Savage Worlds Adventure Edition Kickstarter!

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With the new Savage Worlds Adventure Edition Kickstarter in full swing, I thought I'd chat a bit about my introduction to the system.

Let's take a journey back to May, 2012.

I was in the waning months of a 3 1/2 year long D&D Ravenloft/Planescape weekly online campaign that had started in 3.5 and transitioned quickly to 4E. Our party level was in the high 20's, and I had promised from the get go a full 1st to 30th experience. It was a wonderful experience, but I could tell that several members of our group were burning out a bit on the 4E system mechanics. 

Personally, I was burning out on D&D as a whole.

I really wanted to try something different...

Really, really different!

More specifically, I wanted to explore something either a steampunk or dieselpunk. One of my favorite settings of all time is FASA's Crimson Skies. I love the video games, and love the miniatures game even more. I had painfully crafted a conversion to D20 Modern in the mid-2000's, leading to a fun but short lived campaign. But wouldn't it be awesome if I could grab something that would let me run something similar, but without all the heavy lifting and rules rewriting? Maybe I could run a Crimson Skies RPG!

Turning to the internet, I took a look to see what all was out there. I fished through the countless D20 versions of games, but I really wanted to stay away from the old D&D mechanics. I wanted something that would just "run" straight out of the book.

I kept seeing people on forums talking about a game called "Savage Worlds." Digging a bit deeper, I learned that Savage Worlds was designed by the same folks who created the only non-D&D/D20 game I had played in the mid-2000's: Shane Hensley and Pinnacle Entertainment Group. I adored both Deadlands and Deadlands: Hell on Earth, so I set out to have a look at Savage Worlds.

I strolled into Phantom of the Attic in Pittsburgh after work on a Monday. I clearly remember the day, because the next morning I had a long drive to Atlantic City for a three day work trip to Atlantic City. Needing some good reading material, I started picking through the books on Phantom's shelves. It didn't take me long to discover Savage Worlds. The big, sturdy hardback Deluxe Edition was featured prominently on the shelf. Picking it up, I saw the four setting "emblems" on the logo:

A sword an shield. A skull. A ray gun. An airship.

Wait... an airship?! There was an airship on the cover of the book? 

Does it sound shallow that the airship symbol totally rocked my world?

I spent about 15 minutes flipping through the book. I loved the art and the presentation of mechanics, so it was an easy purchase. I bought the book, and over the course of the next few day I read it cover to cover. I was hooked! 

Check out that sweet airship on the far right!

Like so many other Savages, it didn't take long for me to build up a tower of Savage Worlds sourcebooks. 

My very first purchase was Thrilling Tales, which I read during our trip to Disney World a week later. I then picked up (in very quick succession) Realms of Cthulhu, Weird War II, the Horror Companion, Space 1889, and Rippers. I read and loved each one, and after a few months of research, kicked off my very first Savage Worlds campaign. An avid mash-up fan, I crunched together Rippers, Space 1889, and Realms of Cthulhu, with a few dashes of Deadlands tech, to create a steampunk, Dr. Who inspired campaign I called "Clockwork."

There were many other campaigns and one-shots during the six years that I've played this game.

• Our Clockwork investigators explored the Isle of Dread and took down a unit of time-traveling Nazis. 
• I ran an Accursed bedtime stories campaign with the kiddos, after making characters around a summer fire. Did the same thing with The Last Parsec.
• We played 50 Fathoms on a beach in Delaware with the kids.
• We used Savage Worlds as a skirmish game for Disney Infinity and Skylanders figures.
• I turned Downton Abbey into a super hero setting for Weird War I. 

Actually, after Googling "Living 4 Crits Savage Worlds", I've realized two important things. First, I've played a LOT of really, really cool sessions of Savage Worlds. Second, my kids have grown up playing this game... which is just kinda cool.

We're still playing Savage Worlds, and we plan to continue another six years. 

You should be too.

I'm super excited for everything I'm seeing in the Savage Worlds Adventure Edition, so if you haven't checked it out yet, drop what you're doing and follow this link. If you have any questions about the system, the settings (oh, all the great settings!) or anything Savage Worlds, and would like to get some of my feedback, just hit me up. 

Hell, if you want to see some of the mechanics in play cuz you've never tried it before, who knows... maybe I'll run a quick online session for you between now and the end of the Kickstarter.

You just gotta ask me nice!