Exploring the Savage World of Keltica

Game Master ZenFox42

A Savage Worlds campaign in a fantasy setting (Elves, Dwarves, magic, etc.) with pre-Civil War technology (steam engines, locomotives, but only single-shot guns and no electricity).

CURRENT MAP


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Female Human Card: Bennies: 1 Parry: 5 [2 + 6(fighting)/2] Toughness: 5 [2 + 6(vigor)/2] (2) Armored Duster RATN: 4 Pace: 5 Notice: d6

I'd keep both options (one roll for group vs. individual rolls) and use whichever makes most sense. For pack animals, like wolves, the group will probably follow the Alpha wolf, so a group roll would perhaps be appropriate. For creatures more individualistic, like stirges or vultures, perhaps, they might each react differently.

Back in the day, (early D&D), when wilderness treks involved daily rolls for wandering monsters (or several per day), and when the monster tables for wandering monsters included TPK (total party kill) monsters like beholders, the rules included a mechanism whereby the party, if they were not surprised, could roll to try to evade the monster instead of fighting it. The odds were based on the size of the party, the number of monsters, etc. But encounters were simpler in those days. And monsters evaded did not provide any experience or treasure.

My point is that sometimes avoiding an entire melee through some tactic like hiding, running, or scaring creatures away makes some sense. If you are dealing with a specific scenario which you don't want the party to avoid, then such rules are not so helpful.

I definitely think that rules that say you can't attempt something without a skill point (or die or whatever) can sometimes be silly. With that system we (previous group that involved ZenFox42 and others players in this PBP group) tried (can't remember the name, but the one based on the superhero game) the rules said you could not make a search roll if you didn't have the skill. Under the search skill they described such things as ransacking a room to find something. So a person not trained in searching (whatever that would involve) can't open drawers and look at the contents.

SW provides an option for using skills with a default of -2 on d4, which should cover most situations. Shooting a gun to intimidate is not really a skill in any case (see 2nd episode of Scorpions where a guy fires a gun to intimidate a secret agency operative into surrendering even though he probably never fired a gun in his life). It's more of an event, like a thunderclap might scare some creatures. I don't think it needs a detailed rule set, just something that provides it some chance of helping in some cases.


PP 15/15 | Bennies 3/3 | Venom Strike 1/1

Mutants & Masterminds?


Female Human Card: Bennies: 1 Parry: 5 [2 + 6(fighting)/2] Toughness: 5 [2 + 6(vigor)/2] (2) Armored Duster RATN: 4 Pace: 5 Notice: d6

Did WindDancer get her name by creating whirlwinds and then flying through/around them? Could be an interesting sight and perhaps something she does for entertainment (which means we might witness it and know for sure she's causing them).

Which reminds me, I posted some suggestions for how we could test to see what kind of intelligence WindDancer has. I saw a news show report on a animal behavioral scientist who trained a border collie (exceptionally intelligent dogs) to remember hundreds of names for various toys and objects. He also taught the animal different verbs, like get, paw, nudge, etc. They compared this to a child of about 2 years old (I think). I expect we could do something similar with WindDancer. The scientist in Arabella is curious about that (and she has the curious drawback).

So, Arabella will be generally trying such things (if Connor doesn't mind). She's already determined WD seems to recognize her name. We could teach her to understand common with some time and effort. Maybe that's something to add with some experience points. It would be nice to eventually be able to communicate more directly with her. Maybe in melee she can coordinate her actions with the humans.

But if Connor and/or WindDancer don't want her to do any of this, she'll relent.

By the way, one reason I asked about the general fantastic nature of creatures in the world is to get a sense of what sorts of things would be surprising and what would be normal. Intelligent creatures (as intelligent as humans) are probably not unheard of, so WindDancer would be interesting but not perhaps so unusual.


PP 15/15 | Bennies 3/3 | Venom Strike 1/1
Arabella Stormworth-Darling wrote:
Did WindDancer get her name by creating whirlwinds and then flying through/around them?

In the original setting, osts were usually named for their attributes. In that game I played WindDancer's male foil, BrightEyes. You can guess his attribute. :o) WindDancer was so-named because she was a talented flyer and loved to do acrobatic maneuvers. My WindDancer doesn't have that degree of skill and is also hampered by her old wing injury, but I try to capture the same spirit and love of flying.

As for directly answering your question... hmm... how to do that without spoilers? Let's try, "Air is not an element WindDancer can control."

Quote:
The scientist in Arabella is curious about that (and she has the curious drawback).

And I'm watching how long it takes Arabella to recognize the evolution going on right under her nose. Sort of my own personal experiment. If at some point a lightbulb comes on and you look back and go, "How did I miss that!" then I'm doing it right. :o)

Quote:
But if Connor and/or WindDancer don't want her to do any of this, she'll relent.

