Some Thoughts on Savage Worlds Horror

Last week when I posted about catching the GM bug again, one of the ideas that was floating around in my head was for a Savage Worlds Horror campaign. So I figured that I’d share some thoughts about why I think Savage Worlds is great for horror games. Like I said originally, I want the campaign to be slightly more cinematic than Supernatural.
First and foremost and the easiest answer is that I love Savage Worlds but there some logic behind my decision. As a GM, Savage Worlds is easy to play with. Monsters and NPC’s are a breeze to create. For this campaign, I’m planning on converting several published adventures from a variety of sources. That ease of creation carries over to conversion aspect as well. Prep time can focus story rather than number crunching. Along those lines, light rules means that during game sessions the group can focus on mood and story rather than referencing a rules tome.
One of things I’ve heard people say is that Savage Worlds is a pulp game. Sure it can handle a group of heroic player characters against an army of mooks without a hitch. But once you start adjusting a few knobs here and there combat can be deadly. For really good examples, just turn to Reality Blurs’ Realms of Cthulhu for Savage Worlds. A little tweaking to the Wild Die mechanic and your party can still probably take on those mortal mooks but they better watch out against a couple of zombies.
Of course, the deadly combat can be a double edged sword (no pun intended). While Savage Worlds is great at running larger combats, sometimes the party against one Big Bad can be a let down when a player character draws a Joker on the first round of combat and then Aces several times on his damage. The players may feel great at first but then later they may feel a little robbed that it was so easy.
The easiest and worst means to handle this is to just up the Toughness of the Big Bad. More than likely this will just frustrate players. An extra Benny or two could be appropriate in some cases but might not save him from the Incredible Acing Head Shot of Doom (AKA “What do you mean you just rolled 54 for damage?”). One good example of how to handle this is the Werewolf from SWEX. Unless you’re using a silver weapon the best you can do is Shake it. But you know, if this is the final fight of an adventure or story arch, there’s a very good chance that the player characters have already figured out what it takes to kill the Big Bad. The Undead template handles this pretty well too with its bonuses. Now the Hardy Monstrous Ability is nice but from my experience it rarely comes into play. It just maybe the luck of the dice at my table but that’s what happened. I want something more for some of my Big Bads. So here’s a new Monstrous Ability (and as I always if this popped up somewhere else first in the cornucopia of the Savageverse. Just let me know.) :
Supernaturally Tough: No matter how much damage the creature takes from a single attack, the best result that can be achieved is Shaken. The only way to wound the creature is with repeated Shaken results. This ability is not compatible with the Hardy Monstrous Ability (obviously).
Now, use this just occasionally and for a Big Bad that it’s appropriate for. But you are all big kids and don’t need me holding your hand.
Finally, I want to talk about the much maligned Guts skill. Some folks hate it. Some folks love it. But for me, in this case, it’s in. I’ll probably limit to only increase per Rank and cap it at d6 for Novice characters .But I think it’s a good addition to a horror game. Fear is the cornerstone emotion of horror games and the Guts skill is an easy way to work this in. 12 to Midnight does have Fear Effects for Savage Worlds and being a bad boy and kind of broke it’s still on my to buy list but I’ve heard great things about it and have complete faith that it is a very good product based on their previous releases.
Later I’ll probably throw up some thoughts on low powered magic, psychic abilities and the powers of faith. Of course much of that will depend on what sort of juicy tidbits come out in the upcoming Horror Companion.