Savaging Legacy of Fire


Legacy of Fire

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Hello All!

I'm in the process of converting the LoF AP to the Savage Worlds rules. I will keep this thread updated as I go along and hope that all of the other SW experts out there chime in with some of their suggestions. Here are some of my general thoughts as I do the converting.

First of all-it's Savage Worlds, so it had better be Fast! Furious! Fun!. I don't want to get hung up converting every skill point and feat into SW. I want to make this easy for me.

Second-3.5 requires magic items galore and Savage Worlds doesn't. This might be the hardest thing to change in the minds of my players. Their PCs get their "goodies" in the form of edges, skills and attributes; not in magic items. Saying that, I will still have magic items, but a lot of them will be limited use or one-use. I will save weapons and armor for truly special occasions (like Tempest).

Ok, here's my first conversion-the bad guys in HotK...gnolls.

Gnoll
Extra
Parry:6 Toughness:6 Pace:6"
Language: Gnoll
Ag d6
Sm d4
Sp d6
Str d8
Vi d6
Skills: Fighting d6, Shooting d6, Notice d4
Edge: Darkvision-No penalties for dim or dark lighting
Battleaxe(d6 dam 2d8) Bow (d6 dam 2d6)

More to come...

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More thoughts: Until it is necessary (if ever), I'm not going to stat up Almah (one of the beauties of SW-don't make superfluous stat blocks). So, my first wild card is....Dashki.

Dashki
Wild Card
Parry:5 Toughness:6 Pace:6" Charisma:-2
Languages: Common, Gnoll
Ag d8
Sm d6
Sp d6
Str d8
Vi d6
Skills: Fighting d6, Kn(Nature) d6, Kn(Local) d4, Notice d6,
Stealth d8, Shooting d6, Survival d6, Tracking d6
Edge: Two-Fisted
Hindrances: Greedy (Minor), Ugly (Minor)
Scimitar & Dagger (d6 & d6-2, dam 2d8 & 1d8+1d4) Longbow (d6 dam 2d6)

His wild die will help him with only a d6 in fighting and shooting. Savage Worlds also does languages pretty well, so I will be able to use all of the languages of Golarion and monsters to good effect.

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One more for today-the Pugwampi. The unluck is pretty easy to create in SW because it is nothing more than an edge with a Small Burst radius (some people might think of it as a hindrance).

Pugwampi
Extra
Parry:4 (-2 to hit due to tiny size) Toughness:4 Pace:4"
Language: Gnoll
Ag d6
Sm d4
Sp d6
Str d4
Vi d4
Skills: Fighting d4, Shooting d4, Stealth d8, Notice d6
Edges: Shatter (Spirit roll, 1/day; 2d10 damage to an object)
Unluck (Reroll all rolls in a Small Burst radius-take lowest)
Dagger (d4 dam 2d4) Shortbow (d4 dam 2d4)

Paizo Employee Chief Creative Officer, Publisher

It's really neat to see this sort of conversion stuff happening. Hope lots of people get some use from it!

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Erik Mona wrote:

It's really neat to see this sort of conversion stuff happening. Hope lots of people get some use from it!

With an adventure as good as HotCK and an Adventure Path as good as LoF, how could it not be useful? And interesting? And fun?

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One of the bigger challenges is going to be making sure that the experience points are sufficient enough to the challenge of LoF. I think I'm going to go with XPs based on scenes instead of just for completing the mission (or modules, as you will). For example, i'm going to give 1 xp for successful completion of the Sultan's Claw scene; 1 xp for successful completion of the Pugwampi Hunt scene; 2-3 xp for successful completion of the Old Monastery scene (depending on how successful they are); etc. I'm thinking a good scale for the adventure path is:

XP Adventure

0-20 Howl of the Carrion King
21-45 House of the Beast
46-60 The Jackal's Price
61-75 The End of Eternity
76+ The rest of them

I might have to tweak these numbers as we play to get a feel for how strong the party is (so far we are going to have only 3 PCs, but in SW, we can have...Allies! And lots of them! It makes shoring up the party easier as the players get to play their allies and makes it less work for me.). If the PCs are Seasones (20 xp) by HotB, then they should be able to handle that slugfest and move onto the genie goodness of the other modules...

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Some more Savaging:

Garavel
Wild Card
Parry:5 Toughness:7(Chain Shirt) Pace:6"
Ag d6
Sm d8
Sp d8
Str d6
Vi d6
Skills:Fighting d6,Kn(Local) d6,Kn(History) d4,notice d4,Riding d4,
Throwing d6
Edges: Hard to Kill, Connections (Pactmasters of Katapesh)
Hindrances: Pactmaster's Favor, Cautious
Scimitar (d6 dam d6+d8), Throwing Dagger (d6 dam d6+d4)

King Mokknokk
Same as a Pugwampi except Fighting d6, Toughness 7 and 1 Wound level.

