For more discussion about Savage Worlds and other RPG's please visit my blog at http://solaceofsavagery.wordpress.com

I reviewed the Hael Core Book a few weeks back in a previous post. Storyweaver released a couple of adventures around the same time the core book came out and just today uploaded their soundtrack to the Hael universe to RPGNow. It’s awesome that this setting just came out and there is already so much great support material.

Adventures

Night of the Long Fangs and Burning Bridges (16 and 17 pages respectively) are both presented with Storyweaver’s “Game in a Can” label on their covers. They are both unique sandbox style location based adventures that share a common design structure. The framework is actually very reminiscent of modern console and computer RPG’s (in a good way!). You are given a location that is well mapped out and each page in the books presents a different area of interest in that location. Along with flavor text you get information on NPC’s, stat blocks, story hooks and rumors. Each NPC has their own seemingly independent plot hooks that tie into one grand overarching tale. With this structure it’s just a matter of letting the players explore the area and interact with the populace. I like the way these books are presented very much and they do an amazing job of offering interesting stories without railroading you into clunky plot dependencies that break progress if missed. You can’t beat the value either since Night of the Long Fangs is a very reasonable $3.95 and Burning Bridges is free!

As I said above, it’s fantastic that there’s already excellent support material for Hael. I wasn’t familiar with the old D20 incarnation of the setting so I don’t know if these books are new material or revised and re-released stuff but really it’s irrelevant. I hope to see more of the “Game in a Can” releases soon and I’m really liking the music too. It seems like Storyweaver has great priorities as far as support for their products is concerned.

For full review of Hael products and discussion about Savage Worlds and other RPG's, please visit my blog at http://solaceofsavagery.wordpress.com/

Hael Soundscapes – Untamed Sounds

Untamed Sounds is a collection of music for use during games. There are six tracks of music (plus a 7th bonus introduction track) that are designed to provide background ambiance for a variety of game situations. The songs are titled according to how they are connected to the Hael setting and they provide music for battles and other common game events. The production values are very high and stylistically the music would be appropriate for most any fantasy setting. (While writing this I kept wanting to write “Album”…. getting old….)

It’s fantastic that there’s already excellent support material for Hael. It seems like Storyweaver has great priorities as far as support for their products is concerned.

For more discussion about Savage Worlds and other RPG's please visit my blog at http://solaceofsavagery.wordpress.com

Like the expanded edition of Mercenary Breed, another of Mystical Throne Entertainment’s mini settings, this new iteration of Judgment Day is a refined and improved version of an already cool product. I reviewed the original release of Judgment Day previously so I won’t bother rehashing what I already wrote. What I will do is talk about what’s new in this expanded edition.

Beyond the additional new content, which I’ll discuss in a minute, the greatest improvement in this expanded release is a seemingly intangible thing – focus. The original book had a lot of great material for incorporating inquisitional organizations into a setting. The information as presented was well done but it lacked a unique sense of character – which is where this expanded edition comes in. Probably the most obvious improvement is the art. Everything from the excellent new cover to the B&W interior art evokes a unique horror element that wasn’t present in the original release. While the Inquisition is still the structural framework for games in Judgment Day, the presentation has taken on a decidedly darker lovecraftian feel which is exactly what this book needed. The original release mentioned the Cthulhu Mythos in passing but there’s something to be said for the stylistic consistency the expanded edition brings to the table. In addition to the art, the presentation has been tweaked to make this book feel less like an off shoot of MTE’s Savage Insider and more like its own product (like what was done with Mercenary Breed).

Content wise there are quite a few updates and changes. Much of the text has been reworked and rewritten and organizational structure is much improved. Also of note is a new section titled “Inquisitor’s Retinue” that lists options for characters being recruited for inquisitional jobs or missions. The section is of particular interest to me because it mentions supernatural recruits, which is an option that was not available in the first release – its inclusion here is very welcome.

