What's New in Pinebox Middle School?

When it comes to Savage Worlds campaigns where having a home base might be helpful for your band of heroes, both Rippers Resurrected and the Horror Companion offer rules for creating Lodges, the Super Powers Companion includes guidelines for designing Headquarters, and Pinebox Middle School has… Clubhouses!

Spread out over eight pages at the tail end of the Gear & Gadgets chapter in the Pinebox Middle School core book, our Clubhouses system is built around four specific steps that can have you erecting a safe space for your band of middle school students in minutes!

And while players can randomly construct clubhouses for their heroes via a few die rolls, the system has also been designed for those creative groups that would prefer to curate their clubhouse organically - choosing each individual feature from the various tables.

The four steps in the construction process include:

🎲 STEP 1: Roll or select an Advantage.

🎲 STEP 2: Roll or select a Complication.

🎲 STEP 3: Determine the clubhouse’s Form and how the crew acquired it.

🎲 STEP 4: Add any Upgrades the structure may already have when acquired and the gang can guide where it grows from there.

STEP 1: ADVANTAGE

This first table presents six (a roll of 1d6 for those going the random route) unique advantages that are derived from simply having a clubhouse that the heroes can access. These advantages are granted to members of the party and are actually LOST should a hero depart the group (hey, sometimes families move away) or if the clubhouse gets destroyed or is no longer available.

One example (option 3) is “Inspiring.” Very simply, there is something special about the clubhouse that inspires the team. It could be motivational posters or other important iconography contained within or it could simply be a structure that the heroes built with their own hands that makes it so special to them. Either way, those using this space are granted an increase (one die type) on their Spirit die! For those new to Savage Worlds, Spirit is a measure of “… self-confidence, backbone, and willpower. It’s used to resist social and supernatural attacks as well as fear.”

The remaining five possible advantages include Unusual Location, Cool, Mentor, Powerful, and Handy, each with unique properties to assist the heroes in their adventures.

STEP 2: COMPLICATION

Here are presented six persistent issues with the clubhouse that are usually fundamental (and unfortunate) parts of its construction, location, or other factors. While the heroes may come up with temporary solutions to deal with these complications, like a bad penny, they eventually return or evolve into different problems as befits the story.

Returning to lucky number 3 on this table, we find “Foreboding.” Quite simply, the clubhouse is somehow cursed or even haunted! Visitors are uneasy, parents disapprove of its use, and something about it causes unexplained trouble for those using it. All club members are affected by the Bad Luck Hindrance which reduces the number of Bennies by one at the start of each game session. Bennies are an in-game currency in Savage Worlds that can be traded in to accomplish a variety of things including rerolling poor dice rolls or even influencing the story!

The five other possible Complications include Contested, Crumbling, Well-Known, Intruders, and Remote.

STEP 3: FORM

Regardless of whether your players are choosing to roll to randomly generate their clubhouse or they’re selecting each individual aspect themselves, the Form section requires a bit of creative input as this is where the party decides what “form” the clubhouse actually takes (tree house, basement of one of the kids’ homes, or even a disused storage room within the halls of Pinebox Middle School) as well as how the heroes actually acquired it whether they built it from scratch, stumbled upon it out in the Big Thicket, or they negotiated a deal with the owner to use it.

STEP 4: UPGRADES

This section offers several clubhouse improvements available to the heroes each time the party takes a normal Advance. In Savage Worlds, Advances are experience rewards that elevate your characters from Novice (starting) level all the way up to Legendary! In Pinebox Middle School, Novice characters begin in 6th grade and can advance through 8th grade, at which point they graduate and move on to Pinebox High!

There are several upgrades for the heroes to choose from ranging from Cell Phone Boosters/Jammers to some form of Guard (often the family doggo) to Advanced Scientific Equipment to a Specialist Library. Several of these Upgrades offer in-game benefits to the heroes. For example, a Specialist Library grants a free reroll on a chosen skill related to the type of library present in the clubhouse! Those investigating a local cult that operated in the area back in the 19th century would definitely benefit from having a selection of “Occult” volumes tucked away in their clubhouse!

The flipside of each upgrade (you didn’t really think that things benefiting the heroes wouldn’t have drawbacks, did you?) is that each time you improve your clubhouse, you must bust out a d20 and roll on the Encounters table! The result of this roll could be anything from Grown-Up Interference (plans are in-place to construct a new road directly through the surrounding woods and the clubhouse itself) to an Unnatural Visitor (a vengeful ghost, curious werecoyote, or troublesome demon has discovered your clubhouse) to Collapse which can actually result in the loss of an upgrade!

Using this system, your band of pre-pubescent protectors can hide away, make plans, do some essential research, or just meet up for weekly game nights!

In our next session, we’ll dig through a few of the new Setting Rules including our revised rules for character Advancement (aka “Growing Up”), the new “McCallister Maxim,” and Schoolyard Connections!

Class dismissed! 🔔