July 11, 2023 • 20 mins
Savage Worlds is a fast network of systems and settings all using the same mechanical base that can be used for traditional fantasy games, sci-fi space battles and everything in between. But the Savage Worlds have over a hundred books in their library, where do you start? Support the Channel: RPG Dice Subscription: https://www.skullsplitterdice.com/products/rpg-dice-subscription Amazing dice every month, no repeats. Andrar's Vault is Open - Over 100 Unique Magic Items: https://www.skullsplitterdice.com/products/andrars-vault Read the blog post here:https://www.skullsplitterdice.com/blogs/dnd/switching-to-savage-worlds
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Ever since the debacle with Wizzards ofthe Coast, or rather the series of
debacles with Wizzards of the Coast atthe beginning of this year, a lot
of groups have been looking for newsystems to bring to the table. Savage
Worlds is a fast network of systemsand settings, all using the same mechanical
base that can be used for traditionalfantasy games and sci fi space battles and
just about everything in between. Butthe Savage Worlds have over one hundred books
(00:22):
in their library. Where do youstart? We're going to go through all
of the major differences and changes youcan expect switching from five E, D,
and D to Savage Worlds. SavageWorlds, to me is the RPG
system I will use for well.I collect a lot of old RPGs,
and not all of them have agedvery well, but they have settings that
I really like, and Savage Worldsis the thing that I use usually to
(00:44):
adapt them in some way. SoI'm excited to talk about this. I
can't emphasize enough how Savage Worlds actslike a base and a template. Savage
world self doesn't have a setting oreven a genre. It's just a unique
and flexible mechanical core that all sortsof games can grow out of and intermingle.
(01:07):
Old veterans who remember girps will finda lot of familiar territory here,
with the potential for vastly different gamesplayed using these same base rules. This
makes games where you bridge genres especiallyperfect for Savage Worlds, since mechanically,
things as disparate as Roman legionaries,wizards, alien superheroes, and cruise missiles
can all comfortably play together without thegame breaking down fundamentally. Savage Worlds is
(01:30):
a cinematic system that lends itself towardsbig emotional conflicts and climaxes. It has
low levels of crunch while still lettingcharacters feel unique, and it confles to
fit stories focused on practically any settingor scope. It is, however,
very different from five E, Dand D. If that's what you're used
to. If all that sounds likewhat you're looking for, then Savage Worlds
(01:51):
is a great fit. I mentionedearlier that Savage world has a ton of
books, and I won't lie.It can be very confusing to parse out
at first, but to start playingyou really only need a single core rule
book, and that's Savage World's AdventureEdition. Savage Worlds doesn't like to exactly
number their editions, but the AdventureEdition is the newest edition that you should
(02:12):
be picking up. This single corebook is available on PDF form for typically
only ten dollars, and it coverseverything you'll need from core rules, character
creation, and game mastery. Ifyou're anything like me, the fact that
Savage Rules has a ton of uniquesettings is definitely a selling point for you,
many of which have dozens of booksdevoted to them with a long and
rich gaming history all their own.To play in these settings, you'll need
(02:34):
their core books, which build uponthe basic Adventure Edition book. All these
books work together, or rather canwork together. It all depends on what
elements you want to include in yourcampaigns. We'll go into each of these
into more detail a little bit later, but for now, let's go over
all the major options and what booksyou'll need to get. First, we
have dead Lands, an alternate Americanhistory filled with cowboys, zombies, and
(02:55):
steampunk wonders. Deadlins is probably themost popular of the Savage Rule settings,
and for a very good reason.If you want an extra Wild West,
you'll need to start with the followingbooks. Both of these can be found
pretty easily as PDFs for about tendollars each these days. Be careful,
though, and make sure you getthe last editions, as there are earlier
versions floating around out there. Next, we have the one that I'm most
(03:16):
familiar with. Weird Wars. Takea real world conflict and add a little
bit of dark magic to it,and that's pretty much what you get with
Weird Wars. Think Wolfenstein, Hellboy, or Valkyria Chronicles, which, if
you know me, these are allthings that I love. It's no surprise
that I'm so into Weird Wars.Each Weird Wars book focuses on a different
war, with options for World Warone, two, future conflicts, and
(03:38):
battles in ancient Rome. To getstarted in a Weird War, you're going
to need at least one of thefollowing books. The unfortunate part about these
books is that they were all writtenbefore the current edition. Conversion between Savage
World's edition isn't the most difficult thingin the world, but it'll still be
a pain, especially if you're newto the system. Something I know a
lot of people are going to beinterested in is the Superpower Hours companion Less,
(04:00):
a spinoff game and more of asupplement. This single book contains everything
you'll need to turn your Savage Worldgame into a superhero adventure. It's over
two hundred pages of superpowers in allthe comic book trappings surrounding a superhero filled
world. Sadly, once again,this book was written before the current edition,
and to play it you'll have todo some conversion work. Next,
we have the Suede Fantasy Companion.If you're itching to use Savage Worlds for
(04:24):
a more traditional fantasy adventure, you'llwant this book to fill out the fantasy
tropes. Savage World isn't built tofit any setting or era, but that
means it definitely falls short of thingslike Five and Pathfinder when it comes to
standard fantasy content. This book doesa great deal to fill in the blanks
and flesh out your Savage World fantasyadventures. Thankfully, this book was updated
(04:45):
for the last edition, meaning there'sno conversions needed. And then we have
Savage Riffs. Savage Riffs or justriffs if you prefer is Savage World sci
fi setting and supplement for everything aliens, lasers, and spaceships. If you're
looking to go for a science fictionand you'll want riffs powering your campaign.
