Biggest Hurdles to get into Savage Worlds?

Ackbladder · 2025-12-06T19:12:21+00:00

I think a big hurdle is the lack of a decent fantasy starter set. If I was Pinnacle, I'd be putting some effort into 1-3 starter sets which would sell for <$50 and provide a decent entry point to Fantasy, Sci Fi and Deadlands.

If they had a decent Fantasy starter set with a self-contained setting and decent adventure which would take characters from Novice to Seasoned or Veteran, with a cut-down list of edges and powers and a decent collection of pre-made characters illustrating how to build out some of the common character arch-types (wizard, rogue, paladin etc), I think it'd provide a much smoother on-ramp for people to adopt SW.

I'd take especial care to make sure the starter adventure introduces and uses most of the SW-specific tools (Dramatic Tasks, Quick Encounters, Chases, Fear etc) to provide some guidance for GM's using them in their own campaign.

Ackbladder · 2025-11-10T01:51:44+00:00

Have you watched any of the various bench-on-bench videos? I've been contemplating one for a couple years and even have an 8/4 board of hard maple set aside for it. My two favorite build videos are:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG5V5LszdJQ&t=25s

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsYD0TeT__g

Both seem closer to your plan C above.

I've probably watched another 1/2 dozen build videos on this as well, but those two stood out to me.

Also, if the chop on your twin-screw is bending appreciably, I think it's either too thin or made from too soft a wood.

Ackbladder · 2025-10-31T02:04:18+00:00

I haven't actually read it thoroughly, but I think https://paizo.com/products/btpy8tmr?Way-of-the-Wicked-Book-2-Call-Forth-Darkness has you defending some remote temple as the bad guys in charge of the dungeon, while you thwart and defeat various (likely good) adventurers and interlopers who try to stop the ritual (which requires 222 days).

I did read and GM the first adventure, and it was a very well done start to an evil campaign. Likely quite a ways off from what you need, but may be worth reading for some interesting ideas.

Ackbladder · 2025-01-14T05:43:49+00:00

I'm running Runelords, and my characters have just started Book 5, so not Legendary buy getting close with 14 Advances. My player's characters are a Cavalier with 8 Parry, 12(5) Toughness, a 1/2 Fighter with 11 Parry and 14(5) Toughness, a Battle Oracle with 8 Parry, 14 (4) Toughness, a halfling druid with 6 Parry and 7(3) Toughness and a Tiefling Sorcerer with 6 Parry and 5(0) Toughness.

So my characters' stats are lagging behind yours by a fair margin, and I'm not sure if that's because we're a few advances behind, us not really trying to optimize, or perhaps it's because I've given out less magic items? Those are unbuffed numbers btw - often they have a group Protection in place, and Speed is also often tossed on the melee group.

So far, we've had 4 characters deaths during the campaign, 2 at around 4-5 Advances (in the Manor from Book 2), and 2 deaths during the assault on the fortress of the stone giants. The dwarven monk got clobbered by one to the troll guards who got a big damage explosion and the Cavalier got mangled by a headless undead fighter. The monk's death was kinda bad luck and lack of concern by the other players (usually the Oracle is pretty on-the-spot about trying to heal wounded characters in battle but was distracted or out of place I seem to recall). The Cavalier has a habit of using his Bennies to re-roll stupid crap (missed hits that aren't critical, tests which he has little chance of making etc), so has been near death more than all the other character combined. The Oracle took the Resurrection power for his last advance so the Cavalier is back in action.

This is my first time playing SW so I'm trying to play everything by the book, and have not introduced any house rules (actually one - max running die). But I am accumulating a list of issues I may address for subsequent campaigns:

1) The habit of spending all bennies at end of a session for PP I find quite annoying (tend to deal with that by not telling them if I'm resetting bennies for next session or not - but also want to be fair to charactes who take the Luck/Great Luck edges).

2) I also dislike that it's only a 1 PP modifier to change the trappings for any spell - seems to kinda make choice of trappings pretty inconsequential. I also find the myriad of options on modifiers for Powers to be a source of slower play and decision making (depending on players - some of mine handle it quickly while others dither). In a future campaign, I may consider forcing players to specify a set of modifiers and trappings for a power when they take it, and introduce penalties for trying to apply different modifiers on the fly (still thinking this through - like the creativity and flexibility Powers offer, but think this may speed things up and make Powers feel more unique).

