Savage worlds rifts advice

[Riftmaker]

I'll be running my first none one shot savage rifts adventure in a few days. I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice on long running adventures in that system. Is there anything I need to avid or move things toward?

I dont know any of the pitfalls of the savage worlds system itself So I'm hoping to get some advice from people that have been there.

Thanks

RM

[Natasha]

Each group is different of course, but the biggest adjustment for me was probably pace of character ranks. I mean generally from Palladium to Savage Worlds.

[Luvia]

For me it was lack of exspansive content. Its new though so I dont hold that against it though. Its new compared to like 30years.

[Library Ogre]

Each group is different of course, but the biggest adjustment for me was probably pace of character ranks. I mean generally from Palladium to Savage Worlds.

This is definitely a thing. Palladium, you might play for a long time, and seldom level up, especially as levels mount. In Savage Worlds, you will probably be improving someone every other adventure (average of 2-3 points per game, 5 points to get an advance). While the improvements aren't as dramatic or far-ranging as they are in Rifts (you probably erase d(x) and write in d(x+2) once or twice), it can lead to a fairly quick curve in improvements.

And, while I haven't played Rifts: SW, I'll add that combat in SW in general is a lot more deadly, and tends to be faster. Between penalties for taking Wounds, potential lost actions for being Shaken, and the relatively small number of wounds, it can quickly rack up some kills, if you're not careful.

[Riftmaker]

I should have probably mentioned the group make up.

1 mind melter 1 cyber knight 1 borg and 1 line walker. no idea on the powers for the melter or the walker yet.

Trappings for the spells kind of make me nervous I might make up a few apeing UR spells just to keep stuff from going of of line.

[blackwingedheaven]

Advice from a guy who's been running Savage Worlds for a decade: give out bennies like water. Bennies are the lifeblood of the game, so they should be flowing freely. Give them out for people roleplaying their Hindrances, for making the table laugh, for coming up with a good plan--basically, just about anything. Also remember that in Savage Rifts, a Joker coming up for initiative means all players get a benny!

Trappings for the spells kind of make me nervous I might make up a few apeing UR spells just to keep stuff from going of of line.

There's nothing wrong with that at all! For my game, I always refer to the armor power as Armor of Ithan and entangle as Carpet of Adhesion, so it's a good idea overall. =)

[Library Ogre]

Advice from a guy who's been running Savage Worlds for a decade: give out bennies like water. Bennies are the lifeblood of the game, so they should be flowing freely. Give them out for people roleplaying their Hindrances, for making the table laugh, for coming up with a good plan--basically, just about anything. Also remember that in Savage Rifts, a Joker coming up for initiative means all players get a benny!

One trick I have used is to keep a flow of bennies going by, every time a player spends a benny, it goes into the GMs pool... but every time the GM spends a benny, it goes to the player with the lowest number of bennies. Getting bennies encourages people to spend them.

And definitely ape Ultimate Rifts spells... and write down, when people get a spell with trappings, exactly how the trappings change the spell, so instead of casting Bolt + the electrical trappings, you're casting Lightning Bolt, which has the electrical trappings written in.

[lather]

Find the correct rate of bennies for your group. Too much will put the PCs in god mode while too little could diminish the point of having bennies at all.

[Library Ogre]

Find the correct rate of bennies for your group. Too much will put the PCs in god mode while too little could diminish the point of having bennies at all.

Part of why I like the passback method is that it keeps the number of bennies relatively stable... you might hand out the occasional new benny for good play, but otherwise, you have 3 for each player and 3 for the GM, and they just flow back and forth.

[lather]

Find the correct rate of bennies for your group. Too much will put the PCs in god mode while too little could diminish the point of having bennies at all.

Part of why I like the passback method is that it keeps the number of bennies relatively stable... you might hand out the occasional new benny for good play, but otherwise, you have 3 for each player and 3 for the GM, and they just flow back and forth.

I somehow managed to submit my post without seeing yours first.

[Riftmaker]

I just did my first game it went well.

It was a little hard to hurt my more combat oriented players I think I'll need to be more creative or maybe do a version of the daredevil hallway fight to soften them up.

[Shark_Force]

I just did my first game it went well.

It was a little hard to hurt my more combat oriented players I think I'll need to be more creative or maybe do a version of the daredevil hallway fight to soften them up.

if you make sure that non-combat shows up fairly often, they may de-specialize themselves fairly quickly

(i'm not suggesting they'll make new characters, just that they might progress their combat skills more slowly if they find themselves routinely needing to be good at many different things, only some of which happen to be combat, and presumably as their characters advance so do the challenges in the game in general).

