Battlemat Proposal

Nigel has discovered this cool looking product. Check it out here: http://www.bc-products.net/Index.html
Basically it's a dry erase battlemat with squares drawn on. It's also modular so you can make different shapes. The idea would be, for the permanent members to go in on a set. What Nigel and I suggest is the $60 set that comes with a carrying case. They are also coming out with a hex version, which we could look into if we end up liking the product. Please let me (or Nigel) know your opinion.

The Happy GM

Just wanted to say thanks to the whole group for the Halloween episode. I was a little worried on how it would play out, but you guys pulled it off wonderfully. I was impressed at how everyone got into their roles. I was thoroughly entertained and it will be one that I'll remember.

The Evil that men do

This Thursday will be the Halloween adventure. I'm going to go with a one shot (to the head.)

Sushi anyone?

Hey guys. Just wanted to comment on last night's game (hey, how come me and Tim and the occasional Shawn are the only posters here? Brian? What happened to the weekly log you were gonna post?). I thought it was really good...Tim gave us a good tactical challenge that could either work well for us or go badly if we chose poorly, and we rose to the occasion. The Bad guys were fun and memorable, and the battle was very tough with opportunities for heroism all around.
In particular, hilights for me were my heroic dive off the cliff to come to the aid of my fellows and of course killing Brute the Kehana in single combat (thanks Nigel for the boost, it not only helped me alot it probably ended the combat far sooner and with less casualties than it might have). Others were Barilas taking a full volley of pistol fire and coming thru barely scratched, Hork taking the cannoneer's head off with one swipe of his jumani chain, and Lynn's rifle duel with Ogden (Lynn has helped us so very much in battle by keeping the leader in check).
Lowlights were unfortunately the mage getting wounded AGAIN (lucky shot!), James spending nearly the entire battle on one mook (bad luck mostly, but Jimmy needs to be a bit stronger I think!), and sadly the complete lame-out of Edmund's cannon volley (that would have been so cool if it hadn't crapped out!).
In any case, I think we had some good team work, and it seems like we are all settling in to our roles very well. Andy, I had some suggestions for Hork...you have to remember that a grael's job is to be the party Brick. Strength and Vigor are your friends, have as much of that as you can. Getting hit should not be a worry for you, the goal is to be able to shrug off the damage. Having an 8 toughness is going to help that, I would also suggest getting the edge Brawny which will give you a further +1 and let you carry more stuff. Basically, if I were you, I'd wild attack nearly all the time. That will give you a +2 to hit with your first swing, but more importantly it will cancel out your -2 with your second swing. And if you hit, doing a d10+3+2 (hopefully a d12 soon?) damage will probably smush most mooks into paste.
If you are worried about being shaken, pick up the edge Combat Reflexes when you get to Seasoned...it will give you a +2 to unshake. Also, right now you are eligible to buy Nerves of Steel and Improved Nerves of steel which will help cancel out those nasty wound modifiers. Finally, Berzerk would be a great edge for you to have, as would Sweep.

The only other thing I have to say is, Shawn, you are our most powerful artillery, but I'm thinking you need more power points as you seem to run low quickly. And your dice luck has been poor lately...would upping your spellcasting die help do you think?

Halloweeny

I don't want to break with tradition, so I will run a Halloween game. I have two choices. I could run a separate one-shot Halloween adventure. No problem there.
The other choice, is to take the 50 Fathoms game into Halloween territory. This has the advantage of not breaking up the game, and allowing you to gather XP for the trip. The disadvantages are thus: First, I feel bound to make the Halloween adventure nasty. Second, I was not planning to do this, so you'll have to be ok with being railroaded into the plotline (in fact, I would need you to go along with wherever I steer you to) for this to work.

Thoughts? Ideas? Complaints? World Series Predictions?