To get started in riffs, you'reonly strictly going to need one book,
and that's the Tomorrow Legion Player's Guideor Riffs one. The Tomorrow Legions Player
(05:10):
Guide acts as a riffs core book. But if you're planning on playing a
lot of riffs or think there's achance that your group might really like it,
you're probably also going to need topick up riffs too. The Game
Master's Handbook and Riffs three Savage Foesof North America. I also recommend picking
up riffs if you plan on doingany genre shifting or portaling shenanigans. As
the name implies, Riffs focuses alot on riffs in reality that can bridge
(05:30):
any setting or time period your deviousGM brain can think to combine. So
what dice are you going to need? Similar to D and D, you'll
need a set of polyhedral D four, D six, D eight, D
ten, D twelve, and aD twenty. You'll also need an additional
D six that is different from thefirst D six to use as a wild
dye. For those of you thathave briefly looked into Savage Worlds before,
(05:53):
you might have asked I need cards, and the answer is yes. Savage
world uses a normal deck of playingcards, or in parts of the game,
if you're playing Deadlands, it usescards a lot, but even in
other settings you'll be pulling out adeck and shuffling them quite often. The
table only needs a single deck,which usually is brought by the game master.
(06:13):
Now let's go over some of thefundamental rules in Savage Worlds, starting
with trait rolls and target numbers.Savage Worlds isn't a D twenty system,
and rather than adding a bunch ofbonuses to a single die, you'll be
upgrading or downgrading the die that youroll. If a character is able to
do something but they're bad at it, they're probably rolling a D four.
If they're good at it, maybethey're rolling a DA. How good a
character is that something is determined bytheir attributes and traits, which you'll see
(06:38):
on the character sheet as D sixor D eight, indicating what they'll roll
for that sort of check. Thestandard TN or target number you need to
succeed on anything is for, butdepending on all sorts of circumstances, the
game master can apply bonuses or negativesto your role or They might even change
the target number altogether for really difficultthings. Now let's move on to wild
(06:58):
dice. Whenever a character rules fora check, they also roll an additional
D six, which is called awild die, and then you take the
highest of the two results. Thishelps with the harsh swing of a single
die roll and mathematically smooths out alot of the other variants. So if
you have a D four in atrait, you're actually rolling one D four
and one D six, then takingthe highest result. And then we have
(07:18):
aces, raises and critical failures.When you roll the maximum possible result on
a die roll, and that couldbe your trait die or wild dieer even
both, you get what's called anace. When you ace a roll,
you get to roll the die againand add it to the result. Let's
say you have a D four inathletics and you roll a four on the
D four and a five on thewild die or the D six. The
(07:41):
D four aced and you roll anotherD four, getting a three, and
then you add the total to theoriginal four for a total of seven.
That gives your dice result a sevenand a five. Since you always take
the highest roll, your final resultfor the check is a seven. If
you roll particularly high on a check, you get what's called a raise that
adds additional benefits to your check.To raise a check, you need to
(08:01):
get double the target number. Let'ssay your character is extremely smart and has
one D twelve in science, andyou roll a nine for analyzing some glowing
goo. Assuming a normal target numberof four, You've doubled the target with
a nine and get a raise.Each skill and attribute have their own unique
additional benefits granted by the rays,and in sciences case, you get to
learn even more in depth scientific informationthan you would if you would just gotten
(08:24):
a regular success. So far ourglowing goo, the normal success might determine
that it's toxic and dangerous, buta raise check might also determine what sort
of a creature exuded it, orit might even give you an interesting way
or method in order to use itfor your own benefit. Critical failures are
the fumbles of this system, andthey happen when both of your roles result
in a one. On a criticalfailure, you automatically fail on whatever it
(08:48):
is you're trying to do, andsomething extra bad happens as determined by the
GM, and I just hope yourGM is cool, and then we have
Benny's. Savage World uses a systemcalled Benny's, which they claim is an
American slang term for benefits, butas an American, I can tell you
they had to have made that up, or that's just moon Man talk.
(09:11):
Benefits or Benny's work a lot likeinspiration in five, a criminally underused mechanic.
