Quote from: weirdguy564 on September 29, 2024, 07:21:03 PM

Quote from: ForgottenF on September 29, 2024, 04:50:50 PM

Quote from: weirdguy564 on September 28, 2024, 09:59:27 PMThe big test for most games: Can you run a Star Wars campaign with it?

That is a really strange litmus test for a game system.

It is.  Actually, the full quote is that it is a universal law that all games  eventually get converted to Star Wars and Cthulhu. 

  I've also heard "No matter the system, someone will eventually use it to run D&D."

Fortunately, SWADE does all of that beautifully.

It runs Pathfinder (and any other version of D&D fantasy) better than d20.

It runs Rifts better than native Palladium.

It runs Star Wars better than d6. Yeah I said it.

I'm a huge fan of Savage Worlds for anything swashbuckly to pulpy. If you could cast Erol Flynn or Harrison Ford in it, you can and should run it in Savage Worlds.

The way it gets there is by mechanically incentivizing doing things other than swinging your sword or casting a spell every round in combat. Sometimes you'll want to shake an opponent (and set up your allies at the same time), and you can do that with witty repartee, or swinging off a chandelier and landing behind them, or... anything else, really. It's the only game I know of that pulls that off.

Quote from: tenbones on September 29, 2024, 09:53:14 PMIt runs Pathfinder (and any other version of D&D fantasy) better than d20.

Quote from: Armchair Gamer on September 29, 2024, 07:41:08 PMI've also heard "No matter the system, someone will eventually use it to run D&D."

This is my least favorite use of it though. What I've seen happen is players come in from D&D, and play a fantasy SW campaign, and try to play it like D&D. And get extremely frustrated when swinging their sword or casting their spell every round doesn't work how they expect it to. And its even worse with unguided character creation, if they've scraped up the points to start with a d12 Fighting or Casting to be "good" at what they want to be good at, they're locked into failing at everything else, without even the payoff they were expecting.

Quote from: weirdguy564 on September 28, 2024, 09:59:27 PMThe point of Savage Worlds is to do it all as standalone game...

If you take it on its own terms you're supposed to turn the dials on the core rules for every campaign you run. Every game should have at least a one page setting document that lists what new setting-specific Professional Edges are available, what Edges aren't being used, what trappings are available for powers and what powers are available period, what optional rules are in play. That's using it as intended. And there is some guidance on doing that yourself, but why reinvent the wheel every time?

If you only throw the core rules book on the table exactly as is and declare you're running steampunk, or cyberpunk, or anything else, you're already working outside what its intended to do. You'll still have a surprisingly functional game, but it won't capture genre or tone the way it can do.

In short, core rules only and no supplements ever is a bizarre test that's got nothing to do with the game on its own terms.

Quote from: Dave 2 on September 29, 2024, 10:20:06 PMThis is my least favorite use of it though. What I've seen happen is players come in from D&D, and play a fantasy SW campaign, and try to play it like D&D. And get extremely frustrated when swinging their sword or casting their spell every round doesn't work how they expect it to. And its even worse with unguided character creation, if they've scraped up the points to start with a d12 Fighting or Casting to be "good" at what they want to be good at, they're locked into failing at everything else, without even the payoff they were expecting.

But you're *not* supposed to play it like D&D. Rather, you're supposed to play it within the constraints you choose to express the game within the context of your setting that *may* be a D&D setting. There is no such thing in any game I run as "unguided character generation". There is no such thing as me allowing players to "simply" take d12 fighting - which is like saying "Yeah your Novice character fights like a 20th lvl d20 fighter "because". The whole point of the game is to put context to your game and let the game run itself. You don't let everything fly "just because". This is where you as a GM have to enforce how your world operates.

As for letting them "fail at everything else" - I'm not sure what you're letting your players doing: ALL SWADE character start with a free d4 in Athletics, Common Knowledge, Notice, Persuasion, Stealth. That's the majority of the skills you'd commonly use in adventuring outside of combat. WTF are they putting their points in? At Novice a d12 in Fighting will making you largely ridiculously strong against Novice-level opponents (but there are ways around it) - what is the rationale for someone to be Captain America-level of fighting at Novice? And any other skill worth having they should have slapped at least a d6 in there. Even *if* you're letting them min-max, SWADE has a bazillion ways to take such dumb 1-dimensional characters down.

d12 Novice character? Odds are his stats aren't d12 too. Have a character *grapple* him. This is Athletics vs. his Strength. He's strong too? Easy, Goblins. Goblins get Gang Up bonuses. Toss in a Wildcard Goblin and swarm him. Have them all grapple. He'll go down. Trust me. And if he doesn't? GOOD ON HIM. He earned it. Now the Goblins will know how dangerous he is and come at him harder.

Normally, I cap my players at d8 unless they have a very good rationalization for it - at least on Skills. I don't care where they put their stats.

