Mixing Settings - how does it work?

[chiefarchon]

Hi there

My players and I are looking forward to a reality hopping game and we have discussed using around 5 or so of the Iconic savage worlds settings.

I need to know in advance if there will be any clashing should I install all of the following, for instance I'm aware that that suzerain adds an extra fatigue box, whilst rippers adds the lodge mechanic as well as extra areas for reason and status. how well will all of these play together or will they conflict!!!

Here are the settings that we want to use:
Deadlands (for the wild west setting)
Rippers (for the victorian setting)
50 Fathoms
Wierd Wars II
Interface Zero (for our near future setting)
We will also be using Suzerain to a degree.

for the fantasy setting we will be either using Caladon Falls or Earthdawn.

Other addons we will be using are the horror companion and the supers companion, and the adventure deck. So far I have only purchased some of these but I need to know that they will not conflict if I purchase the rest.

PS.
We can't seem to find a space opera setting, be glad if someone could suggest one.

With thanks In advance for any help that can be given. :)

[Trenloe]

PS.
We can't seem to find a space opera setting, be glad if someone could suggest one.
Slipstream? https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/product.xcp?id=PEG10008FG2

Or is that too pulpy?

[chiefarchon]

Oh yes

I should say that we are a very old roleplaying group who have been playing together for over 20 years now. So we have gotten a bit jaded to say the least. and all of us were roleplaying long long before we even met lol.

So before anyone says it, YES we do know what we are doing and we have mixed genres many many many times in the past and had very good fun with it too.

:p

[chiefarchon]

Bless you Trenloe, what would I do without you :D

Is that a whole game system, or just a set of adventures?


Slipstream? https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/product.xcp?id=PEG10008FG2

Or is that too pulpy?

[chiefarchon]

Slipstream? https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/product.xcp?id=PEG10008FG2

Or is that too pulpy?

Wow Just looked at your link. That is perfect for a space opera setting.

[Trenloe]

Is that a whole game system, or just a set of adventures?
I don't have it so can't personally comment, but the store entry lists a bunch of stuff that it comes with and it certainly looks like a complete setting.

If you're looking for adventures there is at least one Slipstream adventure in the store: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/store/product.xcp?id=ssheartofsteel there are also a couple of Daring Tales of the Space Lanes adventures too.

Handy Hints: Use the filters towards the top of the store page to see Savage Worlds settings, adventures, etc. Oh, and remember to press the "next page" link to keep seeing new pages (a blank page means there are no more pages), it's not obvious if there are other pages or not... For example there are 5 pages for System: Savage Worlds, Publisher: Any, Product Type: Adventure. :)

[Valarian]

Tales from the Floating Vagabond has a similar premise. The central location leading to various other genre specific locations. You could raid that for ideas.

[Mgrancey]

Basis of idea sounds like Suzerain setting, which you said you were going to use as well.

Arcane Backgrounds seem like the biggest, most likely things to get some customizations. In deadlands, straight magic is out; you have patron based magic for most with Chi and Mad Science being the other 2 available and with The Flood PPC more options for Martial artists.

Played Slipstream for a bit, but outside of Psionics possibly being a little different and more indepth I don't recall anything that really stood out for different. A couple of ship/captaining edges over other systems, which could be important depending on how you plan to jump, such a spelljammer.

Final thought if you aren't aware of them
Savagepedia (https://savagepedia.wikispaces.com/)
Savage Heros (https://savageheroes.com/)

would probably be a great help.

[chiefarchon]

Wow thanks Mgrancey I didnt know about those, they could prove very useful.


Basis of idea sounds like Suzerain setting, which you said you were going to use as well.

Arcane Backgrounds seem like the biggest, most likely things to get some customizations. In deadlands, straight magic is out; you have patron based magic for most with Chi and Mad Science being the other 2 available and with The Flood PPC more options for Martial artists.

Played Slipstream for a bit, but outside of Psionics possibly being a little different and more indepth I don't recall anything that really stood out for different. A couple of ship/captaining edges over other systems, which could be important depending on how you plan to jump, such a spelljammer.

