Chapter Two: Character Creation & House Rules

CHARACTER CREATION
I find the standard Savage Worlds character creation rules to be a bit constrictive. Therefore, I have juiced up the process a bit and granted more points here or there. All characters still begin play at Novice rank.

Languages: The basic and Universal tongue of the Galaxy is called The Queen's English. All characters, no matter their species, know how to speak the Queen's English. Furthermore, every Species knows how to speak their own native tongue. Texans speak Bunkhouse, Mutants speak Crackletongue, Robonoids speak Morse Code, Cromags speak Gruntalingus, and Gloomlings speak Emo.

You can attempt to learn a new language once per Adventure by spending a Benny and attempting a Smarts roll. If successful, you learn how to read and write the new language. Cromags have trouble learning new methods of communication besides violence, and suffer a -2 penalty to this roll due to their lesser developed brains.

Traits: All your Traits begin at d4 during character creation. You then gain 7 points to distribute between your Traits. At character creation, only one trait may be rated at d12.

Skills: Spend 20 Skill Points on your various Skills. The rules for skills are handled exactly as they are in the book.

BSF Basic Training: The Bureau makes certain that all Field Operatives graduate the academy with at least a basic understanding of combat and tactics. All characters begin play with a free rating of d4 in Fighting, Shooting and Athletics. If your Character has the Obese Hindrance, they do not gain the free d4 in Athletics.

Hindrances: These are handled the same way as presented in the book

Edges: All characters begin choosing 3 Edges.

REVISED SKILL LIST
Some of the skills in Savage Worlds are a bit redundant and silly. I have mashed together some skills and changed or added which Traits to base certain skills from. The new list of 20 Skills are presented below.

1 Navigate (Mashes together Driving, Boating and all Piloting skills--Based from Agility)
2 Athletics (Mashes together Climbing, Swimming and all physical type skills--Based from Strength)
3 Fighting (Based from Agility or Strength)
4 Gambling
5 Healing (Based from either Spirit or Smarts)
6 Intimidation (Now based from Strength or Spirit)
7 Notice (Mashes together Notice and Investigation)
8 Knowledge
9 Lockpicking
10 Persuasion
11 Repair
12 Riding
13 Shooting
14 Stealth
15 Streetwise
16 Survival (Now based from Smarts or Spirit)
17 Taunt
18 Throwing (Now based from Strength or Agility)
19 Tracking (Now based from Smarts or Spirit)
20 Entertain (New Skill based from Spirit)

HOUSE RULE: WOUNDS & WILD CARDS
No matter what is rolled for Damage, Wild Cards can only take 1 Wound at a time from any attack. A wild card can go from being undamaged to -1, however, via extra damage on an attack roll. This prevents heroes from getting one-shotted in battle due to simple lucky damage rolls. True heroes just don't go down that easy.

HOUSE RULE: GUTS
Keep in mind that there is no longer a Guts skill, and any Guts rolls are now simple Spirit tests.

HOUSE RULE: RESTRICTED HINDRANCES
The Bureau of Special Folks is a good aligned Organization, and each applicant to the BSF undergoes rigorous psychological examination. This means that certain Hindrances simply would not be acceptable shortcomings for Field Operatives. As a rule, any Hindrance that would denote one as a "Bad fellow" are disallowed from play. Some examples include Wanted or Bloodthirsty.

This is not to say that all BSF members are sweet little angels without problems or defects, but at their core, all BSF personnel are good at heart. The Queen of the Galaxy personally reviews every applicant to the Organization, and she is a very good judge of character.

HOUSE RULE: UNARMED DAMAGE DIE
Some weapons will add to your Unarmed damage die. For instance, brass knuckles increase your Unarmed Damage die by one step. Most folks don't have an Unarmed Combat damage die, so an increase of one would give them a d4 Unarmed Combat damage die. If someone had an Unarmed Combat damage die of d4 (Via the Martial Artist Edge) and then used brass knuckles, this would increase their Unarmed Damage die to d6, etc.

HOUSE RULE: EXTRAS & MOBS
Whenever a Wild Card makes an attack against a group of Extras, each raise on the attack roll can be spent to either add +1d6 to the damage roll as per normal, or be spent to hit another Extra. Damage is rolled separately on each Extra hit with the attack. In this fashion, a Wild Card can make short work of lesser foes. 

Example: A Mob of 5 Extras attacks Dave in a crowded alleyway. Dave rolls a success and a raise on his attack roll. Dave could either roll damage on 2 of the Extras, or he could roll damage +d6 on one Extra, as per normal.

An Extra in combat is knocked out if they are Shaken.

1 comment:

  1. I think your WOUNDS & WILD CARDS rules would be cooler if they still make godly attacks stand out. I think putting some injury on a hurt character (maybe extra -1 wound penalty for simplicity's sake) and making soak roll more difficult for him could do the trick.

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