Savage Marches

[nDervish]

I can manage Thursday, or any day after that within the next week

Just to clarify, do you mean Thursday the 27th or Thursday the 4th?

I meant the 27th (which is the date I thought you were suggesting), but I can do either (and probably even both).

[God45]

Good I was suggesting the 27th My English just broke down and I was unsure which one you meant.

So, anybody else that can play the 27th?

[nDervish]

OK, yeah, so... stuff:

XP Awards

All the characters who returned alive from Elderone last night get 2 XP.

Escaping Elderone

Now that I've read the chase rules, they're actually pretty simple. We probably could have played out the chase in 5-10 minutes if I hadn't had to read the rules first. Ah, well.

However, the chase rules don't have a lot of room for choice in them beyond who to attack (if you can attack) and an occasional decision of whether to keep up your speed and make a roll to clear an obstacle or slow down and avoid it entirely. Since it's relatively non-interactive, I figure it makes the most sense for me to just play it out on my own, but I'll wait until tomorrow night first to see whether anyone objects to that.

Oh, and I already made some to-hit rolls against Ramrach. On the round you fled, the ghouls rolled 2, 3, 5 against his parry of 6, then on the next round, he defended (+2 parry) and fled, with hit rolls of 5, 5, 4 for the ghouls. He got away untouched and will be running for town along with you!

More Player Bribes

Although putting general background information on the Obsidian Portal site kind of falls on me by necessity, I want the details of what happened in play to come from the players' perspective. So, after each session, if you update the wiki with information about what you've discovered in that session, you get an extra bennie in the next session. If you post about the session's events (ideally in-character, but third-person is great, too) under the "Adventure Log" tab, that's also good for an extra bennie. And, yeah, you get two of them if you do both.

Rule Tweaking

I don't think we've done enough with the system yet to make a final decision on either of these, but a couple other Setting Rules I've been considering:

1) No Power Points. This is a standard Setting Rule (SW Deluxe 95). Instead of tracking Power Points, you take a penalty on your arcane skill roll of half the PP cost of the power and an additional -1 per power that you're already maintaining. I would probably also want to replace the "Power Preparation" mechanic on SWD95 with something like the "channeling" mechanic described in this post on the official SW forum. (Weird Science or Alchemy would continue to use Power Points as normal, since they're not "spellcasting"-type powers, so the No Power Points mechanics don't fit them very well.)

2) A more abstract encumbrance system, based on the ideas in this blog post. We haven't really exercised the RAW encumbrance system much yet, but it's something to think about.

I mostly just mention these as things to pay attention to in future sessions and see if you think they'd improve the game. I have no intention of doing anything with them in the immediate future.

And I think that's all I've got at the moment. Thanks for playing and I look forward to doing it again!

[bladerunner_35]

OK, yeah, so... stuff:

XP Awards

All the characters who returned alive from Elderone last night get 2 XP.

I guess it still remains to be seen who actually survives the desperate flight. Time to lay those bets gentlemen.

Escaping Elderone

Now that I've read the chase rules, they're actually pretty simple. We probably could have played out the chase in 5-10 minutes if I hadn't had to read the rules first. Ah, well.

However, the chase rules don't have a lot of room for choice in them beyond who to attack (if you can attack) and an occasional decision of whether to keep up your speed and make a roll to clear an obstacle or slow down and avoid it entirely. Since it's relatively non-interactive, I figure it makes the most sense for me to just play it out on my own, but I'll wait until tomorrow night first to see whether anyone objects to that.

Oh, and I already made some to-hit rolls against Ramrach. On the round you fled, the ghouls rolled 2, 3, 5 against his parry of 6, then on the next round, he defended (+2 parry) and fled, with hit rolls of 5, 5, 4 for the ghouls. He got away untouched and will be running for town along with you!

Yeah, at first I thought the chase rules were pretty cool but it doesn't even seem as if you get any advantage of getting ahead! For me your welcome to play it out by yourself and let us know the result.

More Player Bribes

Although putting general background information on the Obsidian Portal site kind of falls on me by necessity, I want the details of what happened in play to come from the players' perspective. So, after each session, if you update the wiki with information about what you've discovered in that session, you get an extra bennie in the next session. If you post about the session's events (ideally in-character, but third-person is great, too) under the "Adventure Log" tab, that's also good for an extra bennie. And, yeah, you get two of them if you do both.

