Palladium System to Savage Worlds By Erron “Bo” Whitten To convert Palladium System to Savage Worlds I suggest the following. For Attributes this chart is helpful: Palladium Savage Worlds 3 1D4 4 1D4 5 1D4 6 1D4 7 1D4 8 1D6 9 1D6 10 1D6 11 1D6 12 1D8 13 1D8 14 1D8 15 1D8 16 1D10 17 1D10 18 1D10 19 1D10 20 1D12 21 1D12 22 1D12 23 1D12+1 24 1D12+1
Palladium 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46
Savage Worlds 1D12+2 1D12+2 1D12+3 1D12+3 1D12+4 1D12+4 1D12+5 1D12+5 1D12+6 1D12+6 1D12+7 1D12+7 1D12+8 1D12+8 1D12+9 1D12+9 1D12+10 1D12+10 1D12+11 1D12+11 1D12+12 1D12+12
To convert Speed to Pace divide by 2 and round up (Speed of 18 = Pace 9). Use this for racial conversion ONLY. Humans have a pace of 6. For Armor use the AR – 4 divided by 2 (so AR 18 is (18 - 4 = 14, divided by 2 is 7) 7 Armor). For skills use logic (Detect Ambush and Detect Concealment are both Notice in Savage Worlds). Divide the Percentage Skills by 20 and add 1 die type for a part of a number (.1 through 1 = 1d4, 1.1 through 2 = 1d6, etc.). When it comes to Bonus Skills like Weapons or Hand to Hand use the bonus to hit as a guide, but use logic also. If a critter gets a +4 to hand to hand you can figure at a minimum it has a d6 and at a maximum a d10 to use the skill. If it is a combat monster use the higher value, if it is not use the lower. So, +1 = d4, +2 and +3 = d6, +4 and +5 = d8, +6 and +7 = d10, +8 and +9 = d12, with a +1 added to the d12 for every +2 of the To Hit. (3 examples, +2, +5, and +16 to hit = d6, d8, and d12+4.) When it comes to damage from weapons use the weapons in Savage Worlds as a guide by comparing weapons in Palladium that you don’t know to weapons that are in both games. Lets use the Laser Lance from Mechinoid Invasion as an example. Id does the same damage as a .22 Long on its low setting and a 9mm pistol on its high. So we could use the data from Savage Worlds to assign it 2D6-1 (no AP) and 2D6 (1 AP). Its range is listed at 90m max, that is a little under 1/3 the range of a Laser Pistol in the same game, so we will give it 5/10/20 (1/3 the laser pistol of Savage Worlds). If you want longer ranges or more power, go ahead, but use logic as the guide, not Min/Max concepts that a game may have built in. Remember, it is easy to die in Savage Worlds, give to much power to a weapon and you unbalance the game. The rest is just educated Guesses. Look at the critter and add the needed Hindrances and Edges to make it look right. When it comes to characters in the games you may need to be careful not to think of OCCs as RCCs. OCCs may need special skills that a Professional Edge could give, but I doubt it. RCCs need Racial limits and strengths added to make them fit. When doing this remember that if the RCC is available to the Players it needs to be balanced and fair if there are other races being played. Be sure that one race doesn’t become demigods in the hands of players even if Palladium built them that way.
Always draw the idea of the game INTO Savage Worlds, never try to convert one system to the other… it will fail. I am working on System Failure for Savage Worlds, and am converting the Bugs over as powerful as they are in the original game, because the players will never play them. The devices that affect the Bugs are also just a powerful, but the other weapons and OCCs are tailored for balance. I am only moving over what Savage Worlds lacks to make System Failure work as conceived. The rest is play related and part of Savage Worlds. Palladium owns its own goods, including System Failure. Pinnacle Games owns Great White Games and thus Savage Worlds! Erron “Bo” Whitten owns this idea (Copyright © 2003) and intends no challenge to the ownership of any items used in this discussion. I offer the ideas herein free of charge as long as they stay free of charge, and any item they are used in stays free of charge as well, and credit is given where due.