Post Apocalyptic; 150 years after WW3, The Morrow Project-Need 2 MORE

[Voidknight]

Probably along with someone in the weight planning department going "Fuck- where the hell can I put this" as a manager tells him he needs to do it.

[Mister Ugly]

Probably along with someone in the weight planning department going "Fuck- where the hell can I put this" as a manager tells him he needs to do it.

how do I fit a 3 foot violin case in a 2 foot space!!

[Voidknight]

And because he's a bloody engineer, he bloody well does it.

[Honeycrisp]

A little visual inspiration to keep the Creativity Bus rolling.

[Chanticleer]

[Honeycrisp]

Love!

[Voidknight]

If I can steal from a game that I think has a similar feel a quote that might be tone setting for us?

"Being a Desert Ranger is about more than shooting a gun. A Desert Ranger is not a soldier, or a missionary, not even a policeman - not quite. Indeed, there isn't one simple job description that fits the title, because a job is something you do. A Desert Ranger is something you are - a person who will do anything, from ditch digging, to marriage counseling, to rescuing lost livestock, to defeating endless armies of marauding mutants, to make sure that civilization continues to grow and thrive in this last small patch of habitable earth that we call home."

[Mister Ugly]

I have done some considering [a country way of saying thinking]. I had wanted at least 4 characters for the story but I have 3 that are ready and willing so I will make that work. To do so I am adding some things to help the characters.

Give your Character an extra 5 XP that will give them an extra advancement. I decided this when we lost National Acrobat. It gives a small extra to each character.
@Honey; Puppins will be with you ate the start his NPC sheet looks like this

puppins

Agility d8, Smarts d6(A), Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d8
Skills: Fighting d6, Notice d10, Tracking d8, Survival d6
Pace: 8; Parry 5; Toughness 6
Special Abilities:
• Bite: Str+d4.
• Fleet-Footed: Roll a d10 when running instead of a d6.
• Go for the Throat: Dogs instinctively go for an opponent’s
soft spots. With a raise on its attack roll, it hits the target’s
most weakly armored location.
• Size –1: Dogs are relatively small.
• Hardy: If the beast is Shaken, further Shaken results have no further
effect—they do not cause a wound.

.  This is for a large sized dog like a German Shepard, Rottweiler or a wolf. Go ahead and come up with an image for a large sized Dog!
I am doing this now to have a 'fourth' body so too speak. This allows a bit of extra help right from the start.

I am also going to add in an NPC that is a bit better then your Charaters.

Since it seems everyone wants to be from different decades add a 'Date Frozen:' to your sheets.

I am making a few small changes to the start that hoepfully will be useful.

Also before we go any further. Is Savage Worlds a system you all are okay with? Would you like one with more and better defined skills? Longer lists of weapons? more psionic power? I should have asked this many days ago but I had an IM that said that the SW system was the reason that person was not interested.

MU

[Mister Ugly]

This a hint from the Project Director! 

MU

[Mister Ugly]

::Smaks head::: all characters get an extra bennie as well. Which should give each 4 bennies to start!

MU

[Honeycrisp]

Putting this here so I don't have to scroll all over to find it.

Reworking/ed Character Sheet

Piper "PJ" Jamison

Born: January 1954 (25 at time of tubing)

Date Frozen: December 1979

Attributes:

Strength

d6

Agility

d6

Vigor

d8

Smarts

d6

Spirit

d6

Derived Statistics:

Pace	6
Parry	2+
Charisma	0
Toughness	5+

Bennies 4
Shaken
Wounds ( )-1 ( )-2 ( )-3 ( )"ooops"

Edges and Hindrances:

Beast Master	Gain an animal companion
Woodsman	+2 Stealth, Survival, Tracking
Loyal	The hero tries to never betray or disappoint her friends (Minor)

Skills:

Athletic	d6	Driving	d4	Fighting	d6
Guts	d6	Healing	d4	Knowledge (Logging)	d6
Knowledge (Carpentry)	d6	Notice	d6	Shooting	d6
Survival	d6	Tracking	d4	Common Knowledge	d4
Stealth	d6	Skill	d?	Skill	d?

