Notes from a Savage Worlds fantasy campaign (updated with 05/28/08 session notes!)...
- Thread starter Flynn
- Start date
Son_of_Thunder
Explorer
Flynn said:Once you have played/ran SW three times, I think you'll come to the same decision I have. I can't wait to hear about your experiences with the system, so please feel free to share with the rest of us.
Enjoy,
Flynn
I'll definitely post to this thread once I've had some time to go over it.
Son_of_Thunder
Explorer
So, you guys played lately?
Flynn
First Post
The Update...
After hearing back from the three players that are still feeling well enough to game, one of them felt that he did not want to go into Plague Central... er, uh, Newport... without a full party. With that news, there will be no game this week, and we'll resume matters next Wednesday evening.
In the meantime, if anyone has any questions or suggestions, I'm open to reading them.
With Regards,
Flynn
After hearing back from the three players that are still feeling well enough to game, one of them felt that he did not want to go into Plague Central... er, uh, Newport... without a full party. With that news, there will be no game this week, and we'll resume matters next Wednesday evening.
In the meantime, if anyone has any questions or suggestions, I'm open to reading them.
With Regards,
Flynn
Flynn
First Post
Session Notes - 02/13/08
Good Morning, All:
It's been a while since our last adventure, as the local influenza epidemic takes its toll on the gamers. However, last night we were lucky enough to get four out of the core five players together for a Wednesday Night session, and they uncovered a lot in the way of one of the big overarching plots of the campaign.
The Synopsis:
Having spoken with the cyclops Oracle, Amandrea, the party made their way back down to the beach, to return to Greenfell via the boat that had borne them to the Oracle's Isle. Once in Greenfell, the team reviewed the options before them, and elected to address the Newport plague issue. The Warlord Andrus's question had dealt with the situation there, and he had been told that he should slay the one who walks as lord, for the lord was the purveyor of plague. Evaluating the local conditions, the team also decided that they might end up wintering in Greenfell. If that was the case, they would also have to defend the village against the Sundered Kings that were seiging the village of Moonwell to the west.
The next morning, the brave band of adventurers set forth along the southbound road towards Newport, expecting to arrive there by nightfall. Their trip helped bring home the fact that the region was no longer bound under the city-state of Synovia, but instead, each village had become an island of civilization unto itself.
About an hour from Newport, six infected exiles attacked the party en mass from the grounds of an orchard along the side of the road. Calyt the Shade, who had been acting as point, took the brunt of the first wave, including a devastating hit that wounded him severely. The adventurers rallied, lined up, and beat the crazed plague victims down before the bloody exiles could rend the party to shreds. Anzjin somberly healed Calyt, as the others surveyed the area.
Having attracted the attention of local farmers, the party noted that some had sent runners ahead to announce their imminent arrival. Before the band could make it to the township, however, they were called to the side of the road by another farmer, who suggested that they not enter into Newport, lest they be captured and brought before Lord Kelas Morvel as part of Tribute. Before they could talk further, the farmer offered to hide them in his barn, and the group took him up on his offer.
Inside the barn, the party met another man also hiding by the farmer's good will. Brother Claudius was the sole surviving priest of the Temple of the Three Graces in Newport, a holy place dedicated to the god of Knowledge and Healing, Joven. The Scything Time (the Midsummer Massacre, to some) had slain all but two novices, Brothers Claudius and Ignatius. The day after, the plague hit Newport and the Merchant House Lord Morvel declared himself lord of Newport and led a riot against the Temple. Ignatius died, and only Claudius escaped. Since then, he has been laying low, aiding the faithful as he could, while avoiding Lord Kelas and his new Priests of White.
Apparently, Lord Morvel had instituted a policy of daily Tribute, where the locals all came at dusk each night to donate food or goods. The most valuable items earned a brief respite from the ravages of the Red Death. Mercenaries and militia men, as well as a few others, were called the "Favored", and received special treatment. The Priests of Light used relics scavenged from the Temple to provide succor to those that they deemed worthy, and the rest of the locals continued to donate out of fear of reprisals as well as the hopes of earning that temporary respite.
The Lord Morvel had also began tearing down the Temple, forming barricades from the rubble that had been removed, and generally fortifying the area around the old sacred grounds. Brother Claudius felt that the damage was a sacrilege to Joven, but was powerless to stop it, given that Lord Morvel was defended by the Priest of White and a bodyguard, the Warlord Vinculos.
