Savage worlds and retro gaming

In jumping around the blogosphere in regard to Savage worlds and OD&D I have come across a number of interesting bits and pieces.

Not the least of which is Mandate Archive - Transhuman Tech     I'm a huge fan of the work Kevin Crawford has done on the Core Stars Without Number material and I'm impressed that he has put together some great Trans Human material. We once joked on rpg.net one the irony of playing transhuman stories using the oldest and original rpg systems. The result though is very satisfying.

SWN has some issues no doubt - 1st lvl characters are gossamer like targets for many of the weapons in the game so navigating low levels is best done with caution. Not necessarily a bad thing just something to be aware of.  Transhumanism complicates and challenges some of the basic assumptions of an old school game due to the post scarcity economy of a post-singularity society. This is were the advice in this supplement, but also in Darkness Visible. are going to be useful. There is a very neat fit with the two supplements. If you read a lot of trans-lit much of it focuses on the agendas of various factions as they advance their belief systems and explore their humanity and the vastness of space and the universe.   

I'm enjoying the read and getting ideas for Sci-fi gaming. The fact that its old school is just "cherrys-on-top". 

Also in old school sci-fi, which a lot of people are propagating right now, is the wonderfully pulpy  "Tales of the Space-Princess". What is wonderful about this game is it was designed in response to the challenge that sci-fio games where somehow inferior or not as fun as Fantasy games. As a result this game is very much about "go get the MacGuffin". In this case, its more or less a "dungeon" with scifi trappings "spaceship/space-station/outpost/flying-city" etc. There is a handy-dandy included map for just this purpose. The characters "classes" have a satisfying old school feel to them and even a retro-scifi feel, which I don't think is strictly needed.  However advancement in the game doesn't seem to me to have the longevity other games seem to have. Then I remembered early traveler with its "no advancement" and I was all ok. However I can see how some people would not like the large-grain advancement in the game. However it IS very Old school being reminiscent of the chainmail treatment of character figures. 
 
The interesting generic characters of "Savage Worlds Characters Are All The Same"
which, clearly are not make interesting grist for the Savage character mill. The granularity in Savage Worlds is fairly high level i.e. there is not a lot of fine grained distinction between Attributes and  Skills however the canny application of Edges and Hindrances gives the definition. While its not actually an old school game it plays very well and is obviously a game put together with the forethought and experience of actual play.

In a effort to immerse my mind in the zeitgeist of Totems of the Dead, I'm reading and getting into Aztec again. Do yourself a favour and pick it up if your interested in the ancient native American and south American society and culture. I'd love to know more books like this so I went to Goodreads but had trouble finding anything. I'm still looking but its not so easy.

What I did find was more information on  Bridge of Birds: A Novel of an Ancient China That Never Was by Barry Hughart great book. What I found out that I didnt know was there are more all set with the same character. Furthermore I found many people had also shared their passion for Chinese and Japanese inspired fantasies and had a wonderful time looking though the lists and putting books into my to-read list. 


Which will be good material to have in mind for when I get the opportunity to run a Quin the Warring States, Legends of Wulin or Legends of the Five rings game. The way I feel about it now I'd run a Legends sanbox game if I ever got the chance. 

So its been a good week of research for the evolving game.