Actual Play: Savage Fallout Session 7

I've posted before about bringing new players into existing games, and once again after finding myself at the whims of opposing schedules, I've found myself introducing a new player into a weekly gaming group. This time we welcome Cubbie in as Minnie, the aged ex-madame and no-shit taker.

Somehow my love for Fallout (apparently a shared love) has immunized me to the pitfalls of the unfamiliar player and allowed a solid (if short) session to come through.

This time, the party crosses paths briefly with a wasteland superpower and arrive in Junktown by way of a very truncated travel time. Alliances are made, foes are created, and new love blooms in this week's episode of Savage Fallout.

Enjoy!

Savage Fallout Episode 7: Junktown Junction

Overseer: David Schimpff
Wastelanders: Russell, Clint, Joseph, Sage, and Cubbie.

You can download the episode here.

Actual Play: Savage Fallout Session 6

So tonight we tested out some Mass Combat rules, seeing as we were down two players. Everything went pretty smoothly, though it was less interesting for the players themselves, seeing as they weren't leading the battle. However, the combat ended much more swiftly than it would have under standard rules, which gave some time to do some exploring and roleplaying. Apologies for the short episode; next one should be the proper length.

Also to note, the players have now just realized exactly what kind of scale of game they are going to be playing. And they still don't know the half of it. Should be fun.

Enjoy!

Savage Fallout Episode 6: The Battle of Shady Sands
Vault Dwellers: Scott, Joseph, Russell, Sage
Overseer: David Schimpff



You can download the episode here.

Actual Play: Savage Fallout Session 5

I've always been a bit nervous about bringing new players to the table, but tonight's game went off without a hitch. The takeaway from this game is that I've allowed my players to become something violent and blasphemous, and even their previous failures haven't taught them that jumping right to the bloodshed isn't always the correct choice.

In either case, shit gets burned down, Chekhov's Gun has been fired, and the people of Shady Sands have taken their first step towards their inevitable fate.

Enjoy!

Savage Fallout Episode 5: Pros and Khans
Vault Dwellers: Aidan, Scott, Clint, Russell, Sage
Overseer: David Schimpff



You can download the episode here (right click, Save As)

Actual Play: Savage Fallout Session 4

It was really only a matter of time before my players got back to their old mercenary ways; I suppose it's a bit too much of a stretch for them to play any kind of role even resembling a white knight. People in RPGs always seem to want payment for their actions, especially if they're the ones coming up with all the dialogue.

I did get some good opportunities to create some foreshadowing for my players this week, however, but telling you how would be spoiling the fun for my group, which occasionally reads this blog. Veteran Fallout players will recognize it, though!

Enjoy!

Savage Fallout Episode 4: Wrath of the Khans
Vault Dwellers: Aidan, Scott, Clint, Russell, Joseph
Overseer: David Schimpff



You can download the episode here (right click, Save As).

Actual Play: Savage Fallout Session 1

Well folks, here I am, back again, with a brand new Actual Play series (I know, I know, I'll get to posting the remainder of my IKRPG games...sometime. When I have time. Which will be...sometime.)

Anyway. New shiny! Some backstory: after basically ignoring Fallout 4 for, um (December, January, February, March...) four months- heh, so many fours- I started playing again, got sucked in, then realized exactly how much I really dislike the entirety of that game. Like, so much. So, I started listening to some Fallout Let's Plays on YouTube, and I discovered that there are like TWO Fallout LPs! Maybe more, but I saw 2 after googling for like five minutes! Imagine my shock!

So I started my own Fallout LP, and decided that if I was gonna play through Fallout 1, I'd make my Thursday game play through Fallout 1 right along with me.

Well, after pulling up the latest update to Savage Fallout, I modded a few options on the character sheet and in the various handbooks, and suddenly had a general direction to move in for a five-player team of Vault Dwellers! Also, I had a pre-written campaign that:
a) I know like the back of my hand
b) One of my players knows just as well but also knows not to mess with the meta
c) A group of players who know how to have fun in the gritty wastes of California!

