Having spent the first three days of my holiday frittering away the time in a half-dazed stupor, today has dawned bright and with purpose.
Inspired by starting to read the Rifts Savage World Player’s Guide, I’ve decided to finally get to grips with learning to play Savage Worlds. Certainly I could dive into the wondrous excesses of the Rifts World, but instead I have decided to go step-by-step.
Learning a new game is always both tricky and fun. As a solo player, I also need to keep it simple at first. Fantasy is an easy genre to start in and gives me a chance to try a new solo tool – the Universal Adventures Dungeon Deck. From there, I’m going to create a simple character and dive right in.
“Fast, furious, fun!” … right?
The Hero
Well, not so much “hero” as “tomb raider”. I’ve created a thief-type to plumb the depths.
In short, Jefflin is a human with strong agility and related skills – such as stealth – but short on Vigor. I’m not going to spend a lot of time setting him up because he is (let’s be honest) disposable and designed for test purposes.
Character creation was easy though: I eyeballed Jefflin using the “Rogue” template as a guide but doing the design myself. Took about 10 minutes, including reading time. So far, so good… although I don’t have much of an idea what all the numbers mean yet.
The Dungeon
I’ve printed off and chopped up a copy of the Universal Adventures Dungeon Deck – you can see my effort to the right – and I’m going to use the rules given to test the deck.
In short:
- The objective is to find a lost treasure – the Blade of Lies.
- The Blade of Lies will be located in the Throne Room location.
- Shuffled the Throne Room card in with six other random cards.
- Dealt eight more cards on top of those six.
- Drawing the top card to start the game…
The Adventure
Jefflin stands outside the entrance to the old tomb, sure that his research will lead him to the Blade of Lies. The tomb door is closed and foreboding.
I’ve not got a clue how the system works, so I look up making a Strength check to force the door. Turns out I roll my d6 Strength die plus a d6 Wild Die (because heroes are “Wild Cards”). I roll a 5 and a 1. Because a 4+ is a success, Jefflin opens the door.
Leaning hard against the stone, Jefflin pushes and feels the door slowly shift. Pushing it inwards, the door swings to his left and a musty smell reaches his nostrils. The room beyond is dusty, with cobwebs hanging from the walls. The dust and webs obscure bits of broken stone that litter the flagstones.
The Dungeon card says I get an encounter on a 6+ and an event on a 6+. Neither roll scores a six, so the room appears safe.
Entering through the south wall of the room, Jefflin carefully makes his way to the closed door on the east wall.
Although it seems likely that this door is locked, turning the top card on my GM’s Apprentice Deck tells me that it’s not.
Looking at the door, Jefflin sees that it has no lock. With a shrug, he puts his shoulder to the stone and pushes… but it seems stuck.
I rolled poorly for the Strength check – a 1 and a 2 – but never fear! Savage Worlds gives me three Bennies (tokens) and spending one allows me to re-roll the dice. This time, I succeed!
Bracing himself carefully, Jefflin puts his weight behind the effort and pushes. Slowly, the stone door slides open. Beyond is a stone corridor, running east-west, with a door in the north wall. A broken blade sticks from a crack in the wall of this corridor. Bones and bits of rusted armour litter the floor.
The encounter roll comes up a 6! To make life simple, I check to see what creatures the Savage Worlds rulebook offers – lots, as it turns out. First in my head is “Goblin” and yes, the game has stats. Let’s start with one Goblin. It’s time to learn the combat rules.
There, in the shadows at the edge of the torchlight, stands a Goblin.
Initiative is determined by drawing a card for each Wild Card or group of other creatures. Jefflin draws the 4 of Diamonds while the Goblin draws a 10 of Hearts. As the Goblin has the higher card, it goes first. It can move 5 inches as a free action and closes with Jefflin, spear in hand. As an action, the Goblin stabs at Jefflin with his spear – rolling just his Fighting skill die (d6) against Jefflin’s Parry score of 5. Thus, 5+ will hit… Goblin rolls a 2. Phew!
With a yell, the Goblin runs towards Jefflin and stabs with his spear. Seeing it coming, though, Jefflin side-steps the blow and brings his own short sword blade around in return.
Jefflin has a d6 Fighting skill too. The Goblin has Parry 5. Wild die comes up 5 – a hit! Strength plus d6 with a short sword means Jefflin gets 2d6 for damage – a 6 and a 1. The 6 on a d6, being the maximum score on that die type, is an Ace: you get to re-roll it and add to the total – a 5 rolled brings the total to 12. The Goblin is Toughness 4, so I beat it by 8 and net 2 Raises (basically, every 4 above a target number is a Raise). That’s two wounds and enough to put the Goblin out of the battle!
As the spear slips past Jefflin, his sword slides into the Goblin’s side and reaches for the creature’s heart. With a wheeze and grunt, the Goblin dies on the blade… a slumps down as Jefflin pulls the blade free. Firstly, he pulls the Goblin into the room and dumps the body in the south-east corner. Taking a breath, Jefflin then pads along the passageway towards the far end, ignoring the door on his left. More corridor extends ahead eastwards, with another door on the north wall. A draft carries a fetid stench along the passageway, bowing the cobwebs and blowing ripples in the dust. Wrinkling his nose, Jefflin decides to push on further. The passage extends another 10 feet or so and then plunges down a flight a stairs. With a grunt, Jefflin decides to backtrack and explore the areas beyond the doors.
At this stage, I need to split the Dungeon deck three ways. Dealing from the bottom, keen not to peek, I create three piles of cards: one for the first door, one for the second, and one for the stairs.
