Savage Worlds

>No Savage Worlds thread.
>No Savage Worlds ever.

So Veeky Forums, what are your opinions of this game? What campaigns have you run with it? What do you think of its most divisive systems like Actions cards? What homerules do you usually play with to spice things up?

I for one am quite enjoying how open this game is, currently got my players voting on playing either Three Kingdoms, Avatar TLA, Weird Wars Rome or a more crazy improvised home-brewed setting.

bumping since I've never GMed and want to use savage worlds for my homebrew

Nice, what idea have you got for your homebrew?

I made a hodgepodge post-apocalyptic setting that's a mix between Doom, Destiny, and Overwatch and used Savage Worlds, the supers, sci fi, and horror books. I only managed to run the prequel adventure so far.
I really dig the system. Certainly could be better organized in the rule book though.

>So Veeky Forums, what are your opinions of this game?

Meh! M-E-H, meh!

>I don't like action cards
>I don't like 3 HP for everything
>I don't like exploding dice
>I don't like distance in squares

Same reasons as ?

>source of cropped porn?

I love SW. Right now since my weekly group is in the habit of rotating GM's and games I have a fairly hard sci-fi space game, a Deadlands Noir game, and a supers game all in the works with a Low Life game that will probably never be revisited just lying around (sadly).

As for the action cards I have yet to get or use them though I am interested in trying them out once. I would think more people would be bothered by the bennies but I see it as an excuse to make things more dangerous for the players.

The houserule I run consistently is critical failures since it makes things much more interesting but I alter it a bit sometimes by letting a player spend 2 bennies to reroll it.

Given its fairly rules light nature it has become my favorite as it allows for crazy pulp shenanigans that I adore no to mention the ease at which the system can be adapted for damn near anything and everything. Still not sure how Savage Rifts will turn out though...

Currently putting together an AtLA inspired East Asian fantasy game. Finally managed to homebrew some bending rules I liked.

>I don't like static initiative
>I don't like battles that are HP grindfests
>I fucking love exploding dice
>...okay yeah i don't like distance in squares either but there is an option for non-miniature combat

Fair dues.

Does SW do anything you like?

What are the homebrewed rules you've got? The AtLA rules i'm starting to use are pretty incomplete, but they look like they work alright.

In one of my test fights my test Air Bender launched a soldier 15 metres into the sky, that was pretty crazy.

On my phone right now so I'll post them when I get home

On roll20 I avoid the whole squares situation by having the page gridless with 1 unit = 2 metres.

That seems to fit the scale of tabletop nicely, looks good for conversion to inches on a physical TT as well.

Only named characters have 3 hp really, since mooks only need one wound to die. Makes it sound easy until you're fighting a foe with 8 parry and toughness who just won't go down.

Currently running some new players through the handful of Savage Rifts adventures that came with the kickstarter. Having a lot of fun so far with them. Got a Glitterboy Pilot, Rogue Scholar, Mind Melter and Red Dragon Hatchling.

Been a decent while since I last ran a SW game so remembering all the combat nuances took a few sessions, but now everything is going super smoothly.

>what are your opinions of this game?
I enjoy it a lot, the rules are solid and the game is fun.

>What campaigns have you run with it?
Haven't done a long campaign yet, hoping this Rifts game turns into one, so far its been lots of one shots and games that are 3-4 sessions. Did a horror Sci-Fi and a Fantasy game.

>What do you think of its most divisive systems like Actions cards?
Didn't like them in theory, but after playing with them I think they are pretty good. I have no issues with bennies either.

>What homerules do you usually play with to spice things up?
None so far.

Do you guys use Adventure Decks?

>what are your opinions of this game?

It's my go-to game system. I GM other systems, but SW is my favorite.

>What campaigns have you run with it?
Savage Rifts
Space: 1889
Rippers
Necessary Evil
Weird War II
Deadlands

Savage Stargate (homebrew)
Savage Supers vs. Vampires (homebrew)
Several different homebrew Fantasy campaigns.
Numerous one- and two-shots in a variety of genres.

>What do you think of its most divisive systems like Actions cards?

The trickiest one is Incapacitation. I'd recommend that Pinnacle put examples of how it words on their website.

>What homerules do you usually play with to spice things up?

The only house-rule I ever used was one where a snake-eyes on a trait test meant it could not be bennied for a re-roll. Amusingly, that eventually became an optional rule for SW. And it's part of Savage Rifts.

