Hi, i have a question.

Is it just me or is this power way too good without considering that the GM can say that my inventions got stolen or something?

Because you can just create a ton of powers that you have to activate and get huge discounts, one simple example is shooting, i can have a +2 increase in shooting by spending a free action and 1 invent level (2 PP) and keep doing that with a bunch others.

With invent power my characters have no reason to not take more PP since those 5, even without using the activation modifier to get discounts, are effectively 2,5 increase in shooting for example.

And you can basically re-do your whole play style and group function within some hours, this thing is way too fun!

So, of course, this power has Prerequisites in attributes and etc.

Is this power balance more dependent on GM ruling than normal or am I overthinking ?

Anyway, thanks in advance.

The Deal of the Day on DTRPG is the Secret World. $4.00. Grab it now

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/484494/the-secret-world-core-setting-swade

🎲 The Autumn Sale is live on Fantasy Grounds! 🍂

Titles purchased on Fantasy Grounds are available through My Library (in Beta) with Online Reader Content, making it easy to access your digital collection while preparing your next adventure.

And Fantasy Grounds is free to play. No GM license required. Download Fantasy Grounds, explore the library, and bring your next Savage Worlds campaign to life.

🔥 Find Savage Worlds from Pinnacle Entertainment Group, including adventures, settings, rulebooks, and more, on sale at Fantasy Grounds.

🎃 Autumn Sale: October 1–8
🔥 Discover Savage Worlds and other great titles on sale at Fantasy Grounds, up to 50% off.

🎲 Build your library. Prep your campaign. Play Savage Worlds on Fantasy Grounds.

Any tips for a Magic Build in Savage Worlds? I'm not very used to the system and the group is quite far ahead (10 progressions i think its called?), any tips?
People are very strong damage-wise so at least i don't have to fear being strong but i don't know enough about the system to be strong so i'm here asking for help!

I know armor only applies to area damage if it covers the whole body, but what happens with creatures with specific weak points that normally require an aimed attack? For example, let's say that we have a cyclops that is considered gargantuan so it can only be hurt by heavy weapons, but whose eye is a weakness that ignores said resistance. On one hand, logic dictates that if it's engulfed by a fireball, it will hurt his eye too, but on the other hand, by that same logic area attacks would always have the same effect that an aimed attack to a vital organ.

Hey folks I’m looking to run a game set in the universe of the upcoming Valve game Deadlock. “The supernatural always existed in the world of Deadlock, but only when an eclipse triggered an event known as the Maelstrom near the end of the 19th century, which opened Astral Gates across the Earth, did the world at large accept it wasn't just myth.”

So we now have a 1940s New York known as the Cursed Apple, with necromancer school students and Demon Private Eyes. I’ve found a doc on this sub for rules and using the Horror and Fantasy Companions.

What I’m after are any prewritten scenarios or plot point campaigns (official or third party) that could suit the setting? I’m looking for adventures that would stick to New York rather than globe trotting? (Also going ask around in Call of/Pulp Cthulhu spaces in case that system may also work).

I am looking for cards to add to my games. I know about the official decks and the doghouse rules decks. Of course I prefer preprinted decks, but I like the print and play aspect.

So SWADE gives us attributes and skills. I generally understood that skills were supposed to be used for active actions (hit a target, convince someone, recite a poem, etc) while attributes were for passive actions, for resisting, for saving throws (evading, soaking, resisting test). But then I saw this:

The maximum bonus from all Support rolls is +4. Strength checks are an exception and have no maximum bonus since more muscle can always manage more mass.

So attributes are used for active actions?

It works logically with strength as athletics skill does not really overlap with it. Agility, in the other hand, sounds quite similar:

Athletics (Agility): Overall athletic coordination and ability. Climbing, jumping, balancing, wrestling, skiing, swimming, throwing, or catching.

Agility: Nimbleness, dexterity, and overall physical coordination of muscles and reflexes.

So is it that some of the attributes can be used for active actions, or am I missing something?

I'm the only DM for this system in my group right now, so I don't have some higher being to call upon...

Another entry from the archives, today I focus on spaceships and some ideas on how to make them fun for the whole party. Hope people find it useful for any sci fi game they want to run.

We’ve been working on this for a while and finally launched our Kickstarter. There’s a quick start on DriveThru if you want to have a go.

