Vulcan M134 MiniGun

The GE M134 Vulcan minigun is an aircraft cannon, usually found gracing the door of an assault helicopter or (in slightly different guise) the wing pods of a fighter plane. In popular culture the term "Minigun" has come to refer to any externally powered Gatling gun of rifle caliber, though the term is sometimes used to refer to guns of similar rates of fire and configuration regardless of power source and caliber. Specifically, the term Minigun refers to a single weapon, originally produced by General Electric. The "mini" of the name is in comparison to designs that use a similar firing mechanism but 20 mm or larger shells.

In Hollywood, however, it's more often found tucked nonchalantly under the arm of a very large man, specifically Jesse Ventura in Predator or Arnold Schwarzenegger in Terminator 2, and is used by them to make a real mess of somebody's day or, more often, a whole bunch of somebodies... For various reasons it would be completely impossible for even a superhero to use it like that, but it looks marvelous on screen.

These stats are taken from Modern Ops with a few modifications (like being able to carry it) by me.

GE M134 Vulcan Minigun (Hollywood style)
Range: 30/60/120
Damage: 2d8+4
ROF: 1
Ammo: 10 Combat Rounds
Weight: 50 lbs
Notes: AP 2, MBT, +4 to hit

More Gear!

Quigley Down Under was a fairly good western from 1990 staring Tom Selleck. In the movie he plays Matthew Quigley, an American long distance shooter that heads to Australia to answer a help wanted ad. He used "an experimental weapon with experimental ammo". Here's a quote from the movie describing his 1874 Sharp's Big .50.

“It’s a lever-action, breech loader. Usual barrel length’s thirty inches. This one has an extra four. It’s converted to use a special forty-five caliber, hundred and ten grain metal cartridge, with a five-hundred forty grain paper patch bullet. It’s fitted with double set triggers, and a Vernier sight. It’s marked up to twelve-hundred yards. This one shoots a mite further.

The core rules state that the weapon ranged listed in the gear section are "effective" ranges for the table-top. To get the real world range for a weapon you multiply the brackets by 2 yards and then by 2.5. So the Sharp's Big .50 in the core book (120" max) would have a real world range of 600 yards. About half of what Quigley's rifle could shoot. So here's my version of it:

Modified 1874 Sharp's Big .50 Rifle
Range: 60/120/240
Damage: 2d10
ROF: 1
Weight: 15 lbs
Shots: 1
Notes: AP 2, Snapfire Penalty, Vernier Sight (+2 Shooting at ranges greater than Short)

A few notes about Quigley. I'm sure he would have d12 Shooting and probably the Professional (d12+1) and Expert Edges (d12+2). He'd also have Marksman and Improved Trademark Weapon (Sharp's Big .50). I would allow him to use his +2 bonus from ITW to hit with it in melee combat as well because he does that several times during the movie. He'd also have Rapid Reload which he used frequently through out the movie and Quick Draw which he used in the final scene against Marston. Finally, instead of adjusting the rifle you could use this Edge from Clint Black and just use the normal stats from the core rules for the Sharp's Big .50.

Sharp Shooter
Requirements: Heroic, Marksman, Shooting d10

Your character has an additional Range increment for ranged weapons that is double Long Range. The character cannot move or perform any other actions in the same round he attacks in order to use this Range Increment. In addition, he suffers a -6 Range Modifier penalty to his attack roll.

Savage Gear!

I must admit that I love gear and equipment. That's one of my favorite things to do at character creation. Unfortunately, there aren't a whole lot of "crunchy bits" for the gear in the Savage Worlds rules. So I'm going to stat up a few of my favorites from some movies I've watched recently. Here they are:

Crotch Gun
This piece of gear was first seen in the "guitar case" that the Mariachi in Desperado carried. It wasn't used in the film but the weapon was expanded and saw use in the film From Dusk Till Dawn. The idea came from Rodriguez and Savini (the special fx guy).

