Shane Lacy HensleyRecensioni

An excellent Land of the Mists accessory providing a wealth of mechanics and lore concerning dreaming. There are some innovative cosmological ideas concerning the dream plane geography (not restricted to Ravenloft) which deviate somewhat from canon. The setting itself is roughly split in two: the clinic for the mentally ill in Nova Vaasa, and the Nightmare Lands themselves, a colourful chaotic island which features a lot of extravaganza. The clinic does not deviate from the typical Victorian specimen, but the Lands have some twists, the most interesting of which is probably the "race" of Abber nomads with their unique worldview: believe only in what you see at any particular moment, don't trust in the falseness of the cause-effect chain and disregard both past and future.

All in all a very enjoyable reading, containing 4 mini-adventures. I assume that incorporating the material in the campaign may prove somewhat demanding of both players and DM, due to the need for tightwalk roleplaying, the danger of meta-thinking and the malleable terrain of dreams.

First Edition Deadlands: The Weird West. One of the great RPGs. It is the late 19th century in the American West. Outlaws rob banks and trains, pursued by hard-faced Lawmen who are only separated from them by a badge and a sense of honour. Sharp dressed poker players ride on riverboats or fleece the hick locals in a piano bar as a couple of high-kicking dancers flap their petticoats. Cold-eyed gunslingers face each other down a dusty street as a ball of dry weed is tumbled along by the wind. A mad scientist rides his steam-powered mech against and leads an army of zombies against some Indian shamans protecting their lands with the power of the spirit dance.

Wait. What?

Deadlands, as do many role-playing games, takes a familiar genre and blends it with odder fare. The world of the Weird West has as much to do with horror movies as with westerns, and throws zombies and various flavours of magic into the mix. As well as shamans, some hucksters cast hexes with their decks of cards, priests can call on the power of god and the saints and mad scientists can imbue machinery with enslaved manitou spirits. And some folk just prefer to face these outlandish critters with their two fists and their six-shooters.

Deadlands gives an excellent background and storyline, as well as a system which includes specialised strengths and weaknesses for characters that are completely part of the setting (the whole book is written in the cod-western vernacular of western B-movies, critters and varmints and shootin' irons, and this carries over into edges and flaws in such descriptors as 'tinhorn' and 'big britches').

But the real jewel of Deadlands is the system, which is, for my money, not only one of the best fast-and-fun gaming systems ever created, but so in tune with the milieu that the game isn't the same without it (as was proved when the game was relaunched with a far inferior generic system). In tandem with the usual dice (everything from 4- to 12-sided), the players and gamemaster (or Marshall) each have a pack of standard playing cards, and get to draw cards to determine certain actions (combat order, magic use, etc), making poker hands to determine the level of success. In addition, it was also the first game I came across to use 'fate chips' - again poker chips - being awarded for good game play (good roleplaying, bravery, reducing the whole group to howls of laughter), and exchangable for such things as changing dice rolls or avoiding damage. Always a good thing to shoehorn into almost any system if you want to encourage heroic play.

"You know what a game about the Old West which already has magic, undead, monsters, a Civil War that's lasted for a decade, and wild indians needs? Mutants from beyond the stars!"

Umm...no. No, it didn't. Not a bad game, but just too much for the setting.½

The America West has been a fertile source of successful movies, TV shows, novels, pulp stories...everything but role-playing games. Deadlands for a time looked as if it might break that curse; a novel system that included cards for initiative, lethal and fast gunfights, combined with magic that used poker hands and weird science that could make jet packs made for a splash. It didn't last, but it was a gamer try than most.½

A nice presentation of a decent light-weight RPG system. The real strength of SW is probably the wealth of source material available, but the rules are fairly easy to understand and use which is a definite plus. The compact format, no-nonsense approach and humane pricing of the core book is also amiable.

From a playing standpoint, the system is fiddly, inconsistent, unbalanced, and overly complicated. (The first edition more so than the second, but the problems are still there to a lesser degree in this, the revised edition.) From a thematic standpoint though, it's probably one of the best mergers of system and setting I've ever encountered.

Use the setting with another system? Despite its flaws, I wouldn't dream of it.

A Fast! Furious! Fun! Role-playing game. This book is the bare bones to endless worlds of adventure, and has become my defacto system for virtually every setting.

With a number of games jumping on the d20 bandwagon, Savage Worlds has come out, seemingly, as a response to some of the criticism of the d20 system. This is not to say it's an anti-d20 system, but it clearly takes some of the d20 problems and addresses those in its own way.

Rather than offering a ton of subclasses (which may yet appear in different settings) and going into too much detail so as to bog down game mechanics, Savage Worlds opts for simplicity. It's not always elegant nor does it make automatic sense in every area, but it's a valiant attempt nonetheless. The biggest difference comes in the combat system whereby the GM is encouraged to let the players take more control of allies and reduce the number of initiatives that need to be tracked. Also included are templates that you cut out of the book or copy and then cut for area of effect spells/equipment/weapons that will reduce the hemming and hawing of players trying to figure out how to reduce the chance of having their comrades get shredded. Indeed, combat slowing things down is the biggest complaint of just about every system out there, and Savage Worlds addresses this. Also of note are sections on simplified combat involving vehicles/mounts, and mass combat. Want to relive the Battle of Helm's Deep or Glenkirk? You can do it with this system with less hassle and frustration.

Simplification doesn't end with combat, either. Skills are also simplified so that you aren't spending points on driving something with an automatic transmission and then more on a manual, then yet more on tracked vehicles, then armored vehicles that aren't tracked, etc. This brings the GM's judgement into play about bonuses and penalties, and may be a sticking point for some, but it's not anything that can't be overcome. And, really, it's much more important to streamline combat to keep things moving rather than force spending of skill points on minutae than can be ironed out with logical discussion between the players and GM beforehand.

Also included are rules for Arcane powers, which include spell casting, miraculous powers (think clerics), super powers, psionics, and weird science.

The character creation system also reinforces reliance on party members, as you spend points to increase your traits rather than rely on the luck of dice rolling. This means you can be very good in one or two traits, but you won't have that lucky player who is excellent in three or four traits and who can take over a game. The character creation is very balance, and so may be frustrating to min-maxers.

Overall, it's a good start and basic system. However, it IS only a start and, though you can run a game with just this book, it seems that you will need to buy at least one of the supplemental settings that will allow you to take advantage of the system in the best manner. That being said, there are plenty of interesting settings out there.