Wow. Have I been slacking on this or what...?!
Well we've taken a break from the Twilight Campaign. They ditched the Reset Papers with the DIA in Krakow and got themselves regular type jobs. I'm refering to it ass the "Twilight Campaign" rather than the "Twilight: 2000 Campaign" as I decided it should really be set in 1990 - where, as alternative history, it makes a bit more sense.... So all dates have just been made -10 years. I’d like to return to this sometime, but my interests have taken me in new directions lately – Fantasy.
Everyone made up new characters in November using the Fantasy Character Generator Toolkit. I sort of love this – it’s totally fun just making characters. It fleshes out the characters with the type of background most players just couldn’t be bothered with to come up with themselves. It also tends to make characters that are really good at what they do – though often to the exclusion of all other things…
I have players that, when making up regular characters with the regular character generation rules, tend to take a little bit of everything – but they end up sucking at everything and aren’t really good at anything. So it’s refreshing having them play characters that are actually pretty good at what they do. I can make harder adventures for them and know it won’t kill them outright…. well… sometimes… The problem is You get guys that are SUPER good at what they do – fighter types with d10 strength and d12 in fighting… but no stealth, no healing, no nothing… Thieves with d12 in stealth and lockpicking, but no fighting or shooting whatsoever!? When you have both of these in the same party it becomes problematic – to add elements where the thief can shine that won’t be ruined by the fighters inability to be “sneaky” or to add combat foes that the fighter won’t take down in the first round of combat – but won’t kill the thief in the first round of combat…
We’ve played two sessions with the fantasy characters. There was a bit of a break when I had some surgery, and now we won’t be playing again until the new year – everyone’s got festive holiday activities that are apparently more interesting than Savage Saturdays…
In the last game three of the four characters died. Got a little cocky with their d10 strength and d12 fighting and decided to go toe-to-toe with a Royal Mummy… What do you do? Reward stupidity and say “ah, you’re not really dead… you were just ‘knocked out’….”. I guess. I’ve done it in the past. Yeah that last 3 wound causing attack was to your leg, you now have a move of 4 and a run of d4… that’ll learn ya!
Well I’ll try to be a little more regular with this in the new year. Over the holidays I plan to do a few posts featuring some of the characters my players have come up with, post some pics of games.
In the New Year I think we’ll be forging on with a Fantasy Campaign…. perhaps with some new characters….
The Campaign may, at some point tie into a Hordes of the Things wargame Campaign I’m planning on running in the spring.
Thursday, December 18, 2008
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Whoops!!
Seems I've fallen a bit behind on the posting... I'll try and get a bit caught up this weekend. Short version - wrapped up part of the adventure in the Twilight campaign, made some new characters for a fantasy to take a bit of a break....
Thursday, October 23, 2008
New Jobs
Wow, the week's almost gone by without an update...
Last week Mr. Tessmer actually made an appearance which shocked us all! He quickly made a character and joined the others where they left off, having drinks with Hank at the NaZdrowie.
The new character is a mechanic who's name I have forgotten... and can't find the character sheet right now...
Anyway after meeting the new fellow, the group walked Cpl. Watts back to the hospital and then wandered back to the ruined building they had squatted in the previous evening. As they approached, however, it seemed there were some armed me waiting for them there. This caused some nervousness but as the men weren't standing at the ready or waiting in ambush they decided to ask questions first, shoot later...
The men simply told them to follow them... and they did. Right up to the Wawel (the medieval castle on the hill, over-looking the walled part of the city).
Bah, to make a long story short they were offered work with The Warta - Dowodca Kuterzeba's personal bodyguard....
They accepted and were given a tour of the compound and introduced to some of the other members. Then they worked an uneventful shift. finally they headed back to the NaZdrowie to hang out and try again to find information about DIA operatives that might be in Krakow... without actually ASKING any questions of anybody.... unsurprisingly they found out NOTHING!!?
Hallowe'en Special
If I can get the folks to take the kiddies for a sleep-over on the first of November I thought I might run a "Hallowe'en Special Edition" of Savage Saturday. I know, I know... Hallowe'en will be over and technically it's "All Saints Day"... Anyway, the idea would be to start earlier, maybe have the lads over for Pizza and play an extra long extended adventure in a more horror-filled genre... (not that the post-apocalyptic warfare of the current T:2000 Campaign isn't horrific... but...)
So I'm thinking of either a Rippers game (maybe one of the recently released adventures: Night of Thoth or Death on Dartmoor) or maybe get a start on Zombie Run.
I guess there's always CTHULHU too!!!
So lets here from the players....
Would you be interested in an extended game on the 1st?
If yes how early would you like to/be able to start?
Which of the above mentioned options for adventures would you be most interested in?
Post comments/votes here!
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Flashback to Kalisz
Only Andrej and Amanda played tonight, Darrin and Lloyd doing silly family/thanksgiving-ish things this weekend… So I thought I’d run a little “flackback episode” of Watts (Andrej) and Fisher’s (Amanda) escape from Kalisz just after their division was overrun, but before they met up with Davis and Harris.
