Product– Savvy & Swagger
System- Savvy & Swagger
Producer– Beyond the Horizon
Price– Free or more if you want here https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/525596/savvy-swagger?affiliate_id=658618
TL; DR– The more you stab, the more you succeed! 97%
Basics– YARRR WE ARE THE PIRATES WHO DON’T DO ANYTHING! Savvy and Swagger is an EXTREME rules light RPG about being a pirate. Do crazy stuff, pirate around, and play children’s games to drink rum in game while you drink rum in real life and have a blast.
Base rules- You have exactly two stats: Savvy or Swagger. When you want to do anything, you subtract that number from a difficulty. You then insert that many daggers into a Pop-Up Pirate toy ( https://www.amazon.com/TOMY-T7028A1-Pop-Up-Pirate/dp/B00000JICB ) Pirate pops? You fail. He doesn’t, you succeed!
Thus concludes the entirety of the rules!
Mechanics or Crunch– Do you like Dread? Do you like rules lite? Do you want a one session game? This is somehow Lasers and Feelings with fewer rules. But, I’m down for this. Stupid, fun is still stupid fun, so embrace the simple rules! 5/5
Theme or Fluff– This is simple, but it has heart. You build characters via selecting descriptors and then do that. The GM can make a game in three d6 rolls. Then you do stuff. You can not expect 900 page dissertations on the nature of socioeconomic status of Pirates and local cultures in here. This is Pirates of the Caribbean levels of reality. It’s Saturday morning cartoon fun. Considering how many Saturdays I spent as a kid watching those, this is just pure fun. 5/5
Execution– I LOVE this product and the layout, BUT I have one major issue. Good layout, easy to read, fun background. All solid product. My big BUT is the product description on Drive Thru RPG talks about needing a pop-up pirate toy. The one page rules does not mention that. That’s an issue because I bought this, threw it into my google drive and read it a week later COMPLETELY confused on how to roll stabbing on a d6! I’ve got a lot of D6, but I don’t know what you mean by that. Once I checked the product description again, it completely worked. Add the mention of the toy, and this is a 5/5, but now it’s 4.5/5
Summary– Sometimes you need a Kobolds ate my Baby or a Lasers and Feelings. I love me a solid 40+ session RPG with rules so thick they absorb light due to their gravitational pull. But, sometimes, you just want to roll dice, be silly, and do something even sillier. That is this game. Go be a pirate. Heck, you can get this for FREE if you want to try before you pay. So, there is LITERALLY no reason not to go get this now. Honestly, now I’ve got a pop up pirate coming to my house from Amazon because of it. 97%
Throat Punch Games 