The Savage Wasteland of Fallout

Game Master thegreenteagamer

You can swap out a skill you haven't used at all for free.

Any of you can, since this info is new for a lot of you. This means Stealth and notice and Fighting skills are locked out for most of you, but the rest can be changed up in light of the new info...as long as you've never rolled it.

Lots of new stuff on the Campaign Info page!

Under General Equipment, the format seems to be:

Alien Crystal, Small

10
0
Its purpose is a mystery.

To clarify, I am imagining that that is:

Item Name

Item Cost/Value
Item Weight
Item Notes

Is that right?

Yes...I'll fix that and make a note later

The original file has tables, so I did a quick and dirty copy and paste. Still working on prettying it up to the final pdf

GM, regarding Bennies. Do we have 2 to start with, or do we earn them in gameplay (like I did with the map)?

Also, how often do they refresh? Daily? Per X encounters?

You start with 3 unless and edge says you get more, or a hindrance less. I will tell you when a "scene" has ended, and give more exp and Bennies will refresh. You can get extra for playing in character to your personal detriment (heroism against odds, big mouth when interrogated, etc) or other favors like you did.

I almost gave one to Badger do making me laugh so much with the "item removal". In respect to this recent bug jumping, I think I'll let him have it.

With the other team I'm averaging about two combats a scene. (In person it's per game session, but that doesn't work here.)

Welp, there's the payback for those early gear rolls. I'll read up on wounds and incapacitation rolls before I post. This will probably be where some of my bennies go....

I swapped out one die of Swimming for a d4 in Survival. I'm thinking that my reading has given me some theoretical knowledge of how to survive in the wilderness, but since I lived in the Vault all my life I don't know how to use it in a practical setting.

I will accept the ruling you want to use, Overseer. Will I be able to use a stimpak in combat? If I have the -3 wound penalty and -2 for size and darkness, I can only hit on an ace. Plus, we don't exactly have ideal supplies for a healing check.

Stimpaks don't require a roll to use. Just pull um and hit em. Does give you multiaction if you do anything else, though. Instant wound gone. Also able to be used after the golden hour.

Will not be as common as the videogames. Think of them like cure potions, though.

I dont know I it was here or the other game where I said it already, but house rule aid another, if you have at least a d4, auto succeeds without a roll giving +1...but cannot be attempted without at least a d4.

So if you have at least a d4 in the skill then aid another automatically succeeds?

Yep. Otherwise it's kind of a useless ability to do aid another. A 4 is required with the standard rules, and that's a success in of itself...only giving +1 is silly.

So I figured just someone trained helping you gives a +1.

Two things:

1) I'm sorry, but I'm gonna have to go with TGTG on the soak roll. I don't see the rule that caps damage at 3 (or 4). To extend his example, if he rolled 800 damage, we'd need to negate all of 797 damage to not be dead. IMHO. :/

2) TGTG, are we sure my bug gets an ace? He got a 4 from the Gang-up, but rolled a 3 on his die. =)

You're right, I missed that, looked at the wrong number so you're not shaken then.

But no...Even if you got hit for 800, one soak and you prevent knockout and only have 3 wounds. That's the good part.

I'm vaguely waiting for things to be figured out with Badger, since his reaction / consciousness level will affect what Estelle does, but I'll post in the morning either way.

I am conscious, just practically useless. A -3 from wounds, -1 from shaken, -1 darkness and -1 radroach size... I can pretty much only provide gang up bonuses or hope for an ace and a raise.

Shaken doesn't give you -1; it prevents you from doing anything except moving until you pass a spirit roll...including providing gang ups.

Ah, I see. So -5 on trait rolls total.

...well...the size is -2...But only to attacks. And the light penalty I only to attacks and notice. But yeah, you were slammed bad. It would be hard to even break shaken with the wounds.

Yeah, Badger, just to clarify, you're at -3 to un-shake, but I give you a +1, which only puts you at -2. (The Command ability doesn't say anything about needing to talk. Apparently you need only see mah pretty face and you feel all inspired inside. =)
So, a likely course of action would be to move away, then on the next rounds try to unshake, fore which you would need at least 1 six on your two d6s. So, figure a one-third chance.
Um, hope that helps. ^_^

(Ugh, anyone starting to think we might just wanna take the dogs and retreat from the room?)

If I survive this, I'm eating at least one of those dogs.

I'll be able to do some healing stuff on you once the Radroaches are dead.

