Sunday, July 31, 2011

Weekend Review - Pathfinder RPG Part 1

During this month of GenCon, my reviews will be concentrating on Pathfinder.  One of the best things to happen to role-playing in the last decade was the creation of 4th edition. True it created a rift in the community for a while, with the edition wars, but though it all came rebirth. People who didn't like 4e were suddenly free to explore new systems, a resurgence in all RPGs occurred. This is how I see what happened, The giant had left the door open, and the smaller companies flooded in. We just need to keep bringing in new gamers. The Golden Age is long gone, the Dark Ages are behind us, time for the Renaissance in gaming. Amongst the new systems leading this Renaissance in gaming is Pathfinder. A new system built on the foundation of old. For a taste of the rules for those unfamiliar with Pathfinder, go to the Pathfinder Reference Document on Paizo's site!

Pathfinder Role-Playing Game Review

This is a review of the core system rules for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game, as published by Paizo, under the OGL. This is an update to the 3.5 Ruleset for Dungeons & Dragons.

First Glance: This book is HUGE, and it’s HEAVY; almost 600 pages Full color, glossy print, with gorgeous artwork. Glancing through You see all the familiar faces, from the fighter to the monk, the sorcerer and wizard, druid, cleric, all the core classes are there. No Major changes to equipment, though heavy armors did get a 1 AC Value jump. Only 1 major weapon change, with the spiked chain losing its reach.

Main Review: Pathfinder RPG, premier game line of Paizo publishing. The book gives you all the rules to play the game. All the classes from 3.5 core rules are included in this edition, from the cleric to the sorcerer, the core races included as well. The races received updates, each race receives a +2 to a physical, and a +2 to a mental stat and a -2 to a stat. There are many updates to the system, some sorely needed such as the grapple rules. All maneuvers from disarms to grapple are now covered under the Combat Maneuver system. Some of the updates are just new fluff powers, wizard’s gain new school powers, all the melee classes receive amazing revisions, fighters, rangers, paladins, and rogues. Cleric domains are updated. Many save or die/suck spells were changed to be not quite so brutal. Melee classes got a major boost. However, it is still the core system, thus it still has high level play issues, where combat at the upper levels can take a long, long time, and have a lot of book keeping, though the polymorph updates definitely helped iron out some of the issues by making bonuses static, not dynamically based upon what you changed into.One really interesting change is the Hit Die change, low BAB classes all have d6s, medium have d8s and full have d10s, except the d12 barbarian exception, this makes characters a little more hardy. I like the change, many do not.

As classes were the major update to the rules. I'll concentrate a portion of the review on classes. 
Barbarians: rage powers have been updated with additional rage powers which can be activated grant special abilities such as scent, or the ability to enter a rage even when fatigued.
Bards: Bards get a major updates to the performance abilities. In addition they gain a slew of new tune abilities, culminating in the capstone ability of Deadly performance.
Clerics: Clerics get a updates to their domains, adding additional flavor to the domains, instead of just receiving the single ability, with and additional 8th level power, while the domain spells got updated. Channel energy has been updated to also be used as a healing ability. A much debated change was the loss of Heavy Armor as a starting proficiency.
Druids: Druids received few updates, with a slight shifting of wild shape uses. Wild shape receives the same polymorph updates as the others.
Fighters: Fighters are majorly updated, while the retaining the bonus feats, they gain many new abilities making them a powerful force in world, gaining Armor Training, Weapon Training, Armor Mastery and the Capstone ability Weapon Mastery.
Monks: No major updates to monks in the Core rulebook, however, with so many abilities to modify,, they become very mutable in the Advanced Player's Guide. Flurry of Blows, and Ki (type) mechanics are the only real chance to the core monk.
Paladins: Paladins get a major rework, with smite and mercy abilities, in addition, divine bond, no longer is just a mount, it was be a weapon instead. The mercy ability combines the cure disease, blindness and other powers into a pool with expanded uses. A Code of conduct is added, returning to an earlier less carefree type of Paladin, with great power....

