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Message: <blockquote data-quote="innerdude" data-source="post: 6293027" data-attributes="member: 85870">Three weeks ago our group wrapped up a 14-month long Savage Worlds fantasy campaign. We started in Jan 2013 and it ended in March 2014. Other than skipping the month of December for the holidays, we played every other week (twice monthly) almost like clockwork. I'd estimate we had a total of 26-28 sessions (I'd have to go back and count them to be sure). The campaign overall was an incredible, smashing success; I think it exceeded nearly everyone's expectations, and we had some INCREDIBLE times. The setting was a fairly "classic" fantasy homebrew world (the basic tone / themes of the game were similar to Michael J. Sullivan's Ryria Chronicles). For sake of comparison, I ran an 8-month long Pathfinder campaign in 2011, that went from 2nd to 8th level, using the Golarion campaign setting. I'm not sure what the best way is to organize my thoughts on this, so I'll just "core dump" them into a list. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f600.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D"  data-smilie="8"data-shortname=":D" /><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">PC Power Level -- By the end of the 14 months, the player characters' capabilities were roughly on par. A late-heroic-tier / early legendary Savage Worlds character is pretty much equivalent to a 9th level D&D character.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">"Being Heroic" is supported out of the gate, and almost expected -- All of those fun things that players never try in Pathfinder / 3.x because they require a feat? Savage Worlds brings it in spades, in glorious, hilarious, exhilarating, marvelous fashion. Tricks, Taunts, Tests of Will are AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Enemies in Combat -- There was a definite "ramping up" in the capabilities of enemies required to continue challenging the PCs. But unlike D&D, large numbers of low-level foes can still pose a very real threat. So what if those 25 guys charging up the hill are only d6 "mooks" . . . there's 25 OF THEM and only 4 or 5 PCs. That's a LOT of d6's getting rolled every round, and all it takes is one lucky exploding attack and / or damage roll and things get REAL.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Getting Wounded is a Big Deal -- If your character remains wounded at the end of a "golden hour," it's a major, major thing. My players only had this happen to them a couple of times, but there was a DEFINITE shift in the tone of how the group played. Tactics changed, planning changed, and it was a really fun thing to watch as a GM.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Magic is good and generally balanced, but a bit bland if you don't use trappings -- I never could really get my two magic-user players to "get into" the idea of trappings. This was probably a fault of mine; looking back on it I really needed to get a firm grip on how trappings would affect gameplay, but I never really did.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The "All the Characters Look the Same" Fallacy is just that -- a fallacy -- Within one, maybe two advances, pretty much every character was distinctly different, with strengths and weaknesses that were unique to them.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Combat is very teamwork-oriented, and everyone can be effective and involved -- Every single player, in every single combat, contributed meaningfully to the outcome. Every time. Team work, gang-up bonuses, tricks, "setup" maneuvers, environmental factors, improvised weapons . . . it's all there.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Players WILL improvise . . . and the system helps you as a GM facilitate it --- Savage Worlds is so elegant in its core mechanic, that you'll constantly find ways to let players improvise in ways that just "feel right" in context. I've often thought to myself that "Savage Worlds is the best version of BECMI on planet earth" for combining improvisational ability and rock-solid mechanics.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Don't be afraid to houserule . . . within reason --- I added a few houserules: 1) Around healing (a third wound can only be healed on a heal check with a raise); 2) added a basic weapon proficiency system; 3) rolls of double-1's can't be rerolled / bennied. The one minor "spat" I had with houserules was when I ruled that the "Quickness" spell would use the Explorer's Edition version, rather than the Deluxe version (one of my magic users was miffed for a few weeks, but eventually things ironed out). Overall, the areas you'll want to houserule are probably pretty obvious, but it shouldn't be too hard for you to pick them out, and quickly find elegant solutions.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Magic items can be as common or rare as you want -- for this campaign, I really, really didn't want the players running around looking for +1 swords in goblin lairs. So I basically ruled that permanent magic is EXCEEDINGLY rare, for the simple reason that any magic-user that creates a magic item PERMANENTLY LOSES the power points spent to create the item. Frankly, this was one of the best decisions I could have made for the campaign. And frankly, the core game loses NOTHING by limiting magic item acquisition.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Ranged Weapons Aren't the Red-headed Stepchild of Combat Options -- One of the most effective PCs in combat was a guy who focused on archery. You'll actually WANT at least one highly-effective ranged warrior in your party (your party can thank me later for this advice <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />).</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Player Min-maxing is basically an open invitation for the GM to mess with a character's very obvious weaknesses -- No explanation necessary, I hope. <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devil.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":devil:" title="Devil    :devil:" data-shortname=":devil:" /></li> </ul>That's probably enough for now, if I think of anything else, I'll add it in another post.</blockquote>

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