Ring Side Report- RPG Review of Savage Characters Volume One
Originally posted at www.throatpunchgames.com, a new idea everyday!
Product- Savage Characters Volume One
System- Savage Worlds
Producer- Dragonlaird Gaming
Price- $5 here http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/137955/Savage-Characters-Volume-1?manufacturers_id=6270
TL; DR-An excellent book full of useful Savage Worlds characters. 95 %
Basics- Need some characters quick for your Savage Worlds game? Dragonlaird Gaming provides several characters for fantasy, horror, western, and sci-fi settings for the Dragonlaird Gaming Savage Worlds settings. Each character get's a full write up including a picture, a background, a character sheet, a novice character sheet, some character hooks for different character levels, and an advancement plan for the character. Some characters also get extra setting rules.
Mechanics or Crunch- The best comparison I have for this book is the NPC codex for Pathfinder, and honestly this is much better. Instead of providing several different characters at each level, this book provides less NPCs and gives you an easy way to drop each NPC into your game at any level. That makes this an easy to use resource for you game. Awesome. Even better, this book adds a few new traits for your characters to use. I didn't expect to find new character options in this book, so that's a present surprise! One bad thing about this book is, if you don't know all the Savage World rules, then the character write ups will not be as helpful. Every character has a great write up with all their traits, but if you don't know those traits off the top of your head, you're going to be spending some time going back and forth between this book and your other Savage World books. 4.8/5
Theme or Fluff-Each character gets a full right up with a background, description, pictures, and character hooks. I've got a picture to show the players, and I can jump into that character on the fly as a GM based on the character hooks and story provided. These are well done complete characters that can help me carry the stories in my games. 5/5
Execution- Overall, this is a well done book. I have a few minor problems with the execution of the PDF. I would like the book to be hyperlinked. Also, the art is good, but some are not as great as others. One more issue I have is I'd like a bit more discretion of the different worlds presented in the book. The character presented work well in any setting, but a bit more description of the worlds would possibly entice me to pay in those places a bit more. However, overall the book loads quick, looks great, and reads easily. 4.5/5
Summary- Need some well done characters quickly for your game? This is the resource you should consider getting. It reads quickly, is well designed, and has some great characters for your games. I do have a few minor qualms, but these problems don't hurt the overall presentation of the book. If you want to find out how to write a well done NPC book, this is the book to mimic. 95%
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