Near Kalisz, Poland, 18 July 2000, 0535
SITUATION
The 5th Infantry Division (mechanized) has been overrun. Lt. Fisher, cut off from her HQ, has spen the night scrounging around trying to locate friendlies, gathering about her a small group of soldiers and supplies. Just before dawn the group encounters a sergeant from the British S.A.S. He informs them that to the west there is nothing but Russians for miles and miles. Their best bet might be to head east, and then south towards the city of Krakow, which has apparently declared itself a “free city”.
SCENARIO
The Americans start on the west side of the table and have to exit the east side. The size and disposition of the Russian forces in the area are unknown to them. Hidden unit markers will be placed on the table (of which many were dummies) and they will not be revealed until wither the Americans successfully notice one, or the Russians notice them and start firing.
As this is pretty much a straight-up, tabletop skirmish I decided to use Fortune and Calamity.
FORCES
NATO
Lt. Sara Fisher, US Army, formerly S2 for 2nd Brigade, 5 Infantry Division (Mechanized) – Wildcard (Amanda’s character)
Corporal Eric Watts, US Army, A Coy, 5th medical Battalion, 5 Infantry Division (Mechanized) – Wildcard (Andrej’s character)
Sgt. Connor McFadyn, British Special Air Service – Wildcard
2x US Army fireteams (assorted units) one with 3 soldiers, one with 4. Both have M249 and M16/M203 with 4xHE, the balance being armed with M16s.
Soviets
Lt. Vladamir Ivanovich – Soviet Army – Wildcard
Sgt. Ivan Popoff – Soviet Army – Wildcard
2x Russian Motorized Rifle Sections (7) all have AK-74, Sgt. Popoff’s section has an RPD light machinegun and an SVD Sniper rifle.
THE GAME
(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)
Here are my hidden unit markers. There are eight in total, two (#3 and #5) represent one of the wildcard leaders, the remaining six are dummy/blank markers.
The players had NO IDEA how many forces were out there I wanted to give the impression of potentially a LOT of enemies out there so they would concentrate more on maneuver – “escape and evasion” – rather than try and simply kill them all and then wander off on their own pace.
The NATO forces moving through the woods.
Amanda (and her character, Lt. Fisher – in the bottom left of the picture)
Andrej
Hmmmmmm… the “cautious” character leading from the front…? That should cost some bennies from her starting lot next game…
Leading from the front and hearing lots of noises off in the woods to the front (see all those markers…?) Maybe she was thinking it was a herd of deer.
Nope, it was Russians.
Russians begin firing on Fisher and the Fireteam that was following her.
Around the same time, the group Watts was with also ran into a section of Russians in the woods and began exchanging fire.
The next round Andrej drew a jokers for both Sgt. McFadyn AND the fireteam by him. McFadyn got a bonus benny, but the fireteam rolled snake-eyes, indicating a Freak Event. I was using the Freak Events from Modern Ops. and Andrej rolled 12; Cluster Bomb. The unit suddenly realized it was standing amidst unexploded ordinance from a cluster bomb (rather than screwing the whole bunch and having “minefilds” placed under each of them, I randomly determined one guy to be standing in the middle of a low density minefield. He made it out okay, but later in the game Sgt. Mcfadyn ran through it triggering one of the explosives… it shook him, but he soaked it with a benny.
Lt. Fisher ducks further back through the woods, but is pursued by two of the Russians.
One of the fireteam was taken down, another rushed to his aid (or to recover his M203…).
The M203 from the section with Watts dropped a grenade right in amongst the Russians firing on the other team. Shaking three of them.
Fisher shot one of her pursuers and then made a dash for it (being the only character on the table that wasn’t “loyal”). Being “fleet-footed she made it to the table edge in another turn, then stood there considering whether to go back to the aid of her comrades.
Sgt. McFadyn had taken down two or three Russians himself and was engaged in a firefight when he pulled another joker. Andrej rolled a 12 – triggering ANOTHER freak event; Dysentry – drinking untreated water suddenly caught up with Sgt. McFadyn and he was -2 to all actions for the rest of the game due to a sudden and violent case of dysentery!
Fisher returned to the fight and briefly exchanged shots with Sgt. Popoff before disappearing off into the woods again to see what was going on elsewhere. She did this as the firing back where she had left the fireteam following her had ceased. She figured they were either dead or had overcome the Russians. The former seemed more likely.
Indeed they had been taken out by the Soviets – here are the Russians finishing them off and looting the bodies.
Over by Watts things had gone from bad to worse. Two of the three men in the fireteam were down and the third was shaken and unlikely to recover anytime soon. Watts had actually made use of his combat medic ability to bring one guy back into the game only to have him taken down again by a sniper then next turn.
Being the “Stubbornly”, “heroically”, “Loyal” sort he wasn’t about to abandon his fellow Americans so he made a stand when the remaining Soviets came creeping thorugh the woods to overrun his position. In two turn he took down two of the three Russians, and the third surrendered to him!
Meanwhile Fisher had snuck up behind the Russian officer that McFadyn was still shooting at and shot him in the back, finishing him off (he already had three wounds!)
McFadyn made his way back to Watts position and rallied the shaken trooper, then with the aid of Fisher and the Russian POW they carried off the two wounded….
