Grade the Savage Worlds System

[BigZebra]

Ok thanks. That is helpful.
I’m currently GMing Giantslayer in PF1 and mostly like it. But I would like to run Curse of the Crimson throne soon and perhaps in something other than PF1 because:

• It feels a bit archaic
• Really don’t like Vancian casting
• Prepping monsters takes a looong time and I fear the later levels

What I fear about Savage Pathfinder is that combat ultimately comes down to Bennie economy which is so much GM-fiat.

 

[thullgrim]

There's some things you can do to mitigate the Bennie handout issue. Give them out at the end each scene, or every hour of play, or something similar.

The Savage Pathfinder AP's are generally well done. I run a lot of Savage Worlds and I love PF1. Savage Pathfinder has replaced PF1 for me. I'd have to have something very specific in mind to go back to it, and it would probably not be for anything long term or campaign length.

 

[dbm]

Your second and third bullets are definitely addressed by Savage Pathfinder, and I would say the first is, too.

What I fear about Savage Pathfinder is that combat ultimately comes down to Bennie economy which is so much GM-fiat.

Not an issue in my personal experience. First, buying hindrances that will generate bennies and then playing them clearly helps. Players should help the GM since they will struggle to remember everyone’s hinderances.

Second, a significant source of bennies is drawing jokers, and that is wholly mechanical. If the players are drawing more cards per round than the NPCs (and they often are since NPC Extras should be grouped) then the odds of drawing Jokers are typically in their favour.

 

[Thomas Shey]

I'd also state from experience that while bennies matter, they don't have quite as dramatic an impact as some metacurrancy. It matters, but you have to hit the extremes before its really overwhelming.

 

[Reynard]

There's some things you can do to mitigate the Bennie handout issue. Give them out at the end each scene, or every hour of play, or something similar.

I run SWADE a lot at cons and occasionally in regular ongoing games, and what I ended up doing with Bennies most of the time is kind of emulating the Modiphius 2d20 Momentum and Doom Pools. I give each PC a bennie that is all their own, but otherwise the rest of their bennies go in a pool. When they use one from the pool, it goes into the GM/Villain Wild Card pool. If I use one from there, it goes back to the PC pool. It works really great and injects a lot of tension a decision making into when to use bennies -- while also eliminating the need to remember to award them.

 

[BigZebra]

Great input. I think I will try to do a one shot in it and see how it goes. But there are so many interesting games on the horizon: 13th age 2nd ed, PF2 Core Remastered, D&D 5.1, and then also SW Pathfinder.