Air Marshals and Sky Pirates

Good Morning Captain

Chet Parsons watched the sun rise over the cotton ball field of clouds that lined the horizon. He sipped his chicory-flavored coffee, more chicory than coffee, and let his mind wander among the clouds. The wind whipped the steam rising from his cup about in frail little patterns, almost in time with the drone of the American Commonwealth ship Shenandoah's engines as the airship cruised the red streaked dawn skies.

Sitting, as he was, in the open cockpit of the airship's docking probe, he was able to imagine himself flying amongst the clouds as though he were a bird, to feel the flow of the wind across his wings and the bite of icy coldness as he dived between tufts of cotton.

He smiled, it was a pleasant start to what may be a very unpleasant day. He sipped his coffee from its insulated cup and wondered what this day will bring. "Red sky at night, aviator's delight," he said, repeating an old rhyme, "red sky at dawn, aviators take warn." It was a very red morning this day.

He checked his watch, noted the time and capped his coffee. He left the docking probe room and made his way along the airship's spine, a narrow corridor of aluminum struts that was surrounded by the fabric from the ballonets. Incandescent lights lit the way, with various warnings for the unwary.

Chet had to lean into a ballonet more than once, hanging from a strut, as his crew went from third watch to first watch. That is, all but the bridge crew.

They were waiting on him.

He finally made it to the bridge access. He resisted the urge to slide down the ladder like any ordinary airshipman would do, but instead deliberately climbed down, giving the sergeant at arms a chance to speak.

"Attenshun!" Gunnery Sergeant Jacobs bellowed. "The Captain is on the bridge."

Captain Chet Parson, of the American Commonwealth Air Marshals, returned his first salute of the day. The bridge was the only place he'd thought appropriate for such protocol. Inside the airship itself, it was too dangerous to take one hand off of a guy wire for a bit of military tomfoolery. But protocol had its place and the bridge was the place for it.

"As you were," he said. The crew visibly relaxed. "Mister Peary, I relieve you."

Lieutenant Charles Peary saluted Captain Parsons then stepped aside from behind the helmsman. "The helm is yours sir."

"So Charles," said Parsons as he strode over to the chart table, "anything interesting last night?"

Peary shook his head, "No sir, nothing interesting other than a thunderstorm 100 miles southwest of us. Saw some nice sprites from that, but nothing else."

The bridge of the Shenandoah was lined with tall floor to ceiling panels of armored glass. In front of the helmsmen's wheel, part of the floor was also made of the thick glass. It would stop gunfire, but 20 mm cannon rounds would go right through it.

"Have we gotten the morning report yet?" asked Parsons.

Peary looked upwards for a moment and then returned his gaze back to the captain. "Not yet sir," he said.

Parsons made a face and swore, "Damnation." The wireless operator, Hanson "Sparks" Johansen was always punctual with the morning report out of Air Marshal HQ in Providence, Colorado. Whenever Sparks was late with the morning report, it always boded ill.

Introduction

Welcome to the campaign world of Air Marshals and Sky Pirates!

Also known as AMSP, you get to play either an Air Marshal working for the crown in the American Commonwealth, or as a Sky Pirate, raiding across the border into California, Rossiyskaya Amerika, or the Commonwealth of America, attacking air convoys and air trains of their precious cargo, and then running back into the Mexican Empire, safe from reprisals, as you pay off the corrupt local governors.

This campaign uses the Savage Worlds' rules, along with the Savage Worlds Pulp GM Toolkit and the Savage Worlds Pulp Gear Toolkit. Characters will start at Seasoned level and the players get to choose which side of the law they will play on.

Character Creation

Because of the nature of this campaign world, all new characters will be Seasoned:

1. Create a Novice character.
2. Add 5 experience points and make adjustments to the character.
3. Repeat step 2 three more times, until you've applied four levels of advancement from Novice to Seasoned.
4. You get $100 Commonwealth Dollars to outfit your character. For a price list of gear at 1900 prices, see the following web site: Early 20th Century Common Gear & Expenses (created by T. Jordan "Greywolf" Peacock). For weapons use the following table:

Item	Range	Damage	ROF	Cost	Weight	Shots	Min Str	Special
Saber	--	Str+d6+2	--	$10	4	--	--	--
Derringer (.44)	5/10/20	2d6+1	1	$6	2	2	--	AP 1
Colt Dragoon (.44)	12/24/48	2d6+1	1	$8	4	6	--	Revolver
Double-Barrel (12g)	12/24/48	3d6-1	1 - 2	$6	11	2	--	Special, see rules
Sawed-Off DB (12g)	5/10/20	1-3d6	1 - 2	$14	6	2	--	Special, see rules
Sharps Big 50 (.50)	30/60/120	2d10	1	$16	11	1	d8	AP 2, Snapfire Penalty
Jericho Carbine (.52)	20/40/80	2d8	1	$7	8	7	--	AP 2
Winchester ‘76 (.45-.47)	24/48/96	2d8	1	$12	10	15	d6	AP 2, uses special .45-.47 long cartridges

When creating your character, decide whether or not you want him to be an Air Marshal or a Sky Pirate. The following edges cannot be taken in this campaign:

• Arcane Background (Except that Weird Science is considered part of the background, and for NPCs only.)
• Arcane Resistance
• Improved Arcane Resistance
• Holy/Unholy Warrior
• Mentalist
• Power Surge
• Soul Drain
• Wizard

You can also use the Sample Hinderances and Sample Generic Pulp Edges that are listed in the Savage Worlds Pulp GM Toolkit.

There are no Psionics in this campaign, at least not for player characters.

Airships of the American Commonwealth

See the following for a listing of the different type of ships that are flying the skies today: Airships of AMSP

History of the World

The history of this world is quite different from that of our time line. There was the War of 1813, led by General Wellington, fresh from his campaign in Europe. The result is a balkanized North America, with 6 different nations instead of 3:

• American Commonwealth
• Lousiana
• Empire of Mexico
• República de California
• República de Tejas
• Rossiyskaya Amerika

For more on the history of this world, see American_Commonwealth_History