Savage Worlds Science Fiction Companion and The World of Grey

Pinnacle Entertainment Group released the Science Fiction Companion to an eager audience looking for Savage adventures in the far future. It contains new races, Edges and Hindrances, Setting Rules, gear, cyberware, and numerous new races and creature. It also includes rules for players and Game Masters to create their own robots, power armor, vehicles, starships, walkers.

PEG packs a lot into 98 pages making it will worth the PDF price of $14.99. I was curious how well it handled custom settings. I recently released a science fiction novella titled World of Grey and was curious as to how well the ships, characters, gear, and races of that book translated into the new rule set.

Ships

The Green Dawn is a Seminole class Assault Scout that exists somewhere between the Medium and Large ship types presented in the SFC. It but most closely matches the Medium template. I inferred a bit between the two sets of stats.

	Medium	Green Dawn	Large
Size	8	9	10
Acc	45	43	40
TS	600	550	500
Climb	2	2	1
Toughness	25	27	30
Armor	6	6	7
Mods	25	27	30
Crew	5	15	50

I used our Ship Builder spreadsheet from a previous post to generate the Dawn. Here's the result.

Ship Name	Green Dawn
Size	Medium/Large
Acc/TS	43/550
Climb	2
Toughness	27(6)
Mods Remaining	2
Crew	15
Energy Store	200
Cost	$26,540,000.00
Systems	AI, Atmospheric, Deflector Screens, FTL, Hanger, Sensor Suite Galactic, Shields, Targeting System,
Weapons	2XLight Lasers (2X Linked), 2XMedium Lasers (2X Fixed and Linked), Torpedo 1XLauncher with 8xLight (1X Fixed),

The Dawn has the characteristic of Large ships in that it can take a maximum of 2 wounds per attack due to air-tight compartments. It also has a Marauder Drop Shuttle attached to the airlock behind engineering. Its meant to sneak past detection, survive a landing, and provide some direct fire support of the Hellhound squad.

Ship Name	Marauder Drop Shuttle
Size	Small
Acc/TS	50/700
Climb	3
Toughness	20(9)
Mods Remaining	0
Crew	1
Passengers	10
Energy Story	25
Cost	$3,165,000.00
Systems	AMCM, 2xArmor, Atmospheric, Deflector Screens, Passenger Pod, Sensor Suite Planetary, Shields, Stealth,
Weapons	1XLight Lasers (1X Fixed), 1XHeavy Slug Throwers,

Sarge's Hellhounds encounter a Slug ship during the story. Slugs are technologically advanced. I manifested this by giving them 50% more mod spaces on Blasphore's ship.

Ship Name	Blashphor's 'Freighter'
Size	Huge
Acc/TS	35/400
Climb	0
Toughness	35(8)
Mods Remaining	27
Crew	300
Passengers	0
Energy Story	500
Cost	$89,280,000.00
Systems	AMCM, Deflector Screens, FTL, Sensor Suite Galactic, Shields, Tractor Beam,
Weapons	8XLight Lasers (8X Linked), 4XSuper Heavy Lasers (4X Fixed and Linked), Torpedo 2XLauncher with 16xLight 4xHeavy (2X Fixed),

The slug ship used 20 of the mod spaces for this adventure with two superstructures. You'll have to read the story to find out what they were. 

So, with a little GM fiat, I was able to represent the ships fairly well using the base rules. The SFC applies a logarithmic curve to ship sizing so getting exactly what I wrote took a bit of fudging.

Characters

Next, I tried to interpret the characters.

Doc is a cyborg who was once a doctor at a colonial hospital. An attack left a third of her body destroyed. I was interested to see how she would translate. Here's how she turned out as a seasoned character.

Doc
Agility	d8	Parry	4
Smarts	d8	Toughness	8(2)
Spirit	d8	Charisma	-2
Strength	d12	Pace	6
Vigor	d8
Hindrances
Mean	Minor	–2 to his Charisma for ill-temper
Quirk	Minor	Flares cybereye during conversation
Vow	Major	To protect the Dawn
Bad Luck	Major	1 less bennie per session
Edges
Cyborg	Doubles Cyber Allowed
Healer	+2 Healing
Ace	+2 Boating, Driving, Piloting - Can make craft soaks
Skills
Driving	d4+2
Fighting	d4
Healing	d8+4
K – Astrogation	d6+2
K – Biology	d6
K – Electronics	d6+2
K – French	d4
Notice	d6+2
Persuasion	d4
Piloting	d10+4
Repair	d4
Shooting	d4
Throwing	d4
Cyber
3xStrength(6), 1xAgility(2), Improved Vision(1), Improved Hearing(1), Trait Bonus -Piloting(1), Healing(1), Piloting(2), Knowledge (Electronics)(1), Knowledge (Astrogation)(1)
Gear
Smart Suit, Laser Pistol, Comlink, Personal Data Device

Races

Arvins are a race of lagomorphs (rabbits) from the planet Arv. They've been conquered a number of times so being taken over by the Federation was nothing new. In fact, they considered a real step up from being conquered by the Kurr, who used them as game animals.