I can't speak for Connor, but I'm all for it. Anything you can frame in-game (like the test you did with calling her name) will be awesome for flavor. I don't mind y'all knowing what she can do (I want you to know), but just laying it all out in Discussion seems such a brutality to roleplaying.

It's a shame there was no opportunity for WindDancer to spot the wolf attack from the air while on "patrol," because that would have revealed a lot.


Female Human Card: Bennies: 1 Parry: 5 [2 + 6(fighting)/2] Toughness: 5 [2 + 6(vigor)/2] (2) Armored Duster RATN: 4 Pace: 5 Notice: d6

I am giving the impression that I'm impatient for information, which I sort of am, but I'm mostly feeling about in the dark for a way to proceed, having never encountered this kind of issue in any role playing situation, compounded by having little experience with PBP.

I just want to remind folks that whenever there's considerable amount of time in which this sort of thing can be going on (testing/teaching etc.), that Arabella is making efforts in this direction. I'm happy to let the players of WD and Connor respond to these queries however you wish.

As much as I'd love to role play the details, I don't want to force the issue in case that would derail the movement of the campaign away from the central goal. Everything takes so long in PBP that I don't want to slow it down if others want to push the action and back-burner the social interactions that go on when the action abates.

Hoping a balance can be struck between doing the fun role playing everyone one wants and filling with summaries at other times to keep things from bogging down. Kind of like we role played the encounters in town and then summarized the results of the time spend getting equipment together and the travel time in which no encounters are had.

But WD is your character so let the information flow as you prefer. Ditto with Connor.


Apologies for the slow response - my mom has fallen ill, and I'm heading up to see her today. Please DMPC Alex as needed. His aim is to save at least the little girl, if he can't drive all the wolves off with a shot.


More planetary background

This isn't very detailed (do you really need to know that the Human king Frankis created an empire 200 years ago that lasted 105 years before it fell to the invading Hans?), but I hope it will help some...

Everyone in the group is Human, so all info on the other races is hearsay…

Over the many centuries (especially in ancient times [1000 years ago or more]), kingdoms have risen and fallen on each continent, occasionally a powerful leader creates a short-lived empire - sometimes benevolent, sometimes not so much. But the current state of affairs is...

Humans : they are THE MOST technological; their governments today tend to be democracies of some sort, perhaps with a titular king (but some nations are still outright monarchies); they tend to have the most internal wars.

Elves : they are the most magical; you have heard of wood elves, mountain elves, river elves, etc.; they each govern by a "ruling council"; you don't know anything about their internal affairs (they are considered very secretive by all the other races).

Dwarves : they like tech, but are not as gung-ho about inventing it as Humans; they govern by inherited kingships; they have few wars, altho sometimes within a clan kingships are disputed (= a civil war within a mountain).

Hobbits : they are very "lazy" by human standards; they use what tech is easy to make and promotes comfort; their rulers are elected "by force" (nobody wants the job, so nobody "runs" - the people elect who they think would be good, and there's strict laws about limiting re-elections!); they have very few wars. Oh, and Gnomes also live on the Hobbit continent, but you know very little about them that you'd consider trustworthy.

Some immigration has happened since the races discovered each other about 100 years ago. Humans, being the most adventurous by nature, have migrated everywhere. Some of the more bold Hobbits found a good niche on the Dwarven continent, farming the land surrounding the mountains the Dwarves live in : the Dwarves get food, the Hobbits get tools and tech. Elves mostly prefer to stay on their continent and do not welcome the other races much, except in seaports where they can trade for raw and manufactured goods from the other continents not otherwise available. But there's the occasional odd-ball Elf who does like to travel...

Because each race was ideally suited for their continent, there's been little *major* strife between the races (not that there aren't skirmishes every now and then, but no "world wars" or major invasions). Keltica is probably the biggest controversy between the races, since it has resources and habitats that ALL the races want. So far there's been little fighting on Keltica between the races since they've each colonized a different "edge" of the continent, but someday they're bound to run into each other...


Sorry gang, rough week/weekend with work. Will try to get a post up this morning. :(


AVAILABLE TECHNOLOGY

I've said that we're at a pre-Civil-war tech level, but that may not mean much unless you're a technology-historian fan like me. So...

Most of this is the situation on Trellak; Dwarves and Hobbits select only what they consider to be useful/doable.
This is also *player* knowledge, not necessarily PC knowledge!

I've "hidden" them only to keep the length of the post short. Not much organization within each section.

