My history with Savage Worlds has been a complicated one.
I discovered Savage Worlds when the first edition was not yet published, but the test drive rules were already available.
I was really enthousiat, it seemed to be the kind of game made just for me. Simple enough to fit my needs (I mean, a game for peoples with a life outside, wishing to prepare games easily, play a meaningful part of a scenario in one evening and change settings regularly).
I was even enthousiast enough to draw cardboard figures for the two free test scenarios that were released. You can still find them here.
Then the rules were published.... And I could not bring myself to use the game. I could not stand the Jack's comments. Not the illustration, which is very good. But the comments. It really ruined my own "suspension of disbelief" as a gamemaster.
It didn't felt tongue-in-the-cheek to me, but rather book-for-hyperactive-teenagers. It really did cheapen the experience for me, letting me feel a little silly with the book in my hands.
Of course, I could have persevered, but there are so much RPGs I love, that I simply moved on to other games.
Then a few months ago, I discovered how the SWEX edition looked like. Everything was perfect: Jack's comments were gone, the rules were really well laid out, superbly illustrated, even the size of the book was wonderful.
It made your imagination working instead of dragging a sneer.
I did buy it. Five rulebooks. Plus the PDF (for the iPad). Plus settings and supplements.
And I downloaded Showdown.
And now I am ready, at least, to begin play: Showdown with paper figures for my skirmishes wargames and Savage Worlds with Maptool and tokens for my RPGs. And a mix of both if needed.
What is wonderful, is that, once again, I am completely excited about a new game and motivated to make figures, tokens, maps, buildings,...
It's good to be back
