[MrWilli]

I admit I love Savage Worlds, although I use it more for skirmish games rather than straight roleplaying. That said, I think your substance score was too low because you wanted SW to be something that its authors never intended it to be. The Explorer's Edition is meant to be a set of generic rules that people can adapt into any setting they want. It is not meant or advertised as a game setting onto itself -- that's available, for example, in The Savage World of Solomon Kane, which has both the rules and the setting.

Reviews should be based on whether the creators of a particular work achieve what they set out to achieve or if they failed at their own goals. I mean, why pick up what was clearly marked as a setting-neutral, generic rulebook if you specifically wanted a book with clearly defined rules and setting?! That's sort of like criticizing Lord of the Rings because you're a science fiction fan and you wanted to see more spaceships...