Let me gush about Savage Worlds Supers!

 

I conducted four sessions of Savage Worlds with the Super Powers Companion, and the players made an effort to schedule these sessions closely together due to their high level of enthusiasm.

Admittedly, it was their first experience with Savage Worlds, and apparently, it struck the perfect balance between 'tactics' and 'simplicity,' making it an instant hit. Interestingly, the much-maligned Power System of the Super Heroes Companion received plenty of praise. So, what factors contributed to Savage World Supers becoming a success with my friends and me? I will attempt to elucidate its appeal and explain why both experienced Savage Worlds players and complete newcomers might consider giving it a try. Additionally, I will build upon the collective knowledge shared in a previous Reddit thread to help you navigate potential pitfalls (as I encountered). More details to follow.

Savage Worlds is about 'Pulp' Action. It is also about roleplaying. 

The key point to remember is that Savage Worlds embraces the entire experience of an 'action genre,' encompassing character scenes, roleplaying scenes, tense moments, and non-combat action sequences—all supported by the rules. However, I want to emphasize that these aspects are particularly vital when running Supers. Why? Well, it just happens to be the easiest and most consistent way to reward your players with bennies! As I will explain further below, Bennies are the life and soul of Supers in Savage Worlds.In any case, I explained to my players, 'Whenever you take initiative in a roleplay scene, make it interesting, or simply roleplay your character's hindrances and advantages in that scene, you receive a benny—no questions asked.' This approach encouraged the playgroup to break out of their shells and engage in more roleplay than I had initially anticipated.

Savage Worlds Supers is all about the genre tropes

Here comes the first spicy take. Just as Savage Worlds is 'furious' (with exploding dice, oh my!), the Super Powers Companion (SPC from now on) is 'powerful.' It goes something like this:

Power Level 1: Regular Savage World foes can still regularly pose a threat to the party, and other super-powered beings become an even bigger challenge. Savage Worlds handles this power level well; there are no weird math curves here! The Deluxe version of the SPC refers to this as 'Mystery Men,' evoking the Shadow and friends, which aligns with the Savage Worlds style. I recommend this for people who truly enjoy the Savage Worlds base game and wish to play a 'superhero' game that closely mirrors the mechanics of the base Savage Worlds games. The superpowers you acquire here are on par with any Arcane Background; you can even mix and match Power Level 1 characters with base book Arcane Background characters to your heart's content.

Power Level 2: We reached the bell curve of math here. Now, regular foes are mostly fodder for the Aces, you will only truly challenge your players with similar leveled Super Powered beings, with the really hard encounters coming from characters at Power Level 3. On the last thread, people associated this level with "X-men". I feel the term the deluxe edition was wrong ("Street Fighters"), you are much closer to X-men, 60's Avengers, Teen Titans, and similar power levels than your Daredevils and Batmen. Though I can still see the two workings here as well, the number of options of powers will feel closer to the first teams mentioned. This is also the point I would recommend most people who enjoy Savage Worlds to 'stop' at. For it feels like the base game but the Player Characters ARE super powered and can make the impossible, possible. All thanks to the benny mechanics we will explore in this article further down below.

Power Level 3: This is where things 'start to fall apart.' The fundamental mechanics of Savage Worlds are transcended at this point. Player characters become not only incredibly powerful and virtually untouchable by 'normal characters' but also possess an abundance of utility. Only supervillains of equal power will even catch the players' attention. The deluxe edition dubs it 'four colors'—and that's precisely what you get here. Heroes versus villains, with all the expected back-and-forth. Fully anticipate immersing yourself in a world of 'powers' and characters who cannot be harmed unless players actively use abilities like 'Decompose' or other control powers to neutralize them. It remains relatively easy to run, but at this stage, you're essentially playing the SPC experience rather than traditional Savage Worlds, and it has a distinct feel. Whether you'll love it or not depends on your preferences. As a devoted Savage Worlds enthusiast, I did not.

Power Level 4: The aces become demigods at this stage. Think of Marvel's Annihilators. They no longer face single villains; they take on entire space armadas and are expected to emerge victorious. Interestingly, Savage Worlds with the Sci-Fi companion can deliver that power fantasy! However, challenging the players becomes a daunting task unless you introduce threats on a Thanos-level scale.

Power Level 5: Now you're dealing with actual gods. You and your group are essentially playing in a Greek tragedy RPG. Some people might enjoy Jack Kirby's New Gods, and I happen to be one of 'those people.' However, I can't envision myself running Savage Worlds at this power level.

