House Rules ToA

2025-07-02T23:08:40Z

Kbuchana: Kbuchana moved page House Rules (Tides of Amethyst) to House Rules ToA

OOC 
See also: [[Chain]]; [[Limits of Magic]]; [[Paradigm]]; [[Swift]]; [[Water Rules]]; [[Wheels]]

Please confer with Cinero on a character concept and basic backstory before finalizing creation (e.g., Attributes, Skills, Edges, etc.).

== Advancement ==

You are responsible for your Advances. Cinero can help.

* After each session, you earn 1 Advance, until your reach 4 Advances (Seasoned).
* Henceforth, you earn one Advance after every 3 sessions.

=== Minimum Advances (Floor) ===

In the spirit of fairness, there is a "floor" of minimum Advances for all characters. This includes starting characters. The floor for this campaign is 4 less than the Advances of the most experienced character. If your character is below the floor, then you automatically receive Advances until you reach the floor. (You continue earning Advances based on sessions. The floor doesn't reset that.)

The current floor is '''6 Advances.''' This is in addition to the 2 Hindrance points you receive during character creation, for free.

(This floor is a recommended rule for West Marches games.)

=== New Arcane Background: Free Skill ===

After character creation, if you use an Advance to add a new Arcane Background, you get the matching skill at d4 for free.

== Bans ==

=== Hindrances, Banned ===

* Doubting Thomas
* Pacifist (Major)
* Yellow
* Wanted

=== Misc Bans ===

* Survival Knife: functions as described but does not give Survival +1 (This is too big a bonus for what is described.)

=== Skills, Banned ===

* Research (We use more specific skills instead.)

== Books ==

Cinero has PDFs he can loan.

=== Pre-Approved ===

If anything is in this list of books, then you don't need Cinero's permission to use it (except Gear):

* ''[https://peginc.com/product/savage-worlds-adventure-edition-core-rules-pdf-swade/ Savage Worlds Core Rules]'' (Adventure Edition)
* ''[https://peginc.com/product/fantasy-companion-swade/ Fantasy Companion]'' (Adventure Edition)
* ''[https://peginc.com/product/science-fiction-companion-swade/ Science Fiction Companion]'' (Adventure Edition)

=== Core Rules vs. Fantasy Companion ===

* We use the Wizard edge. (Disregard the sidebar in the ''Fantasy Companion'', p. 35.)
* Powers: When in doubt, use the version in the ''Fantasy Companion'' or ''Science Fiction Companion''. (The code in Fantasy Grounds is sometimes better.)
* We use the Arcane Backgrounds in the ''Core Rules'', the ''Fantasy Companion'', and the ''Science Fiction Companion.''

== Character Creation ==

You will create a character in Savaged.us (which is like DnD Beyond for Savage Worlds). Then Cinero will import that character in Fantasy Grounds.

=== Retroactive Changes ===

Anytime before your fourth session, you have the option to make changes to your character. This house rule is intended to reduce anxiety during character creation (e.g., you don't have to make the "perfect" choices upfront) and to improve team synergy (e.g., by making changes to better fit what the team needs after meeting the team).

=== Pre-Work ===

Savaged.us

# Create a free account at: https://savaged.us/
# Join Cinero's campaign (ask him for the link)
# Create a character following the "Creation Steps" below.
# (optional) If you later want to create an additional character, then just ask Cinero to add a character slot to your account. (Slots are free/unlimited.)

Fantasy Grounds

# Create a free account at https://www.fantasygrounds.com/home/home.php
# Download and install the Free Demo version (Cinero owns the Ultimate Version, which unlocks all the features for all players).

=== Creation Steps ===

# Confer with the GM on a concept and basic backstory. Most PCs are [[Unbound]].
# Choose race (see "Species" below).
# Choose Hindrances.
# You receive 2 Hindrance points to spend, for free.
# Buy attribute increases. Remember that human average is d6.
# Buy skills.
## This could include ''Governing'' and/or ''Nature'' (see [[#Skills|Skills]] below).
# Buy Edges
# Buy Gear.
## You start with the [[Xeno Explorer Standard Kit]].
## You also start with $500.
## You can sell back the default armor and/or weapons.
## You can buy anything non-magical in the pre-approved [[#Books|Books]]
## For anything else, confer with the GM.
# Savaged will automatically calculate Pace, Parry, and Toughness.
# Finalize your initial character, then apply advances based on [[#Minimum_Advances_.28Floor.29|the current floor]].

=== Fantasy Grounds ===

'''Portrait'''

Give this Cinero in Discord. He can edit it.

