Commonwealth Revisited Part Two

Quick follow-on post this week to a post from last month, which detailed some changes that I wished to make to the Commonwealth. Wanted to go with a more Celtic feel for the nation, something that I hope the changes help capture. So, without further ado, I present a revised version of the Commonwealth.

Language

For the time being I'll be using Irish as the language of the Commonwealth, though I may look at doing a faux Celtic language at a later date.

The Clans

The Clans form the cornerstone of Commonwealth society and, in some cases, even influences it.
Each clan is led by a Clan Chief and is made up of a core family after which the clan is named, plus a number of affiliated families who are linked to the core family but have different surnames. Additionally, each clan maintains its own militia forces mainly protect the clan's interests as well as to help defend the Commonwealth should the need arise. 

To resolve internal disputes and help keep the clan's legal affairs in order, each clan will appoint an official known as a Justiciar. In addition to handling internal clan disputes, the Clan Justiciar also the official that deals with marriages, death certificates, etc. A Lord High Justiciar is appointed by the Crown and is charged with ensuring with keeping the peace between the various clans. 

The third important position within a Clan is the Clan Ravener, effectively the Clan's representative for dealing with those from outside of the Clan. The Raveners also form the upper house of the Commonwealth's parliament.

Governance

The governance of the Commonwealth is in three parts.

There is the Sovereign or the Crown, the ruling monarch of the Commonwealth. Depending on gender, the monarch as the title of Rí (King) if male and Banríona (Queen) if female. The monarch is the head of state, but take little direct part in governing the country and remains neutral in political affairs. The monarch's main role is to appoint the head of government and give Royal Assent to bills and thus make them into valid laws.

Then there is the Provost Court, made up of the monarch's representatives at the provincial (Lord Provosts) and county (Provosts) level. The Provost Court functions as both a formal body of advisors for the monarch and as the high court of appeal for the Commonwealth. In addition to the Lord Provosts and Provosts, the Provost Court also counts the Lord High Justiciar and head of government amongst its members.

Finally there is the Commonwealth Parliament, or Oireachtas, which is the legislature of the Commonwealth. There is upper house called Badhgan's Chamber, or the Chamber of Ravens, and is comprised of the Raveners from the various Clans. The lower house is called the Assembly, or Dáil, and is made up of elected officials called Assembly Delegates. The Taoiseach (or Leader), and head of government, comes from the Assembly and must hold the confidence of the chamber in order to remain in office.

Law Enforcement

The Garda (or the Guards) form a national police force for the Commonwealth, though it does provide local policing in some areas. The Garda tends to focus its efforts on high profile crime and internal threats to the Commonwealth. Local policing tends to be in the hands of smaller police forces generally called town or city watches, though provincial level forces also exist. The watchmen of these forces provide day-to-day policing, though cases may overlap with the Garda.

Frozen Skies Episode 16: Revenge of the Burning Knives

Last time our intrepid crew pulled off an airship heist and framed a rival gang for the crime in the process. For one character it really was the chance to shine...and almost die in the process. It was also the opportunity for a new character to join the crew, filling a spot that had recently and tragedy been made vacant.

This week the crew were in for an unexpected and potentially nasty surprise...

Revenge of the Burning Knives

Having successfully pulling of the airship heist, collateral death and damage notwithstanding, the crew returned to Gravenburgh in triumph. After docking their airship, the crew found themselves being greeted by a smartly dressed gentlemen who handed them a note about meeting Andrei. Heading to the location, they found it to be outside the airport terminal and in the form of Andrei's limo where they'd previously met the Tylander keeper of secrets. Sebastian set himself up on top of a nearby billboard with his sniper rifle as Alex and Herbert got in the limo. Jacob, after giving the limo a little bit of a head start, followed after the limo on foot.

As expected, the limo driver took a roundabout route to his destination. Jacob tried keeping up with the vehicle, but ultimately fell far behind long before the car reached its eventual destination. Alex and Herbert found themselves outside a club, though were directed through it to the other side of the building. Following further instructions, the duo climbed to the top floor of a nearby tenant block where Alex finally met Andrei. Money for a job well done was handed over, snippets of another job made and it was casually mentioned that the Burning Knives gang were looking to ambush the crew at their airship.