By the way, each player getsthree bennies at the start of each
session, and the GM is meantto award them with extra Benny's whenever they
role play really well or do somethingcool or noteworthy. Players can then spend
their bennies on making rerolls, preventingdamage, or even for asking the GM
(09:33):
for help or clues and stuff likethat. And now let's move on to
action cards or initiative. The primarything that the deck of playing cards is
used for is initiative rather than rolling. For initiative, every player in NPC
has dealt a playing card, andthe GM can choose to deal them face
up or face down, going fromace to two. Characters take their actions
resolving ties using the card suits,going from Spade to Diamond to Heart to
(09:54):
Club. Jokers are always left inthe deck and they're extra special. Someone
is Delta Joker. All the playersreceive a benny, and after that round
all the cards are shuffled again.People dealt a joker can also cut in
with their action at any time inthe round, even interrupting their enemies.
Now, let's talk about damage andwounds. Perhaps the biggest departure from five
E in Savage Worlds is how theyhandle damage. When a character is successfully
(10:18):
hit by an attack and damage isrolled, that damage isn't subtracted from a
hit point total. Instead, it'scompared to the targets toughness, and if
the damage total exceeds the toughness,they're damaged. When a character gets damaged,
they become shaken scraped up, butnot mechanically hurt in any way.
But if they're damaged while they're alreadyshaken, they get wounded instead. Wounds
(10:39):
are serious business in Savage world andthey can potentially turn into permanent injuries.
Wounded characters take a commulative negative onepenalty to all their checks equal to the
number of wounds they have. Finally, once a character takes three wounds,
they must make a vigor check tosee if they get a temporary injury,
a permanent injury, or if theyimmediately die and any wounds pass that pacitate
(11:00):
the player. Wounds are difficult toheal up as well, and if you're
setting doesn't have magical healing and youdon't get first aid within an hour of
taking the wound, you're stuck waitingfor natural recovery. Naturally healing a wound
in Savage Worlds takes a bigger testevery five days for the chance to heal
up. Now, let's talk aboutswitching to Savage Worlds as a gamemaster,
(11:22):
because there are some major departures fromgoing to five over to Savage Worlds,
and to start with it, Ithink we should talk about cinematic combat.
Mechanically, five is essentially just aresource game. You use smaller encounters to
waste some of the parties resources likehit points and spell slots before challenging them
with a boss, allowing them torest and regain their spent resources before starting
(11:45):
the cycle over again. Savage Worldsdoesn't really work like that. The only
resources players typically have to spend ourbennies unless magic and power points are involved
in some way, and their capabilitiesare simply their capabilities with the way toughness
and damage works. Most underlings willcinematically crumble under the onslaught of the protagonists,
(12:05):
and our heroes will emerge unscathed,except for inconsequential scrapes and bruises.
This means you're going to have tothink in movie terms. The hero getting
wounded is a big deal, andthat should be only happening at critical moments.
It'll take a bit of a mentalshift to get used to, believe
me, I know, but Ifind that the end result is very satisfying
and makes for an entertaining game,especially when you're recounting the whole thing afterward.
(12:28):
You've just got to reorient your thinkingfrom a dungeon crawl and boss fight
mentality over to the highs and lowsof an action movie. A big piece
of advice I give to dungeon mastersall the time in five I think still
applies here and can even be takento a much further conclusion. I've always
said that you have to tell yourstories in beats in order to avoid things
like railroading, and also to avoidjust running things completely off of improv have
(12:54):
big story beats planned, but don'tnecessarily have a time that you're going to
use them. It's all about kindof knowing in the moment when you can.
But this system, especially this combatsystem, makes it a lot easier
to tell your story in a lotof really cool beats. If something big
doesn't happen in an earlier combat session, you can always throw it at him
later. I think a lot ofyou dms out there will not only adjust,
(13:16):
but kind of flourish in this combatsystem. Now, let's talk about
awarding benny's. Let's talk about awardingbenny's. In five many players abandon the
inspiration mechanic altogether, which I againmaintain as a mistake, but it's equivalent.
Benny's are a much more integral partof Savage Worlds. Every player gets
three bennies at the start of eachsession and loses any on spent bennies at
(13:39):
the end of every session. Thatis a deliberate choice to encourage players to
use them and not hoard them likewell, like dragons. You should be
giving out Benny's frequently, especially atthe start of a session, and typically
you should slow down on benny's whenthe situation gets really tense. Ideally,
each player should feel free to spendbennis on things that are important to them,
while still having some left over forhelping with combats that spring up.
(14:03):
The scientists should feel free to usethat benny to make sure they succeed on
a science check, since that's thething they're designed and built to do,
without feeling like they wasted some supervaluable resource and now moving on to advancement,
Savage World doesn't have levels. Instead, you can award advancements that the
players can spend on increasing their statsor gaining new features. There's no hard
(14:24):
rules for when to advance your players. It just depends on how fast you
expect a campaign to be. Somegames may want to advance at the end
of every session, some might advanceevery few sessions or after every major accomplishment
or milestone. Either way, you'llwant to play around with this and find
what kind of feels right for youin your group, but know that the
advancements are much less significant than fiveE levels. The fundamental power level of
(14:46):
a party won't change much for eachadvancement. They'll just get slightly better at
some things or gain a new ability. As a rough estimate, I would
say think of each advancement as aroundhalf of a five V class level.
