As I posted a few weeks ago, the GM bug has been gnawing at me. Since the Dresden Files RPG has hit the shelves, a few more ideas have crept into my little brain.
One of the ideas I had been playing around with is running a horror campaign. I had originally planned on using Savage Worlds for this but after reading the DFRPG I think it might work better. But wait, you say, Dresden Files is an urban fantasy game. Oh so true but there’s really not that much difference. You’ve got all the pieces you need twist and mold the DFRPG into game of monster hunting horror. You’ve magic, monsters, psychic abilities and a whole cornucopia of weirdness to throw at mortal characters.
So why in the world would abandon my old favorite of Savage Worlds for FATE? In this case, I just think that FATE is better choice. The mechanics of Aspects through out the system lend itself much better to manipulating player characters into making those non-optimal moral decisions. FATE also lends itself to a much narrative style of play which I think is key to setting mood and building the tension. Also, I think FATE is going to be better at handling combats against Big Bads than Savage Worlds. No Acing Head Shots of Doom.
What really separates urban fantasy from horror in this case, is mood, perception and power level. Compared to a normal Dresden Files campaign, player characters would barely register as any sort of power. Maybe a psychic power or a little bit ritual magic and that would be about it. Just enough to set them a part for the run of mill mortals but not enough so that even minor supernatural threats would still be really dangerous.
Since Fred Hicks announced that the dead tree versions would be shipping on June 30, I’ve been chomping at the bit and reading over PDF’s.
I do have to admit that I have a bit of the gamer ADD. Something new and shiny comes out and it really fascinates me until the next cool thing catches my attention. But this is a game I’ve been waiting on for a long time. I’ve been a Dresden fan for years plus I just love the genre. For some reason, I really enjoy mixing the magical with the modern mundane. And for those reasons the Dresden Files RPG has been added to my “must run” list.
As I’ve read through the PDF’s, my little imagination got to working about the possibilities. First, of course, is just running it vanilla. But I am a hopeless tweaker and about half of the good old gaming group hasn’t read the books and wouldn’t know a Red Court vampire from a White Court. Throwing in a whole new set of meta-physical laws and species plus a new game system would probably throw a few folks for a little loop.
This leads to an easy second option, a Dresden-inspired world. This is one of the really neat aspects (no pun intended) of the game. The first part of character generation is creating the city.vA little player-GM collaboration to set up the place where all your adventures will happen. So I figured why not take this one step further. Have the players help create the world. This wouldn’t be as detailed as the city creation. Just sort of a checklist of things and generalities and inspirations from other sources. Enough to get some creativity going for city and character creation. A few email exchanges should take care of it.
Now, my third idea goes off the rails. Run it as a horror game. All the bits are there. A magic system with variable power levels, all sorts of beasties, a rather dangerous combat system, and a fear and insanity mechanic can be easily exported into Mental Stress. This is interesting and should work because FATE really emphasizes a narrative style of play. Compels reinforce the non-optimal (and non-gamer like) decisions that so many characters in horror stories make.
So that’s what’s been running through my little old brain the last few weeks. And when I get those nice hefty books more ideas will just start flowing.
I’ve been rambling on the last few weeks about my future GMing plans. One of the possibilities is the aforementioned Dragon Age RPG.
There’s been so buzz about the video game and really not that many squeaks of joy coming from the table community. Yeah, it’s yet another licensed RPG and it’s yet another rule system for players to learn. Let me channel my inner grognard here. Back in my day, every game had different rules. There was not OGL. But back on topic. It’s a good rules lite system with some pretty nifty bits and if you’re late arriving to the show, here’s my original review. But I figured that everything was a done and then Kobold Quarterly #13 comes out. Oh, shiny. AGE Backgrounds for Freeport. Hmm, who says I have to be tied to the licensed background. That’s not saying that Thedas isn’t fun but in lot ways a table top game is going to have a tough time living up to the flash of the video game and since most of our group has played the game that’s going to be a pretty tall order. Of course, there will also be the suggestions to hunt down Allister or Morrigan and kill them.
