A Couple New House Rules for Savage Worlds: Showdown

These are a few House Rules I’m experimenting with for Savage Worlds: Showdown

Morale, Surrender, and Retreat

The Morale rules remain more or less the same with the following additions:

Surrender

Any figures shaken as a result of failed morale will surrender to enemy forces if, at any time until they recover, there is more than twice as many unshaken enemy figures within 8” as there are unshaken friendly troops. Also figures that are shaken as a result of failed morale and are successfully intimidated by enemy within 8” will also surrender.

Any troops that aren’t bloodthirsty should generally accept the surrender of enemy forces and take them prisoner. Prisoners should remain on the table. They are considered to have dropped or surrendered their arms immediately upon surrendering. Troops must be detailed to watch prisoners – at least one per 6 prisoners. The Prisoners will act on their captors card and may be moved at half their normal pace.

Bloodthirsty troops may ignore the surrender of enemy troops and continue as they will…

Retreat

Any troops that don’t recover from being shaken as a result of failed morale must, on their next action and any subsequent actions until they do recover, retreat at their full half pace away from any visible enemy within 24” or otherwise move towards a friendly base edge.


Units with Muzzle-Loading, Blackpowder Firearms

The following rules apply only to units armed with muzzle-loading, blackpowder firearms in Savage Worlds: Showdown. These are designed to streamline things a tad so that larger actions can be played out.

First units must be declared as “Formed” or “Irregular”. Each type has different rules for unit cohesion and firing. Some units may be deployed as either – but once deployed they must remain as such for the entire encounter (I may change this… allowing such troops to spend an entire action to redeploy – I’d have to do some play-testing…).

For the purposes of cohesion and moving Formed Troops must remain within 2” of other members of their unit. When firing Formed troops will always fire in volleys. They may fire every other turn (i.e. taking one turn to reload between each firing) but may not move more than half pace on any turns that they are either firing or reloading.

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


Above is an example of a “Formed” unit. As long as they don't move more than half pace the entire unit may fire every other turn.

Irregular troops on the other hand must stay within 2” of at least two other members of their unit, effectively creating mutually supporting “cells” of three or more figures. These “cells”, however, must only maintain the regular 5” unit cohesion (i.e. a member of each cell within a unit must be within 5” of a member of another cell within the unit…). Each full cell of three or more figures may fire once every turn – as long as no member of the cell moves at more than half pace. Cells that are reduced to less than three may not fire but may split up and/or join other or form new cells.


Above is an example of an “Irregular” unit of three cells. Each of these cells may fire every turn as long as no memebers of the firing cell move more than half pace.

Is this totally crazy…? I’ll try it out tomorrow night. I’m hoping it will be intuitive enough and keep the game Fast, Furious and Fun – an hopefully make it faster and more furious (and hence, more fun!) by dispensing with the need to keep track of who is loaded and able to fire and who is loading, etc.

Wildcards can keep track of their loading process as per the normal rules.