 Goto [ Index ] |
Chapter One: Character Creation: After a one-page intro/statement of purpose, the game gets straight into rules. SW is supposed to be a "lite" version of Deadlands, and this system, like the Serenity/Battlestar Galactica games, measures attributes in terms of die codes. That is, a d6 Smarts is smarter than d4 Smarts. The main attributes are: Agility (dexterity, reaction, etc.), Smarts (smarts), Spirit (wisdom, will, and how quickly you recover from being 'rattled'), Strength (raw muscle) and Vigor (resistance to damage and disease). There are also secondary stats for Pace (movement rate), Charisma (modifies NPC reaction rolls depending on the Edges or Hindrances you took for it), Parry (the difficulty to be hit) and Toughness (ability to resist being rattled by damage). However, the starting points for a novice character are rather stingy - a "normal human" stat is assumed to be d6, but each stat starts at a d4, and you only get 5 points to modify the die codes, so you can either spend one each to average each stat at d6 or raise one or more higher (up to d12) by leaving at least one other stat at a sub-standard d4.
A novice gets 15 points for skills, on a scale where you get to spend 1 point per "die type" until the skill code equals the code for the linked attribute, and exceeding that point means the skill costs 2 points per die. At this point however, it isn't really explained whether a skill code starts at d4 and works up, or starts at the base rating of its attribute. I wanted to look this concept up in the index and discovered there wasn't one.
The aforementioned Edges and Hindrances (analogous to Advantages and Drawbacks in GURPS) work like this: A character can take one Major Hindrance (yielding two character points) and up to two Minor Hindrances (one point each). An Edge costs two of these points, so you could get two Edges if you also got a Major Hindrance and the two Minors. One point will also get you an extra skill point or extra starting funds, while two points will raise one attribute by a die code.
Next, the chapter describes the game Skills. Very briefly. Refreshingly, the designers operate on the premise that "Shooting", for instance, doesn't require special proficiencies to use the same skill with a bow or a ray gun. The game also assumes a rule of "Common Knowledge" where players get a Smarts roll for various facts that people in their area would be prone to know, with certain common-sense modifiers (a fantasy team discovers a cavern and the dwarf gets a +2 to his Common Knowledge roll to examine it, the human gets no modifier, and the elf who never goes underground gets a -2. If the dwarf actually has a specialized skill, like Knowledge (Stonework), he not only would know that the cavern was carved by sentient beings, he would be able to guess at which race performed the work, and in what era).
Then the Hindrances (both minor and major) are described, and while most of the physical and social drawbacks have certain game effects, the personality flaws are more subjective guides to roleplaying (and it's mentioned that proper roleplaying of the flaw can lead to 'bennies'). The book goes into more detail on Edges, especially since they are defined by categories. Most of them require a certain Rank (in experience) so that while some Edges require a "Veteran" level of experience earned to take, some "Background Edges" have to be taken at the Novice level (e.g. character creation). You're born Attractive (or lucky), and that's not something you can just "buy up" later.
Finally, Chapter One describes how characters improve with experience. Characters usually garner 1 to 3 experience points per game, and every 5 points allows the character to buy an Advance, which usually means raising a trait or skill by 1 die code, up to d12, buying a whole new skill at d4 (ah, so that's how it works), or buying an Edge. Every 20 points means an increase in Rank, from Novice to Seasoned at 20 XP, all the way to Legendary after 80 points. New Ranks generally mean a higher income level and eligibility for higher-level Edges and powers. Once a character becomes Legendary, he only gets Advances every 10 XP instead of 5, but is eligible for Legendary Edges which apply certain non-combat benefits and the ability to recruit followers, which is important given that the game encourages small-unit combats.
Chapter Two: Gear gives us equipment rules, even before the basic rules for things like combat, which means this section IS in large part the combat rules. So for instance, Armor adds to Toughness and melee weapons add to Strength damage while ranged weapons have a straight rating (on a scale where a 19th century Winchester rifle does 2d8 and an AK-47 does similar damage but has multi-fire ability). Costs for such items are in relative terms, so for instance an 1862 Springfield musket doesn't actually cost $250 (of your $500 starting cash) but is relative to how expensive it is for the contemporary tech level, so that the weapon is a major investment at the time it is commonly sold. (As this example indicates, the buying power of $500 in game is also relative to the values of contemporary items.)
This chapter goes over some more miscellany, like a character's Encumbrance rating from Strength (basically, a character's unencumbered rating is his Str die x5 in pounds, so a d8 Strength can carry 40 pounds of gear without penalty). There is also a small list of vehicles, but it ranges from horse & carriage to a Cessna Skyhawk.