But heck, I could just start bending the system to my will and put in it a totally different world. Of course, there’s still one limiting factor. It’s that boxed set sales model. Right now, everyone is waiting for Set 2 (Levels 5 through 10) to come out and hopefully get a much better grasp on how things will work at higher levels. I did pick up the Game Master’s bundle and the adventure that came with it is pretty good. Pretty soon, Blood in Ferelden should be coming out and that would be three adventures plus three adventure outlines. That starts to piece together a pretty good chunk of a campaign. Just write a little transitional material and there we go.
I know I’m planning way out but hey I like to do that. Planning is half the fun.
Yes, this has been an insane and rambling post. I’ve got several irons the fire right now but that’s a surprise for later.
Last week when I posted about catching the GM bug again, one of the ideas that was floating around in my head was for a Savage Worlds Horror campaign. So I figured that I’d share some thoughts about why I think Savage Worlds is great for horror games. Like I said originally, I want the campaign to be slightly more cinematic than Supernatural.
First and foremost and the easiest answer is that I love Savage Worlds but there some logic behind my decision. As a GM, Savage Worlds is easy to play with. Monsters and NPC’s are a breeze to create. For this campaign, I’m planning on converting several published adventures from a variety of sources. That ease of creation carries over to conversion aspect as well. Prep time can focus story rather than number crunching. Along those lines, light rules means that during game sessions the group can focus on mood and story rather than referencing a rules tome.
One of things I’ve heard people say is that Savage Worlds is a pulp game. Sure it can handle a group of heroic player characters against an army of mooks without a hitch. But once you start adjusting a few knobs here and there combat can be deadly. For really good examples, just turn to Reality Blurs’ Realms of Cthulhu for Savage Worlds. A little tweaking to the Wild Die mechanic and your party can still probably take on those mortal mooks but they better watch out against a couple of zombies.
Of course, the deadly combat can be a double edged sword (no pun intended). While Savage Worlds is great at running larger combats, sometimes the party against one Big Bad can be a let down when a player character draws a Joker on the first round of combat and then Aces several times on his damage. The players may feel great at first but then later they may feel a little robbed that it was so easy.
The easiest and worst means to handle this is to just up the Toughness of the Big Bad. More than likely this will just frustrate players. An extra Benny or two could be appropriate in some cases but might not save him from the Incredible Acing Head Shot of Doom (AKA “What do you mean you just rolled 54 for damage?”). One good example of how to handle this is the Werewolf from SWEX. Unless you’re using a silver weapon the best you can do is Shake it. But you know, if this is the final fight of an adventure or story arch, there’s a very good chance that the player characters have already figured out what it takes to kill the Big Bad. The Undead template handles this pretty well too with its bonuses. Now the Hardy Monstrous Ability is nice but from my experience it rarely comes into play. It just maybe the luck of the dice at my table but that’s what happened. I want something more for some of my Big Bads. So here’s a new Monstrous Ability (and as I always if this popped up somewhere else first in the cornucopia of the Savageverse. Just let me know.) :
Supernaturally Tough: No matter how much damage the creature takes from a single attack, the best result that can be achieved is Shaken. The only way to wound the creature is with repeated Shaken results. This ability is not compatible with the Hardy Monstrous Ability (obviously).
Now, use this just occasionally and for a Big Bad that it’s appropriate for. But you are all big kids and don’t need me holding your hand.
Finally, I want to talk about the much maligned Guts skill. Some folks hate it. Some folks love it. But for me, in this case, it’s in. I’ll probably limit to only increase per Rank and cap it at d6 for Novice characters .But I think it’s a good addition to a horror game. Fear is the cornerstone emotion of horror games and the Guts skill is an easy way to work this in. 12 to Midnight does have Fear Effects for Savage Worlds and being a bad boy and kind of broke it’s still on my to buy list but I’ve heard great things about it and have complete faith that it is a very good product based on their previous releases.
