This darkness will not last forever. The dawn is coming . . .

                               The Dawn of Legends! 

With those words, Creative Director Mike Dukes helped launch a process that will see the Autumn Arbor setting enter into the Savage Worlds license family.  Designed as a character-driven setting of Sagas and Heroes, Dawn of Legends brings several new things to the Savage Worlds family.

In the sixth Design Journal, Mike Dukes takes us into the Dawn of Legends sagas: the various plot-point campaigns that will support the setting, and what fans can expect from them.

One of the unique things about Savage Worlds settings is the Plot Point Campaigns (PPCs) that are a part of them.  How great is it to be given not simply a fantastic setting, but an entire campaign for it as well?  All of our settings will have plot point campaigns available as well, but as free downloads on our site.  Why are we offering them as free downloads instead of having one in the books?  All that space that the PPC would take up can be used for more setting information.

Generally, plot point campaigns are designed for Novice characters and take them up the ranks, generally ending around Heroic or Legendary rank.  After that, the campaign is over unless the GM decides to take things into his own hands and continue the game.  So unless you want to design your own campaign or just run a string of unrelated adventures, your game is over after the PPC is over, right?  Have no fear.  We have you covered.  In comics, characters go through “sagas” all the time.  Each one could easily be considered a PPC.  If comics have it, so should we.

Each of our settings will have not one, but four campaigns available for free on our website.  This is an exciting thing for Dawn of Legends because it allows us to focus on not one, but many different facets of the setting.  After all, Autumn Arbor is but one city in the setting.  You may have a plot point campaign that dwells exclusively in Autumn Arbor but another may take place in another city, or multiple cities.  Some won’t take place in cities at all.

Want to visit other countries?  Interested in exploring undersea colonies?  Ever desired to visit other worlds?  Having multiple plot point campaigns allows us to do all of that and more.  We could probably fit most of that into a single PPC, but it would seem crowded and less realistic than we would like.  This way, everything gets plenty of “screen time”. 

We can also explore the various comic book “levels” as well.  Some people prefer street-level games seen in comics like Batman and Daredevil.  Others want to play a full spectrum of powers and personalities as seen in The X-Men, The Avengers and The JLA.  Finally, what if you want to explore other worlds, galaxies or dimensions like Green Lantern, Superman, Silver Surfer and Doctor Fate?  Again, we have you covered with PPCs for different Ranks that dwell on certain themes and locations.

Finally, there is that fact that once a PPC is over, you’re stuck coming up with your own Sagas again.  One of the things we are implementing is successive Sagas.  By that, I mean that where one PPC may end, another will be available to begin.  We will have PPCs designed for Heroic or Legendary rank characters to start and go on from there.  Savage Worlds can support characters deep into the Legendary rank and our plan is to take advantage of that.  After all, we have to live up to the name Dawn of Legends, right? 

Tune in next time as I pull the veil of secrecy away from our powers system and look at how your heroes can affect the world around them.  See ya then!

-- Mike Dukes, Creative Director

To discuss this Design Journal, head on over to the Official Savage Worlds Licensee forums!