What are your favorite Savage Worlds settings?

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I also like the Plot Point approach from some of the earlier SW campaigns, they were really simple to follow, yet allowed for a lot of sandboxing in the interims - that's perfect for my GM style.

While I've only played Savage Rifts, I'm finding the plot point campaigns rather restrictive. This is the next thing that must happen, and if you deviate, the rest of the story is now off balance. How do you off set that?
 
While I've only played Savage Rifts, I'm finding the plot point campaigns rather restrictive. This is the next thing that must happen, and if you deviate, the rest of the story is now off balance. How do you off set that?
I guess it depends on which plot point campaign you are playing - I haven't kept up with the SW campaigns for at least 5 yrs or more

I remember the earlier ones seemed good as they had lots of sandbox opportunities, with only the pivotal parts of the campaign being provided, often as a turning point for the future direction of the metaplot.

It seemed something that worked well with the earlier campaigns like 50 Fathoms and Necessary Evil.
So it may have worked better for some campaigns, and perhaps not so great for others.
 
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Suzerein (looks interesting, need to read more)

Yeah I love this setting. But I want to be in a game where players can come from any Savage Worlds settings, including Rifts.
But a couple of my favourite settings are -

1. Titan Effect which is a kind of Dog Soldiers and Dark Angel kind of rpg.

2. Nemezis which is a space horror setting with a large side order of Lovecraft, only the gribblies are totally original and not Cthulhu - which is refreshing.

3. Shaintar love that too, as it is kind of Lords of the Rings and stuff.
 
While I've only played Savage Rifts, I'm finding the plot point campaigns rather restrictive. This is the next thing that must happen, and if you deviate, the rest of the story is now off balance. How do you off set that?

Just like with any other written adventure: If you deviate, you make it up. They can't map out everything, after all. I USUALLY manage to hit the plot points while still having *plenty* of room for my own hooks, seeds, what have you. The biggest thing is making sure that whatever the endgame of the plot point campaign is also being important to the PCs.
 
The Carribean is a good one - pirates, blackpower - need I say more.

9th - 10th century russia - Vikings, Khazars, Steppe Nomads, Arab merchants, Scheming Byzantines, vast. expanses of forest steppe and, on the other side of the Caspian, desert.

Eastern China and Central Asia during the Tang dynasty. Buddhist monks, steppe nomads, sogdian merchants, a plethora of religions and cosmopolitan city, the Karakorum Desert (the name means "if you go in you don't come out") China at it's most westward looking, the time that provided the inspiration for Journey to the West.
 
Thanks for the responses! I definitely have some new-to-me stuff to check out now! :smile:
 
Slipstream. It's delightfully silly. Clanking robots going on space adventures alongside giant slugs. :grin:

50 Fathoms. Probably the one I've ended up playing the most, for some reason. Lots of weird and interesting people moving around a cheesy setting that's a nice mix between apocalyptic and optimistic.

Accursed. Really my first look at SW. I still think about running it sometime. It's got a nice, dark atmosphere, and I like the idea of monsters who can either aspire to becoming human or aspire to becoming even more monstrous. Also, I got to play a loudmouthed old lady scarycrow, which was one of the highlights of my roleplaying career. :grin:
 
Oh I gotta also toss out there - "Guild of Shadows"...

I use this with any/all Fantasy/historical based games. It's essentially a mini-setting for living/operating in a thieves guild. Very low magic (but that shouldn't matter) it's a an amazing product in its own right.
 
Oh I gotta also toss out there - "Guild of Shadows"...

I use this with any/all Fantasy/historical based games. It's essentially a mini-setting for living/operating in a thieves guild. Very low magic (but that shouldn't matter) it's a an amazing product in its own right.
Link?
 
For the most part, Fate Core settings have not grabbed me the same way for some reason. The 'Worlds' series have a great range of micro-settings, but many of the other setting books haven't captured my interest like the SW settings have. It could even be down to Pinnacle having more evocative art in the books, as that does add to the imagination.

I also like the Plot Point approach from some of the earlier SW campaigns, they were really simple to follow, yet allowed for a lot of sandboxing in the interims - that's perfect for my GM style.

I greatly prefer playing the Fate Core mechanics, but the SW settings just seem more my thing to play in

I think a lot of that can be traced back to the idea of the Worlds books- they are quick bites with a lot of ideas, where most SW books are more fully fleshed out and created. I mean, you can look at the prices and see the difference, as the worlds books are $4. Do the full fledged ones (Fate of Cthulhu, Dresden Files, Tachyon Squadron, etc) strike you in the same way?
 
50 Fathoms. Probably the one I've ended up playing the most, for some reason. Lots of weird and interesting people moving around a cheesy setting that's a nice mix between apocalyptic and optimistic.
I've mostly home-brewed or converted settings with Savage Worlds, but I had a lot of fun with this one. It is the setting where SW really hit its stride. It works as an open sandbox where the players can do what they want, but it also has multiple story paths that players can engage with as well. It has random tables for generating encounters and adventures on they fly. Giving the players a ship with a crew lets them see just how well the rules for extras work.

