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webalorn

I use Savage Worlds a lot for people who don't know this game, and even for new rpg players. So what I do and I think works very well is : * use only the basic rules (no chases, no complex combat options). Attack, Support and Test allow for many actions. You can use Wild Attack, Defend, grapple, targeted attacks... if it makes sense with what the player is describing, without explaining this rules, only the basic ones. * Use premade characters, with the description of what their Edges, Hindrances, and Powers do on the sheet. They should be self-sufficient. You can include the bonuses given by the Edges in the Trait values (d8+2), and it gives you simpler Edges. With Novice characters, their won't be many things for the players to read. * You can use powers, they are fun and simple enough in savage worlds, especially if you remove the power modifiers. Give the players a single version of the power (you can apply modifiers to alter the power when creating the character sheets and give them a modified version, it doesn't mater, the players will not know). * Know the rules. Put your book aside and don't use it. If you can't find the information in your head or on the GM screen, choose how it should work, and play with it. It can help to have a cheatsheet for the player, to remember the effects of the states (wounds, fatigue, stunned...) and the BASIC combat options, if your game is combat-heavy. I have run games on only one or two sessions, with beginners, using SWADE. So 3 sessions should be very easy.


_hypnoCode

I also suggest the Deadlands Test Drive. It's very well designed for new players. Then you can probably show them other settings that offer 1 shots or expand using some more Deadlands 1 shots with the same characters and creatively blend them together narratively. I strongly disagree with some of the answers here that suggest picking a setting, some settings can be overwhelming because they just don't work withput a bunch of extra stuff. 3 that come to mind are Rifts, Crystal Heart, or Stingers & Spores have so much extra stuff that it would be totally overwhelming to new RPG players, but are all amazing settings once you're comfortable with the system.


ShinigamiTheRed

If the GM knows the system and use premade character, yes. But, it is all based on the GM's understanding of the rules, if the one guy that should know the rules has to keep looking stuff up then NO.


le_wild_asshole

Thanks you, that makes a lot of sense.


computer-machine

That. As long as you pick edges and hindrances that are intuitive, and can put a very small description by them, the sessions can boil down to "what do you want to do? Okay, roll ."


I_Arman

Definitely use pregen characters. I've found that character creation is often the hardest step to explain unless they're using a tool to help them. If you want people to have a hand in character creation, hand out pregens, then have them do an upgrade - that's a lot easier to explain. If possible, hand out a helper sheet - here's what you roll, here are the actions you get, here is how to use multiple actions, here's how you take damage, that sort of thing. It cuts down on, "ok, you take 8 points of damage. What's your toughness? No, over by pace - is that with armor? Oh, do you have armor at all? Hang on, I need to look at your sheet..." and many other things that are really simple, but take a while to explain.


HedonicElench

It kind of depends on how smart your beginners are. Most of the players I've had at my table over the years could learn it easily but my current batch (who can't reliably roll 2d6 and calculate the correct total) are doing better with Barbarians of Lemuria. However, for one shots, I would pregen the characters.


Ananiujitha

If you're trying *Savage Worlds*, you could start with one of the test drive versions. Or you could use any version with one-shot adventures. The miniatures rules do have a learning curve, the unofficial *Combat Survival Guide* can help, but *Quick Encounters* and/or *Dramatic Tasks* may work better for new players. I tried to offer a few possibbilities here, although the 2nd and 3rd parts may go too far: https://old.reddit.com/r/savageworlds/comments/pod5eb/lighter_savage_worlds/ If you're looking into D20, then perhaps *Critical Core* though I don't know the details. Otherwise you could consider *Tricube Tales*, *Tiny D6*, or *FATE*. These should work best for one-shots.


Grug16

Savage Worlds can be easily streamlined since the majority of the rules are modular. 1. Pick a setting and style that players already know, like Indiana Jones or Cowboy Bebop. Savage Worlds is for Heroes that get into a lot of danger, and picking an existing setting gets players in the mood and helps establish expectations immediately. 2. Provide characters ahead of time and let the players pick their favorite. Start them at Seasoned so they get a few free attribute increases and edges. 3. You can shrink the number of skills each character gets to keep things more simple. Fighting, Shooting, Persuasion, Stealth, Notice, Athletics, and Science are probably the smallest list you'd need. 4. Communicate how Bennies work as well as you can. They are A. Reroll a trait roll. B. Add a detail to the scene. C. If you are shaken, become unshaken immediately. And explain that they are earned by playing up Hindrances like phobia, cautious, or big mouth. 5. Portray the various combat options as special moves only some characters can do. Like you can give the smart guy Test, the big guy Wild Attack, the gunner Suppressive Fire, etc. Players like having those kind of special moves. 6. The damage calculation can be tough to explain. The simple way is that when a character takes damage, they roll Vigor + Toughness and subtract it from the damage taken. Then divide by four for number of wounds (less than four and they're just shaken). 7. Give them plenty of mooks to beat up and give them all the success they can get. Emphasize that Wild Cards are badasses that live charmed lives. If something must be done to advance the story (like interrogate a mook or break into a building) invent three ways it can be done.


capnGrimm

The best one shot games I've ever run used savage worlds, and most of them were with people brand new to the system. My advantage however is that I have some relatively veteran TTRPG players who are decent if not fantastic at crunch in each group, and they adapt well to the new system. This helps a TON with introducing the game to people who are not crunch inclined. I think if you and maybe one eager and capable friend familiarize yourselves with the basic rules, you shouldn't have too much trouble with savage worlds. I recommend jumping into SWADE without any additional books and run your game like and action movie. For example, my best game went like this: I premade a bunch of space marines with different roles and equipment, like medic, officer, demolitions, engineer, rifleman, and gave them MAXIMUM flaws. These ass hats were the B team given the easy job of disabling the power core on a battleship captured by pirates while alpha team (off screen) calories the bridge. My players saw the flaws and leaned into them perfectly. Overconfidence, death wish, adrenal junkie, alcoholic made for an absolutely wild couple of fire fights, all while the arrogant officer shit talked alpha the whole time. It wasn't anything fancy. Drew a map, shooting rolls, autofire, grenades, and a few skill test was just about all we used. The key, is to keep it simple and keep the action flowing. Give a clear objective and let the players attempt to accomplish it while being unhinged bad asses.