Geier
Extra
Parry:6(+1 to hit due to L size) Toughness:8 Pace:2"/Fly 8"
Ag d6
Sm d4(A)
Sp d6
Str d10
Vi d10
Skills: Fighting d8,Notice d8
Edges: Flight, Low-light Vision: Penalties halved for dim lighting
Hindrances: Code of Honor(Protect nest to death)
Bite (d8 dam d10+d8)

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I bring you TEMPEST-the sword...um...staff....um spear...um...Weapon of Vardishal.

Tempest
Mythic Weapon

Novice-+1 to parry when drawn
Seasoned-+1d6 cold damage
Veteran--+1d6 cold damage to fire subtypes (for +2d6 total)
Heroic-+1 to hit
Legendary-+2 to hit


Thanks for sharing your conversions! I really appreciate it.


Excellent work! Permission to yoink, should it become necessary?! :-)

I'm in the process of finding interested players for a PbP here, but I haven't chosen which AP I'll run.

I'm also planning on implementing some of the variants introduced in the Hellfrost Player's Guide.

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Torillan wrote:

Excellent work! Permission to yoink, should it become necessary?! :-)

I'm in the process of finding interested players for a PbP here, but I haven't chosen which AP I'll run.

I'm also planning on implementing some of the variants introduced in the Hellfrost Player's Guide.

Savage Worlds is all about the sharing, so steal away! As long as you post anything that you convert (the implied yoink contract). My favorite APs in order are: Legacy of Fire, The Curse of the Crimson Throne, Second Darkness and The Rise of the Runelords. I might convert CotCK or Second Darkness afterwards. Good luck with your PbP...

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XP Awards for HotCK

The Sultan's Claw: 1 (2 for completing 3 or 4 of the mini-missions)
Pugwampi Hunt: 1
The Old Monastery: 1 for killing King Mokknokk, 1 for killing the Geier and reclaiming Tempest, 1 for reconsecrating the chapel to Sarenrae, 1 for learning the story of Vardishal and 1 for destroying the slime molds and for the introduction of the Moldspeaker.
Kelmerane and Environs:1 for killing the pugwampi menace, 2 for saving Oxvard and 1 for successful negotiations with the Three Jaws gnolls.

More to follow...

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Stirge
Extra
Parry:4(-2 to hit due to Tiny size) Toughness:4 Pace:1"/Fly 6"
Ag d10
Sm d4(A)
Sp d6
Str d4
Vi d6
Skills: Fighting d6,Notice d8
Edges: Flight, Low-light Vision: Penalties ignored for dim lighting, Attach (with a successful attack, the stirge attaches to the target and begins to drain blood), Drain (drains 1 die type of vigor per 2 rounds-max 2 die types)
Bite (d6 dam Attach)

Baboon
Extra
Parry:5 Toughness:5 Pace:6"
Ag d8
Sm d4(A)
Sp d6
Str d8
Vi d6
Skills: Fighting d6,Notice d6, Climb d10
Bite (d6 dam d8+d6)

Giant Wolf Spider
Use the giant spider stats on pg. 154 of the SWEX

Medium Slime Mold
Extra
Parry:4 Toughness:6 Pace:4"
Ag d6
Sm d4(A)
Sp d4
Str d4
Vi d8
Skills: Stealth d10
Edges: Improved Grapple (uses a d8 for grapple checks), Infection (Fungal Rot: Vigor check or become exhausted; check each day until healed magically), Immune to Fire, Poison and Shaken effects
Engulf (d8 dam Fungal Rot)

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That's nice, I haven't read the Savage World rules yet, but my friend is very excited about them, so we might end up using them for LoF.

Please keep up the good work! :)

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Moonbeam wrote:

That's nice, I haven't read the Savage World rules yet, but my friend is very excited about them, so we might end up using them for LoF.

Please keep up the good work! :)

Remember the Savage Worlds Conversion Contract: If you convert it, post it! Seriously, I'm having a great time doing this and it is easier than I had anticipated-making it even more fun! I hope this is useful and helps to spread the word of not only LoF, but Savage Worlds as well.

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Some magic items conversions and creations. I'm going to try and keep some prices similar to the 3.5e rules to make it easy.

Potion of Healing
Price: 50 gold
Heals 1 Wound.

Potion of Speed
Price: 900 gp
Allows 2 cards to be drawn for initiative each round; +2 to Pace and a die type increase in running speed; as well as allowing an extra melee attack with no penalty. Lasts for 5 rounds.

Potion of Lesser Power Regeneration
Price: 300 gp
Character regains 3 Power points.

Potion of Power Regeneration
Price: 500 gp
Character regains 5 Power Points.

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Some magic items drawn from the Dungeons & Savages 3.5 pdf...

