The Pull of the Jitney continues

I had convinced myself not to buy that wheeled APC thingie that I posted about below.  But, I got some money for my birthday, and the little devil on my shoulder keeps saying, "go ahead, you know you want to".   But, the other little devil keeps saying "dude, buy something you'll use more often, like those ninjas, or those peasants, or some more buildings."    I just prefer getting stuff with multiple uses, and that truck has very limited uses, only in Sci-Fi and only from time to time, and we already have Andrew's tracked APC lying around.  What is a boy to do?  (It's not as if I'm not going to buy some game related stuff, but whether it's the Battle Jitney or not.)

Next Session

Next Savage Worlds game, Sunday, May 5th, 4pm

Scarptown

I think I need to get a few more details for Scarptown.   Does anyone have any thoughts?  I guess we need a map, and a general idea of how many armed men there might be.  Anything else we need?

Herkemer Battle Jitney?

I know none of the PC's can drive, but is it soon time to have a Mutant-Crushing awesome car of some kind? (I saw this on The Miniature Page and me wantee)

Time Frame

What are people's hopes, dreams, expectations about the Mutants and Muskets game?  It's really very little work for me.  The overland encounter system and the mission structure together with Savage World's inherent simplicity of stat creation makes it so that the thing basically runs itself.   I can keep it going until we run out of missions.  I'm certainly not ready for ACKS now, but could be as soon as need be.

Next Game Goal

For those of you not in attendance, or unsure of how it shook out, the next Mutants and Muskets game we will be tracking down the fundiments for making a Powder Mill (Yeah Big Black Bombs).  Of course, one of the key ingredients is saltpeter, so:  hello bat guano caves!

Sunday's Game: Notes

WHAT?

WHAT?

A whole game without a horde of Mutant Cannibals?

WHAT?

Time Fart:  I made some kind of mistake with time-keeping at some point, and had two different start dates listed in different places.   So, I've decided that the upshot is:  The Outlanders took the month of July 2055 off, to sharpen weapons and do important farm work around the town.   The metal works were completed in June,  the mission to get the distillery equipment happened in August, and Fergusson will be out wounded through the end of September, with the upcoming Powder Mill mission also taking place during September.

Best line of evening:  "It is normal hit with a bulldozer"

ACKS first impressions...

So I broke down and bought the ACKS books.  I don't have the actual physical copies of the book yet, and I really haven't studied the player's book just yet.  I've been reading the core book PDF to convert my old character into an NPC lord, so most of the things I notice have been relating to dwarves.  But I thought I would give my thoughts on a few things.

Poison: In ACKS, most of the poisons aren't instantly fatal with a failed saving throw.  Most of them you have a handful of turns in order to act before you finally keel over and die.  Plus there's some very clear rules on harvesting poisons from various monsters and plants, and there are only a couple of harvested/extracted poisons that are fatal.  Most poisons are much weaker when used on weapons.

Energy Drain: I've never liked how energy drain worked in D&D, and it works the same way in ACKS.  The only way to restore lost levels is with ritual magic.

Divine Magic: Casters of divine magic cannot cast any spells at 1st level, just like the old D&D.  That would really bring the suckage for running a party of starting characters.

Infravision: Dwarves, elves, orcs, and halflings do not have infravision in ACKS.  Gnomes do, goblins do, and kobolds do.  I feel strongly that dwarves and orcs, at the least, should have infravision of some strength.

Magical spell research and magic item creation:  The more money you have, the easier it is to get done.  I can see the players hiring several carts just to bring bits and pieces of monsters back to turn into magic items.  I really like the spellcasters being able to use an example of a magic item in order to not have to learn a new recipe.

9th level tidbits:  The game does have a nifty set-up for followers once you establish your stronghold, but I find it a bit lacking.  The thieves, assassins and elf nightblades get 2D6 1st level followers and the mages get D6 1st-3rd level apprentice mages (and 2D6 normal men who want to become mages).  The rest of the human classes get various dice times ten 0 level followers, and D6 1st-3rd level of whatever the character's class is.  Dwarf vaultguards, dwarf craft priests, and elven spellsword both get the same followers (3D6x10) 1st level NPCs (quoted from the book directly).  It's a little hazy as to whether the dwarf classes and spellsword get actual 1st level vaultguard, craft priests, and spellswords, or whether they're just the regular NPCs like from the monster section of the book (which is most likely).  They really should have students like every other class.  I've always felt that each class should get a chance for unusual followers of some sort (something like the rangers got in 1e AD&D).  A giant wanting to serve a high level fighter with an awesome reputation, a young dragon wanting to learning from a wizard, or even some other type of monster that, for some odd reason, takes a liking to the character.