[blackwingedheaven]

I just did my first game it went well.

It was a little hard to hurt my more combat oriented players I think I'll need to be more creative or maybe do a version of the daredevil hallway fight to soften them up.

Make sure to take a look at some of the advanced combat options like wild attacks, cover, and double tapping or three-round bursts. Those go a long way!

[Riftmaker]

How does selling loot work half new cost or something different?

[blackwingedheaven]

How does selling loot work half new cost or something different?

It's generally suggested that you get half value for loot, but that can vary based on location and what the GM feels like putting into the players' hands. A while back, my group stole a UAR-1 Enforcer from the Coalition and brought it back to Merctown to sell on the Black Market. They only wound up getting about 25% of what it was worth because they wanted to ditch it fast and their fence was going to have a hard time moving a giant robot anytime soon, so it was a big investment for him at a high risk. It was still a nearly 8 million credit payday for them, which was the most money they'd ever made at that point.

[Riftmaker]

I went with around 30% without a check of some kind. I'm trying to push none combat stuff at the moment

[Library Ogre]

How does selling loot work half new cost or something different?

Half cost is your ideal.. and I would say you're looking at half the "used" cost, unless you're able to pull it out of a sealed crate in front of the guy.

More typically, you're probably looking at 10-30%. In SW, I'd have you start at 20%, with each raise (on Persuasion) increasing it by 5%, but with a penalty of -2 to -4 if you're trying to dump it quickly.

[Shark_Force]

How does selling loot work half new cost or something different?

Half cost is your ideal.. and I would say you're looking at half the "used" cost, unless you're able to pull it out of a sealed crate in front of the guy.

More typically, you're probably looking at 10-30%. In SW, I'd have you start at 20%, with each raise (on Persuasion) increasing it by 5%, but with a penalty of -2 to -4 if you're trying to dump it quickly.

the penalty for dumping it quickly i'd say depends a lot on what you're selling. as would the starting price, of course.

some things just won't take long to sell, and you won't need to shop around for very long to find a buyer. other things may take a while longer. and it will depend a lot on where you are too... if you're in merctown you could probably sell e-clips fairly easily even if you're trying to get rid of them quickly, while if you're in a small city you're going to have a hard time moving a very expensive robot vehicle. and of course, sometimes you simply having something valuable enough that you're going to start at near full value... like i think there's some suits of power armour from phase world (avenger or something like that?) which are ridiculously amazing and nobody can make them any more? if you want to sell one of those, you could probably get close to market value provided you're in a place where there are people who want it (this would mostly happen only if the shop knows someone who's looking such that they're basically taking a commission... but again, you're going to need something pretty special for that).

[13eowulf]

Don't have Juicers, they are not for long term campaigns under the Savage setting.

[Riftmaker]

Do we have official stats on a triax dyna-bot yet?

[dragonfett]

I would imagine just use a reskinned CS Skelebot.

[Riftmaker]

I would imagine just use a reskinned CS Skelebot.

That was the plan if we didnt have official dynabot stats

[Freemage]

Don't have Juicers, they are not for long term campaigns under the Savage setting.

Alternately, you can make sure your players understand that Juicers WILL die, probably no later than the party hits late Seasoned/early Veteran, even with Freshly Juiced. However, there's a couple ways to take the sting out:

1: I always bring in replacement characters at the party's level (+4 for a MARS), rather than forcing them to start over at Novice. Non-Novice characters may have some drawbacks (obviously, a higher-Rank Crazy will have multiple derangements, and I'd say a newly minted Juicer should be down at least one Burn per Rank).

2: I instituted a house rule that says that Juicers get one XP any time they are required to spend Burn, and 2 XP for any Burn spent voluntarily, and can take the benefit from a possible Advance immediately--this means they may be up to four Advances (if all Freshly Juiced Burn is spent voluntarily, that's 20XP) ahead of the rest of the party by the time they Burn Out, making it easier to get into some of the higher Rank stuff. Their new character is still at the party's rank, rather than their personal level.

3: Don't forget the possibility of de-toxing. While it's not easy, it's also not impossible to transition from a Juicer to a Combat Cyborg, a MARS Techno-Warrior or City Rat, or even a Crazy (this last one has the advantage of letting the ex-Juicer retain Split the Seconds).

************

It's true that Savage Worlds combat is very quick and that it's at least theoretically possible for a goblin with a vibro-knife to take out a Legendary Glitterboy with a single lucky roll, that sort of outcome is actually pretty rare. Between the Death & Defeat Table and the existence of in-game Resurrection (Mega-Power for Greater Healing; if the party doesn't have someone with that power, well, that's what Quest-Givers are for; perhaps a Grey Seer is willing to cast it in exchange for the party agreeing to a Major Vow), permanent PC death should be relatively rare. PC maiming, OTOH, is a very real possibility, and something the party should be ready to cope with.

