Sebecloki's Untitled Campaign (Inactive)

Game Master Sebecloki

i have the rifts australia sourcebook. will this work?

grumble. spent the last 2 years posting only as rizzenmagnus...rather difficult to remember I am the player here lol

Will what work, a cyberknight? I guess you could come from outside Australia. I haven't delved deeply into the lore on them.

I think they meant was Rifts: Australia the right book.

I think my profile is now correct.

I assigned one mod to the bike being "dockable" with the Archdevil (Mountaineer Mk 1 reskin).

How do you want us to format our short profile? The one that displays underneath our name. Can't remember what it's called.

correct. i have the original rifts australia book published back in 98. will this work as source/background info material?

That's the same one I'm using

Excited for the kickoff, GM!

Okay, I just heard back from two people that they still wanna jump in, and one of those is the guy who posted in Recruitment, so I wanna be fair and give them this week to jump in. (So let's just pencil in Monday the 6th as Start date.)

But! I don't wanna leave you guys just hanging, so let's do something I've never ever done before and run that vehicle fight. Chase rules!

Also, this'll be good practice for me too. It's a win-win all around.

Let's say 5 motorcycles and 1 ATV. All crewed to capacity by Black Market Enforcers.

Per SWADE Chase rules, page 115, we will have 9 cards, range 25 per each card.

The Party starts at card 8, the gang at card 1. We will go 10 rounds after which time the gang will get bored and give it up.

You may get closer, or farther.

Party goes first.

Go!

One of those guys would be me.
A little too busy to be able to read the whole thread today, but I'll get down to it tomorrow.
I was thinking about playing a psi operator or technowizard. Let's hope either of those would fit in.

Okay, I just heard back from two people that they still wanna jump in, and one of those is the guy who posted in Recruitment, so I wanna be fair and give them this week to jump in. (So let's just pencil in Monday the 6th as Start date.)

But! I don't wanna leave you guys just hanging, so let's do something I've never ever done before and run that vehicle fight. Chase rules!

Also, this'll be good practice for me too. It's a win-win all around.

** spoiler omitted **

Let's say 5 motorcycles and 1 ATV. All crewed to capacity by Black Market Enforcers.

Per SWADE Chase rules, page 115, we will have 9 cards, range 25 per each card.

The Party starts at card 8, the gang at card 1. We will go 10 rounds after which time the gang will get bored and give it up.

You may get closer, or farther.

Party goes first.

Go!

So we are trying to get away? If so, and they are 7 cards away, then I can make a check to flee with no penalty? Not sure if that is what you meant so set up.

Noah looks at the rear display and shakes his head, "Not today, boys and girls. Don't have no time for playing."

His hands move expertly over the wheel, flicking a switch to over charge the engines.

Driving: 1d6 ⇒ 3
Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 3

Hmm. Maybe didn't build him to be as good at driving as I had hoped.

I think they are at range 175, and the cannon can't shoot that far, so I'll be done.

Alright! Good stuff, good stuff.

Good to hear from you, BoggBear. Can't wait to see what you post tomorrow. Yes, either of those would be a welcome choice.

Noah, let's define some terms.

1) The PPC, I'm thinking, has 360 fire. That would, however, put it in a overhead cupola, accessible from the body of the vehicle, but would need a Gunner to fire it. Is this what you are thinking? No, you have Combat Ace, you are thinking you can drive and shoot. Well, then we can say it's either. With a d6 shooting perhaps you are indeed counting on someone else getting all up in there, eh?

There is also the motorcycle. Sure, it can be up top, and launchable. However it is otherwise immobile while attached, and thus the weapons on it count as Fixed, and thus can only fire in the front arc. If you are facing the enemy this is no big deal. However if you are running away this is a thing.

All, don't forget that you can fire personal weapons from a vehicle. However that entails the Unstable Platform penalty. You can also fire further than long range, as Extreme range is 4x Long, but you need to Aim, and it's a hefty penalty after that.

