The
Fantasy Companion is basically (as I understand it) the Fantasy Toolkits compiled and brought up to date with the
Savage Worlds Explorer’s Edition rules. I don’t own the tookits, so I can’t comment on exactly what’s been changed or added: maybe somebody else will on the discussion board.
Physically, the Fantasy Companion is a full-color, 158-page, “explorer-sized” (9” x 6.5”) book. So far the binding has held together for me, but I’ll admit I don’t fully trust it and have been taking it easy. One bad design feature is the choice to print black page numbers on dark gray corners of the pages. It requires a Notice roll to see that there ARE page numbers, and a Notice roll at -2 to actually read them. Don’t forget modifiers for lighting! ;)
The artwork mostly depicts fair-skinned adventuring types, though there are a few shots of some of the monsters and magic items described in the book. If you’re familiar with other Savage Worlds products, you’ll see some pictures that you’ve seen before. Inside, you’ll find material that you’ve seen before too, along with some new and very cool stuff.
The book wastes no time or space with an introduction: there’s a one-page table of contents that’s detailed enough to be helpful (especially when combined with a rare treasure: a three-page index in the back of the book), but then we start right away with the “Characters” chapter.
Chapter One: Characters
“Characters” starts with Savage Worlds takes on the classic fantasy races. You know, Dwarves, Elves, Half-Elves, Half-Orcs, and Hobb-- I mean Halfli-- I mean “Half-Folk,” along with two other races, Saurians and the feline humanoid Rakashans. Right away we have duplicated material, since all of these but the Saurians and Rakashans are available in the free “Wizards and Warriors” download. This is followed by more specific guidelines for making “balanced” races than the original rules had, which is useful for any GMs who don’t already have such information. (Similar rules, slightly customized, appear in Slipstream, for example.) The “Characters” chapter concludes with new Edges. The Racial Edges are all straight from “Wizards and Warriors,” but some of the Professional Edges are new and cool, like Familiar and Assassin.
Chapter Two: Gear
The second chapter is “Gear,” which includes both stuff you’d expect and stuff you wouldn’t. There’s a full page listing of equipment and several new weapons and a couple of new types of armor. If you’ve been dying to buy reinforced leather armor and a bastard sword, now you can. Most of the “Gear” chapter, though, is dedicated to siege warfare. This is one of the coolest parts of the book, but I don’t completely understand what it’s doing in this chapter. It does describe some new stuff you can buy and cart around, namely siege engines, but it really is a specific expansion of the mass battle rules.
Recognizing the sieges are a staple of fantasy gaming, the Fantasy Companion presents seven pages of detailed rules for how to run sieges in Savage Worlds. Siege engines and different types of fortifications are given game stats and brief descriptions (which help prevent some newbie from trying to carry an arbalest in his backpack), and several specific strategies that can be employed during a siege by either attacker or defender are described. With these rules, it would be easy to run a mass battle that involves a keep, castle, or manor house under siege, and you’d know what difference it made if the PCs managed to sabotage all the catapults.
Chapter Three: Arcana
Next comes the “Arcana” chapter, which begins with a discussion of Deities and several Deity archetypes for those who like having characters with the Arcane Background (Miracles) choose a particular god from a pantheon and gain appropriate Powers as a result. Next the chapter introduces three new Arcane Backgrounds: Alchemy, Sorcery, and Ritual Magic. Alchemy gets a full description and genuinely adds something new. Sorcery and Ritual Magic are less impressive, operating almost as variants on Magic from the core rules, but together they take up less than a page, so they’re worth including. Next is a useful discussion of Trappings with several examples of common Trappings and how they might modify the base rules without being unbalanced. Given how generic the magic rules are designed to be, and how crucial Trappings are to making Powers seem unique and special, this is a very useful section.
The bulk of the “Arcana” chapter is a list of Powers, including twenty-five new ones, several of which I would love to try out. “Summon Ally” sounds fun, especially at higher Ranks, and you’ve got to like the possibility of saying “I cast ‘Havoc.’” Plus, as someone who recently ran afoul of too much Fatigue, I’m glad to see that we now have the Succor Power to heal that. In the interest of completeness, the Fantasy Companion also reprints all the Powers from the core rules. Some people will like not having to flip between two books when choosing Powers for a new character. Others might be chagrined at paying for stuff they’ve already got.
Chapter Four: Treasure
Those three chapters make up a little less than a third of the book. The next chapter, “Treasure,” is a third of the book all by itself. It begins with efficient discussions of placing treasure and three options for how detecting magic might work. The bulk of the chapter is about magic items, with tables and descriptions for a vast range of enchanted goodies. If you’re inclined to go old school and let your characters kill a monster and then collect its randomly rolled horde of treasure, this chapter is for you. Here you’ll find stuff like “Table 1J: Named Items” and “Table 4P: Miscellaneous 4.” You’ll also find the building blocks for magic items ranging from a sword that gives a bonus to hit up to intelligent artifacts. Many magic items are described, Here again, the watchword is “thoroughness.” Instead of saying that a particular magic item grants the user the Command Edge, the description of the item describes the effects completely. This saves you from flipping between books at the cost of adding pages. Whether that’s good depends on what you value.
Like most of the book, the magic items section contains a wide range of everything you’d reasonably want without a lot of big surprises. A few unusual items unlike others I’ve seen are included, but mostly here you find conventional types of magic items described in Savage Worlds terms.
Chapter Five: Bestiary
The last third of the book is the “Bestiary” chapter, which includes all the fantasy favorites (including reprints of the ones in the core rules) and a few new surprises like Arachnaurs, Lava Elementals, and Knowledge Eaters. Relatively few of the monsters have pictures, and the ones that deserve them most (the truly new creatures) are least likely to get them.
Overall
It’s probably already clear what I think of this product overall. I’m glad I bought it, and I’m sure I’ll get use out of it. It already has me wondering if I’ve got the energy to put together a new fantasy setting. If you’re wanting to do conventional wizards and warriors, dungeon-delving, monster-slaying, “How much can I sell this +2 leather armor for?” roleplaying, this book provides everything you need. EVERYTHING, even if you’ve seen it before in the core rules or the free download. Along the way, there are a few surprises and some very exciting additions (like the siege rules).
Given its status as, basically, an expansion toolbox for a toolkit game, it’d be nice if there were a few more options that were more off the beaten path. I would’ve liked a couple more new races that maybe went somewhere other games haven’t, and a few more named magic items that did more than grant bonuses and Edges.
Ratings
For Style, the full-color helps. Artwork is generally good but not great, appropriate but not surprising. The book isn’t breathtaking but it’s nice looking. I do have to penalize them for those black-on-gray page numbers. People who find the writing style of the rules bland won’t find anything here that they like better. I’d call it 3.5 if I could, but I’ll have to pick 3.
For Substance, the book delivers what it promises with some depth and breadth. Some areas are better covered than others, but the intent is to provide completeness. Let’s call it a 4.
Conclusion
My conclusion is simple: if you want to do all-out fantasy with Savage Worlds, be sure you check out the Fantasy Companion. (Note to Pinnacle: that previous sentence would be a really good one to take out of context for advertising purposes. I’m still a Savage Fan, so I want to hand you something. And it is true.) You’ll be happiest with it if you want to do pretty conventional fantasy and find having everything printed in one place a benefit, rather than an annoyance.
Review Summary