Savage Worlds and Tokens

[Vowels]

I'm squeaky new to using FG2 and Savage Worlds and I've been going through tutorials and the forums, but I just cannot seem to grasp how you assign tokens to player characters and bad guys. Would someone either give me the "tokens for dummies" version or link to the thread that explains it all?

Thanks guys!

Vowels

[phantomwhale]

PCs cannot be assigned tokens - instead they get a generated token based off the chosen portrait for that PC. You can get hold of this token by dragging from the selected character portrait, or one is automatically assigned when the character is added to the combat tracker.

NPCs need to be assigned tokens. These can either be assigned by opening up the tokens box and dragging the token on to the NPC window (top left, on the grey circle) or by dragging it onto the NPC entry in the combat tracker. Again, the NPC will automatically get a copy of it's assigned token when added to the combat tracker, so normally you want to do the former.

By default, SW comes with the letter tokens - note that there is a small bug that these don't always share correctly, which may be fixed in the upcoming FG version (2.9) - I've not checked yet. In any case, you may want to add your own tokens - search the forums for some freebies, or check out the store / make your own.

[Vowels]

Ahhhh! I understand. Thank you very much for your quick response!

[longarms]

I am looking for information on stackable tokens in the SW ruleset.

I was reading a thread about some code in the "core" database for stacking tokens. I do not know the terminology and how the "core" database relates to what I am interested in, which is the SW ruleset.

Cheers.

[phantomwhale]

Not sure what stackable tokens are - but at a guess, it's related to some of the cleverness Joshua wrote for 4E (adding status tokens to main tokens ?) which I think moon_wizard may of looked at implementing into the core ruleset, but I'm really not sure about that part.

In any case, if it's something added into 4E, I can look at adding it to SWEX if there is enough demand, and good reason to do so (see my signature for the wishlist links). But I think up until at least now this has been a user-created addon for 4E only, and not something I've kept up with, so might need more prompts / hints before I can say what it's certainty of appearing in SWEX is.

The "core" part might refer to adding this functionality (whatever it is) into the "Core" FGII engine - which would mean it would be there for 4E / SWEX or any other ruleset to tap into. If that were the case, then it would be an excellent feature for a new version and would require much less work to simply enable it (or it MIGHT even be a freebie and work with the current version). But now I am speculating on speculation :)

[longarms]

No more speculation :)

https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15216&page=3&highlight=stackable

Here is the quote about the "core":
"It's been realised in Foundation Core here, but not as a separate extension. "

Again, I do not know all the terminology.


EDIT: while I am curious about this feature regardless, how do you all communicate which creatures have -2 parry from wild attacks and such, which creatures are prone, which creatures are wounded, etc. on the map. I know some of these statuses can be tracked on the combat tracker, but savage worlds has a strong tactical element. It is nice to see on the map how conditions are spread across the battlefield. DUring in person games, we throw colored hoops on the minutures to mark which one is wounded, shaken, lowered parry, etc.

[Vowels]

I'm a real noob to the system, but my group has just been marking wounded or whatever on the tracker, and on the game board, we turn something sideways. I read somewhere that something in SW is either Up, Turned, or off the board. Anything Turned or flipped sideways, has some condition on it--check the tracker.

[phantomwhale]

Yep - the spirit of SWEX combat was always "up, sideways or off the board".

I rotate shaken tokens rather than use the tracker, and inc tokens are just deleted. Wild cards get marked on the tracker for me. And -2 Parry doesn't really come up much, but we play Deadlands, so maybe there is less melee hence less interest in the -2 Parry penalty. A -2 Parry tracking feature could be added (again, wishlist link in sig.) although right now you could quickly add it as an "Effect" with a 1 round timer on it. Not that the effects UI is perfect, but it DOES work...

As for token overlays, the Foundation Core is the "unofficial" best of what 4E has, combined with some extra niceness from Joshua - one of these being token overlays. It's intended for 3rd parties to develop from, having a strong base of all the useful "core" features that 4E and other rulesets use. But this means overlays are not yet part of any official ruleset (I assume).

Would be nice to have some visual indicator of shaken / wounds / -2 Parry, and overlays would be great, but so far nothing on the wishlist for it, and I wonder how many people would REALLY get a lot out of it, given the philosophy of "up, sideways or off the table" that help SW fights speed past.

It could look awesome though - although might depend which tokens you use, so again might not be for everyone.

[Doswelk]

I have to admit I am the same: tilt the token 45 degrees for shaken and 90 degrees for prone.

-2 might be useful but my players are always helpful to point out when their parry has changed (up or down - I have a great group) that said I will be creating a -2 parry modifier and adding it to effects list.

[Griogre]

Yeah, me too, 45 degrees for shaken - upside down for prone and dead off the map. That is one of the joys of SW. :)

[longarms]

Here is what I have used for years:

Left 45 is parry +2 (defend option)
Right 45 is parry -2 (wild attack)
Right 90 is shaken.

That really does work pretty well (I agree with all the other posters). However, its not a perfect solution because it sort of requires defining the encoding to new players, clicking sometimes more than once, being not necessarily consistent across other SW games (which might use different encoding via rotation), etc. etc.

I'll look into these effects to see if it is a better way to track than encoding via rotation (although I doubt it because showing information in the combat tracker is not as good in my opinion as showing it on the tokens themselves or on the map adjacent to the tokens). That is really what I am trying to say here - showing information on the tokens or via the tokens is the best way to both track and convey tactical information. Hope that makes sense.

[zackspacks]

Hi all
The -2 Parry would certainly be useful for the group I play in. As things like Taunt, Intimidate, and especially Tricks are frequently used by the players. This can often end in both status' being in place for one token. Currently we just have to hope somebody remembers ! We've actually bungled along like this for nearly a year now. I guess the other problem with the letter tokens being (in)visible overshadowed this, so I must have forgotten to add this to the wishlist. Consider it added :)
Cheers
Paul

Here it is :)
https://savagefgii.idea.informer.com/proj/?ia=45696

[Doswelk]

Voted for :)