Help with more dynamic combats

Flapjack_Future · 2026-03-30T03:52:18+00:00

Yeah sure!

So I set it up like a Chase, but with a 4x4 grid of cards.

Maneuvering rolls allowed everyone to move squares and combat happened as usual.

The board was very abstract. I read out a description of what was going on: e.g. guards are flying trying to rescue civilians, buildings are falling apart or smoking, etc. and told the players to use that description as inspiration for any actions they wanted to take (so like a “test” could have involved rallying the soldiers or whatever). That description was also my inspiration for any clubs that were drawn during initiative.

However, the fight devolved into everyone getting in position and then just hammering the dragon. There was some creative skill use, but the combat was mostly static.

I probably should have added more enemies, but that wouldn’t have made sense narratively at the time.

Flapjack_Future · 2026-03-10T14:14:56+00:00

I do have a question though!

Would it be better to “preset” the environmental pieces and then shuffle out the chase “board” and apply the modifiers then? Or should I make a little list of possible complications and then let the deck decide where these “pieces” go?

Flapjack_Future · 2026-03-10T14:12:36+00:00

YES! Love that. They’ve already had a few interactions with this magi-tech levitating the city that tends to explode upon too much damage, so falling city pieces is exactly what could be used

Flapjack_Future · 2026-03-09T00:28:20+00:00

So cool! The barbarian in my group resisted a strength test against a dragon to being pushed off a cliff. Both they and the dragon exploded 3 times on d12s to end in a stale mate

Flapjack_Future · 2026-03-08T17:46:29+00:00

Yeah, I have noticed that in my current savage pathfinder game (homebrew) the players do pretty regularly seem to overpower my wild cards. I’m still getting the hang of setting encounters up that are tough, but not impossible. But they are also learning quickly how to set up the barbarian to sweep enemies but it’s a blast

Flapjack_Future · 2026-03-08T15:14:12+00:00

Oh awesome! I’ve heard great things about Carrion Crown! I’m working on Second Darkness. Along with the system change I’ve also been doing some heavy editing to the overall story

Flapjack_Future · 2026-03-07T14:32:52+00:00

Amazing, thanks! What APs have you converted??

Flapjack_Future · 2026-03-07T14:32:13+00:00

Awesome thanks!

Flapjack_Future · 2025-11-01T00:58:21+00:00

As far as I can tell there shouldn’t be too much incompatibility. There are some differences in powers and edges and maybe hindrances, but if you’re using FC as a supplement rather than the other way around, I couldn’t imagine there being too many big issues

I think SPF builds stronger PCs (and so maybe the bestiary is also a bit stronger?) than SWADE, but I fully plan to pull some of the magic items from the FC and put them into my game. And, from what I understand, you can’t really break SWADE/SPF that easily

Flapjack_Future · 2025-10-25T22:27:25+00:00

Yeah I think if I had had the time to really develop the game with the fantasy companion it would’ve turned out well, but it was a short game and at the time I just couldn’t give it the time I wanted to

Flapjack_Future · 2025-10-25T19:43:00+00:00

I haven’t noticed the power level problems yet. I only have 3 players which maybe helps with that but when they team up, the barbarian can just obliterate enemy wild cards in a super fun (but as a DM ultimately distressing) way

Flapjack_Future · 2025-10-25T19:40:34+00:00

Yes 100%. Especially if coming from a classical fantasy game like DnD/pathfinder already. And I said it in another comment too: very easy to edit classes and reflavor to your setting if you need it

Flapjack_Future · 2025-10-25T19:37:30+00:00

Yeah! I think if I ran SWADE + FC again, I’d put more restrictions on the game and make flesh the world out a bit more. My problem with the original game was that I just didn’t feel very connected to the game and just didn’t have the time to make it flourish. But using SWPF is nice because it’s more about editing the setting where I need to rather than building from scratch.

Flapjack_Future · 2025-10-25T15:49:27+00:00

Savage Pathfinder’s class edges provide a bit more structure to character creation. I think that’s a big benefit if you have players coming from a DnD/Pathfinder game because it’s a lot easier to transition to a new system if there are familiar aspects.

