Savage Worlds Test Drive

[jcayer]

Last night my group of 4E'ers gave Savage Worlds a try. There has been so much great stuff said about it here, that we had too.

We downloaded the v6 quickstart rules, The Eye of Kilquato adventure, and the pregen Characters.

We started well enough with some great RP both in the adventure and between the characters themselves. The players did a great job of trying to embrace things like the Stubborn Hindrance that so many of them have. We were having a great time.

Then we ran into a problem, that I've seen mentioned before, combat was boring and one-dimensional. Particularly the battle at the end with the Crocodile Warriors, Shaman, and left over Nazis. I shoot, I miss or don't damage them because their toughness is too high. We ran through this for an hour or so before Kator died and the rest of the party managed to kill all the enemies. They did have the Combat Survival Sheet but failed to use it. Given that the test drive rules don't cover taunt and intimidate, those skills weren't really used.

I know for certain, once combat got going, we fell right into the D&D 4E mode of just hammer them till they die. What did we do wrong?

We all agreed SW has a lot of nice things and so many great settings we want to try, but if combat is like this, it will be an impossible sell.

So what did we do wrong in combat, or how can we make combat better?

 

[beldar1215]

Not sure if you used Tricks,Tests of Wills, etc. They can make combat more exciting. How many NPC wildcards did you have? Gang up bonuses really help as well. Surround the guy and beat the you know what out of him! Where the extras going down properly. It only takes a hit and rasie to drop them. When I started running, I messed this up and the fights took longer. Also, keeping the combat moving helps. I play with some people that are 4E players and they have the same problem. Can't get out of 4E mode. This is a different kind of game. I don't feel that 4E thinking works very well.

I have been running SW for a couple of years now and love it. I run for a group of kids and when I can keep thier focus, we can get through 2-4 encounters in a 4 hour game. I would be happy to try and answer more questions.

 

[jcayer]

The test drive rules don't really talk about taunt/intimidate, so my players only heard about it at the table when I mentioned it.

As an FYI, I posted over at peginc and Clint responded.
Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group :: View topic - Test Drive with Eye of Kilquato - HELP

When we try again, we're going to have to work hard to get out of the D&D encounter mind set.

 

[TheClone]

I have the same experience with my players. We play a modern setting and therefore mostly use firearms. Ranged combat really is boring and I think it will be the same with melee combat over time. you once establish a good tactic and can reuse it every time. That's the problem with a simple and fast system.

I really like SW in any other regard, so I try to fix it with a "tactical add-on". I'm planning on introducing tactical feats, at the half value of a talent, one every raise. I hope that helps, but I don't know. I guess I'll not use them for the npcs, because that'll get complicated.

 

[jcayer]

Let us know how it goes. Good luck.

 

[Culler]

If you try to play SW like it was 4e, combat is going to be fairly stale. The fun of SW combat lies in the many tactics you can use to defeat enemies that seamlessly integrate with the system. Just rolling dice is for extras. Wild Card PCs should be doing aimed shots, tests of will, agility/smarts tricks, wild attacking, ganging up, fighting defensively, etc.

Unlike 4e, SW combat is not as much about what is on your character sheet as what would be cool, fun, or awesome, and these options are open to pretty much everyone. What is on your character sheet defines what you're better or worse at, not what you can or can't do (as in D&D where your combat options not on your sheet are limited to movement, pulling stuff out, and some defensive actions because grappling/disarming/what have you is difficult to pull off, ineffective, pretty much impossible without the right feats, and still more limited in scope than SW's tricks.) Actually, people who go against type and get lucky rolls make for some of my favorite SW moments such as our out-of-time Victorian monster hunter trying to drive cars or fly planes and always managing to have the dice explode in clutch situations, once notably outmaneuvering a japanese hovertank and forcing it into a tree while driving a WWI truck through a prehistoric jungle while completely unskilled in driving.

 

[amerigoV]

...WWI truck through a prehistoric jungle while completely unskilled in driving.

Those d4s seem to sense the dramatic and Ace like crazy!

Ditto everything you said.

 

[Walking Dad]

Those d4s seem to sense the dramatic and Ace like crazy!

Ditto everything you said.

or the d6 wild dies... but I saw something similar