Armour or Armor

Posted on May 12, 2011 by Mike Page

In the course of a discussion on the Savage Worlds forum, user Planecreek suggested that the SW armor might turn out a little weak for seasoned DW characters used to their all-protecting armour. Although he also thought that my rulings below might be a little OTT, here’s my knee-jerk on what Savage Legend Armour might look like. It’s not been tested yet, but as far as I can see it overcomes at least some of the criticisms whilst incorporating some of the potential weaknesses.

ARMOUR
Wearing armour comes at a penalty. Although it offers significant protection, it also hampers the person wearing it. The following armour table indicates the type of armour (Type), the amount of protection it offers (Toughness Bonus), the weight (Wgt.), encumbrance level (Enc.) and any special effects. Armour Encumbrance is like standard encumbrance, affecting all Strength and Agility related Skills as well as Pace and Parry.

Armour descriptions can be taken from Wayne Imlach’s “Expanded Armour”.

Type Toughness Wgt. (lbs) Enc. Level Effect
None +0 0 0 –
Soft Leather +1 15 0 –
Hard Leather, Chain Vest +2 20 1 –
Mail Hauberk +3 25 1 –
Mail Armour +4 40 2 –
Plate Armour +5 50 2 Wearer gains ‘Hardy’ bonus vs. piercing or slashing weapons

EDGES
Armour Proficiency
Requirements: Novice, Fighting d6, Agility d6, Strength d8
The character is used to wearing heavy armour and thus ignores one point of Armour Encumbrance.

Improved Armour Proficiency
Requirements: Seasoned, Armour Proficiency
The character is used to wearing heavy armour and thus ignores two points of Armour Encumbrance.

Note to self: Probably shouldn’t count armour to overall encumbrance as well as all this…

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What’s the difference?

Posted on May 12, 2011 by Mike Page

So what are the essential differences between the Dragon Warriors and Savage Worlds role playing games?

Dragon Warriors is: Savage Worlds is:
Setting-linked. The game and the setting were written together Setting neutral. The core rules were written as a generic RPG that could be used with any virtually any setting from any period.
Class-based. The characters choose at the beginning of the game what class or profession they want their character to be and from then it is essentially cast in stone how they progress up the career ladder; which skills and abilities they acquire when. Skill-based. Provided a character has the prerequisite attributes, they can pick up pretty much any skill at any point in the game.
Established. There is a canon of setting information, including a bestiary of creatures weird and wonderful, maps, alternative classes etc. An open book. Much of the bestiary etc. will have to be re-written as time progresses.
Sometimes confusing. The fighting mechanic is different from the dodging mechanic or magic resistance mechanic. Custom rules are tacked on for other situations (or not). Standardised mechanic. The standard mechanic of SW is essentially constant; if the character is trying to use a skill, they roll the appropriate die – if they roll a 4 they succeed, if someone is trying to prevent them from succeeding then the target number is modified (opposed roll).
Probably a dying breed. The valiant attempt by Magnum Opus Press to breathe life back into DW in the 00s only generated limited new interest in the game, most of the interest was from existing DW fans. A modern, thriving role-playing system with a large fan base.

Have I missed something? Probably.

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And so it begins…

Posted on May 12, 2011 by Mike Page

This blog is intended to be a documentation of my attempt to port the RPG Dragon Warriors (or more importantly the Legend game setting) to Savage Worlds.

The big question of course is why? Dragon Warriors is a perfectly functional game system. There are two primary answers;

  1. SW has a standardised core mechanic that is simpler than the DW one – ‘One Throw to Rule Them All’ so to speak. With younger players (my kids) I hope to involve them more in the game rather than looking up every throw for them.
  2. The SW core rules cover a wider range of situations than DW does, e.g. social situations, chase scenes, mounted combat etc. . Sure I could tack these rules to the existing DW set, but given (1.), I figured I may as well go the whole hog.

There are some secondary reasons too, flexibility, fun (which other system has exploding dice?) and a number of others, but these will do to start.

Why the blog? To document the process for others and allow interaction and feedback.

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