As the party waited, Calyt the Shade slipped into town for some basic reconnaissance. He found that guards travelled around town at night in pairs, while the Temple grounds were guarded by patrols of four. Sneaking up towards the Temple, Calyt managed to overhear a conversation that spoke of an upcoming ritual the next evening between a young woman and her uncle. The woman had doubts that the ritual was indeed the one prophesied by the Followers of Light, and the man warned her not to speak of her concerns and doubts, lest she be punished.
Fleeing the Temple proper, Calyt snuck into the temple's library to discover that it had been ransacked and marked crudely with blood on the walls and such with symbols he recognized from the onyx skull he kept in his pouch.
As Calyt the Shade snuck back towards his friends, he came across the only inn in town to host boarders. The Warlord Vinculos stepped out for a breath of fresh air, and spied the stealthy Calyt across the way. Calyt ran around the corner and attempted to use his arcane abilities to transform into a cat, but Vinculos's rapid charge towards his position fouled his concentration, and he fled deeper into the alley. Just as Vinculos had cornered the young Calyt, he was able to bring his meager arcane talent to bear and melted into the ground, burrowing his way to freedom.
Reunited, the team evaluated what they had learned. Through a series of deductions, they determined that it was likely that Lord Morvel was part of some major conspiracy that started on Midsummer's Eve with Veridia being sent to obtain the Blood of Meritus and the resulting Scything Times, followed by the goblin raids on Trader's Point, as well as Lord Morvel's infiltration and conquest of Newport. They began to realize that he was gathering resources for something big, as well as raiding the catacombs of the Temple for relics. With news of the impending ritual, they determined that perhaps this was Lord Morvel's ultimate goal, and decided they would have to stop it. Working out an arrangement with Brother Claudius for his followers to start a few fires in abandoned areas around town and draw the body of guards away from the temple proper, the brave band decided to sneak into town and hole up in the library until the next day's Tribute was held.
Once the group found themselves within the abandoned library, they rested and searched the scattered scrolls and tomes for any information about what this ritual of Lord Morvel's might entail. While they did not find anything, the party did realize that all information related to the Dark Arts and fighting infernal creatures had been removed from the library, and that the library had been defiled to remove its sanctity. With this final piece, the party came to an incredible realization: Lord Morvel was using the Followers of Light and the people of Newport to defile the temple and destroy all possible resources that could be used to fend off an infernal assault in the future. Someone had big plans, and they apparently involved bringing demons to the Plane Prime!
And that's where the session ended...
Commentary:
Given the extensive delay between the last session and this one, we were a little harder to bring back on track, but we eventually started moving. Being down one player due to a last minute work-related issue, we still moved forward. The first scene, a combat encounter, demonstrated that, despite a lucky hit, these guys could handle themselves against six Extras with no difficulties. It may be time to consider upping the number of foes, especially as a few of them are moving into Seasoned now.
Savage Worlds has no consistent rules for diseases, except that you have to make a Vigor check to resist them, and if you fail, an arbitrarily-selected game effect takes place. It's very First Edition AD&D to me, and that has its place, but it wasn't what I was looking for. Borrowing a page from D20, I went for a more debilitative approach with the Red Death plague, and it fit the storyline quite well. Each day, you must make a Vigor roll or suffer another level of fatigue. You can stop making that daily check when you get a raise on your Vigor roll, you get healing (magical or mundane) at -2 on the check, or you die. There's a power from the Fantasy World Builders Toolkit, IIRC, called Succor that removes fatigue in a manner similar to Healing removing wounds. For this scenario, the Lord Morvel and his people are holding off the continuation of the disease with the Succor power, and are not healing the people outright, because it keeps them in thrall to Lord Morvel.
The players have figured out Lord Morvel's plan to take the resources of the people, as well as remove any tools or knowledge that could be used to fight against demons in the future, and destroy them as part of a ritual. They've reasoned that Lord Morvel is using knowledge of some lost prophecy of a secret society called the Followers of Light to manipulate them into aiding his efforts as well. They now see Lord Morvel as the first true level of a conspiracy that has orchestrated a number of recent events that they've been witness to, and that these Followers of Light are just like Ekarus the Grey and Veridia the Red, dupes to be used to accomplish their goals.
