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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2012 22:51:45 GMT -8
So I ran my first Savage Worlds game (I blame JIB), and it went pretty well. Came up with a steampunk scenario involving the Orient Express, automatons, a steam powered bomb tied to the trains throttle, and a few historical characters to bring it all to life. My party started out with no connections to one another, just passengers on the train. There was tons of role play as they interacted with each other and the other passengers of the train. A rather capricious young seven year old by the name of Edgar Burroughs was running about telling fantastic tales of shiny moon men to the chargin of his mother, while Thomas Henry Huxley was having an argument with a fellow by the name of Jack who also happened to have a great hatred of women. Since the party hadn't really become a party yet things ended up getting split with two players in a fight in a baggage card with Jack and his automatons while the other three discovered and dealt with the bomb. One of the players also pulled off a jewel heist while all this was going on. After an action packed session the whole group finally ended up in the restaurant car, sitting at the bar having a drink as they discussed the events and then being primarily English they all decided they should get a rest before the train pulled into Paris. It was a rather anti-climatic way to end the session, especially after the near death experiences and action, but somehow it felt perfect for the characters and the setting. This should be the first in a campaign and my players seemed to really enjoy it. Things were a little bumpy at times with my looking up rules every few minutes and my players asking a great many questions, but at the same time I don't think I've ever seen my two meta gamers get so into their characters and role play as much as they did. Dice rolls also seemed to come much more naturally and organically then they did when we were playing D&D. There was far less asking what skill to roll and much more of the players telling me what they were doing and then rolling on their own and telling me the results. Once we all get a good handle on things I have a feeling this game is going to flow fast and furious.
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HyveMynd
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Post by HyveMynd on Aug 11, 2012 23:17:28 GMT -8
So I ran my first Savage Worlds game (I blame JIB)... Yeah, I blame JiB for spreading the infection, too. ...and it went pretty well. Congratulations! I know I always sweat bullets before running a game session, doubly so when it's with a new system. Dice rolls also seemed to come much more naturally and organically then they did when we were playing D&D. There was far less asking what skill to roll and much more of the players telling me what they were doing and then rolling on their own and telling me the results. When I'm a GM, I absolutely love in when that happens. I don't want my players to ask me "What skill should I use?" but to simply tell me "I'm using skill X in this way." High marks for your players (and I guess for Savage Worlds, too) for doing this. In my opinion, skill-based systems need to strike a balance between having a small enough skill list so that the players don't get overwhelmed by choice, while not being so small that individual skills have to cover things that don't really make sense. Keep up posted.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 12, 2012 7:22:58 GMT -8
For future reference a list of the characters my players came up with,
Norra Riddington - a wealthy widow from Australia who is also a self taught chemist of some skill. A fragile young woman with a sharp mind. An accident took her left leg which has been replaced with a prosthesis that she naturally keeps hidden beneath her long skirts. Two aid her she has two servants, the beautiful but not terribly bright Lizabeth, and the rather masculine and quick to anger Ruby. At sessions end she had claimed the bomb so that she could study the chemicals used within it.
Hindrances - One leg (major), Anemic (minor), Phobia: mice (minor) Edges - Linguist, Rich
Bennet Prismall - A middle class mechanic and engineer from London. A somewhat portly and good natured fellow with an insatiable curiosity and an uncanny knack with nearly anything mechanical. He does however suffer from some slight terrors, the memories of his dead wife so strong that he often believes she's still sitting at home waiting for him.
Hindrances - Curious (major), Delusional (minor), Obese (minor) Edges - Mcguyver, First Strike
Yancibald Percival Huntington IV - In appearance he is a gentleman of noble birth with all the mannerisms on often associates with the like. He also appears rather wealthy. In truth however any wealth his family once had is long since lost due to a gambling habit coupled with a streak of dangerous over confidence. Thankfully he is also an accomplished thief, preying on his peers to fund his own needs.
