Tales From The Savage Troll

Review: Olympian Breed a Savage Setting

2012-01-18T08:00:00.000-06:00

Olympian Breed
Starter Game Reference
by Palewolf Publishing

Price: FREE
Pages: 8

Uses/Requires:
1. Savage Worlds Deluxe Edition
2. Savage Worlds Super powers Companion
3. Savage Worlds Fantasy Compaion

Why Ancient Greece?: The kick butt ancients have been creeping back into our movie consciousness for a while. Good move on the part of Palewolf to recognize this. Zack Snyder's 300, lead by Gerald Butler's King Leonidas in 2007 was brutally amazing. The kid's movie Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief and Clash of the Titan's remake in 2010 as well as the recent epic Immortals have all been great visual treats for the rpg minded. Then, this weekend, Time Bandits was on and Sean Connery's King Agamemnon got dinged and battered by the hokiest Minotaur seen on screen...ever (but you gotta love Terry Gilliam). So, last week when Pinnacle featured Olympian Breed by their latest licensee: Palewolf Publishing, I was interested. It might be fun to stir up the old Greek ancients genre.

Palewolf Publishing's Pitch: SAVE THE WORLD. IT'S YOUR BIRTHRIGHT. Olympian Breed adventures take place in the age of heroes before Homer’s Iliad and the Odyssey. You are transported to a fantastic era when demigods roamed the world slaying horrifying titans and fulfilling ominous prophecies. Within these tales, you explore all the classic themes that are so prevalent in Greek mythology such as heroism, faith, love, tragedy, generosity, and sacrifice. This is an age of myth, before the beginning of recorded Greek history, where great heroes clashed against the darkest of terrors. Throughout the game, the players fight to overcome their own human trappings and prove to be more than just mere mortals. They also discover that their divine parents are far more human than they were lead to believe.

In this game, you play one of these great demigod heroes, born half human and half god. Do you know the truth about your blood? Was it your mother or father that imparted their divine heritage to you? Is your divine parent aware of you or are you just one of their many abandoned progeny? Maybe the gods do know about you and perhaps, worse yet, they “have a plan for you”. Will your demigod seek immortality through brave deeds or through guile? Will you choose to embrace your destiny or let the gods push you to your fate? And when your time is done, will you have left your mark on the world and risen above your mortal station? Will your name be remembered and as everlasting as the Olympians themselves?

What I liked:
The idea of 8 pages as an intro was enticing. You get a nice cover, an excellent map, a brief outline of the OB world and heroes, a new edge (Blessing of the Gods) and hindrance (Destiny), a page of equipment, a set of 11 questions to drive your character background and a 2 page Character Sheet.

Apart from the 8 pages, I also discovered that this is the culmination of a husband and wife's dream. Their web site is up, they have a bare bones intro and a 1st adventure in the Drive Thru RPG store. Congrats!

Some Essentials Were Missing:
With the mental visuals of King Leonidas, Theseus, and even (Sam Worthington's) Perseus whirling in my head, I was looking for something to actually get me started. I didn't see enough to get that start without a lot of work on my part. I would expect something that gives you Act Zero: Archelaos first battle. Something that demonstrates a fully developed first character that has navigated using the SWD, SWFC, and SWSC in the unique way that Palewolf has discovered in their creation of this setting. Also, some example of how OB's game play would proceed, pre-generated characters & foes, and a simple but fun first adventure. My assumption is you need the Olympian Breed Act One: A Gathering of Heroes to actually do anything. It appears to be 6 pages and while $2.99 isn't much to quibble about, it doesn't seem that 6 pages would give me much for my money given what's missing from the freebie. I really appreciate keeping things brief but a good example of brief but complete would be Apathy Game's: Temporal Probability Agency. They have a free first adventure download that extensively covers the basics.

Last Words:
I encourage Palewolf to keep living the dream and continue to embrace the concise approach for "time crunched gamers" that we here at the Troll need. Learn from others who have gone before and provide more of what will get people jumping into a Savaged Ancient Greece. I'm surprised that the Pinnacle staff didn't reccommend pre-gens, NPCs, and a simple adventure. My guess is all these things are coming and I look forward to them.

Google Hangouts with Extras for RPG

2012-01-16T08:00:00.000-06:00

Friday night I played Warrior, Rogue, and Mage from Stargazer Games. game with my longtime online gamers I met through MapTool. As always, we had a great time.

Matt Jackson - cartographer, book cover designer, and the master of 20,000 rules-light games - wanted to try a Google Hangout with Extras for maps, character sheets, and handouts. I'm a longtime MapTool fan and serve on the RPTools.net staff so I suspect I'm more than a little biased.

MapTool does all of those functions very well and was custom designed with gamers in mind. Still, I tried to go in with an open mind. I suspect the two glasses of wine I had beforehand helped. What follows are the Good, the Bad, and the Frustrating about Google Hangouts for RPGs.

The Good.

This is a web application and so needs no client software or special plug-ins to play. As long as you have a Google+ account you have access. I suppose some would consider forcing you to use Google+ is an overall minus but I suspect those people are still trying to figure out a way to get Facebook usable for RPGs.

Google Hangouts with Extras has great integration with Google Docs. You can store documents, spreadsheets, pdfs, etc. in Google docs and share them during the game. You can share only with certain members or open an entire folder up for the group to use.

Google Sketchpad integration is nice as well. Sketchpad is an drawing/image sharing program that lets everyone in the Hangout draw or drop images onto a common canvas. This was the way we shared maps and moved our tokens around the maps.

You can open both Sketchpad and Docs in a separate tab or window if you need multiple items open at once.

The new Hangouts has full text, voice, and video chat capabilities. You don't need a third party product. The picture and voice quality were both good. The text chat comes in handy for sharing AFKs and BRBs as well as typing out quips versus saying them.

The Bad

There is no built in die roller. I hear there are online sites that let players share dice rolls but I haven't found a good one yet. During the game we rolled actual dice and shared the result via the voice chat. While I trust the guys I game with, others may not be so lucky. Isn't it time all text chat programs came with built in die rollers? Let's start an occupy Google campaign (via hangouts) until we get it.

The Sketchpad functionality is fairly limited. It does OK and is good for getting a point across but it really isn't built for gaming. The objects you place on the screen don't have a way of annotating ownership. Sketchpad only tells you who has the object selected. One of the major problems is that the map is an object just like the tokens. So anyone can grab and move it around. Adding layers to Sketchpad would go a long way to making it more usable for Gaming. Player tokens could go on one layer and background objects on another. Let's start an occupy Google campaign (via hangouts) until we get it.

The Frustrating

It's not MapTool, a product designed for gaming. It's a presentation/discussion tool. I spent a lot of extra clicks doing what comes easy in MapTool.
There wasn't an easy way to zoom around the map.
The accidental map movement drove me nuts when people selected the map rather than their token.
Images could not be named and had no owner. It was hard telling who was who and what they were doing.
You quickly run out of screen real estate for viewing different documents and images.

Conclusion

A Google Hangout is what it is: a method of sharing documents with chat and whiteboard built in. You can make due if you don't expect a lot from it. I hope they someday publish an API for Hangouts that VTTs connect into so you can let VTTs do what they do well and Hangouts do what they do well.

Still, if your mapping needs aren't large and you do more storytelling than combat, Hangouts may be the right gaming tool for you.

The Space 1889 Ship Builder

2012-01-10T08:00:00.000-06:00

As teased earlier, Savage Troll Publications is proud to present the SPACE:1889 - Red Sands Cloudship, Gunboat, and Ether Ship builder for the Savage Worlds rule system.

You can download the trial version and give it a try. The link is to a zip file which must be extracted to your PC or Mac. The zip contains two Excel spreadsheets, one containing macros the other does not, along with 21 ship images from the original SPACE:1889 material.

One word of warning, Excel will complain to high heaven that there are macros that might be harmful to your computer. This is a standard warning it gives for any spreadsheet you download from the Internet. The macros it complains about are buttons on the spreadsheet that reset the data, print the first page, take you to the Weapons page and back, and one that places a ship's image on the spreadsheet.

Instructions for the spreadsheet can be found on the new Savage Tools page on this blog.

Good luck and let us know if you find any errors.

Included in the download are the ships from Sky Galleons of Mars. It's a great supplement I recommend purchasing.

If you just want the ship images for Map Tool tokens, you can download them without the spreadsheet.

Kindle Fire Apps for the Gamer

2012-01-06T08:00:00.000-06:00

I use my Kindle Fire a great deal for gaming and writing research. It's handy form factor makes it extremely portable and the ability to load my PDFs onto the device means my gaming library is with me where ever I go. The long battery life allows me to use it for days between charging and my Verso leather(ish) cover that makes the Fire look like a leather-bound book. For some reason I like that a lot.

Currently I'm wading through the new chase rules in the Savage Worlds Deluxe Edition and making notes along the way for a future blog article. Along the way I decided it to document the Android applications I use daily so other gamers considering a Fire purchase could gain from my experience.

My first and foremost favorite application is ezPDF Reader Pro by Unidocs Inc. The program makes great use of screen real estate and navigation is a breeze.

The File Management screen allows you to view a list of your PDFs you've sent to your Kindle, those you've downloaded, or you can open a PDF directly from the web. I use the 'Recently Viewed' option most often because I usually reference more than one PDF for research.

Thus far, ezPDF does the best job of reading PDFs. The default Kindle viewer displays PDFs and that's about it. If you're going to make your Kindle into a gaming book reader, you need much more. The ezPDF view behaves like a standard Kindle reader when in full screen mode complete with page flipping animation. Full page is normally too small to read unless the Kindle is sidways.

When you double tap a text column, it zooms so the column fills the screen. After that, tapping either side of the screen scrolls to the next or previous text column. Touching the top or bottom of the screen scrolls to the top or bottom of the page. All this makes for a great navigation experience although it's a little frustrating at first.