Goods and services:

The manufacture of pitch, tar, and resin is big business.
Distilled liquor, scissors, clear-glass mirrors. Hand-powered geared calculators showing planetary motions.
Magnetic compasses are available for land and sea navigation.
Eyeglasses. Clock towers, "table" clocks, pocketwatches.
Canned food, standardized nuts and bolts, metal nib pens.
Plate glass common, glues, microscopes, telescopes.
Cast iron stoves for home heating and cooking.
Universities are available in major cities, banking is big business.
The mining, smelting, and making of metal alloys is pretty much an exact science.
The use of the scientific method has lead to the start of chemistry and classical physics (on Trellak).
Cryptography has been around for at least 1000 years.
Where steam is not available, windmills and watermills are common, and used to grind grain, saw wood, pump water, lift and crush ore, pump air. Typically using wooden "gears" and leather belts.

Transportation:

Reliable ocean-crossing navigation; comfortable horse-drawn coaches. Steam-powered trains (15 mph).

Medicine (in lieu of magic):

Physicians are university-trained.
Amputations are common (but often fatal); prosthetics are limited to hooks for hands, peg-legs for feet.
The basics of human anatomy are pretty well understood.
The microscope has led to the understanding of germs, leading to better wound care, hygiene, and human waste-disposal.

Warfare:

The flintlock is cheap and reliable, and can be carried ready-to-fire.
The caplock gun fires much more reliably.
Paper cartridges dramatically reduce reloading times, and barrel rifling significantly improves firearm accuracy.

Grenades, mortars, and cannon are available.
The trebuchet and/or catapult are used where cannon are not available.
Crude time-bombs and bomb traps are possible, using small clocks and a "wheellock" mechanism (used on early guns).
Self-triggered (as opposed to remote control) land mines.

Communications:

Carrier pigeons can deliver short one-way messages at 20-25 miles per hour, but have to be brought in.
Well-organized semaphore towers send messages over 200 miles per hour, spaced about 5-8 miles apart, but everyone can see the messages.
A well-organized "pony express" can average 12 mph over long distances.
Newspapers (infrequently published and limited distribution).
Nation-wide postal/courier/delivery services for government use (if well-organized).

Security:

Lever-tumbler locks (what we think of as "old-fashioned" locks, like in black-and-white movies), combination locks.
Bells-on-a-spring, geese, and dogs are still commonly used!

CUTTING EDGE (Human continent only, sometimes very locally):

The development of a useful, reliable steam engine revolutionizes mining, farming, shipping, transportation, and manufacturing.
Hot-air balloon, steamboat (15-20 mph).
Steam-powered airships, screw propeller makes modern boats possible.
Printing presses are able to print millions of pages/day, leading to mass-printed daily newspapers (only in the largest cities).
Surface-fed (manually pumped) diving suits.
Bicycles.


PP 15/15 | Bennies 3/3 | Venom Strike 1/1
ZenFox42 wrote:
Everyone in the group is Human...

HEY!!!

(Sorry to hear about your mom, Alex. Here's wishing her a fast recovery!)


Heh - I *knew* that'd get a rise out of WindDancer...

Ditto on your mom, Alex - hope everything goes well.


Female Human Card: Bennies: 1 Parry: 5 [2 + 6(fighting)/2] Toughness: 5 [2 + 6(vigor)/2] (2) Armored Duster RATN: 4 Pace: 5 Notice: d6

@ Alex: Hope all is well with your mother soon.

Regarding the current battle: Is the wolf labeled "A" the alpha male? ;)

(Sorry, couldn't resist).

@ ZenFox42: thanks for the background. I will read it with interest ASAP.


Ditto


I have updated K'Don's Character page for anyone interested


Four "simple" rules for rolling dice in SW

(The following does not include exceptions from Edges, or Settings rules)

Damage rolls, Running rolls, and table lookup rolls are not Attribute or Skill rolls.

1. Every Attribute, Skill, and Damage die can “ace” or “explode” – if the die comes up its max value (8 on a d8), roll it again and add the new value in. Repeat until the die doesn’t come up max.
So, virtually every roll you make!

2. Every Attribute and Skill roll gets an extra d6 “Wild Die” (which can ace/explode).
After all acing/exploding has stopped, take the larger of the two separate values.

3. The Damage roll gets an extra d6 (which can ace/explode) only when the Attack roll (Fighting/Shooting/Throwing) succeeds with one or more Raises.

4. The target number (TN) for success on every roll is 4, except for Fighting and Damage rolls, whose TN’s are the target’s Parry and Toughness, respectively.

And remember, every Attribute and Skill roll can be re-rolled by spending a Benny.

(If you find this helpful, please copy-and-paste it to somewhere you can access easily, like maybe your character description file)


Fox, I'm not sure my Charisma is correct. I get a penelty of -2 to CHA you gave me a -2 for CHA which would make my original CHA 0. Can you clearify for me please


Re: K'Don's latest post - I thought that a Wild was always a D6?


Human Male Novice XP 10 | Agl d4 Sma d10 Spi d8 Str d4 Vig d6 | Pace 6 Parry 5* Tough 5 Cha 0 | Notice d6 | Rapier d4 (Str+d4), +1 to *Parry | Spellcasting 1d10 | 298sp | Bennies 3 | PP 15/15 | Status None

K'Don, the default charisma score is 0. You take penalties or bonuses from edges, hindrances or in your case racial traits.

