Gameplay Rules
Note that the Marshal has final say in their game when it comes to rules, scheduling, number of sessions, and player participation.
Conduct
Players and Marshals are expected to uphold a high standard of conduct regarding inclusiveness and fun for all. We do not tolerate harassment in any form; anyone participating in harassment will be subject to permanent server ban. Harassment is any unwanted interaction, which includes (not limited to): threats; unwelcome attention; offensive behavior; using sexually explicit or offensive language; excessive profanity; use of racial, religious, sexual, political, gender, ability, ethnic slurs, or any other targeted comments which are intended to cause personal offense to another player.
Attendance
Players are expected to be timely to games they have signed up for. If you cannot make your game, please notify the Marshal or a Discord admin. Players who are a no-show on their first game with no prior notice will be subject to server ban.
Rulesets
This server uses the Deadlands: The Weird West rules that are compatible with Savage Worlds Adventure Edition. Players who are new to Savage Worlds/Deadlands will want to pick up the following books, and should post any questions to the #player-help channel.
- Savage Worlds Adventure Edition (SWADE), which is $9.99 for the PDF.
- Deadlands Weird West (DLWW), which is $19.99 in PDF.
- Optional: Weird West Companion
Setting Rules
We use the following gameplay rules from SWADE for our games:
- Conviction. This is a special award granted when a character experiences a great victory or catastrophic misfortune. They are kept in between sessions, but players can never have more than one at a time. See p. 136, SWADE, for more info.
- Creative Combat. A raise on a Test allows the character to roll on a special table that grants additional effects.
- Gritty Damage (OPTIONAL, MARSHAL'S CHOICE). When Wild Cards take a Wound, they roll on the Injury Table and apply the results.
- Unarmored Hero. Wild Cards without armor add +2 to their Soak rolls.
- Wound Cap. Wild Cards never suffer more than four wounds from a single hit.
Character Creation
- Number of Characters. Players may have up to 3 active characters.
- Starting Rank. Characters begin at Novice rank (0 XP), unless the player's previous character has died or been retired, in which case the new character starts with half of the XP as the original character. This means that the "Veteran o' the Weird West" edge may not be taken.
- Source Material. Only hindrances, edges, arcane backgrounds and gear from Savage Worlds Adventures Edition (SWADE), Deadlands: The Weird West and The Weird West Companion may be used.
- Arcane Background and Character Type Restrictions: Only Huckster, Blessed, Chi Master, Shaman and Weird Science (including Metal Mage) arcane backgrounds are allowed. Voodooists are allowed on a case-by-case basis; contact a Marshal to discuss before you create your character. Characters may not start as 'Harrowed.' US Marshals are not allowed. Also, the server may only have a total of 3 Agents and 3 Territorial Rangers.
- When taking the Rich edge, your starting cash is $750 and you receive $500 per Advance. With Filthy Rich, your starting cash is $1250 and you receive $1000 per Advance.
- Old Deadlands Gear.' Items from previous versions of Deadlands and other game sources will be reviewed and published in the #custom-gear channel for purchase.
- Gear Transfer. Gear and other belongings may not be transferred between a player's own characters unless in the event of a character dying or retiring, in which case 2 items may be "willed" to the player's next character.
- Character Approval. Characters are subject to review and approval by the Marshal before they may be used in an Adventure. Post any character creation questions in #player-help and final characters for review in #character-approval.
- Character Sheet. Please use the following Google Sheets character sheet for generating your hero. After opening, click File, click Create a Copy and save it to your own Google Drive, then share the link to the #character-approval channel when you are finished.
- Savaged.us. Characters may also be made and hosted in Savaged.us for those who have the knowledge to use this online tool.
Character Advancement
We will be using the character advancement rules from Savage Worlds Deluxe which specify experience points (XP) for characters to gain an Advance and reach new Ranks.
- All characters gain a total of 2 XP per session of play.
- For every 5 XP gained, the character receives an Advance.
- You receive income from your job/commission and must pay lifestyle costs after every Advance.
| Experience Points | Advances | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| 0-19 | 1-3 | Novice |
| 20-39 | 4-7 | Seasoned |
| 40-59 | 8-11 | Veteran |
| 60-79 | 12-15 | Heroic |
| 80+ | 16+ | Legendary |
Character Lifestyle & Income
Every time Brimstone characters take an Advance (every 5 XP earned), they receive their regular pay (from employment or Agency/Ranger commission) and must deduct their living expenses based on the table below, which includes food, shelter and other sundries.