Chapter Three: Game Rules goes over basic premises of the game, mainly relating to combat. First, it's mentioned that player characters and important NPCs are "Wild Cards" in the system, and get advantages that mundane NPCs don't, including multiple wound levels and the ability to use the "Wild Die." (In Chapter One, several Edges are listed as requiring Wild Card status as prerequisites, which is yet another example of a concept that's brought up in the rules before it's adequately explained.) The Wild Die is a d6 rolled along with the main Trait, and a Wild Card character can use the higher roll of the two dice in a given situation. The drawback is that rolling two 1s (snake-eyes) on these dice will cause a Critical Failure or setback that the GM gets to make up. "That's the price Fate charges for making someone a hero." Doing any Test usually requires a Target Number (TN) of 4.
Each player starts with three "bennies" that can be used to reroll any Trait test (including the Wild Die). GM characters also get a group pool of one benny per player character and each Wild Card NPC also gets two bennies of his own.
Keeping with the Deadlands/poker theme, the game uses an open-ended die roll system, so that rolling the maximum on your die is called an "Ace" and allows you to re-roll and add the result. There is also the "raise" or additional success level for every 4 points over what's required (so a Shooting roll with a requirement of 4 gets two raises if the character rolls a 12). And then there's the initiative system. A full card deck with Jokers is used for initiative going from Ace high to Deuce lowest, with GM characters getting a single card (or in large groups, one card per X number of NPC goons) and Wild Cards getting a single card each. A character who gets the Joker is a literal wild card in that he can move at any point in the initiative order AND gets +2 to most tests that round.
You can perform one regular action in a round, and can combine actions for -2 for each additional action, but you can't do the same action twice (you can attack and Intimidate, but not double-attack). The main exception is for autofire weapons with a Rate of Fire up to 3 (even then, you never get more than 1 Wild Die per turn). A wide range of "Special Rules" is reviewed, including called shots, going on defense, area attacks, and more.
You also get to use Taunt or Intimidate in combat to get bonuses on the target, in what's called a "test of will." Anybody who's played TORG knows that Test of Wills is a direct steal from that game, but I'm glad that someone else acknowledges what a great concept it is.
After hitting, the damage total is compared to a victim's Toughness. A damage roll over Toughness rating causes the victim to be shaken (i.e. 'rattled') and cannot perform any actions except to move half his Pace. A character has to use his entire action to recover from being Shaken; this requires a Spirit roll and a raise on the roll allows you to also act normally that round. A damaging attack that Shakes an already Shaken character instead does a wound, which causes a supporting character to get taken down. A Wild Card takes -1 to all Trait tests and Pace score per wound and can take up to 3 Wounds before being Incapacitated. These characters are taken down and must also roll Vigor (with Wound penalties) or suffer permanent injury and "Bleeding Out" (for failure) or instant death (for Critical Failure). NPC allies instead roll Vigor at the end of a combat to determine if they even survive. Natural healing occurs every five days to heal wound levels (although failure on the Vigor roll can cause worse injury, or of course death).
Chapter Four: Arcane Backgrounds is the magic section of the rules. Technically it's supposed to be the chapter for all sorts of non-human superpowers including psionics, miracles and weird science, but these all still require a specified "Arcane Background" Edge to use, and in this basic game they all seem to operate like comic spells or perhaps psionic abilities. That is, they usually require skill rolls to use, and cost Power Points that burn out quickly. They're also relatively low-powered; the game specifies that the Superpowers Arcane Background should be a model for pulp-style weird talents more than high-powered comicbook heroes. For instance the Speed power simply allows you to double your Pace when it's used. Furthermore many of the abilities are based on experience rank, such that a character needs to be Seasoned before he can pick up Invisibility, which a lot of us would think of as a basic power.
Chapter Five: Situational Rules covers a whole host of situations that weren't addressed in Chapter Three, like use of mounts (and their stats) the use of vehicles (which are statted in Chapter Two) and mass combat. There are also stats for typical Allies such as soldiers, Fear rules for horror games and similar scenarios, and "Fatigue" rules covering various sorts of environmental damage ranging from dehydration to radiation poisoning. Basically in all of those cases the character rolls his Vigor stat and if he fails he takes a Fatigue level, with -1 to his rolls until he reaches Incapacitated at the 3rd level, or dies at the 4th level, similar to how Wild Cards take wound damage. Note that there is only one fatigue track, so if for instance the character has to go out into subzero temperatures while starving, he can end up taking two fatigue levels in the same day.
