Basic Benchmarks

I began discussing benchmarks in the last post and have received some feedback with ideas for a basic chart for Savage Worlds. Having a "basic SW" chart is one of the basic steps in character conversion, so let's look at a proposal by therealtony:

Savage Worlds Benchmarks

Savage Worlds Attribute	Description
1d4-2	Feeble
1d4	Weak
1d6	Average
1d8	Above Average
1d10	Expert
1d12	Elite
1d12+1	Legendary
1d12+2	Mythic/Human maximum potential

Tony's chart seems to meet with what, on the Savage Worlds Community Boards, has come to be the "accepted wisdom" regarding the meaning of the levels of the abilities. But I sometimes like to "buck the system." I wrote in the last post that a 1d6 roll (with Wild Die) and an "average" difficulty 4 makes a "hero" successful 50% of the time. I don't have a problem with the "average hero" succeeding at a good number of tasks 50% of the time (or 17% for difficult tasks), but I do think that is too frequent for the "common man." So I would amend the chart as follows:

Savage Worlds Benchmarks

Savage Worlds Attribute	Description
1d4-2	Feeble
1d4	Average Normal/Weak Hero
1d6	Average Hero
1d8	Above Average
1d10	Expert
1d12	Elite
1d12+1	Legendary
1d12+2	Mythic/Human maximum potential

I might not even call d4 average normal and just call it average, because Wild Cards get to roll a d6 Wild Die on any Attribute or Skill roll. Essentially giving a minimum of d6 (on any and all attribute/skill rolls) to any "hero." So there is little "mechanical" loss in setting d4 as "average" for any given setting. This is especially true given the d4 has a 25% chance to "ace." I created a "house rule" for this which has Wild Cards roll actual d4s while everyone else rolls 1d8/2 and only "aces" on an 8. Thus the statistical average of the "roll" remains the same, but the chance of an "ace" is less than with a d6. But that might be a discussion for another time.