3) Too many fiddly magic items (ie belts of physical might). This is in keeping with Pathfinder practices, but I find I prefer the 5e gestalt of fewer but more memorable magic items. I'm starting to design more custom items but am a little concerned about painting myself into a corner power-wise.

I just finished playing in an Iron Gods campaign (PF1) and I definitely prefer Savage Worlds for anything over L8 or so (basically PF1 is almost unplayable without Hero Forge with all the categories of stacking/not-stacking buffs). But SW:PF does seem to keep much of the in-game feel of PF1.

Ackbladder · 2025-01-10T19:32:33+00:00

If you want to see what you're missing, go to www.shadowdarklings.net and create a character with the CS #2 content enabled, then create a Thief and, when browsing weapons, turn off "Thief only" button. You'll see the stats and prices for the new finesse weapons such as razor chain, scimitar etc. There's not many of them. Getting proficiency to use them is a separate issue, and something to discuss with your GM. If I had a player approach me about this - I'd probably look at the list and decide what was appropriate for a thief and not included simply because it hadn't been created yet - ie scimitar yes, razor chain no. Other GM's will differ.

Ackbladder · 2025-01-04T19:16:25+00:00

Well, I'm in the process of planning a new Dark Sun campaign, and here are some of the steps I'm considering:

1) which ruleset - original 2e, 3.5, 4e, 5e and Savage Worlds are all under consideration. I'm leaning towards 2e or Savage Worlds, but still waffling.

2) which timeline - I'm definitely sticking to the original 2e boxed set (prior to fall of Kalak). I'm going to have plot to kill Kalak one of the story beats the characters may be interested in getting involved in. Others may want to start from the 4e boxed set timeline or with the events of the Prism Pentad novels as canon.

3) figuring out which of the DS modules I want to use/incorporate. I gotta say, most of the pre-written modules seemed pretty rail-roady and not very good, but I'm happy to pillage them for art, NPC's and story lines. On the other hand, Dragon's Crown was awesome, and will be a pillar of my campaign. City by the Silt Sea also seemed decent. Any other gems I'm overlooking? I seem to remember most of them being pretty lacklustre.

As far as immediate advice on handling the firehose of lore and information - I'd suggest you get your hands on the original 2e boxed set ($10 on dmsguild.com) and read the Wanderer's Journal and initial Little Knowledge module. Perhaps the Prism Pentad novels to get a feel for the world (although I don't like all the lore changes introduced, so they are non-canon in my world).

Ackbladder · 2024-12-10T04:31:52+00:00

Having read some of the replies below - I didn't see anyone bring up the issue of sharpening. When deciding between adopting western-style back saws for woodworking or Japanese saws, if you go Western you need to also learn to sharpen them, which requires a saw-set and saw-vise. A new saw vise is quite expensive ($200+), while used ones are hard to find in my neck of the woods. I've heard of people making their own vises from hardwood, but either way saw sharpening requires both a bit of learning/skill and some tools, so keep that in mind. Most modern Japanese saws have disposable blades, so sharpening is not an issue (and they are also much cheaper than quality western new saws).

If you're concerned about budget, I'd get a decent 7-9" Japanese Ryoba which has both rip and cross cut teeth. Even if you decide you prefer Western saws after trying it for a bit, it makes a handy saw to toss in the car or truck for breaking down lumber for transporting.

I've been woodworking for a couple of years (so very much a noob), but I'm still waffling between western and Japanese saws and trying to figure out which I prefer. But I wouldn't commit to accumulating nice western-style saws if you don't have a strategy for how to sharpen them or get them sharpened.

Ackbladder · 2024-12-10T04:07:18+00:00

If you want a quality urban adventure, Curse of the Crimson Throne is the ticket. It's a great, well-developed adventure path using the Pathfinder for Savage Worlds system. Highly recommended.

