DeathBySuburbs - you can get a free PDF of a subset of the essential core SW rules HERE. You'll need to know the essentials just to play the game. But their complete PDF is only $10.
I found I could do *most* of the stuff I wanted to do with a copy of the Deadlands Noir Player's Guide, and the Rippers Player's Guide. As PDF's, they're only $15 total.
Go to "www,peginc.com", then click on "Store" to buy stuff.
Great! Thank you!
Okay, swing #3:
Jack McCort is a marksman from Alabama who spent most of his young life keeping bootleggers and poachers off his family's land. By the time he was 21, he had already killed several men with his grandpappy's rifle.
When the war broke out, he went to do his duty, much to the disdain of his family, who see the gvment is a 'pack of meddlers still sore they lost the war of northern agression."
During his inprocessing, he was flagged for scout training, which he excelled at. Graduating top of his class, he was assigned to the Triple U after the death of their previous scout.
Jack McCort
Race: Human
Agility 1d10
Smarts 1d4
Spirit 1d6
Strength 1d6
Vigor 1d6
Charisma
Pace
Parry
Toughness
Skills: Notice d6, Shooting d10, Stealth d10, Survival d6, Tracking d6
Hinderances: Clueless (minor), Illiterate (minor), Grim Servant of Death (Major)
Edges: Marksman, Trademark Weapon (Striped down M1903 named Thunder)
Gear: M1903 Springfield (24/48/96; 2d8 damage; ROF 1; WT. 9; Shots 5; AP 2), Bayonet, Helmet, field pack
Kent Sorrell had what many people would consider to be the perfect life: All-state fullback, 4.0 gpa, and a full ride to MIT, where he wanted to study Tesla Engineering.
Everything changed the night of his 18th birthday. Kent and his friends were drinking beer behind the convenience store when an old man approached them. At first he looked homeless, but as he got closer he began to shine with an inner light, so that by the time the man was standing in front of him, Kent could see that he was an angel.
Time stood still around him as the being before him reached out his hand...and a spear was driven through his chest. As his light faded, the angel staggered forward and touched him.
For his part, Kent saw flashes of memories, of another life, but they were the merest glimpses....and then they were gone.
As the angel fell, time rushed in, but not before Kent saw the man wielding the spear: Someone that Kent would swear was himself, only older. The man said....something, and Kent noticed that the world began rotating, until he collapsed.
When he awoke, his friends were dead, their hearts ripped out of their chests.
Kent promptly emptied the contents of his stomach. In the pocket of his letterman jacket, he found $50, a train ticket to Las Vegas, and a note. On one side was an address, and on the other was a message that read: You should go catch your train, before I visit your home. and no signature.
And so Kent ran. He made his train with minutes to spare, handed the ticket to his conductor, and then boarded the train.
Onboard, there were some men playing poker. the buy in was $50. Not really thinking about it, Kent sat the money on the table and bought in. He made almost 200 dollars during the trip.
Stepping off the train, he hailed a cab and gave him the address. Getting out, he paid the driver and went into the detective agency...
Just popping in to say I'm still interested and I'll get a solid idea up tomorrow, once these two hell days pass. (6 assignments due in the space of two days. 5 written 1 to go.)
Sorry all, I came down with something today and I've been kind of out of it for most of the day. I haven't been able to really focus or concentrate on writing such that anything is comprehensible, so I apologize for not having the document done. That said, tomorrow I'm mostly free for a large chunk of the day, and I hope to be feeling better--so it should be up!
Atlas2112: Yes--we're using Reason/Sanity, but not the Guts skill. Fear tests will be rolled using Spirit--while Guts is very fitting as its own skill in Deadlands, for this period it feels a little unnecessary. As far as the Order of St. George, I think that's just there as a note that they have them, and they'd probably be various magic items that give benefits. We'd work them out as the game went on should you choose to go that route. And with the Lodge, you sort of have one--it's brand new, though, so it doesn't really have any resources to it just yet. You'll get to outfit it with Edges and all that as the game goes on.
Aloha-Shirt-Samurai: I'd say you could in theory have both Augmentations and Rippertech, but it's not a great idea, as they both set you down the road to trouble eventually--Augs are physically draining, while Rippertech has an unsettling habit of driving you crazy. We'll cross that bridge when we get there, but suffice to say most people think it's a bad idea--with good reason.
