Mail Room: Savage Worlds Fantasy Companion (2023)

 

Look what I found propped against my front door (and likely sitting there all night). I joined the Kickstarter for this and got the book and a few sets of cards. I am also in both Savage Pathfinder Kickstarters (and have yet to receive the second). Thoughts?

I like Savage Pathfinder, but I get overwhelmed every time I try to play the game. The characters have too many edges, and the class edges feel too much for me to pull apart. I know this is just Savage Worlds, really? Also, the Paizo iconic characters - I love the art and style - feel too overwhelming, and this is their game, not mine. It is a strange feeling, but it is like playing a superhero game, picking a vigilante character option, and seeing Batman on the page as iconic.

Now, I am forever going to compare my hero to Batman.

Most people probably did not have a problem with this. But somehow, I did. Strangely enough, I don't feel 5E has the iconic character problem, and there feels like room for my characters to "be" the iconic character in that class. The OSR certainly doesn't have this problem; the characters there are generic 3d6 dead meat and try to survive. Savage Worlds does not have an issue with iconic characters.

At times, the Paizo flavor of fantasy leans too heavily on their IP, and the game doesn't have room for my ideas. This is even more prominent in the remaster of Pathfinder 2, where the iconic spells, monsters, and creatures are being memory-holed for non-OGL replacement content. Yes, I am harsh, but seriously, replacing drow with reptile people and saying previous dark elf content was "fake news" is peak 2023. The drow monster entry is in the Creative Commons; nobody owns them now. I will check out the new replacements, but they are not in my history, and Golarion 2.1 feels alien to me now.

D&D and Pathfinder 2 are not in the same fantasy genre as most OSR games or even old D&D. While they can be used to play something like the OSR, they are either too planar or too specific to emulate the older generic fantasy game worlds.

Paizo IP feeling dominant is not a bad problem! This signifies solid branding, theming, and tight product management. The game has a definite identity, which is excellent - but it hurts using the system elsewhere.

Still, if you are playing Golarion and love the old-style art and flavor, play Savage Pathfinder 100%, or play the original 3.5E version. You can have your red dragons and magic missiles, and it feels like 2010 again. I love my copy of Savage Pathfinder, and it stays on my most-played shelves. Despite what Paizo does in the future, my version of Golarion is the original.

Some history: I ran a short Savage Fantasy (2012) game in the Pathfinder version of Primeval Thule, a sort of "Conan plus Cthulhu plus D&D fantasy" mish-mash of a setting, and it was a fun swords & sorcery romp. The thing I love about the original fantasy companion was it was a "stuff book" for the main Savage Worlds book, and things still worked essentially the same as the main book plus this.

I tried running it with Savage Pathfinder, and it fell apart. WTF?

It felt like Pathfinder. The characters in my game were not limited by class edges and had all the options open to them. I could have a bard with rage. Whatever - you are surviving in a messed-up world, let your characters progress naturally. If your bard has a reason to pick something "disallowed," then do so. I know you can do this in Savage Pathfinder, but the game felt wrong, and I had a lot of extra information in lists of "can't pick" X, Y, and Z that I would end up ignoring.

Great if this is Pathfinder, but this wasn't. If I can return to superheroes, it is like playing a Marvel RPG with rules meant for a DC Universe. It did not feel right; the goblins were the football-headed ones, I felt the presence of the iconics, and it was like biting into a hamburger where you knew you would only take one bite.

I wanted Conan plus D&D flavor.

I was getting Paizo flavor.

The game was better with the Savage Worlds book, plus the 2012 Fantasy Companion.

Now, I have a revised 2023 Savage Fantasy Companion. The game is a generic fantasy sandbox simulator. The races are a catch-all of everything. Nothing is assumed for me. The art is excellent, and the setting is agnostic. Characters can progress organically.

Most importantly, no world flavor or theme is forced on me. Thule can be Thule. If I played in any other setting, the flavor there would be dominant. Savage Worlds plus the 2023 Fantasy Companion would fade into the background - like they should.

A great generic game fades away and lets flavor take over. Cyhper System does this well. GURPS does it. Many OSR fantasy games do this. Pathfinder 1e does it better than 2e (even with the iconic characters). Savage Pathfinder does not feel generic enough to me to run anything other than Golarion. Likely, it is heavily themed towards "fulfilling the fantasy" - which is excellent for running Pathfinder.

It doesn't do it for other fantasy settings, not as well as a generic fantasy toolbox that keeps complexity down and strips out the flavor and setting limitations meant to emulate a genre.

Savage Pathfinder is great; it is one of the best Pathfinder experiences I could ever imagine.

The new Fantasy Companion has infinite potential outside of that area.

Elegant, Simple, and Expressive

As much as I love Savage Worlds, Cypher feels much easier to play and transfer ideas into. Where a Savage Worlds version of a setting feels like "the Savage Worlds version of a setting," Cypher feels different - almost like a stripped-down version of pool-based 5E or a d20 system with a flat 1-10 difficulty curve and plenty of room to interpret.

For me, it completely replaces 5E and does many things 5E does, but both more accessible and with greater customization and flexibility. With 5E, I am "buying books" to have more options. I have them all in Cypher and am free to make the ones I want. The 5E design is very consumerist and designed to limit options and sell new ones.

Any of my 5E books are instant Cypher sourcebooks.

Savage Worlds is sort of its own thing. It does anything, but the game requires a lot of "table toys," such as decks of cards, poker chips, standard dice, and lots of structure to make the system and toys work together. To play Savage Worlds, I need to "load" the "Savage Worlds" OS into my brain and think in that model to make the game run smoothly. I love the system and playing with all the toys, but sometimes I have to fit my ideas into the structure, and things feel lost in the translation.

In some games, like OSR d20 games, I can run without thinking and "loading the game's OS" in my head. Cypher fits into this category but also has that "box of Legos" feeling I like. The game also invited you to design your own pieces, unlike Savage Worlds, which warms against tweaking and house ruling (the GM's guide).

Case in point, I tried running a Car Wars game in Savage Worlds, and I had to make a lot of conversions and substitutions for the parts I wanted in the game. The game worked well, but it felt more like Savage Worlds - which is a good thing, in all honesty. The chase rules and vehicle combat relied on the systems and routines built into the game, and while they are designed for the most fun, I felt confined to that structure.

