Review #4: The Savage World of Solomon Kane

[Meg]

In the second full Origin's review episode, we take a look at the Savage World of Solomon Kane.


http://www.peginc.com/games.html

We love this one and hope it wins the Origin's Award for best new RPG.  It's a 1 on the rating scale:
1= If you are only going to buy 1 book, get this one.
3= If you are going to buy 3 books so you have a "main game" plus a fun pickup, this is the book for you
10= If you are going to get 10 books for a bit more variety, get this one
0= Don't buy it.

Because this is a complete book of a game which could be a long-term campaign and it's really interesting.  Listen to the full review on Monday. 

[Meg]

This review episode is live!  Check it out here:

http://brilliantgameologists.com/blog/34

[Solo Phoenix]

The episode is being cut short for me, around the 13:30ish mark, where Meg starts talking about the character sheets...

[Meg]

That was happening for Josh too.  We really hate podbean and are looking to transfer soon.  Download it again and hope it works  :-\

[heffroncm]

Interesting episode.  Going to check this system out when I get the chance, one of my groups would probably enjoy it.

[PhoenixInferno]

Josh, I remember once back when the WotC forums were well moderated that you kinda went off against the 3E Forgotten Realms' Regional feats.  I don't know whether that stemmed from your inexplicable hatred for Ed Greenwood or not, but do you remember that and would you care to comment on how SWoSK's edges are different?

Was that you?  I don't remember, but big ass threads that collapsed into Latin-phrase throwing contests usually involved you in those days.

[Josh]

Josh, I remember once back when the WotC forums were well moderated that you kinda went off against the 3E Forgotten Realms' Regional feats.  I don't know whether that stemmed from your inexplicable hatred for Ed Greenwood or not, but do you remember that and would you care to comment on how SWoSK's edges are different?

I was involved in the comprehensive proof that the regional feats were inferior, so that may be it. 

I also believe that they are genuinely lame and one dimensional.  It is like if in a modern game there was a “Jew” group and the feats were “diamond merchant,” “greedy” and “controls Hollywood.”  In addition to the racism it presents the Jews as having few meaningful aspects.  For example it omits the number of Jewish comics. 

In Kane there are no regional feats, there are however feats(edges) that you can take that are appropriate to your birthplace. 

I don't know exactly what you might be getting at.

[PhoenixInferno]

Game mechanics intended to tie the character closer to the game world?  Just wondering what makes it work better in SWoSK.

[Zeke]

I think "intended" is the key word there in regards to FR.
In SWoSK, the edges are cool first and regional second. There's not an edge for every region and many of the edges have more to do with the feel of the world than with a regional identity.

 I think Eberon did a nice job of tying its world to its game mechanics. It is this that I was talking about more than regionalism.

[Josh]

Zeke nailed it