Quote from: Soylent Green;735546Necessary Evil has a killer premise and a lot of good ideas but the I wasn't entirely happy with the execution, in particular the way Dr Destruction is meant to boss the characters around.

That bothered my players quite a bit, as well.

Space 1889 originally wasn't a SW setting. A new edition is currently in the making, funded by Kickstarter, and will be an English translation of the German, Ubiquity-based version. I'm personally not that enamoured by SW so, especially as a GM, I'd prefer using another system anytime.

I was going to mention Solomon Kane but I figured that in terms of setting it's basically just a slightly anachronistic pulp version of the early 17th century (IIRC 1610 is the default year to set your scenarios in) with some supernatural antagonists thrown in. It's a very nice game but the setting by itself is not that unique.

Deadlands has way too much steampunk and weird science for my taste, to the point where it becomes very silly.

Quote from: jan paparazzi;735528Of course Cthulhu. Cthulhu is always cool. There are a shitload of games right now. Achtung, Brittanica, Trail of etc. Are they all good?
Or this worth another topic?

I'd say that question warrants another topic because most of them are not dual-statted for Savage Worlds. Achtung! Cthulhu *is*, however, and due to the nature/tone of the setting you can go a bit more crazy over-the-top with it than with most Cthulhu settings by default.

50 Fathoms is my favorite. All you need to run in one book + SWD really helps. 10+15= 25 and you are playing. Although it helps if the PCs get their own SWD 10 + 7.50 for a 50 Fathoms PH = 17.50. But the cost of entry for a year of gaming is very low.

We are playing Deadlands: The Flood and Shaintar presently. But the Flood requires PH/GM/The Flood and Shaintar has Legends Arise/Unleashed, so not self-contained in one book.

Quote from: Soylent Green;735546Slipstream is genius. It's inspiration is Flash Gordon but the specific setting better suited for gaming and the plot point campaign makes for a good sandboxy campaign.

Necessary Evil has a killer premise and a lot of good ideas but the I wasn't entirely happy with the execution, in particular the way Dr Destruction is meant to boss the characters around.

That plot point campaign is genius. That's the way I want to GM. I was in another threat (can't find it anymore) where someone described four different types of GM's. The referee (oldschool D&D, just guarding the rules), the storyteller (WoD, frustrated novelist), storyguardian (somewhere between the first two) and storygames (no GM or everyone is the GM). I think the plot point campaign is the storyguardian option. It has some story written in advance, but it does allow for improvisation.

What is a sandbox btw? Some people use this for big kitchen sink setting and improvised gameplay. But I also heard people use the term sandbox for the new world of darkness, which is a toolbox to my opinion.

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;735605There is no best when it comes to these threads.  Every obscure setting will get a mention, looking to be popular.

Which is good. I check them out.

Quote from: slayride35;73569850 Fathoms is my favorite. All you need to run in one book + SWD really helps. 10+15= 25 and you are playing. Although it helps if the PCs get their own SWD 10 + 7.50 for a 50 Fathoms PH = 17.50. But the cost of entry for a year of gaming is very low.

We are playing Deadlands: The Flood and Shaintar presently. But the Flood requires PH/GM/The Flood and Shaintar has Legends Arise/Unleashed, so not self-contained in one book.

50 Fanthoms looks really cool. It has a small metaplot or backstory (what is it?) about the world getting flooded after a witch curse. That's is great. I like that stuff.

Quote from: Patrick;735448Cthulhu Vice, available for free at http://www.relsden.com
Miami Vice meets the Mythos, for free.  Ran a 3 part session for my group and it was hilarious and fun and exciting.
The author has a number of free Savage Worlds settings there, as well.

His settings are really good, and definitely worth checking out. He puts a lot of work and effort into them.

Quote from: jan paparazzi;735702What is a sandbox btw? Some people use this for big kitchen sink setting and improvised gameplay. But I also heard people use the term sandbox for the new world of darkness, which is a toolbox to my opinion.

Someone probably has a big essay and/or a thread in these very forums that gets into the nitty-grittty with more propriety than I could possibly hope, but briefly, it's the sorty of game in which the GM, instead of prepping a "plot" or a "story", creates a setting (as small as a city or as big as a galaxy), seeds it with interesting (read: adventure hook) NPCs, objects and events, and lets the PCs choose what they want to do.

They are free to engage or ignore any one of the offered adventure hooks and the GM's job is to have the world (a) move of its own accord (e.g. if the PCs do not act against the Dark Lord, the Free City of Tharsis will fall to the Army of Evil within a year) and (b) respond to the PCs' efforts in a lifelike manner (saving the Free City of Tharsis will entail a lot more than killing stray zombies and orc patrols).

nWoD is optimally geared for this because it offers very little concrete setting and zero metaplot, which is a way of egging GMs on to imaghine the hell out of it; but so did the oWoD, with most By Night books being settings without a scripted plot; of course, later in its life cycle it also spit out crap linear adventures (e.g. the Giovanni and Transylvania Chronicles) that more or less stand in diametrical opposition to the idea of sandbox gaming.

Hope that helps.

Quote from: The Butcher;735752nWoD is optimally geared for this because it offers very little concrete setting and zero metaplot, which is a way of egging GMs on to imaghine the hell out of it; but so did the oWoD, with most By Night books being settings without a scripted plot; of course, later in its life cycle it also spit out crap linear adventures (e.g. the Giovanni and Transylvania Chronicles) that more or less stand in diametrical opposition to the idea of sandbox gaming.

Hope that helps.