I saw a lot of non-combat trait checks this time around, demonstrating that the Savage Worlds rules system can support non-combat play. I also got the chance to pull back the curtain, so to speak, and reveal the existence of one of the major overarching plots that they'll be dealing with as the first major story of the campaign. The players really seemed to enjoy the levels and dark depths of Lord Morvel's plans that they were able to pick up on, and look forward to the big fight next week against Lord Morvel, Warlord Vinculos and the Priests of White. The biggest twist is yet to come, though.
Next week, there's going to be a lot of action and quite the challenge in stopping this ritual and saving the relics from destruction. It should be a fun night, for all of us at the table.
Wish Them Luck,
Flynn
Good Morning, All:
It's been a while since our last adventure, as the local influenza epidemic takes its toll on the gamers. However, last night we were lucky enough to get four out of the core five players together for a Wednesday Night session, and they uncovered a lot in the way of one of the big overarching plots of the campaign.
The Synopsis:
Having spoken with the cyclops Oracle, Amandrea, the party made their way back down to the beach, to return to Greenfell via the boat that had borne them to the Oracle's Isle. Once in Greenfell, the team reviewed the options before them, and elected to address the Newport plague issue. The Warlord Andrus's question had dealt with the situation there, and he had been told that he should slay the one who walks as lord, for the lord was the purveyor of plague. Evaluating the local conditions, the team also decided that they might end up wintering in Greenfell. If that was the case, they would also have to defend the village against the Sundered Kings that were seiging the village of Moonwell to the west.
The next morning, the brave band of adventurers set forth along the southbound road towards Newport, expecting to arrive there by nightfall. Their trip helped bring home the fact that the region was no longer bound under the city-state of Synovia, but instead, each village had become an island of civilization unto itself.
About an hour from Newport, six infected exiles attacked the party en mass from the grounds of an orchard along the side of the road. Calyt the Shade, who had been acting as point, took the brunt of the first wave, including a devastating hit that wounded him severely. The adventurers rallied, lined up, and beat the crazed plague victims down before the bloody exiles could rend the party to shreds. Anzjin somberly healed Calyt, as the others surveyed the area.
Having attracted the attention of local farmers, the party noted that some had sent runners ahead to announce their imminent arrival. Before the band could make it to the township, however, they were called to the side of the road by another farmer, who suggested that they not enter into Newport, lest they be captured and brought before Lord Kelas Morvel as part of Tribute. Before they could talk further, the farmer offered to hide them in his barn, and the group took him up on his offer.
Inside the barn, the party met another man also hiding by the farmer's good will. Brother Claudius was the sole surviving priest of the Temple of the Three Graces in Newport, a holy place dedicated to the god of Knowledge and Healing, Joven. The Scything Time (the Midsummer Massacre, to some) had slain all but two novices, Brothers Claudius and Ignatius. The day after, the plague hit Newport and the Merchant House Lord Morvel declared himself lord of Newport and led a riot against the Temple. Ignatius died, and only Claudius escaped. Since then, he has been laying low, aiding the faithful as he could, while avoiding Lord Kelas and his new Priests of White.
Apparently, Lord Morvel had instituted a policy of daily Tribute, where the locals all came at dusk each night to donate food or goods. The most valuable items earned a brief respite from the ravages of the Red Death. Mercenaries and militia men, as well as a few others, were called the "Favored", and received special treatment. The Priests of Light used relics scavenged from the Temple to provide succor to those that they deemed worthy, and the rest of the locals continued to donate out of fear of reprisals as well as the hopes of earning that temporary respite.
The Lord Morvel had also began tearing down the Temple, forming barricades from the rubble that had been removed, and generally fortifying the area around the old sacred grounds. Brother Claudius felt that the damage was a sacrilege to Joven, but was powerless to stop it, given that Lord Morvel was defended by the Priest of White and a bodyguard, the Warlord Vinculos.
As the party waited, Calyt the Shade slipped into town for some basic reconnaissance. He found that guards travelled around town at night in pairs, while the Temple grounds were guarded by patrols of four. Sneaking up towards the Temple, Calyt managed to overhear a conversation that spoke of an upcoming ritual the next evening between a young woman and her uncle. The woman had doubts that the ritual was indeed the one prophesied by the Followers of Light, and the man warned her not to speak of her concerns and doubts, lest she be punished.
