Welcome to Star City, the city of the future.

Game Master PoorWanderingOne

And I realize that I'm coming off here as a huge flake. Not my typical MO, but if you feel like you want to just move on I would understand that with no hard feelings.

The van would be on the far side of the overpass, off to the side and out of sight. Obviously facing the road in case we need to pursue.

I'll get a post up this afternoon and update the map. I have a doctor's appointment and am out of posting time until later.

Everyone

Hey folks I still need starting locations for Elemental, Imagine, and Karma. Nothing overly detailed. Just something like "I'm in the van" or "I'm in an empty cafe next to the road." If you are in plain sight let me know what you are doing to conceal your identity, if anything. Feel free to make up things like the aforementioned cafe.

Additionally I need to know if anyone is in the Van.

Savant Life, and flaking, happens. You are still interested in playing though?

Assuming that you are still in the game then I am assuming you are in the van Savant. That seems to be the best way to keep you present but not involved until you are ready.

Some driving music.

I am still interested. I hope to go through your your notes and take another shot at the numbers tomorrow.

I am still interested. I hope to go through your your notes and take another shot at the numbers tomorrow.

Cool.

There is a good chance I will be available tomorrow (west coast US time) for questions.

From what I can see all you need to do is decide on your advance, and then deal with gear.

Everything else is cleanup. Making sure the figured stats are correct, for some reason they are listed twice and the first set is likely from an earlier version of Savant because they are wildly off, removing all the extra bits I used to see what I was doing when I put Savant together, etc.

I've added a cleaner version of Savant in the spoiler but you will want to organize things the way you want them or run it through the generator if you prefer that format.

Most importantly from my point of view, would be to grab Savant and the books/PDF's and read through your powers and all the skills and all the Novice Combat edges. Warriors gift gives you access to any Combat Edge of your Rank or lower. Boost Trait/Jot gives you access to all the skills. The more you know about these Edges and skills the faster and easier Savant will be to play. Savant is on the complex side but should be fun to play.

2) Apparently there's a site called NPCgenerator.com I'll be disguised as:

Fay Boulderdown is a 43 year old female fisherwoman.

She has short dark hair and green eyes.

She has rough, sunburned, golden skin.

She stands 177cm (5'9") tall and has a round build.

She has a sharp, unremarkable face.

and apparently she's being constantly psychologically tortured by a crazed leprechaun...but why bring that up?

I'm going to be standing near the edge of the street, reading a random paperback. I'll do this until Karma sends back details on the van. Once I have eyes on the driver I'll go to work.

Poor Wandering GM, not sure if you care at all, but I truly appreciate your grace. I will do my best to get things together tomorrow.

Heading out of net access for a week or so. Will try to hop in if I can catch any connection. Otherwise talk among yourselves.

See you in a bit.
~PWO

Sorry, but I intended to post over the weekend, but work and home life events intervened. I'll post something soon, although with the last post by our GM, I guess it is something of a moot point. Still I'll get something up and try to keep up my end of any conversations.

I'm working in the evenings, M-Th for the next ten weeks, so most of my posts will come during the day and not generally after 3 PM.

Just wanted to come in and say that it's probably best for me to fall out of this campaign. I do want to get a better understanding of Savage Worlds, but I'm currently just terribly burnt out by my job, lacking in creativity and apparently the mental capacity to wrap my head around all of the nuances of building a character this complex in Savage Worlds. As someone who can build high level Pathfinder characters in half an hour, it is surprising to me how hard it has been to get this together. But I'm firmly middle aged and not as mentally flexible as I once was.

I apologize. I feel like I've strung you good people along all this time. I don't mean to be a flake, but it just isn't coming together for me.

Sorry to see you go. FWIW, building a Super in SW is one of the most, if not THE most, difficult thing to do.

May you always make your saving throw (or your vigor roll).

The advantage of d20 type systems is you have modular choices and so it can be pretty quick to put a character together. With open-ended classless systems (GURPS, SW) it tends to take much longer and it's harder (IMHO) to anticipate consequences of many choices.

Has anyone attempted to provide something like classes for SW campaigns that make some of the hard choices for a player and provide a starting point for a player who wants to create a particular type of character? For example, if one wanted to be rogue type, here are a good set of starting attributes, edges, and hindrances.