Wands
Wands contain a single power and a pool of Power
Points to use it with. They do not recharge Power
Points and are useless once depleted. Using a Wand
requires you to be a member of the respective Arcane
Background, and an Arcane Skill roll.
You can use the Power Points in a Wand to charge
the power as you like, as long as enough Power
Points are present in the Wand itself - you can't
substitute your own Power Points. Range is
determined using your traits.

Scrolls
Scrolls effectively contain one casting of a specific
power for which you don't have to spend Power Points.
You can use it with the respective Arcane Skill
(Spellcasting for Arcane Scrolls, Faith for Divine
Scrolls) if you belong to the Arcane Background for
which the Scroll was created. The Scroll is consumed
in the casting process.
You can't change the specifics (including Trappings)
of the casting on a Scroll, neither by pumping it up
with your own Power Points, nor by redistributing the
inherent Power Points - so you can't charge a Bolt with
2d6 damage to do 3d6 damage, or divide one Bolt
with 3d6 damage into two Bolts with 2d6 damage each.
Nonetheless you can maintain a power cast from a
scroll, and its Range ist determined using your traits.

Common Trappings
The following are common trappings applied to
offensive spells:
• Acid: The attack ignores organic armor, like leather
or fur.
• Cold: Targets of a Cold attack must make a Vigor
roll. If they fail, they draw two cards for their next
Initiative, but act on the worst. For characters with
Level Headed, this effect simply cancels out one
level of that Edge on a failed Vigor roll.
• Electricity: The attack ignores metal armor.
• Fire: In addition to dealing damage, there's also a
chance the target might catch fire (SW, p.95).
• Force: This is the standard offensive trapping, and
the only one to ignore the Incorporeal special ability.
• Sonic: Targets of a Sonic attack must make a Vigor
roll or become temporarily deafened. Deafened
characters suffer a -2 penalty on Notice rolls in
respect to hearing, and on rolls that rely on verbal
components, like Persuasion or Spellcasting.

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Some more villains of HotCK...

Narg/Ugruk
Wild Card
Parry:6 Toughness:10 Pace:6"
Ag d6
Sm d6
Sp d4
Str d10
Vi d10
Skills: Fighting d8, Throwing d4, Notice d4, Intimidate d6
Edges: Low-light vision, Combat Reflexes, Sweep
Flndbar (d8 dam d10+d6), Thrown Dagger (d4 dam d10+d4)
Equipment: Breastplate

Dust Digger
Extra
Parry:5 Toughness:11 Pace:2"
Ag d6
Sm d4(A)
SP d6
Str d8
Vi d10
Skills: Fighting d6, Notice d8, Stealth d6
Edges: Burrowing, Low-light Vision, Improved Grapple (uses a d10 for grapple checks)
Tentacle (d6 dam d8+d6)

Kezurkian
Extra
Parry:7 Toughness:10 Pace: 10"
Ag d8
Sm d4
Sp d4
Str d8
Vi d8
Skills: Fighting d10, Notice d8, Intimidate d8, Climb d10
Edges: Low-light Vision, Summon: No PP cost; 1/day; 1 schir demon, Immune (Disease, Electricity, Poison)
Hindrances: Weakness (Holy Magic)
Halberd (d10 dam 2d8)

I struggled with whether or not to make Kezurkian a Wild Card, but decided against it and just added the Summon edge to make him a little tougher (but not WC tough).


Did you run your group through it yet? How'd it go?


Suggestions:
- instead of trying to convert one-to-one, it may be a better idea to provide basic statblocks (Gnolls, Genies, Unchosen ones) and scaling guidelines for encounters (M opponents, Standard or Journeyman type, with +N opponents for each character above Novice level)
- for special abilities and spells, provide spells with trappings (assume that each opponent with supernatural abilities has Arcane Background and just use appropriate spells)
- for typical magic items, drop them. Seriously. +n weapons and armors have no place in Savage Worlds.
- for special magic items, you may want to describe them like below with option to enhance them with edges. For example:

Tempest
Legendary weapon of a nigh-forgotten heroic templar. The wielder will benefit for hero's experience and righteous fury at the risk of being unable to back off from challenges.
Benefit: Whenever fighting opponents opponents of fire subtype, you have an option of entering battle trance gaining free reroll on any missed attack (applies only to first missed attack during your turn).
Disadvantage: While in battle trance, you may only pursue and attack to the best of your ability your opponents. Other actions are not possible.
End of battle trance: free action at the end of your turn or whenever the last opponent left the scene. You're Shaken until your next turn.
Edge enhancements: You may spend edges to enhance mystical attunement to the Tempest.
Nullify Disadvantage
Nullify effect of "End of battle trance"
Heal 1 wound at the end of the battle trance
Bane: Outsiders (as Benefit, applies to opponents to outsider type, may result in more than one reroll)
Bane: Legendary Villains (as Benefit, applies to villains of great renown, may result in more than one reroll)
Incarnation of Vardishal (while using Benefit, any opponent attacking you must pass Guts roll or become Shaken)

Please note, that there is no added damage - Savage Worlds dice are prone to exploding, so rerolls should be sufficient.

