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| Evocative, ain't it? |
How would you describe Savage Company for players who haven't heard of it before?
Adam: Savage Company is a campaign setting that can be used as a base for expanding into a player-driven homebrew world, or dropped into your favorite game world. It focuses heavily on militarized monstrous races and has tons of tools for expanding vehicles and firearms use.
Owen: Guns, monsters, and high-octane action. We set out to make content for military fantasy games that were still compatible with all the first party content that already exists. So you still have dragons and wizards, but you can add motorcycles and machine guns and all of them are equally good options.
What does "Machines of War" add to the game setting and rules?
Adam: Machines of war adds large scale combat with walking tanks and also squads of smaller vehicles and units. Along with new class options and mechanics for allowing that to balance with classic RPG fantasy elements.
Owen: We’re expanding on all the things from the first book, races, classes, weapons, equipment, feats, spells, and vehicles, but the new wargame aspect allows you to play large scale, or mass combat quickly and easily. The wargame itself can be played competitively against friends or incorporated into your tabletop game, combining or switching between modes easily and fluidly.
Do you have any other plans for expansion? Modules, adventure paths, etc.?
Adam: We are never without ideas, our next planned publication is an ambitious Halloween adventure that should be popular with horror fans, drama kids, and everyone in between. After that we’re going to write an entire AP that uses all the mechanics we’ve brought into the game and guides a group through a massive war against Hell, all the way to level 20. We’re aiming for about 48 4-hour sessions worth of game content, with all the varied narrative options we always like to include
Owen: Oh yeah, so many plans. I’ll just say it, the adventure is named “Curse of the Phantom” and it should take you about four sessions to complete. It can be approached with multiple different playstyles, there are many routes and multiple endings. It’s an adventure that offers new things with each playthrough. And Green Hell, that’s our big project for 2022. I hope people want a full 20 level AP for 1st edition Pathfinder because we’re really excited to write it.
What sort of reception has Savage Company received, overall?
Adam: The reception has been overwhelmingly positive! In an era where anonymous internet critics are a dime a dozen, we’ve managed to cultivate a small but dedicated following of gamers. We like to keep them involved with previews and planning on our Discord server.
Owen: For being mostly unknown by the greater gaming public, those who do read our books like what we’re doing and offer a lot of constructive criticism, which we love. We try to listen to everyone and learn from that. I really like the group that has gathered on Discord and throws hard questions at us or joins the voice chat while we’re writing or working on art. Actually it was the Discord crew that came up with the idea for the “Chair” book and made it happen, and it has over 200 downloads now!
Is the setting going to grow significantly with these additions?
Adam: With the addition of 4 new factions there will be some growth to the setting. We’re still trying to keep things unobtrusive so we’re not forcing groups into using our world, but eventually we may have to break away from canon sources and grow our own lore.
Owen: I don’t think it's a secret that the world of Savage Company is set in (NOT) Golarion™, we started there, but left all the larger aspects of the world unwritten to make it easier to place the setting into your own games. With the new factions and some of the other things we have planned, we’re going to have to start fleshing out more and more aspects of the world into its own thematically (and legally) distinct and unique place. We plan on writing in this setting for a very long time so we’re in no rush to fill up all the space right away.
What drives this particular setting? What made you put it together?
Adam: We played a homebrew game for fun with a theme of Orcs with guns. It was so fun we kept playing it for years, eventually all the homebrew classes and firearm options became the backbone of our rules material.
Owen: In addition to our own desire to play things that didn’t exist, we also wanted to create a space for veterans to tell their stories. Everyone on the team is a military veteran or has worked in the defense industry closely with veterans, and we have an open call for short story submissions. Several vets who I have worked with in the past have sent in stories based on their experiences and we worked them into the greater narrative of the book.
Is there anything I didn't ask that you want folks to know about your setting, Kickstarter, etc.?
Adam: Savage Company has always served to find a niche we liked that was underserved by 1st and 3rd-party material. We ask ourselves, “what do we want to play that isn’t there, or wasn’t done well, and how can we make a difference?” Everything we write is stuff that we desperately want at our table, and it turns out there are others that want it too.
Owen: In addition to the obvious “please check out our Kickstarter” I would encourage anyone interested to go look at our publisher page on DriveThruRPG, we have 6 books that are totally free for anyone to download including two adventures, so you can go check those out and get an idea what our stuff is like. Also we have a Discord server that is open to the public and we love talking to people about games and ideas, plus you get a lot of previews of what we’re working on. Thank you so much Neal for this opportunity, reaching new people is always the hardest aspect about being a new publisher and we cannot thank you enough.
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