Heroes of the Tower: New Hindrance

Just so people don't think I reserve all my love for Edges, here's a new Hindrance for Heroes of the Tower.


Roont [Major Hindrance]
You were a child of the Callas once, born in the borderlands between Mid-World and End-World, but as a child you were stolen away to Thunderclap and there things were done to you. You came back big, slow, and dumb, and while you may have gotten a little better since then, you’re never going to be quite all there—and you’re one of the lucky ones.
A roont character gains the benefits of the Brawny Edge (and cannot take that Edge again), but suffers some severe penalties as well. You cannot raise your Smarts above d4, even after character creation. You suffer a –2 penalty on Guts checks because of your occasional fits of irrational terror, and you take a –2 penalty to Charisma due to your slightly deformed and unnerving appearance. Additionally, your life span is only about half that of a normal person’s. Good luck.

TORG Redux

It occurs to me that I mentioned a while back that I was running a Savage TORG game, but I never mentioned any of the mechanical stuff associated with it. I used some of the things from the Savage TORG conversion at Dragonsfoot, but I also tinkered with a lot of the mechanics myself. Since I had an Orrorshan monster hunter and a Nile Empire superhero, I also had to throw together some special Edges for those guys. Here's a sample of some of the changed and new Edges I did for that campaign.


Kaiju Form [Legendary]
Requirements: Legendary, Spirit d6+, arcane skill d10+, must know shape change power
Your ability to assume new forms is no longer limited by mere size. You can change into the form of truly enormous beasts, creatures that dwarf buildings and blot out the sun.
You can become creatures larger than Size +4. Changing into such creatures costs 7 Power Points, plus 1 Power Point for every five full points of Size. So, changing into a Size +5 creature would cost 8 Power Points, while changing into a Size +10 creature would cost 9 Power Points. The duration of the power and all other limitations remain unchanged.


Storm Knight [Reality]
Requirements: Novice, Reality d4+
Your experience fighting against invading realities has given you an expanded ability to detect possibility energy. If you succeed in a Notice check against a target number of the target’s Spirit die (so d8 would be target number 8), you can detect whether or not they are possibility-rated as a blue and red aura around them. Doing so is an active use of the skill and requires a full round of concentration, during which time you can take no other action but movement.
You can also detect possibility energy in the environment as an intangible sensation. You always know whether a zone is mixed, dominant, or pure. If you pass within sight of a stelae, hardpoint, or other strong conduit of possibility energy, you automatically sense it.
Finally, you gain a +2 bonus on Reality rolls made for reality storms.

Storm Warrior [Reality]
Requirements: Seasoned, Storm Knight, Reality d6+
By spending a benny, you can infuse an inanimate object with a temporary reality field, creating a talisman. It functions similar to a reality bubble but has a radius equal to half your Reality die, and lasts for the remainder of the session.

Storm Lord [Reality]
Requirements: Veteran, Storm Warrior, Reality d8+
Over time, your experience with manipulating reality has made you a powerful force in the Possibility Wars. The number of eternity shards you can bond with is increased by 1, and you only disconnect from your home reality with a critical failure on a disconnect check.


True Sight [Weird]
Requirements: Novice, Spirit d8+, Notice d4+
Some characters from Orrorsh have cultivated a form of the “second sight” that allows them to see through the human-seeming guises of some types of monsters. A character with this Edge can peer through the veil that conceals such corruption.
The character makes a Notice check, opposed by the target’s Spirit roll, with a penalty equal to the creature’s Fear rating (if any). If the check succeeds, the hero sees through the disguise to the monster beneath. For each raise, the True Sight also reveals one of the creature’s personal weaknesses (GM’s discretion to which is revealed).


I'm thinking about starting a new Savage TORG game in the next few months, so I'll probably be posting more about that as time passes.

Heroes of the Tower

I'm currently working on making a Savage Worlds campaign based on Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. The working title is "Heroes of the Tower," and I've just started putting together some arcane backgrounds and campaign-specific Edges for it. Here are a couple of them.

Gunslinger [Professional Edge]
Requirements: Seasoned, Quick Draw, Agility d6+, Spirit d6+, Guts d6+, Intimidation d6+, Persuasion d6+, Shooting d8+
You have been trained as one of the seppe-sai, a Gunslinger of Gilead. You wear the big iron, the gun of your ancestors, and you carry yourself with the effortless grace of one who knows the face of his father. You gain a +1 bonus on Guts, Intimidation and Persuasion rolls, and a +2 bonus on any roll made as part of a gunfighting duel (including damage).
You are also gifted with a personal firearm--a revolver of fine craft passed down through your lineage for many generations. Such revolvers often have personal flourishes or small enchantments about them, but this is entirely up to the GM.
Additionally, if you take the Trademark Weapon Edge and apply it to your personal gun, you gain a +1 bonus on damage rolls with that firearm. This bonus increases to +2 if you take Improved Trademark Weapon.

The Touch [Background Edge]
Requirements: Novice, Spirit d6+
Not every person gifted with a little bit of the supernatural is a full-blown psychic. Some folks just have a touch of strangeness about them. Maybe they get a little nudge in their heads when they’re in danger, or they can feel it when a close friend or relative dies. Regardless of the exact manifestation, your character has been touched by fate.
Once per session, you can spend a benny to request a hint from the GM relating to your current situation, or to determine the status of a friend or loved one. Hints should be vague but helpful, and the status is always broad ("He’s in trouble," or "She’s hurt bad, maybe dying"). The GM can refuse to give you any information, but if he does so, you do not spend a benny and instead gain an additional one.
Additionally, if you have the Danger Sense Edge, you make your Notice rolls for that Edge at no penalty.


The design philosophy here is that the Edges grant a tangible benefit, as well as synergizing with standard Edges from the core rules. I think that this lends itself well to creating characters who are campaign-oriented, and who are willing to take things that lend themselves well to emulating the genre. That is, by making a synergistic link between Gunslinger and Trademark Weapon, you encourage characters to build their gunslingers with a personal firearm that has a name, story, and background all its own, just like Roland's guns from the novels. (No spoilers here for anyone who doesn't know the story behind them.)

