The Savage Worlds Killer

This morning on my drive into work I was listening to Finding the Narrative, a Genesys podcast hosted by Tony Fanning and Chris Holmes. They started talking about combat and it made me realize that I like Savage Worlds more than any other system on the market to date. I do like Fantasy Flight Games' game and it does some stuff really well but Savage Worlds does it better.

Then I thought, what is it about Genesys that I like? Well for starters, its magic system is top notch. I think it performs better than most other systems. The magic user can adjust how powerful her spell is on a case by case basis. It allows free form sculpting of the spells on the fly and is only limited by the spellcasters imagination. Savage Worlds can't quite do this but it does come closer than anyone else with trappings.

Genesys' use of talents makes more sense to me than just increasing your skills. The use of talents allows players to have a bit more narrative structure to their character while also including boons to skill rolls, strain, or soak value. The tree by which talents are selected is designed to force the players to make difficult choices and also makes sure the character is balanced (i.e. not overpowered). Savage Worlds is very similar to this in the fact that some Edges have prerequisites. Players cannot simply take Improved Counterattack without first taking Counterattack. Then Counterattack in itself has requirements of its own. 

One last thing that I really like about Genesys is its use of Motivation. Motivation is a tool for both the player and the GM. It helps the player to better define the character by describing when and how they learned the skills that they have. It also provides the GM with ideas to incorporate the character's background into the story. I don't know how many times I've asked players to write a short background on their character and only get a few people to actually do it. Savage Worlds sort of accomplishes the same thing through the use of Hindrances but too many players only see these as a way to generate bennies. It is meant to help mold the character to your concept. Flawed characters are always more fun than perfect ones.

Now onto some of the things I dislike about Genesys. Combat actions, this irks the hell out of me and the deciding factor of why Savage Worlds is better. Much like D&D, in Genesys you only get one combat action. I remember the first time I saw Savage Worlds played by others. I saw someone perform multiple attack actions and move around. This was an epiphany to me. This is what I was missing from D&D. I was growing tired of the no you can't do that because you only have one action mentality. I wanted to be able to jump onto a table, kick an Orc in the face, swing from the chandelier, and tackle another Orc. Not gonna happen in Genesys or D&D. 

Let's talk about Cool and Vigilance used for initiative. This is stupid. Why are there two different skills for performing the same task? I understand they're trying to differentiate between someone being surprised and someone who is ready to engage in combat. It does speed up the surprise check process but it doesn’t make sense. Why do I need to invest points into two different skills that only has one purpose, combat initiative? Just have the players roll Perception for surprise, if they fail they act the next round. Then have all successful players roll initiative. The players who are surprised take the last available initiative slots. 

Abstract initiative turn order is not something I enjoy all that much either. I don't see a whole lot wrong with it but I see it as encouraging meta gaming. I'm not saying meta gaming is bad. I'd just like to see a little less of it during combat. Savage Worlds and Castles & Crusades gets this part right. Initiative is determined every round simulating the fact that combat is more fluid and you don't act at the same time every turn.

Before I forget, I really don't like how characteristics in Genesys are pretty much stuck after character creation. Or at least they should allow for a more accessible way to increase them after creation. Currently the only way to increase them is after picking up a tier 5 talent and that is pretty dang tough to accomplish. A tier 5 talent will cost 175 experience points minimum. In game terms that means you could increase one characteristic by 1 every 9 sessions assuming you don't spend it on skills.

Savage World is not perfect by any means either but it handles everything I've wanted in a game fairly well. Just to name a few things I'm not keen on are the different uses of Investigation and Streetwise to accomplish the same thing. They both perform the same function but are narratively defined differently. I've also heard that the new version will breakout Performance from Persuasion which again are serving the same function with different narrative descriptions. They will also combine Climbing, Swimming, and Throwing into a new Athletics skill. They really need to keep Throwing separate from Athletics. Throwing is a combat skill that needs to be on its own.

Basically what I'm getting at is that no game system is perfect and Genesys is not, nor will ever be a Savage Worlds Killer. I'm looking at you Jamie. Anybody who's familiar with the Nerds-International Google Plus community will know that SWK is just a term we use to joke around with about one system being better than the other but we all know that Savage Worlds just does some things better than others. It should go without saying that we put ICRPG into the same category of ribbing each other.

