Exploring the Savage World of Keltica

Game Master ZenFox42

Connor biting K'Don

hahahaha oh my goodness that's amazing.

I feel bad now that Connor just completely threw you under the bus.

OMG that's ostounding!

Haha, thanks guys. :) I had a bit of insomnia, so I couldn't resist doing the sketch after all.

I feel bad now that Connor just completely threw you under the bus.

Wow, that was the gentlest bus smooshing ever.

Tell ya what, that sucker's getting printed, framed, and hung in a spot of honor on my wall.

I am not worthy. Damn you artistic types! Damn you all to HELLLLL...

That's amazing! I think Connor's "attack command" for WindDancer from now on should be "Rip his eyelids off!".

LOL! *takes a bow* Now I just feel bad that I didn't focus much on Connor's body, so it looks like it's growing out of K'Don. Weird Kuato moment!

I am absolutely floored. Awesome art. I'm printing this out and showing it to everyone I game with.

-Posted with Wayfinder

Heh, maybe I'll fix the Kuato problem and do a little color on it when I have the time. :)

I think Connor's "attack command" for WindDancer from now on should be "Rip his eyelids off!".

Aaooooo!

Is there a Lee Ho Fook's in WeMadeIt? WindDancer has a sudden hankering for a big dish of beef chow mein...

(Speaking of mental images, for a first interaction with K'Don I can't help seeing and hearing Kilowog from the Green Lantern movie. "Human. Ain't never seen one before. You smell funny." :op )

The map has been updated...

Anyone know how?

It should be in with the Campaign Information, I think.

In another PBP game, the GM placed the link in his profile page for the alias he uses in posting (ZenFox42 in our case) in the Class/Skills slot of the profile. He leaves everything else blank in the profile, so the link always shows up just above the alias icon. Here is a link for the way it looks on his profile page: link

To those most familiar with Savage Worlds, what skill generally covers attempts to bluff someone or to act convincingly to make people think, for example, that you something/someone you are not? The closest seems to me to be persuasion, but the rules say it is used to make an NPC do what you want them to do. I could see that including getting them to think what you want them to think, but before I attempt anything while facing loaded pistols, I'd like to know how it will be handled.

At this point in the adventure, I'm thinking of having Arabella try to convince the punks that they have walked into a trap or something like that, to get them looking around, at any rate, so that we might have an opportunity to run or whatever.

Also, would the charisma bonus modify any such attempt? I realize that a +4 bonus from Charisma drastically improves the odds of success, so if that would be too much, I'd not complain if sometimes the bonus would not apply or only grant a maximum bonus of +2 or something.

In another PBP game, the GM placed the link in his profile page for the alias he uses in posting (ZenFox42 in our case) in the Class/Skills slot of the profile.

(Or does that sort of stuff only work within the Online Campaigns subforums?)

ALL - I've been collecting how to do various PF-like skills from the official SW forums :

Bluffs (lying, deceit) are Persuasion vs. Notice
Picking pockets is Steath vs. Notice

And Charisma is always added to Persuasion rolls.

Arabella, I've been toying with the idea that since +2 of your Charisma bonus is from Attractive, that only works with male humans. That would give you a +2 always (still almost always a success), with a +4 in certain situations. That ok?

ALL - if you refresh your Discussion or GamePlay pages, you should now have a link to the CURRENT MAP at the very top of the page.

Thanks, Connor!

(I'm only offering this to Marko as he's very familiar with SW, and can provide a compare-and-contrast perspective. And I don't want to confuse those of you who are brand-new to SW with a different set of rules to learn.)

Marko - what would you think to trying out a Power-Point-less version of your Powers? I found this somewhere, the author claims to have play-tested it a lot and tweaked it for balance, and it sounds solid. And FWIW, it's copyrighted *before* the Deluxe manual, which has some similar elements to their point-less system.

Here's the summary :
========================================================================
(Wound and Fatigue penalties are always applied to each roll below, as usual.)

Instantaneous Powers stay Instantaneous. You can cast them at any time, but there may be penalties to the Arcane Skill roll depending on how much you try to do.

Powers with durations become “Persistent”. You can cast them at any time, but there may be penalties to the Arcane Skill roll depending on how much you try to do, and –1 per currently active Persistent Power. However, once cast they stay "on" (but see below). You can have up to your (Arcane skill die)/2 Persistent Powers active at once.

Powers that affect an area have the following penalties : Small Burst = –2, Medium = –4, Large = –6.

For each additional round that a caster spends activating a Power, the penalty is reduced by 2 (minimum of 0), and the Power can be cast on the next round they can act (or held, while taking no other actions).

If the final roll is 1 or less, the caster makes a Backlash check to see if they suffer any ill effects. Ordinary failure means the Power is not activated.

