Savaging Old Games: Justifiers!

Let us turn back the clock to the late 1980’s. I was still a teen and RPGs were still in there own sort of teen years as well. Rules systems were being created as different aspiring designers were looking for ways to create a game that was not like D&D. Some, like GURPS and Traveler were highly successful, while many others were not well received and have since faded.
That brings us to my choice of game for this post. Justifiers was a game with a very cool premise and I believe a well fleshed out setting. The rules were a bit… lacking. It was a percentile based system that proved to be clunky and slow.
The game did fairly well though and spawned about a dozen source books and adventures. But it eventually faded from the shelves and our memories. Well, most of our memories.
I’m actually proud to say that I own four copies of the core book and all of the source books and adventures (I actually have doubles of several of them).
Through the years I have worked to convert or translate this oldie but goodie into different systems. Back in the early 2000’s, I worked on a D20 Modern version. Then shortly after finding Savage Worlds, I started to work on translating this setting to the Savage Worlds rules set. That is where I hit a bit of a wall. I was having the hardest time trying to figure out how to distinguish all the different beta types (human-animal hybrids) without making them too unbalanced.
Then I found an old PDF of someone else’s Savage Justifiers. It was well laid out and decently well thought through, but it is for the older Deluxe Edition of Savage Worlds. Now I was still working on my own idea and had tried not to be influenced by the newfound fan copy. In the end though, I never got my very own copy completed. My own ADHD has gotten the best of me. I still want to at least update the Savage Justifiers document to the new Adventure Edition rules, but I am not sure when that might get done.

Until then, for anyone that may be interested in this little setting, here is a copy of the original Savage Justifiers. The author did not include his name, so I am unable to provide the proper credit.
Savage Justifiers v1.1

For those interested in the original books, follow this link.
Justifiers on DrivethruRPG.com

For those interested in making their own Savage worlds version of this rare old school game, you can use the soon to be released SWADE Science Fiction Companion along with the Savage Worlds Beastfolk Menagerie over on DriveThru RPG.

Another option is the Big Apple Sewer Samurai, also at DriveThru RPG.

Note: None of the DriveThru RPG links are affiliate links. I just want to share these products with you!

Until next time, Cheers!
ShadowDad