From D&D to Savage Worlds: What am I missing?

How does SW work for a smaller-than-average groups of players? IIRC this is one of the problems with later-edition D&D. I usually end up with two or three PCs in the party...

Pretty good, actually. If you look at published modules, they automatically scale the opposition to the party size. For example "there are 2 Nazi goons per Character". Rule of thumb for a good fight is 1 Wild per PC or 2 Extras per PC.

With a smaller group, you can look to the Pulp Rules on Triple Ace Games site. They tone down the Extras a touch (no Exploding damage dice) and provide an extra bennie for fights. Those minor changes would help if you only had a couple of players.

Also, with a smaller group, you can give them their own Extras to fill out any missing roles (healer, for example). Extras run quick, so they are not a burden overall.
 

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How does SW work for a smaller-than-average groups of players? IIRC this is one of the problems with later-edition D&D. I usually end up with two or three PCs in the party...

I'm running a Savage Worlds fantasy game for my wife and daughter and it is working out great. The party is just their two PC's as well as my daughter's character's "pet baby dragon".

I've been running them through one of the Goodman Games - Dungeon Crawl Classic modules that I'm converting on the fly (which has been a breeze). Normally I just reduce the number of bad guys by 1 or 2 in a given fight if they are rank and file Extra types. For major bad guys I just eyeball the stats such that I think it'll give them a good challenge and go from there.

One thing I've noticed about Savage Worlds baddies is that it is sometimes better to underpower them a bit and make up for it by spending GM bennies on their behalf. At least that's what I'd recommend until you get a pretty good grasp on the way it runs.
 


Also, I'm really curious as to what you mean about this, pawsplay. Not defensive. Just curious. If you're still checking the thread I'd love to hear more.

Ok, well I don't want to go spewing a lot of comments, just because it's been a long time and I don't want to misstate. I remember noticing the exploding dice rolls and becoming curious how that would work out with some of the more common TNs. I figured out that for many routine tasks, d4s were better than d6s. Uh, here's some math someone else did:

Exploding dice, and some unexpected results for Savage Worlds

I also looked at some of the Edges and decided they were priced fairly arbitrarily.
 

Ok, well I don't want to go spewing a lot of comments, just because it's been a long time and I don't want to misstate. I remember noticing the exploding dice rolls and becoming curious how that would work out with some of the more common TNs. I figured out that for many routine tasks, d4s were better than d6s. Uh, here's some math someone else did:

Exploding dice, and some unexpected results for Savage Worlds

I also looked at some of the Edges and decided they were priced fairly arbitrarily.

I hadn't seen that particular analysis but we've discussed how the probabilities work amongst our group and noted the bit about how smaller dice are more likely to ace, etc. I consider this to be a pretty minor issue for a few reasons.

First, the baseline target number for success on most (non combat) checks is a 4. If you're trying to achieve a 4 then a d6 is plainly superior to a d4. To get a "Raise" (4 points higher than your target number) then a d6 is still superior to a d4. Now if there are modifiers to the roll such that you're at -2 and your target number effectively becomes a 6 then mathematically you're better off rolling the d4. Looking at the chart produced in that analysis we see that this circumstance (where the target number is the highest value on the larger of the two dice being compared) is the only "crossover point" where the lower die produces (very slightly) superior results.

But that circumstance doesn't exist in a vacuum. Looking at the chart once again we see that a d8 is always superior to a d4, no matter the target number. In order to get a d8 in a skill you must first raise it to a d6. So, at worst, a d6 could be considered a stepping stone from the d4 to the d8, which is superior to the d4 in almost (but not quite) every situation.

In addition keep in mind that the player may be able to influence the target number in question and move it off of the "bad spot" in the mathematical progression. If they know they are shooting for a target number of 8 using a d8 then they might decide to make the roll harder (by adding in a Called Shot penalty) or easier (making a Wild Attack for example).

And also there is the Wild Die. Almost any time a player rolls he'll also be rolling a Wild Die, which is always a d6. This doesn't influence the probabilities on the other die of course but I think it introduces some additional "background noise" in which small vagaries in the probability of the other die can become lost.

