My New Game for a New Year

Better Late Than Never

I’ve been running tabletop games almost continuously since 1981.  I haven’t always been very good at it, but I truly enjoy it and have invested a great deal of time and energy into it over the past 30 or so years.  Unfortunately, for a large portion of that time, I was extremely resistant to new ideas.

I was introduced to tabletop gaming in the heyday of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons.  It was what all my friends played.  It was what I played.  Hell, for all I knew it was the only game in town.  While I played a number of games written by then-publisher of AD&D, TSR, I didn’t branch out to trying other games much.  Sure, I played some RoleMaster, a bit of Twilight: 2000, some Stormbringer, and a few others, I mainly stuck to rolling d20′s and gaming that involved dungeons… and dragons.

There Must Be Something About Even Numbers…

It actually wasn’t until about 5 years ago that I really started trying other games and systems.  Having skipped 2nd edition D&D completely, I also balked when 4th edition was released.  Frankly, I was burned out on class and level- based systems in general and was looking for something different.  That was when I discovered White Wolf’s World of Darkness.  Or rather, when a few of my players dragged me, kicking and screaming, to it.  It worked well for the type of game I wanted to run at that time and it is a system I still use.

When I decided to go back to fantasy gaming (from modern horror), I checked out Paizo’s Pathfinder.  It was the natural progression from 3rd edition D&D as far as I was concerned.  During these past 5 years, I’ve also discovered gm-less games like Bully Pulpit’s Fiasco and other games from other small publishers, like Eden Studios’ All Flesh Must Be Eaten.

When my weekly Pathfinder game had to go on hiatus this past October for the holidays (and the loss of two players due to work/school commitments), I had a few months to think about what I wanted to do next.  Sure, the option of sticking with Pathfinder was still open and still appealing, but I had some special circumstances to take into account.

First, I was likely going to be picking up at least one player who had never played tabletop rpg’s before.  I wanted a ruleset that was robust enough to keep the rpg veterans at the table engaged, but simple enough to be easily learned by new players.

Second, I was also likely to have one or two players who were going to be present at the table about every other week on average, so I wanted to have a ruleset that didn’t rely heavily on a balanced 4 character party.

Finally, I wanted a system that would be able to fairly accurately represent the feel and spirit of the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim video game.  That meant a game that was skill-based instead of class and level-based.  Also, that everyone had the option of having access to magic.  It also meant a setting in which the Norse/Scandinavian cultures would be strongly reflected  and that iconic monsters like Trolls and Dragons could be encountered fairly early in the game.

After digging around a few internet forums, I found a system that met all of my criteria.

A Savage Game

The game system I decided to use is Pinnacle Entertainment’s Savage Worlds.  There is an excellent setting for the system that has a very Skyrim-ish feel to it called Hellfrost, by Triple Ace Games.

The problem is that not a single person in my group had ever played the system. Including myself.

After biting the bullet and investing in the Savage Worlds core book and the Hellfrost Player’s Guide, I discovered something that amazed me.

Savage Worlds can do pretty much everything that Pathfinder or D&D can do (and more, it could be argued) with a fraction of the page-count.  I learned the entire rule system in a single read-through that took less than an hour and one mock combat.  Combat ran so smoothly, I thought I was doing it wrong.  The system is simple and deep.  It’s also designed to be universal.  You can use it for a variety of genres and settings ranging from futuristic sci-fi  to Lovecraftian horror to pulp western, epic fantasy and zombie apocalypse.

Maine, a commenter on the Pinnacle forums, hit the nail on the head regarding one feature of this system:

“Part of the issue with classic D&D, d20, and 4e type adventures is the amount of filler/grinding introduced. Many of these adventures you can rip whole chunks out of, and have no negative impact on the story.

Savage Worlds can flow much faster than a traditional D&D adventure (as there is no emphasis on encounters for XP), and so an adventure written for (or properly converted to) Savage Worlds can be finished in a fraction of the number of settings it might be required under D20/Pathfinder/etc, due to the reduced number of combats, and the speed with which combats can be resolved.” – Maine, Pinnacle forum user

New Year, New Game

I knew that Gnome Stew was doing a “New Year, New Game” challenge and blog carnival.  I thought it would coordinate nicely with my very own “New Year, New Game” initiative.  Alas, it wasn’t to be, as I didn’t get this written until well after their deadline.  Still, the thought is what counts.  I am committed to this new game during the course of this new year and hope to feature more about this game here at Geekcentricity over the course of this year.

I also hope to use the Savage Worlds system with Jason L. Blair’s Streets of Bedlam setting when it releases.