I joined a game where we are using the Savage Wrolds Adventure edition to play an old west game. But i ran into a problem.

I want to play an old gold digger. So drawbacks was easy.
Old cause he is well old.
Cant Swim cause why should he? He doesn't bathe either. And the only water he consumes is ice cubes in his moonshine.
And Ugly cause well thats the stereotype of old wild west gold diggers. Smelly toothles maniacs with lumps of gold.

THen i started taking skills. And that was a whole can of worms..

To make someone who lives on his own and survives out there about every skill in the book sounds useful. But that means im now stuck with 20 skills on a d4 (And 4 advances left) and that somehow doesnt feel right. I thought of picking up jack of all trades but well it always takes an hour of study to use a skill that way.

The game is set on taking back a town from outlaws and i want the char to be able to do geology and blow stuff up. Anyone some advice so i don't end up with a char that i don't like mechanically because i made all the wrong choices? I asked in the game but well we all are new to the system.

Think of d6 as average, actual skills, d4 as things your feller knows a little about but doesn't do often. At minimum you'll probably want a d6 Survival (anything being-outdoors related), d6 Fighting (because bears, wolves, rival miners) and a d8 - above average - in Demolitions (blowing things up).

Points left over can nudge those up or go to skills like Shooting, Ride, Knowledge (Geology), Gambling, Intimidate or even Knowledge (mining law) if you think that'd come up. Hope that helps some.

tibiotarsus has the right of it.  Really SW character's should be boiled down to "what they're known for" which may not be as exhaustive as "what could they probably do?".

It's also important to remember that a d4 in a skill is usually good enough to represent something a person is a bit beyond proficient at for most everyday usage, because characters are wild cards and that D6 wild die is pretty powerful.

So, for instance, in an old west setting, most people who aren't city slickers probably won't have to roll anything to ride a horse from point A to B so they don't really need the riding skill (unless the GM is forgetting the 3 F's core game concept).  A character who occasionally might have had to stay in the saddle when the horse got spooked by a rattler probably has a D4, and the average saddle tramp will makes their living on horseback, a D6 in riding.

Good advice. 7-8 improved skills is about right IMO.

I'd add from a character perspective that a prospector (which is what I take you mean by gold digger) typically has a pack mule that he leads around while he trudges from dig to dig on foot and maybe rides from camp into the saloon once a week. So D4 ride is about right.

He's not a gunman, but might go to D6 in Shootin' with his shotgun. Fightin' might be D6 to represent barroom brawls on those trips to the saloon. D6 survival sounds about right--he's a competent camper, not a survivalist.

So pump Demolitions to D8 or even D10 and Geology too (though it's unlikely to be very useful in the story). Intimidate could go to D6 if he's an ornery enough cuss. Gambling might go to D6 (those saloon visits), but he's not Doc Holliday.

First of all thanks for your insight. Its great help.

So do i get that d6 with every skill roll i make? I thought it was only under special circumstances. That means even a d4 skill is actually a d6 skill for a PC is it? Or do i also get just the d6 on a skill i do not have?

With my disadvantages i got 8 points left to put into skills unless i find an edge i really must have and those 8 points should cover the most important skills aint it? Then again jack of all trades and doing the 7-8 d6+ skills also is more in line what i was expecting i should end up with instead of my 20 d4 skills.

You get a Wild die on all checks, but it's at -2 like the normal die (d4-2) if you don't have the skill being rolled for.

Edges in general are definitely worth their cost, since modifiers are generally what make the clearest difference in SW. A sniper with a +2 from Marksman can make a headshot (-4) at only -2, for instance, or shoot the first unfortunate foe in the leg (-2) with no penalty.

Incidentally, Fighting brings your Parry up and makes your character considerably less squishy...since hits are calculated as values above Parry, for someone old with lower Toughness, that can be the difference between coming out of a round standing and coming out of a round as a nasty stain on a barstool.

Just like to add in that the big benefit of getting d4 versus leaving a skill untrained is the removal of the -2 penalty. Rolling d4/d6 instead of d4-2/d6-2 is a significant increase probability wise. d6/d6 is about a 75% chance of success if I remember right. That's pretty respectable.

So i rolled up this. Does this make a feasible character? And am i reading it right that mr Fixit also adds to the demolitions/explosives roll as that also is a repair roll?




|! Wounds: | 0 / 3 |







|! Total Weight | |

|! Money | $200 |

You'll have to talk to the GM how they want to handle demolitions/explosives.  By the book repair "covers the use of demolitions and explosives".  However that typically only applies to the safe usage/placement of explosives (or defusing), which would get the +2.  Using dynamite as a weapon is a different thing, which I'll touch on below.





I can only come up with 4 points here.
D6(Spirit)=1
D6(Vigor)=1
D6(Smarts)=1
D8(Smarts)=1

So it looks like you have one more attribute point to allocate.



Core Skills (d4 for free)

Smarts Skills (5 points for free from Elderly Hindrance)



This is 16 points worth of skills.  So you're overspent by 2. (12 base, +2 in exchange for hindrances)

I would drop the research, unless you're going to emphasize some sort of formal education background for Bill.  In which case he should definitely be named "Dr. 'Splodin' Bill".

Also drop Driving, unless old Bill fancies going around on a velocipede.  Horse/mule drawn wagons are covered by Riding.

If you end up putting that extra attribute die into Agility, that will make the Athletics skill you raised only cost 1 point, so if you drop both Research and Driving, you'll have 1 additional skill point to spend somewhere.



This is 4 points, 2 spent on skills, 2 spent on another Edge.

Just make sure you have Loyal friends, otherwise poor old Bill's going to run afoul of the rule that you only have to run faster than the slowest person in a group.



One of these is free for being a human, the other is purchased with 2 points of hindrances.  So good there.

Trademark Weapon Dynamite is problematic, and something you'll have to talk to your GM about. Under SWADE dynamite used for its intended purpose is a repair roll.  In that instance, if you can manage to plant it somewhere as an ambush and, say, collapse a hillside on someone, perfect.  If you want to light a stick and throw it at some poor cowpuncher that left hooked the wrong steer and is hunkered down behind some barrels over yonder, that's an Athletics roll (throwing things) which you don't have at the D8 required for Trademark Weapon.  There's also an argument to be made that a "Trademark Weapon" is a singular unique weapon, but as long as it's explicitly "dynamite" and not any other type of explosive, I'd be willing to argue with a GM in favor of allowing it.

Alternatively, at a d8 repair, you're probably going to succeed at more traditional uses of explosives than not.  So you could take your 1 extra skill point (if you end up bumping Agility) from Athletics and put it into Notice, and then scrounge up another skill point (ditch thievery maybe?) and put that into Notice too, so Bill has a notice of D8, then take McGyver, so Bill can ad-hoc just about anything he needs in a pinch (including explosives) to the extent that your GM allows.

Otherwise you'll still need to raise Bill's agility to the d6, then find another skill point to put with the extra one to raise Athletics to a D8 so you'll be covered for Trademark weapon no matter what (barring the GM ruling Dynamite is ineligible).

Thanks again. Going over what you write while updating my sheet.

So using the left over point to bump Agility and dropping Science makes the sheet break even in expenditure.

Bill prolly wont have many friends but that dynamite should keept the smart baddies away ;-)

I thought Driving was indeed for sitting on the mule cart but if not thats a nice free point there. And thievery i had to take on the odd trap but well it might not really fit bill.  So lets just go for Athletics d8 and see what the GM says about the signature weapon.

Thanks you guys where a great help. Lets see how long poor Bill survives.