Keep The Home Fires Burning: Setting Rules

Its been a while since I've posted anything for Keep The Home Fires Burning, though I've had a few ideas on how I want various Setting Rules to work. The Adventure Edition of Savage Worlds also provides a good excuse to look again at this setting idea. Once Frozen Skies has been updated for SWADE and an updated book released, I hope to come back to this setting in hopes of producing either a Jumpstart or Mini-Setting for it.

The Flu

The Spanish Flu forms a huge backdrop to the setting; in addition to being the catalyst for all the critters crawling out of the woodwork it is also going to have an affect on the player characters. So this calls for a couple of special rules; Contraction Rolls and Infection Rating.

Contraction Roll 

A Contraction Roll is a Vigor roll made every four hours of game time or when the character moves into an area with a higher Infection Rating. Each character has a stat called Immunity, this is grants a +1 bonus per Rank to the Contraction roll. Though, the character suffers a penalty equal to the Infection Rating of the area that they are in. Germ masks provide a +2 bonus and the roll can be modified by Edges and Hindrances.

Optional Rule: -1 penalty for every infected character in the group.

Refer to the Disease rules in SWADE and consult the table below when making the roll.

Critical Failure - Lethal, make Vigor roll every four hours.

Failure - Chronic, no additional effects.

Success - Deilitating

Raise - Perfectly healthy, no ill effects.

Infection Ratings

Infection Rating 0 - Negligible chances of contracting the flu, though only tends to be sparsely inhabited countryside or isolated islands.

Infection Rating 1 - Villages and other small settlements that have semi-regular contact with nearby towns or other settlements. Also large parks within towns and cities.

Infection Rating 2 - Large villages with regular contact with other settlements or small towns, plus the wealthier neighbourhoods of large cities.

Infection Rating 3 - Most towns or where there is a regular gathering of people.

Infection Rating 4 - Cities and other areas with large gathering of people such as public transport or military bases.

Infection Rating 5 - Hospitals and the slum areas of cities; fair number of people packed into a small area means infections tend to spread like wildfire.

Update May 2019

So...its been a wee while since an update on things was posted.

The big thing most people are going to be interested in is what is currently happening with Frozen Skies, chiefly the update to SWADE. Also covered will be plans for the future, new products and potential events. There will also be a small announcement, so hang around for that.

Frozen Skies

Have already confirmed that Frozen Skies will be receiving an update to SWADE and it has been something that's been worked on. Can't currently give an ETA, but provisionally it'll be some point over the summer. Presently the Bestiary is the current section being worked, pretty much the various NPCs that need restating (Savaged.us has been a huge help here). Then it'll be the Adventures section, updating what is currently there and attempting to include an extra adventure or two.

You can check out the current version of the update *HERE*.

After the SWADE update is done I intend to start work on the next Frozen Skies book; Skies of Crimson.

This book will have a strong focus on sky pirates and a detailed look at the pirate haven of Broken Spires in addition to all the usual goodies. Certainly a few pirate gangs will feature along with stuff relating to aero-vessels.

Other Products

Other items in the pipeline include mini-settings of the various Setting Ideas that I've posted about previously and more content for Cold War Skirmishes (beyond Operation Thule). First proper entry for CWS is likely to be the ANZACs in Vietnam, allowing content to be used with Tour of Darkness.

Events

Recently did Diceni in Norwich, though personally I am not likely to be attending any more events this year. You may be able to find copies of Frozen Skies at other shows, possibly ones that have a presence from Indie Press Revolution.

Have a wishlist of shows that I'd like to do next year, but its too early to say anything at this stage.

Announcement

Frozen Skies has been submitted for this year's ENnie Awards, not sure how well it'll do be we'll see when nominations are announced in July.

Update Feb 2019

Well, its been a while since an update was posted.

Now we've settled into a new year its probably an idea to make a post about whats planned for Utherwald in 2019. The big news is probably going to be Frozen Skies and SWADE related, but some other stuff will be covered.

Frozen Skies

Its already been mentioned that Frozen Skies will be updated to the Adventure Edition of Savage Worlds.

Have been working on an update document, which covers the changes needed for Frozen Skies to conform with SWADE. The last real job left to do is update the Bestiary and NPCs found in the book as well as going over the air combat rules to see whether any improvements can be made.

A Jumpstart for SWADE is ready to go, just waiting for it to go out to the SWADE Kickstarter backers before it gets put on general release. It features some new content and an adventure that I hope captures the feel of Frozen Skies.

Then it'll be a case of updating the book and releasing a SWADE version, though the Savage Worlds Deluxe version will remain on sale. It is my intention to have separate listings for the different versions.

After all that, the next release planned for Frozen Skies is called Skies of Crimson. This book will focus on the sky pirates of the setting; showcasing a few gangs, feature a more detailed look at Broken Spires and more air combat related content.

Other Projects

Some of you may recall a series of posts about various Setting Ideas, basically ideas for settings other than Frozen Skies. The various ideas are as follows;

Cold War Skirmishes - Covering lesser well-known conflicts of the Cold War period.

Darkwatch - Heroes fight to restore order in a city recently liberated from dark forces.

Forsaken Space - Scavenging for relics in the alien ruins of a dead galaxy.

Gwentshire Chronicles - Confronting the supernatural horrors of an English county throughout the ages.

Keep The Home Fires Burning - Supernatural horror amidst a plague ravaged post-WW1 London.

It is hoped that each of these will see the light of day as Jumpstarts, then followed by full books for each setting.

Also looking to update a previously made fan adventure to SWADE and release it through the Savage Worlds Adventurer's Guild, stay tuned for further updates on this.

Misc

One of the other things I'm hoping to do this year is update the blog/site and reorganise stuff.

