I’ve talked a lot about the people, some about the rules, a bit about the location, and now I want to show you what you can expect to find inside the book itself.

My initial estimation was the Streets of Bedlam corebook would be 192pp but I’m confident now the final will far exceed that (I am looking at quite a few NPCs that need to be in there). The book will be generously illustrated by Shawn Gaston with plenty of examples, fiction, and story seeds that I hope inspire your own episodes.

As for the organization of the book, I used the traditional structure found in other Savage Worlds books as a starting point and then infused the structure found in my other games. I came up with the following:

Introduction: Life in the Big City
The intro breaks down the basics: what the game is, what its goals are, what inspired it, what the setting is (in brief), and how the whole thing came to be. It also lays out what each of the chapters cover.

Chapter One: Invisible Lines
This is all about Bedlam as a setting. The history of Lamrose and Bedford, the current state of things, the major areas, personalities, and a street-level view of the world it represents. This chapter is divided into main sections: one focused on Bedford; the other, on Lamrose.

Chapter Two: People in Trouble
Now we get into the heart of the stories: the characters. I include advice on creating compelling characters, guidelines for play at the table, and the 13 Archetypes. These Archetypes are important to me—I feel they really nail the tone and perspective of the game—so each one gets a four-page spread. This spread includes a bit of fiction, an illustration of a key character fitting that Archetype, Edges, Hindrances, and Abilities unique to that type, and a sample character.

Chapter Three: Need to Know
This chapter includes all the new rules, such as Rep, Interrogation, Investigation, and Roles. It also includes my two cents on game prep as well as a look at the different basic types of stories that fall within SoB’s purview.

Chapter Four: The Hands on the Wheel
We dive back into the world, this time with an eye toward non-player characters. The power players, major NPCs, local color, as well as a crowd of people on the street (including a whole lot of NPCs thanks to the game’s Kickstarter backers!) are in here. This chapter touches on a lot of the power struggles and conflicts in Bedlam.

Chapter Five: The Things We Do For Money
Named after the Plot Point Campaign found within, this chapter also includes a bunch of Orphan Stories (standalone episode seeds) and a look a the world of Bedlam following the completion of the campaign.

Then comes the back matter: index, system cheat sheet, character sheet, and investigation sheet.

And that’s pretty much it! Of course, this is subject to change through editing but that’s the basic form. As I said, the original spec was 192pp but I can see this going well beyond that. (Not a bad problem to have.)

I’ll talk more as April approaches and the book becomes available for sale in print and pdf. I’ll also start talking about the first supplement, Five-Story Drop: A Collection of SoB Stories. For now though, back to work!