Experiment 8: 5150 for Savage Worlds - NPCs

Don’t create your Extras with the character creation rules. Just give them what you think they ought to have in their various skills and attributes and move on. - Savage Worlds Adventure Edition

Here are my guidelines for converting 5150 characters to SWADE; I find it useful to have some mechanism for randomly generating NPCs for solo games, and this works well.

The Least You Need to Know

NPCs in the pre-generated encounter tables have a Race, a Rep, and a Weapon; most NPCs in my game will be limited to this to avoid the campaign drowning in its own statblocks.

• Most NPCs are Grunts (Extras) though the odd one might be a Star or Co-Star (Wild Card).
• The die type for SWADE Traits is twice the 5150 Rep or Skill; Rep covers Agility, Strength, Vigour and linked skills; People covers Spirit and linked skills; Savvy covers Smarts and linked skills. For example, a character with Rep 4 has a d8 in Agility, Strength, Vigour, and linked skills.
• 5150 Attributes are represented by SWADE Edges or Hindrances; I'll allocate those on the fly as and when appropriate - I generally don't use them at all, except for the racial ones.
• Weapons may be P-1 (Glock or laser pistol), B-2 (Desert Eagle), A-3 (MP5 or laser SMG), or Melee (usually a dagger/knife, but could be anything).
• Armour is usually light/civilian body armour, but military personnel upgrade this to an infantry battle suit.

Statistically, assuming passing 2d6 is a success, Extras with a d4 in a Trait are roughly Rep 3, those with a d6 are roughly Rep 4, and d10s are about Rep 5; for Wild Cards, Traits of d4 or d6 are roughly Rep 5, so the standard Rep 5 Star is a close match for a beginning PC. However, the above rules feel closer in play, even if they are a bit off statistically.

Races

5150 Races become SWADE Ancestries. I'll work the Ancestries up in detail at some point, but for now we can get by with the Edges needed to represent 5150 racial attributes:

• Grath have Berserk (SWADE) to represent Rage (5150).
• Hishen have Menacing to represent Cruel.
• Razors have Level Headed to represent Quick Reflexes, and AB: Gifted plus the Stun Power to represent their Mental Blast.
• Xeogs have Charismatic to represent Smooth.
• Zhuh-zhuh have Berserk to represent Rage; muggie zhuh-zhuh instead have Small to represent Runt.

Examples

One of the things I like best about SWADE is the ability to zoom in or out to different levels of detail, depending on available time and motivation. I extend this concept to NPCs, which in this campaign come in low resolution, high resolution, or full statblock versions. Let's look at a couple:

Yelena Ribeiro: Rep 4 Mover (Office Holder), unarmed. Pep 3, Savvy 4, Near Sighted.

The 'low res' version of Ribeiro only has a Rep, a profession, and a weapon (or not); so she rolls a d8 for everything, and that's all I need to know.

The 'high res' version rolls a d8 for everything except Spirit, Intimidation, and Persuasion, where she rolls a d6 instead. Her profession and the fiction have already established she should have the Attractive, Aristocrat and Filthy Rich Edges, but there is no reason for her to have Soldier. Her 5150 Attribute (Near Sighted) suggests Bad Eyes as a Hindrance and the to-hit penalty drops her Shooting to d6. The meanings of her names suggest she should be bright, tranquil, and resilient; I'll use those keywords instead of rolling on the Allied Personalities table (SWADE p. 112).

If I need a full statblock, then to avoid the NPCs having skills coming out of their ears, I normally start from the Soldier NPC template and then modify it using the above guidelines. For Ribeiro, this gives me:

• Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8, Spirit d6, Strength d8, Vigour d8.
• Skills: Athletics d8, Common Knowledge d8, Fighting d8, Intimidation d6, Notice d8, Persuasion d6, Shooting d6, Stealth d8.
• Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 10 (4*).
• Hindrances: Bad Eyes.
• Edges: Attractive, Aristocrat, Filthy Rich.
• Gear: Commlink, light body armour.

Mikal Guzman: Rep 4 Exotic (Mercenary), A-3. Pep 4, Savvy 3, Dim.

The 'low res' version of Guzman again rolls a d8 for everything, and is packing an MP5 or a laser SMG.

The 'high res' version rolls a d8 for everything except Smarts and its linked skills. As a mercenary he ought to have the Soldier Edge; notice how close this makes him to a SWADE Experienced Soldier Ally. The meanings of his names suggest he should be honourable and wise, so he can have the Code of Honour Hindrance, and the 5150 Attribute Dim - despite its name - has the mechanical effect of making interacting with NPCs harder, so let's give him the Mean Hindrance as well, giving a -1 penalty on Persuasion. If I needed a full statblock, it would look like this:

• Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d8, Strength d8, Vigour d8.
• Skills: Athletics d8, Common Knowledge d6, Fighting d8, Intimidation d8, Notice d6, Persuasion d8-1, Shooting d8, Stealth d8.
• Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 10 (4*).
• Hindrances: Code of Honour, Mean.
• Edges: Soldier.
• Gear: Commlink, light body armour, MP5 or laser SMG.

It will be unusual for me to work up NPCs much beyond 'low res' levels, as one detailed character (my PC) is generally enough for me to keep track of; the typical NPC in the campaign will have a Rep determining its die type in all relevant Traits, and possibly an Edge if non-human. It's surprising how far you can get with that.