Dan Paton

Savage Worlds - Starter Guide

By Dan on 18 Sept 2024

There are many reason I keep coming back to Savage Worlds as a storyteller. To me other systems do well in there area but Savage Worlds is the only system that can do well in any area, any setting and most genres. It's this flexibility that pulls me to it!

When I host groups, where crossing setting bounds is likely I try to find a system and stick with it. I don't see the point of having to relearn and convert characters each time I want to tell another story, it's messy and players get confused. Instead, I like having one simple system that covers everything and lets me as a storyteller adapt and add features as needed. Only two other systems fill this need; Fate and it's spin-off systems, and Index Card RPG. Both have merit but some of the systems and rules don't sit well with me.

What is Savage Worlds?

Savage Worlds at it's core is a rules light, setting agnostic tool set disguised as a rule system, just the same as Fate is. The major differences being that while fate focuses on narrative and being as light as possible Savage Worlds trys to lean more in to fast action pulp-like action by using more rules to work as a support frame.

The system is not a D20 system but uses a Dice Chain system, almost similar to how Dungeon Crawl Classics and their sister systems work. Weather it be a Skill or Attribute your level in it is represented by the size of the dice used when rolling, D4 through to a D12, with a four always being a success!

In most cases the success rate is very high so the game master has to apply modifiers to the dice roll when challenges are needed based on the situation. The game master will be adding situational boons and banes to your tests in sets of +2 or -2.

Fargrin the evil wizard just snuffed out the lights in his lair when the party arrived, plunging the dank cave into darkness. The only sound other than the dripping walls is his sharp evil cackling.

Burteas, tiered of this hunt charges towards the sound, swinging his massive broadsword like a madman and makes an attack roll.

Burteas' strength is a d10, it's dark so -4, but he's wildly attacking? +2. He rolls a 6+2, a hit!

The sword cut's into Fargrin as he attempted to hide behind the bookshelf and screams as the blade is withdrawn!

A test is the same in every situation, player describes an action the game master tells them what skill or attribute to use and defines the situational modifiers and everything else is built up off that. I feel like the best way to understand the rules of any system is to look at a character sheet and learn how characters are made. The following is just that!

Attributes, Skills and Stats

All characters, monsters and NPCs are the same. No reason to make anyone different when the core works. First we have our Attributes:

Agility. The character's swiftness, dexterity, and guile.
Smarts. The character's mental agility, how well they understand the world around them.
Spirit. A reflection of the character's inner wisdom and willpower.
Strength. The physical power of a character's and their general fitness.
Vigour. A representation of a character's endurance and resistance.

At the start each one is set at a D4 and can be increased by the characters heritage, edges, and through their points during character creation.

A fresh novice character has Five Attribute Points to spend, each point spent increases the die up to the next size. However, an attribute cannot go above a D12!

Skills

Next we take a step down into the characters skills. They work much the same way but only now you can also make a skill! Even if it's not in the book if the game master approves you can add it to your character!

All characters start with the same core skills at D4:

Athletics. How quick and physically fit the character is.
Common Knowledge. A representation on how well informed or educated the character is.
Notice. The characters general awareness and perception.
Persuasion. How charismatic the character is and their ability to change someone's point of view.
Stealth. Representation on how stealthy the character is and their ability to hide.

There are also some special skills:

Shoot. Your main ranged combat skill, unlike Fight it won't influence any stats, but you still don't start with it.
Fight. This is your main melee combat skill, characters don't start with it, but it directly influences some of your stats.
Unskilled. This is what we use when you try to do a test that the character has no skill in. An unskilled attempt is always D4-2 meaning its always going to fail unless the dice explodes, or you have some good modifiers!

Skills can be gained through special background edges, the characters heritage or by spending skill points. By default, a novice character has Fifteen Skill Points to spend. It costs one point to add a skill at D4 then one point to improve the die size. However, all skills link to an attribute, when an if a skill is raised to the same level as the Attribute the cost of the skill doubles!

Stats

The last major part of the character, stats are the derived numbers taking in skills, attributes and even gear. There are six key stats:

Pace. This is the characters move speed per round. It's abstract so if you have a six you move six hexes, grid squares or whatever the table uses. For a theater of the mind group a pace of six would be one zone, or for the 5E lot 30ft. Pace is six by standard but could be changed by your edges or heritage.

Running. This is a die, it's used when you take the run action. Roll the run die and add the result to your pace. By standard the run die is a D6, but it can also be changed by your heritage or edges.

Parry. This value is equivalent to your armour class in 5E, it's what an attacker needs to roll to hit you. Parry is: two added to the equipped armour then add ½ the max value of your Fight Skill, if you don't have fight then parry is two added to your armour.

