Mad Abdul's Discount Auto Parts, Ammunition and Stereo Supplies

Carrying on from last week’s game…

An abandoned part of the Ruined City of Barterton, The Wasteland, Sometime after “The Bomb”…

SITUATION

Mad Abdul Ali has gathered some reinforcements and travelled to Baterton with his truckload of treasure and hidden it away in an abandoned part of the ruined city. Tomorrow he will go into the market and try to sell any of the supplies his people do not need for themselves… if he still has it!

SCENARIO

Mad Abdul and the Desert Marauders have to defend their stash and set up in one corner. The Russians and Box Joe Jr’s Thugs are trying to take it away. They deploy
On either of the two sides opposing the corner where the stash is. No one can’t walk off with it DURING the game so essentially it’s last ones standing get the prize…

Agent 68 has a slightly different task… She’s an assassin that works for a secret organization and has been sent to assassinate Mad Abdul… as luck would have it she has a list of “Targets of Opportunity” and Boz Joe Jr. and “The Russian” are both on it… So she wins if she can take them out. Say minor success if she tags Adbul, major success if she gets Abdul and one of the others, gold-plated success and a big ass bonus cheque if she tags all three!

Of course, if that weren’t enough…

The first unit to enter any ruined building for the first time must roll d6, on a 6 they disturb a hive of mutant bugs, which come off hold and attack immediately… After the first turn, if not engaged, they will always move toward the nearest unengaged (by bugs) target within movement range. If there are no such target they will aid in attacking any target engaged by bugs within range. If there is still no available target they will RUN towards the next nearest available target(s).

FORCES

Mutant Bugs (5)
Ag d10, Sm d4(A), Sp d6, St d8, Vg d8,
Pace 8, Parry 7, Toughness 6 (10)
Skills: Fighting d10, Notice d8, Stealth d10,
Edges: Combat Reflexes, Armour (+4)
Claws Str+d8
Special Abilities: No cohesion, no morale. When unengaged they will move towards the nearest unengaged non-bug within one move – or gang up on any that are within one move if there are less foes than bugs.


Mad Abdul Ali (W) - Christian
Ag d8, Sm d8, Sp d10, St d6, Vg d6,
Pace 6, Parry 6, Toughness 5
Skills: Fighting d8, Shooting d8, Notice d8, Stealth d6, Intimidate d6, Repair d6
Edges: Command,
Gear: AK-74 (Range: 24/48/96, ROF: 3, Damage: 2d8, AP:2, 3RB )

Desert Marauders #1 (4)
Ag d6, Sm d4, Sp d8, St d6, Vg d6,
Pace 6, Parry 5, Toughness 5
Skills: Fighting d6, Shooting d6, Notice d4, Stealth d4, Repair d6 (Mechanic Only),
Gear: AK-74 (Range: 24/48/96, ROF: 3, Damage: 2d8, AP:2, 3RB )

Desert Marauders #2 (4)
Ag d6, Sm d4, Sp d8, St d6, Vg d6,
Pace 6, Parry 5, Toughness 5
Skills: Fighting d6, Shooting d8, Notice d4, Stealth d4, Repair d6 (Mechanic Only),
Gear: AK-74 (Range: 24/48/96, ROF: 3, Damage: 2d8, AP:2, 3RB )
RPK-74 (Range: 24/48/96, ROF: 4, Damage: 2d8, AP: 2, Snap Fire, Bipod, 3RB)

Desert Marauders #3 (4)
Ag d6, Sm d4, Sp d8, St d6, Vg d6,
Pace 6, Parry 5, Toughness 5
Skills: Fighting d6, Shooting d6, Notice d4, Stealth d4, Repair d6 (Mechanic Only),
Gear: AK-74 (Range: 24/48/96, ROF: 3, Damage: 2d8, AP:2, 3RB )
RPK-74 (Range: 24/48/96, ROF: 4, Damage: 2d8, AP: 2, Snap Fire, Bipod, 3RB)


