Speltestsgruppen!

[bladerunner_35]

I am not sure if Dave will use it this time around as well but I have a feeling we'll use the encumbrance and weapons/armour rules from the Savage Worlds Armoury: http://www.godwars2.org/SavageWorlds/SavageArmoury.pdf

[bladerunner_35]

Alright here's my new try.

Race
Human (Saxa)
Spoken languages (3) Saxa, Trader and "Some language from the Lands of Fire"
Written languages Saxa runic
@DAVE: Do I automatically get a written language? I could not find anything about this but the Illiterate hinderance.

Traits 5/5
Agility d6
Smarts d6
Spirit d6
Strength d8 -2 points
Vigor d6

Skills 15/15
Fighting (Agility) d8 -4
Riding (Agility) d6 -2
Stealth (Agility) d6 -2
Throwing (Agility) d4 -1
 
Notice (Smarts) d6 -2
Taunt (Smarts) d6 -2

Persuasion (Spirit) d6 -2

Hindrances giving 4 points
Enemy (major) with my uncle
Cold blooded (minor) –2 to Vigor rolls to resist the effects of cold weather
Greedy (minor) argues bitterly over any loot acquired

Edges
I am a Noble Ridder and my father was a Lendmann.
I made it in the Lands of Fire and am Rich (from Noble), starting with 1500 gold scields and have 5000 gold scields as a yearly income.
Attractive -2 points +2 to charisma
@DAVE: Exactly the same mod as from Charismatic but with less requirment and higher possible boost in Very Attractive. What gives?

Derived characteristics
Charisma 4 (2+2)
Pace 6"
Parry 7 (6+1)
Toughness 7 (5+2)

Glory 2 (+2 from ancestor)

Gear 0/1500
Scimitar -250 (longsword)
Chainmail vest -100
Thrown dagger -10x3=-30 (does not count as significant items)
Medium shield -250
Warhorse -750
@DAVE:Preferably brought from the Land of Fire but if that's unrealistic I've just bought a new one.

Significant items 1+2+1=4
@DAVE: Are we using Savage Armoury?

1500-250-100-30-750-250=120 gold

That's roughly it. Imma gonna write a short backstory tying it all together and I might fiddle with custom made weapons. Perhaps a scimitar gifted to me by some Sultan who's life I might or might not have saved. And a name too I guess. Most everyone need a name.

[nDervish]

Let’s scratch the idea of World-wise, it just seems to require too much of a sacrifice. Without that I don’t need d8 in Smarts, and would rather start with d6 in both that and Spirit. Looking at the other edges there’s a lot of cool ones, but I can’t really decide between them, and it seems more useful to just boost the traits with those points instead. So boost both Agility and Spirit to d8.

You'll also need to drop a language for the reduced Smarts. I'll assume you're dropping Hearth Elven (keeping Saxa, Battletongue, and Trader) unless you tell me otherwise.

I’d also prefer Code of Honor to Curious.

OK

think along the lines of Hávamál (basically really old proverbs on how to be a good Viking, I’ll try to bring my copy)

No need. I'm rather familiar with the eddas in general...

With skills I’d invest two points each (enough to get me d6, I think) in Boating, Ride and Knowledge (Heiligoland, if indeed that’s where Grimness is). Three points each (d8) towards Fighting, Throw and Intimidation. That should sum to 15 points and meet the prerequisites for Huscarl.

That adds up correctly, but leaves the group with no Survival skill at the moment. Don't worry too much about that, though - Wiglaf of the Iron Guild should probably have Survival regardless.

(let’s pick a new last name before we start as well, Rafnar is fine but that last name just doesn’t do it for me )

Any (appropriate-sounding) name you want is fine with me. I just went to http://www.random-generator.com/index.p ... SGNP_norse and took the first name it spat out.

Smarts, Spirit, Strength and Vigor all have their clear uses but so far I've been unable to find a good use for Agility, unless you have a whole slew of Agility based skills of course.

The two main times you'd roll Agility itself are Agility tricks and chases on foot, so, no, it doesn't come up much other than for buying skills and edges. But, on the other hand, Rafnar would have to drop two skill points if he reduced Agility to d6.

