Mob Rules

Oh, there's no justice like angry mob justice.

Principal Skinner, Bart After Dark

Whether you're looking for help storming the Bastille, burning down Castle Frankenstein, or lynching Homer Simpson, sometimes you need a mob of angry townsfolk to help.  The following optional rules can help Savage Worlds players rile up some extra help or help Savage Worlds GMs run snooping heroes out of town; sure, you could just use Savage Worlds: Showdown or put a bunch a bunch of allies on the battlemap, but we'd be tearing down a part of ourselves.  "You could close down Moe's/Or the Kwik-E-Mart..."

New Setting Rule:
Mobs

A mob is a swarm (Savage Worlds Deluxe p.141) composed of humans (or sentient humanoids) who have been incited into a violent frenzy. 

Rabble-rousing

Raising a mob requires a standard Social Conflict (SWD p.96) made to an audience large enough to potentially form a vengeful throng; crowded street corners, public forums, and town halls are likely venues.  This Social Conflict may be opposed if the prospective mob has a leader (the corrupt mayor or pacifist preacher); if it is not, the GM should be judicious in assigning modifiers to the Persuasion roll based on how dangerous the opposition to the mob might be ("But he's a vampire!") and how much incentive the mob has ("He's carried off our attractive cousins!"). 


Margin of Victory/Result
Failure/The prospective mob disperses.
Tie/The prospective mob is unconvinced.  The audience disperses unless a new argument can be made by the players (which would usually mean "unless a different player character succeeds on a new roll").
1-2/A mob the size of a Medium Burst template is motivated to action.
3-4/A mob the size of a Large Burst template is motivated to action.  The rabble-rousers may substitute two Medium Burst mobs instead.
5+/A mob the size of a Large Burst template is motivated to action.  This mob is treated as a Wild Card.  The rabble-rousers may substitute two Wild Card Medium Burst mobs instead.

A single player character may only control a single Large Burst mob or two Medium Burst mobs at a time.  If the audience is sufficiently large and the situation calls for it, attempts may be made by other characters to raise more mobs.  If the original Social Conflict was made as a cooperative roll, any characters assisting in the roll are disbarred from making their own individual attempts; they've already had their say.

Attributes

A mob of unarmed people is simply a standard swarm in most respects -- though less cynical GMs may allow that for Smarts d4 instead of Smarts d4 (A) -- save that it occupies a larger template because it is made of bigger creatures.  "[A] character can stomp to inflict his damage in Strength each round" should be amended to "a character may use brute force to inflict her damage in Strength each round" but the effect is identical.  Rabble-rousers inside the mob's template are considered immune to the mob's damage.

An armed mob may instead inflict 2d6 or 2d8 damage depending on what kind of weapons they are carrying and GM generosity.  If the mob is carrying torches, then add +2 to damage; every round characters are attacked by a fire-wielding mob, they must check to see if they catch on fire (SWD p.88).  A mob may also choose to inflict nonlethal damage (SWD p.74) if it is motivated to bring someone in for justice.