[RPG] Does an Edge require you to take a Hindrance

savage-worlds

I'm looking at the Savage Worlds Test Drive and it provides a list of Hindrances and Edges. Do I have to take an equivalent Hindrance for each Edge or do I get some Edges for free?

Best Answer

This has changed as the rules have been refined over the editions.

Test Drive v6 (Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition era)

Edges are optional at character creation, and can be bought later when you've earned enough experience points for an Advance. However, at character creation you have the option of taking Hindrances, which give you either one or two points (which the Test Drive confusingly calls "advances": a related but different concept in the full rules), which you can spend to get Edges (or other things) before play begins.

There's no equivalence between Edges and Hindrances except that it just so happens that a Major Hindrance gives you enough points to buy an Edge. (Savage Worlds Test Drive v6, p. 3, "Edges & Hindrances")

In the Test Drive you don't get any free Edges—you need to take some Hindrances to get the points to buy Edges at character creation. In the Savage Worlds Fantasy Companion, as well as in several of the Savage Settings, humans are distinguished from the other races by being "flexible", which translates into getting a free Edge at character creation. Otherwise, you start out with no Edges.

The Wild Hunt (Savage Worlds Deluxe era)

As of Savage Worlds Deluxe the official stance is that humans get the flexible racial attribute whether there are other races in a setting or not, so the new default is that characters get one free Edge to start with. This is explicitly called out in the core rules (under RacesHumans, p. 21).

The free quick-start edition of Savage Worlds is now an adventure with pre-constructed characters ("The Wild Hunt"), and no character creation rules. Notably, the pregenerated characters are all human and have either two Edges and one more d8 attribute than they normally would have (another use for two Hindrance points) or they have three Edges; this reflects the new standard that humans get one free Edge at character creation regardless of setting.

Giving all humans, even in human-only settings, a free starting Edge is not unbalancing and you can do this without trouble even if you're still using Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition or the old Test Drive quick-start rules.