The End (Savage Worlds/Roll20)
Dec 4, 2017 7:44:42 GMT -8
Post by Probie Tim on Dec 4, 2017 7:44:42 GMT -8
So, for a while I've been involved with a great bunch o' chaps for every-other-week online Hangouts/Discord gaming. It's been me, sbloyd, Houndin, lowkeyoh, malifer, and recent inductee HazelnutMudslide. It's my turn in the GMs seat, and I decided to give Roll20 another shot (I haven't looked at it for years now) and to get over my self-imposed Savage Worlds embargo and use it for the game. Rather than use my defunct blog for summarizing the game sessions, I figured I'll use this here "Listener Actual Plays" forum just in case some of the loyal HJRP forum haunts might want to read it and give feedback.
Our first session was this past Saturday - December 2 - from 5:00 PM PST to about 7:00 PM PST (because of the time zone differences between the group and the whole "we are adults with families and responsibilities and stuff" thing, a two-hour session seems to work best for us). The game is called "The End", and I've described it as a supernatural post-apocalyptic game. It starts off in Potter's Lake in Oregon, a small town a few miles north of the California/Oregon border, reached by taking the highway 42 exit off of interstate 5 (please note that neither Potter's Lake nor highway 42 actually exist; I made them up for this game). sbloyd was kind enough to create a map for the setting under my guidance, and he did a supremely awesome job. I am so jazzed for this map. Here it is:
The actual city of Potter's Lake is about 10 square miles (not including the lake) and has somewhere in the area of 60,000 people or so. I decided to populate the city with made-up businesses that have real world analogies: the Shoreline Cafe is pretty much Denny's, Saveco is pretty much Costco, Lakeside Medical is pretty much a Kaiser Permanente facility (with emergency services), Fill 'n' Grill is pretty much an AM/PM, and the rest are pretty self-explanatory (although On the Rocks is a typical biker bar, that one's not clear).
We didn't get a whole lot accomplished this past Saturday other than hammering out technical details with Roll20 (I was pleasantly surprised; it's much more reliable than the last time I used it) and character creation/introductions. As part of character creation, I made each player come up with a dark secret (something which would cause them great shame or embarrassment and maybe legal troubles if it came out; examples I gave were "one night I was drunk, and I hit a light pole with my car; it fell over and hit an old lady on the head and she died... but... I mean... I was going through a really rough spot, OK, and I didn't mean for it to happen so leave me alone, gah!" and "for a while, I was involved with moving stolen goods for a Mexican gang that I knew was involved with underage human trafficking; I feel bad for it, but I really needed the money or I would have been homeless") for their characters, for reasons which will come out during the game. I also had them answer the following questions:
1. You are a permanent resident of Potter's Lake. For how long has that been so? If you weren't born here, when did you move here?
2. Tell me about your family. Are you married? Do you have kids? Siblings? Are your mother and father still living? Where does your family live?
3. You must have a hobby. What do you do for fun? What are your ideal "day off" activities?
4. Tell me about someone in, or something about, Potter's Lake which you specifically like or enjoy?
5. Tell me about someone in, or something about, Potter's Lake which you specifically dislike or find distasteful?
I got some really good answers to those questions, many of which helped to flush out the town. As the game goes on and I write about it here, I'll identify those things as they come up.
We wound up with the following characters (sadly, sbloyd will not actually be playing in this game due to real-world concerns, and HazelnutMudslide could not attend this session; we'll be doing his character offline, and he'll be joining in next session):
• Clover Mulligan (played by lowkeyoh), a Priest with some... unorthodox methods,
• Thomas McBride (played by Houndin), a firefighter with the Potter's Lake Fire Department, and...
• Kelly "Sarge" Pepper (played by malifer), a former military man who runs a survivalist training camp.
We had a couple of other characters filter in and out a la Houndin's kids, but I don't yet know if they'll be permanent players so I'll leave them unspoken for now. Although I did find it quite humorous that Houndin's son decided to name his character Tim Huntley.
So basically we wound up going over the setting, introducing all the characters, and setting up the opening scene. Which went as follows:
On the morning of December 2, 2017, the characters awake to one of the worst storms that they can remember. The wind is blowing so hard that they can hear their homes creaking. The rain - which seems to be sometimes straight rain and sometimes hail - is coming down in angry, torrential downpours. Random flashes of lightning alight even the darkest rooms, and peals of thunder shake the very ground. It's... really bad.
To make matters worse, they appear to be alone in their domiciles. Father Clover can find none of his family; their beds have been slept in, but they are not there and there are no signs of them having left. Purses, wallets, clothes and shoes are all on desks and nightstands and in closets. Thomas is on-shift, and finds no other firemen in the house; again, they're all gone, and again, their beds have been slept in, there are no signs that they left, and all their personal belongings are where they should be. Sarge had a group of people going through his training, yet he could see none of them as he looked out his back window. He braved the storm to find their tents in absolute normal condition - exactly what you would expect if people were actually sleeping in them - but no one was there. He could find no footprints heading away from their tents, and their tents were zipped up as one would do as one settles in at night.
