As is my tradition, each time a game ends, I try to learn from it. This time I'm looking at the brief (7 session) plot point campaign into Holler: An Appalachian Apocalypse for Savage Worlds Adventurers Edition (SWADE).
A Brief History of Me and Savage Worlds
When Savage Worlds was released as a $10 digest paperback, I snatched it up. The tagline of "Fast, furious, fun!" caught my attention during the era of 3rd edition's weighty rules. My group at that time was too stuck in the d20 mode, so I never brought it to the table. It wasn't until the release of the SWADE edition that I actually started playing the system, mostly in conventions and one-shots. To date, the Savage Settings I've experienced are vanilla fantasy, Pathfinder, Rippers, and Rifts. I can now add "Holler" to that list.
About the Group and Selection of the Game
The group of players included my wife, our neighbor (who grew up with THAC0-era D&D) and his teenage son, and two teenage sisters also from our neighborhood. Joining us in this campaign was my sister (who was my first player when I was learning how to DM in the 1980s) and her teenage son. We also had the occasional guest - such as our neighbor's older son back from college for a weekend, or a coworker who wanted to try out a game with us. As you can see, we have a large group, usually between 6-8 players.
We started a group of 5E D&D about a year and a half ago. During that time, we played through a combination of Saltmarsh and OAR’s Isle of Dread, and then a following campaign of Curse of Strahd. After Strahd we took a break from 5e with 4e Gamma World for a few sessions and then onward to Holler.
The group was initially very excited about Holler - especially with its anti-corporate theme (the majority of the group is Gen Z, if I didn't mention that already). We're in Kentucky, with our part of the state not far from Appalachia. In fact, the adults would play the game only under the condition that we treat the culture respectfully.
What Is This about a Holler?
In previous post-mortems, I didn't feel it necessary to explain much about the campaigns or systems. However, Holler comes across as a more indie RPG that might not be widely known on these boards. So I'll give you a quick background that might not be 100% accurate. We'll call it spinning a yarn.
So Savage Worlds is a generic RPG system you've probably heard of. Holler is largely the product of Tim Earley who is a native of the Appalachia as well as a poet and scholar of the region. Earley got the support of Pinnacle to create a very unique setting based on the folklore and history of this region. It's very creative, evocative, and I definitely recommend anyone with an interest in this to take a look - regardless of how my own experience went.
The setting is basically a Depression-era dark fantasy take on Appalachia. Greedy shift bosses exploit their workers, snatching resources and polluting the area. The pollution has a real Ravenloft-feeling corrupting fog called The Blight, which traps everyone in the Holler (kind of like Barovia in Ravenloft). Your Strahd equivalent are titans of industry known as The Big Boys, who utilize weird science to keep everyone down.
The Plot Point campaign essentially involves leading a workers' rebellion against the Big Boys. Characters can be miners or loggers, or more unusual characters like old witches, faith healers, bluegrass pickin' bards or even moonshiner-bomb tossing alchemists.
We Never Got the Hang of the System
With 6-8 players new to Savage Worlds, I tried to keep the play moving quick. But even so, we'd have lengthy combats where players would get bored & distracted - which would further slow down the game. I found myself not able to give the setting the pacing and character it deserved. We just had too many people. Couple this with trying to explain raises (divide your die result by 4), how does Soaking work, and many other system differences, and things just kept getting more frustrating. Several times players would ask me why something worked a certain way, I'd explain it, they'd stare blankly and say "I'll just take your word for it."
The group needs to get back to D&D and its familiar mechanics. Trying to introduce another medium-complexity system to 8 players is just too much work. I felt literally beat up after the last session.
What Next?
Do you ever know something is going to fail before trying it? Do you sometimes feel insulted that a group won't listen to your advice, as a seasoned GM?
Because the group is picking 4e D&D - with 8 players. Who already hated Gamma World. This is the kind of mistake that kills a gaming group, but no one will listen to me.
Be ready for that Post-Mortem in approximately 2 weeks.
A Brief History of Me and Savage Worlds
When Savage Worlds was released as a $10 digest paperback, I snatched it up. The tagline of "Fast, furious, fun!" caught my attention during the era of 3rd edition's weighty rules. My group at that time was too stuck in the d20 mode, so I never brought it to the table. It wasn't until the release of the SWADE edition that I actually started playing the system, mostly in conventions and one-shots. To date, the Savage Settings I've experienced are vanilla fantasy, Pathfinder, Rippers, and Rifts. I can now add "Holler" to that list.
About the Group and Selection of the Game
The group of players included my wife, our neighbor (who grew up with THAC0-era D&D) and his teenage son, and two teenage sisters also from our neighborhood. Joining us in this campaign was my sister (who was my first player when I was learning how to DM in the 1980s) and her teenage son. We also had the occasional guest - such as our neighbor's older son back from college for a weekend, or a coworker who wanted to try out a game with us. As you can see, we have a large group, usually between 6-8 players.
We started a group of 5E D&D about a year and a half ago. During that time, we played through a combination of Saltmarsh and OAR’s Isle of Dread, and then a following campaign of Curse of Strahd. After Strahd we took a break from 5e with 4e Gamma World for a few sessions and then onward to Holler.
The group was initially very excited about Holler - especially with its anti-corporate theme (the majority of the group is Gen Z, if I didn't mention that already). We're in Kentucky, with our part of the state not far from Appalachia. In fact, the adults would play the game only under the condition that we treat the culture respectfully.
What Is This about a Holler?
In previous post-mortems, I didn't feel it necessary to explain much about the campaigns or systems. However, Holler comes across as a more indie RPG that might not be widely known on these boards. So I'll give you a quick background that might not be 100% accurate. We'll call it spinning a yarn.
So Savage Worlds is a generic RPG system you've probably heard of. Holler is largely the product of Tim Earley who is a native of the Appalachia as well as a poet and scholar of the region. Earley got the support of Pinnacle to create a very unique setting based on the folklore and history of this region. It's very creative, evocative, and I definitely recommend anyone with an interest in this to take a look - regardless of how my own experience went.
The setting is basically a Depression-era dark fantasy take on Appalachia. Greedy shift bosses exploit their workers, snatching resources and polluting the area. The pollution has a real Ravenloft-feeling corrupting fog called The Blight, which traps everyone in the Holler (kind of like Barovia in Ravenloft). Your Strahd equivalent are titans of industry known as The Big Boys, who utilize weird science to keep everyone down.
The Plot Point campaign essentially involves leading a workers' rebellion against the Big Boys. Characters can be miners or loggers, or more unusual characters like old witches, faith healers, bluegrass pickin' bards or even moonshiner-bomb tossing alchemists.
We Never Got the Hang of the System
With 6-8 players new to Savage Worlds, I tried to keep the play moving quick. But even so, we'd have lengthy combats where players would get bored & distracted - which would further slow down the game. I found myself not able to give the setting the pacing and character it deserved. We just had too many people. Couple this with trying to explain raises (divide your die result by 4), how does Soaking work, and many other system differences, and things just kept getting more frustrating. Several times players would ask me why something worked a certain way, I'd explain it, they'd stare blankly and say "I'll just take your word for it."
The group needs to get back to D&D and its familiar mechanics. Trying to introduce another medium-complexity system to 8 players is just too much work. I felt literally beat up after the last session.
What Next?
Do you ever know something is going to fail before trying it? Do you sometimes feel insulted that a group won't listen to your advice, as a seasoned GM?
Because the group is picking 4e D&D - with 8 players. Who already hated Gamma World. This is the kind of mistake that kills a gaming group, but no one will listen to me.
Be ready for that Post-Mortem in approximately 2 weeks.
