Savage Sands

Savage Sands - General Premise

Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (SWADE) Play by Post Forums of RPGnet

Post ecological calamity earth, large swaths of desert separate towns/cities. When the cataclysm that made much of the world into an endless desert struck, magic entered the world and changed some percentage of the population into different races. This continues today, with some humans spontaneously shifting when they hit puberty and others in utero. There is tension between the different races, but intermingling and mixed-race families are common. The loss of so much life resulted in a sharp decline and altered technological base. Guns are commonplace but are often prone to misfire/jamming/calamitous mishaps if not properly maintained (sand gets everywhere!). Industry is almost nonexistent, bullets are hand-loaded, running water is a dream for all but the obscenely wealthy, and electricity is limited to those with specialized knowledge. Magic in its many forms exists but is uncommon. Those born with the gift are rare.

Vehicles (ala mad max) exist but are the exclusive preview of those that practice weird science. Most who do not wish to rely on their own feet primarily rely on the occasional land sailing vessel or beasts of burden. The world has been warped by magic, so this is not limited to those that exist on present-day earth.

Your (anti?)heroes have some reason to travel the wastes between bastions of civilization. Maybe they're mercenaries, collecting on the ever-present bounties on monsters born of the magic-rich storms that rage through the nigh-endless deserts or providing escort to wealthy merchant caravans. Maybe they're adventure seekers, not content to live behind the prison-like high walls of their childhood home or after the plunder of undiscovered marvels from eons past. Maybe they, like many of the dwarves, seek to understand and perhaps reverse the ecological damage that has rocked the world over.

Hillrend

Some past event split a huge mineral-rich hill. The town of just over 4,000 souls is nestled around and largely built within the sundered earth. Using the remaining cliffs as a guardian from the prevailing winds from the East and the relative cool of subterranean living, Hillrend is as thriving a community as can be expected in these trying times. Although still dependent on nearby villages and hardy caravans for food and news, the town is growing year after year. The population is disparate, with most races present to some degree. This is where your adventure begins.

Setting Rules

Creative Combat: When making a successful Test check in combat and getting a raise, roll on the Creative Combat page on page 137 for the extra benefit.
More Skill Points: characters have 15 skill points at character creation rather than 12.
Born a Hero*: Player characters get one free Edge up to Seasoned rank. They must meet its Requirements as usual.

House Rules

Initiative: Initiative in Savage Worlds uses playing cards, which trigger various edges and effects (such as the Joker). We will still draw cards (rather, I'll draw cards and tell you what you get) to determine these effects, but the actual initiative will be using popcorn. First, a PC goes, then an NPC (or group of identical extras), then a PC, etc., and switches back and forth until everyone has gone. This is because, in my experience, it makes play-by-post games go much faster instead of waiting for individual people's turns to come up. People can go when they're available, instead of waiting for both their turn to come up and for them to be available. Note: this was unabashedly stolen from Falkus. Thanks!
Fully automatic, or semiautomatic guns jam often. Any critical failure when using a gun of this qualification results in a jam. The severity of said jam is influenced by the rate of fire of the attack used when the jam occurred. When attempting to clear a jam, roll an appropriate skill with an additional penalty of RoF -1. For this reason in addition to easier maintenance, revolvers, lever action rifles, and the like are far more commonplace. Note: this is open to debate if it becomes untenable.

Character Creation

Character creation will use the standard Savage Worlds rules. Please stick to the normal races in SWADE. Aquatic races are, for obvious reasons, not permitted.
Everyone starts with the Hindrance Can’t Swim but does not gain any additional benefit from it.