I know for a supers campaign, that might be a tall order since there are so many possible super combinations. But maybe it would help new players to have some examples of well known super heroes as they might be set up in Supers. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Storm, etc.

I need to let everyone know I'm experiencing some heath issues that are causing me to get too little sleep most nights. It's stressing me out and when I get stressed out, it's sometimes harder for me to be creative and enjoy posting in FRP PBP. I'll try to keep up and post as often as I can, but feel free to 'bot me if I'm holding things up.

On the PEG (parent company of SW) forums, many people have tried their hand at creating archetypal superheroes. And I'm sure people have posted or asked questions about various fantasy archetypes.

When I was creating Psiclops, I was modeling him after a Marvel telekinetic "red witch", and went to the boards for help. There are many players who frequent the boards who have expert knowledge of the system, and are generous enough to make long, thoughtful posts answering your questions. I got many differing opinions, and picked-and-chose what I wanted.

PEG itself has created a "Pathfinder using SW" book, which does its level best to implement all the concepts of Pathfinder by the SW rules. However, their "classes" aren't as strict as PF's - each class gets a starting specialized Edge, and at each Rank you get one more specialized Edge. In-between, you're free to pick any of the standard SW Edges. Caveat : I don't have the book, I'm going of what I've read about it on the web.

They've also created a strictly SW "Fantasy Companion", and I believe there are some new Arcane Backgrounds for different kinds of magic users, but AFAIK it doesn't have any classes at all (again, I don't have the book).

Just wanted to come in and say that it's probably best for me to fall out of this campaign. I do want to get a better understanding of Savage Worlds, but I'm currently just terribly burnt out by my job, lacking in creativity and apparently the mental capacity to wrap my head around all of the nuances of building a character this complex in Savage Worlds. As someone who can build high level Pathfinder characters in half an hour, it is surprising to me how hard it has been to get this together. But I'm firmly middle aged and not as mentally flexible as I once was.

I apologize. I feel like I've strung you good people along all this time. I don't mean to be a flake, but it just isn't coming together for me.

Aw Rats! I was really hoping to see you play. You and savant are a needed addition to the team. Any way I can talk you out of this?

SW is MUCH smoother in play than on paper. It is almost a joke in the SW community. New players balk at the apparent vertical learning curve but become fanatical converts once they play.

Would a simpler character help? I could toss something together pretty quick so you have something you are not invented in to try things out and then bring Savant in later once you have your feet wet so to speak.

I understand about being burnt out and if you need to trim things back to make some mental space then this is an easy snip. That said <puts on unqualified psychiatrist hat> Human connection, even if mediated, does help mitigate burnout. <tosses hat> I hope you change you mind but you do what you need to do.

As far as I am concerned you have an open invite to return at any time.
See you around Space Cow Boy.

Everyone

I am back from being chased by wild lizards. Just catching up on posts and then On we go!

Assuming Savant does leave. I will be opening recruiting again but we will be moving on with play while that happens.

Speaking of recruiting Elemental, you still with us?

May you always make your saving throw (or your vigor roll).

The advantage of d20 type systems is you have modular choices and so it can be pretty quick to put a character together. With open-ended classless systems (GURPS, SW) it tends to take much longer and it's harder (IMHO) to anticipate consequences of many choices.

Has anyone attempted to provide something like classes for SW campaigns that make some of the hard choices for a player and provide a starting point for a player who wants to create a particular type of character? For example, if one wanted to be rogue type, here are a good set of starting attributes, edges, and hindrances.

The Pathfinder Savage worlds book does have "classes" of a kind. You get a "class edge" for free. The Rogue edge for example gives you sneak attack but limits your use of heavy armor. It requires Agility, Notice, and Stealth at d6 to take so it is a bit of a package. As you hit higher ranks you have the option to take edges that have the Rogue edge as a prerequisite giving you more classic Rogue abilities. It is not Pathfinder but I think it would work. They also give stats/advancement breakdown for the Pathfinder Iconics so you could quickly reskin Merisiel and hop in.

I know for a supers campaign, that might be a tall order since there are so many possible super combinations. But maybe it would help new players to have some examples of well known super heroes as they might be set up in Supers. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Storm, etc.

The need for example characters was part of the reason I was stressing the need for players to have access to SPC3. The second half of the book is a rouges gallery full of thing to steal and reskin.