Regards,
Ruemere


Hey, I've been hearing a lot about Savage Worlds on a couple of these forums and I am wondering what drew you to that rule system. Why do you prefer it over 3.5/Pathfinder RPG, etc.? Sorry if this seems like a thread jack, but I am very intrigued and might look into it soon.

Dark Archive

Morpheus wrote:

Hello All!

I'm in the process of converting the LoF AP to the Savage Worlds rules.

Sweet!

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Cesare wrote:
Hey, I've been hearing a lot about Savage Worlds on a couple of these forums and I am wondering what drew you to that rule system. Why do you prefer it over 3.5/Pathfinder RPG, etc.? Sorry if this seems like a thread jack, but I am very intrigued and might look into it soon.

One of the big draws to Savage Worlds is the ease of preparation for the GM. I enjoy 3.5e (and now, Pathfinder), but the prep time is significant. With Savage Worlds, this prep time is about a quarter as much (and in some cases, even less). Plus, the system is just plain (FAST! FURIOUS!)FUN! Try out the Test Drive rules for free and see if it works for you...As an aside, we started the LoF last week and get into the HotCK this week...I'll post some more conversions later along with some amendments to some of the conversions that I proposed earlier...

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Well, we've been going at it since August and everyone is having a great time. Just finished House of the Beast and we had our first PC deaths: Cassan, the bodyguard and Kadarr, the half-jann sorcerer. They were making their way of of the HotB after having killed the Carrion King (he ended up gong down pretty fast) and driving off Zayifid ("I'll get my revenge on you, my pretties!"), when they heard a loud roar.
Now, it was my intent that the loud roar would spur them on to leaving faster, but it did the opposite. Cassan and Kadarr go running towards the roar (didn't really have anything planned for it except more Carrion Guards) and run into 6 gnolls (2 regular, 3 Carrion Guards, 1 Carrion Shaman) and 2 hyenas. The party dispatched the hyenas quickly and were in a running battle with the gnolls, when Cassan decided to step into the midst of the gnolls and do a Sweep (sort of like Whirlwind Attack). He kills 3 and wounds another. Unfortunately, the shaman casts Bolt (sort of like a powerful Magic Missle) and outright kills Kadarr who stayed to help Cassan (the other 2 were retreating-thinking Cassan and Kadarr were behind them). The Bolt did 40 pts of damage (in SW, if you roll the highest on a die, it "Aces" and you roll again) after me having rolled 3 6s on 3d6. Kadarr was incinerated and Cassan was taken down soon after.
Everyone is still having fun, but that cast a pall on the adventure as the PCs had thought themselves invicible (partly the system and partly the builds of the PCs). Now, they will proceed a little more cautiously.
BTW, I'm shortening the Jackyl's Price to a few encounters in Katapesh so that the PCs can get to the fun that is Kakishon...


I am too playing LoF with Savage Worlds at the moment. We had our 5th evening 2 days ago. They attempted to clear the Sarenrae cloitre but failed. One died and the rest retreated to the caravan outside.

So why we using SW and not Pathfinder? This has many reasons.

-The most important reason is IMO that SW is a very fast game because most combatants dont have Hitpoints like in Pathfinder. Faster than ODnD. Not many rules to learn. Every rule has sense in the game. There are NO rules which are "meh" or should be negated. Most skills have a use directly in combat.

-VERY tactical for the players and the monsters. If you like tactical its very fun. In fact its the most fun combat system I ever played in my 20years of roleplaying. Sw has full support of miniature combat. SW is designed for Minis. Combat has much suspense.

-it allows for very different characters during chargen and because of a advantage/disadvantage buy point system it supports the portraying of little ticks and roleplaying.

-it has no levels and no character classes

-very fast combat. (did I say this already?) You can play with much more participants than in normal rpgs. The combat scope is bigger and scenarios tend to go from:

"caravan assault in desert hills of Katapesh: zoom to players +4 NPCs vs. 8 gnolls"
to
"caravan assault in desert hills of Katapesh: no need to zoom. Play the full assault with all bells and whistles in under 2 hours. Eg. players +10 camelservs, +7 soldiers, +2 wagons, +5 main NPCs vs. 25 gnolls"

-You want to have a battle with 50 combatants? No problem. combat finished in 2 hours.

I have to say that there are also problems with a SW conversion.

-conversion. You cannot play LoF directly out of the books. Balancing and choosing the correct amount and power level of monsters. (my goal is that the party should have a good tactical time during combat but should not be permanently in threat of TPK, which can come VERY fast in SW) CAN be a problem, especially if you refuse to alter the amount of enemies at the fly, if you see that the party has problems to be victorious.

-the whole crunch material of Pathfinder is written for 3.5 or Pathfinder. So you have to adapt ALOT of this crunch if you want to sport a more "open game" where the players have more choices.