Luckily Alex had a radio on him to warn the others back on the airship about the attack as he and Herbert raced back as quickly as they could. Jacob got the ratings onboard the Stormrider organised into some form of defence as Sebastian kept a sharp look out for anyone trying to sneak up on the airship, though it was Jacon had had the sharper eyes. Spying some shadowy figures moving into cover behind some nearby crates, Jacob brought his pistols up and hot lead filled the air as the figures opened up with a volley of rifle fire. Despite standing right out in the open, Jacob fared far better than the figures who'd fired upon him be felling them in a blaze of gunfire.

Meanwhile, Alex and Herbert arrived on the scene and found themselves behind the gang. The good doctor, armed with a trusty SMG, proceeded to mow down half the gang in surge of energy. Unnoticed, Alex managed to stalk up to one of the gang members and introduce the man to the business end of Alex's gun cane. Then the heavy machine guns of the airship were brought into play and decimated the gang, forcing most of the survivors to flee. The gang leader, Pete Wisdom, gave his position by shouting at the fleeing remnants of his gang. Sebastian, homing in like a bat on its prey, wasted no time and fell Pete Wisdom with a single shot to the head.

Alex and Jacob hurried over and found Pete to be still alive, only just, though it wouldn't be for long as Alex had reloaded his gun cane and took the chance of taking out an enemy. As the crew took stock of the aftermath of the very one-sided battle, police sirens wailed in the distance. Presenting his bounty hunter warrant and credentials, Jacob managed to convince the constables that the battle was fought in self-defence. Rather fortunate as the gang had only recently had bounties placed on them for sky piracy,  uncanny timing one might say. The crew also got Ardent Gowan's goods back, the paperwork now 'fully resolved'.

Finally the crew found out that Andrei's latest job was a train heist whilst Jacob found some juicy bounties to go after.

Thoughts

It proved to be another fun session, the highlight had to be the Burning Knives rolling 18 on an unskilled Stealth roll without the aid of a Wild Die. Though, as mentioned above, both Herbert and Jacob were able to spot them.

Sebastian also got a chance to shine, dropping an enemy Wild Card with a single shot.

Interesting to see where the players go from here since they have the train job from Andrei or the bounties Jacob managed to find.

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.

Frozen Skies Session 15: My Heart Will G-...Oh

After escaping the icebound wrecked skyship and Alex cementing his position as captain, the crew set about completing the second of Andrei's tasks. This entailed the crew indulging in a bit of sky piracy, though with almost disastrous results. Other highlights include a character dispatching their hated foe and a new member to the crew.

"Shiny. Lets be bad guys."

Following on from their tragedy tainted adventure in the wrecked skyship and meeting up with Andrei to hand over the recovered artefact, Alex got the crew busy with preparations for the airship heist. Reginald was tasked with crafting a radio jammer, the idea being to inhabit the target airship from calling for help. The others were charged with gathering various items for the crew to use as disguises, whilst Alex gave them all code names to use during the heist (which turned out to be the names of members of a certain gang).

It was decided to intercept the airship out over the ocean, if anything to help minimize the chances of somebody coming to the airship's aid. At first it seemed the heavy cloud cover would aid the crew, though the target airship spotted them first. The crew had their radio jammer active, though whilst it meant it was difficult for the target airship to communicate with its fighter escorts the same was true for the crew to talk to their own fighters. It meant all the fighters were operating on their own and unable to co-ordinate efforts, it also meant that only one of the escort fighters of the target spotted a signal lamp message for it to go investigate the appearance of the Stormrider.

Having concluded that it was about to come under attack from sky pirates, the victim airship opened up with its MG turrets at long range. One of the Stormrider's own outflyers got hit and suffered damage to its controls but stayed airborne, though Sebastian manage to take the gunner out with an incredibly lucky sniper shot at extreme range. The Stormrider and its outflyers closed the distance, the fighters taking it in turns to shoot out the engines of the victim airship. The damaged outflyer's pilot, perhaps smarting from the damage his plane had taken, proved to be overzealous with his shooting and raked along the side of airship with his guns. An explosion signalled a catastrophic loss of Aerothium and the airship began to drop down towards the ocean, though the crew managed to patch things enough to do a 'controlled' crash landing upon the water as one of its two escorts got shot down as well.

With their target floudering, Alex switched off the radio jammer long to broadcast the following message; "You've been attacked by the Burning Knives, surrender now and no further harm will come to toy."