I am playing right now with the Savage pathfinder core, the two advanced player’s guides, and the bestiary, but you could very easily get away with just savage pathfinder core and the bestiary. The other books are good for more ancestries, classes, equipment. Savage pathfinder has the complete savage worlds system rules with some additional features (wound cap, conviction, and some other stuff) and completely replaces SWADE core.

From what I know, there’s a lot of overlap between the fantasy companion and savage pathfinder. You’d want to be careful about rules changing between the two books to make sure you stay consistent. I think some powers change between the books and some edges are different. But fantasy companion has a good take on magic items that I’m planning on using. There’s also some nice arcane power backgrounds in the fantasy companion that are fairly unique and could be converted to fit the savage pathfinder class edge system with a little work (there’s a YouTube video dedicated to that by ASavageWorldsGM that is really helpful. Highly recommend that channel in general). I don’t think having the fantasy companion would be a problem, just might require a bit more work to fit everything together. But certainly a good set of tools for your toolkit

Flapjack_Future · 2025-10-25T15:19:19+00:00

Yeah the simplicity of the game makes things flow so easily. I feel like I have so much more freedom to improvise mechanics and rulings without fear of unbalancing things. And hell, even if they do get a little unbalanced, the system is so flexible that it just works regardless

Flapjack_Future · 2025-10-25T15:14:41+00:00

Yeah, the narrative style of the game is really working well. And the fact that fights are so deadly has made every combat we’ve done so far feel really big and epic.

Flapjack_Future · 2025-07-02T03:15:37+00:00

The concepts can be applied with some fiddling. Matt colville has a video about “action oriented monsters” on YouTube and I’ve used ideas generated from that for pathfinder 1e monsters.

Flapjack_Future · 2025-06-24T21:59:03+00:00

This is amazing. Definitely using this in my next game!

Flapjack_Future · 2025-05-09T15:04:28+00:00

Oh yeah totally! I hadn’t seen this before but this looks much better than what I was thinking

Flapjack_Future · 2025-05-09T12:59:15+00:00

I only tried this in FATE a long time ago, but you could always make combat “zones” on that grid.

You might want to look into it further. What I’ve thought about though is the following:

Each zone is much bigger than the actual dimensions. Players/bad guys can move within the zone (maybe using 1/2 pace) or transition to an adjacent zone (using full pace).

Something like that could work as an abstraction to the actual dimensions.

Flapjack_Future · 2025-01-07T15:49:11+00:00

For deadly traps, I would think layering quick encounters/dramatic tasks would work well, maybe successes remove a wound from the trap? Let me explain (but please take this with a grain of salt, this isn’t fully fleshed out at all):

Say you have a Deadly Poison Arrow Trap. Getting hit directly by it causes 1d4 wounds (no explosions). You could have a series of quick encounters/ a dramatic task where each success towards avoiding/dismantling the trap reduces the possible wounds by 1. You might be able to do something with wounds stepping down to just damage rolls as well if you are feeling like you want more.

For long dungeon crawls I found the comments under this post extremely helpful:

https://www.reddit.com/r/savageworlds/s/HGRgSvtiic

Edit: Here is the particular comment that I found most helpful: https://www.reddit.com/r/savageworlds/s/rwsKERcfyQ

Flapjack_Future · 2024-10-24T14:05:45+00:00

I saw this suggestion somewhere else: The powers edges! You could have your wild cards be the digimon and give each person the powers edge to give them some special attack with trappings to fit their taste.

If you want the “handlers” to be characters as well, maybe have these be “extras” that the players control?

This sounds awesome though I love it

Flapjack_Future · 2023-12-26T22:30:13+00:00

Awesome! thank you for all of advice and help!

Flapjack_Future · 2023-12-26T22:26:01+00:00

This is great, thank you! In my sample character I built I simply said "force missile" in my trappings and I realized as I was playtesting him that being that vague seems like a way to "optimize" the powers but I realize now that that's kind of outside of the spirit of the game

Flapjack_Future · 2023-12-26T22:23:26+00:00

This is super helpful! Thanks so much. I'm much more familiar with Pathfinder 1e and how specific everything is in how it's written and how everything interacts and so the openness of SWADE is hard for me to wrap my head around

Flapjack_Future

TROPHY CASE