[nDervish]

Spoken languages (3) Saxa, Trader and "Some language from the Lands of Fire"

I downloaded the Land of Fire free sampler earlier today. Haven't read it yet, but a quick flip through it turns up a mention that there are two human cultures, the Bedu and the Calimhari. Shall we assume that "Bedu" is a common language in Al-Shirkuh?

@DAVE: Do I automatically get a written language? I could not find anything about this but the Illiterate hinderance.

Hellfrost Player's Guide, p.8, last paragraph before "Derived Statistics" says you can read and write all languages that you speak (unless you're Illiterate).

Cold blooded (minor) –2 to Vigor rolls to resist the effects of cold weather

Fair warning: As I read the "Frequency of Vigor Rolls" section on HPG 122, the frequency is based on your total Vigor modifier, so Cold Blooded will mean making Vigor rolls against cold more often in addition to each roll being more difficult. Winter clothing and furs give a total +3 and you can get another +2 for hide armor (in exchange for -1 Pace, Agility, and Agility-related skills), which would still be enough to keep you warm any time of year in the Low Winterlands, but going much further north might be a problem.

@DAVE: Exactly the same mod as from Charismatic but with less requirment and higher possible boost in Very Attractive. What gives?

They like you for different reasons. Although it's not actually stated in the rules, I suppose certain NPCs are more likely to disregard Attractive than Charismatic. (e.g., A blind man isn't going to be affected by how Attractive you are.)

Also, a side note: Most settlements in Heligioland are run by democratically-elected councils of one sort or another. As a result, noble titles don't mean much there and Noble will only give you +1 Charisma instead of +2 in most places. (You'll still get the full +2 in Grimness and other settlements that are under noble rule, though.)

Warhorse -750
@DAVE:Preferably brought from the Land of Fire but if that's unrealistic I've just bought a new one.

The boat you're coming back on is a standard Drakkar (HPG 39) with a crew of 60 plus 10 passenger capacity. I don't think that's likely to be able to comfortably bring a horse back with you, but just pay for it now and you can be given a horse by a loyal retainer when you arrive in Grimness.

@DAVE: Are we using Savage Armoury?

*grumblegrumblegrumble*

To start with, I think we're better off going RAW on equipment and not bothering with encumbrance, since this isn't going to be a personal-level resource-management game. While I like having a design system, I have issues with Savage Armory which aren't easily fixed. (Basically, it's designed with the explicit goal of balancing all weapons against each other, which I disagree with - a masterwork sword and a masterwork baseball bat are not equal.)

[Willard]

Yeah, suspected that about the language. That's fine.

When I read about the survival skill a successful roll (and you could only try once per day) fed ONE person for that day. You'd need a raise to cover the whole group, and that sounds pretty unlikely from day to day. Since that doesn't sound so great (we'll need to bring food anyway) I figured I could use the points somewhere else. Maybe I misunderstood the text, or something else applies in this setting. And maybe I could swap a point from Intimidate to Survival to get rid of the very worst part, if you think that'd be appropriate.

That note about not bothering with personal inventory answered another question I had meant to ask, and I'm glad to hear it. We used to go partly down this road and have this catch-all called Misc Stuff, and from time to time have arguments mid-dungeon about exactly what that meant. Fun in its own way, but it really kills the pacing. Let's not do that.

[nDervish]

Just noticed that I missed a few posts last night...

First on the eternal argument of sword vs. axe. Usually I pick the sword, and that's what comes with the huscarl as written, but here I really get the feeling that Rafnar would prefer an axe. I was thinking of asking for permission to swap the free sword for an axe, but I realize that's pretty silly. I'll just buy one and have both!

OK, so that's 300gs for a battleaxe, leaving you with another 200gs cash. Aside from weight, its stats are identical to your longsword. (A just-plain-axe only does Str+d6 damage.)

Second is the use of miniatures. Will we be doing that? I have a bunch of old Warhammer guys in the basement, I could bring one or a couple if that's going to happen. (Mostly high elves and chaos space marines though, so no perfect fits )

Like Björn said, we've been improvising with poker chips and pieces scavenged from random board games. If you want to bring real minis, I'm sure we can make use of them, but it's not necessary.

@Dave: will we be able to get that edge that let's us share bennies this time around as well (forgot what it's called)?