Agent 68 (W) - Amanda
Ag d8, Sm d10, Sp d8, St d8, Vg d8,
Pace 8 (+d10), Parry 5, Toughness 6
Skills: Fighting d6, Shooting d8, Notice d8, Stealth d6,
Edges: Marksman, Ambidextrous, Two-Fisted, Combat Reflexes, Nerves of Steel, Fleet-Footed,
Gear: Stealth Suit (-2 to hit with all ranged attacks)
2x Pistols (Range: 15/30/60, ROF: 1, Damage: 2d8, AP:2),



Joe Junior (W) - Rick
Ag d8, Sm d6, Sp d6, St d8, Vg d8,
Pace 6, Parry 6, Toughness 6
Skills: Fighting d6, Shooting d8, Notice d6, Stealth d6, Intimidate d6,
Edges: Command
Gear: Desert Eagle (Range: 15/30/60, ROF: 1, Damage: 2d8, AP: 2)

Boz Joe’s Thugs (5)
Ag d6, Sm d4, Sp d6, St d8, Vg d6,
Pace 6, Parry 6, Toughness 5
Skills: Fighting d8, Shooting d8, Notice d6, (“The Mechanic” has Repair d6)
Gear: AK-74 (Range: 24/48/96, ROF: 3, Damage: 2d8, AP:2, 3RB )


“The Russian” (WC) - Jackson
Ag d8, Sm 8, Sp d10, St d8, Vg d6,
Pace 6, Parry 6, Toughness 5 (7/9)
Skills: Fighting d6, Shooting d8, Notice d8, Stealth d4, Intimidate d8,
Edges: Command, Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Nerves of Steel
Gear: Pistol (Range: 12/24/48, ROF: 1, Damage: 2d6, AP: 1)

Russians #1 (4)
Ag d6, Sm d6, Sp d4, St d6, Vg d6,
Pace 6, Parry 6, Toughness 5 (7/9)
Skills: Fighting d8, Shooting d6, Notice d6, Stealth d6,
Gear: Kevlar,
Gear: AK-74 (Range: 24/48/96, ROF: 3, Damage: 2d8, AP:2, 3RB )
RPK-74 (Range: 24/48/96, ROF: 4, Damage: 2d8, AP: 2, Snap Fire, Bipod, 3RB)

Sergeant Ivan Popoff
Ag d6, Sm d8, Sp d8, St d6, Vg d8,
Pace 6, Parry 6, Toughness 6 (8/10)
Skills: Fighting d8, Shooting d8, Notice d10, Stealth d8, Intimidate d8
Gear: Kevlar,
Gear: AK-74 (Range: 24/48/96, ROF: 3, Damage: 2d8, AP:2, 3RB )

Russians #2 (4)
Ag d6, Sm d6, Sp d4, St d6, Vg d6,
Pace 6, Parry 6, Toughness 5 (7/9)
Skills: Fighting d8, Shooting d6, Notice d6, Stealth d6,
Gear: Kevlar,
Gear: AK-74 (Range: 24/48/96, ROF: 3, Damage: 2d8, AP:2, 3RB )
Dragunov (Range: 50/100/150, ROF: 1, Damage: 2d8+1, AP: 2, Snap Fire, Scope)

THE GAME

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


The Desert Marauders prepare to defend their stash against the approaching attackers.


Agent 68 observes from cover and realizes this may just be her lucky day – Three targets of opportunity all in one place!


Boz Joe Jr. and his thugz are out for blood…


The Russian leads his men through the ruined landscape.


Sgt. Popoff with the other Russian team dash towards a building.

When they entered everyone saw me roll a die and figured I was rolling to see if any zombies or bugs were there (they had noticed them right away, sitting off to the side of the table) and so avoided going into any further buildings… I’ll have to be more sneaky about my random creatures hiding places in the future…


Agent 68 gets a Joker!


She pegs a marauder and the rest of his team fail morale!


Boz Joe Jr’s thugs rush up to a wall looking over it they spot Agent 68 in cover – since she ain’t WITH them they must be against them… so they open up and blaze away at her with little effect…


The other team of Marauders are heavily engaged in a firefight with the Russians, one goes down… them two more…


Agent 68 dashes across the open and chocking speed, gets to a doorway and takes down another Marauder that was just getting a hold of himself. (Recovered from being shaken just in time to be shot dead…).


Boz Joe Jr’s Thugz continue moving up.


Agent 68 dashes out of cover once again shooting another Marauder, point blank, as she dashes by…


Then starts trying to shoot up mad Abdul!