Fleeing the Temple proper, Calyt snuck into the temple's library to discover that it had been ransacked and marked crudely with blood on the walls and such with symbols he recognized from the onyx skull he kept in his pouch.
As Calyt the Shade snuck back towards his friends, he came across the only inn in town to host boarders. The Warlord Vinculos stepped out for a breath of fresh air, and spied the stealthy Calyt across the way. Calyt ran around the corner and attempted to use his arcane abilities to transform into a cat, but Vinculos's rapid charge towards his position fouled his concentration, and he fled deeper into the alley. Just as Vinculos had cornered the young Calyt, he was able to bring his meager arcane talent to bear and melted into the ground, burrowing his way to freedom.
Reunited, the team evaluated what they had learned. Through a series of deductions, they determined that it was likely that Lord Morvel was part of some major conspiracy that started on Midsummer's Eve with Veridia being sent to obtain the Blood of Meritus and the resulting Scything Times, followed by the goblin raids on Trader's Point, as well as Lord Morvel's infiltration and conquest of Newport. They began to realize that he was gathering resources for something big, as well as raiding the catacombs of the Temple for relics. With news of the impending ritual, they determined that perhaps this was Lord Morvel's ultimate goal, and decided they would have to stop it. Working out an arrangement with Brother Claudius for his followers to start a few fires in abandoned areas around town and draw the body of guards away from the temple proper, the brave band decided to sneak into town and hole up in the library until the next day's Tribute was held.
Once the group found themselves within the abandoned library, they rested and searched the scattered scrolls and tomes for any information about what this ritual of Lord Morvel's might entail. While they did not find anything, the party did realize that all information related to the Dark Arts and fighting infernal creatures had been removed from the library, and that the library had been defiled to remove its sanctity. With this final piece, the party came to an incredible realization: Lord Morvel was using the Followers of Light and the people of Newport to defile the temple and destroy all possible resources that could be used to fend off an infernal assault in the future. Someone had big plans, and they apparently involved bringing demons to the Plane Prime!
And that's where the session ended...
Commentary:
Given the extensive delay between the last session and this one, we were a little harder to bring back on track, but we eventually started moving. Being down one player due to a last minute work-related issue, we still moved forward. The first scene, a combat encounter, demonstrated that, despite a lucky hit, these guys could handle themselves against six Extras with no difficulties. It may be time to consider upping the number of foes, especially as a few of them are moving into Seasoned now.
Savage Worlds has no consistent rules for diseases, except that you have to make a Vigor check to resist them, and if you fail, an arbitrarily-selected game effect takes place. It's very First Edition AD&D to me, and that has its place, but it wasn't what I was looking for. Borrowing a page from D20, I went for a more debilitative approach with the Red Death plague, and it fit the storyline quite well. Each day, you must make a Vigor roll or suffer another level of fatigue. You can stop making that daily check when you get a raise on your Vigor roll, you get healing (magical or mundane) at -2 on the check, or you die. There's a power from the Fantasy World Builders Toolkit, IIRC, called Succor that removes fatigue in a manner similar to Healing removing wounds. For this scenario, the Lord Morvel and his people are holding off the continuation of the disease with the Succor power, and are not healing the people outright, because it keeps them in thrall to Lord Morvel.
The players have figured out Lord Morvel's plan to take the resources of the people, as well as remove any tools or knowledge that could be used to fight against demons in the future, and destroy them as part of a ritual. They've reasoned that Lord Morvel is using knowledge of some lost prophecy of a secret society called the Followers of Light to manipulate them into aiding his efforts as well. They now see Lord Morvel as the first true level of a conspiracy that has orchestrated a number of recent events that they've been witness to, and that these Followers of Light are just like Ekarus the Grey and Veridia the Red, dupes to be used to accomplish their goals.
I saw a lot of non-combat trait checks this time around, demonstrating that the Savage Worlds rules system can support non-combat play. I also got the chance to pull back the curtain, so to speak, and reveal the existence of one of the major overarching plots that they'll be dealing with as the first major story of the campaign. The players really seemed to enjoy the levels and dark depths of Lord Morvel's plans that they were able to pick up on, and look forward to the big fight next week against Lord Morvel, Warlord Vinculos and the Priests of White. The biggest twist is yet to come, though.
