Savage Worlds Rules Research

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NukeHavoc
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Savage Worlds Rules Research

Post by NukeHavoc »

Damaging a Shaken Opponent

This is probably the single hardest thing in Savage Worlds to get right, mostly because the example combats in the book -- even the Deluxe book -- don't do a good job of elaborating on the "multiple wounds while shaken" scenario. My lunchtime group did this wrong for *years*.
If the target is not Shaken

* A success on the damage roll = Shaken
* 1 Raise = 1 Wound and Shaken
* 2 Raises = 2 Wounds and Shaken
* 3 Raises = 3 Wounds and Shaken
* And so on...

If the target is Shaken

* Success = 1 Wound and remains Shaken
* Raise = 1 Wound and remains Shaken
* 2 Raises = 2 Wounds and remains Shaken
* 3 Raises = 3 Wounds and remains Shaken
* And so on...
See this thread on StackExchange:
http://rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/ ... ady-shaken

And this official post from the forums:
http://www.peginc.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=30359

Drawing Weapons and Other Gear

I've been meaning to look this up for a while -- basically drawing a weapon or grabbing a grenade of your belt are actions; more complex things, like digging out that Amulet of Holy Power from your backpack, can require several rounds.

From the rules (SWD-EE p. 74):
Simpler actions such as readying an item, drawing a sword, or other quick tasks usually take one action. More complex actions, such as lighting a torch, digging through a backpack to find a small item, and so on, might require a random amount of time (such as 1d6 rounds). The Game Master has the final say.

Readying Weapons: Drawing a weapon usually takes an entire round, but a character can do it faster if she wants. This is an action, however, and so inflicts the standard multi-action penalty of –2 to the character’s attack roll. Drawing two weapons at once, drawing a weapon from a difficult location (such as an ankle holster or inside a coat), or drawing a large or unwieldy weapon (a rifle, a shotgun, etc.), still inflicts a single –2 penalty, but requires an Agility roll. If the roll is failed, the weapons are drawn but the character may not attack that round.
Multiple Actions

If you take two actions, you get a -2 to all the actions for that round, including the first one. This is easy to forget -- it hasn't come up much for us because most of the dual actions were running followed by shooting/fighting.

From the rules (SWD-EE p. 75)
Characters may perform multiple actions such as Intimidating someone while blasting away with a shotgun, running and Fighting, attacking with a weapon in each hand, and so on.

Two important rules apply:
* A character can’t fire more than his weapon’s Rate of Fire in one round
* A character may not make more than one Fighting attack with the same weapon in one round

In essence, a hero may not perform the same action twice in a round—he can’t make two simultaneous Intimidation rolls or cast two different spells. He could make a Fighting and a Shooting attack if he had a gun in one hand and a knife in the other, however, and could even issue a Taunt at the same time.

He could only make two Fighting attacks if he had a knife in each hand, however (or had the Frenzy Edge). Each additional action attempted in a round subtracts 2 from all the hero’s rolls. If an adventurer wants to fire a gun with one hand and slice at an adjacent foe with a sword in the other, for instance, he subtracts 2 from both rolls. If he also wanted to make a Test of Wills against someone at the same time, he subtracts 4 from all his rolls. Wild Cards get their Wild Die on each action as usual.

A moving character may perform these actions at different points in his movement, but still suffers the multi-action penalty. This might seem a little odd in practice—a character might shoot a pistol, move a few inches, then issue a Taunt—suffering a –2 penalty to both even though the Taunt roll has yet to be resolved—so make sure the player is committed to both actions before resolving either.
Spending Bennies

We did bennies mostly right. Two things we did wrong:

1. You're supposed to keep your best result, no matter how many bennies you spend.

2. You spend a bennie to re-roll ALL the dice on a Trait test. This means that you can spend a bennie to re-roll all the Shooting checks on full-auto burst. Also, I'm not sure if we were doing this but if you're doing Full Auto you get three Shooting dice plus the Wild Die NOT a wild die for each shot. This may make burst fire more effective than it has been.

From the rules (SWD-EE p. 71)
You can use Bennies to reroll any Trait test. Make the entire roll from scratch. If you're firing three shots on full-auto and don't like the results, pick up all three dice and your Wild Die and roll again. You can keep spending Bennies and rerolling as long as you like, and take the best of your attempts. If you roll a 5, for example, and a Benny gets you a 4, keep the original 5 instead.
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EvilGenius
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Re: Savage Worlds Rules Research

Post by EvilGenius »

Ken, would you be ok with me taking some mundane gear from the Pulp Gear supplement? Specifically I'm thinking of Firecrackers (use the burst template, +2 to Smarts-based Combat Tricks, makes people duck because it sounds like gunfire). I was also considering the Survival kit or Gasmask, for situational stuff.

Also, I've been looking through the books for a boomerang-type weapon but I don't see any. Any thoughts on adding/developing one? :)
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Re: Savage Worlds Rules Research

Post by NukeHavoc »

EvilGenius wrote:Ken, would you be ok with me taking some mundane gear from the Pulp Gear supplement? Specifically I'm thinking of Firecrackers (use the burst template, +2 to Smarts-based Combat Tricks, makes people duck because it sounds like gunfire). I was also considering the Survival kit or Gasmask, for situational stuff.
I'll need to look at the survival kit. I'm not sure what it does (though I assume it gives some bonus to survival checks). The other stuff is fine
Also, I've been looking through the books for a boomerang-type weapon but I don't see any. Any thoughts on adding/developing one? :)
Silly question, but how do you think a boomerang would work? Return on a miss? I assume it wouldn't return on a hit, but I don't recall how the iconic batarang worked.
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Re: Savage Worlds Rules Research

Post by EvilGenius »

Yeah, I'm thinking it would return on a miss. On a hit, it's in the target's square. I just don't know about range and damage.

And if we end up with a weird science guy, maybe he can like, electrify it for additional effect. :D
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Re: Savage Worlds Rules Research

Post by Fen's Ego »

And if we end up with a weird science guy, maybe he can like, electrify it for additional effect. :D
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Re: Savage Worlds Rules Research

Post by NukeHavoc »

Important bit about full-auto fire, shotguns, and innocent bystanders:

* If you are using full-auto or a shotgun, and firing into a crowd, you hit an innocent bystander on a 1 or a 2.

Not a huge deal, but it may cause you to think twice before unloading on a melee involving friends.
"Oh, I'm so sorry. Forgive me. I'll try and be a tad more quiet as I desperately struggle to break free -- and save all creation!" -- Doctor Strange
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