XP:20
Total =
XP 5 Advancement; Woodsman
XP 10 Advancement; Stealth d4
XP 15 Advancement; Stealth d6, Fighting d6
XP 20 Advancement; Not yet spent
XP 25 Advancement;


Background:
"What do you mean I shouldn't be out here in the woods alone? I've got Brutus." 

Piper, often PJ to those around her, grew up on the spine of the Continental Divide in Colorado near Lake City. She still considers Lake City fancy. Her parents lived simple, eschewing electricity and internet in favor of burbling brooks full of brown trout and the majesty of the night sky unsullied by light pollution. Her father worked as a carpenter and logger, her mother kept the cabin they lived in - a more than full time job given their rustic lifestyle. Though more used to running the woods with her dog, often for days at a time, as she grew up they also saw to her book learning. PJ is capable of living in the modern world she just prefers not to.

Recruited by a TMP member who was in the area on an elk hunt and who hired Piper (and Brutus!) as a guide, they saw her utility to TMP in times when the taken for granted things wouldn't be widely available. It took almost a year for the man to bring her around to agree to become part of TMP; Piper's loyalty isn't easily won but when it is she lives by Proverbs 18:24.

When she went into the tube her dog of the time, a German Shepherd named Brutus, went into the tube with her. 
Quirks:
Low Key Religious - not a God shouter by any means but Piper has her faith and isn't ashamed of it.  Shamed by it sometimes but not ashamed of it.  This manifests in little ways such as her praying before bed, meals, crossing herself, attributing things to the wonder of God's creation.


 

Brutus

Agility d8, Smarts d6(A), Spirit d8, Strength d6, Vigor d8
Skills: Fighting d6, Notice d10, Tracking d8, Survival d6
Pace: 8; Parry 5; Toughness 6
Special Abilities:
• Bite: Str+d4.
• Fleet-Footed: Roll a d10 when running instead of a d6.
• Go for the Throat: Dogs instinctively go for an opponent’s
soft spots. With a raise on its attack roll, it hits the target’s
most weakly armored location.
• Size –1: Dogs are relatively small.
• Hardy: If the beast is Shaken, further Shaken results have no further
effect—they do not cause a wound.

Personal Effects Satchel

Bible
Mini Teton fly rod and reel
Box of flies and bare hooks, extra line
3 pairs of silk socks
2 pairs of heavy wool socks
Brutus' much abused stuffed duck
Extra boots for Brutus
Collapsible water bowl for Brutus
Comb & brush for Brutus
Canine broad spectrum antibiotics (50)
Canine pain reliever (50, not suitable for humans)
Beeswax Lip balm
Unscented Lotion
Deodorant Stone

[Voidknight]

I will get on retooling my own shortlyish. Had a few minor crisises lately and a VR headset. Busy weekend planned but monday at latest

[Chanticleer]

I have done some considering [a country way of saying thinking]. I had wanted at least 4 characters for the story but I have 3 that are ready and willing so I will make that work. To do so I am adding some things to help the characters.

Y'all mean reckonin'?

Give your Character an extra 5 XP that will give them an extra advancement. I decided this when we lost National Acrobat. It gives a small extra to each character.
I am also going to add in an NPC that is a bit better then your Charaters.

I am a little curious about this decision. If you'd wanted 4, and got 3, is there some reason the NPC is 'improved' over the PCs? I've just seen that end up being a bit weird before in games, particularly if it has any flavor of being a 'GMPC' to it.

Also before we go any further. Is Savage Worlds a system you all are okay with? Would you like one with more and better defined skills? Longer lists of weapons? more psionic power? I should have asked this many days ago but I had an IM that said that the SW system was the reason that person was not interested.

I've never played SW before, so I'm curious to see it in action. If all-y'all is agin' it, I ain't pertickerly furrit, but I surely do have a hankerin' to see what kinda stew it makes once it's put in the kettle.