So that’s how Watts and Fisher broke out of Kalisz… Not sure what ever happened to the SAS Sergeant and the other three Americans after that… Of the two injured one had only been knocked unconscious (or perhaps fainted), the other was seriously injured…
Nest week… what to do… Lloyd and Andrej will be bailing as UFC is apparently more interesting and can’t be recorded…. I think we’ll move things back to Krakow and say Watts is busy with hid new “day job” at the hospital and that dysentery that’s going around finally catches up with Davis… He’ll spend the entire time in an outhouse somewhere…
Near Kalisz, Poland, 18 July 2000, 0535
SITUATION
The 5th Infantry Division (mechanized) has been overrun. Lt. Fisher, cut off from her HQ, has spen the night scrounging around trying to locate friendlies, gathering about her a small group of soldiers and supplies. Just before dawn the group encounters a sergeant from the British S.A.S. He informs them that to the west there is nothing but Russians for miles and miles. Their best bet might be to head east, and then south towards the city of Krakow, which has apparently declared itself a “free city”.
SCENARIO
The Americans start on the west side of the table and have to exit the east side. The size and disposition of the Russian forces in the area are unknown to them. Hidden unit markers will be placed on the table (of which many were dummies) and they will not be revealed until wither the Americans successfully notice one, or the Russians notice them and start firing.
As this is pretty much a straight-up, tabletop skirmish I decided to use Fortune and Calamity.
FORCES
NATO
Lt. Sara Fisher, US Army, formerly S2 for 2nd Brigade, 5 Infantry Division (Mechanized) – Wildcard (Amanda’s character)
Corporal Eric Watts, US Army, A Coy, 5th medical Battalion, 5 Infantry Division (Mechanized) – Wildcard (Andrej’s character)
Sgt. Connor McFadyn, British Special Air Service – Wildcard
2x US Army fireteams (assorted units) one with 3 soldiers, one with 4. Both have M249 and M16/M203 with 4xHE, the balance being armed with M16s.
Soviets
Lt. Vladamir Ivanovich – Soviet Army – Wildcard
Sgt. Ivan Popoff – Soviet Army – Wildcard
2x Russian Motorized Rifle Sections (7) all have AK-74, Sgt. Popoff’s section has an RPD light machinegun and an SVD Sniper rifle.
THE GAME
(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)
Here are my hidden unit markers. There are eight in total, two (#3 and #5) represent one of the wildcard leaders, the remaining six are dummy/blank markers.
The players had NO IDEA how many forces were out there I wanted to give the impression of potentially a LOT of enemies out there so they would concentrate more on maneuver – “escape and evasion” – rather than try and simply kill them all and then wander off on their own pace.
The NATO forces moving through the woods.
Amanda (and her character, Lt. Fisher – in the bottom left of the picture)
Andrej
Hmmmmmm… the “cautious” character leading from the front…? That should cost some bennies from her starting lot next game…
Leading from the front and hearing lots of noises off in the woods to the front (see all those markers…?) Maybe she was thinking it was a herd of deer.
Nope, it was Russians.
Russians begin firing on Fisher and the Fireteam that was following her.
Around the same time, the group Watts was with also ran into a section of Russians in the woods and began exchanging fire.
The next round Andrej drew a jokers for both Sgt. McFadyn AND the fireteam by him. McFadyn got a bonus benny, but the fireteam rolled snake-eyes, indicating a Freak Event. I was using the Freak Events from Modern Ops. and Andrej rolled 12; Cluster Bomb. The unit suddenly realized it was standing amidst unexploded ordinance from a cluster bomb (rather than screwing the whole bunch and having “minefilds” placed under each of them, I randomly determined one guy to be standing in the middle of a low density minefield. He made it out okay, but later in the game Sgt. Mcfadyn ran through it triggering one of the explosives… it shook him, but he soaked it with a benny.
Lt. Fisher ducks further back through the woods, but is pursued by two of the Russians.
One of the fireteam was taken down, another rushed to his aid (or to recover his M203…).
The M203 from the section with Watts dropped a grenade right in amongst the Russians firing on the other team. Shaking three of them.
Fisher shot one of her pursuers and then made a dash for it (being the only character on the table that wasn’t “loyal”). Being “fleet-footed she made it to the table edge in another turn, then stood there considering whether to go back to the aid of her comrades.
Sgt. McFadyn had taken down two or three Russians himself and was engaged in a firefight when he pulled another joker. Andrej rolled a 12 – triggering ANOTHER freak event; Dysentry – drinking untreated water suddenly caught up with Sgt. McFadyn and he was -2 to all actions for the rest of the game due to a sudden and violent case of dysentery!
Fisher returned to the fight and briefly exchanged shots with Sgt. Popoff before disappearing off into the woods again to see what was going on elsewhere. She did this as the firing back where she had left the fireteam following her had ceased. She figured they were either dead or had overcome the Russians. The former seemed more likely.
Indeed they had been taken out by the Soviets – here are the Russians finishing them off and looting the bodies.
Over by Watts things had gone from bad to worse. Two of the three men in the fireteam were down and the third was shaken and unlikely to recover anytime soon. Watts had actually made use of his combat medic ability to bring one guy back into the game only to have him taken down again by a sniper then next turn.