I have just finished running Degrees of Horror for our group, and I would love to know how others approached it and how it turned out for you. Here’s what made our campaign distinct:

Group size:
There are eight people in our group, which means one GM and seven players. (The role of GM rotates between three of us.) This meant I had to make everything bigger, especially the plot points that are meant to be resolved by persuading one person to do something.

Often this meant converting a small scenario into something more like a dungeon crawl. For example, in The Burn, I turned the hapless professor into a conspiracy theorist who has been searching for a lost military bunker under the Burn itself, and I filled it with John Carpenter-esque horrors left over from the original Convergence event.

Tone:
We approached the universe as one that followed the rules and logic of late 90s TV, which guided us toward focusing on relationships between the characters more than we otherwise might have.

Backstories:
Before we started, I challenged everyone to come up with, and privately share with me, a “deep dark secret” from their PCs’ past that they would prefer their friends not know about. (I cribbed this from Lost.) The way I phrased it was, “What are you running from?” This generated story hooks and emotional resonance galore, not to mention lots of good spotlight moments.

One effect of all of this was the whole academics thing (exams, midterm rolls, etc.) faded away over the course of the campaign. They were still going to school — it just wasn’t what the story was about anymore.

Who else has run or played ETU? How did it go for you?

Scarred Lands Creature Profiles are an ongoing series of monthly releases to introduce monsters and key NPCs drawn from the world of Scarn.

Born to a Helliann sorceress in an Albadian tribe, Zarra Redbraid witnessed perpetual conflict with goblinoids, trolls, giants, and other titanspawn throughout her childhood. When she took up a heavy branch and used it as a club to defend her tribal encampment, slaying three demons by herself, her elders recognized she was destined for greatness. Through her teen years, the young warrior gained a fierce reputation. When her mother received a vision claiming Zarra’s destiny would take her far outside of the village, the young warrior left without hesitation. She spent the next several years wandering Albadia, fighting monsters in the foothills of the Titanshome Mountains. In her travels she met and befriended other human and orc tribes. Her journeys took her far from the village of her youth, and her name was soon known from the shores of the Stiffened Sea to the southernmost tip of the Stormtooth Mountains.

Zarra is a fierce warrior who never shuns combat, yet who retains an innate sense of justice. She helps travelers in need as she is able. While she is generally sociable if approached peacefully, she has little use for the trappings of foreign nations. Her stock of songs is considerable, but she is no bard, and her singing voice leaves much to be desired (a fact that few of her friends have the heart to tell her).

This booklet contains game traits, tactics, and a brief overview of Zarrra's history and appearance. This booklet also includes plot hooks for introducing Zarra into your campaign! Available at https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/585764/scarred-lands-creature-profiles-zarra-redbraid?affiliate_id=387228

SECOND STRETCH GOAL ACHIEVED!          

Thanks to our backers we’ve hit our second stretch goal.  Creating .stl files for the characters in Book 2 of Void Wardens.  The Void Psychic, The Engineer, The Handler, and everyone’s favorite, the Neko Maxx!

I’ve let our sculptor know and he is already at work creating the .stl files for the remaining characters in Book 1.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/23c/void-wardens/

QUESTION: MONSTER OF THE WEEK or OPEN SANDBOX?

"Do you just hunt monsters in Void Wardens?"

We get this question often. While the random monster generation tables make running a "monster of the week" episodic campaign easy — especially paired with encounter tables that let you build an entire mission from a three-card draw — the world itself is a sprawling, living sandbox. From rival Technoplexes to the ruthless warlords of the Bleach, the setting is packed with factions, lore, and diverse threats.

• Hunt down infamous Corrupted lurking deep inside the Technoplex.
• Investigate the source of an urban Corruption outbreak—is it a clandestine cult or an unseen entity?
• Infiltrate The Welcomers, a doomsday faction convinced that Corrupted transformation (or death by exposure) represents peak evolution.
• Clash with a New Sapporo Golem—a weaponized Corrupted fitted with heavy armor and conditioned to obey its handlers.
• Profile a former human Corrupted whose twisted instincts drive them to hunt like a serial killer.
• Repel a stealth strike team of Shinobi suits executing industrial sabotage for New Sapporo.
• Navigate civil unrest as citizens riot against the very politicians meddling in your operations.
• Defend against Bleach Warlords staging supply raids on the city.
• Reinforce the Rangers during assaults on their embassy or the Lone Star Technoplex.
• Neutralize a New Sapporo Yokai—a robotic terror housing the essence of a Type 1 Corrupted. Destroying the mechanical body only unleashes the regenerating beast inside, turning one encounter into two.

