Spes Magna Games

When I last posted about our The Kids’ Game campaign using Savage Worlds Deluxe Edition, I explained how fantasy heroes Foxglove, Dark Halo, and Haldir aren’t really Foxglove, Dark Halo, and Haldir. They’re really rather ordinary middle school students from Miami, Florida, who have found themselves thrust into a strange fantasy world in which they become heroic members of the Guard.

In our two most recent sessions, the kids returned to Miami, arriving at the school playground just a few hours after they were transported to the fantasic world of Aysle. There they met Carlos (played by guest star Alex). The kids evaded the police, who were looking for the allegedly missing children. Bit by bit, the kids pieced together what had happened since the strange attack on Old Man Sutherland’s home.

According to the news, Sutherland was in the hospital in serious but stable condition. He was being watched by the police, and was accused of being some sort of money launderer for a drug cartel. The attack on his home was perpetrated by drug dealers. The children were wanted for questioning as witnesses. The children also heard about a homeless man killed in a state beach park. Supposedly he’d been killed by an alligator, but the children recognized his picture: He was the spitting image of the corrupt constable from Aysle.

During the two sessions over which events played out, Mario outsmarted a police detective during an interrogation as Mario’s house. Mario also deduced that the detective knew details about the attack on Sutherland’s home that only someone who was there would know. The other kids, with the help of Carlos’s mother, determined that some sort of frog-spirit was responsible for the homeless man’s death.

The kids went to the park, meeting up with Carlos’s uncle and his motorcycle gang. The kids partied a bit, and Ganke decided he really wanted to be a biker. The kids also found the stone tip from a crude spear, which, thanks to strange “bleed over” from their Aysle personae, they recognized as belonging to a bullywug hunter.

Somehow a monster from Aysle got sucked into Miami’s reality when the children returned.

The kids returned to the park at night. They did battle with a pack of killer frogs, and then hopped on their bikes and pedalled like crazy when the bullywug hunter and more killer frogs showed up. In the high speed chase-slash-fight, the kids defeated the frogs and killed the bullywug.

The session ended with the kids studying Sutherland’s home-made rulebook more closely. They learned that there are several different realms. In each realm, evil forces seek dominance with the ultimate goal of gaining sufficient power to invade Earth by means of interdimensional bridges. The key to these bridges? Something called the Possibility Chalice. The next clue to the Chalice’s location seems to be in the two-fisted, pulp realm of the Nile Empire.

And so the kids sat down to make up new characters in order to jump to a new universe.

Bullywug Hunter (Wild Card)

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d4, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d6
Skills: Climbing d6, Fighting d6, Stealth d6, Throwing d6
Pace: 6
Parry: 5
Toughness: 5
Special Abilities:

Javelin: STR + d6.

Amphibious: Breathe air and water. Pace 8 in water.

Frog Commander: May share Bennies with amphibians under its command.

Jump: Leap 1d6″ to gain +2 to attack and damage.

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I’m back to selling a few gaming items via ebay. If you’re interested, check these out, and maybe even put in a bid.

Heroes of Olympus: A Task Force Role Playing Game was published as a boxed set in 1981. Conceived and written by B. Dennis “Chariot of” Sustare, this unusual game combines fantasy roleplaying in mythical Greece with squad level wargaming action. This game was (at least) almost unique among roleplaying games of the time.

I wrote Path of Legend for the Dawnforge: Crucible of Legend campaign setting published by Fantasy Flight Games using the d20 System. This adventure was designed to introduce players to Dawnforge. According to the front cover, it is a “Legendary Quest in the World of Dawnforge”. According to the back cover, “The adventure leads new heroes from 1st to 5th level, and also offers them the chance to earn their first legend point. The adventure provides a compelling mix of location and event-based encounters, and rewards roleplaying and puzzle-solving as well as combat.”

Tags: ebay, monsters, Savage Wednesday, Savage Worlds, The Kids' Game

We completed session three of The Kids’ Game campaign this past Saturday. The session began with the heroes attempting to interrogate Devris Poyer, the doppelganger assassin captured at the end of session two. Since we’re all learning the rules, I decided to treat the interrogation as a Dramatic Task. Lander Foxglove, fearsome rakashan warrior, took the lead on the interrogation. It was less dramatic than it was a resounding failure. A club suit card came up on the second action, and the player’s dice proved most treacherous. The heroes discovered too late that Poyer had concealed a poison capsule in his mouth. He died after choking out, “You’re too late. They’ve reached the Valley of the Dead by now.”

