Suggest a system that does slave uprisings well!

[Asmor]

I'm thinking of running a couple short adventures here and there, starting with the Al'Qadim adventure Reunion. It's a three-part adventure where the a tribe is abducted; the men are sent to the mines, and the women to a harem, and the children to a temple, and in each part the players play one of the three groups as they make their escape.

For a few reasons, I don't want to use 3rd edition to run the adventure (and 2nd edition isn't even an option).

I'm looking for a system that handles combat between armed and unarmed participants reasonably well... Although that's not a hard requirement.

At the moment, I'm thinking of doing it in WFRP 2nd edition, primarily because it seems like a good system for rolling up pre-made characters for the players and it would be easy to explain. Plus, I want to give it a try.

Any other systems I should consider?

 

[WayneLigon]

Savage Worlds might be good for this, and it's a steal at $10.00. But WFRP 2nd edition should serve you just fine especially if you're doing short infrequent adventures; I think the ease of chargen in that system makes it suited very well for that sort of situation.

 

[frankthedm]

Due to unfortunate circumstances (the owner of the FLGS we gamed at after hours one day, for reasons unknown, fired one of the employees we gamed with and said we were no longer allowed to play there... I'm guessing something got stolen, but there've been no details forthcoming), all my games have vanished in the blink of an eye

I recommend writing a letter to the game store owner. Not an angry letter, but one that asks for an explanation why a loyal customer was treated in such a manner. He won’t have to be forthcoming, nor might he be able to give information on a terminated employee, but if he won’t give a reason why your entire group is persona non grata, that certainly is a reason to encourage others not to go there.

 

[Asmor]

I have no quarrel with him... He let us play there after the store was closed for 7 years. There's no hard feelings.

Of course, on the flip side, I now have no compunction whatsoever about buying my books off Amazon (whereas I used to try and spend money there to support the place I played at), but c'est la vie.

 

[frankthedm]

I have no quarrel with him... He let us play there after the store was closed for 7 years. There's no hard feelings.

In my book 7 years of being a customer earns you an explanation.

 

[Tewligan]

Just out of curiosity, why can't you keep playing the same games you were already in, but somewhere else?

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

In my book 7 years of being a customer earns you an explanation.

Seconded.

Now, as for the question, you can probably do it in 3.5 with no problems. It does depict unarmed vs. armed appropriately...i.e. unless you're much better than the other person (are much higher level), or have something else to equalize the odds (like specific unarmed combat training, or magic that you can use), or are willing to soak up casualties, an armed and armored combatant can expect to win handily against an unarmed, unarmored opponent.

The slaves' strategy would be to obtain what weapons they could (picks, chains, shivs), and bumrush the guards (who, remember, are probably 1st-3rd warriors), the unarmed members using aid another to help grapple the guards. Other scenarios may require more planning...a slave coffle guarded by a hill giant had best wait for him to fall asleep in a drunken stupor before doing anything.

Brad

 

[Asmor]

Just out of curiosity, why can't you keep playing the same games you were already in, but somewhere else?

Depending on the game, each game had anywhere from 5-9 players (not counting DM). At my place, even 4 players is kind of cramped, and the other DMs all have similar problems.

I appreciate everyone's concern about the situation, but there are subtleties and nuances I didn't and won't explain, and I only said as much as I did because I have a habit of explaining way more than is necessary... Suffice to say, I shouldn't have said anything in the first place because it's not actually relevant to the question at hand, and so I'm going to go edit my original post to remove it.

Anyways, back on topic, the difficulties with armed vs. unarmed combat are not the only reason I don't want to run this in 3rd edition. Among other things, I want to run a looser game and if I run D&D I know I'll get to stuck up in the rules, because I know the rules too well.

I'm not familiar with Savage Worlds... Could someone tell me a bit about it?

 

[SavageRobby]

Yeah, SW sounds like a good fit. A slave uprising would be a nice scenario to run.

Savage Worlds is kind of pulpy, and has the tagline Fun, Fast, Furious. Everything that 4E purports to be, Savage Worlds already is. Normal combats take minutes, large combats take 10-15 minutes, even with lots of extras (mooks) and allies. Combat in general is a blast, and relies more on tactics than going toe-to-toe (no AoO, per se, although there are similar free attacks in certain, much more limited situations). You are rewarded for being heroic and larger than life. Characters start far more competent than your average first level D&D character, but even very high rank (Legendary) Savage characters are still human, and with a great roll could be taken out by a goblin with a dagger.

In short, its a fun system. Definitely rules-light but also not rules-missing. And the new rulebook is $10 - definitely worth checking out.

 

[Asmor]

It does sound tempting... I've found the test drive rules (link in case anyone else is interested), and it seems simple enough to run and teach.

I'm honestly a little worried about some of the core mechanics, though. In particular, keeping track of aces, especially with the wild die present, seems like it could be kind of slow. I'm also not too taken with the initiative rules, since they seem to require shuffling a deck every round.

At $10, though, it is a great deal. Amazon's got a 4-for-3 deal going right now, and I'm seriously considering buying 4 copies of the book just so that if I do like it I'll have enough to go around... Silly players and their not buying of the books.

From what I've read, it reminds me a lot of Adventure, except without the terrible, terrible White Wolf system (okay, maybe White Wolf's system isn't inherently terrible, but I personally hate it).

On that same site I found a couple "one-page adventures," including one that would be great for a halloween adventure. Even has 4 custom-tailored PCs! I'm going to try running that to decide if I like the system or not.