Harper: Your dog aced a fight die and a damage die. Go ahead and roll those. Also, your fight score raised the roach's parry, so you get to add 1d6 to your damage.

Mmmf. I'm starting to get a bad feeling about this. The radroaches are about our equals in stats, but have a +3 advantage due to size and light, and just took out our second best melee fighter.

Estelle, you might wanna start shooting with the gun now that you're close and don't have to worry about hitting friendly targets.

I didn't know it'd be this tough. Or maybe we didn't make enough melee-capable characters? If I die I'll just roll up a brick and see how it goes.

They're not your equals. They're all d4 stats, size -2, with +3 toughness from armor due to carapace, and a -1 parry as a built in flaw. They're also extras that drop with one raise.

If we all survive I have a d8 in Healing.

Take advantage of positioning and other options. SW is not about superior stats. Stats make much less of a difference than positioning and superior numbers in this system. Nine guys in SW will murder one twentieth level guy. You've already killed two.

It's just bad luck that got me and unfamiliarity with the system- and besides, we're fresh out of the Vault. This is the first real fight we've ever had. And I have to admit that my overconfident "survival expert" almost immediately dying from a radroach bite is kind of funny.

Estelle, you might wanna start shooting with the gun now that you're close and don't have to worry about hitting friendly targets.

I mean, I could still potentially miss and hit the dog. Besides, I think we've got them on the ropes now that we know slightly more what we're doing.

Take advantage of positioning and other options. SW is not about superior stats. Stats make much less of a difference than positioning and superior numbers in this system.

SW is a lot more tactical than Pathfinder.

This is super throwing me - not in a bad way, it's just hugely different than what I am used to. For instance, I think my last attack should have hit - I only gave myself team up bonuses from the dogs instead of the humans, too, and the +2 would have made a different. Alas.

Still, we are learning. Before long we'll be able to take down a pack of Deathclaws. (Okay maybe not that, but still.)

Well, my in person group curb stomped a wild card deathclaw last week and they're only at about 20exp.

Mind you, they were guarding a slave caravan (they planned on killing the slavers in the night and setting them free) when it attacked, so they had about eight slaver extras helping that the deathclaw ripped through like they were tinfoil for about five rounds (and more than a few of the slaves) before a called shot to the head with a grenade rifle after a round of aiming brought him to three wounds...

The majority of my updates are on my phone, so what exactly are gang ups? And what are the different skills you mentioned in the gameplay thread?

Gangups are like flanking. For every ally next to your target in melee besides you, you get +1 attack. It can add to a max +4.

Skill tricks are using opposed agility or smarts against an enemy, like throwing sand in their eye, or screaming "what's that behind you?!" Doesnt work on everything. If you beat them, you get +2 to your next turn acti on against them. If you raise, they're also shaken.

You can see the map on a phone. I know because I have. It's not easy to edit on phone though.

Wild attacks are like charging, but no move required. +2 attack and damage (melee only), -2 parry.

You can find a pdf for SW "survival sheets" with a list of options for a shortcut.

Mmkay, I'll have to keep those in mind, though I'm not sure what skill trick would work on a radroach.

Here is the combat guide.

Thomas, I appreciate you helping out folks rules-wise. I can't always catch all the misses.

Some general tips I've learned in gameplay;

Initiative is even more useful here than Pathfinder. Extras drop with a single raise, or two shaken results before they recover, and as you see with Badger, wounds can be pretty nasty. Not only that, the initiative edges let you draw multiple cards, with greatly increases your chances to get a Joker. Jokers are awesome.

The fact you can break your movement up however you want is really useful. You can hide behind a wall, pop out with 2 squares movement, shoot someone, and get back behind the wall all in one round if you want.

Nothing (to my memory) provokes Attacks of Opportunity but leaving a adjacent to an enemy...not drawing weapons, not firing a ranged weapon, nothing else. You can even circle around an enemy without provoking the AoO, as long as you're still next to him. On the other hand though, there is no 1/round AoO limit, though, so be wary of that.

Ranged weapons fire against a parry if you're in melee. You can only use a 1-handed ranged weapon against an enemy in melee. 2-handed ranged weapons cannot be used in melee, except as a club. A lot of people forget that.

It's (usually) a lot easier to hit with a ranged weapon than a melee weapon, because the target is 4, not parry; many creatures have higher parry than 4.