"Common Bond". I'm not going to give it to you for free, because having one giant pool of bennies that everyone shares seemed too good in Savage Marches. On the other hand, though, I plan to actually give out bennies in play this time, so you should hopefully have enough of your own that you won't need to get them from other players.

Basically it's a way to ask for support from your family and certain things modify the roll. Such as being a huscarl apparently.

Rassilon Expansion cleans that section up a little (although not completely...), renaming the two tables "Kinship Modifiers" and "Kinship Result Table". The +2 for huscarls is an additional modifier on the Kinship Result Table, which determines the number of people who respond to a successful call for aid. I suppose this reflects that he's recognized as an experienced warrior, so those who aid him are likely to survive the experience.

As I understand the version in Rassilon Expansion, you first roll Persuasion with a -4 modifier, plus all applicable Kinship Modifiers. If this succeeds, you've convinced the head of your family (or, for a huscarl, your lord) to call the fyrd and you then roll d20 on the Kinship Result Table, again adding the Kinship Modifiers (and an additional +2 if you got a raise on the Persuasion roll), to determine how many warriors respond. If anyone else has Rassilon Expansion, can you take a look at pages 20-21 and see if that looks right to you?

For nobles calling on their subjects, I figure you can skip the initial Persuasion roll (you're calling the fyrd yourself, not asking someone else to do it), but your maximum response is 25 * the Population level of the Resources you control (Rassilon Expansion 107). Any troops or huscarls associated with your Resources will automatically respond in addition to the fyrd; they are not counted among the warriors from the Kinship Result Table and do not count against the 25 * Population limit.

That note about not bothering with personal inventory answered another question I had meant to ask, and I'm glad to hear it. We used to go partly down this road and have this catch-all called Misc Stuff, and from time to time have arguments mid-dungeon about exactly what that meant. Fun in its own way, but it really kills the pacing. Let's not do that.

If we do use encumbrance at some point, it will be with this simplified encumbrance system rather than tracking exact weights of everything.

[bladerunner_35]

"Common Bond". I'm not going to give it to you for free, because having one giant pool of bennies that everyone shares seemed too good in Savage Marches. On the other hand, though, I plan to actually give out bennies in play this time, so you should hopefully have enough of your own that you won't need to get them from other players.

Excellent! I always did feel that you were cheap with the bennies during Savage Marches but I didn't bring it up since we always started with two extra and the sessions were fairly short.

If anyone else has Rassilon Expansion, can you take a look at pages 20-21 and see if that looks right to you?

Sorry, don't have it. I'll likely buy some more stuff for Hellfrost if the campaign takes off and I join in earnest but as I've said before I will probably want to focus my limited time on Interface Zero if we manage to get that up and running.

I downloaded the Land of Fire free sampler earlier today. Haven't read it yet, but a quick flip through it turns up a mention that there are two human cultures, the Bedu and the Calimhari. Shall we assume that "Bedu" is a common language in Al-Shirkuh?

I've made a half-hearted attempt to find info on languages down south but came up short. Bedu sounds fine.

Cold blooded (minor) –2 to Vigor rolls to resist the effects of cold weather

Fair warning: As I read the "Frequency of Vigor Rolls" section on HPG 122, the frequency is based on your total Vigor modifier, so Cold Blooded will mean making Vigor rolls against cold more often in addition to each roll being more difficult. Winter clothing and furs give a total +3 and you can get another +2 for hide armor (in exchange for -1 Pace, Agility, and Agility-related skills), which would still be enough to keep you warm any time of year in the Low Winterlands, but going much further north might be a problem.

I thought it might be a bad idea to be adverse to cold weather in the Hellfrost setting....I took it anyways because I felt it was characterful but I'll see about changing it...

@DAVE: Exactly the same mod as from Charismatic but with less requirment and higher possible boost in Very Attractive. What gives?

They like you for different reasons. Although it's not actually stated in the rules, I suppose certain NPCs are more likely to disregard Attractive than Charismatic. (e.g., A blind man isn't going to be affected by how Attractive you are.)

Thanks for the clarification. I really am after charismatic so I'll see if I can't tweak my char a bit more.

@DAVE: Are we using Savage Armoury?