Being the “Stubbornly”, “heroically”, “Loyal” sort he wasn’t about to abandon his fellow Americans so he made a stand when the remaining Soviets came creeping thorugh the woods to overrun his position. In two turn he took down two of the three Russians, and the third surrendered to him!
Meanwhile Fisher had snuck up behind the Russian officer that McFadyn was still shooting at and shot him in the back, finishing him off (he already had three wounds!)
McFadyn made his way back to Watts position and rallied the shaken trooper, then with the aid of Fisher and the Russian POW they carried off the two wounded….
So that’s how Watts and Fisher broke out of Kalisz… Not sure what ever happened to the SAS Sergeant and the other three Americans after that… Of the two injured one had only been knocked unconscious (or perhaps fainted), the other was seriously injured…
Nest week… what to do… Lloyd and Andrej will be bailing as UFC is apparently more interesting and can’t be recorded…. I think we’ll move things back to Krakow and say Watts is busy with hid new “day job” at the hospital and that dysentery that’s going around finally catches up with Davis… He’ll spend the entire time in an outhouse somewhere…
Friday, October 10, 2008
Another Day in Krakow
Savage Twilight: 2000 – Session #3
Whoops, slacking off on these already!
The adventure picked up where we left off last week. Watches were setup and the characters settled down for some shut-eye in their new home.
Just past midnight, on Sgt Davis’ shift, a patrol of the ORMO passed by in the street below. As they disappeared out of sight in the darkness (only a couple “doors” down) There was much shouting followed abruptly by a large volume of gunfire! The patrol had walked into an Ambush of some sort. Harris immediately started searching for targets and began taking them down.
Spec Harris and Lt. Fisher flew into action – down the stairs and into the street to intervene. Most of the ORMO were down by this point. Harris took down three of the ambushers, Davis picked off two. Lt. Fisher managed to capture one alive and un injured.
Another patrol arrived, the injured were taken to the hospital, and the group made some friends within the ORMO. They were also able to scavenge some ammo from the ambushers (though not useful to them, they figured they might be able to sell or trade it for something they could use.
Watts, who was now working at the hospital, helped fix some of the wounded ORMO as they arrived later in the morning.
After a couple more hours of sleep they got up and decided to explore the town. They were unsuccessful in their search for employment or event to trade away the scavenged ammo. They did however meek Henryk Halecki and had a drink and chat with him at his night club; the Na Zdrowie.
Not sure if we will be playing this again next Saturday…. Darrin and Lloyd are bailing (Thanksgiving family rubbish)… the next week Lloyd and Andrej are bailing (apparently UFC is more interesting than my Savage Worlds game…). Maybe I’ll set up some Rippers skirmish games or something… or perhaps just forge on without them…!?
Whoops, slacking off on these already!
The adventure picked up where we left off last week. Watches were setup and the characters settled down for some shut-eye in their new home.
Just past midnight, on Sgt Davis’ shift, a patrol of the ORMO passed by in the street below. As they disappeared out of sight in the darkness (only a couple “doors” down) There was much shouting followed abruptly by a large volume of gunfire! The patrol had walked into an Ambush of some sort. Harris immediately started searching for targets and began taking them down.
Spec Harris and Lt. Fisher flew into action – down the stairs and into the street to intervene. Most of the ORMO were down by this point. Harris took down three of the ambushers, Davis picked off two. Lt. Fisher managed to capture one alive and un injured.
Another patrol arrived, the injured were taken to the hospital, and the group made some friends within the ORMO. They were also able to scavenge some ammo from the ambushers (though not useful to them, they figured they might be able to sell or trade it for something they could use.
Watts, who was now working at the hospital, helped fix some of the wounded ORMO as they arrived later in the morning.
After a couple more hours of sleep they got up and decided to explore the town. They were unsuccessful in their search for employment or event to trade away the scavenged ammo. They did however meek Henryk Halecki and had a drink and chat with him at his night club; the Na Zdrowie.
Not sure if we will be playing this again next Saturday…. Darrin and Lloyd are bailing (Thanksgiving family rubbish)… the next week Lloyd and Andrej are bailing (apparently UFC is more interesting than my Savage Worlds game…). Maybe I’ll set up some Rippers skirmish games or something… or perhaps just forge on without them…!?
Monday, September 29, 2008
Welcome to Krakow
Savage Twilight: 2000 – Session #2
This week Darrin joined Lloyd, Andrej and Amanda. He showed up a bit early and made his character; Specialist William Harris (Combat Engineer). He was still finishing up as we started to play.
The adventure picked up on the road Northwest of Krakow, Poland. Fisher, Watts and Davis continued along their way – rucksacks about 30lbs heavier - leaving the scene of the ambush behind them. While taking a break in the early afternoon, concealed in a stand of trees by a crossroads, another soldier in an American uniform come strolling up from the west. After challenging the soldier and a brief exchange of bravado, they determined that they were of a like mind and decided to carry on their merry way together.
In the late afternoon they came across some farmers working in a field. After a little chit-chat they were invited back for supper in exchange for Cpl. Watts doing the rounds of the communal farm/small village. After dispensing much advice, a few aspirins and a handful of the few remaining anit-biotics he had, they all had their bellies filled with the first home-cooked meals they’d had in a while. They then stayed the night as the farmers advised it wouldn’t be safe to carry on into Krakow this late in the evening.