It's especially impressive as it came out before the OSR movement really got started. Concepts like sandbox play, hiring retainers, and using random tables hadn't come back into fashion yet. I was largely oblivious to the OSR scene when it started a few years later, but I ended up dipping back into D&D B/X on my own a few years later. Having run 50 Fathoms put me in the right mindset to see its strengths.
 
I really liked Slipstream. A very nice pulp sci-fi setting that you could use to run Star Wars or Guardians of the Galaxy.

I just picked up the SWADE edition of Deadlands, and I’ve never played Deadlands before but I think it’s gonna be right up my alley.
 
I agree with the general consensus that The Savage World of Solomon Kane was really well done - unfortunately it's out of print, which is the hazard of licensed games.

It's still available in electronic format, isn't it? Or has that been pulled?

I'm interested in Ultima Forsan, an Italian SW setting. It's an alt-history Europe c. 1500, in which the Black Death was a zombie plague instead, with clockpunk elements. I can't recommend it yet, though, because I've not yet got around to reading it.
 
It's still available in electronic format, isn't it? Or has that been pulled?

I'm interested in Ultima Forsan, an Italian SW setting. It's an alt-history Europe c. 1500, in which the Black Death was a zombie plague instead, with clockpunk elements. I can't recommend it yet, though, because I've not yet got around to reading it.
What is 'Clockpunk'? Sounds interesting!
 
I think a lot of that can be traced back to the idea of the Worlds books- they are quick bites with a lot of ideas, where most SW books are more fully fleshed out and created. I mean, you can look at the prices and see the difference, as the worlds books are $4. Do the full fledged ones (Fate of Cthulhu, Dresden Files, Tachyon Squadron, etc) strike you in the same way?

I have all of the Fate Core Worlds books, they feel brimming with possibilities, although many of those settings need more meat-on-the bone, as they are like anthologies of short-stories. That's actually not a fault, it's great for tinkering GMs like myself, and in some ways I think the strength of Fate is more in these books than in the some of the complete settings. I would love to see some more collected Worlds books printed - saves me trawling thru DrivethruRPG browsing them.

As far as the complete Fate Core settings go, alot of them haven't grabbed me, but I guess it's down to personal taste. The earlier versions of Fate did a bit better with this for me, stuff like Spirit of the Century and The Kerberos Club, but the Fate system itself was still a bit clunky then.

Regarding the complete settings for the current Fate Core system, I quite like Dresden Files and Shadows of the Century (I would really love to see Spirit of the Century updated for Fate Core). I also have Venture City, but have to give it a good read yet.
Also Fate of Cthulhu looks okay-ish - it was not what I wanted, as I was looking for Trail of Cthulhu done with Fate Core, and this is more like Terminator Mythos, but it actually may make for a fun game.

Despite these, I'm just not overly into any of Evil Hat's current settings, and it's hard to put my finger on why.
I find some of the non-Evil Hat material may be the best for Fate Core, such as.Ken Hite's The Day After Ragnarok has lots of possibilities, Gun Metal Games's Interface Zero is very well done, and Modiphius' Actung! Cthulhu. These settings are often statted for multiple systems, such as BRP, Fate Core, and Savage Worlds.

I think the pulp adventure setting of Centurions is a perfect flagship for Fate Core - I'm happy that Shadows of the Century is published, and I wish there has been a few more products for it, perhaps moving the timeline from the 1980s up to contemporary times. Young Centurions is also published, it's not really my thing though. The earlier Fate game Spirit of the Century is perhaps my favourite; what's not to love with rollicking 1920s adventures? Very much early Indy Jones, Weird Tales, etc. Although it's not a hard port, I would love to see it officially in current Fate Core version.

But outside of the Centurions setting, many of the Evil Hat full settings haven't grabbed me - certainly not the same way that the Savage Worlds settings captured my imagination.

I could never part with this treasure trove of SW settings sitting in my bookcase:
50 Fathoms, Necessary Evil, Rippers, Slipstream, Pirates of the Spanish Main, Thrilling Tales, Deadlands Reloaded, Runepunk, Sundered Skies, Noir Knights, Weird Wars, Tour of Darkness, Solomon Kane, Hellfrost, Daring Tales, Wonderland No More, etc the list goes on - I know I would also like Flash Gordon and Space 1889.
It's actually quite easy to convert SW settings to other games, so these are now a wealth of settings that I can run with Fate Core (except Hellfrost, I think I would prefer it with D&D 5E or BRP: BGB/Mythras)

I'm very impressed with Pinnacle for coming up with so many rich campaign settings for SW, there is truly an abundance of creativity here that should be admired by anyone in our hobby.

