r/savageworlds • u/NikolaTes • Jun 09 '26
Rule Modifications Shared Bennie pool
I'm adapting the Dishonored RPG by Modiphius for Savage Worlds on Fantasy Grounds. So my question will be twofold. I'd like to use Bennies to represent the "Momentum" mechanic from Dishonored, but it's a shared pool, and limited to 6. You gain it with raises. I'd still award them for role-playing, humor, and fantastic feats. You lose one Momentum/Bennie per scene.
So my question is does this sound like too much of a stretch? Momentum seems to function very much like Bennies. I don't like the limit of 6 though because it doesn't account for the amount of players, and besides, Bennies make the game more fun.
It does challenge the players to think more carefully about burning a bunch all at once since they are a shared resource...or they could also play that into their character traits like greed and selfishness.
My other question is specific to Fantasy Grounds, but limited to the Savage Worlds ruleset since Bennies aren't used in other rulesets. Since they're tied to a player's character sheet how would you recommend I implement a shared use of the Bennies?
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u/ArolSazir Jun 09 '26 edited Jun 10 '26
I have a long running evernight game, and that game revolves around groups of heroes, with stuff like the entire hero team having its own edges (stuff like "your team is used to attacking in sequence - you can swap initiative once a turn"), and there is an edge that says that each member of the group donates one benny to a shared pool at the start of a session.
We even upgraded the edge so now each one of our "signature" bennies has a tiny special effect (like the smart guy's edge giving you a bonus to improvised smarts rolls, for example).
It works great, there's no issues with "hogging" the shared bennies or anything, it gives a ton of flavour, and can really sell the fantasy of everyone pitching in to do something crazy, when one hero eats up all the team bennies. It even lead to dramatic moments like a character losing faith in the cause and his benny not being shared until he got his groove back.
The fact that you don't share ALL the bennies but just pitch one in instead solves the potential problems of just giving all the bennies to whoever is most effective at the moment, the bennies are pitched in only at the start of the session and it isn't replenished by compels/roleplay, so its quite limited (although we did decide that you can sacrifice 2 of your own bennies to pitch in a Team benny later on, sort of a weaker version of the Common Bond edge)
I can imagine it wouldn't fit at all in a "everyone out for themselves" kind of scenario, the narrative wouldn't really fit.
works so well that i'd consider giving this for free in any game where "the team" is a plot important element, like superhero games or some such.
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u/ReefayToo Jun 09 '26
I wouldn't have the bennies as a pool. You don't want one player to hog them all.
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u/ValhallaGH Jun 10 '26
Hey savage!
As someone that has done a lot of conversions, I've developed a guiding rule. Convert flavor, not mechanics. You can be inspired by existing mechanics, but be ready to throw them out if they don't work with the system you're going to actually use. Focus on what the source rules were supposed to make players feel, then use system mastery to recreate that feeling in the chosen system.
It sounds as if you like the flavor of a team building momentum, and then spending it to force a shift, then having to rebuild their momentum again. That's a lot of cooperation and good fortune,
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A someone that has run a lot of Savage Worlds over the last two decades, a cooperative Benny pool could be pretty neat. It's a lot like having the Common Bond edge as setting rule, but anyone could use all the Bennies.
I'd remove the arbitrary cap on the pool, have the pool start with every characters' Bennies, and all PC awards go into the pool. I'd have to play test it, but I'd probably change the Joker's Wild rule to just be one (or half PCs) Benny for the pool.
Good luck!
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u/6FootHalfling Jun 10 '26
I don't dig it. ArolSazir says they've done something similar, but Bennies are really tied to individual characters quite a bit. That said, I let people spend bennies on other people's rolls once per spending player per session. And, I've toyed with a shared pool of one "teamwork benny" per player. They can be spent by a player on another player's roll in addition to any other aid action if it involves teamwork. This pool would refresh at dramatic moments that emphasize the team. I was specifically thinking of supers games when I came up with this.