Unsurprisingly, the crew of the target airship meekly surrendered and the Stormrider's crew quickly boarded her in search of loot. Alex made his way to the bridge to ensure that the crew complied with his demands, identifying himself as Peter Wisdom as he did so. Whilst Alex was on the bridge, a bounty hunter came who Alex knew but the man didn't recognize Alex in return (Alex was using one of Reginald's devices to make him look like the real Peter Wisdom). Luckily Alex managed to convince the bounty hunter, a man called Jacob, that he was an associate of somebody Jacob knew. In turn, Jacob revealed he'd come for the keys to the brig so that he could fetch a prisoner he was transporting and was going to need a lift.

Meanwhile Sebastian headed to a cabin indicated by Andrei to have a safe containing what the crew had come for, only to run into a Shackleton as he rounded a corner. Seeing the man go for his gun, Sebastian tried to intimidate him but only succeeded in making the man momentarily puzzled and confused as to whether Sebastian was being serious. Taking advantage of the man's hesitation, Sebastian shot him with pistol. The Shackleton fired back with his machine pistol, almost mortally wounding Sebastian in the process. As he waited for the Shackleton to deliver the killing blow, Sebastian closed his eyes as the end...never came.

A tidal wave of water smashed a door into the Shackleton and, in turn, smashed him against the wall of the corridor with enough force to ensure he wasn't getting up anything soon. Shocked at his sudden and unexpected reprieved, Sebastian soon quickly realized that he was severely injured and that the airship he was on was beginning to sink. Fortunately it wasn't long before some of the others came to his aid and retrieved the contents of the safe. Before leaving, Sebastian checked the Shackleton for anything of value and discovered a contract for bodyguard duties for a Lord Bellington (the same Lord who'd put a bounty on Sebastian).

Meeting up back on the Stormrider, it turned out that Jacob also knew Herbert and (to a lesser degree) Reginald. Jacob also found out who Alex really was and that he'd been using a device to alter his appearance. It was also discovered that Lord Bellington had been on the airship and, with Jacob's help, Sebastian spotted the man in one of the lifeboats. A single rifle shot rang out and His Lordship disappeared over the side of the boat, thus dealing with least one of Sebastian's enemies. Alex ordered one final ruthless act against the survivors of the airship, then transmitted the following message; "With the regards of the Burning Knives."

There was also another resolution before everything was wrapped up, some detective work by Herbert to discover who had left a bottle of fine wine on his bunk. After conferring with Alex, Herbert soon figured out the likely culprit. He then went and confronted Reginald, who pleaded complete innocence in the affair. Though Herbert saw that the nobleman had, badly, lied and punched him in the face leaving a nasty black eye. Some of the others quickly arrived and prevented things getting more heated, plus Alex gave Reginald a dressing down and warned of possible consequences if Reginald did it again.

Thoughts

The loss of Tag doesn't seem to have held the crew back as Alex is proving to be a strong captain, least in the sense of personality and getting people to follow orders. The airship heist had been something the crew was hesitant to do when Tag was still in charge, but Alex's 'don't care' attitude and his plan of action saw the crew finally pull it off. I have to give credit to Alex's player for coming up with a plan that framed his enemies, the Burning Knives gang, so that the retribution falls upon them rather than the crew of the Stormrider. Though it'll be a while before the fallout from the airship heist happens, so it'll be curious what else Alex does to bring about the Burning Knives' downfall.

Now that the crew has dabbled in sky piracy it opens up some opportunities and there is still plot with Broken Spires that still needs to be resolved.

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.

Frozen Skies Session 14: The Expendables

After a break due to Christmas and New Years, the group met up again to continue the campaign...though we were short a couple of players. We picked things up from where we'd left off, the immediate aftermath of Tag's death and the surviving crew needing to escape the wrecked skyship. It was a chance to use the Chase Rules from SWADE, which I'll give my thoughts on later, and the crew then made their next move.

Erm...Run?!

Alex, Herbert and Sebastian reached the cargo hold of the wrecked aero-vessel just as Tag finally perished after killing the last Ghost Hound. Whilst Sebastian stood guard, Herbert quickly check Tag's body and confirmed that he was beyond saving, Alex, hearing the howls of the other beasts onboard, quickly grabbed some items from Tag's corpse (including the artefact they'd come for) before suggesting that they make their way back to the Stormrider with all due haste.

