Savage Base Arcane Backgrounds

Most roleplaying games feature “magic” in one form or another. Whether it’s hidden occult lore practiced only by dark cultists, voodoo rituals, the eldritch sorcery of powerful wizards, weird gadgets created by mad scientists, superpowers, or the psionic powers of the mind, these rules handle it all in one simple system.

For ease of use, we call all of these effects “powers.” Best of all, powers work the same from game to game, but the particular use and Trappings give the same powers endless variations. That means you can create wizards, mad scientists, superheroes, and even creatures with one simple set of easy-to-remember rules.

Making Arcane Characters

Before we go any further, you need to make sure your GM will allow arcane characters in his game. You can’t make a wizard in a realistic military campaign, and mad scientists might not fit in every fantasy setting. Now that that’s out of the way, you need to buy the Arcane Background Edge and choose which type of supernatural power your hero is blessed with.

Five different types of powers are presented in this rulebook:

Magic, Miracles, Psionics, Super Powers, and Weird Science.

All types of powers use the same basic mechanics but with a few important differences in the details. Let’s talk about what’s similar before we get into what’s different.

Arcane Skill

Each type of power has a particular arcane skill: Faith for miracles, Psionics for psionics, Spellcasting for magic, and Weird Science for weird science. Super powers use skills a little differently, as you’ll see on the following pages. You need to take the listed skill for your character’s particular Arcane Background and put points into it as usual. You’ll find the attribute the skill is linked to in parentheses beside the skill itself.

Power Points

Arcane characters energize their powers with “Power Points.” As soon as you buy an Arcane Background Edge, your hero gets the listed number of Power Points. Using a power requires that you spend a number of these points. Some powers allow you to pay additional points for better effects, and some allow you to maintain the effect by spending Power Points each round.

Heroes recover 1 Power Point per hour.

Starting Powers

Arcane characters start with a number of powers dictated by their particular Arcane Background. See the Arcane Background list for specifics.

Learning New Powers

An arcane character can learn a new power by selecting the New Power Edge. As soon as he levels up and chooses this Edge, he can instantly begin using whichever power he chooses.

Using Powers

As an action, a character may use a single power by declaring the power he’s using, spending the desired number of Power Points, and making an arcane skill roll. If the roll is failed, there’s no effect but the Power Points are lost. If successful, consult the particular power to determine the results. Some powers have variable effects depending on how many Power Points are used to cast them. The player must spend the desired Power Points before rolling his character’s arcane skill to see if he’s successful.

Maintaining Powers

Some powers may be maintained, as listed in the power’s Duration description. This is a free action. The number following the duration is the cost in Power Points to keep the power going. No new skill roll is needed to maintain a power. For each power currently being maintained, the caster suffers a –1 to future arcane skill rolls (but not other Trait tests). A wizard maintaining armor and charm, for example, suffers a –2 penalty to his Spellcasting rolls until he allows those powers to lapse. He does not suffer penalties to his Fighting (or other) rolls while these spells are being maintained.

Disruption

A character who is actively maintaining a power may be disrupted if he suffers damage. To maintain concentration for all of his powers, the hero makes one opposed arcane skill roll versus the damage he suffered. If his roll is higher, he maintains all of his spells. If he fails, he instantly drops all of his powers after the attack that caused the disruption

is resolved. A character who is Shaken by non-damaging means (such as a Test of Wills) must make a simple Smarts roll to maintain his powers.

Arcane Backgrounds

Below are the five different types of Arcane Backgrounds. Each type describes the Arcane Skill a character with that background uses, his starting Power Points, the number of powers he starts play with, and any potential drawbacks to the power (such as Backlash or Malfunctions).

Arcane Background (Magic)

Arcane Skill: Spellcasting (Smarts)

Starting Power Points: 10

Starting Powers: 3

Magicians range from powerful wizards to vile cultists. They draw on raw supernatural energy to fuel their eldritch fires. This energy often infuses the worlds in which they live, and is drawn forth with elaborate rituals, words of power, runes, or perhaps even dark sacrifices. Wizards are often quite weak early in their careers, but are forces to be reckoned with as they become powerful sorcerers.