The book also has an expanded bestiary that is organized by target type. There are sections on aliens, beasts, demons, dragons, ghosts, vampires and witches. This is an awesome addition since I lamented the fact that monsters, like were-tigers, were mentioned in the first book but not included in the bestiary. That omission has been rectified in spades in this new expanded edition and MTE has done a great job of making sure you’ll have plenty of nasties for your players to hunt (or be eaten by….).

Another area that has been reworked is the adventure generator. While Judgment Day includes a light weight Dresden-esque modern horror setting to use right out of the box, the book truly shines as a toolkit for building your own game setting. Aaron T. Huss, the mastermind behind MTE’s books, has retooled the adventure generator so that you can randomly build an adventure with a deck of cards. It’s important to note that this system is designed to provide a general framework and inspire creativity. It is not realistic to expect the tables to give you a fully fleshed out ready to go game. Just to illustrate – and because it’s fun! – let’s quickly use the tables to come up with a game idea.

Card 1- Genre Element and Era – 2 of Hearts: Post Apocalyptic, Ancient Egypt ….. cool!

Card 2 – Adventure Type and Purpose – Ace of Spades: Eliminate threat at all costs, Unknown Creature Sighting

Card 3 – Choose Your Antagonist – 3 of Clubs: Bargest

Card 4 – Creating Cults – Cults Location and Purpose – Queen of Hearts: Cult in urban area, Purpose is to Summon

Next I rolled dice on the 4 cult tables (Animals, Celestial Bodies, Colors and Misc.) to get some ideas about what kind of cult they are. I end up with Eagle, Planet, Blue, Burning

Using the elements above as inspiration I begin writing my adventure:

Famine to Feast…… For the Beast….. For the Beast

The city of Giza is the center of civilization. The untimely death of the Pharaoh has left the city at the mercy of several cults vying for power and control. In the midst of this political upheaval a vile inky black cloud darkens the sky. At first the populace is able to hold their fear at bay. Eventually, as weeks pass and the darkness persists, chaos erupts. Thousands are killed in the panic that follows. It becomes increasingly difficult to survive outside the city walls and news of the outside world is soon completely cut off. Those who remain within the city rally behind the leaders of one cult or another as each group explains away the darkness as punishment for trespasses committed by an opposing sect. Some of the more sinister groups start to call upon dark forces best left unnamed in a desperate attempt to wrest control of Giza from the opposition. One such cult, The Cerulean Flame, has started performing putrid rituals involving human sacrifice. They have summoned the Shadow of Anubis to seek out and feast upon their enemies. Unfortunately, the Shadow isn’t as particular about who its meals are as the Brothers of the Flame had hoped, and many of their own members have been slain and eaten. With each day that passes the carnage is greater and greater. To make matters worse, the Shadow of Anubis grows stronger with each feeding. It’s only a matter of time before the food runs out in Giza and the beast hunts abroad.

The pc’s are part of a group of hunters overseen by the Magi of Ra – a reclusive sect of seers who live in the deep desert. The magi are wise beyond years and have tasked themselves with seeking out and destroying evil in the world. Recently, the Magi have received news that a massive volcanic eruption has clouded much of the desert in the north in blackness for several weeks. There has been word that the city of Giza has fallen into chaos and that a cult within the city has summoned the Shadow of Anubis. The Magi know that the Shadow is insatiable and must be stopped at all costs. The pc’s are sent into the blackness of the north with instructions to kill the foul beast. They are warned that The Shadow of Anubis isn’t the only danger in the city. The cults within Giza are not to be trifled with. The Cerulean Flame literally has eyes everywhere. They have ensorceled desert eagles, identified by their stained blue crests, that watch over the city and report back to them. etc. etc. etc….

At this point one could flesh out a couple more cults and important npc’s and work on maps and descriptions of important locales. Again, the tables won’t give you a complete setting or adventure, but they are fantastic sources of inspiration!

This is a great expansion on the previous book. MTE has done a fantastic job of refining their output and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for Judgment Day in the future. Everything about this release is improved (there’s a map in the included adventure!). That’s impressive considering that the original book was already a fine addition to the Savage Worlds product line. It’s also worth mentioning that if you already purchased the first release of Judgment Day you can contact MTE and get a discount code for the expanded edition. As I said in my previous review, it’s a fun read and there’s plenty here whether you want to use it in its entirety or just borrow bits and pieces.

