Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

[Mono X]

Last week marked the conclusion of 'Empire of the Black Pharaoh' for my group and I. Meaning that I have now run all 17 DToA scenarios.

Whilst the players are all experienced roleplayers, they were all new to SW. I wanted them to use the 'core' rules as it were. So I chose not to use the TAG pulp rules - although I did use what it now called the 'Heroes never die' rule. I also chose not to use the pregens provided and got the players to create their own PCs. They started at 0 XP, I was fairly generous with the XP so they ended up with 130 XP by the end and were very formidable individuals. Luckily scaling the adventures to their abilities more or less worked ok.

Brief character bios are below.:

Mark as Lord Worplesdon
Lord of a little known estate in West Surrey, England. Lord Worplesdon is independently wealthy and classically educated. He has a aptitude for medicine and mechanics and a preference for the ladies and shotguns. During his adventures he acquired a shock of wavy white hair that would forever mark him out.

Kevin as Captain 'Rawhide' Joe
Trained as a wrestler, Joe is a tough guy with with an confrontational attitude and a temper to match. Eschewing firearms, Joe likes to get up close and personal with his opponents, Joe favours a 2-handed axe acquired from a certain enemy in Crete in the adventure 'Chaos on Crete'. He acquired the title of 'Captain' in 'Kingdom of The Blood Gods'.

Paul Reverend Obidiah T. Whipple
A 'devout' man of the cloth with a dangerously heightened sense of self belief, he is the brother of the legendary Jebidiah. Obidiah's many journeys have left him adept at handling both automobile and aeroplane. He frequently finds himself preaching from the end of a tommy gun and is accompanied by his faithful dog Caleb II (Caleb I having met a tragic end in Afghanistan).

Other characters that joined the group.

Mad Sanjit
During the adventure 'The Hands of Kali' a Thuggee cultist managed to knock Rawhide Joe senseless in 2 rounds in hand to hand combat (no mean feat). Lord Worplesdon was so impressed, he offered Mad Sanjit a very generous retainer to switch loyalties and become his manservant. When Lord Worplesdon became Legendary Mad Sanjit became a sidekick.

Caleb II
Acquired after the untimely demise of Caleb I. Caleb II is the trusty pet of Reverend Obidiah and has been through many escapades along with his master. When the Reverend became Legendary, Caleb II became a sidekick.

The average adventure lasted for 3 sessions, although a couple probably lasted 4 sessions due to the occasional diversion into chit chat etc. Along with a few missed weeks it took just under 18 months to work though all of them. I ran the scenarios pretty much as written, occasionally removing a random fight here or there which I felt didn't fit the adventure or pacing. Or tweaking an adventure to suit the idiosyncrasies of the group.

All in all I think the adventures were a good success and that the players all enjoyed their romp through the conventions of 30's pulp adventuring. Although being experienced Call of Cthulhu players it took a couple of sessions for them to drop their well honed instinct for suspicion and paranoia for a pulp game. There were many comical highlights throughout the game including, but not limited to:

Head-shotting Beni whilst he tried to escape in the armoured car in 'The Palladium Peril'.
Roger the invisible raptor (just don't ask)!
Meeting a certain professor in Oxford.

There was only 1 scenario that the players didn't seem to get on with and that was 'Sky Pirates of the Caribbean'. The players didn't feel like they connected with the themes/style of that scenario. (Whatever happened to Shanghai Harry BTW?). Perhaps it was a bit too sci-fi for their expectations.
The only other quibbles were that they felt that Nazis were a bit overused as protagonists and that perhaps there were a bit too many chases used in the adventures.

I'm taking a well earned break from GMing (and the constant ribbing about my 'alleged' card-fixing for initiative ) for a while as Paul will be running Red Sands.

However I have purchased all the available Thrilling Tales 2e stuff for SW and there has been a little talk of returning to the 1930's pulp world at a later date. Although whether the original characters will make a return is up for debate as they are pretty much 'maxed out'.
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"They stuck Monkey in a cage. He entertained them willy-nilly, and free entertainment is not to be despised."

Be seeing you,
Giro.

[Wiggy]

[Sitting Duck]

[Wiggy]

Tolkien. The heroes pass him in a corridor, and a student calls out his name.
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Wiggy
Creative Director Triple Ace Games

[GruffaloCrumble]

Congratulations, getting through all 17 adventures is no mean achievement! I've been trying to get my group to play Rocket Nazis on the Orient Express, but they're resistant to the whole 'pulp' thing, which is a shame.

[Mono X]

[Wiggy]

[Virgobrown72]

And just in time for Christmas too!!!
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"Anything smaller is just fiddly, and fiddly is not one of SvgW's three Fs..."

[matakishi]

I thoroughly enjoyed it. The campaign was my introduction to Savage Worlds which, although a little rules heavy in some places, is a decent enough system and easy to grasp.

Oh, and Obidiah's legendary brother is Zebadiah
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http://www.matakishi.com/