I didn't know how to fight combats with vehicles with Cypher, but the game had a simplified resolution system. For most cars, you could say "they are all sort of equal" based on a "maxed out" design for level one thru six cars. A level 1 vehicle is a light cycle, and a level 6 is a van. The vehicle combat system is very abstract and works for cinematic combat. If a van is weaker than the best-in-class design, lower its level.

Car Wars typically runs between "best in class" designs, and the weapon selection is mostly flavor. An abstract system uses a generic "handle a road combat" sense.

Is that the only way I can do it? No. I could make each car a "creature," give it a level and amount of hits and figure "damage as level" like creatures. 

I could eliminate "leveled damage" and give each vehicle weapons and large gear slots equal to the level, an armor value, and do it that way. Treating "vehicles as creatures" would work well and let me make custom "creatures" for different vehicle types and customize them with assets and inabilities. Weapons are like Cypher, a 1d6 MG is a light weapon, 2d6 weapons are medium, and anything heavier is a heavy weapon. Single-shot weapons get a bonus, like ignoring armor or bonus damage.

It works.

Is it the way the game says to do it? No. But it works.

I could stick with the game's "leveled cars" system, still do the "spaces" thing, and allow one modification or unique piece of gear per vehicle level, such as a targeting computer to ease attack difficulty. Some cars are "higher level" at attack than defense. A flamethrower would give a devastating attack up close but be worthless father away (or fired to the front while moving). Weapons? Assume they are on there, and what they are is flavor. Unarmed vehicles? Just say they are or increase their defenses or cargo if there is weight to spare.

I could develop "vehicular cyphers" to put in those slots and have something more interesting than stock Car Wars. The possibilities are endless.

All of it works.

Savage Pathfinder: Meatier Enemies

I was doing some test plays with Savage Pathfinder, and wow, the enemies are "meatier" than your typical B/X enemies. They display quite a degree of toughness and resilience, and even though most foes are "extras" in SW and get incapacitated on just one wound, getting them to that point is a lot tougher in a one-on-one fight.

It comes down to getting an extra into the shaken condition, winning initiative on the next turn, and shaking them again (with damage, not a condition). It is far easier with a 2-on-1 situation, but I had this test fight between my barbarian character and a gnoll, and there was a long back and forth where the gnoll would get shaken and throw the condition off on the next turn.

And the toughness values ensure you need an excellent damage roll to inflict a shaken condition, which is more challenging than it first seems. And the game adds the "resilient" and "very resilient" monster special abilities that allow you to throw one or two extra wounds onto an extra (not wild cards) onto extra to simulate higher hit point monsters.

The Savage Pathfinder Bestiary was created by some really talented monster designers who know the Savage Worlds rules inside and out, and the designs are a masterclass in taking a 3.5E style monster and translating the difficulty and challenge of that creature into a new rules system and keeping the experience intact while working within the rules of the new game.

But meatier monsters mean you need less of them, and you get a lot of B/X adventures and classic D&D and AD&D monsters that equate challenge with quantity. Many classic D&D modules will think nothing of throwing 6-10 goblins in a room as the "guard post." If you are trying to convert this into a Savage Pathfinder adventure, you would probably reduce the numbers in the encounter and always remember to group them up into groups of at least three, so they can get the +2 "gang up" bonus to their fighting rolls when they attack (and also remember, this can be canceled out by a similar number of defenders on the other side).

Also, Savage Worlds has the option of "one roll per group" for skill rolls - but in combat, the rules assume "one roll per group member." Savage Pathfinder, page 133, emphasis mine:

If three goblins attack a single hero, for example, each of the three goblins add +2 to their Fighting rolls.

B/X and C&C can handle large combats pretty well, with a single d20 vs. AC roll plus hp damage, and the AD&D game has its origins in a wargame, so there is that "mass battle lineage" in the rules. Savage Worlds is a much more cinematic game, and it does better with those "one on one" battles and fights with a fewer number of more formidable enemies and the tense back-and-forth swings of combat. You can do mass battles with Savage Worlds, but to avoid each combat from turning into a night-long slog, I would reduce the number of enemies, give the flavor of the challenge, and keep the story going faster.

If you halve the number of goblins in a room, you can always throw those extra ones in or have them run in as reinforcements if the encounter is a complete blowout in favor of the players. Or have them as a hall encounter if you feel things are moving too quickly.

Again, Savage Worlds is a game that simulates a "movie reality" instead of a "reality simulator" like a GURPS or a Champions. Focus on the pace and beats of the story instead of worrying about the encounter challenges, and adjust on the fly as you referee the group of players and gauge their combat power. Forcing the players to "burn resources" in non-story encounters is the goal since that heightens the tension and raises the stakes of end-boss fights.

Mail Room: Savage Worlds Super Powers Companion

I finally got my Kickstarter Savage Worlds Super Powers Companion in the mail, and it is a good set. Granted, you can do superheroes with the core Savage Worlds game book, but this is more of a "more" book, and it gives you a lot of tools and pregens to make running a superheroes game a little easier.

The Horror Companion is next, and I await word of the two other projects I backed: the Fantasy Companion and the second Savage Pathfinder set for Curse of the Crimson Throne. I am really looking forward to the Fantasy set since I was running a generic fantasy game with the old Fantasy Companion, and it worked very well.

The Horror Companion Kickstarter is live and in the sidebar.

If you want rules-moderate and pulp-feeling superhero action, this is the system to run. I say rules moderate since you have to put your brain into "Savage Worlds mode" when you play any of these games. Once you do, everything clicks and makes a lot of sense. Savage Worlds is the only game I have experienced this with since it has its own "reality model" of how the world and system work.

I like the Savage Pathfinder set, and that is also a good set of rules for anything Pathfinder 1e - back when the game was in its edgy and cool alternative phase. I have fallen off the Pathfinder 2e wagon again and boxed that game up - there are too many rules, too much steampunk, and the art feels reserved and unexciting. My Pathfinder 1e days will be what the world and the game mean to me forever since the game was still a fantasy game, and it wasn't afraid to appeal to its mature fantasy reader target audience.

My only issue with Savage Pathfinder is converting. I feel Castles & Crusades delivers a better overall fantasy experience with fewer rules, fewer conversions, better compatibility, and more classic flavor. For "fantasy superheroes" - where the whole post-4E fantasy roleplaying genre is these days, Savage Worlds nails the feeling and tone without the complexity.

Yes, the fantasy genre is split these days. You either play classic fantasy (AD&D and B/X), or you play fantasy superheroes (5E or Pathfinder 2e). People call them all the same genre, and disagreements start. Know what you like, and play what you love.

