Playing Savage Worlds - Agents of Oblivion

I have now for a while been running a Savage Worlds game. Ever since Savage Worlds first was published I have been curious about the game. For a while the system was everyone's favourite at rpg.net and cropped up as soon as someone had a game they liked, but wanted a nicer rules set to play it. It seemed like it was the game for every setting. The fad passed, and then it was FATE. At last, I got the Savage Worlds game.

First off, let me say that Pinnacle really is first class. Maybe you heard that the explorer edition of the rules had a really bad glue, so that the book came apart? I emailed Shane Hensley and I got a new book. Class act.

 The game is labelled as "fast, furious and fun" and is known for settings which mash up something familiar with magic or that extra two fisted pulp style action. I kind of like that style, and decided I had to get the Agents of Oblivion setting book.

So, how does it play?

It turns out that our first one off, a short canned adventure, went quite well. We had a car chase, a sneak attack on a mansion and a big fight with explosives and a vehicle. In addition to that also some interpersonal action and roleplaying. It felt like this was a system that could handle lots of moving parts without being cumbersome. It was also clear that the card based initiative worked quite well. Everyone could see that cards on the table and knew who's turn it was. I also liked the tangible effect of the poker chips we used for bennies. Without them, the fight with the major NPC would have been very short and anticlimactic.

I will get back to that last part.

After that we have started to run AoO proper, not with pre-gens. It turns out that either I explained it very confusingly, or the concept of dice sizes as ranks were confusing. I think it is simple enough, so I blame myself. Then we started the first mission proper, Deep Calls to Deep, of my own invention.

This was a X-Files kind of adventure with mysterious stuff happening in a small town. They went there, talked to people, looked for clues and did the regular investigative things and weird stuff kept happening. There was just one firefight, which worked just as well as the first one, and some hacking. The rest was talking and mostly searching or knowledge based skills. This worked alright, and at no time did I feel the system got in the way, or felt clunky. But, did it feel fast, furious and fun? Eh, well. Maybe not as much.

I'm thinking that maybe I was really running a Call of Cthulhu scenario. Maybe Savage Worlds is more Masks of Nyarlathotep than a purist Trail of Cthulhu adventure, if you catch my drift? Unless you have hordes of minions, fast action and chases, maybe investigative games are just as well run with BRP as with SW? Since I have the Big Yellow Tome of BRP, maybe I could just use that instead? I think the conclusion is that if you want to play Savage Worlds, maybe you should use those rules a bit more. Play something involved, crunchy and watch it run smoothly. I'd almost say that the more rules you use, the better it works. 

My decision is to make my next mission crunchier. There will be more fights, more chases and I will, to put it plainly, work the rules more. I don't think I've been in a situation before where the game so clearly demanded that you actually use them. Often it works well to break them out when needed, but now it felt like I should have done it more often. Odd feeling.

Then there was that thing about that fight, where I used lot of bennies to save the bacon of my NPCs.

I can imagine  some of my dear readers thinking that is just wrong for the GM to prolong a fight to have his pet NPC do more than the dice allows. Sure, I can understand that sentiment. Let me then counter with the fact that those extra rounds allowed for some really good ideas from my players, and some hilarious scenes of mayhem. It was worth it.

How about some real life steampunk train?

Yeah, I know. It's very little game content here these days. I have some posts I plan on writing here, reflecting on my late Savage Worlds game. I said that before, didn't I?

Anyway.

Do you like steampunk? Do you like trains? Take a look at the following steampunk crowd funding project! You can contribute using PayPal.

No,  I'm not personally involved.

A real steam train!

While we wait for me to find something intelligent to say about our current Savage Worlds game, I felt like bringing some worthy cause some attention. Check out this blog about focusing on latent homophobia. Next time you make a character in a game, think about why it should be a straight, white guy. Just think about it.

See you later.

The stamina die

I just read on intwischa.com a really neat idea bout how to model fatigue. This does sound familiar, but I'm putting it up here for personal reference if nothing else.

On there they suggested everyone roll a stamina die when doing something that might exert your character, in addition to the regular die roll. When you roll a 1, you step down one die size and take -1 to all physical actions. Naturally someone fairly weak would start with a lower die, maybe d4, while someone more buff would maybe start with a d8.

I like  the simplicity of it all. Maybe you could even tie it into encumbrance somehow.

Thinking back on 7th Sea

I ran a short arc of a revenge story in AEG's 7th Sea a few years back. The idea of swashbuckling is seldom far from my gaming thoughts, and the game system had enough interesting knobs and dials for me to long to try it out.

When I had decided I wanted to run it, and had read the books, a new problem appeared. The game was set in an imaginary Europe with new names for everything, and magic to boot! I liked the idea of filing off the serial numbers. I remembered that Dave Arneson had thought that taking the adventure into fantasy was a great way to stop arguments about historical minutiae, that was not the problem. The magic on the other hand, was.

For some reason I wanted a regular world, with none of that "gamey stuff". I wanted exciting fencing and swinging in chandeliers, but no fireballs. I also decided to ditch the culture inspired by ancient Norse culture. Those are always corny when done by Americans.