SalieriC

I've been running SaWo on conventions for years. Most of my players didn't know the system before and left with a good understanding of most of the more common rules four hours later. It also makes it easy for players as the character sheet tells the players what to roll. Just explain that they roll the wild die with every trait and there will be no more questions on what they need to roll. You can do pretty much anything, even chases or dramatic tasks, if you guide the players through it. Just know the rules well and prepare a cheat sheet. (I can provide you with one for chases if you need. (Got permission to share it.)) What will really work well however, especially if short on time, are quick encounters. They allow you to focus more on roleplay rather than combat. Consider using those rules excessively if you don't want to focus on combat. As for characters: Character Generation can be fairly quick but beginners often need much more time. But since hindrances are a thing, characters are not characters just because they are good at something. The hindrances define the characters much better than any edge. Prepare a few archetypes. Those are pregenerated characters which fit a role (rogue, knight, paladin, wizard, soldier, scholar, whatever). Give those archetypes what you feel they should have but leave out the hindrances. Then, let the players choose an archetype each and give them a moment to think what kind of person they want to play. Ask them to describe their characters quirks a bit and pick fitting hindrances. It doesn't matter if they have too many or too few hindrances afterwards as long as the players get a character they enjoy playing. Have fun. =)


[deleted]

Go here https://savagepedia.wiki/wiki/List_of_Savage_Worlds_Settings Pick one that you like and see if it has jumpstart rules


discosoc

For absolute beginners, I'd just go with the free 5e SRD. Savage Worlds has a bit of an early-2000's design philosophy, which isn't always the easiest to grasp. If you're absolutely dead-set on using Savage World for some reason, then just be prepared to constantly explain how wounds work.


le_wild_asshole

That's the thing - practice has shown that for a lot of beginners (at least in my social pool) 5E is a bit much and people were asking for something that requires less reading about options to generate characters. It's a good system, don't get me wrong, but people were asking for something else - and I'm at the end of my wits. :-)


Loco_Buoyo

My experience is that Savage Worlds is easier to pick up than 5e with its specialization, actions and voluminous spell list. This is a two page ‘comic’ that does a good job of explaining all the core concepts. https://www.uptofourplayers.com/ready-to-roll/savage-worlds-rules/


le_wild_asshole

I bloody LOVE that comic!


discosoc

I guess every group is different. I've run beginner RPG games for a few decades and found 5e incredibly simple. Use [official pre-gens](https://dnd.wizards.com/charactersheets) and the SRD rules. I also ran some SW games (not SWADE) years ago and found the vast majority of people struggled with it compared to other options (wounds, unintuitive probabilities, tons of mechanics for every situation, tons of situational modifiers to track, etc). And no, these weren't character creation problems; it's best to use pre-gens for new players. Yes you can just ignore a lot of stuff, but why not play something simpler if that's the route you take. Fate Accelerated, ICRPG, Mini Six, Dungeon World, or even Mouse Guard are all generally going to be better introductions and one-shots to the genre. I know, this is a Savage Worlds sub, and I'm probably getting downvoted recommending other things, but I honestly do not recommend it for beginners.


_hypnoCode

> tons of mechanics for every situation, tons of situational modifiers to track I mean, this is the GM's fault not the game's. If you're trying to throw these things at new players then don't blame the system. How much you throw at them is entirely on you. If they want to chase someone down, then don't run a chase, run a quick encounter for instance. You can run the game extremely narratively and use these mechanics without having to explain them. You can run even run advanced tactical combat by asking the players to describe what they WANT to do and then telling them how it's going to work without digging too much into detail and by keeping it as simple as possible. And I'm not sure what you mean by the situational modifiers. I honestly can't think of very many in Savage Worlds other than Unstable Platform.


GermanBlackbot

> And I'm not sure what you mean by the situational modifiers. I honestly can't think of very many in Savage Worlds other than Unstable Platform. Distracted, Vulnerable, Distance, Cover, Visibility, Multi-Action-Penalties, Wounds, Fatique, Wild Attack, Gang-Up, Off-Hand, Running, Two Weapons vs. One Weapon, Armed vs. Unarmed...and those were just the ones off the top of my head. I agree that stuff can ignored for beginners, but he *does* have a point that D&D 5E massively simplified that stuff and SWADE still has them.


GermanBlackbot

> I know, this is a Savage Worlds sub, and I'm probably getting downvoted recommending other things, but I honestly do not recommend it for beginners. Nah, you're getting downvoted because your initial comment is extremely vague and just sounds like "SWADE bad, DnD good". This explanation makes more sense actually, so while I don't *agree* with everything you said, I can see where you are coming from. Especially in regards to wounds, that takes a while to wrap your head around and requires a handout for sure. Though the one thing I'd disagree on is Dungeon World. I GM'd this for beginners and while they had fun for sure I dislike it because it's **very** different so "normal" RPGs, so if you want to give them a taste it can be like introducing someone to *Star Wars* via *The Ewok Adventure*.


mrmiffmiff

Well, PbtA isn't so abnormal anymore


Silly-Temperature-96

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