The Savage Worlds team is firing on all cylinders and making great games and sets. Hats off to this incredible team that gets things done.

More 4x6 Printable Cards

My second go at a Castles & Crusades card came out pretty nice, and while yes, it does have that "tutorial text" taking up the center of the card, that is a good thing to have as you learn. If I did a "pro" version I would use that space for something better, maybe scoot the whole side block in and have the entire right side open for information. I omit things like race and sex, height and weight, those can be noted anywhere or shorthanded (HM for a human male, EF for an elf female, etc.).

The AC data went on one line, with the most used AC being its own space, and grapple and touch AC getting a split line. Everything else is tightened up, and there is a space for languages now. I also added lines to the bottom half just to keep things organized. The abilities area is both for race and class abilities. If you are not a caster, use the Spells & Magic area for anything you want, potions, consumables, magic items, or more gear.

My second try at a Savage Worlds Pathfinder 4x6 card tightened up considerably, with the addition of a PP line and a powers area to record those. There is a little less room for gear than I normally like, so I made the top line usable. The system has 20+ skills, and while most characters never have them all, they take up a quarter of the card space. 

I could move powers under skills, but I would need to give it three lines to equal the space, so I would need to push the section up and crowd ability scores, which I am trying to avoid because I like white space around attributes for clarity and impact.

This may also be a Savage Pathfinder thing since without the Class Features section I would have four more lines on the right side. Savage Pathfinder is by default a lot more structured in terms of characters and record sheets, so you pay a lot in space to split things apart how the game wants you to. With Fantasy Companion, you are using the simpler Savage Worlds character sheets, though I would keep Ancestry or combine it with Edges.

Skills are an interesting subject. A lot of games just go way too hard on skills and provide infinite choices that often drift into the obscure and unfocused, and that drags the game down. GURPS is a notable example, along with Rolemaster FRP. I like C&C because it gets rid of the notion of needing skills, while still providing a one or two random profession system just in case it fits a character concept. As a result, the character cards are much cleaner, and this would be true in a system with limited skills, such as Star Frontiers.

I find myself moving away from skill-heavy games and towards ones that use more inventive solutions than putting all that bookkeeping and reference on players. When you look at traditional RPG skill systems, they are primarily meant to force you to pick a narrow range of actions your character is capable of and discard 60-90% of the list. Yes, it is character customization, but in many cases, it feels like the designers are giving up and throwing choice paralysis at the players and referees.

Savage Pathfinder and Castles & Crusades

I hear many good things about the Savage Worlds version of Pathfinder. Some players who loved collecting and reading the books but found the 3.5 rules too heavy for their time and schedules say, "This is the Pathfinder world I dreamed of."

They can finally play in the world they imagined and were fans of for such a long time, which is a great thing. Worlds and adventures are stories and content; the game used to play them is just a format or distribution network (like Steam, Apple Store, Epic Game Launcher). The gamers win whenever an adventure or world is ported to another system.

The Kickstarter for Curse of the Crimson Throne looks very successful, and there is a lot of excitement there, and I hope these continue and the books and adventures keep coming for Savage Pathfinder. I am 100% on board for all of them.

It is also nice to see Paizo adopting the cross-licensing model to maintain interest in the Pathfinder 1e world and adventures. I would love to see a 3rd party-license for this cross-platform game so publishers with Pathfinder 1e content can convert over to Savage Worlds and see renewed interest in some of the classic adventures and supplements.

I bought an adventure path for PF 1e rules just to play it with this game. I got a few 1e background books too. So it is working.

Savage Worlds is a unique game; it models a movie-like experience rather than detailed blow-by-blow realism. Instead of doing 5 hit points damage to a goblin's 6 and having to do another combat round, the goblin is "hit" and falls down movie-style. Savage Worlds is more concerned with flow and feeling than realism or simulation. As a result, it feels like you are playing a Pathfinder: The Movie Game with larger-than-life heroes and doing incredible feats of heroism and daring.

My dream for this is to have most every adventure path converted, every bestiary reproduced, and all the major expansion books recreated. Oh, and please reprint the 1e pawn sets!

But until then, this is my go-to game for playing in classic Golarion. I still collect and am subscribed to the 2e content, and I will use that one day.

Legacy Adventures

I love my legacy worlds, adventures, and modules. The question is, do I convert them all to Savage Worlds? I don't want to since I enjoy playing the original experience with d20-style rules. I don't like the cruft and complexity, such as all the 3.5 gears, grease, and grit that come with playing that set of rules. I want rules that mainly work with the old AC, damage, and attack modifier scales. So that means a B/X game or Castles & Crusades.

Castles & Crusades is my choice since it throws out most of the legacy cruft and is more simplified than a B/X set of rules. All skills save, feats, class features, and dozens of charts are thrown out, and you just have the character, class, and ability scores. The game is very focused on the core experience.

I did a conversion of Dark Sun last week and realized I was throwing out more AD&D 2e legacy cruft than I had to add support for anything I needed. I had everything I needed in the C&C rules. What was remarkable is that my conversion felt like I was playing the original Dark Sun, and I could use all the monsters, special weapons, and armor materials. The original books were used more for flavor and background than rules reference.

I could have converted this to Savage Worlds and had a Dark Sun: The Movie Game experience, but since everything worked perfectly in C&C, all the AC, damage, and attack and defense data. I felt I had a closer experience to the original AD&D 2e game in a C&C game. I could fight one of the iconic Dark Sun monsters and have the actual challenge and combat tactics applied. With Savage Worlds, the conversion is a "close enough" feeling. That does not always give you that "original edition" experience where you would better understand why a giant sand worm was such a terrifying opponent in the original game.

I know, if you want to truly understand the balance of each monster and fight, you will have to play AD&D 2e. The giant sand worm example is a good one, let's say you had an AD&D monster that had a paralysis poison and then could dive under the sands and burrow, and about the size of a bear. If you played AD&D and ever got paralyzed as that big thing dove under the sand and all you could do was lie there, you know how terrifying that monster is. If you never played against it like that, you may convert it in without those key features, or not understand the attack pattern and dangers enough to do it justice.

C&C gets me 90% of the way to an AD&D experience for 10% of the complexity.

And it includes a decent magic resistance mechanic.

There are times I want that AD&D feeling. I am not into the exploding dice or the shaken conditions, the bennies, or the wild cards - I just want something close enough to the original but without all the complexity. No saving throw or thief percentage charts. No strange mechanics for class abilities. No skills and limited or no feats. A unified roll-high ability check system. No converting anything. Characters that fit on 4x6 cards.

