Fixing the Guns of Savage Worlds

Regularized Roscoe Rules:

Following up on my first post, I've revamped the cartridge firearms stats (the shooting rules are fine). This replaces the relevant tables in the book for my game and please feel free to use these for your games. Permission is granted to republish this information as desired. To my mind the rules for guns were nonsensical with some calibers being merged together while others that are similar having different stats and a complete lack of definition of difference for SMGs and pistol caliber longarms. Using these rules players and GMs should be able to develop pretty much any gun of the Wild West and later eras. I've also created an even further simplified version that I'll be posting separately.

Classification of Firearms Technology Levels:

I first had to divide the eras of firearms to make space for a later addition I'll want to make with Accessories and to provide for the development of ammunition over time. 

• Black Powder: State of firearms from the beginning of gunpowder to about 1850’s technology. These rules are unchanged from the book. 
• Classic: The Classic period is the 1850s to the beginning of WWI Semi-auto firearms and machineguns are unavailable. 
• Mid-Century: Includes WWI through WWII. Fully automatic and semi-auto guns are available, but less common. Accessories are mostly limited to Classic.
• Modern: Post WWII guns to the current day, with an emphasis on post 1980 designs and accessories. 
• Future: Guns and accessories that are not available yet.

Ammunition:

I've created a better and more simplified ammunition chart, keeping with the ideas of Savage Worlds. A gun’s damage (and armor penetration) relies entirely on its ammunition, not the firearm itself. A weapon's effective range is mostly a factor of it's ammunition, but is practically influenced by the type of gun as well. It is easier to shoot a longarm accurately than a handgun. For pistol ammo, this means that effective range is increased when fired from a rifle or SMG as opposed to a revolver or pistol. While gun enthusiasts will brawl to the flaming internet death over the different damage, ranges and penetration of various calibers, they generally can be boiled down to a couple of categories. These categories may even be too narrow and the simplified rules coming in a future post may be even more realistic.

The Savage Worlds rules are not granular enough to distinguish different sub-types of ammunition like hollowpoint, armor piercing or others, so I’ve not written about them. Older ammunition didn’t have the penetrating power that modern ammo has. Thus Classic period ammunition has less armor piercing capability then Mid-Century and later ammunition. The higher pressures required for magnum handguns and ammo require technology that wasn’t available until the Mid-Century period.

GMs should still feel free to specify the actual caliber of a firearm or found ammunition, especially if they are trying to impress upon the characters that they can't loot bodies to replenish their stockpile. These rules should not be taken to mean that a character can reload their Thomson SMG with 45 Colt rounds from a Single Action Army revolver. But all of that is merely description and fluff. I've written these rules to help GMs and players who may not be gun enthusiasts to have a simple set of numbers to apply fairly. And to allow gun enthusiasts playing characters with custom firearms to build (with GM approval) unique and interesting guns in the pulp style.

Handguns have no stocks and short barrels. Longarms have stocks and longer barrels and includes SMGs. With rare exception, carbine and rifle ammo are only found in longarms. I've listed range tables for the odd handguns like the T/C Encore and Contender and stockless rifles that fire Carbine and Rifle ammo. The handgun chart would also apply to Classic firearms at the GMs option as these were lower velocity and harder to shoot well.