*Hides behind a bush*

[Chanticleer]

Hey Honey,

I was doing some math, I wanted to put Rowan in his early 30s, so it looks as if PJ and Rowan got tubed at about the same time...But he's got over half a decade on her. He's a Vietnam vet, born in '47, and PJ would have been in her late teens when Vietnam was wrapping up...I imagine that they were teamed together. So that raises an interesting question, though I'm going to guess I can imagine the answer based on her being a rather woodsy sort and therefore probably raised conservative:

What did she think about the war in Vietnam and the US treatment of its veterans?

Some other interesting historical observations: PJ would've been a young woman just at the crumbling end of the 60s, not quite of legal age when all hell broke loose at Altamont. Other interesting events in 1969 that might've caught her 15-16 y/o attention include the moon landing, the Stonewall riots, and the Manson murders. Just to throw some context your way to see if anything happens to stick.

EDIT: I just was glancing back at characters and also noticed that if NationalAcrobat has dropped, we've lost our 'officer.' At some point we should probably figure out team positions/responsibilities as the characters' abilities become more ironed out and finalized.

[Mister Ugly]

Y'all mean reckonin'?

'reckoning' works as well!

I am a little curious about this decision. If you'd wanted 4, and got 3, is there some reason the NPC is 'improved' over the PCs? I've just seen that end up being a bit weird before in games, particularly if it has any flavor of being a 'GMPC' to it.

Ehhhh you have a point so i will scale back the NPC a bit. was just basically making like your characters with 30XP for advancements

I've never played SW before, so I'm curious to see it in action. If all-y'all is agin' it, I ain't pertickerly furrit, but I surely do have a hankerin' to see what kinda stew it makes once it's put in the kettle.

*Hides behind a bush*

wh'ay ah reckon iffin ah add a pinch of rabbit to that thar stew it might just taste like chiken!!

[Chanticleer]

Hey MU, if we're getting another 5 xp, that's enough for an Advancement...If we increase the die type of an attribute, does that affect previous expenditures to buy up a skill?

Say I've got an attribute at d4. I bought a skill that uses that attribute up to d6 (1 pt for d4, but 2 pts for d6 because it's over the attribute), can I refiddle that based on sinking the new Advancement into the attribute to raise it to d6, thereby gaining a single point back?

This feels like something that wouldn't be kosher if the game were already running, but I'm still just kicking numbers around in my head here and we haven't started so I imagine it's ok?

EDIT: Current state of me trying to figure out the sheet

Rowan O’Shaugnessy

Attributes:

Strength

d6

Agility

d6

Vigor

d8

Smarts

d8

Spirit

d4

Derived Statistics:

Pace	6
Parry	2+2
Charisma	-1
Toughness	2+4

Bennies 4
Shaken
Wounds ( )-1 ( )-2 ( )-3 ( )"ooops"

Edges and Hindrances:

Demo Man	+ 2 to all rolls made to set, disarm, or improvise explosives and booby-traps
McGyver	This character can improvise something when the need for a tool arises. He suffers no negative penalties on Trait rolls for lack of equipment in most situations. In addition, given a few simple tools, props, or devices, he can generally rig devices to help escape from death-traps, weapons to match some bizarre need, or otherwise create something that’s needed when such a thing isn’t actually present.
Curious	It killed the cat, and it might kill your hero as well. Curious characters are easily dragged into any adventure. They have to check out everything and always want to know what’s behind a potential mystery.
Minor Habit (Smoking)	The habit irritates those around him but isn’t dangerous. Your hero suffers a -1 to Charisma.
xxx	description

Powers
Power Points

Skills:

Knowledge (Civil Engineering)	d8	Fighting	d4	Notice	d8
Knowledge (Demolition)	d6	Shooting	d6	Repair	d6
Knowledge (Farming)	d4	Throwing	d4	Athletic	d4
Common Knowledge	d4	Driving	d6	Guts	d6
Healing	d4	name	dice	name	dice

XP:
Total =
XP 5 Advancement;
XP 10 Advancement;
XP 15 Advancement;
XP 20 Advancement;
XP 25 Advancement;


Background:
There is no need for a 3 page background just the highlights and anything you feel others would know

Quirks:
Things that would not count as hindrances. Likes to play with hair, is a huge baseball fan, knows all about anime. These are thing that other may aready know and might even roll their eyes at.

