Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

[sablemage]

Hello licensees... I have a question.

Why do so many settings start PCs at Seasoned Rank (or higher), or with several advances beyond Novice, please??

I don't have a problem with it, I'm just curious about the reasoning.

Thanks in advance...
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Andy
Halfway Station

[Clint]

[kronovan]

I own 10 Savage Worlds settings and only 3 of those -Beasts & Barbarians, Legends of Steel, Thrilling Tales- propose starting PC's at Seasoned rank. Tour of Darkness and Weird Wars II have provisions for it, but in both of those it's a 20 experience point debt that has to be payed back.

I think the answer to why some have PC's starting out at seasoned rank, might be addressed in the types of settings given above. Both Beasts and Barbarians and Legends of Steel are Sword & Sorcery settings - a Fantasy genre without any player races and their unique racial abilites to differentiate PC's. That means that the differentiation has to be achieved through character quirks (hindrances) and truly exceptional abilities (skills and edges), which is easier to do if PC's have an additional 4 advances worth of points to spend from the start. That said I ran campaigns for both of those settings with PC's starting at Novice rank, which was very challenging, but also very satisfying for the players.

Thrilling Tales is quite true to 30's pulp without any arcane backgrounds, relatively low-tech and an environment in which extra foes (mooks) are really supposed to fall like flies when confronted by the stellar abilities of PC's. Its much easier to achieve that when you start your PC's as Seasoned. In fact that setting has a team-play option in which 1 PC starts at Heroic or even Legendary rank. The more capable PC's work because traditional pulp is an action-heavy genre where your PC's are always going to have waves of mooks coming at them as well as some truly formidable masterminds and king pins.

[Wiggy]

In terms of adventures-only settings (i.e. no setting book), DTA, DTSL, and I think DTSP start at Seasoned. All for the reasons Kronovan gives for Thrilling Tales -- we wanted to throw mooks around from the start.
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Wiggy
Creative Director Triple Ace Games

[sablemage]

Thanks for the insights, guys - perhaps my sample is biased, 3 of the 8 settings I have start PCs off above Novice.
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Andy
Halfway Station

[NOESKANE]

Hiyas!

I'm almost 100% certain that Totems of the Dead by Gun Metal Games makes sure all PCs start at Seasoned Rank.



HtH
NEK