Customer Reviews

Super Powers Companion (Savage Worlds, S2P10501)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Many think Supers is the one area where Savage Worlds falters. If you think that, than this book is for you. There are many options to up your Supers game. Cosmic heroes are no longer out of the realm of possibility with the options in this book, but you retain the Savage Worlds ease of play.

Anyone who wants to include superpowers in their setting should use these rules. This book uses rules similar to Necessary Evil, and is a massive improvement over the basic setup. These rules help represent super strength, and other powers that do not have a limited number of uses by altering the system to keep powers "always on". Power points are used effectively to limit power, but in a different way. This system is flexible enough to make characters at a street level like daredevil, and at the same time the power level can be bumped to represent epic level heros like Superman.

Many systems have attempted to bring Super Powers to a table top roleplaying game, and this addition to the savage worlds system does a fairly decent job. The powers presented offer a good range of options for most super-hero archtypes and presents optional setting rules to make it feel more like a comic book. One issue I have with the book is the amount of fluff. Over half the book was dedicated to pre-made super villains. While I certainly don't mind a few, the amount was a tad staggering and I thought detracted from the overall value, which could have been used for other purposes, including adding a bigger variety of henchmen/minions, which I personally thought would be beneficial. 3/5 stars for the book, as it's not anything exceptional, but definitely worth the buy.

I looked at some Savage Worlds sourcebooks: Necessary Evil, Winterweir, Hellfrost, Fantasy Comp, Super Powers Comp, Bedlam City, Dawn of Legends, Necropolis 2350, Shaintar, Legends of Steel. I've ranked those in what my opinion are Best to Worst. A new Savage Worlds core book should come out in August 2011.

Necessary Evil, Super Powers Comp, and Dawn of Legends have somewhat interchangable superpowers lists.

Necessary Evil has the most interesting champaign, with plenty of plot twists and vile villains. Oddly, the PCs will also be villains, since most of the superheros got killed. Glossy, solid, full-color, digest sized. And now out of print ($$$).

Super Powers Companion has the most villains. Powers in the front, Villains in the back. Glossy, solid, full-color, digest sized. That's the book on sale on this page, and I'll definitely recommend it for a supers Savage World campaign. In my opinion, Savage Worlds has the best production quality in the RPG market (Pathfinder is #2).

Dawn of Legends has a somewhat rambling worldbook. Nothing really grabbed me after an hour, but there are a number of villains detailed. However, it does have the most material of the three books. Not glossy, 8.5x11 sized, grayscale, more fluff than I care for.

Most of the content is the same as the Necessary Evil setting book, but without the setting info and with new rules for lairs, a horde of sample characters, and some tweaks to the armor power costs. I love the Necessary Evil setting and book, but I prefer this one for the smaller form factor (the small Savage Worlds books are so much easier to transport than the big D&D-size hardcovers).

While the Main core book Savage Worlds the Explorers Guide is all that is needed this additional book is great for the series. In it contains a system to use the Explorers Guide to figure out easy ways to give you playable characters superpowers in a fast and easy style, while still giving alot of customization and uniqueness. The only problems that I really didn't like about the book is that it didn't add alot more superpowers than the Necessary Evil Book did and it used a little bit of the art in the book (like 4 pictures that I noticed). But the book does feature some new additions as well and goes further in depth with how some powers can be taken into different directions. The book also contains some Villians in the back of the book that can be used as npc against heroes and has some great illustrations and ideas of how to use them in a campaign. Like all books in the Explorer's Guide editon it is a more digest like size so it can be carried around without taking up much room. I'm happy to have it on my shelf and look forward to many heroic quest.