Selecting text is easy. You simply hold down on a word and a selection highlighter appears allowing you to select all the text you want. Once your selection is complete, you can

Copy - saves the selected text to clipboard to be used later
Search document for other occurrences of the selected passage
Web - sends the selected text to Google search
Send - sends the selected text to other applications like Facebook, Twitter, Email, or Evernote
ColorDict - sends the selected text to ColorDict application (not available on Kindle but should be there for other android devices)
Highlight, strike through, or underline text
Add sticky note
Draw figures, freehand, or text boxes on the document

The ezPDF menu appears with a single tap to the center of the screen. From the menu you can

Search
Bring up the outline for quick navigation between book sections
Goto or add a bookmark
Browser like navigation to visit previous pages if you're jumping around in the document
Jump to a page number
Set the zoom %
Export/Import/List Annotations
Voice reading to have your Kindle read to you
Auto flipping to have the Kindle automatically navigate through the PDF
Night/Day mode which inverts the colors light to dark or dark to light
Save As to save a copy of your PDF

Next on my Must Have list is Evernote. This free application makes note taking easy and puts notes on the cloud for access on all android devices and any web browser. I use Evernote as I'm reading game manuals to save off interesting tidbits for later. My current article involving chase rules has me back and forth between the Savage Worlds Deluxe Edition and the Space:1889 - Red Sands setting rules trying to figure out the best way to handle Sky Galleons combat. Since the chase rules have changed, keeping track of all the information was becoming difficult.

Evernote to the rescue. I cut and paste the relevant sections from ezPDF into Evernote giving me one place to absorb the information. What's more, you can share documents with other Evernote users and all your notes are automatically on all your Evernote devices. It comes in very handy.

You can also embed media, such as photos and videos, into your notes.

Another app from the Evernote folks is Skitch. The application lets you rapidly annotate photos and images the share them with others. It's simple functionality but incredibly useful for passing maps and other graphics back and forth.

You can add arrows, boxes, text, and freehand drawings to your graphic and then share them via email, Twitter, Facebook, Evernote, or other apps.

Skitch is easy, fun, and I spend too much time in it.

Sketchbook Pro is last on my list Must Haves. Sketchbook is a great little drawing program for rapidly putting together maps or other graphics. It's something of a mini-GIMP or Photoshop with a wide variety of brushes and other tools to make drawing easy.

You can confine drawing to squares, circles, lines, or use freehand. There are 45 brushes to choose from with variable radii and opacity. It has a mirroring mode so one side of the drawing duplicates the other. Best of all it has 6 layers which allow you to draw on different, overlaid canvases. The three transformation tools - rotate, move, and scale - are simple and intuitive.

For a quick drawing, nothing beats Sketchbook. What's more, you can always save your drawing then annotate in Skitch and save in Evernote. It makes for a powerful combination. The image below took me less than five minutes to create and share. I drew the image in Sketchbook, annotated in Skitch, and saved to Evernote as well as shared to Twitter.

Please forgive the crudity of the model. I was in a hurry.

I don't edit Microsoft Office documents on my Kindle often but when I do I use QuickOffice Pro. It is your standard office suite with a word processor, spreadsheet, PowerPoint, and PDF viewer. The nice thing about QuickOffice is its ability to work from a variety of cloud sources such as Google Docs, Dropbox, Evernote, Catch, Egnyte, Huddle, Box, SugarSync, and MobileMe.

The product works with all recent versions of Microsoft Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files. While this probably doesn't fall into the Must Have category, I do use it often for game-related materials.

Tools: Space 1889 Ship Builder

2012-01-03T08:00:00.000-06:00

I'm creating some new campaigns with Cloud Ships for Space:1889 - Red Sands. Part of the effort involved porting over my old Cloud Ship designs to the new Savage Worlds format. Part way through I decided to create a tool to allow for the rapid creation of the ships. Of course, the development of the tool took longer than converting the four ships in question but at least now I have a tool for future efforts.

I decided to share this in case others wanted to build their own Ether Ships, Sky Galleons, or Cloud Ships. The tool is a spreadsheet originally developed in Open Office. I ported it to Excel but sometimes that causes problems. So far the worksheet seems to work fine.

The Spreadsheet is protected, meaning you can only change certain portions of the sheet (yellowish cells). There is a second sheet containing the weapons available for your ships. Only the 'Number' column is editable. The Sheet 1 is updated with the crew requirements, cost, and weight reflecting changes to Sheet 2.

I recieved permission from Shane Hensley and Frank Chadwick to release the spreadsheet. I'm putting the finishing touched on now add a few macro buttons for convenience.

Below I included a preview of the Blood Runner ported from Sky Galleons of Mars.

My only issue right now is the ability to allow the users to add their own image next to the ship description. I've had some initial luck but the formatting still isn't quite right. I should have it ready by Friday along with a BIG announcement for next Tuesday.

My SPACE:1889 efforts continue. Next up is the MapTool campaign file for aerial ship battles. I have a number of tokens done already. Here are a few samples. Soon the screw galley Pride of Texas will ply the skies of Mars again. Belgians beware!

Clearsight

Endtime

Hullcutter

Sky Runner

SPACE:1889 - The Burning Desert

2011-12-30T10:30:00.000-06:00

The Savage Troll is proud to present a new MapTool/Savage Worlds module set in Frank Chadwick's SPACE:1889 setting which was Savaged by Pinnacle Entertainment Group in Space:1889 - Red Sands. The module comes from Tales from the Ether, a SPACE:1889 supplement available on DriveThruRPG.

The adventure begins as one of the characters receives a letter from an old school chum requesting help on Princess Christiana Station on Mercury. Attached to the letter is a newspaper article concerning tin prices. Foul things are afoot and he needs your help. The characters must survive the bitter cold, tropical river, and burning desert of Mercury if they wish to solve the mystery.

The MapTool campaign file comes complete with all handouts from the original module, a detailed map of Princess Christiana Station, two vehicle tokens, 5 player character tokens, and over 8 NPC tokens for use in this and other SPACE:1889 - Red Sands adventures.

The Burning Desert requires both Space:1889 - Red Sands and Tales from the Ether to play.

To download the adventure, simply right click on the download link, 'Save As' to the directory of your choice, launch MapTool (yes, it's just that easy), and load the campaign file in MapTool. If you have any questions, visit the Framework page followed by the FAQ page.

Related Links:
Review of Space:1889 - Red Sands
The Making of The Burning Desert
Space 1889 Pregen characters from The Savage Troll
Space 1889 Pregen characters from Pinnacle Entertainment Group

Products of Interest

Tales from the Ether ($3.95 for 5 adventures easily converted to Savage Worlds/Red Sands)

Space 1889 Adventure Bundle ($7.95 all 4 adventure products for 1889 including Tales from the Ether)

Space 1889 Product Bundle ($39.95 for everything published by GDW for Space 1889)

Red Sands Players Guide ($14.95 all the rules you should need for this adventure)

Red Sands ($24.99 full rule book)

Review - The Lightning Train

2011-12-27T08:00:00.000-06:00

Fantasy Maps: Lightning Train Map Pack
Publisher: D20 Cartographer
Price: $2.99
Artist: Joshua Bennett

All Aboard! The Lightning Train is about to leave the station. Tracks? Who needs tracks with a train that levitates above the ground on electro-magnetic forces and/or magic? Just don't step in front of the train. Those cow-catchers have a habit of flash frying anything in their way. You might want to steer clear of the engine as well. Lightning bolts fly from the front of the engine arcing backwards in brilliant displays of light.

This is an amazing map set suitable for a Fantasy or SteamPunk settings. It includes maps of the Engine, three different First Class cars, three standard passenger cars, two freight cars, a service car, and caboose. The pack also include four empty cars and object images so you can make cars according to your own personal design. You can mix and match the images anyway you wish to create the train of your choice.

The product includes PDFs for printing, JPGs for importing into your favorite Virtual Tabletop, and PNGs representing objects inside the train. The most interesting file, however, is the MapTool campaign file. It's thing of beauty containing 11 maps representing the outside of the train and the inside of each individual car.

For those who don't know, MapTool is a free VTT you can use in your face-to-face games with a projector, or connect with your friends across the Internet to play online. It is a full-featured program that runs equally well on Mac, Linux, or Windows.

Joshua leveraged several cool features of MapTool to make his map do wonders. It makes full use of lighting and topology meaning your MapTool players will only see what their characters see. The Lightning train also uses Wolph42's teleport pad. With this, players step between cars disappearing from one map and appearing on another.

This product does an equally good job of showing off the artist's talent and MapTool's capabilities. I highly recommend it.

Review - Kindle Fire - the Good, the Bad, and the Must Have

2011-12-20T18:00:00.000-06:00

I'm moving away from books to PDFs and eBooks. Books, by their physical nature, require their presence to be useful while, with a suitable device, you can view electronic media anywhere. Electronic media also has the advantage of easy bookmarks and text searches. While it might seem romantic to curl up with a book by the fire or in bed at night, my age dictates I need a strong light and reading glasses for any such endeavor. An eReader or Tablet solves both those issues.

As long time readers will know, I've long looked for a product to hold my gaming PDFs that is portable and versatile. I investigated various tablets and eBook readers but none seemed to fit the bill. The basic problem being that eReaders don't do PDFs well and Tablet Computers don't make for great readers.

As time passed, the two markets began to merge. Tablets became more reader-friendly while readers became more tablet-ish. Eventually even the products' operating system became the same, Google's Android. So I waited for the right product at the right price.

My wife finally put me out of my indecisive misery and purchased a new Kindle Fire for my birthday. I have ever said how awesome she is?

Because some of you are trying to make a decision, I'm going to give a bulleted list of the things I like and dislike about the product. An explanation will follow along with a list of 'must have' applications for your Kindle.

Likes and Dislikes

Pros

Long Battery Life
Beautiful Multi-touch screen
Easy, Integrated Email Client
Heavy integration with the Amazon catalog and services
Easy navigation compared to other mobile devices
Nice keyboard
The Kindle Reader
Easy method to send to and manage documents on the Kindle
Amazon content - books, movies, music, and more (best reason to buy a Kindle Fire)

Cons

A bit heavy
Buttons are, at times, a little laggy
Email client doesn't auto update (might be a configuration issue)
Default PDF viewer has limited features.
It's almost too easy to buy new products
Limited to Amazon approved software
No access to Google Android Products like Google+, Google Docs, or Google Mail. You can still use the web browser to access these products but I prefer the android applications for these Google products. I consider this the product's biggest drawback.
No built-in swype technology for keyboard. This gets confusing since I have an Android phone that supports it.

