(mini) Review: Gaslight (Savage worlds Edition)

 

Gaslight Victorian Fantasy 2nd Edition (Savage Worlds Edition)

Written by Stephen Miller and Johnathan Thompson and published by Battle field press. Available in PDF and POD on Rpgnow. Coming in at only 80 pages it sure packs a ton of content in those 80 pages.

From the back of the book:
"In Gaslight you will find:

• A history of Gaslight Earth
• Five races specific to the setting, including one new one.
• A host of new general and race-specific edges
• A Target-Number based Wealth system
• Rules for Social Standing
• Weapons and equipment from the Victorian era
• A Reliquary containing a few artifacts from the history of the Earth of Gaslight.
• A detailed Gazetteer and Timeline"

Any one who knows me knows I love Victorian era mystery and horror. What stands out to me in Gaslight is its information on secret societies and hidden places. Every page gives me ideas for games I would like to run. Again for its size, this product is full of campaign starters. From secret societies pulling strings behind the scenes, to creatures of the night walking the streets of London. Magic, Monsters and Dark agendas. Its everything I could ask for in a Victorian era source book.

As a side note. This would make a great supplement to PEG's very own Rippers setting. Which I love. Take Rippers games well beyond the Rippers world. Gaslight has a (in my opinion) better social standings rules than Rippers does.

If your a Victorian era fan as I am, I don't think you can go wrong with Gaslight.

Review: Daring Tales of the Sprawl Compendium One

(Disclaimer: As with my other mini reviews, I'm a huge fanboy of the product. So this may be more of an opinionated  overview than a true review)

After picking up Savage worlds Deluxe my first Savage worlds purchase was Daring tales of the sprawl: compendium. By kevin Anderson and published by Triple ace games.

The first 18 pages of this product is setting rules for running cyberpunk games. The rules are a very good example of a fun, fast, furious adaption of a cyberpunk setting. These rules can also be found as a free download on the triple ace website.

The rest of the compendium is 5  cyberpunk adventures. I dont want to give any of it away, but I have to say these are some very good adventures. While being text book they are by no means boring or cheesy.
With info on corperations and the cyberpunk world sprinkled through out the adventures they paint a pretty vivid picture of cyberpunk as a setting.

The adventures are avalible individually as well as this compendium. From triple ace games and rpgnow.com.

Savaged Ronin

Back when I first moved back to Washington state I came across Savage worlds. I was so smitten with this fast and fun system I ran nothing but Savage worlds for the next 3 years.
Living next door and two doors down from my players (both my brothers). And out excitement about being reunited we played a lot. Some times up to 3-4  times a week for at least few hours after work.
Needless to say we played a lot of Savage worlds. And after playing nothing but for three years I got very burned out. I sold all my books and walked away. Even still if any one asked for a fun & fast game system I would recomend Savage worlds.
I started this blog shortly after. In the last few games my players have dropped hints that they liked many elements of Savage worlds. So putting it to a vote, Savage worlds is back. I have no plans to running Savage worlds so exclusive that I get burned out as I did before.
Its great to see so many licensees for the system. So many great games out now using the system.
Flipping through a few PEG books I am reminded of something I very much dislike. Plot point campaigns included in main books.
While I don't mind buying an adventure from time to time to mine for ideas. I hate the idea of being forced to buy full color glossy hard bound adventures. That some (like Rippers) not just add a meta plot, they destroy or change the setting. I have noticed a lot of licensees don't add plot points to their main books. Making them more my taste than PEGs own books.
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Advanced Magic rules for Amazing Adventures.

I really love the spell crafting rules for Amazing adventures. They has become my preferred spell casting rules for both Amazing Adventures and Castles & crusades. I have been playing around with those rules for a bit now. Trying a few house rules to add to them.

The very first thing I added was the rule of 5. Any spell craft roll that is five over its intended target will only cost the characters 1/2 the MEP needed to cast the spell. The character cannot attempt the roll unless he has enough MEP to cast the spell normally.

My second addition to the rules is that any arcanist over the level of 5 can cast 0 level spells at the cost of 0 MEP. A spell crafting roll is still made as normal. but MEP is never spent. And this level the arcanist is skilled enough that most 0 level spells are muscle memory and so elementary they are at little if not no risk to the arcanist.

For my third house rule, on any spellcraft roll of a natural 1 the arcanist has made a critical error in his channeling of the spell being cast. The arcanist loses double the amount of MEP as the cost of the spell, the spell fails, and the character loses hit points equal to the level of the spell. The flip side is also true, on a natural 20 on a spellcraft roll the character casts the spell at a cost of 0 MEP, And through a surge of power gains MEP equal to twice the level of the spell not to exceed his maximum MEP.

This final rule is only available after level five. The arcanist may choose to "push" a spell that scales. For example a spell that does 1d6 dmg per arcanist level. The arcanist can choose to cast the spell as if it were 1-3 levels higher than he is. Each "pushed" level adds a CL of 2 per level rather than 1. The MEP cost will be equal to the final level of the spell plus levels it was pushed plus one.

For example an arcanist is casting a spell that is level 3 that does 1d6 damage per level of the caster. The situation is dire so the arcanist decides to "push" his power up three levels. Making his spell as if cast by a level 6 arcanist. The CL of the spellcraft roll would be 3 + 6 +1. Three for the normal casting of a third level spell, And six more for twice the level the spell was pushed. MEP cost will be 10.