Personal Update and Project

Buying a house is hard, time-consuming work. Remind me not to do this again, assuming I want to have a writing career.

On the plus side, in two weeks I will be out of my cruddy apartment and in a large, pleasant house that has a room my wife has already set aside as a study and writing office. Hopefully, things will flow more easily once I have a dedicated writing space, instead of trying to sneak in a paragraph here or there while I'm having lunch on campus.

The Savage Worlds version of my book Ronin is still up in the air. I've been fiddling a bit with it, but High Moon hasn't given me the formal go-ahead yet. In the meantime, I've been amusing myself with a side project: a wuxia-style setting that isn't set in a thinly-veiled historical China.

I love me some Asian history (as you may have guessed, O readers of this blog), but I think it's almost a disservice to myself to become typecast as "that guy who does historical Asian RPGs." There are worse fates, goodness knows, but I want to write something that isn't just "Sengoku with magic" or "Three Kingdoms with magic." I would very much like to do for China history what Rokugan did for Japan: take all the best parts, and cool things from surrounding areas, and make something new out of it. A Chinese-inspired game rather than a Chinese-historical game.

I can't tell you too much about it yet, not even what system I'm writing it for, but I'm currently doing my research, writing chapter snippets while consulting with my battered copy of Tao Te Ching, casting some trigrams for inspiration, and looking at lots of art about pandas. ^_^ Hopefully, something interesting will come of it.

Return and Review

After saying that I wanted to update this blasted thing regularly, I drop off the face of the earth for six months again. Partly, it was professional obligations (that is to say, writing for which I am being paid), and partly my schoolwork. I don't talk about my personal life on here very much, since I think it detracts from the point of a design blog, but I feel the need to brag: Taking six months away from the blog must have paid off somewhere, since I am now in the running for the prestigious Rhodes Scholarship. If I manage to keep my GPA up and not horribly botch something, I could be one of a select group of students chosen to finish out my graduate education at Oxford University in England, where I will be pursuing my Master's in Library Sciences. Hold your applause, please. The odds that I'll be chosen even if I manage to still be qualifying for the thing in two years (which is the soonest I can apply for graduation) is about one in six at best.

Ah well, even if I don't get it, it's one of those things that's genuinely an honor for which to even be considered. And there's always getting my MLS right here at good old U of K, at which I am currently enrolled and pursuing my BA in English.

I just got back from GenCon the week before school started, and they had quite the plethora of things I wanted there. While I picked up Geist: The Sin-Eaters on the first day, as I always do with the new White Wolf game, I've barely glanced through it. Something about it is off-putting; maybe it's the lower quality of the book overall (coarser paper, smudgier edge work, that sort of thing), or maybe I'm just too melancholy about it not being NWraith. Either way, I'm hoping to slog through the thing at some point in the near future.

The big purchase of the convention for me was the Pathfinder RPG, of which I am a huge fan. Being out in the cold with the arrival of D&D 4th Edition, I'm pleased that Paizo, whose work I have respected for years, has decided to carry on the torch of 3.X. It's a huge book, weighing in at 500+ pages, and the interior is so beautiful that mere words can't describe it. Suffice to say that Paizo has outdone their usual (very high already) standards. I even got to run Pathfinder Society events on Thursday and Friday of the convention, so bully for me!

I was able to hit the Studio 2/Pinnacle booth for a while, and I basked in the soft glow of Savage Weird War II and Realms of Cthulhu, both of which I desperately wanted but couldn't afford. My only purchase there was one I've been waiting for, though: the Fantasy Companion. Two of my friends picked it up at Origins, and I'd been tearing out my (last remaining) hair over wanting my own copy. I'm still planning on picking up the other books (as well as Hellfrost and Space: 1889 when I can get around to them), though it might take a month or so before I have the funds.

My last significant purchase at GenCon was something of an impulse buy. I was hearing about a new d20 variant game on rpg.net the week before GenCon, something called FantasyCraft. It's made by Crafty Games, and is a revision/alteration of their very successful SpyCraft game engine (which they are apparently calling "Mastercraft"). I was iffy about the game, having had only sporadic and somewhat mediocre experiences with SpyCraft, until someone mentioned in their review of the pre-release that one of the base races were dragons.

Let me repeat: dragons. Not dragonborn, not lizardmen, not half-dragons, but actual fire-breathing, flying, scaly dragons. That sold me right there. I couldn't give Crafty Games my money fast enough at GenCon.

Now that I actually own the book, my ardor has cooled, but only somewhat. There's a definite learning curve involved, and one that isn't necessarily made any easier by having played numerous other d20 games before. There's an odd combination of flavorful, even amusingly snarky, writing mixed in with very dry (like arid) statistical description and standardized abilities. I mean by this, you can have a class with the incredible cool-sounding ability "I'll Cut You!" alongside similar class abilities such as evasion III and uncanny dodge IV. It's jarring to the eye, as well as making NPC and monster stat blocks incredible dense, almost to the point of incomprehensibility without understanding every niggling little thing very well.

Still, the game has a lot of charm, and almost all of the added heavy lifting seems to be on the GM end or on character creation. The actual system part of the game is much more smooth and easy to swallow than standard d20 in a lot of ways. I'm reserving final judgment on it until I run or play it.

Hopefully, I'll have it in me to actually update this thing at least once a week from now on, but I won't hold myself to unreasonable expectations. I am studying Japanese this semester, after all. ;)

Blog Called...

...on account of freezing rain, snow, sleet, and hail. It's nasty as hell in Lexington right now, and I'm too busy trying to stay warm to post anything today. Good luck to the rest of you dealing with this winter storm mess.

