Sell me on Savage Worlds

[Thomas Shey]

I agree with this but I haven't been able to put it into action yet – likely because I'm running an East Texas University campaign, which generally doesn't have the kind of fights that work best in SWADE. SWADE wants fights with one or two wildcards on the opposing side plus a bunch of minions, because that's what gives PC fighter-types a good workout and lets them feel like they're doing something useful by taking out minions without ending the encounter. But most ETU adventures, at least so far, have been a lot of investigating that's maybe followed by a fight against a single adversary that's not super-powerful – and when the PCs can bring gang-up bonuses and support and test into play, they generally don't last long. It might change later in the campaign as things develop.

I suspect that's another problem with using SW for supers in a lot of cases; you're either fighting a single well defended enemy (and that tends to reinforce one of the core problems with using it for supers) or you're fighting an enemy superteam which is likely all Wild Cards.

 

[Reef]

Which is why Necessary Evil was a great setting to showcase Savage Super Powers. Most of the time, you're fighting alien soldiers, as opposed to actual enemy supers (exceptions exist, of course).

 

[dbm]

I haven’t played ETU, only read it. My understanding is a trope of the genre is finding an enemies weakness so you can exploit it and turn a fight from unwinable to something a group of teens might pull off. It’s not really a standard combat scenario.

Similarly with supers, wailing on your foe is not always the effective approach and sometimes you need team ups or alternative strategies to neutralise your opponents. Savage Worlds has tools for that.

 

[dbm]

or you're fighting an enemy superteam which is likely all Wild Cards.

When I am running supers with Savage Worlds the Inverse Rules of Ninjas applies - a solo foe is likely a Wild Card but a team of enemies are probably Extras even if they are supers.

When I ran Lost Colony for my group maybe only half of the fights actually included a Wild Card amongst the opposition.

 

[cbwjm]

I think if I were to run a savage supers game, I'd have a lot of the groups like AIM or Hydra show up allowing the players to cut down numerous minions with a wild card (like MODOK) turning up at some point to challenge the PCs.

Jobbers are also a supers trope, even if they often turn up as a group, they're there to be beaten so have them be extras rather than wild cards.

The nemesis or nemeses or the supers group I'd have to make wild cards though. Can't have the fantastic four easily beating doctor doom, or wolverine taking out sabretooth in a single hit.

 

[dbm]

Features like Unstoppable, Hardy, Resilient / Very Resilient, and large size mean even an Extra can be extremely hard to take out.

 

[Staffan]

I haven’t played ETU, only read it. My understanding is a trope of the genre is finding an enemies weakness so you can exploit it and turn a fight from unwinable to something a group of teens might pull off. It’s not really a standard combat scenario.

There might be more of that in later years as they encounter more directly supernatural stuff, but so far most villains have been regular mortals meddling in things better left alone. Let me think:

Spoiler: Stuff my gals have been fighting at ETU

• Security guard.
• Art student and Scarecrow: one PC was sucked into a painting of a field where she got her ass kicked by a scarecrow (which the whole group would likely have had problems with, because of their damage resistances). Meanwhile, the rest of the group kicked the ass of the painter.
• Dude who got hypnotized to believe he was a zombie.
• Animated copy machine.
• Popo Bawa, a shapeshifting weird creature who in this case took the form of a dire wolf.
• Stalker nerd with the weird science power to summon insect swarms. Swarms were nasty, but the nerd himself was easily beaten.
• The Needler, a mutant chupacabra who's supposed to be a bit of a bogeyman in year 1. However, the party handily kicked its ass.

We've also had some adventures without combats at all.

 

[Thomas Shey]

When I am running supers with Savage Worlds the Inverse Rules of Ninjas applies - a solo foe is likely a Wild Card but a team of enemies are probably Extras even if they are supers.

I'd be willing to put at least a small side bet that's not how most people running that would do it. People don't tend to associate individualized opponents with Extras.

 

[Thomas Shey]

The nemesis or nemeses or the supers group I'd have to make wild cards though. Can't have the fantastic four easily beating doctor doom, or wolverine taking out sabretooth in a single hit.

In the case of teams vs. single supervillain, even being a Wild Card won't be enough alone, and what you need to make that work can create some potential problems in SW Supers.

 

[dbm]

I'd be willing to put at least a small side bet that's not how most people running that would do it. People don't tend to associate individualized opponents with Extras.

The book recommends (core p199):
“A good fight for a party of heroes is two Extras per hero plus an enemy Wild Card leader with roughly the same number of combat Edges (or other advantages).”

If people are regularly facing multiple Wild Cards in a fight scenario then the GM isn’t following that guidance.