Adversaries: Wild Cards vs Joe Shmoes

[JohnD]

So I was GMing a SW zombie apocalypse game tonight.

The Group came up against what seems to be a band of raiders. Most were armed with melee weapons, baseball bats, knives, table legs, that sort of thing. A couple had single shot pistols and one had an automatic rifle. Two were WCs and the other 4 were Joe Schmoes.

The group on the other hand, five strong, almost everyone had a pistol of some kind and one had an automatic rifle. Bennies were I'd say roughly 40% depleted.

This ended up being an almost TPK, and it still might be after another round or so.

What is the guidance on using WCs as adversaries? The two WCs in this instance were shot point blank with an automatic rifle and were with just 2 Bennies each soak away and remove almost all the damage which would otherwise have killed them outright. Is this just really really really bad luck (there were a few damage rolls that seemed like they were exploding into infinity)?

Of all the systems I run/play, SW is the one I feel least familiar with, so I'm hoping for some guidance.

[Talyn]

Wildcards are equivalent-ish to player characters, and they have their own bennies, so usually only one, maybe two WC in your average tough encounter. Extras are meant to go down quick (similar to minions in 4E) but they can still put up a good fight, so a lot of published adventures use 2, sometimes 3 Extras per PC. If there's a WC, I'd stick to just 2 per PC. If they're intentionally wimpy extras and no WC, then I'd do 3, maybe even 4 per PC.

So your example of 2 WC and 4 extras sounds about right. The melee extras should have gone down quick if your players were using ranged attacks (pistols) assuming the extras didn't take cover and were trying to reach the party? Once they're in melee range, then it's anyone's guess how that'll play out. Savage Worlds is "swingy" after all.

But if your players aren't using Tricks, etc. then having a WC do it to them is a good way to teach them to use the other rules and mechanics instead of shoot/hit things.

[JohnD]

One time a hit exploded so much a PC went from full health to 5 wounds. Even with full Bennies enough damage couldn't be soaked. Another PC went from unhurt to 7 wounds.

Is there any rule on a maximum number of explosion dice?

[Talyn]

Negative, that's the "swingy" bit of SW. :) The dice are free to explode until they stop exploding.

Don't know what type of things the players were having the characters do, but playing Savage Worlds in general is a great way to blow their minds that d20 combat "stand in place and play rock 'em, sock 'em robots til someone's HP runs out" will quickly get you killed in non-d20 games. If guns are drawn, the first action the characters should state is "holy crap, I dive for cover!"

Even in melee, some no-name Extra can have his dice explode and unintentionally kill your legendary heroes dead with a single hit.

[Ikael]

There is no official setting rule to limit how many times dices can ace but if you want to define house rule, you could use "Ace limit one" extension I wrote https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?38569-Ikael-s-miscellaneous-extensions&p=340809&viewfull=1#post340809

That extension limits each die to explode just once. But make sure you understand the full effect of it and tell it to your players beforehand.

[JohnD]

Interesting... thanks for the information.

[Ellspeth]

JohnD we are all okay with getting killed. This little old grandmother is likely to be the last standing because I did what Talyn said, got behind cover when I saw they were armed. Won't save me with everyone else down. Still think it is funny. :) And I am coming back as a younger version of myself this time. Though it had to seem weird killing off players playing versions of themselves.