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Josh Bazin
Canada
Edmonton
Alberta
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Savage Worlds: Fast, Furious, Fun!
Savage Worlds is a generic game system that focuses on fast task resolution, simple mechanics, and giving players and GMs the ability to get a game running quickly, and with very little preparation time.
System
The Savage Worlds system requires a roll against a target number (TN), which may be fixed by the GM based on task difficulty +/- any modifiers, against an opponent’s statistic, or against an opponent’s roll. The baseline TN for most tasks is 4.
When rolling a test, if your die comes up as an ACE (ie, a 6 on a d6) then it is re-rolled, and added to your previous result. You continue re-rolling until you stop rolling Aces.
PCs and certain NPCs are known as Wild Cards (WC). WC characters roll an additional d6 (called the Wild Die) with any trait test. This die represents the exceptional nature of the WCs, and increases the odds of their success. The Wild Die is NOT added to your trait test, it is simply a second opportunity to meet the TN. It can explode like a regular trait die, however. You select the highest roll of the two to use as the result.
Raises are indications of how successful a test was (or, degrees of success, if you prefer). Each multiple of 4 over the TN results in a raise. For example, the TN is 4, I rolled an 8. That’s one raise. If I rolled a 12, that would be two raises.
Bennies
Bennies are the ‘Action Points’ of Savage Worlds. They can be used to reroll any trait test, as well as some other actions. The GM also gets bennies to use against the players! Bennies are granted for each session - so its use them or lose them!
Traits
Traits are measured on a die scale: d4, d6, d8, d10, d12. The die level that a PC has in an attribute represents what they roll when asked to test a trait.
Attributes
Attributes are the top level baselines for your character, much like Str, Dex, Int, in your favourite d20 based game. Attributes reflect your affinity for the particular areas.
 Agility: Ability to perform tasks related to dexterity and hand/eye coordination
Smarts: Ability to reason, knowledge, etc.
Strength: Being strong
Spirit: Strength of will, ability to recover from shock
Vigor: Vitality, linked to Toughness
Skills
Skills are specific things that a character is capable of achieving. Each skill has a linked attribute; however, the linked attribute level does not dictate the level of the skill. That is, if I have a d8 in Agility, I don’t automatically have a d8 in all Agility linked skills. However, when spending points to upgrade skills, the linked attribute is very important. Skills can be raised to the same die level as the linked attribute for a single point, but anything over that level requires two upgrade points. This reflects that your skill is surpassing your natural affinity for that particular area.
Derived Statistics
Charisma is the bonus/penalty your character has when making social interactions. Value is driven by Edges and Hindrances.
Pace is how fast you move.
Parry is your ability to block incoming blows, and is linked to your Fighting skill. This is the statistic opponents striking in melee are rolling against.
Toughness is your ability to soak damage, and is linked to your Vigor. For example, if you have a Toughness of 7, an opponent must deal 7 points damage per attack before you begin to take Shaken or Wounded effects.
Edges and Hindrances
Edges and Hindrances give characters life and potentially mechanical ties to a written background. They can be generalized into these categories: Combat, Leadership, Social, and Weird. These items give characters a benefit (or not) in certain situations.
For example:
Alertness grants a +2 to Notice checks
Charismatic grants +2 to Charisma
Rich grants x3 starting cash, $75k annual salary
Clueless grants a -2 to most Common Knowledge rolls
All Thumbs grants a -2 to Repair, Rolling 1 results in malfunction
Edges have prerequisites in terms of Trait levels, Other Edges, and/or character rank to take. Some edges have ‘Improved’ versions for higher level characters that further indicate the proficiency of a character in a given skill set.
Combat
One of the most exciting things about Savage Worlds is the initiative mechanic. Each round, the GM deals a card to each WC and group of enemies. Action is taken from Ace to Deuce, ties broken by reverse alphabetical order of suit names. This means that you might act last in one round, and act first in the next round. In addition, Jokers add another wrinkle to the mix - anyone dealt a Joker gets to act whenever he wants, and all trait tests are made at +2, and damage is +2 as well.
Resolving combat is very simple. If you’re attacking in melee, you make a Fighting roll against the opponents’ Parry score. If you’re attacking at range, you roll against a TN of 4 +/- any range/cover bonuses.
Melee damage is the addition of your Strength and Weapon damage. Ranged damage is weapon damage. Damage can Ace. If you hit with a raise, you gain an additional +1d6 to add to your damage, but only on the first raise. The total damage is then compared to the opponent’s toughness. If your damage is equal to or higher than Toughness, it is a success. A Shaken result is applied. For each raise, the opponent suffers a Wound (in addition to being Shaken).
