Photo Credit: Tom Coates

Dear X,

I’m so sorry it’s come to this. It’s not you. It’s me.

My apologies if I’m being overly dramatic, but that’s kind of the point. I like running high-drama, fast-action, cinematic Savage Worlds campaigns where players really immerse themselves into their characters.

The rest of the group seems to be down with that. They’ve developed back-stories for their characters over time. Every chance they get, they’re playing their character Hindrances to the hilt (yes, even when it puts them at a disadvantage — maybe even risks their death). They’re following up on clues, making alliances with NPCs, agonizing over moral choices and generally trying to get their characters’ story arcs to proceed to their dramatic conclusions.

No dramatic story arcs for you. You’re beyond such things.

The rare time you seem to pay attention to anything that I say is when combat is imminent. You’re swinging your sword roughly every two and a half hours. That, and slapping the ass of any female NPC you encounter and then run away, giggling. And stealing shit from friendly NPCs for no reason, putting your fellow characters at risk. That’s pretty much all you do. You seem to be trying to model the behaviour of a highly-empowered, sword-swinging, 250 lb., 12 year old kid.

Not really working for us.

In the last session, when another Player tried to get you to, roleplay a conversation (ie. talk), you clammed up for a minute straight and stared with a rictus grin at me until I was forced to move the game along.

When I, as the GM, tried to get you to interact with an NPC, same deal.

10 sessions in, you still haven’t bothered to connect your character to the group. You’re just kind of there, like a roommate who’s 3 months behind on his rent.

It’s a challenge to immerse yourself into a character. I get that. But when you don’t get into character, it’s tougher for the other Players do do their thing.

You don’t add anything to the story, other than random stupidity and violence. It kind of begs the question: why are you there?

So… look. I’m sorry it’s come to this, but I think it’s time for you to make a decision. Maybe it’s time to move on?

Really, it’s not you. It’s me. I’m the one demanding a cinematic campaign. I think you might be a lot happier spending your weekend doing something else. Just saying.

When the villain was done sharing all of the information he had, the honourable holy Paladin of our group announced that he was going to slit the helpless villain’s throat.

At this point, a reasonable outsider starts asking, “Who is the hero and who is the villain, again?”

I certainly questioned it. The Player tried to rationalize it by reminding me his character worshipped Crom, a god of war. I replied by noting he doesn’t worship a god of cold-blooded murder — which is a whole other thing, at least for the non-hippie set. In the event, my intervention wasn’t necessary — one of the other Players saw where the situation was going and promptly got in the bloodthirsty Player’s way.

I should mention before we go further that I typically provide a lot of incentive for heroes to talk to villains, or just about any NPC. Clues to their next quest are everywhere. Often, the villains need to be subdued first before a conversation starts, though. That’s where the trouble sometimes begins.

Prisoner-handling techniques worthy of an Al Qaeda hostage taker have come up a few times already in various campaigns with various groups. Usually, at least one of the Players recognizes that something is amiss, but they don’t always try actively to prevent it. (The “I was just trying to fit in” defense can be pretty disappointing in these circumstances).

I’m not really down with it. Sometimes in this situation I’ll remind my Players that there is an official Bloodthirsty Hindrance (Major), defined thusly: “Your hero never takes prisoners unless under the direct supervision of a superior… Your killer suffers –4 to his Charisma, but only if his cruel habits are known.” I tell them that if they proceed with a summary execution of a helpless prisoner, they will take this Hindrance immediately. If I’m feeling particularly horrified, I’ll tell the Players they’ll also have  permanent -4 disadvantage on all trait rolls (yup, all) by virtue of another Hindrance I made up on the spot, Guilty Conscience. That’s not officially in the rules, but I figure if I’m going to intervene to save a campaign by moralistic railroading, there’s no point in half-measures.

That is what I figure I’m doing, BTW: saving the campaign.

Our campaigns are very much story and roleplaying based — indeed, there have been several sessions with no combat, just description and dialogue between Players. The overriding assumption of all of my Savage Worlds campaigns to date is that the characters are hero protagonists (That’s not quite the same as being Heroic, an actual Hindrance that guides certain characters to not abandon helpless folks to their doom if they can possibly help). The heroes don’t have to be nice — but they do have to play by a certain rule of good storytelling.

