The Last Parsec - Look at all this stuff!

Pinnacle's new setting for Savage Worlds, The Last Parsec, is just about complete and out. You can get a ton of Last Parsec goodness for a nice deal over on Pinnacle's website.  The Last Parsec Core was the last tome in waiting and I just secured my box along with an early copy thanks to Sara Quinn (Pinnacle) and Jim Searcy (Studio 2) who I want to add have excellent and very responsive customer service, some of the best I've experienced online so far.

I've barely done more than crack open the shipping box and start perusing its contents, but if you're curious what it's all about The Last Parsec is a space opera SF style setting aimed squarely at the high concept "real" SF of fiction and film.....unlike other SF offerings for Savage Worlds such as Slipstream this is an actual science fiction setting rather than a pulp space fantasy universe. There are three setting books, one core book, and a ton of extras you can secure to enhance your Last Parsec experience. The complete set (with all options added) includes:

Hard cover core book:
The Last Parsec Core (setting book)

Three hard cover setting/scenario books:
Eris Beta V
Leviathan
Scientorium

Supplemental stuff:
Enigma Equation (module and GM screen)
Two map packs
Last parsec Double Action Deck (two decks of cards)
a pack of Last Parsec dice
A bunch of bennie chips (actual poker chips with Last Parsec art!)
A mess of metal figures and stands - 12 total (my wife shall be assembling/painting them)

I don't think everything listed above is still available....from the looks of it the website is not showing physical copies of the map packs as still available for example. Per Sara they are there, I just failed my Notice roll.

But let me tell you: if you like your Savage Worlds, and you love your hard-hitting science fiction (and especially love stuff with a feel like Mass Effect or Neal Asher's novels), I think this series is a must-buy. I'll be blogging more about it soon, got to spend this weekend absorbing the entire setting.....especially since my Wednesday group is itching to get back to some Savage Worlds Sci Fi soon!

The Last Parsec Kickstarter

Pinnacle is doing a Kickstarter of note in the form of The Last Parsec, a setting for Savage Worlds Sci Fi. As many of you may recall I am rather fond of the new Savage World Science Fiction Companion (see Savage Space) so I'm looking forward to what they do with this new universe. Previous Pinnacle Kickstarters seem to have worked out rather well (Weird Wars: Rome, for example) so I think Peginc. is worth it.

I have a rule of thumb now that I don't back Kickstarters because frankly I feel bad for all the developers who get deathly ill not long after their Kickstarters complete (my theory is that successful Kickstarters are the leading cause of illness and Ebola in the US), so I won't be backing this one, either; but it's definitely on my "I will buy this when it is available for public purchase" list.

Cool news over....KS rant ahead!


Pinnacle is not on the list of disease-affected KSers so far as I know; it's more like the handful I have backed have taught me that I do not want to be a backer for any project, ever, simply because I think the entire KS model lacks the sort of oversight a normal agreement with someone putting money down on a product should offer. There's too much cool stuff coming out now for me to throw money down on hypotheticals for the future.....by the time I'm ready to stick some money on The Last Parsec, it will already be out. That's something I can appreciate: here's some money, send me my books.

By contrast, if I hadn't backed Legends of Dawn I wouldn't be experiencing the crushing disappointment of a computer game that was poorly designed and badly tested. If I had not backed the T&T Deluxe set I would not be wondering why I haven't seen any of the print products that have been produced and which I ordered as part of my KS pledge but which are still not in my hands (my pledge covered pretty much print copies of everything), despite being sold at Cons and available on Ebay right now. Stuff like that really sours you on the KS process, and that's from a team I trust will deliver. I continue to hold faith in Flying Buffalo and co. that I'll eventually see all the stuff I ordered and the DT&T set, but I wish I wasn't in this position; I'd much rather have waited until the final product was out and ordered it directly from FB instead, it turns out. I'm not a collector, and I don't like being a backer; I'd rather just play a finished product.

Now, there is an argument that some of these projects wouldn't be possible without Kickstarter, and I'll grant you that. But Kickstarter really only works for certain types of creators: people who have the good business sense to manage the KS funds properly, and to apportion the necessary time and effort to get the project done; this approach is shockingly uncommon in our tiny corner of the gaming universe. It seems like the most successful RPG KSes are those which use the medium as a preorder venue, rather than as a way to back the project and prop it up from the start. I suspect I could back those with confidence (and I did, with Fantasy Hero), but honestly? I'd rather just do a real pre-order, or buy the finished product. Someone needs to be there at the tail end, sending them money for a job well done; I'll let all the aspiring entrepreneurs chuck their money in at the inception, instead and save my cash for the "reward" at the end.