Hindrances - Overconfident (Major), Wanted (minor), Habit: Gambling (minor) Edges - Thief
Victor Alloicius von Heidelburg - Though his anscetors may have been German, Victor is an Englishman through and through. He is a skilled doctor who's time with the British army has given him a taste of exotic lands where he's picked up a variety of a skills, not the least of which is a unique form of martial arts that he has found a priceless edition. Though his body has become something of a well oiled machine, his mind seems to have lost a few cogs. He is apt to see what isn't there, and often fails to tell fantasy from reality, though time as proven on occasion that simply because you can't see the monster doesn't mean it isn't there. He has acquired a skilled man servant by name of Manfred to aid him in avoiding the worst of his delusions however.
Hindrances - Delusional (major), Overconfident (minor), Stubborn (minor), Loyal (minor) Edges - Jack of all Trades, Martial Artist
Lawrence Yearwood - the black sheep of a wealthy and respectable family, he has been disowned and cast adrift in society after several years of his antics annoying his father. His meager possessions at this low point in life are a well worn set of clothes and a rather nice sword cane, which he has learned to use well. A vow to never grovel before his father keeps him from returning home in hopes of cash, that and a desire to see the world and live as his own man. He has begun to miss the finer things in life however.
Hindrances - Curious (major), Disowned (minor), Poverty (minor) Edges - Trademark weapon: Sword Cane, First Strike
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Post by jazzisblues on Aug 13, 2012 6:41:37 GMT -8
Sounds like an awesome game, I'm glad it went so well. I will happily take the blame or credit for spreading the love of Savage Worlds as anyone sees fit. I am always neurotic and panicky before a game. Once I get t the table I'm fine, but in the days / hours leading up to the game actually starting I'm just short of being a danger to myself and others. The way the mechanics roll out is one of the things about SW that I love. Also the energy and excitement when someone aces. Cheers, JiB
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Post by Deleted on Aug 13, 2012 13:43:39 GMT -8
Learning the dice mechanics actually took a bit mostly because the idea of the wild die was throwing people off and had to remind them to reroll for the aces at first. Once they got it though watching the excitement build as the aces came up was great. Everyone would go quiet and then cheer. Of course one player also rolled snake eyes three times in a row which was impressive.
Jack, my main villain, was essentially one shotted after two rounds of being completely missed. Lawrence rolled three sixes and a two on his wild die and obliterated him. Thankully the lack of power cards (we jsut wrapped up a two years D&D 4e campaign) led to my players being much more creative. They had opened the cargo doors of the train car so they could push the automatons off the train. They being only armed with a sword cane and their bare hands it seemed like the smarter option to deal with big metal men with swords for arms. So as Jack started to drop from his horrible wounds I had him fall off the train as well, rolling away into the darkness, from which he may later return.
Combat was dramatically faster then D&D, even accounting for the fact that only two players and three monsters were involved I was also running the rest of the party through a jewel heist and a bomb defusing during it and it still went quick.
As for nerves I never really have that. But then I tend to GM in a rather off the cuff manner. My total notes for any session are maybe half a page. For this session I had the following as my notes:
Interior train (orient express) - locomotive, coal car, two sleeping cars, bar/restaurant car, two sleeping cars, two baggage cars.
Thomas Henry Huxley (57) English contemporary of Darwin. Biologist, expert on anatomy, agnostic, bulldog apperance with great muttonchop sideburns.
Edgar Burroughs (7) American child on vacation with family. Vivid imagination, loves to tell stories to anyone he meets, total lack of fear due to imagination and hunger for adventure.
Jack - attractive but sinister looking man, quick to anger around women. See Rippers Pg 131
Automatons - Men made of brass, six foot tall, armed with blades on one arm. See Rippers pg 120
From there I make it all up as I go along based on what my party comes up with. The bomb they encountered I came up with because the engineer decided to spend alot of time studying the steam engine of the train and I decided I wanted him to find something interesting. Because our female player had made her character a chemist I decided that the bomb should be using chemicals mixed with the steam right at the moment they discovered it and started to study it. Several other clues they found linking the brass men and the bomb I came up with on the spot and are now notes written down for me to remember and tie to later.
