Savage Worlds is a universal generic, award-winning role-playing game, game system, and miniatures wargame, written by Shane Lacy Hensley, and published by Great White Games doing business as Pinnacle Entertainment Group. The game emphasizes speed of play and reduced preparation over realism or detail.
Settings[]
Although Savage Worlds is a generic rules system, Pinnacle has released "Savage Settings" - campaign settings or modules designed specifically for the Savage Worlds rules. These have included Evernight, 50 Fathoms, Necessary Evil, Rippers, and Low Life. Pinnacle has also published setting books based on the company's earlier lines, including Deadlands: Reloaded as well as the Tour of Darkness, Necropolis, and Weird War II settings based on the Weird Wars line.
Beginning with 50 Fathoms, the majority of settings released by Pinnacle feature a concept known as a "Plot Point Campaign". In such campaigns, a series of loosely defined adventure scenarios are presented. A main storyline is presented as a series of "Plot Points" and additional side-quests (or "Savage Tales") expand the scope of the campaign. This format allow a group of characters to explore the game universe while playing through (or disregarding) the main storyline in a manner similar to that of computer RPGs (such as Morrowind).
A licensing system is in place for electronic and book publishers to release material for the Savage Worlds game. Such "Savaged!" licensees are allowed to use the Savage Worlds mascot "Smiling Jack" as a logo on their products. Multiple PDF adventure scenarios are available using this licensing system, as well as setting related supplements like the Vampire Earth RPG Sourcebook and the Shaintar Player's Guide.
System[]
Character Creation[]
Player characters are built using a point allocation system, though game masters are encouraged to design non-player characters to the needs of the game rather than to fit the system. Characters in Savage Worlds are composed of a variety of statistics. These include Race, Traits, Edges, Hindrances and sometimes Powers.
A character's race usually refers to his or her species, though in some settings (such as the Pirates RPG) this may instead refer to nationality. In cases of the former, modifiers to other characteristics may apply; in cases of the latter, they typically do not.
A character's traits are characteristics that are rated by a single polyhedral die. The more sides the trait is rated in, the better the character is at the trait. So a character with a Strength trait of a ten-sided die (d10) is stronger than a character whose Strength trait is rated with a six-sided die (d6). Traits are divided into attributes, which are inherent, and skills, which are learned. The five attributes used in Savage Worlds are Agility, Smarts, Spirit, Strength and Vigor. Some examples of skills in Savage Worlds include Fighting, Healing and Stealth.
Characters are also customized with advantages and disadvantages known as Edges and Hindrances. Edges and Hindrances, unlike Traits, are not rated with dice.
In addition to Traits, Edges and Hindrances, a character has the following derived statistics: Pace (ground speed), Parry (the ability to defend one's self), Toughness (resistance to damage) and Charisma (presence and charm). Some setting supplements add a fifth derived statistic such as Reason, Sanity or Grit.
Task resolution[]
Dice are rolled to determine the outcome of character actions and interactions in the game. Usually a trait die is rolled against a target number of four. If the roll equals or exceeds the target number, the action succeeds; otherwise it fails.
If a player rolls the highest number possible on a given die (such as an 8 on an eight-sided die), the die may be re-rolled and its result added to the initial roll. This is known as "Acing". A die may continue to Ace as long as the highest die number is rolled.
Player characters and significant non-player characters are known as "Wild Cards". Wild Cards get to roll a second die, known as a "Wild Die", alongside their trait rolls. This roll may Ace as normal. The player of the Wild Card uses the higher of the two rolls (trait die or Wild Die) to determine the actual result of the roll.
Combat initiative is determined by a standard deck of playing cards (with two jokers); characters act in sequence according to the fall of the cards from highest to lowest. Ties are broken by suit (in order from best to worst, spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs). Jokers beat all other cards and additionally give bonuses on rolls made in the round one receives them. The deck is shuffled at the end of every round in which a joker was dealt.
History[]
Savage Worlds was first released in 2003 and was derived from the earlier Great Rail Wars miniatures game, itself a simplified derivative of Hensley's Deadlands RPG. At Origins 2004, Savage Worlds was awarded the Gamer's Choice Award in the Roleplaying Game category. The main rulebook was revised and released as a PDF format eBook in late 2004, with a print version following in early 2005. The same year, Great White Games began releasing rules expansions in the form of several PDF format genre toolkit books. Self-contained miniature skirmish games based upon the Savage Worlds engine were also released in print and PDF form.
Deadlands Reloaded, a version of the classic Pinnacle game using the Savage Worlds rules, was released in May 2006. In late 2005, Pinnacle entered into an agreement with WizKids to publish self-contained RPGs set in the worlds of Pirates, Rocketmen, and MageKnight using the Savage Worlds rules. Of the three licenses, only The Pirates of the Spanish Main RPG saw release, and was published in April 2007. Pinnacle released another licensed game, The Savage World of Solomon Kane, in 2007.
In October 2007, Pinnacle released the Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition, a digest-sized paperback edition of the rules. It featured the revisions to melee damage rules first introduced in Deadlands Reloaded, as well as new chase rules, and was released at Origins 2007. At that event, Deadlands Reloaded won the Origins Award in the category of Best Roleplaying Game Supplement.
External links[]
- Savage Worlds homepage Official site (scroll down for Savage Worlds)
- Savagepedia Savage Worlds unofficial wiki
- Savage Heroes system and setting conversions
- Shark Bytes A fanzine
- Shaintar: Immortal Legends The Shaintar epic fantasy setting developed for Savage Worlds by Talisman Studios
- [1] The Official Website of The Low Life campaign setting for Savage Worlds Designed by Andy Hopp [2]
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