Playground of the Damned: The Enemy

Today's "Playground of the Damned" post is about the enemy: zombies! There are four basic kinds of zombies that are going to show up in this adventure: kid zombies (former classmates of the PCs), adult zombies (former teachers and neighbors), bloated zombies (who swelled up from decay and give the characters opportunities to make fat jokes at Hugo's expense), and legless zombies (to ramp up the tension).

Let's take a look!


Zombie, Kid
These walking dead are typical groaning fiends looking for fresh meat... just a little smaller and weaker.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4, Spirit d4, Strength d4, Vigor d6
Skills: Fighting d4, Intimidation d6, Notice d4
Pace: 4; Parry: 4; Toughness: 6

Special Abilities:
•Bite/Slam: Str.
•Fear: The first time a character sees a kid zombie, he has to roll a Guts check. They’re scary.
•Fearless: Zombies are immune to Fear and Intimidation.
•Infection: If a zombie’s attack inflicts a Wound on a victim, that target must attempt a Vigor roll. On a successful roll, the attack that did the damage was a slam; on a failure, the target has been bitten and is now infected. An infected character makes a Vigor roll every hour; a failure inflicts a level of Fatigue that does not go away, and failing at Incapacitated causes the victim to rise again as a zombie.
•Size –1: These zombies are the kids’ ex-classmates, so they’re a little smaller than normal zombies.
•Undead: +2 Toughness; +2 to recover from being Shaken; immune to poison and disease; no additional damage from called shots (except for called shots to the head).
•Weakness (Head): Called shots to a zombie’s head are +2 damage.


Zombie, Adult
These walking dead are typical groaning fiends looking for fresh meat. They were adults before they got infected, so they’re bigger and stronger than kid zombies.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4, Spirit d4, Strength d6, Vigor d6
Skills: Fighting d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d4, Shooting d6
Pace: 4; Parry: 5; Toughness: 7

Special Abilities:
•Bite/Slam: Str.
•Fear: The first time a character sees a normal zombie, he has to roll a Guts check. They’re scary.
•Fearless: Zombies are immune to Fear and Intimidation.
•Infection: If a zombie’s attack inflicts a Wound on a victim, that target must attempt a Vigor roll. On a successful roll, the attack that did the damage was a slam; on a failure, the target has been bitten and is now infected. An infected character makes a Vigor roll every hour; a failure inflicts a level of Fatigue that does not go away, and failing at Incapacitated causes the victim to rise again as a zombie.
•Undead: +2 Toughness; +2 to recover from being Shaken; immune to poison and disease; no additional damage from called shots (except for called shots to the head).
•Weakness (Head): Called shots to a zombie’s head are +2 damage.


Zombie, Bloated
These walking dead swelled up from the gases inside them and from eating too much (of what, it’s better not to imagine). Now, they’re enormously bloated and can belch out nauseating fumes.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4, Spirit d4, Strength d6, Vigor d6
Skills: Fighting d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d4
Pace: 4; Parry: 5; Toughness: 8

Special Abilities:
•Bite/Slam: Str.
•Fear –1: The first time a character sees a bloated zombie, he has to roll a Guts check at –1. They’re really scary and kind of gross.
•Fearless: Zombies are immune to Fear and Intimidation.
•Gasbag: Once per encounter, a bloated zombie can belch a foul cloud of rot and decay. This cloud fills a Medium Burst Template centered on the zombie. Anyone within the cloud must attempt a Vigor roll or gain a level of Fatigue. This Fatigue vanishes after an hour of rest breathing clean air.
•Infection: If a zombie’s attack inflicts a Wound on a victim, that target must attempt a Vigor roll. On a successful roll, the attack that did the damage was a slam; on a failure, the target has been bitten and is now infected. An infected character makes a Vigor roll every hour; a failure inflicts a level of Fatigue that does not go away, and failing at Incapacitated causes the victim to rise again as a zombie.
•Slow: Bloated zombies waddle more than even other zombies. They have a d4 running die.
•Size +1: Bloated zombies are big and fat, making them somewhat tougher than the run of the mill.
•Undead: +2 Toughness; +2 to recover from being Shaken; immune to poison and disease; no additional damage from called shots (except for called shots to the head).
•Weakness (Head): Called shots to a zombie’s head are +2 damage.


Zombie, Legless
These aren’t so much walking dead as crawling dead. Being low to the ground makes them sneaky, though.

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4, Spirit d4, Strength d6, Vigor d6
Skills: Fighting d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d4, Stealth d6
Pace: 2; Parry: 5; Toughness: 6

Special Abilities:
•Bite/Slam: Str.
•Fear: The first time a character sees a legless zombie, he has to roll a Guts check. If he doesn’t see it until it attacks him, he rolls at –2. They’re really freaking scary when they do that.
•Fearless: Zombies are immune to Fear and Intimidation.
•Infection: If a zombie’s attack inflicts a Wound on a victim, that target must attempt a Vigor roll. On a successful roll, the attack that did the damage was a slam; on a failure, the target has been bitten and is now infected. An infected character makes a Vigor roll every hour; a failure inflicts a level of Fatigue that does not go away, and failing at Incapacitated causes the victim to rise again as a zombie.
•Size –1: Since it’s missing half of its body, a legless zombie is a little less tough than a normal one.
•Slow: Legless zombies can crawl pretty quickly, but they can’t really run. They roll a d4 running die.
•Sneak Attack: Legless zombies start every combat the same way--crawling silently up to their intended target and biting him on the leg. If a legless zombie succeeds in his Stealth roll, he gets the drop on his victim.
•Undead: +2 Toughness; +2 to recover from being Shaken; immune to poison and disease; no additional damage from called shots (except for called shots to the head).
•Weakness (Head): Called shots to a zombie’s head are +2 damage.


Coming soon: an actual adventure!

