Savage Worlds: Adventure Edition impressions

Also known as "Tilting at windmills: now with shinier, newer windmills!"


Got my hands on a copy of SWADE (Savage Worlds ADventure Edition), which is effectively Savage Worlds 2nd Edition. Or, I think 3rd edition now maybe, Explorer's Edition might be 2nd. Anyway. SWADE is simplified compared to SWEX (Savage Worlds EXplorer edition), to a fairly significant degree for good and ill. They made a lot of minor changes and streamlining, a little bit of flavor is lost in the translation but it seems much more usable.

Character creation: You get a lot less points for skills, but they condensed skills a TON and it makes them actually usable. There's also an alternate rule listed in the book specifically for more modern settings, where extra skills in computers or driving are to be expected, which gives a handful of extra points under the assumption that experience and information to learn new skills is easier. Still a weird disconnect between high control stat and low skill, but the ease of buying up skills now that they're not so thinly spread makes it not too huge an issue, now manageable instead of almost crippling.

Hindrances can now be stacked in whatever order you are allowed to take them in, rather than ONLY getting 1 major, 2 minor. Can have 4 minor, or 2 major, or 1 major and 2 minor.

A few things that used to be equipment features are now perks, and conversely a couple things that used to be perks are now just flat rules for using certain types of equipment in particular ways.


Gear: gear lists are much improved, and are actually remotely functional now. Some things are still weird, there's a lot of room for improvement, and it's still all but impossible to own even the cheapest of vehicles even with the Wealth edges. Non-weapon/armor gear is almost nonexistent in scope or detail.


Skills Modifiers: Gone are individual tables per skill of bonuses and maluses, everything runs on a scale of -4 to +4 for good or bad and give some examples to help the GM with gauging what modifiers. GURPS style floating modifiers win again!


Expanded rules: There were add-on free expansions for handling quick encounters in SWEX, but now they're core book (everyone rolls once or twice to handle a particular task, rather than a whole series of individual tactical rolls. For taking care of side-missions or surprise detours that aren't ready for a full on tactical fight/exploration/etc). Hazardous conditions still have hunger and thirst kill you insanely quickly, even though they specifically mention the Rule Of Threes, which none of the relevant rulesets remotely approximate, as most will kill you in a day or two unless you have phenomenal stats and/or rolls. Chase rules seem like they work better now, a bit more complicated with a timeline of cards that's kind of hard to visualize reading but sounds like it would be really nice in actual use.


Tests/support: Now tests just take a skill or attribute and use it against the controlling attribute of the target, rather than having a bunch of skills and specific stats used to defend against them. Tests target the enemy and inflict assorted penalties. Support lets you use just about anything you can justify via roleplay to give a buff to an ally, so even if you're not well suited to whatever's going on you can almost always find a way to participate.


Powers: Core powers rules remain, individual details per each trapping are removed. There are still interactions with Trappings and things that might give a bonus or penalty, but it's far less in-depth in slightly disappointing ways. It's almost not worth it to get different flavors of a particular Power. All powers use Smarts for range, even the Faith powered ones, which makes Smarts arcane backgrounds flatly superior (but easily remedied by just making Faith the range stat for Faith powers), and all use the same table for magical backlash. Ranges are also fixed, rather than range increments per ranged weapons. Gadgeteering powers have their inventions that fire them exist in a weird limbo of sort-of existence, and nobody can make items usable by others without an edge for it. Powers are now super variable by default, with a huge array of extra boosts available to swiss army knife them to a slightly OP degree. More limitations are needed than the default 2 in the book.

Training Thursday: Share the pain

Took both my hubby and my housemate to Krav Maga with me. Both greatly enjoyed the training. Neither was in shape enough for the unusually heavy cardio class we got. They're both going to complain at me tomorrow, I suspect. On that note, I've been taking Krav Maga courses for about 4 months now, after a lifetime of taekwondo (reached halfway between first and second degree blackbelt). Different goals, but I felt like I learned more practical, applicable defensive stuff in the two trial courses than I did in all of my TKD. Of course, I'm picking it up incredibly fast, because just like even historical fencing wasn't really applicable to a real fight, it made you BETTER in the real fight.