Rangers: Rangers return to being able to take a little more abuse, as they can now wear Medium armor once more. In addition, they gain favored terrains, and hunter's bond, hunter's bond replaces the animal companion rules and allows those rangers that don't want an animal companion to for a bond with his party instead.


Rogues: Used to be a 1 level dip class, now with rogue talents, rogues are fun for much more than just a dip class. Rogue talents include many things, from minor magic or weapon finesse, to the advanced talents of dispelling attack or even an opportunist strike, free AoO one a just struck opponent. The Master Strike capstone adds a sleep, paralysis or kill effect to a sneak attack...deadly!

Sorcerers: Sorcerers, while still trailing a level behind their arcane brethren, have bloodline powers, giving a class skill, bonus known spells, and powers throughout their career, as an example, the draconic bloodline grants, claws (1st), dragon resistance (3rd), breath weapon (9th), wings (15th) and power of wyrms (20th). These bloodlines really make sorcerers different from wizards.

Wizards: Wizards get some love as well with their own schools, granting a 1st and 8th level ability based upon the school. Including a Universalist school, with a nice little metamagic ability allowing free metamagic use based upon level.

Artwork: Epic! The artwork is second only to the artwork in the new Legends of the Five Rings, and pretty much only because I have a few gripes about the equipment illustrations which are recycled from the Equipment Card set.  The solid use of the Iconic characters throughout the book really ties everything together; these iconic figures are carried through the other Paizo products.

Replay Value: Excellent, as an RPG, there’s always good replay value. Pathfinder is amazingly well suited to running long term campaigns, with the advanced books, such as the Advanced Player’s Guide, Ultimate Magic, and the upcoming Ultimate Combat.

Comprehension Level: Good. There’s a lot of information in the Core Rulebook, so much information that it can be daunting. It is well written however, and the website provides plenty of answers to FAQs. The forums at Paizo.com contain hundreds of experienced players willing to help newbies with questions as well.

Humor: Pathfinder RPG is produced as a serious RPG. Not a lot of humor going on here, it’s pretty cut & dry.

Game Mastering: To game master; This game pretty much requires experience in previous editions of Dungeons & Dragons, I personally would not recommend picking up Pathfinder with the intention of running it if you’re not already somehow familiar with the system.

Family Rating: 9 and up, due to complexity of the game.  Lots and lots of number crunching, if you’re a parent looking to pick up something as a present, and you’re not a gamer yourself, you should find a gaming group for the kids.

Price Tag:  The core rulebook will set you back $49.99, however, Paizo has a nice price point for their PDFs and that is only $9.99. The Gamemastery Guide is NOT required to play (This supplement will be reviewed in a future post). To run the game you will also need at a minimum the Bestiary in addition to the Core Rulebook. Other supplements such as the Advanced Player’s Guide and Ultimate Magic are excellent resources, which both have archetypes, which introduce many, many choice options, to your characters. In addition to new classes, and race options.

Value: For me, it’s well worth the money. This is the true successor to 3.5. This is the culmination of 30 years of D&D.

Overall Rating: EPIC! This is quickly becoming THE fantasy RPG. As it uses the base 3.x OGL system, older adventures are easily converted, or useable as is (calculate party value as 1 level higher).

Note: To properly go over this book in detail it will take several reviews, I will return to Pathfinder Core review in a redux review in the future. Truthfully I could spend an entire month reviewing just this book.  Part 2 will cover skills and feats.

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Facebook photos

I didn't link the photos for either the Killer Bunnies Tourney or the Gam3rs coverage on the blog. Photos from both of these events can be found on the Epic RPG Blog facebook. As well as photos from Gaslight Gathering, The Store Spotlight for Pair-a-Dice Games, and Kingdom Con, each in their own photo album.

