Savage Worlds: Fantasy or otherwise game ideas discussion (and not just mine)

[Hopeless]

Bought the exploer rules a few years ago and picked up Sundered Skies which eventually resulted in a one session version of Lost in Hell.

Since then have listened to the Knights of Reignsborough podcast connected with the Ideology of Madness site which was originally intended to use the original DC Heroes RPG rules back long before they became the Blood of Heroes RPG.

When they began their game it was changed to Savage Worlds and curious I picked up the Super Power Companion recently and noticed the other settings that Savage Worlds covers and I was wondering your impressions of this game system?

Been thinking about an alternate earth superhero story set during the second world war before I started listening to the Shadow Island episodes from the Goblin Beat podcast and that made me wonder about fantasy settings.

Whats your preference?

Currently seriously thinking of picking up Shadow Island as they claimed it was an actual adventure being prepared for official release and the storyline is certainly interesting!

Me after listening got wondering about adding a few npcs to the setting maybe a sorceress who has a bad reputation because she's a former adventuress in a male dominated society and maybe expanding on the adventure but not before listening to their actual play which is certainly worth picking up if you're interested.

[LibraryOgre]

Savage Worlds has a tagline of "Fast! Furious! Fun!" and it largely lives up to it. It's a fairly bare-bones system, using different die types to represent skill, a flat 4 difficulty for most things, and multiples of 4 to represent better success. Most contests come down to a single die roll and a quick consultation of the 4 times table.

I find it works well for instances where you have a world, and don't care about system... where I need it to be "close enough" to let us tell stories, without bogging down in minutiae.

I also find that it requires a bit of prepwork that a custom world/system... when setting up Mass Effect Savage Worlds, I had to predefine races, and figure out how tech and adept powers worked. BUt once it was set up? Smooth sailing.

[Hopeless]

So it really is as generic as Gurps?

Have yet to master the initiative process of using playing cards mind you, but still can't help wondering just how far I can go!

So far been thinking of porting over game ideas previously using other game systems.

Next purchase I'm considering is the fantasy companion but was wondering what I should be looking at if I wanted a post apocalyptic fantasy setting?

The general background is that its set a little over a thousand years from now and an unspecified cataclysm has devastated the world and depopulated most of humanity causing mutations creating the other races we associate with atypical fantasy settings such as goblins, elves, dwarves, etc using for example that the dwarves evolved because of living underground in mining settlements located under mountains, elves because they lived in forests whilst the few civilised areas are barely recovering once more with most located on the coasts as further inland it becomes far more savage.
The most obvious change is magic with much of this being the result of ancient technology used to achieve that effect using Wizards and Warriors as an inspiration although if I ever run this will be sandbox enough so the players have a say in what they'd like to see.

[Somebloke]

I've been running my weird fantasy/renaissance/conan pastiche campaign. Savage Worlds marks the end of a long series of game systems- 4e, 3e, FATE, and others- all of which involved a period of playing before we all decided that it really wasn't for us.

We don't have that with Savage Worlds. It fits our low-magic, gonzo-style shenanigans perfectly. It works well with our world of musket-wielding Aztec noblemen, African dinosaur-riding crusaders and Persian revolutionary fighting monks.

I've given serious thought to running a Fallout game using the rules, or the Keberos Club setting- both, I think, would work wonderfully.

[LibraryOgre]

So it really is as generic as Gurps?


In some ways, I'd say it's more generic, simply because everything you might try to do, GURPS has a supplement... whereas SW tends to insist that you create it.

[atomicpenguin]

It is just as generic as gurps. However, where GURPS offers supplement books to play different kinds of games, Savage Worlds gives you the tools in the core books to make your own decisions about variations and then ships each of their own settings with pre-made rule variantions.

[Need_A_Life]

Savage Worlds can run pretty much everything decently. I'll stand by that.
It excels in games with tactical elements and where brutal death is always an option (because, yes, that d4 strength guy can potentially roll well enough to dispatch the Great Wyrm Eater of Worlds eldritch abomination with a single, incredibly unlikely roll).

Things to note:

Toughness is more valuable than dodging
Shooting stuff is usually easier than hitting it in the face.
Being Incapacitated will lead to brutal consequences using most of the versions of those rules.
Like chess, it's easy to learn the basics, but system mastery is incredibly hard. And fine-tuning game mechanics to fit the exact style you want to convey with your game is really an art. From Realms of Cthulhus sanity system and their modern, gritty damage rules for realistic settings, there's a lot of tinkering that you might need to do.

The "shining paladin" who wades into combat, trusting in his sword and armour to keep him safe, rather than playing things smart is going to lose body parts pretty quick.

[Hopeless]

So pulling a Loki to trick a foe to charge right over a cliff is possible?

[Hopeless]

Have an idea I'd like some opinions on.

Been watching a trilogy of Sinbad movies and after reading about that attempt to resurrect an old d&d series involving a ship from Alphatia sailing the seas of Mystara as a series of articles on the setting.

What got me wondering is what if it was set in the Mediterranean area but set about 1500 years from now the idea that civilisation collapsed and is slowly rebuilding so an Arabia style background in that area.

Now magic is quite limited with the most powerful known practitoners being a quintet of sorceresses named after their specialised field of magic.

So the Lady of the Air is the wife of a powerful caliph, the lady of water lives on the coast when not underwater, the lady of fire prefers volcanic locales and the lady of earth whose home isn't known only that she appeared after being summoned by the Lady of Air with the fifth named the Lady of the Void who hasn't been seen and all thats known about her cortesy of the three well known elemental sorceresses is that she frighteningly powerful.

Now the backdrop is that before the Lady of Air was found in a deathlike trance she summoned the Lady of Earth who attempted to reach her only to disappear en route suspected to have been kidnapped or killed.