As I noted last Savage Wednesday post, the fight against Poyer was way more one-sided than I imagined it would be, in part because of my remarkable run of bad dice rolls, but also because I didn’t pay a bit of attention to the guidelines about balancing conflicts using Combat Ratings. I decided to remedy that latter problem this session.

The heroes raced toward the Valley of the Dead. The sun was setting by the time they reached the general area. The road heading north had dwindled to an overgrown path, and the trees’ branches intertwined overhead, blocking out most of what little sunlight remained. (Nota Bene: Remember lighting modifiers for heroes who can’t see in the dark.) The heroes heard an angry shout and a scream of pain. They left the trail and soon found themselves atop wooded hill looking down into a small slave labor camp.

Overseen by three goblins, more than a half dozen poorly clad humans labored in a large pit, exhuming bones which they piled up near one corner of the pit. Two larger tents and two small tents stood to the south of the pit. Light shone from one of the larger pits, and more angry shouts and sounds of violence were heard from that tent. The heroes split up. Haldir of Elveim moved toward the smaller tents. Foxglove stalked toward the lit tent. Dark Halo skirted the camp to come up on the near the other larger tent and close to one of the goblin guards.

Haldir made the decision about how events would progress by stepping out from behind cover and shooting an arrow deep into the heart of a goblin guard, who dropped with nary a sound that could be heard over the slaves’ labors in the pit. Foxglove burst into the tent to find a massive orc beating a human man whose tunic bore a constable’s badge. Foxglove roared and attacked.

During the ensuing battle, Dark Halo took out the skaven alchemist and a skaven warrior. Haldir dealt with the other two goblin guards and a second skaven warrior. Foxglove found himself alone in the tent facing a foe whose Combat Rating was a bit more than twice Foxglove working solo. The fight did not go well for Foxglove. The constable attempted to aid Foxglove, and he did help a little. By the time Dark Halo entered the fight against the orc, Foxglove was seriously injured. The orc put his Sweep Edge into play. Foxglove, then the constable, then Dark Halo all succumbed to their injuries.

The slaves revolted, charging the orc in a suicidal bid for freedom. They managed to delay the orc long enough for Haldir to make two Called Shots. The second arrow to the head killed the orc.

At the end of the session, more than half the slaves had been killed. The constable was dead. Two-thirds of the heroes were unconscious and seriously battered, one with an injury to the guts, the other with an injury to an arm. Remarkably, Haldir was unhurt. Haldir made Dark Halo and Foxglove as comfortable as possible. The slaves told Haldir that the constable was a regular visitor to the slave camp. He’d been cahooting with the orc, who had the slaves digging for some sort of tablet that was part of a map to something called the “Chalice of Possibilities”. The orc had grown impatient with the perceived poor quality of the constable’s information about the tablet’s precise whereabouts. The skaven were assisting the orc in exchange for the bones and the corpses of slaves who died during their labors. The bones and corpses were taken an irregular intervals by skaven deeper into the woods in the direction of the dreaded Caves of Chaos.

And so we ended the session after a considerably more challenging fight and now faced with the slow rate of healing in Savage Worlds. Both Dark Halo and Foxglove are out of action. (Haldir blew the Healing rolls.) With Vigor rolls for healing permitted every five days, Dark Halo and Foxglove are suffering some degree of injury for possibly weeks. None of the heroes can perform magical healing.

The lengthy recovery time isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It does take a long time to recover from serious injuries. That said, it certainly doesn’t seem cinematically heroic. I hesitate tossing in convenient healing in the form of potions or what not. So, what I am considering it tweaking the healing rules so that they are less applicable to Wild Cards. I’m not sure exactly what this might look like. Making everyone a Fast Healer is a possibility. Reducing the time between Vigor checks to heal for Wild Cards is another. What I’m leaning most heavily toward at the moment, however, deals more directly with the nature of the campaign.

Foxglove, Dark Halo, and Haldir aren’t really Foxglove, Dark Halo, and Haldir. They’re really rather ordinary middle school students from Miami, Florida, who have found themselves thrust into a strange fantasy world in which they become heroic members of the Guard. The heroes have yet to find out what the book given to them by Mr. Sutherland does. The book opens portals between worlds. So, next session, I could have Haldir figure out how to use the book and return the children to Miami and their normal forms, at which time they’re all conscious. The session could then deal with the aftermath of the attack at Mr. Sutherland’s home.