You can't attack twice with the same weapon, but if you're willing to take multiaction penalties, you can do as much stuff in one turn as you want...but the multiaction (-2) penalty adds up with each new thing done. Some of this can be alleviated with edges like two fisted or run-and-gun.

And I still forgot a raise. >_> I'm going to start using this

Thanks TGTG! =) (Mind you, I feel like it's a wash since I don't know what I'm doing either. ^_^)

Guys, TGTG is giving us a spoiler for some Joker-only options. Admitedly, these appear kinda cheesy, but it's a only-once-in-a-while thing, so take advantage of it when you can.

In essence, you can Wild Attack -and- Defend. The Wild Attack gives you +2 attack AND +2 damage, but -2 on Parry. But with a Joker giving you +2 on all rolls anyway, you can also do a Defend action:

Also, TGTG, I'm confused. Why did Kristophe's 8 damage squash a bug, but Estelle's 8 damage didn't?

Also, Harper, when you roll an Ace the roll is without modifiers. You just get to add it straight to your total.

It was already shaken. Shake + Shake = wound do wild cards, incapacitation for extras. That's why hitting them again before they recover from shaken is good.

Only Kristophe has the Joker.

Also, defend is different from full defense. You can't move or do anything else with full defense. Defense just gives +2 parry, and you can do other stuff, but it's multiaction if you do -2 to actions taken)

It sounds complicated at first but it becomes second nature real quick

Okay, wait, ya, let's get this smoothed out.
From the book: Defend: If a character’s only regular action is to defend, his Parry is increased by +2 until his next action. The defender may move normally while performing this maneuver, but no running or other actions are allowed.

Full Defense: A hero using the full defense maneuver cannot move at all,

This makes it sound like "Defend" can not be done with multiple actions, but "Full Defense" can, although you can not move. Hence, it seems like you can Move+Defend (as in, if you are trying to Withdraw from Close Combat [pg 76]) but you can attack Attack+Full Defend-but-not-Move.

Sorry. It seems like some systems have really thick books that explain way way WAY too much, and Savage Worlds is like "Well, let's give 'em a little challenge!" =)

(Heh, yeah, I know just Kris got the Joker, but any one of us -might- get a Joker at some time, so it's good to know.)

Aeryicka, Harper, if you don't want to do just a Fight roll, you can use your Agility or Smarts to do a 'Trick': Describe action; make opposed Agility or Smarts roll; opponent is –2 Parry until next action; with a raise, foe is –2 Parry and Shaken.

It doesn't do damage, but it doesn't have an many modifiers against it either (usually). And like we saw, making them easier to hit, or getting them Shaken makes them half dead anyway.

Huh. That looks like a good idea. I should probably do those. ^_^

I'm learning the system too, but it seems kinda intuitive really. I like the action economy part of it so far.

Hey guys, I'm taking my family on a mini vacation tomorrow through Sunday evening. My ability to post will be limited.

Gah, I'm really sory if I'm messing everything up, but I'm seriously so confused as to what's going on. I thought that unarmed damage was 1d4. I didn't realize that dice still aced if their total wasn't their max roll. I didn't know that I could attack twice if I didn't move. I don't know if I'll take penalties if I DO attack twice. I read through the core rule document, but this is my first battle with Savage Worlds thus far. Feel free to roll for me if I completely screw something up. I learn more easily through demonstration than by trial and error. Correcting me verbally and then me screwing something up again probably isn't that enjoyable for you either. Please forgive my ignorance, I'm really trying here.

Don't worry about it, Harper! I think almost all of us are new to the system, and you're definitely not the only one making mistakes with it. We're all learning here. :)

It aces if any of the individual dice reaches their max...It doesn't have to he both. You reroll any die that maxes.

Unarmed is strength unless you have martial arts. You can't attack twice unless you have two weapons, and if you do it's at -2 to your main hand,-4 to your off hand. Two fisted lowers those by 2. Ambidextrous lowers offhand by two...If you have both you can attack with two weapons at no penalty. What I was saying earlier is not that you can attack twice if you don't move, but that you can attack at any point during your movement, not just at the end of it.

OH NO WAIT you going twice was because there was a new initiative You were last on turn 1 and first on turn 2, so it wasn't twice in a turn...you had two turns.

Initiative is new every turn in SW

I will use a Benny for the pitbull. How do soak rolls work?

A little different for extras Roll his vigor. If you succeed you prevent the knockout and even being shaken. He gets no wild die. If you fail, he's incapacitated, and you roll another vigor die to see if he's dead or not.