Savage Worlds is way more of a toolkit and the math at its foundation not quite as simple* as it appears at the surface (a friend and I have been beating our head against it for quite some time); particularly compared to single die linear distributions.
*The math is based on the better of two dice, often of different sizes/types, that can individually explode if you roll the maximum result on them (which is also more likely the smaller the die type is (i.e. 25% chance with a d4 vs. 8.33% with a d12) and with margins of success based on increments of 4.
What are you trying to do with the math? That sounds a little complex but far from intractable.
Trying to figure out the best armor and weapon damage values for a sci-fi setting given that it doesn’t use direct hit points but damage vs. a threshold and every 4 points you beat it by adds an additional effect/wound.
In a linear distribution against hit points this is easy; 2d10 damage is about 11… if you want a mook to drop in about two hits and they have DR 5 armor, then set their hp at 6-12 and you’re done. A hero can be modeled just by giving them greater hit points even if they have the same gear. Regardless, shots with the 2d10 weapon can eventually bring anything with DR 5 armor down.
In Savage Worlds though, instead of hit points, the threshold for damage is increased by individual vigor+armor and heroes (wild cards in game lingo) often have the same toughness as mooks and must rely on a roll granted by a consumable resource to possibly reduce damage (you need a 4+ on your vigor or wild die to reduce a hit by one level with an 8+ reducting by 2, etc.).
Related to this is that damage dice explode too… I’ve seen 2d8 score a 27 for its damage result before. And weapons routinely have an armor piercing quality that can reduce the value of armor worn and armor can have a trait that reduces damage before you apply AP to it… oh, and there’s an unarmored hero rules that grants +2 to those rolls to reduce damage by spending a finite resource.
Oh, and raises… when you beat the target’s defense by 4 or more you get to add another d6 to the damage (which basically amounts to a 50-50 shot at dealing an extra level of damage given how the system runs on margins of 4).
There’s also the fact that the relatively small die sizes used for task resolution also meant a rather small window for viable difficulties and odds of success past the single digits just crater even for the extremely competent.
So, when you say 2d8 AP 2 vs. a toughness of 8 (5 from vigor, 3 from armor) that reduces energy damage by 4 points you can calculate odds for a “shake” (lowest hit effect level) and varying levels of damage easily enough… but make the toughness 9 or the AP 1 or 3 or change the dice to 2d6 or 2d10 and it can swing the numbers much much more than you’d see in a flat distribution with ablative hit points.
Which makes it a pain in the butt when you’re needing to design a whole set of weapons (pistols, rifles, SAW equivalents, knives, laser swords that aren’t stupidly OP*, personal rockets, light rail guns, etc.) and sets of armor for the setting that behave as you wish.
Now, throw in the variability of small sample sizes. 50% in a 1000 tests might result in 45-55% in a hundred tests and 30-70% in the half-dozen rolls a player might make in a single combat and what on paper looks fine feels like a TPK dealing monstrosity because there is no assured way to mitigate the extreme results in the way an ablative hit point pool can absorb an outlier or two.
I’m working with it because the GM likes the system and its swinginess, but there are times the variability gets too wild even for them.
* laser swords in SWADE core look like they’ve been statted by a fanboy who believes the Star Wars radio drama’s line that a lightsaber can cut through anything without resistance literally (never mind Vader should have lost his arm again to Luke in ESB when he took the shoulder hit to his armor or Qui-Gon not instantly cutting through the blast doors at the open of TPM) because the values assigned are ridiculous; Str+d6+8 with AP 12. For perspective, a 75mm tank gun has AP 6 and does only slightly more raw damage (4d10).