During the flight through the icy corridors and passageways of the wreck, the crew found themselves being pursued by a pack of four Ghost Hounds. Due to the head-start the crew had, only one of the beasts managed to get close enough to get a mouthful of Sebastian's coat. The good doctor and the sharpshooter managed to deal with the beasts with well placed rifle shots, Alex was focused on getting to safety.

The Tyranny of  Captain Alex

Having made it back to the safety of the Stormrider, Alex immediately ordered two crewmen (the two who had restrained him when things became heated previously) to head out to the wreck to start salvaging it. Alex then proceeded to release Reginald from the brig and got him to 'test' the Stormrider's main guns in the direction of the skyship wreck, smashing the ice round it and trapping the two crewmen in a tomb of metal and ice. With that act of petty vengeance concluded, Alex then cemented his captaincy and introduced a new set of rules for the airship ratings to follow.

Having established himself as the new captain, Alex then ordered a course be made for Broken Spires despite the crew's original plan of avoiding the pirate haven. Though with Alex being the only one giving orders and a general lack of other ideas, Broken Spires it was. Approaching the canyons that were the natural gates to the ramshackle town, another airship was spotted ahead of them making for the settlement as well. This airship bore the name 'Ogman's Hand' below a large picture of a hand of playing decks, though the airship made no move towards the Stormrider and came into one of the aero-docks.

After docking the Stormrider, Alex's plan started to become clear as he sent some ratings out for supplies before taking Sebastian with him to go visit Natasha Rogan and her outfit of female sky pirates. Meeting with the leader of the Banshees, Alex informed her of Tag's death and of the supposed Commonwealth plot against Broken Spires. Tash took both pieces of information with a stoic calmness, then listened to Alex's offer of perhaps using the latter to possibly take out a rival gang. After explaining about the 'politics' of Broken Spires and how it was governed by an uneasy alliance of the most powerful captains, Tash said that she would consider the offer. When Alex asked about a certain broker of secrets that Tag had dealings with, Tash said she would see about getting word to them.

The crew stayed in Broken Spires for a couple of days until they were approached by a smartly dressed gentleman, who identified himself as an agent of Andrei. The man first stated that Andrei had requested the crew's presence in Gravenburgh for a meeting, also stated that Andrei now owned both the Stormrider and the front company that Alex had setup. Needless to say, preparations were made for a hasty departure to Gravenburgh.

Ah, Andrei I Presume?

The crew arrived in Gravenburgh at the meeting point, a warehouse district close to the airfield that was strangely deserted despite it being the middle of the day. Sebastian set himself up with his rifle on top of a nearby warehouse to give him a good vantage in case of trouble and he confirmed that the immediate area was quiet. There was a sole limbo with a uniformed driver waiting patiently, though only Alex was allowed into the passenger compartment whilst the driver remained outside.

Waiting inside the limbo was Andrei, who greeted Alex and offered condolences with regards to Tag's death. The two then proceeded to talk business, chiefly the two job offers that Andrei had previously discussed with Tag. Alex agreed to hand over the box from the skyship wreck that resulted in Tag's death, he also agreed to do the airship heist job that the crew had been reluctant to do. After payment was agreed upon and Andrei handed over the necessary information, the crew set about preparing themselves.

Thoughts

As mentioned, we got to use the Chase rules from SWADE.

We went for the 9 Chase Card setup recommended in the rulebook, a pack of 4 Ghost Hounds on Card 1 with the PCs on Card 3 to represent a head-start. There seemed to be a little bit of confusion between Actions and Free Actions, though things still went fairly smoothly as everyone was mainly focused on keeping ahead of the beasts and 'escaping' from the skyship wreck. It proved to be pretty short, lasting only two rounds before the players managed to defeat the Ghost Hounds. The beasts, for that part, failed to catch up and only got lucky when they went before a player. For melee only characters, it seems they need to start closer to their opponents during setup or ensure they get higher ranked Action Cards.

I really really like the SWADE Chase Rules over their Deluxe ancestor, though I need to try them out more so my group gets used to using them.

As for the campaign itself, despite my fear of a setup with Tag's death it appears we're still on track with regards to plot. Though the players have managed to trigger some stuff early and thats open up a few opportunities for me to advance the plot.