C&C is AD&D Lite.

Savage Pathfinder: 4x6 Printable Cards

Making a 4x6 printable character card for Savage Worlds Pathfinder is not easy. The skills take up a lot of space since there are 20+ in the game, and while you do not need them all you still need an open list. And the SWADE skill defaults are on there with "Com Know" being the common knowledge skill.

Ancestry for humans is one item, but for other races can be a long list of items. Edges and class features get six spaces each, whereas hindrances get four. Gear gets the rest with 12 spaces, but you can go straight across if you want. I may make gear straight-across lines like the top ancestry line.

I do not have a power section on this card so that is a problem.

My C&C design uses a lot of space for the save types, and that is a lot of wasted space, so I may be revising that design. This is a design and space optimization challenge, and it is fun to try and be efficient while still being able to write on the card.

Savage Worlds: Fantasy Companion Alpha 1.2 Out

The Alpha 1.2 for the Savage Worlds Fantasy Companion is out, Pinnacle just put the PDF downloads into accounts. The changelog is here:

https://www.pegforum.com/forum/savage-worlds/savage-worlds-general-chat/feedback-on-the-fantasy-companion-for-swade/61349-important-notes-changelogs

This looks like issues reported between 1.0 and 1.1, and does not include feedback for 1.1 yet, so a minor version change, but with a few important updates.

Dark Sun: Picking a Set of Rules (Savage Worlds)

So, what rules would I use if I wanted to play Dark Sun today? Something tells me I have the AD&D 2e reprints for the DMG, PHB, and MM right here and to just go with those. Or use an AD&D 2e-like system such as For Gold & Glory.

All of those would be easy choices and work well. But what if I wanted something else? When you start converting over to new systems, you can do this a terrible way by converting everything to the new game and creating a lot of work, or do it the easy way by capturing the flavor and feel of the setting without worrying too much about making a perfect conversion. The latter is the Savage Worlds way of converting a setting, and one I recommend since the game is yours, and how you play it is up to you.

What games could I try to play this with, other than AD&D 2e?

Savage Worlds

Let's get the obvious choice out here first. Savage Worlds could do Dark Sun with style and capture that RE Howard and Edgar Rice Burroughs sort of pulp adventure feeling perfect. I would throw in the new Fantasy Companion book and source a lot from the existing 2e Dark Sun books and monster PDFs. Again, you could just "start playing" without too much fuss, substitute "close enough" monsters, and give them a few powers and edges for flavor. You are playing Dark Sun without spending too much time trying to convert or in character generation.

Even Dark Sun's preserver and defiler magic could be done with a particular rule or two and treated right as any other spellcaster in Savage Worlds. I do not like how preservers do not suffer any penalties when casting spells in the existing Dark Sun rules - the preservers are mages, rules as written in 2e with zero need to destroy life when they cast spells. The defilers kill all life in a radius when casting magic. Otherwise, there is no difference between the two.

So why are there defilers again? Killing all plant life in a radius of a spell gives you no bonus, makes it no easier, and is just a flavor call? There are no spell list limitations for preservers, like no death spells or necromancy? Why isn't everyone a preserver?

I sense the voice of the marketing department here going, "Let's not make mages too different than what people are used to. Everyone should be able to have fun."

And we end up with preservers being necromancers.

For Savage Worlds, I would make the "killing plant life" aspect of the defiler give a bonus when it happens - and the second cast in a defiled area would not provide the bonus. I would eliminate the destructive area of effect spells for preservers and ban the necromancy. Firebolt would be okay, but not fireball. An AoE stun or freeze would be acceptable for a preserver. Defilers should be all about careless destruction and dark magic, while preservers should show more care in their magic, and they could possibly have healing magic.

The original Dark Sun has a lot of these "mechanics disjointed from the story" places, and the game is a hundred times better if you break the 2e mechanics, old standbys, and tropes.

I would also make changes to the elemental clerics, druids, and templars. A templar's "god" should be the sorcerer-king, not a primary sphere - and this fits them being fanatically loyal and being able to call upon the resources of their king. And I would use another name than a cleric, elemental priest, or something more fantastic and tweak their powers with elemental effects and more power around sources. Druids would be required to restore the world, plant trees, free animals, create and protect oasis sanctuaries, and be eco-commandos who disrupt the sorcerer king's strip mining projects and other destructive practices.

You put a little more thought into these classes, and they become much better than the "Forgotten Realms in the Desert" classes in the original boxed set. Recognize the original setting was written with a lot of corporate interference and meddling, written within the existing class limitations to be compatible with the base game. When you convert, you have the chance to make the game much more focused and logical, and flavorful.

I would definitely keep my changes in any conversion I made, no matter the rules (even 2e AD&D), since this fits the story of the setting a lot better and makes both of those classes more exciting and a lot more fun to play. This case is the odd one in that the conversion world actually comes out better than the original. The pulp feeling is built into the rules, and the "story as mechanics" modifications we wanted are easier in the new system. I don't really care about all of the conversion minutiae, if a large sandworm is the size of a Savage Worlds bear, I will give it the bear's stats, and a few special attacks and defenses, like a swallow hole or a burrow movement.

Primeval Thule is a very similar world, and a lot of the rules and advice for that world, and they have a Savage Worlds version, can be used here with little or no modification.

AD&D 2e is a good game, and I could run it pretty well and have fun.

In this case, Savage Worlds nails the pulp adventure of the Conan and John Carter inspirations of this world perfectly. And this is one of my preferred games to play this world with since it fits so well.

Savage Worlds Fantasy: Alpha 1.1 Released

I like keeping on top of these news releases since I want to keep up with the core games I play. Savage Worlds, SW Pathfinder, SW Superheroes, and SW Fantasy are the ones I play.

In SW Fantasy Companion news, they released a new beta of the book, to version 1.1, and it looks like a lot of the changes are tweaking powers and monsters. Check it out here:

https://www.pegforum.com/forum/savage-worlds/savage-worlds-general-chat/feedback-on-the-fantasy-companion-for-swade/61349-important-notes-changelogs

It is funny since Savage Worlds Pathfinder got a lot of attention from fantasy gamers coming over the system; the Fantasy Companion, the more generic fantasy system for the game, has gotten much of the same attention. The book is a tremendous setting-neutral fantasy resource, with many fantasy gamers helping test the system. This is looking to be a must-have for the less Pathfinder-style games set in other settings like Greyhawk, The Forgotten Realms, or even Mystara.

