Anarchistic Arcanists Without Rolling Dice!

Constructing An Arcanist Crew

For my next crew I decided to go with one of the natural enemies of the Guild, the Arcanists. Unlike my Guild crew, these "guys" aren't already painted but I really like the minis so it'll be fun to get them to the table. First up is Sasha Dubois, the leader of the crew. Unlike Sonnia, Sasha is a little more effective in regular combat but not as much so with magic. Even so she can still pack a nasty punch with what she can bring with her to the table.

Sasha Dubois
Quality 2+
Combat 3
Special abilities: animist (steam), leader, pistol, tough, unique

Being the master of the crew its no surprise to see the leader and tough abilities in there and a pistol is always handy to have. Rounding it out is the animist ability which gives Sasha access to the combat magics and also lets her control Boomer.

Boomer
Quality 4+
Combat 5
Special abilities: artificial (construct), big, heavy armor, sunder, tough

Boomer is Sasha's guard dog, following her onto the field and loyally protecting her from danger. Admittedly he's a giant metal guard dog but it really fits in with the Arcanist feel of using constructs to fill the ranks.

Next up are the vicious guns of Taryn Rose.

Taryn Rose
Quality 3+
Combat 3
Special abilities: gunslinger, pistol, rapid fire, ruthless, stealth, unique

With her pistols in hand she sneaks around the shadows of the battlefield looking for that perfect shot no matter who might be in the way. Nothing really new here as far as abilities other than ones that I've already covered.

Rounding out the crew is Valeria Alvaro.

Valeria Alvaro
Quality 3+
Combat 3
Special abilities: gunslinger, pistol, rapid fire, slippery, steadfast

In sharp contrast to the treacherous Taryn, Valeria is a much more get in your face kind of gal while the slippery ability ensures that she can slide away just as easily. As with Taryn, more familiar abilities with the exception of slippery though this ability really is nothing new. In fact slippery is actually just free disengage under a new name which is an easy way to change the feel for a game.

As with the Guild crew, this crew also really pushes for ranged combat over melee which really does fit with the theme that I've aiming for. This is an alternate wild west after all and the revolver did rule the day for most people then. This also means that you can expect another battle report soon as these two crews hit the table and we see just how well (or not so fell) my special rules work. But more on that later...

"My Eyes Glow Red As My Robe Erupts Into Magical Flames And I Say 'While I live and breath you shall not pass!!!'"
And... I rolled a 23 for my intimidate check. Did it work?

SpacerGal spoils us so. After all the actual plays I've listened to it seems that she has developed a very unique way of running a role playing game; you don't just get to role play, you actually need to if you really want to do anything.

Want to be intimidating? Bust out the angry voice and hit him with it! Diplomacy more your style? In that case do your best to be charming so that you can win her over to your side of the argument.

Our latest session of Pathfinder is a prime example of what I mean. Over the course of a four hour session I rolled my dice less than a half dozen times and at least half of that time was spent interacting with the crew of the ship we were sailing on. By comparison, during one of the actual plays I was recently listening to the players had almost twice as many roll playing die rolls just when they were interacting with two people! No combat at that point, just talking back and forth between the two groups.

This is not to say that having access to these dice mechanics is not useful because I really think it is. For brand new players and GMs it gives them something mechanical to latch onto as they get their head around the system but for any experienced players I definitely recommend that you try putting down the dice and talking it out. You'll be amazed at how much more it adds to entire experience.

The Parting Shot...

That's all for now but be sure to come back soon for more gaming goodness from the Sin City Snowman and SpacerGal. He's told me some of the ideas that are bubbling around in her brain and I can't wait to see what finally comes out! In the meantime if you have any comments feel free to leave them on the blog or you can drop us a line at SinCityDispatch@gmail.com. Until next time...