Alot of that has developed as I've been playing with this group for two years and have an idea of how their minds work and I know I can come up with things quick based on what they throw at me. I'm fairly sure if I ever tried to run a con game of any kind I'd be a nervous wreck trying to come up with something that had a good beginning, middle, and end in such a short amount of time.
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Post by jazzisblues on Aug 14, 2012 6:42:05 GMT -8
Yup a game I would love to have played in, sounds like total fun.
The dice mechanics for SW do take a little bit of getting used to but once everyone settles in it gets very exciting.
Very very cool setup for a game. Many (more than well deserved) kudos.
JiB
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Post by Deleted on Aug 26, 2012 13:41:26 GMT -8
Okay this is a long, and possibly rambling post, but this second session of my campaign was a massive amount of fun so I ended up typing up a long after battle report on it and I figured I'd post it here in case anyone else is looking for ideas etc for a steampunk game.
In the first of our Steampunk Savage Worlds session our party was brought together by a misadventure upon the Orient Express featuring a steam powered bomb and some killer Automatons. This week they find themselves in Paris where new secrets are uncovered and they find themselves pulled deeper into a strange world of high technology and horrible creatures.
Upon arriving at the train station in Paris the party noticed a large number of French Gendarmes bustling about, obviously searching for something. Directly upon disembarking the train Norra, Bennet, and Victor found themselves accosted by said officers of the law with a great many questions about the events of the previous night. Yancibald slipped off into the shadows (mostly because his player was absent) and Lawrence kept a low profile as he watched the others argue with the police.
Jessica has chosen to play Norra as a very strong willed woman who doesn't like being ordered around, thus she instantly took a dislike to the police trying to take her in for questioning. Victor on the other hand has both his loose grip sanity and a stereotypical dislike of hte French to thank for his quickly annoying those same police. Bennet unfortunately just got dragged along when the police finally decided to arrest the lot of them.
With the bulk of the group being dragged off for questioning Lawrence grabbed up his luggage, and the bomb Bennet had hidden away in a sack, and took off to the safest place he could think of, a bar. He did however happen to notice a pair of thugs and a fellow bundled up even more then the winter morning required, collecting the crates packed with the Automatons. Of course those men didn't yet know that one of the crates they picked up actually held a shipment of cloth destined with a seamstress. The labels having been swapped by Victor the previous night in an effort to hold onto and further investigate the metal man.
The session proceeded with an interrogation of each of the party members that had been arrested, allowing each a chance to get a little deeper into their characters and nudge them towards a plan and perhaps some bonding, since this group started as literal strangers on a train. Eventually however the police were notified that each of them were to be transferred to the custody of the Surete Nationale. Meanwhile in his safe haven at the bar Lawrence found himself being gripped upon the shoulder by a strong hand.
What followed was something half combat and half skill challenge as Lawrence disabled his would be attacker and then discovered that he too was a member of the secret police. As he didn't get much time to shine last session I thought this was a nice little scene for him, and led to his following said officer of the law towards a man that could answer some of the questions lingering in his mind after the previous sessions events.
The party was thus reunited at a nondescript house in a poorer distract of the city where they were all ushered into the large sitting/bedroom of an ancient looking fellow. This scene was setup to introduce the fact that in this strange world they were discovering not only amazing elements of steam technology existed but also other areas of science. At the start of the scene my NPC was coughing and wheezing, and generally coming across as a dying creepy old man. A few moments into it he pulled a bell and his servant entered and hooked him up to an IV, and then injected him with a strange chemical substance which quickly melted away the years, leaving him looking significantly younger.
The party learned that he was Eugène François Vidocq, secret head of the Surete Nationale. Though thought long dead he is kept alive by strange chemical means and continues to protect his nation, though he often falls back on mentions of his beloved Emperor Napoleon. Through him they learn the name of the believed maker of the Automatons and the bomb, Prince Dakkar, another man thought dead. They also learned that the metal men were prototypes for an army. Its ultimate purpose believed to be the overthrown of all of Europe. After a bit more talk the party decided it was time to retrieve their metal man and set off for the seamstress's shop.
