Savage Worlds is a role-playing game written by Shane Lacy Hensley and published by Pinnacle Entertainment Group.

A main storyline is presented as a series of "Plot Points" and additional side-quests (or "Savage Tales") expand the scope of the campaign.

A licensing system is in place for electronic and book publishers to release material for the Savage Worlds game.

Characters in Savage Worlds are composed of a variety of statistics, including Race, Traits, Edges, Hindrances, and sometimes Powers.

For instance, in Deadlands: Reloaded, a non-Chinese character may learn Chinese martial arts but cannot acquire and use its chi-based Powers.

In Weird War II, American, British, or French soldiers have special edges and hindrances to reflect their different national and military cultures.

During play, characters earn experience points, which they subsequently spend to acquire new abilities or improve existing ones.

In addition to attributes, a character has the following derived statistics: pace (ground speed), parry (the ability to defend oneself in melee combat), toughness (resistance to damage), and charisma (presence and charm).

They might also be able to identify and counter an opponent's fighting style, know the name and reputation of a skilled fighter they meet, figure out the nationality and rank of a soldier by their uniform and insignia, or locate and hire a mercenary or bodyguard.

Healing could be used to diagnose an illness, identify medicinal herbs or pharmaceutical drugs, find a healer or medical specialist, or prevent a disease outbreak in an encampment by organizing sanitation protocols.

Some game worlds have the option of granting superhuman abilities to characters, usually with a magical, mystical, technological, psionic, racial, or mutant origin.

Raises are equivalent to critical hits in other roleplaying systems; they grant additional bonuses or otherwise enhance the outcome of a successful task.

Characters may take multiple actions at once if they are different (e.g., taunt or intimidate an opponent while shooting a pistol or fighting with a weapon).

Jokers beat all other cards and additionally give +2 bonuses on trait and damage rolls made that round.

In 2003, the rules from The Great Rail Wars were revised and expanded into a generic, simple but complete role-playing system and retitled Savage Worlds (SW).

[2] The main rulebook was revised and released as a PDF format eBook in late 2004, with a print version following in early 2005.

The same year, Great White Games began releasing rules expansions in the form of several PDF format genre toolkit books.

Self-contained miniature skirmish games based upon the Savage Worlds engine were also released in print and PDF form.

[5] In August 2011, Pinnacle released Savage Worlds Deluxe (SWD), a hardcover expanded version of the rules found in the Explorer's Edition.

[8] Scott Taylor for Black Gate in 2013 rated Savage Worlds as Honorable Mention #1 in the top ten role-playing games of all time, saying "I truly can't say enough about this system that hasn't already been said with its various awards, but dang, in the end you get to use playing cards and poker chips as you game, and that just takes it over the top!