When it comes to hurting 'hard target' PCs, one thing to keep in mind is that bad guys can make Common Knowledge rolls, too. Most of the races and IFs have some drawbacks; these are common knowledge within the setting, and often mark an exploitable vulnerability.

Party has a borg; a group of bandits might deliberately withdraw past an area with quicksand or over a rickety footbridge to fend off the death machine. A particularly daring CS commander might try to time his assault with a Ley Line Storm, which will give the Mind Melter a serious disadvantage, and put the LLW on a tailspin, to boot.

***********

Key thing to remember about Trappings--you get one per spell manifestation* (exception: Greater Smite). So while they offer incredible versatility in design, it's not like the players are going to be whipping out dozens of different effects; you'll know their powers as well as you could've in a PR game, and arguably better (PC spellcasters in SW have fewer powers overall than in most other games, so it's easy to keep track).

And don't forget to give your baddies trappings, too. If your Big Bad has access to the lights in the area they're going to confront the players, for instance, shutting off the lights and casting Dark Whispers (puppet with the Darkening Trapping) will quite likely at least disable one of their characters, if not open things up on a new front entirely.

*: On that 'per manifestation' bit--if a given spell has multiple forms, such as bolt (which, with the Mega-Version, has a total of nine variations--1/2/3 small bolts, 1 big bolt, 1/2/3/4 small onslaught, 1 big onslaught), each form can have its own Trapping. These are still 'locked', however. So if I take "Icy Grip" for my 3d6 Bolt and "Fiery Doom" for my 6d6 Onslaught, then those are what I've got for those two manifestations--I can't just pop off a 6d6 Lightning Bolt instead, even if I've got Shock Bolt (one 3d6 Onslaught) as another of my options.)

[Riftmaker]

Well my " campaign " lasted a grand total of 3 sessions. My gamers have the opinion that theirs " little strategy, tactics or character building" in SW and "it seems better for a 2-3 shot adventure or pickup games then a long campaign".

Part of this is my fault having not run it before and not using enough of the SW bag of tricks (tests of will combat tricks etc" due mainly to inexperience.

I'm going to need to step back for a bit and figure out if im going to get my 2nd chance at this around a gaming table or on roll 20. I really dont want to give this up I love the setting and having a better rules system is something ive been waiting for for a long time. Sorry Kevin.

[Freemage]

Well my " campaign " lasted a grand total of 3 sessions. My gamers have the opinion that theirs " little strategy, tactics or character building" in SW and "it seems better for a 2-3 shot adventure or pickup games then a long campaign".

Part of this is my fault having not run it before and not using enough of the SW bag of tricks (tests of will combat tricks etc" due mainly to inexperience.

I'm going to need to step back for a bit and figure out if im going to get my 2nd chance at this around a gaming table or on roll 20. I really dont want to give this up I love the setting and having a better rules system is something ive been waiting for for a long time. Sorry Kevin.

One possibility in the meantime--take your players at their word. Come up with some one-shots or short arcs, just to play around with the system. That'll also give you the opportunity to get more used to using both the non-combat stuff (for developing character-building) and the combat tactics and options that may not have come up in the sessions you played.

[Library Ogre]

You might also go with episodic stuff... not necessarily one-shots or short arcs, but "Ok, a couple months have passed and now you're in Reno." "Three months later, you find yourself in Tulsa." A only really follows B because the same characters are involved. If someone wants to drop their character and try something new, no big deal... they are actors on the story, not the persons the story centers around.

[Tiree]

I'm going to need to step back for a bit and figure out if im going to get my 2nd chance at this around a gaming table or on roll 20. I really dont want to give this up I love the setting and having a better rules system is something ive been waiting for for a long time. Sorry Kevin.

Augur over at ExplorersUnlimited.com has been running some Roll20 campaigns. He's going to start up a SavageRifts one fairly soon I believe. Otherwise there is a small group of folks playin PbP over at SavageRifts.com

[Riftmaker]

I'll get another go with this group I'm just stepping back a bit. we rotate games every so often.

[Panomas II]

I love the SW ruleset. We are workin' on implementing some of the more tactical stuff in... Being primary Rifts players than Savage Worlds players. Most of the Rifts elements are window dressing and I like the balance with the M.A.R.S. templates. The GM is announcing that more tactical aspects will start coming into play and I can't wait even at the cost of death of my beloved character...

Besides nothing wrong with a few character deaths... to get the feel of the original Rifts back!