[Mister Ugly]

Hey MU, if we're getting another 5 xp, that's enough for an Advancement...If we increase the die type of an attribute, does that affect previous expenditures to buy up a skill?

Say I've got an attribute at d4. I bought a skill that uses that attribute up to d6 (1 pt for d4, but 2 pts for d6 because it's over the attribute), can I refiddle that based on sinking the new Advancement into the attribute to raise it to d6, thereby gaining a single point back?

This feels like something that wouldn't be kosher if the game were already running, but I'm still just kicking numbers around in my head here and we haven't started so I imagine it's ok?

EDIT: Current state of me trying to figure out the sheet

Rowan O’Shaugnessy

Attributes:

Strength

d6

Agility

d6

Vigor

d8

Smarts

d8

Spirit

d4

Derived Statistics:

Pace	6
Parry	2+2
Charisma	-1
Toughness	2+4

Bennies 4
Shaken
Wounds ( )-1 ( )-2 ( )-3 ( )"ooops"

Edges and Hindrances:

Demo Man	+ 2 to all rolls made to set, disarm, or improvise explosives and booby-traps
McGyver	This character can improvise something when the need for a tool arises. He suffers no negative penalties on Trait rolls for lack of equipment in most situations. In addition, given a few simple tools, props, or devices, he can generally rig devices to help escape from death-traps, weapons to match some bizarre need, or otherwise create something that’s needed when such a thing isn’t actually present.
Curious	It killed the cat, and it might kill your hero as well. Curious characters are easily dragged into any adventure. They have to check out everything and always want to know what’s behind a potential mystery.
Minor Habit (Smoking)	The habit irritates those around him but isn’t dangerous. Your hero suffers a -1 to Charisma.
xxx	description

Powers
Power Points

Skills:

Knowledge (Civil Engineering)	d8	Fighting	d4	Notice	d8
Knowledge (Demolition)	d6	Shooting	d6	Repair	d6
Knowledge (Farming)	d4	Throwing	d4	Athletic	d4
Common Knowledge	d4	Driving	d6	Guts	d6
Healing	d4	name	dice	name	dice

XP:
Total =
XP 5 Advancement;
XP 10 Advancement;
XP 15 Advancement;
XP 20 Advancement;
XP 25 Advancement;


Background:
There is no need for a 3 page background just the highlights and anything you feel others would know

Quirks:
Things that would not count as hindrances. Likes to play with hair, is a huge baseball fan, knows all about anime. These are thing that other may aready know and might even roll their eyes at.

:::Makes a face::: RAW No! since it is XP. An advance lets the character do one of the following
• Gain a new Edge.
• Increase a skill that is equal to or greater than its linked
attribute by one die type.
• Increase two skills that are lower than their linked
attributes by one die type each.
• Buy a new skill at d4.
• Increase one attribute by a die type.*

I going to stick to that. I have bent the rules a lot for the starting characters and yes we have not started yet I do not want to just go willy-nilly around with home grown stuff.

MU

[Mister Ugly]

Chanticleer, I see the skill you are talking about. I think. Did you mean the Guts skill?
The copy that has that is an old version, Guts has been dropped and when needed a spirit check is used instead.
So drop the Guts skill gain 3 skill points. Go for the edge 'Brave' to give you a +2 fear check. You can also use an advancement to raise an attirbute [which I think you were planning]

The Guts skill was used for very specific settings and while it may be of use in this one is was dropped in the edition I use as my base. That explorer copy is an early version!

MU

[Honeycrisp]

I was doing some math, I wanted to put Rowan in his early 30s, so it looks as if PJ and Rowan got tubed at about the same time

the rest

...But he's got over half a decade on her. He's a Vietnam vet, born in '47, and PJ would have been in her late teens when Vietnam was wrapping up...I imagine that they were teamed together. So that raises an interesting question, though I'm going to guess I can imagine the answer based on her being a rather woodsy sort and therefore probably raised conservative:

What did she think about the war in Vietnam and the US treatment of its veterans?