Next week, there's going to be a lot of action and quite the challenge in stopping this ritual and saving the relics from destruction. It should be a fun night, for all of us at the table.
Wish Them Luck,
Flynn
Flynn
First Post
Session Notes - 02/20/08
Good Morning, All:
Last night's session concluded another adventure, and the town of Newport was saved! Yay! Four out of the five members of the gaming group were able to make it (the last suffering a work-related issue), and a friend of mine joined in for a guest shot to try out the system. We gamed about half an hour beyond our normal stopping point, and we had a lot of fun doing so.
The Session:
As dusk approached, a sound at the locked side door disrupted the party's rest. It turned out to be Brother Claudius joining the party, determined to aid them as best he could in the recovery of the Temple of the Three Graces. As people began to pay their tribute, bells started to toll in different parts of the township, and a majority of the warriors, as well as the locals, rushed to form bucket brigades and fight the fires. Only a handful remained, as confirmed by Calyt after he took on the form of a sparrow and flew about the old Temple grounds and surrounding area to reconnoiter the current situation.
After a bit of brief discussion, Brother Claudius presented a plan where he would lure the guards from their position in front of the temple's main doors, so that the party could knock them cold. Things proceeded well for the party, but much to Brother Claudius's chagrine, some well-placed shots slew several of the guards as the party did not share Brother Claudius's pacifism.
The battle moved fluidly into the Temple's main courtyard, as the adventurers moved to fight Warlord Vinculos and a handful of mercenaries. Although the mercs dropped relatively quickly, the enemy Warlord fled the scene of the battle, intent on warning Lord Morvel of the intruders. There was a hectic pursuit down the halls of the Temple and into the catacombs, while the defensive Warlord avoided the onslaught of his pursuers. Finally, the party was able to surround Warlord Vinculos, forcing him to fight. Vinculos made a fierce strike against Warlord Andrus, only to find he could not land a blow due to the mystical deflections that Brother Claudius had cast on Andrus earlier. Before Vinculos could act again, the party made short work of the enemy warlord, and he fell to the floor in a pool of his own blood.
From where they had felled the Warlord Vinculos, the party spied a ritual taking place deeper in the catacombs. Seven cultists and Lord Morvel danced and chanted around a large bonfire, and Lord Morvel held a bound woman ready to use her as sacrifice. Without hesitation, Calyt the Shade ran forward and cast a sphere of deep darkness over the ritual, allowing the party time to move in without being attacked at range.
Even as the party moved forward, Lord Morvel ordered the cultists to step back out of the shadows and then move to attack the invaders. The cultists obeyed, and a number of them moved into a position where they could charge the oncoming adventurers. The party made relatively short work of the cultists, only to be dismayed when the shadows fell away at the end of the spell to reveal that Lord Morvel had changed into an infernal demon resembling a humanoid cockroach, and had laid the woman low with a wound before moving to attack the party.
The band of adventurers moved quickly to surround the demon, despite the fact that some of them were disturbed by its fearful presence. Calyt the Shade leapt upon the back of the fiend, opening it up to attacks from the others as it clawed at its new rider. Its carapace was hard, but finally, the damage began to mount up. Finally, Yngvar the Wall was able to land a savage strike that felled the demon.
And that's where the session ended...
The Commentary:
This session ultimately became an extended combat scene, although it truely encompassed what I thought was going to be three separate encounters. The Warlord Vinculos's flight through the halls of the desecrated temple and into the catacombs connected everything, so the night was spent in a long series of combat turns. It was fun, but we really didn't get much else done. That's okay, though, as the players had fun.
I learned a number of things this last session. The first is that a character such as Warlord Vinculos with a high Parry score (9, in this case) can be almost unhittable at times if all he does is defend (+2 Parry, total of 11) and move. Even when they hit him, his high Toughness (9) stopped him from taking very much damage. When he stopped to fight, I learned that the deflection power, with a raise, is quite effective. Andrus was essentially -4 to hit, and Vinculos couldn't land a blow to save his life. This is also the combat that demonstrated the true effectiveness of the gang up bonus, as that's how the party took Vinculos down.