What most races call cowardice, Arvins see has just plain common sense. They are one of the few non-human races that are seen throughout the Federation.

• Fleet Footed(+1) - Arvins have a base pace of 8 and a running die of d10
• Enhanced Hearing(+1) - +2 to hearing based Notice Checks
• Leaper(+1) - Doubles normal jumping ability.
• Night Eyes (+1) - ignores penalties for bad lighting
• Yellow (-2) - All Fear checks made at -2

Conclusion

I was able to easily convert my fictional universe from World of Grey into Savage Worlds. I was quite impressed by how little work it took. All the concepts seem to flow easily into the the new ruleset.

Science Fiction Companion Ship Builder

I created a quick spreadsheet to help you design custom ships for the new Savage Worlds Science Fiction Companion much like the one I did for Space 1889: Red Sands.

It has protection and validation rules in place to keep erroneous data to a minimum. Let me know if you find any bugs. You can find the spreadsheet on drop box.

Thus Far I've enjoyed the Science Fiction Companion a great deal. Hope to have a full review out soon. In the meantime I'm going to give a shot at transferring characters, races, and ships from World of Grey into Savage Worlds.

Savage Worlds Science Fiction Companion Released

The anticipation was horrible but the Savage Worlds Science Fiction Companion has finally released. You can find it on DriveThruRPG on on the Pinnacle web site store.

I can't wait to turn my Hellhounds setting into a Savage Setting. Soon Sarge, Angel, Doc, and the rest will by playing their way through a new Savage Setting.

Expect a review soon.

N-Space Beastiary: The Beastmen of Mars

The Races of Mars


This article discusses the various races of Mars in the Space Nazis setting. The setting utilizes the Slipstream product in conjunction with the Savage Worlds Explorers Edition from Pinnacle Entertainment Group for race creation, equipment, vehicles, edges, hindrances and power.

Cat Men are the Red Planet's dominant life form. Other races live alongside them as either prey species, intellectual masters, or hide from them altogether to prevent racial extinction.

The topography of Mars is that of large swaths of red, savanna plains separated by forests, mountains, caverned trenches, and polar ice caps. The canals of Mars stretch from the poles to the equator supplying water and trade routes.

Matt's Maps

Matt Jackson (another project ADD sufferer) is putting his half finished works up on his blog . .lapsus calumni. .  Recently he posted a science fiction map that should suit your sci fi gaming needs. Drop by and check it out.

No Fault

This is another story in the Skipping Stones universe containing the first person testimony of a Blorb named Blasphornomiconiumoocus at his trial for the genocide of Planet Caractus's entire population. In his defence, it really was an accident.

The Blorb are a race of huge, tentacled, slug creatures who eat rotting meat and are bent on galactic domination. To make things worse they are powerful psychics with the ability to bend other races to their will. They stink, leave a trail of slime where ever they go, and treat all other races as lackeys who exist for the sole purpose of serving the Blorb Syndicates. There is absolutely nothing to like about a Blorb. This, of course, increases the enjoyment of writing dialogue for them.

This story, while small, is pivotal to the overall Skipping Stones arc, but it didn't fit within the other writings. The anti-hero is tangentially responsible for saving the galaxy from domination by a time shifting race of crystalline robots. Blasphornomiconiumoocus would hate to be known as the saviour of the galaxy, but that's how history documents his otherwise dreadful life.

Space Pulp: Artifacts

1.

Orange and yellow clouds gathered, darkening in preparation of a Saturnian Summer storm. The birdman flew away from the pursuing tempest, grateful for the tailwind and the clouds that hid him. Lightning flashed between nearby clouds, causing the birdman's hair to stand on end. Then the rain came.



Streams of water flowed past his brow and into his beard. The tailwind became erratic, tossing him about like a child's doll. His wet, blue tunic clung to his thin body proving little protection from the fierce weather. He had to find shelter soon or he and his precious cargo would fall into the clouds below to be lost forever in Saturn's dense, lower atmosphere. He tightened his grasp on the leather satchel that slickened in the rain.

Skipping Stones

With sight that was not sight, an ancient being looked upon the third planet of a distant yellow sun. Its billions of inhabitants scurried through their day-to-day existence unaware of the drama unfolding heavenward. Tension gripped its populace as regional conflicts threatened to escalate into that planet's third world war.

Her thoughts shifted to the system's fourth planet. As if descending from orbit, she viewed the cold, red planet's surface and the remains of an unmanned vehicle sent from the third planet. The craft lay dormant covered in red dust. She marveled at the vast effort that delivered so little return. "Primitive," she said thinking of the beings who hurled the robot from the third planet. "But with a capacity to adapt."

The nearly airless planet was a venue of her creation. The actors approached. She watched the drama unfold.