Also, after playing for a bit, I started wondering exactly how much FO 1 and 2 managed to...mess with geography. Like, Vault 13 is apparently almost directly east of San Francisco, but Bakersfield is like a short walk from Vault 15? I dunno, I'll have to look at my official map (which I'll likely need to use for this campaign...maybe. Or I'll keep using the Savage Fallout hex map. Seems more fun that way.

In any case, I'm having so much fun with this game already, it feels completely different than any other pre-gen campaign I've ever run, so hopefully I can keep up the steam. I'll also be posting my first LP pretty soon, so look forward to me linking that, too.

Enjoy!

Savage Fallout Episode 1: Out of the Vault, into the Wasteland
Vault Dwellers: Aidan, Scott, Clint, Russell
Overseer: David Schimpff



You can download the episode here (right click, Save As).

Game Notes:

• Around 1:57, I mistakenly tell Savage Hank not to add his damage dice together; this is in error. However, his modified damage roll of a 10 would still not have been enough to pierce the Radscorpion's Toughness.

Personal Notes:

Okay, I lied. There are like a million Fallout 1 LPs on Youtube. I'm just really lazy, apparently. Too lazy to keep looking, but the opposite of lazy when it comes to actually starting up a Let's Play? I don't fucking know....STOP LOOKING AT ME!

Actual Play: Savage Fallout (SAD) Session 5

At last, we bring the grand finale to our system runthrough of Savage Fallout. A lot of emotions flew around (along with bullets), and our players got to experience some of the wackiness that the California Wasteland has to offer to its inhabitants.

Our Players: Randy, Susan, Scott, Cecilia

The Overseer: David Schimpff

Enjoy!

Actual Play: Savage Fallout (SAD) Session 4

The fourth episode of my first foray into Savage Fallout, and players are just taking care of all kinds of business, aren't they? Hopefully their diverse motivations and personalities don't cause them to turn on each other...nyuk nyuk nyuk...

Our Players: Randy, Susan, Scott, Cecilia

The Overseer: David Schimpff

Actual Play: Savage Fallout (SAD) Session 3

This week, our friendly troupe of wastelanders arrived at the Sierra Army Depot, and immediately spent about an hour discussing how to short-out the perimeter turrets. Many hijinks followed and a goodly bit of pain was suffered, but the group made it into the facility intact, and proceeded with their looting.

I'm usually saddened when I realize that people I know haven't played the earlier Fallouts, or worse: that they've not enjoyed them in comparison to their next-generation successors. For this game, I'm somewhat glad of that regretful situation, as I'm able to basically rip an entire plot line from Fallout 2 and present it as a viable mission.

There's also, of course, the refreshing attitude to take towards the source material, as Fallout 2 is a computer game, so a lot of the varied options available to tabletop roleplayers wasn't presented, and so it offers a great amount of improvisation to me, as the GM/Overseer, at the table. It's also super convenient to already have loot tables and plot devices set up for the game itself so I don't really have to worry about that kind of stuff.

In any case, I guess all I'm really saying is that I hope Fallout veterans can enjoy this Actual Play as much as I do overseeing it, and as much as my players do playing it. I look forward to playing more Savage Fallout next week, which will be an extra long episode, possibly broken up into two approximately three hour sections.

Our Players: Randy, Susan, Scott, Cecilia

The Overseer: David Schimpff



Again, Savage Fallout rules are hosted at www.savagefallout.blogspot.com

Actual Play: Savage Fallout (SAD) Session 2

Welcome to the second session of my first playthrough of Savage Fallout! Here players are well on their way to the Sierra Armory Depot, and who knows what awaits them?

Our Players: Randy, Susan, Scott, Cecilia

The Overseer: David Schimpff

Episode 2:

Actual Play: Savage Fallout (SAD) Session 1

Hey guys, it's been quite a while since I've last updated. This time, I'm posting just before my podcast, Unabashed Gaming, airs, so I can link from there to here! How quaint!

