Savage Worlds

[Mr_Pleasington]

This game is everything I wanted and more.  

Of course, I am a Pinnacle fanboy so you may want to note my heavy bias.

The game claims to be fast, furious, and fun with the ability to handle a wide variety of genres well for RPG and be a full miniature game system.

From extensive reading (not playing yet), it meets its claims.  

I finally have a system that can handle my dream campaign now too!

Has anyone else picked it up yet?  What do you think?
There's free "Test Drive" rules on the Pinnacle site that show the basics of the system if you're wondering.

The anticipation for the months I waited for this was well deserved!

[Slant]

The ultimate game system?  Jeez, you make it sound like LotR or something

Actually I DID get a chance to flip through it the other day and it does look pretty danged impressive.  The system looks similar to Deadlands in many ways and the illustrations all seem to be yelling "Wouldn't it be cool to play THIS character?"  I definitely want to pick it up at some point.  My only real gripe is that the main book is only a core system with no real game world or framework.  I imagine that by the time I get around to buying it there will be two or three sourcebooks out for it, so I will wait for a few months before I pass final judgement.  In the meantime, Mr. P, make sure you let us all know how it runs.

[Entsuropi]

Hmm.
I look at Nobilis, and it's careful balance of beauty and ugliness, it's freeform system and it's emphasis upon concepts and idea's, and i see the Perfect System.
Slant looks at LoTR, it's epic scope, it's D20 derivitive system and it's emphasis upon great and noble actions, and sees the Perfect System.
Mr P looks at Savage worlds and sees the Perfect System.

Interesting. But i'm starting to sound like Saint here, so i'll leave it there.

[Mr_Pleasington]

I find its lack of setting a blessing more than a hindrance since it is a generic game.  There's a lot of settings already in the pipe for it htough, including Evernight (the literal dark fantasy game) which I may or may not pick up.  There's a pulp setting, a sci fi setting, and a Vietnam setting coming through sometime.  Shane's promised that they'll never reference rules from one setting book in another (like WOTC does) so all you'll ever need is the core book (and the setting book of your choice if you want).

[Entsuropi]

So it is a direct contender to GURPs?

Strange, with a title like that it sounds like a lost world/amazon type setting.

[Mr_Pleasington]

Well, I'm not a fan of GURPS so I would say its a contender.  However, I doubt that it will ever get huge.  It will probably get about as big as Deadlands once was.  I think its more on par with the size of the fan base for BESM.  

The light, nearly transparent system of Savage Worlds isn't going to go over well with everyone.  It paints with very broad strokes that allow for a very cinematic game but at the cost of detail.  I don't think you're going to find a better system for fast play of huge fights.  

Evernight, when its released, is said to be kind of revolutionary.  I think its a bit of a heady claim, but they are doing some thing different.  It's set to be a setting/epic campaign all in one book.  It stems from the author's failed 2nd ed D&D campaign where the heroes failed to stop the illithids from blocking out the sun.  Hence, evernight.  It's a string of scenarios that they claim that the DM can pick up and run in minutes!  No work.   It also takes the PCs from Novice rank to Legendary rank so its pretty epic.  Plus, though the actual campaign is pretty linear, there is a lot of side quests and room for player initiative.  So it all claims. We'll see when it's released.

Not to sound like an advertisement, but Pinnacle has a bunch of free stuff for download on their site:  The Test Drive Rules, a fantasy adventure, a Cthulu-esque adventure, and a pulp adventure.   A pretty big taste of the game.  The design diaries are also well worth reading.   http://www.deadlands.com

Heh, maybe I could get a job pimping out Pinnacle...

[Entsuropi]

Review! Review!

Playtest! Playtest!

 ;DThat might not be such a bad idea. I realised a week or so ago that i was elaboratly bored with both D20 and Pale Puppy products, so im kinda looking for a new system of books to get all fanboyish over. Nobilis is incredible, but it's not going to have wide appeal. And there is only 1 book for it, so i cannot blow my money on it effectively So now i am looking for a system with lots of scope that i can submerge a group of players into without having to mess around teaching them new rules systems constantly. And lets face it, D20 sucks for anything that isn't epic sword fantasy - its great for conan, but sucky as all hell for james bond (which is why the Spycraft game is said to be so poor)

[Mr_Pleasington]

Ah, if only I had time to pen a review.  I'd still be submitting Gamecube reviews and reviewing Fairy Meat if I actually had time to write as thoroughly as the ones I've submitted in the past.

I will be giving Savage Worlds a playtest before too long here and I'll let you all know how it goes.  If you want something that's flexible and fast you really can't go wrong with it though.

And where have you heard Spycraft is poor?  A personally know a lot of people who rave about that game and it got good reviews across the net.  I've always wanted to check it out, but after running 3E for so long I'm more than a little turned off by d20.

[Spriggan]

I hope you do Mr_Pleasington you're reviews are some of the best we've got

[Mr_Pleasington]

Stop it Spriggan, you're going to make me blush

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Spycraft certainly looked neat, and it beats the heck out of Top Secret/SI.

[Slant]

Not to get off track (or at least any MORE off track), but I always liked the ORIGINAL Top Secret from waaaay back in the Stone Age days of gaming.  I still remember oldies like Operation: Sprechenheltestelle.  The game was rigid and complicated, but boy was it fun!

[Slant]

So Mr. P, I'm curious:  have you actually gotten a chance to play Savage Lands yet?  Is it worth the cash?  Let us all know how your game went.  I really want to pick this one up, and am just itching for a good excuse to buy it.  C'mon mate, tell me it's the best thing since chainmail dice bags.

[Mr_Pleasington]

Well here's your excuse.  It rocks.  Ran a short, sample game with my crew and the game is everything it promises.  We had a blast and combat went super fast and very cinematically.  They actually remade some old characters from a Deadlands one shot and I took them through a short adventure.

I'm actually getting things together for running my dream campaign with Savage Worlds.  Some stuff is up on the campaign site already (well, one thing), but not much.  Keep watching it though as I'll have more by the end of the week. It's here:

http://www.geocities.com/hoodyfrickinhoo/ruinsintro.html

Pretty sparse, but a taste of things to come.

[Entsuropi]

yuck. I had a look at the website, and yuck.

Blindingly unfunny anecdotes from the staff, poor layout a bitch to find information, eh. It does not inspire confidence in the game.