kjleigh
Initiate Douchebag
Posts: 24
Preferred Game Systems: Savage Worlds
|
Post by kjleigh on Dec 30, 2016 13:06:44 GMT -8
So I've started a game in SW in a fantasy setting.
The plot is: a dark plague spreads through the land. The players are part of a military scouting party assigned to survey a city in the eastern country. Routine inspections. While on patrol they stumble upon a wandering horde of infected. The cities garrison is dispatched and the horde dealt with. On returning to the city, they discover that at least one of the infected slipped past them and now the city is falling to the plague. Their only option is to hole up in the cities siege tower and wait for extraction.
So, we haven't quite made it to the battle with the infected yet. So a lot of what I think will happen may not actually happen.
If they do make use of the siege tower, I would like them to have to manage food, water, etc. In a entertaining way of course. I also plan on introducing new groups of survivors occasionally, changing the needs of the group and exhausting supplies.
The plot is loosely based off of the we're alive podcast. A zombie survival story set in LA.
Has anybody had success running survival based games? What did you do to make the situation seem dire, or exciting? What are some scenarios you think I could add?
Thanks for the help!
|
|
|
Post by weaselcreature on Dec 30, 2016 13:23:24 GMT -8
While I can't help with your specific questions, what's to stop the PCs suggesting to their superiors that the city is lost and all healthy living should just bug out? Or maybe the PCs just bug out themselves? Just throwing out monkey wrenches in case your players do the same.
|
|
kjleigh
Initiate Douchebag
Posts: 24
Preferred Game Systems: Savage Worlds
|
Post by kjleigh on Dec 30, 2016 13:38:12 GMT -8
While I can't help with your specific questions, what's to stop the PCs suggesting to their superiors that the city is lost and all healthy living should just bug out? Or maybe the PCs just bug out themselves? Just throwing out monkey wrenches in case your players do the same. Once back in the city I don't want it to be immediately apparent that all hope is lost. My thought is that they will attempt heading back to base, which is near city center. Then after the city falls it will become more and more difficult to leave the city. I want it to appear as though the infected horde is being controlled and organized. So I figure there will be larger groups, or more powerful infected near the city gates. Another thought is that if the city falls, so does the surrounding land. The party won't be able to find safety close by.
|
|
sbloyd
Supporter
WHAT! A human in a Precursor service vehicle?!
Posts: 2,762
Preferred Game Systems: Storyteller; Dresden; Mage
Favorite Species of Monkey: Goddamnit, Curious George is a CHIMP not a monkey! Stop teaching my daughter improper classification!
|
Post by sbloyd on Dec 30, 2016 14:45:46 GMT -8
Learn from Stu Venable - cut them off from their superiors. Sunspots. Weird aurora activity coinciding with the plague. Comms guy gets dragged through a wood chipper. Whatever it takes, cut them off.
|
|
|
Post by uncommonman on Dec 30, 2016 14:53:03 GMT -8
Add some crazy doomsayers drumming up bands of believers that "know the cure" and gets in the PC's way...
|
|
G.I. Joe
Journeyman Douchebag
Posts: 147
Preferred Game Systems: L5R, FATE, GURPS
Currently Playing: Isawa Miriko: Split soul made whole again... with memory issues. Homura (Formerly Isawa Kiyoi) - wandering fire Priestess; Girart - a GURPS low-tech combat monkey w/19ST
Currently Running: Fushigina Ronin (L5R 4th ed)
Favorite Species of Monkey: Winston
|
Post by G.I. Joe on Jan 3, 2017 11:16:40 GMT -8
This sounds really cool! I do have a question though; why does the city have a siege tower? Also, aren't siege towers open on one side (the back), which would make holing up in one futile at best? Also, assuming you meant a watch-tower; and assuming that the watch tower is made of stone, what is to stop them setting the city on fire to purge the infection?
|
|
kjleigh
Initiate Douchebag
Posts: 24
Preferred Game Systems: Savage Worlds
|
Post by kjleigh on Jan 3, 2017 13:07:42 GMT -8
This sounds really cool! I do have a question though; why does the city have a siege tower? Also, aren't siege towers open on one side (the back), which would make holing up in one futile at best? Also, assuming you meant a watch-tower; and assuming that the watch tower is made of stone, what is to stop them setting the city on fire to purge the infection? Good questions. Maybe siege tower is the wrong expression. Basically there is a tower in the center of the city where visiting dignitaries are housed. It was designed to be able to go into a sort of "lockdown" if there was an attack on the city. Under normal circumstances it simply functions as a hotel with an attached casino/conference hall. The time period is sort of Victorian era / post-Renaissance fantasy. Most of the buildings in the city are stone or brick. The population of this particular city is over 15,000, so I'm not sure burning the city down would be an option. But if the players try I'll have to play it out.