In the 'eh' category

No GPS
Wireless only - no 3G/4G

First Glance

My first impression of the slate computer was the beautiful screen and the weight. It was heavier than I expected. Not uncomfortable just unexpected. The battery in the Fire must be a monster because one charge generally lasts me three to four days.

My second impression was the screen clarity. I connected the WiFi and opened the web browser. The sharpness/contrast of color impressed me and the device made web navigation a breeze compared to my phone. I could actually read content without pinching the screen and scrolling.

I hit my first 'huh?' moment when setting up Facebook and Google+. Amazon does not allow the Android version of these applications in the Amazon Android Market. You are left with the mobile web version. Since I run the rptools.net social sites on Facebook and Google+ this is a drawback. I don't think most users will have a problem with it but it's a pain for me. There are simply some things I cannot do.

My next 'huh?' moment came when I couldn't download either the Gmail or Gdocs Android application. While the Kindle email client is fine, I prefer Google's take on email. It's cleaner, simpler, and keeps threaded conversations together.

You'll want to do some modification to the Kindle email client. By default it is silent and only retrieves emails when you start the application. A quick trip to settings fixes these issues.

The other oddness about the email client is the mass action check boxes. If you want to select multiple messages to delete or move, you swipe the screen to the right to get the check boxes. That took me a day or two to figure out.

Reading

The default PDF viewer disappoints. It has no search capability that I could find. This turns out not to be a major drawback; the Adobe reader is easily downloaded and works well. An advantage to the native reader is that it works like the Kindle eReader. I think this was Amazon's intent but a few more features would have made the default product much better. In the meantime, it would be nice to be able to set Adobe as the default reader for managed documents (those you've loaded yourself vs. downloaded). Without the feature you must first open Adobe and browse for your managed content.

The Kindle Reader is, in a word, wonderful. I'm in my late forties and my eyes don't work that well in the morning. Having adjustable text size means I can wake up in the middle of the night and read without resorting to glasses. Since the Fire is back-lit, I have no illumination problems either. In short, I don't need a light or glasses to read.

The form factor of the Kindle is nice. Although a bit heavy, it is easy to carry and fits in my back pocket. I'm glad I didn't go for the 10" tablet. I like the 7" form factor much better.

How I Use It

The only add-on I have is the Verso Prologue Cover. This makes my Kindle look like a book and protects it well.

How have I used my Kindle? Well, not exactly as expected. I do read books and PDFs but that isn't its primary use. I use the eReaders at night before going to bed. In effect, I've dramatically increased my night time reading.

I read a lot of emails on it. The text is larger than my phone so, while at home, I use the Kindle as my mobile device of choice. I also do a good bit of web browsing to keep up with news and blog sites.

My third most frequent activity is Twitter and I'm forced to confess, I'm surprised. Now, while watching TV, I can tweet about something interesting I saw and see what others have to say. I suffer from insomnia so it makes a great late night activity to take my mind off whatever is bothering me.

Other great moments in Kindle usage include watching the Maltese Falcon as research for my 1930s detective character, Thomas Gunn. The movie and sound were both good. I also watched The Joker's Wild, the life story about Joe E Lewis, as research for my upcoming novel, Prescription for Revenge.

Must Have Aps

So what are the 'must have' apps and content for your Kindle?

Google Reader for keeping up with your favorite blogs and websites.
Adobe Reader (free) - to replace the feature-deficient default PDF viewer
*new* ezPDF ($2.99) - better PDF reader than Adobe.
Quick Office Pro - if you plan to manipulate documents
Netflix - if you have an account
The Weather Channel App - there are others, but this does the job
US News Papers - An app providing links to a variety of news papers from across the nation. The same application is available for other countries as well.
ComicX - Comic book reader. I haven't read a comic in years due to the cost and general content suckage. ComicX lets me browse comics for ones I might be interested in and then purchase them for a discounted price after they've been out for a while.
Aquaman #1 (via ComicX) - They own the 'Aquaman sucks' concept. It's a must read.
The New Moon Murders - shameless plug for my novella
Twitter Client - TweetCaster and Seesmic are the best so far
Angry Birds - game
Cut the Rope - game

Some of the apps are free with ezPDF, Quick Office Pro, Seesmic, and Cut the Rope being notable exceptions. Even these are pretty cheap for what you get.

Over all I'm very satisfied with my Kindle. I suspect Amazon will fix some of the default application issues over time. I've learned you can bypass the Amazon market if you want to install other Android applications but have decided not to do this yet. I'll wait to see what opens up in the future.

And don't forget to purchase The New Moon Murders for your new Kindle. It's a must read. :-)

Savage Worlds Christmas Creatures - WereSanta, Krampus, Fairies

2011-12-19T09:00:00.000-06:00

Welcome to the Krampus Christmas Blog Carnival!

Tales from The Savage Troll is proud to present three new creatures for use in your Christmas themed games: The Were Santa, Krampus, and a Fairy. While we realize that fairies aren't a Christmas critter per se, this one is a companion to the current Were Santa and so merits inclusion.

But first, a little history of how little Pauly Pots began his journey to become the fat man in the red suit. Like most convoluted tales ( Lost being only one example ), this one begins on an island. People know Pauly by many names in many countries. This is mostly due to the aliases he adopts to avoid unwanted interactions with the authorities.

Fairies found an infant washed up on the shores of Hardly Ever Isle. They raised the child as their own naming him Pauly Pots, which in Fairy Speak means, Night Screamer and Vile Pooper. They nourished Pauly on a steady diet of forest food, which helped with the smell, and naturally-occurring, hallucinogenic herbs which stopped the screaming.

As young Pauly entered his pre-teens, he spent his days around the magical creatures of the isle watching the pretty colors that appeared when he waved his hand in front of his his face. His life changed forever when a band of marauding pirates grounded their ship on the shores of the Hardly Ever isle. Captain Crook, the ship's master, was an evil man looking for loot and booty to take back to the mainland.

Pauly learned two things from the pirates. One was that people would pay good money for the herbs he harvested. The other was that there was really good money in crime.

Many fights insued between the pirates and the island natives as both vied for control of Hardly Ever Isle. Eventually, Pauly tricked Captain Crook into accepting some tainted baked goods. Pauly and the islanders took the ship and crew. Crook was fed to a giant crocodile after being forced to make Pauly Captain. With the ship repaired and its crew forced into slave labor, Pauly finally had a suitable distribution chain to the mainland for healthy, naturally-occurring herbs.

While Pauly was on the mainland selling natural pharmacological goods with no harmful side effects whatsoever, he ran across a beautiful young preteen named Breezy and her two brothers with unimportant names. Breezy had more than good looks, however. She was also the daughter of a wealthy merchant.

Pauly convinced the trio of siblings to ‘fly’ to Hardly Ever Isle where they participated in many adventures, a faked pirate attack, and other mind expanding events. Once the parents paid a suitable ransom, Pauly convinced the three to return home with fantastic tales of their exploits. Pauly never saw them again.

Eventually the local king invaded Hardly Ever Isle, proclaiming a war on naturally occurring herbs with no harmful side effects whatsoever that would have been legalized long ago if not for the political pressure from the local alchemist guild and priests. The king ordered the pirates hung, the magical creatures slaughtered, and the island natives relocated to a casino. Pauly escaped with his constant fairy companion; the cleverly named, yet non-copyright infringing, Tinkler Girl.

Pauly changed names and joined a troupe of actors who performed light comedies at hip coffee houses. As Harry Panner, he wasn't the best thespian but the late nights and later wakings of an actor’s life suited him well. Unfortunately, like many child stars, Harry did not age well and was let go after an unfortunate incident involving Tink, some bad mushrooms, and a series of stage lights she mistook for amorous fairy males.

Like many ne'er-do-wells with nothing else to do, Harry entered the education system at Pigmole's school of magic, thanks to forged acceptance papers and a bribed admissions clerk. Harry soon became the big man on campus thanks to the popularity of naturally-grown memory supplements. The headmaster eventually discovered Harry's capitalistic endeavors and expelled Harry, but not before the young man learned an impressive amount of magic. In addition, Harry ‘borrowed’ some of the rarer magic items from the school's library which he somehow forgot to return.

The school's headmaster took a dim view of the theft, forcing Harry to assume his current alias; Dangolf Grayteeth. As he grew older, the nickname 'Grayteeth' stuck due to the ravages of various chemical elements he's eaten, drank, smoked, or otherwise consumed.

Dangolf became a successful Spell for Sell wizard, taking on various mercenary jobs. He became known as the man who'd do anyone and anything for the right amount of gold. Eventually, the Northern Toy Makers Guild (NTMG) hired him to take out a constant and ever growing menace; Nicolas the Red.

Nicolas and his band of stunted arctic elves drastically undercut the NTMG's profit margin by giving away toys once a year the night of the Winter Solstice. This unfair trade practice had to end. The stories tell of an epic battle that raged for days between Nicolas the Red and Dangolf the Gray.

In actuality, Dangolf and Tink infiltrated the polar fortress and discovered an elven slave ring. Their overseer was Krampus, a demon of punishment Nicolas had summoned and bound to his service. The Krampus had the ability to turn children of a hateful or mischievous spirit into a stunted elf form which he enslaved to work in the toy factory.

The poor elves worked on a massive toy manufacturing assembly line. Finding eager accomplices in the elves, Dangolf slipped Nicolas a super mickey cocktail then challenged him to a wizard’s dual. Poor Nicolas never stood a chance. As Nicolas the Red lay in the snow with elves rejoicing all around him, Dangolf picked up Nick's famous bag of holding. Nicolas did all he could to keep the bag but his drug-numbed fingers couldn't hold on. As Dangolf wrested the bag from Nicolas' grasp, a smile came to The Red's face. His last words before passing were "I'm free."

Dangolf shoved many of Nicolas' belongings into the bag and left to collect his payment. As he walked the streets children began to approach and ask for gifts. Dangolf blurted out "HO!" thinking it odd for him to call children prostitutes. Eventually he decided to give the urchins a small gift from his bag in order to shut them up. It’s a tradition that's gone on ever since.

Dangolf occasionally has fits which lead to blacks outs. Horrible pain and hair growth proceed these spells. The worst episodes occur around the Winter solstice - after which he wakes up exhausted, covered in soot and cookie crumbs, with the taste of sour milk in his mouth. He also blacks out during times of extreme stress. Sometimes he wakes up surrounded by toys. At other times he awakes to flying animals who obey is every command. He normally excuses this away as a 'bad trip' or 'flashback'.

