Chronicle 016: A bit of everything

A bit of everything

So after running Savage Worlds the other week, I started thinking about what adventure or adventures I would want to run for the Anime USA convention in November. While some people on another message board strongly suggested focusing on one game, I think I'm still going to try and have three or four ready. While this means generating enough characters for each game, I believe I can make it work. The adventures lend themselves well to allowing practically any type of hero to be played, so I could easily use the archetypes in the book and then select which ones I felt worked best for each game. Then when it came time to run, I'd pull the appropriate characters and off we'd go.

However, this year I'm going to allow the players to customize their characters to a point. Savage Worlds makes this very easy. I can simple pre-select two or three hindrances (both major and minor) and put them on the character sheet. Then the player can choose which hindrances they want, if any. And then duplicate that process with edges. While some players will load up on the negatives to get the bonuses, others I foresee wanting to keep the characters pure. Which is great. But one thing comes to mind though. I may have to create a character generation guideline -- which may turn some people off, as those who just want to play won't want to deal with "figuring things out."

So I am open for some suggestions. Do I create the characters 100% or leave parts unknown for the player to fill in? Do I have multiple games on hand, or run just one game, and make it awesome?

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While I mull that over I'm starting to look at another RPG. With Fantasy Flight Games releasing the BETA test for their Star Wars RPG I thought it would be cool to give the setting my own twist. So I picked up, and dusted off, my copy of Dark Hersey. (Forgive me if I am repeating myself from a previous post). I'm currently reading through the Classes section of the book, and starting to generate some ideas. I'm getting adventure ideas in mind, but I do have a copy of Wizard's only Epic Adventure for Star Wars called Dawn of Defiance. I intended to use this adventure with the Saga Edition rules, but then I thought it would be even cooler to use Dark Hersey (or Rogue Trader, if I can get my hands on a copy of the book). So here I go on my next quest. First to read the core rulebook or Dark Heresy or Rogue Trader, then to read through Dawn of Defiance.

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I don't know why I have such a problem with creating a single character. Not that I have a problem with the actual creation process, instead its limiting myself to ONE IDEA. Sometimes I can go into a game knowing exactly what I want to play. But in the past month I've noticed a major hesitation in committing to one choice. Two for instances:

1) The brothers, Chris and Tim, asked for me to join their Sunday Pathfinder game. As far as I know, the players are just Tim and our mutual friend Byron (the host of the podcast: Rho Pi Gamma). While each player was willing to play two characters they (Chris and Tim) wanted to get another body in on the game. And since the three of us had been rping rather recently I came as the logical choice to fill a chair. So I set out to create a character., in which I created four. Here-in lies the problem. I only need ONE character and I came up with four. I had a general idea for a character, but knew there could be several ways to take said character. Here are the classes I looked at: Samurai, Monk, Cavalier, and Rogue. In the end I chose the Samurai, but it was a hard elimination process. The Samurai won because he had the most compelling background story. But the fact that I even had to do this entire process is ridiculous. While I didn't go through entire character creation with the classes (which I find myself doing now for another game), I had to really dig deep to limit myself to a character class.

2) Chris and Tim are heavily involved in roleplaying in forums (AKA play-by-post), and got me into it some time ago. More to allow me to kill time while at work, but also to give me further opportunities to roleplay. Which has been nothing but awesome so far. But in one particular game they are using D&D 4th edition rules, and requested I play my famed Kennedy character. I warned them that he probably wouldn't be the exact character that brought him into infamy, but I would give it a shot. So we posted a couple of times and then I introduced an NPC into the game. As it's turned out I want to make this character into a PC. So I'm now finding myself struggling to choose not only a class for this character, but a race as well. At least I've limited myself to two races: Human or Half-Elf, but I'm stuck with three classes (Sorcerer, Wizard or Warlock) and each have two intriguing builds I can choose from. While that is potentially twelve different builds, I have chosen to limit myself. I'm taking one build and choosing a race, then the other race gets the other build. This way I can see what the potential differences could be and not spend all my time creating characters (although I'm far too late for that anyway).  

I think my biggest problem is that I'm a visual person. I need to see the character in all its glory (sometimes -- as I stated in the Pathfinder game, I was able to make my choice based only on background story). But in the latter case the character's background could fit any of the listed classes or races. So what to do. I may just have to ride this one out, but if anyone has a suggestion for me, please post a comment. Thanks!

Chronicle 012: Savage Worlds - A Review

SAVAGE WORLDS

About a year or so ago I bought the Savage Worlds: Explorer's Edition. This thin, soft cover, inexpensive sourcebook was my first look into this game. I had seen it several times on the shelves last year, but knew absolutely nothing about it. Tony, at Neverland Games, brought my attention to it when I was looking for a new system to run. The groups I played in, at that time, were playing several different games, but the systems were all the same. To me, the system was specific for that genre, and there wasn't much give and take with the world in which you wanted to play. Sure you could hand wave the setting and make a fantasy game take place in modern times, but that thought had never occurred with these groups (at least, not to my knowledge).

So Tony told me about Savage Worlds, especially pushing the price and versatility of the system. At the time he was looking for someone to run a weekly game (well any game really), but I was unavailable due to life. I went home and read the book once through (more liked skimmed) and downloaded a couple one sheet adventures.