''' After Cinero imports your character into Fantasy Grounds'''

# Cinero adds your Professional specialty (+1 to one skill)
# Cinero adds the [[Swift]] Form
## Strength = Spirit
## Agility = Smarts
## Vigor = Smarts or Spirit
## The effect looks like: "Swift Form [Strength +1d, Agility +0d, Vigor +1d]"
# Cinero adds your Unbound skill, which is the higher of:
## Arcane Skill -1d
## Highest Attribute -1d

== Crafting Magic Items ==

You can craft permanent magic items via the rules in the ''Fantasy Companion'' (p. 169) with the following modifications:

* Confer with the GM on your workspace and materials
* Use your arcane skill, instead of Occult
* Use the "Craft Magic Item" [[Wheels#Standard_Wheels|wheel]]
* (optional) You can regain Power Points via the "Infuse 1 Power Point" [[Wheels#Standard_Wheels|wheel]]

== Development Level ==

Regarding Gear, Dev I and Dev II items are available in many contemporary cities (e.g., [[Sigil]]). PCs can develop prototypes of specific Dev III items (GM's choice). See [[Wheels]]. ''See Science Fiction Companion'' p. 31.

== Edges ==

* We use the Wizard edge. (Disregard the sidebar in the ''Fantasy Companion'', p. 35.)

=== New Edges ===

* Mobile Shiltrom. REQUIREMENTS: Novice, Size 2, Fighting d6+, Notice d8+. For any person smaller in size than the character within 5", the character may spend a Benny once per round to place himself in the way of any attack (Fighting, Shooting or Throwing) against that target. All Fighting rolls are then made against his Parry, and he suffers the effect of any successful attacks. This can be done at any time, regardless of the bodyguard’s Initiative, and counts as a free action; any other actions must be taken on his own initiative card
* Power Armor Owner. REQUIREMENTS: Novice. A character owns a suit of power armor. The suit must have a total cost of $100K or less, including any modifications (Negative Qualities can be chosen). The suit can be stock, stock with customization, or custom from scratch. The suit can be further customized, especially via Wheels.
* Power Armor Upgrade. REQUIREMENTS: Power Armor Owner. A character can add 3 Modification points (“Mods”) to their power armor and spend those points on new Modifications. During this process, the character has the option to replace existing Modifications and/or spend points to remove Negative Qualities. If the character adds the Integrated Gear Modification, then they also add the gear they want (per Game Master’s permission). Upgrading may require adequate facilities and time (per Game Master's judgment). This Edge may be selected more than once, but only once per Rank.

== Expectations Management ==

A West Marches campaign has unusual aspects, compared to a typical tabletop RPG. Here are some rules and tips to manage your expectations and improve in-game success. (Cinero will update this section over time.)

* There are no adventures to be found in the town (i.e., the Beta module).
** This is similar to video games like ''Darkest Dungeon'', in which you regularly return to the town but it's boring and predictable.
** The NPCs will be busy building the town and staying alive. You can spend resources and downtime helping with that.
** Missions go into the wild.
** Your character concept might include doing stuff in town between missions (e.g., helping build). But I discourage choosing Skills, Edges, etc. if you only expect to use them during this downtime.
* Exploration is central. Most PCs have been on Amethyst 3 before.
* Combat will sometimes be theater of the mind and sometimes on local tactical maps.
* At times, you may find yourself on the surface of the ocean, on dry land (e.g., island), underwater, underground, or underwater and underground.
* These are spoilers to help with character concepts:
** You will discover that flying high is a bad idea. However, Cinero has not removed Piloting as a skill because skimming the surface may not be a bad idea.
** You will discover that the [[Swift]] is dangerous. A PC can still use the Swift but they will need to adjust to some unique challenges.

== Flair and Groove ==

Your Flair is your personal style, which could be an adventurer archetype that you lean into. Your Groove is your distinct contribution to the team, which might be in exploration, combat, or social encounters.

An Unbound's Flair and Groove are closely tied to their [[Source]].

=== Earning Bennies ===

You can earn a Benny by doing something that matches your Flair and/or fulfilling your Groove. As a player, speak up when you think you've earned a Benny. You can also speak up when you see others earning, too!

=== Format ===

Your Flair and Groove must be one sentence, in this format:

I am a [adjective] [noun], and I will [1-5 word phrase] [“by”or “using”] [1-5 word phrase].

=== Examples ===

From fiction:

* Han Solo: "I am a cocky smuggler, and I will defy the odds using bold moves."
* Black Widow: "I am a sly spy, and I will mislead our enemies using tricks."
* Spock: "I am a brilliant scientist, and I will find solutions using cold logic."