Playground of the Damned: Characters, part 6

Even though you can only see five kids in the picture that inspired this adventure, I always try to make six characters for convention games. I'm not sure why; it just seems like a nice solid number. If it makes you feel any better, you can pretend that today's character--Hugo Hays, the fat kid--gets eaten before that scene happens. ^_^


Hugo Hays, fat kid

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d4, Vigor d6
Skills: Climbing d4, Fighting d4, Guts d4, Notice d6, Persuasion d4, Stealth d6, Taunt d4, Throwing d4
Pace: 5; Parry: 4; Toughness: 6

Edges:
•Danger Sense: You have a bad feeling about all this... but more than that, you get a bad feeling just before anything really bad happens to you. Right before you would be surprised by something dangerous, you can make a Notice roll at –2. If you succeed, you start the first round of combat on hold instead of surprised; if you succeed in going first (which normally requires an Agility roll to interrupt your opponent), you can spend your action warning everyone else about the impending danger, causing them to not be surprised either.
•Luck: You’re even luckier than the other kids--which is good if you want to save your own fat hide. You get a bonus benny.

Hindrances:
•Fat: You’re a porker, all right. Your mom says that you have big bones, but everyone else just thinks you’re fat. On the plus side, you have +1 Toughness. On the downside, your Pace is only 5 and your running die is a d4. If there’s running to do, you’re probably getting left behind.
•Greedy: What’s yours is yours--and maybe some other stuff too. You always demand your “fair share,” and though the consequences for not getting it are pretty much limited to pouting, you can be a real brat about it.
•Young: You are only 10 years old. While you have lower attributes and less skills than an adult, you are also somewhat luckier and start with one extra benny.

Gear:
•Pocket Knife: Str+d4 damage. You’re really not supposed to have one at school, but it’s yours, and you certainly weren’t going to let anyone take it away from you.
•Food: You’ve got a bunch of candy bars in your pocket and some beef jerky hidden in your coat. It’s enough to keep you fed for a day or so... or maybe you’ll just eat it all when no one’s looking. Sharing it doesn’t even really occur to you.
•Pocket cash: $50. You’ve been stealing from your mom’s purse.

Savage Pathfinder: Edges

I'm currently gearing up to run a Savage Worlds conversion of the Pathfinder Chronicles setting on Monday nights in the near future. Character creation is done, and really all that's left is to finish up our current Monday night projects (one more session each of Don't Rest Your Head and Changeling: The Lost) before jumping into the savage world of Golarion.

In order to get ready for the campaign, I've been relentlessly savaging various feats and class abilities into Edges. Here are a few of the ones I've been working on.


Crossbow Mastery (Combat)
Requirements: Seasoned, Agility d8+, Shooting d8+
You can load crossbows with blinding speed and even fire them in melee range with little fear of reprisal. The time required for you to reload a crossbow is reduced to a free action, regardless of the type of crossbow used. You may also fire a crossbow at an adjacent foe engaged in melee, but the target number is his Parry score rather than the standard TN of 4.

Dart Cloud (Combat)
Requirements: Seasoned, Agility d8+, Quick Draw, Throwing d8+
You can throw a large number of small weapons in one quick motion, filling the air with deadly steel. When you use shuriken or daggers as thrown weapons, your Rate of Fire is 3. You can draw and throw as part of the same action when performing this maneuver. You suffer the usual –2 penalty to attack rolls for using a weapon with a Rate of Fire greater than 1 when you use this Edge.

Versatile Caster (Power)
Requirements: Wild Card, Seasoned, Arcane Background, Knowledge (Arcana) d8+
In a pinch, some arcanists can reach into a reserve of spontaneous creativity and use their powers in a different way than normal.
This caster may spend a benny when casting a spell to change its trappings to a different trapping approved by the GM. Until the end of the encounter, the caster can use either this new trapping or his original trapping interchangeably.
For example, a wizard who knows bolt as “flame arrow” could use this Edge to alter it to “ice lance.” This would allow him to inflict cold damage instead of fire damage with his attack, plus any additional effects the GM uses for cold spells.

Arcane Archer (Professional)
Requirements: Novice, elf or half-elf only, Arcane Background (Magic), Smarts d8+, Shooting d8+, Spellcasting d6+
You have trained in the twin elven arts of sorcery and archery. By combining the two into a fluid whole, you can use your arrows to greatly extend the range of your magical powers.
While firing a bow (not a crossbow or other ranged weapon), you can cast spells with a range other than Personal, Touch, or any Template and use the range of the bow instead of the spell’s normal range. You still use Spellcasting for the spell’s attack, modified by the bow’s range increment. The arrow is consumed by the magic when you use it in this manner and does not inflict its usual damage.
For example, the bolt power normally has a range of 12/24/48. A long bow has a range of 15/30/60. When using your Arcane Archer Edge, you would use the bow’s range to determine the bolt’s effective distance and range penalties.

Free Runner (Professional)
Requirements: Novice, Agility d6+, Strength d6+, Climbing d6+
Many of the great cities of Avistan boast communities of people dedicated to moving quickly and nimbly through the streets and across the roofs of their home. Free runners (sometimes called shingle rats or roof runners) are experts in urban navigation.
A character with this Edge gains a +2 bonus on Climbing rolls and Agility rolls made as part of a chase. These benefits apply only in urban environments. Because of their ability to roll with a fall, Free Runners get a free soak roll against any damage caused by a fall.

Hamatulatsu Initiate (Professional)
Requirements: Seasoned, Strength d8+, Pugilist, Stone Hands, Intimidation d6+
This character has mastered a deadly fighting style inspired by the devastating attacks of the barbed devil. Practitioners of hamatulatsu seek to not just kill their opponents, but to first cripple and humiliate them with memorable, scarring pain.
If this character makes an unarmed Fighting attack against a foe and succeeds in striking the opponent but fails to inflict enough damage to render that opponent Shaken, he may immediately attempt an Intimidation roll against that foe as a free action.
Additionally, a Hamatulatsu Initiate can choose to inflict Fatigue instead of wounds with his unarmed strikes. He must declare that he is doing so before making his Fighting roll, and suffers –1 on the attack roll when doing so. Such attacks are still compared against Toughness and the target can soak normally.