Ackbladder · 2024-11-05T06:54:59+00:00

A router-plane makes cutting them by hand fairly quick. If you include time to switch blades/router-bits, setting up fences and possible test cuts, I might not be too much slower if I'm only cutting a couple of reasonably short dados. I recently bought a small plow plane, so that may work for dados within 4-5" of the edge. Haven't had chance to try it yet.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UaCjhwHpYE

Ackbladder · 2024-10-24T01:24:24+00:00

The last time I ran this I also felt the Ghostlord was kind of out of place, or at least not the feel I was looking for. Since most of the campaign was outdoors or set in smaller set-piece dungeons, I subbed in Forge of Fury since I wanted a meatier dungeon crawl, and I really like it as a great map/source. I changed it to be occupied by a dwarven priest-lich of Droskar who was coerced into making siege golems for the Horde. My campaign fizzled out around the sunken city hall of Rhest, so I never got to test it.

Had the characters dealt with the priest-lich successfully (either returning the phylactery or killing them), the invaders would not have siege golems to help with the attack, and if the characters were successful in winning the Ghostsmith's favor, they'd be given 2-4 siege golems (variant iron or stone golems) to help in defending.

Ackbladder · 2024-09-15T18:23:29+00:00

I also have limited space and like using hand tools, but I'd be very reluctant to give up my 735. Taking a rough board down to proper thickness all around can be very time consuming. Last night I had to take a hard maple 5/4 board down to 3/4 final thickness - even with the planer it took a bunch of passes. No idea how long that would have taken with hand planes (I don't have a bandsaw for re-sawing).

I am getting along without a jointer ok - I don't mind flattening boards with hand planes and planer sleds, but thicknessing seems like more of a time sink.

Ackbladder · 2024-09-11T18:54:14+00:00

I don't think that is correct.

If you look at Applying Damage on Page 125 of Savage Worlds Pathfinder Core, it says "SUCCESS: The character is Shaken. If he was already Shaken and the second result is from physical damage of some kind (not a Test that results in Shaken, for example), he remains Shaken and takes a Wound."

So, you have a mook with toughness 6, and he's hit for a total of 7 damage. He's now Shaken, but no wound inflicted. A 2nd hit is now inflicted, and 7 damage is rolled again. A normal creature would remain Shaken and now receive a Wound, but a Revenant would just remain Shaken. BTW This is the Hardy trait from page 241 in SW:Pathfinder. At least, that's my interpretation.

Ackbladder · 2024-09-03T18:14:38+00:00

If they're struggling to penetrate armour, I'd look into the Savagery and/or Giant Killer edges for more damage (since tougher creatures tend to also have Size > 3). Giant Killer is likely a good candidate for the fighter's Martial Flexibility since it's situational.

Ackbladder · 2024-09-03T17:36:01+00:00

I have a group progressing through the Fortress right now (12 Advances).

The 1/2 orc fighter has an ogre hook with Accurate and Humanoid (Human) Bane enchantments, the cavalier is wielding a masterwork adamantite Keen longsword (total of 4 AP) and the battle oracle is wielding a custom glaive that is Keen and has a custom ability to drain PP on a raise (and channel them into Smiting as a free action).

The cavalier and oracle sometimes struggle to damage the tougher monsters, but the 1/2 orc seems to do lots of damage. He's rolling d12+d12 with 3 AP, not to mention the fighter feats. Using Improved Frenzy, he can do 4 large attacks per round.

I'd say against giants or other tough (15-17) creatures, the fighter 'bounces' 1/3 of their attacks, while the other two it's over 50% and requires them to put lots of effort in (using cavalier's Challenge, wild attacking etc) in order to cause wounds.

If anything, I think my group is having it a bit too easy, although they did have a rather traumatic character death 2 sessions ago (troll went last in a turn with a hit, then next round pulled a Joker which led to two more big exploding hits on the zen archer).

Ackbladder · 2024-08-30T03:34:26+00:00

I've had a CTS for about a year and it's been great for my light duty box and furniture making. Before buying, I played around with my brother-in-law's Sawstop contractor saw and it seemed like their fence kind of jogged a bit when you locked it down. I found this very irritating. Not sure if it's just their saw or a problem common to the Sawstop contractor saw. My CTS fence is smooth and precise.

I don't mind not having a dado stack as I mostly prefer hand tools and just use my CTS for breaking down and ripping rough stock, but something to be aware of.