• Light Pistol ammo is low pressure and often found in target and training firearms as well as derringers, inexpensive "Pocket pistols" or novelty guns. All varieties of firearms are chambered in this type of ammunition. Example calibers include: .22LR, .25ACP, and .32 pocket guns.
• Light pistol calibers are 2d4 damage, AP 1. 
• Light pistol ammo range, handgun, 5/10/20
• Light pistol ammo range, longarm, 10/20/40
• Medium Pistol ammunition is the standard for sidearms and sub-machineguns. it is the type of ammo every police officer, security guard and soldiers pistol is chambered in, as well as nearly all SMGs deployed. The most popular calibers in the world are Medium Pistol. Calibers include: 9mm, 40S&W, 38special and Super, etc
• Medium pistol calibers are 2d6 damage, AP 2.
• Classic Medium Pistol Ammo is only AP 1.
• Medium Pistol ammo range, handgun, 10/20/40
• Medium Pistol ammo range, longarm, 12/24/48
• Heavy Pistol ammo is large caliber rounds, often designed before Magnum cartridges for additional terminal effectiveness. Often preferred but more traditional shooters and very common in the Classic period and firearms. Mostly found in pistols and revolvers, lever action rifles and a few SMGs. Example real-world calibers include: .44 Special, 10mm, 45ACP and 'Long Colt', 357 Magnum
• Heavy pistol calibers are 2d6+1 damage, AP 1. 
• Heavy Pistol ammo range, handgun, 10/20/40
• Heavy Pistol ammo range, longarm, 12/24/48
• Magnum ammunition is where the calibers that try to be the biggest and best in a handgun sized package. Often found in revolvers and only rarely adapted to Semi-autos. No Magnum SMG has ever been mass produced. There are some custom rifles in these calibers and SMGs Example calibers include .50 Action Express, .44 Magnum, .500 S&W.
• Magnum Pistol calibers are 2d8 damage, AP 1, limited to an ROF 1. 
• Magnum cartridges and firearms do not exist in Classic settings.
• Magnum Pistol ammo range, handgun, 10/20/40
• Magnum Pistol ammo range, longarm, 12/24/48
• Carbine ammo is also called "intermediate cartridges," and are typical of assault rifles like the AK and M16-style rifles. There are many manually operated longarms in carbine cartridges as well, like the classic 30-30 lever rifles. Handguns in this caliber are often single shot or cut down rifles.
• Carbine ammo is 2d8 damage AP 3, 
• Semiauto Carbines have a ROF of 2.
• Classic Carbine ammo is only AP 2
• Carbine ammo range, handgun, 20/40/80
• Carbine ammo range, longarm, 24/48/96
• Rifle ammo is the full power horse-stopping round exemplified by the .308, 30-06 or 8mm Mauser. Usually found in bolt action rifles, many belt fed medium machine guns and even autoloading combat rifles are built in these calibers as well. There are only a few handguns in these calibers due to their huge size, heavy recoil and weight. They are mostly target and hunting single shot pistols.
• Rifle ammo is 2d8+1 damage, AP4, 
• Semiauto rifles have a ROF of 1.
• Classic Rifle ammo is only AP 3
• Rifle ammo range, handgun, 24/48/96
• Rifle ammo range, longarm, 30/60/120

Rate of Fire Modifications.

Rate of fire is going to be a feature of the firearm. The system has a side rule for semi-auto guns to “Doubletap” to increase damage against a single target, but the trained use of a semi-auto can easily support attacking 2 targets inside of 6 seconds without a penalty. The obvious exclusion of guns with an ROF of 2 and the rules defining ROF 3 as full auto show to me that this was a consideration when they were designing the game. If a character uses both ROF against a single target, use the Doubletap rule. If they split them between targets, use the ROF rules. The Customization mentioned is an optional rule that I'll post later. GMs should feel free to ignore it as it is very much a specialist and cinematic addition.

• Single shot, single action and manually operated firearms have a ROF of 1.
• Pump action, lever action, bolt action firearms are all included.
• All single action revolvers and Derringers are ROF 1. 
• Double action revolvers are ROF 1, except when customized. 
• Magnum caliber semiauto pistols, heavy semiauto rifles and semiauto shotguns (except when customized) are also ROF1.
• Semiauto firearms are typically ROF 2. Pistols, rifles etc.
• Machineguns are ROF 3 and 4. The highest rate of fire guns are 4. 
• Miniguns and futuristic hyper rate of file guns are ROF 5.

BodyCameras

(Note: This article was written in 2016 and missed publication)
I just read the linked article about a low cost solution for police body cameras. I think it merits discussion. On the one hand, dedicated devices are more tamper resistant and can be built with the always-on battery life, ruggedness and simple controls that lend it a long life in the sort of hard use a police officers item can expect. Also, since it has literally no other purpose there is no reason for it to ever not be in place.

