My first homebrew SWADE campaign - technical help appreciated!

[HywelPhillips]

Hi,

I've been running Deadlands and SWADE for a while and I'm just embarking upon my first full home-brew campaign. There are a few technical FG questions which I'd appreciate some help with if anyone can kindly spare the time? It's mostly to do with the ruleset "philosophy" which is a bit different from 5E and which I'm struggling to get my head around from the wiki.

1) Are players intended to apply situational effects for themselves, or is it intended that GM does all of that?

For example, if someone decides to make a Wild Attack, there is an effect that covers that, and it is pretty easy to code as well [Attack +2, Melee Damage +2, @Attack +2]. Is there a way to add that effect to the character sheet so the player can click it and situationally apply it to their own character? I tried adding an "attack" to the combat tab with that as an effect but it doesn't seem to behave as I'd expect - I can "apply" the effect by clicking the little button, but it doesn't actually seem to do it.

In 5E I like to give the players control over this sort of effect - takes load off me as a GM and allows the player to have all the common things they invoke right there on their actions tab ready to apply to themselves. There isn't really an equivalent to the 5E action tab in SWADE, are we just not meant to do things that way at all? I could maybe add them as powers but that makes no sense for martial characters with no arcane backgrounds.

I can see how to add permanent effects to the character sheet and stuff that only applies when a weapon is being used [>effects] but that's not the same as "this effect should apply when I do this situational thing".

I really want to do this for things like the Savagery edge, so that player has their customised effect of [Attack +2, Melee Damage +4, @Attack +2] instead of the regular one without me having to remember to use the correct version on them every time.


2) Am I correct in thinking that there isn't a way to set out the predefined damage types for a campaign? There are some reserved keywords (Arcane, Melee, and the like) but mostly it's just up to me as the GM to make up and stick to a set of keywords which I put in the keywords box weapon by weapon and power by power, right?

And that also means no way of mapping the damage types to funky dice types for dice rolling for SWADE. (Not the end of the world, by any means! I just want to make sure I'm not missing how to do it).


3) The Size ability in the Abilities sidebar menu just has a link to description for all sizes.

If I drag and drop that to an NPC sheet, it has no effect.

Whereas if I look at something like the Giant Bee from the Fantasy Companion it says Size -2 (Small). It seems to be all I need to do is to rename the thing I drag and dropped from the abilities to Size -2 (Small) and the system picks it up, is that correct? There's not some underlying effect being applied or something is there, it is picking it up straight from the name of the ability?



Any help appreciated!

Cheers, Hywel

[Lonewolf]

1. Effects are either going to be permanently travelling with an item. It’s equipped the effect applies. So, players can simply give the item to another player.

Or they are temporary situational effects like Wild Attack or from Powers. A player can open and search the Effects window. They can drag the effects to Combat Tracker. Those for Powers are also accessible through the descriptions. If a player sets targets, they can apply spell effects themselves onto the targets. Regular used player Effects can also be placed on the hot bar and used from there.

The only thing players can't do is remove an effect without GM approval. This is done by one single mouse click from the GM. A GM has some other superpowers. They can turn off but keep an effect and they can put an effect in stealth mode, so the players don't see it if they want to.

2. There are no predefined damage types in SWADE rules. Read up on Trappings and Limitations.

You could simply add any word under keywords. Think more in terms of creature weakness or defense. All the basic generic keywords are already on the items. Have a look at Arcane Resistance for an example of a damage blocking ability. If you have some kind of Devil that takes double damage from holy weapons. Add Holy to weapon and it’s the same damage for everyone. However, a devil with a weakness of [@Double Holy Damage] will take double damage.

Since any keyword can be used the whole system is limited only by imagination. Since we don’t have silly hardcoded damage types. The only downside of this is there is no way to allocate specific colored dice to different attacks. People have investigated the issue so it might happen in the future.

3. An ability of Size X is all you need add to an NPC. If you drop the ability from the sidebar on to NPC all it does is give you a way to link to the rules section. Considering the X number can have 24 different values of course it easier just let you add the number manually.
The Size number here does not change the other NPC record numbers in any way. There are no rules in SWADE for NPC creation.

When an NPC is placed on the Combat Tracker a unique instance of the NPC is stored there. It will have a Size Attribute created automatically on the Combat Tracker. Using the number, you added to the Size ability. This number is what is used in all dice calculations during combat. If someone then hits the creature with a Growth / Shrink the Power. Effects are again right under the Power description. An effect can therefore influence the die calculations easily.

When looking at basic effect notes on the wiki (https://fantasygroundsunity.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/FGCP/pages/996643800/Savage+Worlds+Effects) scroll right down to bottom of the page and look at the syntax examples.

At some point the community should really go back and add a bunch of new examples on the extented damage system. It was recently updated for development of next Pathfinder campaign. Right now I can't say much about this. Help flare fired on Discord ;)

[Lonewolf]

Also see Mike's examples here https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?77167-Help-me-understand-the-damage-effects

Wiki Ideas here https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?72619-List-of-Undocumented-SWADE-Ruleset-Features

[HywelPhillips]

Hi,

Thanks! I'd seen Mike's exemplary posts already, I was just wondering if there was a way to define the damage types for a particular campaign in one place so as to be able to assign custom dice. No biggie, would be a cool feature in due course. The main thing is that I wasn't missing how to do it :)

Thanks for the size info, that helps me understand where everything is defined.

And I guess the answer for my first question (about applying temporary situational effects) is that this is something expected to be handled either by the GM, or by the players directly applying effects from the effects menu in SWADE. I guess probably because SWADE has far fewer of them than D&D 5E, which is why D&D has them on the actions tab for players to curate just the effects they need for their own character.

I'll suggest players with edges which take advantage of things like Wild Attacks which they're going to using very regularly should apply those via shortcuts on the menu bar as you suggested - good call, thanks!!

Cheers, Hywel

[dogfisc]

As a player I use Wild Attack a lot, and just dragged it from the Effects window to my hotbar. If a player needs a slightly different effect like the Savagery Edge you mentioned, you can create that effect and then have the player drag that to the hotbar instead.

If a player needs a lot of effects, like someone using Boost/Lower Trait a lot, they (or you) can create a new power on their character sheet and edit it to just add effects that they can then apply just like using an effect from a pre-created Power.

[HywelPhillips]

Ah the paladin example would be very useful, thank you!

[dogfisc]

Ah the paladin example would be very useful, thank you!

I added them to my post above. The paladin also has several leadership edges, so I included that as well.