Frozen Skies Episode 18: Casino Royale

Following on from the train heist, the crew ended up in a casino....though not for another heist. This was the crew's first shot at bounty hunting, which they managed to successfully pull off. It proved to be Beginner's Luck and the Jackpot for one of the characters, whilst another may have brought the wrath of the local taxi drivers' union down upon the crew.

Along Came A Bounty

Jacob had sought out some bounties for the crew to try an attempt, managing to get six potential targets to go after.

The Glimmer Rats - Gang specializing on stealing gizmos.

'Hawk' - A serial killer at large in the Alyeskan Outlands.

Kaelin Madigan - Fraudster and thief.

The Crows - Gang of kidnappers.

Dust Raiders - Tomb robbers.

The Black Talons - Windryder raiders who'd been attacking settlements.

Kaelin had been reported to recently have been in Gravenburgh, she was considered an 'easy' target and a good one for Sebastian to gain some bounty hunting experience to go with his newly acquired licence. The crew decided to split into two teams; Team 1 consisted of Alex and Sebastian whilst Team 2 was made up of Herbert, Jacob and Reginald. Alex used his underworld connections and found out how Kaelin operated, that she tended to target older men with more money than sense with a fondness for both drink and the pretty ladies. So the crew suited up and headed out for a night on the town, with the teams each going to different casinos.

Team Two went to one casino, though whilst it had the right sort of 'marks' that Kaelin would go for there was a distinct lack of female company present. Herbert decided to go and try to speak to one of the gamblers, but only took a couple of steps before Jacob yanked him back. In no uncertain terms, the bounty hunter told Herbert to keep his mouth shut and eyes open. Reginald also got ordered to make sure that the good doctor stayed out of trouble and was given a set of knuckledusters to aid with this task. Jacob then discreetly talked to the casino stuff in hopes of getting a lead on the genchi con artist.

Meanwhile, Alex and Sebastian were checking out their assigned casino. This one proved to be more livelier with a stage show and plenty of men with female companions. Sebastian headed over to the bar and brought one of the more expensive drinks, effectively making himself bait to draw out Kaelin, then made his way over to the gambling tables. Alex worked the room and made a mental note on the security arrangements, plus the nucleus of plans for a later date. Sebastian’s first round proved to be a case of beginner’s luck, though he didn’t fare too well in his next couple of games.

It was at this point that Alex had managed to swipe round £100 of chips, then threw them in the air to cause a distraction. Alex’s intention was to see the response from the casino’s security, use the opportunity to grab a deck of cards from an unmanned table and then finally see if it drew Kaelin’s attention. For his efforts, Alex was rewarded with a deck of cards marked with the casino’s logo and a glimpse of a woman nearby. This woman had a feather fan obscuring her face, though she lowered it just enough for her to glance round and for Alex to spot the green pointed ears that marked the woman as being a genchi. Alex then had a telephone call put through to Team 2 at the other casino and alerted them that Kaelin may have been found.

Team 2 then piled into a taxi, its driver giving then estimate of half an hour for the journey. A stern look and some carefully chosen words from Jacob had this estimate revised down to 10 minutes, in addition to half fare no fare. Team 2 arrived at the second casino to meet up with Alex and Sebastian, though Herbert decided to head back to the airship and got back into the same taxi that Team 2 had arrived in. Once again the driver quoted half hour for the journey, but Herbert felt like ranting and told the driver everything that the crew had gotten up to. Everything.

Five minutes later, Herbert was back at the airship after another free taxi ride.

The rest of the crew, blissfully aware of a potential future meeting with the Gravenburgh Taxi Driver’s Union, set about forming their trap for Kaelin. Sebastian went back to the tables, having received some advice. His next game went well, then he decided to raise the stake that caused couple of the players to quit and have their places taken by Kaelin and Jacob. Two rounds later, Sebastian had amassed over £20,000 in winnings and offered one of the casino’s primer suites for the night. Sebastian then watched some of the stage show before heading up to his suite, though noted Kaelin watching him the entire time.

Alex and Jacob kept a close on Sebastian as he headed upstairs, though they had a harder time tracking Kaelin as she vanished into the crowds a couple of times. Sebastian, aware that he was being followed, acted drunk and ‘stumbled’ his way to his room. Fortunately, he was able to catch a glimpse of Kaelin and carried on acting drunk. On reaching the door to his room, Sebastian pretended to fumble with the key and cursed out loud. Kaelin came over, smiled and said. “Honey, you put the key in like this and turn it.”