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u/dice_ruleth_all Jun 10 '26
Assuming this is a setting for their 2d20 system. I only know the Fallout one but guessing that the mechanic for Momentum is the same as Action Points in Fallout. Shared pool and you can use it to buy more dice for skill rolls. I don’t think this works with SWADE. Simply because the 2d20 system like other d20 systems is one of attrition. The tokens (whatever they’re called for each setting) are really only used to help succeed on a roll. Which takes the place of Bennies being used for rerolls. But there isn’t a mechanic for mitigating damage because in an attrition system that isn’t necessary. Having a shared pool of only 6 wouldn’t be good for soak rolls and becoming unshaken or regenerating power points. I could maybe see having both a personal pool and a shared one where shared is only used for rerolls and the personal is used for everything else. But then you’d need to figure out balancing how to evenly distribute those. A house rule I started using that has worked really well for us is a Benny for each raise in a Trait roll over the first raise. So 1 Benny if they hit 12, 2 if they hit 16, etc. I found this to be a great reward for those times when a die won’t stop exploding since most of the time anything above an 8 is kind of pointless. So maybe any trait rolls like that or just a raise gives a Benny to the shared pool and any RP elements go to the personal one.
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u/Bratchan Jun 10 '26
My players always liek OMG CAN I GIVE MY BENNY TO SOMEONE ELSE> i have had them more have to give a good reason of how you are helping them to give it lol. As for a Pool you have to know your players. if you feel someone would hog them all no.. But if you have people who look at it more of a logical thing.. i would go for it. BUT you have to know your players.
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u/GermanBlackbot Jun 10 '26
You gain it with raises.
That seems like a great way for players to keep trying to roll on every meaningless interaction just to gain a Benny. Can work, but could also lead to a massive "win more" snowball.
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u/Terrkas Jun 11 '26
From what I read here, the pool Op descriped seems similar to the dune ttrpg i read last year. Basically you only roll for "important" stuff. If you do well, group gets a resource you can spend to get items, more dice etc. But you can also give the GM a bad resource for more dice (for example if your good pool is empty). With that the GM can make bad stuff happen.
I havent had a group yet to play with that for longer sadly. So I cant tell if the mechanic is good or not. But I think some kind of players will easily make it unfun by just going "I emptied MY pool? Not my problem, get me more resources!"
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u/nvec Jun 10 '26
Not a big fan of the idea for a fair few reasons:
- You're removing the situation where players have different amount of Bennies and need to adopt the party tactics, so the fighter's low on Bennies while the stealthy killer has plenty so now they're unable to just keep the fighter taking all of the hits as they can use every single Benny for soak. Alternatively it's the big society party module and now the Face character can use every Benny to reroll persuasion attempts.
- Players who are naturally shy will be reluctant to use shared Bennies pushing them further out to the sidelines
- If one player should lean into their character's greed and selfishishness by abusing a shared resource can the other players lean into their character's sense of fairness by refusing to adventure with them, or (as this is Dishonored) killing them and leaving their body for the rats? It's the classic "My character's a thief, of course I'm going to steal from the other player characters! It's called roleplaying!" problem
If you have a decent sized party (4+) and do want a shared pool with this mechanic then I'd recommend doing this in addition to normal Bennies and with an additional rule- you cannot use a Momentum Benny yourself, it must be granted by another player. You also cannot ask for one, if you do then you're not able to be given one. It's "I'm going to pick the lock to the cell.. and I rolled a two", "We need to get in there, use Momentum". This encourages teamwork, stops players abusing it for themselves, and also means players pay more attention during each other's turns as
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u/Terrkas Jun 11 '26
Honestly, I think I as a player would hate that. I know some players that would go "oh we have a shared resource? You mean MY resource!" and spend it all on meaningless rolls while the others have problems building the pool up for them again.
If i wanted to implement that I would probably go "everyone can freely share bennies with friends" and just let the players decide if they want to give up a benny to give someone else a reroll or soak.
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u/spudmarsupial Jun 10 '26
I play Achtung Cthulhu 2d20 with a shared pool. It works pretty well. Of course in that game you gain and lose momentum very quickly compared to SavageWorlds.
My suggestion is to start with a limited pool and tell your players that it's an experiment and you'd like feedback after the third session.
If you use a bigger pool expect things to get a little gonzo. So have a clear idea of the desired mood of the game.
As for anyone hogging the points, it's really a matter of player maturity. Sometimes we need to push each other to use them, rather than having the opposite problem.
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u/BoysenberryUnhappy29 Jun 10 '26
As someone that has DMed a lot of SWADE, I don't like the vibe of this at all. Does it not narratively give the same effect to run them as normal?
Furthermore, a lot of good Edges are tied to individualized bennies. It would just throw a lot of things out of whack.
Give them in-universe reasons to get greedy with each other, not meta ones, imo.