The Commonwealth Revisited

Welcome to 2019!

Currently working on getting Frozen Skies updated to SWADE, going through and changing rules where needed so that they're in-line with the newest edition of Savage Worlds. Though its got me thinking about the setting more, in particular its background and world history with the view of tightening it up and making things clearer. There are a few areas of the fluff that I'd like to improve and develop upon, make things more coherent in their details. The Commonwealth is something I wish to take another look at and incorporate some ideas and changes.

The Commonwealth: An Alternative Take

I've posted previously about the Commonwealth, mainly to get a few solid details down and set in stone as I developed the rest of the world beyond Alyeska. People have probably noticed a strong British feel for the Commonwealth, this is partially deliberate but something that I wish to tone down. As an alternative I wish to develop a general Celtic feel to the Commonwealth, an aspect of which already exists in the setting (the sky goddess Taran is a nod to Taranis).

How the Commonwealth is governed is going to remain largely unchanged; there is still a monarch and a parliament to rule over the country. The monarch may have different or alternative titles, perhaps one in 'English' (for the reader) and a title in the actual language of the the Commonwealth. The government will have a similar thing with its title, though its structure is likely to be a little bit different.

Though I am looking at including a new body between the monarch and the government called the Provost Council. The Council is a formal body of advisers to the monarch made up of his/her's representatives at the provincial and county levels, they are known as Lord Provosts and Provosts respectively. They are generally appointed by the monarch on the advise of the provincial governments. It basically functions like a privy council, though it does have the power to make decisions in the monarch's absence.

There is a sort of national law enforcement agency called the Garda (after the Irish Garda), though this functions along similar lines to the FBI or the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The Garda would generally be tasked to deal with so-called 'high crimes' or cases that effect the national interests of the Commonwealth. There would be more traditional police forces at the provincial and city level, though considering calling these town and city watches.

Mulling the idea of making the Commonwealth a clan based society. The idea being is that each clan is made up of a core family after which the clan is named, plus a number of affiliated families who are linked to the core family but have different surnames. Additionally, each clan maintains its own militia forces mainly protect the clan's interests as well as to help defend the Commonwealth should the need arise. 

To resolve internal disputes and help keep the clan's legal affairs in order, each clan will appoint an official known as a Justiciar. In addition to handling internal clan disputes, the Clan Justiciar also the official that deals with marriages, death certificates, etc. A Lord High Justiciar is appointed by the Crown and is charged with ensuring with keeping the peace between the various clans. Each also has a recognised speaker or representative called a Ravener, who acts in the Clan Chief's stead. The title is used to reflect the use of ravens as messenger birds and that the post holder acts as a messenger for the Clan.

Thats some ideas I have at the moment, though if they prove to be a big hit with people I'll see about developing them further.  

Death's Chase: SWADE Edition

Part of the process of updating Frozen Skies to SWADE includes going over various rules. This includes the rules for the Death's Chase air race, basically adapting it for the new Chase rules. Recently got the chance to playtest it, so this week's post is the setup and how things worked out.

Additionally; Happy Holidays folk, will be taking a break until the New Year.

The Setup

*All agreed upon a row of 15 cards with everyone starting on Card 1.

*A single 'lap' was along the entire row, then looping back round to Card 1 for the next lap.

*The modifiers for Complications were in effect when it came to Shooting rolls, reasoning that the target aircraft is constantly moving about to dodge pillars of rock, etc. (Later realize that we'd forgotten about Unstable Platform and Recoil).

*Everyone got to automatically move one card before doing any Actions, basically to try and keep things mobile.

 

Everyone also got d8 for both Piloting, Repair and Shooting in addition to the Edges Ace and Ace Gunner (from Frozen Skies). Otherwise, we followed the Chase rules in SWADE, trying to keep things simple.

 

How It Worked & Feedback

 

For the most part it seemed to work, though it was clear some further tweaks were needed and the group came up with some ideas after the game.