The tactic of ganging up on the enemy proved to be devastating for the plague demon they fought next. While the demon was relatively easy to hit, it had a very high Toughness (12), and so the first couple of shots that landed were ineffective. Here's where the party learned about using Called Shots. By making a called shot to the vitals of the demon (-4 attack, +4 damage), and making Wild attacks (+2 attack, +2 damage, -2 Parry), with a maxed out gang up bonus of +3, the party was pretty much making attacks at +1, with a +6 damage. With a Joker, that's +3 attack and +8 damage. That made it much easier to damage the demon, and this tactic combined with a spectacular series of aced damage rolls allowed Yngvar (the character of the player that missed the session) to lay a vicious blow on the Demon, taking it from 2 wounds well into Incapacitated. Even though the demon was bleeding out, the party made finishing moves on it to insure its death.
My friend that played Brother Claudius as a guest shot enjoyed seeing the system in action, and despite being saddled with minor pacifism, had a great time playing with the magic and even the combat system. He made a number of great taunts, which were only negated by the fact that I had lucky rolls, and he got to fight the demon because pacifism does not cover angry infernal beings seeking to devour the souls of the people in his congregation. He liked the system, and felt it was light enough that it probably depended on the quality of the GM to really make or break the gaming experience, but he had a great time.
The group discussed the taunts and intimidation tactics a bit after the session, which makes me think that they will probably start using them more and more as the game moves forward. I think it's interesting to see that Savage Worlds offers some pretty complex and varied tactics through its deceptively simple rules set, and it takes time and practice for all of these elements to percolate to the top so that their benefits can be seen. I also think that I can safely advance the level of difficulty in the combats now, since the party has done so well against recent challenges. It makes sense, though, as they are now starting to enter into Seasoned.
Next week, they will get some clues to another of the Oracle's prophecies, and then they will have a choice to make as to what they want to pursue as their next adventure. I might need to do a little more prep work this week, but since prep is easy, I should be ready unless they just outright surprise me with something.
Wish Them Luck,
Flynn
Good Morning, All:
Last night's session concluded another adventure, and the town of Newport was saved! Yay! Four out of the five members of the gaming group were able to make it (the last suffering a work-related issue), and a friend of mine joined in for a guest shot to try out the system. We gamed about half an hour beyond our normal stopping point, and we had a lot of fun doing so.
The Session:
As dusk approached, a sound at the locked side door disrupted the party's rest. It turned out to be Brother Claudius joining the party, determined to aid them as best he could in the recovery of the Temple of the Three Graces. As people began to pay their tribute, bells started to toll in different parts of the township, and a majority of the warriors, as well as the locals, rushed to form bucket brigades and fight the fires. Only a handful remained, as confirmed by Calyt after he took on the form of a sparrow and flew about the old Temple grounds and surrounding area to reconnoiter the current situation.
After a bit of brief discussion, Brother Claudius presented a plan where he would lure the guards from their position in front of the temple's main doors, so that the party could knock them cold. Things proceeded well for the party, but much to Brother Claudius's chagrine, some well-placed shots slew several of the guards as the party did not share Brother Claudius's pacifism.
The battle moved fluidly into the Temple's main courtyard, as the adventurers moved to fight Warlord Vinculos and a handful of mercenaries. Although the mercs dropped relatively quickly, the enemy Warlord fled the scene of the battle, intent on warning Lord Morvel of the intruders. There was a hectic pursuit down the halls of the Temple and into the catacombs, while the defensive Warlord avoided the onslaught of his pursuers. Finally, the party was able to surround Warlord Vinculos, forcing him to fight. Vinculos made a fierce strike against Warlord Andrus, only to find he could not land a blow due to the mystical deflections that Brother Claudius had cast on Andrus earlier. Before Vinculos could act again, the party made short work of the enemy warlord, and he fell to the floor in a pool of his own blood.
From where they had felled the Warlord Vinculos, the party spied a ritual taking place deeper in the catacombs. Seven cultists and Lord Morvel danced and chanted around a large bonfire, and Lord Morvel held a bound woman ready to use her as sacrifice. Without hesitation, Calyt the Shade ran forward and cast a sphere of deep darkness over the ritual, allowing the party time to move in without being attacked at range.