Yeah, that seems right. Whenit comes to switching to Savage Worlds as
a player, we should definitely gothrough the biggest changes you'll feel then,
(15:09):
because again there are some seismic changessuch as well. One of my favorite
things about it, honestly, andthat's the classless system. Starting a Savage
World character means putting points in yourattributes and skills, picking a race,
and possibly taking some hindrances in exchangefor better stats or some edges. Think
of edges like feats if you yeah, it's pretty much the same. What
(15:31):
you won't find here are classes orlevels. Some edges, particularly background edges,
feel a bit like classes or themes, but your abilities are defined by
your skills and edges and there's nopre built class system or structure. It
can take some getting used to,but once you realize that this allows you
to do practically anything, it's extremelyfree. If you guys know of any
(15:52):
other RPGs that have a classless characterbuilding system to them, please let me
know down in the comments, becausethose are some of my favorite RPGs have
that as a built in feature,and I just want to learn about more
of them. Five really conditions usinto just making attacks and rolling damage,
but Savage World has some more depththan that. You can always make called
(16:12):
shots targeting different parts of a creaturewith potentially very different effects and difficulties.
Break that guy's legs, hit thegaps in the armor, shoot that monster
in a big obvious weak point,whichever. These are things that you're able
to do in this system. Again, if you guys know other RPGs that
do things like this, please letme know, because some of my favorite
older RPGs from the late eighties andearly nineties there are a ton that have
(16:36):
this kind of feature in it,and I'm surprised more don't do this,
so let me know if they aremore out there. Now, let's talk
about the four armor sets, andthis is going to make you fall out
fans feel right at home. Justlike you can make called shots, you've
also got your own weak points toworry about. You have a different armor
rating for your legs, arms,torso, and head. Most attacks by
default go towards your torso, butyou'll still need to track your different armor
(16:57):
sets separately in case something aims foryour head or tries to shoot that gun
out of your hands. Let's endthis video out with some FAQ's real quick
starting with what addition is current?The short answer is Adventure Edition is the
current version that you should be using, unless one of the older settings that
we talked about earlier in the videoseems appealing to you. The long answer
(17:18):
is that Savage World doesn't number editions, but there are three distinct Savage World's
addition technically four, but three thatmatter. We've got the Explorers Edition,
which is technically an update to thevery first book, but it's the oldest
version you'll likely find in use.We've got the Deluxe Edition. This was
the longest running edition and a lotof the supplements will still reference Deluxe Edition
(17:42):
rules. And then we have theAdventure Edition. This is the current edition
that focuses on streamlining and simplifying alot of the more complex parts of the
Deluxe Edition. Can I run oldSavage World's books, Yes, of course
you can. You can even juststraight up use the older editions if you'd
like to, and there's a tonof support and supplements for them. I
(18:02):
do really recommend using the newer AdventureEdition rules if you can, as your
base, as it fixed a lotof the problems and smoothed out a lot
of the rougher edges. As someonethat likes older RPGs myself, that's not
as much of a problem, butit's probably worth bringing up right now.
Books written for the Deluxe Edition arefairly painless to convert over to the new
rules, and many of the onlineresources for them also include hand conversion guides.
(18:26):
Can I mix settings? Yes,in fact it's encouraged. Each supplement,
like dead Lands or Riffs, hastheir own lore and mechanics to work
with, but they're all modular andeasily interchanged, and as a lot of
you dungeon masters out there, weall know how malleable any kind of lore
can be. As the game master, you can feel free to mix and
match any Savage world books you feellike to your heart's content. You may
(18:47):
just have to include a setting corebook as well if you want to use
some of their extra supplements. SavageWorlds is a solid and streamlined base that
can be used for practically any settingwithout skipping a beat. It's not the
absolute best system for any given setting, but as a jack of all trades,
it works beautifully to blend whatever genresand styles together that you can come
(19:07):
up with It's a very different experiencethan five E, D and D,
but it can take you to somany other places that other systems just can't
handle. I highly recommend Savage worldand it's many settings, particularly if you've
got a genre defying idea for acampaign. Like I said, I have
loved Savage Worlds for a long time. And if there's one thing I can
be thankful for Wizards of the Coastkind of shooting themselves in the foot for
(19:30):
it's that I now have an excuseto talk to not only you guys out
there, but a lot of mypersonal friends about Savage Worlds and other systems
that I really want to try.I usually use it to convert, like
I said, older RPGs that Ifind that just have rules that are a
little over my head or just toocomplicated to run. So we'll just revert
to that, especially because a lotof the older RPGs I find are historical
(19:55):
or use really dated sci fi conceptswell, you know, like analogs.
I find all that, so it'sreally fun for things of that nature.
And yeah, I recommend Savage Worldsto any group out there that's looking to
expand into sci fi or something else, or if they just want combat that
works completely different from five. Ithink that's one thing a lot of people
(20:15):
are starting to realize they may notreally like about five. Not that I
think combat's bad in five, butI just think it's interesting how people are
usually quick to complement other other systemscombat. So anyway, Yeah, I
like Savage Worlds. Thank you guysso much for watching. I really appreciate
it. Be sure to like andsubscribe because we put out new content all
(20:37):
the time, and if you andyour group are going to be trying Savage
Worlds, I'd love to hear aboutit down in the comments, as well
as what type of setting and allthat kind of stuff, But what really
drove you to try it? I'dreally like to hear it. Thanks again
for watching. My name's Patrick Fergusonfrom Skull Split or Dice and until next
time, farewell.