/fvgt/ is currently building a Mad-Max meets Trigun, Fist of the North Star, and Borderlands setting, using Savage Worlds to run it. It's supposed to be part of a Living campaign where several games coincide in the same multiverse, and leads into multi-GM combined group sessions.

My group and I run a Star Wars-themed Savage Worlds game. Really fun and combat is great.

>Mad Max meets Borderlands and Princess of Mars
I like the angle.

Okay. So first I'll preface this with the fact it's not a true AtLA game, just a game inspired by it. So I refer to bending as "shaping" because I want my players to segregate themselves from the show at some level.

Basic rules of shaping:
>Shaping is an Edge you can only take at character creation.
>There are four forms: Fire, Air, Water, and Earth
>The forms are mutually exclusive and they each have different requirements
>Each form has its own rules for damage
>Shapers are never considered unarmed
>Shapers roll Fighting to make attacks both at ranged and at melee. There are no range bonuses or penalties. Shaping is always rolled against Parry regardless of range (in AtLA, even normies can defend against benders pretty well if they're good at fighting).
>All combat Edges are applicable to Shaping

Fireshaping
>Requires Agility d6, Spirit d6, Fighting d8, and Knowledge: Shaping d6
>Rolls Spirit + d6 for non-offensive uses
>Damage Rolls are Agility + d8

Airshaping
>Requires Agility d6, Spirit d8, Fighting d6, and Knowledge: Shaping d6
>Airshapers can roll Athletics to achieve feats of otherwise impossible acrobatics
>Airshapers also start with a glider staff and can roll Athletics to fly
>Airshapers get a flat +1 to Parry
>Airshaping rolls Agility + d6 for damage. It does nonlethal damage

Watershaping
>Requires Agility d6, Spirit d8, Knowledge: Shaping d8, Fighting d6
>Watershapers can heal allies using Knowledge: Shaping
>Watershapers can move across bodies of water as if they were walking provided they pass an Athletics roll
>Other non-offensive uses of Watershaping are Spirit + d6
>Watershaping damage is Agility + d6

Earthshaping
>Requires Spirit d6, Knowledge: Shaping d6, Strength d8, Fighting d6
>Earthshapers get +1 Toughness
>Roll Athletics for non-offensive uses
>Damage is Strength + d6

My biggest concern right now is Earthshaping is overpowered.

There is a French adaption of Borderlands, I wish it was translated.

I like the simple skill system and the short rulebooks.

"3HP for everything" is not exactly accurate.
distance in squares is not accurate at all. It has distance in tabletop inches. Easy to do with or without a grid. Also easily converted into feet by multiplying by six or yards by multiplying by 2. Easy enough to do on the fly in your head

Planning on running a Super Mario RPG in Savage Worlds. Any advice?

Check out the Heroes of Terra setting on DriveThruRPG. It's basically Super Mario meets John Carter of Mars, and the guy who wrote it is a fa/tg/uy.

Savage Worlds is pretty much my favorite system. Been running it for years. Currently about 40 XP into a Savage Rifts game with seven players, and it's good times every week. The party leaders are the amoral ley line walker with a compulsive gambling problem and the morally ambiguous Glitter Boy pilot with a furry fetish who stole her power armor from an ex-boyfriend. You also have the hatchling dragon who is the adopted son of the party leaders, the pacifist burster who holds back because he knows he could level a village with his powers but hates the Coalition with a passion, the altara techno-wizard who is the clone-daughter of the player's previous character (a juicer who died in battle), the dog boy crazy sniper, and the bizarre four-armed owl D-Bee mind melter who focuses on psi-swording things to death with her amazing mental powers. We used to have a genuine goddamned ninja and an elderly human cyber-knight, but they both left the party for various reasons.

Currently, the group is on a road trip to Mexico to seal up an ancient evil that they accidentally let loose when they tampered with the Meganomicon. They stopped in El Paso to load for bear with vampire-killing weapons, and next session they're probably heading into the Vampire Kingdoms as a rolling engine of inhuman destruction.

Is the combat cheat sheet still mandatory?

I really want to get my group into Savage Rifts since they won't play the original system, but they're also retarded babies that whine about anything more complex than D&D 5e combat.

It's the system I keep telling myself I'll learn next before falling back on the systems I already know. I'm looking forward to learning Savage Worlds one day, but it won't be today.

It's a pretty simple system all things considered, it takes like 2 minutes to make a character.

Weird Wars Rome have Blemmye

Does your RPG have Blemmye?

Problem is if you're a person new to the game there's a shit load of Edges to comb through, more if you're using an official setting like Rifts or Deadlands.

