How do you like (or don't like) the Savage Worlds rpg?

[Retreater]

I don't like Savage Rifts for a few reasons, mainly the completely unnecessary premise change that you are now good bois crusading from your good boi castle, but it does have better rules than Palladium.

That's very easily taken out of the game. I don't use the Tomorrow Legion when I run it.

 

[Thomas Shey]

It was probably inserted as an easy framing option for what people would be and be doing in a setting that can be a little hard to know where to start in. Pinnacle tends to have something like that in most of their settings.

 

[Campbell]

My personal take is that it is mostly a serviceable game, but for what it does there is almost always another game I would prefer to play or run. For Deadlands that game I prefer is Classic Deadlands by like a mile and a half. That probably colors my perception of Savage Worlds a fair bit.

 

[Ixal]

Combat is imo much too swingy with exploding dice and toughtness stacking.
I also don't like how everything just has 3, sometimes 4 hits no matter what it is.

 

[Retreater]

Combat is imo much too swingy with exploding dice and toughtness stacking.
I also don't like how everything just has 3, sometimes 4 hits no matter what it is.

Unless they're minions, which have 1 HP.

 

[Azuresun]

Unless they're minions, which have 1 HP.

I was going to say! Extras are one of the best things about SW, because they only have three states--fighting, shaken or off the tabl--and only one die to track when they did an action. It was the first system where I was able to run 20 NPC's in one fight (without cheating with mob rules) and not have the session take all night.

 

[eyeheartawk]

My personal take is that it is mostly a serviceable game, but for what it does there is almost always another game I would prefer to play or run. For Deadlands that game I prefer is Classic Deadlands by like a mile and a half. That probably colors my perception of Savage Worlds a fair bit.

I agree. Granted, OG Deadlands had separate sub-systems for a bunch of things, but they felt like Deadlands. Playing SW Deadlands now is no longer special because it plays the same as any other SW game.

That's not really an indictment on the playability of new jack Deadlands, but just an intangible feel thing for me.

 

[Thomas Shey]

That's always going to be a thing with people who really want a bespoke system for a given setting. Its a reasonable position, but I've got to say I'm reaching the point in my life I'm really not interested in learning more new systems than I have to, and I rarely stick with one setting/genre from campaign to campaign.

 

[Jefe Bergenstein]

What I don't like about the cards is taking the time to deal every round, reshuffling the deck every time you deal a joker, then calling out the numbers like a BINGO caller every round. This is further complicated when you have people hold their action, change their cards due to Edges or spending Bennies. Plus people always need reminding about suit order. And Jokers can go anytime they want, so you're always checking on them when they want to go.
In D&D games I use clothespins mounted on a strip of numbers on my DM Screen. I put them in order at the start of a fight (which takes less than a minute) and we're good to go for an entire combat. Everyone can see the order and knows when his or her turn is coming up.

Cards are faster IMO. You have a ceiling of fastest so can quickly count down. I find this faster than doing an initiative grid with 5+ people barking their initiative all at once for you to somehow write down, with initiative for each NPC unit. Not rolling for initiative each round is boring to me as well, as it makes fights too predictable when you know how many actions your side gets before the enemies go.

 

[Campbell]

Cards are way faster in my experience, especially if you get card holders so you can look around and just see who is next.