Toughness. This is how much damage an attacker needs to deal to you in order for your character to be shaken or take a wound. Toughness is: two added to the equipped armour then add ½ the max value of your Vigour.

Size. This is how large your character is, a size zero is normal for a human sized character. The size can be changed through heritage or edges.

Heritage

A characters heritage is their race or culture background, it's a way to combine your character into the world. A heritage could provide a set of boons and/or banes to fit that group. For most groups the game master will send a list of accepted heritages but players could, with approve, also make their own! The rules to do so are too complex for this intro, but you can look at this article for more, or check out my own heritage list for the Avalon World here!

As a rule of thumb if you are playing with heritages make sure you apply the boons and banes before spending any points or adding edges!

Edges & Hindrances

In the last section you seen the word Edge is places. An Edge is similar to a feat in 5E or a special ability that a character has access to but, gaining an edge has a trade-off, you can't have an edge without taking a Hindrance as well.

Hindrances

A hindrance is like a bane or issue your character has, it could be that a specific group hates you, or that you are loyal or have a creepy patron sending you on mission. It's not just roleplay completions too some have mechanical setbacks to such as Bad Eyes that puts a -2 to all notice test needing sight.

Hindrances are split into two groups, Minor and Major; a minor one is likely just a roleplay constraint or has little to no mechanical affects and is only worth one point. A major hindrance will always have a mechanical affect but is worth two points!

Edges

Edges like mentioned prior are special abilities that help build out your character and give them a tool set to use in play. Each edge costs two points, the points gained by taking hindrances! You can get any Edge as long as you have all the prerequisites of that edge, normally in the form of skill or attribute scores.

There are some, unique, edges. They are called backgrounds and while you take them the same way as normal you may only pick them during character creation! Backgrounds are a bit stronger than your standard edge and unlock whole new mechanics like spellcasting or superpowers!

Gear and Money

The last bit you need to know before getting started is gear and money! Money in Savage World is tracked in dollars, there are no minor denominations, just a flat value. A new character usually starts with $500 to spend on their starter gear but that's really not a lot, enough to get a single weapon and armour set and that's about it.

As Savage Worlds crosses multi-setting and many eras the economics can be a bit odd but here is my simple way to price things with this setting, Inspired by Knave 2E!

Melee Weapons

Light Melee Weapon. $50, weight 1, deals D4 + Strength or Agility damage.
Medium Melee Weapon. $150, weight 5, deals D6 + Strength or Agility damage.
Heavy Melee Weapon. $300, weight 12, deals D8 + Strength or Agility damage.

Melee weapons always add an attribute to the damage and can be improved by adding modifier to reach, parry, damage and armour piercing. Each improvement of +1 would add around $100 to the value.

Ranged Weapons

Light Ranged Weapon. $75, weight 2, range 4/8/16, deals D4 + Strength or Agility damage.
Medium Ranged Weapon. $200, weight 4, range 12/24/48, deals 2D6.
Heavy Ranged Weapon. $500, weight 10, range 15/30/60, deals 2D8.

Ranged weapons don't always apply attribute to the damage particularly in the case of mechanical weapons or firearms but their base damage is often much higher. Like with melee weapons ranged weapons could also be improved through Rate of Fire and damage modification.

Ammo for ranged weapons costs around $1 each shot.

Armour

Light Armour. $75, +1 Armour, Weight 15.
Medium Armour. $300, +2 Armour, Weight 25.
Heavy Armour. $450, +3 Armour, Weight 30.
Helm. $50, +2 Armour on called shots to head, Weight 5.
Shield. $50, +1 Parry, +2 Armour on ranged attacks, Weight 8.

Gear

I brake gear up into it's rarity and where you could buy it at market.

Basic. $2
Common, Found in a village. $15 to $50
Uncommon, Found in a Town. $50 to $150
Rare, Found in a City. $150 to $500
Special. $1,000+

Another way to manage the economy is to just look at real world costs of items and use that!

That should be everything

After reading that you should have the basic grasp of the system and be able to start playing. But maybe you want more, so let's go over some of the common rules too.

Getting Stuff Done

Every action that has a chance to fail is called a test, this is when the dice start rolling! Describe an action, pick a skill or attribute and set modifier and roll! And finally, a result of four or more is a success.

On a success count how many multiples of four the result is above the initial value. Each one is called a raise and has some special affects; see this as a "Yes, and..." situation.

Exploding Dice

When you roll the max result on a die, roll another die of that size and add it to the total result! This is called exploding and if an exploded die rolls max guess what? It explodes again!

Wild Die

Player characters and important NPCs are called wild cards, this is how critical characters are marked within the world. This means whenever they roll a test toy also roll a D6 alongside it, the wild die! But we don't add it you only take the highest result. Yes, the wild die can explode too!