-some encounters in the LoF line assume that the party have in the corresponding level some typical DnD spells or other 3.5 inherent abilities. So you have to spot these systemic traps and create Savage Worlds solutions.

-Very different power levels. NPCs die like flies. PCs have multiple times of surviving power than NPCs with similar combat skills. In DnD a first level fighter cannot hope to kill a 4th level giant scorpion. Thats a good info for the GM for his goal to balance out encounters. In SW this is not so clear. I had eg. a fresh PC at novice level which killed a large sized desert scorpion (extra, toughness 11!) with one single hit, but was killed himself by a lone gnoll. (with a freak roll of 30 points of damage)

So there are advantages which speak FOR Savage Worlds. (more fun combat, faster and easier) but OTOH balancing and converting is problem (at least for me -because I dont have that much time)

Pathfinder or 3.5 which I could use instead of SW are not a possibility for me and my group because they have too many rules and the learning curve is too steep. We are old. We dont want to learn another set of rules, especially if they are so many pages.

In the past I tried a extremly lighter selfmade version of 3.5 with 10 streamlined pages of rules. (including spells!) Maybe I will give this another try in the future. I am just in the discussion with my group for this. They dont want to change because they love SW too much. (I do too) but there are practical incentives (as I described above) to use this 3.5 light version and I have only a limited amount of time.

Sovereign Court

Pathfinder Pathfinder Accessories, Starfinder Adventure Path, Starfinder Roleplaying Game, Starfinder Society Subscriber; Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber
Cesare wrote:
Hey, I've been hearing a lot about Savage Worlds on a couple of these forums and I am wondering what drew you to that rule system. Why do you prefer it over 3.5/Pathfinder RPG, etc.? Sorry if this seems like a thread jack, but I am very intrigued and might look into it soon.

This is a great thread - I'm a recent Savage Worlds convert (which does not mean my PFRPG-love has lessened). I've read tons of rules but haven't played yet (would like to run Sinister Adventures Cold Black).

So I answer your question from a theoretical point of view. The game is similar enough to D20 that you don't get lost in the novelty. However, it is different enough to be intriguing - attributes aren't numbers, they're dice. That alone seems like something I want to try! There is enough stuff FREE online to give it a very solid try - you need the rules and the fantasy bundle (which includes pregens and an adventure).

There is a fascinating article explaining the history and evolution of the game HERE.

Support for the rules is growing and there are a lot of settings out there - I'm a big fan of Hellfrost and Realms of Cthulhu (I preordered mine directly from Reality Blurs).


Morpheus wrote:
Cesare wrote:
Hey, I've been hearing a lot about Savage Worlds on a couple of these forums and I am wondering what drew you to that rule system. Why do you prefer it over 3.5/Pathfinder RPG, etc.? Sorry if this seems like a thread jack, but I am very intrigued and might look into it soon.
One of the big draws to Savage Worlds is the ease of preparation for the GM. I enjoy 3.5e (and now, Pathfinder), but the prep time is significant. With Savage Worlds, this prep time is about a quarter as much (and in some cases, even less). Plus, the system is just plain (FAST! FURIOUS!)FUN! Try out the Test Drive rules for free and see if it works for you...As an aside, we started the LoF last week and get into the HotCK this week...I'll post some more conversions later along with some amendments to some of the conversions that I proposed earlier...

You say the SW prep time is only a fraction of Pathfinder or 3.5. for SW. I am prepping more than 1h per evening for my game in average only with conversions of crunch. So is in your opinion the prep time if one would use 3.5, 3h (or more) in average per evening? I would rather guess that you can just play out of the books, if you dont have to convert, and the prep time is not as high as when I use SW. (eg. no conversion, no adaption of amount of monsters)

Another question: how do you handle the amount of monsters in an encounter? Do you take them straight from the book or adjust them according how you think the players can handle at their corresponding level. (I am playing HotCK atm and I do the latter with extras normally, but I leave the bosses as they are) thanks alot for your ideas.

Sovereign Court

Enpeze wrote:
Morpheus wrote:
Cesare wrote:
Hey, I've been hearing a lot about Savage Worlds on a couple of these forums and I am wondering what drew you to that rule system. Why do you prefer it over 3.5/Pathfinder RPG, etc.? Sorry if this seems like a thread jack, but I am very intrigued and might look into it soon.
One of the big draws to Savage Worlds is the ease of preparation for the GM. I enjoy 3.5e (and now, Pathfinder), but the prep time is significant. With Savage Worlds, this prep time is about a quarter as much (and in some cases, even less). Plus, the system is just plain (FAST! FURIOUS!)FUN! Try out the Test Drive rules for free and see if it works for you...As an aside, we started the LoF last week and get into the HotCK this week...I'll post some more conversions later along with some amendments to some of the conversions that I proposed earlier...