*grumblegrumblegrumble*

To start with, I think we're better off going RAW on equipment and not bothering with encumbrance, since this isn't going to be a personal-level resource-management game. While I like having a design system, I have issues with Savage Armory which aren't easily fixed. (Basically, it's designed with the explicit goal of balancing all weapons against each other, which I disagree with - a masterwork sword and a masterwork baseball bat are not equal.)

I agree that not all weapons are created equal. In general what I want from an equipment list (or combat system) are valid, tactical choices. More or less every weapon should have at least one advantage and one drawback. There should be a time for the sword and a time for the dagger and a time for the axe to the face.

Personally I think significant items is good enough for an encumbrance system. Say each character can carry his Strength die in significant items and worn armour don't count unless it's heavy?

[nDervish]

Excellent! I always did feel that you were cheap with the bennies during Savage Marches but I didn't bring it up since we always started with two extra and the sessions were fairly short.

It was a deliberate decision, since I intended for Savage Marches characters to die easily and often and it hadn't occurred to me to just add a "No Soaking" setting rule. For Hellfrost, I'm aiming for Heroic Deeds of Awesomeness instead of disposable PC bodies, so that means the bennies must flow.

I thought it might be a bad idea to be adverse to cold weather in the Hellfrost setting....I took it anyways because I felt it was characterful but I'll see about changing it...

I'm getting the impression that things are likely to stay focused pretty much around Grimness and Heligioland, which is Low Winterlands, so you should be OK keeping it. Just avoid going to the High Winterlands in winter. And, well, stay out of the Hellfrost, but that goes for pretty much everyone...

Personally I think significant items is good enough for an encumbrance system. Say each character can carry his Strength die in significant items and worn armour don't count unless it's heavy?

I'm perfectly happy with the encumbrance system we were using for Savage Marches and using that with RAW weapons/armor instead of Savage Armory is easy enough. For the trial run, though, I figure it's simpler to just use the "be reasonable" encumbrance system.

[bladerunner_35]

I am Alaric the Fair, son of Aesgir, defender of Grimness, son of Ragnvald who killed the bear Fafnir with his bare hands, son of Ingulbjörn who raided with King Eorwald, son of Hildur who founded Grimness, daughter of Eldgrim who always were loyal, son of Bergthor who honoured his ancestors!

And I have sworn to reclaim that which rightfully belongs to me!



The fourth son of a noble Alaric left his home and family a good six years ago to make his fortunes in the southern Lands of Fire. Having gained fame and gold and more he is reached by the news that his father is in the mud since more than a year and his uncle Gorm rules Grimness as its rightful ruler, telling everybody that wants to hear that Alaric is long dead.

Not particularly relishing the prospect of returning to the icy north Alaric nevertheless vows to reclaim his birthright and sets sail back to the frozen lands to set things right with Gorm and gain even more fame and gold in the process.

Hardly recognising the land or the people after so many years Alaric steps ashore with a few loyal retainers and chosen men, already planning the downfall of his uncle….

Agility d6
Smarts d6
Spirit d6
Strength d8
Vigor d6

Fighting (Agility) d8
Riding (Agility) d6
Stealth (Agility) d6
Throwing (Agility) d4
 Notice (Smarts) d6
Taunt (Smarts) d6
Persuasion (Spirit) d6
Languages Saxa, Trader and Bedu

Hindrances
Enemy (major) My uncle have done me wrong and must pay!
Vow (minor) I have sworn to claim my birthright!
Greedy (minor) argues bitterly over any loot acquired

Edges
I am a Noble Ridder and my father was a Lendmann.
I made it in the Lands of Fire and am Rich (from Noble), starting with 1500 gold scields and have 5000 gold scields as a yearly income.
Attractive +2 to charisma

Derived characteristics
Charisma 4 (2+2)
Pace 6"
Parry 7 (6+1)
Toughness 7 (5+2)
Glory 2 (+2 from ancestor)

Gear
Scimitar (longsword)
Chainmail shirt
Thrown dagger x3
Medium shield
Warhorse

[nDervish]

I am Alaric...

...and you plan to die in the first fight?

Vow (minor) I have sworn to claim my birthright!

What do you consider your birthright to consist of?

My initial assumption was that you'd want to get control of Grimness back very quickly (specifically, that the initial trial one-shot would be the tale of how you reclaimed Grimness), but, if reclaiming Grimness is the extent of your Vow, then you'll need to replace it with another Hindrance or buy it off once that's happened.

