Tilting at windmills: Savage Worlds

Assorted musings and updates forthcoming now that I kind of have time/motivation/topics to blog again.

But this is not a post about those. This is a post about Savage Worlds, my continued fondness for it and gripes against it.

Main mechanics-wise, I have actually relatively few issues. Much of my efforts lie with the equipment being fairly clearly made either by those unfamiliar with actual equipment, or completely focused on game balance things. The latter isn't always bad, but there are ways to balance things in a vaguely realistic manner.

First, enemies gain an attack of opportunity on you when you leave melee engagement (as with most tabletop wargames, melee is counted as both participants actually moving and circling and such per a fight, even as their markers remain stationary on the board), and there's nothing you can do about this without an Edge for it (or two, if you want to be able to retreat from multiple opponents). This puts reach weapons at a large disadvantage, as the only method to gain back their reach advantage once enemies close the gap is to either force them back with a Push (contest of STR that leads to a 1" push per level of success), or move back and give free attacks. This all is pretty readily fixed by adding a 1" step, equivalent to the D&D 5 foot step, or GURPS 1 yard free step. Now you can either shift while remaining engaged, or disengage slightly. It'd consume all of your movement (normally 6" unless modified by something like a leg injury), but perhaps you can roll your run d6 to get another 1-6" away. Simple, easy, and makes combat more dynamic. One and done.

Second, Hunger ticks way too fast and will kill you in a day if you're unlucky. Suffering ill effects from hunger fairly quickly is legit, but it being lethal immediately is not. Default rules have your first hunger roll made a day after the missed meal, and every 12 hours thereafter. Additionally a -2 penalty for having less than half of the food needed. Average vigor is d6, roll of 4 is needed if you have more than half the daily food, 50% chance, with 8 rolls needed and 2 per day. This leads to an average survival of 5 days. This is maybe acceptable if you're constantly pushing and burning energy, but most survival situations indicate that three weeks is more average with no food, or a month with at least some. With a roll period of 24 hours while conserving energy, you get 9 days. Two days to a roll, 17, which is close to the 3 weeks assuming energy is being conserved and the body can go into energy saving mode.

Third, thirst is... I think thirst is actually ok. You get a day without water before your first Vigor/Con/HT roll, at -2 if you have less than half needed. After that you make the same roll every 6 hours. Once you get a full amount of water you recover fatigue levels until you're full, one per hour. A typical person can live for about 3 days, which is 4 failures total. An average person has a d6 vigor, and needs a 4 if they have at least some water, so 50% chance, meaning on average they'll last 8 rolls, 4 per day, to get the target of 3 days on average.

But, there's a problem with both of these: Fatigue levels are all cumulative. Take a fatigue level from bumps and bruises, one from missed sleep, and a bad roll for a missed meal and drink, and you drop dead in a day. The fatigue penalties being cumulative (-1 to all rolls per level of fatigue, up to the 3 before they knock you over incapacitated) sounds right, but it shouldn't be able to incapacitate in conjunction with other stuff.


The final issue I have is gear. Savage Worlds is fairly generic, yet has a surprising amount of depth, and this extends to the gear. What I don't care for is the $500 standard starting wealth, and somewhat arbitrary costs and weights for weapons and such (many weapons and vehicles likely to be issued by a government don't even include a cost, as if mercenaries would be somehow uncommon in the violent pulp worlds the system exists to portray!). GURPS breakdown of fairly standard costs with progressively more wealth as the world advances seems fairly nice, particularly given how much stays the same as time passes (DR2 modern race leathers are not dissimilar from a DR2 leather jack in price or overall weight). Adjusting starting money and reworking prices/weights is one thing, but my inclination is to make a simple weapon-crafting system to arrive at any desired weapon, fantastical or realistic. Gear, and methodology for making sure it's properly balanced damagewise, swiftly ceases to be as simple, and warrants another post.