You say the SW prep time is only a fraction of Pathfinder or 3.5. for SW. I am prepping more than 1h per evening for my game in average only with conversions of crunch. So is in your opinion the prep time if one would use 3.5, 3h (or more) in average per evening? I would rather guess that you can just play out of the books, if you dont have to convert, and the prep time is not as high as when I use SW. (eg. no conversion, no adaption of amount of monsters)

Another question: how do you handle the amount of monsters in an encounter? Do you take them straight from the book or adjust them according how you think the players can handle at their corresponding level. (I am playing HotCK atm and I do the latter with extras normally, but I leave the bosses as they are) thanks alot for your ideas.

I usually just eyeball how many I think they can handle depending on how many Allies they have with them (and this group does pick-up a lot-one of the coolest aspects of SW). I have been underestimating the encounters a bit, but that is better than the alternative.

A lot of the generic monsters are already done between the SWEX, the Fantasy Compendium and the Savage Beasts pdf. This eliminates most of the work because I only stat up monsters that are either going to get a lot of play (i.e. Carrion Guards) or are going to have a big effect on the game (i.e. The Carrion King). There are a bunch of monsters you can stat on the fly (i.e. Carrion Adepts = Carrion Guards + AB(Miracles)).

The next part is the introduction of magic items. I've been adding more and more to the game, but mostly one-shot items (i.e. Smoke Pellets or Snake Fangs) from the FC (Fantasy Compendium). I have added a few pieces of armor (i.e. Toughness +1) and am going to add a couple of more permanent items (i.e. Rings of Fire Resistance are useful). I make sure that magic items are not just something to be sold in any old store-the PCs have to haggle with merchants and it makes for some good roleplaying.

The best strategy for the conversion is reading ahead and prepping the scenes-don't try to use everything each adventure gives and add some of your own touches. For example, in HotCK, my PCs went to Katapesh to buy some stuff and since one of them was Wanted by the Pactlords, there was a nice little side adventure to be had including a daring escape across rooftops. Another example is the current adventure, The Jackyl's Price, where I am going to cut out a bunch of stuff so that the adventure plays out in a session or two at most. This way, the PCs will get to do the cool stuff and then get to the cool stuff in Kakishon faster.

Remember: SW is supposed to be Fast! Furious! Fun! and I think that the Legacy of Fire showcases that brilliantly...


Morpheus wrote:
Enpeze wrote:
Morpheus wrote:
Cesare wrote:
Hey, I've been hearing a lot about Savage Worlds on a couple of these forums and I am wondering what drew you to that rule system. Why do you prefer it over 3.5/Pathfinder RPG, etc.? Sorry if this seems like a thread jack, but I am very intrigued and might look into it soon.
One of the big draws to Savage Worlds is the ease of preparation for the GM. I enjoy 3.5e (and now, Pathfinder), but the prep time is significant. With Savage Worlds, this prep time is about a quarter as much (and in some cases, even less). Plus, the system is just plain (FAST! FURIOUS!)FUN! Try out the Test Drive rules for free and see if it works for you...As an aside, we started the LoF last week and get into the HotCK this week...I'll post some more conversions later along with some amendments to some of the conversions that I proposed earlier...

You say the SW prep time is only a fraction of Pathfinder or 3.5. for SW. I am prepping more than 1h per evening for my game in average only with conversions of crunch. So is in your opinion the prep time if one would use 3.5, 3h (or more) in average per evening? I would rather guess that you can just play out of the books, if you dont have to convert, and the prep time is not as high as when I use SW. (eg. no conversion, no adaption of amount of monsters)

Another question: how do you handle the amount of monsters in an encounter? Do you take them straight from the book or adjust them according how you think the players can handle at their corresponding level. (I am playing HotCK atm and I do the latter with extras normally, but I leave the bosses as they are) thanks alot for your ideas.

I usually just eyeball how many I think they can handle depending on how many Allies they have with them (and this group does pick-up a lot-one of the coolest aspects of SW). I have been underestimating the encounters a bit, but that is better than the alternative.

A lot of the generic monsters are already done...

Thank you for your view of handling the series with Savage. In the monastery of HotCK the Pcs got severely mauled. 1 PC and many of the guards died. So the caravan is going back to solku for reeinforcements and new investors. You say that you underestimated some encounters. You are not alone. I underestimate also sometimes. This was annoying in the beginning of my conversion "career". So I had to change something to keep the game fun (for the monster too :)) So I do now the following. I dont care much anymore about the numbers. The encounters should be fair, yes, but I dont change the amount of enemies anymore or their stats just because the PCs forgot to take allies or to make good tactical decisions. If they know this then, they can get along with it. AND they really feel that the victory is theirs and not because their GM is "soft".

