Wanted to make a little cheat sheet for combat so it's easier for everyone to understand how it works.
Initiative:
The GM will use his web app to pull cards for initiative each round and post the results. If anyone gets a Joker they can decide when they go in the round and also get +2 on all rolls. You may hold an action and go later in that round.
Actions:
You may take multiple actions and every one above the initial is at -2. So if you want to Attack and do a Skill like Intimidate both are at -2. Each additional action is -2 more so three actions would be -4 and so on.
Attacks:
Melee attacks must match or beat their opponents Parry skill. If you get a raise (+4 above the parry) then you get an additional +1d6 damage on your damage roll.
Ranged attacks are based on range of attack. Normal Diff is 4. Medium range is -2 and Long range -4. There may be some additional conditions for this.
Damage:
You must match your opponents Toughness+Armor to inflict damage. If you get a success they are shaken. Every raise (+4) above their toughness inflicts a wound. Non Wild Cards are destroyed on 1 wound. Wild Cards have 3 wounds.
Damage Effects:
Shaken: You may either spend a bennie and automatically become unshaken and act or roll spirit die. On failure your still shaken and can take free action, on success your not shaken and can do free action on a raise your unshaken and can act normally.
Wounds: For each wound you have it's -1 to Trait rolls (not damage)
Incapacitation: When you reach 3 wounds see charge on GM screen 2 for roll and results.
Soak Rolls:
You may spend a bennie to make a soak roll which is a vigor roll. On a success it removes one wound and extra wounds on raises. You may only make one soak roll per attack.
Dice Rolling:
Since there is no exploding dice on these forums we will do our skill and wild die first and if any explode you will roll the exploding under it.
Ex:
{dice=fighting}1d6{/dice} = 6
{dice=wild}1d6{/dice} = 4
fighting exploded so i get to re-roll that.
{dice=fighting explode}1d6{/dice} = 4
So that is a total of 10 on my fighting roll. If my wild die exploded as well I would re-roll both until I stopped exploding.
Everyone rolls the extra wild 1d6 die with every roll they make.
As per normal character creation with a few setting related differences:
Race – Choice between Human, Atlantean, and Hybrid. There will also opportunities to play other weird races once you reach the super powers section, but pick a base race here.
Traits - 5 Attribute Points to be split amongst Agility, Smarts, Spirit, Strength, and Vigor as usual.
Traits - 15 Skill points to be split amongst the normal skill list. Necessary Evil adds no new skills, but some of the weirder ones like Knowledge (Xenobiology), and Spellcasting may actually see some use. For those not familiar with Savage Worlds Deluxe, the Guts skill has been removed, so no need to spend skill ranks on that. Anything that calls for a Guts skill roll now simply uses Spirit instead.
Hindrances – Generally work like normal Savage Worlds, up to two Minor hindrances (1 point each) and one Major hindrance (2 points). Savage worlds also allows characters to take a second Major hindrance, in order to gain an additional 5 power points (see Powers below) at character creations (which combined with the Power Points edge, allows characters to start with 20 power points).
Necessary Evil introduces the following new hindrances: Alien Form (Major), Allergy (Major or Minor), Dependant (Major), Disability (Minor or Major), Distinctive Appearance (Minor), Gimmick (Major), Gloater (Major), Heartless (Minor), Power Negation (Major), Servitor (Major), Terminally Ill (Major), Weakness (Major or Minor)
Edges – All villains gain Arcane Background (Super Powers) as a free edge, which works significantly differently from more traditional Arcan Backgrounds. As per normal Savage Worlds rules characters may have only one Arcane Background. Other edges may be bought as normal using points gained from Hindrances.
Necessary Evil introduces the following new edges: Combat Sense (Combat), Jack-of-all-Trades (Professional), Mechanical Genius (Professional), Take the Hit (Combat)
Gear – Purchased like normal, $1000 to spend, though Necessary Evil has it’s own gear list. Any purchases after character creation will be facing a heavy multiplier, as most of the stuff you’re going to be interested in will be heavily restricted and you’ll have to find someone willing to traffic on the black market, which is a dangerous proposition these days. Anything you buy with starting cash is to reflect purchases and spoils of war from before or during the invasion.
