Gritty games and the players who play them (or don't)
Jul 20, 2014 11:09:55 GMT -8
Post by Grog on Jul 20, 2014 11:09:55 GMT -8
In episode 1208 (I think) the douches read an email I wrote asking about why we roll dice. This isn't about that. This is about the gritty apocalypse savage world game that I mentioned in that email.
My three main players and I have talked about this game a lot in the build up and we're all ready for a game wherein a drawn weapon means "dive behind cover". Our last game was quite gonzo. I have one other sometimes player (a good friend) who, even though I tried to explain that this was a game where a single bullet could take you out, he didn't seem to get it. He's from out of town so I think he wanted to take whatever opportunity to play that he could get. He said he was okay with dying at the end of the session, but wasn't a huge fan of what ended up happening. (For the record, we were using the Broken Earth SW setting with the gritty damage rules from Realms of Cthulhu). So the question for discussion is: how do you guys handle it when you have a player who just isn't happy with the tone of the game you end up playing? All my other players were on board, and I was trying to help this fourth guy have fun, but it just wasn't working. For the record, we're all good friends and he totally wasn't a dick about it. We talked about it at the end and he said, "yeah, I'll probably just skip that flavor of rules next time, but I appreciate you trying to work my character in so that I could have fun."
There was exactly one fight in our game. The out-of-town player (lets call him "The Reckoning") was trying to collect the bounty on a wild-card NPC named Sleuth.
Surprise Round: The Reckoning gets tired of trying to trick Sleuth into coming willingly and slams Sleuth's head into the doorjamb of a bar. Sleuth stumbles into the street, and falls on the ground, shaken. The Reckoning tries to intimidate him and fails miserably, so instead he shoots Sleuth in the leg (called shot) and does two wounds of damage. Sleuth can't soak but makes his Vigor roll at -2 and isn't incapacitated (thats the RoC rules). Meanwhile, The Scout (another player) is about 50 yards away with his rifle braced against a wall. He's well hidden so he has surprise (on hold). The Scout tries to end the fight by shooting to disarm the Reckoning. There is a graze and the Reckoning holds onto his gun.
1st Round: Sleuth quickdraws his revolver and fires at the Reckoning. He does 4 wounds (which can't be soaked) and drops the Reckoning instantly. (I should have given him an incapacitation roll first). The Reckoning fails a vigor roll and acquires a permanent injury to his arm and is bleeding out. the Scout shoots Sleuth and does two more wounds (which can't be soaked). He fails his incapacitation roll, and his vigor roll, taking a permanent injury to his guts, and bleeding out.
2nd round/end of fight. Everybody runs out into the street and the Reckoning spends all his bennies to keep from bleeding out in this first minute of post-combat (-3). The other PCs manage to get a tourniquet on the Reckoning's arm and slow the bleeding, stabilizing him so he doesn't have to make a second check. Meanwhile, Sleuth spends all his (and the GM's) bennies trying to keep from bleeding out (at -3 b/c of wounds) and fails. He dies. In fact, I don't announce this loud enough so after saving the Reckoning one of the PCs says, "okay I go check on Sleuth." to which I get to respond, "There's blood all over the ground. He bled out while you were working on the Reckoning. Sorry..."
The response from the players, even the ones who knew just how deadly combat was supposed to be, was something along the lines of "Holy Fuck, that was fast!" I think that fair gunfights will be far less common than ambushes going forward...
Other notes: the use of tokens to track ammo, rations, money, power points, bennies, and equipment (the latter being blank cards purchased on Amazon) worked exceptionally well for my anti-record keeping crowd.
I actually recorded the session on my cell phone for personal reference later. It is by no means up to the quality that Stu produces but I was surprised at how comprehensible most of it was. If anyone wants to hear me say "like" and "basically" way too often, listen to a bunch of guys laugh like nerds, and critique my misapplication of the Savage World rules I might consider posting it somewhere. (Oxford comma ftw!)
My three main players and I have talked about this game a lot in the build up and we're all ready for a game wherein a drawn weapon means "dive behind cover". Our last game was quite gonzo. I have one other sometimes player (a good friend) who, even though I tried to explain that this was a game where a single bullet could take you out, he didn't seem to get it. He's from out of town so I think he wanted to take whatever opportunity to play that he could get. He said he was okay with dying at the end of the session, but wasn't a huge fan of what ended up happening. (For the record, we were using the Broken Earth SW setting with the gritty damage rules from Realms of Cthulhu). So the question for discussion is: how do you guys handle it when you have a player who just isn't happy with the tone of the game you end up playing? All my other players were on board, and I was trying to help this fourth guy have fun, but it just wasn't working. For the record, we're all good friends and he totally wasn't a dick about it. We talked about it at the end and he said, "yeah, I'll probably just skip that flavor of rules next time, but I appreciate you trying to work my character in so that I could have fun."
There was exactly one fight in our game. The out-of-town player (lets call him "The Reckoning") was trying to collect the bounty on a wild-card NPC named Sleuth.
Surprise Round: The Reckoning gets tired of trying to trick Sleuth into coming willingly and slams Sleuth's head into the doorjamb of a bar. Sleuth stumbles into the street, and falls on the ground, shaken. The Reckoning tries to intimidate him and fails miserably, so instead he shoots Sleuth in the leg (called shot) and does two wounds of damage. Sleuth can't soak but makes his Vigor roll at -2 and isn't incapacitated (thats the RoC rules). Meanwhile, The Scout (another player) is about 50 yards away with his rifle braced against a wall. He's well hidden so he has surprise (on hold). The Scout tries to end the fight by shooting to disarm the Reckoning. There is a graze and the Reckoning holds onto his gun.
1st Round: Sleuth quickdraws his revolver and fires at the Reckoning. He does 4 wounds (which can't be soaked) and drops the Reckoning instantly. (I should have given him an incapacitation roll first). The Reckoning fails a vigor roll and acquires a permanent injury to his arm and is bleeding out. the Scout shoots Sleuth and does two more wounds (which can't be soaked). He fails his incapacitation roll, and his vigor roll, taking a permanent injury to his guts, and bleeding out.
2nd round/end of fight. Everybody runs out into the street and the Reckoning spends all his bennies to keep from bleeding out in this first minute of post-combat (-3). The other PCs manage to get a tourniquet on the Reckoning's arm and slow the bleeding, stabilizing him so he doesn't have to make a second check. Meanwhile, Sleuth spends all his (and the GM's) bennies trying to keep from bleeding out (at -3 b/c of wounds) and fails. He dies. In fact, I don't announce this loud enough so after saving the Reckoning one of the PCs says, "okay I go check on Sleuth." to which I get to respond, "There's blood all over the ground. He bled out while you were working on the Reckoning. Sorry..."
The response from the players, even the ones who knew just how deadly combat was supposed to be, was something along the lines of "Holy Fuck, that was fast!" I think that fair gunfights will be far less common than ambushes going forward...
Other notes: the use of tokens to track ammo, rations, money, power points, bennies, and equipment (the latter being blank cards purchased on Amazon) worked exceptionally well for my anti-record keeping crowd.
I actually recorded the session on my cell phone for personal reference later. It is by no means up to the quality that Stu produces but I was surprised at how comprehensible most of it was. If anyone wants to hear me say "like" and "basically" way too often, listen to a bunch of guys laugh like nerds, and critique my misapplication of the Savage World rules I might consider posting it somewhere. (Oxford comma ftw!)