On the other hand, a smartphone based system can be cheaper, and always online. You can off-load the storage to prevent tampering and livestream incidents in progress. but at the cost of battery life, probably having to be activated and managed from the touch screen (a huge, fragile, battery waster) and being easily blocked by structures, simple network congestion, airplane mode, or lack of signal. The mounting system shown in the article seems especially subject to being dropped, lost or otherwise disabled.

The advantage of using a phone with its own data capability is clear. A phone is simpler to use than a dedicated, larger device that needs to be plugged in to a dock every night not only to charge, but to offload the camera’s footage to a server.

“VieVu, you would wear it your whole shift, record several aspects of what you were doing, come into the office, plug it in, and then it would download,” Officer Johnny Mathis of the Dos Palos Police Department, told Ars.

“The problems that we had [with a dedicated body camera] was that some officers wouldn’t plug it in, or the connection wasn’t real good, or when you went to use the camera, it was full. This one, as soon as you turn the camera off, it uploads it into the cloud, no problems with being full or anything like that.”

Would a cop fail to ensure their gun was loaded, or that the barrel wasn’t obstructed? Would they drive off without making sure the patrol car had gas? These are a cultural issue with cops using any  excuse to avoid being filmed at work. My solution is 2 fold.

1. A bodycam designed to fit in the officers breast pocket. It has both celluar streaming and onboard fixed storage. It is affixed into the pocket with velcro so as to stay in place during vigorous physical activity. it would have an onboard battery life greater then a shift length, a charging port and battery pack option and a “pause” button for bathroom breaks etc that requires a 3 second push to deactivate the camera, but a mere tap to activate. There would be a light and signal sent when the camera is activated and deactivated.
2. At the end of shift the cameras would be turned into a quartermaster department whose job it is to secure the data, charge and maintain the devices. At the beginning of shift there would be and inspection of the camera and acceptance. Both of these would be systems that have disciplinary reinforcement. If an officer didn’t check they device, discipline. If the quartermaster didn’t archive it right? discipline.

At least that is my starting point.

Restrictions and Machineguns

I agree with restriction creates demand. Especially among contrarian people who figure "Well it's banned, it's gotta be good!" And let's not forget the movies and anime and videogames portraying these awesomely cool guns. Let's get a little deeper though.

The root issue is that raw numbers swell marginal rates. There are not a lot of machinegun harms in the US. Nearly zero with registered machineguns. However, that doesn't mean that if machineguns were made widely available these rates would stay near zero. As the availability and total number of machinegun, especially cheap, shootable machineguns increases, the odds of them being misused increases too. The lack of NFA weapons being used to harm people is evidence that if your gun control is strict enough, it works.

BUT. It also works because semi-auto and even manually operated firearms are 90%+ as effective as machineguns for the vast majority of uses. In many cases they are even preferred to machineguns. As much as I want to flip a switch and dump a mag or 5, or a drum, it's not really worth it to me and nothing in what I want to do with a gun is improved by automatic fire.

Because full auto is cheap. 2 pieces of sheet metal to make most ARs shoot in auto. You can bend a coathanger to create an autosear for an AR. As the video mentions there are other solutions for other guns, and dedicated sub-machineguns are probably the second easiest type of gun to build out of spare steel at Home Depot.  But generally people don't. Why? Because a factory PC9 is more accurate, more reliable, better handling and easier to acquire. Increase that barrier to entry and you can look to the gun markets of Central Europe and South America for your examples, where workshops create sub-machineguns in batches and individuals braze them together from spare parts on their lunch break.

Getting Started in Savage Worlds

A psuedo-review

Savage Worlds is a RPG designed for fun and fast play. The definitive difference is that you advance stats and skills by increasing the value of the die related to the stat or skill. It's almost like White Wolf (or U5D) where each pip is not an additional die, but a better one. The rules are a mix of ideas and seem to be strongly influenced by tabletop wargaming play. Up to 4 Players has a really good primer on the basics in comic form and illustrates a campaign with rules as well.