I need to let everyone know I'm experiencing some heath issues that are causing me to get too little sleep most nights. It's stressing me out and when I get stressed out, it's sometimes harder for me to be creative and enjoy posting in FRP PBP. I'll try to keep up and post as often as I can, but feel free to 'bot me if I'm holding things up.

Feel better soon Karma.

On the PEG (parent company of SW) forums, many people have tried their hand at creating archetypal superheroes. And I'm sure people have posted or asked questions about various fantasy archetypes.

When I was creating Psiclops, I was modeling him after a Marvel telekinetic "red witch", and went to the boards for help. There are many players who frequent the boards who have expert knowledge of the system, and are generous enough to make long, thoughtful posts answering your questions. I got many differing opinions, and picked-and-chose what I wanted.

PEG itself has created a "Pathfinder using SW" book, which does its level best to implement all the concepts of Pathfinder by the SW rules. However, their "classes" aren't as strict as PF's - each class gets a starting specialized Edge, and at each Rank you get one more specialized Edge. In-between, you're free to pick any of the standard SW Edges. Caveat : I don't have the book, I'm going of what I've read about it on the web.

They've also created a strictly SW "Fantasy Companion", and I believe there are some new Arcane Backgrounds for different kinds of magic users, but AFAIK it doesn't have any classes at all (again, I don't have the book).

The companion has class suggestions of stats, skills, and edge ideas that will give you the feel of a class.

Also in the PF SW you can take other classes edges if you qualify so there is nothing stopping someone with the "Barbarian" edge from taking the Rogue edge. That is how they do multi/prestige classes.

I am considering running a PFSW campaign. Rise of the Runelords for SW is out and Crimson throne is coming. That said there is also a revamped and expanded Breakout/Necessary Evil/Whatever the cosmic campaign is called on it's way.

Because you asked so nicely (which is mostly a joke) and more seriously because you are so gracious, how about you get this thing going and give me two more weeks?

I'm a high school teacher, and in a week I'll be mostly done with work and in two weeks I'll have 8 weeks off. At that point, I'll have the mental capacity to learn new things and get this build over the finish line, but right now I just don't.

PWGM - I would definitely try a SW PF game with you! Keep me posted!

I am considering running a PFSW campaign. Rise of the Runelords for SW is out and Crimson throne is coming. That said there is also a revamped and expanded Breakout/Necessary Evil/Whatever the cosmic campaign is called on it's way.

Both of these sound exciting!

I am pleased that SW put out a more D&D-specific ruleset. More than once I've seen that one Saltmarsh campaign try with the SW rules, but it never seems to go anywhere. I think the lack of that D&D "flair" and specific class powers damaged the enthusiasm.

But with the class-like Feats as you say, I do believe we might have a winner here!

Because you asked so nicely (which is mostly a joke) and more seriously because you are so gracious, how about you get this thing going and give me two more weeks?

I'm a high school teacher, and in a week I'll be mostly done with work and in two weeks I'll have 8 weeks off. At that point, I'll have the mental capacity to learn new things and get this build over the finish line, but right now I just don't.

No problem. Two weeks it is. Feel free to talk to folks in discussion if the spirit moves you. Glad to see that you are still in here fighting.

PWGM - I would definitely try a SW PF game with you! Keep me posted!

Not a problem. I will sing out here before an interest/recruitment post goes up.

But with the class-like Feats as you say, I do believe we might have a winner here!

Oh it is NOT Pathfinder/DND. It is an excellent reinterpretation of the source material and a good fantasy system but it does not duplicate PF/DnD. For example there is no auto-hit Magic Missile and Arcane/Martial characters are much closer in power even at Legendary rank. It also uses SW power points rather than spell slots. I think it can work but not if you come in expecting Pathfinder.

I've updated the ambush map.

Ambush Map Link

Positions of the truck and transport not necessarily where shown on the map, but approaching from that direction.

...

All would know that Karma can't move 70 mph, more like 8 mph. I hope she can still attempt to 'jump' into the Frame of Reference of the transport. Let me know what kind of roll this will be. If it's going to be a near impossible roll, Karma can instead try to project an illusion into the transport that might cause it to stop or crash.

