OOC discussion

Welcome aboard!

Could you say hi here first, so we know who’s here.

I’ve created an opening post, but locked thread until we are ready to start.

Thanks for the invite. :)
Hello all!

Hi Generator.

I’m still finalising decisions so the full team is not here yet. But you and ctme are ready to start I think.

Hi everyone, thanks for the invite OT!

Looking forward to playing with you fine folks!

Hi ctme!

One more pic to go.

Thanks for the Invite!

Looking forward to exploring the jungle with this bunch. :)

Also, for some reason the character isn't submitting for the game. Would you need to allow any different templates? NVM, Josey did submit. :)

Also, Josey with a rare appearance at a social event

Hm, can’t see the pic. Getting the ‘content not vis in your region’ message. Never mind.

Hey yall im wrapping mine up as we speak

An image of Ekaterina "Katya" Volkov, when her squad thought it would be funny to snap a picture of her "looking like a overworked housewife." She could never live it down, or destroy the photo, no matter how hard she tried.

Here is my first draft. No equipment yet. I'm thinking of dropping Brave for an extra strength stat point.
Bear
Oh and I still need to add 3 skill points, I think
It's my first time making a Savage Worlds character, so please double check my work 😅

Hi Gen,
Some feedback:
—I think you only spent 11 points on skills (oh, got it, shooting costs an extra points cos cap)
—the asterisked skills —persuasion, stealth, etc are free skills, starting at d4
—automatic fire will be at -2, cos of recoil, worth noting

I’d maybe put more points into his STR, so he is actually strong, d8, rather than use an Edge? but that’s just what I’d pick as I’d want my gunner guy to look the part.

Also @TheGenerator I noticed you're using the custom savage world sheet (which I actually preferred over the regular one, and originally used it for Katya). Just so you know I couldn't submit my character using a custom sheet and had to use the savage world sheet that the website has.

Yeah, I think I'll remove an edge for extra strength. Sounds smart.

Is it possible to allow custom sheets, @OrangeTree or is it the built in sheet only ?

Ok I’ll open it up to custom sheets. Done, I think.

Edited and submitted Bear.

Great-approved!

I hope @ctme2000 can get his character up today or tomorrow.

There’s no reason why players (@Knighthawke,@TheGenerator,@PetRaccoon ) can’t make an opening post in the meantime. So the story forum is unlocked. I’ve changed the details a bit, making the expedition patron American to fit with Knight’s character’s background.

Please try to keep it —fairly —brief. Your character doesn’t need convincing to take part—let’s dispense with that stuff—you are motivated by your particular personal aims to carry out the mission.

Bear's portrait (Made with AI, so please excuse the inconsistencies)

Does anyone want to have a starting connection to Bear? Fought together, drinking buddies, (former) room mates, ...? Family is probably unlikely.

I welcome any suggestions on these lines ( but please be willing to retcon details if needed as the story unfolds).

I'd love to @TheGenerator But honestly I can't think of a single reasonable way we couldve met

That works for me Gen, we can say we crossed paths during the war on missions here and there, but keep it vague enough for OT.

Sounds good. We can fill it in when it becomes relevant or when a good idea comes up.

For the sake of the game let's say it was a positive encounter ;)

I also don't see a clear way to connect them. They'll have to get to know each other

yeah thats chill

Hm, I was expecting a ‘hot’ start but it’s always hard to call. Hopefully we’ll see @Knighthawke and @ctme2000 today so we keep to our post rate.

@TheGenerator - there may be some kind of connection in there with Josey, I’ve got to peruse the backgrounds and see. :)

---

Ok, that didn’t take long, lol. Two words, Bar Brawl.

One of Bear’s late night drinking and gambling ‘events’ where Josey was I. The same game. He took something of a dislike to Bear at first, but when an argument ensued. Josey stayed out of it until: 1) he realized the ‘fancy-smancy Brit’ was holding his own. And 2) a couple of the others pulled knives.

At that point, Josey stepped in to help clear the room. Afterwards, with a bit of grudging respect for Bear, they proceeded to drink and gamble more elsewhere.

They’ve talked a bit and seen each other around during the day (docks, warehouses, etc.) and Josey is glad to see an at least familiar face for this as he knows at least Bear and hold his own and he won’t have to carry the whole group himself if something comes up.

I’ll be posting here in a moment :)

Love it 😁
That gives Bear some confidence in Josey's capabilities as well.

Great!

The brawl bro bonding sounds good as a link to Bear.

Had my post ready and accidentally closed the page. I'll have it a bit later today.

Yay. Don’t sweat it too much, guys . Doesn’t have to be the Brothers Karamatsov.