►►Backlash: When a wizard rolls a 1 on his Spellcasting die (regardless of his Wild Die), he is automatically Shaken. This can cause a wound.

Arcane Background (Miracles)

Arcane Skill: Faith (Spirit)

Starting Power Points: 10

Starting Powers: 2

Those who draw on miracles are priestly types or holy champions. Their power comes from a divine presence of some sort, including gods, nature, or spirits. Their powers are usually invoked with a few words of prayer or by performing established rituals.

►►Protector: Those who cast miracles are champions of their particular religions. Good priests vow to protect the innocent, fight evil, and obey all other tenets of their particular religion. Evil priests typically vow to defeat those who oppose their religion, or simply to cause as much misery and strife as possible. The player and Game Master should come up with a simple list of what is important to the character’s religion and use this as a guide. Champions who violate their beliefs are temporarily or permanently forsaken by their chosen deity. Minor sins give the character a –2 to his Faith rolls for one week. Major sins rob him of all arcane powers for one week. Mortal sins cause the character to be forsaken until the penitent hero completes some great quest or task of atonement to regain his lost powers.

Arcane Background (Psionics)

Arcane Skill: Psionics (Smarts)

Starting Power Points: 10

Starting Powers: 3

Psionicists have discovered how to tap into their own psychic powers. They can manipulate matter, create fire, or control their own bodies with but a thought.

►►Brainburn: When a psionic character rolls a 1 on his Psionics die (regardless of his Wild Die), he is automatically Shaken. On a critical failure, the psi lets out a psychic scream that causes him to be Shaken along with all allies in a Large Burst Template who fail a Spirit roll. This can cause a wound.

Arcane Background (Super Powers)

Arcane Skill: Special (None)

Starting Power Points: 20

Starting Powers: 1

Characters with super powers gain their abilities through strange circumstances, such as being bitten by irradiated creatures, exposure to strange chemicals, or perhaps by finding alien artifacts. This particular level of power is intended for relatively low-level “pulp” heroes. More powerful super types are dealt with in specific Savage Settings, and you’ll find an alternate and far more detailed system in our Super Powers Companion. Super powers work a little differently from most other Arcane Backgrounds—each power is its own skill and has no linked attribute (and thus counts as “lower” than its linked Attribute for purposes of Advancement). A hero with the armor and bolt powers, for example, also has an Armor and a Bolt skill he uses to enable it. It’s more expensive for a character to improve his powers, but he starts with more Power Points

than other arcane types so he can use his abilities more often. Best of all, there are no drawbacks for super powers as there are with other types of arcane powers—the power either works or it doesn’t.

Arcane Background (Weird Science)

Arcane Skill: Weird Science (Smarts—see below)

Starting Power Points: 10 (but see below)

Starting Powers: 1

Weird Science is the creation of strange and powerful devices. It differs from regular science in that some element of the arcane is involved. Maybe it’s just generic “super-science,” or perhaps it’s divinely (or demonically) inspired. Maybe the science itself is relatively sound, but it derives power from an arcane source, such as ghost rock in Deadlands, or some other magical mineral or essence in a steampunk fantasy game. Weird Science is different in that each new power is actually a new “gizmo.” The player must write down exactly what the device is when he gains the power. An inventor with the invisibility power, for instance, actually has an invisibility belt, cloak, etc. Players are encouraged to give their devices pseudo-scientific names as well (“Dr. Zee’s Chromatic Disfibulating Device!”). Weird Science is the skill an inventor uses when activating most devices, and raises increase the effects of the power as usual. If a device uses a different skill, such as Driving, Fighting, or Shooting, the inventor uses that instead. A ray gun, for example, uses the Shooting skill, while a “vibroknife” (a knife with the smite power) uses Fighting. Powers that require an opposed roll, such as puppet, also use the scientist’s Weird Science skill. Each device comes with its own Power Points equal to the inventor’s Power Points. An inventor with the bolt power and 10 Power Points, for example, could make a ray gun that fires electrical beams. The gun has 10 Power Points it can use to fire the beams just like a wizard would cast the bolt spell.