As Savage Worlds was developed from a miniatures game, you have the ability to play your battles out on a tactical grid.
Status Effects
A Shaken result represents a character being worn down (through damage, fear, and tests of will). A Shaken character cannot take any actions, and can only move at half their pace. For example, consider a failed fear test - the character’s mental state has broken, and all they can do is move away from the object of their fear. At the beginning of each turn, a shaken character makes a Spirit roll. If they fail, they remain shaken. If they pass, they recover and can act normally next round. With a raise, they can act normally this round. The Shaken status can be dangerous. While shaken, a second shaken result from a damaging attack will result in a wound.
Wounds represent the real damage taken by the character. Each WC has 3 wounds. Each wound carries a -1 penalty to all trait tests. After the third wound, a character becomes incapacitated. A Vigor roll is made immediately to determine what happens!
Setting
The real beauty of Savage Worlds is that it’s generic. The core rulebook has enough in it to run most any world you want (some require more work than others). Fantastic supplements, such as the Fantasy Companion, Horror Toolkit, Superpower Toolkit add genre specific Edges, Hindrances, Races, and Equipment.
If you don’t like building your own world, Savage Worlds has you cover there as well. Many fantastic setting books are available.
A small sample:
Deadlands: Reloaded
Realms of Cthulhu
Rippers
Hellfrost Player's Guide
Weird Wars: Weird War II
Most settings are what are known as Plot Point campaigns. The book gives you a set of adventure threads to follow, but are presented in a generic enough to let the GM plant the seeds in their own campaign how they see fit.
On top of this, there are hordes of One-Sheet adventures online for those looking for a short story to run over a session. One-Sheets are double sided pages that give you all you need for a 3-4 hour game, from the GMs side of the table.
Community support is also huge. Savagepedia and Savage Heroes have tons of material available for use. This includes conversions of other settings, house rules, and the like.
In short, Savage Worlds has a setting for you to play in.
Publication History
Published by Pinnacle Entertainment Group, Savage Worlds was developed from the evolution of the original Deadlands RPG, more specifically; it was derived from the Great Rail Wars miniatures game. The first Savage Worlds ruleset was released in 2003. A revised rulebook was released in PDF format in 2004, and was printed in 2005. The Savage Worlds Explorer Edition was released in 2007. The Savage Worlds Deluxe Edition is scheduled for release in 2011, which will incorporate rules updates and errata from previous editions. Most (if not all) the new supplemental material will be released for free online, so that current owners of a previous edition can enjoy this content without buying another edition.
Savage Worlds Showdown is a miniatures skirmish game based on the Savage Worlds rules, and is intended for quick miniatures skirmishes, rather than role-playing sessions.
What I Liked
Savage Worlds gives me flexibility to play in a wide variety of game worlds. Fantastic production values on first-party materials, and great support online, through free One-Sheets, figure flats and other templates.
Combat can be very intense. The changing initiative order can be huge in a combat. Managing status effects can be a big challenge.
Conflict resolution is quick and easy - very little math required.
The Explorers’ Edition is only $10.
Setting rules generally provide great rule-tweaks that suit the setting. For example, Deadlands has dueling rules, Rippers has rules regarding social standing.
What I Didn’t Like
I admittedly, don’t particularly like how superpowers are handled in the core books - the Superpowers Companion reportedly makes this better.
The Explorers’ Edition, while gives you enough to do a lot, there are some areas that could be improved (ie, giving a small sampling of races).
Explorers’ Edition Index is poor - it can be a challenge to find certain tables.
Your Turn!
There's a variety of things that I didn't touch on (eg, Magic, Advanced Combat Tactics), so if there's something you want to know about, please feel free to ask.
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United States
Missoula
Montana
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Honestly, I was most impressed with Savage Worlds when I jumped into a Realms of Cthulhu game with a concept I developed over the two days in between my being invited to it and the first session. It took me all of 10 minutes to throw together the mechanical bits, sitting down with the books for the first time.
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It's been a while since I had my Savage Worlds stuff, so I'm wondering how a couple things have done (or changed?).
One, with raises, there's a weird situation where a d6 has a better chance of getting 1 raise than a d8 due to an exploding dice mechanic. Is this still in place?
Two, stunts, I remember there being an option to pull stuff off to get bonuses to rolls, which was necessary to beat a toughness rating and get a shaken status on certain enemies. Is this still pretty much the only way of beating really tough enemies, or are there a few other options too?
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Josh Bazin
Canada
Edmonton
Alberta
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stainlesssteelrat wrote:
One, with raises, there's a weird situation where a d6 has a better chance of getting 1 raise than a d8 due to an exploding dice mechanic. Is this still in place?
