Edition compatibility, with older content?

[Fear Grounds]

So I'm getting into Savage Worlds, and particularly like the Deadlands: The Weird West setting. I know that DL:WW is made for the Adventure edition of Savage worlds(SWADE). Even though it is just marked as Savage Worlds in the store front.

I also see that there are plenty of content books for Deadlands: Reloaded available in the store front. I believe Reloaded was designed to use the Explorer Edition of Savage Worlds, I could be wrong? If I purchase say the Deadlands Reloaded: Ghost Towns module, will it still work with the Adventure Edition Ruleset that I already have?

Thanks in advance.

[kronovan]

I also see that there are plenty of content books for Deadlands: Reloaded available in the store front. I believe Reloaded was designed to use the Explorer Edition of Savage Worlds, I could be wrong? If I purchase say the Deadlands Reloaded: Ghost Towns module, will it still work with the Adventure Edition Ruleset that I already have?.

The vast majority of the content for Savage Worlds Deluxe companions and adventures will work just fine with SWADE. About the only issue for some SWD adventure modules, is that you might come across a few NPCs or monsters with stats that no longer exist with SWADE. That's mostly due to SWADE having exploded the Knowledge skill specialisations out into the single Academic, Battle, Common Knowledge, Electronics, Language, Occult and Science skills. So for a SWD module you might for instance have a NPC that has the Knowledge (battle) skill specialization, but which is now obsolete and replaced by the seperate Battle skill. Of course it doesn't take much effort to edit them (it's 2nd nature to me & I literally do it on the fly while GMing) by removing the obsolete skill and replacing it with the new. For some stats that have been removed, such as the SWD Charisma derived stat, it just does'nt show up on a character sheet when the module is loaded within SWADE.

The same can be true for vehicles, as the ACCeleration and Climb stats were removed with SWADE and the Handling stat added. Again, the FG SWADE ruleset will just load a vehicle sheet with those stats no longer listed and won't trigger any errors. It can get a bit awkward when you have some of those stats written into the rules, such as they are in a few cases for the Science Fiction Companion vehicle, starship and Walker modifiers and the rules for custom building them. For the most part though, it just takes a bit of logic to adjust. If you're new to SWADE though, except for the odd case, you're probably not going to even recognize the diffrerence. If you've never playe a previous edition of SW though, you should probably to download the SWD to SWADE rule changes PDF, just in case you come across something in an older module that doesn't make sense - sorry don't have the web link handy..

I use the SWD Scicence Fiction Companion, Fantasy Companion and Weird Wars II with the FG SWADE ruleset and rarely have any issues.

[Fear Grounds]

@kronovan

That is exactly what I was hoping to hear. I'm used to converting for games on the fly in the real world, didn't know how much of an issue it would be in fantasy grounds, using this Ruleset. Sounds like I've a whole new collection to read up on. LOL

[dragonheels]

@kronovan

That is exactly what I was hoping to hear. I'm used to converting for games on the fly in the real world, didn't know how much of an issue it would be in fantasy grounds, using this Ruleset. Sounds like I've a whole new collection to read up on. LOL

Yes you have! Enjoy!

[Talyn]

Do a search on the forum, this question has been asked and answered multiple times, usually by me. :) Here's one where used screenshots of the setting (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?56845-Older-content-used-with-SWADE) the user asked about to show what happens.

"For the most part" :) the rulesets + all DLC was handled during development so things that just had a name change between editions, such as the SWD Investigation skill is now Research in SWADE has already been handled under the hood. Other times, the answer will be "it depends," such as the NPC sheet from the above thread I linked, which has the Knowledge (Tactics) skill. That skill no longer exists in SWADE but on the FG sheet, anything in the Skills area automatically comes with a dice roller so it's technically ready to play even though per the rules that particular skill doesn't exist. As GM you can rename it or otherwise make the tweaks you want but bottom line is that you can still just click the dice roller and everything works. I haven't had this one come up yet but in SWD Streetwise was a skill but it's an Edge in SWADE. I doubt the ruleset scripts can yank something out of the Skills section and replace it with the correct Edge (but then again, maybe they do?) so you may need to catch that yourself if it even comes up. The one thing we always warn users about is the few occasions where certain Edges, etc. that existed in SWD have been completely eliminated in SWADE. We're at something like two years now with SWADE content here and as far as I'm aware this has never yet come up but it's still a remote possibility that if a character/NPC had one of those items that are now removed, clicking the link would pop an error dialog as (just like on a web link) that link goes to nowhere.