Facebook/EpicRPGBlog

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Table-Top Thursday


WarLands Review

This is a review of WarLands miniature game produced by Aberrant.
www.aberrantgames.com

What is it: WarLands is a 15mm scale miniature war game set in a post-apocalyptic world. Mad Max in 15mm scale.

Rules: If you’ve always liked other vehicular combat games, but hated how long they took to play, this may be the solution, Movement is simplified into Slow/Cruising/Fast, the exact numbers based upon the type of vehicle, fast for a truck is only cruising for a bike. The system uses 2d6, with modifiers, such as RC or CC (ranged or close combat). Damage is based upon the rolled damage, each die calculated separately, using exploding dice is always fun. Double sixes on the attack roll automatically cause a critical. Criticals can be brutal, and one can turn the tide of a combat in seconds, everything from a lucky escape, to a ruptured fuel, to a vehicular explosion. Balance is maintained using point buy for vehicles and pedestrians, the expanded book presents Mac’s Bodyshop, which will allow for customized vehicles. On aberratngames.com there are free ezines called Data Dump which covers all of Aberrant’s games.

Miniatures: Decent, the vehicles are resin cast, with white metal accessories and figures. Being 15mm scale it’s easy to pull in WW2 miniatures for additional infantrymen.

Comprehension Level: Excellent, The rules are simple, the action furious. It’s one of the fastest miniatures games I’ve played.

Family Rating: 10+, rules are easy enough though it deals with shooting, destruction and killing, so as always, parental discretion is advised.

Price Tag:  As a miniatures game, you’re paying for the figures mostly.
Battle Box  $37.99 (Basic Rules, 2 Buggies and a Utility Truck)
A pair of bikes, $9
Cars cost $13,
Buggys, $11.99
The Rattler Gun Truck $15
Utility truck $9.99.
Sand Surfer #1 or #2 $13
The expanded PDF rulebook currently runs $9.99.
The quality isn’t bad, but it’s not incredible, for a niche market, it’s pretty good.

Value: For us, it’s well worth the money. No matter how many times we play WarLands, it’s always fun. We have A Battle Box, plus 2 more buggies, and a Rattler. I’d like to get a couple cars soon as I can.

Overall Rating: EPIC! The game is fun and fast, the tide can turn very quickly, good tactics and good rolls can change the game lightning fast.  

Monday, July 25, 2011

Weekend Review - Gam3rCon edition

The weekend review this week is from the games we played at Gam3rCon. (just me on Friday)

Friday night, Well I got my first taste of 4e with a foray into Gamma World, and I must say, the taste was non-descript. While the changes from 3.0 aren't as drastic as I had thought they were, it was about what I expected. But onto the Gamma World front, the changes in the way characters play completely changes the existing world, part of what I enjoyed about Gamma World was the exploration for ancient tech, the secret societies, and the good and the bad mutations. Pure Strain humans, mutant humans, mutant animals, etc, made the game really fun. Exploring to find old tech and the slow progression is what I liked about it. So it was different, kinda fun, but I think I'll take a pass on it. If constantly mutating characters are your thing, by all means have fun. The second game I played on Friday was Guillotine, a Wizards of the Coast card game from 1997,which you take part in three days of the French Revolution as a competing executioner, most the nobles are valued from 1 for a rival executioner to 5 points for Marie Antoinette or King Louis, then there are negative cards such as the -1 Martyr or the -3 Hero of the People. . You take turns using action cards to do things such as move a noble in the line, giving someone the next noble in line with the after you card or even stealing a noble.  After the action phase you take the head of the noble at the front of the line, executing any special actions that card may have. It's a very clever game and I highly recommend it for a quick game.