**

Anyway, sorry for dumping all this information on you, but it's important! Contrary to what some folks have said in the past thread, all these power levels work in Savage Worlds. However, from PL3 onwards, you're playing a different take on Savage Worlds. It has adapted to follow the tropes and cliches of the superhero genre. For instance, at power level 3, you're expected to run adventures styled after the 'Justice League,' where characters face entire legions of supervillains, world-level crises, powerful (PL 4) cosmic invaders, and so on. The base philosophy of Savage Worlds remains intact (favorable math for attackers, tactical decisions, easy resolution, actual fun, and good grid combat), but the numbers and possibilities are so high that one must draw directly from the genre it's trying to emulate to make sense of it. And that's perfectly fine. Some people have said, 'It doesn't work in Savage Worlds,' but what I think they meant was, 'The game doesn't feel like Savage Worlds anymore.' If that's the case, they are right! However, it's still perfectly playable.

That said, PL2 is the sweet spot for me. Maybe it's PL1 for you! Or perhaps PL3. And that's perfectly fine. The beauty of Savage Worlds Supers and SW, in general, is the way GMs and players shape campaigns to their liking, removing and adding rules they like to make them work.

Savage World Supers is fun, actually

Here's a Rorschach test for you: 'Jade's player proclaims that she will take three actions that round. She plans to telekinetically slam Helena the Hyena first across the stage, then into the bus, and finally pepper her with psychic energy spheres until she becomes a smoldering carcass.'

The player then rolled hot! She successfully slammed Helena onto the stage, then spent a Benny to make the stage collapse on her, adding more damage. Afterward, she slammed her into the bus and spent another Benny to make the bus explode, causing damage and tossing Helena around.

However, the damage roll didn't make a dent in Helena the Hyena, who possessed 8 levels of the 'Armor' power.

'Under the rubble, a clawed fist punches its way to the surface. Helena is back up, her clothes torn to shreds, showcasing her pulsating muscles, and her fur is singed by fire. In her eyes, a red glow of pure hatred.'

Finally, Jade's player attacks with her Ranged Attack (Psychic Energy Spheres) and explodes several dice in damage, finally incapacitating Helena... Or so she thought. The Hyena stands with one wound left, thanks to the 'robust' advantage she had for her 'armor' power.

It's the next turn.

**

If what I just described felt right, felt superheroic, felt interesting, felt cool, and felt like Savage Worlds, then you ought to try it. If you somehow see villains and heroes being extra resilient as an antithesis to your fun, then yeah, it's not for you. But I will say this: the base SW, the easy application of condition effects and the usage of powers, the ability of Bennies to empower players to describe their powers however they wish, and if approved, they get to use the rules of another power to interact with the scene or make an attack... It feels liberating. It feels good. As a GM, I feel like I am playing Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Game/Cortex Prime, but with a tactical ruleset that is a breeze to run, and that feels satisfying when players try to solve difficult encounters by thinking outside the box with their powers.In any case, I adore Savage Worlds' take on Supers. It's quickly becoming my favorite. But one has to wonder: have you figured out what made that combat described above work?

Bennie Basher

In the base Savage Worlds game, players often view bennies as 'extra health.' They see them as a means to mitigate the unpredictable nature of combat. However, more experienced players who understand Savage Worlds' mechanics know that the system favors the attacker. In other words, using Bennies aggressively tends to yield better results than simply using them as extra wounds with the Soak mechanic. This principle holds true for all base Savage Worlds games.

Things become interesting when the SPC comes into play. Not only does the book introduce new options for using Bennies, but there is one particular option that elevates the SPC to the realm of special Super Hero games worth trying: Power Mimicry.

For the low cost of '1 bennie' and a creative description, you can use your powers—whatever they may be—to mimic another power of the same level that you've just described. Think of iconic movie/comic moments, like the Hulk clapping his hands so hard that it creates a Sonic Boom, or Professor X using his telepathy to enter a villain's mind and disable him for a while.

Suddenly, the Mutants & Masterminds-esque power system is turned on its head, offering the kind of freedom you'd find in Marvel Heroic Roleplaying or even FATE, while still retaining the medium level of crunchiness of Savage Worlds. It's genius in a way! Due to this level of crunchiness, it remains connected to Savage World's base combat system, which itself plays like a modern war game—dynamic and easy to run.

Add to the mix Bennies—a resource born out of social interaction, roleplaying, and downtime activities—and you have a versatile game that welcomes calm, plot-driven, relationship-based scenes alongside fun grid-based combat action. Most Super Heroes tabletop RPGs do not use grid combat at all, and even the newest one, Marvel Multiverse, appears to have encountered mathematical issues. Despite some 'competition' in this arena, if you enjoy tactical/strategic TTRPG games while still relishing drama and character moments, Savage Worlds with the SPC is a game worth trying.

Here are two tools that have greatly assisted me in GMing this game without a hitch:

 

 

 

This 'pay-what-you-want' tool is the one I use for my home games, it is based on the Deadlands adventure generator and it is more of a narrative tool than a mechanical one. You can even use it to generate adventure ideas for other Super Hero ttrpgs.
Zadmar's has fantastic tools and generators for any Savage Worlds campaign, but his super hero tools have gone down well with the adventure generator.

Hopefully this post bring awareness to a way of playing super heroes in the ttrpg space that has a unique feel to it! You can grab the SPC here as well the base Savage Worlds game here.