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2008 Triple Ace Games
In an age long past, the world was blasted apart by primal forces. Now the races of the Sundered Skies live amongst the debris; the floating islands of land left over from the destroyed planet. Some islands are small as a house, some as large as a mountain. They float in unending patterns throughout the eternal orange Glow, a maddening light that suffuses the air with a constant illumination, so that there is never night in the Skies. The elves, dwarves, humans, dragons, orcs, and stranger folk that live amongst these islands travel from one to the other on majestic flying ships, trading, exploring, and fighting.
Sundered Skies is a campaign sourcebook for the Savage Worlds rpg. You must already have the Savage Worlds core rule book to effectively use the Skies supplement! Skies provides rules adjustments for certain aspects of the game (skills, traits) that are handled differently in a Sundered campaign, and adds its own material to the basics given in the core rules… but there's no explanation of the core mechanics and basic character generation of the Savage Worlds game, so it's assumed that players will already have access to the core book. (Thus, this kobold reviewer will not be describing the core Savage rules either in this review. But you are lucky norkers indeed, for you can read all about them here in my previous review of Savage Worlds !)
As mentioned, the earth of this campaign world has exploded, and chunks of it float all over the place, as islands that the inhabitants hop between using magical sailing ships. Distances between the land masses may be vast, requiring weeks of travel, and their non-stop gliding about often makes them notoriously difficult to find without magical compasses. Also, it's not unheard of for them to collide every few years, causing massive disasters. This is a fantasy setting, so the races common to the airways are elves, dwarves, orcs, humans, drakin (related to dragons), and wildlings (who were created as a slave race by the elves, and are rather mutant-like in appearance.) The technology level is of the blunderbuss and flintlock pistol stage, with swords and other medieval standards being common. Flying boats often mount cannons, and magical spells are available as well in the setting. The whole thing has a cool "Pirates of the Caribbean in Spaaaaaace" vibe going for it.
The world still has a top and bottom. The land masses float at differing altitudes, and the higher you go, the colder the climate and more barren the lands become. The top of the world is an ever-flowing waterfall, which provides drinkable water to islands for thousands of miles below it before the water dissipates too much. Going above the falls risks freezing to death in the frigid air that will crack your ship apart. Which sucks big time, since gravity still works just fine. Speaking of going down, as you drop lower in the atmosphere the air becomes more oven-like until metal glows hot to the touch and your ship begins to burn. The lands here are volcanic and deadly. Going overboard means plunging for miles into the molten lake of burniness that is the floor of the world.
All the islands float in a sourceless orange light that shines down eternally from above. Called the Glow, this light is everywhere, and has some nasty qualities. The light slowly turns inhabitants of the Skies mad. The longer you sunbathe, the crazier you become. These "Glowmad" nutcases are dangers to sailors in the Skies, as shiploads of them make for vicious pirates. The only cure is to stay out of the light for as long as you can, and the effects will wear off, if you're not too far gone already. Travelers tend to sleep in cocoon-like hammocks to avoid the light, and smart captains will ensure that their crews spend ample time below decks.
That's the set-up. The majority of the Sundered Skies book is background material to incorporate into your game. The first chapter or two offers new Hindrances, Edges, and Gear specific to the setting, and describes the races. Several archetypes are provided for quick play, such as Reformed Sky Pirate, Orcish Warpriest, and Wildling Scavenger. The remaining chapters detail the religions of the Skies, and the strongest governments and trade associations. The book is chock full of info on NPCs, groups, enemies, places, and dangers that can be slipped into your campaign as background flavor. Many of the prominent islands and cities are described, but there's obviously room for the GM to create thousands of their own lands for PCs to visit.
There are tables and charts galore for helping the GM create stuff off the cuff. NPC tables, salvage tables, travel time charts, treasure tables, mission tables, land creation charts, etc. The thing most notably missing is a rule section for flying ship creation. The book refers you to the Savage Worlds core book for vehicle and chase rules (See? Told you that you needed that thing), and then Skies just adds a few rules to supplement that info and turn your boats into flying boats.
