Beginner DM, need advice please

[apassingclepto]

Hello (hope this is the right place),

I would like to start personalized campaign, but I have no idea how to balance the difficulty of the story.
I have already played a one-shot with friends, but this time I'm looking for long term campaign.
Do you have any advices?

[zarlor]

Funny thing is for Savage Worlds you almost don't have to worry about it. What I mean by that is it's really easy, in general, to adjust the difficulty on the fly if you just keep in mind the idea that a + or -2 modifier on a roll is pretty good so essentially if you think of a straight roll (usually TN4) as being a standard for success then you know that if they have +2 on it then it's making it an easier roll, +4 makes it essentially an automatic success (why are you bothering to have them roll that one at all ;)) and a +6 should be an auto-success for a roll in a difficult situation (in other words with +6 you're overcoming the negative modifiers to the TN, such as being able to negate cover and/or darkness or the like). In the opposite direction a -2 to a roll (or a -2 to the TN if you prefer to look at it that way) means there is some difficulty involved, -4 should mean something tough, and -6 should be for really tough situations but where there is still some chance of success (the dice do get to ace in SWADE, after all).

In the case of combat encounters I often think in terms of having a wild card or maybe 2 against a parti with maybe 1 or 2 extras per PC in play, so you can quickly scale up or down with more or less mooks. You can also see how the dice are rolling in a combat and scale on the fly accordingly. Are they having a tough time against the wild card baddie? Have the baddie conveniently forget about some special ability they have, or don't bother spending a GM Bennie to chip that soak roll. Does it seem a little too easy? Take extra advantage of tactics such as having mooks use an action to Support the wild card or to do Tests to make PCs Vulnerable or Distracted, and take advantage of terrain. Pull in some reserver mooks if really needed. Use those chips and even have the wild card take chips from their mooks as they "sacrifice themselves for their leader". And remember that those aren't just game mechanics, weave them into the story. You're not just using a chip to soak the wound from that blow, rather "You send a mighty strike straight for their shoulder," (the one wound that was incoming that dramatically toss out a chip for and make that soak roll in front of them) "but at the last minute he subtly moves to the left and it just glances off of his shoulder-pad!" or "Just as the blow lands the guard steps in and deflects your weapon from hitting their boss at the last second!" (If you used a chip that way).

It will take some experience to kind of figure out when to do some of those kinds of things, but you only really get that experience by doing. Just be willing to forgive yourself when you make the inevitable mistakes but also use those as learning experiences to do better next time. It'll come with time, but thankfully for you I think SWADE is a very forgiving system on that front and you'll likely learn quickly how to scale things.

[apassingclepto]

I see, I'll try to keep that in mind during the firsts sessions. Thanks for the advice, it was really helpful ! :D

[HywelPhillips]

I'm also fairly new to SWADE, running both a Savage Pathfinder campaign and a Deadlands campaign.

It's obviously combat which is the trickiest to balance, as that's the one that has immediate life-or-death consequences for the PCs. We had a near total-party-kill on our first outing with Savage Pathfinder at the hands of some goblins and gang-up bonuses. These are a few of the tips I've picked up so far.

1) SWADE is tactical, crunchy and very swingy in combat. Players who are new to the system are going to get absolutely massacred until they find their feet. So take these "wildcard plus one or two extras per PC" guidelines with a pinch of salt- I think it is good for novice SWADE characters, but not novice SWADE players. I'd say one extra per PC is PLENTY for the first few fights, and one wildcard plus one extra per PC makes a near-lethal boss fight.

2) Introduce your players to tactical options early, especially if they are coming from new systems. Taunt, test, support, distracted, vulnerable, gang-up, boost-lower trait, armour piercing, smite, and ways to boost damage against high toughness foes are the first things to get them thinking about.

3) Balance: look at the toughness of your wild cards in particular and compare with the typical damage of your PCs. If the wild card has toughness 13 and the PCs are generally handing out 2d6 damage, they need to hit with a raise or have dice explode before they even get a snifter of a chance to shake the wildcard. DROP THEIR TOUGHNESS or make sure the players realise that this is a powerful foe they need to gang up on, support and test, everything to maximise the chances of hitting with a raise. Otherwise they'll try to attack D&D style to wear the foe down and that does not work in SWADE.

Do NOT put a high toughness wild card in with a bunch of extras who are going to gang up as an early encounter. My players are still struggling with that combo with about 20 sessions of Deadlands/Pathfinder under their belts.

Hope that's of some help!

Hywel