For more discussion about Savage Worlds and other RPG's, please visit my blog at www.solaceofsavagery.wordpress.com

Hael is a fantasy setting for Savage Worlds. The core book, published by Storyweaver, is just over 150 pages and is comprised of about 20 chapters of setting information for both player’s and gm’s. The book also has quick play sections that include information from the Savage Worlds core book which makes this release a pretty much all inclusive setting book.

The basic premise of Hael is that the orc’s and gnoll’s joined forces a little over 800 years before the current time. They grew tired of the treaty/oath breaking humans and decided to launch a military campaign to establish dominance and order. Eventually they conquered the humans and halflings and divvied the continent up with the orc’s taking the northern half and the gnoll’s occupying the southern half. The other races fled into the wilds as slavery became prevalent and basically maintained a barbaric lifestyle. As time passed the orc’s (now calling themselves the Daeorcs), and the gnoll’s (now the Yaena) continued to evolve into civilized peoples. Eventually slavery is outlawed and the barbaric races of human’s, halfling’s and Kirene – four armed humanoids – slowly start to get assimilated into the civilized Daeorc and Yaena societies. This brings us to the current year in Hael. Peace has been held for some time but the introduction of two warring alien races has created new tensions. The Daeorc’s have aligned with the mysterious Stranger’s, and the Yaena have entered into an agreement with the technologically advanced Nuclarine. The motivations of each alien species is clouded at this point and this tense confusing climate provides the backdrop for adventures in Hael.

I like this book a lot. The setting is a skewed fantasy world with a dash of science fiction thrown in and parts of it are reminiscent of books like Blackmoor and Carcosa, which is a good thing in my mind. Unlike most other fantasy settings, the Daeorc’s are the baseline as opposed to the human’s. This is enough of a variation to give Hael a fresh feel and make choices and options during character creation different than other games.

In addition to the cool setting, presentation is another bright spot. The book is complete and yet isn’t an unwieldy size. While there is a lot of setting information, it is efficiently presented making the world of Hael very accessible. Furthermore, unlike some releases that seem to think that quality is directly proportionate to the number of new edges you have, this book takes an economical approach that reinforces the setting while maintaining the core Savage Worlds ideology.

This is a great book. I wasn’t really in the market for a new fantasy setting but this is one of those books that inspires creativity and just makes you want to play in it’s sandbox. I was actually turned off by the “humans are the minority” element at first but after reading the book I’m fully on board. I highly recommend giving this a read. I will be discussing the two excellent recently released adventures for Hael in an upcoming post. Stay tuned!

For more discussion about Savage Worlds and other games, please visit my blog at www.solaceofsavagery.wordpress.com

Red Blizzard is a 29 page adventure for Savage Worlds released by Silver Gryphon Games. The adventure is location based and setting neutral.

The core story of Red Blizzard revolves around the pc’s getting stranded at a large mansion in the middle of a snow storm. The mansion becomes the stage for a series of events that play out between the pc’s and a family of werewolves that reside at the house. The tale takes on a Turista’s like spin as it becomes clear that the lycanthropy struck family is harvesting meat.

The mansion is fully mapped and keyed and descriptive text for the players is shaded and written in a different font to make it easy to spot. The rest of the adventure is clearly presented and is arranged in such a way as to make it easy to pick up and play with minimal prep required.

The story is presented as a modern horror piece but it would be very easy to change a few minor bits of descriptive text to place the events in a variety of settings and times.

I like this adventure. It’s perfect for a one shot and it’s possible to drop it into different settings by changing some of the flavor text. Even replacing the central antagonists, the werewolves, wouldn’t be too difficult. This is a nice module to have in the arsenal.