Starting the game it also became clear that even though the game system had some really good ideas, for example the incentives to do dramatic stuff, it did have problems. One of the most glaring ones showed up already in character generation, where the sheer amount of knacks and skills made it take too long to whip up a character. I like that part of a game to be quick and breezy, which is why I fell out of love with GURPS.

Now this weekend when I saw the movie I posted about yesterday, I realized I had been wrong about the magic, though.

While my 7th Sea game was a success, the way that musketeer movie shoved in non-historical air-ships and steampunk features showed me the joy of mash-ups. I still think vikings through an American lens is just corny. But magic, swords, Napoleon, cthulhu, intrigue and lost treasures actually goes just fine together in the soup! One reason I liked the movie was those elements which were contra factual. Hey, what was it Dave had done again?

I'm thinking about revisiting 7th Sea, and this time I'm not going to take things out. I'm going to put more gonzo stuff in! There are still issues with the game system I will address, like a hack to limit the amount of skills you get. Maybe even eliminate the fact that there are skills and knacks. That was a bit fiddly. More of that will be posted here, shortly.

The caller - a man with many hats?

I listened to a podcast some weeks ago, and no longer remember which one. It brought the idea to the fore to do something with the Caller. You remember the role of the Caller? Personally I have never used it, and it sounds very boring to those of us who love to talk in character and do the immersion thing in roleplaying. But, maybe it's a necessity when running parties of 12+ individuals. I've heard voices both agreeing and disagreeing on that.

Now the idea was that even if we no longer seldom have those clearly defined roles in the party, we often still see specific individuals do certain things. If you have played one of the later editions of D&D, you have probably quite soon found out who in the player group is most engaged in the tactical details on how to move around on the battle mat. Probably you have also found that when it comes to charming a guard to let you get by and take a peek at the cardinal's papers, a specific individual is always there to do it. I bet that's true regardless of whether you act it out or just roll and die.

Maybe sometimes you might as well have a Caller? Maybe you could have three or four of them, for tactics, interpersonal conflict or for summing up the revenue and planning the mortgage payments on that starship? I know for a fact that some of those activities leaves me cold, while I know some people love them. Maybe that's the way to make some games work, when there's some activities that might hold the group off a game because one player refuses to do that part. Maybe it might be a good idea to have multiple "Callers" for those roles?

Maybe that old idea does have some legs after all. What do you think?

Swashbuckling!

This Easter weekend I was able to stay home and enjoy some time with my family, even though I was on call and had to work way to much. But, when it was calm we watched a movie. Guess if I suddenly felt the urge to game? It was the 2011 edition of The Three Musketeers, which was rollicking fun. Airships, dashing sword fights and some witty banter. What more can you ask for? Well, maybe some female characters that are not victims or scheming bastards, but I guess I have to blame Dumas for that one.

I'm breaking out my 7th Sea books tonight!

Some more thoughts on Ars Magica

My last post on Ars Magica had 187 views, and only one comment about someone who had actually played the game. I think it's kind of telling that they basically ripped the themes from the game and ditched the rest.

It seems like AM is a game many people have read, been very impressed by and then not played as written! I guess that those who kept the covenant management system are the same kind of people who play merchant campaigns in Traveller, keeping tabs on earnings, losses and mortgage payment. I have enough of that in real life.

The really detailed magic system is another matter. It seems like everyone loves the idea of being able to craft spells on the fly and using some kind of and system, just like spell points and all those ideas. But, even though I'm not a fan of the classic system of D&D it's easy and it works, even though it lacks flavour. Maybe this is the part of AM which actually change how people play.

Then there's that part which I find kind of funny, namely the "troupe style play", which is actually just they old way to play, reinvented. Having multiple characters per player is not new, and that I've even tried myself with great success.

"it is recommended that the GM keep the number of players in his party small - two or three players with up to four characters apiece is ideal."

That's T&T 5th ed. from 1979.  Something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. Maybe I'll get to run Ars Magica one day, and then it will be nothing like written, I bet.

Ars Magica - the game I would love to love

Sometimes I'm reminded of games which promised, but never delivered. For me one such game is Ars Magica. But, I still have some hope for it. Maybe you can help me? First some background.

A friend of mine bought the 2nd ed game, and we loved the idea of it. We went nuts with all the possibilities inherent in the system of Merits and Flaws. I shudder to think what would have happened had we found out about GURPS...

We generated tons of characters for that game, but never played more than a try out session to see if we could do a fight and cast a spell.

Some years later, when we had done the same with 3rd ed I actually got to play it, now in its 4th ed. It turned out we spent forever generating a covenant, planning its location, planning how to staff the kitchen and how many guards we needed and how much we would earn each year, spend on taxes and...

You get the picture.

I've now done that a few times. It bores me to tears.

Where's the game about a mythic Europe and the wonders of magic? If anyone know of an actual play recording from a podcast or similar which shows how the game can be that and not quartermaster-in-the-middle-ages please tell!

I'd love to hear some people play the game. Playing it when it's fun.

Filling in tax return forms and using MS Excel is not my way of fun, not even with magic.

Feel free to suggest some actual play recordings, if they exist!

Too bad I don't do pdf, as this looks tempting

Do you like space sandboxes? Do you like Savage Worlds? Maybe you'd like to take a peek at this opportunity to win some free stuff.
Mercenary Breed Setting

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