“Reach for the Sky” An evening of Savage Worlds .

On Thursday September 11, Several Players including my Self, Tristan Richter, Jake Rockwell and Two Others who's names I Sadly can not remember sat down with Writer/Artist and Game Master Andres Salazar at Seths Games and Anime for a game of SAVAGE WORLDS set in the world of His Graphic Novel PARIAH MISSOURI.

This is my review of the SAVAGE WORLDS GAME SYSTEM From Pinnacle Entertainment.

SAVAGE WORLDS is a small generic RPG, similar to GURPS or Q&D. It uses points to build the characters, has Advantages and disadvantages and several World Books in print ( including PARIAH MISSOURI).

That’s about where Savage Worlds and any other Generic System comparison ends, because Savage Worlds is a very unusual and excitingly weird game System that on paper sounds like a mess, but when you actually play it-Works, Brilliantly.

I have dabbled with the System on and off since it came out and for me to say that every Idea I came up with for a character I was able to make in Savage Worlds, well that’s quite a honer because I am a Notorious Harsh judge of Role Playing Systems.

Savage Worlds has several things about it that makes it stand out from other games.

Dice: This was the first thing about this system that confused me and at the time made me go “Why”. All characters start with a D4 in each stat and Skill, when ever you make a roll VS that whatever you roll a D4 (And if a PC may add a D6 wild dice, see below). You may spend your Build Points to raise the Stat to the next Die type. A Strength of D 4 can be raised to a Strength of D6. So now, every time your roll that Stat/Skill you roll a D6 (+D6) instead of a D4. You can continue to spend build points to raise stats/skills a Die type to the Maximum die type of D12.

The Idea behind this is, that the bigger the Die type the more likely you are to roll a 4 or Higher and 4 is the base Difficulty of all Stat and skill rolls.

Now I don’t do Math, so I have no idea if this theory is sound. From personal experience it seems I am far more likely to roll above a 4 on a D6 (+d6) then I am on a D12. At first I was very confused by this mechanic and felt, why not just 1d6 or Multiple D6's or some other mechanic then Increasing the Die you rolled?
Having played Savage Worlds though, despite my Fear of Math I have to say this strange Little mechanic works. Rather then bogging play down, it is very fast and easy to understand.

Raises. As mentioned above, whenever the Player rolls a Dice he/she gets to add a second D6 to the roll and use the Higher of the two. Should Either of those Dice max out (6 on a D6) then the player can roll that dice again. If that max's out then the rolls keep going till the Player ceases to roll a Max out.

A roll that’s 4 points over the target number is called a “raise.” If your hero needs a 4 to Shoot an opponent and rolls an 8 or higher, he hits with a raise!

A Raise, and every addition raise the Player might get increases the result of what you just rolled for. Extra damage, The possibility of a Critical Strike, pulling of an unbelievably lucky skill check and so on. This Raise mechanic allows Character to achieve truly heroic and cinematic results to there action.

Benny’s: Another Way this System adds a more Cinematic feel to the Scenario is its Benny’s Mechanic (For those who don’t know, “Bennie’s” is a slang term derived from “benefits.”) Every player starts each game session with three “Bennie’s,” gaming stones or other tokens that signify a little bit of good luck or fate.

A player can use a Benny to re roll any non Damage related die roll. You can even keep spending them until you get the Die roll result you want or you run out of Bennie’s! The Mechanic is a Reward, not a punishment in that it lets you take the best of your rolls. If your original roll is a 5, for example, and a Benny gets you a 4, you keep the original 5 instead.

Bennie’s are not saved up between games, you start each game with 3 but some Advantages may give you More or Less.

Don t worry though Game Masters, you get Beanies for your Villains/ NPC's as well. At the start of each session, the GM gets one Benny for each player character in the group, any Major NPC's also get an additional Two Bennie’s over and above the GM pool of 1 per player at table.

Between this rule and the Raise rule , combat and skill task resolutions can quickly become very exciting, heroic and cinematic.

Initiative/Ace's. Yet another interesting mechanic this RPG uses and a Homage to the original Deadlands rule set(before Savage Worlds Deadlands). Rather then using Dice to establish Order in Initiative, you have the preferred option of using a Deck of Cards. Not only does this method help the Game Master keep track of who's turn it is, it adds a extra dose of excitement to the Combat round.

The idea works as Follows, each Player is dealt a card from the Deck, while the Game master deals himself only One card.

The Game Master then counts down from the Ace to the Deuce, with each group resolving its actions when its card comes up. Ties are resolved in suit order: Spades are first, then Hearts, Diamonds, and Clubs.

Now, A character who is dealt a Joker gets to go whenever he wants in a round, before anyone else or at any point later, including automatically interrupting another Players action if he wishes. In addition, the Player who drew the Joker adds +2 to all Skill made this round, and +2 to damage!

The Game Master must then reshuffle the deck after a Joker is dealt to any character .

When the Combat is over, all cards are returned to the Deck and the Deck is shuffled till next time it's needed.

Now yes, you can use Dice to determine Initiative but this way is just so cool.

There are lots of other bits and bobs in the system that are common to all generic Role Playing Systems like Advantages and Disadvantages and Powers, all of which can be gained via the Creation point' given to each Player. Nothing we have not seen before, but even those have a Gritty, Cinematic feel to them. It's the flavor of the whole game and it's many world books, including the “Weird West” world of Pariah Missouri.

I am not a fan of Point based Systems, it seems a lot of work for very little reward and they have a long history of being able to be broken , but then any system can be broken if you are clever enough.. So like I said when I first saw this game a few years ago I did not like it, the weird Multi Dice rule alone was enough to confuse me, yet I have played it time and time again and had a blast! Rather then being a determent, all the wacky rules in this game work to its advantage. It provides a fun,easy system that is very quick to learn and very open to adaptation to fit your ideas.

I look forward to seeing where the game goes in the next few years, and I highly recommend it-especially since the basic rule Book is like $10.00 and the Quick play PDF free rules are on the Savage Worlds Web Site.

On a Scale of One to Five I give Savage Worlds a 4 ½!

Special thanks to Writer/Artist Andres Salazar and his creation Pariah Missouri..

Many facts in this review were taken off the Savage Worlds web site and/or the PDF Quick Play Rules. Check em out at http://www.peginc.com/