Now, we can all agree that in a game, a prisoner who has already surrendered isn’t a combatant. Initiative cards and dice have already been set aside. An agreement has been made: “I won’t give you any more trouble and you won’t kill me”. The villain can still try to resist interrogation, but whether or not they give you the info you want, heroes shouldn’t kill them. Heck, real heroes shouldn’t even saw their arm off.

On the other hand, being a prisoner is not necessarily an escape clause from certain death thanks to the heroes’ higher morals. It’s common in adventure stories for a villain-prisoner to give away some important information, try to lull the hero into a sense of complacency and then try to literally backstab the hero when he’s not looking. At that point, the prisoner has once again become a combatant — and assuming the heroes are quicker on the draw, the villain is going to lose. Plenty of stories end satisfyingly that way.

“But what if the villain doesn’t try to backstab his way out of the situation?” our Players ask. “What if he just sits there and stews until he is rescued by the evil cavalry? Or what if our characters just have to physically move on and can’t quite figure out where to stow him in the meantime?”

Well, if that happens, is it really that bad? The villain and the heroes will be following an eternal tradition of letting the bad guy get away, so you can have an even better rematch later on.

How many times has Batman rescued the Joker from certain death, only to chase the maniac down in a white-knuckled scene later on? How about the latest James Bond flick, where he lets the villain live, bringing him back to MI-5 headquarters, only for them to meet once again in a huge battle back on his own home turf?

If Players slit the throat of the villain when that villain is helpless (mostly just as a safety precaution) they’re not just killing the villain — they’re killing the possibility of the next exciting chapter when their heroes get to go toe-to-toe once more, finally bringing the bastard down in a blaze of heroic glory.

So be heroes. It’s more fun that way.

I remember when, I remember
I remember when I lost my mind
There was something so pleasant about that place
Even your emotions have an echo in so much space

And when you’re out there without care
Yeah, I was out of touch
But it wasn’t because I didn’t know enough
I just knew too much

Really looking forward to running my latest Savage Worlds campaign. Anyone who’s already run Realms or the original Call of Cthulhu Chaosium game, feel free to leave a comment with some tips for making the game super-creepy.

PS. Anyone who’s interested in some Halloween season two-fisted Cthulhu-tastic pulp fiction, please check out my novel, The Detective vs. the Slime Monster from Outer Space

I’ve now run probably 6 or 7 or so Savage Worlds campaigns over maybe 25 sessions. I’ve got a lot of RPG stuff in various files backed up in Google Drive. I was thinking of throwing together some downloadable PDFs of them to share — but then I figured, why not make some money from them?

My next thought was — am I willing to put in the effort to make these — and market them? I don’t actually run a gaming company (though I do run a web copywriting company). I know that it’s not just about making stuff, but getting the products out to people who will buy them.

Hmmmm…

Max Graff, Weird Scientist and Jewish-Czech resistance leader (Player). An analytical mind combined with some anger-management issues when it comes to Fascists.

The Scientist by Coldplay:

I was just guessing at numbers and figures
Pulling your puzzles apart
Questions of science, science and progress
Do not speak as loud as my heart

Cleo Lancashire, the Office of Special Investigation’s designated giant-killer (Player). Trained by Athena herself, Cleo is a fierce warrior with a lot of voices in her head.

Under Pressure by Queen:

It’s the terror of knowing
What this world is about
Watching some good friends
Screaming, “Let me out!”
Tomorrow gets me higher
Pressure on people – people on streets

Chippin’ around, kick my brains ’round the floor
These are the days – it never rains but it pours
People on streets – people on streets

Kamilla, Gypsy Mage and OSS-trained OSI agent (Player). Elemental powers with a sprinkling of Old-World magic, mixed with a slightly delusional personality.

Sitting, Waiting, Wishing by Jack Johnson:

Now I was sitting waiting wishing
That you believed in superstitions
Then maybe you’d see the signs

Nyles Trimble, Elf (Player). A relatively young Elf tactician, perhaps only a few centuries old, he is Captain of the Players’ crew and  is one of Queen Aurora’s only Allies among her own race — for very personal reasons:

Falling Slowly by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova:

Falling slowly, eyes that know me
And I can’t go back
Moods that take me and erase me
And I’m painted black
You have suffered enough
And warred with yourself
It’s time that you won

Queen Aurora, Elf (NPC). Unlikely leader of the resistance against the Ogre-King, Killgore — her husband. Almost universally reviled for willingly giving herself over to this monster, her plan may be the Fae’s last hope.