Tags: Savage Wednesday, Savage Worlds, The Kids' Game

Our campaign using Savage Worlds Deluxe Explorer’s Edition has launched into its first full-blown adventure involving elements cobbled together from Keep on the Borderlands and West End Games’s The Destiny Map. As mentioned last Savage Wednesday, what I thought would’ve been a modestly challenging encounter with a doppelganger assassin ended up being pretty much a cake walk for the heroes. During the fight against Devris Poyer, I expected that either the characters would win or Poyer would escape. The heroes beat him pretty easily.

Interesting.

Now, I expected the heroes to win. I almost always do. I also had a probability warping run of low die rolls when attacking and inflicting damage. The heroes subdued what I thought was a pretty tough customer, all without any real damage suffered and not a whole lot of effort expended, especially once the grappling started.

During the down time between sessions, I’ve read more carefully the section on Balance and Combat Ratings. I think I grok them pretty well. (Some of what follows is a repeat of a social media post; if you’ve already seen it: Mea culpa.) So, I grabbed my son Christopher’s elven warrior character and studied him with combat rating in mind:

Haldir of Elveim
Half Maximum Damage of Typical Attack: +6
Combat Edges/Special Abilities: +2
Toughness over 5: +1
Total Combat Rating: +9

There are three other heroes in the group. I don’t have their characters at hand, but it’s safe to assume they are approximately the same Combat Rating as Haldir. That means the group’s total Combat Rating is about 36. During the last session, the group tracked down and subdued Devris Poyer, a doppelganger assassin:

Half Maximum Damage of Typical Attack: +6
Combat Edges/Special Abilities: +2
Toughness over 5: +2
Total Combat Rating: +10

If the guidelines in SWDEE are accurate (and I have no reason to doubt them), this means Haldir alone versus Devris alone should be a moderately difficult encounter. Devris alone against all four heroes? No challenge for the heroes.

I next looked at a orc and a chieftan orc:

Orc
Half Maximum Damage of Typical Attack: +8
Combat Edges/Special Abilities: +2
Toughness over 5: +3
Total Combat Rating: +13 ÷ 2 for not being a Wild Card = +7

Chieftan Orc
Half Maximum Damage of Typical Attack: +10
Combat Edges/Special Abilities: +3
Toughness over 5: +6
Total Combat Rating: +19

For a moderate encounter involving these orcs, I should pit the heroes against two orcs and one chieftan orc, for example. That’d be Heroes 36 versus Orcs 33. For a tough fight, add a couple of more orcs.

But back to Devris. I adapted his role from The Destiny Map. In that adventure, the assassin was from the Cyberpapacy. He had some pretty hefty stats, including cyberlegs and a really big gun. I remember running The Destiny Map while stationed in Hawaii. We had about a half dozen players in the group I gamed with most often. Those 5-6 heroes did not fare well against the cyber-assassin once he’d been cornered. If I recall correctly, he seriously injured one or two heroes, and then escaped, handily evading pursuit.

For doppelganger Devris to do the same, I guesstimate his combat rating would need to be close to doubled. That means adding 2 to 3 “adds” for each of the three categories, assuming things were spread out more or less evenly. This rougher, tougher Devris might look like this:

Devris Poyer, a Doppelganger Wild Card
Attributes: Agility d10, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d8, Vigor d10
Skills: Climbing d6, Fighting d10, Persuasion d6, Notice d6, Stealth d6, Throwing d8
Charisma: +0
Pace: 8
Parry: 7
Toughness: 7 (2)
Gear: studded leather vest (+2), studded leather vambraces (+1), shuriken (STR, 3RB, range 1/2/3)

Special Abilities:

Change Shape: Devris can change his appearance to another humanoid ranging in size from -1 to +1. If Devris mimics a specific person, someone familiar with that person can see through the disguise with Notice -2.

Improved Extraction: Make an Agility roll when withdrawing from combat. If successful, one opponent doesn’t get a free attack. With a raise, all opponents currently in melee lose their free attack.

Improved Martial Artist: Devris is never considered unarmed. STR+d6 damage unarmed.

Improved Sweep: Make a single Fighting attack against all currently adjacent targets. Resolve each damage separately.

Mind Reading: Devris can read another’s thoughts by opposing his Smarts against his target’s Smarts. If Devris gets a raise, the target is unaware of the intrusion.

This new Devris would be about an 18 Combat Rating:

Half Maximum Damage of Typical Attack: +7
Combat Edges/Special Abilities: +7
Toughness over 5: +4
Total Combat Rating: +18

Tags: Savage Wednesday, Savage Worlds, The Kids' Game

Our campaign using Savage Worlds Deluxe Explorer’s Edition launched into its first full-blown adventure this past Saturday. I’m cobbling together material from Keep on the Borderlands and West End Games’s The Destiny Map for the scenario. Overall, it went pretty well, but there were some rough spots:

I’m not familiar enough with the rules yet. Parts of the session were the metaphorical equivalent of riding through town in a vehicle with a standard transmission and a driver who’s not quite savvy on how to change gears.