If, on the other hand, you meant for reaching Grimness to be a long-term goal, then that devalues your Noble edge a bit, since the taxes from Grimness will be going to Gorm, not you.

I do see a third option, though, which would be to bump your family a couple notches up the ladder of nobility, which would give Gorm control of several villages and maybe even a town or two, all of which should rightfully be yours. That then forks into two sub-possibilities:

• Grimness is your hometown and the easiest to find support in, so you can start there, then expand politically to reclaim the rest.
• You don't actually get control of Grimness after all. Instead, your Resource is the scattered rebels who join you in a guerilla war to destabilize and depose Gorm.

If you want to go either of these routes, though, that would pretty much make your quest to reclaim your lands into the central defining theme of the campaign, so I'd want to get buy-in from the other players first.

[Willard]

Sounds epic, I like it. Let's go kick in that door!

nDervish/Dave has a point though, about the extent of the birthright and the scale of our villain. One fairly important thing that I don't know anything about is how sparsely populated this world is, and how it is distributed.

As I remember Grimness is supposed to have somewhere around 200 inhabitants, but how much is that in this part of the world? Are there cities in Heiligoland or nearby regions, how big are they? Or is the land more dotted with farmsteads and a couple of slightly larger settlements/villages? Pretty basic setting stuff, really, which you (Dave in this case) can probably answer pretty easily. Rafnar with his Knowledge (Heiligoland) would also be able to answer, but I can't ask him right now

[nDervish]

One fairly important thing that I don't know anything about is how sparsely populated this world is, and how it is distributed.

Hellfrost in general is pretty sparsely populated by real-world standards - most of the last millennium has been one major apocalypse after another, with never enough time to recover in between. From the Gazetteer:

HOW BIG IS RASSILON?
At its greatest extremes, Rassilon measures some 2400 miles east-west by 2000 miles north-south. That’s roughly equivalent to an area spanning from Lisbon to Athens and from Tunis to the Arctic Circle (most of western and northern Europe). In North American terms, that’s approximately the same as Los Angeles to Atlanta and Winnipeg to New Orleans. Rassilon could nestle quite snugly inside the area encompassed by Australia.

Meanwhile, in this thread on the publisher's forum, someone calculated the total population of Rassilon's civilized races (not orcs, etc.) to be around 2.4 million.

So roughly 25% of Sweden's population, spread out across most of Europe...

As I remember Grimness is supposed to have somewhere around 200 inhabitants, but how much is that in this part of the world? Are there cities in Heiligoland or nearby regions, how big are they? Or is the land more dotted with farmsteads and a couple of slightly larger settlements/villages? Pretty basic setting stuff, really, which you (Dave in this case) can probably answer pretty easily. Rafnar with his Knowledge (Heiligoland) would also be able to answer, but I can't ask him right now

Heligioland as a whole has a population of 65 630, half of which are Saxa. The largest cities are Myre (population 6524), Brae (pop 4446), and Hellfrost Keep (pop 3000 and the only "true" castle in all of Rassilon). There are three other towns in the 1000-2500 population range. The most accessible city from Grimness is Seithrby, which has a population of 2625. (Brae is about the same distance, but you have to go through the Greenpot Hills to get there, while Seithrby is just up the coast of White Lake.)

For smaller settlements, there are approximately 200 Saxa steads, 20 Anari villages, a large (but unspecified) number of frost dwarf holds in the Icebarrier Mountains, and several nomadic tribes of taiga elves. By the numbers, it looks like the typical stead or village would be around 120 people, so Grimness is relatively large by Heligioland standards.

[God45]

I have decided to worship Thunor because he seems like a cool god to worship and he seems like to most Viking one of the bunch So blood and souls, blood and souls for my Lord Thunor!

[nDervish]

I have decided to worship Thunor because he seems like a cool god to worship and he seems like to most Viking one of the bunch So blood and souls, blood and souls for my Lord Thunor!

