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Is the pirate vs. ninja theme tired yet? I love myself some ninja, so there's no mistake which side I take. Brent has an honorary-pirate certificate signed by Capt. Morgan or Capt. Hook or something, and it is only because he is my friend that I have not done something ninja-y to him. But, in all seriousness, we are playing 50 Fathoms using Savage Worlds, and I am basically playing a pirate.
A pirate doctor!
I have found the system to be acceptible, and I have also played this game in three different systems now. We started in True20, I think we might of played the game once using FUDGE, and we've started again with a totally new group playing with Savage Worlds. SW is pretty light, and I occasionally find myself wishing for denser mechanics, but it's serviceable in play. The game itself was fun - it's a module and Brent does a good job running it (and dealing with the weird thrashings different gaming groups make), but every now and again we run into these weird incongruities.
First of all, I made the 'mistake' of playing a medical technician. Or, you know, ships surgeon. I figure it doesn't matter that I don't know anything about nautical medicine, and basically engage in some pretty bizzare procedures - mostly involving feeding patients rum and limes, and then crudely sewing cuts shut. None of this matters, because I haven't seen an RPG in recent years that treats anything but 'magic' healing with much respect. Most games are forced to represent non-magical healing in some crude way that basically says you heal really slowly over a period of time. Realistically, I understand that even the speedy and eventual full recovery that one makes in an RPG are tantamount to magic, but it basically puts the kibosh on gameplay is you don't have a 'Cleric' on board.
It's not like Savage Worlds is really different in this respect. This isn't even really a complaint. It's just kind of a tacit acknowledgement and a nod to why I like D&D 4e's 'Second Wind'. Unless I am playing a realistic game, maybe I want my doctor to heal people? I found it terribly weird that even in 3e's class-centered gaming, where magic healing is the assumption for any adventurer, someone with the Heal skill is more effective at non-magical healing then in Savage Worlds where magic isn't even always assumed.
My looking through the book showed the rules being that using a Healing check in SW resulted in a character adding a bonus to if they recovered any health when they eventually made their check in 5 days, but provided no bonus to what they recovered (unless you pushed them into a 'raise' or 4 above the target number, which I guess is plausable). For medical practices pre-1840, succeeding means that you don't do anything. You have to get the equivilent of multiple successes before any progress is made, so on the average, I just don't kill a patient my doctor operates on. I can improve how well I do, though, if I get a mystical ability tied to my Charisma stat, though! It sucks to be a 1840's Dr. House.
I think medicine in RPGs is really amusing. There are always systems that games break down on, somewhat, and along with economics, natural healing or medicine is one of them where I think people are caught between trying to be realistic and what's good for a game. I know 4e went all the way with 'game' on this one.
Speaking of the game in general, my character totally sucked in combat, and I'm going to need to find a better way to go on the attack. The 'average' means I hardly land any blows, and when I do, I hardly ever do damage. It's not unusual for someone to succeed in hitting and find that it doesn't matter. I think this is what NWoD tried to do away with, actually. I had a cleaver and did no damage while someone else with average strength punched a raptor in the face and killed it. Later on, he gave a giant ape a significant drubbing with a belaying pin; a higher then average Fighting skill pays off in spades, though I think those were just flukes.
I followed my trend of rolling really poorly, super consistantly, until I roll for an unimportant task and get a success that is literally 1-in-a-thousand. I get one of those rolls a game, typically, which indicates some bizzare trend I really want no part of.
A pirate doctor!
I have found the system to be acceptible, and I have also played this game in three different systems now. We started in True20, I think we might of played the game once using FUDGE, and we've started again with a totally new group playing with Savage Worlds. SW is pretty light, and I occasionally find myself wishing for denser mechanics, but it's serviceable in play. The game itself was fun - it's a module and Brent does a good job running it (and dealing with the weird thrashings different gaming groups make), but every now and again we run into these weird incongruities.
First of all, I made the 'mistake' of playing a medical technician. Or, you know, ships surgeon. I figure it doesn't matter that I don't know anything about nautical medicine, and basically engage in some pretty bizzare procedures - mostly involving feeding patients rum and limes, and then crudely sewing cuts shut. None of this matters, because I haven't seen an RPG in recent years that treats anything but 'magic' healing with much respect. Most games are forced to represent non-magical healing in some crude way that basically says you heal really slowly over a period of time. Realistically, I understand that even the speedy and eventual full recovery that one makes in an RPG are tantamount to magic, but it basically puts the kibosh on gameplay is you don't have a 'Cleric' on board.
It's not like Savage Worlds is really different in this respect. This isn't even really a complaint. It's just kind of a tacit acknowledgement and a nod to why I like D&D 4e's 'Second Wind'. Unless I am playing a realistic game, maybe I want my doctor to heal people? I found it terribly weird that even in 3e's class-centered gaming, where magic healing is the assumption for any adventurer, someone with the Heal skill is more effective at non-magical healing then in Savage Worlds where magic isn't even always assumed.
My looking through the book showed the rules being that using a Healing check in SW resulted in a character adding a bonus to if they recovered any health when they eventually made their check in 5 days, but provided no bonus to what they recovered (unless you pushed them into a 'raise' or 4 above the target number, which I guess is plausable). For medical practices pre-1840, succeeding means that you don't do anything. You have to get the equivilent of multiple successes before any progress is made, so on the average, I just don't kill a patient my doctor operates on. I can improve how well I do, though, if I get a mystical ability tied to my Charisma stat, though! It sucks to be a 1840's Dr. House.
I think medicine in RPGs is really amusing. There are always systems that games break down on, somewhat, and along with economics, natural healing or medicine is one of them where I think people are caught between trying to be realistic and what's good for a game. I know 4e went all the way with 'game' on this one.
Speaking of the game in general, my character totally sucked in combat, and I'm going to need to find a better way to go on the attack. The 'average' means I hardly land any blows, and when I do, I hardly ever do damage. It's not unusual for someone to succeed in hitting and find that it doesn't matter. I think this is what NWoD tried to do away with, actually. I had a cleaver and did no damage while someone else with average strength punched a raptor in the face and killed it. Later on, he gave a giant ape a significant drubbing with a belaying pin; a higher then average Fighting skill pays off in spades, though I think those were just flukes.
I followed my trend of rolling really poorly, super consistantly, until I roll for an unimportant task and get a success that is literally 1-in-a-thousand. I get one of those rolls a game, typically, which indicates some bizzare trend I really want no part of.
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