I would assume this is still true, as Aces (exploding dice) can occur.
Quote:
Two, stunts, I remember there being an option to pull stuff off to get bonuses to rolls, which was necessary to beat a toughness rating and get a shaken status on certain enemies. Is this still pretty much the only way of beating really tough enemies, or are there a few other options too?
So, there's two things that can happen in combat: you can have troubling hitting a foe, or you can have trouble damaging them.
To hit them, you have a variety of stunt options (Taunting, Intimidating, Wild Attack, and a few others) which grant bonuses to hit.
To damage them, you can issue a called shot, to an unarmored area, or you can Wild Attack.
Now, the thing about stunts is that with many of them, if you win the test with a raise, the opponent becomes Shaken. This is especially good for enemies with high Toughness, as if they become shaken, the PC's next damage roll (provided it's over the toughness) will cause a wound. I didn't mention this earlier, but unless the high-toughness enemy is a Wild Card, it only takes one wound to take them out - so this is a very good tactic if you have someone that is able to pull of stunts, followed by a heavy hitter.
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Andy Leighton
England
Peterborough
Unspecified
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Bazin wrote: stainlesssteelrat wrote:
Two, stunts, I remember there being an option to pull stuff off to get bonuses to rolls, which was necessary to beat a toughness rating and get a shaken status on certain enemies. Is this still pretty much the only way of beating really tough enemies, or are there a few other options too?
So, there's two things that can happen in combat: you can have troubling hitting a foe, or you can have trouble damaging them. To hit them, you have a variety of stunt options (Taunting, Intimidating, Wild Attack, and a few others) which grant bonuses to hit.
Yes. Ganging up is a good thing to do. It gives you bonuses.
Also it is usually better to use ranged attacks against a tough foe. The TN for a ranged attack is normally 4. The TN for a melee attack is the Parry of the target. For ranged attack you can spend time aiming for +2.
Tricks are always good. Agility or Smarts based. They make the target less capable of parrying (-2 to their parry) and can leave them Shaken (on a raise).
Quote: Now, the thing about stunts is that with many of them, if you win the test with a raise, the opponent becomes Shaken. This is especially good for enemies with high Toughness, as if they become shaken, the PC's next damage roll (provided it's over the toughness) will cause a wound. I didn't mention this earlier, but unless the high-toughness enemy is a Wild Card, it only takes one wound to take them out
And if the enemy is a Wild Card it helps as the GM will be burning through his bennies to remove shaken statuses or soaking wounds.
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Josh Bazin
Canada
Edmonton
Alberta
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andyl wrote: Quote: Now, the thing about stunts is that with many of them, if you win the test with a raise, the opponent becomes Shaken. This is especially good for enemies with high Toughness, as if they become shaken, the PC's next damage roll (provided it's over the toughness) will cause a wound. I didn't mention this earlier, but unless the high-toughness enemy is a Wild Card, it only takes one wound to take them out And if the enemy is a Wild Card it helps as the GM will be burning through his bennies to remove shaken statuses or soaking wounds.
Yep, this is exactly right! Great comments Andyl!
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Eric Jome
United States
Milwaukee
Wisconsin
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I've really enjoyed the Explorer's Edition and considered repeatedly the idea of running a game using this system. But my problem is always that I just don't know how to build encounters. Is there any source of mechanical advice on how to build encounters? I don't want to just download pre-gen scenarios. I want to know how to build my own. How tough is too tough for monsters?
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Josh Bazin
Canada
Edmonton
Alberta
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cosine wrote: I've really enjoyed the Explorer's Edition and considered repeatedly the idea of running a game using this system. But my problem is always that I just don't know how to build encounters. Is there any source of mechanical advice on how to build encounters? I don't want to just download pre-gen scenarios. I want to know how to build my own. How tough is too tough for monsters?
In the Explorer's Edition, in the GM section (I don't have the book at work, so I can't cite a page) there's a section on what different levels of toughness would 'represent' in terms of typical creatures, which might help to see how easy/hard it is to damage them. Extras only have one wound, so it will only take damage with a raise against toughness to take them down.
In my opinion, too tough for monsters (assuming one on one combat) when parry is higher than the best fighting die for the party. So a parry of 8 when the best fighting is d6 is probably too tough, because the character does need to ACE to hit.
Similarly, having toughness higher than your best non-raise damage roll is probably too tough.
I've run a zombie encounter with 3-4 zombies per character that was challenging, but not overly so, but the Parry and Toughness were both quite low, so many times, one hit meant one kill. I've run other encounters with 2 human gun-toting thugs per character and it was challenging, and the average parry/toughness was similar to that of the PCs.