Secret Garden by Bruce Springsteen:

You’ve gone a million miles
How far did you get
To that place where you can’t remember
And you can’t forget

She’ll lead you down a path
There’ll be tenderness in the air
She’ll let you come just far enough
So you know she’s really there
She’ll look at you and smile
And her eyes will say
She’s got a secret garden
Where everything you want
Where everything you need
Will always stay
A million miles away

Axeblood, Leader of the Gray Elves. Eldest son of Aurora and Killgore, this ten-foot tall battle-scarred warrior practically glows with power — much like his chainmail-adorned siblings. Living among the Ogres under the rule of King Killgore, they secretly work toward their mother’s final goal.

Mama Said Knock You Out by LL Cool J:

Listen to the way I slaaaaay, your crew
Damage (UHH) damage (UHH) damage (UHH) damage
Destruction, terror, and mayhem
Pass me a sissy so suckas I’ll slay him
Farmers (What!!!) Farmers (What!!!)
I’m ready (we’re ready!!!)
I think I’m gonna bomb a town (get down!!)

…

I’m gonna knock you out
Mama said knock you out

Killgore, King of the Ogres (Villain). Granted superior intelligence and a new purpose to his existence after drinking from the Holy Grail, he aims to bring his “people” into the real world — to terrible effect.

Possession by Sarah McLachlan:

Listen as the wind blows
From across the great divide
Voices trapped in yearning
Memories trapped in time
The night is my companion
And solitude my guide
Would I spend forever here
And not be satisfied

There have been a ton of other NPCs, good guys and bad guys, but I think that covers the major ones helping drive the story. Hope the Players like this.

On a related note, over at The Island of Misfit Stories, my buddy Rob and I each wrote about the theme of “addiction” in one of our recent stabs at short fiction. Technically, my story is probably a bit more D&D than Savage World-ish, but I like to think I stuck to the theme pretty well. You be the judge:

“I said keep away from me, you chanting idiot!” Daggerin shouted at Lore, raising his axe as a warning while turning his back to Gygax. “Who has a potion of healing? Give me it now.”

“This is highly irregular,” Gygax said, shaking his bearded head.

“You all know damn well why he’s acting this way,” Steve said while checking through the rest of the Goblin’s bodies to see if there were any more coins hidden away. “Let’s just get this out in the open, already.”

Photo Credit: Michael D. Dunn

I’m pleased to report that a 5-Part Savage Worlds campaign inspired by WoD Vampires went about as well as I could have imagined. (In no particular order) Brian, Christoph, Lisa, Ian & Rhys, please congratulate yourselves on some epic roleplaying.

I’m not doing a full plot point recap or short story based on the sessions, but I am providing some notes below to remember some of the good stuff that went into this. Here goes…

The Big Idea I Had for this Chronicle: Interview with a Vampire meets Memento

In this campaign, I wanted to have some fun exploring the idea of vampires as tragic creatures: immortal, yet condemned to live outside humanity; superhuman, but vulnerable to violent death; able to corrupt and manipulate all around them, yet betrayed by their own unreliable memories. Lots of puzzles wrapped in enigmas, with the Players having to decide whether the others around them are manipulative, dangerous or just plain demented — with a little combat thrown in (since this is Savage Worlds, after all).

The Player Wild Cards

I wanted to avoid what I’d seen before with WoD Vampire groups that essentially turn Players into blood-sucking X-Men. My pre-generated characters weren’t particularly over-powered and they all had pretty dark and tragic histories, tied together by intensely personal connections:

MAGNUS (AKA SILAS — it’s a long story). A charismatic leader, able to persuade, intimidate, or confuse as needed — or just strangle people with a length of chain when things didn’t go his way. His (invented?) code of honour clashes with his innate malevolence.

ARIANA. A shape-shifting vampire who lets her Beast loose when it suits her, she is particularly hindered by an inability to read or deal with modern technology. Agile and tough in a scrape, she is unable to live in this new modern society without others’ help.

MYCROFT. Occultist, scholar, investigator and patient seeker of dark powers. In some ways, he is the most human member of the group, but that doesn’t make him the most humane one. He can get stabby if you provoke him.

CALIBAN. A monstrous, stealthy and brutally powerful Nosferatu, he tends to listen from the shadows until trouble shows up. He has a literally tortured past and is generous with giving back suffering to the world when someone is asking for it.