The next morning they wandered into Krakow, past miles of rubble, constantly picked over by scattered scavengers, and mine-fields which also were being picked over by scavengers – though fewer, and every so often they heard the report of one scavenger being not-so-lucky.
Eventually, they ran into a patrol of the ORMO (the Krakow defence force). They were escorted to a check point where they met with the patrols commander. There they were issued temporary papers that allowed them to travel from the checkpoint to the city hall where they could apply for permanent citizenship papers.
They made their way into the center of the city where there were more and more standing buildings and even some that were occupied. The city center was like a walled medieval city – complete with rebuilt ramparts and gates. Once at the city hall they were held ina waiting area for over six hours before they were brought before the Rada (the town council).
The council questioned them briefly and then issued them provisional citizenship papers and explained to them that they would have to return in a month with proof that they had found gainful employment or were conducting legitimate business of their own to have their citizenship ratified. The Rada suggested that Cpl. Watts try the hospital as they were always looking for qualified medical personnel.
The group then found their way to the hospital and after a short interview Cpl. Watts was offered work at the hospital. He would have to stay in the hospital residence and would be given three square meals a day, and work 12 hour shifts…. But it was better than starving to death or being killed by soviets or bandits – which he had lived in constant threat of for the last month.
The rest of the group bid him TTFN and wandered back outside the walled part of the city in search of an abandoned building to crash in for the night…..
We will be playing this again next (Savage) Saturday.
This week Darrin joined Lloyd, Andrej and Amanda. He showed up a bit early and made his character; Specialist William Harris (Combat Engineer). He was still finishing up as we started to play.
The adventure picked up on the road Northwest of Krakow, Poland. Fisher, Watts and Davis continued along their way – rucksacks about 30lbs heavier - leaving the scene of the ambush behind them. While taking a break in the early afternoon, concealed in a stand of trees by a crossroads, another soldier in an American uniform come strolling up from the west. After challenging the soldier and a brief exchange of bravado, they determined that they were of a like mind and decided to carry on their merry way together.
In the late afternoon they came across some farmers working in a field. After a little chit-chat they were invited back for supper in exchange for Cpl. Watts doing the rounds of the communal farm/small village. After dispensing much advice, a few aspirins and a handful of the few remaining anit-biotics he had, they all had their bellies filled with the first home-cooked meals they’d had in a while. They then stayed the night as the farmers advised it wouldn’t be safe to carry on into Krakow this late in the evening.
The next morning they wandered into Krakow, past miles of rubble, constantly picked over by scattered scavengers, and mine-fields which also were being picked over by scavengers – though fewer, and every so often they heard the report of one scavenger being not-so-lucky.
Eventually, they ran into a patrol of the ORMO (the Krakow defence force). They were escorted to a check point where they met with the patrols commander. There they were issued temporary papers that allowed them to travel from the checkpoint to the city hall where they could apply for permanent citizenship papers.
They made their way into the center of the city where there were more and more standing buildings and even some that were occupied. The city center was like a walled medieval city – complete with rebuilt ramparts and gates. Once at the city hall they were held ina waiting area for over six hours before they were brought before the Rada (the town council).
The council questioned them briefly and then issued them provisional citizenship papers and explained to them that they would have to return in a month with proof that they had found gainful employment or were conducting legitimate business of their own to have their citizenship ratified. The Rada suggested that Cpl. Watts try the hospital as they were always looking for qualified medical personnel.
The group then found their way to the hospital and after a short interview Cpl. Watts was offered work at the hospital. He would have to stay in the hospital residence and would be given three square meals a day, and work 12 hour shifts…. But it was better than starving to death or being killed by soviets or bandits – which he had lived in constant threat of for the last month.
The rest of the group bid him TTFN and wandered back outside the walled part of the city in search of an abandoned building to crash in for the night…..
We will be playing this again next (Savage) Saturday.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
The Hats
I love hats. I have quite a collection. I use them all the time when playing wargames. Whenever I've run Savage Worlds Demos at conventions and stuff I've brought along a hat for each character. It helps with immediate identification of who is who and sometimes even helps the players get into the role.
This was at the Pulp Adventure game I ran at Edmonton Mayday in 2007
So anyone that shows up with a hat appropriate to their character will get an instant level-up and maybe even a bonus benny fro each session they show up with it.... I'm still thinking on that one...
This was at the Pulp Adventure game I ran at Edmonton Mayday in 2007
So anyone that shows up with a hat appropriate to their character will get an instant level-up and maybe even a bonus benny fro each session they show up with it.... I'm still thinking on that one...
Thursday, September 25, 2008
On the Road to Krakow
Savage Twilight: 2000 – Session #1
Lloyd, Andrej, and Amanda showed up and made characters this past weekend.
Amanda is playing Lt. Sara Fisher, who wa,s until recently, S2 (Intelligence Officer) for 2nd Brigade, 5 Infantry Division (Mechanized).
Lloyd is playing Sgt. Thompson “Tweeter” Davis, Sniper.
Andrej is playing Cpl. Eric Watts, Combat Medic.
