August 2020: Banshee's Wail

OK, something a little different this month.

This is going to be a two-parter, this post in particular features updated stats for the all-female Banshees sky pirate gang. The follow-on post will hopefully be an adventure centered round them, perhaps a one sheet style adventure or perhaps something longer. Depending on how popular this is, I may see about doing more of this sort of thing.

Banshee Sky Pirate

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d6
Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d6, Fighting d6, Intimidation d6, Language (Native) d8, Notice d6+2, Persuasion d6+1, Piloting d8, Shooting d8, Stealth d6, Taunt d6, Thievery d4
Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 5
Hindrances: Greedy, Loyal, Wanted (Major)
Edges: Ace, Alertness, Attractive, Pilot's Instincts, Quick, Rock and Roll!
Gear: Knives, clubs, pistols or SMGs.

Natasha's Agility, Smarts and Piloting all increase one die. In addition she gains the Ace Gunner, Command and Danger Sense edges.

Banshee Plane

Top Speed: 310 MPH; Toughness: 12 (3); Crew: 1; Climb: 15; Handling: +1; Size: 6 (Large); Notes: Improved Gunsight
Weapons: x4 Heavy MGs (Fixed Forward, Linked)
Special - Banshees' Cry: When doing an Intimidation based test against an enemy pilot, add +2 on the roll.

Rogue's Gallery: The Kenworth Street Runners

Oh hey, something else that hasn't been done in a while.

This week's post showcases potential allies or foes for the player characters when they've attracted the attention of the authorities. It is also a powerful group that's not to be trifled with, similar in some respects to the Agents and Rangers from Deadlands.

The Commonwealth's Long Arm

The Kenworth Street Runners are a detachment of the Garda's Special Branch, stationed in the Alyeskan capital of Morrdun. They are independent from Alyeska's Air Guard, something that sometimes puts the two groups at odds especially as the Runners rank above the lawmen of Alyeska. Another cause of disgruntlement from the Air Guard is that its own force of detectives are restricted to investigating crime, whereas the Runners deal with matters of national security and conducts investigations to protect the Commonwealth from perceived threats of subversion.

As Alyeska's own lawmen are considered a colonial force, the Runners can ride roughshod over the Air Guard's investigations if the Runners believe it would affect the interests of the Commonwealth. As the Runners are part of the Commonwealth Garda, they have the backing of the Home Isles and by extension are answerable to the Queen of the Commonwealth rather than the High Lord of Alyeska. Again, this helps strokes tensions.

On a normal day-to-day basis, the two forces keep their distance. The Runners only interfere with the Air Guard if a case crops up that concerns the national interests or the Air Guard arrests suspect who is on the Runners' watch list. The High Lord may request the Runners take over an Air Guard investigation, though the Runners aren't obliged to honour the request and will take on the case just to be polite.

Use In Games

As stated above, the Runners are meant to be used when the player characters attract the attention of the authorities. Generally this would be if the PCs get caught up in a spy ring, get their hands on a state secret somehow or get accused of treason. They're not a group to cross lightly and can cause a heap of trouble for the PCs. On the other hand, the Runners could be potent allies for the PCs if an opportunity arose with the influence alone that the Runners are able to bring to bear.

Kenworth Street Runner (Human, Detective)

Rank: Legendary (24 advancements)
Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6
Skills: Athletics: d6, Common Knowledge: d6, Driving: d6, Fighting: d8, Intimidation: d6+2, Notice: d8+2, Persuasion: d6, Research: d8, Shooting: d10, Stealth: d8, Taunt: d6, Thievery: d6+1
Pace: 6, Parry: 7, Toughness: 5
Hindrances: Driven (minor), Ruthless (minor), Stubborn, Vow (minor)
Edges: Alertness, Block, Calculating, Charismatic, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Double Tap, Investigator, Killer Instinct, Level Headed, Marksman, Menacing, Rabble-Rouser, Scholar, Streetwise, Strong Willed, Thief
Weapons: Revolver (2d6+1, 12/24/48, RoF 1, AP 1, Shots 6)

Rogue's Gallery: Andrei Dunlyfe

The world of Darmonica has a wide cast of characters who call it home, some are mere specks by the wayside whilst others exert influence far beyond the reckoning of most folk. Of the latter most are diplomats or heads of states, others work from the shadows to subtly nudge events in a particular direction. Andrei Dunlyfe is a man accustomed to working in the shadows, though currently a so-called 'Broker of Secrets' he was formerly a spymaster of the Kingdom of Tyland.