Even though I'm not a huge fan of ICRPG, I cannot deny the fact that it has changed how lots of people play table top RPG's in general. It has made a huge impact on the game industry as we know it. At least once a week I'll see someone on social media talk about how they don't play it but it has opened their eyes or showed them a new way to look at something. For that, I say thank you Hankerin Ferinale.

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Still Life and Death: A Review

Thanks to my friend Eric Lamoureux from the Nerds-International G+ community, this adventure was brought to my attention. It is an interesting horror adventure for use with Savage Worlds. Still Life and Death by Ben Baker from Melting Point Publishing is a 43-page pdf available on DriveThruRPG. It was released on June 14, 2017 and is their first product. Also available for pay what you want is a Character Pack which contains 8 pregenerated characters for both Seasoned and Veteran ranks.

Even though this one starts off with a typical "please help me find my missing loved one", it is a great adventure with a good twist. Inside you'll find an adventure full of cultists, zombies, and a pig-ogre. It's difficult to write a review on an adventure without spoilers but I'm gonna try.

This adventure is an investigative horror scenario with a Lovecraftian feel. It uses your normal playwright formula of three acts and three scenes with a bonus/alternate scene thrown in in act three. Included in the adventure are 5 extras and 4 wildcard NPCs. One of the things that sets these NPCs apart from other publisher's products is that Ben included what he calls Roleplay Hint's, Appearance, and History info on each one. This helps the GM get a feel for the characters so they can relate it to the players much better. It's clear he spent some time thinking about the characters and how they fit into the story.

Throughout the adventure Ben has included fictional snippets at the beginning of each scene. This kind of threw me off a bit and made me wonder why he included it, so I asked him and his response was "Regarding the Fiction sections, I think sometimes it can be difficult for a writer to really convey the mood and atmosphere they are trying to build in a game. Realistically, I’d say that however a GM wants to run any game then as long as the players enjoy it then it’s right for that particular group. But I wanted a way to help give the GM more ideas for the tone and setting, and also touch on some aspects of the larger setting that it’s not practical to do using only box text and the like. I think the Fiction parts help break up the flow of the book. Also, sometimes a group will find a way to really derail an adventure, and having some fiction to plunder for inspiration can really help a struggling GM to get the story back on track without railroading the party too heavily."

It's a bit long to be used as a convention game but I suppose you could shorten it up enough to fit into a four-hour time slot. I believe this is more suited for multiple game sessions. One thing I'm fairly certain of is that this has huge potential to be a Total Party Killer. There's potential for some combat in the first act but the next one is where the meat grinder starts with three combat encounters back to back. If the players make it to act three, they have their work cut out with another very deadly encounter that could turn into yet another encounter. You may want to run away if you get the chance!

Sometime this month or February, Ben is planning to launch a Kickstarter campaign to fund a number of other standalone adventures and supplements. One of which will be The Krell Effect, a modern adventure that draws the party into a race against time to stop a crazed scientist from unleashing chronal energy and tapping into them a seriously misguided attempt to become ‘the immortal master of time’. He also has plans to publish a mini encounter called Carjacked. This can be used with The Krell Effect or any other modern adventure.

The last project he told me about sounds like a huge job. Ben wants to publish a character pack for 22 Savage Worlds fantasy player characters. Included within this pack will be separate sheets for each character to span the ranks of Novice through Legendary. That’s a total of 132 character sheets! So keep an eye out for his Kickstarter campaign.

One last treat for my wonderful readers. The first 100 readers to use this link www.drivethrurpg.com/browse.php?discount=9e7c114d19 will get a 20% discount on Still Life and Death.

This barbarian would pay 4 out of 5 Jalarizan Moons for Still Life and Death.

I'd also like to welcome the newest member of the Nerds-International family. Gaming Ronin has multiple blogs where he does reviews and talks about his experience with RPG's and other shit. Check it out at http://gamingronin.blogspot.com/

P.S. 

Dont forget to check out the Nerds-Internationl Virtual Convention (NIV-Con) on March 10th and 11th. It's a great way to meet new people and have a fun time gaming online.

