Arcane Background: Grifter

The Grifter

Grifters believe themselves to be the ultimate con men. These supernatural swindlers seem to have figured out a way to turn a taste for indulgence into a way to tap vast arcane power. How they get to have their cake and eat it too—at least for now—requires a little history to fully understand. Back in the early 18th century, an Englishman by the name of Edmund Hoyle stumbled across the secret to accessing power in an alternate dimension, one known to Native Americans as the “Hunting Grounds.” Hoyle figured out how to trick energy from the spirits inhabiting it (also known as manitous) by envisioning the mental struggle with them as a card game—one in which he made the rules. He disguised his findings in an essay on games of chance, which a relative later found, and not realizing what it really contained, published.

When things started getting weird back during the Civil War, some enterprising folks found the formulas hidden in Hoyle’s little rulebook became much easier to put into practice. These cardsharps, who called themselves hucksters, wheedled and cheated magic out of the manitous and used it to carve themselves a place in the Weird West.

It was only a matter of time before the governments of both the USA and CSA took notice. The Agency and Texas Rangers, in charge of maintaining supernatural order in their respective countries, took a dim view of the hexslingers from the start. No good could come of having power-drunk gamblers sauntering around casting spells and such, they said. However, the powers that be quickly came around to figuring out if they could use hucksters to their advantage, either as a tool on the battlefield or political hit men.

After only a little experimentation, those in charge found out the answer was a resounding “No.”

Huckster magic was by its very nature chancy stuff and the shysters drawn to it were the ultimate risktakers. Neither of those are things you want to count on in a clutch situation, so it didn’t take long for the governments to give up on harnessing the hexslingers.

Once they made that call, the Agency and Rangers were given the go-ahead to put hucksters on ice. It took some doing as the spellcasting gamblers had been dodging the boys in black and brown for a few years already, but the government’s enforcers knew more than one way to skin a cat. In addition

to rounding up any known offenders, they also put the torch to any and all copies of Hoyle’s they came across. With no codebook to guide it, the practice of hucksterism was all but extinct before the World War began.

The Grift

Jack Emmert was a drifter and hustler who was too smart for his own good. He was hustling locals over billiards in Texas one day when his mark paid with a beat-up copy of Hoyle’s Book of Games. Blessed with a keen intellect, he picked up on and deciphered the codes hidden within it in days. He did a little more research and found out Hoyle’s was actually a secret handbook for modern-day sorcerers. These “hucksters,” as they called themselves, managed to tap into an otherworldly plane of existence—the “Hunting Grounds”—and gamble some of their life force with its demonic denizens for power. Jack then quickly found out the Texas Rangers didn’t think much of people running around dealing with demons for black magic. Things tended to go bad. He barely managed to escape into the neighboring Coyote Confederation with his pool cue before they descended on him like hell hounds.

While in the Indian nation, Jack watched shamans commune with nature spirits, and for the gruesome price of sacrifice and mutilation, draw on their amazing powers just like the hucksters. Jack wanted to taste arcane power too—it’d be just the thing to turn his small-time con games into big time hustles. But he wasn’t interested in making soul-killing deals with demons or chopping off fingers. He realized that what the spirits—both the demonic “manitous” and the savage but somewhat less evil nature spirits—really demanded for their power, was personal sacrifice. But sacrifice could come in many forms. Some shamans took toxic tobacco or hallucinogenic peyote into their bodies. Hucksters often got away with no sacrifice other than the risk of a little bit of their life force.

So Jack experimented. He used the knowledge he’d learned to call on the spirits—any spirits—and subjected himself to a number of vices to see what piqued their interest. Over a few weeks, he realized they weren’t falling for him nipping at the bottle or trying peyote—they were only interested in his one true addiction—gambling. The bigger and more risky the gamble, the more they got interested. It wasn’t long before Jack left the Confederation and crossed paths with the Rangers. Along the way he taught a few other like-minded compatriots “the Grift.” The technique spread fast. There was no book for the authorities to destroy and those with the talent didn’t need long hours of deciphering codes for their payoff. All they had to do was embrace their most destructive vices and they were off to the races, so to speak. Jack vanished sometime after that, leaving behind little more than a cryptic set of clues that he was headed to California for “the biggest grift of all.”

Arcane Background (Grifter)

Requirements: Wild Card, Novice, Smarts d6+, Spellcasting d4+, Spirit d6+

Arcane Skill: Spellcasting (Smarts)

Power Points: 10

Starting Powers: 3

Backlash: A grifter who rolls a 1 on his Spellcasting die (regardless of his Wild Die), is automatically Shaken (but see Overdose, below).

Available Powers: Blind, bolt, boost/lower trait, confusion, damage field, darksight, deflection, detect/conceal arcana, disguise, dispel, drain power points, fear, havoc, invisibility, intangibility, light/obscure, numb, pummel, quickness, slow, slumber, smite, speed, stun, succor, teleport, wall walker.

Special Rules:

• Indulgence: A grifter must indulge in his particular vice at least once a day to keep his conduit to the Hunting Grounds open. If he does not, he recovers Power Points at a rate of 1 point every 3 hours instead of the usual 1 per hour.

• Magic: Grifters may use Edges that require Arcane Background (Magic), except Wizard (see Savage Worlds).

• Overdose: A grifter who rolls a 1 on both his Spellcasting and Wild Die suffers a particularly powerful form of Backlash. He must roll on the Overdose Table on page 52.