I tend to solve that problem by asking the player what they want their player to be really good at, and point out Edges that might be good for 'em.

That's true, making a wizard for the first time can take longer than regular characters for the same reason.

There should be random spell/ edge tables like with Warhammer fantasy roleplay.

True enough. That said, if you're coming from 3.5/Pathfinder or another bloat-filled system, SW is a goddamn gold mine of easy setup and rules.

Can someone explain to me how the "Shots" attribute for weapons works?

Like for example the Carcano rifle has 6 shots to it, but gives no reload time or anything.

The main rule book suggests that ammo is deducted by 3d6 shots every round, but how does "shots" come into play?

Also, how does hit location work? Is there any point to having a shirtless guy with leg armour? The main rulebook says to only add torso armour to toughness.

I like it. Currently I am going to give the Tropicana setting a try since its like everything I wanted in a modern setting
>tropical beaches
>rogue state banana republic
>sexy cars
>sexy girls
>Hawaiian shirts can make you fearless
>Aztec cults and Aztec magic
>fucking mustaches

The game is built all around for easy setup and rules, I like how it's possible to implement depth where you want it though, the system is fairly modular.

I thought ammo level depletion was determined after a fight.

With powers or the Super Power Companion, character creation is pretty rough for first timers. Simply because there is so much choice. I only let the person build a super powered character if they have a very clear idea of what they want. If they aren't completely sure they get a pre-generated character

Reload is an action. Shots are how many shots they get before they have to reload. There is a system in place for shot location. It's known as called shots, the player takes a negative modifier on shooting, and they get a positive modifier on damage. If you like crunch that's where you can apply the locations armor.

Thanks, so basically it takes an action to reload a weapon, except for where it's explicitly stated like with the Musket that takes two rounds?

So I could make 6 attacks with the carcano, spend an action to reload the next round, and then fire that same round for -2?

Yeah exactly.

Oh nice, that stops a lot of headache. What's the best way to manage ammo do you think? I haven't done it for SW yet (Obviously), but with stuff like Only War tracking the ammo counts of individual troops was a bit of a nightmare.

Only for settings like Weird Wars where you have a lot of NPC squadmates, Wild Cards track ammo like normal.

That is up to you. For wild West settings poker chips work well, since they have low ammo counts. Modern weapons just keep a tally on magazines. If they reload too soon they lose the whole magazine. The system expects some player and GM cooperation.

That's only for massed combat battles, if you're talking about the following:

> If it’s important to track, each round a hero enters the fray and uses his Shooting or an arcane skill (such as Spellcasting), he expends some of his ammunition or Power Points. Arcane types use 2d6 Power Points per round. Characters with ranged weapons use 3d6 shots for ranged weapons (triple that for weapons that usually fire bursts or full-auto). If the hero winds up without any ammo or Power Points she’ll have to change tactics for the next round.

otherwise it's like though apparently.

Like the other guy said, NPC's have the 4 point ammo track, which depletes by a level after every fight.

Would SW be good for someone who wants to run games in their own settings but doesn't want something as abstract as FATE?

Would it work for a traveler esque game?

Yes and yes. The Sci-Fi Companion and the Last Parsec setting book would be great tools for running a game like Traveler.

Savage Worlds is your second system to learn, right after 5e. It's in the same learning curve, and it'll do most anything, provided it's more pulpy than realistic.

There's a nice fan-made Space supplement you can find in Da Archive, along with all the other SW stuff.

Interested in running a campaign that's super-soldier organization warfare. Like GI Joe, but also drawing from stuff like Metal Gear, and comic books. No innate superpowers, just special gadgets and eccentric ace soldiers.

Is there a good supplement for creating a wide array of gadgets and technology in the way that Super Powers Companion can do so for all superpowers? Something with modifiers that include limited ammo (for stuff like special grenades or whatnot) and having to reload.

I've seen books that focus on warfare, Weird War, and even a book that is supposed to be the GI Joe book for Savage Worlds, but I'm super wary about buying any Savage Worlds books anymore since they all seem to focus entirely on the specifics of their setting without introducing tools to use outside of them. Existing rules for organizations, rather than rules for generating organizations.

Somebody made these for their players with spare wood, a drill press and a lot of excess brass.

What is the name of the Savage Worlds Supplement that has Jörmungandr around the planet, like a bad equator?

Oh wow, that's pretty neat. I don't think bullet casing is something I can get in Bongland though.

