I feel like I say this a lot, but this book surprised me. Maybe I should have higher expectations or maybe I’m easily surprised. Either way, Darwin’s World is something any Savage World’s fan should have. Let me boil the book down into a single word . . . options. This book features your customary and comprehensive background on the world. What has happened to cause this apocalypse, what is life like, who might your run into, what are the dangers, etc. Obviously they leave a lot of room for you to make the world your own.

Then they hit you with pages upon pages of types of hazards (radiation, waste, sickness, hunger, weather, and on and on), towns (including maps, possible story hooks, people, places, etc.), factions (raiders, lawmen, mutants, ghouls, OH THE HUMANITY), creatures (animals, horribly disfigured things, hybrid mutants you don’t want to know how they were created in the first place), robots (Are you still reading these examples? Isn’t it awesome enough as it is? A whole chapter on robots?), and last but definitely not least equipment (weapons, armor, cars, tools, survival gear). This book has so many details on things you might find, run into, fight, steal, run away from, get killed by, or just marvel at, that if you don’t immediately have an idea for a post-apocalyptic campaign, then you may suffer from severe imagination impairment. Go to the doctor before it’s too late.

After reading this, I absolutely want to run some crazy wasteland adventures. Savage Worlds is so easy that anyone can jump in. Oh, you need a Savage Worlds Explorer’s Handbook to run this. Just in case there needs to be a disclaimer.