Palladium Combat in a nutshell

In my Palladium rules rant post I gave a very simple rundown of combat. I got a few messages about it asking me to expand it to make a resource for new players.


Palladium Combat Cheat Sheet :
I find Palladium armor rules to be simple and elegant. When dealing with SDC armor:
Roll less than 5 you miss. roll less that AR, armor takes the damage to its SDC. Roll over AR, then the character takes the damage. Damage either goes to armor or character SDC, after character SDC is depleted damage goes to hit points. That is all there is to SDC combat.


Natural SDC armor is like worn SDC armor, but simpler. Rolls below 5 are a miss, rolls below its AR hit but do no damage. Rolls above AR do damage to SDC of the character.


Maga Damage is even simpler, all damage from a successful hit roll goes to armor first, only after all MDC is depleted does a character take any damage.
SDC weapons can't hurt MDC  objects. MD weapons do 100 damage per point of damage (x100) rolled to SDC objects.


Targets of an attack (defender) can use an action to make defensive actions. Defensive rolls try to beat the attack roll. Highest wins with defender winning on a tie.

Beyond the Supernatural, Magic

Been looking closer at Beyond the Supernatural. I know a lot of people howl about BtS being woefully incomplete because of the lack of magic. I guess if all I owned was the BtS core I might be a bit more concerned.
But, since I own 35+ Palladium books I think I can make it work just fine. Looking through Palladium fantasy there is so many great ways to use magic. Wards, Runes, magic wards, and summoning circles. If you think about the show Supernatural, Constantine, or most urban fantasy/horror this all fits in really well.
As far as spell casting is concerned I find a lot of the basic wizard spells to be just fine for a modern setting. Yes there are some spells I would eliminate, but most are not so out of place to me. There are at least a few from specialty lists I would allow as well. If I wanted an even simpler solution I could just use the magic and spells from the magic system from Heroes Unlimited.
Magic in my games will be a tool of the common person. While psychics are an inborn "gift", Magic is a learned skill. Both the Ordinary people p.c.c. and Parapsychologist p.c.c. will have access to magic.
In my opinion the Parapsychologist is the closest to a "Wizard" class as BtS should have. Magic can and is often best as a plot device. Pouring over dusty old books, looking for that one spell to deal with the unspeakable horror.

Savage Worlds RPG, Why I Dig it Part 4.

What do I think is the #1 best thing about Savage Worlds?


While I find Savage Worlds to be a indeed "Fun, Fast, and Furious". And a great many of it's bits and pieces are outright fun and combined make for a great game experience.


I'm sure everyone has had experiences with Savage worlds zealots, your on some message board and some guy just will not shut up about how Savage Worlds can do this or that better, faster, and do it while running backwards. This is often new players who just learned about the system and almost cant help themselves. When you ask them what is the best thing about Savage Worlds you get the Fun, Fast, Furious line and some of the things I posted in part 1 & 2.


But for me the absolute best thing about Savage Worlds is its AMAZING community. I have found that across the board its what a gaming community should look like. If you look on Facebook, G+ communities, and PEGs own message boards you will find some of the most friendly and helpful people. Savage Worlds has great writers, designers, Licensees, Game masters, and Players who support and encourage each other. Its something that needs to be witnessed for yourself.

Savage Worlds RPG, Why I Dig it Part 3

Exploding Die: Most die rolls explode, if you roll max on a die (6 on a d6) you roll the die again and add it. This makes your heroes truly feel heroic when they make that "should be impossible" roll. This is another rule that makes Savage Worlds feel heroic and fun.


Raises: A raise is when you do better than just succeed. Not just did you shoot the card, you hit the center of the Ace of spades. Raises are both a great meter for mechanical success, Its also a great story telling tool. How I describe the scene can have a lot to do with how well the players did something (or how badly the did at it) with skills or attributes. This is a big deal to me as a GM, Seems to often its easy to get into a success or failure train of thought. Mix Raises and the Exploding die rule above it can lead to some very momentous moments.


