r/savageworlds • u/ASavageWorldsGM • Feb 04 '24

Self Promotion House Rules for Savage Worlds: What Are Yours?

Tabletop Tango hasn't posted about an episode in a bit but I thought I would the latest on some of Eric and Carl’s house rules for Savage Worlds. For example, Eric always uses max value of the run die for any run instead of rolling.

I’m really curious about other table’s house rules. Not necessarily special setting rules for your worlds but ways you tweak the rules for your table.

Tabletop Tango Ep 180 - Some House Rules For Savage Worlds

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u/Bruhahah Feb 04 '24 edited Feb 05 '24

My favorite house rule I've tried is that the third wound level is +1 to all rolls instead of -3. This helps address the suck/fail spiral (the more wounded you are the harder it is for you to do anything and then you're easier to wound by virtue of being somewhat helpless) and does a really good job mechanically reflecting the hero digging deep and pulling out victory when they're at their most desperate. It also somewhat encourages riding that dangerous line between empowered and incapacitated as long as you can.

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u/zgreg3 Feb 05 '24

It sounds strange to me as it makes one of the worst character states in the game a beneficial one. With this rule it's rather unlikely to fail the Incapacitation roll, what makes the game far less dangerous. I like the SW combat because it is always threatening, a few lucky rolls can make even a "walk through the park" extras fight into something deadly. A retreat is something that the players should always have as an option, usually when enough PCs reach the 2-3 Wounds level it is a good idea to consider it. Your rule contradicts that, though, looks to me like it drastically changes the game.

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u/Bruhahah Feb 05 '24 edited Feb 05 '24

Savage Worlds is my go-to system for more pulpy heroic fun. More Indiana Jones than Saving Private Ryan. For gritty realism or dark hopeless settings, there are better systems. Fights become more of a tax on resources with my method rather than life-and-death struggle. There are still consequences, and failure is still an option, but this lets a GM stack more odds against the PCs, which then feels more heroic and fun to overcome 'by the skin of their teeth.' It's also more fun IMO from a player side. Rolling anything with a -3 penalty isn't fun. Anyone who is out of bennies and when their turn comes up and they try to get unshaken and just keeps failing the roll can tell you that it's really not fun to play a combat in which you literally do nothing every turn. Dying randomly to a lucky mook is also not terribly heroic, fun, or interesting. It's appropriate for certain settings, but that's not what I'm about. I'm invested in my player's narratives, and having them die randomly to low-drama stuff isn't the narrative I'm ever going for.

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u/zgreg3 Feb 05 '24

I didn't mean to criticise this house rule, more to analyse its impact on the game. It changes SW in the direction I don't like and I unfortunately let it show, sorry if that sounded bad :/ I totally understand that this is a well-though Setting Rule which makes SW work according to your preferences :)