Phil_Ozzy_Fer says:
Cool for the new player. Happy to have another person on board.
One of the problems I've always struggled with in systems that are lighter on rules is balancing context versus consistency in rulings. Something like 13th Age is good because you could always argue that a specific background grants a particular advantage in a certain situation. It keeps the games flowing smoothly and circumvents disputes, but I've been wondering if this kind of issue ever comes up in Savage Worlds.
You mention balance for Savage Rifts, which is a good thing to consider. Along with that, one of the things i've been wondering about is how to handle environment. Since there are different tiers of damage, its not unreasonable to think that someone could turn a building to rubble in the course of a normal fight. Or blowing a massive crater in the ground. In the Savage Worlds Rule book there's a section on situational rules, but there doesn't seem to be too much dealing with terrain. (I did look through a forum where blowing up terrain in combat with a Glitterboy is a legit tactic to flush out an enemey, so I guess there's that to consider.) Suggestions?
Background usage is kind of hit or miss to me. My GM is fiction first but stretching things is stretching things. Pirate background to fix a watermill doesn't work for the player who tried to use it. So if you have a skill you can use it, not having a skill doesn't mean you can't try and depending on hindrances I kind of encourage it at times, Overconfidence being played up would be not admitting you have no idea what you're doing and faking it knowing full well the dice might not be in your favor. But due to exploding dice you could get lucky. In Deadlands Reloaded playing the Martial Artist with a Doctor and medicine woman in the group I oddly did the most healing untrained and made rolls. This happened enough GM rules my 15 years as a kid growing up in the wild made my spit have natual healing abilities (I usually would spit on wounds and tell people 'You okay now, you no worry') and he gave me a +1 to healing. Still untrained but at 1d4-1 specifically for healing.
Savage Worlds I think is pretty basic for rulings if people read through the rolls. But I'm a fan of cause and effect and if the party wants to try and talk through a conflict versus fight I'll see what they do and let them roll. If they're a bunch of combat monkeys and 'words bad, don't talk gud' seems to be a thing so they punch and shoot their way through even social conflicts I see how it pans out. To me I'll let anyone try and idea, check the door to see if it can be lockpicked and they use a rewards card, attempt a bluff, etc. Since skills link to traits if there isn't a skill or trick, special move to apply let them try off their attribute die plus the wild die. Another example would be in a Deadlands Reloaded game in tunnels we found mining tools and we were getting lost in an abandoned mine trying to find the 'mcguffin'. We knew we were close on the other side of a wall so we opted to just take turns making a hole in the stone wall. There's no mining skill so Vigor or Strength rolls for a dramatic task, Strength rolls if you were trying to do it fast and heavy, vigor for slow but probably not as hard hitting.
As for Environmental tactics, there's movement through the area at difficulty, if the Glitter Boy is providing support and there's a river close to the force of 200 soldiers coming towards a town the party is protecting maybe he checks on the topography and aims a shot to create a muddy area, they still advance but it's slower now and they know there's a BFG that they're now in range of. If for Savage Rifts you have a group that's just going to all smoking crater fights that's okay, not everything is Savage Worlds is something you can fight though which boggles people's minds at times if they make a combat monkey. Also for Glitterboys remind them about counting bullets. They take a while to make.