Tink literally crawled into a bottle and stayed there after the first Soltice. She now functions as a magical lantern and occasionally dispenses pixie dust to get parties going.

Dangolf considers the bag of holding is prize possession and never lets it leave his person. It allows him to detect past good and bad behavior (restricted to one calendar year starting from the last Winter solstice), the ability to squeeze through small openings, and fire resistance. It also provides interesting items in time of need. Sometimes the items help, other times they hurt, but there is always something interesting that comes out of the bag.

If Dangolf does transform into Santa, the bag will always produce beneficial items. As Santa, Dangolf is a holly, jolly old fellow that fits the classic definition of Santa Claus with the exception of a large cigar. During combat or other stressful times, Dangolf must make a Spirit roll against the standard chart to determine if he Santas-out. The more stressful the situation the more likely he is to transform. On the night of Winter solstice, the roll occurs every round until he succumbs.

On failure, a huge sleigh appears belching smoke from a coal fired furnace which somehow powers the vehicle. The Krampus is always on board.

Dangolf, Krampus, and Tink fly from house to house dispensing presents made during that calendar year by the enslaved elves. Krampus finds the very bad children and takes them back to the factory for transformation.

Dangolf has no knowledge of the night-long ride. During bad weather, he straps Tink to the front of the sleigh to provide illumination on foggy nights. The Krampus rides in back stoking the first of the coal furnace and giggling to the children he's taken.

Krampus has the ability to produce sticks and lumps of coal at will. He uses this to power the sleigh or give to bad children who don't warrant enslavement. These he either berates, warns, or spanks with a stick. While Krampus is technically and evil being, he has strict guidelines as to whom to punish.

WereSanta (wild card) - Unique Creature - Currently Dangolf Grayteeth - Wizard
Rank/Race: Legendary/Human
Attributes:Agility d8, Smarts d8, Spirit d10, Strength d8, Vigor d10
Skills: Climbing d8+2, Fighting d8, Lock picking d8+2, Notice d8, Persuasion d8, Shooting d8, Stealth d8+2, Streetwise d10, Taunt d8, Knowledge(Pharmaceuticals) d10, Knowledge(Herbs) d8
Languages: 4 setting specific languages
Derived: Pace 6, Parry 6, Charisma 0, Toughness 7, Bennies 2
Hindrances: Major: Greedy, Minor: Habit, Mean
Edges: Thief, Arcane Background - Magic
Powers (30): Barrier, Blast, Blind, Bolt, Confusion, Detect/Conceal Arcana, Entangle, Teleport, Wall Walker
Gear: Cursed Bag of Holding (powers(40) Beast Friend, Darksite, Environmental Protection, Fly, Grow/Shink, Shape Change, Wall Walker), bottle with Tinkler Girl inside, Cigar

Tinkler Girl - Fairy (wild card)
Attributes:Agility d12, Smarts d6, Spirit d4, Strength d4, Vigor d4
Skills: Fighting d12, Lock picking d8+2, Notice d8, Shooting d12, Stealth d12+2, Taunt d4, Knowledge(Forest Creatures) d6, Knowledge(Herbs) d6
Languages: 4 setting specific languages
Derived: Pace 10, Parry 8(10 for normal size creatures due to size), Charisma 2, Toughness 2 (-2 for size), Bennies 2
Hindrances: Major: Envious of other females around Dangolf, Minor: Habit, Clueless
Edges: Thief, Attractive
Gear: Tiny sword Str+d4
Powers: Pixie Dust (allows other to fly) - 40 power points. Also has hallucinogenic properties if inhaled

Krampus - Black Santa (wild card)
Race: Demon
Attributes:Agility d8, Smarts d10, Spirit d12, Strength d10, Vigor d12
Skills: Fighting d12, Intimidate d12+2, Notice d8, Stealth d8+2, Taunt d10+2, Throwing d8, Trick d10+2, Climb d10+2, Lock Picking d8+2
Languages: 4 setting specific languages
Derived: Pace 6, Parry 8, Charisma -4, Toughness 12(4), Bennies 2
Hindrances: Major: Vengeful, Minor: Mean, Ugly
Edges: Thief, Strong Willed, Improved Trademark Weapon (switch), Imp. Level Headed
Gear: Krampus Switch (d4+Str any hit with a raise, regardless of damage, shakes opponent), Flaming Coal (thrown weapon 3/6/9, d4+Str+ignition of flammable materials), Claws d6+Str
Powers: (all powers permanent until dispelled) Puppet (against members of the naughty list), Shape Change (of those Krampus Puppets), Environmental Protection, Grow/Shrink (self), able to produce lumps of coal and sticks at will.

Demonic Traits

Immunity: Demons are immune to poison and disease.
Infernal Stamina: Demons gain a +2 bonus to recover from being Shaken.
Resistant to Normal Weapons: Demons suffer only half damage from non-magical attacks except for cold iron (see below).
Weakness (Cold Iron): Demons take normal damage from pure iron weapons. “Cold” refers to their relative purity—not their temperature.

Tomorrow's installment of Tales from The Savage Troll includes stats for Santa's sleigh. Until then, Merry Krampus!

Related Links:
Merry Krampus Blog Carnival
SteamPunk vs. SteamPulp
Free Merry Krampus Artwork

Artwork is by British illustrator Steve Austin and licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. This basically means that you are free to use his artwork so long as you a) give him credit, b) share the artwork under the same license, and c) don’t use it for commercial purposes (i.e. you can’t resell it)

Steampulp vs. Steampunk

2011-12-18T08:00:00.000-06:00

This is one of those articles which may cause me to lose some readers, but the topic has been burdening me for a bit so I figure it's best to get it off my chest.

Recently I decided to participate in Nevermet Press's Krampus Christmas Carnival. Blog carnivals link blogs and websites together for a common monthly theme. The theme of this carnival is the Krampus, an anti-Santa that inflicts harm and scolding upon the children on the naughty list. It sounded like fun, so I added my blog to the list of participants.

When I write something, anything really, I perform research to give the story depth. I read the Krampus wiki and asked coworkers of various nationalities about the creature. Most called Krampus by the name of Black Santa, a shadowy being that entered the bedrooms on Christmas Eve to punish bad children. You could tell the memories of Black Santa were not found ones.

Since I write Horror/Adventure books, the Krampus makes a good fictional creature. My plan for the blog carnival is to write a short story about Thomas Gunn who, as a child, encounters Krampus and plays Encyclopedia Brown to stop the Yuletide Punisher in his tracks. I ran into plot issues since the story happens all in one night and communication in 1910 was difficult. The ending never jelled in my head so I abandoned it.

Since that path failed I decided to try another track. The carnival called for a Steampunk setting so I started researching exactly what that meant. I call the Space 1889 setting Steampunk but have discovered how very wrong I am. Apparently, the appropriate title for 1889 is Steam Pulp. I agree with that name now that I've investigated Steam Punk a bit more.

Steam Punk, as detailed in the SteamPunk Magazine, is a movement akin to anarchy working against Victorian Society to bring that social structure down. As they state: "it's more than just adding brass gears to equipment." Below is a quote from their magazine.

BEFORE THE age of homogenization and micro-machinery, before the tyrannous efficiency of internal combustion and the domestication of electricity, lived beautiful, monstrous machines that lived and breathed and exploded unexpectedly at inconvenient moments. It was a time where art and craft were united, where unique wonders were invented and forgotten, and punks roamed the streets, living in squats and fighting against despotic governance through wit, will and wile.

Even if we had to make it all up.

SteamPunk Magazine is a publication that is dedicated to promoting SteamPunk as a culture, as more than a sub-category of fiction. It is a journal of fashion, music, misapplied technology and chaos. And fiction.

It just may be the most spectacular magazine to ever fight against the spectacle, and it is free. Or as cheap as we can possibly get it to you. Using the latest in Creative Commons technology, we undermine the fascism of copyright while protecting ourselves from direct co-option.

We sell the magazine for as close to cost as we can manage, and we offer it for free PDF download for printing at home.

They lost me at 'tyrannous efficiency of the internal combustion engine' and more so at 'the fascism of copyright'.

I read several articles and disliked each more than its predecessor. Apparently it's the Punk aspect they cling to, ala the Punk Rock phenomenon where thrashing singers puked on their adoring fans. How shall I say this? Punk was never my cup of tea.

So, after researching Steam Punk I realized I had nothing to offer for the Carnival. That genre is never one I would enjoy the way the purest enjoy it. On the flip side, this is just one opinion but one I saw several times. I've read stories that were supposed to be Steam Punk but had none of the 'screw technology and laws' aspect to them. They were just pleasant stories about semi-magical steam and brass devices.

So, what to do?

Basically I decided to ignore them. It's akin to changing the channel if you don't enjoy a TV show. I play games as an escapist. I have no desire to fight old ideologies of colonialism and stratified social structures. The equipment and period settings attract me to Victorian game Savage World settings like Space 1889 and The Kerberos Club.

I eventually stumbled upon Frank Chadwick's blog, where he states that Space 1889 is actually Steam Pulp. I now realize that most of the Steam Punk fiction I enjoy is actually Steam Pulp fiction. Everything slid into place in my head like a metal gear turning to advance an 1890's clock.

I love writing pulp. The pulp genre has a few rules: good is clearly good and bad is clearly bad, people seldom die unless it advances the story in some way, and the villain always gets away. Even these rules aren't set in stone but act more as guidelines. Pulp is a genre I can get behind and enjoy. It's not that the character's can't be complex with foibles aplenty, it's just you can empathize with them.

So, I sat down to write the short story and stared at my empty Scrivener window. Nothing came. The curse of the blinking cursor dogged my every thought. Once more I'm left with the question: what to do?

Eventually I decided to resurrect an old character of mine that is truly twisted. Tomorrow you'll see a Savage Worlds version of my were-Santa along with his punishing sidekick Krampus and a drunk Fairy named Tinkler Girl. I hope you enjoy it. It's about as Punk as I get.

Cheers,
Troll.