Final thought if you aren't aware of them
Savagepedia (https://savagepedia.wikispaces.com/)
Savage Heros (https://savageheroes.com/)

would probably be a great help.

[chiefarchon]

I think I had that one many years ago, if its the one im thinking about my players didnt like it, not serious enough for them lol.


Tales from the Floating Vagabond has a similar premise. The central location leading to various other genre specific locations. You could raid that for ideas.

[chiefarchon]

Still leaves me with my major question, which is:

Will all these addons conflicts when all loaded into Fantasy grounds?

[Trenloe]

Still leaves me with my major question, which is:

Will all these addons conflicts when all loaded into Fantasy grounds?
Sorry to say - they definitely will at the extension level. The themes will conflict - I wonder which one would win out?!?

The way extensions work is that they overwrite code in the base ruleset (they usually overwrite whole files of code) - the last one to load will overwrite the previous ones to load. This load order can be controlled by modifying the extension loadorder in each extension, but this could still give results you're not expecting as bits of an earlier loaded extension may or may not be overwritten and the base code the later extension is relying on may no longer be in place. This sounds complicated, but it essentially means that you can really only run one extension that modifies a specific piece of code.

I'll try to explain, using the following example - with code sections being labelled as A, B, C, etc.. If the ruleset is loaded and then 2 extensions:

Ruleset loaded. Code section A, B, C, D and E initialised.
Extension 1 loaded - Code sections A and B overwritten.
Extension 2 loaded - Code sections A and C overwritten.

From the above example, extension 2 completely overwrites the code from section A for extension 1 - removing whatever functionality that provided.

The danger here is also that extension 2 may be expecting code section B to be the same code as in the core ruleset, but the system will currently be using B code from extension 1 and so extension 2 may not work as expected.

I hope I'm explaining this OK and you're getting the gist of it...

Now, onto modules... Modules do not change the base code - they provide data in the form of library entries and some campaign entries (e.g. NPCs, etc.) that can be used in a campaign. So, in general, they can all be loaded at the same time so the GM and players can reference them. However, if data within a module relies on an extension being loaded (such as NPC data or different PC data structures specific to the setting) then some portions of a module may or may not work depending on which extension is successfully loaded at that point.

Suggestion
All of the above may sound very complex and may have you thinking that you won't be able to run the type of campaign you are thinking of. This is not actually the case... It will require a little bit more planning on the GMs side (when doesn't it?) but the main thing to keep in mind is that PC and NPC records can be exported from one campaign into another. This allows you to run an adventure with the Deadlands setting in one FG "campaign", then export PCs and NPCs and then run an adventure in the 50 Fathoms setting as a new FG campaign, then export the PCs and any required NPCs to another campaign to run the next adventure in whatever setting you choose next.

This will allow you to use the setting extension specific to that adventure setting without fear of it clashing with another (as you won't have Deadlands and 50 Fathoms active at the same time).

Think of the FG "campaign" as actually an "adventure", not an ongoing RPG campaign. This will allow you to mix the settings from one adventure to the next and using the FG export/import functionality to move PCs and NPCs from one adventure to the next.

Hope the above makes sense?

[Valarian]

I'd just go with one of the settings for the rules and use the modules from the others. It's simpler.

[ddavison]

I routinely test multiple systems within a single test campaign for Savage Worlds. You only want a single extension active at once, but that might lead into a pretty cool game-play experience anyway. After all, the rules of the new environment are now different and it would make sense that certain things would no longer exist. The fact that the skin is now different should actually help reinforce the new setting.

The library modules will all be available at once and you can use monsters, npcs and edges from across different environments. The biggest potential problem I see is changes to character sheets, but then again that might work okay in a similar fashion. When you plane hop, would you also lose access to those? If you ever hop back, those items should still be there. (they exist inside the campaign's db nodes but may no longer be accessible or displayed)

-Doug

[chiefarchon]

Thanks you have all given me a lot to think about. And thank you again Trenloe for explaining things so clearly :)