Savage Worlds is a universal generic role-playing game and miniatures wargame, written by Shane Lacy Hensley, and published by Great White Games doing business as Pinnacle Entertainment Group. The game emphasizes speed of play and speed of preparation over realism or detail. Image File history File links Savage_Worlds_revised. ... Shane Lacy Hensley is an author, game designer, and CEO of Pinnacle Entertainment Group and is currently a resident of Los Gatos, California. ... Great White Games is a publisher of role-playing games owned and operated by Shane Lacey Hensley. ... A generic role-playing game system or universal role-playing game system is a role-playing game system designed to be independent of setting and genre. ... Flynns Detective Fiction from 1941. ... Horror fiction is, broadly, fiction in any medium intended to scare, unsettle, or horrify the reader. ... Smaug in his lair: an illustration for the fantasy The Hobbit Fantasy is a genre of art that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... This article is about games in which one plays the role of a character. ... Bavarian Napoleonic Infantry, 1811, from the historical wargame Volley & Bayonet. ... Great White Games is a publisher of role-playing games owned and operated by Shane Lacey Hensley. ...

Settings

Savage Worlds is a generic rules system, but Pinnacle has released "Savage Settings" - campaign settings or modules designed specifically for the Savage Worlds rules. These include:

• Evernight
• 50 Fathoms
• Necessary Evil
• Rippers
• Low Life

Pinnacle also publishes setting books based on the company's earlier lines, including:

• Deadlands: Reloaded
• Weird Wars: Tour of Darkness
• Weird Wars: Necropolis

A licensing system is in place for electronic and book publishers to release material for the Savage Worlds game. Such "Savaged!" licensees are allowed to use the Savage Worlds mascot "Smiling Jack" as a logo on their products. Multiple PDF adventure scenarios are available using this licensing system, as well as setting related supplements like the Vampire Earth RPG Sourcebook and the Shaintar Player's Guide. Deadlands is a genre-mixing alternate history roleplaying game which combines the Western and horror genres. ... This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling. ...

System

Traits

Savage Worlds details characters with statistics. These "traits", as they are referred to in the rules, are divided into "attributes", which are inherent and "skills", which are learned.

"Attributes" in Savage Worlds include:

• Agility
• Smarts
• Spirit
• Strength
• Vigor

Some examples of skills in Savage Worlds include:

• Fighting
• Healing
• Stealth

All traits are rated by a single polyhedral die. The more sides a die has, the better the trait is. So a character with a Strength trait of a ten-sided die (d10) is stronger than a character whose Strength trait is rated with a six-sided die (d6). A polyhedron is a geometric shape which in mathematics is defined by three related meanings. ... Ten-sided dice are often used in role-playing games, such as Dungeons and Dragons, to get random decimal numbers, such as percentages. ...

Edges and Hindrances

Characters are also customized with advantages and weaknesses known as Edges and Hindrances. Edges and Hindrances, unlike Traits, are not rated with dice.

Derived statistics

In addition to Traits, Edges and Hindrances, a character has the following derived statistics:

• Pace (ground speed)
• Parry (the ability to defend one's self)
• Toughness (resistance to damage)
• Charisma (presence and charm).

Some setting supplements add a fifth derived statistic such as Reason, Sanity or Grit.

Character creation and task resolution

Player characters are built using a point allocation system, though game masters are encouraged to design non-player characters to the needs of the game rather than to fit the system.

Dice are rolled to determine the outcome of character actions and interactions in the game. Usually a trait die is rolled against a target number of four. If the roll equals or exceeds the target number, the action succeeds; otherwise it fails.

If a player rolls the highest number possible on a given die (such as an 8 on an eight-sided die), the die may be re-rolled and its result added to the initial roll. This is known as "Acing". A die may continue to Ace as long as the highest die number is rolled.

Player characters and significant non-player characters are known as "Wild Cards". Wild Cards get to roll a second die, known as a "Wild Die", alongside their trait rolls. This roll may Ace as normal. The player of the Wild Card uses the higher of the two rolls (trait die or Wild Die) to determine the actual result of the roll.

Combat initiative is determined by playing cards; characters act in sequence according to the fall of the cards. Jokers allow greater bonuses.

History

Savage Worlds was first released in 2003 and was derived from the earlier Great Rail Wars miniatures game, itself a simplified derivative of Hensley's Deadlands RPG. The main rulebook was revised and released as a PDF format eBook in late 2004, with a print version following in early 2005. The same year, Great White Games began releasing rules expansions in the form of several PDF format genre toolkit books. Self-contained miniature skirmish games based upon the Savage Worlds engine were also been released in print and PDF form. 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Deadlands is a genre-mixing alternate history roleplaying game which combines the Western and horror genres. ... PDF is an abbreviation with several meanings: Portable Document Format Post-doctoral fellowship Probability density function There also is an electronic design automation company named PDF Solutions. ... shelby was here 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

In late 2005, Pinnacle entered into an agreement with WizKids to publish self-contained RPGs set in the worlds of Pirates, Rocketmen, and MageKnight using the Savage Worlds rules. Deadlands Reloaded, a version of the classic Pinnacle game using the Savage Worlds rules was released in May 2006. Pinnacle has announced that another licensed game, The Savage World of Solomon Kane, will be produced in spring 2007. WizKids, Inc. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... Rocketmen is a Wizkids produced constructible strategy game released in August of 2005. ... Mage Knight is a miniatures wargame using collectible figures, created by WizKids, Inc. ... Deadlands is a genre-mixing alternate history roleplaying game which combines the Western and horror genres. ... Solomon Kane is a fictional character created by the pulp-era writer Robert E. Howard. ...

See also

• Deadlands
• List of Savage Worlds books

Deadlands is a genre-mixing alternate history roleplaying game which combines the Western and horror genres. ... List of Savage Worlds books is a listing of the publications from Pinnacle Entertainment Group and other publishers for the Savage Worlds role-playing game. ...

References

• Shane Lacy Hensley Savage Worlds Revised (Great White Games, 2005) ISBN 0-9763601-0-1
• Shane Lacy Hensley Savage Worlds (Great White Games, 2003) ISBN 1-930855-57-5

External links

• Savage Worlds homepage Official site
• Savage Heroes system and setting conversions
• Shark Bytes A fanzine
• Shaintar: Immortal Legends The Shaintar epic fantasy setting developed for Savage Worlds by Talisman Studios