SWADE: Let's talk about the non-combat tools.

[schneeland]

Bennies are essentially hit points in SWADE. They have other uses, yes, but if you burn them all before the big fight, chances are you're done for.

Not really my experience in our current game (Savage World + Sprawlrunners). Since you can take 3 wounds before going down, I rarely spend my bennies soaking damage - most of them are used to compensate my "great" luck with skill rolls early in missions

 

[thullgrim]

In my experience if your hoarding the Bennies it means there aren’t enough of them in play. I’m not good about handing them out so o make sure I do it on a schedule. After pretty much every scene I hand at least one out to each player.

I want them to be able to do cool things not just soak damage. By the same token I rarely soak damage with bad guys. I almost always use the bennies for them to do something proactive as well.

 

[Reynard]

Not really my experience in our current game (Savage World + Sprawlrunners). Since you can take 3 wounds before going down, I rarely spend my bennies soaking damage - most of them are used to compensate my "great" luck with skill rolls early in missions

Your GM is going easy on you, I think. One of the great aspects of SW is that damage is swingy. If you are getting in any fights at all, you are inevitably going to get hit with one of those exploding 35 damage accidents.

 

[Faolyn]

Your GM is going easy on you, I think. One of the great aspects of SW is that damage is swingy. If you are getting in any fights at all, you are inevitably going to get hit with one of those exploding 35 damage accidents.

More or less happened in our first combat. The player able to soak damage helped enormously, as was the fact I'm playing a healer, because natural healing is not fast.

 

[schneeland]

Your GM is going easy on you, I think. One of the great aspects of SW is that damage is swingy. If you are getting in any fights at all, you are inevitably going to get hit with one of those exploding 35 damage accidents.

Kind of. Enemies are not pulling any punches, but he's not baying for blood either. But I think it's fair to say that we are all playing more for the shared enjoyment of a pulpy (Cyberpunk) action story than any sort of tactical challenge.
Also, just last session my guy got hit by a lot more bullets from an autocannon than he would have liked - while, just like @thullgrim, I usually don't find soaking damage a very interesting use of bennies, in that situation it was appreciated

 

[dbm]

When I GM I use Bennies as a pacing mechanism. If the interesting opponents get hit and would go down quickly or be neutered through damage I will attempt to Soak on their behalf. Similarly, if an NPC tries to pull off some key move but fails to activate it, making things a damp squib, then I will re-roll for them.

So I aim to use the Bennies to make things more interesting and entertaining for the players rather than using them ‘maximally’ from an in-character NPC perspective.

 

[dbm]

Thinking about the non-combat systems, if Dramatic Tasks are my most used the second is Chases.

What do people think about the chase rules in SWADE?

Have people tried the Pathfinder Chase rules which are different?

 

[Reynard]

What do people think about the chase rules in SWADE?

I think they are a little overly fiddly and could be leaner, but generally they do the job.

 

[schneeland]

We use chase rules quite frequently and generally they work, but it's a rather abstract and gamey part of the system, so just like Reynard, I'm not overly enthusiastic about them (I'm fine with initiative cards and also like dramatic tasks). Still they get the job done and I prefer them to chases in D&D.

 

[dbm]

In general I think chases are handled extremely poorly in RPGs. Even with the basic combat rules SWADE is one up on most other systems since the distance you can run is based on a dice roll but I like the chase rules personally. Similar to the Dramatic Task system the complications and range of choices available each turn make the game much more interesting in my opinion.

The tricky bit in some ways is starting the chase. Because few systems include them, my experience is that players assume any tactical scene is about combat rather than a potential chase. I have started being a bit meta about it and telling the players that we’re going to have a chase. Over time it will become more natural for the them to include the possibility in their assumptions of how the game might play out.