Saturday, The boys and I started out with Outbreak Undead. Now this is a really fun game, while it could probably be played with other systems, the SPEW-AI character creation rules let you actually create yourself (to the extent you answer honestly) and includes an interesting mechanic called Gestalt dice, which are handed out equal to your age as a one-time bonus, to grant use of specific skills you really know, but aren't on the character sheet. The game is designed for campaign play, and I believe the system really kicks in for extended play, for one-shots, it's pretty easy to blow through your ammo and survive the encounter, but what do you do next time with no ammo, and 20 additional zombies.This is on my future purchase list.  The next game we played was Zombie Munchkin!! You know how much we love Munchkin, and the boys had been wanting to play this. There was no disappointment, the game played pretty fast, and within an hour or so, we were done, I used the tricky card which allowed me to piggy back off Ian's combat and steal the two levels I need to victory! Now Zombies seems slightly higher power level than regular Munchkin. But having Zombie hordes jumping in on combats tends to make it more hectic, I'm curious to see how it plays out.Boys and I played Guillotine to pass the time before we got into the Outbreak Undead game, they really liked it too.

Sunday Sunday SUNDAY!! Well I was prepping for my own Zombie fun running "28 Sleepcycles Later" Alpha Complex under seige of the walking dead in ZOM sector, but while I was preparing my scenario, Sean got to try out his new ICONS RPG (which he won for the Zombie Kill of the Day, shanking a Zombie with a toothbrush in the eyeball) with Ian, as Chris Czerniak ran them through a quick scenario, the boys really enjoyed it, and I believe THEY specifically will recommend it. After they finished, with Icons, that group came over and played PARANOIA! Running the pure mayhem of Paranoia was a blast, from the mumbling mousy violet citizen with the kill first fine second attitude briefing officer to the PLC room with one clerk, and 2 miles of empty line, 500 windows and a 30 minute break, after the brisk jog to reach the one clerk the Hygiene Officer ran a surprise inspection , which resulted in not one but TWO emergency scrubdowns, the trip to R&D resulted in the first clone replacement as a the tiny closet was ripe for theft by the Pro-Tech secret mission, but the 20 rolled on the sleight of hand caused a hilariously deadly incident. Then it was onto ZOM sector, where more experimental weaponry and mutant powers led to more deaths and a brain scrub at debriefing. I always recommend Paranoia. I know everyone had fun, from the newby role player to the veteran of Paranoia, and I know one was talking about convincing his friends to get into it...My job is just beginning....

Game on!

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Gam3rCon, sans Comic Con

Well my hook-up for Comic Con fell through, so no SDCC2011. Which is horribly tragic in and of itself, in addition, no job means no Rusty Venture Lunchbox which was an SDCC Con Exclusive!!!!!

However on the 'made of awesome'(tm) side of the house, Gam3rCon has been a blast. Got to try out Gamma World 4e on Friday night (Zombies ftw). Got to play Outbreak Undead today, and Munchkin Zombie. Tomorrow I'm running my Paranoia event...28 Sleepcycles later, so all in all, it's been a very Undead Con. I will be doing a quick review for all games played for this weekend review. Oh we also played Guillotine, pretty fun game, 3 days of removing the nobility's heads in Revolutionary France.

Got to see "The Gam3rs" today with the boys, and it is Completely 'made of awesome'(tm). Whilst there are plenty of F Bombs, it's hilarious, and I highly recommend seeing it. It is playign through Next week. Unfortunately I wasn't able to afford Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog.Gam3rCon.com
It's at the 10th Avenue Theater downtown, across from Papa John's.

Interviews with Walt and Brian. And I think I'll Have the boys interview Chris, who's running the games, and is a big San Diego Game Scene figure.

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Pathfinder Society

Well the boys and I are going to be playing in our first Pathfinder Society game tomorrow. I haven't played in organized play in over a decade, I played once in an RPGA game back at Game Empire's old location.  3rd edition I believe. Can't even remember it was so long ago.