Interludes: On the voyage back to Baltimus

Boze sat down beside Delphino, who sat staring out torwards the Flotsam Sea.
"Sea Hags," Delphino muttered. "The answer is out there somewhere..."
"That was just like old times, eh?" Boze said, trying to see what Delphino was looking at. Delphino chewed absently on a tentacle and grunted.
"On the slave ship, just you and me, sneaking about...you still make too much noise you know. Not like when I first met you, you walked like a grael in iron boots. But you learned...still, they almost caught us. It was fun though. Felt like we were finally pulling our weight again."
Delphino glanced sideways at his companion. He didn't often talk this much for no reason, so he was starting to wonder what was up. He spit out the tentacle he had been gnawing on and chose a fresh one to chew for a bit.
"I mean, these guys we're with," Boze continued, "Barilas is a better navigator than I've ever sailed with, and Lynn...well, I didn't like him at first. He still complains too much if you ask me. But he's a deadly shot with that rifle of his, and he's picking up gunnery very quickly. And the two visitors are amazing warriors as well as talented individuals. And Wainwright...well, I hate to say it but he's a better fire mage than you are."
Delphino spat his tentacle and turned to look at Boze, his eye membranes nictating slowly and meaningfully.
"No, I know you've got more talent overall than him, and I doubt he'll ever learn any other elements, but he does seem to have a particular talent with fire magic," Boze grinned.
"The visitors are very single-minded when it comes to elementalism, I have noticed," Delphino allowed.
"Anyway, I'm just saying it was refreshing to be of some actual use for once. Maybe we do have a place with these people after all," Boze sighed.
"You thought not?"
"I don't know, I..." Boze trailed off for a bit. "I think I did something stupid, Delphino."
"Ahh." Now Delphino believed the conversation was coming to it's actual point. "Are you referring to the Kehana you murdered last night?"
Boze regarded him coldly. "I'd give a rat more consideration before exterminating it, you know that. I consider ridding the ship of kehana to be a beautification project."
"Yes. But some of the others don't understand. In particular the earthers seem to think it was...ghrbjpialjkj...what is the word...immoral? To kill a helpless victim?"
"If the captain and Edmund have a problem with putting down vicious animals, then they and I are never going to see eye to eye, and I may have to rethink my alliances. I hope not, because I am wondering if one them might not be the prophecied one..."
"Pllkjuiuhflkjfkmnvcnoiwyyu. You mentioned something you had done," Delphino said.
"It ties in. I...mated...while we were in port last."
Delphino's eyes nictated rapidly and he returned a tentacle to his mouth.
"Yes, I know...it was stupid. I met this doreen named Sayed, and a female named Kendra. She wanted to mate with him, to repopulate our people. But he wouldn't. He started talking about how everything was pointless, how we were all going to die anyway and we might as well just accept it. He said there was no reason to do anything but sit and drink and to hell with the world and the kehana and everything else too. And it just made me so angry, I wanted to do the opposite of whatever he was saying. I wanted to believe that there was a point and we could make a difference and change things.
"So, I acted rashly, and I mated with her. The thing is...what if he's right? He doesn't even know the half of it...the world really IS doomed. What if we can't defeat the Hags? What if I have brought more life into this world only to see them die again?"
Boze punched the ship's rail, his hand impacting the wood with a solid crunch. "I shouldn't have done it," he grimaced. "I didn't even know her, don't care about her. If she does bear a child...I may not ever have time to see it. And I may have just brought another life into this world just to have it ended."
Delphino considered his words, chewing thoughtfully on his tentacle. The Doreen must be upset indeed, he thought, to open up so. In the years they had known each other, companions and perhaps friends, the Doreen had very rarely discussed anything but business. He had never even offered his name. Delphino suspected there was no-one left alive who even knew it anymore.
Boze shook his head. "You have to admit, the odds seem pretty slim we'll win, eh?"

Who rules the rules?

The revised Savage Worlds rules are coming very soon. Most of the revisions are easily adapted (grappling being fixed for example.) There is however one new rule that bears discussion. The new rule is for damage and raises. Now, if on an attack roll, if you get at least one raise, you get to add an extra D6 to your damage. No more do you add up the raises and get a +2 to damage for each raise. The D6 is completly extra to the damage roll, and can ace.

For example:

Baron blood swings at a pirate with his sword. He hits with a raise. His normal damage is D8 (strength) + D6 (wild die) + 2 (for the short sword.) He gets a 7 damage. Now he can roll an extra D6 and add that to the 7. This D6 can ace.

Let me know what you think of this rule. It's tempting for me as a GM because it just takes one more calcuation away from my workload. However, you might all feel cheated not getting your extra damage from raises. What do you think?