TIL ... Good zing OT!

TIL #2

Darn. I can’t see any of the images . Never mind, though, I’ll assume they are highly witty!

@No probs @TheGenerator . I can see how the sentence could read your way, too. I’m happy anyway to go with the gist of player posts to keep the story going forward.

Alright :)
Added the damage roll

Wouldn't A just be shaken?

Oh yep. Your3 right. I’m phone GMing with usual outcome. I read his attack roll as his damage roll. So A shaken, B down. I’ll edit.

@Knighthawke just wanted to let you know you'd get to do an additional d6 in damage since you got two raises on the attack roll.

that may make you get a raise on the damage so C is not just shaken but taken out

Let’s go with the last GM post… too much work to retcon now. But please remember bonus damage dice in future!

Shrug works for me

Me too. :)

@ctme2000 I’ll make sure your suit wins you a bit of good favour, worthy of your spend.

@PetRaccoon You mentioned something on the lines of ‘Plus the Japanese still probably don't like us’. I am not sure what that meant, but I want just want to clarify that the Japanese aren’t here now, after the war.

ok got you, i meant that the japanese and russians were very hostile to each other at this time. I must have missed when you said that Japanese left after the war. Sorry!

Just assume she's being overly cautious/paranoid instead

Yes that works fine. Also Ek might not yet know all the ins and outs of the war in Burma.

Sorry for the delay everyone. My Friday got way busier than expected. I'll try to post still but in case I don't manage, feel free to puppet Bear. He will show up dressed in a uniform and prefers the jeep transport, but he will go with whatever the others decide.

The weekend will be busy for me, Monday I've got more time again. But as I said, I'll try to find a moment to keep up

That’s ideal for me @TheGenerator , I can write a short post with that info.

Hi All,

Don’t sweat the cover identity too much. Just pick a cover identity —as tea buyers? tourists? — that feels cool and fun to play out. There’s no ‘correct’ choice I’m looking for.

As I hinted in the game description, I’d like a slight supernatural (or apparently supernatural) flavour to the adventure. Perhaps similar to the earliest Indiana Jones film, Raiders (where the weird stuff happens only at the end). Or in the James Bond film, Live and Let Die, where it seems some of the voodoo stuff— might —be real.

How do you feel about this as players? Are they any explanations below that you would NOT enjoy?

1– no supernatural stuff at all—anything apparently spooky is a mere psychological effect or trick of the mind
2– ambiguous, as in Live and Let Die
3-the result of mind control or psychic powers ( kind of big in the 40s to 60s )
4- completely real, but limited to a particular artefact or location (e.g. as in the Raiders movie)
5- completely real, but having some sort of sci-fi, Dr Who-esque explanation like aliens or a pre-human civ
6-completely real, involving an ancient Burmese god and their cult, summoned monsters, etc.

I guess I could have made this a poll, but really checking if there are objections AGAINST any of the above.

I can see the fun in any of those, so no specific ones I want to dismiss.
I do lean more towards the 6 side of the spectrum personally :) Maybe that's my Call of Cthulhu deficiency talking. Hehe.

I agree with @TheGenerator

The Indiana Jones* of it, w. slight supernatural, is what sold me on the game, but I'm honestly down for anything. The idea of #6 is definitely intriguing, gives it a Delta Green feel.

*Just please no use of 'beyond the beyond' lol ... the words, not the idea itself.

Ok thanks for the feedback all. That gives me a way forward. Given there is no ‘anti-preference’, I will try to keep the extent of spooky activity ambiguous for the moment. I have a clear idea which level we are operating on, but it will work best if your characters take a while to figure out what you are messin’ with ☺️ .

Not heard of ‘beyond the beyond’ but I’ll check it to avoid it!

Just wondering if this is the correct PC. Bear and Katya did the SPI roll, Vikram did the notice roll. Not sure if it's indeed the intended person or a case of mistaken identity :)

Another slip—edited so it’s Vikram with the raises on his notice.

No worries :)

U Gem has tried to fit you out as tea planters so the ‘look’ would be wealthy but practical and comfortable. Quite rugged and slightly ‘military’ during the day (as in the jeep pic shown earlier). But with a more casual look when at a hotel , say.

This is a still from The Jewel in the Crown, a tv show set in India during and after the war. Very similar time and look. A bit Katherine Hepburn? Thought I’d share in case helps with the vibe.

I like the visuals. Thank you, OT!

I can post again tomorrow.

Sounds good!

Is Knighthawke still around?

Good question. If they are around, they are not contributing at the agreed post rate. I’m keeping them on for now in case there’s a reason out of their control—travel, illness, work.