Combat & Conditions

When the swords are swinging or the guns are blastin' we look at the combat rules! Combat is managed in rounds and turns, each round is long enough for everyone to act, and a turn is the split second decisive action a character takes.

Turn Order

In Savage Worlds the turn order is set each round. When the round starts all players a dealt a card, a higher value means you get your turn sooner! Some edges let characters draw two cards and pick the one they want, some monsters get to draw twice and take a turn on each one! At the end of each round the cards a put in a discard pile, if there are no cards left the deck is reset.

One unique rule with Savage Worlds is the joker card. When a character gets the joker card they act whenever they want! Even in the middle of someone else's turn! Another unique rule comes in the form of an action, the hold action. During your turn you may, before you move or do anything, hold your turn. You now move at the end of the turn order or whenever you want.

Vehicles have a slight modifcation on the turn order, instead only the driver or pilot draws a card once they have acted everyone else in that vehicles acts as one. The driver must take their actions first every round!

Shaken, Wounds and Death

During fights, you want to hit the bad guy and avoid getting hit! When anyone makes an attack test they roll their combat ability Vs the targets Parry score. If the attacker rolls equal to or above it's a hit, and they get to roll damage!

Damage is a bit different to other systems, you don't have HP, you have Wounds. After a hit the attacker rolls the damage dice listed under the weapon or attacks details. This is where the Toughness stat comes into play, if the result is equal to or above then the target takes the shaken condition or a wound. If the result is a raise then treat it as another hit after the initial. So yes it's possible to gain a shaken condition and multiple wounds in one strike!

Each wound is an injury and applies a flat -1 per wound until healed. Once you take three wounds your character starts dying! But theirs a catch! You can't take a wound unless you have the shaken condition! This is a condition you get once you take damage, it showcases the stress and fear of battle. When you have the shaken action you can't take any action that needs a test, but you get to take the recover acton for free at the start of your turn. The recover action is like a save, it's your spirit Vs a target of four. if you roll equal to or above the shaken condition is removed, and you can continue your turn as normal!

Vulnerable, Distracted, Stunned, Entangled and Bound!

Wow, that was a mouthful. Vulnerable, Distracted, Stunned, Entangled and Bound are the main conditions, all affects are normally an evolution of one or them, or a combination of the five.

Vulnerable. All attacks, damage rolls and other offensive tests targeting you gain +2! The condition ends at the start of your next turn.
Distracted. You face a -2 to all tests! The condition ends at the start of your next turn.
Stunned. Your character falls prone and become vulnerable, you can't move until the start of your next turn. This condition is normally also combined with Shaken.
Entangled. Your character is unable to move until freed, but you can still take actions!
Bound. Your character can not take actions, is both Vulnerable and Entangled.
Shaken. You can't perform any test until you make a recovery roll.

Take Action!

Each character has access to a few overarching action types, Free, Move, Test. You can only take one of each but some edges and rules let you take multiple normal actions, such as rapid fire or dual welding. In such cases you face the multiple action plenty adding a -2 modifier for each action taken.

Free Action. Are actions that don't result in a die roll or significant affect, like talking or maintaining a power.
Normal Action. Are mostly just actions that involve any dice rolls, attacking, running, attempting to break objects ect.
Move Action. You can move up to your pace once per round, to move more you must take the run action!

Bennies

Bennies are a special resource that all wild card characters have player or otherwise.They are coins or points that can be spent to re roll any single die or force another to do the same. Each wild card starts a session with three and the game master should award more through play.

Bennies can also be used to activate powers in a pinch, or to soak incoming damage, when a character attempts to soak they take a Vigour test, if they manage to pass they reduce the incoming damage by one raise.

Chrisma

Some heritages reference a hidden stat called chrisma. This is a passive modifier that applies whenever you interact socially with any other character. It if a heritage is feared, or hated and sometimes it can only apply to specific people or groups. A standard character starts with this stat at zero!

Followers and Companions

This is a homebrew rule

Through your adventure it may be that your character is joined by a cast of followers, followers are split into groups and each one has a different function.

Henchman. This is a low level character who will follow the party into danger areas but not engage in combat, more often then not they flee to the last known safe location. Henchmen are used to carry gear, carry lights, and be basic assistants to the group. They cost around $100 each day.
Specialist. A specialist is a skilled character with an ability, locksmiths, alchemist, blacksmith ect. They may join the group into deadly locations but will not fight, instead they will flee to a safe location. They can cost anywhere from $1,000 up to $50,000!
Sidekick. This is the more unique follower. A sidekick follows the same rules as a player character but is not a wild card. They are controlled by the player character and work as a second or back up character.
Merc. A merc is the final type, they won't follow the party into deadly areas but can guard locations or crew vehicles. you have to buy them in "companies" not as single groups, and you'll be responsible for their food, gear, housing, and wages! If they aren't happy they will mutiny against you!

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