Hellfrost has great gods, doesn't it? Gotta love a weather god who counts it as a sin for his clergy to take shelter in a storm or row a boat. And then there's this religious festival:

North Wind Day
First Heafoddaeg of winter.
Thunor was once aided by four servants—Austri, Suðri, Vestri, and Norðri, whose bellows create the four winds. When Thrym ascended, Norðri abandoned Thunor, taking the secret of the north wind with him. It is for this reason Thunor does not control the north wind anymore. At some point during the day (there is no set time) the clergy of Thunor turn to face north and shout oaths of hatred, contempt, and vengeance. Many brave the elements to bare their backsides (a great insult) or to urinate northward in defiance of Thrym.

or the note on another festival that

Being struck by lightning is a sign of divine blessing, while death by electrocution is a sure sign Thunor has taken the worshipper to heaven to serve him eternally.

BTW, you missed on Edwin's stats that he has a +1 Charisma (HPG 57).

Edit: I was just looking over Edwin's stats again and noticed that the Hedge Magic edge (for herbalism) requires Survival d6+. Do you want to swap Notice d6 for Survival d6 or just revert back to the original stats (without Hedge Magic)?

[nDervish]

Character for Rekreativc:

Wiglaf Edwinsunu the Wartooth

Agility d6
Smarts d6
Spirit d6
Strength d8
Vigor d6

Skills
Fighting (Agility) d8
Intimidate (Spirit) d6
Notice (Smarts) d6
Survival (Smarts) d6
Taunt (Smarts) d6
Throwing (Agility) d4
Tracking (Smarts) d6

(I gave you Notice, Survival, and Tracking because those are the skills that Roadwardens get a bonus on, so I figured having them would keep Wiglaf closer to the original concept. Intimidate and Taunt are prerequisites for the Strong Willed edge; I wasn't sure what to do about them, but reread your description of the character and decided to go that route because of the statement that "I never allow taunts or jests to sway my judgement" and Strong Willed will help a lot with resisting that sort of thing.)

Edges
Iron Guild Mercenary (+1 to Ganging-Up bonuses; guild-issued gear; Contacts (Guild); Orders (Guild))
Strong Willed (+2 to Taunt or Intimidate or to resist either)

Hindrances
Death Wish (Driven to avenge his family - this doesn't mean you're suicidal, just that this is a goal you would gladly die to accomplish)

Heroic (Always helps the innocent and punishes outlaws - I don't get the impression that you see Wiglaf as a hero per se, but the base definition of the Heroic edge is that you'll never refuse to aid a person in need)

Weak Family (-2 on Kinship Results Table - because Wiglaf's immediate family was killed; does his extended family even know he's still alive?)

Languages: Battletongue, Saxa, Trader

Charisma: 0
Pace: 6
Parry: 7 (1)
Toughness: 7 (2)

Gear
Warhammer (Str+d6, AP 1 vs. rigid armor)
Longsword (Str+d8, Guild-issued)
Throwing Axe (Str+d6, R 3/6/12)
Medium Shield (+1 Parry, +2 Armor vs. Ranged, Guild-issued)
Chain Shirt (2 Armor on torso and arms, Guild-issued)
200 gold scields

How does that look? Skills and Attributes can be rearranged a bit, so long as you keep at least Spirit d8, Strength d8, and Fighting d6 (those are the requirements for Iron Guild Mercenary), although you'll have to replace Strong Willed with something else (another edge or increasing an Attribute) if you reduce/remove Intimidate or Taunt. And I'm not entirely happy with the list of Hindrances, but they seemed to fit best from what's available; does anyone have suggestions for what they think might work better?

[Rekreativc]

nDervish: That character looks great!

I'm really happy with the way you converted my description to actual edges, hindrancesand gear! I wouldn't change anything.

Thanks! Now I can't wait for Thursday to see what Wiglaf can do

[Willard]

Nitpicking here, perhaps, but you said to keep Spirit and Strength at at least d8 to meet the prerequisites. From what I see he only has d6 Spirit right now.

Regarding hindrances maybe Cautious has a place in there somewhere? On the other hand it seems like you'd most (if at all) want to replace the major one, and there aren't a lot of great ones like that. A vow maybe, or code of honor? Or just leave it at heroic, that's pretty cool too

[nDervish]

Nitpicking here, perhaps, but you said to keep Spirit and Strength at at least d8 to meet the prerequisites. From what I see he only has d6 Spirit right now.

