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In the interest of keeping this spoilers free I will be discussing the setting only lightly and focusing more on the way it’s presented and its use in play.
Players guide
Evernight seems to present an idealistic medieval setting where there is a strong history of adventuring teams making the world a better place. There are dwarves, orc, elves and other races all trying to make their way in the world but the most populous is, of course, humans. There are ancient ruins from lost civilizations and the mysteries of the past to consider. In short, there is much to do that is standard fare from fantasy games.
It has been stated by the manufacturer that they are not interested in making generic settings; all of their settings have a twist much like the director of the Sixth Sense. As stated above I will not be discussing this twist as it would (in my opinion) spoil the shock and awe of the event.
After the setting presentation we move into a small section that discusses some quick play templates, special rules, and setting specific equipment. Combined with the Savage Worlds book this is pretty comprehensive. There may be a few odds and ends that are missing, if so it’s pretty easy to fill in the blanks. Like all Savage Worlds games the focus is less on making rules for every situation and more about faster play so it’s fairly simple to figure out the why behind the mechanics.
Players guide part 2
After the twist there are some additional rules that need to be discussed along with some changes to abilities (and a few new abilities to have) that need discussion. Equipment changes as well as some things become more useful or less useful. This section of the book updates the players on some of the new realities they need to deal with so I strongly encourage that you A) get the Players Guide PDF (it lets you print multiple copies for multiple players as long as its for your game) and B) you print the players guide so this part is not part of their stuff too soon.
The GMs section and Plot Point
Now we get to the real deal. This part of the book goes over what is really going on, a fascinating tale of civilizations that rise and fall. This then flows into what is going on and why, how the players fit into this world and why certain NPCs seemed to be more than just passing encounters. Following the history of the world and campaign comes some unique rules to review for the Storyteller and the actual campaign for the game.
This campaign is where the book both shines and dims a little. The entire book is based around this campaign, as this is the first book Pinnacle put out with their new Savage Worlds system there were a lot of assumptions made that would be later removed from their plot point books. The Campaign is a by the numbers and on the rail. The book assumes the players make the correct choices as the story progresses and makes very little attempt to guide the Storyteller if they try and jump the rail. Some of these events will result in less than happy players for a while. When I ran it I had a few try to commit Storyteller Suicide with their characters (it’s a little like running at a cop with a toy gun, only the NPC's are meaner). In addition there were a few adventures that really needed to be thought out and written better. On the other hand the campaign defiantly has its moments; some of the scenes presented were very exciting and well thought out. Despite a few adventure writing failures most of the campaign is solid and playable.
As previously noted I actually ran the campaign and I used the plot points as a skeleton for my own game. I ran it more or less intact only deviating when my players ran the wrong way. It was highly enjoyable but any Storyteller needs to know that they will need to be flexible and be willing to embellish to get full enjoyment from the world.
The rail aspect, incidentally, is the biggest change from this setting and subsequent settings. Since Evernight they have added an Adventure generator for creating random side events and added adventures that do not progress the main plot so you can play around a little more and live less on the rail.
Overall it’s a very strong campaign with well thought out events and definite wow factor at several points, wows I have not seen in a while. The downside is some of the adventures lacks polish (if you don't just want to call them a mess straight out) and it requires work on the Storytellers part to make them work. I like the product and the games we had with it so my score reflects my personal experience.
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