Of course, all of these are in addition to the Faith Edges I posted about previously. If there's any interest in my players or readers of this blog, I might also post up campaign notes about the Curse of the Crimson Throne adventure path.

Playground of the Damned: Characters, Part 5

Today's somewhat belated entry is Steve Hicks, the poor kid, and his buddy Rufus.


Steve Hicks, poor kid

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4, Spirit d6, Strength d4, Vigor d8
Skills: Climbing d6, Fighting d6, Guts d6, Notice d6, Survival d4, Tracking d4
Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 6

Edges:
•Beast Friend: You’re good with animals, possibly because your family has a lot of dogs. Animals won’t willingly attack you, and if you can get off school grounds, your dog is waiting for you nearby. Rufus will be a big help in tough spots.
•Nerves of Steel: You’ve been spanked more than the other kids, so you’re good at not minding so much when it hurts. You ignore 1 point of Wound penalties.

Hindrances:
•Loyal: Being poor has taught you the value of staying true to your friends and sticking up for them. You’d die (well, maybe get hurt a lot) before betraying your classmates, and you never leave someone behind if there’s any chance of survival at all.
•Poverty: Your family is poor and you don’t have much in the way of possessions because of it. You start play with less equipment than the other kids and no pocket cash.
•Young: You are only 10 years old. While you have lower attributes and less skills than an adult, you are also somewhat luckier and start with one extra benny.

Gear:
•Pocket lint and not much else.
•Rufus: If you can get off school grounds, Rufus is always waiting for you just around the corner. He’s a big, dumb mutt, but he’s loyal and he’s willing to fight for you.


Rufus, the dog
If the kids manage to get off school grounds, Rufus is waiting to join up with Steve. Rufus is intensely loyal to Steve and obeys his commands without question, even to the point of dying for his master. He’s not perfect, though, and he might spook if thrown into too many bad situations—-afterwards, he’ll come crawling back... if anyone’s alive, that is.
Unlike his master, Rufus is an extra, not a Wild Card, so he does not get the benefit of the Wild Die and has only 1 Wound.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6 (A), Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d6
Skills: Fighting d6, Guts d6, Notice d10
Pace: 8; Parry: 5; Toughness: 4

Special Abilities:
•Bite: Str+d4 damage.
•Fleet Footed: Rufus rolls a d10 when running instead of a d6.
•Go for the Throat: Dogs instinctively go for an opponent’s soft spots. With a raise on his attack roll, Rufus hits his target’s most weakly-armored location (in addition to dealing +d6 damage).
•Size –1: Dogs are smaller than kids, even a big dog like Rufus.

Playground of the Damned: Characters, Part 4

Today is a historic day, the inauguration of Barack Obama. I wanted to say something pithy and clever, but instead I'll just note the occasion and keep up my regular posting. This installment is about the prettiest girl in class, Ruthie Marcus.


Ruthie Marcus, prettiest girl in class

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4, Spirit d6, Strength d4, Vigor d6
Skills: Knowledge (Pop Culture) d4, Notice d6, Persuasion d6, Shooting d6, Stealth d6, Taunt d4
Pace: 6; Parry: 2; Toughness: 6 (1 from armor)

Edges:
•Attractive: You’re the prettiest girl in class, and if you live through this nightmare, you might grow up to be downright beautiful. You have +2 Charisma (which affects Persuasion and Streetwise rolls).
•Marksman: If you don’t move during a round in which you make a Shooting roll, you add +2 to the attack roll.

Hindrances:
•Big Mouth: You tend to shoot your mouth off at just the wrong time, to just the wrong person. When there’s an opportunity to spill your guts about anything, you take it. You also tend to tell people (even your friends) just what you think of them.
•Gutless: You’re a big old fraidy-cat. You suffer a –2 penalty on Guts rolls.
•Young: You are only 10 years old. While you have lower attributes and less skills than an adult, you are also somewhat luckier and start with one extra benny.

Gear:
•Slingshot: 2d4 damage, Range 3/6/12. You carry this around in your purse, since you’re a little ashamed of having it… but you’re a crack shot. You have plenty of rocks for it too.
•Heavy Pink Jacket: +1 Armor.
•Purse: Every real girl has a purse.
•Makeup Kit: Mirror, powder, lipstick—check.
•Pocket cash: $30.

Playground of the Damned: Characters, Part 3

Today's installment is the class jock, Billy Shaw.


Billy Shaw, class jock

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4, Spirit d4, Strength d8, Vigor d6
Skills: Climbing d6, Fighting d6, Guts d4, Intimidation d6, Streetwise d4, Swimming d6
Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 7 (2 from armor)

Edges:
•Brawny: You’re big for your age. You can carry your Str × 8 pounds before becoming encumbered (rather than Str × 5).
•First Strike: Once per turn, you get a free attack against any opponent that moves adjacent to you.

Hindrances:
•Clueless: You don’t pay much attention in class—-you’d rather daydream about soccer or your favorite TV show. You suffer a –2 penalty on Common Knowledge rolls.
•Stubborn: You always try to get your way, and you never admit you’re wrong. Even when it’s painfully obvious you’ve screwed up, you try to justify it with half-truths and rationalizations.
•Young: You are only 10 years old. While you have lower attributes and less skills than an adult, you are also somewhat luckier and start with one extra benny.

Gear:
•Broomstick: Str+d6 damage, 2 hands, +1 Reach. You can attack things that are farther away than normal with this long-handled broomstick.
•Soccer Pads: +2 Armor. You were getting ready for practice when things started getting weird.
•Matches: You keep them just in case you need to set something on fire... though you'd rather not have people know you have them.
•Pocket cash: $15.

Playground of the Damned: Characters, part 2

Up today is the class geek, Tara Smith!

