Savage Wolrds RPG Figure Basing Conventions

I have been working on some basing rules for my 28mm Savage Worlds games so I thought I would put my ideas on here and see if anyone had any other ideas. It stops arguments and makes "everything" clear. This gives the players some consistent ideas about size and bonuses to hit.

Tiny Base. The smallest base size. Things on truly tiny are difficult to represent and easy to lose. As there aren't so many of them, I tend to use Small Bases instead of a different size as they give enough of the flavour needed but 10mm bases give something more like the right size. Things like cats and smaller sized pet dogs and anything smaller use tiny bases. Tiny bases are placed on a single square and two to four bases can easily fit on a single square. Attacking a Tiny creatures typically incurs a -2 to hit penalty.

Small Base. The exact size of the base is not really all that important as long as it is obviously different from a standard sized base. Typically a small coin such as a penny, dime or euro cent works well for this size of base. I use Small Bases for anything from the size of a hobbit, dwarf, smaller goblinoids or kobolds down to anything about the size of a medium breed of dog. A single Small Bases are placed on a single square. Those targeting a small creatures suffer a -1 to hit.

Standard Base. Nearly all figures are on Standard sized bases (the hint is in the name). Anything from about 5” to 7” in height uses a standard base. Creatures a bit bigger than man size, like orcs, might attract a +1 to hit but still use a standard sized base. Smaller elementals will probably be on standard sized bases. A disk of 25mm, 2p and 1” all fit the task nicely. Standard bases are placed on a single square.

NB. There are a lot of 30mm bases, especially lipped bases, available but I strongly suggest that you don't use them as standard. 30mm bases do not fit well with just about all of the commercially available terrain mats. Whilst one 30mm base is probably isn't going to make a difference, having a complicated melee on a regular gridded mat with 30mm bases can be very hard work.

Cavalry Base. Horses, large boars, wargs, bulls, some bears, motorbike and the like use Cavalry Bases. Although not all creatures using this sized base can be mounted, they are called Cavalry Bases for simplicities sake because for the most part they are used for mounted figures. Two standard sized bases stuck together make a perfect sized cavalry base. Anything on a Cavalry Base has a +1 or +2 to hit depending on it's overall bulk. Cavalry Bases are placed on two squares.

Large Base. In SW large creatures cover a range of sizes so 40mm or 1 ½” is about best for the smaller side of Large Base such as Ogres, large bears and typical elementals. For long animals, Three standard bases could also be used. Creatures of this size suffer a +3 to hit. 50mm or 2” bases are better for the bigger size of large such great white shark, rhino, small elephant and bigger elementals. Four standard bases in a line could be used for especially long animals. This is also the same size of a Small Burst Template. They typically suffer a +4 to hit. You can use 30mm but this is often too close to a 1” sized base and many people will have figures on 30mm based and they don't fit well with mats so again I tend not to use 30mm bases. Large bases are usually put in the center of a four square, squares.

Swarm Base. Swarms are the size of a Medium Burst Template which can be divided into two Small Burst Templates. Finding enough figures to cover 4” diameter base could be an expensive task and if you want to have two Small Burst Templates as well, then that is potentially a lot of models. So I have a couple of ways of doing things. One is fairly standard whilst the other is a bit more expedient. For both, I favour using Reaper Bones swarms which comes in packs of two, cover a fair chunk of space, are big enough and the right price.

For the traditional approach, take four swarm models. You don't attach to the directly to the base instead attach them to the smallest round base that will fit the model. 30mm will be about right although standard bases make a good fit. These provide enough space for the model, give some space for scenic materials and gives you another size to play with. 40mm will still fit but only just. It will leave too little space for easy scenic work on the base. Then create scenic bases on a 4” and two 2” bases with cut outs for the smaller models

Huge Base. This is the only base size that I am not going to put a specific size to as there is no real way to fix a size as the models are just too variable. This is because huge monsters tend to take a variety of sizes. These are bases for creatures as big as a dragon or drake and down to the size of a bull elephant bull elephant. At a minimum, huge bases start at about 80mm or 3” in diameter although two Large Bases (50mm) could be used for large long animals. Realistically there is no maximum size as long as it stays in proportion to the miniature. For truly giants monsters like Godzilla or Ghaog II (bonus points if you get the obscure reference) you can have two (giant) foot shaped bases. Huge creatures suffer a +5 and up bonus to hit.

Feel free to chip in...