Savage Worlds - Experiences?

[Thanee]

Anyone have any experiences with the Savage Worlds (revised) system?

I just got it recently (together with Deadlands Reloaded) and it makes a good first impression, but I would like to hear how it worked for you in practice, especially where you think it did not perform very well.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Karl Green]

Its ok but I have a few problems with it:

Bennies are just to important IMO... with them characters (and other Wild Cards) can do crazy cool stuff, without them they are just above average. The wild dice helps BUT not enough IMO (again )

Some of the Combat Edges bother me. I don't have my book here but the one to use Two-Weapons (one in each hand) vs. the one to attack twice with one Weapon is weird.

Strength based weapons are a bit more powerful then ranged attacks, because they can be 'Bennied' and the wild dice ally to the roll.

I am not a fan of mixing cards with dice and the way iniative works (it does not matter what your Agility is, and only a couple of Edges help).

Other then that it is not a bad game. I have played it a bit (I ran a Spellslinger western game and also some Nessasary Evil) and had a good time but there were rough spots

 

[Particle_Man]

One popular house rule is to use bennies that are "spent" as xp, as opposed to bennies that are "left unspent" at the end of a session. This allows people to spend them fast and free, and discourages "hoarding".

I want to try it myself wtih 50 Fathoms, but getting interested players to coordinate on time is turning into an issue. I have a vision - a dark nightmarish vision - of me running 3 separate solo campaigns.

 

[ScaredofScissors]

I love it; it's easy to make characters, easy to make enemies, and fights are (usually) fast.

I disagree with Karl about mixing cards and initiative; having the card out on the table makes it easy to tell who's next; people can go in different orders every turn; and getting a joker means you have an advantage you can use! It's true that there aren't many ways to make going first less random, though (some Edges, but you generally can't get those to start).

Bennies -are- very important; they help you stay alive and/or do cool stuff, but ultimately they're just a resource to manage (like spells, or hit points, or action dice).

A lot of people misunderstand the Knock-Out rules, so that's something to look out for.

Also be advised about Toughness; set it too high, and your fights will last a long time w/out anything seeming to happen. The real trick is to find out the average damage you can dish out; make Toughness lower, equal, or higher than this depending on how tough you want a bad guy to be. You want to be especially careful whenever Toughness is high enough that an opponent would have to Ace in order to match/exceed it.

Finally, it rewards teamwork - work in pairs to weaken foes with a Trick, or get them Shaken, so another person can finish them off.

 

[Thanee]

I am not a fan of mixing cards with dice and the way iniative works (it does not matter what your Agility is, and only a couple of Edges help).

I actually like the card-based initiative (judging from past experience with classic Deadlands), though I was thinking to maybe tweak it a little to allow multiple actions as in classic Deadlands.

My initial thought (not playtested in any fashion) is to have everyone make an Agility or Smarts roll (whatever they like) and for a raise one extra card can be drawn and for two or more raises two extra cards can be drawn.

This might be a wee bit unbalanced in this fashion, though.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Thanee]

Not entirely sure what you can do with Bennies right now, since I mostly got it for Deadlands and it uses a different system with the Fate Chips instead (also has an updated melee damage system), but don't they 'only' allow to a reroll one die? While certainly very useful, that doesn't sound too important to me, as in, it doesn't make Bennies more important than a good trait level.

Bye
Thanee

 

[WayneLigon]

I've been running it for a few weeks now and I'm still impressed at how easy it is to create characters and encounters. They've had a wide variety of things happen to them so we could test how the rule system works, and it's worked out well.

The only thing I would (and will) change is the unspent-bennie-into-XP roll. We have one guy that is just insanely lucky at rolling and so usually has not spent all his bennies but almost always all or most of them have converted to XP. He now has twice the XP of the next most experienced party member. So, that rule is probably going away.

I also use the adventure card deck from Great White, with a few of the cards removed. That's proven very popular and has led to some unusual twists and turns along the way.

 

[Thanee]

Hmm... yeah, Bennies for XP basically favors those with lucky dice, which doesn't seem right.

Bye
Thanee

 

[BluSponge]

Anyone have any experiences with the Savage Worlds (revised) system?

I just got it recently (together with Deadlands Reloaded) and it makes a good first impression, but I would like to hear how it worked for you in practice, especially where you think it did not perform very well.

Love it! I've been playing it since it's release and it quickly became my go-to game. It's perfectly suited to my style of play. I will admit I was a bit concerned when I originally read the prerelease Test Drive rules, as the Shaken/Wounded system sounded very wonky, but that has since been put at ease. I was also concerned that powerful (Legendary) characters would walk all over an adventure. A brief sojourn to the Hall of the Fire Giant King by my players cured that misconception right up.

What are its strengths? It's designed for gamers who don't have a lot of free time on their hands, and succeeds. Combats are generally fast. Designing characters, even very seasoned ones, takes hardly any time at all. And designing NPCs takes scarely a few minutes. As a GM, I spend more time working on the evening's plot points than mucking with rules and stat blocks. Furthermore, the game itself is fun to play. It is solid enough to give players plenty to chew on, but light enough that it doesn't dominate play. The external fiddledy bits -- bennies, initiative cards, etc. -- add fun elements to the game. It's actually fun to deal out initiative while the players are eagerly watching to see if a joker comes up on their end. One of the biggest strengths is that the system is light and intuitive enough that most players can grasp and master it relatively quickly, as in within a few game sessions. Don't get the wrong idea, though. SW is definitely NOT a rules light game.

The weaknesses? The game does have a few, but how bad they are depends on what you want out of your game. It's very pulpy, with PCs being obviously superior to the average joe on the street. Combat can sometimes come down to a lucky roll of the dice, or drag on forever if you aren't careful (for beginners. Once you get the hang of it, you won't have to worry much). The powers system, while wonderfully versitale, does not lend itself to DnD-esque wandering spell arsenal type characters. And though generic, the game does not do four-color supers out of the box (for that, you'll want to invest in the Necessary Evil Player's Guide).

Something important to keep in mind is that SW plays much better than it reads. The rules text is very stripped down, and isn't very colorful. Going only by the text, the game may appear simplistic and shallow. Give it a few tries with your group and you discover you have no reason to switch back. Really, its a damn fun RPG with a great online presence and a wide body of support. Give it a shot, see what you think after you play it.

Tom

 

[BluSponge]

I actually like the card-based initiative (judging from past experience with classic Deadlands), though I was thinking to maybe tweak it a little to allow multiple actions as in classic Deadlands.

My initial thought (not playtested in any fashion) is to have everyone make an Agility or Smarts roll (whatever they like) and for a raise one extra card can be drawn and for two or more raises two extra cards can be drawn.

Keep in mind that there are Edges that already do this. I'm not saying it wouldn't make a good house rule, but it would also depower those Edges somewhat. It will also slow down your game, as everyone makes rolls, spends bennies to reroll, etc. SW is pretty well designed to move along as fast as possible. General rule of thumb heavily promoted amongst fans of the system: give the game a few tries before house ruling things. If it still doesn't work the way you like it, then knock yourself out.

Tom