***

Tara Smith, class geek

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d8, Spirit d6, Strength d4, Vigor d4
Skills: Guts d4, Healing d6, Investigation d6, Knowledge (Science) d6, Notice d4, Throwing d6
Pace: 6; Parry: 2; Toughness: 4

Edges:
•Know-It-All: You read a lot, you pay attention in class, and you’re just naturally bright. You have a +2 bonus on Common Knowledge rolls.
•MacGuyver: You’re good at improvising tools when the situation calls for it. You never suffer penalties for lacking proper tools, and with a few minutes preparation and some materials, you can rig up lots of useful stuff (GM’s discretion-—think potato alarm clocks and crystal radios).

Hindrances:
•Bad Eyes: You wear glasses—-without them, you don’t see so good. Without your glasses, you suffer a –2 penalty made to attack or Notice something more than 5” (10 yards) distant.
•Weak Willed: You’re smart, sure, but you really want to be liked, and that sometimes makes you do dumb things. You suffer a –2 penalty on Tests of Will.
•Young: You are only 10 years old. While you have lower attributes and less skills than an adult, you are also somewhat luckier and start with one extra benny.

Gear:
•Brick: Str+d4, Range 2/4/8. You picked it up outside the door… just in case. There are also plenty more laying around, as well as heavy rocks.
•Glasses: These thick coke-bottle lenses prevent you from suffering the effects of your Bad Eyes Hindrance. They’re kind of fragile though, and every time you get Shaken or Wounded, you have to make an Agility roll or lose them. If you fumble the roll, they break.
•Pocket cash: $30.

Playground of the Damned: Characters, part 1

First up for "Playground of the Damned" is the class misfit and party leader, Jimmy Corbett. He's a smart-alec with a heart of gold, and largely responsible for keeping the group together in the midst of the chaos.

As a note for rules sticklers: Since the kid characters are intended to be used for a convention game, they don't follow the rules precisely. Some of them have Edges that they don't quite qualify for, and at least one of them has two Major Hindrances, but all the point values add up and the kids are fairly balanced. Plus, they need all the help they can get. XD

Jimmy Corbett, class misfit

Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d8, Strength d4, Vigor d4
Skills: Climbing d4, Fighting d6, Guts d6, Intimidation d4, Notice d6, Taunt d6
Pace: 6; Parry: 5 (6 with trashcan lid); Toughness: 6 (2 from armor); Charisma: –2

Edges:
•Big Damn Hero: Once per session, when you spend a benny to reroll a die, you can add the result of your reroll to your previous roll. You must declare that you are using this ability when you spend the benny.
•Strong Willed: You have a tough head and don’t bow to pressure easily. Also, your smart mouth makes it easy to push people’s buttons. You gain a +2 bonus to Intimidation and Taunt rolls, as well as any roll made to resist a Test of Will.

Hindrances:
•Heroic: Inside your breast beats the heart of a true hero. Even though the other kids don’t like you very much, you’ve rallied them together to get them the hell out of dodge. You’ll never say no to a person in need, no matter how much you may resent it.
•Misfit: People don’t really know how to relate to you—you’re smart but lazy, you mouth off to adults, and you play mean jokes on your classmates. Truthfully, you just want to be liked, but you don’t know how. You suffer a –2 penalty to Charisma (which applies on Persuasion and Streetwise rolls).
•Young: You are only 10 years old. While you have lower attributes and less skills than an adult, you are also somewhat luckier and start with one extra benny.

Gear:
•Baseball Bat: Str+d4 damage. This was in your locker, but you managed to grab it before leaving the building. You had a hunch that it might come in handy.
•Trashcan Lid: +1 Parry, +2 Armor against incoming ranged attacks. This was on the steel trash bin right outside the school doors. You grabbed it up on another one of those hunches.
•Heavy Coat: +1 Armor.
•Pocket cash: $20.

Playground of the Damned: Intro

I came across a neat wallpaper the other day that inspired me to want to run a short Savage Worlds zombies game where all of the player characters were grade-school children.

http://i39.tinypic.com/241w9l0.jpg

With that in mind, I've written up the quick intro for a short adventure I call "Playground of the Damned."


Adventure Background

At first, the adults tried to act like nothing was going on. They smiled and laughed like normal, but you could tell that something was wrong. Then one day you came to school, and most of the class was out sick, and so were almost all of the teachers. Your homeroom teacher was nervous and kept checking the radio while you and your few remaining classmates talked and played. You could overhear something about “infection” and “safe zones” and “evacuation points,” but you weren’t really paying attention until the town siren started going off.

Finally, the principal came in and told all of you to go to the emergency areas of the school and wait for the army to come. You’re worried about your parents, but the adults said that they would be all right. When you went to the emergency hallway, Mr. Owens the janitor was there, but he looked sick—and then he jumped on the principal and started biting him! Panic set in, and now you and four of your classmates are outside the school building, separated from everyone else. You’ve managed to pick up a few things you can use as weapons (or snuck some into class) and the class geek says he knows where the nearest safe zone is. With a little luck, maybe you can make it to safety.

But first, you have to make your way across school grounds filled with groaning, flesh-eating versions of your former classmates and through twenty blocks of urban wasteland. Get to it!

***

I'll be posting up the PCs for PotD over the next couple of days. Up first, Jimmy Corbett, the class misfit!

Savage Pathfinder: Faith Edges

For the last little bit, I've been working on a Savage conversion of Paizo's Pathfinder Chronicles campaign setting. Today, I'm posting up the Faith Edges I've written for the setting. What are Faith Edges, you ask? Read on!


FAITH EDGES

The gods are real and powerful in the Pathfinder Chronicles Campaign Setting, and mortals are frequently tasked to carry out their will. The most common servants of the gods are priests and holy knights, and such characters typically have the Arcane Background (Miracles) Edge. Not every servant of the gods is a priest, though, and some priests are more devout than others.

Faith Edges are special Edges that can only be taken by characters that worship a particular god, and only with specific GM permission. Some Faith Edges require that the character be capable of casting miracles, while others are open to any member of the truly faithful.