I ran a Savage Thule solo game with the SWADE core rules plus the older Fantasy Companion, and it was a great game. It felt "Savage Worlds" enough; some conversions just don't do it for me, and I think the original classes and monsters are built into the setting. Strangely enough, Greyhawk, the Realms, and Mystara feel this way for me. I just want to play those settings with Castles & Crusades and be comfortable in the B/X base plus unified "save + skill + feat + class feature" mechanics of the SIEGE Engine.

Honestly, many people complain about the SEIGE Engine as something they added to a B/X style of rules, which is unnecessary. When you realize that one mechanic replaces every skill, feat, save, and class mechanic in the game, you will begin to see the genius of the design. This is very close to the genius Swords & Wizardry "unified save" mechanic. Still, it covers every bolted-on system added to the game after AD&D in a single ability score and level-based roll.

Also, in Savage Worlds news, the Superpowers Companion is shipping in September! Back in the 1990s, we were big superhero games with the great Marvel Superheroes system from TSR, but these days Marvel/SC just have that Disney/AT&T/Wall Street stink all over them, and a lot of the classic comics and teams I loved feel disposable and spent. The Avengers? It's over. The X-Men? Significant in the 1990s, but the legend and legacy were wasted and squandered.

We are in this post-superhero era where we are tearing down the icons and deconstructing them, like the Amazon series The Boys. Even if you were to reboot a classic team, such as The Avengers, I would get this feeling they are some alternate universe recreation of the original team in something like Mojoworld or out of The Truman Show. Maybe that is how I will play that campaign, with all of them slowly realizing they were fakes, to begin with, like everyone who came before, like everyone in the MCU, and the real heroes all died when Stan Lee passed away.

And they slowly descend into madness, addiction, shifting alliances, becoming heroes or villains in spite, and an eternal search for who they really are.

Everyone is in this cheap reboot cinematic universe.

And nobody outlives their creators.

Or I will go with new teams and heroes entirely and forget the reboots, and keep with this genre's heroic intent and story.

And also, in Savage Worlds news, the Curse of the Crimson Throne and Advanced Player Guide Kickstarter is in its last 5 days, so if you like the books and want more, now is the time to jump on board! Let's push this one over the 150K mark and make a statement we want more Savage Worlds Pathfinder!

Savage Pathfinder, part 1

This is what I am going with.

I had a fun campaign going for Savage Worlds and the original Fantasy Companion, and it was a fun one. This was in the world of Savage Thule, and it was a sort of Conan-inspired game with survival and mysterious ruin exploration themes. It was a fun game that got me into the system. When I saw the Savage Worlds Pathfinder game announced, I backed the crowdfunding and kind of put the game on hold. At the same time, I checked out different games, such as Castles & Crusades, B/X versions, Pathfinder 2, and a bunch of other fantasy games that I wanted to read and experience.

Primeval Thule is a fantastic setting, a mix of Lovecraft and Conan sort of horror and pulp adventure with a nod to the open fantasy standards. It is sort of a world you can pick any spot and make your own, which is excellent and allows you a lot of flexibility when coming up with adventures. I have the Pathfinder version, but they do have a PDF version of this for Savage Worlds. I just want the maps and descriptions; I can do without many rules since I have everything I need.

If I go back to Thule, I get this feeling that I want the new Fantasy Companion in my hand to do it right. That leaves me with my current book in hand, Savage Pathfinder.

Would I stick to Golarion in the 1e version, pre-Steampunk 2e timeline? Honestly, this was one of the most incredible runs of a setting in roleplaying history when you consider every adventure path and book made for Pathfinder 1e. I love that the 1e world still feels like a fantasy world. We have not advanced into the Starfinder era of robots, machine companions, androids, anything-goes ancestries, technology, flying machines, guns, and modern technology replacements. The Pathfinder 2e world feels like fantasy Starfinder without starships.

Explaining Savage Pathfinder

If I do stick to Golarion, how do I explain away the whole Pathfinder 2 thing? Well, there is always this guy...

Aroden

Well, the rumors about the god Aroden's death were greatly exaggerated. And he is a Savage Pathfinder fan. Being the god of history and innovation, he likes Savage World's ability to play in any historical era, and he also likes how innovative the rules are. Likely, he was off being a cowboy in Deadlands, giving the system a try.

...found you!

With the other gods distracted, Aroden discovered how to become the god of rules systems and gamemastering so he could impose his will on everyone and let the chips fall where they may. He walks around the Realm of the Gods like Matt Mercer and calls the other Golarion gods his players. He even narrates in the same way, "Your followers discover an evil plot to..." And yes, that pisses everyone off. But there is nothing they can do about it since without Aroden around, nobody plays anything.

Aroden's followers, who were left, became regional gamemasters of the world. I am guessing Aroden will not have an official church or religion. If they exist, they will operate in secret like a group of gamemasters secretly fixing rules, setting up adventures, and keeping abnormalities from messing up the new reality. You could have fun playing a religion that treats the Savage Worlds rules as a religion and treats bennies as a holy blessing, but then again, that is just describing most Savage Worlds fans.

Granted, with Savage Aroden back, many things in the timeline are changing. If you replay the adventure paths, I am betting things like the World-wound closing will not happen (or will end very differently) because of the war this guy returning will cause. You think, well, the ultimate good guy is back, things will be easy mode, right?

Not exactly. He is the new gamemaster in town, and things are gonna change. He sold all his 3.5 books and has moved onto a new system. He wants pulp adventure.

In this alternate world that follows Savage World rules, I am probably free to break all the plates and glasses, screw up the timeline, change the outcomes of adventure paths, make entire kingdoms fall, and raise holy hell with the timeline. Maybe because this guy returns, Asmodeus comes to  the world, makes himself King of Cheliax, and says, "Screw you, Aroden."

Nethys, god of Min-Maxing

Think of every god in the setting as a disruptive, obstinate, rules-lawyer, power gamer, flowery roleplayer, min-maxer, overly careful, or otherwise stereotype of a pen-and-paper gamer, and you will get how the gods act under this system. And then translate those behaviors to the plots they cause for their followers. And the players have to deal with all the chaos this causes. Adventure paths will be created just because of fights between "players" in the Realm of the Gods. This is Pathfinder 1e on crack.

Fun stuff.

