First off, welcome! You should already have access to the SWADE core rulebook and the fantasy companion, as well as access to the discord and this website.
Once you've settled in, you should feel free to invite other players. If I know and like you, I'll probably like your friends (and if we end up not vibing, the format of this campaign makes it very easy for players to drop out (and in) at their leisure.
You will be playing as "Irregulars", residents of a penal colony called Boomtown on a largely unexplored landmass far from your home empire. As an semi-free prisoner, you are considered property of her Imperial Majesty, and are expected to pay your own "rent", lest you be sent back to the mines, and you pay off this cost by going on dangerous adventures beyond the sturdy palisades of Boomtown!
Some Notes on Character Creation
- New players should have a copy of the Savage World Adventure Edition core rulebook, as well as the Fantasy Companion for making their characters.
- You should also probably have access to the discord.
- The gear list in the fantasy companion is all fair game. I don't want to spend too much time faffing about with shopping episodes, so you can buy anything in there at the listed price, and you can sell things for half the listed price. Selling things like art or precious gems or historical artifacts can fetch up to full price, or even more, but you'll have to spend some downtime finding the right buyer.
- Edges, hindrances, racial features, arcane backgrounds, and powers from the core rulebook and the fantasy companion are all fair game.
- I am extremely open to homebrewing new content such as Edges, Races, Arcane Backgrounds, Powers, and so on. Lets talk it out!
- Every character starts with an extra minor hindrance, Debt to Society (described below). This is in addition to the usual 4 points worth of hindrances you can take, as well as any for your race. You get points for it as usual. This hindrance can be removed with an advancement as usual, but you will also need to justify it with a large payment to the Crown or Its representatives.
- Characters will gain one advancement at the end of any adventure in which they return home alive. I might make this slow down to every other adventure or something for higher rank characters, but we'll cross that bridge when it comes.
Debt to Society (Minor)
Your hero is considered an indentured servant, working prisoner, or private slave. You are allowed to go out adventuring, so long as you continue to pay your own rent at a rate of 2gp per day. If you fail to pay this, you are pressed into less interesting labor that doesn't allow you to keep having adventures (and cease to be a player character).
Designer Notes: Normally, I'd have a thing in this about how if you don't pay it, you'd replace the Hindrance with Wanted (Minor), or the like, but in this campaign, we are not doing town adventures. This is the premise. You adventure beyond the walls. If you fail to pay your upkeep (which is there to keep you adventuring), you stop being an adventurer and go be a boring ol' NPC.
Some questions to consider when coming up with your characters
- How did you end up in Boomtown?
- What made you decide to try being an irregular instead of sticking to the less glamorous but safer life of a miner?
Some Notes on Adventure Structures
- Each day in real life equates to a day in game. Your characters must be able to pay their own upkeep (2 coins per day, in addition to lifestyle expenses) lest they be forced to return to the mines, and cease to be an Irregular.
- Adventures all happen outside the city. Anything happening in the city should be handled between sessions, or very quickly at the start of session.
- Players should inform the GM well in advance of their plans for the session, so that she can have time to plan. The Gazetteer will have a list of current rumors and adventure hooks that you could pursue, as well as info on previously visited dungeons, locations and factions.
- Adventures should wrap up by the end of session. If your party is not back in town by the end of the session, I will have a procedure established for when that happens, to see what your return trip costs you, or, if ALL players can agree on a time to meet up again within the next month, we can reconvene at that time. If a consensus can not be found, we'll use the "failure to return" procedure.
- Adventure locations may not necessarily be "balanced", and not all problems should be solved with direct violence (in fact, if you're smart, you'll probably want to cheat whenever you can to tilt the table in your favor.) I will try to effectively telegraph danger, I might even tell you directly if I think your plan is foolhardy, but if I do so, and your nerdy archeologist decides to face a huge ogre in single combat, that's on you, and you shall reap your own rewards.