It will be an Athletics roll at -1 due to their speed. Since they are unaware of you (as far as you know) the TN will be 4. Get a raise and you are riding inside with no problems. Get a success and the folks inside get a chance to Notice you. Assume the partial materialization needed to latch onto the car caused a bump/sound/weird feeling. A failure means you phase safely through the vehicle and are still standing on the road. A critical failure means a collision for 4d6 damage as you mistime the partial materialization. (base 2d6 from a large vehicle +d6 for higher Toughness than you +d6 for their speed.) After a collision you will be material and have a fifty-fifty chance of being in the Transport or the road.

Does that seen reasonable? The rules do not exactly cover this maneuver.

Giving Elemental and Doc a chance to chime in. So far it looks like Psiclops' blast and Karma's possible leap will start us off.

I'm going to be away from my computer from Friday afternoon to Sunday afternoon. Going to the beach for a few days of RnR. Hope it helps my burnout. 'Bot me if necessary.

Thank you for letting us know Karma. Enjoy the beach and say hi to the beach for me.

Savant want to take over botting duty? If not then who volunteers?

I have not yet heard from Elemental. Unless we here otherwise they are in the Villain Van and will follow any instructions you care to give them.

That means we are just waiting on someone to decide if Karma is going to try to leap into a speeding car or do something less sensible.

Still no word from Elemental. Sigh, time to start thinking about recruiting...

If no one hops in to bot Karma I will tomorrow (Saturday, pacific time). Because I will need to act against GM knowledge don't expect much. I would greatly prefer that PC's bot PC's but we need to try to get things moving.

I've known Karma's player for 40(!) years, but I won't claim I know how they would decide what Karma would do. But my guess is that Karma would try to stick to the original plan...

Remind me of the number of bennies we have after the reset. Thanks.

Remind me of the number of bennies we have after the reset. Thanks.

You do not have any benny effecting edges so you have the standard 3.

Welcome back.

Savant: How goes? Still overwhelmed or are your stress levels down to just welmed?

Elemental Starting to worry about the radio silence. You still interested?

Today was a day moving in the direction of whelmed. I expect to have myself together and go through the build in full by Saturday.

If I should just get completely in the weeds, I'll reach out.

Today was a day moving in the direction of whelmed. I expect to have myself together and go through the build in full by Saturday.

If I should just get completely in the weeds, I'll reach out.

Sweet!

I am thinking we have lost Elemental.

Hold the phone...

If Karma's range in telepathy is 24 inches and I was 18 inches away, wouldn't I have heard her?

PWGM, I put your build through the program I'm using. I ended up with one fewer die for abilities than you had and 3 fewer power points. I may have forgotten to throw a limitation on one of the powers?

In any case, my profile is updated, and I think I should be good to go.

Hold the phone...

If Karma's range in telepathy is 24 inches and I was 18 inches away, wouldn't I have heard her?

Nope because by the time she sent the message she was more than 90" away.

PWGM, I put your build through the program I'm using. I ended up with one fewer die for abilities than you had and 3 fewer power points. I may have forgotten to throw a limitation on one of the powers?

In any case, my profile is updated, and I think I should be good to go.

This is why I prefer paper. I cannot find the error the program is seeing.

Abilities from my "Clean Savant": Agility, Spirit, Strength, and Vigor at d8. 2 points each for 8 total. Smarts at d10 3 points for a total attribute cost of 11 points.

5 points are free. Hindrances pay for 2 (smarts). Powers grant 1 in Ag, Sp, St, and Vi, for 4. Total attribute points are 11.

Where is the error?

Abilities from your profile. Ag, Sp, St at d8. 2 each for 6. Vi at d6 for 1. Sm at d10 for 3. Total attribute cost of 10 points.

5 points free.
Hindrances still providing 2pts for Sm.
Powers grant 1 die each for Ag, Sp, St, and Vi for a total of 4

Total attribute points are 11. I am showing you under-spent by 1 on your profile.

Powers from "Clean Savant":
I did find a small error. Melee attack was recorded as costing 4 points it is actually only 2 for the +d6 damage to all h-t-h attacks.

Otherwise the points check. The costs are listed for each power on the "Clean Savant" sheet. Can you see where the program disagrees?

Powers from your profile:

.7. Additional Actions (5) + (2)Fast action

.2. Awareness (2)

.4. Boost/Lower Trait (2) + (2) any trait, + (2) Power, (-1) Self Only, (-1) Boost Only.