-Posted with Wayfinder


I also thought Wild was always a 1d6.

Thanks Marko for clearing that up for me. Trying to get used to a different scale system.


Human Male Novice XP 10 | Agl d4 Sma d10 Spi d8 Str d4 Vig d6 | Pace 6 Parry 5* Tough 5 Cha 0 | Notice d6 | Rapier d4 (Str+d4), +1 to *Parry | Spellcasting 1d10 | 298sp | Bennies 3 | PP 15/15 | Status None

GM - I'll take the Shaken then, rather than use up my last Benny. I'll make a spirit roll next round, if we're still in combat.

K'Don - Yes, your wild die is a d6. When you roll damage for melee it should be STRENGTH + WEAPON. In your case (1d10 + 1d10). And those can both explode -- or Ace, as its referred to in SW. You don't add a wild die to a damage roll, but if you had a raise on your attack (4 or more above the target number) then you add a d6 to the damage roll (1d10 + 1d10 + 1d6). That d6 can also ace.


PP 15/15 | Bennies 3/3 | Venom Strike 1/1

Blink. Wow, little old WindDancer can actually deal damage?? Even if it takes two successful attacks back to back, that's pretty darned cool! :o)

(Thanks, guys, for continuing to discuss/explain SW stuff as we go on. It really helps.)

ZenFox42 wrote:
P.S. WindDancer - could you as a favor please always include the Blind Power description? Thanks!

I can (and will). I didn't because I'd just posted that info the prior round, plus it's on WindDancer's profile. I didn't want to unduly clutter the thread. But like I said: Sure, no problem.

A suggestion, GM, for both that and those spoilers you have to re-open every time you preview, or anything else you have to look up or copy/paste: "Tabbed browsing." Open another tab and load the page you're referencing in that. I do that all the time with my profiles and such. Granted it might not work for your style, but it's a huge help for me so I thought I'd mention it.


Thanks Marko for covering for me on my "short" day! And while I'm at it, I forgot to mention that your explanation of "Common Knowledge" really helped, too.

K'Don, if you still have any questions, please let me know.

WindDancer - yeah, one exception in SW is that if you're already Shaken and take a hit that just Shakens you (no Raises), you instead take a Wound.

ALL, a P.S. to the "4 rules" post above - don't forget that in SW, the term "Trait" means "Attributes and/or Skills".


Thanks for all the input. I'm getting the hang of it a little at a time. You'll have to forgive us old folk. Takes us time to think through a situation, and sometimes that doesn't help.


Incapacitated GOOD GUY Extras

In anticipation of the end of the battle, here's how it goes according to the manual :

I make a Vigor roll (no penalty) for each Incapacitated Extra. Arabella, your boost would come in here.
Failure = they're dead, Jim.
Success = they stay Incapacitated; I roll Vigor again to see if they can at least walk (at half Pace, or at full Pace if helped).
Raise = they are not Incapacitated anymore.

If you treat them with either the Healing Skill or Power, the first healing removes their Incapacitated status and restores them to full functionality.
(According to the SW home forum, the 1 Wound that made them Incapacitated turns into the Incapacitation, it does not stick around.)

So basically if they're not dead yet, if anyone can do a single successful healing on them, then they're completely ok.


PP 15/15 | Bennies 3/3 | Venom Strike 1/1

Don't mind me, just testing something. Pay no attention to the lizard behind the curtain.


Testing something, too.


I just caught a mistake - any time any friends are adjacent to any opponents, there's a "gang up" bonus. That's a +1 to Fighting per person besides yourself (max +4)!

You just have to be adjacent to a foe that a friend is attacking, you don't have to be attacking the same foe. You can even be Shaken!

So if you look at the current map, Alex and K'Don have +1 vs. A and B.

But A and C have +1 vs. K'Don. And B has +2!


Are we still fighting them, I got the impression that the wolves moral was broken and they were getting ready to flee. Is this correct or did I miss read.


PP 15/15 | Bennies 3/3 | Venom Strike 1/1

I thought they were all dead?

ZenFox42 wrote:
the last wolf drops.


Female Human Card: Bennies: 1 Parry: 5 [2 + 6(fighting)/2] Toughness: 5 [2 + 6(vigor)/2] (2) Armored Duster RATN: 4 Pace: 5 Notice: d6

I think the GM was just clarifying something he did not take into consideration during the fight. I don't think he's retroactively returning us to combat.


Sorry for the confusion, it was just an omission during the fight, which is over.

Technically, the status of ALL "Extras" bad guys who have fallen in melee is the same as for the family - I roll to see if they are outright dead, still Incapacitated, or recovering. But I would assume that you'd dispatch them in the case of the wolves.