Hopefully they will fill in a bit more background at some point…
When their characters were more or less finished we started off the campaign with a quick little encounter on the road northwest of Krakow, Poland. I don’t want to go into too much detail as there are a couple other players that will be joining us that missed this episode and it should really be up to those that were there how much they let on about what happened. Essentially they investigated the site of an ambush. More on that later….
For anyone familiar with the campaign I basically skipped the Escape from Kalisz scenario and dropped them right into the Free City of Krakow… well… on the road Northwest of Krakow where the first encounter takes place…
We will be playing this again on the next (Savage) Saturday.
Lloyd, Andrej, and Amanda showed up and made characters this past weekend.
Amanda is playing Lt. Sara Fisher, who wa,s until recently, S2 (Intelligence Officer) for 2nd Brigade, 5 Infantry Division (Mechanized).
Lloyd is playing Sgt. Thompson “Tweeter” Davis, Sniper.
Andrej is playing Cpl. Eric Watts, Combat Medic.
Hopefully they will fill in a bit more background at some point…
When their characters were more or less finished we started off the campaign with a quick little encounter on the road northwest of Krakow, Poland. I don’t want to go into too much detail as there are a couple other players that will be joining us that missed this episode and it should really be up to those that were there how much they let on about what happened. Essentially they investigated the site of an ambush. More on that later….
For anyone familiar with the campaign I basically skipped the Escape from Kalisz scenario and dropped them right into the Free City of Krakow… well… on the road Northwest of Krakow where the first encounter takes place…
We will be playing this again on the next (Savage) Saturday.
Monday, September 22, 2008
House Rules for Savage Saturday
PAY ATTENTION THOSE WHO ARE PLANNING ON PLAYING!!!
First a couple of rules pertaining to the Game night itself:
WE will be STARTING at 8PM sharp! So show up anytime after about 7:30 but before 8PM. I give out bennies at 8PM if you aren't here you don't get any!!!
I will be accepting bribes for bennies as in the past, but as I've been trying to cut back on the root beer consumption (and doing pretty good, I've only had two in the last 14 weeks) I will now ONLY accept ORGANIC root beer as bribes for bonus bennies. Santa Cruz are available from Steep Hill Food Co-op and I think there’s one available at some Safeways… (“Brews” or something like that…).
Also anyone that posts a comment on this blog with their (or rather their CHARACTER’s) take on the evenings adventure will get a bonus benny the next week.
Next post I’ll get to some actual house Rules for the Savage Worlds System!
First a couple of rules pertaining to the Game night itself:
WE will be STARTING at 8PM sharp! So show up anytime after about 7:30 but before 8PM. I give out bennies at 8PM if you aren't here you don't get any!!!
I will be accepting bribes for bennies as in the past, but as I've been trying to cut back on the root beer consumption (and doing pretty good, I've only had two in the last 14 weeks) I will now ONLY accept ORGANIC root beer as bribes for bonus bennies. Santa Cruz are available from Steep Hill Food Co-op and I think there’s one available at some Safeways… (“Brews” or something like that…).
Also anyone that posts a comment on this blog with their (or rather their CHARACTER’s) take on the evenings adventure will get a bonus benny the next week.
Next post I’ll get to some actual house Rules for the Savage Worlds System!
Sunday, September 21, 2008
What to Do... What to do....?
As I mentioned in the previous post I’ve got my weekly Savage Worlds game up and running again on Saturday evenings (Savage Saturday!). I’ve been running weekly games for quite some time now. 7 years with the core members of the current group. I’ve taken a few breaks, here and there, and we’ve switched games and campaigns quite a bit. We’ve even switched times (sometimes Saturdays, sometimes Sundays…). I took the summer off gaming all together to concentrate on.. well… other things.
Around mid-August I sent out notes to the lads suggesting that we get Savage Saturdays going again. The problem was what to play
WHAT TO PLAY….
I wasn’t really sure where to begin…. There are so many things I’d like to do! Campaigns I’d like to run… So many choices, so little time. I got my whole life ahead of me though and I’ll get to them all eventually…
So I threw a bunch of ideas out to the guys to see what they would be most interested in playing… What would inspire them to show up week after week? Here are some of the options (Note: while many of these are games themselves we would be using Savage Worlds and just make use of the worlds and adventures):
Space:1889 – the old GDW game set in the colonial era except with interplanetary travel through ether flyers. All the colonial powers have colonies on the various planets around the solar system – Mercury, Venus, and Mars. A little like ERB’s John Carter of Mars… But not really.
Rippers – Victorian Monster hunters track down evil across the globe. Not only do I have all the adventures in the book – I also picked up the Rippers’ Companion a while back – which has more that I haven’t even LOOKED at yet… I still have most of their old characters kicking around somewhere… October is apparently Rippers Month at PEG
Tour of Darkness – the Vietnam war with a weird twist. I have a complete campaign in the book plus lots of old Recon adventures to fill in the gaps between weird ToD adventures. They’d start out as ordinary grunts, and quickly move into a Long Range Reconaissance Patrol (which makes things easier, because then they’d be more or less operating on your own out in the middle of nowhere…).
