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Robert E. Howard is one of the single greatest influences on our hobby. Conan the Cimmerian, Howard’s best known creation, is a prototype fantasy RPG character and his Hyborian Age was truly a time of high adventure; Conan and the Hyborian Age have appeared in several RPGs. However, Conan wasn’t the only RPG-worthy character created by Howard, he wrote hundreds of stories about dozens of characters. One of these characters stands out as being particularly deserving of RPG treatment – Solomon Kane, the avenging Puritan.
Solomon Kane is an English Puritan from the 16th century. He travels the world chasing evil and smiting it down with his rapier and flintlock pistols. He has a dour and sombre character, as befits a Puritan, and is possessed by a drive to protect the weak and wreck vengeance on behalf of the oppressed. Kane’s stories are set at the end of the Age of Discovery, where even the distant corners of the Earth are just within reach, most of the great non-European civilisations are still strong and the savage areas of the world are untamed. In his travels, Kane encounters savage beasts, slavers, monstrous creatures, the Inquisition, ghosts, cannibals, vampires and pirates. It is a fantastic setting for gaming.
And now Pinnacle have nabbed the rights to Solomon Kane and have produced a Savage Worlds game for it.
The book The Savage World of Solomon Kane is a 352-page hardback. It is in full colour and is absolutely sumptuous. I am almost scared to actually run a game as I am worried about having to open the book too many times. I needn’t worry however, as the book is very sturdily bound. A complete implementation of the Savage Worlds rules is included, somewhat customised for the Solomon Kane setting. The book includes a summary of the Solomon Kane stories, character generation rules, the game rules, GM advice for running adventures and for creating adventures and finally a massive ‘plot point’ campaign, which incorporates a description of the Solomon Kane world. It is a complete game in one book, with rules, advice and adventures.
Savage Worlds
Solomon Kane uses a version of the Savage Worlds rules, Pinnacle’s house rules. There are several reviews of Savage Worlds to be found here, so I will only briefly detail the rules in this review.
Savage Worlds is a fast, relatively simple system. The task resolution system is based on rolling for a skill to get over a target number or opposed against an opponent’s roll. Rather than having a skill represented as a bonus to a die roll, the skill is the die itself. Thus a skill can be ranked d4−2 (unskilled), d4, d6, d8, d10 and d12. The target number is typically 4. Dice can explode (on rolling a maximum, the die is rolled again and added; referred to as an ‘ace’) and extraordinary successes can be achieved by beating the target number by multiples of 4 (referred to as ‘raises’). Player characters and important NPCs (referred to as ‘wild cards’) have the advantage of rolling an extra d6 (referred to as the ‘wild die’), taking the higher of the two dice rolled.
In combat, rather than use an ablating hit points system, damage is handled by a ‘toughness’ score that must be exceeded to damage your opponent, first putting them in a ‘shaken’ state and then wounding them from subsequent damage. Wild cards can take three wounds before being incapacitated or killed, whereas regular NPCs can only take one.
Characters are defined largely by their attributes (agility, smarts, spirit, strength, vigor) and their skills. Characters are also made distinctive by ‘hindrances’, which are flaws and disadvantages, and ‘edges’, which are advantages and special abilities. As a character advances, he or she can improve attributes and skills, but also acquire further edges.
Another important aspect of Savage Worlds is the system of ‘bennies’, which are given out as rewards by the GM and can be used to makes rerolls and avoid damage.
In general, the system does away with fiddliness (with a consequent loss of statistical rigour) but maintains crunch. Raises provide a method of measuring success and aces allow dramatic success against the odds. The advantages given to PCs means that a hero can take on half a dozen mooks and the lack of book-keeping means that combat can be resolved fast, allowing scenes like this to be run. Furthermore, the use of the toughness stat raises the possibility of particularly hardy foes requiring tactics to be defeated rather than relying on chipping away at their hit points.
Savage Worlds is a crash hot system and is acclaimed as being highly suitable for pulp. This makes Solomon Kane and Savage Worlds a great match. (In fact, it would not be a stretch to suggest that Solomon Kane and similar stories inspired the pulp horror setting of Deadlands, the system of which evolved to become Savage Worlds.)
Solomon Kane Savage Worlds
The Solomon Kane rules are barely changed from standard Savage Worlds. Naturally, the list of available edges is chosen to be specific to the time period and genre. A small rule is added whereby a character using a benny may enter a ‘righteous rage’, to model Solomon Kane’s righteous fury.
The most significant customisation of the rules is in magic. There are two available arcane backgrounds, Shamanism and Sorcery. The magic system in Solomon Kane does not use power points. Instead, casting a spell is based on a casting roll. Each spell has a negative casting modifier that can be reduced by taking time in casting. Failure to cast a spell results in ‘backlash’, typically a level of fatigue. There are no directly offensive spells such as blasts and bolts.
