This morning on my drive into work I was listening to Finding the Narrative, a Genesys podcast hosted by Tony Fanning and Chris Holmes. They started talking about combat and it made me realize that I like Savage Worlds more than any other system on the market to date. I do like Fantasy Flight Games' game and it does some stuff really well but Savage Worlds does it better.
Then I thought, what is it about Genesys that I like? Well for starters, its magic system is top notch. I think it performs better than most other systems. The magic user can adjust how powerful her spell is on a case by case basis. It allows free form sculpting of the spells on the fly and is only limited by the spellcasters imagination. Savage Worlds can't quite do this but it does come closer than anyone else with trappings.
Genesys' use of talents makes more sense to me than just increasing your skills. The use of talents allows players to have a bit more narrative structure to their character while also including boons to skill rolls, strain, or soak value. The tree by which talents are selected is designed to force the players to make difficult choices and also makes sure the character is balanced (i.e. not overpowered). Savage Worlds is very similar to this in the fact that some Edges have prerequisites. Players cannot simply take Improved Counterattack without first taking Counterattack. Then Counterattack in itself has requirements of its own.
One last thing that I really like about Genesys is its use of Motivation. Motivation is a tool for both the player and the GM. It helps the player to better define the character by describing when and how they learned the skills that they have. It also provides the GM with ideas to incorporate the character's background into the story. I don't know how many times I've asked players to write a short background on their character and only get a few people to actually do it. Savage Worlds sort of accomplishes the same thing through the use of Hindrances but too many players only see these as a way to generate bennies. It is meant to help mold the character to your concept. Flawed characters are always more fun than perfect ones.
Now onto some of the things I dislike about Genesys. Combat
actions, this irks the hell out of me and the deciding factor of why Savage
Worlds is better. Much like D&D, in Genesys you only get one combat action.
I remember the first time I saw Savage Worlds played by others. I saw someone
perform multiple attack actions and move around. This was an epiphany to me.
This is what I was missing from D&D. I was growing tired of the no you
can't do that because you only have one action mentality. I wanted to be able
to jump onto a table, kick an Orc in the face, swing from the chandelier, and
tackle another Orc. Not gonna happen in Genesys or D&D.
Let's talk about Cool and Vigilance used for initiative. This is
stupid. Why are there two different skills for performing the same task? I
understand they're trying to differentiate between someone being surprised and
someone who is ready to engage in combat. It does speed up the surprise check
process but it doesn’t make sense. Why do I need to invest points into two
different skills that only has one purpose, combat initiative? Just have the
players roll Perception for surprise, if they fail they act the next round.
Then have all successful players roll initiative. The players who are surprised
take the last available initiative slots.
Abstract initiative turn order is not something I enjoy all that
much either. I don't see a whole lot wrong with it but I see it as encouraging
meta gaming. I'm not saying meta gaming is bad. I'd just like to see a little
less of it during combat. Savage Worlds and Castles & Crusades gets this
part right. Initiative is determined every round simulating the fact that
combat is more fluid and you don't act at the same time every turn.
Before I forget, I really don't like how characteristics in
Genesys are pretty much stuck after character creation. Or at least they should
allow for a more accessible way to increase them after creation. Currently the
only way to increase them is after picking up a tier 5 talent and that is
pretty dang tough to accomplish. A tier 5 talent will cost 175 experience
points minimum. In game terms that means you could increase one characteristic
by 1 every 9 sessions assuming you don't spend it on skills.
Savage World is not perfect by any means either but it handles
everything I've wanted in a game fairly well. Just to name a few things I'm not
keen on are the different uses of Investigation and Streetwise to accomplish
the same thing. They both perform the same function but are narratively defined
differently. I've also heard that the new version will breakout Performance
from Persuasion which again are serving the same function with different
narrative descriptions. They will also combine Climbing, Swimming, and Throwing
into a new Athletics skill. They really need to keep Throwing separate from
Athletics. Throwing is a combat skill that needs to be on its own.
Basically what I'm getting at is that no game system is perfect
and Genesys is not, nor will ever be a Savage Worlds Killer. I'm looking at you
Jamie. Anybody who's familiar with the Nerds-International Google Plus
community will know that SWK is just a term we use to joke around with about
one system being better than the other but we all know that Savage Worlds just
does some things better than others. It should go without saying that we put
ICRPG into the same category of ribbing each other.
Even though I'm not a huge fan of ICRPG, I cannot deny the fact that it has changed how lots
of people play table top RPG's in general. It has made a huge impact on the
game industry as we know it. At least once a week I'll see someone on social
media talk about how they don't play it but it has opened their eyes or showed
them a new way to look at something. For that, I say thank you Hankerin Ferinale.
