Review - Savage Worlds Deluxe

Here we go, I picked up the Deluxe edition of Savage Worlds a while back. So here's the review.

Savage Worlds Deluxe Edition
Produced by Studio 2 publishing under license from Pinnacle Entertainment Group

Savage Worlds is a Fast! Furious! and Fun! rules system for any genre of roleplaying game. Create your own setting, convert an existing one, or pick up one of our amazing worlds like Deadlands, Slipstream, or Weird War II.The rules give players plenty of depth to create their characters and keep bookkeeping to a minimum for the game master. If you're looking for a game that's fast and easy to set up, run, and play, Savage Worlds is for you! 

Savage Worlds Deluxe is the newest edition, providing an update to the third printing of Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition. It includes rules updates, new rules material, new art, more examples, an expanded Setting Rules section, Designer Notes to give you an insight into the development, and much more. It does not, however, invalidate prior printings of the rules, which you can continue enjoy.

This is a hardcover printed book. Full color, full-size (8.5" x 11" pages), 160 pages.

What you get: You get a 160 page full color full-sized hard-bound book.

Main Review: There are pros and cons to this edition. Full-size books are good at attracting attention, and can actually make neophytes excited when they look at the book. Con, the $29.99 price tag versus the $9.99 price tag. Larger format and higher page counts give lots of room to add more stuff. Much of the Explorer Edition Review remains valid, the rule set really only has some minor tweaks, but is effectively the same system with some streamlined changes, especially the removal of the "guts" skill. 

If you're already familiar with Savage Worlds I'm sure you've already made your decision about the Deluxe edition. If you're new to the system just know that the game is Fast, Fun & Furious. The system can cover nearly any genre, but tends to break-down if you want truly powerful games. (Savage Suzeraine has rules covering higher power games, but even those rules can't cover mega-powerful combat, for that you need the Superpowers Companion.)

With the extra space in the book, they added an archetypes section, which lets new players pick an archetype and roll. New race options for characters, including a build your own race section, similar to what many other systems already had. 

Cost: $29.99 Print edition. $19.99 PDF @ Drive-thru

Value: I really feel that Pinnacle took a step in the wrong direction by driving the price-point so much higher. If Paizo can set the bar for a 500+ page book that retails for $49.99 at $9.99 for the PDF, Pinnacle should as well. If the price is too high people won't buy it, they'll steal it, because they're already feeling ripped off. I hope they return a smaller book for $9.99. Perhaps a Deluxe Explorer's Guide...There's enough new info in the books to justify the print copy, I can't bring myself to get a PDF of a book I have if it's too expensive. 

Artwork: Savage Worlds was already know for reusing artwork, this manual comes with lots of new art though. Pretty nice artwork, though it does have some reprints, which is fine because they work with the system. 

Family Rating: PG, for visual content (some artwork is mildly graphic)

Overall: 

of 20

It's good, but the wrong size.

Note: I will be adding additional content to this review as I continue to read the book, and note the changes. 

Comprehensive list of changes: (in work):

Guts skill removed in base

More races added

Race creation rules added

Chase rules added

Dramatic Tasks skill checks

Interludes added

Edges expanded to be more comprehensive

Optional rules by setting included