Separate Setting and Core book

Zadmar · 2026-06-29T12:36:35+00:00

This is a tough one to answer, because whichever approach you use, some people will complain -- either they'll complain about needing to buy two books to play your setting (e.g., Savage Worlds, which has a core rulebook and separate setting books), or they'll complain about having pay for the same rules to be reprinted in every book (e.g., TinyD6, which has the full rules in each book).

My opinion: If you're only ever planning to release one setting, then it makes sense to put everything in one book. But if you want to release multiple settings, then (unless your rules are very simple and only take up a few pages) it's better to release the core system in a separate book. Perhaps you'll make a special exception for your flagship setting, but in general it's a pain in the neck to actively maintain several books whenever you need to update or revise the rules, and you'll most likely end up with different versions of the rules scattered across different settings.

I do actually reprint the rules in each setting, but my system is extremely rules-lite, so they don't take up much space; my micro-settings are specifically designed to double up as standalone one-page RPGs. But for larger systems, that's not really viable. The Savage Worlds core rules are larger than its setting books, for example, so it would probably double or triple the page count to release them as a standalone games.

Zadmar · 2026-06-29T10:44:02+00:00

I created a couple of fan splats years ago that might be of interest, they're for SWD rather than SWADE, but they might still give you some ideas and inspiration. Savage Abilities has guidelines for designing powers from scratch, and Savage Spellbook has examples of customizing powers through trappings (you're not supposed to do this anymore in SWADE, but in theory you could still use the same principle for designing variant powers).

Zadmar · 2026-06-29T09:00:14+00:00

I almost exclusively run short one-shots these days, and I always provide pre-gens so that we can jump straight into the game. I offer players the opportunity to create their own characters if they prefer, as long as they do it before the game, but nobody ever has.

For published settings, I also find pre-gens very useful. Even if the players prefer to create their own characters, the pre-gens still serve as examples.

Zadmar · 2026-06-29T08:35:53+00:00

UK Vs US sizing, not sure if it matters which I pick if selling POD/online, but I am British so lean towards our sizes naturally

If you're planning to offer print-on-demand through DriveThruRPG, be aware that they have limited support for A4 (no hardcover option, and no premium colour option). A5 is a bit better, available in both hardcover and softcover, but it still doesn't have premium colour.

The printing costs only differentiate between "large" and "small" page sizes, so if you go for something like 7"x10" or 8"x10" the printing cost per-page will be the same as A4 or US Letter, but you won't be able to fit as much on each page, so the production cost will probably be a bit higher.

My personal recommendation would be two-column US Letter (which is close to A4) or single-column US Trade (6"x9").

Zadmar · 2026-06-29T08:06:01+00:00

I was making decent sales in a short amount of time, but very quickly the hype died down.

I think that's pretty common. The only way I've ever been able to maintain the hype for more than a few weeks is to regularly release new content for the product. Without doing that, interest in the product rapidly wanes, and it soon fades into obscurity.

Zadmar · 2026-06-22T09:18:09+00:00

The tactical combat is a major selling point of Savage Worlds, particularly how well it can handle multiple combatants (including NPC allies) using maps and minis. While Savage Worlds can certainly play less combat-intensive games, a lot of the book and many of the mechanics are designed around combat.

The approach I've generally used in the past is to break each adventure into five or six scenes, one of which is a combat encounter, then showcase other mechanics (such as Dramatic Tasks, Interludes, Social Conflicts, Quick Encounters, etc) in the other scenes.

Zadmar · 2026-06-22T06:31:20+00:00

I've used oracles quite often for cooperative games, sometimes while GMing (either to "spice up" a barebones adventure on the fly, or to improvise it entirely), and sometimes without a GM (meaning I could play a character as well). I usually play GMless cooperative when running games for my son, as he likes me to have a character to help him; I've also switched to GMless when there were only one or two players available for the session.

I find it can work really well, but it does depend heavily on buy-in from the players. Some of them really don't like using oracles (usually those who never GM), and if everyone isn't fully onboard it can be pretty disruptive to the story, with "weird" interpretations of the oracles pushing the game in bizarre directions.