I say none of that in order to prove you wrong because you're not wrong. I mostly typed that out to help organize my thoughts about why I consider this a corner case that doesn't have any substantial impact on game play.

As to the thing about "Edges priced arbitrarily" I'm not sure exactly what you mean because all Edges are priced the same (provided you meet the prerequisites, which is maybe what you are referring to). If you mean that some Edges are "better" than others, I'd probably agree with that in the sense that some will be more frequently useful or provide more benefit when they are used than others. But I think that's going to be the case in pretty much any game with a similar mechanic (like Feats in D&D) so I don't think of it as much of a problem.

Anyway, thanks very much for taking the time to explain what you meant. It definitely prompted me to take a closer look at it.
 

Perhaps some of the options aren't as immediately obvious? For example, IIRC, there's no section labeled "Trip" in SW:EE. (Or I'm completely misremembering. :) )

This is a Trick, you would do an Agility trick to trip someone up. Savage Worlds doesn't define Trip, Shove, Push, Pull, Run Between Their Legs, Feint, and The Ol' Rope-a-Dope. Those are all Agility tricks. There's a lot of different kinds of these. I recall one character in Slipstream (sort of Flash Gordony) who would use her Taunt skill in combat, flashing some cleavage or leg to distract the enemy! Worked well in that genre, felt very pulp adventure/barbarella.

Another example, in our Evil League of Evil game my mummy wizard appeared before some ogres and said 'Look ogres, my legions of the dead march from the woods! You're doomed!' Roll my Smarts against theirs, and one of the ogres was Shaken, busy looking for undead from the trees while my minions(okay, not really minions, the other PCs) attacked them!

Go to their web site and download the Combat Survival Guide. Very handy guide to making combat survivable and more engaging.
 

Oh, one last think on balance - it really is not as important. XP is not given based on defeating critters. So, the GM can build encounters that push along the story (evil cultists, chases, etc) and have the cinematic/challenging combat with more polish at the appropriate spot.

/This

Also knowing your players stats can be important for a good sword fight. So if your Fighter has a d10 the BBEG right hand guy may have a D12 etc. Personaly, I find the CR system to be largely fictional to begin with as I have seen a Balor killed by a party of lvl 1s and Kobolds take out a party of lvl 7 PCs. Regardless dont worry too much about balance up front. Much like D&D there is a learning curve.
 

This is a Trick, you would do an Agility trick to trip someone up. Savage Worlds doesn't define Trip, Shove, Push, Pull, Run Between Their Legs, Feint, and The Ol' Rope-a-Dope.

Right. But if you're brand new to SW, you might not immediately make that connection, and thus you might think, "Gee, there aren't a lot of options here."

That's why the Combat Survival Guide & threads like this are handy. :)
 

Personaly, I find the CR system to be largely fictional to begin with as I have seen a Balor killed by a party of lvl 1s ...

That's unsettling...I've personally been in a group of level 1's that subdued a black dragon at 1st level in a basic game (waaaaay back at the start of the 80's), but could you elaborate on the Balor's defeat - was it luck or manipulating the system?

Anyways, sort of back on topic, having recently just purchased the SWSE Clone Wars book and glancing at the mass combat rules, I was wondering - has anyone attempted to run a Star Wars Savage Worlds game? It seems the two would work very easily together. I could almost imagine using either the psionic or super powers edge to emulate jedi...
 

Anyways, sort of back on topic, having recently just purchased the SWSE Clone Wars book and glancing at the mass combat rules, I was wondering - has anyone attempted to run a Star Wars Savage Worlds game? It seems the two would work very easily together. I could almost imagine using either the psionic or super powers edge to emulate jedi...

Savageheroes.com has conversions of all sorts of stuff.

Here is someone's latest attempt for SW:SW game (Star Wars:Savage Worlds):
http://www.savageheroes.com/conversions/Savage-Star-Wars-6.0.pdf
 

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