Let's see if we can't fix that!

I gave everyone more than 12 hours. That's long enough to post for a combat round. Moving on!

They all will take an Action to Change Position to come closer. With an Action that's +2 to the roll, and they are faster than your top speed, and that is another +1.

Cycle #1 is obviously the leader of the cyclists and kicks it up a notch, gunning forward. The rest of the pack follow his lead and close the distance, if not as skillfully.

They are now at Card 3. With you at Card 8 they are 5 away, at range 125. For the purposes of the exercise, I am saying that you can no longer take the Flee action. You may take a benny for my cruel but inevitable evilness.

Round 2.

Party is up.

I imagine my character to be a better driver than he currently is, so I might need to move some skill bonuses around to improve that. I was hoping to be able to get Vehicle Interface Cybernetics, but the dice gods didn't answer those prayers.

I don't really care about being a good shooter, so if there is another character who wants to be a good gunner and man the turret, I'd be cool with that, and would probably lower shooting and boost driving.

Maybe it makes the most sense for the bike to be more a side mount thing, but definitely its weapons are always forward facing. Ace is an edge that comes with the Framework. I was thinking the PPC could be manned or controlled from the "cockpit" but still on a swivel on the roof for 360 firing.

I'll see if anyone else weighs in.

Somebody has a car? Who's the driver for the party?

I have a car and a heavy duty motorcycle. I'm trying to be the driver. Need to boost my driving skill. I've put some points into boating, which may or may not be useful. I could move those points since it sounds like Road Warrior shenanigans will definitely be a thing.

When I say car, its a large 6 wheeled armored transport that can launch the bike Knight Rider style with room for 6 crew.

I don't understand the point of Chase cards. RAW does not help.

The Chase cards are just a way to keep track of distance without having a big huge unwieldy map.

That is, when you "move" instead of moving some number of hexes, you make a skill test, and, depending how good a pilot you are, you don't move so much as change distance relative to the other people participating.

Basically it is an easier way of tracking distance.

Thus, I don't have to use a map and say "you guys move 124 hexes, and then this motorcycle moves 143 hexes, the cycle behind him 144, the one behind that 152," etc, wherein the only important movement is that the enemy is now closer.

Ok so,

M.A.R.S Fortune and Glory: 1d20 ⇒ 15

M.A.R.S Fortune and Glory: 1d20 ⇒ 1

Animal magnetism and Up close and personal huh? Not quit what I expected...

Education 1d20 ⇒ 19
Pick one...hmmm, We'll take the understanding computers one.

Enchanted items & gear 1d20 ⇒ 10
A snare gun huh...?

Experience and wisdom 1d20 ⇒ 17
And Gain Elan...

Money: 4d6 ⇒ (6, 1, 4, 2) = 13
Gear: 2d4 ⇒ (1, 2) = 3
1500 credits in cash and 1500 in gear...

Anything I've missed there?

The Chase cards are just a way to keep track of distance without having a big huge unwieldy map.

That is, when you "move" instead of moving some number of hexes, you make a skill test, and, depending how good a pilot you are, you don't move so much as change distance relative to the other people participating.

Basically it is an easier way of tracking distance.

Thus, I don't have to use a map and say "you guys move 124 hexes, and then this motorcycle moves 143 hexes, the cycle behind him 144, the one behind that 152," etc, wherein the only important movement is that the enemy is now closer.

Sounds like a table-top visual aide that just adds another layer of confusion to pbp. Unless vehicle speed is measured in Card units, I vote we scrap it. You can simply tell us what the distance is without referencing cards.

Hi all, Atlas invited me to drop in to this game and I'm enjoying what little I've seen of the Savage Worlds system. I've read through the thread (briefly) and I'm a bit confused by the MARS (it seems to be capitalised) references and the randomised dice rolls - I have the SWADE book (and some Deadlands stuff) but I'm clearly not in possession of the entirety of the SW oeuvre.