Upon their arrival they discovered the front room empty, but behind the building two thugs were attempting to load a crate into a carriage and from an upper room a woman's scream echoed through the building. As is becoming a trend the party split, with Victor rushing up the stairs and the rest darting out the back. Norra wasted no time and fired her Derringer at one of the thugs while Lawrence and Bennet drew their weapons, a sword cane and wrench respectively.
Upstairs Victor found two woman bound and gagged with the heavily bundled man standing over them. he attacked swiftly, slamming the man into the wall, only to stumble back when he pulled back off his scarf and hat to reveal a distinct lack of a face or head. The two wrestled for several moments, more clothing coming off the man in the process.
In the alley the man Norra had shot injected himself with another strange chemical and began to go into convulsions as wounds began to open all over his body. The other thug pulled a pistol and managed to shoot Norra's hat off before Bennet and Lawrence began beating and slashing at him. Norra herself regained her composure, and her hat, and took another shot at the convulsing man, unfortunately missing and wasting her second and last shot.
Upstairs the battle between Victor and the invisible man seemed to be coming to and end when he tackled and practically road the man down the stairs, attempting to knock him unconscious at the foot of the stairs. Unfortunately his opponent was able to squirm around and give him a solid kick to the groin, before racing into the front room, tossing off the last of his clothes.
In the alley the convulsions stopped as the first thug finished his transformation into a towering behemoth. HIs flesh was rent with open wounds where muscle had grown faster than skin and his eyes held a crazed grin. He nearly broke Bennet with a single swing of his massive fists, leading to his partners attempted escape. Lawrence slowed the man with a swift stricken of his sword, while the Behemoth grabbed up his fallen partner and began using him as a human flail. Several strikes of blade and wrench proved futile as the beast ignored all pain and swung his former partner about as a weapon, barely missing. Norra came up with a creative solution however, noticing that the creature was already losing a great deal of blood from its many wounds, and that its heart was likely racing, she slipped a hypodermic of cocaine from her back and managed to throw it like a dart into its neck. It took Bennet's quick wits to dodge the beasts lumbering arms and slam the plunger down, flooding its system with the drug and sending it into cardiac arrest.
Having dispatched the beast the group now noticed the sounds of Victor yelling from the front of the store, running towards him they witnessed with astonishment his lumbering and leaping around the room, knocking mannequins and bales of cloth about like a raving lunatic. It was having witnessing the monster in the alley that allowed them to believe him when he shouted that there was an invisible man trying to escape. Tossing a bale of cloth across the room to reveal his silhouette proved his words and Bennet's trusting wrench knocked the foe unconscious after he through Norra to the ground as he rushed for the back door.
At the session's end Lawrence freed the seamstress while Victor bound and gave medical care to the invisible man. The party loaded him, along with the crate and the two bodies into the carriage and set off into the streets, hoping to avoid the police as they try to decide what to do with their prisoner and trophy.
The session end leaves a lot of options and I'm very interested in what my party will do next. Their sanity was somewhat put to the test by what they witnessed, and they have now found themselves dragged even further into events beyond anything they imagined. From their somewhat quiet Victorian lives they have entered a shadowy world of horror and wonder where the fate of the world seems to hang in the balance. A nice start to a campaign that I hope will last a good long time.
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Post by stork on Aug 26, 2012 18:02:22 GMT -8
That, my friend, is an amazing adventure.
Steam punk is hard to do, and harder to do well, and I have to say this is amazing.
Keep us in the loop. I'd love to hear what your lucky players think of the SW system!
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Post by Deleted on Aug 26, 2012 18:45:11 GMT -8
So far they are really enjoying it. Coming from D20 systems, and specifically D&D 4e as our last campaign system it took a little while for them to get used to the dice mechanics and the wild die and exploding die thing was a little confusing at first but they seem to have it done well now.
The biggest comments I've gotten have both been about combat. First they are a little amazed at how fast combat goes, and second the lack of "powers" has led them to being far more creative in their attacks and descriptions. The player of Victor was a 4e powergamer, and he has been trying to figure out some ways to game the SW system, but overall he has been RP a great deal more and his turns are going very quickly and he's been very creative in how he's playing his character as something of a martial artist.
