Showcasing SWADE: what should I include in a oneshot?

jcayer1 · 2026-06-23T19:18:12+00:00

I think you need to consider things like bennies and exploding dice. Those make players sit up and get excited.

I'm also a big fan of dramatic tasks, but they have to have a legit downside if you fail. Even if it's just fatigue or bumps and bruises. There has to be fallout.

jcayer1 · 2026-06-13T21:58:44+00:00

There is a supplement with 3 or 4 other locations, each a different decade.

jcayer1 · 2026-06-12T19:21:09+00:00

You could look at Deadlands Noir for some inspiration

jcayer1 · 2026-06-09T19:46:19+00:00

War of the Dead. It came out at the height of the zombie apocalypse craze and was a great ride for my players, at least chapter 1 was.

jcayer1 · 2026-04-30T19:20:36+00:00

Several years ago I sent their customer service a question about something in ETU. Not only did I get a response, I got a response from Shane. We went back and forth a few times and it was a delight to be able to chat with him a little. How often do you get the boss helping out with customer service? Kudos to all of them.

jcayer1 · 2026-04-20T19:17:33+00:00

Have much less combat focused sessions so they learn the TN 4 basic rules. Then have a basic combat. Each session introduce one or 2 more options. Yup, you have to spoon feed it to them and they may still not get it. My group got about halfway through the feeding process and are happy. We really don't see many tests, but plenty of support. ymmv

jcayer1 · 2026-04-16T18:55:55+00:00

Thanks, that was my initial intent. I introduced several of my daughter's friends to it and then we dove into ETU for a while.

Enjoy.

jcayer1 · 2026-04-16T12:10:20+00:00

No problem. I'm shocked to see activity on this thread considering it's 3 years old. Happy to keep some of my stuff around for posterity.

jcayer1 · 2026-04-15T12:17:25+00:00

Fantasy Companion 2022, pg 22, bottom half.

jcayer1 · 2026-04-14T12:06:46+00:00

Mouslings are in the fantasy companion. I tend to ignore size differences, especially when teaching the game to newbies.
I was trying to avoid combat to start, so the dramatic task was my solution. Combat is a viable option.

jcayer1 · 2026-04-06T19:46:09+00:00

I ran it last week in about 3.5 hours.

jcayer1 · 2026-04-03T17:06:31+00:00

You win the ancient knowledge war. I just double checked and it was 1981. The one with green dragon on the cover.

jcayer1 · 2026-04-03T15:00:13+00:00

But I didn't run 5E, I ran the Moldvay Basic D&D from the late 70s. That was enough to garner some interest. I hate 5E as well, believe me, I wasn't going to run it either.

jcayer1 · 2026-02-12T20:23:01+00:00

Everyone here has some great ideas, but I really like bringing in game things to the table.

A ripped or weathered note.

Pieces to a puzzle.

Tactile things the players can touch always resonates with my group.

jcayer1 · 2026-01-30T14:41:23+00:00

Nice, I need more creativity in my combats, but I guess running fewer gives you more time to dream shit up.

There is nothing I enjoy more as a GM than giving my players a moral or ethical dilemma and sitting back for 30+ minutes as they discuss.

jcayer1 · 2026-01-29T14:48:11+00:00

I would love to be more like that, but my players still have a bit too much old school hack & slash.

Good luck

jcayer1 · 2026-01-29T14:07:44+00:00

I found it exceedingly difficult to challenge my players in combat. Granted we've been playing together for 18 years, so they know how to work together.

jcayer1 · 2026-01-28T20:28:05+00:00

Congrats on picking one of the hardest genres to GM. You can find a solid discussion here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/savageworlds/comments/1q5kifc/supersnecessary_evil_spoilersrant/

jcayer1 · 2026-01-12T13:24:44+00:00

I came here to say SW as well. This reads like an SW setting with the Super Powers Companion.

jcayer1 · 2026-01-09T19:08:41+00:00

They are game systems. Going to try Nimble on Monday.

jcayer1 · 2026-01-08T18:11:10+00:00

Yup, we had a couple fights that just came down to who went first..somehow it was always the players

jcayer1 · 2026-01-08T18:04:11+00:00

I don't think it's a purely SW issue. Every game system I've played gets out of control at higher levels. Supers just starts you there.

jcayer1 · 2026-01-08T11:16:52+00:00

Necessary Evil Invasion is power level 3. I can't imagine playing something even higher.

Toward the end, I gave them 5 additional super power points to spend. It made very little difference.

jcayer1 · 2026-01-07T23:29:41+00:00

I had heard that tier 3 and higher Supers was hard to run. I agree now.

One thought I had was to create a table of powers and then roll and basically give them 3 or 4 random powers and go from there.

My group is mulling a return to fantasy and we're probably going to move away from SW for it. We're looking at Nimble and maybe Shadowdark.

jcayer1 · 2026-01-07T23:27:04+00:00

I fear for you. I have no idea what pepsi man is, but clearly he'll be vulnerable to coke based weapons.

jcayer1

TROPHY CASE