how to gain powers

[Niles]

I am new to Savage Worlds and am loving it, but still trying to figure out some rules. How do you gain powers? Is it by advancement or rank? And how many new powers are you allowed per advancement or rank? And it looks like that any of the arcane backgrounds can use any of the powers, they are not divided up by arcane category. Is that correct? Thanks for helping me understand this.

[damned]

Find the place of ancient power, where the stones still stand tall and the druids did once commune with the old gods.
Sacrifice a black goat at 6 minutes past the moons zenith on the winter solstice.
Spill the creatures entrails into an onyx bowl and read the foretelling revealed there.
Take the creatures blood and paint the power runes as guided by the foretelling.
Do not tarry nor waver in your resolve.
Those that grant the power do so only to the worthy.
Wear the goats head and face the sun as it breaks the horizon on the new dawn and with a cold forged silver blade draw forth 6 ounces of thine own blood and paint the runes on your own body.
Keep thine hand steady for the spirits are close and they thirst for the blood of the weak and unworthy.
Finally make your pact offering, swear unto the dark ones and pray they accept your present.

[Doswelk]

I am new to Savage Worlds and am loving it, but still trying to figure out some rules. How do you gain powers? Is it by advancement or rank? And how many new powers are you allowed per advancement or rank? And it looks like that any of the arcane backgrounds can use any of the powers, they are not divided up by arcane category. Is that correct? Thanks for helping me understand this.
When you advance you can (among other options), take an edge, if that edge is New Power you can take a power of the same Rank or Lower, i.e. Seasoned PC can select a Seasoned or Novice Power.

In the core rules there are no limitations on what powers can be taken, but many settings do limit power selection.

[SirGraystone]

Find the place of ancient power, where the stones still stand tall and the druids did once commune with the old gods.
Sacrifice a black goat at 6 minutes past the moons zenith on the winter solstice.
Spill the creatures entrails into an onyx bowl and read the foretelling revealed there.
Take the creatures blood and paint the power runes as guided by the foretelling.
Do not tarry nor waver in your resolve.
Those that grant the power do so only to the worthy.
Wear the goats head and face the sun as it breaks the horizon on the new dawn and with a cold forged silver blade draw forth 6 ounces of thine own blood and paint the runes on your own body.
Keep thine hand steady for the spirits are close and they thirst for the blood of the weak and unworthy.
Finally make your pact offering, swear unto the dark ones and pray they accept your present.

Or you can just try to find a radioactive spider to bite you.

[Doswelk]

Or you can just try to find a radioactive spider to bite you.
Ah! But then you are shackled with great responsibilities.

[Ikael]

When you advance you can (among other options), take an edge, if that edge is New Power you can take a power of the same Rank or Lower, i.e. Seasoned PC can select a Seasoned or Novice Power.

In the core rules there are no limitations on what powers can be taken, but many settings do limit power selection.

In SWADE the edge is called "New Powers" and you get TWO new powers.

[Doswelk]

In SWADE the edge is called "New Powers" and you get TWO new powers.

Whoah! Missed that change! :o

[Sgain]

What I do in my fantasy games is that when a player finds another Arcane background (magic) users 'spellbook' and they take the new power edge; they can learn those powers if they want (2 per New Power edge). They can also 'trade out' powers of equal or lesser rank if they have a spellbook with the spell in it. All spellcasters (magic) keep a book with spells in it and sell/trade them with other spellcasters.
Makes a sort of economy for them, it also makes it more exciting for spellcasters when they take out another spellcaster. They immediately start searching for their book. Thieves also like to get their hands on power spellbooks - to sell them of course.
Faith based casters simply pray overnight and get new powers. Gifted must be trained by someone with the new power, or seen/had it cast upon themselves to learn it.

[rodney418]

The Powers themselves are "general purpose" in the sense that they are the basic mechanics of how they work. If you are running a game with Arcane Backgrounds, then as a GM I'd advise building them out with flavour and trappings into more interesting atmospheric spells. Zadmar's free Savage Spellbook is a godsend for this, and I highly recommend it.

https://www.godwars2.org/SavageWorlds/SavageSpellbook.pdf

I just give my players a copy of that to choose from. Or pick something from it to put in a found spellbook, depending on how experienced they are and what makes sense in the setting.

If a player is very experienced in Savage Worlds I might allow them to create their own spells, but I insist they do it in a similar manner to this i.e. nobody gets to have a spell called simply "Bolt". Instead it needs to be something like "Master Cho's Amazing Ice Dart", or "Immaculate Bolt of Fiery Doom", etc.

