Savage Settings: Customizing Your Savage Worlds
Here are a few simple ways to make your homebrew Savage Worlds setting unique and distinctive, using only items found in the Savage Worlds Explorer’s Edition. Present these to your players prior to character creation, and you’ll have baked the flavor of your setting right into the characters from the start.
Knowledge Skills
Make a list of official or suggested Knowledge skills that reflect the culture, religion, and governments of the world. Make a list of Knowledge skills that are absolutely forbidden by the ruling institutions, and can only be gained through official channels or (possibly) illicitly. The only information available on those topics is sparse and through Common Knowledge rolls.
Enemy Hindrance
Offer up a list of enemy organizations, governments, religious orders, villains or non-player characters for the players to choose from. It immediately ties their character into the setting and your plot lines and makes this Hindrance feel more immediate and dangerous. Only provide Common Knowledge about the Enemy so they can choose, then provide the player with some additional information once they select the Enemy.
Outsider Hindrance
Define who the Outsiders in your setting are, and why. Are there races or professions that are treated with suspicion, or as lower-class citizens?
A good way to explore the darker side of your setting is to let a player character be part of the (real or percieved) problem.
Phobia Hindrance
Offer players a list of common fears based on the organizations and events of the setting. It can be a Race, and tie into the Outsider Hindrance (above), or a creature, or a prophecy that’s due to come true. It can be a common or mythical monster. What the culture fears reveals a lot, and offers many story and roleplaying hooks.
Arcane Background Edges
The origins of Arcane Powers contribute a lot to the feel of the world. Is Weird Science in your setting alien biotech, or old-fashioned clockworks? What deities, if any, provide Miracles, or are they the result of some other force? Is Magic something that comes from within the character, energy tapped from extra-planar realms, or just the ambient force of the land that characters tap into? Explore the possibilities.
Rich / Filthy Rich Edges
Wealth often carries responsibility. If nothing else, where is the money kept? In a bank? Buried in a secret location? Is is “real” money, property, collectibles? How the the character keep their money safe? How did they make it? What do they spend it on? All of these things can tie the character into the organizations and events of the world. Consider what being rich means within the setting. Are they hassled by charities or beggars? Does their lifestyle differ significantly from the other player characters?
Florentine Edge
The character fights with two weapons, but consider which weapons they use. How, and why, did this fighting style develop? Is it something common, or something rare? Is their a fighting school or other group that teaches this style, and are they open to everyone or extremely secretive? Is their some ritual or religious significance to the fighting style? Was it developed to better fight a foe’s style, or a monster’s special ability?
Trademark Weapon Edge
How did the character acquire this weapon, and how can that be tied into the setting’s history? Is their a flashback story? A rival who feels the weapon is rightfully theirs? Does it have some secondary purpose, such as an inscription that holds the answer to a riddle, or a hilt that acts as key to an ancient crypt? Is it made of special material that has significance in the setting, or does it come from another (possibly) extinct culture?
Rapid Recharge Edge
The first thing I think of is Green Lantern reciting his oath to recharge his ring. Is their some ritual, or item, or location the character must access for the rapid recharge? How does it work? Where does the energy come from? Just like Powers, this Edge could have interesting trappings that reveal something about the setting.
Professional Edges
The options available to players should reflect the possibilities of the world. Savage Worlds doesn’t pigeonhole characters into classes or templates, but professional edges will reflect what’s common and useful in the world. Setting aside the required abilities, what sort of training and certification is required to get this Edge? Where did they learn it? Does it carry any obligations? Is there some sort of credential - an ID badge, a sigil, a tattoo - that identifies the character as part of this profession?
Power Trappings
Make a list of suggested powers and suggested trappings that reflect the flavor of the game. These can be different for each Arcane Background, for different cultures and climates, and different parts of the world, different schools of magic. How a character uses Bolt could identify things about them. Think about not only special effects, but verbal and material components that may or may not be required but add flair, and how and why those components are used. Necessity? Tradition? Custom?
All of these things are simple food for thought for Savage Worlds settings, and can easily be adapted to the system of your choice. All you’re really doing is shemping the system by adding flair to the fluff.