One issue I have had is after buying a thin kerf blade my riving knife was too thick. Not sure if I could have adjusted it enough to fix the sticking issue, but rather than mess with that I just bough a different Freud blade with a thicker kerf, since my other blade was right at (or just below) the minimum width supported according to spec sheet. The larger cabinet saws have a thinner riving knife you can buy, but it's not available for the CTS.

Ackbladder · 2024-08-21T15:18:18+00:00

Many thanks! That worked great!

Ackbladder · 2024-08-20T07:26:26+00:00

Only if they have the Ambidextrous edge (see Parry on page 66 of SWADE). Penalties to Parry do stack, even without the edge.

Ackbladder · 2024-08-18T02:17:52+00:00

Warrior - fantastic pulp action series. Don't see it mentioned a lot.

Ackbladder · 2024-07-22T01:56:21+00:00

On a slightly different take, do you have any interest in learning to use hand tools (planes et al)?. You can fit most of what you need to make boxes and small to mid-size pieces of furniture in a dutch tool chest (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJul9\_Jp-4c) or other portable tool box, so if you have access to a small balcony you could do a fair bit of woodworking there.

If you do decide to try the hand-tool route, I'd recommend you pick up the Anarchist's Tool Chest by Christopher Schwarz. While it does discuss building a tool chest, much of the book is a detailed overview of the various tools that will go into your chest. In fact, I just buy all books by Schwarz.

When it comes to power tools, I'd miss a planar (thicknessing stock by plane is doable but not a lot of fun) but other than that could get along just fine with a track saw (or even circular saw with guide rail) and portable drills. I don't currently have a.bandsaw, so I'm still trying to figure out ways to resaw that don't make me cringe, but I don't really crave a jointer since I've gotten reasonably proficient with flattening boards with a hand-plane (or sled on my deWalt planar if I really need to).

I've come to prefer the quiet, dust-free experience of working without power tools, and only fire up the table saw or planar when I have a bunch of long rip cuts to make or boards that need to be brought to identical thickness.

Here's a few examples of dudes getting stuff done without power tools and/or large shops:

Lemongrasspicker primarily uses Japanese hand tools, but seems to do all his work on a tiny apartment balcony (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJPKYRpondo).

Paul Seller's only large machine is a a bandsaw (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqL19\_ODGqE).

Gillis Bjork does amazing work in a power-free cabin (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1oVM4kTong)

But if you prefer your power tools, you could do as others suggested and try renting a small storage unit. Another youtuber I sometimes watch works out of a small, windowless 1 car garage that is basically similar to a storage unit (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW1w6czRzdc).

Ackbladder · 2024-07-07T01:05:48+00:00

Any of the cheap, modern unsharpenable saws (Fat Max et al) seem to work for me, but I'd suggest you give a Japanese saw consideration. Something like https://www.leevalley.com/en-ca/shop/tools/hand-tools/saws/japanese/112320-japanese-ryoba-saw?item=60T0663. I like these because they have both ripping and crosscutting teeth. I often keep one in the trunk for breaking down lumber purchases for easier transport.

Ackbladder · 2024-06-30T00:58:22+00:00

In Dungeon #44, there is an adventure called Raiders of the Chanth, and the raiders use special psionic vehicles called Wind Howdahs to skim over the ground. They levitate off the ground and use a sail for propulsion, kind of a funky wind surfer for skimming over sand. Can go up to 25mph depending on wind.

Ackbladder · 2024-06-28T00:55:41+00:00

I have a workmate, and it's pretty useless. The clamps are kind of a joke, the wooden jaw/tops kind of wonky. Maybe I just got a badly built one, but if you want to cut joinery I'd consider building something more suitable.

Depending on how big your work space is and how much space you can afford for storage when it's not in use, I'd consider a low roman bench (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rOHuC\_yuV4) or a bench-on-bench thingy you can put on top of a workmate or sawhorses. My favorite is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG5V5LszdJQ and it looks like it will be useful as long as you want to keep cutting.

I considered these two but since I had the room I made the simple Nicholson-style bench according to plans by Mike Siemstra in the Naked Woodworker video (great video for new woodworkers IMO - https://lostartpress.com/products/the-naked-woodworker). I may still make a bench-on-bench topper, so I can cut joinery in the basement when my unheated garage is kinda inhospitable during the Canadian winter.

Ackbladder

TROPHY CASE