In DnD its easy to have halfway balanced encounters, because of the levels enemies have. But in SW its not that easy. I take usually 2 extras of same skill per PC and one per ally. But sometimes this is too few. Especially if it is at the beginning of the evening when the bennies are plenty. In Boss fights I take Boss+ 2 extra per PC. So a Bossfight is always much more challenging.
Another rule of thumb I have for bigger monsters like desert scorps or large elementals is to use 1 per 2 players or allies. So if the party is 4 players and 4 allies, I use up to 4 scorps or elementals.
Its also difficult to evaluate if I want to play with "elite" enemies like blue dragons or Behirs or whatever. To estimate the combat value of such creatures is extremely difficult, so I try to design such combats always, so that the PCs can retreat or outwit the Elite.

Sovereign Court

Update: Well, the PCs just completed The Jackyl's Price and now find themselves in Kakishon. They got to Katapesh and met with Rayhan. After some shopping for stuff (and using haggling instead of just saying here is the price), they stayed at Rayhan's villa. The party went rather smoothly (except for our prist of Abadar who insulted Kazima and needed a good tonguelashing). Over the next few days they got the bids and were really agonizing over whether or not to sell *(except for the Moldspeaker). They left for the day to shop for stuff to go exploring Kakishon and when they got back it was a bloodbath with Rayhan missing. Some good detective work later and they found the Emerald Claw Merchant's Guild warehouse (I used them instead of the One Source).
After they battled a basilisk watchlizard, they made their way down into the temple area. They encountered the Captain (and the Moldspeaker got creeped out), but not before he offered them 100,000 gp for the Scroll. They fled (literally slamming the door) and ran into the room with Father Jackyl. He had 2 clockwork minotaurs as his guardians (really tough to destroy) and his bad self. After an epic battle with multiple incapacitations and potions of healing flowing like wine, they overcame FJ. They untied Rayhan ("Is it secret? Is it safe?") and unrolled the scroll-which malfunctioned and brought our intrepid band to Kakishon.
Observations:The PCs are being helped out by 2 memebers of the Falcon Tribe (the tribe that the werejaguar belonged to) and it has turned the tide a couple of times. Allies in SW are very valuable, but one of the PCs keeps treating them like just so much cannon fodder. They have gotten a kind of "redshirt" sttatus as most of the allies never return when the heroes do. I'm really looking forward to exploring Kakishon. The only thing I wish I had done better is to be more cinematic in combat-something I wil work on so that it doesn't devolve into a hack-miss-hack-miss fest.


Morpheus wrote:

Update: Well, the PCs just completed The Jackyl's Price and now find themselves in Kakishon. They got to Katapesh and met with Rayhan. After some shopping for stuff (and using haggling instead of just saying here is the price), they stayed at Rayhan's villa. The party went rather smoothly (except for our prist of Abadar who insulted Kazima and needed a good tonguelashing). Over the next few days they got the bids and were really agonizing over whether or not to sell *(except for the Moldspeaker). They left for the day to shop for stuff to go exploring Kakishon and when they got back it was a bloodbath with Rayhan missing. Some good detective work later and they found the Emerald Claw Merchant's Guild warehouse (I used them instead of the One Source).

After they battled a basilisk watchlizard, they made their way down into the temple area. They encountered the Captain (and the Moldspeaker got creeped out), but not before he offered them 100,000 gp for the Scroll. They fled (literally slamming the door) and ran into the room with Father Jackyl. He had 2 clockwork minotaurs as his guardians (really tough to destroy) and his bad self. After an epic battle with multiple incapacitations and potions of healing flowing like wine, they overcame FJ. They untied Rayhan ("Is it secret? Is it safe?") and unrolled the scroll-which malfunctioned and brought our intrepid band to Kakishon.
Observations:The PCs are being helped out by 2 memebers of the Falcon Tribe (the tribe that the werejaguar belonged to) and it has turned the tide a couple of times. Allies in SW are very valuable, but one of the PCs keeps treating them like just so much cannon fodder. They have gotten a kind of "redshirt" sttatus as most of the allies never return when the heroes do. I'm really looking forward to exploring Kakishon. The only thing I wish I had done better is to be more cinematic in combat-something I wil work on so that it doesn't devolve into a hack-miss-hack-miss fest.

Sounds great. Would it be possible to post the game stats of father and his clockwork minos (?). Many thanks.

The Werejaguar I seem to have missed. Is he in the module?

Regarding cinematic: Fortunately I dont have these problems. We use always minis and battlemaps and the combats are extremely tactical and cinematic too. (one of the reasons we are all fanatical savages) I allow many stunts, even difficult ones, with a simple Ag check and the players are thankfull using them. Additionally I often use terrain elements the players have to overcome. (eg. in the sarenrae cloitre where I used the wonderful paizo church map, there was wood lying around and posing difficult terrain with 2 MP)Another important thing to keep things cinematic is to award the players constantly with bennies. (for good roleplay, solving riddles, good remarks etc.) If they have enough they have no problem to spend them for insane stunts, taunts and tricks.