As for the steampunk being hard to do, I think the problem most people have, and I am working very hard to avoid, is that they veer much more into gaslamp fantasy. They simply replace magic with Steam technology and forget the Punk portion of Steampunk. I'm trying to keep the world at large as realistic to the period as possible, and playing up the steam tech and weird science as a shadowy part of the world, and a very dystopian portion of it at that. We'll see if I can keep it going as the party goes deeper down the rabbit hole and the strange starts to become more common place for them.
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Post by jazzisblues on Aug 27, 2012 7:02:27 GMT -8
Sounds like an awesome game unfolding Tentagil. I'm really glad your players are engoying SW.
Your power gamer will eventually find his way to the bolt attack and will want to use it Just a prediction on my part, but a safe one.
Cheers,
JiB
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joegun
Journeyman Douchebag
Posts: 249
Preferred Game Systems: Savage Worlds
Currently Playing: Just GM'ing right now.
Currently Running: Rippers Resurrected, and Savage RIFTS!
Favorite Species of Monkey: Baboon
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Post by joegun on Aug 28, 2012 12:51:51 GMT -8
Great game, and wonderful Recaps Tentagil! I hope you keep them up, it is a great read!
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Post by Deleted on Aug 28, 2012 17:07:27 GMT -8
Sounds like an awesome game unfolding Tentagil. I'm really glad your players are engoying SW. Your power gamer will eventually find his way to the bolt attack and will want to use it Just a prediction on my part, but a safe one. Cheers, JiB I'm assuming you are talking about the bolt power, in which case I'm safe as there are no powers in this game. No magic at all, just strange science and technology which will all be based on a mix of modern stuff being discovered early or things that are now know to not be possible but that the Victorians thought might be. Thus everything will have a plausible explanation for why it works. Eventually they will start getting tech which I'm basing off the Rippertech stuff. It will work a little like powers but everything has both a bonus and a penalty to it and there aren't any power points involved. Most of it is gear though that takes an action to ready for use. For instance I've come up with a set of Thermographic Goggles (infrared essentially) that allow a player to see an invisible man, but it also destroys depth perception. Meaning they don't take the -4 penalty to notice or fighting the invisible enemies, but their shooting and throwing would be at a -2 penalty since they can't properly aim. I'm hoping that by pairing benefits with penalties I can keep the tech interesting and useful but stop it from over powering the game. Also glad you guys are enjoying the write ups. This is how I keep track of the game since we usually play every other week or so. Our next session for instance is probably a month away due to schedule issues and holidays. The write up helps me keep track of what the hell is going on and I can send it to my players to remind them what happened in the last session a week or so before the next.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 26, 2012 18:56:04 GMT -8
The next session of my Savage Steampunk game for those who are interested.
With the cart loaded up with two corpses, an invisible man, and a crate containing an inert Automaton, our brave party grabbed the reins and set off to the French machine shop currently employing Bennet. Unfortunately the sounds of gunfire, women’s screams, and the roars of a great beast had drawn the attention of the constabulary, two carriages worth of which had just pulled up in front of the seamstress’s shop as the party burst from the alley.
Now Savage Worlds has a chase system in the rules, but as I read over it I found that it really didn’t give the feel that I wanted. So instead I ran a variation of how I ran Skill Challenges in D&D 4e. We dealt cards for initiative and each round the players told me their actions, rolled their dice, and depending on if they succeeded or failed I gave them advantages or complications related to the chase. I also allowed them to make up a fair amount of what was going on in the world around them, helping to bring the whole thing to life.
Bennet took the reins and thus was in the drives seat, he made a valiant attempt to control the horses, a skill he lacked. In Savage Worlds rolling for an untrained skill is a d4 with a -2. Now they still get to roll their wild die (a d6) alongside it with the same -2. This all makes an untrained check very hard, and meant that an unskilled Bennet trying to drive a team of horses was going to be very entertaining.
While he was weaving along the streets dodging other carts and people Norra did what she has proven wont to do, turned and shot at the constables. A truly lousy roll however allowed me the fun of giving her the first complication, in this case the horses were spooked and she was sent head over heels backwards off the cart. She landed on the leads connecting the horses to the cart and managed to hang on only because her dress got tangled in the lines.
