Our newest Savage Worlds campaign (in our Known World homebrew) began in a somewhat bizarre fashion a couple of weeks ago. RJ and Bridgett couldn’t make the game the week prior so Todd took a turn in the big chair and ran the Skyrim intro game that he had been wanting to do. Rachel and I made characters (a Nord fighter type and a Breton who specialized in spellcasting and lots of it, respectively). I don’t really know much of anything about Skyrim but my understanding is that we went through the intro scene of the computer game. We didn’t, gasp, get as far as Todd thought that we would. We planned on continuing it the next week.

Todd was sick the following week and RJ had forgotten to charge his phone so when I tried to get in touch with him about whether or not he and Bridgett still wanted to come over, I didn’t get an answer until an hour or so before game time. So I decided on a one-shot and happened upon the Soloman Kane one-sheet, Blood Feast. I took inspiration from it and winged it.

The plan for the following week was to pick up Todd’s game again but we hit some snags. Todd wasn’t sure when he was going to be able to make it and, as GM for the night, that kind of made things difficult. One of our friends, Dave, was planning on visiting and wanted to play. He used to play D&D with us but he’s never really played Savage Worlds. Given these uncertainties, I ended up offering to run the game with the idea of doing a one-shot. Then Dave decided that he couldn’t make it to town after all and Todd was now available to start at our normal time but was more interested in getting his character going than running the game. So I decided to continue with the game we had started the week before and it is now a full-blown mini-campaign with the following characters.

• Erika: A Sclavenic priestess of the Temple of the Twelve from Hevelland who, for whatever reason, ended up in the city of Ptolus…something of an innocent country girl in the big city. Played by RJ.
• Mick: An Oscan rogue (thief?) from Kemorr, greedy and vengeful. Played by Rachel.
• Moe: An Oscan fighter/duelist from Kemorr or Ptolus (I don’t remember which off the top of my head), loyal and heroic. Played by Bridgett.
• Niccolo: An Oscan wizard and member of the Arcane Guild from, I believe, Kemorr. Played by Todd.

When this was going to be a one-shot, I had decreed the stipulation that the players had to play characters different than they usually play…some of them have some rather strong tendencies to play certain types of characters in terms of abilities and personalities. Something a bit different would be good for them. That’s also why Bridgett and Rachel are playing male characters…they always play female characters. Todd was told that he just couldn’t be a mischievous trouble-maker or drama queen as those are his tendencies. 😉

So things went from running a fill-in one-shot at the last minute to a mini-campaign that will last I have no idea how long. Ah, the joys of gaming with 40-somethings. 😀

Yeah, I didn’t think so but it has been awhile since anything has been posted. As is usual when I’ve been slack in posting, we have still been playing. I just haven’t been the one running the game. RJ offered to run a one-shot that ended up being something like six sessions I think. Todd then wanted to run a game and ran one session. Now it looks like I’m back in the big chair. It was fun to sit on the other side of the table for a bit but that big chair is molded perfectly for my butt.

A couple of weeks ago, Todd missed the session and so I ran what was originally going to be a quick one-shot (journal to follow eventually). It has morphed, however, into a bit of a mini-campaign. We’re going to be using a few House Rules and Setting Rules so this is a good chance to test them out. The main House Rules include: humans only (it is a fantasy campaign and elves and dwarves exist but not as player characters and are kind of bad guys), a magic system based on the psionics system presented in Interface Zero’s Zeeks! Psionics in 2088 (spellcasting can cause Fatigue) combined with a variant of the Corruption rules from Totems of the Dead (it relates to how magic works in the setting but that’s a secret), only one arcane background but slight differences based on how it was learned (temple, arcane guild, or independent hedge wizard) and an encumbrance system based on this thread from the PEG forums, Alternative Encumbrance System – for comment. We are also using the following Setting Rules from Savage Worlds Deluxe: Blood & Guts (but only applies to Wild Cards, Extras still need to take the No Mercy Edge to re-roll damage), Born a Hero, Heroes Never Die, High Adventure, and Joker’s Wild (a character also automatically unShakes if Shaken when dealt a Joker).

The setting is a homebrew that will largely develop as we play. I’ve established the basics of the setting and it is heavily inspired by elements of the Known World/Mystara (we’re just calling it the Known World for now too), the Old World from Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (1st and 2nd edition, I don’t have the latest version), and Ptolus. Freeport also has found a spot on the edge of the Known World. Although I enjoy reading and writing about settings, I also know that most of my players don’t spend too much time (and don’t have much time to spend) on gaming outside of our actual game sessions so I’m not spending too much time or effort on overly detailing things. A couple of pages introducing the setting, a paragraph or two on each of the ethnic groups, a page or so one each of the nine lands of the Known World, and a page on the premise for the actual campaign. The campaign that has been delayed due to this little mini-campaign we’re doing.

The setting has some pretty standard fantasy tropes and a couple of different things. The Talasian Empire that has dominated the Known World is in decline and both new and old powers are emerging again. The big, bad evil from ancient history might be stirring again in the Dark Lands (kind of think Sauron but not exactly). Firearms and some other technologies not typically found in traditional fantasy settings do exist but vary in commonality and the science of creating them is a dying art. A single church dominates religion having crusaded against all other religions (denouncing them as demon worship) in the past but, like the Empire, the hegemony of the Temple of the Twelve is being challenged. A trade war is brewing between a couple of the new, emerging nations. Bandits and pirates are operating more openly without the Empire’s legions to put them down. The leadership of the Empire is in question with one heir to the Throne having a tenuous claim, the head of the Church claiming the Throne, and the long-time adviser to the last few Emperors doing the same (yep, just like in Ptolus).

Outside of these broad strokes, there isn’t much developed. Like I said above, that’s going to happen as we play.

I’m also using this campaign for a bit of an experiment. I don’t want to say much about that though; I don’t want the players to know about it yet. 😉