Bennies
Players start each session with three Bennies. More can be earned through Hindrances, as roleplaying awards, or when any player draws a Joker during combat (in which case all players receive a Benny).
Spend a Benny to:
- Reroll a Trait: Reroll any Trait roll and keep the best total. Critical Failures cannot be rerolled.
- Reroll Damage: Reroll a damage roll.
- Recover from Shaken: Instantly recovers from Shaken status.
- Draw a New Action Card: After all Action Cards are dealt, get a new Action Card and keep the one you like.
- Regain Power Points: Instantly recover 5 Power Points.
- Influence the Story: This one is entirely up to the Game Master, who may allow your character to spend a Benny to find an additional clue if you’re stuck, come up with some mundane but needed item, or push a nonplayer character into being a bit more agreeable.
- Temporarily Gain a Combat Edge: This option is only available in campaigns using the High Adventure setting rule. Characters can spend a Benny to gain the one-time use of a Combat Edge. They have to meet the Rank and any Edge requirements as usual but can ignore Trait requirements. Multiple Bennies can be spent in one round for multiple Edges, either for different effects or in order to meet a needed requirement to gain another Edge.
Conviction
Special award earned for experiencing great victory or catastrophic misfortune.
Using Conviction:
- Conviction can be spent to add a d6 to all a character's Trait and damage totals until the beginning of their next turn. This die can Ace, and its result is added to the final total.
- Maintain Conviction from round to round by spending a Benny at the start of one's turn.
Encumbrance
Encumbered characters subtract 2 from Pace (minimum 1″), running rolls, Agility and all linked skills, and Vigor rolls made to resist Fatigue.
At three times the lifted weight or more, they can move at a Pace of 1 for a number of rounds equal to their Vigor. Every round thereafter they must succeed at a Vigor roll or take a level of Fatigue.
The maximum weight a character can lift or carry is four times the listed weight.
In certain settings (e.g. supers, Rifts), Super Strength rules apply for Strength over d12.
Normal Strength
| Strength |
Load Limit |
Max Weight |
| d4 |
20 |
80 |
| d6 |
40 |
160 |
| d8 |
60 |
240 |
| d10 |
80 |
320 |
| d12 |
100 |
400 |
| Each +1 |
+20 |
+80 |
Super Strength
| Strength |
Load Limit |
Max Weight |
| d12+1 |
125 |
500 |
| d12+2 |
250 |
1,000 |
| d12+3 |
500 |
1 ton |
| d12+4 |
1,000 |
2 tons |
| d12+5 |
2,000 |
4 tons |
| d12+6 |
2 tons |
8 tons |
| d12+7 |
4 tons |
16 tons |
| d12+8 |
8 tons |
32 tons |
| d12+9 |
16 tons |
64 tons |
| d12+10 |
32 tons |
128 tons |
| d12+11 |
64 tons |
256 tons |
| d12+12 |
125 tons |
500 tons |
| d12+13 |
250 tons |
1K tons |
| d12+14 |
500 tons |
2K tons |
| d12+15 |
1K tons |
4K tons |
Heavy Item Table
| Example |
Weight |
Damage |
| Parking Meter |
50 |
Str+d10 |
| Large Rock |
100 |
Str+d12 |
| Boulder |
200 |
Str+d12+1 |
| Lamp Post |
400 |
Str+d12+2 |
| Large Tree* |
1,000 |
Str+d12+3 |
| Statue |
1 ton |
Str+d12+4 |
| Car |
2 tons |
Str+d12+5 |
| Truck |
4 tons |
Str+d12+6 |
| Armored Car |
8 tons |
Str+d12+7 |
| APC |
16 tons |
Str+d12+8 |
*Items this heavy or more automatically
do Heavy Damage when used as a weapon. |
Taking Damage
| Damage |
If Victim Is Unshaken… |
If Victim Is Already Shaken… |
Success (0-3 points of
damage over Toughness) |
Shaken |
1 Wound and remains Shaken |
1 Raise (4-7 points of
damage over Toughness) |
1 Wound and Shaken |
1 Wound and remains Shaken |
2 Raises (8-11 points of
damage over Toughness) |
2 Wounds and Shaken |
2 Wounds and remains Shaken |
3 Raises (12-15 points of
damage over Toughness) |
3 Wounds and Shaken |
3 Wounds and remains Shaken |
Wounds
Extras are Incapacitated if they take a single Wound. They're dead, injured, or otherwise out of the fight. **Wild Cards* can take three Wounds and still function (more with certain Edges or abilities).
Wound Penalties: Each Wound a character suffers causes a −1 cumulative penalty to their Pace (minimum of 1″) and all Trait rolls—up to a maximum penalty of −3.
Incapacitation
Incapacitated characters may not perform actions but are still dealt Action Cards. Edges or Hindrances that affect card draws are ignored when the hero is Incapacitated.
Make an immediate Vigor roll:
- Critical Failure: The character dies.
- Failure: Roll on the Injury Table. The Injury is permanent and the character is Bleeding Out (Savage Worlds page 95).
- Success: Roll on the Injury Table. The Injury goes away when all Wounds are healed.
- Raise: Roll on the Injury Table. The Injury goes away in 24 hours, or when all Wounds are healed (whichever is sooner).
Soak Rolls
After damage, but before applying wounds, spend a Benny to make a "Soak" roll with a Vigor check. Each success and raise reduces Wounds from that attack by one.
If all Wounds are Soaked, recover from Shaken as well.
