First of all, this week's post is a tad shorter than last weeks. (I can almost hear the collective sigh of relief from y'all.) Sorry about that, I just REALLY love our new system for creating clubhouses in Pinebox Middle School!
This week, I'm going to share a few details about some of our new Setting Rules including Advancement (aka “Growing Up”), the new “McCallister Maxim,” and Schoolyard Connections!
ADVANCEMENT
In normal Savage Worlds rules, most newly created characters begin with a Rank of Novice. As they move through adventures, solve problems, and defeat enemies, they earn awards knows as Advances. Once a hero acquires a certain number of these Advances, they rise through the Ranks going from Novice all the way up to Legendary. Each Advance also grants various character upgrades (new Edges, new skills, increasing Trait scores, etc.) to allow the heroes to grow and become champions!
Since Pinebox Middle School focuses on a relatively short period of time in each character’s life, we opted to revise the above system a bit, basing it around various milestones that middle school students are likely to experience between the start of 6th Grade and the end of 8th.
Looking at the 6th Grade breakdown, we start with the creation of Novice characters. At “End of 1st Semester,” each hero is granted a skill point which can either be a d4 in a brand new skill or a die type increase in an existing skill, as long as it does not exceed the die type of the linked attribute. In other words, if you have Athletics at d6 and the linked attribute, Agility is a d6, you can’t, at this point in your character’s career, increase Athletics to a d8.
The next Milestone is “End of 6th Grade” where the character can take a normal Advance per the Savage Worlds rules PLUS your clubhouse gets an upgrade! (Have I told you how much I LOVE our clubhouse system?)
Finally, at “End of Summer,” each hero is granted an additional skill point as per the above rules regarding the end of the semester. At that age, summertime often means picking up new skills, whether through play or helping an adult repair a car or build a barn!
This system continues in a similar fashion through 8th Grade where the overall experience concludes at "Graduation" and each kid eventually celebrates their three year career as a “Middle School Survivor!”
THE MCCALLISTER MAXIM
While threats to the heroes of Pinebox Middle School are still extremely dangerous (especially the unliving ones or the ones that have crawled up out of the Abyss), to ensure the heroes don’t inadvertently become murderers when squaring off against living, breathing humans (yes, even the bad ones), we offer “the McCallister Maxim!”
Named after the plucky main character of the Home AloneÒ movies, this Setting Rule simply states that when dealing damage against PEOPLE (fellow students, teachers, burger flippers, and even misguided villains), they ALL suffer “nonlethal” damage by default. Sure, they may wind up in Golan County Regional Hospital with a broken bone or three, but they won’t suffer fatal injuries from their encounters with the heroes.
Of course, this doesn’t apply to zombies, evil robots, or other supernatural baddies, and each individual game group is welcome to adjust this Setting Rule as they see fit.
SCHOOLYARD CONNECTIONS
Lastly, Schoolyard Connections is our way of quickly building relationships and history between the heroes and their fellow students should they need to reach out for help or information during their adventures. This system is mainly used for situations where there isn’t currently an established relationship between the characters.
The encounter begins with a simple roll on the Reaction Table, a roll that’s modified by various Edges and/or Hindrances as well as the difference in grade level between the two students (plus or minus). Results from this table range from “Hostile” to “Neutral” to “Helpful.”
If the result is negative, the hero then rolls on the Negative Reaction Table with results there including things like “the kid believes you lied about them to someone,” and “your personalities just clash.”
Positive results look to the Positive Reaction Table where details of the relationship include “you have been friendly since elementary school,” and “the kid either admires your or has a crush on you,”
Finally, we offer one additional table, the Recent Commonality Table that can be consulted to see where the two characters might have run into each other. Everything from “seen each other in the hallway” to “sometimes eat at the same lunch table."
With these and a few other new Setting Rules, your Pinebox Middle School campaign takes on a slightly different and more age-appropriate tone that sets it apart from most other Savage Worlds settings.
In our next session, we’ll delve into the mysterious world of “magic” in Pinebox Middle School! Don’t be afraid!
Class dismissed! 🔔
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