Damage reduction revisited

I have been thinking about a damage reduction. With most forms of damage reduction a rating is assigned and reduced from any damage a character may take. For example is a character has a damage reduction of two. And would normally take five damage, that damage would be reduced to three as the two would be subtracted from the damage assigned.

While I think this is a simple and easy to track mechanic. I find it troublesome. At low levels and lower damage dice, damage rating is powerful. A high damage reduction at lower levels is very powerful. So damage rating has to be watched or it can unbalance a game quickly.

At higher levels lower damage ratings is very underpowered. If damage rating scales with level than the character becomes a Juggernaut and ignores all weaker attacks.

My proposal for an alternate damage reduction is that any natural roll equal or less than the rating is ignored. On a damage reduction of 1 any natural roll of one on a damage die is read as 0, all bonuses to damage are ignored and no damage is taken.

This applies to all damage dice individually. If 3d6 is rolled for damage. And the target has a damage reduction of 2 all die rolled 2 or less is ignored and only the remaining dice are added up. For example:

3D6 damage is rolled, the dice come up 2, 4, and 6. Since the target has a damage reduction of 2, the die that rolled a 2 is removed and only the 4 and 6 are counted resulting in a damage roll of 10.

This does make damage reduction powerful. so each point of damage reduction should really be thought of as x1.5 to x2 as powerful as the last and given very sparingly. But even at low levels damage reduction is still a benefit to higher level characters. And a 4-6 damage reduction is equally super human to low and high level characters.

Soldier and Hunter class for Amazing Adventures

           I love all the classes in Amazing Adventures, I still feel that a few more could make great additions to the game. Notable a soldier class. Rather than reinventing the wheel I've decided to adapt some classed from Castles and Crusades instead.

Fighters are the obvious choice for a soldier class. With just a few adjustments a fighter is ready for pulp adventure. The only real changes need is clarification of class abilities:

Weapon specialization: This ability includes any weapon available to the soldier, Which is any. Firearms included.

Combat dominance: This ability only applies to melee and fisticuffs.

Extra attack: This ability applies to firearms, melee, and fisticuffs.

That is it, done.

        Another optional class I think could be fun is the Hunter. A combat oriented soldier, A pathfinder who stocks the wooded areas. For this ill just adapt the ranger class. With just a few changes to the original C&C ranger class.

Combat Marauder: This ability is now Combat marauder (Wis), A roll must be made first to study an enemy before gaining the damage bonus.

For the abilities of Neutralize poison, Move silent, Scale, Traps, Survival, and Track all work as they do for the ranger. No change.

Favored enemy: will instead be Familiar enemy and applies to dangerous animals and wild creatures in the wild. Knowledge and respect of ones enemy is what gives the Hunter its edge.

Expanded Races: Granite Dwarves

Expanded Races looks to be another great little supplement for the castles and crusades system, brought to us by Christina Stiles Presents.

Created by Brian Boostra, Hal Greenburg, & Peter Schroeder

Edited by Christina Stiles

Art and Layout by Peter Bradly 

(Disclaimer: Once again, this with a lot of my mini reviews will be done in my usual gushing fanboy style.)

 Granite Dwarves is just six pages including cover, Acknowledgements, and OGL, which take up the first two pages. The four remaining pages are dense with information and a very good read.

Pages three and first half of four go into the "fluff" of the Granite dwarf race. Description, personality, racial affinity, and environment are all covered. The information given is colorful and at the same time to the point. The Granite dwarves are fleshed out enough for use as characters and NPCs, plenty of material for players and CKs alike.

Second half of page four starts into the "mechanics" of the race. With a large section devoted to racial traits and abilities. My impression after reading this was that "these are dwarves". These are the dwarves of the deep places I want in my game. From now on these are my dwarves, Ill be using the dwarf writeup in the PH for those that have chosen to live in the human lands and not of "true" dwarven stock.

Rounding out page four is the usual C&C racial information. Languages, size, movement, typical classes, attribute mods, and ability modifiers are all included.

On the fifth page is the "optional" section. As with the Fantasy races unlocked: Kobolds there is six racial traits that can be chosen, each replaces a set racial trait from the "stock" Granite dwarf profile. All six seem well thought out and interesting.

Next to the optional traits there are two examples of Granite dwarves. The two "typical" Granite dwarves are of a level one fighter and a level five cleric. Both could be used for a quick NPC or an adversary.

The last section of of page five is an "encounters with Granite dwarves" entry. This section will be most useful for CKs wanting to run Granite dwarves as NPCs or adversaries. This is the kind of entry you would find in a monster manual.

The sixth and last page is a bonus page of sorts. It seems the Granite dwarves have an adversary, The Frigid, goblins. This page has a full monster write up for these nasty little creatures who love the taste of Granite dwarf flesh. Also located on the page is two items of note., two magic items that seamlessly fit into the setting that would include Granite dwarves.

Expanded Race! Granite Dwarves is easily worth the 2$ price tag on Rpgnow.com. 
But there is more!!

Christina Stiles Presents & Arcana Creations team up to bring a bundle suitable for tundra terrains.
This bundle includes Expanded Races Granite Dwarves  and  A Trick on the Tain. For just 5.50$ on RPGnow.com

I'm really hoping to see more C&C goods from Christina Stiles Presents.
Now that I have been introduced to adventures from Arcana Creations I will be picking them up, Reviews incoming.