I can create 100 first-edition Savage Pathfinder adventure paths just off the chaos this guy coming back and changing the rules of the game causes. No adventure path will ever end like you think it will. You are free to make the endings of each one make things worse in some way and create more adventures as the entire world slowly descends into madness and hell.

Crossovers will be fun since we will go to Deadlands, ETU, Flash Gordon, Sprawlrunners, Wiseguys, and other cool places instead of World War I. The rule is no crossover unless it is a Savage Worlds setting. Aroden wants to get some use out of his book collection, just like the guy running this campaign.

There will be those wanting to go back to the old ways (which will never happen, Aroden has a Deadlands ace up his sleeve); those who miss 3.75; those who know Pathfinder 2 is impossible now; those who lament the loss of Starfinder; those who know their 675 hit points and AC 40 are gone forever; and those who are just afraid of a new and uncertain future.

Let it rip.

Savage Worlds: Fantasy Companion Alpha

For late backers and the original backers, the alpha PDF dropped today and is available for download. I don't want to do a review since this is an alpha, but what I was interested in were the differences between Savage Pathfinder (SPF) and the Fantasy Companion (FC) since there was a lot of overlap.

This is a nice book, and it presents a more general genre of fantasy than the more world-specific Pathfinder setting. You get a big box view of fantasy with a super broad view of fantasy races, classes, powers, and other material pulled from open-source fantasy games rather than sticking to the Pathfinder core material. If you have a world that is more kitchen-sink than Pathfinder, or a setting like D&D 4 with dragonkin, this is the perfect book to use to convert things into Savage Worlds.

A note here, the ancestries in the Fantasy Companion are at +2 points, compared to Savage Pathfinder's +4 points. They give you an option to add two points to these to bring them up to that "heroic level." I am betting this is to keep things in line with the original rules and balance level of the established settings. 

The races here are way more varied than the standard Savage Pathfinder collection, and you get a bunch of the new classics to play with, and some inspired by movies, games, novels, and even MMORPGs. If you ever wanted to play Savage Worlds: World of Warcraft, Skyrim, Elder Scrolls, Witcher, or Everquest, this is your book. You also get new racial abilities such as diminutive, dark vision, and breath weapons, so a lot more types of custom races can be created.

There are a few reprinted monsters between SPF and FC, but that is to get both games to a basic level of support without requiring the other book, and that is a good thing.

This works well on its own or with Savage Pathfinder as expanded content, so I am very happy with this. FC is more of a hacker and creator's guide to creating fantasy settings and games, whereas SPF is more of a specific game for a specific world.

More soon as this develops and gets even better.

Highly recommended and worth jumping in on.

Games I Keep Coming Home To

After 40 years of roleplaying, I keep coming back to a particular set of games that feel true to me. Versions of D&D come and go,; you get high-concept licensed games based on movies or classic games that come on strong and have zero support, and classics that never change but desperately need updates and streamlining.

Some games I love because they are classics, like Star Frontiers or Tunnels and Trolls, but I don't consider them my "home games" since I don't play them as much these days. If you forced me to keep only a few games out of my library, less than five, they would not be on the list.

I put games in boxes all the time and store them. A few I am forced to pull out again, and they make their way back to my main shelves. They just do everything better, and I often have characters in solo games for these who call to me for adventures. These are those games that I just can't live without.

Old School Essentials

You got to have a copy of B/X on any list like this, and mine is the two-volume set of Old School Essentials Advanced. This is a game I could play and rely on to stay the same for 40 more years and then see D&D go through another four major revisions of the game (and likely a few corporate ownership changes). And I do not have to learn anything to play this, I started with B/X, grew up with B/X, and part of my DNA follows B/X rules.

That said, I still pull in monsters and adventures from Labyrinth Lord; the once and the former king still has a lot of great classics to offer. But this is B/X, a world of fun where everything mainly works seamlessly together. Also, a nod needs to be given to the excellent Index Card RPG for changing how I referee games like this, and I would easily include that book in my OSE collection.

I do have quite a few AD&D-style games, but none of them really feel as strong, complete, and as simple as this. If I had to keep one game out of them all, this would be the one. Castles & Crusades is an excellent game in the AD&D mold, as is Adventures Dark and Deep. I like the refinements AD&D introduced to limit caster power, but the characters also started collecting dozens of strange minor modifiers from various tables that felt like game design lint.

OSE is high quality and has the best-in-the-world organization and presentation. For me, I prefer this over D&D 5. There are fewer books, better organized, old-school, great additions to the B/X core, and all the best classic experiences in two beautiful books.

Great things last the test of time.

GURPS

One of my biggest regrets was my brother and me never GURPS the respect the game deserved. We played Aftermath and held that game in higher regard than GURPS, which is a true classic, and this will always be a classic and great game. We grew up playing Car Wars and enjoyed our simpler Traveller version of that game to GURPS, and then our "advanced" game was Aftermath until that game fell apart on us, and we were switching games again and again.

And again through the 1990s, when we ended up back with D&D 2nd edition, and that fell apart when Wizards came in. The third edition came, and we went out own way, tried Pathfinder 1e (which I liked more than my brother), and we settled on D&D 4 for a while until that game fell apart spectacularly. It was hard to watch the designers of D&D 4 long for games like B/X, and begin to design back in B/X class features into D&D 4 Essentials, and then throw away the entire edition for 5E.

I come back to GURPS and see a modular design that scales in complexity as much as you want it to. This is what GURPS haters hold up as a flaw when it is actually the best feature of the game. That complexity dial starts at 0 and goes to 11. If someone complains about GURPS being too hard, I feel they don't understand the game's design philosophy, and they played with too many features and optional combat rules.

I can do so much with this game easily; it is my new instant favorite. And it gives me detail and depth other games lack. I would not use this for pulp-cinematic games, but for games where I want to carefully sculpt a character into a masterpiece of vision and design, GURPS has no equal. And I say sculpting because that is what you are doing in GURPS; you aren't designing, generating, or building a character - this is an art as character design, and every point matters.

I find myself asking, "do I need that skill?" What happens when I increase my primary weapon skill by a level and make some trade-offs elsewhere? Could I offset this with a disadvantage? Would it fit the character? Can I make a few better choices to get that advantage I really want? Like Pathfinder 1e, 2e, and Starfinder, character creation is highly recommended to use electronic tools.

And the beautiful thing is that every choice you make during character sculpting matters when you play the game. You will see the outcomes of your options in every combat. There will be things you wish you had and saving up points to buy. You will need to work with others to fill the gaps.

