Savage Rifts House Rules

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Savage Rifts is very well-balanced, but there's always room to clarify or adjust the rules. These changes either add flavor or make the game more balanced and fair.

Be sure to also read our general SWADE House Rules!

General House Rules

Dumb Luck

We use this rule; see Savage Worlds, p. 138.

Purchasing TW and Enchanted Items

Custom TW devices have a 5-10× markup as noted in the Second Printing of the TLPG. Enchanted items are less common and take longer, for an 8-15× markup. Since their base cost is twice that of a TW item, this means a 15-30× markup based on the raw Upgrade values.

Character Creation (General)

Character Creation Random Tables

A player's first pick out of any random roll tables* they'll be rolling on is a free choice. (This is to address the notion that they could just keep "remaking" the character until they got the initial roll they wanted.)

After that, the player is committed to what they roll on further tables, but gets one free reroll, or two for MARS characters.

Hero's Journey for the Gifted

Characters starting with Arcane Background (Gifted) may roll on the Magic & Mysticism table to enhance this. However, result 7-9 must be the New Powers Edge and 16-17 grants the Extra Effort Edge instead.

MARS Fortune & Glory Table

You must reroll any duplicate results. The Personal Concept Option must choose two different results. (This is not a house rule, it is canonical.)

For entry #6, change "two die types" to "one die type."

For entry #15, or anywhere else it would make sense, you may swap one of the Beast Master edges for Beast Bond, due the changes we've made to them.

Selling Back Starting Gear

If you don't like your starting gear, you may sell any items back for half value, and add that to your budget for new gear (not cash). This only applies to the items in the "[Your Framework] Starting Gear" section; you cannot sell back vehicles, power armor, etc.

In a similar vein, if you don't like lugging around the 20-lb. NG-S2 Survival Pack, you may trade it for the more basic 3-lb. Utility Belt (EOH, p. 37) and 250cr toward new gear.

Vehicular Weapons

If you own a vehicle or are capable of hand-carrying vehicular weapons (see pp. 90-91), you may trade two Hero's Journey rolls (or one MARS Fortune & Glory roll) to acquire a single Mod 1 vehicular weapon. No, you can't use the Ranged Weapon Table to enhance it.

Frameworks

The Dragon Hatchling, Elemental Fusionist, and Glitter Boy have their own separate pages.

EOD Specialist

Spicy Home Cooking

To avoid bookkeeping, assume that the EOD Specialist tinkers with their explosives before sleeping, during downtime, etc., but don't roll. They instead make the Science roll when using the explosives to see how effective the "cooking" was. For rapid-fire grenades, roll once per attack, not per grenade.

Dragon Juicer

Fixes and Clarifications

The following adjustments keep this framework fair compared to the normal Juicer, as well as closer to its Palladium roots:

• Dragonborn Senses: They use Spirit to activate detect arcana. (This is a clarification, not a change.)
• Speed: In addition to these benefits, double the Juicer's Pace and jumping distance. For a human, this means Pace 14 and a d8 running die.
• Dragon-Related Disorders: Delete the last sentence; the Dragon Juicer just picks one Hindrance at Novice.

Mind Melter

Bio-Manipulation

In this Iconic Edge, remove "and even paralysis (Incapacitation)" from the first paragraph and change the second paragraph to this:

Momano Headhunter

Energy Projector

The Momano's Energy Projector can take Modifiers, including Mega-Power Modifiers if the Momano is a Master Psionic.

Q: What does "Momano" mean, anyway?

A: It's linguistic drift (across continents and several centuries) of the Japanese term "mamono", which means demon or monster.

Rogue Scholar

Academic Scholar

You must start with Academics at d6 or higher — either via your extra skill points or as one of your "Scholar skills".

Research is Redundant

Change the third bullet to, "Begin with the Investigator Edge."

(The Research skill no longer exists and this MARS Package is overloaded anyway.)

Spirit Warrior

Improved Realms of Power

This Iconic Edge also lets the Spirit Warrior swap between the two Realm Trappings freely. For example, an Animal/Fire Spirit Warrior with smite could activate it as either "fire fists" or "animal claws".

Werecat

Agility Boost

When in cat or werecat form, any Agility-linked skill which has been raised above your base Agility (before the cat-mode boost) is temporarily increased by one die type. For example, if you have Agility d8 and Fighting d10, when in werecat form you would have Agility d12 and Fighting d12.

(This is due to the way skill points work; see this thread for details.)

Ocelot Size

An ocelot can pass as a big alley cat at a glance, but anyone paying any attention will realize that this is a wildcat, not a pet. Use the Small Cat stats, but Size -2 instead of -3. This means Strength d4-1 (which is then bumped to d6), Toughness 3, and Small (-2 to be hit); otherwise the same stats.

Zapper

See Savage Rifts: Eruptors (PDF) for a version that integrates the rules below and expands on the Iconic Edges.

Absorbing from Nuclear

The zapper can target nuclear-powered devices like power armor and many vehicles. Although they don't run on batteries, there's still "stored electrical power" in the systems themselves that will take a few seconds to replenish so they can restart. It takes one full round for a nuclear-powered device to go from fully drained to half-drained, or from half-drained to full again. If the zapper scored extra raises on her initial drain roll, each raise past the first adds an extra round of being fully drained. A fully or half-drained system cannot be targeted again until it recharges fully. An operator or engineer may use their entire turn to make a Repair roll to speed up this recovery, shaving off one turn per success and raise.

Absorbing from Sentient Beings

When you drain electricity from a sentient being, like negating a human's cybernetic implants, they may resist with a Vigor roll. If the target itself is a sentient being (like a combat cyborg or intelligent construct), treat this as the stun power instead of using the normal Absorb Electricity rules.

Races

Human

Humans can take 6 points of Hindrances instead of 4. This extra flexibility keeps them a viable and attractive choice in a setting with so many powerful races.

True Atlantean

True Atlanteans do not get the Versatile racial ability. This is because the race is undercosted; see details here.

Edges

Animal Totem

In our games, this Iconic MARS Edge is available to any of the MARS packages from Terror on the Dark Frontier — and, at the GM's discretion, other MARS characters — as long as the hero is an indigenous native who follows a totemic faith.

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