Even as the party moved forward, Lord Morvel ordered the cultists to step back out of the shadows and then move to attack the invaders. The cultists obeyed, and a number of them moved into a position where they could charge the oncoming adventurers. The party made relatively short work of the cultists, only to be dismayed when the shadows fell away at the end of the spell to reveal that Lord Morvel had changed into an infernal demon resembling a humanoid cockroach, and had laid the woman low with a wound before moving to attack the party.
The band of adventurers moved quickly to surround the demon, despite the fact that some of them were disturbed by its fearful presence. Calyt the Shade leapt upon the back of the fiend, opening it up to attacks from the others as it clawed at its new rider. Its carapace was hard, but finally, the damage began to mount up. Finally, Yngvar the Wall was able to land a savage strike that felled the demon.
And that's where the session ended...
The Commentary:
This session ultimately became an extended combat scene, although it truely encompassed what I thought was going to be three separate encounters. The Warlord Vinculos's flight through the halls of the desecrated temple and into the catacombs connected everything, so the night was spent in a long series of combat turns. It was fun, but we really didn't get much else done. That's okay, though, as the players had fun.
I learned a number of things this last session. The first is that a character such as Warlord Vinculos with a high Parry score (9, in this case) can be almost unhittable at times if all he does is defend (+2 Parry, total of 11) and move. Even when they hit him, his high Toughness (9) stopped him from taking very much damage. When he stopped to fight, I learned that the deflection power, with a raise, is quite effective. Andrus was essentially -4 to hit, and Vinculos couldn't land a blow to save his life. This is also the combat that demonstrated the true effectiveness of the gang up bonus, as that's how the party took Vinculos down.
The tactic of ganging up on the enemy proved to be devastating for the plague demon they fought next. While the demon was relatively easy to hit, it had a very high Toughness (12), and so the first couple of shots that landed were ineffective. Here's where the party learned about using Called Shots. By making a called shot to the vitals of the demon (-4 attack, +4 damage), and making Wild attacks (+2 attack, +2 damage, -2 Parry), with a maxed out gang up bonus of +3, the party was pretty much making attacks at +1, with a +6 damage. With a Joker, that's +3 attack and +8 damage. That made it much easier to damage the demon, and this tactic combined with a spectacular series of aced damage rolls allowed Yngvar (the character of the player that missed the session) to lay a vicious blow on the Demon, taking it from 2 wounds well into Incapacitated. Even though the demon was bleeding out, the party made finishing moves on it to insure its death.
My friend that played Brother Claudius as a guest shot enjoyed seeing the system in action, and despite being saddled with minor pacifism, had a great time playing with the magic and even the combat system. He made a number of great taunts, which were only negated by the fact that I had lucky rolls, and he got to fight the demon because pacifism does not cover angry infernal beings seeking to devour the souls of the people in his congregation. He liked the system, and felt it was light enough that it probably depended on the quality of the GM to really make or break the gaming experience, but he had a great time.
The group discussed the taunts and intimidation tactics a bit after the session, which makes me think that they will probably start using them more and more as the game moves forward. I think it's interesting to see that Savage Worlds offers some pretty complex and varied tactics through its deceptively simple rules set, and it takes time and practice for all of these elements to percolate to the top so that their benefits can be seen. I also think that I can safely advance the level of difficulty in the combats now, since the party has done so well against recent challenges. It makes sense, though, as they are now starting to enter into Seasoned.
Next week, they will get some clues to another of the Oracle's prophecies, and then they will have a choice to make as to what they want to pursue as their next adventure. I might need to do a little more prep work this week, but since prep is easy, I should be ready unless they just outright surprise me with something.
Wish Them Luck,
Flynn
Wik
First Post
Your write-ups are always great. A few comments:
1) Isn't the max gang-up modifier +4?
2) We found a similar problem with high toughness ratings - even against orcs (toughness 8) our players were getting a bit ticked when they'd *finally* land a hit, and then not break through toughness. And since you can't re-roll damage with a benny...
3) The deflection with a raise *is* a big deal, as I noticed when the cowardly mage cast it upon an extra. That character's parry went from 4 to 8, making him much harder for the Ogre to hit him. It kept him alive!
4) Where are you getting your spells? I have the Advanced Dungeons and Savages spell list, and Savage Spells, and Savage Fantasy.... but you gotta catch 'em all, right?