If anyone can guide me through the makings of a character for this game that would be appreciated.

Good stuff BoggBear! Just put together the rest of the character and then I'll take a good look.

WW, check yur PMs.

Percy, everything you said is the opposite of true. It's a table-top-less aide that removes miniatures but still lets us have a moving, fluid combat that takes into account vehicle speed, driver skill, and weapon quality and ranges.
Mind you, since you're not driving, all you need pay attention to are the resulting ranges, so it's a win-win.
Note that we were able to do a full round of combat already without pausing for 3 days for a GM and player to have lengthy discussions about a multi-layer google doc. Not all SW games can avoid such pitfalls.

Yes, Noah, that is good for the PPC gun. It likes to have a gunner give it attention, but it can be controlled from the driver's seat too.

With that said, once the distance closes, people can shoot with personal arms, so you might not want to drop your shooting too much. A d6 seems good--and do you really want a d4 shooting in normal combat?--but I can see how you'd wanna swap to get your driving up too, so as you wish.

Of note, it's a new round so everyone can start rolling dice and things.

i dont know what book i should be looking at for rules pertaining to combat or anything like that. i dont know where to find anything.

Good stuff BoggBear! Just put together the rest of the character and then I'll take a good look.

WW, check yur PMs.

Percy, everything you said is the opposite of true. It's a table-top-less aide that removes miniatures but still lets us have a moving, fluid combat that takes into account vehicle speed, driver skill, and weapon quality and ranges.
Mind you, since you're not driving, all you need pay attention to are the resulting ranges, so it's a win-win.
Note that we were able to do a full round of combat already without pausing for 3 days for a GM and player to have lengthy discussions about a multi-layer google doc. Not all SW games can avoid such pitfalls.

How many Cards can I shoot?

For Combat you just want the Savage World Adventure Edition Core book. That is abbreviated SWADE.

The other book we are using is the Tomorrow Legion Player’s Guide which has the Rifts stuff.

For most things you want to do you roll the skill die you have in the skill and also a wild die which is always a d6. If either of them is as much as the target, you succeed. Also they can Ace and there are critical failures on double ones.

My Fireburst rifle has a range of 24/48/96. Am I supposed to convert that to Card units? The range combat section on page 93 does not list the unit type. Is that somewhere else? Is there a unit conversion matrix I can reference?

I THINK I've got it all down and right...

I didn't see a restriction on the melee weapon I could get, but I thought I miiiight be biting off a little too much if I was cheeky and went for the TW battle blade, 12 million credit on a starter character, bit much eh?
So I went low with a light blade instead.

Aside from that, I don't think there were any difficulties.
Got to say though, didn't expect the changes in attitude those rolls brought on.
Funny how things can surprise you.

ok....

i got the core rulebook, swade. page 91 has the start of the rules for combat, and it talkks about pulling cards for initiative. i assume we arent pulling cards but instead rolling dice.

also, i look through the combat rules, and i am not seeing anything about a "roll this dice to determine hit on attack". i saw the bit about target numbers to hit, about ranges, and then it rolls into rolling for damage. it doesnt say anything about rolling to hit.

is there any chance someone could write up a full combat scenario that describes whats/how things are done? such as
Player x wants to shoot kangaroo. the kangaroo is 20 meters/feet/yards away from player x. player x looks at his sheet, sees that he has "x" feat/advantage/skill/ability/doodad. Player x rolls d20/d100/d10/dx, adds in skill/ability/doodad, gets Y result. It is a miss, and the kangaroo laughs, hopping away. Player X gets mad, pulls a grenade, and throws it at kangaroo. He rolls an YY, and the grenade lands 5 feet in front of the kangaroo. a moment later it explodes as the kangaroo passes over the explosive. (insert descriptive text here)

oh, hey, i found this, a savage worlds combat cheet sheet. this work?
the cheat sheet link

That is really good. I wish it mentioned this other card thing that seems to correlate with Range.

