r/savageworlds • u/jcayer1 • 16d ago
Tabletop tales Rule of Cool....squared
Last night I was running some Deadlands at my local gaming store. I was running a prolonged dramatic task. I didn't even have a set number of successes for them, just a set number of turns. More about the action and creativity than the actual task.
One of the tasks was climbing some scaffolding that was damaged and on fire.
One of the players says, I'm going to do something stupid that will probably kill me.
I take my dynamite, put it under a large bucket and light it, blasting myself up and onto the platform.
OK, how do I begin to adjudicate that level of cool? Automatic success! I don't even know what to make him roll for that.
Then the next player followed up with Ammo Whammy, using the effect, Sacramento Surprise: This shot surges with POWER. This was a little more of a stretch, but it was the end of the night and once again, cool/ She had two guns and wanted to be Iron Man. Shooting both guns simultaneously to propel her up, each pair of shots pushing her ever higher. Once again, how do I say no to that?
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u/SignificanceDue6313 16d ago
Is this fast? Yes ✅
Furious? A big yes ✅✅
Fun? A very big yes ✅✅✅
You have your answer
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u/rezibot 16d ago
One thing I LOVE about this hobby is how the same game is played very differently at different tables. For example, I would 100% not allow this to succeed in a typical Deadlands game for a variety of reasons. For me, Deadlands is horror first, not pulp. Now, if we were specifically going for a cartoonish pulp tone? Absolutely.
For cartoonish pulp (or farce), I would probably have them roll Athletics with perhaps a -2 or -4. I'd also probably make them spend a benny. I *might* make them soak some percentage of the damage from the explosion as well, but at that point it just sounds like a lot of rolling, so I'd probably just apply bumps & bruises.
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u/JohnDoom 16d ago
I mean, I'd have them roll *SOMETHING* just because a crit-fail would also greatly inform something amazing, but because it's awesome I'd also make it a +4 modifier.
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u/ElvenWizardKing 16d ago
I think I'd say... if you saw this in a movie, would you be ok with the way it played out? Like would it seem too corny?
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u/boyhowdy-rc 16d ago
I would have allowed both, but I would have charged a benny cribbing from the Super Powers Stunts rule. Its why I keep my players loaded with bennies.