 There's not much wrong with Savage Worlds' rules, but they doesn't feel cohesive. A well tuned game system scales and is intuitive to the point that a GM or player can guess what the rules are for a new situation. This is not that. While the rules are clearly written, they are disjointed and poorly organized.

There are some thematic issues with it as well. As a pulp rules system, it is subject to all the old stereotypes and prejudices coming through in the games. In the end, this is on the individual GM to solve, but you should be aware that it is shaded to encourage play and characters that have sensibilities set in the 1930s. If the inherent colonialism, classism and bigotry of Steampunk bothers you, this is probably the wrong system for you. Again, a decent GM and good setting will avoid this. But the defaults are Wild West, Pulp Sci-fi, Steampunk and Lovecraftian horror.

To sum up, I'm glad I purchased it, it's a good game for what I'm trying to do, but I can't recommend it unreservedly. It's close to the old White Wolf system in ease of play and character creation, and is much simpler than D20, Shadowrun, Palladium, or GURPS. It is not as tight and easy to play as 5e. If there was a good resource for 5e Modern, I'd have gone with that for my game.

Due to previous experience I've tweaked and modified Savage Worlds, the beginning of which you can see below, and more to come in future Blog Posts.

Examples of What Those Dice Mean:

One of the failings of Savage Worlds is that they don’t provide context for the dice you buy as your attribute or skill. I’ve made this handy chart to act as a guideline to help you in character creation and give context to your stats and skills. Reading the source material ad making some educated guesses from RPGs past, please find below my interpretation of the dice.

Stats:

• D4, low average. You can do stuff related to this stat, but it's hard.
• D6, high average. You are competent in most tasks involving this attribute.
• D8, exceptional. You are noticeably well endowed in this attribute.
• D10, outstanding. You easily accomplish really difficult things related to this attribute.
• D12, Olympic. You are near the top of human ability in this attribute. 
• D12+1 You are a world champion in this attribute.

Skills:

• No skill, you only have common knowledge of this still and will roll the related attribute, often at -2 . The GM may fail attempts if the case is too far from common knowledge.
• D4, you have limited and basic knowledge of this skill. Perhaps it is a hobby or something you've assisted others with.
• D6, you have a professional knowledge on the subject and could hold down an entry level position related to it.
• D8, you have an encyclopedic knowledge and excellent skill in this realm.
• D10, you are an expert in the field
• D12, you are the authority on the subject. 

How Having “No Skill” Works:

By default if you don’t have a skill, you roll the attached attribute at -2. However, if the GM declares that the particular thing you are doing is “Common knowledge” you may roll at the bare stat. Alternately, if the task is too complex, it may fail no matter what. No Skill can be contextual as well. A time traveler from the future will have common knowledge of medieval swords, but the knights of the time will not be able to understand his tablet or blaster. Or in modern times a scroll written in Ancient Babylonian will not be readable to anyone not skilled in Knowledge Ancient Babylonian.

Common Knowledge example:

Rory wants to bandage a wound. He has a bandage and has seen ER, but no Medical or Healing skill. He rolls Smarts with no modifier and on a success, has bandaged the wound.

Default example

Rory wants to drive a car, but has no Drive skill. Using Common Knowledge, he rolls Agility -2 for even the simplest tasks, and the GM will probably narrate all the little things that he’s getting wrong and failing at.

Autofail example

Rory wants to fly a fighter jet but does not have the Flying skill. He climbs into the cockpit, and rolls Smarts. The GM knows that fighter jets are incredibly complex and Rory automatically fails, regardless of the roll, wild die, or raises. A terrible role might be a spectacular failure.