Lawrence, seeing Norra’s predicament leapt over the seat and vaulted onto the back of one of the horses. With one hand on the horses harness he swung a hand back to grab Norra’s wrist and pulled her up to safety on the back of the horse. Miraculously she managed to keep her hat on through the entire episode.
While the valiant rescue was going on up front, Victor decided it might be a good idea to get rid of the corpses, and so tumbled one out the back directly in the path of the chasing police. This success slowed the pursuers down, but merely added to their vigor to capture these fleeing fugitives, and certainly didn’t help the parties’ reputation with the law.
Unfortunately the speed advantage they’d gained was lost as Bennet plowed them through a fruit cart in classic chase style. A quick flick of the wrist allowed Lawrence to nonchalantly catch a flying apple as they were pelted, which he offered to the a recently rescued Norra, when she refused he stuck it upon the end of his sword, dangling it before the horse in the hopes he could coax a bit more speed. Norra meanwhile made the leap back to the carriage bench, and began ripping off the tattered bottom of her dress.
Up ahead a pair of workers had begun to cross the street with a large pain of leaded glass, which Bennet barely managed to avoid with a sharp turn. The first of the police carriages thankfully failed the same turn, crashing through the glass and overturning. The second however managed it and continued after our party, pushing their horses to even higher speeds.
Lawrence flicked the apple from his sword and leapt to his feet upon the horses back and as they crossed beneath some low hanging clothes lines jumped up and sliced the line cleanly, unfortunately he failed to stick the landing and tumbled from the horses back, barely catching a lead and finding himself dragged beside the horse as they rushed onward. Victor in a bit of luck caught the tossed apple. Behind them the falling clothesline briefly entangled the driver of the second carriage, but just as he through it off that same well aimed apple pegged him in the head, knocking him cold.
With the speed advantage back in their favor Bennet turned down another street and discovered the road ahead torn up as workers were replacing the cobblestones. Seeing a large mound of dirt, and desperate to escape he directed the horses towards the impromptu ramp. The cart leapt into the air, flying across the rubble of the road and landed upon the other side with surprising grace. At which point the harnesses snapped and all four wheels collapsed under the hefty weight of the crated automaton slamming back into place in the back of the cart. After skidding to a stop they leapt out and took cover as the police leapt from their own carriage on the other side of the torn up road.
Wanting to hold off their pursuers Norra once again took aim, hoping to fire above their heads and scare them off. Unfortunately her aim was off again and one officer dropped with blood gushing from a shoulder wound. Her yell for them to stay away was headed however as the unarmed officers (beyond their billy clubs) were not willing to risk additional shots. Essentially she failed her shooting roll but exploded on her Intimidation.
With the Automaton being too heavy to carry, Victor admitted to the party that he had secured the key on the train and activated the machine; meanwhile Lawrence and Bennet had already started to run. Grabbing up the Invisible Man, and with the robot following, the party took off into the allies as night began to fall, eventually finding an empty watch makers shop to break into and hide.
While inside the party rested and Victor deactivated the automaton before Bennet began an inspection of it with a handy tool kit he found in the store. And which he convinced Norra to leave payment for the next morning when they left. With notebook open Bennet spent much of the night inspecting the clockwork and other mechanical systems of the automaton, fascinated by its internal workings (an excellent roleplaying of his Major Hindrance of curious which would be played into even more later in the session). Though unable to determine the actual power source keeping the boiler going, he was able to identify the control system, a miniature version of Babbage’s Difference Engine, programmed via a wax cylinder.
Meanwhile Victor with the aid of some morphine began interrogating their captive. Though much of what he said was drug induced babbling, as well as some ranting and threats, they did learn that the Automatons were due to be placed upon a ship called the Josephine, a steam ferry at the Paris port. The next morning Victor managed to sneak out and secure a new cart and the party finally made their way to Bennet’s machine shop near the rail yards.