Boz Joe Jr’s thugz keep shooting at Agent 68… not sure why…? As she seems to be doing a pretty good job of taking out all the guys they came to kill….


Mad Abdul with only two of his men left (both shaken beyond recovery) decided to split and ran off the table…

Off the table!? Sure, why not… Agent 68 still has two targets of opportunity… Okay so she probably would have pursued HIM… but whatever…


Boz Joe Jr’s thugz move up to the building and engage in a heavy firefight with the Russians for several turns.


Agent 68 snuck around the flank and shot The Russian, but didn’t manage to take him out. After a brief but violent exchange of fire The Russian took out Agent 68…


The firefight continued a couple more turns and eventually The Russian, his subordinate, Sgt. Popoff, and one of their troopers were the only Russians left, and both leaders were wounded so they decided to hobble away and fight another day…


Coming soon on Savage Timmy’s Playhouse:

Hard to say… These last two adventures have been a LOT of fun… I might just run with it!

The L5R adventures are super fun, but there’s just waaaaaaay too much preparation involved for me to run those regularly… Hopefully I’ll find time to get back to those in a bit… but I could see a few more future skirmishes taking place before then!

A Minor Diversion…

I’ve had a hankering to play a little post-apocalyptic/gritty sci-fi skirmish for a bit and as, once again, I didn’t have a game prepared I thought I’d “get it out of my system” this past Saturday… the unfortunate part is it was a LOT of fun and SOOOO much easier to prepare for than a “serious” role-playing adventure with “plots” and “intrigue” and
stuff…

I made no great effort to make these units “equal” and let everyone pick which they wanted in the order that they arrived (well, except The Scout, which I made just for Amanda…).

Somewhere on the Wasteland, Sometime after “The Bomb”…

SITUATION

Find-it Freddy is the best scavenger in the wasteland. He can scrounge damn near anything. On his latest scrounging expedition Freddy hit the jackpot; he found an almost working truck – loaded with supplies, fuel, ammo. He hid the truck and headed back to Barterton where he’s been selling info about it’s location to anyone and everyone…

SCENARIO

Get the truck, drive it off the table… seems simple enough… except there’s at least four other gangs with the same plan… and there’s one other problem, the truck don’t work…

To Fix The Truck
1 repair roll at -2 to diagnose what is wrong with it.
3 repair rolls at -4 to fix it
a raise on any of the repair rolls gives the mechanic a +2 on his next repair roll (i.e. makes the next roll only -2…)

Volatile Substances
The truck is loaded with gasoline and ammunition… any shots at any target within line of sight of the truck accidentally hit the truck on a 1 if single shots, 2 if full auto… for every hit roll d6, on a 6 the truck detonates… if it doesn’t, roll damage as per normal on the truck any critical hit roll of 9+ also causes the truck to detonate.

If the truck is hit with any explosive weapons it automatically detonates.

If the truck blows it does 10d6 damage to anyone in, on, or within 4” of the truck, and 4d6 damage to anything within 12”

If that weren’t enough…

The first unit to come within 2” of the truck or the ruined building next to it disturbs a hive of mutant bugs, which come off hold and attack immediately… After the first turn, if not engaged, they will always move toward the nearest target…

FORCES

Mutant Bugs (5)
Ag d10, Sm d4(A), Sp d6, St d8, Vg d8,
Pace 8, Parry 7, Toughness 6 (10)
Skills: Fighting d10, Notice d8, Stealth d10,
Edges: Combat Reflexes, Armour (+4)
Claws Str+d8
Special Abilities: No cohesion, no morale. When unengaged they will move towards the nearest unengaged non-bug within one move – or gang up on any that are within one move if there are less foes than bugs.