Back at the first door, nearest the entrance, Jefflin looks for a lock and traps.
The skill is Notice and, having the Thief Edge, Jefflin gets +2 to these types of check. d6+2 to roll (plus Wild Die) and the wild die comes up 6… then another 6… and a 3. That’s a total of 17! Turning the GM’s Apprentice card, it seems even odds that the door would be trapped, and the result is a Yes. Looking for inspiration, I turn another card and spot the word “Eliminate” with a 7 on the difficulty. Given two raises, Jefflin spots it with ease.
Approaching the door, and about to try to open it, Jefflin notices the tell-tale grooves running either side of the door frame. Guessing there to be a blade trap of some design, Jefflin tries to disarm it… carefully.
He can use the Lockpicking skill for this, so that’s a d6 with the +2 bonus again. Total is 18 (yes, two Aces again!) and the trap is disarmed with ease from the 2 Raises.
Jamming his crowbar in the mechanism, Jefflin snaps the blade and then opens the door. Ahead is an intersection, a trail of blood smeared across the flagstone floor and leading to the east down the passageway. Stepping through, Jefflin peers to the west.
Water drips from the ceiling of the chamber just a few feet along the corridor, gathering into muddy puddles on the flagstone floor.
No encounter but I did roll an event. The GM’s Apprentice card throws up “Accident Site” and I notice the words “hooded oilcloth cloak” on the card too. Asking about treasure, on even odds, I get a Yes. The third card tells me what the item is.
Creeping forward, Jefflin can see the outline of an oilcloth cloak lying on the floor over a vague lump. Going to investigate, he pulls back the cloak to reveal the hideously disfigured face of a woman – as if burned by acid or fire – and the charred remains of her body. The stench is foul. With determination, however, Jefflin rummages around the body and finds a large iron key. With only one other exit, to the north, Jefflin walks to the opening and sees a long passage way filled with a chill mist, clouding any features beyond a fetid shroud. Guessing that the cause of the woman’s injuries could have been a steam or acid trap, Jefflin turns back to the intersection and heads further east.
The last card is a large room – a lair – and on my hand-drawn map would cover the area beyond the second door in the corridor. Thus, I reason that the area behind the door merges here. The Dungeon cards from that door form the new deck. Oh, and there’s an encounter.
Jefflin enters the chamber to see four Goblins rise from filthy pallets spread out along the walls of the room. Trash is scattered across the floor and the air is fetid.
Drawing from the action deck, Jefflin gets a Deuce while the Goblins get a Queen!
The Goblins jump up in alarm and ready their short spears. One near to Jefflin scurries forward and tries to stab at him.
Readying a weapon is an action, so the Goblin can move for free but takes a -2 multiaction penalty for trying to do two things. The other Goblins hold back to see what happens… and the impetuous Goblin misses.
Dodging the Goblin’s wild strike, Jefflin steps in with his short sword.
The roll is a miss, but I spend a Bennie and re-roll, scoring 9. That’s a raise, Jefflin gets an extra 1d6 to the damage roll – making it 3d6 for a total of 15! That’s a kill.
Skewering the Goblin with his blade, Jefflin strides into the room and grins impishly. Seeing the door to the south, which presumably leads to the entry corridor, he also notices a door on the north wall.
New round, new initiative. Jefflin draws a 9 while the Goblins draw a 5.
As the Goblins hesitate, no doubt taken aback by Jefflin’s quick kill of their compatriot, the thief moves to strike another. With finesse, Jefflin stabs the slow-reacting Goblin through the neck and turns to meet the remaining two.
Spent the last Bennie and rolled well second time to kill the Goblin.
With a shriek, the Goblins rush the human. Both bypass Jefflin’s parry and…
Ok, I rolled an Ace with one attack and a hit with the other. One Goblins rolls 3d4, the other 2d4… and the first scores 16 due to two Aces! That’s three raises giving Jefflin three wounds. The second Goblin scores 10, again scoring an Ace. That’s another wound. That incapacitated Jefflin… make a Vigor roll… Wow! Rolled 1d4+1d6 and ace’ed the d6… TWICE! Total 15! Roll on the Injury Table but the injury goes away in 24 hours. Rolled Guts and Battered.
Spears pierce Jefflin’s body and pain shrieks through to his soul. Impaled in the guts, the thief drops to the ground incapacitated. After a moment or two of cautious poking at the inert human’s body, the Goblins decide he’s dead and carry him out of the lair to dump his body in the corridor.
“Bloody humans,” mutters the lead Goblin, “always poking noses where not wanted.”
Laughing, the Goblins return to chuck their dead compatriots outside too.
The Verdict
Well, poor ol’ Jefflin got skewered. So there was that. But it was also fun!
Once I’d had the first fight (bearing in mind I was reading as I went, with zero prior prep), I was away. The second fight was quick and dirty. Aside from typing time, the game was pretty swift.
I was worried that the simple attributes and generalised skills wouldn’t feel gritty enough. Reality, as always, finds in favour of the simpler rules mechanic. While I certainly like the fine granularity of games such as GURPS, in play the granularity often leads to delay. Savage Worlds opts for brevity and speed to keep things rolling along. On first blush, I think I can handle that.
Fighting was quick. It felt much like my old days of playing Warhammer – a handful of dice and two quick rolls for each attack; foes are up, down, or out.
There’s lots more to read and internalise, but the basics seem… well, basic. I’m inspired to read more and try another game.
Oh, and the Universal Adventures Dungeon Deck worked well as a solo tool. Reminded me of the ol’ Warhammer Quest game mechanics.
Game on!
