War Diaries: Rippers in the Deadlands

Game Master Loup Blanc

Welcome to the game, everyone! This Discussion thread is good for out of character questions, comments, things of that sort. We'll also use it to help plan out Rippers for anyone who doesn't have them mechanically finished, things of that nature.

That's all for the moment, but expect more coming soon--either an edit to this post, or a new one altogether.

I'm going to dot in with my Ripper for the moment. I have my soldier up and ready to go as well. Also, do we want three Scout Snipers right away? Smoke can be a Heavy Gunner as well, so I can have him in that roll instead if we do want to chew through scout slots too fast.

If people want to make small adjustments to Soldiers they can, and that includes shifting roles in the company if you want. I'll adjust exact plans based on the makeup of your squad, so it's up to you guys! That said, here are some notes on characters, including equipment based off the roles you currently fill (or the ones I assume you do).

In all of your equipment I included "mundane gear"--this is simply because I don't want to list out the individual minutiae of every little thing a soldier would be carrying, because usually it won't matter that much. If a question comes up in the game of whether or not you have a given item, we'll deal with it then by common sense and a bit of research; it usually isn't hard to determine if a soldier would probably be carrying something or not.

I will assign those missing points to to Lil Harry and create the aliases in the morning.

I was thinking, as it seems we have a s~%!ton of Snipers, that I could easily make Harry an Infantry Riflemen or Trench Gunner if the party wants to cover a wider array of roles in the squad. It would be a matter of equipment and increasing his Fighting skill so it would be simple.

That said, I expect nothing short of total carnage given that we are talking WWI, so I think having too many snipers won't matter after two or three new characters.

Yeah, I was waiting to see my equipment especially, just to be safe. I think I'm probably going to go with either Armor or Deflection for the moment as Aaron has no real desire to fight and would rather use his mechanical skills to protect himself than use them to fight enemies. Provided he survives long enough I'll probably pick up some stuff like Smite or Burst/Blast to deal more damage, but for the moment he has no other concern than trying to get home alive (of course, its pretty much guaranteed he's going to fail eventually).

Also, I've got my Rippers stats up on the other profile, I'll post in with him as well so you can take a look.

Here's Aaron the Younger, ready to rock and roll in the City of Sin.

Here's my soldier as well. Should be easier to look at with him in the thread too.

Oh wow I totally didn't expect to get in to this. Thanks Loup! :)

Is it just me, or do the images for the two Aaron's seem like they should be the other way round?

Loup has ditched the idea that Sykers in this time period are automatically bald, and instead that comes about as a result of the stress placed on their body that the later government experiments into creating more lethal combat applications for their powers. This means the younger Aaron still has his hair despite being a Syker (although I have it in my mind that his hair has never been very thick so he keeps it pretty short) while his father is a little different. I actually meant to change his image as well, that got lost somewhere.

Also, I know all our Rippers aren't completely built, but what do you all plan to do in terms of long-term builds? Aaron's a Syker so he'll definitely invest in some more powers and power points, but outside of that I'm planning on investing equally in edges to be a better detective (Aaron is intended to fulfill the noir detective stereotype) and I'm also thinking I'll take some command Edges. All in all, he'll be a ranged-focused combatant with his pistol who augments his combat prowess with stuff like Command and psychic powers.

Neat, though I more meant that Aaron Jr. looks older due to the hair looking grey on the picture you used. Not that it's a big deal, I just thought it was amusing.

As for build, I'm going for basically two things: magic use and charisma. I'm going to grab power points at least a couple of times and a few other powers, as well as Very Attractive and Charismatic, which should get me to a respectable +8. Not a great combatant outside of hurling deadly magic fireballs, but I'm going more with the classic femme fatale archetype than a straight fighter. I should be excellent at convincing people to tell us things we need to know or getting people on our side.

Ah, yeah. I more picked it because I picture the younger Aaron having much thinner hair. He's had a rough life, I imagine his hair is graying a bit anyway.

That's a hefty Charisma bonus, yeah. I might even stop at +6, to be honest, at that point I feel like you're definitely running into the law of diminishing returns.

That's fair. I may just stop at Very Attractive, but I'll have tons of time to decide, because I likely won't even get that until somewhere in the middle of Seasoned rank, which I imagine will be quite a while. There is also the issue of worrying about my Dark Secret getting out. If it becomes public, I take a -4 charisma and a group of murderous inbred black magic users will be coming to kill me. Then I max back at the +4 I have now, but obviously that's a worse case scenario.

