I've got a group I'm trying to get into a regular weekly game, but the problem I'm having is that there are only three players who can come consistently. Then, if even one is busy or gets sick, we're looking at two players and the GM, and it starts to seem like a "why bother" sort of situation.
I'm wondering, from more experienced players and GMs, what's the practical minimum for a fantasy Savage Worlds session? I suppose theoretically you could have a game with a GM and one player, just exploring the world and fighting monsters ad infinitum. But at the same time, the complimentary nature of a party's skills and combat abilities, not to mention the fundamentally social nature of the game itself, makes that seem less than appealing.
I know these sorts of games don't have a minimum set in the rules, and a lot will depend on the exact nature of the session in question, but in your experience is there a guideline worth knowing? Something like "don't bother playing with less than three players," or even something more specific like "combat is best with at least four players but RP stuff can be done with two" or "Savage Worlds works with 2-3, but D&D needs more like 6"?
Best Answer
The core rules don't say how big or small a group can or should be. Indeed, it's not really an important concept compared to other roleplaying games, such as Dungeons & Dragons (where it's strongly recommended that you have the "core four" types at least).
I've run many Savage Worlds sessions for as few as two players (both one shots and multi-session campaigns) and it generally works out. Pinnacle mentioned a while back that they are even working on a solo Savage Worlds adventure, so I imagine it could even work in a one GM/one player game.
Going a bit beyond the scope of the question, I think that there are things that need to be run a little bit differently with a small group than you would with a 4-6 player game:
So in short, it totally does work with only a few players. You might need to tweak the scenario a bit along with the number of enemies, but there is nothing mechanically preventing it from being run with only a few players.