GM DeathbySuburbs: They both look solid to me, and I only have slight tweaks to suggest. First the soldier, and it's a very small thing--you probably crashed during the Battle of Amiens, and so you likely didn't meet the Triple U on patrol, but during the pitched fighting. Joining up with them probably seemed like the best way to not get killed (at least not alone). Flora looks more connected as well, although I'll say that at game start the PCs are already Rippers, rather than just connected to them vaguely. I suppose she could be a probationary member who's interested but not fully inducted, but by this point her mysterious friend would have spilled some of the beans about what it is they do.
Re: Books and Sources: I'd strongly recommend at least the Savage Worlds core rules, either the free quick start guide or the full PDF (which I believe is still only 10 dollars or so). Beyond that, I'd suggest the following in order: Deadlands Noir, Rippers Resurrected, Deadlands Noir Companion, Deadlands Reloaded. There are extras hidden away in specific Plot Point Campaign books, but you could do without them as needed. I suggest Noir over Rippers because, while you're playing as Rippers, a lot of the mechanical setting info is coming from the Noir book (and it also provides more of an overview of the current time period).
Vrog Skyreaver: Both look solid! Only thing to point out is that the Marksman Edge requires you to be Seasoned, so you'd have to trade that out for something else--I might suggest Woodsman, since you also have Survival and Tracking separate and I roll them together, so you could qualify for it.
Araj the Raven and DarkestHeart: Glad to hear you're still here and working on stuff!
I foresee keeping this open for a little while longer, at least a couple of days.
kamenhero25: Ripper Concept complete; Soldier complete. Ready
Araj the Raven: Ripper Concept complete; Soldier complete (with tweak). Ready.
JDPhipps: Ripper Concept complete; Soldier not submitted. Needs soldier.
ZenFox42: Ripper Concept complete; Soldier complete. Ready
DarkestHeart: Ripper Concept not submitted; Soldier concept complete. Needs Ripper concept
Aloha-Shirt-Samurai: Ripper Concept complete; Soldier complete. Ready
Vrog Skyreaver: Ripper Concept complete; Soldier complete. Ready
GM Niles: Ripper Concept complete; Soldier complete. Ready.
GM DeathybySuburbs: Ripper Concept complete (with tweak); Soldier concept complete. Ready.
YoricksRequiem: Interest expressed.
@ Loup Blanc, fantastic. I will get to learning the system as quickly as possible. Flora has a way of getting men to tell her stuff. Joseph is in way over his head.
I think I'll trade out Marksman for Quick.
DeathBySuburbs - you can get a free PDF of a subset of the essential core SW rules HERE. You'll need to know the essentials just to play the game. But their complete PDF is only $10.
I found I could do *most* of the stuff I wanted to do with a copy of the Deadlands Noir Player's Guide, and the Rippers Player's Guide. As PDF's, they're only $15 total.
Go to "www,peginc.com", then click on "Store" to buy stuff.
Thank you! Currently reading these. I appreciate your help.
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Here you go:
Garvin Thomkinson
Human Male
Rank: Novice
Attributes: Agility: d8, Smarts: d6, Spirit: d4, Strength: d6, Vigor: d6
Skills: Climbing: d4, Fighting: d8, Lockpicking: d4, Notice: d6, Shooting: d8, Stealth: d6, Streetwise: d6, Survival: d6, Swimming: d4,
Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 5
Edges: Extra Edge (racial), Alertness, Two-Fisted
Hindrances: Big Mouth (minor), Illiterate (minor), Quirk (minor)
Gear: Bayonet (Damage: d6 + d4 ), Billy Club/Baton (Damage: d6 + d4 ), Blanket, Bedroll (sleeping bag; winterized), Canteen (waterskin), Normal Clothing, Shovel, Trail Rations, Winter Boots, Winter Gear
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Awesome!
Get better quick, Loup! =)
Hey, another quick question:
Blessed: Works as in Deadlands Noir.
Um, perhaps have you mixed up Noir with Reloaded? Noir seems to say that "Faith is at an all time low" and doesn't seem to have a listing for Blessed? Or am I not seeing it?
Hence, ya, I've got an interesting idea for a an old-fashioned Irish Priest-Ripper, trying to bring back some Faith into the cold, rainy Noir world, using the Blessed mechanics from Reloaded. Is that open, yeah?