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Seven Worlds Test Drive Review

For those of you that may not have heard, Seven Worlds is a new Savage Worlds setting coming to Kickstarter soon. It is written by Luis Enrique Torres and published by Intellistories. You can get the Seven Worlds Test Drive at DriveThruRPG here. The Wild Die Podcast did an interview episode with Luis but as of this writing it is a Patreon supporter only episode. Here is a link to their Patreon page if you would like to pledge your support to listen to the episode. I believe it will be released to the public when the Kickstarter campaign goes live so you may want to wait.

Right off the bat my first question is, what sets this science fiction RPG apart from all the rest? First of all it has the Atomic Rockets Seal of Approval. What is that you ask? It is a highly sought after approval by Sci-fi writers, game designers, and programmers. It's basically just an acknowledgement that the fiction written is based upon real science and therefore more closely related to hard Sci-fi.

My first impression of this document is it looks really good. The layout by Thomas Shook is clean and simple, I like it. The first page after the cover is the map of the known universe. The map is usually the first thing I look for in Sci-fi settings. This 2-dimensional map looks fantastic and has 7 colonized planets. Hmm, I wonder where they got the name from? You can also go to their webpage at www.sevenworldsrpg.com and get yourself a 3-dimensional map. I tried the Instant Reality InstantPlayer but it seemed pretty glitchy to me. I have yet to try the Cortona 3d Viewer.

There are 6 pages of setting background information (I like to call it the fluff). After looking for the map, I then go looking for the fluff. This is where I get a good sense of how the rest of the book will be written. The game starts out in the year 2217, exactly 200 years after the Circle Foundation is created. There are two major organizations, The Circle and The Brotherhood. The Circle, founded by Donovan in 2017, is focused on space exploration, expansion, and protecting humanity from the dangers therein. The Psion Brotherhood, founded by Michaels, is dedicated to protecting and educating people with psionic abilities. These two founders, Donovan and Michaels, were high school friends who had a falling out over a girl named Melissa.

In 2021 Helium-3 fusion reactors are invented and the search for a stable supply of this fuel leads the human race to mine it from the gas planet Saturn in the 2050's. Around this time Donovan passes away and his longtime partner Melissa gives his personal notebooks which include theoretical formulas to what would become the basis for an Interstellar Engine. In 2089 the first test of this engine is successful with a 6 light year jump. Two years later an alien race makes itself known to humanity. The N'ahili race arrived, attracted by the interstellar jump to Barnard's Star, and shared coordinates of jump membranes to several new stars within 12 light years of Earth (Sol).

Humans have now colonized two new worlds and are eager for more expansion. The N'ahili come to the rescue and provide more star coordinates. Now the known universe has expanded to 22 light years from Sol and two more planets are settled. This second set of planets are nearly identical to that of Earth making them important to humanity's survival. In 2133 an unknown comet was discovered on a direct path to Earth. The planetary defenses are able to break up the comet into smaller pieces but it is too late. The effects of an impact induced nuclear winter will last until around 2150. Evacuees are transported to the planets of Concordia and Bay Jing making them equivalent to Earth in both population and importance. By 2165 the N'ahili surprise us again with new coordinates which increase the human presence to 30 light years from Sol.

This new expansion of human kind brings on the settlement of 2 new planets of which one is important. It is important because Concordia and Bay Jing both settle on the planet of Nouvelle Vie. Conflicts between these two colonies leads to the first war humans have in space. During the war, the Circle is instrumental in stopping war crimes mostly by the use of the Stellar Communications Network. Widespread news updates keep the warring planets honest, or at least as honest as possible during war. The Brotherhood also plays an important role in the war by helping to prevent atrocities through the use of "suggestion" and mind-reading without direct mind-control. By 2181 the war is over but the government of Bay Jing is secretly manipulating the population into blaming the Brotherhood which leads to the Psion Riots of 2188.

This brings us to the present day of 2217. Earth has now returned to its former glory and is seen as an equal among Concordia and Bay Jing. Nouvelle Vie is still being torn apart by home grown terrorists waging guerrilla war. The last colonized planet of Logan's End has become the ultimate frontier world with exotic jungles and tourist attractions. Recently, strange energy signatures have been detected in space around an asteroid belt in the far reaches of Nouvelle Vie. Ships are disappearing and stories are circulating about suspicious activity.