The Scout (W) - Amanda
Ag d8, Sm d8, Sp d8, St d8, Vg d8,
Pace 6, Parry 5, Toughness 5
Skills: Fighting d6, Shooting d10, Notice d10, Stealth d10, Repair d6, Driving d6
Edges: Marksman
Gear:
Sniper Rifle (Range: 50/100/200, ROF: 1, Damage: 2d10, AP:6, Snap Fire, Scope, Bipod), Auto Pistol (Range: 12/X24/48, ROF: 1, Damage: 2d6, AP: )


Burt Jackson, Trucker (W) - Darrin
Ag d6, Sm d4, Sp d6, St d8, Vg d8,
Pace 6, Parry 5, Toughness 6
Skills: Fighting d6, Shooting d8, Notice d6, Repair d8, Driving d10
Edges: Ace,
Gear: H&K MP5 (Range: 12/24/48, ROF: 3, Damage: 2d6, AP:2, 3RB) Knife (Str+d4 – concealed in boot)

Bargain Bin Battle Droids (5)
Ag d8, Sm d4(A), Sp d8, St d8, Vg d8,
Pace 4 (+d4), Parry 6, Toughness 6 (10)
Skills: Fighting d8, Shooting d6,
Edges: Combat Reflexes, Armour (+4)
Hindrances: Bargain Bin*
Gear: Laser Rifle (Range: 50/100/200, ROF: 1, Damage: 2d10)
Special Abilities: Whenever the unit is dealt a 3 or 4 one random droid breaks down, when dealt a 2 one random droid explodes (small burst template, 3d6 damage)


Boz Joe (W) - Dave
Ag d6, Sm d8, Sp d8, St d8, Vg d8,
Pace 6, Parry 6, Toughness 6
Skills: Fighting d8, Shooting d8, Notice d6, Stealth d6, Intimidate d8,
Edges: Command
Gear: Desert Eagle (Range: 15/30/60, ROF: 1, Damage: 2d8, AP: 2)

Boz Joe’s Thugs (5)
Ag d6, Sm d4, Sp d6, St d8, Vg d6,
Pace 6, Parry 6, Toughness 5
Skills: Fighting d8, Shooting d8, Notice d6, (“The Mechanic” has Repair d6)
Gear: AK-74 (Range: 24/48/96, ROF: 3, Damage: 2d8, AP:2, 3RB )


Sgt. Mack Highway, U.S. Army (W) - Jackson
Ag d8, Sm d6, Sp d8, St d8, Vg d8,
Pace 6, Parry 6, Toughness 6 (8/10)
Skills: Fighting d8, Shooting d8, Notice d8, Stealth d6, Intimidate d6, Repair d6, Throwing d6, Driving d6
Edges: Command, Combat Reflexes
Hindrances:
Gear: M16A2 (Range: 24/48/96, ROF: 3, Damage: 2d8, AP: 2, 3RB)
M203 (Range: 24/48/96, ROF:1, Damage: 2d8, Med Burst , 4 shots, 1 action to reload)

U.S. Army Fire Team (4)
Ag d6, Sm d6, Sp d6, St d8, Vg d8,
Pace 6, Parry 5, Toughness 6 (8/10)
Skills: Fighting d6, Shooting d8, Notice d6, Stealth d6, Repair d8 (Mechanic Only), Throwing d6, Driving d6
Gear: Kevlar,
M16A2 (Range: 24/48/96, ROF: 3, Damage: 2d8, AP: 2, 3RB)
M249 (Range: 30/60/120, ROF: 4, Damage: 2d8, AP: 2, Snap Fire, Bipod)


Mad Abdul Ali (W) - Christian
Ag d8, Sm d8, Sp d10, St d6, Vg d6,
Pace 6, Parry 6, Toughness 5
Skills: Fighting d8, Shooting d8, Notice d8, Stealth d6, Intimidate d6, Repair d6
Edges: Command
Gear: AK-74 (Range: 24/48/96, ROF: 3, Damage: 2d8, AP:2, 3RB )
Special Abilities:

Desert Marauders #1 (4)
Ag d6, Sm d4, Sp d8, St d6, Vg d6,
Pace 6, Parry 5, Toughness 5
Skills: Fighting d6, Shooting d6, Notice d4, Stealth d4, Repair d6 (Mechanic Only),
Gear: AK-74 (Range: 24/48/96, ROF: 3, Damage: 2d8, AP:2, 3RB )

Desert Marauders #2 (4)
Ag d6, Sm d4, Sp d8, St d6, Vg d6,
Pace 6, Parry 5, Toughness 5
Skills: Fighting d6, Shooting d6, Notice d4, Stealth d4, Repair d6 (Mechanic Only),
Gear: AK-74 (Range: 24/48/96, ROF: 3, Damage: 2d8, AP:2, 3RB )
RPK-74 (Range: 24/48/96, ROF: 4, Damage: 2d8, AP: 2, Snap Fire, Bipod, 3RB)
RPG-16 (Range: 40/80/160, ROF:1, Damage: 5d6, Med Burst , 1 shots!)