I like the special rules for chaotic domains.

Dwarf characters and elf spellswords have VERY restrictive rules for building their strongholds.  They can freely build in wilderness areas.  But dwarves cannot build in civilized or border realms belonging to humans or elves, only in dwarf realms.  Elves have the same thing, but they can't build in anything belonging to humans or dwarves.  A dwarf's stronghold has to be mostly underground.  Only 25% of the total GP value of the stronghold is allowed to be aboveground, and must be made of earth or stone.  An elf's stronghold has to be built "in harmony with nature", which basically means that no matter the material is actually used to build their buildings, it costs as much as stone.  There is another nifty effect with the elf's stronghold.  Because of their harmony with nature, all the animals living within 3 miles of the elf's stronghold are friendly to the elves.  The elves can communicate with the animals as per the spell speak with animals, using them to deliver short messages, warn of strangers approaching, etc.  Any spies and thieves within the territory suffer penalties to their hijinks.

Dragons: Oh my lord.  Dragons in ACKS are frickin scary.  There are rules so basically you can make each one unique, and the older they are the more awesome they can become.  No more AD&D dragons with claw damage equal to a shortsword.

Most of my complaints are minor nitpicking, but overall I really like what I'm seeing here.

See you tomorrow

I'm just going to pitch it, just going to put it out there,

Crab-People

No Bob

Bob says he a probable no-show on Sunday, but I imagine we'll soldier on.  Just stay away from Gorgo the Crusher, and bring along Stinker, Weasel and Old Cookie

New Purchase

I went over to Toys R Us this weekend, hoping to find some miniature plastic monkeys, but it was just a fevered dream of a mad man.   I did buy some hot-wheels type military vehicles.  I'm trying to come up with a cool use for the bull dozer.

What's going to happen?

So what will we meet when the Outlanders travel into the wasteland looking for copper tubing and moonshine vessels?   Could it be deadly Hareballs?  A patchy fog?  Apache fog? Nothing but tentacle porn?  Who knows?

Next Session

Next Mutants and Muskets, Sunday April 21, 4pm.

Mega Miniatures

If anyone is looking for some miniatures, I do have a rather sad announcement.  Mega Miniatures, where I've bought a significant number of miniatures in the past few years, is getting out of the miniatures business.   They'll be selling product normally through April and May, and then selling off all their stock and equipment starting in June.   I've just ordered a bunch of animals that I've found I might need (monkeys, frogs, lions etc).   But, if anyone has a miniatures vibe going, check them out while they last.

http://www.megaminis.com/?3e3ea140

Regional Map for Mutants and Muskets

Here and on the wiki; photo of our regional map

Pen mighter than the sword, err keyboard, or whatever

I've been making all of my NPC and Monster cards for Mutants and Muskets by hand, rather than cutting and pasting and printing them out as I had done in the past.   Although I did all the ships by computer, I did all the NPC's by hand for Traveller.   I don't know for sure, but I think it may be simpler just to do them by hand.   I'll have to think hard before making the ACKS henchmen deck.

Mutants and Muskets so far

There are a lot of things I've been digging about Mutants and Muskets so far:

I really do like how the outdoor encounter system has turned out:  Draw 1 card per day of travel, 3 cards if you have a wagon.  Spade=encounter, Club=patrol encounter if you are in a patrolled zone, Hearts=find what you're looking for if hunting or searching and make appropriate skill check; Diamonds=nothing

I am thinking that are two minor problems: maybe only 2 cards per day if there's a wagon, and we don't seem to have any night-time camp encounters.  I guess I can fiddle around a bit, but on the whole the process of making one's way across a mutant and hobo filled wilderness has gone pretty smoothly.

The "Mission" System has worked out well also.  In a world without money, it gives goal and structure and tangible reward to the adventure.

The campaign map has been pretty good too.  I suppose I should get a picture or a scan up on the wiki.

I would like to see more musketry, perhaps the Pinker squad has proven that it isn't the death trap that monkey zip guns are.

Next time, Expand the distillery!  I've got to come up with some interesting mutants to guard the copper tubes.