The Tylanish Shadow

Befitting a man of shadows, Andrei's life is largely unknown. It is generally known that he enetered Tyland's Royal Military College as an officer cadet, completing the infantry officer's course before specialising in military intelligence. He was recruited by the Central Intelligence Bureau, Tyland's external military intelligence agency, and soon proved his worth as he rose up the ranks. Andrei frustrated the efforts of the Commonwealth's intelligence service during the Great Darmonican War and quickly got called the 'Tylanish Shadow'.

After the war had ended, Andrei travelled to Alyeska where he set himself up as a broker of secrets. He trades in information with anyone who has enough coin, though will pick freelancers to give 'free' titbits but otherwise remains strictly neutral. Some do have to question what his motivations and ambitions are, especially since it is known that he has no love for the Commonwealth.

Those who have met him have stated the constant sound of ticking that comes from a supposed clockwork arm, least Andrei stresses that its clockwork but doesn't go into further detail.

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d6
Skills: Athletics d6, Common Knowledge d8, Fighting d8, Intimidation d8, Language (Sodkan) d6, Language (Gwentian) d6, Language (Artian) d6, Notice d8+2, Persuasion d8, Research d8, Shooting d8, Stealth d8, Thievery d8+1
Pace: 6, Parry: 8, Toughness: 5
Hindrances: Code of Honor, Curious
Edges: Alertness, Ambidextrous, Assassin, Block, Combat Reflexes, Extraction, Feint, Improved Block, Improved Extraction, Level Headed, Quick, Streetwise, Strong Willed, Thief
Gear: Revolver, Mechanical Arm (+1 Str die & Armor +2 on arm), Short Sword (mounted on mechanical arm, kept retracted until needed).
Languages: Tylanis (Native), Sodkan (d6), Gwentian (d6), Artian (d6)

Rogue’s Gallery: Queen Lothwyn

An ongoing project at the moment is going through and nailing the background lore for the wider world of the Frozen Skies setting.  Part of this has included a series of recent posts covering a revision of the Commonwealth and part of its military in the form of the Royal Aero-Fleet. Plan to do a few more posts concerning the Commonwealth, but realized that I haven’t written much about the most important person in the Commonwealth: Queen Lothwyn II.

All Hail the Banrigh!

Banrigh (Queen) Lothwyn has been the Commonwealth’s monarch since just after the end of the Great Darmonican War, having inherited the crown following the death of her father King Alfred. Not only did she had to contend with being the youngest ruler in Darmonica, she also had to get used to a world at peace after growing up in one at war. Her coronation was seen as a fresh start after thirty years of war, though her reign thus far has seen an uneasy peace hold sway and tensions once again on the rise.

Though she doesn’t actually govern the Commonwealth she has a lot of influence to direct policy, though she has rarely used this power.

Appearance

Lothwyn stands round 5’6” tall and is of slim build. She has coal black hair with slate grey eyes and a pale complexion. On both arms she has Celtic style blue spiral tattoos that run from her wrists up to her shoulders.

Role

As the head of state of the Commonwealth, Lothwyn has very little real power and performs a largely ceremonial role. The actual day-to-day running of the Commonwealth is done by the government headed by the Taoiseach (Leader or Prime Minister), though he and his ministers are held accountable by the Commonwealth’s parliament. Despite her ceremonial role, Lothwyn remains the commander-in-chief of the Commonwealth’s military as well as the ability to dismiss and appoint a new Taoiseach in addition to dissolving parliament.

The Queen has a handful of other duties that include giving Royal Assent to new legislation passed by parliament, thus making them into law. She is advised by the Provost Court, a body made up of her vice-regal representatives in various provinces and certain large towns. Depending on what they represent, the members of the Court are called Provosts or Lord Provosts and effectively act as mayors or state governors.

Use in Games

Given that she is the Commonwealth’s head of state, it is very unlikely that the player characters will get to meet Queen Lothwyn unless they’ve done a great service to the Commonwealth. It is more likely for Lothwyn to be in the background, for example a town could turn out to see her visit and thus provide a distraction for the characters to rob the town’s bank.