Well we're excited, I really like the character I made, Dwarven Hungry Ghost of the Sacred Mountain Monk, Using the Cheliax Faction to inspire creation, he is an outcast from his dwarven homelands, he has no full beard, only a braided goatee, he's shaved bald, though he has Asmodean tattooes all over his body, including the Asmodean Laws tattooed alll over him. He has the Faction trait that allows him to draw HP from a fallen foe=HD. He has the Relentless trait, +1 trait bonus to confirm crits (for that hungry ghost ki stealing ability later on. ) He has Belier's Bite Feat, which is a fun Improved Unarmed Combat feat which causes 1d4 bleed damage on an unarmed attack. He's Lawful Neutral, so he'll be very law oriented, which will keep him in check as far as other player's go, he wouldn't want to violate his Lodge oaths. At 5th level he'll take the Vow of Truth.  He's gonna be an interesting character for sure.

The boys are playing 'Xirus', the Half-elf Wolf Shaman Druid (Osirion faction) and a Khopesh. Ian loves his Egyptian's....=D

and Aril the Elven Rogue (Taldor Faction)

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Wednesday Review - Kill Doctor Lucky

This is a review of the Kill Doctor Lucky Board game produced by Paizo Publishing, LLC. http://www.paizo.com

First Glance: High quality heavy duty box game. You get 9 stand-up counters representing The 7 players, Doctor Lucky and Shamrock, the Doctor’s little dog. You get a nice thick board, with nice quality artwork. You also get a nice Deck of cards and 30 spite tokens.

Main Review: The easiest way to describe this game is as reverse clue. The goal of the game is to attempt to kill Doctor Lucky. Of course, you also attempt to keep the others from killing Doctor Lucky as well.

Doctor Lucky moves through his mansion from room to room in a set pattern, though that pattern can be altered by the players, either moving him with a room card or a move card. The players can attempt to kill the good doctor with weapon cards or their bare hands, certain weapons are more powerful in certain rooms. There are no dice involved, just the cards. The cards are weapon cards, move cards, room cards and failure cards. Weapon cards range from a shoe horn to a cannon, each has a value representing how powerful the attack is. Failure cards are how the other players stop you from winning; cards ranging from, ‘You slip on an out-of-place banana peel, hurtling hilariously into the air’, to, ‘The Doctor wheels around and accidentally hits you in the head with a shovel’. Failure Cards range in value from 1-3, players must attempt to stop an attack. When an attack is stopped, you gain a spite token, which adds to your subsequent attacks. Eventually, the other players run out of failure cards, especially after a few unsuccessful attacks. It’s murderous fun for the whole family, without the gore. One caveat for attempting a murder, you can’t be seen by other players on the board.

Artwork: Excellent, The artwork is stylized and the board is gorgeous.

Replay Value: Excellent, this game is never the same, and while you might have some winning strategies, you’re not going to win every time. This is a family favorite, everyone can win.

Comprehension Level: Excellent, The rules for Kill Doctor Lucky are very simple. Publisher’s suggested Age Range is 10+

Humor: You’re trying to kill Doctor Lucky, the others are trying to stop you, the failure cards are very humorous, especially if you put yourself in your characters place and imagine the bad things in a cinematic manner.

Family Rating: 10+, rules are easy enough to younger, but that’s a parental call, after all you are trying to Kill the good doctor. If you have younger children check out the prequel game Save Doctor Lucky.





Kill Doctor Lucky may be purchased from Paizo.com or your FLGS.

Monday, July 18, 2011

Weekend Review: Earthdawn RPG


Earthdawn 3rd Edition

This is a review of the core system rules for the Earthdawn, which includes the Player’s Guide and the Game Master’s Guide. Available in both print and PDF format from Mongoose Publishing’s Flaming Cobra Imprint. Licensed from FASA Corporation by RedBrick Ltd.

First Glance: This is Earthdawn, the game I remembered from FASA, from the artwork to the system, this is Earthdawn. The cover art is absolutely gorgeous, evoking the feel of Ancient ruins with the use of an Aztec calendar style mask, on a solid background. It’s begs you to look inside to find what is within.