Characters: The way characters are made and fleshed out in savage worlds is great in my opinion, Die are allocated to ability scores and skills and additional traits like edges and hindrances (advantages and disadvantages) are picked out (and balanced) to flesh out your character. As a point buy system (minus the points) it can be quick and easy or as arduous as you make it. Although over all I find it very quick, its even quicker once players become familiar with the system. I've seen criticism that "all Savage worlds character look the same". I will say a big no on that, But I kind of understand where its coming from, kind of.


My brothers characters almost always have Ambidexterity and Two fisted. That is because my brother almost always plays the same type of character, which in general is a two weapon wielding combat guy. For that kind of character those are two very good things to have if not necessary to pull it off properly. That's not the systems fault, that's my brothers taste in characters. If you have a type that you prefer you will find some options are more beneficial to that type of character. The choices available at character creation are many.


All I got time for, see you in part 4. If there is one......

Savage Worlds RPG, Why I Dig it Part 2.

In this part 2 of my love letter (or so it part 1 was called by a friend of mine) to Savage worlds. I'm going to cover a lot of ground fast. There are a lot of small things about Savage Worlds that make it so much fun. Small things add up. Part 2 is going to be in a totally different format that one was (and if I do a 3, I'm sure they will be as well).




Players as the Heroes: In any good work of heroic fiction the protagonist is not the common guy on the street, but is instead something special. In savage Worlds this is very true. Player characters and special key NPCs (both allies and enemies) are wild cards. While every one else is mooks/goons. In most any given roll wild cards roll an additional die (wild die) and pick the best of the two. While mooks only get their attribute or skill die. Wild cards have more wounds while mooks take one on the chin or the gut and they go down. My players love to wade through waves of mooks, just to have that epic battle with the wild card "boss". This rule really does give most savage worlds game feel heroic. Settings can still have gritty or less heroic rules, but your character is always a cut above.




Cards for Initiative: This is an aspect that really speeds up play, each player and wild card enemy get dealt a card from a standard deck of cards. Mooks often get a card for a group. Characters act in descending order of the cards, Starting at Ace and working your way to duce. No forgetting who is next, not confusion over who acted already. And jokers are kept in as fun little kickers. This works so well I've adopted it as my default for initiative for other games. Its also a very hackable initiative system for us tinkers.

Savage Worlds RPG, Why I Dig it Part 1.

I think by now most everyone knows I love the Savage Worlds system. The web is full of people singing its praises or blaming it for the downfall of modern society. I'm not trying to sell the system to any one, Just pointing out why I like it. Maybe it will be useful to others, maybe it will not.



Everyone is familiar with Savage Worlds reputation for being Furious, Fast, Fun. Its Savage Worlds tag line and number one sales pitch. But I think there is more to love than just that.



One of the things I think is great about Savage Worlds in also something others have voiced their dislike. Savage Worlds at its heart (Combat system) is a miniatures game. Now before I get torn apart by savage worlds ROLEplay fans, let me disclaimer. No, you don't HAVE to use minis when playing Savage Worlds, they are 100% optional. I ran Savage Worlds for (5 straight) years and never once used miniatures.There is plenty of rules in Savage Worlds that encourages roleplaying and character immersion.



That all being said, Savage worlds combat system is listed in inches. Weapon ranges, movement, & spell ranges all in inches. There is even a set of rules called Showdown with army builder rules to play a strictly miniatures game using Savage worlds. Some settings just beg to be run tactically, Necropolis for example, I want to run a game of Necropolis as a war-gaming campaign.

Its very easy to choose and adjust the part miniatures will play in your game. You could use no miniatures at all, just multiple each inch by two yards. Or use minis just for complicated combats to show general location but otherwise use yards.You can even run all combat tactical taking full advantage of the rules in inches. Or any combination in between.

A (new) blog is born

I've decided to start a second blog. Gaming Ronin will continue as it has. Expect more of everything in the future.
I'm starting a Strands of Reality blog. This will be just for the Cypher system.
There might be some double posting in the future but not much.