feeling a lot like the Incredible Hulk TV show from the 70s. The PCs would roll in to town, hear rumours about what was wrong here, go deal with it, and then leave town again. We had a good running subplot about a magical book for a while though (came from one of the Solomon Kane supplements, and actually added more of a sense of urgency than the main plot ever had - honestly if that book had been the driver of the PPC things might well have worked better for the whole campaign).

50 Fathoms works really well because the world is mostly flooded and its relatively small. You can sail around the world in 30-60 days if you have a good enough captain/elemental air mage with zephyr and a large ship with a good travel speed. So 3 + 4 for a raise on boating +5 for zephyr +6 for a raise on zephyr. So that many squares on the 50 Fathoms map of movement. We all bought maps in game and printed them out for personal use as well to plot our own course. By the end of the campaign we literally (and I mean it, we sailed in a circle around the Flotsam) sailed around the world of Caribdus twice tying up all the loose ends before we started the endgame. The Adventure Deck helped a lot too, since we could play Spurred On on a 6 square result and travel 12 squares lategame, meaning we were really motoring around that world.  

The lack of land is also a huge benefit. We can fish and try to survive, but its much easier to go to a port and buy hard tack for the journey. Now that we are going to a nearby port or land mass, events trigger. Now in Deadlands: The Flood its a similar situation, but its easier to go around towns and avoid them for specific towns because rail, horse, or boat will get us there quickly or quick enough (And we are gonna get a blimp soon...with no good pilots though. Wyn has Ace and no Piloting skill and Josephine has a d4 in it, still Ace make's Wyn a bit better because he can soak for the blimp). So unless the group has a real good reason to do a sidequest from The Tombstone Epitaph, it makes it easier to beeline for the end goal. Besides our allies in Shan Fan and Perdition, we haven't really strongly bonded with any of the NPCs so far in 17 sessions.  

This became a similar issue in 50 Fathoms for us because we needed to go to western ports for the merchant to pick up his money for the month with his rich edges and the noble of Kaja to pick up his money for the noble/very rich edge. But the merchant's shops being in the west and Arfk in the north and many of our quests taking us to the eastern Kieran Empire or the southern isle of Torath Ka had us going in circles around the world. But going to the same places doesn't help the Plot Point system in many games, because there are only so many quests in each town.

One of the things that helps 50 Fathoms out in this regard is that there are time arcs in some of the towns because of event triggers that happened in the campaign later. This has some of the plot points triggering later on sort of stored for later use in a way. This makes it a little less linear. It also gives the world more of a feel of a living and breathing place.

And as the merchant expanded his shops, we slowly changed the feel of many of the western island towns. And Kaja changed as well as the noble tried to make Arfk into a power in the world of Caribdus. We changed the look of the once isolated port into a town with a booming economy. So when you combined what the game world did with its own time arcs and what we did with our character story arcs, it made 50 Fathoms vibrantly alive.

I'm sure Deadlands: The Flood has some triggers later, but for now it seems more linear. Of course, our own character arcs/backgrounds are so interesting that they have been taking up more screen time than the minor savage tales.  The reason that Perdition becomes a focus is Josephine's hated enemy, Dr, Gunther has a base nearby. Hitoshi wants to take down Kang, so Shan Fan is a great place to be to perhaps forge an alliance with Kang's enemies to try and deal a mortal blow to him. I don't want to go to Shannonsburg because its Confederacy territory (And my Wanted [Major] for desertion is a whopping $6000 CSA dollars), and we have made ourselves unwelcome in Lost Angels due to our own actions. So we have 2 major areas we want to be at and 2 we don't. Which doesn't work quite as well.

Then again we made ourselves unwelcome in the Kieran Empire as well, but we would still roll through their territory with our fleet and just dare them to take us on by the endgame in 50 Fathoms. But that is the thing about hitting legendary in Savage Worlds and gaining a huge reputation, you have that kind of confidence to even go into places you are not wanted. Not a place our group is at yet in Deadlands.

The general best way a PPC can work is by having a game system where the PCs really need the towns for some reason. In 50 Fathoms we needed food, but the real reason was ammunition. Gunpowder and Cannonballs can't be found in the ocean. And for most crews, without an elemental water mage, fresh water becomes a major issue in 50 Fathoms as well.  So these reasons as well as boat repairs drive you to the ports and towns. Plus every 30 days you need a drink (carousing) or start going sea crazy. Another way to force you into those towns and trigger those PPC events and Savage Tales. Deadlands: The Flood wants to work similarly, but so far our scale of need does not come close to what we had in 50 Fathoms where a friendly or even not so friendly port was such a welcome sight. Feeding ourselves and our horse (3 food and water each), feeding ghost rock to Wyn's bike, and our ammo needs just are not as big a deal as trying to feed an entire pirate crew and keep our guns working.

The blimp might be a very good thing, because it may require a lot of ghost rock and change our scale of need. We might need a lot more cash to keep it going. Which means more sidequests, especially ones where ghost rock is the prize.

Quote from: jan paparazzi;736226What´s that Marchland setting about? I can´t find a lot about, except that it might be like Changeling the Dreaming.

Marchland is essentially an urban fantasy setting set in a town in the US. It has a heavy Celtic vibe for the supernatural. PC types are mortals, fae-blooded (includes vampires and shapeshifters), ghosts or mages. So, it can do Changeling the Dreaming, as well as Dresden Files or most of the WoD lines. Its also capable of doing something light or dark depending on taste.

There's a decent "Look Inside" preview on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/0985954310?tag=heartgames-20&camp=14573&creative=327641&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0985954310&adid=1D3JNX9ZF60Z0DJ3D072&&ref-refURL=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hearthstonegames.com%2Fnews%2F

Quote from: Daddy Warpig;737193I read an interview with Shane Hensley where he said that, other than the original Plot Point in 50 Fathoms, none of them have worked as well as he'd hoped.

I haven't had a chance to run or play in one, despite desperately wanting to, so I don't know what he's referring to. Anyone have any idea?

I will make another thread about this. I really like the idea, I just don't have a lot of experience playing them. What I like about it is not necessarily playing them out of the box, but the approach to GM'ing. I was kinda bored with oldschool sandboxing, but I can't really get the hang of WW way of storytelling. It's too railroady and has chokepoints. This seems like the right mix.