Archibald Tucker (W) - Rick
Ag d8, Sm d10, Sp d8, St d8, Vg d8,
Pace 6, Parry 8, Toughness 6
Skills: Fighting d8, Driving d6, Notice d8, Stealth d8, Repair d6
Edges: Combat Reflexes, Dodge, Block
Hindrances:
Gear: Sword cane/Umbrella Str+d6, +1 Parry

“The Gents”
Ag d8, Sm d6, Sp d8, St d6, Vg d6,
Pace 6, Parry 5, Toughness 5
Skills: Fighting d6, Shooting d8, Notice d6, Stealth d6,
Edges: Combat Reflexes
Hindrances:
Gear: Sterling SMG (Range: 12/24/48, ROF:3 , Damage: 2d6, AP: 2)


THE GAME

Everyone drew a card and deployed in the regular sequence; deploying up to 6” in from any edge and not within 16” of anyone else…

The action was fast and furious! Losses were taken before some even got their first turn!

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


Bozz Joe’s crew, already taking fire from those annoying English Gits…


The Scout setting up her Sniper rifle on some high ground behind some hard cover – getting ready to deal out some death…


Archiblad Tucker, formerly of her Majesty’s Secret Service, and “The Gents” – blazing away at Boz Joe’s Crew.


Sgt. Highway and his U.S. Army Fire Team. From the get-go they were taking down Desert Marauders.


The Prize – a truck loaded with petrol, supplies and ammunition…


Burt Jackson and his Combat Droids slowly clunking along it’s turn three and he’s already lost two to mechanical breakdown…


Boz Joe makes a dash for the village. His two remaining thugs are already in the village. Boz joe was slowed some by the two wounds he’s already taken.


The U.S. Army Fire Team decides to move for the cover of the village. They had been taking wildly inaccurate and ineffective fire from the marauders, but when The Scouts first shot range out a second after one of their teams guts exploded out through his Kevlar vest soiling the dune he was taking cover behind, they knew they could not remain there and take fire from BOTH sides!

A second member of the team when down in the hail of fire they attracted as they dashed across the open ground fron the dune to the building.


Darrin drew a Joker… WE were using the showdown rules this evening and he rolled on the Fortune and Calamity table and came up with “Out of Ammo”… seeing the scout as the biggest threat to himself eventually getting to the truck and driving it off he had her run out of ammo… we had pity on Amanda and said it was only the Sniper Rifle that was out of ammo and that she still had “last shots” in her side arm… So The Scout gave up her position in the hills and ran down, over bad going, taking wild long range shots with her pistol at long range…


…and POW! She pegged Sgt. Highway for 4+ wounds… Helmets save lives, dude…

(“didja see that?! I got’im at a dead run!”)


BLAM! Dealt a deuce and a Bargain Bin Combat Droid EXPLODES – causing some damage to one of the others!


The U.S. Army patrol inching ever nearer the truck…


Boz Joe’s mechanic makes a dash from the cover of a building to the truck to see if he can start fixing it… all that shuffling about disturbed the hive of mutant bugs however… Poor Fatty the Wrench was instantly shredded!


Meanwhile Archibald Tucker wandered about unscathed despite wandering through a hail of bullets and laser beams…


The Scout fighting off two mutant bugs!


One of the Bugs finished off the last of the U.S. Army Patrol…

See all those extra wound markers on the truck… that’s what happens when and Englishman with NO SHOOTING SKILL picks up an SMG and fires at a crowd of mutant bugs standing right next to THE TRUCK – three hits on the truck – none on the bugs… Three wounds to the truck and somehow it DIDN’T blow!?!


One of the bugs goes for Mad Abdul…


Burt Jackson and the Desert Marauders exchange fire.


Mad Abdul shoots down Burt Jackson in cold blood…


Then does the same to the last of Boz Joes crew…

The Mad Englishman they kept alive… for the moment…

What a fun game! All this needed was some ZOMBIES!!