The official SWD to SWADE Conversion Guide (https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?56845-Older-content-used-with-SWADE) is available from PEG as a free PDF, which we recommend having a copy of to refer to if you're using SWD content. Certain PEG settings also have their own conversion guides as well that go into the specifics for those settings.

[Fear Grounds]

Coming from other game systems, that have little to no backward compatibility between editions, this is a huge relief. A breath of fresh air even. I spend a huge amount of time converting older game content to current editions for games I run.

Thank you for the links, info about the guide, and your experiences.

[kronovan]

Coming from other game systems, that have little to no backward compatibility between editions, this is a huge relief. A breath of fresh air even. I spend a huge amount of time converting older game content to current editions for games I run.

Yep, with Savage Worlds you've really have a Tabletop RPG that got it right out of the gate. So there hasn't been much change to the core from the earliest edition to SWADE. TBH, about the only significant change I can recall is melee weapon damage, which in the original was Strength+fixed number and got changed in SWEX (2nd ed.) to Strength+dice type. Even that just involved a simple formula to convert though.

[Doswelk]

Yep, with Savage Worlds you've really have a Tabletop RPG that got it right out of the gate. So there hasn't been much change to the core from the earliest edition to SWADE. TBH, about the only significant change I can recall is melee weapon damage, which in the original was Strength+fixed number and got changed in SWEX (2nd ed.) to Strength+dice type. Even that just involved a simple formula to convert though.

Don't forgot the core rule rule of SW editions, each edition (including SWPF) will have different chase rules :P

[kronovan]

Don't forgot the core rule rule of SW editions, each edition (including SWPF) will have different chase rules :P

Yep, for changes between editions, the chase rules are a moving target - pun fully intended. :p

[amerigoV]

Do we have a mod to Pin this? Not an uncommon question here.

[Doswelk]

Done.

[joeblack1863]

Rather an old thread but I thought I would keep my question here as it is directly related to the contents. I did read through, but I didn't quite feel I had the full answer.

So, I am looking at Slipstream as a possible purchase but I am unsure of it's compatibility status with regard to SWADE. If I bought Slipstream, would the setting work with SWADE?

I get the feeling it was not part of the upgrade of settings to SWADE, but wanted to know for sure. Thanks you in advance, hopefully someone knows the answer and has the time to let me know.


Joe

[Jiminimonka]

Rather an old thread but I thought I would keep my question here as it is directly related to the contents. I did read through, but I didn't quite feel I had the full answer.

So, I am looking at Slipstream as a possible purchase but I am unsure of it's compatibility status with regard to SWADE. If I bought Slipstream, would the setting work with SWADE?

I get the feeling it was not part of the upgrade of settings to SWADE, but wanted to know for sure. Thanks you in advance, hopefully someone knows the answer and has the time to let me know.


Joe

I have no idea what Slipstream is but if if is a pre-SWADE version of Savage Worlds it will work just fine in SWADE but some of the old rules wiĺl be referenced. Easy to work around.

[Doswelk]

Slipstream was Flash Gordon BEFORE PEG got the rights to Flash Gordon, I did the conversion many years ago, I think it is SWEX (Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition) but it will still work with SWADE (just note that some skill links may be broken - not the dice just the descriptions).

[Jiminimonka]

Slipstream was Flash Gordon BEFORE PEG got the rights to Flash Gordon, I did the conversion many years ago, I think it is SWEX (Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition) but it will still work with SWADE (just note that some skill links may be broken - not the dice just the descriptions).

Of course as Talyn said further back in this thread a quick search would reveal this information.

[joeblack1863]

@Doswelk, big thank you for taking your time to answer, really appreciated, and it did reveal the information I was looking for. Food for thought, I actually checked in on the Author and found he hasn't upgraded the rules to SWADE yet.


[Removed unnecessary comments]

Joe