RICK. A vampiric assassin who helps an undead gangster maintain control of the city’s waterfront. He isn’t an original member of MAGNUS’ coterie, but joins them when common enemies threaten them all.

The Soundtrack

I didn’t play music for the first two sessions, but realized it would be good to set the mood. For the third and fourth sessions, I used the creepy soundtrack from Shutter Island — another GM had used it for a different horror RPG and I liked the experience. The music was a great fit, with an old-timey, dissonant feel.

But then I decided to get more ambitious. I put together an iTunes Playlist based on songs that would not only help create a mood, but possibly even provide insight for the Players as to what was happening in the scenes. Unfortunately, I probably kept the volume too low for them to pick up the clues since I was afraid the music might actually be a distraction if it was too loud. Still, as a GM, it helped keep me tuned into what I was doing.

Without further ado, here are the songs played during the 4th and 5th sessions, and what was going on game-wise:

4th Session Songs

This session wrapped up a mystery introduced right from the beginning of the adventure — namely, why is everyone so damned pissed off at the Player Wild Cards? Who the hell are they, anyway?

Also, a major villain closes in to have his vengeance for what the Players’ characters had done to him back in the 1970s (It was really bad. He deserved it. ‘Nuff said). Some stuff I played for this session:

Psychopomp (The Tea Party). Check out the full lyrics to this song. It’s like a contract for turning someone into a vampire. Reminded me of the backstories of the creation of ARIANA and MYCROFT.

Babylon (The Tea Party). A song to play any time our vampires beat someone in combat. It also ties into MAGNUS’ story, since he’s so damned old.

Heresy (Nine Inch Nails). The villain was inspired by a lot of Christian imagery — a wayward, one-time priest who essentially became a monstrous pariah. The pertinent lyrics include:

He sewed his eyes shut because he is afraid to see
He tries to tell me what i put inside of me
He’s got the answers to ease my curiosity
He dreamed up a god and called it christianity
Your god is dead and no one cares
If there is a hell i will see you there

Ruiner (Nine Inch Nails). I could have used this song right from the first session in pretty much all of the games we played. It’s lyrics evoke at least half of the manipulative, lying (or insane) NPCs, all of the main villains and pretty much all of the Player characters to boot. Some sample lyrics that tie in:

You had all of them on your side didn’t you?
You believe in all your lies didn’t you?

Yup. The Players could have said that exact thing to their “sire”, LUCILLE, as well as the VAMPIRE PRINCE and all the bad guys except for the drooling brainless WENDIGO (again, long story).

You had to give them all a sign, didn’t you?
You had to covet what was mine, didn’t you?

Right. Got it.

What you gave to me
My perfect ring of scars
You know I can see what you really are
You didn’t hurt me nothing can hurt me
You didn’t hurt me nothing can stop me now

That last bit has that vengeful badass villain’s story written all over it, though it also pays homage to MAGNUS and CALIBAN’s respective origin stories. Those guys all had it rough…

Anyway, the rest of that session was pretty much the soundtrack to Shutter Island, as explained above.

5th Session Songs

A bit more up-tempo this time…

Young Folks (Peter Bjorn and John). I used this tune just as the Players were starting the fifth session, getting right into a new fight. Some of the mysteries of their own pasts have been solved and they’ve overcome deadly dangers. While their biggest challenge still looms ahead, now they’re a united team that’s going to beat back their enemies together.

It’s an upbeat, whimsical tune that’s also a conversation. The lyrics perfectly fit their new mindset. A sample:

If I told you things I did before, told you how I used to be
Would you go along with someone like me
If you knew my story word for word, had all of my history
Would you go along with someone like me

I did before and had my share, it didn’t lead nowhere
I would go along with someone like you
It doesn’t matter what you did, who you were hanging with
We could stick around and see this night through

Jump into the Fire. More high-energy up-tempo goodness with a bit of a retro feel (since our vampires are quite retro all by themselves). It emphasizes the Sysiphean nature of the quest they have ahead of them, and poses an existential challenge to these vampires: can they free themselves from those who seek to manipulate them? Can they find some semblance of happiness together?

