u/screenmonkey68

While waiting for the GMs Guide to the Western Reaches to come out, I’m struck with how to gather a disparate group of PCs. A Sea Wolf, a Ras Godai, a Knight of St Ydris and a Basilisk Warrior (to pick an extreme example) are all together for session 1.

How did they meet?

A few ways I’ve thought of:

1. Dump it in the players laps at session zero and see what they come up with.
2. PCs start in, or recently escaped, a Drow prison in Morzomotha after being captured in their various home areas and then transported to a central place where they meet.
3. PCs start as captive sacrifices to a cult (e.g. Lair of the Lamb, Trial of the Slime Lord)
4. PCs are magically transported for some greater purpose to be revealed later in the campaign.

Any other GMs working this problem? Any other cool ideas you’ve come up with, or are we all just meeting up in a tavern?

Saw this post and immediately thought of implementing it in my ShadowDark sessions. Has anyone else tried this or had experience with player facing systems?

Does anyone have any idea when this is being released? I feel like it’s dead in the water. I don’t get updates because I didn’t back it, but I am interested in giving it a read thru.

whats the latest?

This is the first major system in ShadowDark that I think misses the mark. We needed a bigger Carousing table, and I love the results it yields. But I’ve been using it in my last several sessions and it’s just too many steps.
I may be doing something wrong, but I don’t think so.

It breaks down like this:

1. Players decide how big this party Event is gonna get, that gets us a Carousing Event Bonus.
2. Player rolls 1d8 adding the Carousing Event Bonus and their Renown Bonus.
3. We then consult the Carousing Outcome Table to get: the number of Mishaps, Benefits, %modifier, and earned XP. (Be sure to write these down)
4. Then roll percentile, add the %modifier, and check the Mishap or Benefit table. (Each table is 4 pages long btw.)
5. Repeat step 4, one to three times.
6. Make note of significant results that may have repercussions later.
7. Repeat steps 2-6 for each PC.

Most of this load is on the GM, as a result, players are deep in conversation by the time results are revealed. The final results are fun, but it’s a lengthy process to get there.

My recommendations: Contact the creator of Shadowdarklings.net and have them make something similar for Carousing. Add in bonus, press button, here’s all the good and bad things that happen. Done. I love Shadowdarklings.net and I love running games as close to RAW if I can, so this is my dream scenario.

Either that or revamp the system into something simpler. Yes, the original rules are simpler and I could go back to those, but we need a fast resolution process, with way more possible outcomes. This newer system yields way more outcomes (yay!), but has a slow resolution process.

Premade dungeons, caverns, ancient subterranean ruins that number maybe 10-40 rooms. The sort of things that could be dropped in to a map for the party to hear about or come across and then spend a few sessions pushing their luck. Not an entire campaign, there’s lots of good mega dungeons out there. I’m looking for smaller stuff that would take a few delves and then move on.

One would think they would be everywhere. I’m finding them surprisingly hard to find.

All recommendations welcome.

Not sure why they’re closing but they have a ton of great Savage Worlds stuff at Drivethru RPG. The entire zombie apocalypse campaign of Dead End is 70% off for the next 48 hours.

“Charisma. Convince creatures to be friendly, resist mental control.” SD15

“Wisdom. Instinct, willpower.” SD9

Confusion Spell: “If the target is LV 9+, it may make a WIS check vs. your last spellcasting check at the start of its turn to end the spell.” SD57

Protection from Evil spell: “CHA check vs. the last spellcasting check. On a failure, the entity is expelled.” SD68

Rebuke Unholy spell: “Affected creatures within near of you must make a CHA check vs. your spellcasting check.” SD69

“Enslave. In place of attacks, one creature within far DC 15 WIS …” SD94

My question is what decides whether to use Charisma or Wisdom when it comes to things like will power and mental control? The core book seems to use both. I was perfectly happy using charisma and force of personality to represent mental toughness, while using Wisdom for perception and insight.

After a discussion with other players in the local area though, it appears that may not be right. A book review did not clarify things, so here I am.

Thoughts? Is this addressed anywhere by Kelsey and I missed it?