The major rules in this section are for vehicles, which are only written up on page 55. In addition to a top speed, vehicles also have an acceleration rating for how many game inches they can accelerate until they reach top speed. Maneuverability is affected by speed regardless of the vehicle type, such that a speed of 15" will take -2 off the pilot's handling skill roll and 30" or more will take off -4. "Collisions are very deadly in Savage Worlds." In a collision, both vehicle and driver/passenger will take 1d6 damage for every 5" relative speed (such that two vehicles ramming each other at 12" speed take 4d6 damage for 24" velocity). There is a maneuvers table on page 119 but before that there are more specific rules for aerial maneuvers, capital ships, and the results of critical hits on vehicles.
In these rules, chases and dogfights work somewhat like character fights, except that distance is affected by "range increments" dependent on the speed scale of the faster participant, where character scale is 1 and car scale is 5 (so a person being chased by a car is dealing with a range increment of 5). In a chase, the goal of the pursued is to get 10 or more range increments away in order to escape (good luck to the guy being chased by the car). One can use Driving rolls to "push" and move an extra range increment, put the opponent at a disadvantage (affecting subsequent Driving/Fighting rolls with the vehicle) and so on.
With the mass combat rules, you basically take the larger force and give it ten "tokens" then give the smaller force an appropriate ratio of tokens (so with 1000 against 600, the smaller force gets six tokens). They then make Fighting or other appropriate rolls with a modifier for the situation (like terrain) with the larger army getting a bonus to its battle roll based on its difference in tokens. It is also possible for PCs to use their Fighting, Shooting or special powers to get involved and possibly add a bonus to their side's Battle Roll, but the player's roll is penalized by the superior force's difference in tokens (a difference of 6:9 against the PCs means the PCs take -3 off their rolls). Failure means taking damage with no effect on the combat, and higher levels of success add to his side's Battle Roll and reduce his chances of taking damage.
The Gamemaster's Section is specifically set off into the last two chapters. Chapter Six, naturally called Game Mastering, states that the first step in GMing isn't to find a group, but to "get yourself excited," because if you can, you can get excited players as well. Advice for getting the PCs together is given, along with reviews of various game styles (including a sidebar for the presentation of horror in a typically wisecracking gaming group). This chapter also touches on the use of NPCs, and reminds the GM that in the case of "allies" like troops and the like, the game allows players to run these characters in mass battles and the like, thus catering to officer-type characters, jungle lords and others who have allies as a character concept. It also makes things easier on the GM, given that the allies are usually going to be tackling the hordes of enemy cannon fodder that the GM is going to be running anyway.
The chapter then addresses the concept of creating worlds and campaign settings, including whatever Edges/Hindrances may be possessed by non-human races used as PCs, and whatever Professional Edges are appropriate for the setting. For instance, in Chapter One, the "Woodsman" Professional Edge gives a ranger-type character +2 to Tracking, Stealth and Survival rolls in woodland settings (as opposed to underground). In designing professional Edge packages for your campaign, you should try using similarly focused bonuses (a gunslinger's Shooting bonus only with trick shots, as opposed to all shooting rolls) to define the Edge and avoid power inflation of experienced PCs. In customizing the rules for a particular setting, the authors emphasize the simple approach and the "FFF" concept - Fast! Furious! Fun! (exclamation points in the original)
Chapter Seven: Villains & Monsters is basically a bestiary for important threats a character might face in various genres. These demonstrate examples of "wild card" characters, monsters of certain size ranges, etc. The chapter ends with "The Wreck of the Solarah," an introductory adventure for Novice characters in the Pirate age. It's only two pages of setup, and you get to save a Spanish princess from cannibals. Conditions for victory and defeat should be obvious.
SUMMARY
Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition again is intended to be a light but usable game for various genres. In large respect, the game succeeds at its goal. It is certainly easy to grasp.
It is, to be sure, not nearly as complete as GURPS or Hero System, but neither is it as "fussy" about rules. Like GURPS, it seems to be a lot more oriented towards normal humans with a few advantages than it is to high-level or superheroic play- but at the same time it is also less realistic than GURPS and more oriented toward cinematic action, which would seem to be a conflict between game design and result.
SW has also been described as a strong competitor to Spirit of the Century as a Pulp action game, and while it's hardly bad, SotC is better in the sense that its Aspects-based system leads not only to quick action resolution but story development in an innovative way that doesn't rely much on dice or tables. Savage Worlds is certainly quick, but it's not that quick, and it's a bit more conventional.
It's a good game, and I'm glad I finally got to see it (thanks again, Calculon) but I wouldn't recommend it over the other universal RPGs or action games I've seen.
Style: 4
Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition is well put-together and has a breezy style that makes it easy for the writers to get the game across to new readers.
Substance: 3
Unfortunately that breeziness extends to editing and other important stuff.
