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50 Fathoms is the second setting book for the Savage Worlds line from Great White Games. In 144 brief pages the drowned world of Caribdus is detailed, not with empty prose, but with ready to run antagonists, creatures, subplots, adventure seeds, and a main storyline woven through the whole. All but devoid of fluffy filler, 50 Fathoms is a ready to run setting and campaign, all in one lean package. Like other titles for Savage Worlds, 50 Fathoms has all the hard work already completed. Game Masters won't be left with an excited feeling of "Wow, what a cool setting - but what do I do with it?" because the answer is right there in black and white.
Look and Layout
The book has a gorgeous blue water hardcover by Zeke Sparkes and the interior art by Cheyenne Wright is of the usual high quality that's both fun and evocative of the setting. The back cover painting by David Deitrich is a little too cartoonish, but some may enjoy the campy feel. The durability of construction is somewhere between Evernight and Savage Worlds and though mine has been through a fair amount of abuse, it has yet to show signs of wear or breakdown. The maps are clear and easy to read. The layout is tight, with very little white space, and is easy to follow with clearly defined sections. My one complaint about the layout, and it's a small one, is that the three sections a GM is going to reference most, all look alike. The guide to Caribdus that details the locations, the Savage Tales associated with those locations, and the encounters section with the stats for the bad guys all have the same layout. It would have been nice to be able to tell these sections apart at a glance. As it is, I imagine some GMs will simply bookmark the various sections with sticky notes or the like.
The Setting
So what is Caribdus like? Think Pirates of the Caribbean meets Heart of Darkness -- now populate it with exotic races: the bird like Atani, the sea lion-ish Grael, the cruel Kehana fish men, the octopoid Kraken, and so on. The story, in a nutshell, is that Caribdus was a not-so-typical fantasy society that was cursed by a trio of witches thirteen years ago. The world was drowned in 50 fathoms of water and now consists of islands large and small where the survivors trade primarily via shipping, or prey on those ships via piracy. Unwittingly drawn into the middle of all this are various ships from Earth, circa 1500 to 1815. Player characters in Caribdus have the world at their disposal. In any given session of play, the players can decide: to carouse in the streets of Brigandy Bay, explore the dark and diamond laden jungles of Torath-Ka, live as pirates looting the shipping lanes of the Free Towns, purchase letters of marque and become legitimate privateers hunting pirates in the Kieran Sea, or salvage the wreckage that washes up on the beaches of the Whip Islands. There are still entire civilizations, and their wealth, sunk beneath the water. There's whaling to be done in the Cold Sea and, as dangerous as Caribdus is, even legal merchant shipping is an adventure. All of this is provided not just as a string of neat ideas, but supported with over a dozen random encounter tables and a random Booty generator. In addition, there are almost two dozen sub-plots that can be thrown in to complicate virtually any endeavor as well as one to three mini-adventures, called Savage Tales, associated with just about every port, some 33 in all. For those brave and heroic souls who wish to save Caribdus from it's awful curse, there are an extra nine specially marked Savage Tales called Plot Points. Triggered at various times throughout a 50 Fathoms series, the Plot Points involve the heroes in the main backstory and dark secrets of Caribdus, leading them to an epic and gruesome finish. Overall, the setup feels like the popular computer RPG Morrowind, in that the characters can follow the main storyline, just wander around and find all sorts of adventure, or any combination of the two.
The Player's Section
The player's section is 46 pages and contains everything a player needs to make a character as well as a brief synopsis and map of the world of Caribdus. For the mechanically minded, the races section demonstrates how Savage Worlds handles less-than-human-average attributes. There are also five new hindrances (Arrogant, One Leg, etc) , all of which could be used in other genres. There are sixteen new edges, only three of which (Kraken Bone Sword & Armor, Elemental Mastery, Mark of Torquemada) are specific to this setting. The rest could be used for a more standard pirate game, or in some cases (Close Fighting, Dirty Fighter) other genres entirely. The eight pages of equipment details everything a character might need including blackpowder guns, cannons, and eleven different types of ships. Following that are seven pages of rules covering navigation, ship and crew maintenance, boarding actions, ship combat, trade, and other handy things to know when setting out to sea. After a few pages of geography and some pirate lingo, the nature of Elemental Magic is covered. Fourteen new spells as well as most of those from the main book are divided into four schools: Earth, Water, Fire, and Air.
The Captain's Log
The GM's section starts with the behind the scenes story of what's really going on in Caribdus and then follows with a 22 page guide to the interesting locations to be explored there. Each location is cross referenced with a Savage Tale page number for when characters start looking for trouble. All major areas, such as the Flotsam Sea or the island of Torath-Ka, have their own encounter tables to keep travelling and exploration a risky business. Following that is the Adventure Generator. Essentially a two page guideline on how to use the book, the Adventure Generator allows a group to decide what they're going to do at the begining of a session and then go do it -- with virtually no preperation by the GM. It's an idea we've seen before, but it's well done here and, thanks to the simplicity of SavageWorlds, it could actually be used on the fly without the session completely bogging down. In fact, that's exactly what our group did for the first session and we had a blast. For those who insist on prepping ahead of time, the Adventure Generator can help even the most uninspired GM come up with enough material to fill an evening. The next major section is the aforementioned Savage Tales, 42 pages worth. Each Savage Tale is somewhere between a full blown adventure and an adventure seed. Combined with the inherent dangers of moving about in Caribdus, playing through a Savage Tale could fill one or more sessions of play. After the Savage Tales are 18 pages of "Encounters", all the statted monsters a GM needs along with other hazards. Everything from bloodfish and regular citizens to icebergs and razor wings are detailed for the GMs easy reference.
Extras
The table of contents is extensive and a one page index is also included. Additional nice touches include the attractive character sheet and a worksheet for keeping track of a character's ship and crew. These can also be downloaded from the company's website. For those who want a preview, or don't want the players passing the book around, the players section is available from RPGNow.com. Also available from RPGNow.com are figure flats to put some color in your combats and provide figs that look exactly like they're supposed to. No more need to to use pawns or figures from other games that are "pretty close."
Conclusion
A good idea, well executed. Frankly, I wasn't very excited about a pirate setting, but 50 Fathoms has changed my mind. That the Plot Point format packs adventure into every page is just icing on the cake. For a $30 pricetag, a GM gets a game that she can buy on Monday, run on Friday, and will last 100+ hours of table time using just the ideas in this book. What more could a busy GM ask for?
