What's New in Pinebox Middle School?

Back in the 1980s (yes I’m that old), one of my favorite tabletop roleplaying games was Chill. Originally published by Pacesetter Ltd. out of Delavan, Wisconsin, Chill was a horror game predominantly set in the current era. As it was the 80s, we had no internet, no laptops, and no cell phones at our disposal. This made isolating player characters easy because they couldn’t just whip out their iPhone 15 Pro or Samsung S24 and call for backup or scroll through their search engine of choice for clues on how to defeat that slavering hell beast they’d just trapped in the basement!

Since the premiere of Netflix’s Stranger Things, we’ve seen a rash of tabletop RPGs and supplements set in the 80s for both nostalgic reasons and reasons of baked-in isolation due to the aforementioned tech issues.

When we first set out to create the new Pinebox Middle School Roleplaying Game, it was decided that it would be a contemporary horror game set parallel to the modern era presented in the already established and very popular East Texas University setting (from Pinnacle Entertainment Group). While this certainly made for some challenging design decisions, it also presented us with some genuinely fun opportunities to craft a few new rules beyond just saying that close proximity to supernatural stuff messes with your phones.
In Pinebox Middle School, we focus on these two problems, but more from a “real world” perspective where simply being in the wrong environment can cause connectivity issues.

It all began with a look at cell phone reliability in general. How often have you wanted to look something up or watch a few TikToks but you’ve found yourself in an area where the signal is low or even non-existent? Additionally, how often have you been away from home, reached for your phone to check your messages, and found that your battery is almost dead? And you don’t have a power bank or even a charger cable to remedy it!

There are three Battery Levels that are tracked in the game: good, low, and dead. Raising a “dead” battery to “low” (enough to at least make a quick call or look something up in Wikipedia) requires 10 minutes of charging, while raising a “low” battery to “good” requires a minimum of three hours.

In addition, we present rules for Signal Penalties:

“Signal penalties are imposed on ANY roll associated with using an electronic device for communication or internet access when the signal level is three bars or lower. This is in addition to any other situational penalties the Principal may impose.”

Additionally, if your device isn’t plugged into a power source, and you fail a roll with a signal penalty in place, it reduces the battery level of your device by one step!

As stated above, signal penalties only apply if your phone is at three bars or lower. The initial levels are established at the top of each adventure (and potentially modified accordingly in later encounters) and we offer a set of Cell Signal reference cards that can be presented to the players to clarify the current signal level:

In the core book, the effects of each level and examples of where that level might come into play are explained in detail. Here are two examples:

“Four Bars (No Penalty): There are no issues at all accessing the internet, streaming video, or making calls. This is the signal level in most of Pinebox’s downtown and residential areas. Rolls to access the internet are made with no signal penalties, and failure does not cause a loss in battery level.”

“One Bar (-3 Signal Penalty): This signal level is common in the rural areas between Golan County population centers and in some of the more accessible parts of the Big Thicket. Maintaining any communication at this level usually requires a special Electronics roll.”

With these simple rules (everything here is summarized on a single page in the core book), we add a level of unpredictability to your modern day game sessions.

Next time, we’ll take a look at the rules for creating “Clubhouses” (safe spaces for your heroes) in Pinebox Middle School.

Class dismissed! 🔔

What's New in Pinebox Middle School?

Soft Weapons

Unlike most other settings that have been published for use with Savage Worlds over the past 20+ years, we really needed to approach things in a unique way when designing the new Pinebox Middle School Roleplaying Game. As the heroes in this setting are all kids between the ages of 11 and 14, it didn’t make a lot of sense to have them dispatching opponents in the same way as combat-heavy settings like Deadlands: the Weird West, Pathfinder®, or Rifts®.

We also didn’t want to push to avoid combat altogether and stress fleeing over fighting when squaring off against monsters and other threats. I mean, where’s the fun in that???

Enter Soft Weapons!

In Savage Worlds, there is a Situational Rule known as Tests that allows you to make a foe either Distracted (-2 from all Trait rolls until the end of their next turn) or Vulnerable (actions and attacks against the target are made at +2 until the end of their next turn) as well as Shaken with a raise on the roll. Tests can be anything from verbally insulting an opponent (Taunt) to tossing a handful of mud in their face (Athletics), or anything else you can think of that might temporarily fluster your enemy. One common sense restriction to these kinds of maneuvers is that you can’t use the exact same action over-and-over again without it becoming less and less effective over time. Your opponent steals themself against the barrage of insults (even the especially harsh ones about their mother) or they’re able to anticipate you preparing to throw more muck in their face.

In Pinebox Middle School, we offer a variety of Soft Weapons that may be used for Tests using Athletics, Fighting, or Shooting as the skill your enemy must oppose, but we eliminate the aforementioned Repetition restriction allowing your student to use the same weapon repeatedly without penalty. Additionally, if the target of your Soft Weapon attack rolls a Critical Failure (double 1s) when defending against your Test, they are Stunned (Distracted, Vulnerable, prone, and immobilized) along with any other relevant effects like Shaken if the Test succeeded with a raise.

Our extensive list of Soft Weapons includes everything from boffer weapons (those used in LARPing), to foam dart guns, to water pistols, to fire crackers, each with standard Savage Worlds weapon notes like Range, Rate of Fire, number of shots, minimum Strength to wield, weight, and cost.

While we still offer a wide selection of more traditional weapons in the book (baseball (and cricket) bats, walking sticks, throwing axes, bows, and BB guns), there’s really nothing quite like a brave band of 7th graders squaring off against a snarling chupacabra, all armed to the teeth with boffer swords, Nerf™ dart blasters, and paintball pistols. Hey, whatever works!

Next time, I’ll be talking about how we deal with cell phones in Pinebox Middle School.

Class dismissed! 🔔