Avast ye scurvy dogs! Ye best be talkin’ like a Pirate this fine day or it’ll be a keelhaulin’ for ya. If you want venture forth across sea for glory and booty, I offer up to ye RPG for yer land lubbers who just sit around a table and roll the bones.
I be speakin’ of Pirates of the Spanish Main by the buccaneers of Pinnacle Entertainment Group. It’s Savage World, you sea dogs! If ye sail on over to Drivethru RPG, ye can get there be some treasures for the plunderin’ I here there be Zombie Pirates!
It be talk like a Pirate Day
Geek Life, RPG, Savage Worlds
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Sep 192010
This really isn’t about evangelizing Savage Worlds. This is about some key philosophies of the game. Mainly, don’t sweat the little stuff.
Here’s one of the things that just bug about d20 in all it’s iterations, the amazing number of conditions. You’ve got things like Dazed, Dazzled, Fascinated, Frightened, Fatigued, Shaken, Staggered and the list goes on. To put it bluntly, there isn’t really that much difference between most of them. Most of the time these conditions only manage to eat up time (Someone just has to look the exact wording of the condition.) and it ends up limiting the GM’s ability to describe a scent. It’s happened more than once in our games that the GM describes the scene and someone dives for the rulebook because the GM used a one of the key words in his description. In Savage Worlds, there’s basically just Shaken for just about any disadvantageous condition. Simple, quick and easy. It’s just not worth the effort delve through all this minutiae for a minor and temporary modifier.
The other thing is Powers. These provide the crunchy bits for spells and the like for Savage Worlds. So many games have a long list of spells or similar abilities that when really start comparing them aren’t that much different other than some flavor text. While a rigid definition of what a spell can and can’t do as well how it may be avoided add some mechanical fluff and add a tactical aspect to an encounter. But when the dice meet the table, you’re still doing X amount of damage. Depending on the setting and style of game, these things can be important. But common sense and simple system to adjudicate game balance should take care of the little stuff. You know just like Powers in Savage Worlds.
And while I’m on this rant, I am so sick of games feeling they have to clarify that dead characters can take no actions and the like. If a player really wants to debate the point, I think it might time for that person to look for another group.
Maybe it’s just my good old grognard sensibilites but I just want games where the action and story keep moving without worrying about the little shit.
Once again Banesfinger showed up and inspired me again with his comments on the old Savage Worlds: Whiff & Ping. This got me thinking about the crunchy bits of games and who I choose what rules to use for which campaign.
Since these thoughts started with Savage Worlds, I’ll start there. I totally admit that I love Savage Worlds but I also know that it’s not the best fit for every game. Savage Worlds is great at handling big fights. The combat is quick and easy to manage. Most folks think that it’s just a pulp style game and it works great for that. You throw all the cinematic options and it can be a fun and high speed game. But it also works great if you to the opposite end of the spectrum and go total gritty. I’m talking you need to show up with three ring binder full of characters just in case. Just look to Realms of Cthuhlu to see some nasty tips on turning the screws. It can be a fast and bloody game, too.
Of course, I can’t really do this without talking about a few other games too. Yeah, Dungeons and Dragons and it’s current forms. I’m including both 4th Edition and 3.55/Pathfinder in this. Here’s the thing. As D&D has evolved it’s become it’s own genre. Yes, there are house rules and third party supplements that barely change the game when it boils down to it. It’s still pretty much the same game with its own unique feel. There’s nothing wrong with this. As a friend of mine says, “It is what it is.”
And a little on one of my new favorites. Of course, I’m talking about FATE. I’m also including it because it’s so different than Savage Worlds or D20. Fate is not tactical or minicentric. You’re not planning feat trees to optimize your character. The basic rules are very lite and lean towards narrative or story type games. Yes, you can tell stories with any game. It’s just FATE has good mechanics to encourage this and back it up.
Let’s take high fantasy, D&D’s normal genre. For Savage Worlds, you can take Hellfrost and the Fantasy Companion and there you go. A High Fantasy Campaign. Let’s use Legends of Angelerre for FATE. Now as Game Master you can create the exact same game world with each these but end with vastly different campaign atmospheres. None of them is better or worse than the others. Just different. Pick and choose what is important to you and players and run with it.
I’ve been around the game table a time or two and know that just because you love a set rules it may not be the best for the campaign. Sometimes you just have to pick which of your children are your favorite.
