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On Savage Worlds; a review
Jan. 25th, 2011 11:25 pmOk, I'll be honest. I never thought much about Savage Worlds.
I liked that they had the Explorer's Edition for the insanely low price of $10 usd, but it just never caught my eye.
But then I was at this years Gencon, and I flipped through this little digest sized book. I was facinated, to say the least.
It was simple. It was cheap. The demo was fun.
And then the final nail in the coffin; I met Clint Black & Shane Hensley who developed the game.
Two of the coolist people I have met. And truth be told they may have swayed my opinion a bit.
So down to brass tacks.
Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition is a digest sized paperback weighing in at 160 pages and retailing for $10 usd.
This is a generic system only game (no setting provided), with numerous setting books available, such as Slipstream, Deadlands & Realms of Cthulhu. This may be a down side to some, but the system is easily adapted to any setting that you can invent.
This is due in part to the (some say too) generic skills used, like riding, shooting and piloting, that sacrifice detail for speed and ease of play. Not really a bad thing to me, but i can understand how a simulationist would feel disapionted.
Attributes and skill are ranked by a die code, a d6 being better than a d4 and so on. When attempting to use a skill or attribute you simply roll the correct die vs a target number of four. to increase the odds of success pcs and important npcs are classed as "wild cards", and roll an extra d6 taking the higher of the two dice as their result.
Dice are also open ended in Savage Worlds, meaning if you roll max on a die you get to reroll it and add the results together. you keep doing this for as long as you keep rolling max.
I can find a few minor downsides to this book, however, I think that these are not much to consider given all the good points.
But here they are:
* No character sheet in the book, though you can down load it from Pinnacle's website
* No base setting. not a negative for me, but maybe for some it would be
* Super generic skills. Again, to some this may be a negative
*Exploding dice. I know a few people who dislike this type of mechanic
All in all, I really like this game and now wish I had picked it up earlier. If you want an easy, fun fast playing RPG, that you can bend or twist as you need to, the look into Savage Worlds.
My rating: 5/5- fast, solid & fun
I liked that they had the Explorer's Edition for the insanely low price of $10 usd, but it just never caught my eye.
But then I was at this years Gencon, and I flipped through this little digest sized book. I was facinated, to say the least.
It was simple. It was cheap. The demo was fun.
And then the final nail in the coffin; I met Clint Black & Shane Hensley who developed the game.
Two of the coolist people I have met. And truth be told they may have swayed my opinion a bit.
So down to brass tacks.
Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition is a digest sized paperback weighing in at 160 pages and retailing for $10 usd.
This is a generic system only game (no setting provided), with numerous setting books available, such as Slipstream, Deadlands & Realms of Cthulhu. This may be a down side to some, but the system is easily adapted to any setting that you can invent.
This is due in part to the (some say too) generic skills used, like riding, shooting and piloting, that sacrifice detail for speed and ease of play. Not really a bad thing to me, but i can understand how a simulationist would feel disapionted.
Attributes and skill are ranked by a die code, a d6 being better than a d4 and so on. When attempting to use a skill or attribute you simply roll the correct die vs a target number of four. to increase the odds of success pcs and important npcs are classed as "wild cards", and roll an extra d6 taking the higher of the two dice as their result.
Dice are also open ended in Savage Worlds, meaning if you roll max on a die you get to reroll it and add the results together. you keep doing this for as long as you keep rolling max.
I can find a few minor downsides to this book, however, I think that these are not much to consider given all the good points.
But here they are:
* No character sheet in the book, though you can down load it from Pinnacle's website
* No base setting. not a negative for me, but maybe for some it would be
* Super generic skills. Again, to some this may be a negative
*Exploding dice. I know a few people who dislike this type of mechanic
All in all, I really like this game and now wish I had picked it up earlier. If you want an easy, fun fast playing RPG, that you can bend or twist as you need to, the look into Savage Worlds.
My rating: 5/5- fast, solid & fun
