Hellfrost Player's Guide (Savage Worlds, S2P30001) Hardcover – March 30, 2009

The Hellfrost Player's Guide is a well written quality product. Its production values are excellent. The colored artwork is top-notch and evokes a sense of the setting's mood, which has something of an early medieval Nordic and Germanic feel to it, rather than the High Middle Ages feel of many traditional fantasy settings. Eleven sections cover such things as the various races, gear, religion, magic, various organizations/guilds, and such things as daily life, weather, languages, the calendar, etc. Note, however, that this book does NOT contain details on the various kingdoms or geographical regions. For that you will need the companion Hellfrost Gazatteer. In addition, there is also a Hellforst Bestiary and a good number of quality adventure modules available.The Hellfrost setting is designed to be used with the Savage Worlds RPG system, although one could certainly adapt this setting for use with any system. As with any Savage Worlds setting there are a number of new Hindrances and Edges available to characters. Note that one must also have the core Savage Worlds rules to use this setting with that system.While it has many of the typical fantasy tropes there is enough of a unique spin on many of them to make them seem slightly less clichéd. The standard fantasy races such as Elves, Dwarves, and Halflings are present, and while familiar they are given fresh treatment adapting them to the setting. For example, Haflings (called Engros) are not your rural pastoral Hobbits out of Tolkien, but are more like gypsies that travel about in colorful wagons and who are generally viewed with distrust by the other races, often with good reason. There is also the Frostborn, a new race mysteriously emerging from the existing races but uniquely adapted to endure and thrive in the ever increasing cold. Interestingly there are no half-breed races as the reaces are genetically incompatible; so no half-elf no half-orc, no half-dwarf with a twist of dragon blood and dash of pixie...which is really sort of refreshing. Humans are divided up into four groups each with their own cultural distinctives and racial characteristics.The Religion section is fairly detailed. While the whole polythiesitc spin on fantasy religion has grown sort of wearisome for me, I think they have done a good job with it here. Some 24 deities are described along with details about their various clerical orders. Each deity has an order of priests and a militant order of paladins or champions - yes even the evil deities have paladins. The clerics of each deity receive a signature power associated with that deity, along with a custom list of available powers or miracles. Thus no two clerics of differing deities will have exactly the same abilities or powers. The description of each deity also contains a list of duties for followers, and a list of minor and major sins which can have negative in-game consequences for characters who serve that deity and fail to comply.Magic is treated somewhat differently here than in the Savage Worlds core rules. There are no power points, for example. Also, the use of magic can be dangerous because of something called siphoning, which is a type of corruption to the magical energies that can result in a backlash harming the caster, or even causing them to lose their power for a period of time, or even permanently. There are several different kinds of arcane powers: Druidism; Elementalism; Heathwisardry (in which practitioners who use a staff as their focus); Hrimwisardry (which draws up on the cold of the Hellfrost); Rune Magic (practiced only by Frost Dwarves); and Song Magic (skalds). A whole section is dedicated to Hedge Magic, which is essentially herbalism. Many new spells are introduced, and a number spells from the core rules have been modified to fit the setting.So far my biggist criticism (and it is minor) is that the economy and gear section seem to be underdeveloped. The base unit of currency is the gold scield (shield). The only other coin in circulation across all the realms is the seolfor scield (silver shield). I realize the 'gold piece' is the standard currency for many fantasy campaigns, but for me it just sort of take a little bit away from an otherwise coherent setting when a bar of soap cost 1 gold piece/scield, or a torch goes for 5 gold scields. I guess we can conclude that gold is quite pleantiful in such a world. Although in fairness it does suggest that these coins are small, and that barter is more common in some regions than coins. I would also like to have seen a more extensive list of equipment or mundane gear. But again these are minor things, and easily enough modified if so desired.In conclusion, this is a very impressive work! Good writing, good art, and solid content in a high quality hardback binding. If you are looking for a slightly gritty mid-to-high fantasy setting with a unique twist, this might be for you. At the very least it is a treasure chest of great ideas for anyone interested in mining it for inspiration for their own setting.

The Hellfrost world has a lot more interesting things going on than the typical game setting. My players and I are just starting our adventures in it, but so far we've enjoyed it quite a bit. The historical background gives plenty of context to the various competing factions and lots of adventure fodder. The Hellfrost game setting seems to be quite well supported with modules and adventures to make the GM's life easier.

I really loved this setting and I thought it was a perfect addition to Savage Worlds!

Travel North to the icy hellfrost. Must have for RPGers

Fluff , core rules is all that is needed

I looked at some Savage Worlds sourcebooks:  Necessary Evil , Winterweir , Hellfrost , Fantasy Comp , Super Powers Comp , Bedlam City , Dawn of Legends , Necropolis 2350 , Shaintar , Legends of Steel . I've ranked those in what my opinion are Best to Worst. A new Savage Worlds core book should come out in August 2011.Hellfrost is a cold world. The gods of Fire and the Sun have gone missing, and the goddess protecting the realm of the dead has gone insane. Two races are now based on Cold.This is a cruel world that has been set up, with lots of minor twists to shake out stale fantasy tropes. Every race (elves, dwarves, humans, halflings) is different from the usual norm. The various gods and the expected behavior of Paladins and Clerics was well done.Magic is failing. Messing up a spell subjects the caster to The Siphoning, which can permanently drain magical ability. Making magical artifacts is a lost art.I went for a PDF bundle for the player's guide, bestiary, and gazetteer from the company website. They look pretty good on my Kindle.There is a lot different in this world, and I liked it. This is one of the 5 star Savage Worlds. Recommended.

This is your traditional epic fantasy setting with strong viking, Beowulf flavors with rushing undercurrents of dark and grim. The land is ever imperiled by the increasingly crueler magical winter and denizens of the north. Rassilon (the Hellfrost world) also has a lot of old school fantasy leanings and reminds me not a little of Greyhawk and "the Known World" of Mystara.The Player's Guide is essentially what you need to play the game in the Hellfrost setting...the character options and some setting details (religions, new Edges and Hindrances, races, gear, spells, life in Rassilon). But you'll also need the "Savage Worlds Explorers Edition ($9.99)" for the actual mechanical rules.There are a couple of new additions to the rules that stand out to me: Glory and the changes to Savage Worlds Magic.A new trait called Glory is a system for acquiring reputation as a hero. Measured in points characters can gain or lose Glory, and spend Glory on benefits to add depth to a characters story and the world.Magic is bit different, doing away with magic points and relying on the inherent danger of spell-craft to limit the characters willingness to resort to magic.The books physical properties are well done. A solid production with nice art work that adds to the content and inspires.

Das nordische Setting von Hellfrost ist jederzeit einen Besuch wert.Die Verarbeitung des Buches ist auch sehr gut, auch nach Monaten hält alles noch wie es soll.Das Layout passt ebenfalls sehr gut. Fehler in Text oder Regeln sind mir bisher keine Aufgefallen.Wenn man Savage Worlds mag und ein Fantasy "Wikinger" Setting haben möchte, wird man mit Hellfrost nicht entäuscht werden :)