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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Zadmar" data-source="post: 6249743" data-attributes="member: 6700109">In this post I'll elaborate on the setting rules I'm using for my campaign.  I also use Savage Armoury for weapons and armour, and Savage Spellbook for spells. Arcane Spell Failure Instead of suffering Backlash when you roll 1 on your arcane skill die, you suffer Backlash whenever your arcane skill die rolls equal or below your worn armour value (to a maximum of 3), or the Parry bonus of your shield, whichever is higher. If you're not using armour or a shield, you only suffer Backlash on a critical failure.Goal: This rule is specifically designed for setting conversions in which mages don't normally wear armour. This limitation isn't necessary for game balance, but can sometimes be important for flavour.RAW: Mages don't suffer any penalties to their arcane skill rolls when wearing armour or using shields, although they usually have a low Strength, which can give them encumbrance penalties to many other actions (any skill linked to Strength or Agility) if they carry too much.Impact: Most mages are already able to wear leather armour and/or use a small or medium shield without penalty, and those mages will be unaffected. However this does provide an incentive to go without armour, and gives a penalty to mages who load up with chainmail or plate.Evading In addition to Fighting, Shooting and Throwing, there is now another combat skill called Evading, linked to Agility. Parry is now half Evading plus 2 (the Fighting skill becomes purely offensive). Evading is also used in place of Agility when evading area attacks, diving for cover, avoiding the Entangle power, Full Defense, and (at the GM's discretion) avoiding certain traps.The Dodge Edge now requires Evading d8 instead of Agility d8, although the requirements for Block remain unchanged (making it a special defensive Edge for Fighting-based characters). Extraction now requires Evading d8 instead of Agility d8, and uses an Evading roll to withdraw without provoking a free attack.Goal: This rule splits the offensive and defensive aspects of Fighting into two separate skills, and opens up the possibility for characters who aren't very good fighters, but are still good at dodging attacks.RAW: The Fighting skill is generally better than any core Combat Edge (with the exception of Sweep and Improved First Strike when facing multiple opponents, and First Strike when wielding a reach weapon), and offensive and defensive skill are tied together.Impact: This rule slightly weakens Agility by moving some of its innate advantages to a skill, although the skill is linked to Agility so the impact should be minimal. Adding another skill also spreads starting combat characters a bit thinner, so all characters gain a free advance during character creation as compensation.Non-Binary Action Resolution When making a trait roll, you may choose to roll two fudge dice at the same time. Each "+" increases the result by +1, while each "-" reduces the result by -1.If you roll "++" you can choose to exchange the +2 bonus for an "advantage action". This can be any normal action of your choice (trick, Taunt, Push, etc), except you use d6 in place of your appropriate trait, as the action is based on luck rather than skill. The GM can apply a situational modifier of between +2 and -2 if appropriate. An "advantage action" gains no special effects from "++" or "--".If you roll "--" and either the skill or wild die roll 1, you suffer a major setback comparable with a critical failure. Rolling snake eyes with the skill and wild die no longer has any special meaning if you're rolling fudge dice as well.This rule should only usually be used for Wild Cards, but at the GM's discretion it can sometimes be entertaining to roll two fudge dice for an entire group of Extras, applying the results to all of them. This shouldn’t always be done, but in some cases it can add to the story (as it introduces the possibility of Extras botching their actions).Goal: The idea is to separate the concept of success and failure from advantages and setbacks, so that a character might successfully decapitate their opponent (success) and break their weapon while doing so (setback), or miss their opponent with a swing (failure), but slice through a nearby rope, causing the chandelier to fall on their opponent (advantage).RAW: Normally a critical failure only occurs on snake eyes, which means a setback is always combined with a failure.Impact: This can have a very slight impact on playing speed, as it’s another modifier to apply, and it can occasionally grant an extra action. It also increases the chance of a setback, although this has to be offset against the chance of an advantage. This rule also removes the glitch in the Savage Worlds dice probability curve that some people find objectionable.Simplified Encumbrance Load Limit is defined in significant items rather than in pounds, but otherwise follows the normal encumbrance rules. A significant item is one that weighs roughly 5-14 pounds, and you can carry a number of such items equal to half your Strength without penalty (i.e., 2 significant items with Strength d4, 3 significant items with Strength d6, etc). The Brawny Edge increases your Load Limit in significant items by 1½ times (rounded up).Particularly heavy items may count as two or more significant items; divide their weight (in lb) by 10 and round to the nearest whole number to determine how many items they count as. At the GM's discretion, multiple small items can be collectively classified as a significant item.Note that this rule was taken from Savage Armoury, where is it used in the weapon and armour creation guidelines.Goal: This rule makes encumbrance far easier to track, as most characters will be able to carry only 2-4 significant items without incurring a penalty.RAW: Encumbrance is tracked in pounds, which can add significant bookkeeping if you use it, and nerfs the Strength attribute if you don't.Impact: This greatly reduces the bookkeeping for tracking encumbrance.Slice and Dice If you score two or more raises on your attack roll, and haven't made a called shot, you can roll a Chessex Hit Location d12 alongside your damage dice to see where you've hit your opponent. The hit location is used for determining armour, and if it rolls "head" the attack is also treated as a headshot (i.e., +4 damage). If your opponent is incapacitated by the damage (and also fails the Vigor roll in the case of a Wild Card), then the hit location die indicates which body part has been maimed, crushed, or sliced off by the attack.Goal: This rule provides a quick and easy way to determine which body parts are hit, which is ideal if you want a little crunch to back up the narrative when describing the fate of hapless Extras.RAW: Incapacitated Wild Cards roll on the Injury Table, Extras just make a Vigor roll after the battle to see if they survive.Impact: It's another rule to remember, but as it only occurs on two or more raises it shouldn't crop up too frequently, and as the Hit Location die is rolled alongside the damage dice it should be fairly fast. Note that the Hit Location die has a much higher chance of hitting non-torso areas, but as it's only used with exceptional attack rolls that doesn't seem unreasonable. This also makes non-torso armour more useful, as attacks normally always hit the torso unless they're called shots.Stances This rule replaces Wild Attack, Defend and Full Defense.At the beginning of your turn, before making any rolls, you may choose a fighting stance. The modifiers apply until the beginning of your following turn.• Powerful stance: Inflict +2 damage, or +4 if you hit with a raise. Parry reduced by 2.• Offensive stance: Gain +2 to Fighting rolls. Parry reduced by 2.• Defensive stance: Gain +2 Parry but can only perform one other action this round (including free actions such as movement), and if the other action requires a roll it is made at -2.Goal: This rule splits up Wild Attack, and merges Defend and Full Defense together, resulting in three viable tactical options.RAW: Wild Attack is mechanically speaking a no-brainer in almost all melee situations. Full Defense often causes confusion due to being a Fighting roll.Impact: Stances offer the players more tactical choice, and streamline the defensive options.Surrounded If two adjacent foes are on directly opposite sides of you, they gain an additional +1 Gang Up, up to the normal maximum of +4. This bonus does not apply if you are adjacent to an ally, wall, or solid object big enough to fill a 1" square.Goal: The intent of this rule is to make it viable for two characters to fight back-to-back against multiple opponents.RAW: When facing between 3 and 9 opponents, two characters would be mechanically better off splitting up and fighting a short distance away from each other, as this would force the opponents to divide their Gang Up bonus rather than allowing them to combine it.Impact: It's another rule to remember.</blockquote>

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