Savage World of Solomon Kane: Just Found It

[Suteinu]

So I've just discovered the SW system, by way of Solomon Kane, and I have a couple of questions:

1- The dice system. Is it roll Trait + Skill & total (alt. 1d6), or roll Trait, Skill, and 1d6 and take the highest of these?

2- I haven't found anything on Languages. Are they a skill, an Advantage, or what?

[Black Jester]

You roll either your skill die or you trait die; Wildcard characters (like all PCs) also roll an additional d6. Only the highest die counts. So if you have Fighting d8 and you are a wild card, you roll both a d8 and your d6 and the higher of the two die counts.

Languages are knowledge skills, whereby you are supposed to know your native tongue perfectly and leanr each other one as a new skill. There is an optional rule that you automatically knows a number of additional languages equal to half your Smarts die maximum. So, if you have Smarts d6, you know 3 additional languages. I have no idea however, if this is an implied setting rule for Solomon Kane.

[Suteinu]

Thanks, BJ! I think I'll use that alternate rule for languages, with the caveat that the Jack-Of-All-Trades Edge or a Knowledge: Linguistics can let one roll to get the gist of a language with which one is unfamiliar (add modifiers to flavor).

I've been trying to convert a couple of 7th Sea characters to this system, the first being a Cast- ahem, Spanish swordsman based on the character of Alvar from the Russian movie, 1612. BTW, if you love Diestros, watch this film! Alvar is the best part, though, like Mercucio, he dies way too soon ... Anyway, I could never get past how ridiculously some of the Swordsman Schools styles
were described. Savage Worlds seems a happy and still theatrical compromise. I'm enjoying learning about it and looking forward to running it as as suprise session for my friends.

While I've got you here, any tips on running this system, things for which to look out, etc.?

[Black Jester]

Well, if you are interested in swashbuckling pirate action, the Pirates of the Spanish Main RPG (also based on SW) should be a good idea. If I remember correctly, it has a few extra edges for swordfighting and fencing.

One thing that requires a bit off thought when it comes to running SW is the frequency with which you hand out bennies and for what reason. That is a very elemental task because more often than not, the players will eventually need their bennies to stay alive and do important things, but it requires a bit of trial and error. Oh, and make sure that the extra bennies from the luck edges do not count for extra experience or they will be utterly unbalancing. likewise accumulating high Charisma bonuses will break the game. Any chracter with Charisma 4 or more is a nuisance and will easily become a problem because of that. Keep that in mind. The balancing in SW is already pretty mediocre; it is not that difficult to break the game, especially if magic or other supernatural powers are used by the book. So you have to actively balance the game and playing it by the book is not recommendable. And similar to D&D, the game works best if you use a combat mat and minis or something like that; otherwise if you want to play to SW's strengths, make sure that your players have their minions to command; the greatest strength of SW is that it handles skirmishes with more than a dozen participants reasonably well (which shows its strategy board game roots) and using this is a good idea, because that's where the system can shine.

The math for the various dice rolls is a bit odd from time to time and there are actually rare rolls where a lower die is actually beneficial due to the way exploding dices work. It is not much of a problem, but it exists.

[Suteinu]

Invaluable. Thanks, dude.

Oh, cute pooch, by the way. Beagle?

[Black Jester]

Beagle-Cocker Mix, actually.


Funny thing is, I don't like Savage Worlds all that much. Don't get me wrong - it is a good game, but after a while the constant self-praise and bragging in the core book got on my nerves and I started to lose my initial sympathy for the game relatively quick.
However, to be fair, it is not a bad game, and most of the issues are not that bad. If you don't try to force the system to do something it is not designed to like, for instance, trying to use it for a gritty, high realismor otherwise 'serious' campaign or anything that requires complex character drama or lots of social situations (thanks to the broken charisma system) or try to shoehorn any genre in (like the truly bad Earthdawn conversion) it works rather well, as long as you stay true to its pulpy action movie strengths.

The core story of any Savage World game is basically a fistfight between a rugged hero and a Cyborg-Gorilla on top of a Nazi airship. The scenery might change (it is not an airship, it is a Roman Galley), the antagonists might change (it's not a Gorilla, it's a Velociraptor! A Cyber-Velociraptor!) and it might not even included nazis to beat up, but the game is at its best if you keep the pacing high and the situations and plots outrageous, the game works fine