If the Power is cast, and it is targeted on an object or location, take the final roll value and add any modifiers for range penalties, level of cover or obscurement, etc., to get a targeting number.

If the caster suffers a Wound, Fatigue, or is Shaken while they have any active Persistent Powers or are doing an extended casting, they must make an Arcane check, at –1 per active Persistent Power and –1 for extended casting. A failure means all active Persistent Powers stop, any extended casting stops, and the caster must make a Backlash check.

To make a Backlash check, the caster makes a Smarts or Spirit check (the opposite of their Arcane Attribute). A failure results in the caster being Shaken, this can cause a Wound.

At the end of every Scene or 5 minutes (whichever is shorter), if the caster has any active Persistent Powers, they make a Vigor check with a penalty of –1 per active Persistent Power. A failure means that the caster suffers a level of “Fatigue” (requires 5 minutes of complete rest to recover, or one hour of low energy activity), and all active Persistent Powers stop.
=======================================================================
For your specific current powers, the only change to any power description would be for Bolt : for no penalty you get a single 2d6 bolt, for -2 you get either one 3d6 bolt or two 2d6 bolts, and for -4 you get one 3d6 bolt.

Marko, this is completely up to you, if you don't want to mess with it that's no problem at all.

ALL - if anyone wants to speculate about the ramifications of this system, please feel free!

One problem I can see with one of Marko's current Powers is that you can just keep re-casting Detect/Conceal Arcana as often as you like to keep trying to detect a concealed thing, whereas in the standard system you'd be limited by your Power Points.

Arabella, I've been toying with the idea that since +2 of your Charisma bonus is from Attractive, that only works with male humans.

He's intelligent, but not experienced. His pattern indicates two dimensional thinking.

And then there's the occasional dragon, giant ape, or other such critter fascinated by a pretty woman. :op

She's not my type.

Honestly, I almost added "(ok, and gay female humans)", but deleted it. I figured only someone obsessively obsessed with details would think of it... :)

And I'm talking about the *majority* of the other races, not the 4-sigma outliers. Oh, and excluding *any* Gnomes.

I figured only someone obsessively obsessed with details would think of it... :)

I'm waiting to give Connor and WindDancer a chance to post, and to see if the party sees Alex sneaking up on the thugs. :)

But you will now be *adjacent* to TWO punks, so they both get rolls :

Notice for two: 1d6 ⇒ 1 1d6 ⇒ 2

Phooey. They'll never get hired again. :(

Thank you for the delightful RWBY S1E1 flashback!

"You were worth every cent. Truly you were."

Thank you for the delightful RWBY S1E1 flashback!

I still need to watch that. I'm busy reeling from Rooster Teeth not hiring me last month when I applied. :( (I did get a great job as it happens, but I love them so much)

Dude, did you seriously apply? How cool a job that would be, working with them (the other one I always thought would be special was working for ILM during their early years).

I get the impression they put in a lot of hours, but I'm on a couple of their Twitter feeds and it's obvious they have tons of fun in the process.

Yeah they were looking for a Web Dev a couple of months ago so I sent my resume and portfolio over. I wasn't really thrilled with the idea of moving to Texas, but they're one of the few companies that I'd drop everything to work for (Valve being another).

It worked out, though, I'm very happy where I'm working now.

Knowing how they use inside talent, if you'd been hired I'd've eventually been all like, "Yeah I used to FRP with the person who voice-acts <insert character name here>..."

Congrats on the happy-making job though!

Bluffs (lying, deceit) are Persuasion vs. Notice

Picking pockets is Steath vs. Notice

And Charisma is always added to Persuasion rolls.

Arabella, I've been toying with the idea that since +2 of your Charisma bonus is from Attractive, that only works with male humans. That would give you a +2 always (still almost always a success), with a +4 in certain situations. That ok?

Sounds good.

Don't overlook lesbian and bisexual women. And surely some percentage among other races find human women attractive as well (half-elf/half-orc/half-etc. babies come from somewhere).

And then there's the occasional dragon, giant ape, or other such critter fascinated by a pretty woman. :op

Judging from the covers of the old pulp SF rags, every alien in the universe has the hots for human women.

In any case, I'll add the +2 and let you (ZenFox42) decide if the other +2 applies, unless it's obvious.

Connor, I forget - have you played Savage Worlds before? A lot?

Also, was that snake eyes truly in *reaction* to the gun, or your attempt to use your Psionics *on your turn*? It wouldn't really change anything, I'm just trying to get a handle on how you're playing it...thanks!

Connor, I forget - have you played Savage Worlds before? A lot?

Also, was that snake eyes truly in *reaction* to the gun, or your attempt to use your Psionics *on your turn*? It wouldn't really change anything, I'm just trying to get a handle on how you're playing it...thanks!

I haven't played it at all before.

Connor was going to use Bolt (likely still as a scream / sonic attack), so it was kind of both.