Ever since the debacle with Wizzards ofthe Coast, or rather the series of
debacles with Wizzards of the Coast atthe beginning of this year, a lot
of groups have been looking for newsystems to bring to the table. Savage
Worlds is a fast network of systemsand settings, all using the same mechanical
base that can be used for traditionalfantasy games and sci fi space battles and
just about everything in between. Butthe Savage Worlds have over one hundred books
(00:22):
in their library. Where do youstart? We're going to go through all
of the major differences and changes youcan expect switching from five E, D,
and D to Savage Worlds. SavageWorlds, to me is the RPG
system I will use for well.I collect a lot of old RPGs,
and not all of them have agedvery well, but they have settings that
I really like, and Savage Worldsis the thing that I use usually to
(00:44):
adapt them in some way. SoI'm excited to talk about this. I
can't emphasize enough how Savage Worlds actslike a base and a template. Savage
world self doesn't have a setting oreven a genre. It's just a unique
and flexible mechanical core that all sortsof games can grow out of and intermingle.
(01:07):
Old veterans who remember girps will finda lot of familiar territory here,
with the potential for vastly different gamesplayed using these same base rules. This
makes games where you bridge genres especiallyperfect for Savage Worlds, since mechanically,
things as disparate as Roman legionaries,wizards, alien superheroes, and cruise missiles
can all comfortably play together without thegame breaking down fundamentally. Savage Worlds is
(01:30):
a cinematic system that lends itself towardsbig emotional conflicts and climaxes. It has
low levels of crunch while still lettingcharacters feel unique, and it confles to
fit stories focused on practically any settingor scope. It is, however,
very different from five E, Dand D. If that's what you're used
to. If all that sounds likewhat you're looking for, then Savage Worlds
(01:51):
is a great fit. I mentionedearlier that Savage world has a ton of
books, and I won't lie.It can be very confusing to parse out
at first, but to start playingyou really only need a single core rule
book, and that's Savage World's AdventureEdition. Savage Worlds doesn't like to exactly
number their editions, but the AdventureEdition is the newest edition that you should
(02:12):
be picking up. This single corebook is available on PDF form for typically
only ten dollars, and it coverseverything you'll need from core rules, character
creation, and game mastery. Ifyou're anything like me, the fact that
Savage Rules has a ton of uniquesettings is definitely a selling point for you,
many of which have dozens of booksdevoted to them with a long and
rich gaming history all their own.To play in these settings, you'll need
(02:34):
their core books, which build uponthe basic Adventure Edition book. All these
books work together, or rather canwork together. It all depends on what
elements you want to include in yourcampaigns. We'll go into each of these
into more detail a little bit later, but for now, let's go over
all the major options and what booksyou'll need to get. First, we
have dead Lands, an alternate Americanhistory filled with cowboys, zombies, and
(02:55):
steampunk wonders. Deadlins is probably themost popular of the Savage Rule settings,
and for a very good reason.If you want an extra Wild West,
you'll need to start with the followingbooks. Both of these can be found
pretty easily as PDFs for about tendollars each these days. Be careful,
though, and make sure you getthe last editions, as there are earlier
versions floating around out there. Next, we have the one that I'm most
(03:16):
familiar with. Weird Wars. Takea real world conflict and add a little
bit of dark magic to it,and that's pretty much what you get with
Weird Wars. Think Wolfenstein, Hellboy, or Valkyria Chronicles, which, if
you know me, these are allthings that I love. It's no surprise
that I'm so into Weird Wars.Each Weird Wars book focuses on a different
war, with options for World Warone, two, future conflicts, and
(03:38):
battles in ancient Rome. To getstarted in a Weird War, you're going
to need at least one of thefollowing books. The unfortunate part about these
books is that they were all writtenbefore the current edition. Conversion between Savage
World's edition isn't the most difficult thingin the world, but it'll still be
a pain, especially if you're newto the system. Something I know a
lot of people are going to beinterested in is the Superpower Hours companion Less,
(04:00):
a spinoff game and more of asupplement. This single book contains everything
you'll need to turn your Savage Worldgame into a superhero adventure. It's over
two hundred pages of superpowers in allthe comic book trappings surrounding a superhero filled
world. Sadly, once again,this book was written before the current edition,
and to play it you'll have todo some conversion work. Next,
we have the Suede Fantasy Companion.If you're itching to use Savage Worlds for
(04:24):
a more traditional fantasy adventure, you'llwant this book to fill out the fantasy
tropes. Savage World isn't built tofit any setting or era, but that
means it definitely falls short of thingslike Five and Pathfinder when it comes to
standard fantasy content. This book doesa great deal to fill in the blanks
and flesh out your Savage World fantasyadventures. Thankfully, this book was updated
(04:45):
for the last edition, meaning there'sno conversions needed. And then we have
Savage Riffs. Savage Riffs or justriffs if you prefer is Savage World sci
fi setting and supplement for everything aliens, lasers, and spaceships. If you're
looking to go for a science fictionand you'll want riffs powering your campaign.