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: The Tundra Wolves

There are many sky pirate outfits in Alyeska, ranging from little more than bandits with a couple of planes through to successful gangs with their own airships. A group known as the Banshees have already been covered and have even made an appearance in the Frozen Skies campaign that I'm currently running. Another gang that has featured in the campaign and have only been mentioned previously; The Tundra Wolves

Honour Among Cutthroats

At first glance the Tundra Wolves seem like just another gang of sky pirates, though closer inspection reveal some surprising facts.

Firstly they are the only known all-Sodkan sky pirate that exist in Alyeska; its members having come from either Sodkan families who'd settled in Alyeska prior to the Great Darmonican War or fled their homeland when the Holy Sodkan Empire collapsed. This Sodkans-only policy sets them apart from the other gangs, almost to the point of making them outsiders. But the Wolves' leader, Andrei Skirov, wouldn't have it any other way.

Thanks to their association with Petro Broklaw, the Wolves utilize a range of weird science gizmos which gives them an edge over other sky pirates. These gizmos help the gang sneak up on and then rob airships, something which the Wolves have specialized in doing. Among the gizmos that Broklaw is said to given the Wolves are darklight goggles, targeting scopes for their planes with unparalleled range and a device rumoured to be called a 'transdislocator'.

The Wolves exclusively target airships known to be carrying valuable cargo such as gold bullion or Ancient artefacts. Unusually they give some of their profits to the various downtrodden Sodkan communities in Alyeska, something that further steps them apart from other gangs and makes them also folk heroes.

Stats

Use the Sky Pirate stats from Frozen Skies, but change Smarts to d6 and then add the Weird Science skill at d6. Additionally, they also have the Loyal Hindrance.

Andrei Skirov has Agility d6, Smarts d8, Spirit d8, Strength d8, Vigor d8. He also has Fighting d8, Piloting d8, Shooting d8 and Weird Science d8 as well as the Ace, Command and Command Presence Edges.

The Tundra Wulves are equipped similarly to Sky Pirates, but they have darksight goggles and transdislocator harnesses (teleport). Andrei also has a glimmer gun.

Rogue's Gallery: Marauders

Alyeska is home to many outlaws; the most infamous of these are the sky pirates that have been romanticised by the newsheets. Bandits aren't unheard, though they are not seen as exciting and tend to receive considerably less attention in the press. Then there are the motorcycle raider gangs known as 'Marauders'.

HOT OFF THE PRESS! Frozen Skies will go on sale this coming Wednesday!!

On Steads of Steel & Oil

Bandits have plagued Darmonica for centuries, typically peaking in activity following major conflicts as thousands of soldiers suddenly find themselves released from service with no job to turn to. Bandits have also moved with the times, the evolution of mechanised warfare saw increased demand for technical skills and thus resulted on a large number of those with a mechanical aptitude. The rise of the aircraft has seen many gravitate towards the sky pirate outfits that have emerged over time, though there are still those who remained earth-bound.

Marauders are outlaws who prefer to conduct their nefarious activities on the ground, usually with a motley collection of vehicles. Most marauder gangs have a couple of trucks and a fair few motorcycles, some may even have sidecars. They typically target trains, lightly armed convoys, trade caravans and even small settlements on occasion. Even the military has found that it isn't immune to marauder attacks and so has had to assign precious manpower to guard convoys and supply dumps.

Marauder

Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d6
Skills: Climbing d6, Driving d8, Fighting d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d8, Repair d6, Shooting d6, Throwing d6
Charisma: -2; Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 6 (1)
Hindrances: Bloodthirsty, Mean, Wanted (Minor)
Edges: Ace, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Steady Hands
Gear: Revolver (12/24/48, 2d6, RoF 1, Revolver), machine pistol (12/24/48, 2d6-1, RoF 3, AP 1, Auto), knife (Str+d4), leather armor

Marauder Truck

Acc/TS: 6/26, Toughness: 8 (3), Crew: 1+2, Weapons: 2x machine guns (40/80/160, 2d8, RoF 3, AP 2, Auto)

Marauder Motorcycle

Acc/TS: 12/30, Toughness: 7 (1), Crew: 1 (+1), Weapons: 1x machine gun (if motorcycle has sidecar)