Included in the Test Drive are new setting rules, skills, hindrances, edges, psionics, a new derived stat, space ship combat, four pre-generated characters, and an adventure designed for four players. This Test Drive doesn't go into creating characters or covering all the new stats. It is meant to provide you with the necessary information to play the included characters and adventure. Mental Toughness is the new derived stat which is equal to two plus half of your Spirit. This is a measure of how tough your mind is against Psionic attacks.

The two new setting rules are Microgravity and Zero-G and Assistants. Microgravity and Zero-G reduce the character's pace by half and cause a -2 physical action penalty. A roll of a 1 on the trait die regardless of the Wild die causes the character to slip and tumble in around in three dimensions (treat the character as Shaken recover with Agility). Weapons that are not rated for Zero-G use cause the user to become Shaken as before on an attack roll of 1 or 2. There is a -2 penalty for using non Zero-G weapons as well. In Seven Worlds most characters own an Assistant. This virtual assistant appears in your Augmented Reality (AR) glasses, lenses, or on display screens. There are numerous functions the assistant can help the hero's with. During combat the assistant can be activated with the use of a bennie and perform a smarts trick, test of will, generate an advantage/disadvantage, or use a special action. If the assistants roll succeeds with a raise the player gets the bennie back.

There are 7 pages dedicated to space combat in Seven Worlds. Right away that should tell you something. In my opinion this is where Seven Worlds falls short. In a system that's supposed to Fast! Furious! Fun! space combat feels way too crunchy for Savage Worlds. This almost seems like a mini's game within a roleplaying game where distance and facing are important. They do a good job of explaining how to do it and provide examples but it's just now my cup of tea.

That was a highly condensed version of fluff in the Seven Worlds Test Drive document. If any of that sounds interesting to you then I encourage you to read it for yourself. I really hope the final setting includes more fluff. I enjoyed Luis' writing and look forward to reading the full setting once it is published.

Overall 9 out of 10 Lotus Masters recommend Seven Worlds.

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RPGaDay 2017 Day 20

What is the best source for out-of-print RPGs?

I think the best source is DriveThruRPG for digital copies. Sometimes you'll be able to find hard copies of what you're looking for on Ebay but don't get your hopes up. There's a local game store near my work that seems to have damn near every RPG on the market. I might check there but usually they only have newer stuff so I think I mainly go there just to browse. Very rarely I'll send the publisher an email asking if they still have any copies of an RPG available for purchase. Usually they don't but I have been able to get one publisher to make it available on DriveThruRPG. 

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Husk: Wrath of the Swarm Review

It's review time. Yesterday a friend of mine sent me a message asking if I was going to use Husk to run a game. I said what is this Husk? Then he sent me a link to DriveThruRPG and when I saw the image I said oh yeah I remember seeing Nathan Carmen post this on Google+. I must admit, I was very skeptical about purchasing this product because it seemed a little overpriced from what the product description says. I think the words "This Setting Kit provides an outline of a setting" threw me off more than anything else. At $4.00 for 23 pages the pdf will cost me $0.17 per page which I thought was a little high. So when my friend messaged me, I thought about it more and decided to buy it. I'm glad I did. These 23 pages are really good. Wait, I think I just got tricked into doing a review on this. I won't forget that Eric.

You are resistance fighters and only 30% of the populace is left. It's a dog eat dog world where only the strong survive. The alien bugs have invaded and all but wiped out the world's military organizations. There are 6 factions of resistance groups left and you belong to Unity.  This group seeks to unify the human race against the invaders. You may or may not face off against the other factions. That's up to you and your GM.

Within the pages you get 4 new edges, 2 new hindrances, 2 new setting rules, an adventure generator, and a great bestiary with 7 wildcard human NPC's, 2 human Extras, and 14 alien NPC's (6 of them are wildcards). This product is labeled as a kit for an alien bug invasion setting and it is exactly that. It is a toolbox of great ideas and beasts. I highly recommend buying this pdf if you're interested in any type of science fiction. Best of all, it's for Savage Worlds and it's only $4. Go check out Husk: Wrath of the Swarm.

