A Beginner's Guide to Savage Worlds (Chapter 6: Advanced Character Creation - Deadlands)

Welcome back to my "Beginner's Guide to Savage Worlds". Last week I looked at advanced combat mechanics. This week, I'll provide another character creation walkthrough to demonstrate how a setting can affect character creation.

For this exercise, I'm going to make a character for one of Pinnacle's flagship titles; Deadlands: The Weird West. This is a dark fantasy set in the American West.

Concept

For my concept, I'll make a bounty hunter called Emmett "Gravedigger" McCloud. A wandering drifter, Emmett had a tendency to attract trouble through no fault of his own. He was shot in the back by an unknown assailant, but seemed to make a miraculous recovery. Eager to find out who it was, he's become a bounty hunter with a reputation for being hard to put down.

Ancestry

In Deadlands, humans are the only playable ancestry. Arthur starts with a free Novice Rank Edge of his choosing.

Hindrances

Since I'm using a specific setting, that gives me more Hindrance options unique to that setting.

• For Emmet's first Hindrance, I'll say he didn't grow up around much water, and has the Can't Swim Hindrance. This is a Minor Hindrance from the Core rules, and imposes a -2 penalty to any Athletics rolls made to swim. And even if the conditions don't require a roll, each inch moved in water uses 3" of Pace.
• My next Hindrance will be Thin Skinned (also from the Core Rules), which represents how Emmett doesn't take kindly to insults. I'll take it as a Minor Hindrance, which imposes a -2 penalty on Smarts rolls made to resist Taunt Tests. There's a Major version too, which imposes a -4 penalty, but I'll stick with the Minor version.
• Finally, I'm going to take Grim Servant o' Death, a Major Hindrance from the Deadlands rulebook. Emmett's talent as a killer means he gets a +1 bonus to all damage rolls. However, any time he rolls a Critical Failure on an attack roll, he hits the nearest ally with a raise.

That's one Major Hindrance and two Minor Hindrances, which gives me a total of four Hindrance Points.

Traits

Attributes

Since Emmett is a human, he starts with the usual d4 in all five Attributes, and the usual five Attribute Points. I'm going to distribute them evenly to raise everything to d6, and then spend two of my Hindrance Points to raise Agility to a d8.

Skills

Emmet has the usual 12 skill points, and a d4 in the five core skills. This setting may also utilise the Language skill, but that's your call. Linked to Smarts, this skill represents your fluency in one specific language of your choosing. You can take it more than once, choosing a different language each time. There may be occasions where you roll your Language skill if it's lower than another skill. For example, if someone with a d8 in Research but only a d6 in Language (Spanish) is studying a Spanish text, then they roll the d6. You start with a free d8 in one language of  your choice, which represents your mother tongue, and this doesn't cap rolls.

Anyway, let's buy some skills:

• Core Skills: Emmett will raise his Athletics and Notice to a d6. His Common Knowledge, Persuasion, and Stealth will remain at d4. He also has a free d8 in Language (English).
• Shooting d8: Emmett's a gunhand, after all.
• Fighting d6
• Intimidation d6
• Riding d6: Since this is a Western, it's often a good idea to have this skill.
• Survival d4: This skill is linked to Smarts, and used to navigate the wilderness, find sources of food or water, and track people or animals.

Edges

As a Human, Emmett starts with one free Edge. I'm going to spend my other two Hindrance Points to get a second one.