The concept of “encounter balance” completely eludes me. What I thought would be a moderately challenging conflict turned out to be nothing of the sort.

The players, some moreso than others, were a bit lost about what their characters can and cannot do, to include the implications of certain Hindrances.

That said, I do think things went reasonably well. One player is more familiar with the rules than I am, and he was a big help. The players seemed to enjoy the game. Our next session is in about two weeks. Before then, here’s my list of things to do:

Re-read and grokk the guidelines for encounter balance and combat ratings.

Adjust the upcoming conflicts accordingly.

Combine the two different sets of notes about the campaign into a single document.

Prior to the last session, I spent most of my prep time (such as it was) going back over the guidelines for powers. My first skim of the rules didn’t make much of an impression, but a deeper reading has resulted in an appreciation for the system. It’s simple and flexible. I think I’m most fond of the Trappings and their suggested related effects. Right now, we have one character — bounty hunter Dark Halo — with an Arcane Background. I need to insist that Dark Halo’s player be a bit more narrative with the effects of his character’s magic.

Which brings me to the fantasy world of Aysle in which the kids have found themselves transformed into fantasy heroes. One of the aforesaid documents details the races of Aysle. I’ll get around to posting the Google document link eventually. For this post, I want to look at a few of Aysle’s deities and muse about treating those deities as Trappings for Arcane Background. Aysle’s deities are divided into three groups: the Gods of Honor, the Gods Between, and the God of Corruption. Here’s one of each.

Dunad
Major God of Honor

Dunad was once human. He freed his people from slavery at the hands of the giants. In the process, he brought magic to Aysle after he ventured beyond the Limit and returned with Aurel, a powerful magical sword. After defeating the giants, Dunad shattered Aural in the Valley of the Sword, unleashing magic into the world.

Trappings: The most appropriate Trappings for Dunad are Fire/Heat and Light. Dunad also represents Life.

Courage: All natural, living creatures have a level of Arcane Resistance versus the power, but unnatural creatures (including the Undead) must make Fear checks when hit with it.

Infuse with Life: A raise on the roll provides a -1 to be hit by Undead as they are less able to bring their strengths to bear against the subject.

Soul Sparks: Ranged attacks give off sparks of soul force that do +1 damage versus armored targets but -1 damage versus unarmored targets.

Minthod
Major God of Balance

Minthod appears as a huge minotaur, and he is a the deity most favored by the Half-Folk of Aysle. Minthod’s domain is the Land Between, and his followers seek balance between Honor and Corruption. Minthod is patient and reserved.

Trappings: Minthod prefers to be unnoticed. Darkness is an appropriate trapping. He is also associated with Rock.

Rocky Hide: Subjects affected with a raise by a beneficial power gain patches of protective rocks that provide AP +1. An attack that gains a raise ignores this additional protection.

Steadfast: Beneficial powers root the target more firmly on its feet at a cost a +1 Power Point. This reduces Pace by -2 but grants a +2 to resist being grappled.

Tremors: Harmful powers cause the ground to shake and buckle. The target has to make an Agility roll or be at a -2 Parry until his next action.

Arthuk
Major God of Corruption

Arthuk, a warlord giant, led the giants who enslaved Upper Aysle during the time of Dunad. In a fearsome battle, Dunad slayed Arthuk, but the giant triumphed over death to become the principal god of corruption. Arthuk seeks to bring Corruption to all, especially to those who live with Honor.

Trappings: Cold/Ice and Necromantic are Arthuk’s most appropriate Trappings. He is also a god of War.

Bleed: A harmful power that causes damage reduces its die type by one. On the next caster’s next action, unless counteracted by healing of some sort, the target suffers one less die of damage from bleeding. For example, a bolt does 2d6 damage normally. With the Bleed effect, it would do 2d4 damage, and the target would suffer 1d4 damage on the caster’s next turn.

Fury: Beneficial powers imbue the target with bloodlust. The power costs +1 Power Point to cast, but on a success add +1 Fighting for the duration of the power. On a raise, increase Fighting one die type for the duration of power instead.

War Cry: A raise with the power results in a Fear check at a cost of +1 Power Point.