Advancement

While you're on your journey to Jewelston, I'd like to walk everyone thru the process of "Advancement". This is a minor "level-up" in D&D terms. Normally I won't advance you this quickly, but this is probably a good time to try it.

When you get an advancement, you can do ONE of :
1. Get a new Edge (this includes getting a new Power for Arcane characters). Characters in SW are pretty much defined by their Edges. If anyone wants a list of just Novice Edges, let me know.
2. Increase one Attribute by a die type.
3. Increase two Skills that are lower than their linked Attributes by one die type each.
4. Increase one Skill that is equal to or greater than its linked Attribute by one die type.
5. Take a new Skill at d4, AND increase one existing skill that's lower than its linked Attribute by one die type (the italics part is a house-rule that many people use).

Once you go thru 4 advancements, you increase in "Rank" (Novice to Seasoned to Veteran, etc.). Edges and Powers are rated by Rank, so you can do more powerful things when you increase in Rank.

Attributes
THIS IS IMPORTANT : you can only increase one Attribute per Rank, and if you *don't* increase an Attribute while you're Novice, you can't increase two Attributes while you're Seasoned! So be sure to boost some Attribute before you hit Seasoned.
Boosting an Attribute does NOT automatically boost everything else like in D&D, but it does make boosting Skills *easier*.
And of course Spirit is important to recover from Shaken and Vigor is important to survive (and your Toughness is 2+(Vigor/2), so that does go up immediately and helps you not take damage).

Skills
Fighting and Shooting are Skills, so using advancements to increase them is how you become a better fighter. And your Parry is 2+(Fighting/2), so that helps you not get hit even if you don't use hand weapons ("melee" weapons in D&D).

Right now, K'Don and Marko have Survival at d4, and the more people have it (or the higher the die), the longer your rations will last when you enter the wilderness for long periods. Not needed right now, but something to think about for the future.

I will try not to make too many system changes mid-stream, but I feel this one is important : "searching" normally falls under Notice, but everyone has Notice.
Searching is knowing *where* and *how* to look for *hidden* things, so I'm making Searching part of Investigation.
Connor has Investigation right now, but if you want to be able to find hidden treasures, you'll need Investigation.

So, please will everyone post what they want to do with their advancement. If everyone picks Survival or Investigation, then you can talk it out before deciding.
If you have any questions about the process, please feel free to ask. If one person's confused, probably others are too.

There's quite a bit to do in Jewelston before you'll *use* these advancements, so I'm going to continue on in Gameplay concurrently with this.


Animal pelts

K'Don, I've somewhat changed my mind about the worth of pelts, but the hour window to change things was up on my first post.

With good looms (and now ones powered by steam), clothing has become good enough and cheap enough that for humans (especially back on Trellak), common pelts are not used too much anymore.

But in the Orc tribes (and their kin), animal pelts are still used, and would be good for bartering.

So if you think you're going to be traveling into the continent in the future, and wanted to plan ahead...


PP 15/15 | Bennies 3/3 | Venom Strike 1/1

Seeing as how two sandstorms is all she can manage per melee, I think the Power Points Edge (an additional 5PP) is the wisest move for WindDancer right now.


That's always good! Just checking, how many PP have you been spending per use of Sandstorm?


PP 15/15 | Bennies 3/3 | Venom Strike 1/1

That power has three levels. The one she used on the wolves is 4PP a pop.


Notes on advancements

Many of the better Edges require a d8 in an Attribute or Skill, so you might want to "look ahead" at Edges you think you might eventually want, to see what you'll need to boost first.

Also forgot to mention, you can only take the Power Points Edge once per Rank, too.


Female Human Card: Bennies: 1 Parry: 5 [2 + 6(fighting)/2] Toughness: 5 [2 + 6(vigor)/2] (2) Armored Duster RATN: 4 Pace: 5 Notice: d6

Arabella will eventually increase her Smarts attribute, but will otherwise focus her advances on skills and powers. She will probably take a new skill this time and advance one existing skill. The only edge she's like to want is the Gadgeteer, but she'll need a few advancements to develop the prereq science skills up to d6. I'll need some guidance on how that edge might function in a wilderness, since it assumes the availability of "spare parts".

Question: Is the adding of a new skill limited to one per advance or could you add two new skills at d4? Also could you add a new skill and advance it to d6 in the same advance?

Skills I want Arabella to have eventually are:
Gambling
Investigation
Knowledge (Geology)
Knowledge (Chemistry or Physics) whichever would give access to proto-electrical devices
Streetwise
Survival

I suspect that Gambling and Streetwise will have limited use once we're in the wilderness, so I'll probably let them slide unless we end up back in more civilized areas. Same goes for investigation, unless we find ourselves exploring a ruin from a more advanced civilization hidden away in the wilderness.