For more discussion about Savage Worlds and other RPG's please visit my blog at http://solaceofsavagery.wordpress.com

Another great issue of Savage Insider! This is my favorite cover by far. This issue includes an adventure for the upcoming Tunse'Al setting by Obatron Productions, as well as interviews, reviews, and other useful Savage Worlds gaming information. You can't beat the price either.

For more discussion about Savage Worlds and other RPG's please visit my blog at http://solaceofsavagery.wordpress.com

Aaron T. Huss is a prolific fellow. In the past year he has launched Savage Insider, released Mercenary Breed, Judgement Day, and the Faith and Demons Quick Start, and has another setting called Ancient World in the pipeline. Somehow, during the flurry of releases, he has managed to go back and do a revised and expanded edition of Mercenary Breed – and this new version is awesome!

I reviewed the original release of Mercenary Breed awhile back and the core elements and intent of the setting are the same. You play a merc in the employ of a corporation who is sent out to settle the interests of your employer in a galaxy of your game groups design. While the setup is the same, what’s different is the presentation.

This book has been redone from front to back. In addition to the fantastic looking new cover (blows the old one out of the sky), the entire layout has been revamped. The new layout is much cleaner and word count per page has been reduced to facilitate a simpler more readable look. Comparing the two versions on my tablet I was very happy to see such a significant improvement. The new expanded version has foregone including all of the Savage Insider tie ins which results in the book feeling more like its own product as well as freeing up some real estate on the page.

As far as differences content wise, the additions seem like they were added from my mental wish list from the first edition. Equipment, maps, and ready to go npc’s? Check! The tables for generating planets, aliens, and adventures have also been retooled to embrace the use of playing cards. I liked this idea in Savage Space and I like it here!

So what’s missing? That depends on your perspective. Mercenary Breed is a mini setting that is purposefully designed to facilitate cooperative world building between GM’s and players. What that means is that this book isn’t designed to be a fully fleshed out game world. The book takes a toolkit approach which means that work is required. Aaron has included a couple of home worlds, corporations, and alien races to make it easy to get a game going quickly, but the real pay off comes when your group starts building a universe together and then playing in that cooperative playground.

Mystical Throne Entertainment will be releasing further material for Mercenary Breed in upcoming issues of Savage Insider so there’s a lot of room for growth with the setting. One area in particular that I hope will be expanded upon is space ships. Right now there are essentially no stats or rules for ships in the game. This makes perfect sense for a merc setting where all of the action is usually planet side. Rules for ships and space combat, however, would be an excellent area to focus on in an upcoming expansion.

This book is fantastic. The first premium issue of Savage Insider already has expansion material for the setting and I’m excited to see what comes out in the coming months. If you have any interest in a Savage Worlds space setting at all, you can’t go wrong adding Mercenary Breed to your collection.

For more discussion about Savage Worlds and other RPG's please visit my blog at http://solaceofsavagery.wordpress.com

The Yaurcoan Empire is a 23 page supplement released by Gun Metal Games for their Totems of the Dead setting for Savage Worlds. The region described within the book lies south of the Maztlani lands, and its settlements lie all around the Andred mountains (about where Peru is on a real map).

The book is split up into seven sections. The first half covers general information for the “Mountain Empire”. Areas of focus include architecture, agriculture, religion, peoples, and settlements. The second half of the book is primarily GM information and includes a couple of new edges, a new power, prominent npc’s, a bestiary, and an adventure.

At 23 pages this title is a pretty light entry. Having said that, what’s presented is thorough and useful at the table provided you are going to run your players through the region. The pdf sports a 2 column layout and is layered to facilitate printing. The black and white interior is easy to read and the included art is awesome.

Content wise this book carries on with drawing inspiration from the rich native cultures that are the real world counterparts to the fictional peoples presented in the game. Flavor is drawn heavily from this cultural source forge and then recombined into an inspiring assortment of useful game materials.

I’m happy to see Gun Metal Games releasing support material for Totems. I’d have loved to have seen a heftier book that covered more ground, but this book accomplishes what it sets out to do. With any luck these releases will continue and support for this great setting will stay strong!