Also! I see that my good buddy ZenFox is submitting a Tesla mechanic. Might I also submit one, or would you consider that bad manners, since there are only two in the whole unit? (But we could start out knowing each other, and have ultra-nerdy conversations in the middle of a firefight, and that would be neat. ^_^)
Atlas2112: The Noir version of the Blessed is in the Noir Companion book, which Loup already explained here:
Blessed were introduced to Deadlands Noir in its first companion/expansion book. I'm not sure how Paizo would like pasting stuff from that onto the forum, so I'll get stuff like that to people as needed once the game's started. (Same with Grit.) The short of it is that they work similarly to regular Miracles with a couple changes, and protection is a basic power that makes enemies roll Spirit to attack them while they're using it--their faith protects them, that idea.
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GM DeathbySuburbs: Glad to hear it! Makes sense how Flora could be connected, then. Looks good to me.
Araj the Raven: Technically you can't gain benefits from three Minor Hindrances on a character, only two Minor and one Major, but I don't have an issue with it for the Soldier. It does look like you're still one over on skills, though--I count 17 points as being spent there. (This directly stemmed from my own miscalculation last time, I'm guessing, where I missed the three Minor Hindrances and assumed you'd taken one Major.) It's a small fix to make, so I still consider you finished.
Atlas2112: As kamenhero25 just mentioned, and I've put in the player's doc, Blessed were introduced to Noir in the companion book. They don't function like they used to in Deadlands Reloaded, because some events took place that shook up their connection to their powers, and faith is pretty low by this era, so they have to use their powers more sparingly and with some limitations. Thus, they have Power Points rather than just rolling Faith. Overall it's pretty similar to the base version of the Arcane Background from Savage Worlds itself, with a couple changes here and there--I can point those out when the time comes.
Also, the player's document is finished! Sort of. The mechanical rules are up there, and I'll be continuing to work on and add the more flavorful stuff--it applies to what your Ripper PCs in 1933 know, so we can get started without all of it added in. I would have more, but I realized a fair bit of what I'd typed up previously was muddled and/or contradictory. (Don't try writing complicated tapestries of metaplots when you're not thinking straight to begin with.) I'll be updating it as I have time and capacity to do so, but take a look to start getting the gist of things!
Here's Aaron Nikhols Sr. reporting for duty in the Great War, the poor bastard. I don't have Deadlands Noir so I'm unsure how different Patent Scientists are, but I'm assuming I still need the Weird Science skill to activate my gadgets. I obviously left gear unfilled for the time being, and I haven't done the full backstory write-up but the story is already written up pretty simply previously in this thread.
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Gah! And now the 2nd Tesla Engineer slot is taken! Alas!
Well, that is unfortunate, and hopefully I've learned a valuable lesson.
Seeing as how Loup is so very very eager to drop the hammer on this, I shall voluntarily demote myself to Alternate. There are a plethora of fine, fine submissions already, and I'd hate to think that I've held up what is sure to be a great game!
Loup, whenever there is a drop and you find yourself in need of another body to fill the ranks, do not hesitate to let me know and I'll step up to the line! =)
Sorry for the absence, been busy IRL. I could be as gracious as Atlas but I am determined to get the chance to learn a new system so with that in mind, my Ripper Concept.
Padraic trained for a job in the Constabulary in 1919 when his brother was knee deep in mud and blood. During a training exercise in the hills of Wicklow, he became lost in the night and stumbled across a Fairy Ring. The locals knew to avoid the ring at all cost, and Padraic knew this too, but had gotten lost, and didnt really believe in that tripe anyway. Padraic spent the night in the Fairy Ring where he was visited by terrible visions, of his brother, dying gruesomely in the war, though it wasn't his brother, it was himself. It was all very worrying and confusing and when he awoke in the morning, he felt as if he had spent the whole night being roasted over a fire.
Thing went from bad to worse after that, Padraic kept at his training till he earned a position working in Tralee in Kerry, but he was wracked by nightmares, plagued by visions and haunted by spirits. Things started to go strange around him, the dead rose and tormented him when the moon was full, he saw visions of grisly murder when he closed his eyes. He was on edge, he felt drawn too thin.