Savage Worlds Poker Deck for MapTool

2011-12-14T08:00:00.000-06:00

Lib:PokerDeck

I've had several requests to handle a deck of cards outside the initiative system for the MapTool Savage Worlds Framework. Sunday morning, I added a new Library Token called Lib:PokerDeck .

The Framework update includes a new Library token for the SWEX campaign file called Lib:PokerDeck and three new macro buttons on the campaign macro window. You control the new PokerDeck token from these three macro buttons.

Draw Card for Select Tokens campaign button draws a card from the Poker Deck for each token selected. You'll get an error message if the deck runs out of cards.

Manage Hand macro button displays an HTML frame with the hands of all the players, including your own. Below is an image of the Troll's hand. It shows all the cards for other players as well (if they don't have the cards set as 'Hole' cards).

The Troll has several options of what to do with his card. He can make the card Face up, Face down, put it in the Hole (other players can't see it), or discard it. The Troll could also draw another card from the deck or fold his hand completely, losing all his cards.

Here's a slightly more interesting version where each player has 5 cards. In this case, some of the cards are face down.

To change any of the card states (Face Up, Face Down, Hole, or Discard), you simply select the radio button below the card and click Submit.

Rest Deck macro button returns all cards to the deck.

You will need this new Lib:Token if you plan to use the Savage Worlds Deluxe Edition or need them for the Huckster in Deadlands.

Good luck and let me know if you find any problems.

Review - Fantastic Maps - At The Gate

2011-12-12T08:00:00.000-06:00

Fantastic Maps: At The Gates
Publisher: Rite Publishing
Price: $2.99
Artist: Jonathan Roberts

Jonathan Roberts is a cartographer for Kobold Quarterly, Sunken Empires, and Adventures in the Hyborian Age. He also contributes regularly to the Maptool forumsunder the name Torstan.

For December, he's produced another fine battlemap showing a wintry fortress with a barricade. It was originally used in the Pathfinder adventure The Breaking of Forstor Nagar. The battle scene depicts an encampment outside a city fortress with a tent, bonfire, damaged buildings, and a sturdy barricade to prevent a counter attack. The fortress is protected with a wall, moat, and bridge.

The product includes .pdf files for printing, jpg for importing into VTTs, and .rpmap files for importing directly into MapTool. It also contains a set of .png files for the objects that appear on the maps for use in other scenarios.

A Very Zombie Holiday

2011-12-09T08:00:00.000-06:00

Tales from The Savage Troll does its best to be a good netizen. To that end, please view the short, informational PSA about what to do in the case of a holiday zombie invasion.

Happy Holidays from The Savage Troll.

Super Hero Dating Service

2011-12-07T08:00:00.000-06:00

I ran across this while cruising the web. I think it might be an option for those looking for a holiday hookup.

The outtakes are pretty funny as well. Lex Luthor with an iPhone is priceless.

Happy Holidays!

Review - The Savage Worlds Horror Companion

2011-12-05T08:00:00.000-06:00

Savage Worlds Horror Companion
by Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Publisher: Studio 2 Publishing, Inc.
Price: $19.99 (Print), $14.99 (.pdf DriveThruRPG)
Pages: 144

Pinnacle Entertainment Group released a new member of their Companion series for the Horror genre. This work joins the Super Powers and Fantasy Companions as suplements to the Savage Worlds rules set. Like the others in the series, the Horror Companion is in the smaller Explorer’s Edition format.

One important note: this rule book does not stand on its own. It is a supplement. You must have either the Savage Worlds Deluxe Edition or Savage Worlds Explorer’s Edition in order to fully utilize this product.

The Horror Companion contains generous amounts of artwork, reference tables, encounters, character additions, and equipment for all your Horror genre needs. It’s information-packed pages contain rules and setting advice to recreate Horror/Super Natural adventures in the Victorian worlds of Bram Stoker and Mary Shelly, the modern slap-stick humor of Ghostbusters, the serial action/horror adventures of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the star-spanning terror of H. P. Lovecraft's creations, or the futuristic nightmare creatures of the Alien franchise all packed in 144 pages.

Character Creation

In the Savage Worlds tradition of Fast, Furious, and Fun; the Horror Companion jumps right into character creation. Savage Worlds is one of the best game systems for replicating the theatrical adventure one finds in movies and novels. To that end, the work includes a number of customized Edges and Hindrances to allow for characters pulled straight from the movie house.

The new Edges and Hindrances for your players and NPCs include:

Hindrances

Angst
Bleeder
Bullet Magnet
Cursed
Combat Shock
Doubting Thomas
Jumpy
Screamer
Slow
Touched
Victim

Edges

Relentless
Fanaticism
Exorcist
Necromancer
Master Necromancer
Talisman Craftsman
Monster Hunter
Sound Mind
Tower of Will
Hardened
Occultist
One of the Chosen
Visions

If your campaign is a little more powerful, you can also have non-human characters and NPCs. Be warned, they will be distinctly more power than the humans. If you plan on running a mixed character group, you might want to consider starting humans as Seasoned while starting other races out at the Novice rank.

Character Races

Angel
Demon
Dhampyr - half vampire
Patchwork Man - like the Frankenstein Monster
Phantom - ethereal
Vampire
Werewolf
Zombie - has a thing for fresh meat.

The Tools of the Trade

The Horror Companion equipment section was truly a joy to read. I was pleased to see Ghostbuster-style equipment present. Other equipment mimicked that found in movies series like Blade or Underworld. Below is a partial list of equipment found in this section.

Atomic Ghost Hunting Pack
Ultraviolet Grenade
Garlic Bullets
Silver Nitrate Bullets
Ultraviolet Bullets
Ghost Trap

Fear and Loathing in Gaming - Setting Rules

The Setting section adds horror tinted ideas to create custom styles of play. Your game setting might have a horrible price for magic, people splatter when killed, heightened magical effects based on the calendar day, or the fact that immoral behavior is a serial killer magnet.

For the Lovecraft fans, the Horror Companion includes a Sanity attribute which measures the character’s Spiritual toughness. It starts at half the character’s Spirit+2. Carnage, super natural terror, and forbidden knowledge lower Sanity while triumphing over evil, rest and relaxation, and psychotherapy heal it.

If a character’s Sanity drops too low, they are odd in some way and pick up a negative to their Charisma. If it drops to zero, they get the joy of rolling on the Psychosis Table. Luckily, the rules allow for Sanity healing, so your characters might be brought back from the brink.

Other setting rules include

Forbidden Lore - containing information “Man Was Not Meant to Know”
Rituals and the Price of Failure - magic in horror settings isn’t often as easy or available as fantasy settings. The Ritual rules contain some variations to simulate this in game terms. Rituals that fail carry special consequences. Depending on the setting, Villians may use Sacrifices to power their evil Rituals and spells.
Signs & Portents - Horror often includes foreshadowing from a fortune teller or dreams. The Horror Companion includes a Portents Table to help the GM determine the value of the visions or advice. Unlucky characters receiving a fortune of Doom may have their Bennies removed for the rest of the game.
Wards & Binds - an important aspect of Horror is the ability to ward against evil or bind an unstoppable being, so the Horror Companion has rules governing these aspects including how such a creature breaks free.

Magick

Much like the equipment section, the Horror Companion contains new powers to simulate popular Horror fiction. In addition, powers derived from Dark sources may drain sanity if the caster rolls a critical failure. Even if your character does not have an Arcane Background, they may still be able to cast spells via Rituals (see setting rules, above).

Some of the new powers include:

Banish Entity
Bind Entity
Consecrate Ground
Corpse Senses
Drain Years
Enhance Undead
Grave Shroud
Grave Speak
Nightmares
Spirit Shield
Strength of the Dead
Summon Demon
Summon Spirit
Suppress Lycanthropy

The Horror Companion also contains a list of Arcane Items for inclusion in your game. Some of these items are cursed, others are ancient and unique, while still others can be made with the proper ingredients. The items include:

Bandages of Anubis
Frankenstein’s Laboratory
Hockey Mask of Terror
Sacrificial Knife
Voodoo Dolls

http://frankensteinia.blogspot.com/2008/09/frankensteins-laboratory.html

What’s a Horror adventure without terrifying creatures to fight, overcome, or evade? The Horror Companion doesn’t disappoint with a list of mundane and super natural beings for encounters. They aren’t all monsters. Some are people like Vampire Slayers or Occultic Investigators that might help your characters when things go bump in the night.

Dark Man
Collector Demon
Pazuzu
Dreamreaver
Evil Clown
Haunted Car
Haunted Portrait
Mad Scientist
Serial Killers
Stuffed Animal Fiend
Chinese Hopping Vampire
Were-Creatures

The last section on Game Mastering guides the GM through a setting creation by describing the various genres of Horror. Before starting, the GM needs to decide the Horror style to use including: Action, Greater Evil, and Dark.

Action settings involve lots of combat where the characters wade through monsters, kicking super natural butt and taking names. The heroes are more akin to fantasy settings than helpless teenagers running way from a serial killer. Fear rules are rarely used in this style of play.
Greater Evil settings feature super natural creatures as far above us as we are above ants. The human race is an insignificant speck in the universe and all their technology is useless against being of cosmic power. Heroes are normal men and women who are drawn into the dark to keep mankind safe from the greater cosmic horror. Fear and Sanity rules dominate this style of play with the characters struggling to stay sane.
Dark settings are somewhere between Action and Greater Evil settings. In this case, there may be monsters that are easily killed but others, like vampires, are difficult and take planning. Fear rules are used often but the Sanity rules are de-emphasised. Things are scary but not mind bending.

After the GM picks the style, they must decide on an era of play. Will the campaign be in a Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Modern, or Historical era.

Fantasy is a well worn path with which most gamers are familiar. It’s also likely the hardest to separate from a classic fantasy campaign. The Ravensloft modules can be easily transformed into Savage Worlds using a combination of the Fantasy and Horror Companions.
Sci-Fi campaigns are another setting players should be familiar with. Aliens or Warhammer 40K would both do well Savaged using these rules. Likewise I could see moving the Horror Companion rules into the existing Savage Worlds Necropolis setting.
Modern is another era setting that would be easy to implement. Thanks to the Internet, maps and locals are easily found and used for game purposes.
History era settings are probably the hardest to create. The GM will need to spend a good bit of time on research to get the story-telling touches down to make the players feel like they’re in the time period. That said, the Victorian time period has many game supplements available including Space 1889, Rippers, and Deadlands. Other historical settings include Weird War II, Pirates of the Spanish Main, and Solomon Kane.