The World of Solomon Kane
The world of Solomon Kane is a pulp fantasy version of the 16th century, with some Howardian additions, such as the legacy of Atlantis. It is a world full of savagery, evil and corruption.
The world is described generally by a short section discussing certain points about the Age of Discovery, an enormous bestiary (with over 100 entries) and the equipment list, and is more specifically described in the context of the ‘plot point’ campaign The Path of Kane, which I will talk about below. The campaign and world are presented in four chapters covering the Old World, the Dark Continent (Africa), the New World and Cathay and the Orient. Each of the chapters has a brief overview of that part of the world, then a series of location descriptions, including real places, such as the Black Forest, fictional places from Solomon Kane stories and other sources, such as the City of Skulls and Dracula’s castle, and generic locations, such as graveyards and dungeons, with a few simply made up places, such the Temple of Kali. These locations are presented as backgrounds for adventures, and in fact each location has an associated adventure, presented almost as an example. The City of Skulls, for instance, has an associated adventure The Cult of Nakari, describing the current inhabitants of the city.
Ultimately, the coverage of the game’s world is patchy. This is understandable as the game can cover the entire globe. However, the capsule locations and the adventures do a great job of evoking the setting of the Solomon Kane world. At any rate, though it is not stated in the game book, the Solomon Kane stories don’t aim for any great historical verisimilitude, so it should be quite acceptable for the GM to play loose with the setting. Also not stated, though quite obvious, is that the Solomon Kane stories are the best background material for the game and are a must read.
The Path of Kane
A major part of The Savage World of Solomon Kane is the plot point campaign The Path of Kane. The plot point (™) campaign is Pinnacle’s method of presenting adventures for many of its Savage World settings. It consists of two types of adventures, ‘plot points’ and ‘savage tales’. The plot points contain critical elements of the campaign and move the story forward. The optional savage tales aren’t critical to the story. In the most part, the adventures can be run in any order and it is up to the GM to contrive transitions between the adventures (though it would be entirely in keeping with the Solomon Kane stories for the PCs to simply skip from the end of one adventure to the beginning of the next). It is a nice balance between providing material for the GM and ensuring they are not straight jacketed by that material. It provides much more flexibility than a typical campaign, but requires more work.
Plot point games also include a random adventure generator for creating outlines for further adventures. Solomon Kane also includes advice for crafting adventures.
The Path of Kane plot point campaign is based on a very simple premise and doesn’t involve much of a story. It is essentially a hook to get the PCs into the campaign, a series of tasks to be completed and a climactic showdown. While it can be run as is, it barely suffices as a campaign; it lacks many elements of a decent campaign such as recurring NPCs and rising tension. Personally, I am unlikely to use it, or at the least I will use it as one thread in a more complex, multi-layered campaign. It must be said however that it does feel very appropriate for the source material (which is hardly multi-layered) and even features the Puritan and his witch-doctor friend N’Longa. As with the campaign as a whole, the adventures are very simple. Several amount simply to visiting a location and killing everyone. Again, I think I’ll be better off coming up with something of my own.
Many of the adventures, particularly those in Africa, are taken from the Solomon Kane stories. However, the adventures are set after the last Kane story, so there is no clash between the adventures and the stories. This means that there is no problem with the players having read the stories. In fact, it can be an advantage, as the players will understand the significance of the locations and can enjoy being part of the Solomon Kane stories in some way. Also, the adventures are written such that the PCs can’t employ the same tricks or shortcuts used by Kane.
Quibbles
I have mentioned above my disappointment with the campaign and adventures. I found them to be uninspiring. Truth be told, there were other ways the game failed to inspire me. The writing overall, while very clear, is dry and lacking in flair. The book is also short in examples of how to bring the game to life. Most specifically, the book lacks example pre-generated characters. A great inherent advantage of the game is the wide variety of characters that can be played. The game includes a large list of potential occupations for characters, but does not give a sense of how an interesting background appropriate to the setting can add depth to a character or how a character’s nationality can define a character as much as their profession. There is too much to cover in this respect, but example characters would have done much to help inspire when making up characters. (Luckily, Pinnacle has made available some pre-generated characters on their website.)
All that having been said, I am still very excited about running a campaign. The setting and mood of the Solomon Kane stories are so very, very evocative. And the example locations and adventures (for all their simplicity) do much to expand the setting.
Overall
The Savage World of Solomon Kane is a high quality product, both in content and in production value. I have no hesitation recommending it to anyone who thinks it might be fun to smite evil with rapier and pistol.
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