House Rule

[Renny]

While thinking about pulp games, i've remembered a source of dissatisfaction last time around, namely our mighty pulp heroes being unable to knock anyone down. So i was thinking of a house rule, namely that in hand to hand combat if a Wild Card hits an extra and his Strength score is higher than the extra, the extra is incapacitated i.e. knocked out automatically regadless of toughness. If Strength score is equal or lower then the combat proceeds as normal. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

[kevinrolfe]

Yes i would say 99% of the time that would be good. Indigo Jones would be able to fight his way through a market place to excape with his fists flying.

But as the fight with Fritz on the island proved, every now and then from Mooks a Hero is born.

[Renny]

Well, I guess a bit of common sense is needed but i'm just tired of Brock Tanner (as an example) being so ineffective against mooks. You could, as a GM, make a Vigor roll for the Mook in dramatically appropriate circumstances to give him a chance of shrugging off the blow. That might work. Thoughts?

[kevinrolfe]

yes something like that would work. i guess if we have a simple knock-em down rule with a "special circumstance" rule (a secret die roll). it would then allow deus ex machina to cover Mooks for a purpose! maybe

[Great Teufel]

Blast I did a longish post on this and it seem to have gone AWOL.

Basically the jist was this. Things don't always go the heroes way, taking as example Indi, he would often be at the end of a some bad luck or other. For instance the fight with good ole Pat Roach at the plane. Was that meant to be a quick encounter with a no name nazi mook that simply got out of hand with some 'bad' dice rolls, or was the Bald Mechanic actually a Wild Card character and the whole fight a centerpiece event of the session?

There is also no accounting for plain bad luck - that what you get from playing with dice. The skill is taking those random events and turning them into story by creative players and GMs. Personally that whole fight with 'super-nazi' was a blast, really cinematic, bloody funny and I suspect long remembered. That whole thing might have been probably been lost using the above house rule.

Not that I have anything against this rule BTW, bad dice roll are frustrating, but I might suggest that there are other fixes available that don't change the rules.

1) If you want more powerful and capable characters make them more experienced to begin with.

2) Don't be stingy with the bennies. These are the life blood of the PCs and are the equaliser to much of the bad luck that occurs. These really control how heroic the players are and are totally in the hands of the GM. If he wants to heroes to struggle a bit, hold them back, if not, dish them out.

[Renny]

All good points. I suspect I will hold the house rule in reserve and see how things go during the first session. What I also need to do as a GM is encourage players to use tricks and so on rather than just to trade blow for blow. Thanks for your input. The Bennies point is especially something I will need to remember.

[Great Teufel]

What I also need to do as a GM is encourage players to use tricks and so on rather than just to trade blow for blow.

Well how about

a) have fights take place in interesting environments; with enough detail to spark the imagination while at the same time not being too comprehensive as to slow down play with lengthy explanations and lock every detail down. I've always thought taking a page from video game level design, where you create interesting enviroments to have encounters in rather than the 10'x10' room.

b) do it to the players first. Have the NPCs use various tricks and such against the PC both to encourage the players (and beat them up some more).

[Great Teufel]

Not sure if I have already posted this, but I have thought that the stunts system from Dragon Age would work well with Savage Worlds.

Basically you have a list of various stunts (see DA for examples of what I mean) and instead of costing Stunt Points you pay for them in Raises. So each raise above the required to hit roll can be used to buy a stunt. At the moment you only get +1d6 extra damage with a rais on your to hit roll. In this system this would translate to a stunt as follows:-

Telling Blow (cost 1 raise): +1d6 extra damage.

Other stunt may cost 1, 2 or even 3 raises and do various cinematic things.

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