TT 201 Try These (or Suggest Some!) No Ammo Tracking Techniques in Savage Worlds RPG

Carl talks about some ideas to eliminate ammunition tracking in the tabletop RPG Savage Worlds while still keeping the risk of having to reload present in the game.
#savageworlds #weplaysavageworlds #ttrpg #tabletoptango
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[@lucmillette700]

Awesome deep dive! Really enjoyed this and will definitely be using illusions on my players in a game real soon.

[@omarwilson1782]

I run Deadlands where we meet in person to play. We use 3d printed sixshooter cylinders and little printed bullets. When the players shoot their gun they pull out a bullet. Players who have atypical weapons, like a LeMat, have requested custom props (easy to do if you have access to a 3d printer). There is something about having a physical prop that makes keeping track of ammo fun.

[@rommdan2716]

I love the idea of the D6 tracker, simply because depending of a critical failure could be too sudden, ammunition should build up tension

[@cakivis]

Hi! I have a suggestion that I am about to use in my game. When you action card is a clubs, if you shoot this turn you will run out of ammo (it could be used for arrows also). You can use a bennie to avoid this effect (or to draw another action card as usual). I think this is faster and smoother to apply and also gives the player a chance to have some control of this situation. He can draw a clubs and decide not to shoot this turn, or to shoot and use a bennie to keep shooting next round, or to shoot and use a action or multi-action to reload/acquire new ammo if possible.

[@ASavageWorldsGM]

This sounds like good idea and really leans into how clubs are complications in other systems of the game. Thanks for another idea!

[@mikewalsh875]

I love it. But, if this club is at the beginning of the combat round, is it feasible that the character runs out of ammo going into combat? I see this working great after a few rounds of combat have occurred ; but at the beginning of the combat scene- or the second or third round even- a player might insist that the character would have a loaded weapon to begin with… Perhaps I am overthinking it.

[@cakivis]

@@mikewalsh875 that is a risk. That is why I think it should be able to avoid by using a Benny.

[@GromMolotok]

@@mikewalsh875 You're absolutely not overthinking it. It's an important consideration. Going into combat with a gun you forgot to load is a critical failure type of situation, not a one-in-four card draw.

[@alexjaeger798]

Me and my group play in the star wars setting and how we track ammo is we significantly reduce the ammo pool our weapons have ( I thing the highest is 5 boxes), but whenever a one is roll for shooting on any die your ammo goes down by one. It makes higher RoF more risk/reward and puts a bit more emphasis on increasing your shooting skill. I don’t know if this would work in all settings but it's a good way we found considering you don't really see anyone reloading in star wars.

[@bean2778]

I just thought of this after watching the video, so I haven't tried it yet. If one of the shooting dice you roll on your turn matches your action card value, you have to reload at the end of your turn. Face cards, jokers, or aces don't trigger a reload. I think the math evens out across die sizes. People who roll more shooting dice because of a high rate of fire or more actions have a greater chance of having to reload each round. It's independent from Innocent Bystander. I think it's near a seven percent chance per shooting die rolled, so that seems to map to a 15 round mag you're being careful with or a thirty round mag you're more cavalier with. Now I need to find a group to playtest with

[@pacio49]

I like the rules I heard somewhere which tracks 'supply' for anything like ammo which is assumed to have periodic use. Reloading is assumed to be automatic in this system similar to the Hollywood Guns. But it also works for things like tracking rations, magical charges in a Talisman, water supply, you name it. If it's a declining resource with periodic use, the system works. I call it the Declining Supply Die rules. I don't recall the actual name of it. s When you buy ammo or the thing being tracked, the GM assigns a die size to represent the supply. If you really stock up, your Ammo die is a d12. If it's just a usual supply, maybe a d6. Whenever there is a scene with conspicuous consumption of the supply being tracked that plays out, after the scene is done, the GM can call for a Supply Check. Roll your Supply Die. If you roll a 1, the die size reduces by one, note the change on your sheet, and keep going. So that d12 would become a d10, then a d8, etc. You still feel the somewhat realism of declining supply and knowing that "When I'm in town I need to stock up again" but you're only tracking based on on-screen conspicuous consumption. When you get to the d4, you know you can run out at any moment. If you roll a critical failure during the conspicuous consumption (firing your weapon in combat, for example) then you automatically lose a Supply Die at the end of the scene, and if you're dealing with weapons, you have to use an action to 'reload'. If a character is using a higher ROF weapon, you as the GM can require additional rolls to make up for the faster conspicuous use of the supply. If the characters wish to earn a Bennie, they can elect to voluntarily run out of a supply on camera, accepting the penalty for needing to restock before using it again on screen. It ties into good storytelling contributions from the player, and the pulp/cinematic high stakes of the game. Usually keep it within say a d6 or a d4 range for suddenly coming up empty. And that's it. This works for every consumed resource. Tying it to Talisman charges or Power Point banks or multipliers gives a way of granting temporary abilities to the characters but not completely overbalancing the game forever. Because of the statistical chance of rolling a '1' starts small with the d12 and increases noticeably with each subsequent lower die, you can 'last' for a while with a huge supply, but once it starts to run out, it runs out faster and faster. I like the ease of tracking it and how it consciously moves away from micro-attrition to just a general sense of increasing urgency as time goes on.

[@militarymann01]

Sort of relevant but not quite, I've been toying with the idea of making a shooting roll to reload with my deadlands campaign. Rather that just reloading your winchester with 10 rounds you would make a shooting roll and that's how many rounds you manage to get into the gun during that action.