To get started in riffs, you'reonly strictly going to need one book,
and that's the Tomorrow Legion Player's Guideor Riffs one. The Tomorrow Legions Player
(05:10):
Guide acts as a riffs core book. But if you're planning on playing a
lot of riffs or think there's achance that your group might really like it,
you're probably also going to need topick up riffs too. The Game
Master's Handbook and Riffs three Savage Foesof North America. I also recommend picking
up riffs if you plan on doingany genre shifting or portaling shenanigans. As
the name implies, Riffs focuses alot on riffs in reality that can bridge
(05:30):
any setting or time period your deviousGM brain can think to combine. So
what dice are you going to need? Similar to D and D, you'll
need a set of polyhedral D four, D six, D eight, D
ten, D twelve, and aD twenty. You'll also need an additional
D six that is different from thefirst D six to use as a wild
dye. For those of you thathave briefly looked into Savage Worlds before,
(05:53):
you might have asked I need cards, and the answer is yes. Savage
world uses a normal deck of playingcards, or in parts of the game,
if you're playing Deadlands, it usescards a lot, but even in
other settings you'll be pulling out adeck and shuffling them quite often. The
table only needs a single deck,which usually is brought by the game master.
(06:13):
Now let's go over some of thefundamental rules in Savage Worlds, starting
with trait rolls and target numbers.Savage Worlds isn't a D twenty system,
and rather than adding a bunch ofbonuses to a single die, you'll be
upgrading or downgrading the die that youroll. If a character is able to
do something but they're bad at it, they're probably rolling a D four.
If they're good at it, maybethey're rolling a DA. How good a
character is that something is determined bytheir attributes and traits, which you'll see
(06:38):
on the character sheet as D sixor D eight, indicating what they'll roll
for that sort of check. Thestandard TN or target number you need to
succeed on anything is for, butdepending on all sorts of circumstances, the
game master can apply bonuses or negativesto your role or They might even change
the target number altogether for really difficultthings. Now let's move on to wild
(06:58):
dice. Whenever a character rules fora check, they also roll an additional
D six, which is called awild die, and then you take the
highest of the two results. Thishelps with the harsh swing of a single
die roll and mathematically smooths out alot of the other variants. So if
you have a D four in atrait, you're actually rolling one D four
and one D six, then takingthe highest result. And then we have
(07:18):
aces, raises and critical failures.When you roll the maximum possible result on
a die roll, and that couldbe your trait die or wild dieer even
both, you get what's called anace. When you ace a roll,
you get to roll the die againand add it to the result. Let's
say you have a D four inathletics and you roll a four on the
D four and a five on thewild die or the D six. The
(07:41):
D four aced and you roll anotherD four, getting a three, and
then you add the total to theoriginal four for a total of seven.
That gives your dice result a sevenand a five. Since you always take
the highest roll, your final resultfor the check is a seven. If
you roll particularly high on a check, you get what's called a raise that
adds additional benefits to your check.To raise a check, you need to
(08:01):
get double the target number. Let'ssay your character is extremely smart and has
one D twelve in science, andyou roll a nine for analyzing some glowing
goo. Assuming a normal target numberof four, You've doubled the target with
a nine and get a raise.Each skill and attribute have their own unique
additional benefits granted by the rays,and in sciences case, you get to
learn even more in depth scientific informationthan you would if you would just gotten
(08:24):
a regular success. So far ourglowing goo, the normal success might determine
that it's toxic and dangerous, buta raise check might also determine what sort
of a creature exuded it, orit might even give you an interesting way
or method in order to use itfor your own benefit. Critical failures are
the fumbles of this system, andthey happen when both of your roles result
in a one. On a criticalfailure, you automatically fail on whatever it
(08:48):
is you're trying to do, andsomething extra bad happens as determined by the
GM, and I just hope yourGM is cool, and then we have
Benny's. Savage World uses a systemcalled Benny's, which they claim is an
American slang term for benefits, butas an American, I can tell you
they had to have made that up, or that's just moon Man talk.
(09:11):
Benefits or Benny's work a lot likeinspiration in five, a criminally underused mechanic.
By the way, each player getsthree bennies at the start of each
session, and the GM is meantto award them with extra Benny's whenever they
role play really well or do somethingcool or noteworthy. Players can then spend
their bennies on making rerolls, preventingdamage, or even for asking the GM
(09:33):
for help or clues and stuff likethat. And now let's move on to
action cards or initiative. The primarything that the deck of playing cards is
used for is initiative rather than rolling. For initiative, every player in NPC
has dealt a playing card, andthe GM can choose to deal them face
up or face down, going fromace to two. Characters take their actions
resolving ties using the card suits,going from Spade to Diamond to Heart to
(09:54):
Club. Jokers are always left inthe deck and they're extra special. Someone
is Delta Joker. All the playersreceive a benny, and after that round
all the cards are shuffled again.People dealt a joker can also cut in
with their action at any time inthe round, even interrupting their enemies.