Main Review: Earthdawn is fun system, it uses a step die system, with exploding dice. This was an early innovator of a hero point system, through the use of Karma Points. While Karma has been updated the usage has not. Earthdawn uses a non-Vancian skill based magic system, which eliminates part of the 15 minute adventure day problem of other systems. Earthdawn uses a wound system, and had recovery checks long before the newest edition of the Dungeons & Dragons. All magic is thread based, such that you weave part of yourself into the magic of the world, experience is measured as Legend points, the more your legend grows, the more your reputation grows. You might find a powerful legendary item such as Purifier, but not realize its full potential until much later in the game, as you explore the history and prove yourself worthy of its greatest secrets through deeds. The Horrors should be gone, but they still linger, corrupting name givers feeding on the fear, and hatred, like psychic vampires. Dragons are still around, some protect their humans like pets, others just eat them, Dragons are the oldest of the name-givers, and the most powerful. Players need not know a lot of information about Earthdawn, as they can just be leaving their Kaers, at the end of “The Scourge”. Much of the information contained in the supplements from the original system have been brought straight into the player’s guide, such as the Air Sailor and Scout Disciplines. The talents have been slightly altered so that every 3rd circle Warrior doesn’t have the exact same disciplines, which it s very nice change. The skill system has been updated nicely so it doesn’t feel slapped on any more. Even the step table has been updated to eliminate the d20 and make the curve much more balanced. Another balancing issued was addressed by adding a point buy system for attributes. Not needed, but more balanced.

In Earthdawn you don’t play a mundane character, you play an adept, someone who taps into the magical energies to increase your ability with a sword or a bow, give you the ability to leap great distances or use magic in spell form. You don’t have classes in Earthdawn, you have a discipline, though you can be multi-disciplined, it will slow down your advancement. Your strength and the weapon itself determine what damage you do, instead of a static bonus, strength step is added directly to the weapon step to get an over-all step. It’s a game which must be played to fully understand.

Artwork: Good. The artwork is decent, most is recycled artwork from previous editions all the way back to the original FASA Jeff Laubenstein artwork, which to me is Earthdawn. The color plates from the first edition are gone, which is unfortunate as there were some beautiful pieces of color art in there.

Replay Value: Excellent, as an RPG, there’s always good replay value. Earthdawn is a big world, but with many enemies, no single group would encounter all the major horrors, or find all the legendary treasure.

Comprehension Level: Good. The rules are decently written, there are some editing errors, but not too bad.

Humor: Not so much humor in the main game, the older version had a bit more fluff humor, but there’s some to be had.

Game Mastering: Game Mastering Earthdawn is about weaving a story; it’s not a super difficult system to master, though creating appropriate challenges can be difficult as there is no Challenge Rating system in place like the d20 systems. Even at upper power curve of the game, it still plays quickly, and is very fun, as it doesn’t bog down with 20 feats and iterative attacks, damage scales with level as the steps increase.

Family Rating: Tween+, Earthdawn is a world of great upheaval, with truly horrific monsters, from predatory mutant baby calves, to the Verjigorm, the Corrupted Dragon. Even the zombies, cadaver men, are meaner, quadrupling their attacks if they’re wounded. The rules are easy enough for younger players to grasp however, and if the GM can tweak the world a bit, it can be fun for younger crowds.

Price Tag:  The price to play is decent, but to Game Master you’ll need at a minimum the Player’s Guide and Game Master’s Guide. Costing $39.99 retail each. This is on par with Industry average for B&W Hard Cover editions. Player’s Companion and Gamemaster’s Companion are needed to take a campaign beyond circle 8. The Namegiver’s Companion, while not required, definitely adds lots of nice fluff, and several race specific disciplines.

Value: For me, it’s well worth the money. It is one of my favorite systems and the setting is fun as well.

Overall Rating: EPIC! This is High Fantasy at its greatest, the progress from young adept to legendary adventurer is definitive, and advancement comes in little steps, almost addictive.

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Organizational Updates

I'm going to be changing things up here a bit. My personal reviews will be posted once a week for RPGs.

The Weekend Review.