Trappings

When possible, the trappings of grifter magic are tied to the arcane conman’s chosen vice. For example, a gambler may throw glowing dice for his bolt, or the targets of an alcohol-using grifter’s confusion may become slightly tipsy. Those powers that don’t readily lend themselves to such associations are either largely invisible or displayed by a dark purple energy or haze.

Playing a Grifter

A grifter doesn’t have to overindulge in his vice—or even gain any gratification from it. It’s the actual act that enables them to draw power from the Hunting Grounds, not the vice’s actual effects on them. So, a Harrowed grifter can still rely on alcohol even though he can’t become intoxicated, or a grifter with a drug habit doesn’t have to incapacitate himself to satisfy his demons. Each grifter must choose a specific vice which she uses to appease the spirits of the Hunting Grounds. Only one bad habit works for any given grifter. The chosen substance or activity is addictive (either physically or psychologically) and self-destructive to her in some way. The grifter must constantly and substantially indulge in her chosen habit. For most vices, this costs about $1d4 a day, either in purchased substances, gambling losses, etc. For truly esoteric vices, the GM must determine the consequences. If she doesn’t, she only recovers one Power Point every three hours until she resumes her vice. A grifter with Rapid Recharge who doesn’t indulge in her vice gets one point back every two hours. If she has the Improved version, she gets one point per hour.

New Spells

Numb

Rank: Novice

Power Points: 1

Range: Touch

Duration: 10 minutes

Trappings: A shot of whisky, a puff of smoke on the wound.

Numb alleviates pain caused by injury. With success, the power removes one point of wound penalties. With a raise, numb removes two points of penalties. The effect lasts for the duration, so it may shield a character from wound penalties acquired after the initial casting as well as those already suffered. Numb also nullifies any temporary Injury Table results for its duration. A character made Lame by a hit to the leg, for example, can move normally while numbed. It has no effect on permanent Injuries.

New Edges

Hedonist

Requirements: Novice, Arcane Background (Grifter), Smarts d8+, Spellcasting d8+

Your character can binge on his vice to quickly recover some Power Points. This requires him to overindulge in his bad habit (which takes 10 minutes’ worth of time). A grifter addicted to alcohol, for example, might chug half a bottle of whisky. A smoker might cough up a lung going through an entire pack in 10 minutes. Or a gambler might risk way more cash than he can afford on a single roll of the dice with someone who must definitely be paid. Whatever the binge, when it’s over, the grifter recovers 1d6 Power Points. The bender comes with a price—the hedonist suffers Fatigue until he can rest up for at least four hours. The grifter can repeat the trick unless he’s Exhausted (he cannot Incapacitate himself).

Intoxication

With Prohibition out the window (or in the Confederacy’s case, never existing in the first place), alcohol is now the most readily-available recreational drug. A lot of folks turn to the bottle in hard times. A Joe can imbibe a few drinks (loosely a shot of whiskey, bottle of beer, or glass of wine) every hour or so with no appreciable effects. This is “normal” drinking in this era, and means he imbibes no more drinks than half his Vigor die. If a schmuck wants to get drunk for some reason, the player just decides how fast he wants it to happen. Most palookas in this era are hard drinkers and generally don’t feel the effects for an hour or so. They’re pretty well snookered after about three hours. That’s “social” hard-drinking. If a schmuck wants to get drunk fast he can start two-fisting shots and get there in about 20 to 30 minutes assuming there’s a fair amount of the hard stuff on hand. This takes a number of drinks equal to his Vigor die. Drunk characters suffer a —1 penalty to Smarts and Agility-based rolls. They also ignore one point of wound penalties since alcohol depresses pain centers. If the unfortunate soul wants to get really plastered, he just keeps pounding them down for about double the time and drinks it took him to get here. Then he suffers a —2 penalty to Smarts and Agility-based rolls and can ignore two points of Wound penalties. If the character keeps drinking, he eventually passes out in an hour or so. It takes about 1d6 hours to recover from being drunk, 2d6 hours from really drunk, and 3d6 hours to recover after passing out. Good food and strong coffee halves that time. If a character must drink for some reason and wants to avoid getting intoxicated, he must make a Vigor roll every half-hour or so for “social” drinking, or every ten minutes for “hard” or forced drinking. When he fails the first time, he’s drunk. When he fails the second time (or if he rolls a critical failure), he’s very drunk.

Overdose Table

d20 Effect

1–4 The Shakes: The backlash of energy only momentarily stuns the grifter, making him Shaken.

5–8 Backwash: The grifter gets a big dose of his particular vice as well. He’s Shaken and picks up a level of Fatigue that is removed after an hour’s rest.

9–12 Overdose: The grifter must make a Vigor roll or be knocked unconscious for 1d4 hours as a surge of dark energy and indulgence overwhelms his body. With a success, treat this as Backwash (above).

13–16 Addicted: The grifter acquires the Habit (Minor) Hindrance, related to his vice. If he already has this Hindrance, it becomes Habit (Major). Should he already have that Hindrance, treat this as a roll of 17–20.

17–20 Ravaged: The incredible surge of raw power wreaks havoc on the grifter’s body. He acquires Ailin’ (Minor), related to his vice. If he already has this, he instead picks up Ailin’ (Major). And if he’s suffering from that already, the poor sap has only a few minutes left to live. Spend them wisely. If the grifter was Harrowed, he loses a point of Dominion as well as a permanent one point reduction to his maximum Dominion each time this occurs instead.