Post originally by Ralph Mazza at 2004-08-11 13:24:11
Converted from Phorums BB System

If you are the kind of GM who maps out every segment of the dungeon or every dialogue of NPC text, this deck (and hell while we're at it Savage Worlds) may not be to your liking.
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Well, I'm not sure what you mean by this.

First, Savage Worlds is pretty much ideal for high GM control map-out-everything railroad style adventures. Witness the Evernight Campaign book which is so much of a railroad the GM practically has to cry "all aboard" and "tickets please" at the beginning of each session. So if you are that sort of GM, than clearly Savage Worlds is ideal for that sort of play.

Second, I'm hardly that sort of the GM.

The randomness has nothing to do with catching the GM off guard. And my dislike for what I've heard of this set has nothing to do with not liking giving power to the players (something I'm a big fan of, actually). But these cards don't really give power to the players.

1) they give only the illusion of power. In a true power to the players game a player could introduce a love interest with any character he felt like, not just when he happened to have the appropriate card; and with no risk that the GM has removed that card from the deck. So don't for a minute confuse a deck like this with giving MORE power to the players. In fact, in practice it gives LESS power to the players because it sets the idea that the only time the players could do any of these things is when they have the appropriate card, as opposed to a more open, negotiate-with-the-GM-and-make-it-happen-anytime approach.

2) From what this review suggests of them, they seem completely silly and pointless. Why do you need another system of kewl powerz when you already have bennies and Edges. Why dilute the value of Edges like Dead Shot by letting any character get the ability whenever they get lucky enough to draw or trade for the Bullseye card? Hell if you get the card Bullseye is BETTER then Dead Shot, because you can use it whenever you want and not just if you happen to draw a Joker. No doubt there are other examples of edge duplicating cards in the deck. Point being, giving any character a random chance to get an ability better than one that normally has to be paid for, for doing nothing but getting a lucky card draw just cheapens the whole ability.

There doesn't seem to be any control over which characters get to use what cards or when (unless that was left out of the review) which has the potential to really violate character niches when other characters play a card that, however briefly, lets them outshine a character in their own niche.

Nothing in the review indicates how these cards actualy enhance the flavor of being in a pulp universe.


So other than providing kewl random one shot powerz...what purpose do the cards serve? And if the answer is "none really" then they ain't a 5 substance. No matter how much you enjoy using the kewl random one shot powerz, you can't give a quick and dirty little gimmicky deck of cards a 5 substance with out completely devaluing what a 5 means.