Conclusion

I enjoyed reading this supplement cover to cover. It’s packed with ideas, statistics, and other content to help GMs and Players create a fun (or scary) Horror campaign. While the content isn’t as extensive as other Savage Worlds horror supplements like Realms of C’thulhu or Rippers, it contains more than enough to get you started on a lenghthy campaign.

As a side note, the fact that the Creature list includes Pazuzu and Dark Man entries made me wonder if Wiggy’s been in my computer since those are the creatures I used the Thomas Gunn Detective Stories of The New Moon Murders and Prescription for Revenge.

On the up side, the Horror Companion gave me lots of idea’s for my third novel. After all, isn’t the reason we game to tell good stories and have fun? That’s what the Savage Worlds Companion series is all about.

Related Products
Savage Worlds Deluxe Edition
Savage Worlds Fantasy Companion
Savage Worlds Super Powers Companion

Released - The New Moon Murders

2011-11-28T08:00:00.000-06:00

January, 1930 - Chicago

Something evil stalks the streets performing human sacrifices every new moon.

The police are baffled. High society wants it covered up. The mob wants the murder weapon.

Fearing the involvement of a long time parishioner, aging priest Father Burke turns to a man he once thought possessed.

Private detective Thomas Gunn, tormented by visions he cannot control, takes the case only to discover that staring down the business end of a Tommy gun is nothing compared to stopping an ancient evil bent on world destruction.

In the tradition of H. P. Lovecraft and Dashel Hammitt, The New Moon Murders is a classic hard-boiled detective story fused with the elements of star-spanning horror.

The New Moon Murders is available in Kindle format from Amazon.com or in every other format known to man on Smashwords.

MapTool Objects as Handouts

2011-10-10T10:47:00.000-05:00

An often over-looked capability of MapTool is the ability to attach descriptions to objects you place on the map. As you know, MapTool has for image layers: Token, Hidden, Object, and Background. Anything you draw or place on the map will go on one of these layers. Token images are confined to one grid square and are drawn over everything else. Hidden objects are only visible to the GM. Object images are clickable and are drawn between the background and other layers. Background images are 'under' all other images. Where an image or drawing resides depends on what layer you select when you drop or draw on the map.

For my fantasy campaigns, I use the scroll image (donated to RPTools by Jonathan Roberts of Fantastic Maps) to indicate a player text handout for room and object descriptions. When clicked, the scroll's Notes and GM Notes appear over the map in the lower left corner. Players only see the notes along with the token the name e.g. Handout in this case. GMs see both the Notes and GM Notes that reside on the object.

To place notes, double click on the image while on the proper layer. Note, you can't click an object while you have the Token layer selected. You'll forget this . . . often. Once double-clicked, the dialog box below appears for note entry. Note that the '1' in the image below is actually on the Hidden layer. Players can't see that but I, as the GM, can.

I also use GM notes to include reminders to myself. In this case I had the tree canopy covering the 'room'. During play I moved the canopy off to the side and placed it on the Hidden layer so the players couldn't see it. You can do a similar trick with rooftops covering buildings. In the past I've included tactics as well as any traps the players might set off. Speaking of traps, placing a trap symbol on the hidden layer along with a trap descriptions is a great GM tool as well.

As always, to find out more about MapTool functionality visit the RPTools forums or the fan wiki. Special thanks to Devin Knight for the tokens, Jonathan Roberts for the objects, and Brave Halfling Publishing for the room description from 'The Vile Worm of the Eldritch Oak'.

Review: Codex Guide to the Medieval Baltic

2011-08-08T08:00:00.037-05:00

Codex Guide to the Medieval Baltic

by Ire Games

Price: $15

Pages: 208

The Codex Guide to the Medieval Baltic is a generic game supplement for GMs and players wishing to give historical texture to their medieval campaigns. The 200 page work contains details regarding art, religion, political powers, technology, and science during the 15th century centering on the Baltic free city of Danzig but spans all of Europe and some of Asia.

From the beginning the author gives you some historical context as to why the Baltic was so interesting during the 15th century.

Eight reasons why the 15th Century Baltic is cool

It is one of Europe's greatest military proving grounds.
It is a center of Renaissance Technology and Culture
It is one of Histories greatest melting pots
There are pirates. Pirates with plate armor and guns.
It is a political and economic proving ground
It reminds me of the early days of the United States
This was a wide open time in European History
It is an epicenter for HEMA ('German' martial arts)

I loved the graphics present in this product. They include villages, cities, and a nice section showing Teutonic at the end. The period artwork is nice as well and should serve as nice handouts to your players or give some ideas for character development for your PC. The modern photos of period buildings were nice but at times seemed a little out of place. Still, with a like manipulation these could be used as handouts as well.

The sections on arms and armor were very interesting and include relative armor penetration strengths of various weapons. While I doubt you'd want to put this level of detail in your game it is nice to know. The range graphic for various missile weapons showed the ranges for harassing fire, area shots, direct fire, and armor piercing ranges really put things into perspective for me. It's one thing to see stats like this in a game system but another to see the visual representation of it.

Overall I think this is a great product that covers a wide variety of needs for GMs and Players alike. Even if you aren't playing such a game now I recommend the product as something that simply a fun read. It's full of material that will set your creativity loose by founding it in the past.

An Annoucement for our female readers (if they exist)

2011-07-18T08:00:00.002-05:00

For you fantastic looking females that frequent this blog, we present a PSA from the folks at Nerd Machine. It stars the Kaley Cuoco from The Big Bang Theory and contains sage advice to avoid the Slave Leia problem so prevalent at conventions and costume parties.

EMBED-Slave Leia PSA Starring Kaley Cuoco - Watch more free videos

A public service announcement from Nathan Fillion

2011-07-15T08:00:00.008-05:00

Nathan Fillion is the lead in such shows as Castle, Firefly, Green Lantern: Emerald Knights, and Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. As a leading man in touch with his inner nerd, he often gives back to the geek community. We are proud to present his latest PSA.

EMBED-Swamp Ass PSA starring Nathan Fillion - Watch more free videos

You can find more interesting content over at Nerd Machine.

Review: Savage Worlds Deluxe - First Glance

2011-07-14T08:00:00.019-05:00

Savage Worlds Deluxe

by Pinnacle Entertainment Group

Publisher: Studio 2 Publishing, Inc.

Price: $29.99 (Hardbound), $19.95 (.pdf on Studio 2)

Pages: 160

A Deluxe treatment of the Savage Worlds Core rules brings a few new elements without alienating the throngs of Savages that hold their SW Explorer's Editions as the best RPG they've ever bought. Or, at least the best value and definitively lives up to it's Fast, Furious, and Fun pulpy play goodness.

This review is really about a first glance. A first blush of what the SWD (as I'm sure it's going to be referred to) will really have to prove itself over time as game adventures accommodate the new elements. After listening to several podcasts with some good hints dropped, it seems to be a 'take it or leave it' addition that works with the SWEX audience instead of trying to replace it. I've heard they will have a downloadable pdf for the SW:EX folks that has the additional rules that will function as a SWEX addendum of sorts. Obviously they'll leave all the additional non-rule material as an incentive to get the SWD, but lets confirm that.

Those that have the original Savage Worlds Hardbound will notice that we're seeing the evolution of a game system that has gone from the 146 page hardbound that was a fun alternative to d20 (d20 conversion guide included), to the 160 page (and famously $10) Explorers Edition and now back to a hardbound Deluxe Edition. I believe everyone can admit that the SW:EX form factor took SW from established indie/fringe to something every gamer and podcast has talked about for the past few years. I grinned and chuckled to myself as I made my weekly game store visit many months ago and saw the DnD 4e "Essentials" format books. I thought "Oh, how the mighty have fallen!" In a way, it's one of the nicest compliments Pinnacle could have received. WOTC's 4e Gamma World rules were also in SWEX sized format but proved that the right size with crap rules is still a poor combination. That's another rant for another time. Recently, I've seen Troll Lord's 3 book, smaller than SWEX, Castles and Crusades "Digest" set that has gone a bit too far. But, you get the point, the market has changed and Pinnacle was a driver to a new and better way.

The covers of the 3 SW editions tell an evolving story. We see it visually. Originally SW is carved in stone and with the Deluxe Edition's SW logo - it's embossed gold. But for those of us who loved DnD in it's primitive days have learned, really great art doesn't a great system make, but it helps.

First Blush:

Great Art. Cover: newish logo with multiple genres telling the story. Full page ads for Pinnacle settings between the Intro and Chapt 1: Character Creation that capture the different genres nicely. The Ripper's ad with it's hunter sporting wolverine-like claws confronting a Promethean monstrosity rocks! Lots of full page great looking art sprinkled throughout.
Design Notes - as you could guess, it's a paragraph that focuses on an aspect of the game that the designers want to emphasize. Good insight from the creators!
GUTS are gone! - out of the core rules and into setting rules that need it. Makes sense.
Dramatic Tasks - adds a mechanic for when a hero is in a dramatic situation and needs to perform a task to save the day under a tight time restriction. This mechanic or element adds to the feel of the pressure.
New Setting Rules - ie "Blood & Guts: Characters can spend Bennies on damage rolls! Use this rule when you really want to up the carnage." Also, Born A Hero, Critical Failures, Fanatics, and Gritty Damage.... are some other examples. Gritty Damage sounds ALOT like the styles found in Reality Blurs: Realms of Cthulhu. Interesting! There are quite a few new ideas here that can really add a new feel to the very same adventures you've played.
Interludes - essentially using character down-time to add to character development. A simple mechanic that involves the GM picking a character and that player picks a card (Clubs-tragedy, Spades-Victory, Hearts-Love, and Diamonds-Desire). The player then tells the tale of the type chosen (tragedy, love, etc..). Assuming a moving or entertaining tale is told, a reward is given of a Benny or Adventure Card chosen by the player.
GM section - The Countdown - (a Design Note) put a limit or sense of urgency to limit those that are taking too long to make decision of what to do next. Not to be overused.
Fun new One-Sheet adventures

While not exhaustive, I think you'll agree there's quite a bit of good new stuff to add to our Savage Worlds adventures. I didn't get the feeling that the system suddenly changed but just had some additional mechanics that can add to the fun...and some stress! I think I'll go start prepping some stories for an interlude.

