Savage Worlds

[Kunimatyu]

Impressive, VGH!

Quick question for you - do you still play True20? I abandoned True20 for Savage Worlds, which is why I don't post on the t20 forum anymore.

I enjoyed True20 as baby steps away from a d20 system, but it just seems like SW has just as much flexibility without as much baggage and design time(ie. SW monsters are way faster to genereate than t20 ones)

 

[ValhallaGH]

Thanks, Kunimatyu.

Mostly, I play Mutants & Masterminds at this time. I'm also in an original Deadlands: Hell on Earth campaign. Gamers generally end up playing what the people we play with are willing to play.

Savage Worlds, D&D 4E, and a number of other systems have the right idea when it comes to designing opponents. Give them what they should have, no more and no less, and set them upon your players. With some decent guidelines, or a fair amount of experience, it's easy to get an idea of just how challenging a given foe will probably be.

 

[Kunimatyu]

I agree with your comments re: opponents, VGH.

Oftentimes, my SW monsters look like a hybrid of 4e and SW - they have the easy statting of SW, with 1-2 signature abilities, sometimes with recharges.

Converting from the 4e MMs to SW is quite simple, I find, as long as one remembers that you're converting from a level-based system to one with a more flattened power curve.

 

[Sadrik]

I have to say that the initiative system is perhaps one of, if not the, biggest reasons I don't try Savage Worlds. I play exclusively online, and have no idea how to convert it.

Um no need to... It is already done.

The Savage Worlds Online Community

 

[Sadrik]

I'm not a big SW maven, but it doesn't seem to me like there's a lot of mechanical space to differentiate amongst weapons like scimitar vs. broadsword vs. falchion vs. khopesh vs. ...

Maybe there's stuff in one or more of the toolkits or Companions, though.

I think you will not be happy with the SW rules if you are too concerned about the weapons and their individualness within the rules.
By the rules:
A long sword is synonymous with a scimitar broad sword would be too (note this last weapon type is not even included in the last two versions of D&D)
the falchion would be a great sword and a khopesh could be like a flail (in fact it looks like flail is misplaced under blade sue to the fact it was a khopesh before...).

So if you are looking for distinctive mechanics for every nuance of weapon this is not the game you are looking for but if you want every weapon you could ever consider and you don't mind putting the mechanics to other weapons (ala a katana is a bastard sword in 3e) then this is the game for you.

 

[Thanee]

Thanee, I've been wondering about your Wild Die house rule. What do you guys do for Ability rolls? Double Ability dice? d6 Wild Die? Something else?

Standard d6 Wild die for ability rolls. The house rule is only for skill rolls.


@coyote6: Yeah, the double acing would be a bit weird, true. Not necessarily bad, though. Those would need the luck more, most likely.

The "dice rolling" variant wasn't meant to perfectly emulate the existing method. That would be achieved by the d54 method (ties would have to be rolled again, of course, since you cannot "draw" the same card multiple times ).

Bye
Thanee

 

[ragboy]

I have to say that the initiative system is perhaps one of, if not the, biggest reasons I don't try Savage Worlds. I play exclusively online, and have no idea how to convert it.

Blam!

Savage World's Card Dealer

Also, Odds and Evens dice roller has a Savage Worlds option with card deck:

--unfortunately, doesn't look like Odds and Evens is still out there. Great dice roller if you can find it.

 

[Mythtify]

Savage Worlds is porbaly my favorite system. The core rules cover just about all that you need. That said, the extra books that Pinnacle has are fantastic. The tool kit series for fantasy, sci-fi, horror, and pulp are fairly cheap- as they should be being pdfs- and they add a lot of depth to the system.

The "adventure deck" supplement made me very nervous, as they give the players the ability to manipulate the game in ways that the gm may not be ready for. In play, it is awsome, and really challenges me as a Gm.

The system has picked up many good licensees in the past year or so.
For those that say are disapointed with the way that the base game does super powers, Daring Entertainment (Daring Entertainment) has a fantastic game "Dawn of Legends" that has a supers system that is rich and detailed. They have done a lot or stuff for M&M, by the way.

Pinnacle also has a licensed Save Worlds version of Space 1889 coming out later this year. Welcome to Pinnacle's Weird Website!
Ya gotta love that!

 

[Kunimatyu]

Space 1889 Savage Worlds-style will be awesome.

The basic, fundamental draw to the system is that you can run your cool and wacky homebrew campaign world with little to no fuss, rather than trying to shoehorn D&D/d20 into a job it wasn't meant to do.

Pirates, Westerns, James Bond-style secret agents, Mad Max, steampunk, Aliens, the list goes on...

 

[Sadrik]

SW by far is my favorite system as well. I am going to be running S1 Tomb of Horrors, I also have a modern ops style game, I also am playing in a sundered skies game and I have been converting my fantasy setting to the rules. Not to even mention the myriad of one-shot games on their website that I have printed out and ran with the pregens an hour before game night. I simply cannot say enough.