Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

[Dargurd]

Hi All,

I'm about to start my first ever campaign using the Savage Worlds ruleset this coming Friday. I've worked up a Star Wars game using a fan based ruleset that I found here.

http://www.savageheroes.com/conversions.htm

Written by Mike Glanville (thanks if you are on this forum its awesome).

The only thing i'm not too sure with are his ideas for Dark Side and dark side points. (Sorry Mike it doesn't feel right to me).

Does anyone have any ideas for handling this as an alternative that I can consider ?

Thanks for the help in advance.

[johnnii]

One idea ive had is to lett the DSPs work like wounds do, ie 3 levels. The "Wound modifier" would work like a penalty on Light side powers, as a bonus on Dark side powers and not affect powers of either side. Once youve accumulated 4 DSPs, you've "Fallen"

The downside is that the scale might be too small. The plus side is that it iss something that looks like a core mechanic

[Bavix]

Hey Dargard,

A friend and I spent a while discussing how "Turning to the Dark Side" should be handled in Savage Worlds. We've never really liked the idea of Dark Side Points either (especially in the published Star Wars RPGs). We came up with the following:

When using the Force, all Force users roll 2 Wild Dice—a white die for the Light Side and a black die for the Dark Side.

A character can choose to take the Dark Side Wild Die any time they want, but must then make an immediate Spirit roll. If the Spirt roll is successful, the character's will held strong and the remains untainted. If the roll is failed, the character must choose a hindrance. Arrogant, Bloodthirsty, Delusional, Greedy, Habit, Mean, Overconfident, Phobia, Quirk, Stubborn, Ugly, and Vengeful are all good for a character tainted by the Dark Side.

A character can obtain up to three hindrances from the Dark Side and still repent (and must buy off the Hindrances with advances). If a character fails the Spirit roll for choosing the Dark Side Wild Die a fourth time, the character has gone to the Dark Side and becomes an NPC. I think this illustrates a character's decline to the Dark Side pretty well and gives roleplaying clues with the hindranes as well.
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[Dargurd]

Thanks for the replies so far - much appreciated. I really like the idea that Bavix has come up with. I will probably give that a try.

[chillburn]

I did something similar to Bavix (at his suggestion?) with a dark side die, but I only give characters access to the die after they become Tainted. Here's the text from my rules:

[JavaScrybe]

How do you handle the Dark Side system-wise?

Here's my recommendation: You don't. If you ask me, It's purely a roleplaying decision. Remember: falling to the Dark Side should be the brutal and voluntary fall after a long road leading to it. You should never fall to the dark side on a failed roll.

If you really want to add a bit of "system" into it, allow Jedi character to use "Dark Side Bennies" to get out of a jam, and "reward" them with more Dark Side Bennies every game. At some point, you should plan out a "do or die" situation where the player can be coerced or willfully fall to the dark side... "Do you summarily execute the Weekway Crime Lord? From what you know, he'll only get a prison term and is likely to break out soon after. He did have your wife killed...".

Falling to the dark side is only the beginning: maybe he becomes a "bad guy" your guys want to redempt or maybe the player keeps it in the short term to see how he comes to term with being evil(after all, Palpatine did hide "in plain sight"). That's the fun part.
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Lex

[Virgobrown72]

Give Darksiders the BloodThirsty and Greedy hinderances, and Give Lightsiders Vow, or Loyal, or Heroic. No muss, no fuss!!!
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"Anything smaller is just fiddly, and fiddly is not one of SvgW's three Fs..."

[Preatori0us]

Chillburn, if you're calling bennies Force Points what about the non-force users?
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When the stars themselves burn out three things will continue kicking a**: Faith, Hope and Love.
The greatest of these is Love, but Faith WILL jack you up mano y mano.

[Ketjak]

I use a system in which each DSP taken including the current one gives a bonus of +d6 to any roll; not an additional die, a full +d6 added to the result. Thus, the second time earns +2d6. There are other mechanics, many of them negative, including the player gets a Benny.

I accompany this with a soft sell on most failed rolls, and a really hard sell on the rolls that matter and only miss by 1. In two sessions I have gotten one player to take a single DSP. However, she paid me the best compliment ever: "you are really good at selling the Dark Side."

I'd post "my" conversion but I have to properly attribute Jonathan Volkmer, ValhallaGH, and, it turns out, Triple Ace Games, and remove some text I see is theirs. Maybe I'll excerpt the Dark Side section.

Ket
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Games:
Running, Year 6: Tales of the Gold Beholder (4E Eberron)
Running, Month 2: Star Wars (Savage)
Prepping: Zombies (Savage)
Prepping: Necessary Evil (Savage)
Prepping: Slayers (Savage) (my 7-year old's compelling crossover campaign idea)

[crparis]

[robert4818]

[chillburn]

[chillburn]

For a visual effect I use Othello chips (white on one side, black on the other) for force points/bennies. Since the player gets to decide when they spend the force point whether to call on the light or dark side, there's no real functional mechanic to the two-sided chip. I'm just hoping it works as a reminder of the choice that is always there.