What's New in Pinebox Middle School?

After a week away, I have returned, and as promised, this time I’m pulling aside the curtain to take a brief look at “magic” in the world of Pinebox Middle School.

Tucked in amongst our other new Setting Rules for Growing Up, Schoolyard Connections, and the new “McCallister Maxim” (see my entry about these from April 13th), there is a brief section titled “Magic is Scary.”

Arcane Backgrounds and mystical powers have been an integral part of Savage Worlds since its humble beginnings.

Despite the presence of the supernatural, Pinebox Middle School tends to hew a bit closer to the real world in many ways, especially since the heroes are children. If we wanted the kids of Pinebox to be wantonly using sorcery against opposing forces, we would have sorted them into houses and dropped them into a secret boarding school in the Highlands of Scotland!

Here in East Texas, magic, though “real,” is handled a bit differently.

“Kids in Pinebox must occasionally perform eldritch rituals to protect their friends and family or repel some terrible beast. Rituals open portals to other places of dark and dangerous energy. Within some of these portals lurk dark forces eager to prey on the innocence of youth.”

First of all, the heroes must acquire the ritual before they can cast it. It could be found in the pages of some old, dusty tome recovered from an abandoned house at the edge of town, passed down from an aging family member familiar with the Old Ways, or even downloaded from the dark web!

While Power Points are used to activate spells in most Savage Worlds settings, here they dictate things like the number and type of components (common or exotic) that are required to perform the ritual. These can range from “a bird’s feather” (common) to “hair from a 50+ year old doll” (exotic). Acquiring these items might well be a large part of an adventure!

As an example, use of the new “consecrate ground” power normally requires 5 Power Points. The Component & Penalties Table shows that 3 common components are needed along with 1 exotic component. Additionally, there is a -2 casting modifier as well. If the heroes want to extend this power’s duration from one hour until “the next sunset,” that requires 5 additional points, thus requiring 4 common components and 2 exotic components. The casting modifier also bumps to -3!

Once the components are in-hand, the mage first devotes some time to preparing to cast the spell (10-minutes per Rank), then the spell is activated by a modified Occult skill roll and conducted as a single-person Difficult Dramatic Task - six Task Tokens collected over four rounds (see Dramatic Tasks in Savage Worlds).

Success means the spell goes off without a hitch, while failure means it doesn’t succeed, all components are consumed, and a roll is made on the oh, so fun Ritual Complications Table. A Critical Failure results in additional unpleasant effects like arcane explosions or even possession!

Note that in Pinebox Middle School, rituals that cause real harm to others or do truly diabolical things like raise the dead are considered “Black Magic,” and its use can corrupt young, impressionable souls. Use of black magic results in a “black mark” indicating that that individual has tampered with evil forces. 

Woe be the student who acquires a second black mark!

Hey, dabbling with the forces of darkness is risky business!

Class dismissed! 🔔