Necessary Evil – Supervillians united against an alien invasion. This was my least favourite option… but I do have the book and it has a ready-made campaign… With new characters or the old ones that some of the players made when we tried it a number of years back…
Other Supers….? I suggested we could make a pile of Super-heroes for an on again off again of superhero one shots just to take a break and change the pace from time to time…. I have no particular campaign in mind… I just know some of the guys are keen on the supers…
Zombie Run – A mini-campaign of a road trip across a zombie infested America…
Twilight: 2000 – I have a pile of the original adventures. You generally play military types trapped in Europe after the third world war has more or less fizzled out. There has been a limited strategic nuclear exchange and infrastructure and order has completely gone out the window and it's every man for himself...
Sci-Fi – Traveller? Again I own the Savage Worlds Sci-fi tool kits (well… at least the Gear and Bestiary…) and PILES of old Traveller adventures that could be strung together in a universe trotting campaign of sorts…. Of course I was also thinking of figuring out how to build ‘Mechs using the Sci-fi Gear Toolkit for a military/mercenary type campaign… Mmmmmmm… Battlemechs….
Fantasy – lots of old D&D adventures floating around. Hundreds of free ones on the internet… I know I’ve tried running Fantasy campaigns in the past and they always seem to fizzle – I think the problem is I try to make them into sprawling tolkien-esque EPIC adventures, and then just can’t keep them going…. So I thought about a making up a new batch of low-lifes and going on a series of old school dungeon crawls, living hand to mouth on whatever treasures they can haul away…? We could bring back theirr old characters (that whole weird dream sequence thing…) or roll up new random ones – which is, of course, always a tonne of fun when using the Fantasy Character Generator toolkit (Seriously, just spend an evening rolling up random characters – there will be no end of laughs…!)
Pulp Adventure/Weird War Two – A group of intrepid heroes battle gangsters, weird cults, Nazis and their evil minions in the 20’s and 30’s. Again I think I still have some old characters some of them used in the past…
Call of Cthulhu
– a group of paranormal investigators delves into strange happenings and combat cosmic evil… Again, no end of books full of adventures…
Pirates of the Spanish Main – This was the most recent campaign we had been playing in when things fizzled out in the spring. We could more or less pick up where we left off…?
So… I don’t know, I was pretty much equally fired up about any of them right now… Actually the ones I’d be most interested in running right now are the ones I’m figured every one else would be LEAST interested in (Twilight:2000 and Tour of Darrkness)… So I asked if there were any one(s) the players would particularly like to play?
I also proposed that maybe we could make characters for a couple (or ALL!?) of them and jump back and forth depending on whatever suites my fancy on any particular evening.
I also proposed some “skirmish options” – straight up skirmish miniature wargames using Savage Worlds. I won’t bother going over those.
The players response was that they were interested mostly in Role-playing so the Skimish options were all immediately turfed. I can play most of those with the Monday night crew anyway…
It seemed most were willing to do just about anything. Rippers, Zombie Run, callof Cthulhu, Pirates, and Necessary Evil seemed to be the most popular.
Then I got a brainwave:
SPACE RIPPERS: 1889!
Werewolves on Mars, Vampires on Venus.... you don't want to know what's lurking in the tunnels of Mercury....
A special blend of the Rippers and Space:1889 settings. Still set in the height of the Victorian era, hunting monsters.... we'd just expand that a bit and include some Martians... Will the Cabal try and recruit the Red Martians...? Oh yeah baby! That definitely moved up on my list of things to play…!
So anyway our first session was last night and Lloyd, Andrej, and Amanda showed up and we made characters for a Savaged Twilight:2000 and started making characters for Zombie Run. Before getting the second batch of charcters done I ran a quick little introductory adventure for Twilight: 2000. More on that in a separate post!
Around mid-August I sent out notes to the lads suggesting that we get Savage Saturdays going again. The problem was what to play
WHAT TO PLAY….
I wasn’t really sure where to begin…. There are so many things I’d like to do! Campaigns I’d like to run… So many choices, so little time. I got my whole life ahead of me though and I’ll get to them all eventually…
So I threw a bunch of ideas out to the guys to see what they would be most interested in playing… What would inspire them to show up week after week? Here are some of the options (Note: while many of these are games themselves we would be using Savage Worlds and just make use of the worlds and adventures):
Space:1889 – the old GDW game set in the colonial era except with interplanetary travel through ether flyers. All the colonial powers have colonies on the various planets around the solar system – Mercury, Venus, and Mars. A little like ERB’s John Carter of Mars… But not really.
Rippers – Victorian Monster hunters track down evil across the globe. Not only do I have all the adventures in the book – I also picked up the Rippers’ Companion a while back – which has more that I haven’t even LOOKED at yet… I still have most of their old characters kicking around somewhere… October is apparently Rippers Month at PEG
Tour of Darkness – the Vietnam war with a weird twist. I have a complete campaign in the book plus lots of old Recon adventures to fill in the gaps between weird ToD adventures. They’d start out as ordinary grunts, and quickly move into a Long Range Reconaissance Patrol (which makes things easier, because then they’d be more or less operating on your own out in the middle of nowhere…).
