"Golden" Bennies
Sean S. • July 26, 2018
Like a Crit for your Bennies in your Savage Worlds games!
NOTE
: This blog post was written for Savage Worlds Deluxe and is less relevant with the changes in the Adventure edition.
What if you could get a "critical hit" when being awarded Bennies in your Savage Worlds games?
What if you could get a "critical hit" when being awarded Bennies in your Savage Worlds games?
That's what I want to talk to you about tonight. Extra special Bennies that can be drawn at random from the pool that offer enhanced benefits.
When I first started playing Savage Worlds, the idea of Golden Bennies was something that kept resurfacing from my subconscious idea stew. Not necessarily golden in color, mind you, but special and rare with enhanced properties. I didn't immediately move on the idea because, as anyone that's played for a while will tell you, "play with the rules as written for a while before you consider changing anything." This is by far the #1 piece of advice for anyone that's new to Savage Worlds. It's an interesting and often strange system and coming from other games it's easy to misinterpret how things all gel together at first glance.
So I poked it back down into the stew, stirred it a bit, and got back to other things that needed thinking about. A while later, my regular group got to playing Deadlands Reloaded for a few years (with brief interludes of Lankhmar and playtesting new Goat and Crow things). Deadlands has something very similar, except more tiered, having three different colors of poker chips of increasing power and play options. There in front of me was a working model of the concept. That vetted the idea for me and I've decided to give it a test run in my other Savage Worlds games.
Here's how I'm handling it:
Here's how I'm handling it:
Bennies are kept in a pouch large enough for players to easily reach one hand into without being able to accidentally see the contents. At the beginning of each session, Bennies are disseminated as described in the rules. (both GM and players) After this, one Golden Benny is added to the pouch for each player at the table and the contents are mixed thoroughly. Any time that a player is to be rewarded with a Benny, they are offered the pouch to make a blind draw from it.
- Use it as a standard Benny.
- Re-roll ANY roll, including damage.
- Remove any modifiers from a check before rolling.
- Force an enemy to re-roll any roll.
As a GM and game designer, there are a few things that I love about this idea. More than anything, the added excitement of it appeals to me. Just like a runaway acing roll, this adds a bit of a thrill to receiving Bennies. Players like getting Bennies. It always feels good, but it's a consistent level of good. With this small addition, a dose of anticipation is added to the mixture. On top of that, it adds a measure of player agency into it as well. Since there's special loot in there, the player wants to make the pull and it's their luck that decides. When they pull that Golden Benny, it's all them. It's their "critical hit".
Some things to keep in mind if you're going to give this a go:
- Golden bennies must be identical to the touch, but visually dissimilar. You don't want your players digging for them by feel.
- You will need a lot of standard Bennies. Use the number of standard Bennies in your stash to tune how common it is for your players to draw a Golden Benny.
- A pouch works great, but any container large enough to reach into comfortably while blocking a person's view will work.
So far, it's working quite well in my games and my players really like it! Give it a try in your Savage Worlds games and see how it goes!
If you're interested in what I'm using in my games, as seen in the photo, you can pick them up on Amazon. Let me save you an unholy amount of searching.
https://amzn.to/2MRxy3O
[ Full Disclosure: That's an affiliate link. You won't pay any more by using it and I might make a couple shiny copper pennies. ]
A free introductory adventure for Savage Worlds set in a barbaric fantasy world of dark sorceries, treachery and strife. This adventure is intended for a group of Novice rank adventurers and should be playable in one to three sessions. Presented here as a stand-alone adventure, it is also act one in a larger adventure. The "heroes" have clawed their way into wakefulness, heads pounding, to find themselves confined to stout bamboo cages in what must be a dark cavern. Other cages of pale, sunken-eyed slaves stand nearby. Their most recent memories are of the tented tavern in the trade city of Kahl'ar. Fleeting snatches of memory, accompanied by splitting headaches, taunt them. How did they get here? Where is here? Most importantly, who is going to be made to pay for this injustice? Inspired by the original fiction of Conan, Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser, and countless 70s and 80s barbarian films of various budgets, this adventure will take your group of unsuspecting scoundrels and turn them into the heroes that the world needs. Hopefully. Or maybe it’ll turn them into corpses quickly drying in the desert. You'll have to play to find out! Coming Soon! Est. Release - Q4 2021
Hey, look! Another cave map! This one pretends to be a simple little cave perfectly suitable for camping overnight. Let’s hope your players pass their search checks and find the narrow hidden passage in the back leading to a more expansive, and dangerous, cave system. Fill it with a goblin tribe or clutter of giant spiders to haul them off into its depths while they sleep. Or something else! See if we care! Note: We care. If you do something fun with this, tell us about it! I liked the other cave map so much that I decided to keep playing. Hopefully you need another random cave map for your players to totally not get eaten by monsters in. Because if you do, we've got you covered. Right here. With this. Will there be more in this series? Who can say? I mean, I guess I could say. But I'm not going to.
In this free supplement, you will find information about the world and surroundings for Blood & Spice, an adventure for the Savage Worlds game system. Included are setting rules, weapon and equipment lists, common creatures (both human and otherwise), guidance for running the adventure, rules for character creation, and a selection of pre-generated characters for players that want to just jump right in and get their hands bloody. Coming Soon! Est. Release - Q4 2021
In Act 1, the "heroes" clawed their way into wakefulness, heads pounding, to find themselves confined to stout bamboo cages in what must have been a dark cavern. Other cages of pale, sunken-eyed slaves stood nearby. Their most recent memories were of the tented tavern in the trade city of Kahl'ar. Fleeting snatches of memory, accompanied by splitting headaches, taunted them. How did they get there? Where was there? Who was going to be made to pay for this injustice? After the events of Blood & Spice: Act 1, the heroes are left with more questions than answers. What is the meaning of the strange amulet? Who was the mysterious man in the yellow robes? And most importantly, who set them up and why? As the adventure of Blood & Spice continues, we find our heroes following the leads discovered in the first installment and tracking them back to the city of Kahl’ar, where all of this trouble started. Travel, investigation, social intrigue, and survival in the harsh wastes await! Will your heroes find their way to the bottom of this mystery and save the world in the process? Coming Soon! Est. Release - Q4 2021
While experimenting with new art styles for maps in Photoshop, I came up with this thing. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out and figured maybe some of you could get some use out of it. Feel free to download it and use it in your game. If you do something cool with it, drop us a line and let us know what you did with it.
