Savage Worlds - issues with character generation

I was just starting to listen to a podcast, and they were playing Savage Worlds. Ever since I first read the original 40k miniatures rules, I have thought it would make an excellent rpg. Now they have published some, but none of them seems to fulfill the promise that first book hinted at. But, I think Savage Worlds might be the game to do it. I downloaded the cast, and started listening.

Guess what? It sounds like these guys also have some issues with the dice size system for the attributes! They repeatedly ask what they start at, what the max is and how much they get for a point and what they start at. I'm not saying these guys are stupid, and I know for a fact that my players are not. But, oddly enough I hear see another set of players have problems grasping the ideas about the core abilities. In the comments for my last post, Jeff mentioned similar problems in his experience. Peculiar, I say.

Now, why is it so?

When I read the Savage Worlds rules, I thought many things were slightly queer. But, one of the things I found quite simple was how the die size system worked, and how you spent your 5/15 points on abilities and skills. Now I have had three pieces of evidence that what was clear to me it far from it. Is the idea of die sizes that strange? I remember seeing it back in the oddball game Tales from the Floating Vagabond. But, I only remember it rating the size of the guns. Maybe it was all abilities and skills. It was almost 20 years ago. I'm old. Maybe that's why I got it. I'm old and have seen dozens of game systems, and nothing surprises me anymore. Maybe.

Miniature wargaming, roleplaying and me

Sometimes the blogosphere is filled with people talking about this or that game is dependant on minis, and if the gaming tables of old featured minis or if everyone just had much more imagination back in the day. Yeah, I'm making fun of the discussions. One thing nobody could possibly have missed, though, is the phenomena called Warhammer. Even if you only play rpgs, you have probably seem how your local game store have been invaded by miniatures and splatbooks. When you talk about miniatures these days, you can't ignore Warhammer.

Back when I started with these funny games where you pretend to be an elf, you could find ads for the fun hobby of using cast and mold to make your own miniature soldiers. Since the one of my friends had a father who worked in printing, we happened to get hold of a bunch of "lead" of some kind, and did try to make some minis. They looked terrible.

A few years later Warhammer 40 000 arrived, and that same friend actually bought it, and played the first scenario in the book, using paper chits. It was a very strange game, which talked about the armies of the future, but had rules for minute details of your own characters. It felt like a weird rpg. Soon newer editions were published and we bought figures and played it a bit. Somewhow I still felt that the weird first edition hinted at something much cooler to be done with this setting.

What goes around, comes around. Right? Anyhow, I finally encountered historical miniature wargaming. My present "home" game club had an enormous stack of figures, since some members used painting of tin soldiers as a way to wind down from work, and gladly let us others play with them. That way I found out how fun it was to play ancient battles with 15 mm figures, with DBA. DBA is a very slim set of rules, but with very subtle effects. It's a little bit like the OD&D, in that serious exegesis can be needed to figure out all the implications of a rule. Almost a game in itself. I have an army of visigoths, which also can be used as franks. Quite fun.

Now, since the people at my game club are fond of their minis, almost any excuse in a rpg session to break out some minis is cause for celebration. Or at least a lengthy search in the boxes for "that figure" which will be just right to represent a PC. I used to hate that part.

So, now I'm back at the beginning. By my side as I type this is Warhammer 40 000 Rogue Trader, and I'm planning to use it as a setting for a roleplaying session. Not only that, I'm also going to be very much prepared for when my players break out the minis. Am I then returning to the roots of the hobby, with table top wargame miniatures turned into a rpg?

It's no wonder it took so long for any official rpg for the setting to arrive, and that they decided to write three games. It's very hard to capture the setting in just one game.I've decided to isolate my players on a hive world, just recently the target of a major invasion of the Empire of Man. Nothing should scream WH40k as much as a warzone, right? Now I'm just going to print out a bunch of character sheets and let the war begin.  

Bless your weapons and go! For the Emperor!

Warhammer 40K roleplaying - a few thoughts

Since it was first released in 1987, Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader have tempted many gamers with the idea of a rpg in the far future, of only war. When Dark Heresy was announced I was thinking that it might be just what I have been hoping to achieve myself with rules tinkering without end. The fact it was fairly costly, and sold out so quickly I never got to see it made me change my mind.

Now I'm in the planning stages for running a one shot, using Savage Worlds as a rules set. As always when adapting a generic system, you'll have to get the gist of the setting and the feel it should have. So, what's crucial for a WH40K rpg? It has to be gritty and deadly, ok? It has to show the brutal and never ending war against all the universe, ok? It has to have cults of chaos, ok? It has to have an element of satire and dark humour, right? The problematic thing is that none of that is very well captured by rules. Especially not generic ones. So, how do you do adaptations like this anyway? I'm thinking iconic images, and themes will have to do and then rolling with the punches and just say "yes" a lot. Imagine doing that in GURPS or any such crunchy system! I think I've realized that doing things like this, I really need rules light systems!