The Seven-Sided Die

I’ve seen a few hits in my logs from people looking to roleplay in Tamriel using Savage Worlds. The Elder Scrolls conversion I’m working on is finished enough that I can use it to run games, and I figure even unfinished rules might be useful.

In the spirit of December’s Carnival I’m transitioning from student to… something else. My Elder Scrolls for Savage Worlds conversion is also coming along well. Those explain why it’s been quiet here lately.

There is a tonne of setting conversions for Savage Worlds, but one in particular stands out for its absence: Bethesda Softwork’s venerable world of The Elder Scrolls. It’s the perfect sandbox setting, with deep background material, plot threads galore for players to chance upon, and a wide world to explore. Savage Worlds is simple and flexible enough to make such a large project feasible instead of an exercise in back-breaking labour.

On Tuesday I ran a Savage Worlds one-shot. Overall the session was fun and I think a good demo of Savage Worlds’ strengths and weaknesses. In four hours we managed to make characters and play through that short adventure, which is impressive considering none of us had ever played SW before.

Here are some of the highlights and “low”-lights.

I’ve been thinking about how to handle magic as it appears in D&D settings. I want to maintain the spirit of Savage Worlds, but I don’t want to entirely re-write settings shaped by Vancian magic.

In Savage Bookkeeping Joshua extends the minimalist bookkeeping Savage Worlds uses for allies’ ammo reserves to group provisions and torches. Here’s my adaptation of that system to 1e AD&D.

Ever since reading Lois McMaster Bujold’s series revolving around Miles Vorkosigan I’ve wanted to play or run an RPG in that setting. It’s brilliant space opera with a wide range of tech, political situations, and scales of travel.

Advanced Dungeons & Savages is a good add-on for playing the implied setting of classic AD&D, but it would be better off putting more trust in Savage Worlds’ mechanics.

I went and bought a copy of Savage Worlds Explorer’s Edition from my FLGS today just before tonight’s session of the Edge of Empire campaign, and I’m impressed.

I’ve been looking around for a good system to adopt as my default system. I’m currently looking at the setting-agnostic Savage Worlds from Pinnacle. Getting here I wandered through a few interesting pages about the game and [...]