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Kesshi Tales # 1 was released a little less than a year ago. The adventure presented in the book, The Wise Men and the Woods, occurs in the region of Ikusa Kokoro. Each numbered Kesshi Tales release occurs in the region detailed in it’s corresponding Guide Book which creates an interesting symbiotic link between the products. Despite this link, it’s still possible to use the adventures without buying the Guide Books if you are so inclined.

The Kesshi Tales books are very well thought out products. They get it right in several key areas which is why I wanted to talk about them a bit. The first thing worth noting is the layout and choice to go with a digest sized format. Given that these are pdf only books, it was smart for Reality Blurs to use a single column layout that displays well on tablets. These books look great and, more importantly, are easy to read. There is no interior art except for a map of the region where the adventure takes place which is on the second page. The lack of interior art adds to the clean presentation and increases the utility factor of the text. Organization is very simple, with sections that are easy to navigate on the fly. These books actually live up to the promise of being able to play with minimal GM preparation. You could grab one of these an hour before play, read through it, and be more or less ready to go when the players arrive.

There are a number of reasons I am fond of the Kesshi Tales beyond the nuts and bolts stuff I already mentioned. The first is the way the adventures are structured. While the usual hooks and plot mechanics are certainly present, they manage to present a cohesive narrative without ever feeling like they are on rails. There are always multiple ways a tale could go and player influence is paramount. Player decisions have an important effect on both character development and events within the world. The open way that the tales are designed lends itself well to customization and it’s fairly easy to swap out elements to personalize stories in ways that makes them more relevant to your group.

Another strength of the books is what I’ll refer to as a “lead by example” design philosophy. Using the Kesshi Tales as templates for home grown adventures is very easy, owing to the simple clear way the books are presented. There are a plethora of great martial arts and samurai movies out there for inspiration, and pulling themes and hooks from them and plugging them into this format is a breeze. It would also be fairly simple to produce home made tales that maintain consistency with the visual aesthetics of the official releases.

These are great books. They are fun to read and provide a lot of material for inspiration. While I love them on my tablet, I sure would get a kick out of seeing them in print. I suspect that the demand isn’t high enough to warrant a print run but it would be awesome if it ever happened.

For more discussion about Savage Worlds and other RPG's please visit my blog at http://solaceofsavagery.wordpress.com

Green World, written by Umberto Pignatelli, is a 58 page adventure published by GRAmel for the Savage Worlds Beasts and Barbarians setting. Umberto also penned the recently released Sky Tyrant of Mars – a module for Adamant Entertainment's Mars setting. I featured Sky Tyrant a couple of weeks ago though I have yet to review it properly. Perhaps I will rectify that in an upcoming post!

Green World

The main adventure in Green World is presented in 4 chapters. The book also has an extensive appendix that provides details for a pygmy village from the book, stats for the npc’s, and a detailed Book of Lore covering demons. The section on demons also includes information for making demon hunter characters.

The core story of Green World revolves around the the pc’s waking up as amnesiacs in what is essentially a pocket universe. The meat of the adventure involves a rescue mission hook that is fueled by a pretty cool memory recovery element. There is a betrayal plot twist that is revealed as the story unfolds. The pocket universe – the Green World – is contained within an orb in the possession of an evil wizard. I won’t outline any more of the story here but suffice it to say that it’s fun and imaginative. There are some clever organic traps and the weirdness of the Green World has an alien consistency that manages to be different without being so gonzo that it crosses over into silliness.

The adventure does a nice job of balancing skill checks, chases, combat encounters and role playing opportunities. Each combat encounter is end capped by terrain and special circumstance information that helps to facilitate fluid play. Stat blocks for all adversaries are collected in the appendix. I kind of like having them with the specific encounter but I see the merits to having them collected for quick reference.

Green World is a fun read. The monsters are unique and even those that have common fantasy analogues feel fresh and new in this strange world. I can see it working well as a one shot for a pick up game. It could certainly be worked into an existing campaign but there would likely be some railroading necessary which isn’t uncommon for published adventures. This book is a careful recipe of ingredients and omitting any of them could create cohesion problems. Umberto has some great ideas in this module and even if you don’t use it exactly as presented there is enough here to plunder for inspiration for your home game.