Now, let's talk about damage andwounds. Perhaps the biggest departure from five
E in Savage Worlds is how theyhandle damage. When a character is successfully
(10:18):
hit by an attack and damage isrolled, that damage isn't subtracted from a
hit point total. Instead, it'scompared to the targets toughness, and if
the damage total exceeds the toughness,they're damaged. When a character gets damaged,
they become shaken scraped up, butnot mechanically hurt in any way.
But if they're damaged while they're alreadyshaken, they get wounded instead. Wounds
(10:39):
are serious business in Savage world andthey can potentially turn into permanent injuries.
Wounded characters take a commulative negative onepenalty to all their checks equal to the
number of wounds they have. Finally, once a character takes three wounds,
they must make a vigor check tosee if they get a temporary injury,
a permanent injury, or if theyimmediately die and any wounds pass that pacitate
(11:00):
the player. Wounds are difficult toheal up as well, and if you're
setting doesn't have magical healing and youdon't get first aid within an hour of
taking the wound, you're stuck waitingfor natural recovery. Naturally healing a wound
in Savage Worlds takes a bigger testevery five days for the chance to heal
up. Now, let's talk aboutswitching to Savage Worlds as a gamemaster,
(11:22):
because there are some major departures fromgoing to five over to Savage Worlds,
and to start with it, Ithink we should talk about cinematic combat.
Mechanically, five is essentially just aresource game. You use smaller encounters to
waste some of the parties resources likehit points and spell slots before challenging them
with a boss, allowing them torest and regain their spent resources before starting
(11:45):
the cycle over again. Savage Worldsdoesn't really work like that. The only
resources players typically have to spend ourbennies unless magic and power points are involved
in some way, and their capabilitiesare simply their capabilities with the way toughness
and damage works. Most underlings willcinematically crumble under the onslaught of the protagonists,
(12:05):
and our heroes will emerge unscathed,except for inconsequential scrapes and bruises.
This means you're going to have tothink in movie terms. The hero getting
wounded is a big deal, andthat should be only happening at critical moments.
It'll take a bit of a mentalshift to get used to, believe
me, I know, but Ifind that the end result is very satisfying
and makes for an entertaining game,especially when you're recounting the whole thing afterward.
(12:28):
You've just got to reorient your thinkingfrom a dungeon crawl and boss fight
mentality over to the highs and lowsof an action movie. A big piece
of advice I give to dungeon mastersall the time in five I think still
applies here and can even be takento a much further conclusion. I've always
said that you have to tell yourstories in beats in order to avoid things
like railroading, and also to avoidjust running things completely off of improv have
(12:54):
big story beats planned, but don'tnecessarily have a time that you're going to
use them. It's all about kindof knowing in the moment when you can.
But this system, especially this combatsystem, makes it a lot easier
to tell your story in a lotof really cool beats. If something big
doesn't happen in an earlier combat session, you can always throw it at him
later. I think a lot ofyou dms out there will not only adjust,
(13:16):
but kind of flourish in this combatsystem. Now, let's talk about
awarding benny's. Let's talk about awardingbenny's. In five many players abandon the
inspiration mechanic altogether, which I againmaintain as a mistake, but it's equivalent.
Benny's are a much more integral partof Savage Worlds. Every player gets
three bennies at the start of eachsession and loses any on spent bennies at
(13:39):
the end of every session. Thatis a deliberate choice to encourage players to
use them and not hoard them likewell, like dragons. You should be
giving out Benny's frequently, especially atthe start of a session, and typically
you should slow down on benny's whenthe situation gets really tense. Ideally,
each player should feel free to spendbennis on things that are important to them,
while still having some left over forhelping with combats that spring up.
(14:03):
The scientists should feel free to usethat benny to make sure they succeed on
a science check, since that's thething they're designed and built to do,
without feeling like they wasted some supervaluable resource and now moving on to advancement,
Savage World doesn't have levels. Instead, you can award advancements that the
players can spend on increasing their statsor gaining new features. There's no hard
(14:24):
rules for when to advance your players. It just depends on how fast you
expect a campaign to be. Somegames may want to advance at the end
of every session, some might advanceevery few sessions or after every major accomplishment
or milestone. Either way, you'llwant to play around with this and find
what kind of feels right for youin your group, but know that the
advancements are much less significant than fiveE levels. The fundamental power level of
(14:46):
a party won't change much for eachadvancement. They'll just get slightly better at
some things or gain a new ability. As a rough estimate, I would
say think of each advancement as aroundhalf of a five V class level.