The last half of the book is devoted to adventure outlines. I mean, like, thirty of them! There's plenty of room for the GM to create their own adventures to insert between the ones provided, which is what should be done to make the best use of the campaign material. There's a specific story arc to the game, but that doesn't mean you need to follow that arc to enjoy this book. As the arc's story progresses, the PCs may just find out the mystery of what happened to the world at the sundering, and what's to become of it now that the secret has been unearthed after lo these many millennia. Truly world-shaking events top off the arc, if the players choose to pursue it for the duration of the game.
The book wraps up with a creature section of beasties native to the Sundered Skies. Air dwelling elementals, Glowmad zombies, humanoids, monsters, dragons, and undead are but a smattering of beings to encounter.
While Sundered Skies presents a full-blown campaign with connected adventure series, the setting in no way shackles a GM to that storyline. The setting is so ripe with swashbuckly potential that players can enjoy many types of adventures. Just offhand while reading the material, I could imagine campaigns based on piracy and anti-piracy exploits (including anti-slave trade), smuggling, exploration, merchants and trading, salvage, hunting, patrolling, fleet combat, and political intrigue. Hell, you mix these all together, and you've got gaming material to last for years.
There're enough original concepts to make the setting stand out as well. The effects of the Glow, for example, have permeating implications on the entire setting's society, flavor, and game play. There are complete rules for the ramifications of exposure to the light and accompanying Glowmadness that PCs have to be keenly aware of, and several sections describing Glow-tainted beings. The religions and magic of the Skies are detailed thoughtfully as well, giving insight into the cultures of the milieu.
And should you decide to use the included campaign adventure arc, your players and PCs will be personally involved in an epic quest that reveals some amazing information about the Sundered Skies' history and future. In fact, it's no exaggeration to say that that future may depend entirely upon your heroes' actions. It's rare to find a setting book designed specifically to allow the PCs to be tied directly and intentionally into the setting with such specific consequences, like the heroes they should be!
It's just a bit vexing to need the core rulebook to use this campaign book. There are other Savage Worlds campaign books that reprint the char gen and dice mechanics rules in their entirety within the sourcebook, making the campaign book the sole requirement to play. Because this is a licensed product designed by another company, you get only the additonal rules, though, not the core stuff.
And at the very least, I would have expected to see some material on designing and flying the floating skyships, for Gruumsh's sake! I mean, that's the highlight of the setting, and it's assumed that the PCs will at some point get their hands on their own skyship. There isn't so much as the floorplans for even a small common merchant vessel in this book.
Ugh. For all the original and interesting aspects of the setting, our main character races are elves… dwarves…orcs… and…dragon-kin… zzzzzzz =snort!= zzzz…
Good lord, man. A more generic, unoriginal lot of species I have not seen. (Seriously, where are the sexy kobolds, at least?) And while some things are tweaked to make elves a tad more eccentric, they're still pretty much the same woodsy, fey, enchanted elves that've littered every fantasy rpg since D&D. Dwarves are short and bearded and live underground working metal, orcs are surly, ugly and strong, humans are the most numerous and adaptable, etc.
Also, there are a few instances of "just because". Designers tend to couch this occurrence in words like "unknown", "mysterious", and "sages disagree…", but the effect is that some things are the way they are Just Because. I hate that in a setting. For example, skyships approaching a land mass can't fly over the top of the land unless they climb to a mile in altitude above the surface. Why not? Just Because. The land masses always travel in random directions, sometimes even against hurricane force winds, and sages after thousands of years can't figure out a rhyme or reason for the movement, or how to alter it. Why? Just Because. Too much of that in one sourcebook grates on my nerves.
So, in closing, this is a handy collection of ideas for a GM who's looking for a ready-to-go campaign background and setting. There's enough here to ignite your own imagination for ideas, but if you find yourself short of time or creativity, there's enough on almost every page to whip together a game session in no time with very little prep. Players who like the Pirates of the Spanish Main theme but want something with unexpected pizzazz may dig the more fantastic 'aerial Musketeers' feeling of this work.
So, my little Sinbad of the Savage Worlds, sail forth into the Sundered Skies and seek your fame and fortune as a glorious hero of destiny! Or plummet hundreds of leagues through the empty sky to your doom, whichever comes first.