This event results in an attempt to contact the other sorceresses except this hasn't been successful until an augury cast by the Caliph's religious advisor reveals that the Lady of the Void was coming causing a commotion because everything they've heard about her makes her sound like Malificient from the Disney movies.

Meanwhile the PCs get to create their characters understanding they're either crew or passengers aboard an old style arabian merchant ship thats docked at a harbour known for where the Ladies began their journey within this setting which has the usual rumours that their original home is located nearby.

The Caliph has assigned the captain and his crew the mission to contact the Sorceresses and to ask for their help to restore his wife as well as discover the true villain behind this foul act.

Too much or should i focus more elsewhere?

[LibraryOgre]

That sounds pretty cool. If you want an Arabian-esque feel, you might try reading Saladin Ahmed's "Throne of the Crescent Moon". It's an Arab-esque sword and sorcery, with Ghuls and the hints of Djinn and other such monsters.

[rorikdude12]

It is just as generic as gurps. However, where GURPS offers supplement books to play different kinds of games, Savage Worlds gives you the tools in the core books to make your own decisions about variations and then ships each of their own settings with pre-made rule variantions.

No, it isn't.

You can easily play GURPS in a far flung future with only the core books. Likewise, you can play a GURPS game with swordsmen and wizards kicking down doors with only the core books. You do not need GURPS: Ultra-Tech, GURPS: Fantasy, or any supplements to do so. Can the supplements help? Yes. Can they be forgotten as you play your jolly "wizrds in space fighting vampires" game? Yes.

Unless you're referring to some part of Savage Worlds I can't find, the answer to conversion seems to be "homebrew it", which doesn't make a system generic. I can port d20 Modern's Urban Arcana and to Labyrinth Lord, but that doesn't make LL a "generic system".


In some ways, I'd say it's more generic, simply because everything you might try to do, GURPS has a supplement... whereas SW tends to insist that you create it.

You don't need to use the supplements! That's why they're called supplements, and not required equipment/reading/stuff!

By your statement, I say that my blank index card is the best system. You create EVERYTHING.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

But, yeah, go play Savage Worlds. It's more towards a cinematic game than GURPS, and as me ol' pal always said, "You can't play a psychic plant monster in Savage Worlds".

[Raum]

When they began their game it was changed to Savage Worlds and curious I picked up the Super Power Companion recently and noticed the other settings that Savage Worlds covers and I was wondering your impressions of this game system?SW is a solid system which does tactical action games very well. It's not going to do high powered supers but lower power levels work well.


So it really is as generic as Gurps?Define generic! ;) SW is targeted towards action and doesn't rely on a lot of equipment, so it's not your best choice if you want a drama or a monty haul campaign.


So pulling a Loki to trick a foe to charge right over a cliff is possible?The Puppet power with an illusion trapping would allow such a feat...along with a lot of other things.


You can easily play GURPS in a far flung future with only the core books. Likewise, you can play a GURPS game with swordsmen and wizards kicking down doors with only the core books. You do not need GURPS: Ultra-Tech, GURPS: Fantasy, or any supplements to do so. Can the supplements help? Yes. Can they be forgotten as you play your jolly "wizrds in space fighting vampires" game? Yes.

Unless you're referring to some part of Savage Worlds I can't find, the answer to conversion seems to be "homebrew it", which doesn't make a system generic. I can port d20 Modern's Urban Arcana and to Labyrinth Lord, but that doesn't make LL a "generic system".I'm not interested in a system war but SW has supplements (companions) you can use or ignore as well.

The real difference between Gurps and SW is the level of detail. SW is abstracted a bit more. Fewer skills, fewer powers*, less differentiation in equipment, etc. Whether or not this is a good thing is dependent on your affinity with all the accounting that comes with the extra detail. SW does a good job of minimizing the accounting you need to do.

*Powers (and other items/edges) are expected to be differentiated by trappings.

[Hopeless]

Anyone used the fantasy character generator for Savage Worlds?

Was wondering if that and any of the pdf releases on drivethru rpg were of any use?

Got the character generator and wondering if they plan a pulp or daring adventures version so was wondering what you think about those releases?

Were they useful?

And is Hellfrost worth looking at?

[LibraryOgre]

In some ways, I'd say it's more generic, simply because everything you might try to do, GURPS has a supplement... whereas SW tends to insist that you create it.


You don't need to use the supplements! That's why they're called supplements, and not required equipment/reading/stuff!

By your statement, I say that my blank index card is the best system. You create EVERYTHING.


Your argument does not follow my statement.

Yes, you are capable, with GURPS, of creating any material you like, even if it already has a supplement. However, it is not necessary... there is a supplement to play that, or a close approximation of it. If you create a GURPS

SW, in general, doesn't have the breadth and depth of coverage that GURPS does. This doesn't mean GURPS is less adaptable... just that the work is done for you, if you like.

[Somebloke]

Anyone used the fantasy character generator for Savage Worlds?

Was wondering if that and any of the pdf releases on drivethru rpg were of any use?

Got the character generator and wondering if they plan a pulp or daring adventures version so was wondering what you think about those releases?

Were they useful?

And is Hellfrost worth looking at?Sorry, haven't used the generator. Heard really good things about Hellfrost, though.

[Somebloke]

Played a little of GURPS and a lot of Savage worlds. Savage worlds is pretty damn adaptable, but GURPS strikes me as the most adaptable system, if only that Savage Worlds does have a very general theme (fast! fun! furious!) that doesn't always fit every genre.

Both are pretty easy to adapt using just the main rules, however- and both are wonderful game systems. I do prefer Savage Worlds, though.