Gear and load-outs matter.

Sure, you can create the best swordsman on paper ever. But when he dies of exposure walking to the dungeon in a sudden cold rainstorm, you realize your next character will be better balanced and fit a background and theme. For every horrible thing a referee can do to you in B/X on a saving throw, there is a skill that lets you deal with it quickly in GURPS. Or do it to others and force them to make the save. GURPS gives you the skills to avoid pain and deal it out to others.

The Dungeon Fantasy game also deserves special mention, though I am at times torn if this game is even needed. It is still GURPS and 99% compatible, and everything in here, from monsters to magic items, can be used with GURPS, but I use GURPS for more than just fantasy, so my tastes run all over the genres the main game supports. For those wanting a focused fantasy game, this is perfect. This game and Savage Pathfinder share a lot in common; they are 99% the original game, just with options moved around and a few things changed to support the genre better.

These days I see the genius in the system. I really love it. I put this system away in the closet, pulled it out, and re-shelved everything twice. It does gritty, realistic fantasy that beats Aftermath in realism and fun and does so cleanly, simply, and elegantly. It does anything and everything. You can - and should - scale complexity to meet your group's tastes. The sourcebooks are amazing.

This isn't B/X, but nothing beats it for character design and how deeply you can customize, mod, reskin, and scale this game. It is the Skyrim of roleplaying games, a game that is also a platform for hacking and creativity.

If we had given GURPS the respect it deserved, we could have skipped D&D three through five and saved a few thousand dollars on books - and had a better-feeling game that would have lasted for 20+ years. These were the rules and the game we were looking for, and we never knew we had it.

Savage Worlds

This is another one I keep putting away on my "less-used game" shelves, and it keeps moving back onto my most-played shelves. If you want a generic game that uses toys like playing cards, polyhedral dice, and excellent mechanics - this is your game. I blame the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game for bringing me home to this one; I love the idea in the card game of the dice-based ability scores, and a 100% no-steampunk fantasy 3.5 feeling world, and the Savage Pathfinder sister game to this completely fills the niche for me, and it like the Dungeon Fantasy type game for the primary set of rules.

It has abstract systems for wounding and many parts of the rules that take some head-space to wrap around, but once you do, you begin to realize the means to the end. Cinematic pulp adventure is the game's name here, and the game is built like a well-oiled machine to deliver the experience. The initiative system is genius and makes me feel traditional d20 + modifier-based systems are dinosaur relics.

This has the character design thing I love from GURPS but in a streamlined format. You have fewer options in terms of skills, powers, and fine details, but being able to design a character instantly in a few minutes to your liking is a massive win for usability. Like B/X, you don't need electronic tools to build characters, so any good list will have a mix of games with complex and simple generations.

You are not getting the save-or-die simplicity of B/X or the epic realism and character-crafting of GURPS. Still, you are getting a finely-tuned abstract pulp-adventure cinematic universal system that handles anything and everything you throw at it with zero prep and character creation that takes a few minutes. Fantasy, sci-fi, horror, movies, TV shows, modern-day, historical, wild west, novels, streaming shows, cartoons, superheroes, anything in your head is an instant Savage Worlds game.

Any game, genre, instant-on, fast character creation, and universal rules? Savage Worlds is like my X-Box, Gamepass, and the SSD drive inside.

Do you want fun now? You got it.

Pathfinder 1e

If I ever want a full-bore 3.5 experience, nothing beats this game. I have it on my back shelves for now since I am learning the steampunk sequel to this game, Pathfinder 2. And I do get the Paizo going all-in on steampunk is part of why the sequel isn't as popular as the original. With Pathfinder 1e, the technology is easily ignored, and it felt like D&D 3.5 Extreme Edition. It looks fantastic, it still has a fantasy feel, and it doesn't go overboard with the technology.

With Pathfinder 2, there is no way in hell you are avoiding the steampunk cosplay crowd, especially in Lost Omens. It feels strange because steampunk has always been a niche interest, while the fantasy genre is king, and they push the steampunk elements so hard that Pathfinder 2 feels like a steampunk game. My answer is to go all-in on that game and make it a fight between magic and technology, like a cyberpunk style theme but set in a steampunk world.

I hope magic wins because I miss that generic fantasy game we had with Pathfinder 1e. Honestly, it does feel like Pathfinder 2 lost some of its product vision and seems all over the place in terms of genre, judging, and theme. It feels like medieval Starfinder when I want it to feel more like B/X or AD&D. The gameplay in 2E is said to be better, and I want to put that to the test.

I do have Starfinder on my most-played shelves, and that is sort of a 3.5-style game. I could put Starfinder and Pathfinder 1e in the same collection bucket and say they are the same game since the play mechanics are nearly identical.

The first edition has a lot of flaws, but the run of books made for this game and the third-party support borders on the incredible. I have two shelves of Pathfinder 1e books, but I feel I have a collection of infinite worlds and fantasy settings in that space. It is quite a library, but a library of endless adventures.

The Fifth Game?

This is one I keep looking for. One of the things I look for in a game is a robust support system, GURPS has a fantastic selection of PDFs at Warehouse 23, and DriveThruRPG is amazing for B/X, Savage Worlds, and Pathfinder 1e. These are not dead games, except Pathfinder 1e, but the volume of books made for that system blows me away and will keep me interested for years. Being an open game where the community can produce things is a plus, and while GURPS does not have that, I really have everything I need with the books I have.

If I had to pick a fifth today, it would be Dungeon Crawl Classics and its sister game Mutant Crawl Classics. This is the true expression of Appendix N and the most AD&D game I have. I love this game because it breaks the B/X mold and does something new and extraordinary. Many B/X games exist as retro-edition emulators, this takes the entire genre and does something cool and fresh with the rules, and it is one I feel challenges the industry to do better and start doing new things. I can also depend on them to keep releasing fun adventures for these games, which is always a plus.

There are times when I feel simulating AD&D is a worthy goal, but also, there are times when I think at a certain point, you are chasing nostalgia, and it is better to do your own thing - something new. This does something utterly new while keeping that AD&D feeling of "wow," and no other game does that.

If I played a game like Traveller or Battletech, this would also be a good spot for the game. I feel these are games a lot like D&D 4E. You play more for mechanics than the world, and the central concept is strong enough to carry the game. Since I am currently exploring Starfinder, a sci-fi game may go good here, like a Cyberpunk style game, but both GURPS and Savage worlds do cyberpunk nicely. For that matter, GURPS does a pretty nice RPG for either Battletech or Traveller.