|
|
|
Post by ayslyn on Jan 3, 2017 13:40:59 GMT -8
This sounds really cool! I do have a question though; why does the city have a siege tower? Also, aren't siege towers open on one side (the back), which would make holing up in one futile at best? Also, assuming you meant a watch-tower; and assuming that the watch tower is made of stone, what is to stop them setting the city on fire to purge the infection? Good questions. Maybe siege tower is the wrong expression. Basically there is a tower in the center of the city where visiting dignitaries are housed. It was designed to be able to go into a sort of "lockdown" if there was an attack on the city. Under normal circumstances it simply functions as a hotel with an attached casino/conference hall. Definitely the wrong term. A siege tower is a quickly built tower that you roll up to the walls that allows you to get lots of troops over the walls, while giving them a platform to fight from to do so. You're describing a sort of medieval panic room.
|
|
G.I. Joe
Journeyman Douchebag
Posts: 147
Preferred Game Systems: L5R, FATE, GURPS
Currently Playing: Isawa Miriko: Split soul made whole again... with memory issues. Homura (Formerly Isawa Kiyoi) - wandering fire Priestess; Girart - a GURPS low-tech combat monkey w/19ST
Currently Running: Fushigina Ronin (L5R 4th ed)
Favorite Species of Monkey: Winston
|
Post by G.I. Joe on Jan 5, 2017 9:35:42 GMT -8
Good questions. Maybe siege tower is the wrong expression. Basically there is a tower in the center of the city where visiting dignitaries are housed. It was designed to be able to go into a sort of "lockdown" if there was an attack on the city. Under normal circumstances it simply functions as a hotel with an attached casino/conference hall. Definitely the wrong term. A siege tower is a quickly built tower that you roll up to the walls that allows you to get lots of troops over the walls, while giving them a platform to fight from to do so. You're describing a sort of medieval panic room. Kind of like a keep, but only a tower. If it's meant to go into lock-down upon the city being attacked, what is the plan if the city falls? Just wait it out? Claim diplomatic immunity as representatives of other states? Also, if it is meant to be able to withstand a seige, then that means no big windows, at least on the first few floors.
|
|
kjleigh
Initiate Douchebag
Posts: 24
Preferred Game Systems: Savage Worlds
|
Post by kjleigh on Jan 5, 2017 13:06:08 GMT -8
Definitely the wrong term. A siege tower is a quickly built tower that you roll up to the walls that allows you to get lots of troops over the walls, while giving them a platform to fight from to do so. You're describing a sort of medieval panic room. Kind of like a keep, but only a tower. If it's meant to go into lock-down upon the city being attacked, what is the plan if the city falls? Just wait it out? Claim diplomatic immunity as representatives of other states? Also, if it is meant to be able to withstand a seige, then that means no big windows, at least on the first few floors. Yeah, it's sort of a panic room. It's not really designed for long haul survival, residents are supposed to be extracted via airship before the city comes close to falling. So I'm interested to see how the PCs make it work for their extended stay. I plan on at points cutting off water supply, having food go bad, and have occasional influxes of survivors. It acts as a hotel normally, there is windows and such. The lower levels have iron shutters, and you can seal off the staircase after the 2nd floor. It's designed to slow and enemy down, not to keep them out entirely. Plus, I should add that this is a time of peace overall. It's been a long time since this tower was used for anything more than an inn. The PCs have a lot of maintenance to do on the place if they're going to stay there.
|
|
sbloyd
Supporter
WHAT! A human in a Precursor service vehicle?!
Posts: 2,762
Preferred Game Systems: Storyteller; Dresden; Mage
Favorite Species of Monkey: Goddamnit, Curious George is a CHIMP not a monkey! Stop teaching my daughter improper classification!
|
Post by sbloyd on Jan 5, 2017 13:15:51 GMT -8
TBH, I would think a panic room would be underground. In one of those dungeons full of traps that's always laying around.
|
|
kjleigh
Initiate Douchebag
Posts: 24
Preferred Game Systems: Savage Worlds
|
Post by kjleigh on Jan 5, 2017 18:33:22 GMT -8
TBH, I would think a panic room would be underground. In one of those dungeons full of traps that's always laying around. Generally I would agree with you, and I may end up including some in other areas of the cities if the players look for them. But the whole video of the tower is for the residents to be able to live semi luxuriously during their stay. It caters to visiting dignitaries and the wealthy. If there was an attack, the tower only needs to act as a saferoom until airships arrive to extract the residents. Hours, maybe a day or two. Tbh, the tower is not entirely necessary. The PCs could just as soon decide to hole up in a different building, or even set off away from the city and risk out running the horde. I only made the tower to give them a central area they could focus on. Plus, it stands 8 stories above all the other buildings, so it's a great vantage point/high ground during battle.
|
|