How are Allies supposed to work?

[flynnkd]

When you add an ally to your character sheet what does it do, and how do you use it? (as a player)

Players cant drag it to the CT, or to the map. I was hoping it would be a simple way for players to control NPCs...?

[mac40k]

First of all, which ruleset are you using? In Savage Worlds the GM has to drag all participants onto the CT and then the map, but then the Ally acts on the controlling player's turn and they make all the roles for their Ally.

[Hendell]

1.jpg2.jpg

Hopefully these will help you, allies work very well in savage worlds.

JPEG 1 shows where on the player sheet you can drag and drop them as well as how you add them on the combat tracker using the menu button.

JPEG 2 shows how they will appear linked to the character. You can then open the ally sheet off the player sheet to use skills, attacks ect.

[flynnkd]

SW 4.7 with WWRome 2.1

How did you get the ally to go in as a sub? I tried moving things around but it always ends up as a separate entry.

Ooops... finally saw the menu option...!

[Ikael]

Benefits of using Allies: CT "Add Allies" menu option will bring them to CT. By default Allies are included into the same group as PC but you can extract them by dragging from CT shortcut link. Alternatively hold ALT while clicking the menu option to add them to separate groups.

Second benefit is that player is able to control Ally no matter where it is in the tracker. By default you can only control NPCs who are in the same group as your PC, but Allies allow you to control them even if they are in own group.

[flynnkd]

Got the allies to load properly, many thanks.

Some issues: targetting seems to default to the group leader regardless who is active in the CT. You have to grab the reticule and drag it to get the ally to target properly, CNTL+Click goes to the group leader.
You can't HOLD with an ally, it goes back to the pc, who will have acted already.

[mac40k]

Got the allies to load properly, many thanks.


You can't HOLD with an ally, it goes back to the pc, who will have acted already.

Allies don't get their own Init card and can't go on hold. That's by design. Per the rules for Initiative (SWD pg. 64):
• Every Wild Card is dealt a single card. Any allies under that player’s control act on his initiative card as well.

This is because the intent is to keep it FFF and applies in all situation where NPCs may be involved in combat along with the PCs, not just to permanent sidekicks, retainers, or hirelings. For example if the PCs assisted a dozen villagers in defense against an invader, the GM would divide up the 12 villagers as evenly as possible between the players. That way, not only does the GM not have to worry about the villagers actions, all the players get to be involved in controlling them, not just one or two. It's not designed to give the players the responsibility of playing multiple characters with each villager acting independently. Also note that just because they are acting on the controlling player's init, doesn't mean the NPCs in question are under the PCs command or even physically located anywhere near them on the map.

[flynnkd]

I'm still having problems with this, with regard to giving the players control of their ally. If you use the Menu option to add allies and it sub-groups them it works, players have control. But then you have a lot of targeting problems, and they cant act out of sequence to the player.
I tried the Menu-ALT option and it breaks them up ok, but the players cant control movement, and can't open the NPC sheet, no control.
I tried it the way in the video guide, dropping the NPC on the player character icon to share, but this doesnt seem to work for me?

!!! Doh, forgot to make them allied... works ok, ignore me.