What about Dark Conspiracy going Savage Worlds

[travelnjones]

Hey

I dont know what people would think about this , but what about DC going to an established generic system like Savage Worlds. I saw Space 1889 went that route and figured something like dark conspiracy could as well. it would be nice to see it enter peoples minds again.

[ReHerakhte]

There's absolutely no reason why it couldn't and I recall from a Twilight: 2000 forum I was on some time back that one of the developers of that game (I think it was Frank Frey) posted a suggestion about converting Twilight: 2000 to the Savage Worlds rules.

I've had some minimal exposure to Savage Worlds and it's easy to learn. If you're after a quick moving or a cinematic style I think Savage Worlds would suit.

[Morthrai]

As far as I am aware this is one of the options that Marcus was considering. Maybe we should ask him?

[Zvezda]

He is about to try and produce something better since he no longer has the rights to DC. And now with the CDs around I doubt that there will be something new in the near future.

[Linden]

I used the Savage Worlds test drive rules to run a Bladerunner inspired one off. Went ok but there were a few things I didn't like:

1. Some of the rules strike me as gimmicky e.g. the additional wild trait roll which you can take if it's better than your usual one and initiative being determined by drawing a playing card.

2. The Edges: D20 feats in all but name. Not in favour of characteristics being modified by an ever expanding list of special abilities. Always an administrative nightmare I find.

3. Combat seemed to take for ages when Wild Cards were involved on each side.

I'd be willing to give it another go, but for me the jury's still out on whether Savage Words really is "fast, furious, and fun" (possibly I'd allow them the latter as it was a good session).

[travelnjones]

I didnt realize the intellectual property had changed. Who owns it now?

I have been having this feeling it would almost be a good time for GDW to be revived. Not sure why but I think there would be interest in a few pieces of their back catalog being modernized and given small runs.

[ReHerakhte]

Far Future Enterprises, run by Marc Miller owns the IP for Traveller & its variants, 2300AD, Twilight: 2000 and Dark Conspiracy and I think also for Cadillacs & Dinosaurs
http://www.farfuture.net/

While publishing rights have been granted to groups in the past, the problem is I think, that the target audience for Dark Conspiracy is too small to make it financially worthwhile to republish. The audience for Traveller seems to be far bigger and so it survives.

[Marcus Bone]

Hey

I dont know what people would think about this , but what about DC going to an established generic system like Savage Worlds. I saw Space 1889 went that route and figured something like dark conspiracy could as well. it would be nice to see it enter peoples minds again.

I just thought I'd comment on this...

I tried to create a DC clone using SW. The issue is that SW is a pulp action game, in which the characters are fairly robust and combat can spiral down to a collection of rolls (with way too many failures when enemy Aces are involved).

In the end I found it impossible to reflect a dark, gritty game with the mechanics without doing some substantial system changes (which I feel is going against the who philosophy of SW!).

I do think the simplicity of the SW system, and this is something I want to reflect in Future Dawns. I thought I had a solution... maybe I still do...

Marcus

[ReHerakhte]

I agree that Savage Worlds is probably not the best system 'overall' for Dark Conspiracy. It would be a great set of rules if you intend to run DC as a pulp action game but that's not the way I prefer to run it. After getting some more exposure to the SW system I've found it lacks a certain level of detail that I personally like and as Marcus has indicated, it seems to struggle trying to portray a grimy/gritty world feel.

[Marcus Bone]

I agree that Savage Worlds is probably not the best system 'overall' for Dark Conspiracy. It would be a great set of rules if you intend to run DC as a pulp action game but that's not the way I prefer to run it. After getting some more exposure to the SW system I've found it lacks a certain level of detail that I personally like and as Marcus has indicated, it seems to struggle trying to portray a grimy/gritty world feel.

I guess this is the issue with all games, you need a game system that reflects the style of play. I personally like light and simple game mechanics, but they only really work for certain games.

This is definitely an issue I've face three times in relation to conspiracy horror games, the draft of DC 3rd edition, the SW port and now FD. Getting the right balance is important.

In DC 3e, I went for a rules heavy system to reflect the history of the game, and to reinforce the tactical nature of combat. This was prefect successful (I had first time players getting the core system in a few minutes in the only 'open' playtest I ran).

With SW it was all about redefining the system to get a gritter experience... which was more work than it should have been.

Now in FD I want to get the best of both worlds, the light mechanics reflecting a detailed set of results. I won't say that is an easy task (it's not), but I think I've got a good solution.

Marcus