Why Savage Worlds?

People who know me and are also gamers know I have been a proponent of GURPS since I first came across it in my gaming renaissance in the early 90's. I like GURPS, it is a wonderful, powerful system that you can do just about anything with, recreate virtually any game world or fictional setting. And in the hands of experienced players it usually just flows very smoothly.

However, my current gaming group, while made up of some very experienced gamers, do not approach their games with an overly critical eye. The emphasis over the years has become almost purely role playing, with less and less reliance on rules and a set of rules. Our primary GM has never been one to be overburdened with rules where they slowed down the story. Which is entirely different from some other groups I have been in, where knowledge of the rules was almost a prerequisite.

When Forrest introduced Savage Worlds I was familiar with it from reading about it's creation on the web site, as well as having played Deadlands for a very long time. But I was leery of it's ability to model pretty much any setting. Until I bought a copy, sat down and read it cover to cover. That was when I realized that Savage Worlds was the perfect tool for me to create the setting I wanted for this group. I couldn't use the same rule set for other groups I have played with, it wouldn't be beefy enough or detailed enough.

But with this group I don't need the game details, I just need to create the proper setting. And since my setting is a conglomeration of many other settings, picking a little from here, a little from here, I needed a generic rules set. Plus, I am creating a setting where I can throw in all kinds of different scenarios, and this rules set allows me to do just that. So if I want to throw the group into a Jurassic Park scenario I can. The basic rules won't change, I just need to have a reasonable story line, which is much easier to come up with.

So for people who emphasize the story telling aspect of Role Playing Savage Worlds is a great system. If your group wants to know and cares about how many Hit Dice that monster was, and how many damage dice this particular rifle does when fired from the hip while running across a swamp, this is not the right system.