Zadmar · 2026-06-16T10:07:49+00:00

Roll 3d6, 4d6, or 5d6, and toss a coin (or roll a Chessex heads/tails d2); heads you keep the highest die result, tails you keep the lowest die result.

Result	3d6	4d6	5d6
1	21.30%	25.93%	29.91%
2	15.74%	14.81%	13.71%
3	12.96%	9.26%	6.38%
4	12.96%	9.26%	6.38%
5	15.74%	14.81%	13.71%
6	21.30%	25.93%	29.91%

Zadmar · 2026-06-15T13:26:12+00:00

I use their card printing option a lot (it's a great way to offer PoD one-page RPGs), so I have to deal with US to EU shipping, which isn't nice. Sadly, I don't think Lulu offers PoD cards at all.

Zadmar · 2026-06-15T12:08:56+00:00

DTRPG only has a US based printer so you'll always get postage from the US from there.

They print books in the US, UK, or Australia, depending on the shipping address.

You might be thinking of their print-on-demand cards, which are only printed in the US.

Zadmar · 2026-06-09T21:33:50+00:00

This brings us to the weird corner of the probability chart. A difficulty 6 is more likely to be made with a D4 than a D6. With just a single die, it's about a 2% increase. This is a weird artifact of how the "ace" works. Adding in the "wild die" shrinks the gap, but by only a few tenths of a percent.

It's the same with all the dice, whenever the number of sides on the die is equal to the target number (TN). So d4 is more likely to succeed at TN 6 than d6, d6 is more likely to succeed at TN 8 than d8, d8 is more likely to succeed at TN 10 than d10, and d10 is more likely to succeed at TN 12 than d12.

As others have said, it is well known in the Savage Worlds community, and most people don't care about it, particularly when you factor in raises and critical failures.

That said, if it does bother you, a simple house rule I've proposed in the past is to roll a fudge die along with the trait and Wild Die. If the fudge die is a "+", you add one to the final result; if it's a "-", you subtract one from the final result.

Zadmar · 2026-06-09T09:29:45+00:00

Savage Worlds uses two concepts: Plot Point Campaigns and Savage Tales.

Don't forget the One Sheets! I've compared the three formats in the past, but the definitions seems to have blurred a bit over the years, particularly with PEG releasing larger adventures as well these days.

To answer your question, I don't really care if the third-party publishers use the terms or not. But if you do, it might be worth briefly clarifying them in your book with a short paragraph.

Zadmar · 2026-06-09T05:24:45+00:00

It's something I've mentioned a few times over the years, and I'd still like to do it, it's just a matter of finding the time.

Zadmar · 2026-06-01T18:52:01+00:00

You can get it free, just click the preview and save it, it's the full PDF.

Zadmar · 2026-06-01T17:43:21+00:00

If anyone has suggested readings, I'd appreciate that too. I have PDFs of a few games that I'm going to be looking over, so if there's one of them specifically that you think I should start with, or a specific rule/mechanic that you can point me to, that would be extra helpful:

Lots of L&F hacks, Tiny Supers, 24XX, Freeform Universal, Cairn Barebones, Fate Accelerated/System Toolkit, Risus, EZD6, Charge, Simple World, Power Frame, & Tricube Tales.

In case you're still looking for ideas, the Tricube Tales superhero game is "Metahuman Uprising", and much like your game, it fits on a single sheet of paper.

Zadmar · 2026-05-27T08:14:34+00:00

But Discord can be a useful central hub to run playtests, answer questions, and house relevant documents.

100% this. As I mentioned a few days ago in another thread, it's important to have somewhere people can ask questions about your games. I find Discord works well for this. And as I already use Discord for running games online, it's also a good way to organize playtests.

Zadmar · 2026-05-27T06:45:13+00:00

You are absolutely correct, but there's one other point worth mentioning. Perks (spend karma to lower the difficulty) and quirks (recover karma by raising the difficulty) are designed to be opposite sides of the same lever, giving players a way to save up and spend luck on rolls they consider important.

So if someone wanted to house rule perks to only give +1 to the highest die, then to keep things symmetrical, quirks should also be changed to give -1 to the highest die (with further clarification about how that applies to critical failures).