*Having the Complications modifiers being active for Shooting seemed to be a good idea, though the players suggested extending them to manoeuvrers.This would certainly help encourage more of a "seat of your pants flying" feel. (Though the modifiers for Shooting will be dropped)

*Something that did crop up was that for 2 or 3 turns a couple of players effectively 'looped' back and forth between two cards. The players suggested making dropping back along the cards just a normal Action (so no Free Action) and requiring a roll to do so. (Though discussion with others the only change is probably going to be requiring a roll for dropping back)

*Attacking targets on the same card, suggestion here was to probably only allow it if the aircraft as a turret or side mounted pintle weapons.

*Another thing discussed was make it more of a difference between aircraft when it comes to speed, though as a group we didn't really come up with any solutions. I have thought about the possibility of having it so that aircraft move a card for each 100 MPH of their speed before doing stuff like Change Position, the latter bit could be a boost to move an extra card or two. There was also a suggestion to expand upon the modifiers above to include bonuses on Heart and Diamond Chase Cards, basically to represent the aircraft going flat out on a relatively clear stretch of the course.

Frozen Skies Adventure Edition

So Savage Worlds Adventure Edition has been released (at least to Kickstarter backers at time of writing) and the non-disclosure agreement lifted, means I'm free to talk about how SWADE will effect Frozen Skies. Stated previously that I'll be doing an Update & Errata PDF dubbed 'Black Ice', basically covering the changes to Frozen Skies that will be incorporated into the SWADE version. So this week we'll be taking a look at some of those changes and one or two new ideas.

Edges & Hindrances

Least one Edge (Mechanic) has been dropped since the Mr Fix It Edge works mechanically the same with similar requirements.

Social Edges & Hindrances have been updated to work with the new Networking rules. Some work slightly different in SWADE than they did in SWD, likewise they've had the bonuses they provide brought inline with SWADE.

Ace Gunner is one of the Edges that have been completely changed; No longer does it provide a flat bonus to Shooting with vehicle mounted weapons, rather it now acts as a modifier for rolls on the Vehicle Critical Hit Table.

Pilot's Instincts is a new Edge and one that works by granting a bonus to your aircraft's Evasion score when you have an Action Card of 5 or less.

Aircraft & Combat

Aircraft have been updated to match the new vehicle stats in SWADE, though this has resulted in a reworking of the Aircraft Creation Rules. This means some of the aircraft modifications have been changed to match the new vehicle stats. For example, Airbrakes now provides a bonus to Handling when the aircraft is at less than half its Top Speed.

There will be some new modifications such as Armoured Cockpit which adds armor for Crew results on the Vehicle Critical Hit Table. I'm also toying with the idea of allowing extra spaces on an aircraft for modifications, but at the expense of reduced Handling.

Another new thing I'm looking at for aerial combat is different altitude levels, mainly for modifiers based on which altitude the aircraft is flying at and other factors. This could potentially effect aircraft modifications.

Death's Chase

Though an extension of the aircraft rules for Frozen Skies, it deserves its own mention.

I've already posted on social media that it will be based on the new chase rules for SWADE, though expand upon what those rules a little bit. The new chase rules use a second deck of cards to determine the chase, ranging from relative distance between those involved and complications. Though the value of the cards are normally only use to determine complications when they come up, I'm thinking of extending that to provide modifiers to both Piloting and Shooting rules regardless of whether there is a complication or not. My thought was that the cards themselves would represent the actual course of the race.

Frozen Skies Episode 13: Tomb of Ice and Metal

Now flying the airship Stormrider following efforts last time to chart a new course for the crew's future, it was time to conduct their first venture with the new aero-vessel. Though it wasn't entirely plain sailing as there was dragonhawk related shenanigans, including an encounter with a flock of wild dragonhawks. The glory of finding an Alyeskan legend was tempered by the death of a key member of the crew.

Et tu, Mutt?

His breath steamed in the chilled air like a locomotive as he laid there gasping in pain from where the best had savaged his leg. Blood pooled round him as it poured from the ravaged flesh, though ice crystals were starting to form as the warmth was sucked from it and it began to freeze.What little he knew about battlefield triage was enough to tell him what he needed to know.

He wasn't coming out of this one alive.

The beast growled as it circled round, blood matting the fur round its mouth as it bared its teeth and snarled. Desperately he worked the action on his pistol and managed to extract the round that had caused the firearm to jam, just in time as the hound started charging towards him.

He could hear the shouts of the others, but they were too late...too damn late.

With great effort he brought the gun to bare as the animal leapt towards him, snarling as it bared its teeth and its pure white eyes seemed to burn with malice.