One night, at the height of summer, 1921, he was called to the Cliffs in Portmagee. A man had spotted a woman dressed all in white, standing on the edge of the cliff. Padraic rushed to the scene to find himself strangely alone. There was no man in sight, no other Officers present, just him and the mysterious woman. Padraic braced himself and ran over his training, taking his helmet under his arm, he approached the cliffs edge, shouting to be heard over the sound of crashing waves. He called out to her, only to be met with the loudest, most ear piercing scream he had ever heard. The woman rounded on him, a twisted screaming monster, and began to advance.
Padraic dropped to his knees in fear, clutching at his heart. He saw dark visions and felt like he was about to pass out, before the screaming trailed off and stopped. The Banshee stood there, eyeing him in a confused manner. She began to speak to him then, telling him that his time had not come, that he was in the wrong place. She told him that he needed to leave Ireland or she WOULD take him, that if he left from Cobh in the morning, heading to America, he would live to see the next year at least, that is all she could promise.
When he asked why she was not going to take him, she told him that it was not for her to do. The little people had marked him and desired for him to be tormented. She wanted to deny them of their torment, allowing him to leave the country would be the best way to accomplish that.
Padraic accepted that explanation, as strange as the whole bloody thing was, and fled to Cobh that very night, taking nothing with him. He took ship come the morning, paying his way and doing some work as a Porter till they reached the Americas.
Here he worked for many years, till once again the strangeness began to manifest itself. The Irish Community was growing, and with it, Irish Culture was starting to entrench itself in the country. The Little People were being brought over in the minds and hearts of those who came to Boston to escape the War. He was running out of space, and needed to get farther away.
The strangeness followed him however and before long had caught up with him. He began to get involved with weirdness all over the country till eventually it became easier to work to solve it, rather than avoid it. He began to actively seek out the weirder goings on, hunting down creatures, dealing with ghosts and the like. Working on learning the ins and outs of paranormal things. He studied magic and worked with natives, foreigners and practitioners of all different types of arts. He traveled, learned and grew in his comfort with the paranormal side of his life.
Okay so it is long and I need to tie him directly to Vegas, but this is the basic idea. Okay I have the basic book, gonna start reading it now. Then I'm gonna pick up Rippers, unless someone can share the information with me. I'm really enjoying building these concepts.
Hmmm, I know a bit of lore from Deadlands classic that might be able to help an Irish immigrant connect to the Rippers. I don't know how much Loup is interested in old fluff, but it's an option if you like it. Sorry if this is presumptuous, I just know this setting way too well.
Then their leader figured out what caused the sudden change of heart. The local Freemasons had taken over city hall and the police force and were being manipulated by an evil sorcerer with mind control spells. With help from the local Irish Catholic church and some of their Blessed, he started to secretly move against the dark magic users to allow his people a fair shot at being part of the local community and government.
With the fusion with Rippers, it's possible that there are still groups of witch or monster hunters among Boston's Irish community who could get him connected to the Rippers. After that, it's simply a matter of him requesting to be sent somewhere far away and having them send him to help set-up the Vegas Lodge.
That actually sounds perfect. If Loup is up for that that would help this character a lot.
Just checking in cause it's been a few days. We're going to wrap up soon, but not just yet.
JDPhipps: Your soldier looks good to me, so you're now good to go.
Atlas2112: I'm not dropping the hammer just yet. If you have a Ripper concept and you want to whip together even a basic soldier, that's good enough for me. I definitely am pleased to see that we've got some more in-depth backgrounds for soldiers in some cases, but I'll reiterate that it isn't super necessary--after all, I know the pain of creating a lovingly detailed backstory for a character only to see them die soon afterwards. I don't want to put others through that.
DarkestHeart: Looks like a neat concept to me, and I definitely like a lot of what you have going on there. I'm also fine with using bits of Classic fluff, as there was a lot of neat stuff mentioned back in those days of the setting, so if you want to use that it's certainly on the table!
Related note: I have a little "RIP" folder for all my dead Savage Worlds characters. For a while, for some reason, every character I made would die horribly. The best was when I joked with my GM about what it would take to let me play a Super Mutant in Fallout. His answer was a six-page, single-spaced backstory with footnotes. I actually wrote it, and that poor Mutie got oneshot by a junkie in the second game. RIP two hours of writing. :')
I feel awful about it, but I laughed out loud when I read that. But on the plus side, there's a possibility that any one of your characters that dies in Deadlands will get right back up again a couple of days later and you can keep playing him.
