I'm a new GM running a Savage Worlds game, and I'm wondering if someone can help me understand the best way to set up a skill check with relative difficulties. Specifically, how do you differentiate between different "challenges" to the same skill?
For example, a "jailbreak" scene: a bunch of prison cells, all locked, with a chest elsewhere that holds the cell keys. If a character has Lockpicking on a d8, they'd be just as likely to be able to pick the cell door as the chest. But that doesn't really make sense, nor does it work for gameplay: picking the chest should be harder, as it negates the need to pick all the cells individually. (In-universe explanation being that the lock on the chest is more complex, or a special design).
How do I differentiate between the same action being "harder here, easier there"? It's easier to Intimidate this scholar than that soldier, it's harder to Ride this warg than that horse.
Would I have players roll their skill at a -1 or +2, etc? Or maybe special cases become opposed checks, your Riding versus the warg's Spirit or something?
What's the best/approved/official way to handle these distinctions? Or should one shy away from those distinctions altogether, and just let a lockpick be a lockpick?
Best Answer
The easiest way is to add or subtract a bonus to the roll. Let's say a character has d8 in lockpicking. I want the cells to be opened 50/50 of the time, so I set the difficulty at -1 for that character. The chest needs to be harder, so you can set that at a -2 or a -3.
You always make the adjustment to the roll, and not the target number. I find it much much easier to do it this way. All my players know that all difficulties (except melee) are a 4+. Some adjust that to a 5 or better, some just add up there dice and difficulties and see if it's 4+.
You can also adjust a scenario to the character fairly easily as well. This can really help in the case where a new character comes in to the middle of a game, and the rest of the group have high skill. If the new character has a d4 in Lockpicking, you still make it 50/50 with a +2 to the roll etc.
One other thing to remember to look at with any player character, or other wild card is that a d4 is actually a d6 (all wild cards roll their dice and a d6). So, even a d4 skill will hit 2/3 of the time, and explode 25% of the time. Very often the second roll of the d4 will put them over the target number. I find that d4's & d6's explode a lot, and that can make for interesting games :) I don't try to balance this, since this seems to follow the "beginners luck" trope pretty well.