This is the map for the first scene (I'll be using some different VTT resources for different scenes). From what I was able to discern, Savage Worlds operates like a wargame with measurement, but not a grid, so I turned the grid off and disconnected the measurement tool from 'snap to gird'. I'm just going to use everyone's paizo alias image for ease of identification unless someone wants to make a different token image.

Bastion City Market Map

ok....

Excellent. This is the perfect place to start.

Another name for Savage Worlds could be "Roll a 4."

You want to hack the computer system? Roll a 4.

You want to avoid plunging the car off a cliff? Roll a 4.

You are shooting guns and want to shoot someone? Roll a 4.

Rolling a 4 is called a "Success". If something is particularly tough, I will say to roll at -2. Hence, you roll your die, subtract 2, and hope to get a 4. So too, rolling four -more- than what you need is considered a Raise and all kinds of candy happens.

There are a few exceptions to this. Attacking someone in melee for example. In that case your Fighting roll needs to be equal than their Parry.

The Cheat sheet is very good. Follow that.

To answer your question, then, if you are trying to shoot an innocent kangaroo that has done nothing to you and is just trying to get home to its family, the target number for Shooting is 4. Medium range is -2, Long -4, range is listed by weapon stats.

My Fireburst rifle has a range of 24/48/96. Am I supposed to convert that to Card units? The range combat section on page 93 does not list the unit type. Is that somewhere else? Is there a unit conversion matrix I can reference?

Per SWADE Chase rules, page 115, we will have 9 cards, range 25 per each card.

Yes, right now they are 125 away, so into eXXXtreme range, thus needing an Aim action to shoot at.

Of course, there is an unmanned PPC that no one is doing anything with. That could be a possibility.

Party is still up.

For those still working on characters, I made mine with this:

Savaged World Character Builder

I rejiggered my abilities and skills so that my driving could be a d8. Had to move a die of Strength to Agility. Profile updated.

For this action, I'm just going to try simple things. I have more complicated ideas, but since this is a tutorial I'll just do basic things.

Noah takes his foot off the gas, letting the Devil slow and the bikes zoom toward them.

free action to "drop back" two cards, leaving them 3 cards behind us. or 75 feet (I think it is feet).

Using a targeting toggle, he swivels the PPC turret to the rear and fires at the lead motorcycle, but the shots fly right over it.

Shoot: 1d6 ⇒ 1
Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 2

Excellent.

Now, for the rest of the party, the OpFor are within range of most personal weapons. (Because the PPC has now been used.)
For a 24/48/96, that's long range, for -4. Hard but doable.

All ranges on the weapons are "Game inches". Same thing for numbers in vehicle speeds. So that is the only unit I am using.

(FWIW, 1 inch is 2 yards, but let's not get into that. Again.)

I think they would also take Unstable Platform and Running penalties.

How about I also take the "Hold Steady" action to remove those? Makes attacks against the vehicle at +2. That is also a free action.

i got the core rulebook, swade. page 91 has the start of the rules for combat, and it talkks about pulling cards for initiative. i assume we arent pulling cards but instead rolling dice.

Oh, right, I wanted to address this.

No no, in SW we pull cards for init. When the time comes I will have a physical deck and I will draw cards and let everyone know what their initiative is.

We are not doing it now because it would add complexity and we are just learning the system now. So we're just doing simple block init for the demo.

You are quite correct, Noah.

Yes, that will remove the modifier, but make the vehicle Vulnerable.

Wait, what is this "Running" penalty you are referring to? (Like, if you are on foot, and you Run, running is an action, so running and shooting would be a MAP, Muli-Action Penalty.)

(For your next question, for the demo we're also not applying Speed penalties. Also, when the attacker and target are in a relative straight line, as everyone is now, it wouldn't apply anyway.)

Edit: Alright, I'll look into that. Not gonna affect us now though.

Not sure. It is from page marked 116 (118 of 211 in pdf).