Quickly dropping his façade of drunkenness, Sebastian grappled Kaelin by grabbing her arm. The genchi was agile enough to get her arm free, though Sebastian landed a blow that made her stagger back. Unnoticed, Alex then whacked Kaelin round the head with his cane and knocked her clean out for a couple of hours. Jacob produced some handcuffs and then carried the unconscious genchi into the room where he used the hotel phone to call the police. Alex and Reginald made their exits, though Jacob stayed long enough to hand Kaelin over when the police arrived.

Having been offered the suite by the casino, Sebastian opted to stay for the night.

Thoughts

Oh boy, what a game.

First Herbert’s Big Mouth Hindrance comes into play a couple of times and then BOTH Alex and Sebastian drew Jokers for the confrontation with Kaelin. Tactical use of Adventure Cards by Alex’s player meant that he was effectively able to ‘one shot’ Kaelin to ensure that she went down. Though, aside from breaking free from Sebastian’s grapple, Kaelin never got to act but her high Parry did cause some problems for the characters.

I also now have a few plot ideas to work with, though the players expressed a wish to head back to the Home Isles to pursue their own plot to do with Reginald’s family.

Rogue's Gallery SWADE-ified

For those who have been following on social media, you'll be aware that I'm currently working on getting Frozen Skies updated to the new Adventure Edition of Savage Worlds. A draft of the update document (dubbed 'Black Ice') has also been shared and covers rules and gear, etc. The biggest task is updating the various NPCs due to changes to skills, Hindrances and Edges. Decided to redo a character previously posted on the blog, partially as some practice and partially to showcase differences.

Meet Kaelin Madigan...Again

The character I decided to redo was the Genchi femme fatal Kaelin Madigan, particularly as I thought some of the new Social Edges may work for her. It was done using the character generator on the most awesome site Savaged.us (though its not completely without its bugs).

Kaelin Madigan

Female Genchi

Rank: Legendary (24 advancements)
Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6
Pace: 6, Parry: 7, Toughness: 4, Size: -1
Skills: Athletics: d8, Common Knowledge: d6, Fighting: d8, Gambling: d8, Intimidation: d6, Notice: d8+2, Performance: d8, Persuasion: d10+1, Repair: d6, Shooting: d6, Stealth: d8, Taunt: d8+2, Thievery: d8 Hindrances: Greedy (minor), Ruthless (minor), Small, Wanted (minor) Edges: Alertness, Attractive, Block, Charismatic, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Extraction, Feint, Humiliate, Level Headed, Martial Artist, Quick, Retort, Streetwise, Strong Willed Weapons: Unarmed (Natural Attack, Str+d4)
Wealth: £75 Language: Gwentian (Native)
Abilities 

• Attribute Increase (Agility; SWADE p18): During character creation, the species increases a particular attribute (Agility, Smarts, Spirit, Strength, or Vigor) one die type. This increases the Trait’s maximum by one as well.
• Hindrance (Outsider, major - SWADE p26; SWADE p20): The character doesn’t fit in to the local environment and subtracts 2 from Persuasion rolls.
• Skill (d6) (SWADE p19): Repair d6

I've tried recreating her as closely as I could, for the most part her skills, Hindrances and Edges match her SWD incarnation. 

One of the changes with SWADE was Small being made a Minor Hindrance rather than a Major one that it was in Deluxe, meaning that Kaelin only had three Minor Hindrances. After some consideration decided to take Ruthless as a Minor, felt that it fitted with her character as somebody who'd take people out but only if they got in her way.

Next up was skills, something else that has seen changes. Some of the skills from Deluxe have been combine, there is now a bunch of 'core' skills everyone gets at d4 and theres one or two new skills. With less skill points to spend at character creation, found a little tricky trying to match her skills early on and ended up spending a whole load of Advances trying to get certain skills up to where they met Edge requirements. Performance is a new skill that I gave Kaelin because I felt it work quite well with her character concept, likewise Common Knowledge (which is a Core skill) I increased to d6 to show that she has a finger on current affairs. 

With regards to Edges, she's only missing Very Attractive but has four new Edges. A good chunk of the new Social Edges seem to revolve around Support rolls, but Humiliate, Streetwise and Retort were ones that work for a 'lone wolf' character that I envision Kaelin being. Feint I decided to take partially because of Kaelin's lone wolf aspect, partially because I envision her being a tricksy sort of fighter. She seems a pretty capable character, though I could give her extra Edges like Very Attractive and Martial Warrior to improve her potency. Regardless, she should be an interesting character to run.

Rogue's Gallery: Kaelin Madigan

Alyeska is a land of ample opportunity; some toil the land for the fruit of the earth whilst others seek precious minerals beneath it. For every soul seeking to make an honest living, there are many who seek to part fools from their gold through dishonest means. Thieves and bandits are a common plight in civilized lands, but there is another kind of scoundrel that is on the raise who uses trickery and deceit to get what they want.

Kaelin Madigan is one such person, using every trick up her sleeve to fleece others out of their heard earn coin.