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This is a notice that recruitment will close soon. As of right now interest and everything is still open, but consider this a warning that I'll be closing this off in a couple days or so. I think it's run long enough and we've got a solid bunch of submissions, so I'll be going over things again and selecting before much longer, so we can get this under way.
Well, it took me some time -and I still would like to write some things better- but here is my submission!
Second son to Lieutenant Murphy, Mike spent his youth in the rough streets of Boston.
Perhaps he was an idiot, perhaps he was being contrarian, but what you can be sure is that he fell in with a bad crowd.
Luckily for Michael, his time as a 'hooligan' didn't last long and he soon followed his father's stop and became an officer himself. His experience with the criminal world did help him, though, as he knew how they worked and the suita took notice, offering the young Murphy the chance to work undercover.
And he did like it... the chance to be discovered, working without a leash, catching the criminals in fraganti... Michael was born for that job.
His skills caught the attention of some higher ups and during the summer of 30' Michael infiltrated Las Vegas' Irish mafia. This wasn't no piece of cake, the whole thing spanning from whores to drugs and everything in between. For three years he passed information to the FBI, mostly typical stuff like meeting places, head honchos' names and cargo delivery times... but once he had enough of the mobsters' trust he was shown the truth: there were politicians, and we are not talking about majors, involved.
Mike passed this to the FBI too, and was soon answered that they had enough and he would be extracted during the following days with only the next meeting place attached... buy when the date came he didn't found his way out but a whole gang of angry, bitter mobsters.
They weren't alone, for his liaison counted among them. There was no movie like explanation, no pitched fight... he got the beating of his life and his throat sliced.
This would have been the last of Michael C. Murphy, were not for a curiousity filled Manitou that too took an interest on him.
I won't tell you happened during the three weeks between he 'came back' and when the Rippers found and recruited him, the papers already did it... you need only look for the news on the 'Brutal Clawings'.
What happens from now... well, time will tell. Time will tell.
That ended being longer than expected. Specially given that my Soldier is... barebones.
Position- Scout Sniper
Strength d4 (0)
Agility d8 (2)
Vigor d4 (0)
Spirit d6 (1)
Smarts d8 (2)
Edges- Quick(Human), Alertness(2 hindrance points), Linguist(2 hindrance points)
Hindrances- Small, Stubborn, Heroic
Languages- English, French, German
Skills-
Fighting d4(2)
Notice d8(3)
Shooting d8 (3)
Stealth d8 (3)
Survival d4(1)
Tracking d8(3)
Born to a simple family, Harry grew reading the tales of King Arthur and his liyal Knights of the Round Table.
A sick and small boy, he made up his frailty with quick wits and quicker feet.
His family tried hard to teach him, to send him to College and make a man of him... but Harry only desired one thing in life: to be a national hero like Arthur. But the british army had no use for a small guy like him, and rejected Little Harry no less than four times.
The start of WWI meant the requirements lowered and he joined the Reckon Scouts regiments.
His efforts to enter the militart paid off though, as he showed excellent accuracy with a rifle and an uncanny ability to aneak behind enemy lines.
God knows what drove Triple U to accrpt the frail looking boy into his squad, but there he is... and he's happy about it.
Alright, everybody. This has been a longer recruitment than I anticipated, and part of that is the great cast of characters you guys have submitted. If I had the time I'd love to take on everyone in various tables, but for my own sanity and the sake of running a decent game, I need to keep things to a certain level. With that in mind, I've selected the following brave, poor souls to join this one.
Aloha-Shirt-Samurai: Jorge Guerra and Desmond Thorn (Scout Sniper)
DarkestHeart: Padraic Casey and Sean Casey (TBD)
EmissaryOfTheNorth: Michael C. Murphy and Little Harry (Scout Sniper)
GM Niles: Kristophe Kristophson and Nilan Milarne (Trench Gunner)
JDPhipps: Aaron Nikhols, Jr. and Aaron Nikhols, Sr. (Tesla Engineer)
kamenhero25: Eliza Crow and Dances in Smoke (Scout Sniper)
Again, every submission had merit, but I have to keep things to a reasonable level for myself. That said if the time comes to welcome new folks into the fold, I'll be turning here first, and hope to see some of these same faces ready to go!
For the time being, I'd ask those six to report to Discussion so we can start talking and get things moving. Thank you to everyone!
RECRUITMENT IS NOW CLOSED.
Thanks for introducing me to a new game. Have fun. Maybe I will see you in a future SW game.