Frozen Skies Ideas April 2017

As playtests take place and I check through what I've written for Frozen Skies I've discovered that theres been bits I've missed by accident or stuff that I could add. So this week is a couple of items that could be useful for characters in Frozen Skies even if they have specific uses. Where possible I've tried to use existing rules for Savage Worlds, but where I haven't been able to find anything suitable I've had to come up with my own experimental rules.

(The FatBoy Slim album reference below will make sense, honest gov'nor!)

Better Living Through The Chemistry

Millfields Mines - Fable 3

Peppermint Bomb

The Peppermint Bomb has been around for quite, created for use against Wulvers and originally required a fuse to be lit before throwing. Thankfully the design has been improved to use a fuse from a hand grenade, but it still functions the same as its always done.

It works just like a hand grenade in that can be thrown, though it can be used as part of a trap. When it explodes it produces a Small Burst Template that remains in play for 2d6 rounds. Any Wulver caught within the Template or enters it immediately ends their movement and makes a Spirit roll at -4, a failed roll means they're Shaken. Whilst they remain in the template all Spirit rolls are at -4 and they must make a Spirit roll to avoid being Shaken, though if it makes them become Shaken they do not suffer any wounds if they are already Shaken. If the bomb lands directly on a Wulver then the templates moves with the Wulver until it expires.

Range: 3/6/12

Wulf Bait

Wulf Bait was designed to lure Wulvers to a certain spot, but it also works on wolves and other canines. When used place a Large Burst Templete which lasts for 2d6 rounds. When within 6 inches of the template Wulvers (and canines) must make a Spirit roll at -4 at the beginning of their turn, failure means that they must move into the area covered by the template. On successive turns until the template expires Wulvers have to make a Spirit roll at -4 to try and avoid the effects of the template.

Regardless of whether they're affected by the templete or not Wulvers suffer -2 to scent based Tracking rolls whilst within 6" of the template.

Like the Peppermint Bomb it can be thrown or placed.

Range: 3/6/12

Alyeskan Tales: Things Never Go Smooth

The last real big piece of writing left to do for Frozen Skies is the adventures section, I'm mulling putting in Firewater & Ice in addition to Fool's Errand. But I still need some more adventures and an adventure generator. This week I'm looking to partially address the former.

Things Never Go Smooth

"It never goes smooth! How come it never goes smooth?" - Mal - Firefly

Ferret approaches the group with a simple job offer; he wants some goods collected from a small town in the Alyeskan Outlands. When they arrive in the town they're meant to meet up with a contact of Ferret who'll hand over the goods.

However, there are one or two compilcations.

You can choose any of the following options or draw a card from the Action Deck to determine the type of complication, then roll a die for the specific problem. Drawing an Ace means you roll on BOTH tables.

BLACK - Problem lies with Ferret's contact.
Roll 1d6
1. He's in prison.
2. He's dead.
3. He's the 'guest of honor' at a big town dinner (i.e. cannibals).
4. He's in trouble with a rival gang.
5. He's skipped town.
6. He's incapacitated.

RED - Problem with the goods.
Roll 1d6
1. They've been lost (i.e. plane crash).
2. The authorities have them.
3. A rival gang has them.
4. They're locked up where Ferret's man can't get to them (i.e. warehouse or the cellar of a tavern).
5. They're in a cave outside of town 'guarded' by some animals (i.e. bears, wolves, etc).
6. Ferret's man has sold them on/got the wrong items.

April 2017 Update

We've over quarter of the way into a year that seems to be rapidly galloping by as various things start coming together and begin to bear fruit. Certainly feeling that I'm hell of alot closer to finally getting Frozen Skies released to the point where I'm partially-excited/partially-scared by the prospect. Also being a new month and all figured its high time for an update post.

State of the Press

Estimate the writing on Frozen Skies to at least be 90% done; still got the adventures section to complete, add in extra content in places, check through to make sure everything's correct and tweaks on things such as Bestiary stats or Gear prices. Currently exploring my options for proofreading/editing and if everything goes to plan I *should* hopefully have Frozen Skies sent off for layout at the beginning of May. After that it hoping the timings are good to make sure that I get copies ready to sell at the UK Games Expo at the beginning of June, may be a close run thing.

Other than that the main artwork is done, just having another artist do some character portraits to finish off. Though I am still looking for somebody to do a Wild Card Symbol.

In closing, a little treat in the form of some artwork.

Female Windryder/Genchi

Garian Hist WIP

Vehicle Combat: Sword vs Tank

After revising the Cloudhaunts recently, one thing I noticed is that there doesn't seem to be much regarding vehicles and melee combat. This is fairly important since Cloudhaunts attack vehicles (aircraft in this case) and only have their claws to attack with. Obviously a means of handling this needed to be thought of, something that sparked off one or two other ideas.

Vehicle Combat: Sword vs Tank

Crimson Skies - Preview Comic

 As stated previously Cloudhaunts attack aircraft, normally en mass to in order to force it to crash via sheer weight of numbers. Since a vehicle technically doesn't have a Parry I've had to go with something else, ended up going with the pilot's Piloting skill -2 as the TN for Cloudhaunts to get in order to attack an aircraft.

Then I got thinking about how the aircraft's pilot would be effected, critters clinging to and clawing at his aircraft is going to cause problems. Did think of going with a flat -2 penatly for Piloting rolls, but figured that something based off the Ganging Up rule would probably work better. So the pilot will get a -1 penatly to his Piloting roll for every creature attacking his plane, though to a max of -4. This makes Cloudhaunts that little bit more of a threat whilst at the some time make for a more dramatic game as the players try to shake them off their aircraft to reduce the penatly.Course some of this would be useful for dealing with Skyjackers trying to board the aircraft, least the penatly and the following maneuver;

Shake (-1 to -4): The pilot can try jinking his aircraft in order to shake loose whatever is clinging onto their aircraft. A success and each raise will throw off one of the clingers, perhaps even reducing the pilot's penatly if enough of them are thrown off. The modifier depends on how many creatures are clinging onto the aircraft. If the roll is failed, the pilot goes out of control as usual.