Would one need investigation skill to discover a hidden compartment in someone's boot heel? I would think someone mechanically inclined (having the repair skills) would qualify one to look for hidden compartments, since she would know about the mechanisms that might be used. The rules state that investigation is used when gathering information from sources like libraries and databases. Does one really need that skill to know to look for a false bottom in a desk drawer or a safe behind a painting on a wall? Or are you suggesting that unless we have the investigation skill, we wouldn't think to look for hidden things? [I ask only because it's a lot to spend for a skill that seems fairly basic and smarts-based rather than something with a lot of technique or special knowledge. Instead, I'd suggest using skills like lockpick and repair to cover secret compartments, perhaps using the lower of these skills plus notice.]

So she will probably take Knowledge (Geology) first, since this will aid in the search for crystals eventually and also perhaps make her better able to appraise the worth of crystals, maybe do some basic prospecting. She'll take survival once we've had some experience in the wild, picking up the skill from experience and tutoring from K'Don (although if enough of the others have this, she won't spring for it either.)

She'll be working on a device to project illusions, but I want to fill out her skills before taking that on. So far, boosts have been fairly useful. I'm thinking that she may invent a device that allows her to charge up more ordinary crystals, such as quartz, to function in a device so she can continue the trapping of the crystals with special powers but she won't have to wait until we find more crystals to make a new device. The time normally required to recharge can be accomplished by placing the crystal in the device and cranking on it for a while to build up "charge" every five minutes or so.

GM: PM me if you want to discuss the details of what it will cost and what if any skill rolls might be needed to develop such a device. She'll want to do this before heading into the wilderness so she can be assured of securing the parts.


Female Human Card: Bennies: 1 Parry: 5 [2 + 6(fighting)/2] Toughness: 5 [2 + 6(vigor)/2] (2) Armored Duster RATN: 4 Pace: 5 Notice: d6

GM: Can you give us any hints about whether or not we might find things in the wilderness which will make it helpful to have a character with the repair and lockpick skills, as well as other knowledge of technology and science? I've developed Arabella to be specifically skilled and knowledgable about such things, and it will affect how I advance her if it we are going to be dealing mostly with fantasy wilderness type stuff. Maybe K'Don knows of ruins with strange magic that resembles the Trellek technology more than any known forms of magic.

Edit: Likewise, regarding adventure in large cities. Is Jewelston likely to be the last major city or town we'll encounter for a while? No point in taking gambling skill, for example, if there are no gambling opportunities where we're headed.


PP 15/15 | Bennies 3/3 | Venom Strike 1/1
ZenFox42 wrote:
... you can only take the Power Points Edge once per Rank, too.

Yes, that's stated in the Edge's description.


These are answers to Arabella's questions, but things in bold are things everyone should be aware of.

Only one new skill plus increasing one old one (that's what the forums agree seems balanced).

You can never increase *any one thing* more than one die level per advancement (that's RAW).

I'm changing the nature of the Investigation skill to better match its name. As mentioned in the very first house-rules post, it already now includes forensics, interrogation, shadowing, etc.
Sorry, nothing other than Investigation will do for searching.

Arabella, I will email you options regarding the crystals.
If you want your first gadget to recharge faster, that would take the Rapid Recharge Edge (for 30 minutes per PP) or Improved Rapid Recharge (for 15 minutes per PP).
Streetwise and Gambling will work in *any* town (including tribes) - see next. But honestly, I can't see any use for Gambling. And if you're thinking of using Boost Trait, that only lasts for less than a minute, and the Gambling roll happens after an entire hand, so that wouldn't help.

ALL - I hope I have not given the impression that you will be encountering nothing but wilderness and animals should you venture into the heart of Keltica. The tech level will be reduced, but you may be running into tribes of intelligent creatures, human homesteads or very small towns, other groups of humans/dwarves/hobbits/elves with their own agendas, "dungeons" to crawl thru, etc. So a wide variety of skills (across the whole party) will be advantageous.


ZenFox42 wrote:


THIS IS IMPORTANT : you can only increase one Attribute per Rank, and if you *don't* increase an Attribute while you're Novice, you can't increase two Attributes while you're Seasoned! So be sure to boost some Attribute before you hit Seasoned.

Do we know more or less how long until we hit Seasoned? Just for appropriate planning purposes.

ZenFox42 wrote:
Right now, K'Don and Marko have Survival at d4, and the more people have it (or the higher the die), the longer your rations will last when you enter the wilderness for long periods. Not needed right now, but something to think about for the future.

It may be worth noting then, that I have a d6 for it.

I'm probably going to upgrade two skills - some combination of getting:
a) Investigation to 1d8
b) Notice to 1d10
c) Survival to 1d8
d) Psionics to 1d10

I'm not sure which are the most important / valuable just yet, and am open to suggestions.