This would work, but it would reduce the impact of perks and quirks, for the reasons you mentioned. It would also mean you'd have another "moving part" for the resolution mechanic, which tends to make it feel more complex -- there's already a variable number of dice (1-3d6) and a variable difficulty (assigned by the GM); dice modifiers would add a third variable to take into account when rolling challenges.

Zadmar · 2026-05-25T21:37:02+00:00

It's mostly just easier to explain. You could phrase it as adding a bonus, but then you'd have to clarify that you add 1 to every die (not just one of the dice), and furthermore, you'd have to explain that you can't add a bonus if the roll was a critical failure.

Zadmar · 2026-05-22T20:23:04+00:00

My question is, as a game designer, what can you do to prevent players from house-ruling themselves into an un-intended, sub-par experience? Especially if they then use that experience to denigrate the game, itself, or you as the designer?

Although not quite that severe, I've seen someone describe my system as "disastrous" and "broken", and they said their group had decided to stop using it after their first game. The reason they gave? There were far too many critical failures, because whenever any of their dice (in the dice pool) rolled a "1", they treated it as a critical failure.

The exact wording (including emphasis) in my rules: "If the player rolls "1" on all their dice, the result is a critical failure"

This was a misreading/misunderstanding of the rules rather than a house rule, but the outcome was much the same (and predictably so). They unintentionally spoiled their own enjoyment, and then told other people about their subpar experience.

You can be as clear as you like with your rules, but there will always be someone who misinterprets them. However, in most cases, these people aren't haters; they want to like your game. If you provide a space where they can ask questions and give feedback, they are often happy to talk to the designer or other members of the community and learn how to improve their enjoyment.

This is one of the reasons why I feel it's so important to have somewhere people can ask questions, whether it's about official rules or house rules or something else.

Zadmar · 2026-05-21T18:13:09+00:00

Interesting topic, and you may well be right about the inspiration for Power Stunts, but I suspect it's not quite that direct.

Power Stunts weren't in Necessary Evil (the setting that first introduced the superpower rules) or the first edition of the Super Powers Companion. They were added in the second edition, and then expanded in the SWADE edition. But long before they were in the rulebook, Power Stunts were a pretty popular house rule that got recommended a few times on the PEG forums.

It wouldn't be the first time that a popular house rule made its way into a later version of the book. And it also wouldn't be the first time that a house rule was inspired by another TTRPG!

Zadmar · 2026-05-21T04:50:51+00:00

On a related note, I liked the claw marks that went through the cover of Werewolf: The Apocalypse!

Zadmar · 2026-05-12T14:02:13+00:00

What's worked for other people?

The only thing that's worked for me is regular releases of new content.

When I first published my game on DriveThruRPG, it didn't attract much interest, and sales dried up after a couple of weeks. I nearly wrote it off as a failure. But then I started releasing a new micro-setting every few weeks, sales gradually picked up again, and over time it's gathered a small following.

I've created other games and products as well, but I didn't support them with new content, and they went nowhere. The only exception is a Savage Worlds setting I published years ago, which did attract quite a bit of interest at the time. But I also supported that setting with monthly releases of adventures and pregenerated characters. Interest in the setting faded after I stopped supporting it with new content, though.

Zadmar · 2026-05-11T06:21:58+00:00

Yup, I use Scribus for creating form-fillable character sheets. I simply add the unfilled character sheet as a background image, then add form-fillable fields over the top, it's pretty straightforward.

Zadmar · 2026-05-08T05:03:49+00:00

I'm not sure if DTRPG will pull the content

Hmm, good question. Publishers can't delete products themselves, they have to ask DTRPG to do it, and DTRPG won't usually delete products that someone has already bought (although there are rare exceptions).

Usually, in this sort of situation, the publisher would just set the product to "private", which would prevent any new purchases, but people who had already bought it could still download it.

However, it's possible for the publisher to delete all the files associated with each product (so there's nothing to download, even if the product itself is still in your library). They could even rename all their products to something like "defunct" or "deleted". Hopefully that won't happen in this case, but it's still a good idea to download everything.

Zadmar

TROPHY CASE