Past Edgewar PCs:

* "I am a terrifying otherworldly presence, and I will get in our enemies' faces using Reckless Attack."
* "I am a cunning gadgeteer, and I will maintain situational awareness using my custom gear."
* "I am a merciful optimist, and I will defend my comrades using my Protection fighting style."
* "I am a resourceful arcanist, and I will overcome obstacles using my utility spells."

== Setting Rules ==

=== Common Bond ===

We play as if all PCs have the Common Bond Edge (''Core Rules'' p. 50). (You don't need to add it to your character sheet.)

A character with this Edge may freely give her Bennies to any other character she can communicate with. The player should explain what form this takes, from a quick shout of encouragement to a welcome pat on the back.

=== Conviction ===

We use Conviction (''Core Rules'' p. 136).

Conviction can be spent to add a d6 to all a character's Trait and damage totals until the beginning of her next turn. ... A character can maintain Conviction from round to round by spending a Benny (at the start of his turn, before it runs out).

You automatically gain Conviction when your action card is your personal card. The GM may award Conviction in other ways. You can suggest gaining Conviction when you think it's appropriate.

== More Skill Points ==

We use More Skill Points (''Core Rules'' p. 140). The campaign setting in Savaged should do this automatically.

== Skills Changes ==

* ''Hacking'' includes social engineering.
* ''Repair'' is much broader than fixing things. We treat it more like engineering.
* ''Survival'' includes weather forecasting.

=== Magic Skills ===

SWADE rules use the adjective "arcane" in a very broad sense, for everything from Miracles to Weird Science. In game, when referring to the magic of ''Spellcasting'', we say it's "arcane." This basically includes any approach that treats magic like science or engineering.

''Occult'' spans theoretical knowledge of all the arcane backgrounds and skills. Each arcane skill includes relevant theoretical knowledge and practical application.

=== New Skills ===

* ''Governing (Smarts):'' perceiving, understanding, and engaging in building and sustaining a community. This includes elections, leadership, policies, legislation, law enforcement, justice systems, and bureaucracy.
* ''Nature (Smarts):'' perceiving, understanding, and engaging with natural phenomena. This includes fauna, flora, ecosystems, and xenobiology. Nature overlaps with Academics (e.g., behaviorism), Science (e.g., biology), and Survival (e.g., biomes and weather).

== Species (Races) ==

When possible, we say "species" instead of "race." You can use a species from the ''Core Rules'', ''Fantasy Companion'', or ''Science Fiction Companion'' as written. If a species has a banned hindrance, then swap it for another. You can work with Cinero to further modify a species (especially any culture-based abilities). Savage Worlds also includes rules for creating new species.

=== Dragonfolk, Celestial Circle (Silver) ===

This new species is based on Dragonfolk (''Fantasy Companion'' p. 12).

* Armor
* Bite/Claws
* Breath Weapon
* <s>Cold-Blooded</s> Warm-Blooded: Subtract 1 from Agility, Strength, and Vigor rolls after spending more than ten minutes in temperatures above 90 degree Farenheit.
* Environmental Resistance (<s>Heat</s>Cold): Receive a +4 bonus to resist cold or cold-based effects and reduce damage from such sources a like amount.
* Environmental Weakness (<s>Cold</s>Heat): Poorly suited to frigid conditions. Subtract 4 from rolls made to resist heat or fire-based effects and take +4 damage from such attacks.
* <s>Ill-Tempered</s>Loyal and Vow: Dragonfolk of this subculture are very loyal to their families, clans, and communities. They revere and obey the [[Wyrm Princes of the Celestial Circle]].

=== Etchinar Agent ===

See: [[Etchinar Agent]]

[[Category:OOC]]

House Rules (Tides of Amethyst)

2025-07-02T23:08:40Z

RB 7-15: Arrow of Sildan

2021-04-19T20:05:18Z

Kbuchana: Kbuchana moved page RP 7-15: Arrow of Sildan to RB 7-15: Arrow of Sildan

Mission Report

Thu, Feb 15, 2018 ((Apr 11, 2021)) 
Team: Jane (Cael), Proud (Aunne), Shiro (DragoN), Kromrak (Sielic) 
Doing strategy and networking: Lyndi, Isabelica, Sylvena

Max dispatches part of the team to investigate a drifting LRC ship. The Arrow of Sildan is an advanced light cruiser. The team finds the Arrow in bad shape, apparently after the main reactor exploded. They board carefully and meets a tin soldier trying to reclaim sentience, Miyasaki Etsuko. Some of Miyasaki's comrades have accepted liberation, while others fight Raptor Blue. The team defeats them. They begin looting the ship and preparing to scuttle it.