Some other interesting historical observations: PJ would've been a young woman just at the crumbling end of the 60s, not quite of legal age when all hell broke loose at Altamont. Other interesting events in 1969 that might've caught her 15-16 y/o attention include the moon landing, the Stonewall riots, and the Manson murders. Just to throw some context your way to see if anything happens to stick.

That's such a great series of questions and touched upon some things I've been pondering and struggling with.  Thank you so much for giving them to me like this!

There's a couple of things I need to decide and they're pretty dependent on what other people want and choose.  I love playing the supporting actress role, I really do best that way when I write.  One of the things I like to do is help my partners' characters come out more, feel more alive, explore things they want to explore about, with, and through their character.

So, that said I have a few questions to help me answer yours.

Mister Ugly - what's the latest year people were put in tubes?  I think the earliest was 1979 but I could be wrong about that?

Voidknight - when did you plan on your character going into the tube?

Chanticleer - all of your questions are great.  Were you looking for someone who had similar views to your character or who was opposed or at least thought differently about them to spark some in game tension?  With her background her parents could very easily be a sort of hippie offshoot and against the same things the classical hippies were or they could be just simple hard living on their own folks or even kooky proto-survivalists.  Nothing about PJ is set in stone and I'm even happy to completely rework the concept and character from the ground up to make her a better fit for the team.

That's not me being passive.  I can and do stand up and speak up when I feel something's not right.  For example I really didn't feel or like what Mister Ugly had in mind for the dogs PJ would have and we spoke privately about it.  He was wonderful of course but I did go to him when I didn't like something so don't worry that any of you will be pushing things onto me and I'll just agree to agree.  That's very different from wanting to be good for the group and make people happy. 

Also before we go any further. Is Savage Worlds a system you all are okay with? Would you like one with more and better defined skills? Longer lists of weapons? more psionic power? I should have asked this many days ago but I had an IM that said that the SW system was the reason that person was not interested.

I don't have an opinion one way or the other if it's Savage Worlds or another system like The Window or something.  I'm not all about that life and am super grateful y'all are willing to help me and others out who aren't into systems.  It's not an interest killer for me but it and a system isn't what interests me about this story.  It's the setting, the responsive Mister Ugly, and the characters.

[Chanticleer]

That's such a great series of questions and touched upon some things I've been pondering and struggling with.  Thank you so much for giving them to me like this!
...
Chanticleer - all of your questions are great.  Were you looking for someone who had similar views to your character or who was opposed or at least thought differently about them to spark some in game tension?  With her background her parents could very easily be a sort of hippie offshoot and against the same things the classical hippies were or they could be just simple hard living on their own folks or even kooky proto-survivalists.  Nothing about PJ is set in stone and I'm even happy to completely rework the concept and character from the ground up to make her a better fit for the team.

Optimally, I feel that characters interact best when they share some views and goals, and there's negotiable or tolerable tension about other views and goals.

I'm in the middle of isolating/writing down how Rowan felt and what made him volunteer for TMP.

The end of the 60s was a rather crushing blow to many of the younger parts of society, and a lot of people felt like the U.S. was 'going down the wrong path.' By the end of the 70s, a lot of the liberal movements were falling apart due to internal strife and a feeling that there was no accomplishment. There were periods of "moral panic" and hyperconservatism, with the news full of things about terrorism, cult deprogramming, satanists, and murderers like Gacy and Berkowitz. Sexual abuse and child abuse became major national focuses, and quite rightly, but the incidence of them was blown out of proportion by the news in the same way the Vietnam War had been... The news brought every atrocity into people's living rooms, and society hadn't become inured to it yet. The Cold War was simply nasty. Fear of nuclear apocalypse was a big thing, and a lot of science fiction was oriented around it (fun fact, Mad Max (the original) was released in April of 79...It took another four years for the idea of the End of the World to really go mainstream, though, when the made for TV movie series The Day After was broadcast on national TV).