Kaelin Madigan

Kaelin didn't have an easy start in life, being born on a Genchi ghetto in the Aldwell District of Lindun. She never knew her father and her mother was killed during an air raid, the ghettos having received no provisions for the safety of their residents. Being orphaned at a young age was bad enough, but being a Genchi she could expect no help from the state for her welfare. The other families in the ghettos looked out for her as much as they could, though food, medicine and even clothes were in pitiful short supply as the Genchi were low down on the rations list.

It wasn't long before Kaelin started stealing food from shops and market stalls; sometimes she'd managed to get away with a loaf of bread, other times she got bruises from irate shopkeepers for her troubles. Through a mixture of trial and error she learnt that she had a knack for subterfuge, using deceit to swipe coins and ration books from unsuspecting victims. She soon put her skills to good use with a street gang, acting as a distraction whilst her fellow gang members went about the actual act of thievery. However, the gang ended up being busted by the law and Kaelin opted to skip town.

By this point the Great Darmonican War had ended and civilian shipping was starting to recover from the long years of war. It proved relatively easy for Kaelin to gain passage to Alyeska, a supposed land of opportunity she'd frequently heard others talk about. Whilst getting to Alyeska proved easy enough, Kaelin found that establishing herself there was another matter entirely. Her good looks had proven useful in the past and proved useful again as she managed to gain work with a certain madame as an escort.

From a string of wealthy clients she quickly learnt the etiquette of high society and useful tidbits from indulging in pillow talk with said clients. Before long she was able to work on a more freelance basis and had access to the few exclusive clubs and casinos that exist in Alyeska. She chooses her marks carefully, making sure that they're inebriated before she approaches them and thus more open to her advances. Later she engages in pillow talk in case her mark lets slip valuable information, then waits until he falls asleep before examining the mark's home. Personal papers, especially those relating to financial matters, she is particularly interested in and she uses a miniature camera to allow her to forge copies later on. She also looks for valuable items that she can secret out of the house and then fence.

Player characters may get hired by one of her victims to help catch her if the victim suspects what she has been up to. The characters may even get approached by Kaelin if they frequent upper end clubs and look reasonably wealthy with the intention of robbing them. On the flip-side, Kaelin may approach the characters to enlist their help with a potentially big score.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6
Skills: Climbing d6, Fighting d8, Gambling d8, Intimidation d6, Lockpicking d6, Notice d8, Persuasion d10, Repair d6, Shooting d6, Stealth d8, Streetwise d8, Taunt d6
Charisma: +6; Pace: 6; Parry: 7(8); Toughness: 4
Hindrances: Greedy (Minor), Small, Wanted (Minor)
Edges: Acrobat, Alertness, Attractive, Very Attractive, Block, Charismatic, Dodge, Extraction, Level Headed, Martial Artist, Quick, Strong Willed, Thief
Gear: Revolver (12/24/48, 2d6, RoF 1, Shots 6, Revolver), Dagger (Str+d4)

Rogue's Gallery: Genchi Clubmen

A second Rogue's Gallery in a row?

What madness is this?

Its part of some ideas I've to further flesh out and develop the world of Darmonica to make it seem more like a living, breathing world. The recent Airman's Gazetteer series was part of this and so will be a few Rogue's Gallery posts. This week's post expands a bit on Genci culture and provides potential allies or enemies for the characters to encounter.

Ghetto Vigilantes

The Genchi are treated as second-class citizens throughout Darmonica. They are forced to live in slums and ghettos with the vast majority living below the poverty line. They are often accused of thievery and the law virtually never ever comes down on their side. Human gangs will frequently target Genchi ghettos or slums with a sizeable Genchi population, knowing that for the most part they can get away with doing so.

In response the Genchi have formed gangs of vigilantes to protect their homes, something that has sparked increasingly violent responses from Human gangs as well as the police. These Genchi vigilantes are often called 'Clubmen' due to the fact that most of them are armed with clubs, the main weapon that is readily and easily available to them. Other blunt weapons and even knives aren't uncommon, though its rare to see a fireman and even then its typically a pistol.

Most Genchi clubmen are young males, normally led by a handful of older and wiser males. Females aren't unheard of, but they tend to be the most vicious fighters. They style themselves as a street gang and will even name themselves. The Gaff Street Cutters of Lindun are a particularly infamous gang having been featured in Commonwealth newsheets and even debated about in parliament due to their street battles with the police.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d6
Skills: Driving d4, Fighting d6, Notice d8, Repair d8, Shooting d6, Stealth d6
Charisma: -2; Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 5
Hindrances: Outsider, Vengeful (Minor)
Edges: McGyver, Mechanic
Gear: Clubs, knives, occasionally pistols