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Like Mercenary Breed, Judgment Day is a mini setting for Savage Worlds. The book presents a variety of additional rules inspired by the Catholic Inquisition. It uses the basic structure of the Inquisition in much the same way that core Savage Worlds handles spells. Specifically, the underlying organizational structure is fairly universal and it becomes a matter of using the appropriate trappings to produce the desired game. The idea here is that there is a central governing body which has appointed a Grand Inquisitor, who in turns oversees the foot soldiers of the movement (the pc’s) in rooting out whatever evil the governing body finds most repulsive and or dangerous.

This basic setup covers a wide range of possible game types. For example, the GM may run a traditional Inquisition type game where the pc’s are representatives of the church who are tasked with finding and destroying witches, vampires, ghosts, etc. Alternately, one might run a game in the far future where the pc’s are tasked with finding and destroying hostile aliens in a setting that resembles a Warhammer 40k type game. There is a lot of common DNA here with games like Solomon Kane and Rippers as well. While I was reading through the book it occurred to me that it would even be fairly easy to use the rules to create a BPRD like organization from Mike Mignola’s Hellboy universe and superimpose that worlds trappings over the framework presented in Judgment Day. The only real restriction imposed in the book is that the pc’s cannot be what they are hunting (so no witch pc’s hunting witches). This is an easy to circumvent restriction though and one that I find interesting given that the Dhampir race presented in the Savage Insider Premium Issue 1 specifically discusses half vampires that hunt Vampires. The implications of that inspire me and I can see running a fairly interesting game where the church is unknowingly using monsters to hunt monsters or several other variations.

In addition to the rules for integrating an Inquisitorial organization into most any game or genre, there is also a setting provided by the writer Aaron T. Huss. The setting is pretty light and is placed in a modern time line covering events in and around the Great Lakes in the U.S.. While reading through the campaign provided I was immediately picturing Jim Butcher’s Dresden books- especially given that the characters are based in Chicago much like Butcher’s electronically challenged wizard protagonist.

Overall Judgment Day is a well put together book. The bestiary section was a little disappointing given that the book specifically mentions monsters like werewolves and were-tigers early on and then doesn’t include stats for them in the book. They can be found in other Savage Worlds products but including them would have made the book feel complete. Also, as I have mentioned in previous reviews of MTE products, I wish there were maps. Having said that, these mini settings are very favorably priced and satisfy their intended goal. Furthermore, MTE has plans for additional support through future releases of Savage Insider, and has already made good on that promise with the wealth of material offered for Mercenary Breed in Savage Insider Premium Issue 1. This is a fun product and even if you aren’t going to use it exactly as presented, there is plenty to read for inspiration.

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Mercenary Breed is a “Mini Setting” as coined by Mystical Throne Entertainment, and is presented as an offshoot of their Savage Insider Magazine. This book is an introduction to the setting and further supplements will be released in the future in the premium version of Savage Insider. The setting is provided as a framework, and the introduction makes it clear that the game world should evolve with play and also with the input of the players. It is more or less assumed that the pc’s will be mercenaries in the employ of one of a variety of corporations and the core of the setting is built on that idea. Key to the advancement of the pc’s is “Renown”. Renown works almost like an experience system in that as the pc’s complete merc missions they may be awarded an amount of renown proportionate to the difficulty of the mission. Equipment within the setting is assigned a renown number and is essentially off limits for requisitioning to the pc’s until they are of sufficient level. It’s an interesting mechanic. As presented within the scope of the roles available it works, but I don’t know that I’d use the mechanic if I was using the setting as a sandbox for space adventures.

The book has several chapters that are set up like a toolbox for building your game world. The central theme of corporate control is ever present but the universe itself it wide open for world building and the book contains myriad tables for randomly generating everything from home worlds to alien species. There are also a few pre generated species and worlds ready to go if the gm is so inclined to use them. It’s worth noting that while the alien generation table is well done, I “tested” it by trying to reverse engineer some popular aliens from film and literature and under that scrutiny it is hardly comprehensive. Other tables in the book cover building corporations and also bestiary creation. There is also a mission generation table for constructing an adventure by rolling up story elements.