Hi Morpheus,

I'm really into this thread, and I'm a fellow Savage Worlds + Pathfinder AP fan. I actually ran Burnt Offerings using Savage Worlds, and my players got wiped out by Ripnugget and his host. However, this was a success in my eyes as the players really saw how much tactics and critical thinking affect encounters, rather than just relying on CR or EL numbers to save them.

My question to you is thus. Have you given any consideration to the achievement feats from the LoF Player's Guide? I would be happy to convert these over to Savage Worlds edges if you like. I already have a few good ideas for them after perusing some edges from the books.


All Gnolls Must Die [Achievement]
Requirements: Deliver the killing blow to 20 gnolls, hyenas, dire hyenas, werehyenas, jackalweres, or minions of Lamashtu.
Your name is whispered by black lips throughout the Uwaga Highlands as a bringer of death and pain—few are the gnolls who don’t quake when they hear stories of your deeds.

As long as you carry some sort of trophy harvested from a gnoll (a necklace of ears, a set of teeth, a magic weapon taken from a chieftain, etc.), you gain +2 on Guts rolls and roll a d8 instead of a d6 if you score a raise on an attack roll against gnolls, hyenas, dire hyenas, werehyenas, jackalweres, and minions of Lamashtu.


Flame-Tested Survivor [Achievement]
Requirements: Incapacitated by fire at least 10 times.
You have burned in the hottest flames, and your flesh bears the proof—fire holds little fear for you anymore.

Your history with fire has attracted the attention of a powerful but mysterious guardian spirit from the Elemental Plane of Water. This spirit grants you the benfits of the Improved Arcane Resistance edge against attacks with a fire trapping.


Gifted Mesmerist [Achievement]
Requirements: Successfully affect 25 different targets with charm or compulsion powers.
Your magic knows the pathways of the mind, and you have become so skilled at casting a certain mind-affecting power that you can cast it for free as an innate ability.

Choose any one charm or compulsion power you can cast (e.g. Beast Friend, Fear, Puppet). You can use this spell once per day without spending power points. Each time you gain an advance, you may replace your current charm or compulsion power with a new one.


Graverisen [Achievement]
Requirements: Recover from dying at least twice.
Death is no stranger to you, for you have risen from the grave to continue your quest many times.

You gain a single-use supernatural ability to save yourself from death. The next time you would be killed, you may use this ability, leaving you alive and otherwise unaffected by the attack that would have killed you. This does not require an action, and works even if you are helpless or unconscious. If you are dying and are brought back, you gain another single use of this ability. You can only have one use of this ability unspent at any time; any others you might accrue beyond the first are lost.


Healer’s Touch [Achievement]
Requirements: Cure a cumulative total of 50 wounds for other creatures using healing powers. Dealing damage slows progress toward this goal achievement; for every 1 wound you deal to another creature, reduce your cumulative healing total by 2.
The magic of life flows through your body like a river.

When you use the healing or greater healing power to heal a target other than yourself, the power heals 1 extra wound.
Note: There may be an opposite version of this edge allowing casters using the necromantic trapping to heal undead.


History of Scars [Achievement]
Requirements: Take a cumulative total of 50 wounds. Magical healing offsets this running total; for every 2 wounds of magical healing you receive, reduce your cumulative wound total by 1.
Your scars bear witness to countless battles.

Your thick scars impart a –2 penalty to Charisma, but increase your Toughness by 2.


Relentless Butcher [Achievement]
Requirements: Score at least 50 raises on Fighting, Shooting, or Throwing rolls.
You revel in the glory of dismemberment and maiming.

When you score a raise on your Fighting, Shooting, or Throwing roll your target is Shaken regardless of your damage roll. If the target is already Shaken this becomes a wound.

Sovereign Court

By popular demand...

Brass Clockwork Golem (Minotaur)
Extra
Parry:6 Toughness:15 Pace:8"
Ag d6
Sm d6
Sp d10
Str d12+4
Vi d12
Skills: Fighting d8, Intimidate d6, Notice d6
Edges: Arcane Resistance, Improved Sweep (Deadly-feel free to remove this), Armor +3, Fearless, Construct

Attack: Giant Axe (d8, 2d12+4)

Difficult to wound-my players found that aiming for the head made a world of difference...I used the brass golem D&D minis and they were perfect...

Sovereign Court

Morpheus wrote:

By popular demand...

Brass Clockwork Golem (Minotaur)
Construct
Difficult to wound-my players found that aiming for the head made a world of difference...

I ruled that the head was less armored than the body and so the Armor +3 did not apply-no extra damage as it was a Construct...


FYI there is also a brass clockwork minotaur in the Pulp GM Toolkit.

It is very similar to what you have here, but has a gore attack and fleet-footed.


Bump.

Morpheus, any more updates on your campaign? Still running?


Currently Savaging Kingmaker - this thread is very useful!

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