Savage Worlds: The Working Person's TTRPG
Or: How I Learned to Quit Pondering my Orb and play some games!
Tabletop roleplaying games come in many flavors these days. Back when the hobby was just getting its start in the early 1970s, you had Dungeons and Dragons and a few fledgling “other games” that folks indulged in to get their fantasy fix. Nowadays, there’s a bevy of options to choose from. From fantasy genre games like D&D (now in its 5th edition), to science fiction games like Traveller and Stars Without Number, to nearly innumerable indie titles. This swirl of options can seem overwhelming, and like going to an ice cream stand having no idea what flavor you want, it might be hard to make a decision on where to start.
To make matters more complex, each tabletop game has its own “system”, a set of rules and mechanics that establish how players (and their characters) interact with the game world. Some of these games have a referee player (called a Dungeon Master or Game Master generally) who acts as narrator, storyteller and rules arbiter. Some newer games have eschewed the use of a gamemaster altogether and instead have players collaboratively build their game worlds as a group. This is usually fine for more experienced tabletop players who understand the dynamics of these games, but for newer players who may need some coaching, these can seem challenging indeed.
Pondering Thy Orb
The awfulness of overcomplex rules cannot be overstated. Enter the phenomenon known as Orb Pondering, a highly destructive force to any roleplaying experience. Orb Pondering can take many forms and guises, but it generally involves stopping gameplay to consult rules, esoteric charts, and perhaps wax poetic about the finer points of the quadratic equation or the Pythagorean Theorem. The roleplaying narrative grinds to a halt as players sit around waiting for play to resume, or worse, they disengage completely and start looking at their phones, TikTok or gratuitous amounts of Youtube cat videos. Conversations then usually strike up about modifiers and other random numbers and skills, etc. It’s akin to watching a cool action movie, and just as a badass sequence is about to begin, someone abruptly flips off the TV. Maddening. Some roleplaying systems have a propensity towards Orb Pondering. These games must be shunned and cast into a fiery pit. Ia! Shub-Niggurath! Cast them out to be consumed by The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young!
Luckily, Savage Worlds does not encourage any Pondering of thy Orb. The magic of this system relies on brutal simplicity in task resolution with minimum record keeping. For most of us who have full time jobs, a mortgage, children or maybe just a herd of feral cats that we feed and cloth, delving into the nuances of a highly complicated game weekly or even bi-weekly really isn’t an option. For players and game masters who want something that’s fast, easy and exciting to play with minimal fuss, you’d be hard pressed to find something better than Savage Worlds.
Savage Worlds is a generic, genre agnostic roleplaying game designed by Shane Hensley and released by the Pinnacle Entertainment Group in 2003. It is remarkable for many reasons and all of them tie to an overarching theme: playability. A Savage Worlds game removes distractions via the help of the Magic of 4.
Quit Pondering your Orb! Play Savage Worlds!
The Magic of 4
In Savage Worlds, every character attribute is assigned a die - either d4 through d12 - to represent overall competence and ability. The higher the die, the better the chance that character has of accomplishing their task. The target number (TN) to accomplish a task is always a 4. 4 is the meaning of life. 4 is God. If your character can beat a 4, they have leapt heroically across the fiery pit. They have convinced the Maharajah to acquiesce and perhaps not chop the head off your faithful companion. They have found their way out of the haunted mansion. Or they have saved the helpless waif.
4 is the object of most rolls (except melee combat) in Savage Worlds and it is the ultimate game accelerator. Gone is the need to look up what the difficulty number should be for a given encounter. Instead, just think of 4 and roll. A savvy gamemaster (and player) can come up with the narrative to reflect what occurred, but from a rules perspective, this is bliss for the gamemaster. Games can move at light speed in comparison to other titles. Combat is even faster.
Initiative and Combat
I wish the initiative system used in Savage Worlds was included in every tabletop roleplaying game. Instead of rolling a die to determine which side goes first, regular playing cards are used (nothing special, Bicycle will do). The higher the card or suit a character receives, that character takes his or her actions first. Certain cards (like Jokers) denote certain special abilities during a round and extra combat strength, but what this allows is a pace unlike many other games. It also allows a gamemaster to set decision timers for their players in a dramatic fashion. In a gunfight, you don’t have much time to decide, and a Savage Worlds encounter fits this type of drama wonderfully. The drawing of the cards leads to heightened tension and anticipation, especially if you are in a gunfight, and really draws players deeper into the narrative excitement.
Genre Agnostic
The plethora of available Savage Worlds supplements makes switching genres a sinch. I’ve played games set in Medieval England, post-apocalyptic U.S, the Vietnam War, or Ancient Rome. All of them use the core Savage Worlds rules combined with an additional book that gives you some of the flavor of a particular time period or setting. Thanks to open licensing, Pinnacle grants independent publishers the ability to easily write setting books for Savage Worlds, meaning there’s a massive selection to choose from.
Conclusion
Out of all the roleplaying games in my collection, none get as much play as Savage Worlds. The simple reason for this is that Savage Worlds is easy, fast and enjoyable to play in any setting. You don’t have to Ponder your Orb for long to understand that games should be exciting and dramatic - not spent making algebraic calculations in real time. So quit Pondering your Orb and go play some Savage Worlds!