Forked Thread: Bought Savage Worlds, what should I know about it?

[frankthedm]

Forked from: What rule system am i looking for?

Picked up Savage Worlds, due in part to what I have heard of it in the other thread couple with its price.

What are some good [preferably free] resources for the game?

What thorny rules issues are there?

It's a great system for skills but I find it shallow on character creation and it (can) fall apart on some combats.

Base success is target number 4. You get a wild dice of d6 so even a beginner has a 2/3rds success rate - which is great. Since people succeed a lot they tend to try things a lot. Being better at a skill tends to give you more raises (an extra 4 over the target number) so you are flashier as you get better.

The problem with combat is your parry and toughness can be raised well past 4 and thus chances to be hit and hurt nosedive into the 'very unlikely' catagory very quickly. This relegates (high end) combat to a game of who can ace the dice first with virtually no skill involved. This can be avoided if you keep an eye on bonuses or if you use missle weapons (back to target number 4). The base system is generally okay but if you start including a lot of edges from different sources then a lot of them can give parry bonuses.

Character creation is limited by every tree only having two steps. You can be skilled in a number of things but you can never be an amazing expert in just one field. This tends to mean that characters get all the abilities they want about half way through their career and then are forced to 'waste' advances on spreading out.

All that said the rule system is brilliant if you want to include groups. Crews of boats, troops under your command, slaves you've just freed, etc. The rules are clear and simple and the battles seem to take the same amount of time regardless of the number of participents.

If you want to have a good SW game then make sure bennies are handed out often during the session. Since they can be used to block damage combat can get very irritating once they have run out (unless your players like death spirals).

I loved the system when I first played it and I'm happy to play it any time but I favour short 4-6 month campaigns with it rather than multi year epics I'm happy with in D20.

[N.B. the quick edge and the Jack of All Trades edge are both brilliant - take them if they are applicable!]

 

[Kunimatyu]

I don't find rising Parry to be a huge issue so far - every character can Wild Attack for +2 attack/damage and -2 Parry, and Ganging Up gives you a bonus between +1 and +4 depending on how many foes surround a target.

So, it's easy to raise Parry fairly high, but even mooks can get a +6 on their attack in the right situation, and there's always the risk of the die Acing and hitting handily regardless.

So far, SW is hitting the sweet spot for me in terms of ease of prep + relatively grainy combat mechanics.

Make sure not to overlook Tricks and Tests of Will - they're vital!

 

[Thanee]

Not really a rules issue. I found attributes having too little influence for my taste, so I made two changes to the rules.

- Initiative: You get to roll your Agility or Smarts (your choice) and for each hit and raise you can draw one extra card (discard all but one card).

- Skills: Instead of the Wild Die, you roll your Attribute Die together with your Skill Die. The Attribute Die has the same special functionality as the Wild Die does normally.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Kunimatyu]

I think Attributes already play a huge role, though Agility and Smarts have a lesser role since they're linked to so many skills.

Agility/Smarts: Tricks (stunts)
Vigor: Rolls to soak damage(a big deal)
Strength: Damage rolls
Spirit: Rolls to become un-Shaken

There's a pretty nice balance already, even though it may not be obvious until you run a few combats (which is the way it was for me)

 

[Deverash]

One potential problem that's come up for us is extra bennies being used for exp. At least for our group, they tend to horde them(especially in the "Why waste a chip, I'm not going to soak the damage anyways") to get more exp. While those who are suing the bennies as intended, get less experience. We have to be careful in that group that we reinforce the correct attitudes about things . So, we just switched to a flat exp total for everyone every week.

 

[Kunimatyu]

Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition(the latest version) removed the "bennies for XP" option, due to the effects you mentioned above.

Frank, you'll find a lot of free pdfs on the company's main website: Welcome to Pinnacle's Weird Website! . Dragonsfoot also has a lot of resource for Savage Worlds with a D&D flavor.

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

The main issues I have with SW are the lack of granularity compared to D&D (there are only 5 levels of skill, not counting edges, compared to 24) and the magic system. The magic just feels too... I don't know, restrictive? Yeah, restrictive. You only get a handful of spells and they're pretty boring, to be honest. I'd love it if someone made a Savage Elements of Magic, but no worries.

 

[Sadrik]

Picked up Savage Worlds, due in part to what I have heard of it in the other thread couple with its price.

You just spent the best $10 gaming dollars you ever spent.

What are some good [preferably free] resources for the game?

Welcome to Pinnacle's Weird Website!
savagepedia » home
Savage Heroes
All of these sites have further links.

What thorny rules issues are there?[/QUOTE]
This is one of the only games that I have not had to house rule when I ran it. And that is saying allot. I think this game can run a storyteller-esque or more tactical grid-games all in one.

Attributes
They are all important for various in combat things
Magic
It is trying to be a more effects based magic system, so, it is all about the effect giving the mechanics not the specific trapping. You get to design the trapping. It is very free and open.

 

[TheNovaLord]

Triple Ace - Hell Frost

this is a new publication due very soon

almost traditional based fantasy game using SW

I adore SW, but as it stands i dont think it does fantasy well. It is excellent for pirates and cowboys and pulp. At Conception I even used it to run an Equilibrium (the movie) based mod. which went very well.

Pirates Spanish main
Deadlands reloaded

are amongst my favs

I guess the explorers edition is enough to run your own stuff, but i find it a bit of a dry read, and not the best organised

 

[frankthedm]

Thanks for the input everyone!

You just spent the best $10 gaming dollars you ever spent.

That, i doubt. For $10 i once got:

• Talisman box set [+ Expansion, City, Dungeon & Timescape inside]
• Dungeonquest
• Heroquest with 2 expansions

But still $10 seems a very good price for the book.