Starting topic. I ran a test run of the system with some friends last night and have run into a bit of a problem that a previous user had mentioned. The shaken system seems to turn bennies into health points since being shaken is so annoying and robs players of their turn by forcing them to spend their only action clearing the condition. Are their any homerules to make this less of a problem or am I probably doing it wrong?
Ironclaw uses a similar system to SW IIRC, but hits that don't wound put you "off balance" instead of Shaken.
Off balance comes off automatically, but gives you penalties (-1 or -2 to attacks and defenses).
This means the player can act, but getting ganged up on is going to turn deadly quick.
Alexander Mitchell
Wish I could answer your question as someone with experience with the system OP, I need to get in more SW games :(
Joshua Smith
appreciate the support. I submitted the question on the official forums just a few minutes ago and hope to get an answer there.
The problem with shaken is that it reduces you to free actions only even if you succeed on clearing it. So you spend your turn freeing yourself only to get smacked by the thing that shaked you again on its turn.
Christian Bailey
GURPS has a similar status... What was it called, shock? Basically, it gives you minuses that turn, like suggests.
Grayson Jenkins
I have never found any decent solutions to Shaken; combat turns into stuntag after a while I find. Unless you can get an enemy off-table in one or two shots, that is,
James Gutierrez
Another question I had is can enemies only be extras and wildcards? Because extras only get one wound and then they die and wildcards get the same as players (3). Is there no inbetween or greater? Seems strange that enemies have such an inflexible amount of health. Or am I just looking at it wrong?
Sebastian Smith
I think you can give them edges that modify that.
Alexander Brown
A couple of my players had the idea of having a Face Card-tier enemy; with 2 wounds, a single Benny, and a couple of Edges and Hindrances to fit.
That's an official change to the core rule. Shaken status is much easier to deal with now. All you need is a single success to act on your turn. Spending a benny still instantly removes the status if you fail the TN 4 roll.
i believe there is a setting rule somewhere that introduces competent extras or something like that. they have 3 wounds but don't roll a wild die
Brody Wood
That's first edition Ironclaw, right? I'm pretty sure the latest one made the condition ("Reeling") so that instead of penalties to your attack you flat out HAVE to spend your first action on your turn to remove the Reeling condition before doing anything else. Of course, in Ironclaw everyone usually has a minimum of 2 actions per turn, unlike the single action by default in Savage Worlds.
You can remove Reeling by having another party member succeed in a Rally check, which might actually be something to carry over to Savage Worlds. I haven't played enough of SW to know if there's an analog to Rally that would allow you to remove other players' Shaken condition, but that might be something a GM could houserule to allow the more social-oriented characters something to do in combats besides sucking at attacks.
Cooper Bailey
I was going off of memory, you are probably right about it being called Reeling. SW characters also have multiple actions, it's just that you get a (stacking) -2 penalty for doing more than one, so it kinda works out the same as just having a -2 on you by default, although that Rally thing is a good idea.
Cameron Lewis
you just saved Savage Worlds for me and my friends. Thank you, friend!
Bentley Perry
Is this errata part of the more recent published version of the core book?
Cooper Parker
Not that I know of. I'm *pretty* sure this is the only change to the current core rules. I remember reading somewhere about a new rule coming down the pipeline that would allow the casting of multiple spells with the multi-action rule, but that might have been just for Rifts.
Naw. I just bought an additional brand new physical copy of the core rules and it still has the old shaken rules in it.
Asher Russell
Nice! SW is the only system I use anymore. Works with every genre I've thrown at it. Can be as crunchy or rules-lite as the GM or group wants it to be.
Jeremiah Howard
I've also seen the opposite, extras that still only have one wound, but that get a wild die. Generally they use the term "henchmen" or "captains".
Jaxson Davis
What do you think about the large amount of Edges thrown around? Or the stuff you gotta keep track of during combat like modifiers to stuff?
Those aren't usual Veeky Forums levels of passive aggressive rhetorical questions, I'm genuinely concerned what you think of them. Those seem to be the crunchiest aspects of the syste,
Carter Lopez
In my experience, it's been similar to managing feats or merits from D&D or WoD
Caleb Thompson
The edge thing can be a little overwhelming at first - especially if you start getting into other published settings that add even more. The more I dug in the more I realized how they're MORE than just d20 feats. They're also how you can flesh out archtypes or "classes". If you were running a fantasy game you could make a paladin with the edges Arcane Background (Miracles), Holy Warrior, and Trademark Weapon (2h Mace). Then take hindrances like Vow, Heroic, and/or Code of Honor.
It helps a ton if you players get familiar with all the edges/hindrances too, or else you'll need them to explain their character and then you can suggest edges/hindrances. The bonuses and penalties can take some getting used to as well. I can now run games now without referencing the book for anything other than the incapacitate chart. Once you get a grasp of the Edges/Hindrances, you really start seeing how they can be worked to create complex characters.
Savage Worlds gets this reputation for being a story teller or "rules light" game, but the crunch is up to the GM/players. You can hand-wave shit in any system and make it "rules light". SW actually has some good depth to it. Hell, the core book is 200 pages of primarily rules - there's no setting in there (besides a few short adventures).
It took me a good year to fully grasp Savage Worlds as a GM. Now I love every part of it - except the retarded ass chase rules. I just run those as a dramatic task or as a tactical combat.
Lincoln Hall
Would anyone be willing to make an image for the general? I would but I have no skill.
Hudson Martinez
Do you know of any other ways to get power points back? The only thing I found in the core book is the point per hour thing and that really seems kinda limiting if you want to make a character reliant on their powers.
Bentley Brown
Anyone here have Pinnacle's official horror supplement and wanna redpill me on it? What exactly does it add? I'm planning out a gothic horror/action kind of game and is there much usefulness in it I can get which I can't find in the CRB and fantasy supplement?
Michael Adams
Haven't ran SW in ages, but I'd probably homebrew some alternate mana system (assuming it doesn't exist in one of the million splats), cause I also dislike the one in the game.
Have been considering one based on FFTA2, where you "draw" mana as an action to cast spells with, so you basically have infinite mana but bigger spells take more time to cast.
Kevin Baker
There is a power that lets you drain PP from others, called Arcane Siphon, from 'Sundered Skies', page 46. Also see Soul Drain, from SW Deluxe Explorer's ed, page 41 - Arcane Siphon is more of a necromantic spell; and Soul Drain doesn't let you permanently recharge PP, just uses a free action to get a chunk to be used in that turn.