Yeah, that seems right. Whenit comes to switching to Savage Worlds as
a player, we should definitely gothrough the biggest changes you'll feel then,
(15:09):
because again there are some seismic changessuch as well. One of my favorite
things about it, honestly, andthat's the classless system. Starting a Savage
World character means putting points in yourattributes and skills, picking a race,
and possibly taking some hindrances in exchangefor better stats or some edges. Think
of edges like feats if you yeah, it's pretty much the same. What
(15:31):
you won't find here are classes orlevels. Some edges, particularly background edges,
feel a bit like classes or themes, but your abilities are defined by
your skills and edges and there's nopre built class system or structure. It
can take some getting used to,but once you realize that this allows you
to do practically anything, it's extremelyfree. If you guys know of any
(15:52):
other RPGs that have a classless characterbuilding system to them, please let me
know down in the comments, becausethose are some of my favorite RPGs have
that as a built in feature,and I just want to learn about more
of them. Five really conditions usinto just making attacks and rolling damage,
but Savage World has some more depththan that. You can always make called
(16:12):
shots targeting different parts of a creaturewith potentially very different effects and difficulties.
Break that guy's legs, hit thegaps in the armor, shoot that monster
in a big obvious weak point,whichever. These are things that you're able
to do in this system. Again, if you guys know other RPGs that
do things like this, please letme know, because some of my favorite
older RPGs from the late eighties andearly nineties there are a ton that have
(16:36):
this kind of feature in it,and I'm surprised more don't do this,
so let me know if they aremore out there. Now, let's talk
about the four armor sets, andthis is going to make you fall out
fans feel right at home. Justlike you can make called shots, you've
also got your own weak points toworry about. You have a different armor
rating for your legs, arms,torso, and head. Most attacks by
default go towards your torso, butyou'll still need to track your different armor
(16:57):
sets separately in case something aims foryour head or tries to shoot that gun
out of your hands. Let's endthis video out with some FAQ's real quick
starting with what addition is current?The short answer is Adventure Edition is the
current version that you should be using, unless one of the older settings that
we talked about earlier in the videoseems appealing to you. The long answer
(17:18):
is that Savage World doesn't number editions, but there are three distinct Savage World's
addition technically four, but three thatmatter. We've got the Explorers Edition,
which is technically an update to thevery first book, but it's the oldest
version you'll likely find in use.We've got the Deluxe Edition. This was
the longest running edition and a lotof the supplements will still reference Deluxe Edition
(17:42):
rules. And then we have theAdventure Edition. This is the current edition
that focuses on streamlining and simplifying alot of the more complex parts of the
Deluxe Edition. Can I run oldSavage World's books, Yes, of course
you can. You can even juststraight up use the older editions if you'd
like to, and there's a tonof support and supplements for them. I
(18:02):
do really recommend using the newer AdventureEdition rules if you can, as your
base, as it fixed a lotof the problems and smoothed out a lot
of the rougher edges. As someonethat likes older RPGs myself, that's not
as much of a problem, butit's probably worth bringing up right now.
Books written for the Deluxe Edition arefairly painless to convert over to the new
rules, and many of the onlineresources for them also include hand conversion guides.
(18:26):
Can I mix settings? Yes,in fact it's encouraged. Each supplement,
like dead Lands or Riffs, hastheir own lore and mechanics to work
with, but they're all modular andeasily interchanged, and as a lot of
you dungeon masters out there, weall know how malleable any kind of lore
can be. As the game master, you can feel free to mix and
match any Savage world books you feellike to your heart's content. You may
(18:47):
just have to include a setting corebook as well if you want to use
some of their extra supplements. SavageWorlds is a solid and streamlined base that
can be used for practically any settingwithout skipping a beat. It's not the
absolute best system for any given setting, but as a jack of all trades,
it works beautifully to blend whatever genresand styles together that you can come
(19:07):
up with It's a very different experiencethan five E, D and D,
but it can take you to somany other places that other systems just can't
handle. I highly recommend Savage worldand it's many settings, particularly if you've
got a genre defying idea for acampaign. Like I said, I have
loved Savage Worlds for a long time. And if there's one thing I can
be thankful for Wizards of the Coastkind of shooting themselves in the foot for
(19:30):
it's that I now have an excuseto talk to not only you guys out
there, but a lot of mypersonal friends about Savage Worlds and other systems
that I really want to try.I usually use it to convert, like
I said, older RPGs that Ifind that just have rules that are a
little over my head or just toocomplicated to run. So we'll just revert
to that, especially because a lotof the older RPGs I find are historical
(19:55):
or use really dated sci fi conceptswell, you know, like analogs.
I find all that, so it'sreally fun for things of that nature.
And yeah, I recommend Savage Worldsto any group out there that's looking to
expand into sci fi or something else, or if they just want combat that
works completely different from five. Ithink that's one thing a lot of people
(20:15):
are starting to realize they may notreally like about five. Not that I
think combat's bad in five, butI just think it's interesting how people are
usually quick to complement other other systemscombat. So anyway, Yeah, I
like Savage Worlds. Thank you guysso much for watching. I really appreciate
it. Be sure to like andsubscribe because we put out new content all
(20:37):
the time, and if you andyour group are going to be trying Savage
Worlds, I'd love to hear aboutit down in the comments, as well
as what type of setting and allthat kind of stuff, But what really
drove you to try it? I'dreally like to hear it. Thanks again
for watching. My name's Patrick Fergusonfrom Skull Split or Dice and until next
time, farewell.
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