My Middle Name is Larceny: Carry Forward

I’m not going to suggest this as a Setting Rule or anything like that. Heck, I’m not sure it even makes sense for any other Savage Worlds players—even if they are playing a duet game like me and Robin. It’s just a house rule I’ve come up with (obviously somewhat inspired by Powered By the Apocalypse games) that has really helped us emulate the sort of highly-competent, cinematic characters we wanted with My Middle Name is Larceny.

 

Carry Forward

When the player succeeds on a roll, any raises above and beyond those needed for success on the roll accumulate to the player as +1s that may be added to successive rolls in a manner similar to successes granted by other characters in a cooperative roll. The following limitations and options apply:

• +1s may be spent after the dice are rolled.
• +1s are not limited rolls for the same Attribute or Skill.
• +1s may be added to any roll, regardless of whether it is a Trait roll or not.
• If the Critical Failures setting rule is in effect, then +1s may not be spent on critically failed rolls (except Soak Rolls).
• Players may not overspend +1s to generate additional +1s on a roll.

 

Example:

Bev Slick is in an “opening credits sequence”-style firefight with some mafia thugs. Robin’s dice explode at a completely unnecessary time and she scores a 36 to hit when all she needed was a 4. Deducting the raise needed for extra damage, this gives her 7 +1s to bank for when she needs them.

Later, while breaking into a safe during a critical juncture in the story, Robin rolls a 2 on her Lockpicking skill die and a 1 on her Wild Die. Knowing she’s going to need to save Bennies for the inevitable final action scene, Robin spends 6 +1s to score an 8 on her Lockpicking roll (required in this case because the safe’s countermeasures impose a -4 to the roll).

 

Game Masters and players utilizing this idea are encouraged to track +1s with tokens of some sort. I use a cheap set of Bicycle poker chips when it’s just the two of us. Since there’s 50 white chips, 25 red chips, and 25 blue chips, I use the white chips to track +1s, the red chips to track Wounds, and the blue chips to track Bennies. (We rarely need to worry about Fatigue.)

 

Again, this isn’t something I’d ever propose as an actual Setting Rule, and I doubt many game groups would need it. For us, though, it’s really helped us keep the action big and cinematic in a way that doesn’t feel arbitrary or like cheating. It’s also a way to translate doing research about heists (through Gambling with the marks, Investigation, Notice-fueled stakeouts, Persuasion-based seductions, and Streetwise) into a concrete bonus in actually executing the crime.

 

Plus, you never have one of those situations where the dice explode on some relatively inconsequential roll but roll awful when the real action begins.