.3. Dodge -3

.2. Genius (2)

.3. Interface (2) + (1) Code Breaker

.2. Melee Attack (0) + (2 )Special Weapon

.2. Pace

.2. Super Attribute +1 agility

.2. Super Attribute +1 strength

.2. Super Attribute +1 spirit

.2. Super Attribute +1 vigor

.2. Super Edge, Gifted: Power Points: 15; Powers: Warrior's Gift,Trappings limitation: Limited Free Action to use, Self only.

.2. Super Edge, Great Luck

.3. Super Skill, +3 Fighting

.1. Super Skill, +1 Focus

.1. Super Skill, +1 shooting

.3. Toughness, +3 toughness
{Total 45}

Lair + 5 pts.
.2. Deadeye (2)

.3. Uncanny Reflexes (3)

Grand total 50

The only difference in the powers between your profile and "Clean Savant" id the melee attack power You are limiting it to a specific weapon where I had it applying to everything. The cost is the same either way.

I am not seeing the errors that the program is finding. You can go with the lower Vigor if you want but I think the program is making a mistake.

Savant

I am swapping you in for Elemental unless you have an issue here. You are sitting in the drivers seat of the Villain Van. You might want to make Driving your J-O-T skill unless you had another idea for it.
None of the remaining issues detailed below are critical so I am dropping you in as is and we will fix things as we go.

Welcome to the Game.

I found a small error to your benefit! Clean Savant is showing 19 points in skills and your profile is showing 17 but between the base 15 and the 5 from the various super skills you have 20 skill points to play with!

Clean Savant
Skills: * is a base d4 free.
Academics sm, Athletics ag* d6, Battle sm, Boating ag, Com Kn sm*, Driving ag, Electronics sm d4(+2 to roll interface), Fighting ag d12, Focus sp d10, Gambling sm. Hacking sm d4(+2 to roll interface), Healing sm, Intimidation sp, Language sm, Notice sm*, Occult sm, Performance sp, Persuasion sp*, Piloting ag, Repair sm d4, Research sm d4, Riding ag, Science sm, Shooting ag d10, Stealth ag* d6, Survival sm, Taunt sm, Thievery ag (+2 to roll from interface). 19 skill points used
Skill points budget:{15 free 5 from super skills} 20

From your profile
Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d4, Electronics d4, Fighting d12, Focus d10, Hacking d4, Language (Native) d8, Notice d4, Persuasion d4, Repair d4, Research d4, Shooting d8, Stealth d4. 17 skill points used.
Skill points budget:{15 free 5 from super skills} 20

So clear the skill issue and the ability issue and confirm that you want Special weapon instead of the more general Melee attack. (And define the specific weapon Special weapon applies to if you go that route) And you are good to go.

Savant and everyone.

Savant has replaced Elemental in the van. They are currently on hold so Savant you can take action now or remain on hold going into the second turn.

It is also entirely possible that it is a "garbage in> garbage out" situation. I might have clicked something wrong in settings or put something in incorrectly. I'm going to make the changes manually.

Adding thievery to make it a d4 since that is something I see him as having actually learned rather than just something the voices show him how to do.

Raising vigor to d8.

Melee attack should apply to all. There wasn't a way to encode that or I missed it. I fixed that in profile.

I'll try to figure out the power points but can't do that until later. But I'm good to be in the van.

Glad to get things moving.

"I think the truck needs some butter and jam, because it's toast..."

Zing!

Dude you should've said that out loud! That could be like your tagline....

It might help to get a description of where everyone is relative to the pick-up truck and the Transport. Anything that's still on the map can be positioned there, although it sounds like Transport is well past the map area. I could make a larger scale map to track where things are if it will help.

Are we waiting on something?

I know I'm waiting on the GM to describe the results of Karma's last action. There are a few other posts pending GM response as well.

According to the last listing of card values, Karma, Psiclops, and Imagine were remaining for the round. Each has posted something. So it's the GM's turn. Hope all is well with PWGM.

Yup, Life kicked me but I survived.
New post incoming.

From the play thread...

"Team, we good? Anyone need me? The van? Anything?"

Delay.

I am assuming by "Delay" you mean you are going on hold. If so remember you can hop in anytime you like.

Yes, on hold. Thanks.

Everyone

Elemental appears to be gone. The last post I could find from the player was 22 May. I have also sent a couple of PM's to no response.

Pending other information I have moved them to inactive.

Big Question do we want to replace them? If so I will not be holding the game in stasis while they are running through char gen. Learned that lesson.

Thoughts.