Later I’ll probably throw up some thoughts on low powered magic, psychic abilities and the powers of faith. Of course much of that will depend on what sort of juicy tidbits come out in the upcoming Horror Companion.
Well, ran into a few problems. Such as me being an idiot and not reading the complete terms. But never fear. Things will be well. I’ll be posting the results of the first survey later this week.
I don’t want it to be said that I don’t admit my mistakes or don’t act on constructive criticism. After some feedback, it sounds like folks are really interested in what others are playing. So in I put together another survey dealing more specifically with what people are playing, what they want to play and how often they do it. This time I used a different survey service so shouldn’t hit my free account quota so quickly. This is a different survey from the first so feel to take this one as well. I promise I won’t do another survey for at least three months.
So here it is the RPG Habits and Trends Survey. Remember I am not a professional survey writer. Thanks again and I’ll be posting the results later this month.
It’s been a long time since I’ve been behind the screen. But the GM’ing bug is gnawing away at my brain and it’s time to start crafting a new campaign. I know it won’t till this fall before there’s an opening for a new campaign but I like to take my time and plan things. I’ve pitched a couple of ideas to the Friday Gang and my big three ideas are a Savage Worlds Horror campaign, the Dragon Age RPG and something with Pathfinder. No matter what ends up being selected, my random thoughts through the campaign creation process are going to end up here.
Since most folks end up here looking for Savage Worlds Stuff, I’ll start with some thoughts about that. It’s been so long since I’ve ran a horror game. And I have fond memories of playing and running in such campaigns. Savage Worlds hits the sweet spot for what I’m looking for. In this case, light and flexible rules to bend to my vision and easily be able to accept conversions of adventures from different rules. A combat system that can be deadly and cinematic at the same time. And plenty of source material (both professional and fan created) to draw from. I’ve got stacks of old Chill, Kult, Call of Cthulhu, Nemesis and Pinebox Adventures (from 12 to Midnight) ready as spring boards. For a tone, I’m looking at a little bit more cinematic than Supernatural but less so than Buffy/Angel.
I have to admit. I have not ran a D&D game since AD&D. I’ve played Second and Third Edition and Fourth is just gathering dust on my shelf. I’ve ran plenty of other games and played through most of Paizo’s Adventure Paths. My group likes Pathfinder and so I just might throw my butt into the DM chair and see how it goes. For this I wanted something different and not exactly of Paizo’s universe. Nothing against them but I didn’t feel anything that I came up was going to measure up to one of their Adventure Paths. After a little searching, I came upon Obsidian Twilight by LPJ Designs. The quick pitch is that it’s a cross between Ravenloft and Darksun or a post apocalyptic survival horror setting. I’ve downloaded what is available and it’s pretty darned good. I had liked some other things that I’ve gotten from LPJ Designs (like Haven: City of Violence). This is a relatively new setting so everything isn’t out yet which leaves my Old School imagination run wild filling in the blanks. I plan to tweak the setting, of course, since I just can’t seem to leave things alone. For this I want a more pragmatic tone and play down the survival and horror aspects. Sure undead run the place and there are angels and demons wandering around. That’s just the way things are. Deal with it. There will be a little resistance fighting against the undead lords but I really don’t plan on having it be the real meat of the campaign.
Then there’s the Dragon Age RPG from Green Ronin. I did review of Set 1 a few weeks back and I liked it. But it suffers from the exact opposite problem as Obsidian Twilight. While not all of the fluff has been released for Obsidian Twilight, there’s plenty of other sources to pull the crunchy bits to build up a campaign. For Dragon Age, there’s more fluff than you can shake a stick at out there but we’re going to have to wait for the other sets to get a good idea on how the higher level rules operate.
So that’s it. Those are the little gaming projects that I’m working on in my copious free time. I’ll keep y’all update as interesting ideas pass through my head. And, yep, I really didn’t bother to proofread this post.
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