If your secret gets out I can see the desire to invest more heavily to keep a nice bonus, yeah. As funny as it would be to have a +8 Charisma person on our team, it just seems like overkill. You could probably use that Advance to be better at magic or expand your skills or something. Aaron probably won't be getting heavily into psionics or Command stuff until Seasoned either, I expect. I want to increase some skills and an Attribute before I mess around with that.

Emissary here!

Also, I know all our Rippers aren't completely built, but what do you all plan to do in terms of long-term builds?

Well, I already had the "Level 1" things chosen for a couple days already. And, well, yesterday got bored and... I have everything thought out until 100 Exp.

It isn't set in stone, obviously, but you can take it as some kind of guidelines as to what I think Michael would be in the end.

Michael alreay is a tough, hardboiled, son-a-b!++#. He's hard to hit and hits hard, what with being a "Revenant" who wants to bring down in a bloody way every corrupt m&$$$#$#!#%# he finds. Being an undercover cop he knows how to spin a lie and how to make people s$$% themselves with not so veiled threats.

As we gain Exp he'll become increasingly better at clawing enemies down and the whole lyin' and intimidatin' bussiness, but the thing he'll specially rock is being nigh impossible to bring down unless the RNG decides to have some fun.
I also eyed the 'Ignore wound penalties' Edges and thought they were really fitting
so... yeah, hard to kill is the name of the game.

That's it, if I don't eat a bullet through the skull because I will still be a Harrowed.

EDIT! Forgot to ask Loup something. I was looking at the Frenzy Edge and thought it would be nice, thing is I wanted to "reflavour" it as multiple qttacka with both claws instead of an extra attack. Would you be okay with it? Mechanically it would remain the same

Hey guys

I don't have my profile updated for the new game. I'll work on that today.

If you played with Kris in the Fallout:SW game, it'll be basically the same a@&~&@&. This time "with claws"

Oh boy, we've got TWO Dark Secrets, it looks like.

I have Aaron vaguely planned out, but not quite that far. There are a few more powers I want, so I'll start delving into those at Seasoned once I've got some basics. I figured when it comes to Command I'll get the group to a total of +2 Spirit to Unshake and +1 Toughness, as those do the most to help the whole party out. I've also decided he's going to go for Improved Trademark Weapon in the future for story reasons; as a result of complete coincidence I realized Aaron uses an M1911 and was also born in 1911, so I've decided the pistol he uses was given to him by his father before he left for the war, and he's kept it ever since.

Aaron will be decent taking hits, but his real specialty is going to be doling out the damage. I can pretty easily crank my pistol up to 2d6+5 damage right now, and as I get bonuses to hit from Trademark Weapon and likely Marksman, I'll be raising a lot as well for extra damage.

PS: I'm apologizing preemptively for the possibility of me absolutely murdering one of you with my Grim Servant of Death hindrance. I do plan to pick up the Healing power, but it only works on myself... maybe I'll grab the skill and get the Healer edge to try and make sure I don't kill any of you.

Don't be near Kris when he gets pissed. Just back away and let him murder whomever the offender is...

I was looking at the Frenzy Edge and thought it would be nice, thing is I wanted to "reflavour" it as multiple qttacka with both claws instead of an extra attack. Would you be okay with it? Mechanically it would remain the same

In a word, yes. I'm almost always (99% of the time) totally fine with reflavoring something to fit your character as you see them.

Glad to see people are thinking about things longer-term and starting to see how characters interact. Definitely keep talking on that if you like--when we start the 1033 campaign, your characters will already be together in Vegas, so you very well may know one another to some extent.

So you're aware, I'm thinking and hoping we'll get this moving by Monday.

I just realized that Emissary and I basically have the exact same character....

Even down to his planned progression. Like, nearly identical to what I had planned on for Kris.

PS: I'm apologizing preemptively for the possibility of me absolutely murdering one of you with my Grim Servant of Death hindrance. I do plan to pick up the Healing power, but it only works on myself... maybe I'll grab the skill and get the Healer edge to try and make sure I don't kill any of you.

I still remember how Loup almost killed the posse's brawler in our the Flood game ages ago when his Grim Servant O' Death went off on his very first attack of the game and he rolled three or four raises on damage. Good times.