Quote from: Dave 2 on September 29, 2024, 10:20:06 PMIf you take it on its own terms you're supposed to turn the dials on the core rules for every campaign you run. Every game should have at least a one page setting document that lists what new setting-specific Professional Edges are available, what Edges aren't being used, what trappings are available for powers and what powers are available period, what optional rules are in play. That's using it as intended. And there is some guidance on doing that yourself, but why reinvent the wheel every time?

If you only throw the core rules book on the table exactly as is and declare you're running steampunk, or cyberpunk, or anything else, you're already working outside what its intended to do. You'll still have a surprisingly functional game, but it won't capture genre or tone the way it can do.

In short, core rules only and no supplements ever is a bizarre test that's got nothing to do with the game on its own terms.

Well the Companion books definitely help. But you could recreate a lot of the content in them on your own, or come up with you own rules that could easily approximate them by simply using the values in the SWADE Core as a guide.

Quote from: Corolinth on September 29, 2024, 10:52:28 AMSavage Star Wars has been a thing since the system launched. I probably have half a dozen different fan conversions.

Here is what, to the best of my knowledge, is the current unofficial, unlicensed fan-made Star Wars compendium.

https://www.reddit.com/r/savageworlds/comments/lewh4w/savage_worlds_star_wars_swade/

Savage Worlds has quickly become my go to system. You can definitely run a Star Wars Game in it. I actually wrote the Companion linked here by Corolinth, we ran the Entire Dawn of Defiance Campaign as a test run. We have also played several others since. We are currently running a Tapani sector game, There is also a group running the Darkstryder campaign.

Quote from: tenbones on September 29, 2024, 09:53:14 PMIt runs Star Wars better than d6. Yeah I said it.

I'd agree honestly, I still love D6 and use it all the time for reference material. That said though, being able to have Jedi/ Force users, in the same game as non-Jedi/ Force users, and not have them over-shadow them, while still feeling powerful makes it my favorite system to play Star Wars in.

Quote from: LeibyChristopher on October 17, 2024, 01:11:31 PMI'd agree honestly, I still love D6 and use it all the time for reference material. That said though, being able to have Jedi/ Force users, in the same game as non-Jedi/ Force users, and not have them over-shadow them, while still feeling powerful makes it my favorite system to play Star Wars in.

Now that is a quote that hits hard.

I may give Savage Worlds another look.  I ought to.  I have the SWADE book and everything. 

Check out the link upthread. Some guy has done a pretty bang-up job of converting Star Wars over to SWADE. There are some changes I'd make, but the work he's put in is *superb*.

Quote from: Corolinth on September 29, 2024, 10:52:28 AMSavage Star Wars has been a thing since the system launched. I probably have half a dozen different fan conversions.

Here is what, to the best of my knowledge, is the current unofficial, unlicensed fan-made Star Wars compendium.

https://www.reddit.com/r/savageworlds/comments/lewh4w/savage_worlds_star_wars_swade/

I ran a Star Wars game using this for a few months. It was fairly successful other than inability to find more than my core group of players.

Quote from: LeibyChristopher on October 17, 2024, 01:11:31 PM

Quote from: tenbones on September 29, 2024, 09:53:14 PMIt runs Star Wars better than d6. Yeah I said it.

I'd agree honestly, I still love D6 and use it all the time for reference material. That said though, being able to have Jedi/ Force users, in the same game as non-Jedi/ Force users, and not have them over-shadow them, while still feeling powerful makes it my favorite system to play Star Wars in.

Hey, you made it here! Yours is the SWADE SW conversion that I ran.

If I have a group who loves toys, aka a table full of minis and terrain, then Savage Worlds is probably their best choice. It really does rock when you have 6 PCs vs. a dozen monsters, vehicles, etc and boom, the combat is done in 30 minutes and everybody did kewl stuff with the toys.

However, I don't enjoy SW for Theater of the Mind games.

Quote from: Spinachcat on October 31, 2024, 06:59:12 PMIf I have a group who loves toys, aka a table full of minis and terrain, then Savage Worlds is probably their best choice. It really does rock when you have 6 PCs vs. a dozen monsters, vehicles, etc and boom, the combat is done in 30 minutes and everybody did kewl stuff with the toys.

However, I don't enjoy SW for Theater of the Mind games.

I know the game is mostly designed around using minis, but I've had no problems running 80-90% of my savage world games in theater of the mind.

I exclusively play theatre of the mind. 

My "player base" right now is just my son, so we stick to rules lite.  For Star Wars we run Tiny-D6 Frontiers with an additional psychic power trait called Precognition.  It allows for parrying ranged shots, meditating for clues/insight, and the ability to retroactively bring along a useful item.

Savage Worlds is still a game I'm on the fence with.  I'll play in somebody's game, but I'm the eternal GM and don't see it replacing games I'm already invested in.

I'm 90% of the time running Theater Mode. But I do enjoy some miniature battlemat action since I've picked up painting minis again.

I'm not sure why there is such a problem with Theatre mode? Ranges are pretty straightforward. Cover rules are straightforward. Movement ranges are the same (mostly) as D&D. Why the issue?