Also tried out an imitation chik-fil-a chicken recipe for people who don't want to help them pay for anti LGBT shit (which boils down to "Brine it and use seasonings, dumbass") and it turned out quite good. Soak it in pickle brine for a couple hours, add some seasonings, dunk in flour and then egg and whatever. Just google it, you'll find a bunch of recipes.

Motor Monday slightly

So, the area where I work has several MRAPs. You know, the big military truck. Or, if you don't know, these.

Apparently on Friday, one of my coworkers new to the company was driving home, and was passed by a convoy of them. He snapped a picture of one of them. Another one of them then sideswiped him, which was helpfully caught by the dashcam of the squad behind him, and he's totally not at fault. The tires scratched up the side of his car, but the car itself is fine.

Now he gets to engage in the cycle of bureaucracy to try and get some manner of insurance or payment, because the cops were on their way to a raid and couldn't stop beyond a single member going "Yeah ok so I'll file a report but we can't stop call this number Monday bye."


I've seen them myself, I know they've got at least two of them and aren't afraid to bust them out for... I'm not really sure what they're doing that warrants a full on MRAP, there's regions of the area that aren't particularly great but I don't think they warrant quite that much truck...

Murderhoboing along

Things Players Do that Real People Never Would

I've run into other players that behaved in a manner that made me curious how they functioned in the real world, they were so poorly able to function in a simulated/imaginary one.

Motor Monday: Finally Gave In

Bought a bike.

Honda NC700X, in red, the exact one I said I'd buy if I bought one.

Here's a picture of the bike but not mine, I got a few from right after I bought it but I was missing gloves and it's really glaring and annoying (I rode back across the street to the shop and bought some really sweet gloves that are almost armored enough to potentially be brass knuckles), so I'll have some of those after I've finished collecting the last of my heavy duty armor suit that I'll use when I actually do more than tool around in the apartment complex to remember how to use one of these things.

Things to do/get yet:
Knee Braces, which are traditionally motocross armor, but I like the look and the improved protection (I like my knees to only bend in the one direction they're supposed to).
Hip/butt armor that works with concealed carry. So far all i've found that doesn't have issues with that is motorcycle pants or various types of armored underwear that's way pricy if I want to ride on anything resembling a regular basis.
New boots. My boots are heavy duty leather enough to ride with anyway, but they're old and worn and starting to fall apart and due for replacement regardless of bike-havingness. I'll see if I can't find some nice steel toe combat boot style ones.

Yes, yes, this thread is worthless without pics, I know, I'll remedy it when I have some decent ones. It's like shooting pics without proper safety stuff or weapons handling, just cringeworthy, which is why you don't get to see.

Vacation woes

Ever have one of those trips where it just feels like the world/universe is trying to tell you something? First, massive downpour delays the flight home. Then, my car died in the cold while I was gone, and the charger/jumpstarter I bought needs 24 hours to recharge (I've had similar woes before, always in places I can't get a charger on the vehicle, so I sprang for the big one that can serve as a backup battery and has a light and compressor and stuff)

Otherwise, Orlando was decent other than too much family for too long. Swam, ate, visited Kennedy Space Center again and Downtown Disney and did some hiking and whatnot.

Expect to see more of THE MOON MARINES on some Sci-Fi Friday once I've gotten around to drawing them some more, definitely going to be on a space kick for a while.

Jerb get

One week and one weekend from my last day of work at my old job, I am once more gainfully employed, with a fairly substantial raise, and at a building without any victim disarmament signs. About the same distance away, although there's a greater risk of rush hour traffic on the way depending on when they actually have me starting.

And I've used basically none of my unemployment/new gun fund. I got me some shopping to do. But first, I shall go draw things for people for money because money and drawing.

Expect a post where I lay out exactly the parts I want for second opinions now that buying them is finally going to happen. I know a moderate deal about AR-15s, but this one IS still going to be my most heavily customized, custom built for me one. I've got plans that I might do a supercompact "pistol", a 6.5 Grendal DMR, etc, but I intend for the dissipator demon to be MINE.

Interview Excitement

Not related to the interview itself, of course. That was a fairly standard affair, the usual question and answer session.

