Beefier Starting Characters
Last week I started a new Deadlands Reloaded game for my tabletop group and I did something different with the system. I beefed up the starting stats for a savage world character. And to my surprise it worked really, really well.
Normal savage worlds characters start with 5 points for attributes, 15 skill points, and no edges (1 if human). I gave them 7 attribute points, 20 skill points, and 2 starting edges. The result ended up being characters that weren't much more powerful than default starting characters but much more unique. Gone were the characters with straight d6's in attributes (Average Man!) and skills. The characters started out a lot less "samey" and much more unique. And in combat they didn't seem to be overly powerful at all.
I was wondering what other folks thought about this. Given the slow nature of play by post I think I might use this rule in every new game I run. I've played in a few SW games that never actually saw an advance at all, and so I figure my players might like to start out with at least part of a "shtick" already statted out.
Normal savage worlds characters start with 5 points for attributes, 15 skill points, and no edges (1 if human). I gave them 7 attribute points, 20 skill points, and 2 starting edges. The result ended up being characters that weren't much more powerful than default starting characters but much more unique. Gone were the characters with straight d6's in attributes (Average Man!) and skills. The characters started out a lot less "samey" and much more unique. And in combat they didn't seem to be overly powerful at all.
I was wondering what other folks thought about this. Given the slow nature of play by post I think I might use this rule in every new game I run. I've played in a few SW games that never actually saw an advance at all, and so I figure my players might like to start out with at least part of a "shtick" already statted out.