@OrangeTree For a Machete as melee weapon, should I take the stats from Survival Knife or Short Sword?

Let’s use short sword as it’s a hefty blade :).

Will do! :)

Another question.
After looking at the weight rules I'm wondering is this weapon really 200? If so, I think it might be almost impossible to bring it along on a mission. Bear would hardly be able to move.

Just checking its weight is 26, shots 200.

Ah that makes more sense. Hehe :D thank you for checking.

The post rate is great. Of course as GM I am likely to post quite quickly after players. But please don’t feel pressured to post every day if you are busy or tired. I don’t want players to burn out!

I will say, your past games have been relatively snappy.

I don't mind it. Though I won't always have the time to post every day. I don't mind giving agency of my character to the GM for a little while :)

That’s totally coool, Gen.

I'm good to continue on.

I’ll crack on then. I guess there’s not much role-play opportunity afforded by eating biscuits in a park-up.

@TheGenerator That Geordie dialect is really authentic! Are you using a translator or something?

I've just been googling geordie words and trying to use them where I see it fits. I've got a bit of an idea of how Brits make their sentence grammatically. That together with swapping out words seems to work fine.

I also tried to ask AI, but it went too far. So that's also a tool I can use, but then I have to change some words back to normal English 😂

Happy to hear it's working well!

Im trying to do russian...its so hard. Did you know the Russian language has no word for fun?

I think it’s been great! Choroszo! Definitely worth a benny award if we get some more of it.

A bit of background blurb about Gurkhas.

They are soldiers from the Himalayas in Nepal. They have a very strong reputation in the British Army, being very physically robust ( due to their high altitude background) and brave in fighting. They are famous for their curved daggers ( called kukri, you can see a kukri hilt in the picture). It said that they can ‘disappear’ into cover. They were used extensively in British India as ‘outsiders’ to Indian religious and caste conflict. Sikh soldiers had a similar, but slightly less mythologised status for the same reasons (George Orwell, once a military policeman in Burma, complained about the the injustice of British preference for Gurkhas and Sikhs).

Got a very busy week from now until Sunday. I'll be able to post but they will be a bit brief probably.

That’s no problem. If you can post something brief every other day it will be fine.

@Knighthawke are you able to play regularly? I’d rather just leave your character out if it unless you are able to keep to the (every other day) post rate. This is the final scene of the adventure.

Sorry about that. Yeah, normally I am able to. It's just been unexpectedly busy for me the last week.

Ok, well welcome back! We should probably come up with an in-game explanation as to why he’s not been around on the way here, but let’s just continue with the action for now.


OOC note to players: there’s no ‘right’ way to handle the temple approach. All options are risky/ survivable with luck + bennies.

Please just pick what you think would be most fun, or what plays to the party’s strengths.

Curious, with all the raises on Notice, could we tell if any of those people are the local thugs from the bar?

No, they aren’t the same. The bar in Rangoon is 500 miles away now (you’ve travelled all the way up the country since then). Those guys were local (Rangoon) hires.

Noted, didn't realize we had traveled that far.

No worries. I don’t know if I managed to do a great job at conveying the changes in location.

@Knighthawke . That’s another slow post, after a biiiiig old gap between previous posts. I think I’ve given you a decent chance. I’m letting you go, rather than puppeting you in the final act. Thanks for playing anyway.

Of monsters and machine guns, oh my.

Is the machine gun in the open, or behind cover (like a pillbox)? What is the range if I wanted to hit it? I'm assuming the ranges you listed were for the monsters.

It’s inside the stupa, which acts pretty much like a pillbox. Going on the description:
—they have heavy (-4) cover.
—I’ll say 12" range, so within short range for most firearms, TN4 to hit (or TN8 if you want to deal with cover that way)
—they haven’t seen your location yet, so you could get off a shot and withdraw in one turn (thereafter, they will know your position so can hold their turn to shoot)

If I were to use a benny to reroll my ROF 4 shoot action, do I reroll all dice? (not going to at this point though, just wondering)

Also, I forgot to mention Bear's machete in the gearing up montage. Does he have it with him, or will he have to go brawling instead?

Hi Gen,

Yes I was just going to comment that you get the wild dice for every roll, not just the first.

The machete is fine— the montage was not meant to be comprehensive.

Btw yiu need to get a benny for firing impulsively. I’ll put that in the IC thread.

Oh. I see. I'm happy to stick with what I rolled now. 3 hits is fine. Saves us having to assign wild dice to shooting dice.

@OrangeTree Are you sure?
The rules say
It's not 100% clear, but it doesn't say "a Wild Die for each".

