Recently there’s been controversy surrounding Pinnacle Entertainment Group and its owner stemming from something he said. I’m not going to get into it here. You can easily find what he said if you want to see it and it’s not the main focus of this post, even though it’s why this post has to be written.
First of all, I support marginalized people and after seeing that statement by PEG’s CEO I was distressed and disappointed. There was an apology afterwards from him, of sorts, but some found that lacking. I don’t know what to make of it. I just know that I’m disappointed.
Edit: After this post went up a second apology statement came out that is frankly much better than the first one. But I’ve also now seen some other things he’s said in the past that indicate a pattern, so everything I laid out in this post is the plan going forward.
I’m a Savage Worlds third party Ace license holder (their top tier, third party content creator program) and I clearly don’t share the same beliefs and opinions that were expressed by PEG’s CEO. And there’s a lot of Savage Worlds developers like me. In fact, there are people who work at PEG who don’t. And a lot of people that support Savage Worlds who don’t. We’re put in a crappy position.
Due to the original statement, some third party developers have completely pulled their products or set their prices to $0 on Drive Thru RPG. Unfortunately, I’m not in the position to do that. 90% of Table Cat Games income is tied into PEG through Street Wolves because it’s a Savage Worlds setting. Table Cat Games would pretty much be financially ruined if I were to stop selling Street Wolves related stuff. I currently have one other game on the market and one upcoming, but I don’t expect they’ll ever have the back catalog sales that Street Wolves does.
So let’s talk about where we are going in the future.
Background
For the last year or so I’ve been wanting to create a version of Street Wolves that uses its own rule set. If you somehow stumbled on this post and don’t know what I’m talking about, third party Savage Worlds publishers are not allowed to reprint the core rules in their books. You can add anything you want on top of their rules or change them in your book, but someone buying your book also has to buy Savage Worlds in order to use your creation.
My decision to create an independent Street Wolves, let’s just call it Street Wolves: Indie Version for now, was not in response to anyone at Pinnacle Entertainment, though I will be honest that I’ve been even more energized to make it happen. I honestly don’t know what else the CEO might say in the future.
The main reason to create an alternate version of Street Wolves relates to what I wrote before. In order to play my setting, someone has to buy Savage Worlds. This is great because you can tap into the Savage Worlds audience, but very hard to win over those who haven’t played it or know anything about it. It’s most evident at conventions where you have to explain how you play Street Wolves and then have to tell someone they need to buy another book, not just the one. It’s a hard sell.
I didn’t want to create this SW: Indie Version right away though. I haven’t completely finished fulfilling the hard copy version of Street Wolves from the Kickstarter, because the Dead Hand campaign that was a part of that isn’t done yet (soon though) and I wanted to have that all wrapped up before doing something else. And frankly, I didn’t want to have people who bought Street Wolves feel cheated that I moved onto another thing right away or dilute the marketplace with two versions so close to each other. Maybe that’s not a thing, but it was a gut feeling. I wanted to give the Savage Worlds version a bit of time to breathe on its own.
And another reason why that hasn’t happened yet is I wanted to make other games. I have a lot of ideas that aren’t Street Wolves related and I like to slot non Street Wolves releases into the pipeline to keep my sanity.
Going Forward
As far as Savage Worlds Street Wolves goes plans have changed a bit. The current line up of work in the pipeline is Dead Hand, Archetypes Vol 2, and Heart of Glass. All three have had a ton of work (and money) to put into them, so they have to be released as Savage Worlds products. And honestly, I had some pretty grand plans for Heart of Glass that may get scaled back now.
After those releases I’m looking at officially starting work on the independent version of Street Wolves. I’m looking to crowdfund it, potentially next year, primarily to be able pay for someone to help me incorporate the new rules so it comes out quicker rather than me doing it all by myself.
It’s very doubtful at this point if I’d continue to create more releases for the Savage Worlds version of Street Wolves, like I was thinking I would. I have always planned on doing at least one big expansion called Street Wolves: Malibu along with releases of adventures and other smaller things, but at that point those plans are shelved at the moment. (Though, one option I could pursue is not selling any of the new stuff on Drive Thru RPG to avoid sending cash PEG’s way. Still, that’s a much further thing down the road. For now, the three things I have in the hopper are all that’s planned.)
I will support the releases that are out there now. I have to issue some updates to fix typos and what not and the Foundry module will always need some sort of work, especially as Foundry updates.
FYI: I also had some plans for other non Street Wolves Savage Worlds settings, but those are even more unlikely to ever happen now.
Differences Between the Versions
If we’re talking about the future of Street Wolves, I think it’s worth noting what are the (planned) biggest differences between a Savage Worlds Street Wolves and its own thing. Please note anything I say that’s planned for the Indie Version could change at any moment. I think it’s worth stating my intended goals though, to illustrate they’re not just the same game.
Street Wolves: Savage Worlds Compatible (and requires) Savage Worlds, and is a bit crunchier and a bit more “heroic”.
Street Wolves: Indie Version This version would require no other book to buy. It also should be a little lighter in the rules department, but keep some core things about Street Wolves such as Drive, Relationships, Favor, and that sort of thing. It is likely to be grittier than the original Street Wolves.
Continuing to Sell Savage Worlds
The Savage Worlds version of Street Wolves will be available for the foreseeable future. First of all, I have a bunch of copies from the first print run. I can’t just like, throw them out.
Also a key point to consider is that if you don’t want to support PEG, but you do want any of my stuff, PEG gets 0% of a cut from my sales on any platform that isn’t Drive Thru RPG. Conventions, my store site, through other retailers, itch.io, nothing goes towards them. If you already own Savage Worlds, then you don’t have to continue giving them any money if you choose not to do so.
Street Wolves items will still be on Drive Thru RPG. I’ve made a concentrated effort to try to direct people away from purchasing there, but it is still my top revenue stream outside of conventions. Again, this is a thing that would bury Table Cat Games if I took it down. At a future point I’m hoping to have enough other releases out and more people support me directly that it could be a possibility in the future, but probably not for a long while.
I also need to point out that I am selling some PEG produced products on the Table Cat Shop. I will continue to do that until those sell out and I don’t plan to order any more copies.
I Hope You Stay With Table Cat Games
If you’re a fan of Table Cat Games and are upset and angered by the CEO of PEG, that’s completely understandable. I’m upset too. I just want to assure you that I’m doing everything I can to move away from Savage Worlds, while attempting to be financially stable so I can continue making games. I hope you stick around for the future of Street Wolves and of Table Cat Games, there’s a lot in the tank still… it just might appear in a slightly different form than planned.