What WAS far more exciting than I'd planned for the day was getting sideswiped hard enough to spin me off the road. Was able to control the car through the fishtail/skid (hit lifted the rear end off the ground, dropped it into a bad skid I was unable to recover from) enough to set me down gently facing the wrong way down the freeway on the right shoulder.

I'm undamaged, and other than a bit of a scrape and needing a new driver front rim, the car is just fine.

I was pondering a motorcycle commute not long before I got rammed. A cage is mighty nice when surprise bullshit inflicts itself upon you. Definitely affirms more than anything else that I'm not riding a motorcycle until I've worked out just how to put said cage on it. It ain't a hard science, it just takes more effort than the standard "none" that is usually put into it on bikes.

Sci-Fi Friday; THE MOON MARINES

"Next time, on the harrowing adventures of... THE MOON MARINE! The Mars Men are invading, and only the Moon Marine stands between them and conquest? Will our hero prevail? And what of the machinations of the Moonanites?! Find out next time, on, THE MOON MARINE"

There's a business on the way up to the family cabin in the north woods of Wisconsin, called Moon Marine. It screamed ~30s pulp radio drama to me, and I was looking for things to draw at the time (was riding in the car).

If I run the raygun gothic/dieselpunk space campaign I want to at some point, this is pretty much going to be the party's standard armor and armament. 

I picture that space SMG as being chambered in something like a .30 carbine optimized for shorter barrels, or something similar. Great big capacity per magazine (Enlistment poster, actual Moon Marines will have pouches and packs and such), power just shy of intermediate caliber, probably with AP rounds standard because space. Possibly also tracers, because futuristicy.

Stanley Fitness Equipment

Was recently looking at gyms and fitness centers, and various other workout regimens to perform, and was reminded of Indian Club Exercises. Thinking about those reminded me of the effectiveness of good old fashioned WORK. Until I was 18, I never worked out at the gym, yet I had more useful muscle than a great many people who could bench/squat/curl two to four times what I could. Why? I always got my workout while doing work around my grandparent's house or the family cabin, splitting wood, chopping down trees the old fashioned way, hauling logs, and the like. I didn't have much in the way of lifting ST, but I had Striking ST for days (further compounded and trained with lots and lots of martial arts of the purely striking variety).

So, combined with a recently made character who fights with a war maul, I thought "hmm, I bet there's a sledgehammer workout. Swinging all that weight around at the end of a stick takes a lot of muscle"

A bit of googling and what do I find? Just about every sledgehammer workout is basically just "get a sledgehammer and an old tractor tire, and smack the latter with the former a bunch until you get tired".

So, I decided to experiment. A bit of cursory testing indicates that you can get a VERY intense workout, even with just a 6 or 8 lb head sledgehammer. I plan to combine it with a ~40 lb weighted training vest, and add in some more standard Indian club exercises with a 2 lb head engineer hammer. So far it's enormously effective on the core, back, and shoulders, with a fair bit on the arms, but limited targetting of the legs. A few more exercises and the added weight of the vest should round it out. On top of it all, it'll give some reasonable training for Ace/Mace weapons, at least of the unwieldy/very unwieldy variety.


I think I'll call it the Dwarven Exercise Regimen.

Motorcycle License: Achieved

Finished the class, written portion was a breeze as expected. Just have to hit up the DMV and take a cursory 20 question test to get my permit to then unlock the full motorcycle endorsement on my license. My mom thinks it's kind of cool since I can drive the Elio when it comes out, but was very firmly against me ever riding a proper motorcycle. I'm kind of torn on the whole "regular motorcycle" thing, because it's fun, but it IS dangerous, and there's no two ways around that.

If I can get access to a proper motorcycle (which would most likely have to be my own), I can start tinkering with trying to make things safer, and potentially make all the money if I can figure THAT out. At the moment my computer is attempting to melt itself to death, so picking up someone's old used bike will be somewhere down the line (if at all) from getting something new to play with. Still need to pick up my AR-15 too.

GURPS Metro: Apocalyptic Gear

So, I've rounded up enough interested parties for a Metro2033/Fallout styled game. The world (or at least substantial vicinity) has been bombed or otherwise into an uninhabitable wasteland. What's left of civilization has retreated into caves and metro tunnels, fortifying them into city-stations and station-states. Pre-calamity gear is a rare luxury, carried only by the best soldiers and the luckiest survivors who went out to find it.