[whispering] shhh, keep that to yourself Gen [/whispering]

Hehehe. 😁

I have t seen that! Tbh, I think this is the first time I’ve had a player use an automatic weapon. It’s good as it makes the weapon slightly less OP.

@OrangeTree would you mind terribly if I drop the Geordie speech for Bear? While it's fun to do, it's costing me a bit too much effort and I'm realizing it's stopping me from interacting more with the other PCs. So I'd rather to prioritize in-party banter above using the correct accent.

Was cool to learn some new words and ways of talking though :D

It was incredibly good! But I can imagine it took a lot of effort.

I’ll just imagine you are doing a Sting: suddenly dropping your accent for no apparent reason!

Sorry about lapsing our once every other day posting rate y'all, my water tank burst and I spent all of the last two days fixing it and the game slipped my mind. Sorry y'all!!!

I'll also just say katya got knocked unconscious by the priest on the last hit and came to a minute later and didn't see the naga (unless of course el dm wants me to see it then of course I'm willing to roll a spirit roll), just so we don't have to go back.

The priest was dealt with ok—let’s just say she swooned when the naga appeared. She can recover now if you want to finish things off.

Sorry to hear about the water tank.

Bummer about the water tank PR, glad you got if fixed!

There was one more intended scene—the altar, where you’d glimpse the tiger devil’s prison mansion on the moon. A linked copy of the temple.

Thanks everyone, for sticking out the adventure to the end. The plan, in case it wasn’t clear, was for a follow up adventure in Japan , pursuing Suzuki. But I think on balance, we’ve gone as far as we can with this.

You’ve been crazy good players.

Ouch. Sorry to hear about the tank. Lost a lot of water?

I really enjoyed that greatly! Good job keeping up the pace, OT. Really helped keep the story engaging.
Loved the PCs too. Thanks ctme2000 and PetRaccoon.

Hope to see any of you in another game :)

Whoops, Vikram had intended to explore the remaining areas of the temple, but it seemed like there was nothing left to explore haha.

OT, if you ever plan to continue on to Japan, Vikram is down for the journey. Tai Leck (and this other dude) must be brought to justice!

If not, great job everyone! Agree with everything Gen said.

To summarize: Another banger by OT, and hope to play with y'all again sometime!

Thanks ctme.

I sometimes get genre burn out after a period of play , so I need a break from vintage pulp. But I’d definitely consider a return to the ‘series’ in the future and I’d definitely like to pick up with your character again.

I was planning a Hammer Horror themed adventure, launching it on another PbP site. If I played it in SWADE and advertised it here, would you be interested in that? How about you guys @TheGenerator,@PetRaccoon ? No worries if not, just testing the water…

If it's here on GP, I'm down to join it :)
I'm quite happy with my first SWADE experience. Wouldn't mind to go for another.

Are there other systems you're looking at for this adventure?

That’s great to hear, Gen. I was also considering D&D 5e but it doesn’t have a really integrated fear mechanic. I think on balance SWADE is the way to go….

Oh yeah a lot but that's fine. I live in a really rural area so I have a well. The water will naturally refill and I only have to pay for the electricity to pump it. So its chill. Thanks for the concern!

As for @OrangeTree question, I'd be happy to join. And since we are suggesting systems, have you looked at Call of Cuthulu or Old Gods of Appalachia?

I like CoC and OGoA looks fun. They both have 'eldritch' settings, though, rather than Mittel Europe Gothic. I'll stick with SWADE as the Fear rules (developed originally for Deadlands, a western horror setting, work well.

I like the idea of something Hammer films/Legend of Sleepy Hollow inspired, but have never been a huge fan of Victorian/Goth settings (though have heard good things about Rippers, and hold a special place in my rpg heart for Solomon Kane, as it was my first ever PbP game). Despite the stacked cast and crew, I'd likely skip it.

If you ever run Deadlands OT (Classic or SWADE), I'd be the first cowboy lined up at that demon infested rodeo.

For the Fear mechanics, take a look at the updated Horror Companion, they expanded the Fear table and replaced the Sanity stat with Hindrances (if looking for more variety).

Totally understand , ctme. If it makes a difference, I'm planning on setting it in the Napoleonic period. But I doubt that would swing it for you.


Thanks for reminding me about the Horror Companion, which I have seen (maybe had) at one point as a pdf. I can't believe I forgot about it. I'll definitely have a look.

Correct, not sold. But if you end up doing a modern Gothic take at some point (ala True Blood, modern Interview with the Vampire, Gabriel Knight books/games, or some sort of swadified Vampire:The Masquerade/Werewolf/Mage, or even using VtM crb itself), I'm totally down.

Catch y'all later, folks! Happy Gaming!

Oh, is it possible to set up this game as Retired, OT?