Coming soon on Savage Timmy’s Playhouse:

More fun and excitement next week…

(actually it’s already Thursday and I haven’t even LOOKED at any of the L5R adventures… so it may just be another skirmish like this…)

Kintani Valley Bandits

It took two more weeks (of gaming – two days in terms of the campaign) to solve the Murder of Kyotei Castle.

This week Rick and Dave were out partying – but they dropped off Jackson and Patrick… so we just played a little skirmish game and said Bayushi Gorou had to journey to Otosan Uchi to make a report ot the Emerald Champion about the murder of the Daimyo. The rest of the group had to stay in the Kintani Valley as Kitsuki Shin was still recovering from his nearly mortal wounds sustained in the action the previous week and could not be moved (other than to get across the river into Phoenix lands where they had better hearlers) . Isawa Minoru – who was also seriously injured – we said healed rather quickly because, let’s face it, he’s got the Kami on his side!

So while hanging about in the domain of Daimyo Shiba Katsuda they decided to make themselves useful and try and track down a group of bandits that had been plaguing the area and had thus far eluded Shiba’s warriors…

The group tracked the bandits to their hide out deep in a wooded mountain valley. At dawn they attacked!

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


Isawa Minoru, and the two Phoenix Yojimbo sent to protect him, were the two heroes of the evening. The Yojimbos each cut down more of the bandits than the big talking lion (Phoenix Yojimbo extras fighting d8, Strength d8, Lion PC Wildcard fighting d12, strength d12…). Minoru himself saved the players from getting their asses kicked by tying up the one wildcard on the bandits side with the help of the kami – the one guy that really could have laid the hurt down on the PCs…


The Bandits leader was so nasty that the ONE TURN he was not ensorcelled he stabbed Okatsu with a knife… through her armour… giving her 3 wounds – while he himself was feeling the hurt of two wounds she had just slashed into him! The Phoenix yojimbo strode up and cut him down the next turn before he could do much more damage!

I hope that little spell doesn’t become a one-trick-pony that they always fall back on… or I might have to throw out some nasty shugenja as adversaries… or Oni that are immune to silly little spells like that… I’m already conisering raising the bar for badguy skillz just to deal with all the d10/d12 fighting in the group!

Murder at Kyotei Castle – Part One

This past Saturday our new Savage Worlds Campaign set in Rokugan (the setting for Alderac Entertainment Group’s Legend of the Five Rings) got underway! We are playing an adventure called Murder at Kyotei Castle which is one of two adventures included in Honours Veil).

It’s been a while since I played with such a large group (SEVEN players!) and a while since I’ve run some gen-u-ine role-playing adventures. Most of the games I’ve run on Savage Saturday for the last while have pretty much been straight up skirmish games – which is totally fun - but sometimes it’s a whole lot of fun to put the minis aside and do some good old role-playing!

In a Nutshell: the group was invited to attend the Bon Festival at Kyotei castle. They arrived, got settled in and chatted up some other samurai that were hanging about. Later in the evening was the Bon Festival. Gorou, due to his being an Imperial magistrate, got to sit at the “adult table” with the all the local bigwigs and a couple of visiting Daimyo. Much time was spent yakking with people at the party. In the morning there seemed to be a disturbance in the castle and with a bit of asking about they figured out the local Daimyo had been murdered in the night…

…and that’s about it…

Next week: the investigation begins!

Christian has made a character... but I'll post details about that a bit later with some more background details about the other players.

Welcome to Rokugan

This year we are starting a new Savage Worlds Campaign set in Rokugan (the setting for Alderac Entertainment Group’s Legend of the Five Rings). The CCG – which it is all based on – has been raging on continuously since the early ‘90’s and a great deal of high quality background fluff has been generated. On one hand it’s great having all that canned stuff ready to serve, but it's also a bit intimidating starting a whole new campaign in a setting with so much canon – much of which is available online (L5R Wiki) - there’s always that possibility that a überkeener player with too much time on their hands could end up knowing more about the world that the GM…

Over the last month I have picked up a LOT of the L5R RPG books from various different editions as well as a number of the Clan War series novels and some of the Clan War (a now out-of-print miniatures game) army books – these just came with some of the army expansion box sets which I really just picked up for the minis… oh, and I’ve bought a LOT of minis…! (you can follow all the mini painting and other related miniature wargames shenanigans over at Tim’s Miniature Wargaming Blog). I’ve been able to pick up most of it quite cheap – and mostly brand new/never opened – off of ebay and I’ve been spending the last few weeks sifting through some of the material.