I guess roll20 bars will have to be good enough in this case, at least ammo tracking is simpler than all the other games I play. To allow enemy mooks to reload mid-battle (giving the players opportunities to attack and whatnot) but to still go without manual tracking, do you think it is good to force them to reload whenever they roll a 1 on their attack roll?

Extreme Earth seems like what you're looking for. It's pretty grounded grimdark superheroes, but nothing crazy and it wouldn't be hard to just remove the stuff that's too far.

Can you use magic in melee in savage worlds? I know the unarmed defender thing might apply, but what if you've got a sword in one hand?

Does armor effect casting rolls in any way?

I was just about to start looking at this game, I've seen it talked about a lot but never taken the time to investigate.

Gonna start googling now, but any experienced players/GMs wanna share things your really like/dislike about it from your sessions?

>Can you use magic in melee in savage worlds?
Yep. Nothing stopping you.

>I know the unarmed defender thing might apply, but what if you've got a sword in one hand?
If you have a weapon out, you're not an unarmed defender. Some of that depends on your particular trappings for your magical style too. For example, I can think of a couple of settings that require you to have a hand free and be able to speak clearly to do magic, while others have different requirements. But generally speaking, you can go all Gandalf with a staff in one hand and a sword in the other and still cast spells.

>Does armor effect casting rolls in any way?
Only if the weight takes you into an encumbrance penalty.

>So Veeky Forums, what are your opinions of this game?

I really like that you can get basically the whole thing in convenient pocketbook format for ten dollars or so. It's hard to argue against the price point.

I dislike the use of bennies/fate points/whatever they were called but it's good that it provides a ready-made way to get rid of them (there's a drawback you can pick that lowers your karma points/joker's cards by one and grants two character points in its stead, so just force every player to pick that three times).

Other than that, no hard opinions since I only leafed through it.

I'm trying to win converts to the system, fortunately most of the people I know have played WoD, which makes explaining some of the mechanics easier.

Its a fantasy setting I'm working on thats about a coalition of nations and merchant consortia invading a continent wide ruined city filled with ancient traps, magical experiments and post-apocalypse style tribals. Its themed around CONQUEST like spanish conquest of the aztecs

idk, didn't even know its porn

>What campaigns have you run with it?
Cyber punk (before interface 0 2.0 came out)
Supers but in a fantasy setting
Magic and muskets (using kane rules)
WWI super soldiers chlorine gas fun times
Little bit of hellfrost
Deadlands

Currently planning on
Miasaki inspired skyships
Planes and politicking
Slasher B movie where the players create themselves as extras

>What do you think of its most divisive systems like Actions cards?
Love them, forget the modules I got the idea from but I use certain cards (values of clubs) as triggers for environmental effects. Either to change the environmental conditions (that drizzle turns into a proper shower, the old hospital lights that have been flickering are off for this turn, etc), or pure on changes to the field (those old rotten rafters give under the weight dropping to the floor below, a tree is struck by lightning and comes crashing down between combatants, etc).

>What homerules do you usually play with to spice things up?
Our group has a series of houserules that have become so ubiquitous that we often forget they are house rules. Generally we follow official Clint advice.

Cont: Is there an alternative to power points for treating all powers like useable gadgets? Or just creating gear/ammo types with effects equivalent to powers?

Any suggestions for a cyberpunk game?

Cards are crap but we never use them. We almost never use initiative rolls in any systems really.

3HP for everything is at least many times better than DnD and it's ridiculous HP numbers.

Exploding dice are legitimately shit. But they can be houseruled.

My only annoyance with the 3hp thing is Savage Rifts. It's pretty bullshit to have power armor and greater demons go down in one burst from a medium railgun.

Interface Zero 2.0 is a Savage Worlds love letter to the cyberpunk genre.

You know, if it weren't for the Red Joker/Black Joker thing, it'd be incredibly easy to simplify Action Cards down to just having a deck of cards equal to the number of players and opponents in the battle.

Except that "3 HP" is a really misleading statement when you remember that anyone with three wounds also has the ability to spend bennies to soak.

Toughness was a mistake.

Not this shit again.

I thought the entire reason they moved to the bennie system in the first place was because pcs in Deadlands had to essentially burn their experience points to not die. Balancing combat around being completely lethal unless you're wasting your "be awesome points" is dumb.

Anyways, it's only really power armor and railguns that have this problem in Savage Rifts. The normal weapons and armor have a decent damage balance, but for some reason with the mega damage gear they decided to be completely retarded and have common guns roll on average five points higher than the toughness of anything except the glitter boy.