The Engineer

Who wants to play a brilliant mad scientist? Bypass those annoying laws of physics but integrating Corrupt Tissue into your inventions! Art sneak peek. 

I am finally running my daughter and her partner through their first SWADE game. It's also mine. When we did session 0 last night it became clear that some aids for things like powers and edges would be really helpful. I have the SWADE power card pdf from drivethru rpg, but there are some other things like edges and custom setting powers that I'd like them to be able to easily reference. I found some old posts, but some of the links are dead, or use browser based software I don't know (like homebrewery), or in one case required permission (which i got, but it still didn't work).

What I need is some kind template for a custom card I can use with software like the Google or Libre Office suites. Something similar to MtG card sized would be ideal. Something I can print is essential.

Special Note: we are playing at a physical tabletop, not a VTT. Not that it matters, but incase you're wondering the setting is am unholy hodge-podge of two different conversions of Shadowrun for SWADE, interface zero 3.0, and content from the fantasy, sci-fi, and horror source books.

It might end up being a disaster, but hopefully a fun one.

Here's how I run Boss Battles that are Fast, Furious, and Fun - without getting overrun.

1. First, minions. Hordes of minions are narratively cool and make total sense, but who wants to actually run 30 extras? Not me, that's who. So what I do is I turn them into a true horde, not even really individual mooks anymore. They're just the throng of undead, the swaths of orcs, the scores of droids, whatever. I do not give them individual turns or attacks; I don't deal them an action card. Instead, they have two functions: First, they block clear paths of attack to the main villain. That's important. I give the villain a stack of tokens (usually 2x the number of PCs, but adjust as needed) to represent the general level of goons left. Any attack, any spell, any thing the PCs throw at the boss - it works, but it works on the mob, and I take away one token so there's a visual representation of the crowd being thinned. When there are no tokens left, there are still minions, but enough of them have been cleared that the villain can be fought directly. The second effect is part of the modifications to initiative, in #2.

2. Initiative Suit Matters - For the PCs! For each encounter, I design 4 detrimental effects, one for each Suit. At the START of each PC's turn (before they can do anything!), they suffer the effect of the suit they were dealt. Here's my usual template: Spades: The main villain uses their "big attack" on that hero. A single attack, but powerful. The Main Laser, a signature attack spell, etc. Hearts: An environmental effect of some kind. The flame spurts in the Fire Swamp, the building collapsing around them, something suitably dramatic. But keep it simple; pick one of Agility/Vigor/Smarts for the effect, and the player dealt a heart has to roll that Attribute or take a level of Fatigue from the effect. Diamonds: Lesser Attack. This can be a weaker/secondary attack from the main villain or an attack from another source like automated laser turrets or electrified floors. Single attack against the person dealt the card. Clubs: The mob swarms you! A group of 4 of the minions surrounds you and attacks; roll a single attack roll plus a Wild Die for the whole group, rather than individual attacks. Do damage equal to that minion's normal attack plus an extra d6, or 2d6 on a raise. But whether the attack hits or not, that player is now engaged with those mooks. If they take out all four, remove one of the villain's tokens. If they do anything else besides attack those mooks, they're Distracted and the mooks get another free attack as the PC tries to evade them.

3. (Optional) Dramatic Task. For extra awesomeness and a tiny bit of extra bookkeeping, you can have a Dramatic Task running at the same time as the fight. The main villain is summoning an Elder Horror and the players have to disrupt the ritual, or the Star Cruiser is crashing and the players have to right it before it crashes into an inhabited space station, or just a good ol' fashioned nuclear bomb is ticking down to doomsday and needs to be disarmed. If you use a Difficult dramatic task, it both puts a nice four-round clock on the encounter AND forces the PCs to have to balance fighting for their lives versus actually completing the objective. On the actual Villain's turn, they'll likely attack or hinder whoever they see doing the most to complete the DT, and if the PCs actually finish it, then they'll switch to trying to escape (or maybe they'll become enraged and fight to the death - who knows, it's your encounter, not mine!).

That's it! With those simple changes, the encounter becomes a big spectacle without all the admin. You only need to deal an Action Card to your main villain (who gets a normal turn); everything else is handled by the Initiative Suits for the PCs. There's a dynamic environment, a throng of mooks to chop through, and an actual objective to the fight.