We are not very good at combat. hahahaha.

I think Yakety Sax should be playing in the background, haha.

That works, too. I was seeing it in flickery black and white like an old Keystone Cops bit. But Benny Hill is probably a better fit. :op

I'm probably lit up like a Kmart special. So maybe I can take some heat off of the others.

That reminds me of some animated cartoons I've seen where the hero's sidekick has a bullseye on his costume... :)

Should have done this earlier but better late than never.

K'don's physical appearence:

K'don is an 1/2 Orc, 1/2 Human. The picture is really bad so his physical description:

6'8" Tall
Very muscular
The human half is very discernable.
Think of B'Ellana Torres from voyager mostly human looking with klingon highlights. The Orc features are as follows:
Bulging muscles, protruding lower canines, slightly greenish hue to skin, pointed ears. Orc temper, quick to respond to threats.

I think it will be very handy to have you on our side.

And yeah, Paizo's avatar selection can be pretty sad. There's only two fox-like icons in the whole set (versus gosh-knows how many kitsuni being played). WindDancer's avatar is actually a frog ("chatterer") because it was the closest lizard-looking thing that wasn't an obvious dragon.

I sure wish they'd let us use our own images!

You're rerolling initiatives every round?

I sure wish they'd let us use our own images!

Seriously. I'm playing in a Star Wars "Edge of the Empire" game. Want to talk about trouble finding avatars, try searching for a decent Twi'lek or R5 unit! I'm actually half working on a Google Chrome Extension that will allow you to replace avatars based on alias name for that very reason. There are a couple of limitations with it at the moment, though.

Haha, Alex will be unbearable when talking about this attack.

Quick question: When the rapier does Str+1d4, do you not add those together? You just use the higher result?

Not that the boss can get any deader, but...

When I was in college, I played 1st edition D&D with then future game designer for TSR, Jeff Grubb. Sometimes he'd set 5 or 6 dice on the board to stand for a group of orcs attacking us, using a different number on top to keep track of them. He used to joke that they were all wearing jerseys with "Orc #1," "Orc #2," etc. :)

Haha, my group does this too. Maybe it's a grognard trick.

Thanks, that's my word for the day!

And: Nice HHGTTG reference there, Arabella.

Alex - damage is the one place where you DO add all the dice values together. Go figure. But as usual, every *individual* die can Ace.

Damage is also the one place you CAN'T spend a Bennie to re-roll (unless you have the No Mercy Edge).

Can we possibly do more to keep the Discussion in the Discussion tab?

My thought process is that A) It uglies up Gameplay, B) It makes it harder to follow what's happening, especially for people who can't check the thread frequently, and also C) It's harder to go back and find things like Rules clarification later because you're now checking two threads.

I've been addressing game rules questions in Gameplay just in case the people who are new to PbP (there's 2) might not think to look for the answer in Discussion. I also figured that after everyone gets familiar with the system the in-line questions would naturally drop off.

But I can start posting a short note saying "see Discussion for an answer", if that would help. And if someone has a "how does this work" question, they can just say (OOC) they've posted it in Discussion.

What do others think? Will that be better?

BTW, I'm new to PbP too, but it's my impression that stuff like the previous post would have been better placed in the Discussion board.

My bad. I thought I had posted on the discussion board. It was late, I guess.

I've got some RL stuff to deal with over the next few days, so I may not post, or at least not frequently. Feel free to move my character.

K'Don :
Raises basically count *how high* your roll is. Simplistically, for every 4 points, you get a Raise. More Raises are almost always a good thing.

Your damage roll determines how many Wounds you give your target. The target's Toughness protects them from some of your damage.

ALL :
When an Extra enters Incapacitated (on their first Wound), there's roughly a 60% chance that they will die, either immediately or from bleeding out (which usually only takes a round or two). Otherwise they stabilize, but stay unconscious for a while.

So you can leave them be, or administer a Finishing Move (D&D's Coup de Grace) which involves just saying so, and it's automatic (except for a house rule that says if you're using a ranged weapon and not standing next to them, you must score a hit with a Shooting roll first).

K'don closes with the remaining P'Tach

Attack: 1d8 ⇒ 7; Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 6
Wild Exploded: 1d6 ⇒ 1
Wild + Wild Exploded = 6 + 1=> 7

K'don closes with the remaining P'Tach

Attack: 1d8 ⇒ 8; Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 1
Attack Exploded: 1d6 ⇒ 6
Attack Exploded: 1d6 ⇒ 3 again

Damage: 2d10 ⇒ (6, 2) = 8
Damage: 2d10 ⇒ (9, 5) = 141d6 ⇒ 4

Wow, either DiceBot likes you, or it's intimidated by you.

Either way, I am so glad you're on our side.

And especially that you're not on the other side! :oD

(It seems to be pretty fond of Alex lately, too. Woo hoo!)