Savage Worlds Primer: Trappings
Written by Jeff Carlsen on 2009/12/30 – 08:00 -
After writing part 1 and part 2 of this primer I asked you and the good folks over at the Pinnacle forums if there was anything missing, and they came through for me. While another post going over a few insightful aspects of the rules is in order, today I’m talking about one of the concepts that will take your normal D&D player some thought to adapt to.
Trappings
A fantasy setting might have dozens of spells that explode and do damage. Fireballs, insect swarms, icy blasts, etc. Mechanically, they’re nearly identical. Savage Worlds only has one such spell. It’s called Blast. All variations of blast, such as a fireball, are done through trappings. Other trappings might include an expanding sphere of prismatic light, or a cold darkness that causes hemorrhaging. Trappings are mostly descriptive in nature, but they can have some mechanical effect. For example, a Fireball might cause things to catch fire but not damage stone walls, all depending on the description of the spell and the Game Master.
Setting Tone using Trappings
Trappings aren’t limited to spells alone. Many of the games hindrances, edges, and skills can have their names and descriptions changed to fit the particular tone of a setting. This is the most fundamental way to convert a setting over to Savage Worlds. Many times people try to create a special rule for a setting, only have it pointed out to them that the rule already exists under a different name.
This can be unsatisfying for some game masters who are used to dealing with the game in a mechanical manner. They feel the need to create specific exceptions or mechanical descriptions for everything. Thwart this temptation. The philosophy of Savage Worlds is to concentrate on describing the setting and it’s trappings, and then translating, not converting, the existing mechanics.
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By Dave Martin on Dec 30, 2009 | Reply
That’s one of the most inventive and intuitive things about Savage Worlds that people tend to miss, I think. You can have two Mages using AB: Magic who are built exactly the same as far as stats are concerned, but change the trappings on the second one and roleplay the personality accordingly different and you have two distinct characters who don’t even appear anything alike unless someone compares their sheets.