Adept of the Inner Mysteries
Requirements: Novice, Spirit d6+, Arcane Background (Miracles), follower of Irori
Followers of Irori turn their minds inward, using their powers to affect perfection of the self. When this Edge is selected, and again at each new Rank achieved, the character may select one of his known powers. That power now affects only the character (if it could affect other targets before), but the character can manifest that power as a free action.


All-Seeing Eye
Requirements: Novice, Smarts d6+, Arcane Background (Magic or Miracles), Knowledge (Arcana) d6+, follower of Nethys
Nethys is the god of magic, and his followers determine rank among themselves by magical knowledge and ability. Characters with this Edge can use the detect arcana power at will with no cost. While doing so, their eyes scintillate with strange colors. Though there is no cost to use this ability, keeping it active still counts as maintaining a power for purposes of maintenance penalties.


Bravura
Requirements: Novice, Spirit d6+, Vigor d6+, follower of Cayden Cailean
The hearties that follow Cayden Cailean love fine drink and good company, and they are known for their bravery. Those with this Edge gain a +2 bonus on Guts checks, and even on a failed Guts check, they subtract –2 from the subsequent roll on the Fright table. Additionally, a Bravura gains +2 to Vigor rolls made to resist poison.


Crowning Glory
Requirements: Novice, Spirit d6+, Arcane Background (Miracles), follower of Iomedae
Iomedae is a goddess of crusades and honorable combat. As Aroden’s inheritor, she is popular among righteous (and self-righteous) humans. A character with this Edge can spend 1 Power Point as a free action to gain the Champion Edge until the start of his next turn; if he already possesses that Edge, he instead doubles the bonuses from it until the start of his next turn.


Dawnflower’s Dance
Requirements: Novice, Spirit d6+, Expression d6+, follower of Sarenrae
Sarenrae, frequently called “the Dawnflower” by her devoted followers, is a powerful goddess of redemption and healing. She represents the revealing light of the sun, and the healing power of forgiveness. Those that learn the steps of her holiest dance can cause their bodies to glow (as per the light power) at will with no cost. They can also cause any held weapon to burst into flames, adding +2 the weapon’s damage. These flames have little chance of setting a struck creature on fire, though this power can be used to light flammable materials with time and patience.


Forge Master
Requirements: Novice, Smarts d6+, Repair d6+, follower of Torag
Humans and dwarves alike worship Torag as the father of the forge, god of creation and craftsmanship. His faithful do their best to emulate his abilities. A character with this Edge adds +2 to his Repair rolls. With a raise, he halves the time normally required to fix something. This means that if a particular Repair job already states that a raise repairs it in half the time, this character could finish the job in one-quarter the time with a raise.


Grey Warden
Requirements: Novice, Spirit d6+, follower of Pharasma
Many folk fear Pharasma, the goddess of death, despite the fact that she is neither evil nor cruel. Her position as the judge of souls makes her important to nearly every religion, and the fact that she is neutral and nonjudgmental in all things makes her accepted among followers of nearly all other faiths.
Pharasma’s Grey Wardens are given license over life and death—they guard the living whose time has not yet come, and bring final peace to the dead that have not yet moved on. Within a radius equal to half the Grey Warden’s Spirit die, living creatures gain +2 to soak rolls and undead creatures suffer –2 to soak rolls. The Grey Warden can choose to apply or suppress this ability as a free action on his turn, but he cannot pick and choose which creatures within the area the modifier applies to.


Honest Effort
Requirements: Novice, Spirit d6+, Vigor d6+, follower of Erastil
As the god of farming, hunting, and trade, Erastil values little else above hard work and honest effort. Those with this Edge gain a +2 bonus to rolls made to avoid Fatigue, as well as +2 on Survival rolls made to find food and water in the wilderness.


Hungry Darkness
Requirements: Novice, Spirit d6+, follower of Zon-Kuthon
The Midnight Lord gives his most devout followers special influence over darkness and shadow. When a true believer in Zon-Kuthon fights in darkness, the darkness seems to come alive to fight with him. A character with this Edge gains a bonus on damage rolls equal to the current penalty his target is taking from lighting conditions. So, a character currently suffering a –2 penalty due to Dim lighting conditions would take +2 damage from attacks made by a character with this Edge. This does mean that creatures with low-light vision suffer less from this Edge than other targets. This only affects creatures suffering from actual darkness conditions, not effective ones, so blind characters are immune to the effects of this Edge.


Infernal Contract
Requirements: Novice, Smarts d6+, Arcane Background (Miracles), follower of Asmodeus
To Asmodeus, those that gain miracles from him already owe him their souls. Still, those with something else to bargain away sometimes wind up the recipient of his largesse. By spending 1 Power Point as a free action, the character with this Edge gains +2 Toughness until the start of his next turn. While using this Edge, the character flickers with dull black flames.


Inner Beauty
Requirements: Novice, Spirit d6+, Expression d6+, Charisma +2 or higher, follower of Shelyn
The faithful of Shelyn, the Eternal Rose, realize that true beauty comes from within. They must endeavor to create something of beauty every day, whether it is a work of art, dancing for strangers, or singing in public. These acts of harmonious creation make her most devoted followers almost impossible to rattle. A character with Inner Beauty adds half his Charisma bonus to rolls made to resist Intimidation and Taunt attempts.


Iron Lord
Requirements: Novice, Strength d6+, Vigor d6+, follower of Gorum
The faithful of Gorum prize battle for its own sake, and highly value the tools of war. Iron Lords gain a +2 bonus on Repair rolls made to create or repair weapons and armor. Additionally, they treat any armor they wear or weapons they carry as though they weighed half their actual weight.


Keymaker’s Blessing
Requirements: Novice, Spirit d6+, follower of Abadar
Called “Master of the First Vault” by his faithful, Abadar is the god of merchants and civilization, and he is frequently represented in conjunction with keys. Those with the Keymaker’s Blessing find many doors open for them. A character with this Edge gains a +2 bonus on Persuasion rolls, as well as a +2 bonus on Notice rolls made to discern lies.