A strange calm seemed to come upon him and time seemed to slow as he resigned himself to his fate.

He was going to die here.

Die in this tomb of ice and metal.

Three Days Earlier...

The crew had opted to spend the night in Bowerstead Post and move on in the morning, some took it as the chance to deal with outstanding business in the settlement. Herbert sought out Ardan, seeking to enquire about the infant dragonhawk running amok in his warehouse. A deal was struck; Herbert could take the dragonhawk in exchange for an undisclosed favour being called in by Ardan at a later date. Happy, Herbert sneaked the dragonhawk onto the airship and stowed it on the orlop deck (lowest deck) of the airship with some crates of food.

All was going well until one of the ratings came down in search of some spare parts, though they made an abrupt U-turn upon seeing the dragonhawk and made to hurry back the way they came. Herbert ran after the rating and tackled them, though the rating managed to call out for help and word soon floated up to Tag on the bridge. Sebastian got sent down to see what the matter was, though when he reported back to the bridge he got told by Tag to deal with the problem. Though when he tried to get Herbert to get rid off the beast, Herbert managed to persuade the sharpshooter to let him keep the creature.

Over the next couple of days Tag eventually found out when a flock of dragonhawks encountered the airship and circled round it squawking and screeching. One of the crew mentioned about the young dragonhawk had brought onboard, after which Herbert was called to the bridge. Alex, meanwhile, had gone to one of the MG positions with the intent of shooting down the beasts....only for the gun to jam immediately (which turned out to be one 'upgraded' by Reginald). Back on the bridge Herbert explained himself and, despite his misgivings, Tag reluctantly agreed that the creature could stay but Herbert was fully responsible for it. The wild dragonhaks, in the mean time, had parted ways with the Stormrider.

Finding an Alyeskan Legend

A day or so later, the airship arrived in the area of Ragnar Point and the crew set about seeking a legend of Alyeskan lore; the Wreck of the Skellig.

After searching the sea ice for quite some time and eventually they were rewarded by spotting an object sticking out of the ice. Upon closer examination it appeared to be a wrecked skyship, half-buried in the ice. The ice round the wreck cracked alarmingly and so only a handful dare venture to cross over to the wreck, though moving at a slow and careful pace. The crew managed to reach the wreck without mishap.

Exploring the dark interior of the wreck they came across the skeleton remains of its crew, though no clue as to what befell the skyship and its crew. Though as they explored deeper into the wrecked aero-vessel the crew became aware that they weren't alone, rapid tapping noises and half-glimpsed shadows served to heighten the tension in the air. Alex was the first to be attacked, receiving a strike from behind that somehow failed to inflict any harm. Turning, Alex was able to see that his attacker was some type of wolf-like creature with silvery grey fur and pure white eyes. Though a shot at point blank from his gun crane soon put the beast down.

Sebastian was next to be attacked, but easily dealt with his foe. Though the crew could now all hear howls echoing throughout the wreck, prompting Tag to hasten down to the cargo hold in order to grab an item that Andrei had requested. However, in the cargo hold he encountered four of the beasts waiting for him. Two of them, in their aggressive haste to attack Tag, slipped on the icy floor and went sprawling. Having only two foes presenting an immediate threat, Tag was able to deal with them in short order. The third he also managed to deal with swiftly, but his pistol jammed and the four managed to get in to ravage Tag's leg. Collapsing to the floor and feeling his lifeblood flowing freely from him, Tag desperately tried to get his pistol cleared. He could hear the others coming, but he knew they would be too late.

The beast circled round and leapt to strike the killing blow, though Tag managed to get his pistol working and delivered a killing blow upon the beast. Ultimately, it was too little too late as the beast's momentum carried it forward and its teeth clamped round Tag's throat. As the others finally burst into the cargo hold, the last of Tag's life force left him.

Thoughts

Wow, a character death that wasn't at the hands of another character.

I'd be the first to admit that I thought the characters were going to be other tasks, though something that they may still end up doing at a later date. Though Tag's death was unexpected and puts a little bit of a spanner in the works for plot later in the campaign, though that can be worked around. Tag's player admitted that he was looking to retire the character soon, so Tag's death worked out.

Does now mean that technically isn't a captain no more, though I'm looking at addressing this.