Regardless, you probably want to know why I'm posting, unless you somehow guessed from the title that I've recently run some Savage Fallout for a few friends, and now have two episodes to upload! Note that on the audio I've made reference to the fact that Savage Worlds is a new system for me to be running, so there will be some core rules mistakes and omissions, mostly in the vein of speeding up play, but also partially to plain ignorance.

The plot focuses on a stolen storyline from Fallout 2 regarding a certain Army Depot northwest of New Reno. What you may enjoy is that in two episodes we still have yet to arrive at the Depot, so there's plenty of new content for people familiar with that quest line!

Enjoy!

Our Players: Randy, Susan, Scott, Cecilia

The Overseer: David Schimpff



For the Savage Fallout ruleset, visit savagefallout.blogspot.com!

March Madness OGBC: Day 11

"What post-apocalyptic RPG have you enjoyed most? Why?"

Oh man I totally had to talk about Fallout yesterday. Well, since post-apocalyptic is my RPG genre cup of tea, I guess I'll talk about my three favorites: Fallout, Dark Sun, and oh god why can't I remember it's called Deadlands thank god. Each offers its own spin on the post-apocalypse, but all of them are wonderful in that they take place in wasted deserts that have been created by various types of armageddon-generating energy. Let's start with Fallout, because it's my fav, and it'll be like continuing out last conversation, where I talk and you listen.

"Randal Kite don't f- around" by Seamus Heffernan

Fallout

Fallout's apocalypse came about due to global thermonuclear war. A cold war turned hot, then frozen in nuclear winter, turned hot again by the vast irradiated deserts now carpeting the earth. The most commonly attributed inspiration for Fallout has been the Mad Max films, and various easter eggs have been inserted into the games to let people know it isn't just rumor.

In Fallout, wastelanders stumble around in the remnants of great cities, or in the construction of new ones, living day to day lives. The average intersection of culture is between the Raider, the Trader, and the Mutant. And the Victim, of course, but those types don't really last long in the wasteland.

Stories in Fallout tend to focus on survival. Earning enough cash to scrape by. The games give you a hero, but not everyone in the Fallout universe is the Chosen One. There are schlubs, too. That's what interests me the most about potentially running Fallout. The intersection between the players' perceptions and my machinations. Seeing who would come out on top.

"Stone Figure Design" by Cheyenne

Deadlands

Deadlands is a Weird-West setting that I suppose isn't 100% post apocalyptic, it's more accurate to say that the setting is about five minutes away from an apocalypse. Set about ten years after the events of the Civil War, in an effort to drive out European settlers (now calling themselves Americans), delegates from native american tribes opened a breach from our world into the spirit realm, in an event known as "The Reckoning."

Essentially, the denizens of the spirit realm aren't very cool dudes, so they want to bring terror to our side of the rift in order to manifest here physically, and bring a hell on earth. As a side-effect to the rift, magic has appeared as well as a new fuel source, known as ghost-rock, which powers all the weird technology that appears in Deadlands.

Characters can play investigators, lawmen, scientists, or other variations on western tropes while trying to resolve the abundance of weird that keeps appearing on our side. One only has to take a look at the supplemental materials to know how well that panned out for us.

Dark Sun art by Brom

Dark Sun

Ah Dark Sun. Technically D&D, and by technically I mean absolutely D&D. Athas is yet another scorched wasteland, this time razed by unchecked use of arcane magic, powered by the life force of plants and animals, and the machinations of a group of nigh-eternal sorcerer kings bent on achieving as much power as possible, usually through the tried-and-true method of mass genocide. Trolls, Orcs, Gnomes, Goblins, and a plethora of other demi-human races have been exterminated in order to fuel the ascendancy of the various SKs.

What I love about the Dark Sun setting are its subversions of standard D&D tropes. Elves are like gypsies, wandering traders that aren't trusted by anyone. Halflings are xenophobic cannibals. Dwarves are beardless. Psionics are the name of the game, anyone using magic is likely to be run out of any populated area on a good day; ripped apart by an angry mob on a normal one. Slavery is all-but universal.