Setting Rules:
As previously mentioned, all characters get Arcane Backgrounds (Super Powers) as a free edge, if you wish you may swap this out for another free edge of your choice, but I really don’t recommend it.
The Unarmed Defenders rule is inappropriate to the setting and is ignored.
Recurring Roles – Necessary Evil is based on comic book style super heroes and villains, which are virtually immortal. In effect any normal rule which would result in the death of a character (such as from bleeding out) is ignored, and the character instead falls into a coma, is temporarily dispersed, or some other side effect as appropriate to their ‘demise’. They will generally regain consciousness in under a week, though in some cases special treatment or rituals may need to be performed as appropriate to the character and the injury in order to recover. This also works both ways, the aliens (at least the important ones) get similar benefits.
This is not to say that your characters are truly immortal however. If a character goes out of their way to put an end to someone (and assuming they know how to do so), then that character will die. The speedster may go down to a hail of gunfire and be up and about the next day, but if the enemy Fin commander wraps his hands around the speedster’s throat and squeezes until his head pops off… that’s probably going to be it.
Special Knockback rules are in effect, if you get hit by a character with a d12 or greater Strength, then you’re going to go flying (generally 1d4”, plus 1d4” per raise)
Bennie Use:
Re-Roll a Trait (take highest)
Become Unshaken Immediately
Roll Soak - Remove one wound one success and per raise.
Super Powers:
There are faaaaaarrrr too many powers to list them all here with what they do, so please refer to the Necessary Evil to find the full descriptions. Players start with 10 power points, which can be bought up to a maximum of 20 power points at character creation by purchasing the Power Points edge, and taking the optional second Major Hindrance (5 points from each). The list* of Powers is found below:
Absorption, Ageless, Altered Form, Animal Control, Animation, Animated Object, Aquatic, Armor, Melee Attack, Ranged Attack, Awareness, Broadcast, Burrowing, Chameleon, Construct, Copycat, Damage Field, Darkvision, Decay, Deflection, Duplication, Earthquake, Energy Control, Ensnare, Explode, Extra Actions, Extra Limbs, Fear, Fearless, Flight, Force Control, Gifted, Growth, Headquarters, Healing, Heightened Senses, Illusion, Immunity, Infection, Intangibility, Interface, Invent, Invisibility, Jinx, Lair, Leaping, Malfunction, Matter Control, Mind Control, Mind Reading, Minions, Negation, Paralysis, Parry, Regeneration, Shrink, Speak Language, Speed, Storm, Stun, Super Attribute, Super Edge, Super Skill, Super Sorcery, Swinging, Telekinesis, Telepathy, Teleport, Toughness, Undead, Vehicle, Wall Walker, and Whirlwind.
Quote:
Evil, Not Psychotic
Necessary Evil is all about playing the villains of four-color comics, with their grand schemes of world domination and destruction. While these villains may be murderous and megalomaniacal, they don’t tend to be mindless killers without purpose.
The super-villain you make up should at least have the potential for working with other super-villains. While playing a completely anti-social psychotic does have its charms, it does not usually make for good team game-play.
Take some time to consider why your villain would cooperate with other villains, especially under the circumstances.Your villain could certainly murder his fellow compatriots at a later date to serve his own goals, but for the time being, he ought to realize he’s more powerful with others by his side.
Inter-party conflict is welcome, and perhaps even encouraged, pvp is less so. I’m not saying don’t fight, I’m not even saying don’t attack each other, or kill if it’s appropriate, but it should be appropriate; don’t attack a fellow party/cell member because he ate your turkey on rye from the base fridge. If you character has Bloodthirsty and Vengeful as Major hindrances (or some similar combination), then you should consider the concept carefully, I certainly will be.
Some other things to consider for your concept as suggested in the Necessary Evil book:
What is the origin of your character’s powers?
What turned you to villainy?
What were you doing during the invasion?
What were you doing when you were caught? and how, or why were you caught?
House Rules:
Wounds and Fatigue:
The penalty for wounds and fatigue will only affect skill/attribute rolls. Damage rolls are not affected by the penalty.