5) I never thought about it, but it'd be pretty easy to run another PC when the player's gone. This was a definite hindrance when I ran D&D - if someone didn't show up, it was always a strain running two PCs. I don't know if it'd be that hard for players to run two wild cards. Might be difficult handling bennies, I guess...
6) I'm curious about your bookkeeping. How do you keep track of wounds and spell effects? I sort of want to pick up ideas - I like trolling for new things to add to my game.
With me, I use poker chips that I put underneath the character in question. White chips mean shaken, red mean wounds, and blue mean the creature's under a spell effect. I use one blue chip for each round of duration, and simply subtract a chip each time that character's round starts (if I ever come across a character under two spell effects, I'll just put white tokens underneath the blue ones, and sort of checkerboard them like that).
Doing it this way means all bookkeeping is done on the table, which works.
7) Does the random pace rule bug the hell out of you? Because it bugs me.
1) Isn't the max gang-up modifier +4?
2) We found a similar problem with high toughness ratings - even against orcs (toughness 8) our players were getting a bit ticked when they'd *finally* land a hit, and then not break through toughness. And since you can't re-roll damage with a benny...
3) The deflection with a raise *is* a big deal, as I noticed when the cowardly mage cast it upon an extra. That character's parry went from 4 to 8, making him much harder for the Ogre to hit him. It kept him alive!
4) Where are you getting your spells? I have the Advanced Dungeons and Savages spell list, and Savage Spells, and Savage Fantasy.... but you gotta catch 'em all, right?
5) I never thought about it, but it'd be pretty easy to run another PC when the player's gone. This was a definite hindrance when I ran D&D - if someone didn't show up, it was always a strain running two PCs. I don't know if it'd be that hard for players to run two wild cards. Might be difficult handling bennies, I guess...
6) I'm curious about your bookkeeping. How do you keep track of wounds and spell effects? I sort of want to pick up ideas - I like trolling for new things to add to my game.
With me, I use poker chips that I put underneath the character in question. White chips mean shaken, red mean wounds, and blue mean the creature's under a spell effect. I use one blue chip for each round of duration, and simply subtract a chip each time that character's round starts (if I ever come across a character under two spell effects, I'll just put white tokens underneath the blue ones, and sort of checkerboard them like that).
Doing it this way means all bookkeeping is done on the table, which works.
7) Does the random pace rule bug the hell out of you? Because it bugs me.
Flynn
First Post
Wik said:
First, thank you for the compliment. I greatly appreciate feedback. That's what keeps me writing everything up, to tell the truth.
Wik said:
You're right. For some reason, I capped it in my head at +3.
Wik said:
Not without the "No Mercy" Edge anyway...
Yeah, combining Wild Attack with Called Shots is the best way to up your damage, with Gang Up to help compensate for penalties.
Wik said:
Yep. That foiled the plans of my Big Bad Evil Guys a lot this last session.
Wik said:
Start with the Fantasy Toolkit, and then pick up the Shaintar Player's Guide. After that, there are a ton of powers in various fan conversions and in Shark Bytes, but you have to wade through them and make sure they aren't duplicates of existing powers. Also check out Savage Warcraft, a great fan conversion with a wonderful list of new powers. (I haven't finished going over them, but I like that there's many of them.)
Wik said:
The way we do it, we kinda run the Wild Card by committee, based on past behaviors. I typically let the majority decide courses of action. I also make the rolls, unless someone volunteers to roll for the missing PC. Bennies are just kept in a separate stack, where I tuck his card for initiative.
Wik said:
I use glass beads to track Shaken, by placing that at the base of the mini. I did read recently about a suggestion to use colored pipe cleaners and make small loops that can be hung on a mini for such things. It sounds cool, but I haven't done it yet.
Poker chips are used for bennies, but I save my red ones to put on the initiative cards of enemy Wild Cards to track wounds. One chip is one wound. The players help remind me of penalties using this visual clue. If there are no chips, the bad guy isn't wounded. Makes it very easy to see the wounds build up, rather than use more chips and count down.
I don't note spell effects on the field, but if I were using the pipe cleaner loop idea, I probably would.
Wik said:
Sometimes, but it adds dramatic tension, so I'm okay with it.
Hope This Helps,
Flynn
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