How was the Savage Pathfinder port poorly done?
D&D and Pathfinder generally build adventures based on attrition. The 3e DMG says a party should be able to handle about four encounters, each with effective level about equal to average party level (the recommended distribution was 50% EL = APL, 15% EL = APL plus 1-4, 5% EL = APL plus 5 or more, 10% EL below APL, and 20% being "trick" encounters that are naturally tough but become easy if you manage to "solve" them), before needing to rest. I don't recall if Pathfinder had similar instructions – it might not have because those were never part of the SRD, but it was still informally inherited from 3e. So basically, each individual encounter in 3e/PF is designed to be pretty easy, but they keep sandbagging you so you spend spells and lose hp (and then spend spells to restore those hp), and after 3-4 encounters you're spent and in real danger. 3e and Pathfinder also depend on getting those encounters in to feed XP and treasure to the PCs to keep them leveling up and getting better stats to meet new and stronger challenges.
Savage Worlds, on the other hand, isn't built on anything near that sort of attrition. It is
much more swingy. A Savage Worlds PC can take 3 Wounds, and gets KOed (and is in mortal danger) if receiving a 4th, and Wounds inflict penalties on future actions. You generally don't get the ability to take more wounds with experience – you will likely have better defense stats, but getting more Wounds is pretty hard. Damage rolls are open-ended, so there's a very real possibility that a goblin with a rusty dagger can stab a powerful fighter in full armor and get a damage roll of like 40 and turning the fighter into a fine red mist. Savage Worlds also, in its latest edition (which is the one Savage PF is based on) doesn't use XP but rather something akin to milestone leveling. So repetitive D&D-style fight encounters just don't work as well in Savage Worlds as in D&D.
To take an example: the first episode of the Deadlands adventure Horror on Headstone Hill features the PCs investigating a missing person, and they do so by asking around and generally making a nuisance of themselves in the town Heaston Hill. This involves a lot of talking and other investigating, that could probably fill a session or two, before culminating in the PCs investigating the dilapidated home of the missing person. This is the first place where the PCs get into a fight (unless they pick a fight earlier), and it features a grand total of two combat encounters.
That's not to say that Savage Worlds is a "peaceful" game – far from it. But it's a game where combat is
impactful. It's not just business as usual, because it's fairly likely that it will have actual consequences.