----Side Note: Savage Worlds is awesome for this alone. They offer an entire adventure that is printed on the front/back of one sheet of paper. All the fluff is pulled out; there are no descriptions, no stat blocks, just the critical information that you (the GM) need to run the game. Everything else you could need is in the main sourcebook----

The thought of running  the game excited me (as does any new system that I pick-up) and I informed one group that I was willing to run a game or two. Alas, life got in the way. The sourcebook soon found a place on my shelf and the adventures went MIA.

Fast-forward to a couple months ago with the release of: Savage Worlds: Deluxe Edition. I snagged a copy of the online pdf and took a read. The rules once again sucked me in. What I found fascinating was their use of a single target number to determine a dice roll success or failure. Target Number: 4. All you have to do is roll at or above this, and pretty much no matter what it is you succeed. There can be conditional modifiers to this number, but otherwise, you just need to a roll a 4.

So, which die do you roll to try and hit this TN? That depends. There are no d20 rolls. NONE. The dice used are the d4 to the d12. Your stats are based off of one of these five die types (much like in the Firefly RPG). There are five abilities (Dexterity, Smarts, Strength, Vigor, and Spirit), and there are skills tied into those skills (like is all other systems). Each of which are bought with points (5 for the abilities and 15 for the skills) when the character is created. Picking out some Edges (aka Advantages) and some Hindrances (aka Disadvantages) help round out your character. And then finally there are some Derived Stats that come from all the above. And POOF! you have a character ready to play. Or you could have skipped all that a used one of the archetypes that are brilliantly presented in the book. Regardless of your character building option you are now ready to play Savage Worlds.

There are many "savage" settings for this system, including Deadlands, 50 Fathoms, and Weird Wars. Each have a unique twist to them that sets them apart, but maintains the same game mechanics. The rules allow you to also play in a high fantasy setting similar to D&D. Or play super villains in a setting called Necessary Evil where all the super heroes have died defending Earth from an alien invasion, and the only people left to fight are the villains. You can also have games set in the modern era, like d20 Modern or Call of Cthulhu.

This past Friday I was finally able to run a game for two brothers, Chris and Tim. Both have years of gaming experience and are great at analyzing rules, as they are R-O-L-E players first and R-O-L-L players second. What's going to make the game more enjoyable, is a common idea for them. First let me point out that Savage Worlds presents their One Sheet adventures in such a way that you could possibly play an adventure with one person. While this wouldn't be as fun, it is plausible. But with two, we were at least able to have a lead character (Tim) and a major support character (Chris). I didn't feel there was a need to have any NPCs, as the rules are written to tell a story.

Neither had played a Savage World game before so there was some introduction required. However, I was greatly assisted by this with a beginner's character sheet, aka Training Wheels. This sheet explained where stats were derived from and presented a summary of actions, all while maintaining a front only character sheet. There was no flipping from front to back, it was all right there on page one. As well, to get to the game quicker I had them choose which archetypes they wanted to play. These are great as they allow for some customization -- permitting the player to choose their own Edges and Hindrances. Tim took advantage of this and let his choices dictate who his character would become. Where Chris had a preconceived notion of who he wanted to play and made his choices based on that concept. In the end Tim played Manny Mans an investigator, and Chris played Joan Earhart, a Fencing Fighter.

Chris' choice in character slightly altered my perception on the overall feel of the canned game that I was going to run (which was in the core rulebook). So instead of having a straight up Detective/Horror story it became more Pulp Horror, which was completely fine. I set the adventure in 1944 Hagerstown (where I live) and set the events in motion in which the heroes discovered that a vampire was feeding on workers in a renovated theater.
----Reminder: when pitting monsters against heroes, be sure to know how that monster can be killed----
When the heroes faced off against the vampire and his youngling, the heroes wiped the floor with them. Tim killed the youngling in one shot, and Chris flashed his blade and brutalized the elder in two rounds. Which shouldn't have happened. One of the descriptors I missed was that vampires can only be killed in several ways. Holy Water, Holy Symbols, a Stake through the Heart and something else were the ONLY ways to cause wounds. While Chris had Holy Water, he never used is, as I had mistakenly permitted him to kill the foul creature with a mundane weapon. So what should have been a hard fought battle, turned into a ass-whooping. Oh well, I know better now.

One of the other cool things that I enjoyed about Savage Worlds was how combat initiative was handled. Instead of rolling dice, as it is in most rpgs, you are dealt a card (from a standard deck of cards). Higher card goes first, and in the result of a tie the tie breaker is determined by suit: Spade, Heart, Diamond, Club. And while in other rpgs the order of combat never changes, in each round of Savage Worlds a new card is dealt. This way no one person has to go last each round. As well, if a Joker is dealt, then that person can go at anytime and even interrupt another character from going. Once a Joker is dealt, the deck is reshuffled.

I think this system is fantastic! Compared to recent play tests of Sword's Edge and the Dresden Files, this game ranks very high on my replay list. It's versatility for settings is great, and it's ease of use is nearly perfect. I highly recommend you at least pick-up the pdf version of this game on DriveThruRPG. It is my opinion that this system would easily replace the systems used for Star Wars, Shadowrun, or Dungeons & Dragons or Legend of the Five Rings.

Until next time gamers.

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