3 more advances until you're Seasoned, and an advance is typically after 2 "game nights", but at the rate PbP goes, that's hard to say in real-time. :)

Sorry, I missed your Survival - that's good to know!

Well, it's your call, but off the top of my head (and keep in mind there could very well be other pros/cons I'm missing) :
Investigation - you're the only one with it (so far), so the higher the better
Notice - not so important; your current d8 is good, and everyone has it
Survival - with 3 people rolling (even if the others are at d4, they still add the d6 Wild Die), odds are good you'll live.
Psionics - the higher this is, the fewer PP you waste when you fail. But going from d8 to d10 only improves your chances of success by 4%. But if you try "casting" with 2 Wounds, then it increases by 10%.


I would like to see the Edges you mentioned


Prerequisites are in parentheses, "N" just means Novice.
St=Strength, Ag=Agility, Sp=Spirit, Vi=Vigor, Sm=Smarts
AB = Arcane Background

There's actually MANY more "Novice" Edges than all other Edges from the other Ranks *combined*, so don't think you'll stop picking these once you hit Seasoned - many of them can make you very powerful as you combine them with each other and such.

Novice Edges:

Ace (N): +2 to Boating, Driving, Piloting; may make soak rolls for vehicle at -2
Acrobat (N, Ag d8, St d6): +2 to nimbleness-based Agility rolls; +1 Parry if unencumbered
Adept (N, AB, Faith d8, Fighting d8) : see text
Alertness (N): +2 Notice
Ambidextrous (N, Ag d8): Ignore -2 penalty for using off-hand
Arcane Background (N): Allows access to supernatural powers
Arcane Resistance (N, Sp d8): Armor 2 vs. magic, +2 to resist magic effects
....Improved Arcane Resistance (N, Arcane Res.): Armor 4 vs. magic, +4 to resist magic effects
Assassin (N, Ag d8, Climb d6, Fighting d6, Stealth d8) : see text
Attractive (N, Vi d6): Charisma +2
....Very Attractive (N, Attractive): Charisma +4
Beast Bond (N): Character may spend bennies for his animals
Beast Master (N, Sp d8): You gain an animal companion
Berserk (N): Smarts roll or go Berserk after being wounded; +2 Fighting and Strength rolls, -2 Parry, +2 Toughness; Roll of 1 on Fighting die hits random adjacent target
Brave (N, Sp d6): +2 to Fear tests
Brawler (N, St d8): +2 Damage to bare-handed Fighting
Brawny (N, St d6, Vi d6): Toughness +1; load limit is 8x Str instead of 5x Str
Champion (N, See text): +2 damage and Toughness vs. supernatural evil
Charismatic (N, Sp d8): Charisma +2
Command (N, Sm d6): +1 to troops recovering from being Shaken within 5"
....Command Presence (N, Command): As for Command but within 10"
Common Bond (N, Sp d8): May give bennies to companions in communication
Connections (N): Call upon powerful friends with Persuasion roll
Danger Sense (N): Notice-2 to detect surprise attacks/danger
Elan (N, Sp d8): add +2 when spending a Bennie on Trait rolls
Extraction (N, Ag d8): don't take an attack for disengaging on successful Agility roll
....Improved Extraction (N, Ag d8): no one can attack if you get a Raise on the Agility roll
Fast Healer (N, Vi d8): +2 to natural healing rolls
First Strike (N, Ag d8): Automatically attack foes who move adjacent
Fleet-Footed (N, Ag d6): d10 running die instead of d6
Florentine (N, Ag d8, Fighting d8): +1 vs. foes w/single weapon & no shield, ignore 1 point gang up bonus
Gadgeteer (N, See text): May "jury-rig" a device with any available power once per game session
Hard to Kill (N, Sp d8): Ignore wound penalties for Vigor rolls made on the Knockout or Injury tables
Healer (N, Sp d8): +2 Healing
Holy/Unholy Warrior (N, See text): Spend 1 Power Point to make evil creatures make Spirit check or be Shaken; roll of 1 kills Extras, wounds Wild Cards; cost is 1 Power Point per creature affected
Investigator (N, Sm d8, Investigation d8): +2 Investigation and Streetwise d8
Jack-of-All-Trades (N, Sm d10) : see text
Linguist (N, Sm d6): Start with more languages, Smarts-2 to communicate
Luck (N): +1 benny per session
....Great Luck (N, Luck): +2 bennies per session
Martial Artist (N, Fighting d6): not "Unarmed"; add d4 to Damage
McGyver (N, Sm d6, Repair d6, Notice d8) : see text
Mentalist (N, AB:Psionics Sm d8,Psionics d6+): +2 to any opposed Psionics roll
Mr. Fix It (N, See text): +2 to Repair rolls, halve normal Repair time with raise
Natural Leader (N, Sp d8, Command): Leader may give bennies to troops in command
Nerves of Steel (N, Vi d8): Ignore 1 point of wound penalties
....Improved Nerves of Steel (N, Nerves of Steel): Ignore 2 points of wound penalties
New Power (N, AB): Character gains one new power
Noble (N): +2 Charisma; Character is noble born with status and wealth
Power Points (N, AB): +5 Power Points, once per rank only
Quick (N): Discard draw of 5 or less for new card
Quick Draw (N, Ag d8): May automatically draw weapon as a free action
Rich (N): 3x starting funds, $75K annual salary
....Filthy Rich (N, Noble or Rich): 5x starting funds, $250K annual salary
Scavenger (N, Luck): May have equipment on-hand, once per session
Scholar (N, d8 in affected skills): +2 to two different Knowledge skills
Steady Hands (N, Ag d8): Ignore unstable platform penalty for mounts or vehicles
Sweep (N, St d8, Fighting d8): Attack all adjacent foes at -2
Strong Willed (N, Intimidate d6, Taunt d6): +2 Intimidate and Taunt, +2 to resist
Thief (N, Ag d8, Climb d6): +2 Climb, Lockpick, Stealth, rolls made to trick or Lockpick d6, Stealth d8 deceive, detecting or disarming traps
Two-Fisted (N, Ag d8): May attack with a weapon in each hand without multiaction penalty.
Trademark Weapon (N, Fighting or Shooting d10): +1 Fighting or Shooting with one particular weapon
Wizard (N, See text): Each Spellcasting raise reduces cost of spell by 1 point
Woodsman (N, Sp d6, Survival d8):, +2 Tracking Survival, and Stealth (while in Wilderness) Tracking d8