• I'm going to build Emmett as a two-gun shooter, so his first Edge will be Ambidextrous, which requires a d8 in Agility. This allows Emmett to ignore Off-Hand penalties, but he still suffers Multi-Action penalties if he makes attacks with different weapons. If he fires two guns in the same turn, there'll be a -2 penalty on both (without the Edge, it would be -2 on one and -4 on another due to the Off-Hand penalty).
• For the other Edge, I'm going to look at how Emmett survived getting shot in the back, because in reality he didn't. He has the Harrowed Edge, which is unique to Deadlands. This means that he died and came back to life thanks to a malevolent entity, which comes with a variety of perks but just as many drawbacks:
• First of all, being undead makes Emmet fairly tough (since he's not using his vital organs). He has +2 Toughness, a +2 bonus to Spirit rolls made to recover from being Shaken, ignores one point of Wound penalties, doesn't breathe, and is immune to poison or disease. Furthermore, he can only be permanently killed by a headshot (anything else Incapacitates him for 1d6 days). However, he suffers a -2 penalty to Riding rolls (since horses can pick up the smell of rot), along with Persuasion rolls due to his pallid appearance.
• He also has the ability to Let the Devil Out, which involves letting the spirit that reanimated him take control in exchange for power. This lets him add an Ace-able d6 to all Trait and damage rolls for five rounds, but may result in him causing some chaos while under the spirit's control.
• There are a myriad of other special rules, but I don't have time to discuss everything. But one final one is that he gains access to special Harrowed Edges, and he can take a free one:
• For his Harrowed Edge, I'll take Supernatural Attribute (Vigour). This boosts Emmet's Vigour by two die types up to a d10. It also lets him Advance it to a maximum of d12+2.

Derived Statistics

Because Emmett is Harrowed, he has an additional Derived Statistic known as Dominion. This represents how in control he is of his reanimated body. Dominion is equal to his Spirit, and there's a chance that it goes down whenever he Lets the Devil Out. If Emmett ever runs out of Dominion, the spirit takes over permanently, and he'll be controlled by the GM.

• Since Emmett's Spirit is a d6, he starts with a Dominion of 6
• Pace is the standard 6, with a d6 running die
• Emmett's d6 in Fighting gives him a Parry of 5
• Emmett's Size is 0 by default
• Emmett's d10 in Vigour gives him a base Toughness of 7, and the +2 bonus from being undead increases it to 9

Gear

In Deadlands, you start with $250 to buy equipment, and you can invest Hindrance Points for an additional $500 per point.

• I'll buy a pair of Colt Peacemakers for $15 each. These have a Range of 12/24/48, deal 2d6+1 damage, have AP 1 (meaning they negate one point of Armour on the target), a Rate of Fire of 1, and hold six rounds.
• I'll also spend $4 on a Bowie Knife. This deals Strength+d4+1 damage, and also has AP 1. If he throws it, the Range is 2/4/8.
• I'll buy a horse for $150 and a saddle for $25.
• That covers the important stuff. Remember to save some money for the campaign.

Advances

Let's give Emmett four Advances to bump him up to Seasoned, and spend them all on Edges

1. For his first Advance, I'm going to give Emmett Two Gun Kid. This means that he ignores the Multi Action penalty if he makes an additional ranged attack using a weapon wielded in a different hand to the first one. Combined with Ambidextrous, that lets him fire both his guns in the same turn without the Multi-Action or the Off-Hand penalty (there'll still be a Multi-Action penalty if he performs a third action though). Both attacks have to be ranged though; melee attacks are covered by a different Edge.
2. The second Advance will be the Menacing Edge, which grants a +2 to all Intimidation rolls. Normally, you need particular Hindrances to take this, but being Harrowed serves as a requirement too.
3. The third Advance will be one from the Deadlands book; Quick Draw. This has two effects:
1. Whenever Emmett spends a Benny for a different Action Card, he draws two Action Cards and chooses which one he uses.
2. Additionally, he gets a +2 bonus to Athletics rolls made to interrupt actions. This includes opposing attempts to interrupt his actions.
4. His Seasoned advance will be Marksman, so he can draw a bead quickly and gains a lesser version of Aiming if he doesn't move on his turn (one ranged attack on which he either gains a +1 bonus or ignores two points of penalties from Called Shots, Cover, Range, Scale, or Speed). And before you ask; no, this does not stack with Aiming, and it only applies on one of his attacks if he's firing twice.

Anyway, that's about it. There are plenty of other rules out there (which may or may not come into play), and I may discuss them in future posts if there's sufficient interest.

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