My Current Playlist

This is my current list, and it will likely change. One of the things about playing solo and alone is the tendency to float between games where the grass is always greener. I am happier if I stick to a few games and enjoy those. Some of these games are pretty deep and involved, GURPS can take quite a bit of time in character design, but the advantage of that is you get excited to play, you have an investment in the character (not a throwaway), and you start that "design" thing in your head as you play and take on challenges. Same with Pathfinder 1e, and I hope 2e lives up to the hype and does not simplify away too much.

Some of my games are quick-play classics, like OSE or Savage Worlds. You can probably put Dungeon Crawl Classics on my quick playlist too.

I have a few games stored away on my less-played shelves, and I put them there (and boxed up) to keep myself from getting overwhelmed. If I focus on a few games I enjoy them much more.

Savage Pathfinder & The Pathfinder Adventure Card Game

The Savage Worlds Pathfinder game is a really impressive swords & sorcery adventure set. It has a specific focus on simulating the 3.5-isms of Pathfinder, so they added edges, moved edges around, and created a new category of class edges. They updated the powers, added new ones, and tweaked weapons and combat. This is not a direct conversion, but more of a spiritual one that takes a Pathfinder-feeling world and rules which converts this over to a Savage Worlds setting.

It feels very similar to the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game's "dice for stats" system and these two games feel like distant cousins to one another. Where the card game uses your "hand" for gear, powers, allies, and hit points, Savage is more your traditional "character sheet" style of game that removes the need for cards, decks, and hands. If you really like the feeling and simplicity of the adventure card game and wish you had "Pathfinder Adventure Card Game: The RPG" check out Savage Pathfinder and you may find exactly what you are looking for.

Quinn, from the Pathfinder Adventure Card Game

Both games use "dice for stats" in that the card game has characters with a die rating in each ability score, like STR, INT, WIS, and so on. Savage Pathfinder sticks to the Savage Worlds ability scores, but rates them similarly, but also adds a skill system which the card game does as a flat modifier to an ability score. Where in the card game "experience" are you adding marks to abilities, starting deck cards, and hand size; Savage Pathfinder is a more traditional RPG with an advance awarded at the end of a session used to raise attributes and skills, gain edges, buy off hindrances, and so on.

Lem, in Savage Pathfinder

Savage is more the traditional RPG, less so that "card cinema" based gameplay a card game throws at you with the unpredictable draw and you have no idea what you are starting with, and what is coming up next in your hand. It could be you draw your armor last and you go without it for most of the adventure. The card game does have the concept of a "favored card" meaning you draw a starting hand until you have at least one of those items in your first hand, such as a weapon card.

With the RPG, your gear is your gear, and you can lose it and buy new things normally. I do burn a lot of gear in my regular games, and players need to be prepared to lose their stuff. Such is the cost of being an adventurer.

One thing I always loved about Savage Pathfinder is that 1-for-1 character sheet. Got a d4 in strength and a d8 in agility? Wow, that agility die is larger, you must be really good at that! Remember to roll your wild die with that and beat a 4 on either die! Skills are the same way and the list of edges and abilities can be played straight from the character sheet without any book reference. With new players I always go for Savage Worlds first, and they pick everything up nearly instantly no matter their previous experience. The rules do not need you to "be in the tabletop RPG mindset" at all, and the game can be played almost like a Monopoly-style set of rules.

Wanna hit something with your ax? Roll this. Wanna kick down the door? Roll that. Once most players make two rolls they understand almost everything about how 80% of the game works.

Resource Burndown

The card game does make you "burn down" your resources faster than the RPG, as you may sacrifice an ally, spell, or unneeded weapon when you are forced to discard cards in your hand. So it is inherently like action or spy movies where most of your gear and resources are used a few times or sacrificed regularly, like a spy laser watch being only good for one scene in the movie before it is discarded and is no longer used or seen again. Or maybe the soldier ally takes a wound and is sacrificed so your mission can continue. Maybe you lose your concealable pistol in a fight, you didn't want to, but it is better than taking a wound.

Burndown of gear in the RPG is typically done with critical failures (a roll of 1 on both the skill and wild dice), and instead of an external bad thing happening the GM rules an item is lost. I also include mook allies as the bad things that can be affected by the critical failure results.

I also (when it is appropriate) allow a "push it to the limit" rule in my Savage games where if you sacrifice the gear you are using for the task, you can reroll a failed check. Climbing a fortress wall with a rope and failing the climbing roll? Want to "push it" and try again? If so, roll again, and lose the rope either way. I do this for all rolls EXCEPT combat rolls, just to put extra value on standard gear and create the burn-down economy where you go through an adventure and lose things regularly and have to deal with the outcome of your choices.

If you are doing "fail forward" you can simply ignore the reroll mechanic, assume success, and sacrifice the gear. There are times, especially when the adventure stops to a dead halt if they fail, I will ignore push it and just fail forward. There are other times I want to put the decision in the player's hands and treat the loss of a gear item as a bennie for that task. It depends, is there another way in and the players don't want to lose the rope? Then I leave it up to them.

Special Gear

The card game does have a fun concept of special cards that give you a bonus to certain actions, but this can also be simulated in the RPG by directly linking task difficulty to the available equipment. In both games, you can say "fancy clothes" give you a bonus to interactions in social situations. In the card game, it would be a flat bonus, such as a +2. In Savage, you would base the difficulty on the situation, and modify it for having the proper gear. Wearing plate mail that smells like sweat and oil to a high-society function? Yeah, prepare for a +4 difficulty modifier to any social skill rolls there. Got "fancy clothes?" Then your checks are at the base target level of 4.

Equipment in both games can be flat bonuses or allow rerolls. I prefer flat bonuses since it is less dice rolling and enhances the "push it" and "fail forward" mechanics in a direct way.

Similar Games, One Minus Cards

If you love the Pathfinder Adventure Card game but always shied away from the core Pathfinder (1e or 2e) game, give Savage Pathfinder a try! The concepts are incredibly similar and the games share the same design language. The RPG frees you from deck management and setup and opens up the situations for random play, hex-crawls, published adventures, or GM-guided scenarios. Also, the range of the things you can do is not limited by cards or lengthy scenario setup and multiple guided deck building and positioning of locations.

You just kind of grab a character sheet, some funny dice, listen to the GM, and play.