Rowan was prevented by policy from doing a lot of what he became a combat engineer to do. The Hearts and Minds program in Vietnam wasn't all it was cracked up to be. Sure, he built bridges...But mostly bridges for movement of American fighting vehicles. And instead of getting better, it got worse. A lot more of his second tour was what the media focused on as the 'dark and terrible side' of Vietnam.

Rowan joined TMP because he was convinced that the end of the world was coming, and that under the current (corrupted) administration, everything he might do was just moving it closer. Big humanitarian projects that weren't connected to political ends weren't thick on the ground. He wants to 'make up for' a lot of his younger years by trying to fix things, so a trip to the other side of the end of the world, where he can do things to help people survive and rebuild 'right,' (meaning without USMC or profiteering bureaucratic oversight) seemed not unreasonable. He's not anti-authoritarian, he knows big construction projects and combat both require administration and a command structure that can't be questioned in the moment, but he's kind of an anti-patriot...And he's a lonely anti-patriot, because if he chose to publicly decry the war, he'd still be shunned as a soldier and he'd be shunned by other soldiers. In the wake of the war he went into civil engineering, which is a hyperconservative field of work, and was rapidly surrounded by people who were exactly the sort of decision-makers he'd hated the most during the war. It was good money, but he couldn't stomach it for long and the projects he wanted to work on were underfunded, undersupported, and undersupplied. I imagine TMP contacted him around late '77 or so, maybe just past the Summer of Sam, while he was working with some humanitarian groups in central or south america, and made their pitch. He took a little bit to consider it but stayed in touch with them, and then went through team training in late '78-early '79, and was tubed in '79.

He sees the Project as an opportunity to rebuild and restructure 'a better world,' and at a certain level he's a very humanitarian optimist. On another level, he's a Marine who's been between the hammer and the anvil a few more times than is entirely mentally healthy, and he sees being tubed as very likely to be another combat insertion...Just one that covers time rather than distance.

...And I think I actually just finished writing most of what I needed to while trying to explain him.

[Voidknight]

I was thinking of having my character tubed in perhaps the last few days of the old world. and perhaps having her a year or two younger than the 25 year old cut off point?
Powers that be realised that the hellfire was about to fall, agent might not be _totally_ ready but stick her in anyway.

[Honeycrisp]

What is the end year of the world anyway?  I'm interested to see so I can finalize my decision.  Don't worry, Voidknight, I don't plan to be form the same time.  I just need to decide if I'm closer to sharing an era with Chanticleer or you.

[Chanticleer]

I was thinking of having my character tubed in perhaps the last few days of the old world. and perhaps having her a year or two younger than the 25 year old cut off point?
Powers that be realised that the hellfire was about to fall, agent might not be _totally_ ready but stick her in anyway.

I find this amusing, our two 'bush/jungle work' heavy characters are from the 70s, and the odd woman out is from over 40 years later. How do you see her getting along with the others, Void?

#TeamItSeemsToRunOnSomeFormOfElectricityWellYou'reNotWrong

EDIT: MU, it'd probably be cool to know a bit more about our 4th team member, too, while we're thinking about dynamics and different viewpoints and stuff.

[Voidknight]

I could see us getting a lot of fun out of her good naturedly trying to explain in an unintentionally patronising way simple ideas.
"This is like a tooth-brush.... You had those right?... But there is a little motor in it to help bit bits of food out and a tiny computer- that's like a machine that does counting for you that can tell if you're pressing too hard on the gums. It's fun! Give it a try!"

[Honeycrisp]

I could see us getting a lot of fun out of her good naturedly trying to explain in an unintentionally patronising way simple ideas.
"This is like a tooth-brush.... You had those right?... But there is a little motor in it to help bit bits of food out and a tiny computer- that's like a machine that does counting for you that can tell if you're pressing too hard on the gums. It's fun! Give it a try!"

PJ holds up a willow stick with a chewed soft end and a pinch of salt.  "Okay, but you get to try this."