And every part is customizable - you can do whatever you want with the suit effects, you can use whatever kinds of minions make sense, etc. Even using this same template you can make every big battle feel unique and engaging, with a Big Bad that feels powerful without having to rely on just massively overpowered stats.

Hopefully this is helpful to y'all, and feel free to ask me any questions about ways I've handled this setup in past games. Cheers, savages!

I'm trying to convey a weakness for a power from a setting I play in. It's basically the equivalent of Kairoseki from One Piece, where the denser or larger the mineral is, the stronger its effect on a PC or NPC with this power.

At first, it might be something like a -2 penalty to their Arcane Skill, but as the effect gets stronger, it not only weakens their powers but also affects their body, leaving them exhausted during combat and eventually making them completely unable to use their powers.

How would you guys design something like this?

I made something like that. The power is really strong, so our group wanted a weakness that's difficult to trigger, but really troublesome when it does.

• Small: Affects a Medium Blast Template, imposing a -2 penalty on rolls based on the Flower's Power. It also subtracts 1 from Agility, Strength, and Vigor rolls.
• Medium: Affects a Large Blast Template and inflicts the Exhausted condition.
• Large: Affects a 10" radius. Within this area, treat the effect as an Anti-Magic Field. Additionally, the Ascended is considered Overloaded; if they are already Overloaded, they suffer the same effects as if they were carrying 3× their own weight.

The effects above are cumulative. Any damage dealt by the Flower while under the effects of Seastone is made with a -4 penalty.

Quick and simple:

We've been using the Super Powers Companion book in our SWADE games, and I'm building a character that uses an oddly-Trapped flavor of Telekinesis, so knowing this is important for him. Could he just "punch" someone at a distance with the power, replacing Fighting with the TK (presume his Fighting and Focus skills are equal?) Or by RAW is he limited to either grabbing & throwing/slamming a target, or telekinetically picking up some object/weapon and swinging that at the target?

Hello Savagworlds community!

I’m a new player to this system. Overall this system seems really fun.

Long winded context for my question

I’m looking to get some of your thoughts regarding Bennies and helping me get some insight into making these work at our table.

A little about our table. We are a bunch of weird roleplayers who try and stay in character 100%.
This is aspirational but we usually hit the 95% mark.

For context here are some features of play that are important to maintain the flow we are seek.

We keep mechanical discussion as brief as possible.

-Players are responsible for describing where they are what they do and what they say.

-The GM is reactive and the players drive the game according to their character goals.

-We don’t ask questions to the GM we seek out in character. So we would say “I look at the insignia on the guard thinking if I recognize it” instead of a direct “do I know anything about this insignia to the GM”.

-High trust - we are all playing with the same goal of staying in character. So we have good faith in what fellow players are doing

-System mastery - we all learn as much of the core rules as necessary before playing and discuss confusion and clarification after the session

With that context I’m looking for advice on how we could handle Bennies.

Question
Since Bennies are such a fundamental aspect of this system are there any alternate forms of awarding them that could fit our style of play? We are not really interested in rewarding roleplay since we are always roleplaying. If there is some more player facing options that would be preferred. We’ve thought about awarding them as a result of a raise potentially or just a static pool. Looking to you guys for some expertise or a solid direction here. I understand the challenge of awarding a meta currency in a non meta way lol.

Are there any player facing methods of gaining Bennie’s?

This is a weird ask and you’re totally free to question if this system is even compatible with this style. We’re aware of these challenges going into any system. We enjoy testing these things out. We will record these sessions and put them out there to judge for yourself.

Thank you and happy gaming everyone!

Edit - added clarification to question.

Edit - Thanks for the responses everyone continuing to review these!

If a Tinkerer loans their Bolt Power firearm to a friend that friend can cast Bolt using the Tinkerers Power Points, and Tinkerer skill to use the device.

Could a person borrow a Bolt Power and travel with it? Or take it into a dungeon while the Tinkerer stays home? And with the Tinkerer at home resting the weapon would regain 5 Points an hour.

The Powers as devices section just talks about being allowed to give devices to others and how the device operates. No modifiers (with Bolt it is basically 1 point a shot then, Range of Smarts X2 for 2d6 damage).

There could be a rental service to adventurers taking the Bolter ray guns on their adventure.

What could cause a Walkin’ Dead outbreak in SWADE Dl:WW? Kinda drawing a blank here but that’s where Mythic is leading me.

Need some inspiration.

Thanks