Misdirected Mark Forums

Show us how….Senda forgets to queue the episode before leaving for con! Also on this episode, we talk good pregens for cons and one shots and how to manage surprise as a GM. Also, there are outtakes… Bonus outtakes for Patreon backers will be available later today or early tomorrow! Find...

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The conversation around picking pre-gens reminded me of this little trick I used back in 2015 for a Star Frontiers themed Savage Worlds adventure. I let the characters mix-and-match their space species and their role (archetype) in the adventure, but it was in packages... so you could choose Captain, Weapons, Medic, etc, and those just came with a set of skills. They could also select a random other skill for fun, but this just made it easy to grab a role and go, even in a game like Savage Worlds which involves lots of skills.

for example:

Captain (PSA: Military)
• d8 Intimidation
• d6 Fighting
• d8 Shooting
• d6 Stealth
• d6 Survival

Medic (PSA: Bio-Social)
• d6 Investigation
• d8 Healing
• d8 Know (Science)
• d4 Stealth
• d6 Persuasion
• d4 Shooting

Made the selection easy for newbies who didn't know skill sets (oh, I want to play "the Medic") or those that know the game and are super into stats and such.

First... Star Frontiers in Savage Worlds? Bravo. That is a great ruleset for that game.

I really like having neat packages of skills so that your players are not flipping through rule books or having to figure out what level to make every skill. Were the species a series of edges? Like Dralasite elasticity?

But I love the mix and match approach. It's really a precursor to a playbook approach.

The new SWADE also gives all Wild Cards (characters and skilled others) automatic d4 in Persuasion, Stealth, Notice, Athletics, and Common Knowledge, so characters don't have to buy those at start.

I like your package idea.