Isn't a game more optimally geared when it has a lot of concrete setting and zero metaplot? Instead of having little of both? I mean I like it best when the world has a lot of different areas and a lot of different factions all doing their own thing. Quest get triggered when players enter an area or something else triggers it. I mean old WoD had more worldbuilding. You knew the Camarilla was in charge of Europe, the Setites in Egypt, the Anarch in South-America and the West Coast (LA/SF) and the Sabbat in Mexico.


Another thing: Maybe it's better to make this thread about your favorite Savage Worlds settings in different categories.

For example:
Fantasy: Hellfrost
Science Fiction: Slipstream
Pirate: 50 Fanthoms
Western: Deadlands
Adventure: Solomon Kane
Horror: Rippers

Necessary Evil is pretty good. I have the Pirates book and quite like that. The Wierd Wars books are also lots of fun. Personally i think SW shines when peopoe use it to make their own setting or genre backdrop. The best SW campaigns i have been in were modern spy (usually anywhere from WWII to present) where the GM just used the basic Savage Worlds book.

Quote from: 3rik;735625Deadlands has way too much steampunk and weird science for my taste, to the point where it becomes very silly.

That was my take on it too. I went in expecting horror/western and got Brisco County Jr. instead... though if I'd looked closer at the books I would have seen how that's plainly the intent... and it didn't help that I was the only player in the group who even likes horror (I'm guessing Deadlands dials could easily be set to something a LOT darker in tone... but at that point it's something else).

Quote from: Simlasa;735851That was my take on it too. I went in expecting horror/western and got Brisco County Jr. instead... though if I'd looked closer at the books I would have seen how that's plainly the intent... and it didn't help that I was the only player in the group who even likes horror (I'm guessing Deadlands dials could easily be set to something a LOT darker in tone... but at that point it's something else).

If you use the setting as intended, to me it is hardly recognizable as western anymore. Part of the appeal of a western setting for me is the fairly primitive technology and sense of isolation, none of which I get enough of in Deadlands. Deadlands' (weird) tech level to me feels incompatible with some of the western genre tropes, making the setting feel rather implausible and forced.

Add to that the fact that I've not grown as enamored with SW as I'd perhaps have expected (or hoped), so the game is pretty much useless to me now.

Quote from: jan paparazzi;73570450 Fanthoms looks really cool. It has a small metaplot or backstory (what is it?) about the world getting flooded after a witch curse. That's is great. I like that stuff.

The really cool thing about 50 Fathoms is a lot of race variety for Player Characters. I played a human and a masaquani, but I only ended up playing two characters over the whole course of the campaign. Wish I could have got to play the gliding Atani, close killing Kehana and Doreen, power fighters like the bulbous Grael, multi-limbed Scurillians, or the strong Red Men, or a mage like a Kraken Elementalist/Fighter.  But we did get to see at least one of every of these characters except the Atani in action.

The big thing about 50 Fathoms is 180 pages of plot point campaign. You have the main plot line but a ton of subplots and savage tales, and about 30 pages of NPCs and creatures to encounter in the back.  There are about five major areas, but a ton of stuff to explore in each area.

50 Fathoms showed us how SW combat can slow down once you get about 50 extras on the table though (say 25 allied crew for us and 25 enemy crew for them plus a bunch of wild cards). So direct ship to ship fights slowly evolved to chase rule combats instead as the campaign went on and our crew/ship/fleet continued to grow in size.

The other problem with the game is logistical. I.e. Carousing counter and paying the crew (every 30 days), food and ammo/cannonballs needed to feed so many people and guns and only so much cargo space to fit it all in, dividing ship shares, etc.  50 Fathoms is highly extra driven because you need enough people to man the crew. Which means you have to feed them and keep them equipped.

One of the things we are enjoying about Deadlands and Shaintar is smaller scale fights because we don't need a lot of extras to ride around the land just some horses. Deadlands cares a lot about food/water management due to the scarcity of food and potable water in California but I have handwaved most of it in Shaintar at present since they are in the Wildlands and can grab food from Ranger HQs or are generally good at Survival since they are Grayson's Grey Rangers after all.

Well, I'm pretty partial to Necessary Evil.  It's a great old school comic story top marks for the setting.  I'm not so fond of the powers system.

Space 1889 is of course Space 1889 and that's something right there.

But I'm going to go with Evernight.  Because one day I'm going to run that in another system, just so the PCs don't see it coming.  Sure it's just a generic fantasy setting except BANG!  OH THE HORROR HOLY CRAP!  THIS ISN'T WHAT I SIGNED UP FOR!  I think it's one of the best bait and switch plays I've ever seen.

Sadly anyone playing fantasy in Savage Worlds will be expecting it.

Quote from: David Johansen;736019Well, I'm pretty partial to Necessary Evil.  It's a great old school comic story top marks for the setting.  I'm not so fond of the powers system.

Space 1889 is of course Space 1889 and that's something right there.

But I'm going to go with Evernight.  Because one day I'm going to run that in another system, just so the PCs don't see it coming.  Sure it's just a generic fantasy setting except BANG!  OH THE HORROR HOLY CRAP!  THIS ISN'T WHAT I SIGNED UP FOR!  I think it's one of the best bait and switch plays I've ever seen.

Sadly anyone playing fantasy in Savage Worlds will be expecting it.

Ran it recently (in SW) myself. I think there's a core of a good campaign in there, but you need to build out a lot on the skeleton they give you. And there are some terrible scale problems with the maps and the enemy ships. As it was, it basically played out like Mass Effect 3 in my campaign. Fun in its way, but not what I thought it was going to be at all!