I need those bennies!

Rule Tweaking

I don't think we've done enough with the system yet to make a final decision on either of these, but a couple other Setting Rules I've been considering:

1) No Power Points. This is a standard Setting Rule (SW Deluxe 95). Instead of tracking Power Points, you take a penalty on your arcane skill roll of half the PP cost of the power and an additional -1 per power that you're already maintaining. I would probably also want to replace the "Power Preparation" mechanic on SWD95 with something like the "channeling" mechanic described in this post on the official SW forum. (Weird Science or Alchemy would continue to use Power Points as normal, since they're not "spellcasting"-type powers, so the No Power Points mechanics don't fit them very well.)

Seems to be more book keeping and less power but it's all good.

2) A more abstract encumbrance system, based on the ideas in this blog post. We haven't really exercised the RAW encumbrance system much yet, but it's something to think about.

I mostly just mention these as things to pay attention to in future sessions and see if you think they'd improve the game. I have no intention of doing anything with them in the immediate future.

I just read the summary. I like the geist of it though it seems a tad complicated, but I can live with it I think.

How about characters can carry a number of items equal to their strength die and maybe an equal number of items on top of that at minus -1 on all tests or some such and call it a day?

And I think that's all I've got at the moment. Thanks for playing and I look forward to doing it again!

Me too!

[God45]

More Player Bribes

Although putting general background information on the Obsidian Portal site kind of falls on me by necessity, I want the details of what happened in play to come from the players' perspective. So, after each session, if you update the wiki with information about what you've discovered in that session, you get an extra bennie in the next session. If you post about the session's events (ideally in-character, but third-person is great, too) under the "Adventure Log" tab, that's also good for an extra bennie. And, yeah, you get two of them if you do both.

Part one of Spellbutchers journal is up

1) No Power Points. This is a standard Setting Rule (SW Deluxe 95). Instead of tracking Power Points, you take a penalty on your arcane skill roll of half the PP cost of the power and an additional -1 per power that you're already maintaining. I would probably also want to replace the "Power Preparation" mechanic on SWD95 with something like the "channeling" mechanic described in this post on the official SW forum. (Weird Science or Alchemy would continue to use Power Points as normal, since they're not "spellcasting"-type powers, so the No Power Points mechanics don't fit them very well.)

This I do not know about. If spellbutcher would try to control a dog he would get a -4 or -5 to his roll and he is only rolling a d8 to begin with...

Thanks for playing and I look forward to doing it again!

The first session was great See you at the next session.

[nDervish]

Yeah, at first I thought the chase rules were pretty cool but it doesn't even seem as if you get any advantage of getting ahead!

The advantage of getting ahead (i.e., drawing the highest card) is that you can only attack someone with a lower card. Also, a higher card means closer range, so your attack is more likely to connect.

I don't find that entirely satisfying, though, since it really only seems to model "Dogfight"-type chases, where you're maneuvering for position to take the other guy out rather than trying to escape or to reach a destination first. These chase rules would be completely useless for, say, a Formula-1 race, where you're just trying to be the first to the finish line and nobody is killing each other.

But... that reminded me that one of the Interface Zero books I've got is about running campaigns on the Jump Bike racing circuit. I'll have to check and see if they've got better race/chase rules in there. I've also heard online that the SW Explorer Edition rules (one version prior to Deluxe) had better chase rules than Deluxe, so I can try to find those online, too. But that's all for future reference. For the chase at hand, I'll stick to SW Deluxe RAW.

[nDervish]

Part one of Spellbutchers journal is up

Very nice! Or "very mean". Or something like that...

I made a couple edits to turn the mentions of characters and places into wiki links (just put [[ ]] around places, e.g., [[Elderone]]; for characters one of the buttons at the top of the editing window pops up a list of characters to choose from) and to tag it with "session-1".

[bladerunner_35]

Right, thats what I meant. You cannot get ahead. Each round of the chase have everyone (except th Shaken) on equal terms bar Agility ratings.

Incidentally, did you join the Interface Zero kickstarter? I'll check out the chase rules in mt pdf:s.

[bladerunner_35]

Part one of Spellbutchers journal is up

Very nice! Or "very mean". Or something like that...

I made a couple edits to turn the mentions of characters and places into wiki links (just put [[ ]] around places, e.g., [[Elderone]]; for characters one of the buttons at the top of the editing window pops up a list of characters to choose from) and to tag it with "session-1".

