The Black Campbell

Time to take on one of the more popular game systems out there: Savage Worlds. Like FATE, SW has a lot of adherents who talk the system up incessantly, and being adverse to hype, I’ve found myself trying to avoid both the systems (especially after FATE started creeping into other systems like Cortex. “You’ll like it, it’s just like the system…but with all the good bits of FATE added!”) I finally decided to do a review after reading this piece on Savage Worlds.

I finally got a chance to play in a Cortex game a few months back and posted the character I’d made on the site (search Trapp Sommers — I’m too lazy to link today.) Here’s my first impressions: it’s quick and stripped down, and I tend to like that. That said, I hate the single die and “wild die” mechanic; I hate the exploding die mechanic (that’s where, if you roll a 6 in this case, you get to keep rerolling that die. Every 6 allows you to keep doing it…) I also find the attribute or skill test makes no sense if you have  better trait than skill. Why roll a d6 for my firearms skill, if my Agility is a d8? (And that is my response to the criticism of Cortex in the above linked blog post — you’re rolling just as many dice and often different types. Your criticism seems based on a cursory read of the rules. Now that I’ve defended my current favorite system like some pathetic fanboy…which I guess I am…onward!)

I suspect most of my disdain for the single die is that most of the systems I’ve played either have you roll your attribute+skill in some combo — either a die rating for each, or a die test onto which the combination of attribute+skill add. So take that as you will; it makes for a swift test resolution…until you hit combat. Then Pinnacle adds a deck of cards for initiative. I love the James Bond system as anyone who reads this blog knows. The d6 for initiative but d100 for everything else always felt clumsy; this is more so.

However, outside of those two complaints, the SW experience was fairly solid. As a generic system, it’s pretty good — you can easily build the characters you want, if you take “experience” at the creation point. there’s enough examples of things to do almost any genre on the fly. and it is certainly less math and rule-intensive than GURPS, lacks the die step mechanic of Cortex that some find difficult, and it’s not d20. And for $10 for the Explorer’s Edition, it’s worth a look.

Here’s a character I put together for a Savage Worlds campaign that I’m hoping might continue to fly…it was my first time playing SW and I found the mechanics a bit curious and the initiative bolted on (a legacy from Deadlands, I understand…) The name was ripped off from a quip on Red Eye a few years back — the name just stuck, for some reason. Without further ado:

Trapp Sommers is the son of former Colonel, now Congressman, Stone Sommers of Cape May, New Jersey. He was born on 9 September, 1900 in Moab, Utah — where the family was living at the time. As a boy, his family lived in the El Paso region of Texas and near Nogales, Arizona, where his father was a United States Army officer fighting Mexican gangsters and the occasional Apache miscreant.

His father was an American advisor to the British government in 1914, working with Herbert Hoover on his efforts to evacuate Americans from Europe after the start of hostilities. Trapp was scheduled to attend Princeton in 1917 but instead lit out to France, where he lied about his age to join the Lafayette Escadrille unit of aviators, fighting the Germans. When the American flyers were rolled into the 103rd Aero Squadron of the US Army, where he was commissioned a 1st lieutenant.

Lt. Sommers was part of the US AAC airship training mission to England from 1918-1920, before returning to the United States. He served as a flight officer out of Lakehurst, New Jersey and attended Princeton in his spare time, until his decommissioning in 1922. He studied the law and graduated in the bottom half of his class from Princeton in 1924. He never took the bar exam, instead choosing to become a contract pilot for Pan Am from 1925-28, scouting new flight routes for the airline. He bought a Sikorsky S-38 flying boat in early 1929 after being accepted into the Explorer’s Club and has been working as a contract pilot for various African and South American expeditions, as well as continuing to map new routes for Pan Am and TWA.

Trapp is a brash and manly fellow, known for acting impulsively, but underneath it all he has a heart of gold, always trying to help the “little guy” (and gain some fame and fortune in the process.) His wealth comes from a Mexican gold mine he discovered and invested in in 1928, and several major archeological finds (some call it “tomb raiding”) have provided him with a very comfortable lifestyle, despite the Depression. He often works with US Army Intelligence. (I picture him as looking quite a bit like Clark Gable.)

ATTRIBUTES & SKILLS: 

AGILITY d8, Boating d4, Driving d6, Fighting d6, Piloting d8, Shooting d6, Throwing d4

SMARTS d6, Notice d4, Repair d4, Streetwise d4, Survival d4

SPIRIT d8, Guts d6, Persuasion d6

STRENGTH d6

VIGOR d6

Pace: 6”   Parry: 4   Toughness: 4 (5)   Charisma: 0

Languages: English, French, Spanish

Hindrances: Heroic

Advantages: Ace: +2 vehicles tests; Command: +1 to overcome shaken in followers; 1 Contact/adventure session; Rich: 3x starting

Weapons: S&W M1917 .45 Revolver 2d6+1 damage; Thompson M1928A1 .45 2d6+1 dam AUTO

Vehicle: Sikorsky S-38 Seaplane (seats 10 passengers)