►►Malfunction: Weird science devices are never perfect technology. They often suffer from spectacular and deadly

malfunctions. If a gadgeteer uses a device and rolls a 1 on the skill die used to activate the gizmo, it has malfunctioned in some way and does not work. Draw a card and consult the Malfunction Table below:

Weird Science Malfunction Table

• Clubs—Catastrophic Malfunction: The device explodes for 2d6 damage in a Large Burst Template.

• Hearts—Major Malfunction: The device breaks down. The gadgeteer may not use it again until it’s repaired, which requires a Repair roll and 2d6 hours of work.

• Diamonds—Minor Malfunction: The device suffers a minor hang-up. It can be fixed with a Repair roll at –2.

• Spades—Glitch: The gizmo activates but does the reverse of its intent. An invisibility belt makes the caster glow brightly, a weapon fires at a random target, and so on. If a reverse effect makes no sense, treat it as a Major Malfunction instead.

►►New Powers: Each time a Weird Scientist takes the New Power Edge, he has invented a new gadget. He simply chooses a power and decides what kind of gizmo it’s contained in as usual. He can also repeat a power he’s already taken. A mad scientist might want to create two ray-guns, for example, so that he can use one and give one to a companion.

►►Maintaining Powers: Because weird scientists use inventions rather than cast spells, they don’t suffer any penalties for maintaining powers, but their devices still pay the maintenance costs in Power Points as usual.

►►Recharging: Devices regain Power Points just like a character, at the rate of one point per hour. Recharging may

represent the device being plugged into an outlet, gathering solar rays, or even fritzing out for a while until it miraculously

just starts working again. Regardless of the description, however, it regains Power Points at the rate of one per hour just like other power types. The Power Edges Rapid Recharge and Improved Rapid Recharge apply to all of the inventor’s devices rather than the inventor himself.

More on Weird Science

Weird Science is a little more complicated than other Arcane Backgrounds and requires a bit more explanation. First off, it’s important to understand Weird Science isn’t used to make mundane devices, even if they are extraordinary. As long as they’re possible and aren’t too far above the given tech level of the world, they’re just “high-tech.” Only actual weird science, inspired by, created by, or powered by some sort of supernatural force qualifies. It’s also important to remember that Weird Science doesn’t allow a character to make anything he wants. He can only make a device that utilizes one of the powers in this book (or an appropriate Savage Setting).

►►Sharing: An inventor can hand his device over to a companion to use. The device works the same for the companion as it does for the owner. If the Weird Science skill is required, the companion must make a default roll as usual. That means gizmos are typically more effective when used by weird scientists than in the hands of others.

►►Soul Drain: Weird Scientists cannot take the Soul Drain Edge.

►►More Power Points: When an inventor gains more Power Points, he’s assumed to tinker with his existing devices and upgrade them as well. This means all of his devices gain the additional Power Points. In effect, if an inventor has 20 Power Points, each of his devices have 20 Power Points as well.

►►Losing Devices: If an inventor’s gizmo is taken away, lost, or destroyed, he can make another in 2d6 hours as long as he has access to a workshop and some basic components. This requires a Repair roll. A raise halves the time needed to create the device. If the original should somehow be returned, it no longer functions (the character doesn’t get a “free” duplicate in this way).

Example: Doctor Gold starts play with a vibroknife (a knife with the smite power) and 10 Power Points. Later on, he levels up and chooses the New Power Edge. With that he invents a ray-gun with the bolt power. Both devices have 10 Power Points. In a fight, Doctor Gold first “turns on” his vibroknife by making a Weird Science roll. He gets a raise so the knife does +4 damage for its duration. The ray-gun doesn’t have to be activated. The Doc simply makes a Shooting roll whenever he fires it (just like a mage would make a Spellcasting roll).