With each edition of the L5R RPG (following the lead of the CCG) the story has advanced considerable. My plan is to set the campaign in the world of the first edition – in the lead up to the Clan Wars (before the Scorpion Coup – ssshhhh – don’t tell the players about that!!)

Session number one (last night) was devoted to making some new characters. Having a look at them, astute readers will notice that these are a little better than your average brand new novice character. That is because I generally like to give players a bit of a leg up. I like the high adventure – I’m not a GM that plays the game to kill PCs – I like the players having characters that don’t suck and can survive in the harsh “reality” of Savage Worlds. I’ve thought of giving extra skill points and extra attribute points but generally with that players just take MORE skills at d4 and have all their stats at d8. I’d rather a character have at least ONE THIGN that they’re REALLY GOOD at so I give them one attribute and one skill at d10 – in addition to the regular 5 Skill points and 5 Attribute points.

I gave them all a free edge (beyond the normal free edge for being human); Samurai - which is similar to the "Noble" - they will have +2 charisma when dealing with the lower classes and essentially could have any equipment within reason as all would be provided by their clan or the emperor... The motivation in this game is not to gather enough loot to buy that next better suit of armour or enough trail rations to make it through the next dungeon - it is to serve the emperor and do his bidding...

I also gave Rick's Character 20 experience points - and the level-ups that go with that - as he is the leader of the group and an Imperial magistrate... I just thought it just wouldn't do for an Imperial Magistrate to be a "novice".

In the past (because we, at best, only get in one game a week and campaigns rarely last more than a couple months – but hopefully that’s about to change with this one!) I often have given out 5XP per session until characters get to veteran – just so the players can actually see their characters advance and get sort of good… before we pack it in… I think with this game I’m only going to do that until Seasoned…

THE GROUP

Anyway, here’s what everyone came up with…


Bayushi Garou - Rick
Seasoned – 20XP
Ag d6, Sm d10, Sp d6, St d8, Vg d8,
Pace 6, Parry 7, Toughness 7
Skills: Fighting d10, Notice d6, Stealth dX, Intimidate d6, Investigation d8, Streetwise d8, Persuasion d6, Knowledge (Law) d8, Knowledge (Heraldry) d6
Edges: Samurai, Connections, Brawny, Luck, Investigator, Magistrate, Imperial Magistrate
Hindrances: Code of Honour (Bushido), Loyal (to the Emperor!), Enemy (minor – powerful, but infrequent)
Gear:
Kimono, Katana (Damage Str+d6+2), Wakasishi (Str+d6)
Bayushi Garou is and Imperial (Emerald) Magistrate.



Okatsu Setsuko – Amanda
Novice
Ag d10, Sm 6, Sp d6, St d6, Vg d8,
Pace 6, Parry 7, Toughness 7
Skills: Fighting d10, Shooting d4, Notice d6, Stealth d4, Intimidate d6, Streetwise d4, Tracking d4, Repair d4, Healing d4, Riding d10, Swimming d4
Edges: Samurai, Alertness, Brawny, Quick
Hindrances: Stubborn, Code of Honour (bushido), Loyal (to the Emperor)
Gear:
Kimono, Katana (Damage Str+d6+2), Wakasishi (Str+d6)
Armour (+2), Horse, Tack, etc…



Kitsuki Hatiro – Darrin
Novice
Ag d6, Sm d10, Sp d8, St d6, Vg d6,
Pace 6, Parry 7, Toughness 5
Skills: Fighting d10, Notice d8, Stealth d4, Intimidate d4, Investigation d6, Persuasion d4, Streetwise d8, Knowledge (shadowlands) d4, Climbing d4, Healing d4, Tracking d4
Edges: Samurai, Unarmed Warrior, Heightened Senses, Alertness
Hindrances: Code of Honour (bushido), Quirk (mysterious), Loyal
Gear:
Kimono, Tanto (Str+d4)