HOLD STEADY (Free Action): The character,
driver, or pilot holds steady to line up
a better shot. They ignore the Unstable
Platform and Running penalties, but attacks
against the vehicle and all its occupants are
made at +2 until the beginning of their next
turn (this does not stack with Vulnerable).

OK, I'm still reading up on the game in between doing this "work" thing that people keep talking to me about (personally I don't think it will catch on but they seem very insistent about it).

What are people currently playing in terms of roles? Is there a niche that my character could fill that would be useful?

All: Of note, the motorcycle on top of the mountaineer is now an option. Now that you guys are facing the enemy someone could climb on top of that.
Of course you'd be exposed, but don't let that stop you.

WW: So far we've got a "Normal humans against this crazy, crazy world" thing going on, with 3 MARS packages and one cyberknight.

So we don't really have any of the more classic classes, like burster, crazy, or juicer.

Not that I mind. I myself prefer MARS, power armor jock most especially.

For now I'd say we've sort of got a low-power thing going on, which might be good to stick with, so I'd lean away from GlitterBoy or Robot(Mech) pilot.

Otherwise, go with what you know. If you wanna go more standard SW, no one has done the MARS Merc Soldier yet.

I'm considering making one change.
Since I can have a pet up to size 3, maybe I should to a horse, and maybe even change drive to Ride?
Hmmm...

Perry powers his fireburst rifle and waits for a closer shot.

All: One of the things I like about SW is how easy it is to make your action bar.

Without a billion skills and saves to clutter the thing, we can focus on just the basics.

Make sure to have your Toughness (the format is Total(armor). Thus if you have a nekkid toughness of 5, and you put on 2 points of armor, your Toughness is 7(2).

Also have your Parry. Your Parry is 2 + half your Fighting die. So a Fighting of d6 would have 2+3 = Parry 5.

For those of you who have Power Points, like Perry, please make sure to list this.

Also Notice is used a lot, like Perception of other games. It might be good to list this.

Lots of people put in their attack numbers.

Also, Wounds. I like the convention of 0/3 at full health, as Wounds are something you accumulate through damage.

Perry powers his fireburst rifle and waits for a closer shot.

Well done Perry. Are you loading it? Note that loading your TW weapon takes an action and 2 PP. This gives it a full clip though.

If everyone just waiting for the motorcycles to come closer?

Perenian "Perry" Ethgarnon wrote:

Perry powers his fireburst rifle and waits for a closer shot.

Well done Perry. Are you loading it? Note that loading your TW weapon takes an action and 2 PP. This gives it a full clip though.

If everyone just waiting for the motorcycles to come closer?

Goddamn right my rifle is powered. Now come a little closer.

I wasn't totally clear with my post. What I intended was to stay pointed away form them, but allow them to catch up a bit. I think that is still at long range for Perry, so it would be a -4 penalty?

I think we also need to explain Acing dice.

Re: Aceing.

Rolling an Ace just means you roll the maximum that you can on the die you are rolling. So, rolling a d4, an ace is a 4. d6, it's a 6. 8 on a d8 etc. If you Ace, you get to roll it -again- and add it to your total.

So if you shooting someone with a d8, and roll an 8, you get to roll it again. Let's say you roll a 6. 8+6 = 14. Good job.

Yes, if you roll an 8 again you get to keep rolling until you don't roll an 8. (Yes, this can get nutso. Yes, all dice can Ace...except the running die. Some people don't like this but it means that no matter how fast you think you are running, you can never ever teleport.)

This means damage doesn't "technically" follow a good average wave. Well, it kinda does, but as my super-secret consultant pointed out, this means a d6 now has an average damage of 4.2~ish, rather than 3.5, because of the chance of Aceing, and of multiple aces on one roll. Unlikely, yes, but not impossible.

So too, this means that EVERY weapon is deadly. Sure, you might have a Toughness of 22 and the enemy might only do 2d6 for damage. But if the die roller decides that it doesn't like any number that isn't 6, well, things might could get interesting.