If we're worried about healing, I was going to suggest that DarkestHeart take a look at the Blessed for his free background. I don't know if he wants to play a magic user or not, but we brought up the IIA and the Catholic church in recruitment, so it could be fitting for his character if he wanted powers.

Glad to see people are thinking about things longer-term and starting to see how characters interact. Definitely keep talking on that if you like--when we start the 1033 campaign, your characters will already be together in Vegas, so you very well may know one another to some extent.

It's written in to Eliza's backstory that the Ripper's found and killed the monster that killed her mobster squeeze and she signed on with them very recently, so that's where she is. Anyone who's been with the Rippers in town for a little while probably met her while they were investigating.

I just realized that Emissary and I basically have the exact same character....

Even down to his planned progression. Like, nearly identical to what I had planned on for Kris.

Well, you got more 'outdoors' skills while I remain a capable secondary Party Face so there's some difference there.

That said, and even if we had exact skills and edges, I wouldn't have anything against it. I mean, having a partner to rely on when clawing is necessary seems nice and the characters have different enough drives and personalities that the simmilar mechanics can be ignored.

Gang up bonuses are a thing too. So having two melee specialists working together can be helpful.

Also, is anyone looking at investing into Rippertech? We don't have anyone at the moment but it seems like it'd probably be a good idea to have someone do it. Kristophe already has some implanted but having someone who can continually harvest implants and install them would be a good plan. I know there are a few upgrades I'd love to have Aaron go for at some point.

I have mixed opinions. On one hand, there are several piece of Rippertech that are amazing (hello Hag's Heart and Pheromones). On the other, it feels really out of character for Eliza to willing shove abomination parts into herself when her character is supposed to be about mastering her powers without the need for outside intervention or petitioning dark forces for aid.

I can see it making sense in character in that she's taking control and doing this for herself, she's taking from them without giving anything in return. Ideally that's what hucksters do all the time, it seems like it could be a logical extension to me.

True, though in flavor Eliza is more a Classic style blood mage than a huckster. I have to take Huckster, then Whateley Blood in Reloaded, but in classic they were separate arcane backgrounds entirely. Blood Magic was a thing where the Whateleys had been magic users for so long that they had magical energy innate to their bodies. By channeling some of their life force, they could cast spells without needing a manitou to provide the power. Not that you don't make a good point, I'm just explaining my character concept a little more.

I may be a moot point if no one decides to pick up Knowledge (Rippertech) though :P

Fair point. It doesn't make much sense for Aaron to know anything about Rippertech as he has no real medical knowledge, does it make sense for anyone else to have Rippertech knowledge or a reason to learn it?

I'm thinking I might rebuild Kris. But I need to see what everyone else is playing in the Ripper game.

Aaron Nikhols-Syker, ranged, "Face" skills
Eliza Crow - Mage, ranged, "Face" skills
Michael Murphy-Harrowed, melee, mostly fighting skills

We still have 2 people who haven't checked in.

Well, DarkestHeart checked in but hasn't actually built their Ripper yet as I believe they're less familiar with the system. However, more than one of us has suggested that if he's interested he ought to play a Blessed as it makes sense with the church being involved in his story and all. Our last person hasn't checked in yet but I know he took Veteran of the Concrete Jungle. We'll have to wait and see what he does.

I was indeed thinking of playing a Blessed as people suggested. His backstory is he is an Ex Cop who got entangled in the Weird back in his homeland and left to escape the Fey that controlled Ireland. I can see him turning to the Church at some stage to help, thinking he was going mad and had brought it on himself through sin, so seeking absolution.

Apologies for the delay, I'll have my profiles up in the next half hour. :)

Here is Desmond, who is indeed a scout sniper. :) With that "OR" in gear, I'm taking the bolt-action rifle no matter what and just choosing my sidearm, right?

Jorge will be up later tonight as I only have his crunch on my home computer. He's a weird mix of face/tank that's not terribly min-maxed. Since we seem to have some face talent, I might try to make him more of a tank.

So here is my Soldier. I think he is done right so far. I don't have any equipment though. And I am missing a few parts, I think.

I think there are two things, though you seem to have most of it figured out.

