Savage Worlds: Wild Magic

My monthly table-top group is playing Savage Worlds fantasy.  In the GMs world, dwarves are not spellcasters; they're runecasters.  I figured that a dwarven spellcaster would be a bit awkward about, and have poor control over, magic, so we converted the wild magic rules from second edition AD&D's Tome of Magic.  Thus was born Bodin son of Bardin, the dwarven wild mage.

What appears below is our conversion of wild magic from second edition AD&D to Savage Worlds.  While the main mechanics are solid and work well, the whole thing is a bit, well, shifty and requires a bit of improvisation.  Especially with regards to the Wild Surge Results Table, which has not yet been converted in any way.

Arcane Background (Wild Magic)
Arcane Skill: Spellcasting (Smarts)
Starting Power Points: 10
Starting Powers: 3

A magician with this arcane background does not use magic as do other magicians.  Instead, wild mages are fast and loose and have tenuous control over the forces they unleash.  A wild mage's laissez-faire approach to magic often causes wild surges of uncontrolled magic which affect not only themselves, but those around them as well.

Wild Surge: When a wild mage rolls a 1 on his Spellcasting die (regardless of his Wild Die), a Wild Surge is threatened.  He must roll a d6; on a result of 1-4 he is automatically Shaken (which may cause a wound).  On a result of 5-6, he must roll on the Wild Surge Results Table (from the AD&D Tome of Magic book).

Variable Effects: Because a wild mage has only partial control on the magic he unleashes, the results of the Wild Die affect the spell whether or not the success comes from the Wild Die or not.  If the Wild Die shows a 1, the spell goes off with all variable effects reduced by one step.  If the Wild Die shows a 2-5, the spell goes off as normal.  If the Wild Die shows a 6, the spell goes off with all variable effects increased by one step.

Variable effects include all aspects of the spell cost, range, duration, and effect which are not a fixed value; a spell which causes 1d6 damage per power point has a variable power point cost, for instance.  Similarly, a spell which has a range of Smarts x 100 yards has a variable range.  A one-step reduction in power points would be 1 less power point; a one-step reduction a trait would be one die-type less (so, with Smarts = d6, a one-step reduced spell with a range of Smarts x 100 yards would have an actual range of 400 yards).  At no point can a successful spell be rendered ineffective; power points cannot be reduced past the minimum needed to cast the spell, and traits cannot be reduced past d4.  One-step increases are the same but on the opposite end of the spectrum: 1 additional power point, or one additional trait die type.

Note that the power point cost of the spell is not actually changed.  A wild mage who puts 3 power points into a spell and rolls a 1-2 on his wild die still spends 3 power points but the spell goes off as if 2 power points were spent.