Everything wants to kill you.

Gods I love Dark Sun.

March Madness OGBC: Day 10

"What science fiction RPG have you enjoyed most? Give details."

Are we talking core ruleset? Or possibly a setting? I suppose that's the difficulty with vague questions like this, you can never really be 100% sure. However, because my favorite science fiction RPG exists in multiple playable formats, I'm going to have to go with Fallout. If you want a game system to go with it, try Savage Fallout. There's also a PnP transcription of the in-game rules, which are themselves based off tabletop.

Perhaps it's unfair to put this here because I haven't actually played Savage Fallout yet. Or Fallout PnP. However, I have played the originals, which, much like Baldur's Gate before them, is a transition of a tabletop game system to a computer. Also, I don't care if it's fair; the lore is rich, the imagery is unique, and the setting is every kind of badass.

It's close to a hundred years after the end of the world and humanity survived. Cities have been razed, oceans have boiled, a radioactive sheen has been draped over the known world. Humans eke out a living doing whatever they can, some have mutated into Ghouls, others have been FEV'd into Super Mutants. There are 1950's sci-fi robots because that's awesome. Everything wants to kill you. The core games take place in Southern California.

Which is my home.

It's like Dark Sun with guns. Which solves that chicken/egg question for me. I like Dark Sun because it's like Fallout with magic. With both systems, the game is survival, and if you're not playing a videogame, being a good guy doesn't pan out very well for all the parties involved. Because GMs can be assholes (I love that I'm writing this on GM's day).

Look, if you don't know what Fallout is, I don't blame you. Just buy it, and play it, and tell me I'm wrong somehow. I won't get mad, because you're wrong.

P.S. Apparently you can't buy the original Fallouts right now because Bethesda sucks. So do that other thing. The one with a jolly roger.

Exercises in Insanity (Or Why You Should Buy Your GM Something Nice. Right Now.)

Being a GM, DM, Marshall, Storyteller, etc is hard work. Probably the hardest job I've ever had, necessitating long hours of research, writing, photoshopping, learning (simplistic) code, drawing, figuring out new gaming systems, and occasionally standing in the shower for seventeen extra minutes staring blankly at the slightly grimy white tiles because I need to figure out how to make something in my games work just right.

What's even worse about all this prep is that, for the most part, 90% of what you do will never be seen by characters. It's the curse of over-preparedness. Running a World of Darkness sandbox-ish style game, I have two hundred named NPCs in the background of the world. Fifty businesses, a hundred street names. All for a fictional city in central coastal California. I have an enormous, half-finished post-it map taking up an entire corner of my apartment. A smaller version sits a few feet away from it, holding Sharpie markers for when I have the time to add more.

Oh, why don't I have more time to add to the map? Why, because I'm making a BRP system conversion of 2e AD&D Dark Sun, which will see at most a half-dozen sessions in the next calendar year. Or perhaps it's because I'm learning the Savage Worlds system so that I can run Savage Fallout, because fuck you Fallout is amazing. Actually, it's because like a crazy person I'm already mapping out both Dark Sun and Fallout games with Fog-of-War style effects to enable my eventual players to have an open-world experience, which translates to a few hours of time in Photoshop trying to make hex grids fit a pre-drawn official WotC map.

Or overlaying google maps of Southern California on top of geological figure maps that can represent a wasteland that's been ravaged by global nuclear war, and then figuring out that a good portion of the original game maps took interesting liberties with the spacial organization between Mt. Whitney, Bakersfield, and wherever the hell Vault 15 was supposed to be.

Twenty years of cRPGs are telling me that Vault 13, the NCR and Vault 15 are supposed to be in a straight horizontal line. And because this is in photoshop, perhaps they will eventually be. However, the above image is just a small part of the playable areas of Fallouts 1 and 2. I've added Oregon, Washington, Arizona, and Colorado to the playable areas, so I'm in the process of generating lore for them based off 1950s locations and perceptions. The likelihood is that players won't even get to the edge of the map, unless they really want to.

