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Author Topic: Savage Worlds: Interface Zero 2.0 - Yea or Nay?  (Read 8362 times)

Brand55

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Savage Worlds: Interface Zero 2.0 - Yea or Nay?
« Reply #30 on: March 20, 2016, 08:20:57 PM »
Quote from: Soylent Green;886151
I only have the older IZ edition for SW. I've used the excellent adventure generation tables at the back extensively for other games but I never took the plunge with IZ itself.  Not sure why, I guess it just didn't click. In the end I just wrote my own little cyberpunk game.

Is IZ 2e much different?

I've only glanced at the first IZ, but from what I remember of it hacking has been much streamlined and simplified. Considering that hacking is one of the things that certain other cyberpunk games seem to struggle with, I consider IZ 2.0's success in that department to be particularly admirable.

Orphan81

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Savage Worlds: Interface Zero 2.0 - Yea or Nay?
« Reply #31 on: March 20, 2016, 11:53:58 PM »
Quote from: tenbones;886136
You wouldn't have a copy of those rules for, you know... your own personal game, by chance? Huh? Huh? Huh?


I have it on an external hard drive somewhere, but I'll look to see about digging it up :)
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Mostlyjoe

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Savage Worlds: Interface Zero 2.0 - Yea or Nay?
« Reply #32 on: March 20, 2016, 11:55:40 PM »
I want to like this setting, but after reading it the Savage Worlds rules still rub me the wrong way. I dunno why.

tenbones

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Savage Worlds: Interface Zero 2.0 - Yea or Nay?
« Reply #33 on: March 21, 2016, 12:10:33 AM »
Quote from: Mostlyjoe;886267
I want to like this setting, but after reading it the Savage Worlds rules still rub me the wrong way. I dunno why.


I felt the same way about the rules. Then I got to actually play them. Wasn't at all what I expected. You can strip out nearly anything you don't like with ease.

Mostlyjoe

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Savage Worlds: Interface Zero 2.0 - Yea or Nay?
« Reply #34 on: March 21, 2016, 12:12:40 AM »
Quote from: tenbones;886269
I felt the same way about the rules. Then I got to actually play them. Wasn't at all what I expected. You can strip out nearly anything you don't like with ease.


Have to find a game. It's one of those things where I think I'll have to play it first before GMing it.

slayride35

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Savage Worlds: Interface Zero 2.0 - Yea or Nay?
« Reply #35 on: March 21, 2016, 12:35:16 PM »
Savage Worlds is really one of those games you have to play to grok it. It doesn't read particularly well and it doesn't repeat itself in the core book. That lack of repetition though makes the core book relatively small compared to most core books (and covers multiple eras in core too). Its a great little tool kit. You can strip out stuff you don't like and it doesn't break the system. Like one GM threw out the fear table and instead a fail is automatic shaken and a narrative description of the fear. Of course, the fear table can give you permanent injuries though (mental phobias and -1 charisma from a mark of fear) which some people find unfair (Zachariah got Pyrophobia, Major and Mark of Fear, which was harsh in Deadlands: The Flood, especially with an ally using a Flamethrower as her main weapon and as a face, the mark of fear hurt the character's Persuasion and Streetwise. But Deadlands is Horror too.). But also depends on the genre. I think the fear table is fine in a Horror game one shot, but doesn't work as well in a Supers campaign. Some people don't like Interludes since the card draw makes the story feel forced or artificial by defining what type of story will be told by card suite. I like the Chase concept but not the rules at this point.  I like how easy the system is to resolve since success is generally a 4 (+/- modifiers) except for outliers like Parry. So task resolution is just easier than most games that I have played/ran. Prep is also lighter than other games that I have run. Session time is 4-6 hours compared to Earthdawn's 6-8 which I also need as I have gotten older.

tenbones

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Savage Worlds: Interface Zero 2.0 - Yea or Nay?
« Reply #36 on: March 21, 2016, 12:36:53 PM »
Quote from: Mostlyjoe;886271
Have to find a game. It's one of those things where I think I'll have to play it first before GMing it.


Yeah this was also the same for me. As it happened, I had a player that is a big fan of westerns, and Red Dead Redemption, and pulled Deadlands out of his ass out of nowhere. Had it not happened... we'd likely not even be having this discussion. Savage Worlds has been one of the biggest pleasant-surprises I've had in TTRPG's in the last couple of years.

Ironically right after that - I discovered there was a fairly large Savage Worlds community of gamers local to me (though I don't play much with them). Look around - they're out there!

