SWADE Big And Small Races Archive

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With GM permission (and careful scrutiny), races of Size 4+ or or Size -2 and smaller may exist. These costs are loosely based on those in Summoner's Circle along with a generalized take on the Big racial ability. Even the little races have a positive racial cost, as they include potent advantages.

See SWADE (p. 179) for more detail on Size and Scale.

General Rules

Big Racial Ability: This (or an undersized variant) has already been built into the options below. Do not add it again!

Using Gear: Anyone has -2 to use gear that's one Scale off (e.g., a Small hero using a Normal weapon, or a Normal hero using a Small weapon), plus another -1 for each additional Scale. No one can wear armor or clothing that isn't fit for their Scale. This is considered a disadvantage for small and large races, as they live in a world of normal-sized folk. See below for custom gear costs and weights.

Your Size is Your Size: The Size value of a big or small race is not changed by Edges and Hindrances like Brawny, Obese, and Small. The individual character may be "fat for a Pixie," but only descriptively. For these abilities, read any Size modifier as a Toughness modifier instead.

Undersized Racial Abilities

Small (1 point): You are Size (and thus Toughness) -2, about 2-3' tall. Your Scale means attacks against you are at -2 to hit, and you are at +2 to hit (assuming Normal targets). Your Strength cannot be raised above d6*. Custom gear has twice the cost and half the weight.

Very Small (5 points): You are Size (and thus Toughness) -3, about 12-18" tall. Your Scale means attacks against you are at -4 to hit, and you are at +4 to hit (assuming Normal targets). Your Strength cannot be raised above d4*. Custom gear has quadruple cost and one-quarter the weight.

Tiny (5 points): You are Size (and thus Toughness) -4, about 2-6" tall. Your Scale means attacks against you are at -6 to hit, and you are at +6 to hit (assuming Normal targets). Your Strength is 1^† and your muscle-powered attacks cannot harm any target with a Toughness higher than 1. Custom gear has 12× cost and 1/12 the weight.

* Unless the setting or GM makes an exception. No such exception is possible for Tiny races.

† A Tiny race has a fixed Strength of 1. Do not apply racial or character abilities which would change this (for better or worse). They cannot make Strength rolls; the result is always treated as "rolling" a 1 (this is not a Critical Failure). Their Load (for encumbrance) is 5 lbs.

Oversized Racial Abilities

For custom gear, multiply both its cost and weight by 5× the "Weight" value on the table below. For example, a Size 5 character multiplies cost and weight of custom gear by 20.

Reminder that the Big racial ability is already included in these point values, since it is mandatory at these Sizes.

As of the 5/31/22 SWADE update, higher Scale gives additional Reach. Consider adding the Reach positive racial ability to customize this further. Realistically, human-shaped races of Size 3 or 4 would have Reach 1, with every Size past that adding another +1 Reach.

Point Value	Size*	Scale†	Wounds & Reach	Height/ Length‡	Weight (tons)
1	4	+2 (Large)	+1	13-15'	2
2	5	+2 (Large)	+1	16-18'	4
3	6	+2 (Large)	+1	20-24'	8
4	7	+2 (Large)	+1	26-30'	16
3	8	+4 (Huge)	+2	32-36'	32
4	9	+4 (Huge)	+2	45-50'	64
5	10	+4 (Huge)	+2	60-65'	125
6	11	+4 (Huge)	+2	70-75'	250

* This is also the race's Toughness bonus.

† This is the bonus for Normal-sized foes to attack the character. Its inverse is the penalty they take when attacking Normal-sized foes, unless the character has the Swat ability (below).

‡ Approximately, for most "rectangular" creature shapes.

Swat (2 or 3 points per level): Each level of Swat eliminates -2 points of Scale penalties when attacking. This racial ability costs 2 points/level if it applies to just one type of attack, or 3 points/level if it applies to any attack you make.

Notes

The undersized racial abilities match Summoner's Circle except that the unique Tiny Strength drawback is worth -4 points. The only change to the oversized racial abilities is that extra Wounds have been priced at 3 points (not 2) because the Edge that provides extra Wounds is Legendary. Technically, Legendary Edges should cost 6 points, but an extra Wound is objectively less valuable than +4 Toughness, so it's capped at 3 points. Also, as of 5/31/22, each +2 Scale adds +1 Reach.

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