Hooligan Mark 1
Created for a vigilante Mariachi by a small firearms shop in northern Mexico. The short barrel and dual revolving cylinders are hidden behind a black codpiece. The assembly is spring activated by a specific motion of the wearer's hips. The assembly is difficult to aim, which accounts for the short ranges.

The crotch gun has 2 chambers of 6 bullets each. It fires in a three round burst and can do so once per round. It takes an action to active and the user makes an opposed Stealth roll versus the targets Notice roll. With a success the shooter gets the Drop on the target. You may only get the Drop once per combat with this weapon.

Model: Rodriguez-Savini Crotch Gun Mark 1 (.357 Magnum)
Range: 1/2/4
Damage: 2d6
ROF: 3RB only
Ammo: 12

Some Golden Age Photos

The Fearsome 5 attempt to thwart the nefarious plans of Baron Von Blood and the Crimson Skull. Specifically at the Natural History Museum of Switzerland, over the river and through the woods and at the secret hideout of the villians.

Another Homebrew, Power Boost

An important home-brew use of a Benny that I didn't include in my earlier post! This is NOT an Edge but a Setting rule for most of my settings with Arcane Backgrounds.

Power Boost
A Wild Card may spend a Benny to recover d4+1 Power Points. This takes an action as he calls upon his inner reserves. You may not exceed your usual limit.

Golden Age of Heroes

The year is 1940. The Axis powers are searching for fabled artifacts of vast power. If they are able to find them and use them the world is doomed. It's up to a chosen few to stop these evil forces and save the world from certain destruction. Or something like that.

We played a one-shot Friday night (we were missing several players so we didn't play our usual campaign game). I ran the crew through a Golden Age game using the powers from Necessary Evil. They were all Novice with 10 XP and were required to take at least one good guy Hindrance (Code of Honor, Heroic or Loyal). And they were not allowed any of the bad guys Hindrances (Blood Thirsty, Greedy, Heartless, Mean, Vengeful). I like Black and White for my Golden Age heroes!

Everyone had a great time and I even had a couple players tell me it was one of the most fun one shots we've ever done. That always make a GM feel good.

I used Major Maxim (rebased) from the Indyclix game as one of my major bad guys. Of course, he will be a recurring villain for them (if we play again). I wrote him up as a Legendary character with 100 XP (using my modified Rank chart) so I can play him at any level by just taking away level-ups. Here he is:

Baron Von Blood
Human
Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d12+4, Vigor d12
Skills: Fighting d12+4, Intimidation d8+3, Notice d8, Stealth d8, Throwing d8
Charisma: -6, Pace: 8", Parry: 10, Toughness: 16 (4)
Edges: Ambidextrous, Brawny, Combat Reflexes, Fleet Footed, Harder To Kill, Improved First Strike, Improved Frenzy, Improved Sweep, Power Points (x5), Two Fisted, Quick
Hindrances: Bloodthirsty, Heartless, Mean, Vengeful (Major)
Super Powers:
Attack Melee (10), Level 4, AP 2
Construct (5)
Fearless (2)
Growth (5), Level 3, Monster
Regeneration (15), True Regeneration
Super Attributes (5)
Super Skills (3)
Gear:
Personal Combat Armor (+4, Heavy Armor covers torso, arms, legs, head)

Rippers: Hydes

The first few times we played Rippers it was apparent that the "bad guys" from the GM's section were underpowered. Especially against 6 Seasoned player characters. So I beefed most of them up. Here is my version of a Hyde. Also, to keep players from just taking "injections" and becoming Hydes themselves, I had my versions have implants of glands that would secrete the formula so they could "Hulk out" for combat but sneak around as normal joes.

Also, it doesn't make much sense that the Hydes from the Rippers book have Improved Nerves of Steel if they aren't Wild Cards. So I made all my Hydes Wild Cards.

I rebased the Heroclix version (left) of Mr Hyde on 1.250" washers that I painted flat black. They look pretty good.