This product has given me a great idea for FG-Con 11, the online convention for Fantasy Grounds. It happens to be starting on Friday, October 13th and continues to October 15th. Yep, you read that right, its on Friday the 13th this year. Word is that they're trying to do a theme for it. Hopefully I can get into a Trail of Cthulhu game. If not then maybe I'll run it myself. Anyway, I'm going to use this kit to perhaps run a Starship Troopers game. What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

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White Noise Review

This is another one of those games I've been putting off reading because I was hoping one of my friends would run it. White Noise is a short horror adventure from Just Insert Imagination written by Jamie Pierson, Eric Lamoureux, and Morne Schaap. In my previous review of Aliens vs. Rednecks, I said this was one of their plug & play adventures designed to be a complete grab and go rpg adventure but I was mistaken. After a little research, I found no reference to this being one of their PnP adventures. If it is so, please correct me. Edit: Since publishing this article, Just Insert Imagination has confirmed that White Noise is indeed a Plug and Play adventure.

From the get go I was stoked to dive into this adventure because I've been craving a good horror game to get into. The cover art inspires the imagination as if you're looking out the porthole of a ship or airplane which is backlit with a red warning light. The game takes place in Alaska during the cold war in 1967. The players are a part of a corporation security team sent in to "clean up messes before the public finds out." The players know that the corporation they work for is dabbling in "biochemical pharmaceuticals" and have cleaned up some of the experiments before. Their job on this mission is to fly from the corporation's headquarters in Portland to a research facility in Alaska and lock down the facility. Then they need to find out what happened and report back to Headquarters.

White Noise uses the setting rules of Blood & Guts, Jokers Wild, and Gritty Damage. It wouldn't be a horror game if Gritty Damage was missing. With chances of infection after each wound, a player has the possibility to pick up a mutation from the included Mutation Table (I would prefer to use the Mutation Deck from JII). After the introduction there are 4 scenes for the players to go through. This should be enough for a 3 to 4 hour game session provided that the players at the table don't just rush through each location. This is where the GM really needs to manage the game progression. 

It is mentioned a few times to use "facility worker" encounters but there are no NPC's included within the two PDF downloads from DriveThruRPG. After looking through the two documents, it is clear that this was published too early. It's a shame because there is a good story plot and background info but it just feels as if it's unfinished. There are also some worker journal handouts provided but no mention in the adventure of when or where to distribute them. I have no doubt that most GM's have enough creativity to figure out how to make this adventure work but as an adventure module it is incomplete.

Both documents contain 5 pre-generated character sheets. No, you don't get 10 different characters. There are two different versions of the same 5 characters. Both sets of characters look good but one set clearly has a different layout so you can easily separate them from each other (you'll see what I mean if you get this pdf). The character sheets look really, really good. I love the dot matrix form feed paper used as the background. Each character is unique and they also come with a secret. After each player picks their character the GM is instructed to hand out the secrets to the respective player. My personal favorite secret is Bamm's. I don't want to give away any spoilers on the player secrets. 

I guess I thought this was a PnP adventure because when I originally looked through the pdf's there were enough supplements to make me think that was the goal. Out of all of their PnP games this is the only one that appears to be slightly disorganized. In this adventure you get a cover page, 2 pages of backstory and adventure, a one page Mutation Table, a one page sonar map of the Alaskan area, 2 pages of basic figure flats, 2 pages of Worker Journal handouts, 3 pages of table tents, and 6 pages of pre-generated characters. 

As usual, Just Insert Imagination has set the bar high with excellent artwork and layout. Plenty of supplements make this adventure almost convention ready. Without NPC's provided, I can't give this one a complete thumbs up. It just needs some work to make it a great adventure. Now, it is pay what you want on DriveThruRPG so I encourage you to pick it up and form your own conclusions. Edit: For some reason I did not see the section titled Monsters just after the pregen of Doc (Medic). I am very sorry for this error on my part. Thank you for pointing this out to me Eric.

5 out of 10 Lotus Masters recommend this adventure,
but it could easily be 7 out of 10 with minor fixes.

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RPGaDay 2017 Day 3

How do you find out about new RPGs?