I also use the one-sheets for guidance. Taking a look at what some of those adventures suggest for encounters helps me make sure that I'm being reasonable.
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Anthony Friedman
United States
Long Beach
California
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How does character progression work (if there is any)? Do characters level up or gain experience points?
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Josh Bazin
Canada
Edmonton
Alberta
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Stix_Remix wrote: How does character progression work (if there is any)? Do characters level up or gain experience points?
There is character progression. It's experience points based, but a little different than other systems.
Each 5 XP (a typically session typically awards 1-3 XP) grants an advance. Advances are points that can be spent on new Edges, improving skills or attributes. Roughly, every 20 XP characters move up in Rank, which grants them access to a new tier of Edges.
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Chris Fee
United States
Corning
New York
No fair! They're using brains against us! We removed our brains to make room for guns and explosives!
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Bazin wrote: stainlesssteelrat wrote: Two, stunts, I remember there being an option to pull stuff off to get bonuses to rolls, which was necessary to beat a toughness rating and get a shaken status on certain enemies. Is this still pretty much the only way of beating really tough enemies, or are there a few other options too? So, there's two things that can happen in combat: you can have troubling hitting a foe, or you can have trouble damaging them. To hit them, you have a variety of stunt options (Taunting, Intimidating, Wild Attack, and a few others) which grant bonuses to hit. To damage them, you can issue a called shot, to an unarmored area, or you can Wild Attack. Now, the thing about stunts is that with many of them, if you win the test with a raise, the opponent becomes Shaken. This is especially good for enemies with high Toughness, as if they become shaken, the PC's next damage roll (provided it's over the toughness) will cause a wound. I didn't mention this earlier, but unless the high-toughness enemy is a Wild Card, it only takes one wound to take them out - so this is a very good tactic if you have someone that is able to pull of stunts, followed by a heavy hitter.
That's one of the things I like about Savage Worlds, is that it encourages options besides
I hit the orc.
The orc hits me.
I hit the orc.
ad nauseum.
Now, I haven't played much Savage Worlds, but the one problem I did have once was that with the exploding dice, it is possible (if unlikely) that a really good roll can outright trash someone. Had a troll ace his d12 something like 3 or 4 times and turn the party cleric into paste on the first hit of a combat.
If you don't have a problem with a system being possibly one-shot kill then it isn't an issue, I guess.
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Josh Bazin
Canada
Edmonton
Alberta
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manyslayer wrote:
Now, I haven't played much Savage Worlds, but the one problem I did have once was that with the exploding dice, it is possible (if unlikely) that a really good roll can outright trash someone. Had a troll ace his d12 something like 3 or 4 times and turn the party cleric into paste on the first hit of a combat.
If you don't have a problem with a system being possibly one-shot kill then it isn't an issue, I guess.
Since damage can explode, then yes, you could run into this situation. However, spending a bennie will give the character the chance to soak damage, based on a vigor roll. Granted, this wouldn't really help in the situation you describe (36+ points of damage, yeck!), but the frequency of that sort of occurrence is low.
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Maurice Tousignant
Canada
Windsor
Ontario
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Thanks for sharing this. Savage Worlds has tempted me many times, but I've yet to take the bite. I didn't know about the exploding die mechanic. That alone makes this a no go for my regular group.
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Kevin H.
United States
Crescent City
California
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From your description, it sounds like the better someone is, the less consistently they perform, since (e.g.) a d12 has a higher variance than a d6. This seems a little odd, since in real life higher skilled people are more consistent than novices -- i.e. they not only succeed more, but they tend to regularly produce high-quality results.
- Am I missing something in the rules that prevents this?
- How often does this affect play?
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United States
Missoula
Montana
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Against a target number of 4, the one rolling a d6 is going to be successful 50% of the time. With the d12, they would be successful 75% of the time, with a full two thirds of those successes higher than d6 could achieve. This isn't even accounting for acing it, where the d6 is going to ace it more often but without the realistic possibility for as spectacular a result as a d12 acing it.
Edit: This also doesn't account for the wild die. You can read the Test Drive rules here that give a very good overview of the game.
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Josh Bazin
Canada
Edmonton
Alberta
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dysjunct wrote:
- Am I missing something in the rules that prevents this?
- How often does this affect play?
As tscook points out, the typical TN is 4. A d12 has more opportunities to beat this TN than the d6. So, yes, a d12 has more results possible than a d6, but more of those results are better than the base TN. In addition, a d12 has the ability to hit with a raise without an Ace, whereas the d6 requires an Ace plus a subsequent roll of at least 2. Rolling an Ace on a d12 will frequently generate more than one raise, which can be very beneficial.