Hyde Hybrid (WC)

Human

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d8, Vigor d8

Skills: Fighting d6, Guts d6, Notice d6, Shooting d6, Stealth d6

Charisma: -2, Pace: 6, Parry: 6, Toughness: 7

Edges: Brawny, Combat Reflexes, Two Fisted

Hindrances: Mean

Equipment: Pistol, Knife

Special Abilities:

Shape Change: On a successful Vigor roll the "human" becomes a Hyde. This takes a full round and no other actions may be performed.

Hyde Form

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4, Spirit d6, Strength d12+2, Vigor d12

Skills: Fighting d8, Guts d6, Intimidation d6+1, Notice d4, Stealth d4

Charisma: -6, Pace: 7, Parry: 6, Toughness: 10

Edges: Brawny, Combat Reflexes, Improved Nerves of Steel, Two Fisted

Hindrances: Bloodthirsty, Mean

Special Abilities:

Fists: d12+d6+2

Size +1

Savage Serenity

Ranks and Experience

One of the things about Savage Worlds that never made complete sense to me is the Experience Points to Rank table. It's based on 5 point increments (which makes sense) and gives a Ranking based on how many XP a character has accumulated. But the Ranks go every 20 points from zero to eighty. I've often wondered why 80 was the magic number? Especially since percentiles are based on 100. And the Level-Ups are based on 5's. Also, being a former d20 player (mostly D&D and a LotR homebrew) changing the Rankings to 100 xp matches up nicely with the "levels" in 3rd Edition. Every D&D level equals 10 xp in Savage worlds. So a level 10 Fighter for example would be a 100 xp Legend in Savage Worlds using my modified Rank Table.

So I've changed the Rank Table for my campaigns. Here it is:

Experience Points	Savage Rank	D&D 3.0 Level
0-24	Novice	1-2
25-49	Seasoned	3-4
50-74	Veteran	5-7
75-99	Heroic	8-9
100+	Legendary	10

It gives an additional Level-Up per rank and takes an additional 20 XP to gain the Legend Rank. Nothing earth shaking or ground breaking but just a change we use in all our campaigns.

Homebrew Rules

Every gaming group has their own style of gaming and their own rules they use at the table. Here are some of ours:

Critical Hits
In addition to getting a d6 for a Raise on attack rolls we wanted something to give Wild Cards (both PCs and NPCs) a bit more kick. When both Fighting and Wild Die Ace on an attack roll you double the total damage. This includes the bonus d6 if you hit with a Raise.

Critical Miss
If a Wild Card rolls double one's on an attack roll they may not spend a benny to re-roll. In addition, the GM still gets to "make up something rotten to happen to your character". This only applies to combat. Bennies may still be spent to reroll critically failed Skill attempts.

Critical Miss Benny
If a Wild Card rolls double one's on an attack roll they gain a benny. This helps off-set the "rotten" thing that is about to happen to your character! Remember, this benny cannot be spent to re-roll the miss.

Bennies for XP
The number of bennies in-hand at the end of a play session is the chance on a single d6 to gain one extra experience point. A player with six or more bennies can divide them as desired between two d6 rolls for one XP each. Two rolls is the maximum. (Adapted from Advanced Dungeons and Savages)

Voted Benny
Any player may nominate another player to earn a benny for a witty comment, good roleplaying or any other "in-game" reason. The other players then vote yea or nay. A player may only earn one "voted" benny per play session.

Benny for Re-Shuffling
The GM may give the action deck to the player with the least amount of bennies at the table to reshuffle the deck. They earn a benny. (Adapted from Evil Mike, who adapted it from Clint Black)

My first Post!

This is my first post on my new Savage Worlds Blog. I'll be posting my homebrew rules, ideas and campaigns along with information for my players to this Blog. Currently I am running a Savage Serenity (before the BDM) campaign, 50 Fathoms campaign (just kicked off) and a Rippers campaign. There's lots more to come so stay tuned!