Depending on your lifestyle level, food and drinks may be included when in town during adventures and downtime. During troubleshooting missions away from town, food and shelter are paid for separately.
- Characters who own a storefront in town must be either at the High or Luxury levels.
- At some levels, you may pay out a lump sum of ten times the monthly cost to own the house or business. Once owned, this decreases your monthly costs by 70%, as you only have to pay for taxes, food, sundries, and any servants’ salaries.
Owning a Business
If you would like your character to run their own business, they must have the "Trade" skill with a specialization, and the applicable skills and equipment to accomplish the job. Every Advance, you may announce that you are rolling for your profit and use the #dice-rolls channel to make the roll. For a success you make 8% of your starting cash, and for every raise you make an additional 2%. A failure means that you had a particularly tough period of time and didn't come away with any profit, and a critical failure is worse -- you've been robbed, a natural disaster occurred or you lost customers to the guy across the street. You subtract 5% of your starting cash this period.
Due to the additional revenue opportunity of owning a visible storefront in town, if your character has small storefront he earns an additional x6 multiplier, and for a large business a 30x multiplier. These numbers also apply for a critical failure!
Example: Boris has a distillery and sells vodka out of his small storefront in town. His starting cash was $250. He has the "Trade: Distiller" skill at D6 and "Knowledge: Distiller" at D4 as well as distilling equipment that he previously purchased. After receiving an Advance, he rolls in the #dice-rolls channel and gets a 10. He makes 8% profit ($20) plus an additional 2% ($5) because he got a raise, for a total of $25. Because he owns a small business he multiplies this by six and gets $150 total. He can use this money to pay for his Lifestyle, and he takes the rest as profit.
| Lifestyle | Monthly Cost | Cost to Own | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Meager | $5 | n/a | Squatting or living on the street. Barely enough to feed one person, no money left over for clothes and entertainment. All other food and expenses are paid out-of-pocket. |
| Poor | $15 | n/a | Renting a small room in a flophouse or above a business. Likely drafty with little to no furniture. Enough for food for one person, and one night a week of food and drinks at a local saloon in Brimstone. |
| Moderate | $30 | $300 + $9 per month | A medium-sized room or small house with decent furnishings. More than enough food for one person, and three nights a week of food, drinks and entertainment at Brimstone locations. |
| High | $100 | $1,000 + $30 per month | A large room, medium-sized house or small business in town. Fine furnishings and good quality food. Includes one servant (valet, nanny, maid, etc.) who is an extra; food, drink and entertainment every day at any establishment in town; plus a $20 line of credit for gambling. Enough room to house one additional person at the Moderate lifestyle level, or two at Poor. |
| Luxury | $500 | $5,000 + $150 per month | A large home or business in town. Very fine furnishings. Includes three servants. The finest food, whiskey and entertainment at any establishment in town, plus unlimited credit for gambling. Enough room to house three people at the Moderate level, or six at Poor. |
Adventuring
- An Adventure is defined as a storyline run by a Marshal for 1-3 sessions.
- 2-5 players may participate in an Adventure (one character each).
- Players are responsible for recruiting the posse (player characters) for each Adventure through discussion in the Open RP channels.
- Once the posse has been gathered, send a request to the Marshals so they may organize a session for you. Signups take place in the #wanted-posters channel on Discord.
- The topic of the Adventure may be from the Adventure Hooks page or an original idea from a player.
- On occasion, additional Adventure Hooks will be created by Marshals and given publicly in the #wanted-posters channel on Discord, available to the first 5 players to sign up.
- Once a posse has finished an Adventure, those specific players cannot group again for 2 weeks.
Downtime
Player interaction is encouraged. Use Open RP Channels for in-character interactions including those with the NPCs in town to socialize and buy & sell things. Note that this is the only way to buy and sell gear outside of game time. Please only post in-character interactions in the location channels, and keep out-of-character discussions to #ooc-chat. Spoken dialogue should be in quotes, and character actions should be in italics. Sharing information in character with other characters is important in this style of game. Not every player is present during each session, so players and characters must rely on one another to learn about the world. Players are encouraged to document what has occurred in each session to keep track of Brimstone’s shared history. Players posting a summary of the previous session in the #adventure-reports channel will receive a non-expiring bennie to be used in subsequent games. Players who provide some form of substance to the world, e.g. composing a poem/song, creating a map of an area, crafting artwork, will also receive a non-expiring bennie to be used in subsequent games. These can also be submitted in #town-submissions.