It’s been so long since I blogged anything about Savage Worlds. So, I figured it was time to go back and revisit my old friend.
This time I want to rant a little about Whiff & Ping. For those not up on the local gamer jargon, Whiff & Ping is easy to explain. Whiff: I swing, I “miss”. Ping: I swing, I hit, it bounces off my opponents thick scaly hide. Pretty much not matter what your system of choice is you’ve felt at least a little bit of this. In D&D, in it’s many forms, you’ve got high AC’s, Spell Resistance, Energy Resistance, Damage Resistance, Evasion, the lucky Saving Throw and the list goes on. In GURPS, you’ve got your Active Defense, Damage Reduction and a host of resistance rolls. In World of Darkness, you’ve got a one die pool mechanic, sometimes known as the “Roll a Pile of Dice and Nothing Happens” System. The danger of Whiff & Ping exist in pretty much every game.
At first glance, it might appear that Savage Worlds combat can suffer from Whiff & Ping Syndrome and in a way it does. In Savage Worlds, you have two defensive stats, Parry and Toughness. Parry is basically your target number to hit. Toughness is basically the target number to damage. Simple. Right? Anyway, some Big Bads can get some pretty high numbers. So it can be pretty hard for your buff fighter with a d8 in Fighting and shells out 2d8 in damage can hit the dragon but he’s going to have a hard time hurting it.
But here’s the deal. A lot of games out there basically use attrition damage systems (At least, that’s what I’m calling it here.) Let me explain. Most damage systems rely on a slow whittling away of Hit Points, Life Points, Wound Levels or whatever. Now, there’s nothing wrong with this. In a way, it’s kind of neat. It builds tension in the fight scene whether the players realize it or not. They slowly see their life getting chipped away bit by bit. When they hit an opponent, even it’s for the tiniest amount of damage it’s a reward. It builds the excitement and the players gain some sense of accomplishment. Our gaming brains have been wired to look at combat and damage in this light. Savage Worlds is more about the constant danger that the rug will be yanked out from underneath you at any moment. A couple of good hits and the right dice mojo will end a fight.
The act of hitting and not damaging an opponent equates to failure in most gamer’s minds. And nobody likes to fail. Even if you land that solid blow, you still might not hurt the guy. I’m going to use an extreme and overly simplified example here. Let’s say that we have an encounter with your standard D&D adventuring party of four versus a big nasty red dragon with 100 HP. On average due to various conditions each of our heroes does 5 HP a round to the dragon. It would take about five rounds with a total of 20 attacks to finally take down the dragon. In Savage Worlds, a similar encounter would run pretty much the same way. Twenty or so attacks until someone finally rams a sword through the beast’s eye. There will probably be a couple of Shaken results and maybe a Wound. Now, I know some of the math fetishists out there will want me to run some sort of simulation and work out all the probabilities. That ain’t happenin’.
Now it’s time to talk about the Whiff factor. This one is really simple. If you’re having problems hitting an opponent, read the Combat Survival Guide. If you are still having problems, you need to figure out if your GM is cranking up things too high. Finally, gauge your character to your oppoents. You might think your character is a bad ass but according the GM’s encounters, you’re a mook. Just talk things out, folk.
Just like any other game, it’s real easy to outclass the player characters if GM’s aren’t careful. The key here is just like every other game is to know the player characters and their capabilities and then design encounters that will challenge them. There’s no real magic bullet to balance an encounter and it doesn’t matter what game system you are using.
Apr 132010
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.
RPG Survey Part II and Redux
My Gaming Projects, RPG, Savage Worlds
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Apr 122010
Well, ran into a few problems. Such as me being an idiot and not reading the complete terms. But never fear. Things will be well. I’ll be posting the results of the first survey later this week.
I don’t want it to be said that I don’t admit my mistakes or don’t act on constructive criticism. After some feedback, it sounds like folks are really interested in what others are playing. So in I put together another survey dealing more specifically with what people are playing, what they want to play and how often they do it. This time I used a different survey service so shouldn’t hit my free account quota so quickly. This is a different survey from the first so feel to take this one as well. I promise I won’t do another survey for at least three months.
So here it is the RPG Habits and Trends Survey. Remember I am not a professional survey writer. Thanks again and I’ll be posting the results later this month.
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