What's left for everyone? Stuff cobbled together from scraps. Over the next few days/weeks I'll be starting the process of figuring out all of the gear, from guns, to armor, to miscellaneous gadgets and gizmos, that will be available to my players and the rest of the world. How it works, what it costs, and maybe some doodles of how it looks.

Metro 2033 assumes that the "default" combat weapon is chambered in reloaded 5.45x39 brass, even the shitty, made-from-junk Bastard Gun. This however, doesn't make sense to me, because even the simplest possible operating system for an intermediate carbine is still far more complex than that of an SMG.

Gun progressions will be roughly as such, in terms of stats/performance;
Combat SMG: STEN, UZI, TMP
Pistol: Derringer, Revolver, makarov, glock
Intermediate Rifle: Single shot, bolt, pump/lever, AK
Shotgun: Slam tube, Improved slam tube (functionally single load only pump shotgun), double barrel, pump, semi-auto, box fed
Rifle: Single shot, bolt, FAL/Dragunov

Melee/muscle powered weapons will be around and fairly commonly used, because ammo is scarce and loud. Gear will probably go good TL6, Cheap TL7, good TL7, fine TL7, to account for it having been a higher TL than it presently is, and the knowledge to make good steel being available if resources allow.

Gadgets will be things like watches (simple through fancy combination watch including air quality meters or Geiger counters), radios, flashlights and lamps, and will mostly just be treated as "what can be made by hand? K, use the cheap gadgets rules."

I'll be going into greater depth on each of these topics, with actual stats for each, but links to books or mention of other work done to this end is appreciated.

Jerb

Got one. It's even one of the few places I've looked at that's carry friendly, which is nice (although I need a tuckable holster and to finish getting back in shape so there's room for it in my pants now).

I'll spend a little of the first paycheck on things like a new phone and probably something shooty (I've been in contact with Kel-Tec to see about getting a PLR-16 with a 12" barrel so it has more oomph, although an AK pistol might cost similar amounts of dosh and be equally effective, and I've always wanted something AK based).

From then on it's marathoning those student loans away, with a side of collecting ammo if possible.

ADVENTURE

Just went from home to Rockford IL to Southfield MI and back to home in two days. All total, after weather (more on that in a sec) and such things, around 20 hours of driving. All time not spent driving was spent at interviews, with a short rest in a cheap hotel room, so not particularly relaxing.

Snow's, fine. I can drive in snow. What's less pleasant to drive in is surprise snow. Doesn't start to snow and gradually get worse and worse, just suddenly SNOW. From clean and clear to zero visibility in the blink of an eye. There were a LOT of cars beached, rolled, and slid into ditches. I kept my car within my and its limits. Those new tires it got relatively recently were darn nice.

When adventuring, maps are invaluable. Self-reading maps are a particularly great convenience. Should have gotten one long ago, but at least I got one while it's still useful for stuff instead of once I was all settled.

Having a car decide it would like to face a different direction than it is presently traveling seems like a good way to test the nerves of the driver. In that case, when my car decided to do so after the person in front of me stomped on the brakes on a slippery offramp, I passed the test with flying colors and barely an elevated heart rate. Car managed to make it 90 degrees before I got the wheels to grip again and brought back into my lane, but I kept it on the road and mostly in my lane so the few other cars could go around me easily.

Don't think I've ever seen as many semis as on 94 to/from Detroit.

And that's just the way out there.

On the way back, got caught in another instant snowstorm, narrowly avoided getting caught in that colossal traffic jam by Michigan City. Decided to pull off for some dinner and to use the restroom, saw traffic grind to a halt on literally the other side of the bridge from the offramp. Met a gentleman at the Pizza Hut, who offered me free pizza (it was the same price for a personal and the full size daily special, so he got it to share with any other refugees from the traffic), who turned out to be an engineer who was looking to hire more engineers. He also gave me directions to get around the traffic jam.


First solo trip to far distant places, complete. Now if you'll excuse me, my wrists hurt from holding the steering wheel.