The final section of the book is a collection of savage tales that a gm may use as adventures within the setting. While they are fairly well done I lament the fact that there are no maps included with any of them. I can appreciate leaving them vague to allow customization but it’s nice to have a complete adventure ready to go for an unplanned last minute game.

Overall Mercenary Breed is an interesting take on the Space genre. It is well worth the $5 price tag and given the excellent job MTE has done with the Savage Insider Magazine I think the setting shows a lot of promise.

In a future article I will discuss the first premium issue of Savage Insider (which was just released) that includes the first supplementary material for Mercenary Breed. Stay tuned!

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Mystical Throne Entertainment has been hard at work with their Savage Insider line of products. In addition to the free electronic issues that come out quarterly, they have released two settings books under the name and now this premium issue of the magazine. The settings books, Mercenary Breed and Judgment Day, were both released as “mini settings” with the intention of releasing additional supplemental material in the premium issues of the magazine. The first premium issue of Savage Insider makes good on that promise, offering a good amount of additional material for Mercenary Breed. Additionally, the book introduces a new race and an archetype that aren’t tied to the setting.

The new material for Mercenary Breed includes details on a region of space called the Hastilion Expanse. The Expanse is home to nine planets, 8 of which are outlined in the text. The ninth planet, Helioside, is available from the MTE webite as a download. In addition to the planetary information, there are additional character options and equipment lists. The equipment stats include the Renown Number for player requisition (see my previous review of Mercenary Breed for an explanation of that mechanic). Following the outline of the Hastilion Expanse is a campaign broken up into several sections. The encounter entries are classified based on whether they will be Role Playing, Investigation, Exploration, or Combat encounters. I liked this style of organization though it makes the outcome of each encounter sound like a forgone conclusion. I do not, however, think that it is the intention of the writer to railroad the players into a pre determined outcome. If I spill some role playing into an encounter labeled combat I hardly think my campaign will unravel. Overall the campaign is fairly well done though there are no maps included except for a hex map of the planets. I suspect this omission is to allow greater GM customization but I think leaving them out lowers the utility factor of the book.

The premium issue of Savage Insider also includes MTE’s version of the Dhampir as a playable race. Aside from the variation in spelling from the version presented in the Savage Worlds Horror Companion, MTE fleshes the race out a bit further by including more racial bonuses that are balanced with additional weaknesses. There are suggestions for including the race in various game genres as well as a couple of fleshed out Wild Card NPC’s. There is a one sheet Savage Tale at the end of this section that incorporates one of the NPC’s, but like the other MTE adventures released thus far there are no maps.

The issue is bookended with the introduction of a character archetype called the Heirophant. This “Auspicious Archetype” is outlined in much the same way as the Dhampir race with advice for incorporating the class into different genres. A Wild Card Heirophant NPC is presented as well as information on a sample cult and stats for mook cultitsts. Another Savage Tale is included and again there aren’t any maps. The exclusion of maps in this case isn’t as problematic as this tale isn’t quite as location based as the Dhampir adventure.

This maiden issue of Savage Insider is packed with setting information and is worth the $5 investment. I like the inclusion of the Savage Tale one sheets though I hope that MTE starts including some maps in future releases. The appeal of these issues would be significantly greater to me if there were fully fleshed out one sheets ready to be plucked out for last minute games.

A well rounded companion for those desiring to run a horror game. Most of the major bases are covered and elements from books and film are present (there's even a puzzle box resembling the Lament Configuration from the Hellraiser movies). The only thing I'd like to have seen are additional rules covering zombie apocalypse type settings. I'm not sure if this was omitted because of a perceived redundancy with the Zombie Run book but it's a sub genre that would have given the companion a more complete feel.

As it stands this is a great book and a valuable addition to the Savage Worlds line.