Ronin's Savage blog

Some time ago (2007-2008ish I think, I know it was after pirates but before Kane ) I ran across a fan made one sheet setting that set out to replicate high action gun fights, like John woo films from the 90s. I believe it was called savage bullets. The author I don't remember. After a couple sessions I realized the way to make things really over the top was to pass out a lot of bennies. A problem with this was players hoarding bennies and  (which isn't an issue any more) back then unused bennies could be traded for extra experience points. Bennies for experience points was an old rule no longer in the book (it was in the revised rules), my players miss it a lot. While this is no longer a problem, I feel this setting rule could still be great for the right setting. My solution at the time was to create a second kind of bennie for the setting. Using two colors of poker chips. The blue chips were regular bennies, same as they are in the rules in every way. The second red bennies...

Something I've been toying with for lower fantasy settings. The basic idea is that casters have no pool of power points to draw from. Instead casters (those with arcane background) must spend an action drawing power from ley lines or some mystical source. Casters must spend an action pulling magical energy, gathering it. Casters make their casting skill roll. A successful draw gives the caster 2 power points plus 2 points per raise on the casting roll. Casters can now use the power points in subsequent rounds to cast spells. Casters can spend multiple turns drawing power adding to the pool the caster can spend. The amount of power drawn could be adjusted by a number of story elements. Either the base or points per raise could be changed. For example being near a place of power, near ley lines, or possibly near the element that share a trapping with the spell. Taking an edge that adds power points could instead raise the amount of power points drawn. I feel there should be a lim...

When I first started running savage worlds I didn't like the idea of cards for initiative. While the idea eventually grew on me, and I would say became one of my very favorite systems. But I know some people just can't get past it, and prefer something different. So for those people here is an alternative. Players instead roll d20s. Any time an abilities would allow the drawing of two cards, instead roll two dice (keeping the better of the two). Players act in order of highest roll to low roll. Rolling a 20 is the same pulling a joker. This does mean that more than one joker can be played in a single round. But at 5% this should be pretty minimal.

My gaming ronin blog has been going for many years. I've decided in the hopes to become more organized I would create a few separate blogs for specific games. This will be the new home for my Savage worlds ramblings.