If this sounds like complaining, and it probably does, it's not really complaining. It's something I do because I enjoy WorldBuilding as much or more than I do CharGenning. And chances are, if you play in an ongoing game, you know how much work your GM does to prep for you each week, whether through constant updates to an Obsidian Portal site, or an active email correspondence with each player when they have questions.

We do this because it's what we love doing. But do you know what we also love?

Cake. Or Pie. Pizza. Or Donuts.

Or Miniatures. New dice.

Gifts. We love being appreciated.

Roleplaying: A Listless Preamble

Of all my addictions, the things that make me stare off into space when I'm around other people or look blankly at wall tiles when I'm in the shower, role playing is the one that figures most into those situations.  As a relative newcomer to the world of RPing, starting with the partially-vilified D&D 4E in mid 2008, it surprised me how excited I was to get into the lifestyle.  How it fit me so well, and that I engaged in it with such enthusiasm.  Rolling dice was great, playing a role was better.  It wasn't long before I started taking pen to paper and began home-brewing races and classes for 4E.  Shortly after that, I moved to a new city and started writing with the intent of running a game.  DMing.

It was only until a year ago that I realized that I've wanted to be a DM almost all my life.  My first experience with Dungeons & Dragons, if it even was that, was in a summer camp.  One of the counselors was a bespectacled blond guy with what I'm assuming was bad acne, but he was a big kid, and when he started talking about character sheets, or that you could pretend to be Dwarves or Elves or humans or Half-Orcs in this tavern he was telling you about, I had to listen in.  No dice were rolled, I never touched a character sheet, but I sat entranced as I, and four other people who I didn't even necessarily like, destroyed this bar after the town guard came in because of a noise complaint.  The next day, for some reason I was out of the game.  I think my character drank poison or something.  So I found two other kids whose characters had been killed off and started them off in a game of my own, set in feudal Japan, as understood by a ten-year-old kid who'd only seen Johnny Quest go there, or the American Ninja reminisce about his time there.  There were sensei and ninja and samurai, and ninja magic.  And potions that I gave out at first level that turned the players into fire-breathing scorpions.

I went home, and somehow forgot about Dungeons and Dragons.  I started playing more videogames.  Sonic the Hedgehog and Streets of Rage filled my life until I got my own PC and Blizzard released Diablo and Starcraft, respectively.  Diablo was the hack and slash fantasy I'd lived out (and forgotten), in my summer camp childhood.  Starcraft had a map editor, where people converted games like Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy into half-hour versions, shooting Zerglings that were turned into Reptites in my mind's eye.  The Map Editor was a powerful tool, where you could tell your own stories, turn them into bite-sized RPGs, and unleash them on the rest of the gaming world.  I never completed any, but I started more than my fair share.  I got the furthest with South Park RPG before Brood War arrived and I began editing together a Fallout map, having been a fan of the series from the original to Fallout: Tactics.  Eventually a new game arrived, but I kept writing stories meant for other people to play.  Some turned into embarrassing fan-fiction, where my Mary Sue character would be a cool, collected NPC that, in all likelihood, my players today would Sneak Attack into a shallow, unmarked grave set in Golgotha, right outside New Reno.

Now, with this new year, I have twelve months to run games.  My first long-term game expired last year with a brutal TPK, and I've been treating my itch with mini-campaigns.  Four-session resolution games.  Finding the right system.  I'm sitting in front of what is likely half a grand worth of Rule Books for various systems, and my mind swims with concepts for games.  BRP Land of the Lost, Weird West, Post-Apoc Fallout, Zombie Uprising, Return to Dark Sun, Monsters and Other Childish Things.  Invictus.  Whatever I end up writing, because it will be something I write, I imagine it will be played.  Because I'm not a lonely angsty teenager sitting in front of a desktop with my boxer shorts caked with old microwave burrito farts.  I'm a DM now, and I'm wearing big-boy pants.  And sometime soon, my players will sit in front of me, and I will roll dice, and someone's PC will die.

And it will be the best joke of the night.