Tags: Savage Wednesday, Savage Worlds, The Kids' Game

Our campaign using Savage Worlds Deluxe Explorer’s Edition continues this Saturday with Miami school children John, Bin, Ganke, and Mario transformed into fantasy heroes in a frontier region of the world of Aysle. This next game session marks our first full-blown foray into the rules-(more-or-less)-as-written. The kid characters were created with a modified set of rules. The fantasy characters were not.

Last Savage Wednesday post, I talked a bit about Aysle’s Laws of Observation, Magic, Honor, and Corruption. Those rules will be in play, of course, and we’ll also be spending and earning Bennies for the first time. Bennies have all their standard uses: reroll any Trait test, Soak damage, recover from being Shaken, et cetera. Heroes earn Bennies the usual ways as well: doing clever things, advancing the plot, great roleplaying related to Hindrances, and so forth.

The guidelines indicate that most players “should get one or two extra Bennies” per game session. With systems that use things like Bennies, I often forget about awarding them. I’m considering putting two to three Bennies per player in a bowl, sticking the bowl in the middle of the table, and letting the players handle the lion’s share of the Bennie awarding.

I also want to implement Beliefs, Goals, and Instincts from Mouse Guard. These three aspects of a character are specific means by which Bennies can be earned. I might tie them to Experience Points as well, but I’m still mulling that option.

Beliefs

“A Belief is a code or ethical stance. It’s a snapshot view of how your character thinks. Sometimes you’ll act in accordance with your Belief, sometimes you’ll act against it” (Mouse Guard, page 42).

A Belief lets the other players know what a character is most like. It signals what sorts of themes or activities the player wants to include in the game. A well-written Belief tells what motivates a character. It tells what higher purpose guides the character. A Belief should balance between being too general (“I must help people.”) and too specific (“I must help only women and children who beg me for assistance.”). Sample Beliefs from Mouse Guard help illustrate the principle:

“A guardmouse needs to be able to think with her head and act with her heart.”

“A guardmouse never gives up no matter what the danger.”

“The best solution is always found at the point of my sword.”

“It’s not what you fight, but what you fight for.”

In each case, the Belief indicates a course of action with the potential for conflict when the Belief is challenged. For example, the second Belief above most obviously presents the choice between continuing on a hopeless path and dying, or else giving up and/or retreating, which might also have serious negative consequences.

A character’s Belief can change at the beginning or end of a session, and this represents a change in worldview that ought to result from events during the game session.

Goals

“At the beginning of each session, write a Goal for your character. A Goal is some action or deed you want to accomplish in that session” (Mouse Guard, page 44).

A Goal is always something appropriate for the current session and the character’s duties as a hero. Of course, a Goal must be something possible to accomplish during the session. Any Goal has states an action and a target, and should probably include a condition as well. For example:

“I must find evidence that will determine if the grain peddler is a traitor or not.”

“I will protect [character] and [character] on this patrol.”

“I will show [character] and [character] that I am a valuable member of the patrol.”

“I will discover why [someone’s] communications from [location] have stopped.”

A Goal must include an imperative (“I will” or “I must”, for example) and a specific action verb with a target. Session Goals are written once the players know what the focus on the session is. One player’s character must have a Goal that addresses the session’s main focus. Each player gets one Goal per session. Unaccomplished Goals at the end of one session are rewritten at the start of the next session.

Instinct

“Your character’s Instinct represents a gut reaction or ingrained training. It represents something that he does naturally, without even really thinking abou it” (Mouse Guard, page 47).

To write an Instinct for a character, think of action or reaction, and then “turn it into a statement that includes always, if/then or never” (Mouse Guard, page 48). An Instinct has to be something that a character can accomplish quickly. An Instinct is what a character is most likely to do when a split-second decision is needed, and characters tend to follow their Instincts even in situations where they might not be appropriate. Some more examples:

“Always consult [character] when trouble arises.”

“Always draw my sword at the first sign of trouble.”

“If there’s work to be done, always offer to help.”

“Never delay when on a mission.”

An Instinct does not dictate how a character must act. A character can resist his or her Instinct, but there is no reward for doing so. An Instinct can also change, but a player may only write a new Instinct for his or her character at either the beginning or the end of a game session.

Bennies

A hero earns a Bennie for accomplishing a Goal, for acting in a difficult situation in which his or her Belief is challenged, and/or for following his or her Instinct. Since it may be the case that a Bennie earned from accomplishing a Goal is not earned until near the end of session, I’m considering one of two options: either the Goal Bennie carries over to the start of the next session or the Goal Bennie converts to an Experience Point. I’m leaning more strongly to the former option than the latter.

Tags: Savage Wednesday, Savage Worlds, The Kids' Game