Why Savage Worlds is e6 (8, 10, etc)

Last time, I talked about E6. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the way E6 deals with "high level" is basically the same as Savage Worlds.

That is, once a player in SW gets to Legendary, they just start collecting edges and (slowly) improving traits.

Which is pretty much what E6 does. Just, you know, feats instead of edges. Because naming them different is damn near the only real difference.

There's a feat for that

while E6 and SW came to the same basic strategy, they got there in different ways. SW has some inherent limitations because it relies more on rolling dice than adding modifiers. There are only so many dice, so you have a semi-stable "upper limit".

E6 got there because d20 relies on modifiers and few dice. Thus, there is no true upper limit. As the game progresses, the modifiers get more and more complex until the system just breaks under the strain. E6 bypasses this by creating an upper limit around where the math is still efficient.

Either game is more or less fine, I'm not claiming one is superior. I just think the design strategy is interesting. I don't care for Savage Worlds damage system, and d20 (especially Pathfinder) is rules heavy. Both are flawed, but both are good.

Sounding Boards

Today I spent the greater part of the day (that I should have been doing work) talking D&D with former student. We talked at length about systems and designs and house rules and gaming groups. All that nerdy stuff. Total waste of the day in terms of productivity.

went kinda like this.

While the former student and I diverged on numerous points, we had a great deal in common as well and shared our knowledge bases well.

He reminded me of this thing called "E6" which basically caps the level progression of D&D at level 6. After that you get some feats that can raise your power level a bit but not much. The concept is to take advantage of the "sweet spot" of D&D somewhere around level 5 to 10...before the bookkeeping gets out of hand and the characters become super heroes.

On the surface I like it in concept. I still hate certain aspects of the base rules (attacks of opportunity) and find feats to be conceptually sound but flawed.

Still, from a GM who likes more gritty games with low magic, this is tempting.

For example, I've already got the rules revision I like done. Within the framework of and E6 game (although, with a Pathfinder core I think E10 would be reasonable) I could be satisfied. Most of the stuff I dread will be off the table and the rules remain more or less streamlined.

Most of the arguments I have against this sort of power cap break down the minute I ask myself how many times I've ever run a game over level 10? The answer is few. Then, I ask how much I actually enjoyed the game after level 10? The answer is fewer...maybe none.

So, maybe it's not such a bad idea.