Technically they do not automatically escape just because they have a horse....

I am not putting anything up until I know who lives and who dies!

[nDervish]

Incidentally, did you join the Interface Zero kickstarter? I'll check out the chase rules in mt pdf:s.

Yep! I don't recall how I initially heard about it, but IZ2.0 was my first direct exposure to Savage Worlds (I'd seen lots of people talking about it, but never looked into it myself) and the first Kickstarter project I backed.

[nDervish]

I need those bennies!

I should have expected someone to make a page about the ghouls, but I didn't... I already had a hidden, GM-only "Ghoul" page, so I unhid that and copied the text from your "Ghouls" page into it. In the future, when you first encounter a new type of monster, I'll unhide my reference pages so that you can link to them right away. Once they're unhidden, you should be able to find them using the sidebar "filter by tag" box, under the "adversary" tag. (Or the "monster" tag... I originally used "monster", but I like your "adversary" better, so I'll at least try to remember to change the tags as I update/unhide the pages.)

But... that reminded me that one of the Interface Zero books I've got is about running campaigns on the Jump Bike racing circuit. I'll have to check and see if they've got better race/chase rules in there.

I read the Road Rage race rules and they look like they'd be a good fit for this type of chase, although they'd take a good deal longer to run (naturally, since the race would often be the primary focus of the session in a jumpbike-racing campaign). The course is divided into several "segments" (usually 10-20), each with a final obstacle and from 2-5 rounds of "lead time". The lead time is the number of rounds you play out in that segment, making a Driving roll each round and using chips to keep track of who's in the lead (5 chips = first place, 1 chip = last place). Then you reach the obstacle, make a Driving roll to pass it successfully, and move on to the next segment. It also has a fair number of tactical options for each round.

We'll have to break that out the next time you're all running for your lives...

So, anybody else that can play the 27th?

Still no takers to join the Spellbutcher tomorrow night and at least try to keep him from causing too much trouble?

God45, do you still want to play if it's just you and some henchmen? Assuming you do, were you thinking about going back to face the ghouls again in Elderone or do you want to check out one of the other farms?

[God45]

God45, do you still want to play if it's just you and some henchmen? Assuming you do, were you thinking about going back to face the ghouls again in Elderone or do you want to check out one of the other farms?

I am nagging at Raktskjutarn so he might show up.

Otherwise, if it is ok with you, I want to grab some henchmen and go back to sort out the ghoul situation

If you feel that it is better to wait until you have at least two player that is totally understandable.

[nDervish]

I am nagging at Raktskjutarn so he might show up.

Excellent! Fresh meat!

Otherwise, if it is ok with you, I want to grab some henchmen and go back to sort out the ghoul situation

If you feel that it is better to wait until you have at least two player that is totally understandable.

Nope, that's fine with me. I was just wondering whether you wanted to be sure to have someone else around to argue with while the ghouls sneak up on you.

I've already generated another group of henchmen and they even look like they should be more combat-ready than the last batch. I can't decide whether my favorite is Elrie Tarnhair (the nearsighted ex-mercenary who takes a Fear check at the start of each combat) or Tarath Autumnless (the obese coward who's an expert at escaping from melee).

[bladerunner_35]

When will we know who, if anyone, survived the chase?! I have no more finger nails left!

[nDervish]

When will we know who, if anyone, survived the chase?! I have no more finger nails left!

I said last night that "Since it's relatively non-interactive, I figure it makes the most sense for me to just play it out on my own, but I'll wait until tomorrow night first to see whether anyone objects to that." I figured I should wait until this evening to do it so that, if anyone objects, they'd have about 24 hours to say so. (Plus, I'm at work and I left my deck of cards at home, so I can't do it now anyhow...)

[bladerunner_35]

When will we know who, if anyone, survived the chase?! I have no more finger nails left!

