The Roleplay of Dylan

Struggling with Savage Worlds

Back before Christmas, I offered to run a Pirate game for my gaming group.  The group is great bunch and we aren’t set any any particular campaigns and have played several types of games  including Mutant and Masterminds, D20 Modern, Boot Hill, and Star Wars Saga since I’ve joined them. So, we were in some discussions about some upcoming type of games we would like to play and several things came up but the only thing that was missing was Pirates. Aaarrrrrr… Who doesn’t love a pirate?

So, I sat down to start working on a campaign that I could run 2 or 3 sessions and complete the story. I began talking about using the Savage Worlds rules and thought about using 50 fathoms or Pirates of the Spanish Main campaign settings. I was really digging the backstory and setting of 50 Fathoms, who wouldn’t? Pirates with a touch of Magic and Alien type of creatures. The more I read in the Campaign setting, the more I realized that I probably wouldn’t be a good enough GM to pull off a 50 Fathom world. A couple reasons – that story is very in-depth and would take quite a long time to finish the complete campaign and Savage Worlds system wasn’t clicking in my head, yet.

So, I looked closer at Pirates of the Spanish Main setting and I like the information that was in that setting as well. I could come up with a decent story line and try to complete it, but as I was putting all of the pieces together they didn’t seem to fit together either. I don’t think that this is the fault of the system. It all falls on down on me not grasping Savage Worlds play style and the ability to GM it.

Granted, I’ve never DMed before so this will be my first time and I’m nervous about running it. I’m really excited to do this, however I just don’t think Savage Worlds will be my first DMing experience. I think I need to get a couple of games down as a player to be able full grasp this and then I could feel confident that I could run a Savage World session.

One of the guys from my group ran a Spy D20 modern game that was a lot of fun. It was not bogged down with numerous different type of dice rolls and it just felt comfortable playing. I did some more digging in d20 modern and discovered that d20 past would fit my need perfectly for a Pirate campaign. A system that I am comfortable so I don’t worry as much about the rules and can concentrate more of the story telling and DMing. I think the PCs will appreciate it more and it will help me transition into the life of a DM.

Time to start working on my encounters…Aarrrggghh!!

Dungeon and Dragons – Kids Rpg style

Tonight was a great night for gaming with Ean, my 5 year old. He has been asking to play Dungemon and Dragons pretty much since the last time we played newbiedm’s kidsrpg that I modified for Star Wars. Dinner was finished, dishes in the washer, and the table was clear. Time to play. I did stay true to newbiedm’s rules with a small exception – to extend the game I put in two red poker chips that were medicine potions that could be picked up.

Tonight I went for the classic fantasy Dungeons and Dragon, including a Green Dragon as well as a small dungeon. As I laid out the tiles, I thought of the quick plot in my head, but then Ean threw in the wrinkle. He wanted to be the Dragon and the bad guys. So, after some quick thought, we were ready. The basic plot was simple, the Green dragon was bored of playing with his current two friends. He flew out one night and kidnapped a young girl to be his friend to play with him and his other friends. The other two bad friends didn’t like that the Dragon brought a girl into their hideout so they closed the gate on the Dragon’s room keeping him and the kidnapped girl in there.

The heroes come in as they were friends of the young girl that was taken and they wanted to rescue her. As the dice would play out, such things wouldn’t come to happen.

Below is the recap and photos of how the events went.

The Heroes enter the dungeon.

The Green Dragon trapped in his room.

Ean’s character sheet and level switch for the gate

Reviewing the character sheet for the first combat.

Heroes enter – Magma man attempts to stop them, while the Tin man heads to gate switch.

Archer takes out Magma man.

The Dragon is free and mad about his friend.

Dwarf gets behind the Dragon, enough to irritate him.

Magma man healed by Tin Man, and the Heroes start going down.

Going for the final blow, the only bad roll. Dwarf is free to move around.

Dwarf ended up using potion on Swordsman, but alas, it was too little too late and the Heroes party ended up being wiped out. The bad guys cheered for joy as they have a new friend to play with and they stopped the heroes from invading their hideout.

The action was fast paced and Ean even roleplayed Magma Man and Tin man apologizing to the Dragon for putting him in the caged room.

And as always, as soon as I said “The End” – he was asking when we were going to play again. Makes a geek dad proud.