Tell me about Necropolis (Savage Worlds setting)

[Asmor]

Well, I actually ran the necropolis one-sheet tonight.

I like the setting a lot, and the system's not bad... but it seemed to bog down a lot. In particular, when I was worrying about controlling 8 zombies, each of which was making 3 attacks (with a full-auto flechette SMG), it got a bit much.

The battles did take a long time, but on the other hand we're talking about 4 PCs, each with two "hirelings" (i.e. sergeants), and as many as 10 enemies.

I think I'm going to buy the PDF and get it printed at Staples. The softcover on Amazon says it ships in 2-3 weeks, which is Amazon code for "We probably don't have the book and don't know when or if we could get it." The fact that it was a limited print run would seem to support this hypothesis.

 

[SavageRobby]

The first few real fights in SW can be tricky, but ultimately I find combat in SW to be quick and easy (much quicker than most other systems with comparable detail). We did a battle with 6 PCs and some 30 goblins, goblin spellcasters and dwarf allies, and resolved it in 30-40 minutes or so - in our of our first SW sessions as a group. Some suggestions:

* Get a set of unusual colored dice for your player's Wild Dice. Always have them roll them when they roll other dice, no matter what. You can always ignore the extra die, but it saves the inevitable "Should I roll the Wild Die?" questions.

* Have the players roll for their opponents. This saves more time than you realize, and its fun to watch a player ace damage against themselves.

* Aggregate opponents Init cards, and do the same for players and allies they directly control (and let players control allies - its fun).

* Use counters to show various states (Shaken, Wild Attack, etc) - I use poker chips of various colors (red = wounds, green = wild attack, etc), and put them next to or under the mini. The visuals help a lot for instant reference.

 

[Asmor]

* Get a set of unusual colored dice for your player's Wild Dice. Always have them roll them when they roll other dice, no matter what. You can always ignore the extra die, but it saves the inevitable "Should I roll the Wild Die?" questions.

Not a bad idea, especially since I have two bricks of 36 d6s which look nothing like my other dice.

* Have the players roll for their opponents. This saves more time than you realize, and its fun to watch a player ace damage against themselves.

I tried something similar in D&D once, using Rycanada's players roll all the dice rules, and my players hated it. Granted, this is a bit different since it doesn't require you to calculate anything differently...

* Aggregate opponents Init cards, and do the same for players and allies they directly control (and let players control allies - its fun).

Both of those are part of the rules already... Each player gets one card, and the allies they control go on their initiative, and each group of NPCs gets a card. If anything, I think I'd want to split up the NPCs when there are large groups so I don't have to do as much each time their initiative comes up.

* Use counters to show various states (Shaken, Wild Attack, etc) - I use poker chips of various colors (red = wounds, green = wild attack, etc), and put them next to or under the mini. The visuals help a lot for instant reference.

Actually did something similar to this... Didn't bring my minis yesterday, so we used icehouse pieces. I used a clear cap for people that were shaken.

 

[scourger]

I recently bought Necropolis from Amazon.com. I had been interested in it for several months but deterred by the pdf-only format. It arrived very quickly--less than a week I think. The production values are lower than other books I've gotten from PEG Inc. In this book, black print on grey background is hard to read. There are too many typos and dropped text.

Necropolis reminds me a lot of Tour of Darkness, another game in their Weird Wars line. We had a great time with ToD, and it was about 90% less work on me than a d20 game; but I think Necro will be too hard to bring to the table. I'm reading the plot point campaign and it doesn't feel as compelling. It's harder to paint the scene because I can't draw on all those Viet Nam movies we've all seen. It sounds like you're past that already, so it should be all good for you.

I am looking forward to Weird War 2 for Savage Worlds. Hopefully, it actually will be released next year as hinted by PEG lately. I'm sure the core will be functionally similar to what's in these books, and it will be easy to paint the WW2 scene with our common frame of reference.