Monstrous Visage
Requirements: Novice, Vigor d6+, Charisma –2 or lower, follower of Lamashtu
The followers of the Mother of Monsters are inevitably ugly, either on the inside or the outside (and frequently both). The most devout learn how to turn their deformity into strength, and how to hate all that is beautiful. A character with this Edge applies his Charisma penalty as a bonus on Intimidation rolls. Additionally, this character gains a +2 bonus on damage rolls against any target with a Charisma bonus.


Pallid Pact
Requirements: Novice, Spirit d6+, follower of Urgathoa
The goddess of gluttony, disease and undeath, Urgathoa is despised by most decent folk and embraced by the decadent and corrupt. Her priests must usually act in secret to avoid attention, but the physical excesses embraced by her faith inevitably reveal their presence. After taking this Edge, the character gains a +2 bonus on Vigor rolls made to avoid disease. Additionally, undead treat the character as one of their own; for less intelligent undead (like skeletons and zombies), this means that they will not attack the character unless specifically ordered to do so or unless the character attacks them first. The character gains +2 Charisma in regards to more intelligent undead creatures.


Poisoned Egg
Requirements: Novice, Arcane Background (Miracles), follower of Norgorber
The “Reaper of Reputation,” Norgorber is the god of secrets, greed and murder. Many assassin-priests serve this dire patron, and their ability to poison food with a touch is feared almost everywhere. By touching food or drink (or the container holding it), a character with this Edge can expend 2 Power Points and render it poisonous. Each use of this ability affects one meal’s worth of food or one cup’s worth of drink. Those that imbibe the tainted substance must attempt a Vigor roll at –2 or suffer a level of Fatigue; on a roll of 1 on the Vigor die (regardless of the Wild Die), the character instead suffers a wound.
It is traditional for priests to use this power on a boiled egg, thus the name.


Rough Beast
Requirements: Novice, Strength d6+, Berserker or know the berserker power, follower of Rovagug
Legend says that Rovagug was born to destroy the world, and his mad followers revel in the idea of destruction for its own sake. A character with this Edge gains a special while using the Berserker Edge; a spellcaster with this Edge instead grants this benefit to anyone he casts the berserker power on. While in a berserk fury, the beneficiary of this Edge can ace damage rolls on objects normally, and any creature that suffers damage from a melee attack by this creature must attempt a Strength check against the amount of damage dealt or be knocked prone.


Savored Sting
Requirements: Novice, Smarts d6+, Charisma +2 or higher, follower of Calistria
The goddess of trickery, lust and revenge, Calistria’s faithful are often sacred prostitutes or assassins—or both. A character with this Edge can apply his Charisma bonus to Taunt rolls. As firm believers in swift, hot-blooded vengeance, those with this Edge gain a +2 bonus on damage rolls against any target that has ever inflicted a wound on them.


Song of the Spheres
Requirements: Novice, Spirit d6+, follower of Desna
By listening to the “song of the spheres,” the mystical harmony produced by the motion of the stars, one of Desna’s faithful can easily navigate from one place to another, as well as producing beautiful harmonies. This character gains +2 to music-based Expression rolls, and +2 to Survival rolls made to navigate or to avoid becoming lost.


Storm Warded
Requirements: Novice, Spirit d6+, follower of Gozreh
Many sailors worship Gozreh, god of wind and waves, as do many other individuals whose livelihood depends on the sea. Those with this Edge gain a +2 bonus to any roll to avoid harm from wind or water, including rolls to avoid Fatigue from extreme weather, Swimming rolls, and opposed rolls to resist arcane powers with wind, water or electricity trappings.

Savage Blogging

As it turns out, it's a good time to restart my blog, since a lot of other Savage Worlds fans out there are working to put together a blog link exchange. I've been reading a lot of these already, but quite a few of them are new (and awesome) to me. If you have a Savage Worlds-oriented blog, pop over by Pinnacle's forums on this thread and post up about it. I've already included all the ones on that thread in my little sidebar widget, but I'm always up for adding more!

New Year, New Style

It's been a whole year since the last time I posted in this blog, which means that it hasn't been everything I wanted it to be. Starting now, though, I'm restarting this blog with a little bit of a tighter focus, and will hopefully be updating it several times a week. From here on, I will be using this blog primarily to discuss my obsession with the Savage Worlds system (which was the last thing I talked about last year, strangely enough).

To lead off a little bit for anyone unfamiliar: Savage Worlds is the flagship line from Pinnacle, the people that brought us Deadlands and its post-apocalyptic sequel, Hell on Earth. Since then, they've scaled back their company size and produced a streamlined game system called Savage Worlds. This game has the fastest combat system that I've ever played and found satisfying. (Wushu and Don't Rest Your Head both have faster combat resolution, but they're both a little flat for my tastes.) The system is easy to learn, and while it has a few dice wobbles attached to its core mechanic, they're entirely worth ignoring.

Since last year, I've run several short games with Savage Worlds, including a convention game at last year's UKON and a semester-long game for the university gaming club called Industrial Revolutionaries, which was a steampunk game heavily based off Phil and Kaja Foglio's excellent webcomic, Girl Genius. My longest-running effort so far has been a Savage Worlds conversion of the old TORG setting, which you should go out and look up if you've never heard of it before.

Now that TORG is getting close to the end (a couple months off, anyway), I'm working on my next set of games. In the next few weeks, I'm going to be starting a SW conversion of the Pathfinder Chronicles campaign setting (originally for d20 by Paizo Publishing), a Supernatural-style modern horror game I'm calling Hunter Nation, and a SW conversion of Legend of the Five Rings. All in all, a pretty full plate. I'll be posting up various things for these games, as well as a bunch of other conversions and original campaigns I've been working on, in the coming weeks and months.

It's good to be back!