So what won out?
I am referring to the post I did recently about looking to delve deeply into an RPG that I have already to re-introduce an old friend and once obsessed RPG-er, while getting myself properly up to speed with a game (you get rusty with neglect, just like any tool).
*
Ok, so I went with 13th Age, my one and only d20 fantasy game system, a DnD heart-breaker, the salve for jaded DnD players, a love letter to house rules.
Then I started reading the rules and realised, like many games I have rejected recently, it is a lot to take on board for a one single theme game and flies in the face of my current direction, which is to master a single system or pair of systems and play any period using it.
To be clear, I have never been a DnD fan. Even in my earliest days, I played Traveller, Call of Cthulhu, D6 Star Wars and many, many others, but never really got the DnD bug. Ironically or more likely unwisely, I have owned a lot of it from the old Red and Blue basic books, ADnD to 5e as well as Pathfinder 1e (a mountain of), Iron Heroes and 13th Age, but most was sold off, hardly used.
13th Age has survived for two reasons.
It is an over the top, heroic version of the old game, designed by inner sanctum designers who house rule heavily and this is the result.
It is fun to read, fun to design/imagine up things and for it’s type, fun to play. Overall a much more pleasant version of DnD (for me).
But, it is still DnD and it is not my one game ideal.
It is still a heavy load in a busy life and at the end of the day, it is less interesting to me than other genres. I felt it might be a soft landing for a lapsed DnD gamer coming back, but he is lapsed and maybe that was for a reason, so let’s try something new!
So, I switched back to Savage Worlds (not D100, I will explain).
Savage Worlds won for the following reason.
It is the one set of consistent rules I can learn and apply to any game, even another existing game with a quick hack.
In a nutshell, I can do a 13th Age or other inspired scenario with one rule set if it is SW, but not the other way around.
No rule set is perfect, especially when you try to apply it to different themes.
Savage Worlds has a rep for being pulpy, swingy and lite*, all of which are true to some extent, but it also has the flexibility to curb or exaggerate any of these easily.
Want a darker and more gritty game?
The Benny, Wild and exploding dice systems are easily reduced, removed or can have added effects built in easily. Want a Benny spent to have a twist, a bit like a “fail forward”, want t limit the exploding dice to once only, want to drp the Wild dice to make characters very ordinary? Easily done.
Want a more heroic game like 13th Age?
Just escalate starting characters to Seasoned tier, which is basically what the 13a designers did. Then add the One Unique Thing, ICONs and the world parameters and you have it. No need even to use classes, just Race and concept, which tend to fall into standard tropes.
How about Rune Quest, SW style? Again, it is the world and background that are important. Character gen is key, especially with Rune Magic. The core of this is the desire to play a game that personifies the world you chose, nt find ways to break it with rule set “X” (or SW).
For me as a GM, there are some real benefits that cannot be over stated.
Prep time can be very quick. On-the-go fixes are easy, even sandboxing a whole world is doable. Lift and drop from any source is a piece of cake. It is not impossible to play a “what would you like to do” game from scratch, building the world as you go, adding twists and turns as needed. Remember player agency is a creative tool not a hurdle.
It can absorb almost any source materiel you might want.
The rules are consistent, especially magic and powers, which tend to do my head in when a half dozen different systems need to be learned.
Combat can be quick and “theatre of the mind” or a miniatures game.
Combat is not the only way of getting things done.
What to do?
Learn the Core or Players rule book. This will let you reenact basically any book, graphic novel, RPG or movie you want with a little applied imagination and an open mind.
This was where it started for me. Looking for a Kids on Bikes vehicle, I stumbled across this about the same time the fourth and last (Sci-Fi) companions became available, led to a wholesale adoption of the thing right under my nose the whole time!
If you want to go deeper and into a specific genre, get a Companion, which will add some thematic guidance, more of everything you like and full bestiaries etc.
These, the GM Screen and Core Book and you are done. Over 1000 pages of more, more, more!
For added ease and table presence, there is a ton of official (or not) collateral like themed playing cards and dice, minis, maps, counters etc. My pick would be the accessory box, then get some correctly themed playing cards as extra action decks.
Even though I do have the oversized action deck for SW and SWPF, cheap themed card packs can add a lot.
If you want the work done for you, which switches the dynamic from making to learning, get a pre-made set, like RIFTs, Deadlands, Pathfinder etc. Nothing is ever wasted even if you cut away much of the background.
My one themed set, because it was my first and meant to be my last SWADE foray.
Games I will likely do in SW would be (with companions noted);
Rivers of London style modern soft supernatural (RPG/Books). HC/FC
Tales from the Loop/After the Flood/Electric State (books). SFC
Kids on Bikes (movies). CB (they do Pinebox TX, but too much for what I need)
The One Ring (RPG/Books). FC
Delta Green, 1990’s X-Files game (DG, X Files, Cthulhu, Supernatural). HC, SFC
Warmachine/Iron Kingdoms steam punk (RPG/war game), FC/SFC
Malifaux weird west (based on the figure line)-possibly with the above. FC/HC
Everdell (based on the board game). FC
Mouse Guard (Graphic novels and RPG)-possibly combined with above. FC
A 1960’s cool-Bond style game (Trouble Shooters RPG, early period Bond, Avengers and U.N.C.L.E books, movie and TV, Tin Tin etc). CB
Heroes of Normandie Weird War II (based on the board game and Achting Cthulhu RPG-already done in SWeX). AC/HC
Warhammer style gritty Gothic Renaissance fantasy (based on the 1e books). FC/HC
A sci-fantasy 1889 style game with Jules Verne science (John Carter books, Space 1889 RPG, Tarzan, War of the Worlds). SFC
Alien/Mothership hack (RPG’s & movies), more an experiment really. SFC/HC
A Star Wars style space opera/supers cross over. SHC/SFC
Guardians of the Galaxy/Marvel style supers game. SHC/SFC
An Iron Heroes/Conan style Swords and Sorcery game (IH RPG and books). FC/PF
A Malazan Book of the Fallen sci-fant military Campaign (Malazan Books). SFC/FC
Starship Troopers style game (The book more than the movies). SFC
An old school four colour supers game (Batman, Marvel etc). SHC
A novelty supers game (Mystery Men, 1960’s spoof comics, Kick-Ass, new Fantastic Four movie, Watchmen-less dark). SHC
A Highlander style “immortals are among us” game (movie, other stuff). SHC/FC
SHC Super Hero Comp, SFC Sci-Fi Comp, FC Fantasy comp, HC Horror Comp, CB Core Book (and nothing else), AC Achtung Cthulhu, PF SW Pathfinder.
Why not D100 games?
Because it they be my easy fall-back, my mood switcher, but unlike SW, the various games are each slightly different. I could have gone BRP UGE, and converted most others to that, but felt the lighter SW vibe was more approachable and converting D100 to SW would be easier than SW to D100.
* I guess the opposite of this is often hard, predictable and heavy.