I did say that, didn't I... It was a typo. The correct requirements are Strength d8, Spirit d6, Fighting d6.

[nDervish]

Everything seemed to go well last night and the consensus was to continue with these Hellfrost characters, so I've created a new thread for the ongoing game, Hellfrost: Gorm's Gotta Go [Savage Worlds]. Current players can take discussion of it over there. New players remain welcome, just speak up on the other thread and we'll work you in.

[nDervish]

I think it's time to test out another new game!

I recently picked up a copy of EABA 2.01 to use as a design system for other games, but it looks like a very solid system in its own right - extremely crunchy[1], but elegant and consistent enough to be simple nonetheless. Or at least that's how it appears to me and the comments I've found online from new EABA GMs is consistently along the lines of "after running the game once, I feel that I can confidently improvise stats for anything."

So I must try it in practice.

To that end, I'd like to run a short series of one-shot adventures, each designed to explore certain aspects of the system:

1. A basic dungeon crawl
   The primary point of this one is to keep things simple while learning the core mechanics of the game and its rather unusual turn structure[2] with a focus on melee combat, light ranged combat, and a handful of powers.
   
   The actual scenario setup is pretty standard here: PCs go into a hole and bash monster heads until they reach the MacGuffin (or die). Given the setup, I'm kind of defaulting to assuming four players for this, one for each of the four core early D&D classes (cleric, fighter, magic-user, thief), but I'd consider other character concepts and maybe taking a fifth player.
2. Ninja team infiltrating a samurai castle
   Detection, overmatching[3], and scenes involving larger numbers of low-grade NPCs are the main things I want to look at with this one, but it will also introduce customized combat styles ("Leaping Crane Ninjutsu" or whatnot) and give powers to all PCs.
   
   Again, the setup should be pretty self-explanatory. Sneak in, kill the lord of the castle, and get back out, preferably without alerting the entire garrison. If you do alert the entire garrison, well... that would be bad.
3. Chassis & Crossbows
   Vehicles and lots of ranged combat, including firearms. Also likely to feature economic game aspects (buying/selling) and perhaps some scrounging/survival elements.
   
   Chassis & Crossbows was an ancient (late-80s, IIRC) alternate setting for Car Wars, with a heavy Mad Max flavor. Cars out in the desert, burning what little precious gasoline they have as they drive around in search of... more gasoline! Bullets and working guns are also in limited supply, leading to cars mounting oversized turrets with manually-aimed ballistas instead of rocket launchers. The PCs would probably be forward scouts for a fuel convoy, attempting to both secure a route and locate supplies for the main body of the convoy.
4. Warhammer 40k two-parter
   Time to go high-tech, heavy armor, and heavy weapons and face both incredibly over-powered and incredibly under-powered enemies!
   
   Some random world of the Imperium has discovered an infestation of xenos/cultists/whatever. In part one, the PCs are a squad of Imperial Guardsmen, sent in to deal with the threat. Being Guardsmen, it is, of course, inevitable that they will eventually be slaughtered horribly by something that totally outclasses them. In part two, it's a couple months later. The governor has petitioned the Adeptus Astartes for assistance and the local marine chapter has sent a new group of PCs to return to the scene and kick massive ass.

If you think you might be interested, you can get a free copy of the EABA 2.01 quickstart rules from the publisher's site and see whether they scare you off.

It would probably be best to limit the first game to around 4 players, then maybe a slightly larger group for later scenarios, depending on how smoothly things are running. Subject to group size considerations, anyone is welcome to take part in any or all sessions - you do not have to start with the first one and continue on through all of them.

I'm currently assuming that I'll be making pregen characters for each scenario, but, if you've read the quickstart and would like to create your own character (the quickstart includes a usable subset of the character creation rules), you are quite welcome to do so.

As for when to play, I think week 47 is likely to be the earliest realistic time to try out scenario 1, and then maybe continue at 2 or 3 week intervals between scenarios.

So, anyone up for it?


[1] 320 pages of nothing but rules and examples - there's no art aside from an intro page for each chapter and no setting information at all.

[2] Basically, combat rounds get longer as the fight continues, starting at 1 second in round 1 and growing to 8 minutes for round 10.

[3] Not really "mook rules", but a system for ruling "you're good enough that you automatically win" - which can cut both ways.