AMAZING WORK. A+ -- I don't even play Savage Worlds yet. I bought it last year and, on the strength of what I read, I also got the Fantasy Companion, and a bunch of Beasts and Barbarians stuff because I'm a Robert Howard, Clark Ashton Smith type of guy.
So, as I say, knowing that I cannot vouch for the system or 50 Fathoms in action, I will say that this is one of the best conceived and composed world/ adventure modules I've ever read. The world concept is bold, and the adventure has a definite point to it -- clear objectives are written into the world, and a large number of adventures big and small would allow you to explore this world for years, or just go hell-bent for the big brass ring -- saving the world, of course.
Saving the world. Big deal, right. Always we gotta save the world. But this time, it's different. Not only are there big bads, but what they have done to threaten the world is so big, so concrete, so evident in the everyday, and so prosaic in its way, that it's an irrestistible objective:
Three crazy sisters, in love with arcane power and executed by drowning for the heinous crimes that followed from their twisted desire, have cursed their world to drown. Now, a mysterious sending of a ghostly maiden is luring people of Earth, sailors and other wanderers, to her world to save it, and also of course to pirate, or trade, or whatever, their way across the face of the ocean and the archipelagoes that are all that remain of the great empires of a few decades before.
In its overall campaign concept, and in the detailed adventures that support, or color, or having nothing to do with that campaign at all, this is a winner, written by those who know a good idea and how to express it, and also know how to assemble a book with intelligence and get the right illustrators to come along.
If you play or like SW, or pirates, or just examples of good adventure writing, buy it.
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