RPG Descriptions are Important

Just read an article about old school D&D having trouble because Assassin and Thief characters would kill or steal from party members. To me that's a failure in GMing and in party cohesion. Sure an assassin is going to kill people, it's in the name. But they aren't crazed murderers killing random or just nearby people. They kill for money or mission. If the GM gives the assassin character a mission to kill another PC that's on the GM for hurting the game. In a very rare instance a GM may try to divide the loyalty or put a character in a position to betray the party. Think of Firefly,  Jayne nearly betrays Mal in the episode with the Fed or when Jayne does betray Mal in the hospital job. But I'd consider that some advanced storytelling that should be limited to players who value the group more than XP or "Just playing my character," excuses. The GM and player of the possible betrayer should monitor the health of the group and be ready to ditch the idea.

Thieves stealing from party members is a similar problem. A thief character should have ample opportunity to steal (and use other roguish talents) in the world without taking from their comrades. Just as an assassin isn't a psycho killer, a thief isn't a kleptomaniac. The thief character should value the party's support more than trinkets and baubles they can get from their purses. A player who ignores this should be addressed by the GM or the group. The GM can reinforce this with "Honor among thieves," and other setting fluff. For example a team of bank robbers have no problem killing cops and stealing from the bank. But wouldn't dare take a dollar more than their share, and would feel bad if they killed a bystander. (See Reservoir Dogs)

The article ends with a different example, in early D&D Barbarians had a rule that awarded them experience for destroying magic items and a class description that they hate magic in all forms. This is game structure that directly opposes Barbarians with wizards, clerics, characters who have leveled into spell-like abilities and everyone else who's carrying a magic weapon or item. Unlike the previous examples a Barbarian character of any alignment would be in character to betray magic using comrades, steal party members expensive and rare magic items and destroy them. Played with restraint and respect this could be role-playing tension. But as a general rule it justifies actions that wreck the game for everyone. Here the game was the problem not the GM.

I feel that the problem is partly one of growing pains, RPGs were changing from wargaming and "murder hobo" hack n' slash to the more storytelling games we have now.  Making these changes reinforced storytelling and was probably the right thing to do in the long run. Now we have a better base to build on. GMs and players are used to diverse parties and are less likely to use their class (or alignment) as justification to damage the game. 

A More Socialist Uber

The Gig Economy

There is a class of app mediated "Gig" employment that leverages the idea of workers owning the means of production to make greater profit with less overhead. They're the media darlings of the mobile web. Uber, Doordash, AirBnB and all of the others where individuals sign up, use their own cares and homes to undercut the prices of taxis and hotels and provide delivery services that the Post Office and UPS can't or won't. These jobs require that the workers provide the labor, cars, insurance etc while the mediating app company takes a cut of every transaction for matching them with customers, building the app, and organizing everything. They also take a cut as profits and maintain ownership of the company. That's the part I would change.

Internet Mediated Cooperative:

As a co-op, this type of app would only take a cut to cover the costs of running the infrastructure that the workers need. Some might be stored to save for emergencies or long term upgrades or other changes that aren't immediate, but the root organization takes no profit.

Ownership shares would be distributed to the workers by a system of either hours worked, money made, or some other proof of work idea. The workers would use their ownership shares to vote about what the company does, like any shareholders. Over time, the ownership percentage of the core infrastructure developing organization would diminish against the number of workers and their efforts. When a worker leaves the organization, the organization buys back their ownership, keeping control of the company with the workers and the ex-worker gets paid out for their work. Alternately, the organization could be strictly non-profit and each worker gets an equal vote. I dislike this solution as it incentives people to sign up for a minimum time and take the vote over.

None of this solves the root problems of our economy and the issues with being an independent contractor. It doesn't solve the problem of people having to provide their own car, insurance, gas, maintenance and the rest. It would be very hard to get such an organization started as Venture Capital would be antithetical to the idea. It would be hard to be competitive with the existing gig apps as they already have the market share. And I don't know if such a co-op ownership scheme would be legal in the stock trading laws. But it's interesting to take these "disruptive" ideas to their open source, cooperative roots.