Tenkar's Tavern: Damn You Happy Jack's Podcast! I am a Step Closer to Being Savaged!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Damn You Happy Jack's Podcast! I am a Step Closer to Being Savaged!

The f'ers over at the Happy Jack's podcast are big Savage Worlds fans. Really big. They do play other games (Traveller, D&D 4e and such) but their favorite game system is Savage Worlds.

I've been pretty steadfast in my "I will not be running a Savage Worlds campaign" mantra, but the boys have been wearing me down. Listening to last falls podcast with Shane Hensley (Savage Worlds author) certainly didn't help. I found myself ordering a dead tree copy of the Savage Worlds Deluxe ruleset from Amazon, despite the fact that I already have a PDF copy.

I know the rules are good and fairly flexible. I know there are a bunch of different genre sourcebooks for it. Heck, I have some of the classic ones (I like the concept of EverNight, but it's such a damn rail road I don't think I could stomach running it).

Ah well, I can always leave the book handy for bathroom reading ;)

6 comments:

Kelvin GreenMarch 15, 2012 at 6:31 PM
Savage Worlds is probably my second favourite system after Chaosium's BRP, although I too wish that some of their setting-campaign sets weren't quite so heavy on the scripted events.
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Steve ZieserMarch 15, 2012 at 7:02 PM
SW is my go to system, and I love it to pieces. 50 Fathoms still stands as the best campaign of any system I've ever ran.
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gmkerosMarch 15, 2012 at 9:43 PM
Only my empty wallet kept me from ordering that the last time I was ordering roleplaying stuff. But these douches really drive it home in nearly every single podcast. And they make it sound so absolutely awesome.
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gmkerosMarch 15, 2012 at 9:43 PM
Only my empty wallet kept me from ordering that the last time I was ordering roleplaying stuff. But these douches really drive it home in nearly every single podcast. And they make it sound so absolutely awesome.
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Erik TenkarMarch 15, 2012 at 9:53 PM
yes, they do make it sound like many levels of awesome :)
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BigharaMarch 16, 2012 at 11:15 AM
I ran and played SW to death when it first came out. Our group had many campaigns. It's a nice little system, but it has its limits too. Character builds tend to become limited to a handful of paths/options, extended campaigns are hard to maintain, and the fantasy genre has always been the poor relation in the SW family.

All that said, the fights are fun and the rules are quite flexible in many ways.
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Why "Swords & Wizardry?"

Believe me when I say I have them all in dead tree format. I have OSRIC in full size, trade paperback and the Player's Guide. I have LL and the AEC (and somewhere OEC, but I can't find it at the moment). Obviously I have Basic Fantasy RPG. Actually, I have the whole available line in print. Way too much Castles & Crusades. We all know my love for the DCC RPG. I even have Dark Dungeons in print, the Delving Deeper boxed set, Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. BOTH editions of LotFP's Weird Fantasy and some dead tree copies of the Greyhawk Grognards Adventures Dark & Deep

I am so deep in the OSR when I come up for breath it's for the OSR's cousin, Tunnels & Trolls

So, out of all that, why Swords & Wizardry? Why, when I have been running a AD&D 1e / OSRIC campaign in Rappan Athuk am I using Swords & Wizardry and it's variant, Crypts & Things, for the second campaign? (Actually, now running a S&W Complete campaign, soon to be with multiple groups)

Because the shit works.

It's easy for lapsed gamers to pick up and feel like they haven't lost a step. I can house rule it and it doesn't break. It plays so close to the AD&D of my youth and college years (S&W Complete especially) that it continually surprises me. Just much less rules hopping than I remember. (my God but I can run it nearly without the book)

I grab and pick and steal from just about all OSR and Original resources. They seem to fit into S&W with little fuss. It may be the same with LL and the rest, but for me the ease of use fit's my expectations with S&W.

Even the single saving throw. That took me longer to adjust to, but even that seems like a natural to me now. Don't ask me why, it just does. Maybe it's the simplicity of it. At 45 52, simplicity and flexibility while remaining true to the feel of the original is an OSR hat trick for me ;)

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Thursday, March 15, 2012

Damn You Happy Jack's Podcast! I am a Step Closer to Being Savaged!

6 comments:

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