First, I believe that you started your skills at a D4 and bought up from there, but you actually start at a D4-2 and have to buy to a D4 as well (a D4 is 1 point, D6 is two, D8 is three, etc.) and buying above your linked attribute costs two. So you spent a total of 25 points, way more than we have to start (3 on fighting, 3 on science, 3 on notice, 3 on piloting, 5 on repair, 3 on shooting, and 5 on weird science). If you drop every skill by one rank, you should be at 16, which is perfect with how many hindrance points you have and even leaves you one extra point to keep one of your skills at a D8.

Second is a thing that's debatable, but I feel I should mention. Wanted usually means that the government is actively hunting you or seeking your arrest. If you've already been arrested and conscripted, I'd suggest the Obligation hindrance instead to represent that you don't really have a choice in doing what you're told.

Wait, but in the book it says "You have 15 skill points to distribute among your skills. Each die type costs 1 point (starting at d4)". Starting at D4 would imply I have d4 at the start, right? Nowhere does it mention D4-2. That seems kinda crazy.

It's in the Game Rules Section under Trait Tests.

Unskilled Attempts

If a character doesn’t have a skill for an action he’s attempting, he rolls a d4 and subtracts 2 from the total. Wild Card characters still get their Wild Die for these rolls (which are also subject to the –2 penalty). The GM may decide that a character has no chance at a particular skill if he has no training in it—such as performing surgery or flying a plane.

Any skill with no ranks in it is considered Unskilled and you roll at an additional -2 penalty for a total of D4-2. Rolling without this penalty requires 1 skill point to be spent on each skill to get it to a basic D4. Do remember that your target number on almost everything is going to be 4, so your rolls don't have to be very high to succeed. Even on a D4-2, you have about an 18% chance of success.

And here's Jorge's profile. I'm still tweaking him a bit. I took him away from being a face at all since depending on how the GM feels, he may be constantly taking a minimum -2 to Charisma all the time.

I may change some of his edges and augments, and I'm still hammering out a gear list. But I think I am going to go hard for tankiness and a real dislike of running away.

Aaron Nikhols-Syker, ranged, "Face" skills
Eliza Crow - Mage, ranged, "Face" skills
Michael Murphy-Harrowed, melee, mostly fighting skills
Jorge Guerra, Augmented Elder, melee/shooting, "tough guy" skills
Padraig Casey, ?? Blessed??

This is the rundown of who we have so far. I'm gonna go ahead and rebuild Kris. I don't like playing the same character as someone else, and Michael is basically a super version of what I was attempting with Kris originally anyways. I think I'm gonna make a Scientist type, we really don't have a smarts based Ripper,Unless Padraig isn't a Blessed, and then I'll probably roll that.

Anyways, I'm waiting on Darkestheart.

Aaron is somewhat Smarts-bsaed as a Syker, and I'm planning for him to be the archetypal noir detective type. Primarily he works with Investigation and Streetwise, and he'll also probably get to around a d6 in Persuasion. However, I don't intend to delve into things like Knowledges or Healing, though, so a scientist type would be a welcome addition to the party. Have you possibly considered Patent Science?

Okay I'm rebuilding my soldiers skills now. And for my ripper I was going Blessed. And I was going to make him a marksman.

I'm thinking I might rebuild Kris. But I need to see what everyone else is playing in the Ripper game.

I'm gonna go ahead and rebuild Kris. I don't like playing the same character as someone else, and Michael is basically a super version of what I was attempting with Kris originally anyways.

If you want to rebuild, that's okay with me--I'm sure I'll love whatever concept you roll with. That said, I'm also fine with having similar party members--in Savage Worlds especially, they can still feel very different from one another even if they fill a similar role, and I liked the idea of two takes on somewhat related themes--Kristophe being an experiment, while Michael's a Harrowed. The short of it is that I want you to play what you want to play, though!

His backstory is he is an Ex Cop who got entangled in the Weird back in his homeland and left to escape the Fey that controlled Ireland. I can see him turning to the Church at some stage to help, thinking he was going mad and had brought it on himself through sin, so seeking absolution.

An interesting backstory. It'd probably have some tweaks to it--the Fey don't control Ireland, partially because the Fey as beings unto themselves don't exist--but the main gist of it works great. Blessed are also interesting and fun, so if we want to lock in that you're going with that, that's good to me.

With that "OR" in gear, I'm taking the bolt-action rifle no matter what and just choosing my sidearm, right?

