Necessary Evil

[Mr_Pleasington]

So I downloaded the one Savage Worlds Plot Point Book that I've been waiting for (well, other than Deadlands Reloaded).  I wasn't sure that Savage Worlds could do Supers, but it sure looks like it can.  The power system is the popular 'buy a power and then modify it' seen in Mutants and Masterminds and several other games.

The plot is pretty amazing too, for those who haven't heard.  An alien race has wiped out or caputered the superheroes of the Earth.  Who is left to save the Earth from these vile invaders?  Why, the supervillains of course!  

I've only skimmed the plot points, but it looks like a pretty awesome storyline.

I'll write up a full review once I digest it, it deserves one.

[Entsuropi]

Can you give a link? I tried the pinnacle site but couldn't find it, neither on their online store or rpg.now.

Also, Games Workshop have liscened someone (Ronin I think... maybe mongoose) to make a Warhammer 40,000 RPG. And they are re-doing the Warhammer Fantasy RPG.

[Mr_Pleasington]

Here's the link:  http://www.peginc.com

If you ever forget, I think deadlands.com still works.

And I did hear Green Ronin was doing the 40K RPG (though I'm not quite sure how that will work, not too many forces in 40K are very...uh...sypathetic).  It'll be great to see WFRP back in print.  My beat-up copy of the core book is hid securely away.

The download for Necessary Evil is almost 50 MB too.  I had to go to an internet cafe to do it and burn it to a disk.  Kind of negated the 'PDF is cheaper' thing.

[Entsuropi]

Mr Pleasington.

This is an announcement to say that you are an utter bastard. You had to go and make me buy Savage Worlds, The GM screen, and the .pdf of Necessary Evil. You HAD TO.



On the other hand, it will go brilliantly with my group. Villians are so much more interesting that heroes

And the 40k rpg should be promising. Sure, not much sympathy for anyone, but every race is fascinating. I know people who looked at the backstory after playing DoW and said it was the most awesome thing they had ever read. Though this was the timeline that mentioned the Emperors birth as 8,000 BC. Which was a bit interesting.

[Entsuropi]

Oh, and I'll have you know that my copy of WFRP is in prime condition. I bought it only a few months before the company went down.

[Mr_Pleasington]

I feel like a Savage Worlds salesman.  You're not the first to pick up the system after hearing me rave about it.

Actually, I'm single-handedly responsible for the popularity of the system in St. Louis.  I hooked my players who told two friends, who told two friends, and so on...

I should be getting commission

[Entsuropi]

Well i just read all of Necessary Evil (apart from the powers section, since lists of powers/spells put me to sleep). I'm all excited now, and I usually fix that by making characters... but I don't have Savage Worlds itself :< CoH is helping though

I am concerned about the railroad-ness of it. There does not seem much potential for players not following their orders, and many of the missions seem like if you fail them you just have to pretend they were not that important. But they do cover a lot of very cool ideas for things to do, with even the alternative 'evil self' dimension universe making an appearance. Most curious is that the book assumes that the PC's will become more and more good as the campaign progresses. It seems counterproductive to do that when the whole premise is that you play SuperVillians. And there does not seem much capacity for playing the traditional Evil Villian with a 100 minions. Pity.

[Mr_Pleasington]

Actually there's a minions power that lets you have quite a few, IIRC.

The story is a bit railroady, but you're supposed to generate three missions each game session and let the players pick, so it won't seem to railroady.  Plus, there's amp room to work extra, character-driven, stuff in.

As for the PCs becoming more heroic.  I think that's partially true, but even in the late missions there is the option for doing very bad things.  That's what makes it so cool.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

I love this game,... bought it on the day it came out... and my buddy Liz Shelton has given me permission to turn her into a Villain/ Antihero for it. Uber cool.

[Entsuropi]

Also: the Lair power. Oh, but of course

I don't like the random mission generator. It reminds me too much of a video game random encounter thing. Seems like just a way to work in a bit of space between big story elements. The missions are too generic as well. I can see doing a few of them just as filler, but without the interesting backplots and stuff of the pre-made ones, they are just too boring. A gunfight is just a gunfight at the end of the day, unless the players care about the results.

It's not really a problem - players don't tend to have total freedom in our games anyway. NE has about the same level of freedom we usually have - the GM decides that something happens, and the players respond in their own (insane) fashion. I'd probably just, every so often, ask the players if there is anything they are doing downtime. I imagine that they will want to snoop around the bar of that guy whose neutrality is mentioned, just to check it out. The problem being to prevent that sort of thing taking over entire sessions.

The story is really good though. The feel of it is all good as well - lots of secret lairs with diabolical equipment just waiting to be plundered, and plenty of opportunity to throw cars (with inhabitants still inside, of course) at various alien vehicles And I like how you can make it a really long campaign, by inserting more missions and giving less exp per session, or making it a short campaign, using just the core missions and a few extras, and giving a lot of exp reward. Though knowing my group, it'll take a session to do the short missions, and 2 for the long ones. We tend to have too many diversions and OOC discussions for that.

[Entsuropi]

I love this game,... bought it on the day it came out... and my buddy Liz Shelton has given me permission to turn her into a Villain/ Antihero for it. Uber cool.

Change the 'lta' to 'rida' and you get the very cute pyro girl from Hellboy.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

I think one of the three of you needs to write me a review. or two of you. or all of you.

[Mr_Pleasington]

As mentioned in the opening post, I'm writing one.

Already started it, in fact.

Since I'm going to the Gold Coast for the next few days I won't have it done until next week though.

[Entsuropi]

I'll add a second opinion onto the end of that, or write my own review. Whichever.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

I'd planned on a review too, so I may just throw in my 2 bits.