Our next session is on Saturday the 16th. I'll keep updating this thread as we play, and if you have any questions or comments, feel free to reply.
Our first session was this past Saturday - December 2 - from 5:00 PM PST to about 7:00 PM PST (because of the time zone differences between the group and the whole "we are adults with families and responsibilities and stuff" thing, a two-hour session seems to work best for us). The game is called "The End", and I've described it as a supernatural post-apocalyptic game. It starts off in Potter's Lake in Oregon, a small town a few miles north of the California/Oregon border, reached by taking the highway 42 exit off of interstate 5 (please note that neither Potter's Lake nor highway 42 actually exist; I made them up for this game). sbloyd was kind enough to create a map for the setting under my guidance, and he did a supremely awesome job. I am so jazzed for this map. Here it is:
The actual city of Potter's Lake is about 10 square miles (not including the lake) and has somewhere in the area of 60,000 people or so. I decided to populate the city with made-up businesses that have real world analogies: the Shoreline Cafe is pretty much Denny's, Saveco is pretty much Costco, Lakeside Medical is pretty much a Kaiser Permanente facility (with emergency services), Fill 'n' Grill is pretty much an AM/PM, and the rest are pretty self-explanatory (although On the Rocks is a typical biker bar, that one's not clear).
We didn't get a whole lot accomplished this past Saturday other than hammering out technical details with Roll20 (I was pleasantly surprised; it's much more reliable than the last time I used it) and character creation/introductions. As part of character creation, I made each player come up with a dark secret (something which would cause them great shame or embarrassment and maybe legal troubles if it came out; examples I gave were "one night I was drunk, and I hit a light pole with my car; it fell over and hit an old lady on the head and she died... but... I mean... I was going through a really rough spot, OK, and I didn't mean for it to happen so leave me alone, gah!" and "for a while, I was involved with moving stolen goods for a Mexican gang that I knew was involved with underage human trafficking; I feel bad for it, but I really needed the money or I would have been homeless") for their characters, for reasons which will come out during the game. I also had them answer the following questions:
1. You are a permanent resident of Potter's Lake. For how long has that been so? If you weren't born here, when did you move here?
2. Tell me about your family. Are you married? Do you have kids? Siblings? Are your mother and father still living? Where does your family live?
3. You must have a hobby. What do you do for fun? What are your ideal "day off" activities?
4. Tell me about someone in, or something about, Potter's Lake which you specifically like or enjoy?
5. Tell me about someone in, or something about, Potter's Lake which you specifically dislike or find distasteful?
I got some really good answers to those questions, many of which helped to flush out the town. As the game goes on and I write about it here, I'll identify those things as they come up.
We wound up with the following characters (sadly, sbloyd will not actually be playing in this game due to real-world concerns, and HazelnutMudslide could not attend this session; we'll be doing his character offline, and he'll be joining in next session):
• Clover Mulligan (played by lowkeyoh), a Priest with some... unorthodox methods,
• Thomas McBride (played by Houndin), a firefighter with the Potter's Lake Fire Department, and...
• Kelly "Sarge" Pepper (played by malifer), a former military man who runs a survivalist training camp.
We had a couple of other characters filter in and out a la Houndin's kids, but I don't yet know if they'll be permanent players so I'll leave them unspoken for now. Although I did find it quite humorous that Houndin's son decided to name his character Tim Huntley.
So basically we wound up going over the setting, introducing all the characters, and setting up the opening scene. Which went as follows:
On the morning of December 2, 2017, the characters awake to one of the worst storms that they can remember. The wind is blowing so hard that they can hear their homes creaking. The rain - which seems to be sometimes straight rain and sometimes hail - is coming down in angry, torrential downpours. Random flashes of lightning alight even the darkest rooms, and peals of thunder shake the very ground. It's... really bad.
To make matters worse, they appear to be alone in their domiciles. Father Clover can find none of his family; their beds have been slept in, but they are not there and there are no signs of them having left. Purses, wallets, clothes and shoes are all on desks and nightstands and in closets. Thomas is on-shift, and finds no other firemen in the house; again, they're all gone, and again, their beds have been slept in, there are no signs that they left, and all their personal belongings are where they should be. Sarge had a group of people going through his training, yet he could see none of them as he looked out his back window. He braved the storm to find their tents in absolute normal condition - exactly what you would expect if people were actually sleeping in them - but no one was there. He could find no footprints heading away from their tents, and their tents were zipped up as one would do as one settles in at night.
Our next session is on Saturday the 16th. I'll keep updating this thread as we play, and if you have any questions or comments, feel free to reply.