I said last night that "Since it's relatively non-interactive, I figure it makes the most sense for me to just play it out on my own, but I'll wait until tomorrow night first to see whether anyone objects to that." I figured I should wait until this evening to do it so that, if anyone objects, they'd have about 24 hours to say so. (Plus, I'm at work and I left my deck of cards at home, so I can't do it now anyhow...)

http://www.random.org/playing-cards/

[nDervish]

Otherwise, if it is ok with you, I want to grab some henchmen and go back to sort out the ghoul situation

I've entered the new batch of henchmen on Obsidian Portal.

http://www.obsidianportal.com/campaigns ... g=henchman
Dunira Grimdelver, Unlucky soldier in the service of silver
Elrie Tarnhair, Nearsighted ex-mercenary suffering from PTSD
Omus Goatstrider, Heavy-hitting reserve figher who's taken a few too many blows to the head
Sharan Finestrider, Archer who protects himself from reality with a solid layer of booze
Tarath Autumnless, Specialist in running from fights

http://www.random.org/playing-cards/

Somehow I had a feeling you'd find something like that...

A couple notes on how I ran the chase:

- I made it a standard 5-round chase rather than a 10-round extended chase on the reasoning that the ghouls weren't interested in chasing you all the way back to Eastmere.

- I applied the -2 "difficult terrain" modifier to everyone's maneuver rolls because of the snow. This resulted in Gych (whose +2 for being faster than the ghouls canceled out the terrain penalty) being the only one to consistently get maneuver successes - Gych was able to draw cards every round, the ghouls got cards in two rounds, and Ramrach got a card once. Everyone else was too busy stumbling through the snow to take any other action.

- Between his Overconfidence, being possessed by The Blood(thirst)y Verdict, and the complete lack of any mechanical reason not to, I figured Gych would probably be doubling back to smack a ghoul upside the head whenever an opportunity presented itself.

- I had Mouri make cooperative rolls against Notice to help Gych's maneuver tests.

So, finally...

The Chase

Round 1: Using his superior speed, Gych is able to draw some of the ghouls out of position ("Force" maneuver, inflicting a -2 on their maneuvering roll for the next round). Everyone else is bogged down in the snow.

Round 2: The ghouls attempt to herd Enock, Jonaleth, and Ramrach into worse terrain (again, Force). While avoiding them, Jonaleth runs into a snow-covered boulder (successful Force with a raise, inflicting 1 level of Fatigue damage). Mouri spots an isolated, easy-to-reach ghoul and Gych is makes a close pass to attack it. Mouri's saber swings wide, but Gych's staff connects, leaving the ghoul shaken.

Round 3: Gych makes another pass by the ghoul and connects, but does no damage. In the confusion, though, Mouri falls off the horse! (Double-ones on the roll to assist.) Fortunately, the snow breaks her fall (only 4 damage) and she's back on her feet in no time. Ramrach tries to fake the ghouls out (another Force), but to no effect.

Round 4: Gych goes after another ghoul, but misses as everyone else stumbles through the snow.

Round 5: The ghouls manage to partially surround Enock (successful Force), but Gych sweeps through yet again, killing one of them (hit with a raise for 19 damage!). The remaining ghouls decide that it's not worth the risk of continuing their pursuit this far from their home and break off the chase.

So, in the end, everyone made it back alive, although Jonaleth is a little worse for wear (he'll recover in 24 hours).

[bladerunner_35]

That's great. I am really happy Enock is still alive. Well, the others too I guess.

Being hurt and shook up it makes sense for the other characters to rest fir a couple of days. Not so much sense for Spellbutcher to go back alone though everyone knows he does not have any sense...

Will the rest of us be able to do some down time stuff through the forum?

Edit: and I just realised I completely forgot about my Elan edge...

[nDervish]

Not so much sense for Spellbutcher to go back alone though everyone knows he does not have any sense...

I'm not sure whether that's an attribute of Spellbutcher or the guy who's playing him.

Will the rest of us be able to do some down time stuff through the forum?

Definitely! I'd prefer to handle that sort of thing here so that, whenever there's a session, we can get out of town as quickly as possible.

[bladerunner_35]

I like the sound of that.

I am not sure how you want to do things but it is obvious that it is a dangerous world out there (not to mention Enock's over-cautiousness). Ideally I want Enock to spend all the down time recuperating his wounds and scavenging for better/heavier armour and weapons (and possibly a horse). Something along the lines of a long sword, chain hauberk and medium shield.

You mentioned earlier that money won't be a big factor in the game and realistically I figure it would be pretty easy to find decent equipment in a city that only recently had a popularion of 2500.

However, there is something to be said for game balance and having to work for a living so if you feel that the above is pushing it a tad I am happy to keep it simpler.