[Sgain]

good point Rodney! I have used that pdf a lot in my games to add more fun to spellcasting.

Also, GM's should remember that the rules are for a 'sandbox' - you can do pretty much whatever you like with stuff, if you just want spellcasters to gain new powers when they take the edge, then do it. If you want it to be a major pain in the rear - then do that. I run 3 fantasy based games and I use different rules for each one. Makes it a lot more fun for me as the GM. I have to use a cheat sheet to keep track of our rules - and I was majorly glad to see that they included a list in the SWADE rules for just that.

[Niles]

good point Rodney! I have used that pdf a lot in my games to add more fun to spellcasting.

Also, GM's should remember that the rules are for a 'sandbox' - you can do pretty much whatever you like with stuff, if you just want spellcasters to gain new powers when they take the edge, then do it. If you want it to be a major pain in the rear - then do that. I run 3 fantasy based games and I use different rules for each one. Makes it a lot more fun for me as the GM. I have to use a cheat sheet to keep track of our rules - and I was majorly glad to see that they included a list in the SWADE rules for just that.

Thank you guys, for all the advice! I can see that SW very much is a sandbox. When I started learning all the mechanics, I could see things that I liked and other things where I wanted to change the way it worked and saw no problem doing so. I'm very much impressed with this ruleset. I am trying to run a wild west/steampunk campaign in 5e but I can see this fits the bill much better.


Mike

[rodney418]

When I first started playing SW I also saw a lot of things I wanted to change. But after playing it for a while I realised that the whole thing hangs together in a much more coherent way than most other systems, and there was hardly anything that actually needed changing. So my advice is run it RAW to begin with so you can see how well balanced and playable it really is.

And if you want to run a steampunk style game, SW is definitely the best choice! You might also find the Deadlands and Rippers Resurrected settings to have some great additional material too.

[Skellan]

When I first read savage worlds, there were lots of things that looked dumb on paper but after actually playing with them they turned out to be awesome. So I second the advice above to play it RAW first and then tinker after :D

[Mike Serfass]

Find the place of ancient power, where the stones still stand tall and the druids did once commune with the old gods.
Sacrifice a black goat at 6 minutes past the moons zenith on the winter solstice.
Spill the creatures entrails into an onyx bowl and read the foretelling revealed there.
Take the creatures blood and paint the power runes as guided by the foretelling.
Do not tarry nor waver in your resolve.
Those that grant the power do so only to the worthy.
Wear the goats head and face the sun as it breaks the horizon on the new dawn and with a cold forged silver blade draw forth 6 ounces of thine own blood and paint the runes on your own body.
Keep thine hand steady for the spirits are close and they thirst for the blood of the weak and unworthy.
Finally make your pact offering, swear unto the dark ones and pray they accept your present.

This is the way we've been doing it, but after rereading the SWADE rules I see it's been changed.

You can't really say "blast is wizards only" because blast it a template. Here's an example of something you can do in a fantasy setting:
druids get insect swarm (blast with insect trapping)
elementalists get fireball (blast with fire trapping)
priests get holy light (blast with sacred light trapping; doesn't hurt party members or town guards but does extra damage against undead and evil things)
psions get mental shriek (blast with psychic trapping; alternative rule: it could do fatigue rather than wounds)
wizards get chain lightning (blast with lightning trapping, a chain that jumps between everyone in the radius)
shamans get ancestral rage (blast with spirits that pummel your energy body)

[ChoTimberwolf]

I am running a fantasy game with base SWADE rules for two years, my advice after that is to really ask your players to give every power an awesome trapping. I don't think the GM needs to pre define all ackgrounds before but I would tell my players that I keep the right to veto powers for certain backgrounds (for example got one player that made a metal mage as a trapping, stun was a huge bell that rings above enemies to stun them etc but he wanted healing, so its a mix of needle work and metal bandages and it still feels weird...I should have made it clear that its the players job to explain how their powers work, metal bandages are fine but he couldn't give me a good explanation how his metal magic works against poisons so far)

[Mgrancey]

he couldn't give me a good explanation how his metal magic works against poisons so far)

An ominously glowing device with all kinds of vials, tubes, and a Jacob's Ladder? He shoves some steampunk Activated Charcol down their throats, which they then heave up at a later time?


So far my only real issues are the monotony you can get with skills in Dramatic Tasks, the limited outline for extra raises, and something more for games where Vehicles play a bigger role. I am eagerly awaiting Sci-Fi companion.