== Details ==

* The other members of the team are preparing for the caravan op (e.g., networking with allies)
* LRC sending out a ping, trying to contact a ship called the Arrow of Sildan
* Elite vessel, used by the LRC for their own purposes, of an unknown manufacture
* Current gen of Tin Soldiers
* Objectives
** Locate the Arrow of Sildan and board
** Commandeer the ship if you can
** Gather field intel on current gen tin soldiers
** If you can't control the ship, scuttle it
* Light cruiser, often used to ferry LRC VIPs and/or messages, and/or special small cargo
* Complement
** 2 officers, 6 crew
** At least 6 tin soldiers, some of which may be Tin Mage variants
* Adrift, not cloaked
* LRC in system was expecting it or lost it, because they're secretly searching for it
* It's beyond the outer orbit of R6 and below the orbital plane
* Shiro brings his heavy toolbox
* Jane opens a channel to Aedin, who loosely attends to what the team is doing
* 3 dead bodies in cryopod
* Proud determines onboard event. No sign of weapons fire, missile trails, etc.
* Ship is in slow spin and drifting towards crystal sphere interior
* Event happened 3-4 hours ago
* 3 crew corpses adrift
* DM: Goliath he/him, Elf ambiguous, Yuan-ti she/her
* Jane retrieves the corpses with TK
* No sentient undead aboard
*Aedin discerns that the tin soldiers are trying to regain sentience
* Jane and Stygi briefly look into the black, star-studded void of space, and both, in concert, smile a little. They're reflected in Stygi's own starry eyes; and Jane seems not at all intimidated.
* From the armory
** Sniper rifle (gauss config)
** Pair of fighting knives with a necrotic aura (cursed, needs to be removed)
** Grenade launcher with several different kinds of rounds
** Sword of Dragon Slaying (empty)
** Marked as heavy machine gun (gauss) but actually holding contraband liquor, gems, narcotics, and porn
* Shiro is in heavy power armor but you wouldn't think it by how quiet and flexible he moves. There's a magic barrier over the metal that constantly shifts with him, leaving shimmers and illusions on the golden texture. It tricks the eye and blur the edges of his form, making it hard to tell where Shiro ends and empty space begins. Whenever he has to move, he shifts as little as possible and small flickers of jets activate to propel him quickly instead.
* Sniper rifle is T'Aramont elite
* Jane grabs a bottle of top shelf liquor for Lyndi
* Shiro 2.0: Shiro's wall of force is, well, invisible, but when it pops up for a moment you can see a triangle pattern start infinitely duplicating itself until it reachs a wall before folding to continue on the next edge. It has a hologram blue texture before fading into invisibility -- though on the Raptor's spacesuit HUD there's an outline
* Miyasaki Etsuko, triton (she/her)
** Vedalken, follower of Erebos, captured and put into a bloodstone
** Triton is the body raised as mechadead: artificer Elira Tabitha Lygon
* Romeo (Eldritch Cannon Shiro's): Shiro SCOFFS at the pitiful attempt to stop them. The only evidence the attack even affected him is the tiny scorch mark on his shield and flicker of his aura.
* Romeo (Eldritch Cannon Shiro's): Shiro's fireball comes from one of his arm cannons, a large barrel that extends past his fingers and glows a molten orange. His highest level fireball makes the lights on it glow gold as raw magic energy fills the cannon, collecting in the barrel and illuminating the edges. When it fires a condensed ball of firey destruction launches at speeds a slow-mo camera would barely catch, leaving the still-glowing cannon barrel to de-extend back into his arm.
* Proud takes the bloodstones
* The bloodstones are advanced in structure
* Miyasaki Etsuko's stone is the one that leaked, and Proud puts it in Shiro's portable containment unit
* Shiro raids the data, and frags what he leaves behind
* Jane checks out the cryopods: 3 cold corpses
** 1 officer, 2 crew (LRC)
* In laboratory, VIP is scientist Gideon Ulysses Banks (Vedalkin, he/him)
* Working on miniaturization
* Proud gets full biometrics etc on Banks
* The ship's data is partly scragged by the amateur violent hacking

[[Category:Mission]]

RP 7-15: Arrow of Sildan

2021-04-19T20:05:18Z

Kbuchana: Kbuchana moved page RP 7-15: Arrow of Sildan to RB 7-15: Arrow of Sildan

#REDIRECT [[RB 7-15: Arrow of Sildan]]

RB 7-15: Arrow of Sildan

2021-04-18T16:23:33Z

Kbuchana: Kbuchana moved page RP 7-15 Arrow of Sildan to RP 7-15: Arrow of Sildan

RP 7-15 Arrow of Sildan

2021-04-18T16:23:33Z

Kbuchana: Kbuchana moved page RP 7-15 Arrow of Sildan to RP 7-15: Arrow of Sildan

#REDIRECT [[RP 7-15: Arrow of Sildan]]