Necessary Evil – Supervillians united against an alien invasion. This was my least favourite option… but I do have the book and it has a ready-made campaign… With new characters or the old ones that some of the players made when we tried it a number of years back…
Other Supers….? I suggested we could make a pile of Super-heroes for an on again off again of superhero one shots just to take a break and change the pace from time to time…. I have no particular campaign in mind… I just know some of the guys are keen on the supers…
Zombie Run – A mini-campaign of a road trip across a zombie infested America…
Twilight: 2000 – I have a pile of the original adventures. You generally play military types trapped in Europe after the third world war has more or less fizzled out. There has been a limited strategic nuclear exchange and infrastructure and order has completely gone out the window and it's every man for himself...
Sci-Fi – Traveller? Again I own the Savage Worlds Sci-fi tool kits (well… at least the Gear and Bestiary…) and PILES of old Traveller adventures that could be strung together in a universe trotting campaign of sorts…. Of course I was also thinking of figuring out how to build ‘Mechs using the Sci-fi Gear Toolkit for a military/mercenary type campaign… Mmmmmmm… Battlemechs….
Fantasy – lots of old D&D adventures floating around. Hundreds of free ones on the internet… I know I’ve tried running Fantasy campaigns in the past and they always seem to fizzle – I think the problem is I try to make them into sprawling tolkien-esque EPIC adventures, and then just can’t keep them going…. So I thought about a making up a new batch of low-lifes and going on a series of old school dungeon crawls, living hand to mouth on whatever treasures they can haul away…? We could bring back theirr old characters (that whole weird dream sequence thing…) or roll up new random ones – which is, of course, always a tonne of fun when using the Fantasy Character Generator toolkit (Seriously, just spend an evening rolling up random characters – there will be no end of laughs…!)
Pulp Adventure/Weird War Two – A group of intrepid heroes battle gangsters, weird cults, Nazis and their evil minions in the 20’s and 30’s. Again I think I still have some old characters some of them used in the past…
Call of Cthulhu
– a group of paranormal investigators delves into strange happenings and combat cosmic evil… Again, no end of books full of adventures…
Pirates of the Spanish Main – This was the most recent campaign we had been playing in when things fizzled out in the spring. We could more or less pick up where we left off…?
So… I don’t know, I was pretty much equally fired up about any of them right now… Actually the ones I’d be most interested in running right now are the ones I’m figured every one else would be LEAST interested in (Twilight:2000 and Tour of Darrkness)… So I asked if there were any one(s) the players would particularly like to play?
I also proposed that maybe we could make characters for a couple (or ALL!?) of them and jump back and forth depending on whatever suites my fancy on any particular evening.
I also proposed some “skirmish options” – straight up skirmish miniature wargames using Savage Worlds. I won’t bother going over those.
The players response was that they were interested mostly in Role-playing so the Skimish options were all immediately turfed. I can play most of those with the Monday night crew anyway…
It seemed most were willing to do just about anything. Rippers, Zombie Run, callof Cthulhu, Pirates, and Necessary Evil seemed to be the most popular.
Then I got a brainwave:
SPACE RIPPERS: 1889!
Werewolves on Mars, Vampires on Venus.... you don't want to know what's lurking in the tunnels of Mercury....
A special blend of the Rippers and Space:1889 settings. Still set in the height of the Victorian era, hunting monsters.... we'd just expand that a bit and include some Martians... Will the Cabal try and recruit the Red Martians...? Oh yeah baby! That definitely moved up on my list of things to play…!
So anyway our first session was last night and Lloyd, Andrej, and Amanda showed up and we made characters for a Savaged Twilight:2000 and started making characters for Zombie Run. Before getting the second batch of charcters done I ran a quick little introductory adventure for Twilight: 2000. More on that in a separate post!
Friday, September 19, 2008
Welcome to Savage Timmy's Playhouse
a new blog....
Savage Saturday is being rekindled this very weekend and I thought I'd start a new blog to chronicle the events of the various adventures and campaigns I run. I guess I could have done it on the other bog but the focus is more about the hobby and playing of miniature wargames. Savage Worlds, in my opinion, can walk a fine line between the two at times - which is why I love it so.... The Saturday night games, however, do involve a bit more "role-playing", and so I decided to start a separate blog.
My plan is to do a quick write up of the events of each Saturday night along with a few pictures. This is to let friends that are not able to come out because they live 500+Km away know what shenanigans I've been up to. Perhaps it could also serve as a source of inspiration to other Savage GMs. My hope is that the players will get involved and post comments with THEIR version (or better yet, their CHARACTERS version) of the events...
We shall see. Maybe this will all get deleted on Sunday...
Savage Saturday is being rekindled this very weekend and I thought I'd start a new blog to chronicle the events of the various adventures and campaigns I run. I guess I could have done it on the other bog but the focus is more about the hobby and playing of miniature wargames. Savage Worlds, in my opinion, can walk a fine line between the two at times - which is why I love it so.... The Saturday night games, however, do involve a bit more "role-playing", and so I decided to start a separate blog.
My plan is to do a quick write up of the events of each Saturday night along with a few pictures. This is to let friends that are not able to come out because they live 500+Km away know what shenanigans I've been up to. Perhaps it could also serve as a source of inspiration to other Savage GMs. My hope is that the players will get involved and post comments with THEIR version (or better yet, their CHARACTERS version) of the events...
We shall see. Maybe this will all get deleted on Sunday...
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