So, to answer your questions, I think you were missing something in the rules. It doesn't affect play in my experience any more than crappy rolling does in any other game.
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United States
Missoula
Montana
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Doing a little more comparison, a d12 (acing once) will generate a total result of 18-24 ~5% of the time (1/12*7/12). To do the same with a d6 trait or skill you'd have to hit 6 three times to get an 18 or above, or ~0.5% of the time ((1/6)^3)).
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Josh Bazin
Canada
Edmonton
Alberta
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tscook wrote: Doing a little more comparison, a d12 (acing once) will generate a total result of 18-24 ~5% of the time (1/12*7/12). To do the same with a d6 trait or skill you'd have to hit 6 three times to get an 18 or above, or ~0.5% of the time ((1/6)^3)).
Awesome. Thanks for quantifying that!
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Andy Leighton
England
Peterborough
Unspecified
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dysjunct wrote: From your description, it sounds like the better someone is, the less consistently they perform, since (e.g.) a d12 has a higher variance than a d6. This seems a little odd, since in real life higher skilled people are more consistent than novices -- i.e. they not only succeed more, but they tend to regularly produce high-quality results.
- Am I missing something in the rules that prevents this?
- How often does this affect play?
TS Cook has mentioned how the maths works. For some skills / attributes you may have a D4. Now obviously there is more chance that the D4 is going to ace than even a D6, let alone that D12 but I know which I would want to be rolling (and it isn't the D4).
I would also note that if you are throwing a D4 (and a D6 wild die) you also have a greater chance at a fumble (snake-eyes) than you do with a D8 (and the wild die). Fumbles are bad (in some settings you can't spend a bennie to re-roll them).
However you talk about "real life" above. Savage Worlds isn't one of those games that tries to model "real life". It is Fast, Furious, Fun. If you want a simulationist approach to gaming I don't think Savage Worlds will be for you.
Generally in play I have not noticed any problem with people wanting to be at a sweet spot. They have always wanted to push the numbers up as high as possible.
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Chris Fee
United States
Corning
New York
No fair! They're using brains against us! We removed our brains to make room for guns and explosives!
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GilvanBlight wrote: Thanks for sharing this. Savage Worlds has tempted me many times, but I've yet to take the bite. I didn't know about the exploding die mechanic. That alone makes this a no go for my regular group.
As Bazin stated, this is rather unlikely to get such an unmitigated result (3 aces on a d12) and really isn't necessarily any worse than things that can be achieved regularly in other systems (damage in the hundreds on an optimized uber-charger in 3.5 D&D).
Some people, though, don't like the possibility of such variation. Now, since the PCs are going to be wild cards and get to roll an extra d6 they are more likely to have aces and get cool effects. Just how it should be in a Fast, Furious, and Fun system.
Really, the exploding die is just how critical success is handled and makes it so that a character has a chance of pulling off some improbable action.
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Josh Bazin
Canada
Edmonton
Alberta
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manyslayer wrote:
Some people, though, don't like the possibility of such variation. Now, since the PCs are going to be wild cards and get to roll an extra d6 they are more likely to have aces and get cool effects. Just how it should be in a Fast, Furious, and Fun system.
Really, the exploding die is just how critical success is handled and makes it so that a character has a chance of pulling off some improbable action.
Exactly. Savage Worlds is pulp heroes doing awesome things, and sometimes you do really awesome things. The exploding dice help to create raise scenarios and help make things fast to resolve.
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What changes or worthwhile additions do the Fantasy and Supers companions bring?
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Josh Bazin
Canada
Edmonton
Alberta
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stainlesssteelrat wrote: What changes or worthwhile additions do the Fantasy and Supers companions bring?
To be honest, I can't comment on these companions directly, as I have not read them myself. Anyone that I've seen talking about them has recommended them.
I'm going to my FLGS today, and I think they have one or both of these, so I'll try and flip through them to give you an idea of what they contain.
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SJ Benoist
United States
Saint Charles
Missouri
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The Explorer's Edition is a "generic" rulebook, while the Fantasy Companion is the "fantasy sourcebook" ... generically speaking.
Bullet-point overview:
There are a half-dozen races covered, and a small section on how to create new races.
Several pages of Fantasy oriented Edges, along with more Arcane Backgrounds.
Appropriate Gear (of course).
Rules for Siege Warfare
Deities.
Spells & Trappings
Big section on Magic Items/Treasure, including many ready to use items.
Bestiary (rather large part of the book).
I'd say the Treasure & Bestiary make up over half the book, IIRC.
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How interesting are the monsters in the bestiary?
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