Here I introduced our next historical NPC as the party encountered a 28 year old Nikola Tesla working on an experimental turbine in Bennet’s small workshop. Telsa actually was in Paris the year of 1883, working for the Edison Company as an electrical engineer, the following year he sailed to America to work for Edison at Menlo Park, NJ. Incidentally it was his work on Edison’s turbines which caused the rift between the two.
This strange Serbian proved to be as fascinated with the automaton as Bennet and the rest and quickly began studying it, while the very tired Bennet crawled into his cot for a rest. Meanwhile Lawrence and Victor decided to deliver the Invisible Man to Vidocq before heading out in search of information on the Josephine. Naturally France’s spymaster knew of Griffin, and was very pleased to have him at his mercy. He was also a font of information about the ship, it being named after his late Emperor’s wife made it of interest after all.
As those two headed back to the shop, Tesla and Norra began a much deeper study of the Automaton. Removing the fragile control box and some other parts they began an investigation of the boiler. After much scrutiny their curiosity got the better of them and they decided to try and relieve the pressure so they could open it. By cutting several of the copper pipes and then turning it on they released much of the steam, which in turn also awoke Bennet. Though at first angry at the disruption his own curiosity was piqued and he quickly joined them in trying to find a way to open it. Eventually Norra had the brilliant idea to hit it with a hammer. The result had them all diving for cover as the boiler began to scream and then shatter. Inside they discovered a strange, and highly magnetic ore that appeared to be the power. Around this time Lawrence and Victor arrived, and right behind them a group of strangely clad men.
As these men had rifles, and my party has quickly learned that the Savage Worlds system is a bit more deadly than some other systems we’ve played they decided to run for it, though not until after Bennet fashioned a simple bomb from a small steam engine. With its explosion acting as a distraction they managed to escape, though not before Norra took a shot to the shoulder. Making their way to the Josephine, they found luxurious berths arranged for them by Vidocq, while Victor and Norra were finally reunited with their servants. Lizabeth and Ruby whisked Norra away to deal with her wound, and gave the men rather dirty looks, while Victor changed into workmen’s clothes and began wandering the boat. A bit of his own eccentrics showing and a means of searching the lower quarters of the ferry.
At this point the entire group was winding down and burning out a bit. We finished up with the party discovering the final crate within the ships hold, along with another of those strangely garbed men. Victor disarmed him easily, but before he could question him the man bit down on a cyanide tooth, ending his own life in an agonizing way. They discovered quickly that the final crate contained another bomb, which Norra and Bennet deactivated while Victor searched and the hid the corpse. The uniform he stashed away, while noticing that upon the man’s wrist was a tattoo, a golden “N” on a field of black. They also found a coded message printed upon ticker tape. The tattoo they drew into a notebook I’ve provided them, the message they pasted into the same book, its secret beyond their ken just yet.
The evening ended there, the party continues to delve deeper into the mystery, both by choice and by the inexorable pull of the forces surrounding them. Several questions remain without answers, what awaits them in England, where is the other Automaton, and who are the strangely dressed men. It should be interesting to see what answers they find, however my party is changing a bit as Victor’s player is exiting the game do to life issues, and Yanicbald’s player hasn’t made It the last two sessions and likely won’t be returning. A new forth player may be joining us, though that is yet to be seen. In any case look forward to the continuing adventures in this Savage Steampunk campaign.
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Post by stork on Sept 28, 2012 6:25:01 GMT -8
Up ahead a pair of workers had begun to cross the street with a large pain of leaded glass, which Bennet barely managed to avoid with a sharp turn. The first of the police carriages thankfully failed the same turn, crashing through the glass and overturning. The second however managed it and continued after our party, pushing their horses to even higher speeds. I loled at this I love how you put in every clasic chase trope,from the fruit cart, to a jump over a construction site. I like how you made the chase about role play choices and not let it become a miniatures game. The SW rules are a little dry when you get into a chase what with turning radiuses and skill checks. Once again, well done! Im envious that I cant play in this game
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Post by jazzisblues on Sept 28, 2012 10:33:55 GMT -8
More fun than should be legal in a single game session.
Cheers,
JiB
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