PaladinCA

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Savage Worlds: Interface Zero 2.0 - Yea or Nay?
« Reply #37 on: March 25, 2016, 02:41:01 PM »
I'm not really much of a Cyberpunk fan but I think Interface Zero 2.0 is one of the best Savage Worlds products out there. Very well done. Also useful for developing other Science Fiction game ideas too. There is a lot of good material packed in that book. And the art and layout are very nice to boot.

tenbones

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Savage Worlds: Interface Zero 2.0 - Yea or Nay?
« Reply #38 on: March 25, 2016, 05:05:37 PM »
I finished my first pass-thru on IZ... I'm still digesting it. It's good. Very good. Does a good job of creating its own space in the genre. Setting-wise I'm thinking this might be a great place to shoot to pieces.

My initial "feelings" are -

It FEELS like Shadowrun with less magic. Psionics and the TMNT-isms handle all that. And I think I'm okay with that.

I love the scale of it. LOVE it. But this has as much to do with the Savage World's mechanics as it does with the settings. There's a healthy dash of Mechwarrior and even some AeroTech tossed in.

Another observational item of interest is it appears to de-emphasize "cyber" as much as it gives you plenty of options to gear up in other ways. It uses the same essential system by using Strain - but I "feel" (I fully admit I could be wrong here) that there is no overt emphasis on having your PC's start lopping off limbs to go FULL METAL BORG!!!! Instead - you can simply start that way... for a cost. I think, again, this is a good thing.

The gear list... is robusto! Interface Zero does a good job of packing in different scales of gear above and below just hard and soft armors. Plus there's a *ton* of different kinds of weapons that CP2020 required 5-books to flesh out.

Hacking - As much as I love the idea of VR, it's clunky. IZ makes having a hacker in your group totally viable. And that's a gigantic improvement. Ironically it reads like the hacking ability in XCOM-2. Perfect.

IZ2.0 plus the Sci-Fi splat... sweet Galactus... what can't you do? Guess it's time to find out.

Criticisms - Offhand, I'd like to have seen more Edges. But then I can easily fill those those with other SW splats I find appropriate. I'm sure I'll find more stuff to gripe about once I get into the pit with this system.
« Last Edit: March 25, 2016, 05:07:48 PM by tenbones »

crkrueger

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Savage Worlds: Interface Zero 2.0 - Yea or Nay?
« Reply #39 on: March 25, 2016, 05:22:15 PM »
Savage Worlds seems to be in a new phase as some awesome companies are doing more and more to the system to make it fit the settings.  

Most SW settings are just crappy paint jobs - Wonder Woman's Golden Lasso, D&D's Entangle Spell, Dr. Strange's Crimson Bands of Cyttorak and a net gun are all the same frickin' thing in a "Phase 1 Setting" like Hellfrost.  Cool setting, zero setting support from the system leaving it the same bog standard game in drag.

Solomon Kane, Totems of the Dead, Interface 2.0, Lankhmar, hopefully Rifts do more with alternate rules options from an expanding range of toolkits to get the games farther and farther from Savage Worlds Prime.

It could just be the case that the Lego set is so large and varied now that it's as hard to make a boringly implemented setting now as it was to make an interestingly implemented setting back in the day.
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jan paparazzi

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Savage Worlds: Interface Zero 2.0 - Yea or Nay?
« Reply #40 on: March 27, 2016, 09:57:20 AM »
Don't forget High Space 2 with it's space combat rules. That's really adding a lot to the system ruleswise. Personally I don't mind the paint job settings, because honestly I don't give a crap about rules. I don't mind it being simple. I also didn't like all those rules hacks in World of Darkness Mirrors. The less time I spend reading rules the better.
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Emperor Norton

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Savage Worlds: Interface Zero 2.0 - Yea or Nay?
« Reply #41 on: March 27, 2016, 10:51:07 PM »
I really liked Interface Zero, and I really REALLY like 2.0. I backed it on Kickstarter for a stupid amount as a birthday present for myself, and I don't regret it at all.

Very high up there on my favorite Savage Worlds settings, and I like Savage Worlds to begin with.

(Also, because of my stupidly high backing level, you can see me as an NPC on page 195 :P)

In general I think if A. You like Savage Worlds, and B. You like the Cyberpunk genre, then you will like IZ2.0. But its not going to change your mind if you don't like A and B.
« Last Edit: March 27, 2016, 10:55:10 PM by Emperor Norton »