Believe it or not, dear readers, there was a time when I was completely jaded with the hobby of tabletop roleplaying. In 2003, Wizards of the Coast came out with Dungeons & Dragons 3.5. Since this made the hundreds of dollars worth of 3rd Edition D&D books I bought obsolete, I got pissed and parted ways with their products (and if 4th Edition is any indication, I'm not coming back anytime soon).
The other system I played, White Wolf's World of Darkness, was improving their system. But, in 2004, my "rpg mistress" went from being this dark, mysterious, sexy, and sophisticated piece of ass to a mopey, depressing, juvenile bitch. They basically wrote the end of the world for each game in the system and it ended up being a poorly executed doomfest. I promptly ignored their little pity party and kept playing with the old story they wrote before they ruined everything. Then, White Wolf dropped a bomb: they retconned the entire World of Darkness. Some things seemed familiar, others were interesting, but, as a whole, I was severely disappointed.
I was also tired of the same old crap. I fooled around with other sytems over the years: Rifts, Legend of the Five Rings, etc., but none of them inspired me. All of their dice systems were getting stale and I got sick of having to remember complex rules for dice mechanics or being frustrated by bad rolls ruining a game (especially those game sessions when all of my die rolls sucked). I also felt that systems like d20 didn't give you as much of a heroic feeling (unless you were high level, then, it just got boring).
At this point, I came to one conclusion about roleplaying games:
Fuck this shit!
I was about to hang up my dice bag for good. Roleplaying was one of the few hobbies that I cherished since I was very young and I was about to abandon it. The spark wasn't there, anymore. I loved her, but I wasn't in love with her. It was killing me.
Fortunately, I think it was toward the end of 2007, I discovered a game that reignited my love for the hobby and reminded me why I got into it in the first place.
That game is Savage Worlds.
Savage Worlds is a roleplaying system created by Pinnacle Entertainment Group, the creators of the Deadlands game. It is considered a generic universal system which means the core book details all the rules you need to know, allowing you to use it to play a myriad of published campaign settings or your own custom setting. It's a toolkit for creating games for almost any genre: whether it's science fiction, fantasy, horror, western, pulp adventure, super heroes, or any combination of these. The thing about Savage Worlds that really excited me about roleplaying games again lies in their fundamental mantra "Fast! Furious! Fun!"
First off, gameplay, especially combat, is much more streamlined than in other rpgs. This is because they created a system mechanic that doesn't rely heavily on adding modifiers to rolls. In Dungeons & Dragons, all skill rolls, including combat, are determined by rolling a d20 and adding any applicable modifiers. If you beat a target number, you succeed. The problem is that there can be so many different modifiers added to your roll, that you may forget to include them all (I've seen this done many times). Another issue I have with this is that your success hinges on the roll of one die - that's it. Sure, you may get to add to the roll, but if you get a shitty roll, you're screwed. Savage Worlds does things differently. The rating of any skill or attribute (such as Strength or Intelligence) is attached to a certain type of die; the better you are at something, the higher your die type is in that attribute or skill. To elaborate, let's say you have a d4 in a skill. The default number you have to meet or beat on most rolls in Savage Worlds is 4, which means you have a 75% chance of failure on that roll. If your skill is upgraded to a d6, the chances of failure decrease. All you need to know is what kind of die you should roll and, depending on circumstances, maybe one or two modifiers.
Then again, that's still having your success depend on one die. Fortunately, all player characters, and some powerful npcs, get what is called a "wild die." It's an extra d6 that is used in all attribute and skill rolls. Basically, you roll both your skill or attribute die and the wild die and choose the higher result of the two. This gives those characters who aren't very good at something the ability to get a "lucky shot," which is nice for the guy with low strength who has to jump a chasm to escape the flow of lava right behind him - failure means certain death.
Another dice mechanic Savage Worlds added is Acing your die rolls, which is generally known as "exploding dice," as it has been featured in other game systems. The mechanic is that if you roll the maximum number on your die (such as an 8 on a d8) you roll the die again and add that result to your previous roll(s). Yes, this means that you can keep rolling and adding until you roll something other than the max number (I've seen this used to mind-blowing effect).
Let's not forget the bennies, though. Each player stars out game session with a number of bennies (you can use gaming stones, poker chips, or coins to represent them) that you can spend to re-roll any bad die rolls, among other things. The Game Master can also award bennies to players for cool roleplaying or doing something heroically risky. The Game Master also has bennies he can use for his own rolls.
All of these mechanics lead to gameplay that is a bit more heroic than other games. Due to this system, Savage Worlds is more appropriate for games full of two-fisted action (whether those fists hold two swords, guns, or are bare-fisted is up to you). You could use this system for games with political maneuvering or emotional tribulations that define the characters, but there are systems out there that are much better at those types of games. Savage Worlds is for players who want fast paced action and adventure, as it allows you to take full advantage of it's system without any unnecessary filler.
Even though Savage Worlds characters are meant to be more heroic than in other games, it doesn't mean that heroism comes easy. While there aren't any hit points, like in most games, each character has three wound levels. If a character is successfully damaged, they can take, at least, one wound (even more, if you roll really well; the game we played during Free RPG Day had the Game Master "ace" really well on a damage roll - the character died a gruesome death with one hit). If you're not careful, and the Game Master gets lucky, the game can be dangerous (fortunately, bennies can also be used to reduce any damage you take during an attack). There's also rules for hazardous environments, vehicles, and massive battles (Savage Worlds was actually developed by Pinnacle from their miniatures war game "The Great Rail Wars," which was based on their original version of Deadlands).
Needless to say, due to its easy and action packed system, this is my rpg of choice. This isn't to say this game is for everyone. Savage Worlds is definitely a rules light system, so those who like a "crunchier" system may look somewhere else. Then again, I just said that I was sick of those systems, so Savage Worlds is perfect for me. There are plenty of campaign settings from numerous genres available, not to mention you can make your own. To find out more about Savage Worlds and the various campaigns, check out the Pinnacle website here. There is also a new magazine, Savage Insider, that's full of adventures, stories, and ads for the different games. You can download that for free here. Did I forget to mention that the Explorer's Edition of the core rule book is only $9.99? There is also $30 a hardcover Deluxe Edition rulebook, with some extra content, but I would only recommend that for Game Masters only.
If Savage Worlds sounds like a great game for you and your gaming group, definitely pick it up. I cannot recommend this rpg enough.
Until next time, keep acing those rolls.
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