Here's a much longer list of features by a current GM for our 1930's Pulp Campaign, John Riggs who dug through the Pinnacle forums for this compilation:

CHANGES

- Guts skill removed from core rules (but mentioned as a possible setting rule)

- Driving is now a free action unless the character is performing a maneuver

- Leadership Edges can be used on Wild Cards

- Background Edges can be taken after character creation

- Double Barrel Shotgun slightly tweaked in how it works

- A Shaken while on Hold loses Hold Status

- Shaken results now merely limit the character to free actions (instead of no actions) and do not halve the character's Pace

- new Incapacitation table (including some "Bleeding Out" rules)

- Healing can now only be attempted on each individual's fresh wounds once in the "Golden Hour." (Plus an attempt to revive if the target is Incapacitated.) They can't cause an additional wound through rolling a 1 or less however.

- area effect attacks now get an extra 1d6 damage for a raise (like most attacks)

- prone defenders may no longer rise to defend themselves automatically (it requires an action and takes 2" of movement)

- new Chase rules (also, the Climb stat for aircraft works differently in this context)

- tweaks to some powers (e.g., the Bolt power can be used for multiple bolts, or one increased damage bolt, but not both at once)

ADDITIONS

designer notes (explanations and reflections on the rules by the PEG folks)
archetypes (character templates that let you create NPCs easily on the fly, or allow new players to jump right in)
example Races (e.g., elf, dwarf, android, etc.)
race creation rules (similar to those found in the Fantasy Companion or Slipstream)
clarified rules on common knowledge v. specific knowledge
Knowledge: Language rules
about 20 new Edges (including some new combat and leadership edges)
many more vehicles included in the gear section (more similar to the old hardback SW rules than SW:EX)
some notes for playing without miniatures, including how to approximate area templates without a battle map
rules for Improvised Weapons
rules for Push (which can be used to push, shield bash, or knock someone prone)
rules for Rapid Attack (basically three attacks in one round, all at a penalty)
rules for Firing Blind
rules for Social Conflicts
rules for Dramatic Tasks (basically performing tasks with a time limit - e.g., diffusing a bomb)
rules for Interludes (sort of like little "flashback" scenarios for in between major parts of the plot)
a section on common Setting Rules (e.g., the Guts skill, gritty damage, etc.)
inclusion of a bunch of new powers (including many from from the Fantasy Companion)
inclusion of power trapping rules
Combat Ratings (notes on balancing and scaling combat encounters)
several one-sheet adventures
a character sheet

The best bargins are, of course, the Savage Worlds Deluxe bundle on Studio 2 Publishing, Inc. I personally bought the $39.99 bundle that includes the Hardbound (when it releases in August) and the .pdf that allows me to scratch the "I WANT IT NOW" itch. All the options popped into existence sometime after midnight at Studio 2. I hate to admit I checked at midnight PST just to make sure that the first thing I did in the morning was buy my copy and start this review!

To find even more, go to: Pinnacle Forum SWEX to SWD

Until next time,

Yours truly,

The Savage Duck.

2011 Ennie Nominees Announced

2011-07-10T10:00:00.004-05:00

Everyone go to the ENnie nominee site and vote for your favorite game. The polls for the 2011 ENnies open on July 15th closing on July 24th. Here's a list of the Nominees. Remember, vote early and vote often.

Best Adventure

Delta Green: Targets of Opportunity (Arc Dream Publishing/Pagan Publishing)
Monsters and Other Childish Things: Road Trip (Cubicle 7/Arc Dream Publishing)
Pathfinder Adventure Path #43: The Haunting of Harrowstone (Paizo Publishing)
Perils of the Surface World: Miracle Stone of the Amazon (Exile Game Studio)
Saturday Night Delves #1: Revenge of the Iron Lich (Save Versus Death)
Honorable Mention: The Dance in the Blood (Pelgrane Press/Graham Walmsley)

Best Aid/Accessory

D&D Essentials: Dungeon Tiles Master Set – The Dungeon (Wizards of the Coast)
Eclipse Phase Gamemaster Pack (Posthuman Studios)
Gaming Paper Adventure Maps (Gaming Paper)
Hero Lab (Lone Wolf Development)
The Unspeakable Oath (Arc Dream Publishing)
Honorable Mention: Vornheim: The Complete City Kit (Lamentations of the Flame Princess)

Best Art, Cover

A Song of Ice and Fire Campaign Guide (Green Ronin Publishing)
Eoris Essence (Visions of Essence LLC)
Mutants & Masterminds Hero’s Handbook (Green Ronin Publishing)
Shadowrun: Attitude (Catalyst Game Labs)
The Laundry (Cubicle 7)
Honorable Mention: The Danse Macabre (White Wolf Publishing)

Best Art, Interior

Dark Sun Campaign Setting (Wizards of the Coast)
DC Adventures Hero’s Handbook (Green Ronin Publishing)
Eoris Essence (Visions of Essence LLC)
Legend of the Five Rings, Fourth Edition (Alderac Entertainment Group)
Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Inner Sea World Guide (Paizo Publishing)

Best Blog

Best Cartography

Bookhounds of London (Pelgrane Press)
Deep Vistas Map Set I – III (Maps of Mastery)
Gaming Paper Adventure Maps (Gaming Paper)
Heavenring Village – Virtual Boxed Set (0One Games)
Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Inner Sea Poster Map Folio (Paizo Publishing)
Honorable Mention: Shadowrun: Sixth World Almanac (Catalyst Game Labs)

Best Electronic Book

Cerulean Seas Campaign Setting (Alluria Publishing)
Continuity (Posthuman Studios)
Shanghai Vampocalypse (Savage Mojo)
Temporal Probability Agency: To Predict and Serve (Apathy Games)
The Running Death (Terminal Studios)

Best Free Product

A Time of War: The BattleTech RPG Quick-Start Rules (Catalyst Game Labs)
Hell for Leather – Free Edition (Cobweb Games)
Old School Hack – Basic Game (Kirin Robinson)
Saturday Night Delves #1: Revenge of the Iron Lich (Save Versus Death)
The Running Death (Terminal Studios)
Honorable Mention: Ultimate Combat Playtesting PDF (Paizo Publishing)

Best Game

Happy Birthday, Robot! (Evil Hat Productions)
Icons Superpowered Roleplaying (Adamant Entertainment/Cubicle 7)
Legends of Anglerre (Cubicle 7)
Mutants & Masterminds Hero’s Handbook (Green Ronin Publishing)
The Dresden Files RPG (Evil Hat Productions )
Honorable Mention: The Laundry (Cubicle 7)

Best Miniatures Product

BattleTech 25th Anniversary Introductory Boxed Set (Catalyst Game Labs)
Deep Vistas Map Set I – III (Maps of Mastery)
Mousling Heroes (Reaper Miniatures)
USCR – Commissar (MERCS Miniatures)
WARMACHINE Khador Gun Carriage (Privateer Press)
Honorable Mention: Gaming Paper Adventure Maps (Gaming Paper)

Best Monster/Adversary

Doctor Who: Aliens & Creatures (Cubicle 7)
Fey Folio: Clans of the Fey (Alluria Publishing)
Monster Vault (Wizards of the Coast)
Mythic Menagerie: The Kingdom of Graves (Super Genius Games)
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary 2 (Paizo Publishing)

Best New Game (published for the first time ever)

A Taste for Murder (Graham Walmsley)
Happy Birthday, Robot! (Evil Hat Productions)
Icons Superpowered Roleplaying (Adamant Entertainment/Cubicle 7)
The Dresden Files RPG (Evil Hat Productions )
The Laundry (Cubicle 7)
Honorable Mention: Stars Without Number (Sine Nominee Publishing)

Best Podcast

Atomic Array
Chronicles: Pathfinder Podcast
Flagons and Dragons
The Dungeon Master Guys Podcast
Yog-Sothoth
Honorable Mention: Kicked In The DiceBags

Best Production Values

Gatecrashing (Posthuman Studios)
Happy Birthday, Robot! (Evil Hat Productions)
Legend of the Five Rings, Fourth Edition (Alderac Entertainment Group)
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Bestiary 2 (Paizo Publishing)
The Dresden Files RPG (Evil Hat Productions )

Best RPG Related Product

BattleTech 25th Anniversary Introductory Boxed Set (Catalyst Game Labs)
Castle Ravenloft Boardgame (Wizards of the Coast)
Hamlet’s Hit Points (Gamplaywright Press)
Tall Pencil Strap Dragon Chow Dice Bag (Dragon Chow Dice Bags)
The Bones – Us and Our Dice (Gameplaywright Press/Atomic Overmind Press)

Best Rules

D&D Rules Compendium (Wizards of the Coast)
Icons Superpowered Roleplaying (Adamant Entertainment/Cubicle 7)
Legends of Anglerre (Cubicle 7)
Mutants & Masterminds Hero’s Handbook (Green Ronin Publishing)
The Dresden Files RPG (Evil Hat Productions )
Honorable Mention: D&D Gamma World Roleplaying Game (Wizards of the Coast)

Best Setting

A Song of Ice and Fire Campaign Guide (Green Ronin Publishing)
Dark Sun Campaign Setting (Wizards of the Coast)
Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Inner Sea World Guide (Paizo Publishing)
Progenitor (Arc Dream Publishing)
Space 1889: Red Sands (Savage Worlds) (Pinnacle Entertainment Group)
Honorable Mention: Bookhounds of London (Pelgrane Press)

Best Supplement

Block by Bloody Block (Print Version) (White Wolf Publishing)
Gatecrashing (Posthuman Studios)
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Advanced Player’s Guide (Paizo Publishing)
Shadowrun: Attitude (Catalyst Game Labs)
Space 1889: Red Sands (Savage Worlds) (Pinnacle Entertainment Group)
Honorable Mention: The Danse Macabre (White Wolf Publishing)

Best Website

Best Writing

The Danse Macabre (White Wolf Publishing)
Delta Green: Targets of Opportunity (Arc Dream Publishing/Pagan Publishing)
Gatecrashing (Posthuman Studios)
The Dance in the Blood (Pelgrane Press/Graham Walmsley)
The Dresden Files RPG (Evil Hat Productions )

Product of the Year

A Song of Ice and Fire Campaign Guide (Green Ronin Publishing)
DC Adventures Hero’s Handbook (Green Ronin Publishing)
D&D Gamma World Roleplaying Game (Wizards of the Coast)
Gatecrashing (Posthuman Studios)
Happy Birthday, Robot! (Evil Hat Productions)
Legend of the Five Rings, Fourth Edition (Alderac Entertainment Group)
Pathfinder Roleplaying Game: Advanced Player’s Guide (Paizo Publishing)
Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Inner Sea World Guide (Paizo Publishing)
The Dresden Files RPG (Evil Hat Productions )
The Stork (DreamPunk Productions)
Honorable Mention:Legends of Anglerre (Cubicle 7)

Savage Worlds Deluxe - Available Saturday, June 25th!