Isawa Minoru - Jackson
Novice
Ag d6, Sm d8, Sp d12, St d4, Vg d6,
Pace 6, Parry 5, Toughness 5, Charisma -2
Skills: Fighting d6, Notice d4, Stealth d4, Knowledge (arcana) d10, healing d10, Spellcasting d12
Edges: Arcane Background (Shugenja), Healer, (Magic-related edge – to be determined)
Hindrances: Pacifist (minor), Ugly, Heroic
Gear: Kimono, Tanto (Str+d4), Bag of Magic Tricks.
Powers;
(To Be Determined)
Isawa Minoru is of average height and skinny. His face is hideously scarred from a magical experiment gone awry. Minoru was sent from his family at the age of six to begin his shugenja training and thus feels little affinity towards them. He has six siblings – all of whom are shugenja.



Akodo Kenta - Patrick
Novice
Ag d8, Sm d4, Sp d6, St d12, Vg d8,
Pace 6, Parry 8, Toughness 7
Skills: Fighting d12, Shooting d4, Notice d8, Intimidate d8, Tracking d4, Riding d8
Edges: Samurai, Brawny, Quick
Hindrances: Clueless, Illiterate, Stubbourn
Gear: Kimono, Katana (Damage Str+d6+2), Wakasishi (Str+d6)
Armour (+2), Horse, Tack, etc…



Kitsuki Shin- Dave
Novice
Ag d8, Sm d10, Sp d8, St d4, Vg d6,
Pace 6, Parry 5, Toughness 5
Skills: Fighting d6, Notice d6, Streetwise d10, Investigation d10, Knowledge (Law) d8, Knowledge (Heraldry) d6, Healing d10
Edges: Samurai, Ambidextrous, Alertness, Luck
Hindrances: Code of Honour (Bushido), Loyal, Quirk (Mysterious Dragon, Speaks in riddles)
Gear: Kimono, Katana (Damage Str+d6+2), Wakasishi (Str+d6)


(I also happen to have miniatures to represent of most of their characters on the rare occasion that they'd be donning ARMOUR to go into battle... )

They all came up with quite detailed backgrounds for their characters – which I think I’ll let everyone refine a bit before I post the details here… Essentially Bayushi Garou (Rick’s Character) is an Imperial Magistrate and the rest are his hand-picked assistants. The two Kitsukis and Isawa Minuro are his “Yoriki” – assistants that help with investigation – while Akodo Kenta and Okatsu Setsuko are “doshin” - the muscle or, literally, “enforcers” of THE LAW.

Christian has also been working on a character. Now because of his job Christian will only be able to show up once in a while so we wanted to make a character that I could just sort of drop into (just about) any adventure with minimal notice… so… we shall see what we come up with there…

Take the Bridge!

This week was the last episode of our first ”Oriental Adventures” campaign. I have decided in the new year we’ll start over with new characters set in Rokugan (the setting for Alderac Entertainment Group’s Legend of the Five Rings).

Jackson’s friend Patrick joined us to try out Savage Worlds. In addition to the regular savages (Darrin, Amanda, Rick and Jackson), Christian also showed up and played one of Kohaku’s ashigaru retainers. Lacking any gen-u-ine adventure I just threw together another tabletop skirmish – which is handy for teaching the basic mechanics of things to a new player.

SITUATION

The Orcs of the wildlands have begun a full-scale invasion. Kohaku (played this week by Patrick) was tasked with securing a bridge on the flank, unfortunately the goblins have the same idea and have also sent a

THE GAME

(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)


Akira was the fist over the bridge.


…and with a couple sweeps over her mighty ancestral Katana she took down the leader of the goblins. Hardly being disheartened by this – the goblins saw their leaders demise as an opportunity for advancement and pressed on…


The rest joined her to defend the bridge… well Daichi and Christian’s character joined her. Kohaku and Isamu stood at the back on the other side of the river and picked off goblins with arrows and Hayato called upon the wind Kami to stir up a tempest to blind and confuse the orcs…


The battle raged on for a bit…


Eventually the goblins and Oni were defeated…

Well that’s probably it for this year…. (unless we get in a one-off game or two over the holidaze). I hope everyone has a happy holiday and a joyful and prosperous new year!