So I bought 4e about 2 months back because I wanted to test it out for myself. I didn’t want to not give the system a shot just because I love 3.5 or because of all the adamant hatred and resistance geared towards the system as a whole. I also didn’t want and was not roped into the whole “yay! It’s a new system, I can’t wait!” I was cautious, and I read review after review trying to find the in-between… The rational that was hard to find due to the edition wars that had sprouted up.. So I left it alone for awhile..
So as I said I bought the core rules, PHB 2, and the DM screens about 2 months ago. My girlfriend balked because I spent $100 on the purchase of a system that there was a huge possibility that I wasn’t going to like. I told her that even if I didn’t like the system that there MUST be something of merit in the books and that we could add it to our 3.5/3.75 (Pathfinder) game. And so I started reading the books, and pretty much read through all 4 books in about a week and a half.. My brain was pudding by the end and I had to stop reading all the class powers.. I wasn’t going to remember them all and I figured I would read the powers up to +2 levels of the classes that my players chose, just in case they had questions or wanted guidance.
So I sat down, made a few characters and play tested the system with my girlfriend a few times, played with some friends, and played with my girlfriend a final time.. Each time we all discussed the pros and cons of the system, and as fascinating as my take on it is, I don’t need to put that on the blog.. At least not to day..
In short we all felt that we really didn’t care for the classes. I really do like the changes that have been made to the mechanics, as I have said in previous posts, and as such I have adopted some of those rules into my 3.5 game or tweeked them or been inspired by them.
So 3.5/3.75 is my preferred DnD system, and as I have stated before I have no hatred of 4e, if that’s what you want to play, more power to you.. But I’m still interested in trying a new system, and I’ve seen quite a few people talk about different systems on RPG Bloggers. I read reviews on some of them, and listened to bloggers talk about their love and hatred of systems, and finally decided to give Savage Worlds a try. One of the sites that helped me come to this decision was Dice Monkey with his whole take on Savage Twilight (not that I’m a fan of the series). He just mentioned how easily things can be adapted to SW and whatnot.
Also, not to sales pitch, but the PHB of SW is only $10! How the hell can you go wrong with that?
Hopefully I’ll have my book this week, and after I am done reading it and play testing it a bit, I’ll share my thoughts on the system. Also if I like it I will be purchasing the 50 Fathoms and Dead Lands books^_^