2011-06-24T10:17:00.000-05:00

[ note: this is taken directly from Pinnacle's main page. Due to the large announcement about Pinnacles participation in Origins and Shane Hensley being the guest of honor, it's easy to miss... so we've re-broadcast it here!]

This Saturday is all about the new Savage Worlds Deluxe, the new edition of the core rulebook. This 160-page, full-color, full-size hardback provides the complete Savage Worlds rules, updates and new material, new art, more examples, an expanded Setting Rules section, and Designer Notes to give you an insight into the development. Making its world debut this Saturday, you can get your hands on it in a number of different ways:

Buy Savage Worlds Deluxe PDF on CD Saturday at Origins:
You can grab the PDF of Savage Worlds Deluxe on special limited-edition CD at the Studio 2 Publishing booth at Origins. Be the envy of your gaming neighborhood and lord it over your friends.
Preorder Savage Worlds Deluxe Saturday:
Starting Saturday, you'll be able to preorder a physical copy of the book on our web store for delivery as soon as full stocks are available (currently expected by September, with possible prerelease copies at GenCon). You can also preorder the print book at the Studio 2 Publishing booth—preorders at the booth include free domestic shipping, as well!
Get the Savage Worlds Deluxe Preorder Bundle Saturday on the Web:
If you can't be at Origins and just can't wait for the books to arrive, this bundle is for you. You'll get the physical book shipped directly to you as soon as stocks are in and—more importantly—you'll receive the PDF immediately! Oh, and you'll get a discount, too! How can you beat a deal like that?
Get the Savage Worlds Deluxe Mega Bundle Saturday on the Web:
You want more? You got it. The Savage Worlds Deluxe Mega Bundle includes everything in the Preorder Bundle, plus the Savage Worlds Action & Adventure Decks, including all the promotional cards! Like all our preorder bundles, these special deals are only available until the books are in, so act fast!
Download the Savage Worlds Deluxe PDF Saturday on the Web:
If you can't get your limited edition CD at Origins, the Savage Worlds Deluxe PDF will be available on our web store starting this Saturday with all the other web store options. ["Saturday" for the web store will look an awful lot like approximately Friday at midnight Eastern US Time, by the way.]

Don't let time pass you by—get your copies as soon as you can. If nothing else, you can cut down on how long your gaming buddies can be all smug about their copies, and isn't that what really matters?

We at the Savage Troll can't wait!

Free RPG Day - June 18, 2011

2011-06-23T08:00:00.003-05:00

FREE RPG DAY - June 18, 2011

by Derek Brown

In case you missed it, Saturday, June 18th 2011 was FREE RPG Day. Participating games stores gave away a adventures and quick start rules to promote our favorite hobby. One item in particular caught my eye. I'm a Savage Worlds nut and Pinnacle offered The Wild Hunt as their free RPG. I couldn't stand the thought of something I couldn't buy slipping thru my fingers. It's a great intro for a newbie to Savage Worlds.

[note: at the last minute, Pinnacle has posted The Wild Hunt online! The link above is to a pdf.]

There were over a dozen publisher participants this year and here was the lineup of freebies:

Amarillo Design Bureau
Sample (1 per box), Prime Directive Adventure "Starship Aldo" (both d20 & GURPS)
BlackWyrm Games
Sample (1 per box), XDM Adventure: "Laser Squid Nemesis"
Blue Panther

Sample (1 per box), Dice Tower

Chessex
Silver (4 per box), Commerative Dice For Store Owner
Eden Studios
Silver (5 per box), All Flesh Must Be Eaten Quickstart & Adventure
Exile Game Studios
Bronze (3 per box) ,Hollow Earth Expedition Quickstart & Adventure
Fantasy Flight Games
Gold (10 per box), Black Crusade Quickstart and Adventure
Flying Buffalo
Sample (1 per box), Tunnels & Trolls Solo Adventure, "Rescue Mission"
Goodman Games
Silver (5 per box), DCC RPG Quickstart
Green Ronin
Gold (10 per box), DragonAge Quickstart
Paizo
Platinum (15 per box), "We Be Goblins!" Pathfinder Adventure
Paradigm Concepts
Bronze (3 per box), Arcanis RPG Quickstart & Adventure
Pinnacle
Bronze (3 per box), Savage Worlds Quickstart & Adventure, titled "The Wild Hunt"
Q-Workshop
Silver (5 per box), Unique Elven-themed Dice
Stone Tablet Games
Bronze (3 per box), Aspect Quickstart Adventure
Troll Lord Games
Sample (1 per box), Castles & Crusades Quickstart and Adventure
Valkyrie Games
Sample (1 per box), Stellar Horizons Quickstart
White Wolf Publishing
Gold (10 per box), World of Darkness Quickstart
Wizards of the Coast
Platinum (15 per box), "Domain of Dread: Histhaven" D&D 4th Edition Supplement to the box set "The Shadowfell: Gloomwrought and Beyond"
Mayfair
Free Bonus Item, Settlers of Catan: Catanimal Variant rules (single page paper insert)

I live in Southern California in North County San Diego. It's the most temperate area of the continental United States keeping an average temperature of 70 degrees with beautiful, blue skies. It's paradise! Which is where one of my Favorite Local Game Stores is located. Paradise, or, as their name implies: Pair - A - Dic e Games.

I arrived at 9:55am and there was a line of 40-50 already. Rob, the owner of Pair-A-Dice, was out side giving instructions for Free RPG Day:

One "freebie" for anyone
A second "freebie" for Pair A Dice Games Royalty Rewards members
A third "freebie" if you bought $10+ of product in the store.

I took the opportunity to buy "Daring Tales of the Space Lanes Compendium One" That qualified me for my 3rd freebie.

When I picked up the Daring Tales Compendium, there was a group of kids going thru the Pinnacle section. One was going thru the Savage Foes of Solomon Kane! Wow, at his age I was playing Monopoly, Sorry, and Clue. I didn't get into DnD until I was 16. So many kids are into the collectible card games that it was a pleasant surprise to see one looking at a real RPG.

I ended up getting 3 freebies and spent some time with fellow gamers. Some folks had driven

quite a distance as Pair-A-Dice was the only San Diego store participating. One gentleman just moved here from the east coast and was getting back into gaming. He purchases a pile of books so I can see how Free RPG Day was a clever idea.

A little bit of excitement above and beyond getting freeies occured when a crew from the Pixelated Geek podcast. They interviewed those of us in line, including yours truly, and asked which freebie we wanted and why. I shared that I wanted to make sure I got the Savage Worlds product you couldn't buy! The big guy in the green shirt ran the camera/recorder, another gentleman did the interviews, and a lady ran around taking pictures everywhere. I can't wait to see their show.

Right down the road from Pair-A-Dice games is the 15 screen Krikorian Theatre and Green Lantern has opened. "In brightest day...in darkest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil's might, beware my power, Green Lanter's light!!" I enjoyed the movie quite a bit.

You couldn't have planned a better Geek Gamer Weekend.

Savage Worlds: The Wild Hunt Mini-Review - Free Adventure for Free RPG Day!

2011-06-22T08:00:00.001-05:00

Savage Worlds: The Wild Hunt
by John Goff

Cost: FREE! - and you can't buy it anywhere
Pages: 16
Includes: Adventure, 6 pre-gens, 33 figure flats, and the SW Test Drive rules.

The Wild Hunt (no spoilers here, just hints)

Thanks to Pinnacle listing this on their main page, I was tempted to go to FREE RPG Day again this year. I didn't want to miss getting something you literally can't buy or get any where else.

[note: actually they just posted a link to the pdf. I've linked to it above. dmb]

From the introduction: "The Wild Hunt is a modern-day horror story set in the tradition of a Saturday-night horror movie. In it, the players find themselves unexpectedly stranded in a rural town in the American Midwest and on the wrong end of a curse more than a century old. With their very souls on the line, they must avoid an unholy horde of unrelenting hunters determined to add the heroes to their host." So starts the the adventure....

The bus you're in starts to have electrical issues and stops in the Hamlet of Ebernburg. As fate would have it, a curse that arises every 10 years is about to occur and if you're not careful, you may be a recurring part in future risings. A minor European noble family founded the town in the early 1800s. A surviving son gone mad, love gone wrong, and a curse all make for a fun fright fest for 6. The premise reminds me of a very twisted, modern mid-western take on the 1932 classic "The Most Dangerous Game". However, the twists in this scenario make for a much more dangerous adventure!

The adventure is fully fleshed out with a good list of characters and pre-gen'd Wild Cards. There's a page and a half of Tri-Fold Figure Flats and a custom copy of the Savage Worlds Test Drive Rules.

For horror fanatics, I see this as being the quintessential beginner's guide for Savage Worlds. It was also one of the slickest full color productions and completely met the Free RPG Day suggestions for the free products. Adventure, Test Rules, and even paper figures. Pinnacle should be proud of their offering. They spared no expense and it shows. There were some other free offerings but they were all 12-24 pages in black and white with only the adventure. Pinnacles full color adventure complete with rules blew them all away.

Pinnacle updates their web site on Tuesday. Last Tuesday, the 14th, they put up a perfect set piece for this adventure. They literally provided you the bus you rode in on. Between the figure flats in the book and the bus at Pinnacle, you've got a quick set up for horror that us time crunched gamers love to find.

The Wild Hunts fits well with the horror theme of the Troll's June offerings. We'll have to prep more for next year's "June Gloom" theme (a story for another time).

Until next time, this is the Savage Duck, signing off.