The best way I find out about RPGs is from the Nerds-International Google+ community page. Google+ communities are the best source for finding out about new games coming out. I'm not on Facebook so G+ really is my only social media option. Then there are other sources such as DriveThruRPG and RPGNow, which are owned by One Book Shelf. I also get the occasional news letter from DriveThruRPG as well as emails from publishers that I've done buisness with in the past. Kickstarter is a great platform for supporting publishers but it is not how I find out about new games coming out. The SBN RSS News Feed is a great resource for finding out about new Savage Worlds settings. You can see the SBN feed on the sidebar of this blog as well. I think that just about covers it. Every once in a while I'll find out about something from one of my FLGS's but that is very rare indeed. I'm usually the one informing the game store employees about games. This last one isn't RPG related but I also find out about new games from Board Game Geek.

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Primeval Thule

About a month ago I was perusing DriveThruRPG for a 7th level D&D adventure. That's when I came across The Watchers Of Meng, an adventure for characters of levels 5-8, written by Robert J. Schwalb. This adventure was written for the Primeval Thule setting from Sasquatch Game Studio. I'd heard of Thule before but I never really looked into it. Before purchasing the pdf of the setting book, I asked over at the Nerds-International G+ page if anyone was familiar with this setting. Within a few minutes of posting my question I got several replies from those fine folks. My main concern was whether or not I could use this setting for the player characters already established in 5th edition of D&D with minimal translation involved. I was assured that I could indeed just drop the player characters into the adventure without any problems.

So, what exactly is Primeval Thule I asked. The majority of replies I got were if you're looking for a true sword & sorcery setting for D&D, this ain't it. This is more like a lower fantasy setting with Lovecraftian influences. Hmmm, Lovecraftian influences you say. Now I'm more intrigued than before. My first thought was how can they make D&D feel like Cthulhu? Of course I should have looked in the Dungeon Masters Guide. There are madness rules on page 258. There are also rules for adding an Insanity Ability Score on page 264. Wow, I never knew that was there! Ok, time to look at this setting more closely.

Looking around some more, I found a free teaser pdf called Primeval Thule Travelers Guide. To my surprise I discovered that this overview supplement is also the entire first chapter of the campaign setting book with minor changes made to artwork and layout. This chapter definitely sets the stage for a more savage land with danger lurking outside the city as well as within. In fact, the city is described as being just as deadly as the wilderness. This land called Thule is also not as magical as it once was. There are only a handful of magic users at any given time inside a major city. Ever since a catastrophic event occurred in the city of Atlantis, magic has been on the decline. Since "the world’s ancient empires were founded on occult learning and lore", it is my understanding that most magic is actually alien in nature and feared by most.

"Because Thule is an ancient setting, many of the tropes common in more conventional fantasy settings are not necessarily present. This is a world of barbarians and gladiators, not knights or lords. Temples are ziggurats, not cathedrals; people dress in loincloths and leather fighting harness."

The map of Thule is a fantastic pdf and when printed it comes out to a big 30 x 25 inch poster. So far there are 3 adventures in the campaign setting book, 3 stand alone adventures, and an anthology book containing 3 more adventures. Unfortunately that's where the adventure supplements end. It also appears that support for this setting is pretty much done. Its also worth mentioning that if you're a Savage Worlds fan, there aren't any published adventures for that rule system. The only Savage Worlds support is the campaign book.

All in all, I think this is a fantastic setting and I really like the feeling of lower than normal magic for D&D. It's not quite at the barbaric level of Conan but it is definitely a step in the right direction.

I'm giving this one 4 out of 5 Jalizaran Moons.

One of my friends JC Locke, The Jolly GM, is going to be posting some videos on his Youtube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/ShotGunJolly about 6mm figures and how to paint them. You can also check out his blog at http://thejollygm.blogspot.com/

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Savage Robotech

Thoughts on Savaging Robotech

When I was about 9 years old, my older brother Rob, introduced me to the Role Playing Game. My first experience was with Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. After my friend and I concluded our short campaign I wanted something different. As I looked around my local comic book store I saw a book with two robots on the cover in a snowy landscape.