I will also start posting reviews of Board Games on a bi-weekly basis, I'm thinking on Wednesdays. Name to be determined.

Table Top Tuesdays will be bi-weekly for mini games reviews.

Crosspost

The Pixelated Geek coverage for Free RPG Day is finally posted, They mention Epic Sean and Epic Ian on the page...Check it out!

Thursday, July 14, 2011

And I can kill you with my Bunnies

That's right, it's a Killer Bunnies tournament at Pair-a-dice games tonight! Prizes will be won!

Comic Con, Gam3rCon and Pathfinder Society, and Comic Con

Next week is going to be a busy busy week, Hopefully we're going to Comic Con with the Kung Fu Studio, but if not we have Gam3rCon, which I'm going to be running a Paranoia Game at. Thursday at Border's in Mission Valley (the last in San Diego), will be our first family Pathfinder Society Game. Plus the Comic Con in Oceanside on Sunday.

I will be playing a Chelaxian Dwarf, Hungry Ghost Monk, he's about as evil as you can get in PFS. I spent 20gp of my 150gp on tattooes, so he has the entirety of Asmodean Law tattooed on him in Infernal.  Should be an interesting game. Ian is playing a Half-elf Wolf Shaman Druid.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Savage Worlds: Explorer's Edition Review

            This is the core system rules for the entire Savage Worlds line. Produced by Pinnacle Entertainment Group, in print and PDF format.

First Glance:
With a small format, and low price tag, this is a basic set of rules, full color with glossy pages and lots of artwork from lots of different sources.

Main Review: The mechanics for Savage Worlds are design to be loose, “fast, fun, and furious” is the tagline for the game. The mechanics use “exploding” dice (so anytime you max a die roll you get to re-roll the die and add it again, as many times as you max it out.) In addition, the system uses a form of hero points called bennies, PEG was an early innovator with hero points in the original Deadlands setting. Bennies may be used to re-roll a result you don’t like, or to help soak an injury. On of the great benefits is that the rules are set-up to allow multi-genre play, whether you want to include rayguns in your fantasy is up to you, but the rules are balanced for such play. Guns are definitely more deadly in Savage Worlds, especially modern firearms with their high Rate of Fire.

Artwork: Good. The artwork is good, they recycle artwork from various Savage Settings to evoke the various genres you can play with this game.

Replay Value: Excellent, as an RPG, replay is typically good. The setting provides enough information to provide for hundreds of games in all sorts of settings, and if you get bored at Legendary, you can even play demi-gods with the Shaintar setting.

Comprehension Level: Excellent. The rules are well written and easy to understand. Gameplay is easily understood by younger children, sometimes the Referee with have to make decisions on the fly, but the rules are easy enough to be forgiving with a snap decision.  

Humor: Not so much, it’s a rule book more than a campaign setting so it is pretty cut and dry.

Game Mastering: You need to design your own setting, or use a pre-published setting, of which there are many for Savage Worlds. Officially licensed settings for Savage worlds almost always have a twist to them. Example settings are Sundered Skies, Day After Ragnarok, Deadlands Reloaded, Necessary Evil and many more. In addition there are companion guides such as the Fantasy Companion and the Supers Companion. These companions give you lots of tools for creating your own campaign world, and introducing additional rules to modify the basic rules. (I understand that the Deluxe edition is to include more campaign info.)

Family Rating: All ages, as a generic rules guide, Savage Worlds may be used for anything from Dark Cyberpunk such as Interface Zero to light-hearted home made rules for stuffed animal wars. Almost anything can and has been done in Savage Worlds.

Price Tag:  This will set you back $9.99 MSRP for Print or PDF. (Note the Deluxe edition will be released in August in print, and now available in PDF format)

Value: Well worth the money. It’s cheap and contains basic examples of everything you need. There’s a reason Savage Worlds is in my Top 5.

Overall Rating: EPIC! The versatility of Savage Worlds is what makes it so great.