OK, so, I can not raise my fighting skill because it is equal to my Agility d8. But I can raise my Agility, and does my fighting go up?


I believe, and correct me if I'm wrong:

You can raise Fighting up over Agility, but that would be the entirety of what you get for the Advancement. The way it works is that if a Skill has a lower die than the attribute it's tied to, it's cheaper to upgrade. That's why I was looking to raise two skills, because they're both lower than my Smarts.

This means that if you raise Agility, Fighting does not automatically go up, but it becomes cheaper for it to go up later. Eg: If you raise Agility now, then you could raise Fighting and Riding next time, because your Agility die is then higher than your Fighting die.


Female Human Card: Bennies: 1 Parry: 5 [2 + 6(fighting)/2] Toughness: 5 [2 + 6(vigor)/2] (2) Armored Duster RATN: 4 Pace: 5 Notice: d6

I'm fairly sure on this but I might still change my mind over the next 24 hours or so: Arabella will add Investigation to her skills and increase her Stealth skill.

I can tell I'm going to be frustrated trying to get Arabella to the point where she has all the skills she should have at the appropriate levels while also adding powers and increasing attributes.


K'Don, Connor is correct. So if you want to, you can make your Fighting skill a d10, but that's *all* you can do with this advancement. And if you want to take a couple of good fighting Edges on your next advancements, then that strategy is ok.
But if you know you'll be wanting to constantly increase your Fighting skill, it might make more sense to increase your Agility this time. Then on your next TWO advancements you can increase your Fighting *and* one other skill. Make sense?

Arabella (and others) - don't think of an advancement as a D&D "level up" where your BAB *and* saves *and* spells *and* class abilities (Edges) all increase - think of it as ONE of those things. So after four advancements, you've gone up a complete D&D "level" (conceptually).

With that in mind, then SW only has 5 levels vs. D&D's 20, with its exponentially increasing need for HP and wealth, so SW is much "flatter" in that sense. Also keep in mind that a d8 skill is pretty good, and a d10 doesn't help that much more. Lower the expectations and maybe the frustration will lessen?

With all that having been said, I hate to add to your frustration, but : your Stealth is currently equal to your Agility, it's not a Skill you can boost when you take a new Skill. The other Skill has to be strictly *less than* its linked Attribute.

However, since we're all new to SW, if any player finds that ALL their Skills are currently equal to their linked Attribute and you want to add a new Skill, please let me know.


Advancement "philosophy"

Just found this on a forum :

A standard format for advancements used by many is summed up by the acronym "EASE".

So for each Rank:
1st advance: Take an Edge
2nd advance: Raise an Attribute
3rd advance: Raise/add some Skills
4th advance: Take another Edge

You don't *have* to do it in that order, but it's a handy way to remember to cover all the bases, and emphasizes SW's "Edge-based" philosophy. But boosting the Attribute first may make boosting the Skills easier...

Problem is at Novice, you only get 3 advancements before you hit Seasoned (becoming a PC is your "first advancement"), so one of those has to go. Which one is up to you, but I would suggest it NOT be raising an Attribute.
Connor - my mistake, only 2 more advancements before you become Seasoned.

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