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I was very juiced up to get my clawed hands on this product. I’ve
been a fan of the Savage Worlds system for some time now, but
it’s always lacked much in the way of generic sci-fi setting
material. This PDF corrects that oversight, beaming up mucho
game material for your space-faring campaign. It provides useful
stuff for any setting from your near-future modern game to a
full-out savage space opera campaign. (It is just a
sourcebook, so you'll need the
Savage
Worlds core rules to use the product as written.)
How high do you want your tech? The Toolkit opens with a
broad explanation of the Technology Index, which categorizes
levels of scientific achievements for your setting. There’s no hard
and fast rule as to what type of technology exists in which tech
index, but there are guidelines:
 TI
0 is
basically Earth in the early 21st century. There are
microwave ovens, electric cars, and cell phones and other portable
gizmos that connect to a global internet via satellites. The upper
end of TI 0 sees the creation of interplanetary starships, although
travel is pretty slow. Moon bases, deep space stations, and asteroid
mining may not unheard of, although they’re still risky ventures.
TI
1 heralds
the emergence of practical energy weapons (pyew! pyew!),
semi-sentient robots, common cybernetic enhancements, and cool
silver jumpsuits to adventure in. There may be a single planetary
government in this Index level, and most likely planetary colonies
throughout a solar system. The spaceships are faster and well-armed,
and mankind is moving out into neighboring star systems with FTL
technology of some sort.
TI
2 is the
highest development for worlds without “super science”; soldiers
stride the battlefields of distant moons in ‘mechs or power armor,
while personal energy shields and plasma weapons are common. Highly
advanced robots or androids are common in everyday society.
Starships travel across galaxy-spanning empires in a few days, and
the common cold is cured.
TI
3, if you
want to head there, offers disintegrator rifles (which sting like a
mother!), teleportation technology that makes shopping for
groceries a snap, and nanotechnology that gives average humans
abilities that appear magical.
This index, and frequent advice from the authors, help you plan what
type of game you want before you even sit down to play. Much of the
equipment and gear in the Toolkit is lumped generally into
these TI classes, so you can get a feel as you read the book what
items or sciences your players will have available to their PCs.
Something more contemporary will be in the TI 0 level, perhaps a
Firefly setting, with automatic projectile weapons and laptop
computers and maybe travel between nearby planets and their moons,
while a Star Wars type saga will be in TI 3, with
pseudo-magical telekinetic abilities and laser swords and battle
fleets jumping to hyperspace to zip across the arm of the galaxy.
To flesh out each
setting style, the Sci-Fi Toolkit is a veritable menu of
goodies. The first chapter describes common combat equipment such as
armor, spacesuits, weapons, and force fields. Power armor receives
its own chapter. The Toolkit doesn’t forget about the less
violent explorers out there, though, with stats for communicators,
scanners, translators, motion trackers, and camping goods. Robots
are examined in their own chapter as well, with rules for creating
your own droids to use as NPCs, or for playing one as a Wild Card
character. (“Paging Mr. Deckard…”)
We then get treated to a whole catalog of cybernetic enhancements.
Cybernetics may either be treated as a new type of Arcane
Background, or it could be incorporated into the current Weird
Science Background by treating each cyber-gadget as a new Weird
Science gizmo. If you prefer, you can even require players to use
Edges to obtain cyberware. Again, you can choose what best fits your
setting. No matter which method you adopt, cyberdoohickeys basically
provide some upgrade over your generic fleshy organic body, such as
giving you the ability to heal quickly, breathe underwater, generate
electricity, or interface your brain directly with your Playstation
XXIII. Heck, you can even implant weapons like blades and pistols
into your body, or repair or replace your more squishy limbs with
armored bones and bulletproof-weave skin.
We next explore the other cyber that’s popular in the future:
cyberspace. A simple chapter examines teh Intarwebz of the future,
including guidelines for computer use, interfacing, hacking, and
exploring what amounts to another dimension entirely through the use
of a personal digital avatar. (“It is the mental projection… of your
digital self.” – Morpheus) This chapter alone could be used to run a
Matrix- style campaign, if that’s your preferred sci-fi
flavor.
Of course, when I think sci-fi, I’m thinking starships, baby!
There’s nothing revolutionary here, but it’s nice to have some basic
info on space vehicles for Savage Worlds. There are several
starship design methods presented, geared towards whatever amount
of detail you like to mess with. And, you lucky space dog, you, you
also get well over a dozen sample ships suited to a plethora of
purposes, from fighters to freighters to battleships, in case you
don’t want to mess with creating your own at all. Space combat more
or less follows the standard Savage World core rules; this
chapter just gives you lots of big weapons, defenses and other toys
to stick on your ship. There’s a look at onboard computers and
specific starship programs as well, with practical notes on their
function, use, and benefits to ship crews.
Next up, a whole chapter is dedicated to designing any type
of –surface- vehicle you may want to hop on to. Another simple
construction system is presented to slap together whatever you may
need to get from your starship to the nearest hive of scum and
villainy, but more than 15 vehicle examples should give you a lot to
work with without even needing to design your own space-minivan.
Stats are given for hover tanks, armored personnel carriers,
anti-gravity cargo haulers, armored limos, and more. The vehicle
construction system is then extended easily into a useful chapter
about ‘mechs; towering armed robots or manned vehicles that walk
upright and rain death upon their adversaries with torso-mounted
heavy lasers, 88mm smoothbore cannons, and racks of guided missiles.
Certainly sounds like the makings of a raucous Saturday night on
Torrad IV, eh?
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The Toolkit wraps up with a look at Superhero Lairs. The
authors admit they aren’t sure whether lairs is a topic more fitting
for sci-fi or pulp, but those of us who enjoy a little Flash Gordon/
Buck Rogers-type campy pulp science fiction can use these tables to
design villainous or heroic headquarters by choosing the Lair Edge.
Each time the Edge is chosen, the player receives points to spend on
lair accessories like laboratories, power generators, computer
networks, security and defenses, and henchmen or servants. These
“lairs” could be space stations, underground caves, undersea
complexes, lunar domes, or penthouse apartments, depending on your
creative needs.
The Science Fiction Gear Toolkit provides so much useful, fun
material that it’s going to be nigh on impossible not to find
something you want to use in your games. All the material fits
seamlessly into the Savage Worlds mechanics, so there are no
messy subsystems to fool with, and nothing keeping your games from
jumping straight to warp factor nine. Because the goodness is
presented in sections of a few pages each, you can easily pick and
choose what ideas you want to try out. There’s very little chaff
here, either; the chapters get right to offering the gadgets,
powers, and abilities that you’re waiting for. This alone makes the
Toolkit quite a bargain for the price. I’m really quite
pleased that I picked it up.
So buckle up, little Space Patrolmen! We’re off to explore some
galactic savage worlds! Here’s your silver jumpsuit.
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