Four Free Settings that You’re Not Using (and Should Be)
Written by Tyson J. Hayes on 2010/01/22 – 00:00 -
There are loads of settings out there for every game, but some of the best ones are labors of love by fans. The next time you’re looking to start a game with Savage Worlds, consider some of these to change up your game.
Savage Mushroom Kingdom
In what has to be one of the most loving conversions I’ve seen for any game, Theron “SlasherEpoch” Seckington of These Dice Look Funny has crafted a version of Super Mario World that has inspired me to love the Mario games all over again. Simply put, the players are members of her Majesty’s Agency for Reconnaissance and Intelligence Operations (MARIO), a special task force to the crown. Their job is to protect the kingdom at all costs.
The greatness of this setting is that Seckington side-steps the familiarity issue of using a popular game by crafting a reason for the players to not be the iconic characters. The game is not about trying to save the princess (that’s way above your pay grade) but trying to serve the kingdom in a more day-to-day way. By focusing lower on the totem pole, Seckington provides a world with more adventure to be had and a variation of enemies and dangers besides just trying to defeat Bowser and his kids.
Ghostbusters
While Ghostbusters games have been around since the movies came out, it’s hard to pass them up when they are written and illistrated as well as this one. The players’ guide is well layed out and details exactly how to play a ghostbuster in this setting. The author of the game has gone to great lengths to create item cards for all the various tools that you’ll need, and has provided ideas for making the game longer, including upgrade paths for your headquarters and ecto-mobile. The game is perfect for a quick ghost-busting huntor a long adventure, ultimately facing a creature that asks, “Are you a god?” Make sure you answer “Yes.”
Future Perfect
Although the site is far from perfect (blogger can be difficult to navigate), this series of posts thoroughly describes the rule changes and ships for an interesting space setting. Unfortunately, the author does not appear to have ever explained the primary concept of the game. Even so, reading through the posts provides a solid selection of resources that may be an interesting addition to anyfuturistic setting.
Clockworks
Clockworks bills itself as “a steampunk/fantasy game, set in the world of Vheld. A world of high flying adventure, heroic action, mad science, ancient mysteries, and occasionally, cosmic horror.” Although not a full blown setting yet, The Gentlemen Caller adventure hints at a much larger and deeper setting to come, which is currently brewing in the mind of Shawn Gaston. The adventure spins a tale of murder that ties into an urban myth of a killer in the lower city. Can your players find the killer before he strikes again?
Should more adventures be demanded in this world, check out the Clockworks Comic or the wiki page for more ideas.
Have we missed any awesome fan works that should be highlighted?
Tags: a bunch of savages, clockworks, future perfect, ghostbusters, savage mushroom kingdom, super mario brothers, these dice look funny, tyson j. hayes
Categories: Savage Worlds |
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By Spyder Z on Jan 22, 2010 | Reply
Heh, interesting Finds. I like th Mario Idea… though it's got an odd emphasis on Mario RPG as the setting. ;P (I only say odd, as that's the Marioverse as imagined by Square, not Nintendo)
By Tyson J. Hayes on Jan 22, 2010 | Reply
Well the author did have to do something to expand out from the fact that he had a rather limited scope for a game.
Really I give him points for originality and honestly kind of want to spin a one off session of the game. I've just yet to have time to devote the brain cycles to do it.
By Theron on Jan 22, 2010 | Reply
Now that's interesting, because I'm considering a Google Wave Mushroom Kingdom game.
By Tyson J. Hayes on Jan 22, 2010 | Reply
Well color me interested, do you mind if I email you with my contact information (I can see the email address you post with and I prefer not to post mine for spamming reasons…)?
By Theron on Jan 22, 2010 | Reply
Not at all. Are you on Wave?
By Tyson J. Hayes on Jan 22, 2010 | Reply
I am, I emailed you my contact info.
By nevereverend on Apr 7, 2010 | Reply
Thanks for the positive comments about Future Perfect! I wish I'd seen this post back when it was posted! Since i'm the guy writing it, I'm happy to see that at least someone knows it exists. As for your comments: indeed I'm finding blogger to be less than optimal; the blog is more design notes than a complete game; I've been developing the game to the point where I am about to playtest the first plotpoint campaign. The primary concept is effectively a dark space opera in which humanity itself — scattered across space and connected (in part) only via stellar Gateways — stands at the precipice of the future. Humanity's own past is a fabrication, individuals are poised at the brink of evolving past anything or anyone recognizably human, and the notion of identity itself has become something fluid and possibly meaningless. In short, the game is post-cyberpunk, trans-humanist, and focuses on attitude and character development. Unlike many space opera settings, every “race” is human — or at least, once was human. A lot of material explaining these core concepts should filter into the blogger site soon enough.
By nevereverend on Apr 7, 2010 | Reply
I've been playing around with using the wiki options over at Obsidian Portal, but I'm getting more and more convinced that running my own domain is the way to go. I'll have to look into MediaWiki when I get something up and running.
By Jeff Carlsen on Apr 7, 2010 | Reply
That would be great. I'd like to learn more about what you're doing. I think that Savage Worlds is sorely lacking a good space opera setting, and transhumanism has become rather popular. There's some people on the PEGInc forums discussing a conversion of Eclipse Phase.
If you need a better method of organizing your information online, I suggest WikiSpaces (http://www.wikispaces.com/). If you were running your own domain and hosting, I'd suggest installing MediaWiki, but WikiSpaces is a fair alternative.
By Jeff Carlsen on Apr 8, 2010 | Reply
That would be great. I'd like to learn more about what you're doing. I think that Savage Worlds is sorely lacking a good space opera setting, and transhumanism has become rather popular. There's some people on the PEGInc forums discussing a conversion of Eclipse Phase.
If you need a better method of organizing your information online, I suggest WikiSpaces (http://www.wikispaces.com/). If you were running your own domain and hosting, I'd suggest installing MediaWiki, but WikiSpaces is a fair alternative.
By nevereverend on Apr 8, 2010 | Reply
I've been playing around with using the wiki options over at Obsidian Portal, but I'm getting more and more convinced that running my own domain is the way to go. I'll have to look into MediaWiki when I get something up and running.