Monday, July 7, 2014

Savage Worlds - War of the Dead

Continuing my RPG group's theme of playing in campaigns with "X of the Y" in it (War of the Dead, Rise of the Runelords, Wrath of the Righteous) we started our new Savage Worlds campaign yesterday headed up by GM Brandon, who also runs Rise of the Runelords.

War of the Dead is a zombie apocalypse game. Some of the "table contract" is:
Realism but less rape-y.
Horror.
In this world zombies are not a known phenomenon, so we don't know what they are, how they die, or how they become... yet.
We aren't starting off as a spec ops team nor do we have bug out bags, ARs, ammo, and a souped up survival truck.

The rule system, Savage Worlds, is really basic and intuitive (in my opinion). Built for fast and quick action resolutions and open ended enough for cinematic description - both a pro and a con depending on what part of the creative scale you are on. The creators are also noted for creating Deadlands in the late 90s which is the Father of the SW system.

Our heroes:
Benjamin "BeeBee" Booya - Second String Nose Tackle for the Baltimore Ravens. (me, Gabe)
Ninon - Owner of a hip NY restaurant and young chef, she is very hip and stylish too. (Gretchen)
Dr. Brennan - PHD in research from Yale, she's our scientist that will figure stuff out. (Karen)
Randy Hunt - 7 time world champion of the World Championship Competitive Logging Championship of the World. (Jason, reprising a character he played in a D20 Modern ZPAW campaign I ran years ago)

An OCD player's set up (me). Dice, poker chips = "bennies", 6 of spades card is initiative order, laminated quick reference/cheat cheat for actions. Minis in the background.

The group were all on a maiden voyage of a fancy cruise ship called The Pinnacle (Pinnacle is the name of the company that puts out Savage Worlds... get it?) and were forced together as a team while a disease outbreak takes over the trip.

This adventure can seem pretty action-y but there is also a tinge of horror, we will be playing out emotional impacts of loss of loved-ones and such. For instance BeeBee's Mother and Sister are also on board the ship with him so he will presumably be losing them in some horrible way thus developing the character.

Here's some poor iPhone pics of the action that took place:



I did a lot of the minis - Zombies are Wargames Factory zombies I put up last week and are deserving of a tutorial. "Hero" and "NPC" figs are WF male and female Apocalypse Survivors series and some rebased Hero Clicks. There is also one Reaper and one Hasslefree in there.

3 comments:

  1. I love Savage Worlds. I just wish it had an option for conventional Hit Points.

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  2. That's my big con, same as in the late 90s while playing Deadlands. I am not sure if it is because of the sacred cow of Hit Points or not though. Actual system dislike or just habit? It'll take time to get over that one.

    SW damage system is elegant though and it works. It's just so different from what I am used to and conditioned for.

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  3. That said my character was very hard for Zeds to hit as his parry is a 6 and, thus, their "to hit" number on a D6. Being an NFL nose guard paid off for BeeBee!

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