Setting Kits: A little goes a long way

This last year has been a wild ride for Tricky Troll Games. We became official Savage Worlds licensees and have produced a steady stream of Game Mastering tools for the Savage Worlds RPG, and released our own systemless setting. Savage Worlds is my personal weapon of choice when it comes to running games at home. I enjoy many aspects of the rules, but for me it's the ease-of-use and amount of content packed into a $10 book.

It is this accessibility that has inspired the new project that I'm working on, one that I'm excited to share. I have been fiddling around with the idea of a setting kit for some time. The concept behind this is a simple one, a basic setting outline designed to be used with the core book only. This would include a bestiary, adventure generator, setting rules and a few new Edges and Hindrances. The idea would be to pack it all with flavor to spark ideas for the setting as a whole. As a Game Master I prefer frameworks to fully fleshed-out ideas as it gives me more room to work and do as I wish. In my very busy life I don’t have time to dive into 100+ pages of content, and neither do my players. So after plenty of internal debate and design, I am pleased to announce that our first setting kit, Husk: Wrath of the Swarm, is currently in production.

Imagine if our Earth was invaded by alien insects, and almost every living thing was devoured. Earth's military is all but depleted and it is now up to a group of resistance fighters to save what is left of humanity. This post-apocalyptic sci-fi setting will be gritty and dark, with a focus on survival and of course, bug killing. The text is in the editing stage and is just shy of 9,000 words. As with the new setting kit format there will be setting rules, a few new Edges and a Hindrance, and plenty of alien bug stats. There will be some setting information, and Husk is designed to be used with whatever region of the Earth the Game Master wishes. If you want to play in your hometown, go for it.

I imagine that there are other Savage GMs out there like myself that want something to spark ideas but still give them plenty of wiggle room. This first setting kit will do just that. As we near the end of production I will keep everyone updated as this particular project is more of a passion project for me than any of my previous Savage World materials. The release date is still up in the air but I'd say at the end of August by the latest.

Stay sharp and happy gaming!

Nathan Carmen, Head Writer and Founder of Tricky Troll Games