Yes, that's the case. Sorry if that wasn't clear--I tried to separate locked-in gear sections with semicolons, but it's not always clear. That's the standard rifle for a scout sniper of your army, so that's your longarm, but you could have the pistol of your choice. (In-game it would probably be more what you're given than what you choose, but it doesn't really matter.)

Wait, but in the book it says "You have 15 skill points to distribute among your skills. Each die type costs 1 point (starting at d4)". Starting at D4 would imply I have d4 at the start, right? Nowhere does it mention D4-2. That seems kinda crazy.

Yeah, the -2 part comes in elsewhere, but you don't start with d4s in your skills--that's the first step that costs a point.

Looking over your skills, you could do Fighting d6, Knowledge (Science) d8, Notice d6, Piloting d6, Repair d8, Shooting d6, Weird Science d8--pretty much dropping by one die across the board, except for Knowledge (Science). I will say that you probably don't need Piloting, though, and unless your backstory includes that you were a pilot at one point it doesn't make too much sense.

I also agree that Wanted doesn't fit as well as some other Hindrances for your idea here--Obligation seems fitting.

EDIT: I see you're already rebuilding, so that's fine. And confirmation on your plan for the Ripper.

I'll get this open in a couple days, I think--I'd like DarkestHeart to have his character good to go because we'll be kicking off with a bang. Expect that to happen Thursday, because tonight/tomorrow I'm very busy.

Also, I think you mentioned it but I couldn't find it. Are we starting as our soldiers or our Rippers? Also, are they gaining XP separately or together? I'm just kind of curious as to how this is gonna work.

Also, Jorge, don't you need to have your Knowledge (Occult) one higher for Veteran of the Concrete Jungle? If I remember correctly it requires a d6 and you've only got a d4. Still, the character looks neat. I'm still waffling on whether or not I want Aaron to take that Edge as well; I wasn't going to originally, but the more I think about it the more I feel like it fits the feeling I want for Aaron as a character. It seems I've still got at least a little bit of time before we start off, so I'll have to figure it out by then.

Okay so Sean is done (Though I can't find where I get my Grit stat from, and I have no Equipment as of yet) and I am going to begin working on my Ripper tonight, fingers crossed (I don't have the book so looking for online sources).

Sorry it took so long Loup.

Grit's in the Deadlands Reloaded book, which you might not have. It's just equal to your current character rank, so everyone starts with a 1.

Thanks. I don't have that book no. I'll add it on now.

Gameplay's open! Which I think also answers the question on who you're starting as. If you want more information on the situation I can give you some, but it's intentionally chaotic at the moment. One thing's clear: it's time to start shooting. (And there are definitely enemies in range of everyone's primary guns.)

Also, are they gaining XP separately or together?

Separately, although I'll also probably tweak XP for the soldiers a bit, since you'll be playing them in brief interludes for the most part, rather than several scenes in a row to gain XP. At the moment I'm thinking each time we return to them they'll each have an Advance, but that's not set in stone.

Sean looks good, and does indeed have 1 Grit. Whether or not it helps him, of course, remains to be seen...

Hope you guys will enjoy the game! :)

Loup, what gear do I start with? Everyone else you listed gear for but Sean is blank.

This is Niles. I've decided to swap my profiles and make Kris my soldier. This alias will be my Ripper, a Masked Crusader who's alter ego is "The Doctor".

The Doctor lives by the motto "First do no harm, except if they're a monster then its Nurse Clara for them" (Nurse Clara is his double barreled shotgun)

Nilan is a medical professional by day and a Masked Crusader by night, fighting the evil of the Cabal with his patent science.

Woops, my bad, Sean. You have the same gear as Aaron... and I just realized that gear post has a typo. Aaron and Sean, rather than the Lee-Enfield (which you should not have), you have a pistol. Aaron has the same choice of pistol between a Colt M1911 and a LeMat 1912 Army, as seen in Aloha, Niles, and kamenhero's spoilers in the original gear post; Sean has a Webley Mk VI revolver, identical to the one in Emissary's spoiler. Apologies for that mess-up.

Niles: I dig the switch, gotta say. I'm sad we won't have Rippertech Wolverine joining the crew, but the Doctor sounds like a very fun character even from that little bit. Nurse Clara...

Also on the note of gear, I forgot that while personal armor is mostly nonexistent, you do have access to helmets! You all have a steel pot helmet, identical to what's in the core Savage Worlds book.