However I still prefer Fate Core as a system, but rather than get into alot of Evil Hat's settings I guess I have been having more fun converting SW settings, or using it for my own homebrew stuff - it's perfect for just viewing any setting, and porting into Fate Core mechanics.
Once you know what makes that setting's fiction 'hum', then Fate Core works really well :thumbsup:
 
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WIthout any direct play experience, I really like The Day After Ragnarok, the post-apocalyptic pulp setting where you pick up the pieces after the Nazis conjured a giant magic snake at the end of WWII and dropped it on Europe. I agree with the general consensus that The Savage World of Solomon Kane was really well done - unfortunately it's out of print, which is the hazard of licensed games. Rippers would be a good choice to scratch the Gothic monster-hunting itch, albeit a couple centuries later. If your monster-hunting tastes run more towards gunplay, I heartily recommend Monster Hunter International. Finally, Heroes of Terra is a fantasy setting where inter-dimensional travelers from Earth fight malicious turtle-dragons on behalf of the humanoid fungi whose princess the reptiles have captured. It's really well thought out for such an outlandish premise. :wink:
Speaking of Heroes of Terra, it's out as of today!
 
It's still available in electronic format, isn't it? Or has that been pulled?
What do you know, it is. I was under the impression that had been pulled with the end of the license. Maybe at the end of the year?
 
Necessary Evil for me, though I'd have liked it a bit more robust details here and there. We used Marvel Saga for it though.
 
I must admit that Rippers feels like a lost opportunity for me. It's the kind of pulpy 'Action Adventure-meets-Gothic Supernatural' that I really like
I had the original SW setting book for it, but never got around to running it.
Recently I've been watching some old Hammer gothic horror flicks, and think perhaps Rippers would have been a great way to play some of this stuff.
I could easily convert Rippers from SW to Fate or Call of Cthulhu, but the setting premises and content in the SW books is pure gold...it's got me thinking of what to do with my next campaign...

This thread has reminded me that there has been such a powerhouse of settings that Pinnacle has been pumping out over this last decade or so.
 
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I must admit that Rippers feels like a lost opportunity for me. It's the kind of pulpy 'Action Adventure-meets-Gothic Supernatural' that I really like
I had the original SW setting book for it, but never got around to running it.
Recently I've been watching some old Hammer gothic horror flicks, and think perhaps Rippers would have been a great way to play some of this stuff.
I could easily convert Rippers from SW to Fate or Call of Cthulhu, but the setting premises and content in the SW books is pure gold...it's got me thinking of what to do with my next campaign...

This thread has reminded me that there has been such a powerhouse of settings that Pinnacle has been pumping out over this last decade or so.
Rippers fell through the cracks for me. It came out around the time I was making a major move, so I didn't really get any gaming in for a year or so, until gaming online became viable. I need to revisit that one. BedrockBrendan BedrockBrendan and I have been watching some Hammer films for his podcast lately, so now might be the time to break it out.
 
What is 'Clockpunk'? Sounds interesting!

Well, I just meant that it has 'weird science' and advanced technology, but it's pre-steam-engine, as far as I know. So something like Leonardo da Vinci's musings made real. I'm not sure if it really clockwork-based to any degree; as I said, I've not got around to reading the setting book yet.

There is a free introduction to the setting on Drivethru, A Taste of the Macabre if you're interested.
 
Rippers fell through the cracks for me. It came out around the time I was making a major move, so I didn't really get any gaming in for a year or so, until gaming online became viable. I need to revisit that one. BedrockBrendan BedrockBrendan and I have been watching some Hammer films for his podcast lately, so now might be the time to break it out.
I just watched Hammer's HORROR OF DRACULA and SCARS OF DRACULA, and plenty more to see, so I'm eager to run a game with some of this stuff at present.
I ended up backing the They Came From Beyond The Grave kickstarter, it looks perfect for this, but it will be at least a year or two away, and I'm not waiting that long.

So I am currently tossing up whether to run Curse of Strahd (D&D 5E), or to revisit Rippers (or check out Rippers Resurrected). I only have the original Rippers book at present.

If I go with Rippers, then it's unlikely I will use SW these days, it will be either BRP or Fate.

BRP is a contender, especially Call of Cthulhu, and I have the earlier Gaslight rules which should work fine. I may need to use the Pulp Cthulhu mode if I want it to feel more rollicking, and to also give the PCs a better chance of survival.
However if it's a rollicking game that I'm after, I find I can portray that much easier with the broad brushstrokes of Fate Core.

In any case, Rippers was a really cool premise to run a Gothic Supernatural campaign, and I think it will be a terrible waste if I don't use the setting at some stage.
 
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BTW I just stumbled across this, and it may possibly be something to rift off for a Rippers game, heh heh :grin:



I remember that film.
Also saw in the credits Brian Clements, he used to be director and stuff on lots of 80's stuff.
 
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