Okay, Mountaineer is tolling along at a reasonable speed and the Opposing Forces catch up. That puts the OpFor at card 3, and the Devil at card 6.

The OpFor is gonna use a Free action to try and catch up.

Cycle 1 and ATV 1 remain at card 3. This distance from them to the party remains at 75. Cycle 2,3, and 4 are at card 4. Distance to them is now 50.

And now they will shoot.

Cycles 2, 3, 4:

Cycle 4 rolled a 5, and the to-hit number at range is always 4. (This can be modified, but none of those modifiers are in play for this roll.

damage: 4d6 ⇒ (2, 1, 3, 4) = 10

The Toughness of the Mountaineer is 35(17). The laser did 10 points of damage, with 5 points of Armor Piercing. The AP technically brings the Toughness down to 30, and so it doesn't even scratch the paint.

Cycle 1 and the ATV will also act. Cycle 1 shoots:
shoot: 1d8 ⇒ 6
and hit for
damage: 4d6 ⇒ (1, 2, 4, 2) = 9
even worse.

ATV shoot: 1d8 ⇒ 1

And the ATV misses.

However the ATV will also try to achieve missile lock.

electronics: 1d8 ⇒ 1

and that also fails.

Party is up!

Perry, what do you want me to do. I can drop back again and get you closer to them. Or you can use the weapons built into our ATV. Or I have a cool rifle with a longer range that you can borrow. What do you think?

Juicer Assassin Energy Rifle (Range 30/60/120, Damage 4d6, ROF 1, AP 4),

Perry targets one of the closer cycles and takes a shot at it.

Shooting (1 shot+wild): 1d6 ⇒ 21d6 ⇒ 6 Wild Ace: 1d6 ⇒ 5
Damage: 4d6 + 1d6 ⇒ (5, 2, 2, 1) + (4) = 14 + AP2, It Burns

Ok, let's get nuts.

Noah flips switches to engage the missile targeting countermeasures This is just fluff.

Then he fires the PPC again at another cycle.

Shooting: 1d6 - 2 ⇒ (6) - 2 = 4 Wild: 1d6 ⇒ 1
Shooting ACE: 1d6 ⇒ 1

Pretty sure that hits.
damage: 4d6 + 2 ⇒ (3, 5, 5, 1) + 2 = 16

Then he slams on the brakes, dropping back again, this time more vigorously, attempting to slam into one of the last close cycle.

Driving: 1d8 ⇒ 5wild: 1d6 ⇒ 6
Wild Ace: 1d6 ⇒ 3 For a total of 9. He gets an opposed driving roll.

So I think damage is: 3d6 for Large size, 1d6 for a Raise, 1d6 for Toughness higher than bike, 2d6 for speed, but check my calculations if I win the opposed roll.

Ram damage: 7d6 ⇒ (3, 1, 1, 1, 5, 4, 5) = 20

Perry targets one of the closer cycles and takes a shot at it.

Excellent shot Perry.

Now we're going to get into rules about ECC--Exposed Crew Compartment. Basically it's like when you're on a motorcycle and someone shoots at you. The motorcycle provides no protection.

When a vehicle with ECC is targeted there is a 50% chance to hit the pilot. Since the cycle is below the rider, we will say that lower numbers hit the vehicle.

1-50 cycle, 51-100 rider: 1d100 ⇒ 34 The motorcycle is hit.

The Highway-Man Motorcycle has a TOU of 16(8). The Fireburst is AP 2.

ALL: For future reference, please put your Armor Piercing value someone in the attack. Like: {dice=Fireburst Rifle. AP2.}

The AP 2 takes the TOU down to 14. Thus 14 damage does not cause a wound, but would normally force an OOC roll which we've covered are long and boring and please don't make me do that again. What we do instead is call the vehicle Shaken and give it 1 Shake to the 2d6 ⇒ (2, 6) = 8 Chasis. Cycle # 2 is -1 armor until taken care of.