Why Open D6? I had some experience with it back in the days of the old West End Games, ran some Star Wars D6 and had a few of the other D6 (Masterwork) powered games. The fact that it is free these days means that my players should have no excuse in not having a copy of the rules ;)
Why Savage Worlds? It's a highly supported system. It has what appears to be an infinite number of settings, either official or fan supported. There is a lot of strong third party material for the system.
Besides that, the Savage Worlds Test Drive rules are an excellent introduction to the system. A player could probably get away with never going beyond such (so long as the GM was willing to help with character gen or provide pregens).
I really like the idea of short arcs to keep things fresh, and universal systems allow you to do so. I like the idea of a short arc using Solomon Kane, as the fiction is pretty much all short stories (short "arcs" if you will). I'm considering checking into the Mars setting (what with John Carter getting some push theses days) as well as Deadlands (a setting I haven't really checked out since it's old days when it was it's own system).
Now, quick questions to all the Savage Worlds junkies:
Should I be looking to pick up SW Horror? I see it is recommended / required for Deadlands, and would probably be useful for Solomon Kane.
For gaming via G+ Hangout - what's the alternative for using a deck of cards for initiative? Since everyone can't share the same deck, this would be an issue. Of course, if I used Fantasy Grounds, that's built in, but then not everyone has a large enough computer screen to squeeze in both a VTT and the video from the Hangout.
Oh, and anyone have thoughts on Reality Blur's Old School Fantasy for Savage Worlds?
Another Oh, I found a Savage Worlds Primer - Saweet!
The Horror Companion is a good addition to your library, if you are going to touch on the genre at all. I'll clue you in on a few secrets that I don't seen trumpeted about the book much:
ReplyDelete1. It has Ghostbusters equipment in it.
2. It's got rules for having monsters (i.e. vampires, werewolves) as PCs as well as adversaries.
3. It's got some really funky unique entities in it, almost like D&D arch fiends.
Savage Worlds is a great system. I had to fill in as a GM on three separate dates, and found out the day before.
I ran a very successful Aliens versus Predator versus Space Marines game with one day's notice.
I then ran a very successful Ghostbusters game, with one day's notice.
Finally, I ran a "Weird West" not quite Deadlands session, which went over great, again, with one day's notice.
Absolutely love the system.
The only hiccups I've had are that I have a few people in my regular group that don't want to play out of their comfort zone, so no matter how much fun the rest of the group had, if I was running Savage Worlds to fill in for a Pathfinder game, they wouldn't show.
Similarly, I tried to go full bore and run Hellfrost as my fantasy setting, and lost half my Pathfinder players, not because they didn't like the setting, but because they wanted to play Pathfinder, not a fantasy RPG in general.
I can respect that, and it didn't tarnish my view of Savage Worlds at all.
Have you looked at Mini-Six?
ReplyDeletehttp://antipaladingames.com/minisix.html
Not saying it's better than Open 6, but it is lighter & maybe even more accessible to your players.
As for initiative, I read a game review in the last couple of weeks. Don't remember where or for what, but the reviewer really dug the initiative system.
Basically it was:
-use common sense to decide who should go first (i.e. who has the tactical advantage)
That player acts, then decides which character (PC or NPC or monster) goes next. and so on. The basic strategies are to either front load the initiative with the PCs, but that lets the bad guys have free reign in the latter part of the turn, or force NPCs who are out of position to act and then take advantage or their lack of activity for the rest of the turn.
If you prevent your players from discussing who goes next (assuming they don't cheat) Hilarity, for you, should ensue. Or not. It could be lame. IDK.
Depending on when you start Tabletop Forge 2.0 for Google Hangouts should be available. It will have support for both exploding dice (acing) and tables with unique rolls (cards).
ReplyDeleteI was the developer for the Savage Worlds ruleset for Fantasy Grounds so have some experience with it =).