Combat Options
Called Shots
| Location |
Modifer |
Notes |
| Limb |
-2 |
|
| Hand |
-4 |
May disarm |
| Head/Vitals |
-4 |
+4 damage |
Cover
| Penalty |
Cover |
| -2 |
Light Cover: A quarter of the target is obscured. |
| -4 |
Medium Cover: Half the target is obscured, or target is prone. |
| -6 |
Heavy Cover: Three-quarters of the target is obscured. |
| -8 |
Near Total Cover: The target is barely visible. |
Ranged Combat
Range Penalties
| Range |
Modifier |
| Short |
— |
| Medium |
-2 |
| Long |
-4 |
Extreme
(see notes) |
-8 |
Rate of Fire
| Rate of Fire |
Shots Used Per Shot |
| 1 |
1 |
| 2 |
5 |
| 3 |
10 |
| 4 |
20 |
| 5 |
40 |
| 6 |
50 |
Tests
To perform a Test:
- Describe the action and work with the GM to determine the most appropriate skill.
- Roll that skill to initiate the Test in an opposed roll.
- Defender rolls the Attribute associated with the selected Skill.
- If successful, attacker chooses to make the defender Distracted or Vulnerable.
- With a raise, the defender is also Shaken, possibly with other effects (e.g. knocked prone).
Conditions
- Defend: Sacrifice all actions for +4 Parry.
- Distracted: Victim subtracts 2 from all Trait rolls until the end of their next turn.
- Vulnerable: Actions and attacks against the victim gain +2 until the end of the victim's next turn. Does not stack with The Drop.
- Entangled: Victim can't move and is Distracted.
- Bound: Victim can't move, is Distracted and Vulnerable, and cannot make physical actions other than trying to break free.
Activation
To use a power, the caster must be able to see their target and cannot be Bound. Select a power and roll Roll arcane skill (e.g. Spellcasting, Focus, etc.).
- Success: The power activates and consumes all the Power Points allocated to it.
- Raise: See power description for special effects of a raise.
- Failure: The power does not activate. The caster spends one Power Point.
- Critical Failure: The power does not activate, and the caster suffers Backlash. This causes a level of Fatigue and all currently active powers instantly terminate. (Some settings have special rules for Backlash.)
Maintaining Powers
It costs 1 Power Point to maintain a power for its base Duration. Maintenance is per target but ignores the costs of other Power Modifiers. Unless a power says otherwise, the caster can terminate it as a free action.
Recharging
A character recovers 5 Power Points per hour (rate of recharge may vary by setting) spent resting, meditating, etc. What constitutes “rest” is up to the GM, but they do not recharge while powers are maintained, or during anything more than mild physical exertion, emotional stress, or mental distraction.
Shorting
A character may cast a power with fewer Power Points than it requires (whether they have them or not). They suffer -1 to the arcane skill roll for every PP they short by. Failing a shorted arcane skill roll is considered a Critical Failure.
Power Modifiers
- Armor Piercing (+1 to +3): Each PP spent grants the power AP 2; maximum AP 6.
- Fatigue (+2): May be used on powers that damage or can be resisted. Causes victim a level of Fatigue (cannot cause Incapacitation).
- Glow/Shround (+1): Creates a soft light or dimming effect in a Small Blast Template centered on target.
- Glow subtracts 2 from target's Stealth rolls and negates 1 point of Illumination penalties for those attacking them.
- Shroud adds 1 to target's Stealth rolls and imposes a -1 penalty to those attacking them.
- Heavy Weapon (+2): Attack counts as a Heavy Weapon.
- Hinder/Hurry (+1): Causes -2 or +2 to target's Pace.
- Lingering Damage (+2): On victim's next turn they suffer the base damage minus one die type.
- Range (+1/+2): Double power's listed Range for 1 PP, or triple it for 2 PP. Cannot be used for Range of Touch or Cone Template.
- Selective (+1): Choose not to affect any or all individual targets in a power's area of effect.
Synergy
Sometimes logic dictates a power’s Trapping should have some additional effect. Zapping someone with a lightning bolt while they’re standing in water should cause additional damage, for example.
When this occurs, the GM can decide there’s synergy that either increases or decreases the effect or damage (GM’s call) by +2 or −2.
Oppositional forces, such as fire and ice or light and darkness, don’t have synergy against one another (though such effects are sometimes accounted for in some creatures’ Special Abilities). If a fire blast hits ice armor (protection), for example, there’s no additional effect because they cancel each other out.
Cantrips
In some settings, those who use arcane powers can use their abilities for mundane purposes. Such lesser applications of powers are collectively called “cantrips.”
GM has final say on what a cantrip can do, but the effect must not replace a power or cause damage (at least directly). It can be used to Test or Support, or grant a +1 bonus on a subsequent roll in the same encounter.
Activation
In most cases, no roll is needed to perform a cantrip. The GM should only call for a roll if the success of failure of the cantrip will be significant in some way (e.g. using a cantrip to Test or Support).
In cases when a roll is called for, make an arcane skill roll. The effect must be based on an existing power.
- Success: Desired effect occurs with no PP cost.
- Raise: Additional narrative impact of some kind.
- Failure: The cantrip fails without effect.
- Critical Failure: Caster loses 1 PP or suffers Fatigue. Also causes embarrassment or minor mishap.
A successfully cast cantrip’s Duration is the same as the power it’s based on and may be maintained by spending Power Points as usual.
