Two weeks ago I wrote about some of the experiences that influenced our thinking as we started on this project. In particular, some of our d20 System friends seemed to have discovered the secret to creating fighting powerhouses.

In particular, taking the edges Luck and Quick at character creation seemed to be a winning combination. Our group house-ruled that at the end of the night you could roll for XP based on spent bennies rather than unspent ones. We felt that it encouraged players to take chances and generally have their characters act more “heroic”. Starting the game with an extra bennie due to Luck meant that each character not only had another resource to use in game, but also had another shot at earning extra XP. Now imagine if you also earn one or two bennies during the course of the night. Let’s just say that we noticed that those players leveled faster than the rest of the group.

Take those fast-leveling characters and add the Quick edge, which protects them from low initiative, and these characters tended to scyth through plot point adventures like a sword through paper-mache. Even had players rolled for unspent bennies, the players with Luck still would have been at an advantage over the others.

Finally, those same players began their characters with a d10 in either Agility or Strength, put d6s in two other attributes, then built up one of the others at the first leveling opportunity. They also bought high dice in shooting or fighting skills. Starting out with high stats in those attributes made them dangerous heroes, even if they showed weaknesses in other, less used areas.

Now, in many Savage Worlds settings, there is nothing wrong with creating a fighting machine. If I were playing 50 Fathoms or any other pulp-action setting I’d certainly want to create a swashbuckling hero who could go toe-to-to with the bad guys. In light of the problem with leveling ahead of the plot points’ pace, we probably should have simply stopped rolling bennies for XP altogether. The players still would have benefited from the in-game effects while stopping the “meta” effect of leveling early.

The problem is that ETU isn’t like those other pulp-action settings. It hews much more closely to the real world, and not just the real world but the real world as experienced by shiny new college students. Most college freshmen don’t have the equivalent of a d8 or d10 in Fighting or Shooting, but there is nothing in the core mechanics to prevent all the players in your group from starting out as combat experts.

Now that I have spent four paragraphs in setup, let me share with you some of the “fixes” we considered early on. I use quotes because there is nothing inherently wrong with the Savage Worlds system, only how we wanted to use it.

• To address the problem with the Luck/Quick combo, yes, we did we talk about banning that combination at character creation. As you can imagine, we quickly dropped that idea as too draconian.
• We had also decided to recommend to the GM that bennies not be used to roll for extra XP. That would keep characters from breezing through the campaign too quickly. I see we were on the same wavelength as someone at Pinnacle, since that suggestion has since made it into the new Explorer’s edition.
• Finally, to curb min/maxing we were going to limit starting attributes to a d8, and raising skills above your attribute die was going to cost quadruple the points rather than double the points. In the latest iteration this limit has been removed. At most we will encourage players to develop a legitimate reason in the character’s background explaining why a freshman English major would have a d10 in Fighting.

Those were some early suggestions. How are we tackling those same design considerations today?

• More interesting edges. We’re giving players more “flavorful” options for edges, which will undoubtedly lead to some difficult choices. ETU is a not just horror setting. It’s a horror game set on a university campus. Academics will be an integral part of the game, and we are giving you access to new edges and skills that help you excel in that area. Unlike some other settings, blowing off any and all non combat-related edges and skills will have consequences you’ll feel in game. There will be combat, but if you fail your final exam you’ll find yourself falling behind your friends.
• The hero’s journey. Rather than re-write paragraphs of rules to arbitrarily lower the bar for starting attributes, we are taking what we think is a much more elegant approach. We realized that just as college is a rite of passage from adolescence to adulthood, ETU is a rite of passage from being an innocent victim to a hero. In Savage Worlds, what sets apart the heroes from extras? The wild die. Consequently, freshmen—like extras—start without a wild die. Those who survive ETU earn their wild die through the hero’s journey…and a passing GPA.

Thanks for sticking through to the end of my long-winded look at ETU character creation. I’ll be back in two weeks to talk about new skills, new derived attributes, and a new ways to spend your time.