Setting Idea: The Gwentshire Chronicles

Whats this? Another Setting Idea and entry on the 'Would Like To Do Someday' List?!

Been toying for some time with the idea of a British supernatural/horror setting, but so far I've struggled with a way of making it stand out. Recently I believe that I've finally cracked it; One location (a fictional English county) but with the option of different time periods.

Basically means that a game in the setting can be set at any period throughout history, from Roman and Medieval times through the Victorian period to the World Wars and 21st Century.

Setting Name: The Gwentshire Chronicles

Elevator Pitch: Exploring the weird, supernatural history of a fictional English county.

Genre: Supernatural horror, historic.

Inspiration: Lovecraft, Doctor Who.

Overview: The Gwentshire Chronicles is set in the fictional English county of Gwentshire, which is analogous to the northern part of Somerset.

This part of England in real life has always had bit of a weird and mystical reputation going back to prehistoric times, stone circles and Glastonbury Tor being the prime examples. Within the Gwentshire Chronicles, the supernatural is going to have a strong and forms a sort of 'mythos' based round the county of Gwentshire. There will be key elements of the Gwentshire mythos thats consistent across the various different time periods, but other elements will change to reflect specific periods. Dark creatures may terrorize lone farms and villages at night, but gradually these creatures will retreat into the hidden and forgotten places as the domain of Man expands outwards.

As for the mythos itself, I have a couple of ideas.

The first is the demonic or spectral entities known as 'black dogs' found primarily in the folklore of the British Isles. Some are said to be harmful, others guide and protect wayward travelers. There is going to be a black dog in Gwentshire known as 'Grim Jack', usually regarded as an omen of death. Though Grim Jack would be known to fight evil spirits, its unclear whether he's good or evil as he does not go out of his way to protect people. He is, however, known to hunt down people who commit crimes such as murder within the borders of Gwentshire and would otherwise escape justice.

The other idea was creatures, or even entities, known as the the 'mist-bound'. Running with the idea that mist is common in Gwentshire regardless of the time of year, generally there is stuff that reside in it. Thinking that Gwentshire is actually a weak point in the wall that separates our world from the spirit world, meaning that things slip through (hence all the supernatural stuff). The mist-bound are actually sort of guardians or sentinels, basically trying to prevent stuff slipping through. Due to human activity disturbing or even destroying certain sites throughout the county, the mist-bound's power gradually gets eroded and so they're forced to let the smaller stuff through so they can focus on the much bigger threats.

Setting Idea: The Blue Lamp

This week's post is a Setting Idea I've recently had, one that is a sort of British counterpart to A Thin Blue Line. The Blue Lamp is reference to the lamps that sit outside the entrance to British police stations, first used in Victorian times and are still in widespread use today. This is important as the setting is intended to be partially historical and partially modern day, but I'll explain further on.

Woolwich Police Station

Setting Name: The Blue Lamp

Elevator Pitch: Police officers finding themselves misplaced in time confronting weird happenings.

Genre: Police, crime, supernatural horror.

Inspiration: TV series Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes.

Overview: The Blue Lamp is inspired by the British TV series Life on Mars and its spin-off Ashes to Ashes. The basic premise of both series is that a modern day police officer wakes up in the past with full memories of their 'modern day' life. Weird and unusual things happen to the main characters in both series as what happened to them is slowly revealed. Its not until the finale of Ashes to Ashes that we learn that the characters find out that they are in a sort of limbo for police officers who had died through different means.

This would mean that the characters themselves are already dead but don't realise this or had forgotten all about it, so they carry on as normal police officers trying to solve crimes. Its possible that some may have memories of their old life, which may or may not be useful to events during the game. To begin with a campaign should be run as a police based game, but gradually supernatural elements and weird happenings can be introduced. This could range from characters hearing voices of loved ones on telephones or radios through to the characters being stalked by shadowy creatures intent on claiming their souls.

There is a broad scope for campaigns, the period of choice to set a campaign is from the 1960s up to the 1990s. Likewise there are different locations to use such as 1960s London ruled by the Kray Brothers, the hunting ground of the Yorkshire Ripper in the late '70s and any big city in Thatcherite Britain during the 1980s. These are just some examples but campaigns could be set in other periods such as Victorian times or the Interwar period between the World Wars.

Setting Idea: Keep The Home Fires Burning

Another setting idea and thus entry on the 'Would Like To Do Someday' list.

This one is fairly similar to the concept of the Weird Wars: Home Front idea, arguably it can be said it is aside from some minor details. The main difference would be the backdrop of 1918 London at the end of the First World War and the Spanish Flu epidemic.

Setting Name: Keep The Home Fires Burning

Elevator Pitch: Supernatural horror amidst a plague ravaged 1918 London.

Genre: Weird Wars, Horror, Supernatural, WW1.

Inspiration: Vampyr, Dishonored, Ripper Street, Baltimore: Plague Ships, Weird War I.

Much like Home Front, this is a sort of civvie street counterpart to Weird War I but focused on London. The city's poorer districts are being ravaged by the Spanish Flu, though something much sinister lurks in the gaslamp lit back streets and alleyways. Dark things followed the soldiers home and now haunt the fabled London fogs.

The Weirdness of the Weird War is drawn to the death and fear in London like moths to a flame thanks to the Spanish Flu, though some of it hails from the war years but some stuff dates back to much much earlier. Thanks to the flu creatures like zombies, 'Gloms and ghouls can be encountered in the rougher parts of the metropolis especially in areas where mass graves were dug. Course there would be other beings taking advantage of all the death and suffering.

MI-13, despite in the midst of being wound down after the war, would be tasked with keeping the weirdness under wraps and contained. The Metropolitan and City of London police forces would be increasingly used by MI-13 due to reduction of resources, possibly bringing it into conflict with the Home Office. Either way possible ways of bringing the players in.