The SENTINELS in large print on the cover drew my attention. Upon closer examination, I discovered it was a Robotech book by Kevin Siembieda. I immediately recognized the name as I routinely watched the cartoon and thus this was the very first RPG book I ever bought. Thirty years later I eventually got back into RPGing. Like most people, my first thought was D&D. I found a local game group and got back into it. Then I started to get bored with D&D and d20 in general. So, I started scouring YouTube for live plays of different RPG’s and came across one called The Enigma Equation: The Last Parsec.

Ever since entering this rabbit hole known as Savage Worlds, I’ve been trying to figure out how to translate Robotech into Savage Worlds. When I heard that Pinnacle convinced Palladium to allow them the opportunity to create a Savage Worlds Rifts setting I was hopeful that it would allow me to make Savage Robotech a reality. My first thought was to look at the Rifts: Savaging Your Favorite Rifts Ideas. Specifically converting O.C.C.’s to the Savage World’s platform. It was recommended in that 17-page pdf to use the Custom Race’s section of the Rifts: The Tomorrow Legion Player’s Guide. It also states that “For O.C.C.s based on the use of Power Armor or even Robot Armor, you’re much better off going the M.A.R.S. route.”. At first, I looked at the custom races option and a friend of mine told me that the custom races in The Tomorrow Legion Player’s Guide is very similar to the Science Fiction Companion’s custom races. So, I decided to compare the two.

Custom Races Comparison

Science Fiction Companion (SFC) and Savage Rifts: The Tomorrow Legion Player’s Guide

Everything in the SFC is included in the Rifts players guide except the section on how to incorporate Super Abilities which references the Super Powers Companion.

The Rifts player guide added Bad Reputation, Cyber Resistant, Distinctive D-Bee, Non-Standard Physiology, and Restricted Path negative racial modifiers.

Well, Eric Lamoureux was right. They are very similar.

M.A.R.S.

Mercenaries, Adventurers, Rogues, and Scholars. This is the framework that I think is best suited for Robotech and is located on page 27 of the Rifts: Tomorrow Legion Player’s Guide (I need to find an acronym for this). It does include a Robot Armor Pilot package but that would only cover the Destroid Pilot O.C.C.. I would still need to make a Veritech Pilot O.C.C. which I think would be doable with the Personal Concept Option package on page 28. Ok, so now I’ve decided to use the M.A.R.S. approach, I have to figure out which edition of Robotech to use.

Palladium’s Robotech RPG

Yep, you guessed it. There are two versions of Robotech RPG from Palladium. The first version which ran from 1986 to 1998 consists of 8 source books, 4 adventure books, and 2 Robotech II source books. The second version of Robotech titled, The Shadow Chronicles, runs from 2008 to present and consists of 6 books total. This newer version appears to have renamed and condensed some of the O.C.C.’s from the original version. The Shadow Chronicles starts you out somewhere around 2038-2039 with the Invid occupation of planet Earth. The human race has been betrayed by an unexpected traitor and there is now a new threat to contend with. I think I’ll start with this newer version but also use the older version as a resource. I like the starting timeline of The Shadow Chronicles because I think the Invid are a better enemy for player characters. The Zentradi and the Robotech Masters are just giant humans after all. The Invid aliens provide a much richer aspect to the game. Just in case you didn’t know, Palladium Books has started to release their older RPG books on OneBookShelf, the parent company of DriveThruRPG and RPGNow. Welcome to the third millennium Mr. Siembieda. Unfortunately, The Shadow Chronicles is not yet available as pdf.

Final Thoughts

As much as I love the Robotech universe, I don’t know if I’ll actually get around to seeing this come to fruition. It’s been over a year since getting into Savage Worlds and Fantasy Grounds and I still haven’t completed this pet project of mine. Who knows, maybe, just maybe, Pinnacle Entertainment Group will persuade Palladium to make Robotech. If anyone has any ideas or thoughts on savaging Robotech I’d love to hear them. 

I'd like to take this time to thank Jamie Pierson for inviting me to join the Nerds-International community. Jamie is the remarkable host of a show/podcast called The RPG Brewery on Twitch and in his next episode he will be interviewing the acclaimed author Margaret Weis. Go check out his YouTube channel.