You can climb a mountain
You can swim the sea
You can jump into the fire
But you’ll never be free
You can shake me up
Or I can break you down
Whoa-o-o-o-, whoa-o-o-o-
We can make each other happy…

Immigrant Song. Our heroes are sailing off (from Canada!) to a distant land to wage war. They’re bringing the fight to the tyrannical enemy that has just revealed himself, and they’re going to f*ck him up to make the world safe for democracy (or maybe just for vampires):

Ah, ah,
We come from the land of the ice and snow,
From the midnight sun where the hot springs flow.
The hammer of the gods will drive our ships to new lands,
To fight the horde, singing and crying: Valhalla, I am coming!

Continuing in that vein, we followed up with Sabotage, Seven Nation Army and Rocking in the Free World.

The Players soon see action, kicking ass and taking names. Next up…

Under My Thumb and Sympathy for the Devil. Close to the final battle, the Players learn that a key ally who turned out to be manipulating them was actually still a pretty good ally — if a little mentally unstable thanks to her split personalities. Ultimately, she was trying to protect them out of love (the burning with eternal desire kind, the fiercely maternal kind and a little of the Platonic on the side — yeah, it was pretty messed up). Ultimately, she screwed up, but it was the thought that counted — so as her intentions became clear, I threw in some other tunes to describe that, like mood-setting Secret Garden and the very apt Private Universe, whose lyrics pretty well describe LUCILLE’s melancholic inner turmoil:

No time no place to talk about the weather
The promise of love is hard to ignore
You said the chance wasn’t getting any better
Labour of love is ours to endure
The highest branch on the apple tree
It was my favourite place to be
I could hear them braking free
But they could not see me
I will run for shelter
Endless summer lift the curse
It feels like nothing matters
In our private universe

Next, our heroes faced deadly danger and a final revelation. As the threat became imminent, I turned on Don Abandon’s Alice from 28 Days Later — a perfect acoustic horror tune of rising tension that explodes.

After the battle, I close with Make Your Own Kind of Music, emphasizing the idea that the characters are now pretty much the last ones standing and finally able to choose their own path — even if that means splitting up to deal with their individual personal goals (as when MYCROFT  took his cue to leave with the treasure while the others were deciding not to murder each other for some strange reason).

You’re gonna be knowing
The loneliest kind of lonely,
It may be rough goin’,
Just to do your thing’s the hardest thing to do.
But you’ve gotta make your own music
Sing your own special song,
Make your own kind of music even if nobody else sings along.

And now we come to the haunting finale, wrapping up with How It Ends (DeVotchKa). Sweet.

Thanks again to the Players who made this game so much fun. As you might have figured out from the thought I put into the soundtrack alone, I devoted a lot of time and planning to this campaign. By the end of it, my brain was pretty much bled dry.

Now I’m ready to go again.

We leave the Savage World of Darkness behind and enter the Savage World of World War Two — the kind of scenario where the villains don’t have to be vampires to make your blood run cold.

ARIANA (Player Wild Card). A shape-changing vampire who channels the Beast.

CALIBAN (Player Wild Card). A stealthy Nosferatu who stalks his prey from the shadows.

JARVIS (NPC Wild Card). Once a promising and handsome artist, now he is a Ghoul servant to LUCILLE.

LOLITA HARDCORE (NPC Wild Card). Vampire Prince(ess) of Vancouver. A punk queen who’s a lot older than she looks.

LUCILLE (NPC Wild Card). A powerful vampire who’s either a master manipulator, a staunch ally, or both.

MYCROFT (Player Wild Card). An occultist scholar with plenty of dark secrets of his own.

RICK (Player Wild Card). A brutal, greedy henchman of the Vampire gangster who owns the docks.

SILAS (Player Wild Card). Leader of the pack. He messes with people’s minds.

I’ve also seen games go off the rails spectacularly when the Players aren’t cooperating. I called it quits on an intricately-designed campaign after just an hour and a half into the first session. I wanted to run an action-packed gothic horror campaign, but my first Player wanted his Character to run into the woods and be a hermit about ten minutes in; the second Player wanted to run a hamburger stand for the Undead. It just didn’t gel, to the point that I was so annoyed I nearly quit gaming altogether.

Troll in the Corner says exactly what I was thinking:

Your GM can spend hours working on making the most epic of adventures for your game all to have it ruined because a party member said, “Screw it,” and went to the local tavern to get drunk and start a fight with a halfling. Being a GM is like trying to recreate The Lord of the Rings, only having no control over what the Fellowship actually does.

To my current batch of Players who are helping make this story come alive in interesting ways: thank you.

The new Savage Worlds adventure is a sci-fi adventure game, sort of a mashup of hard SF and other influences like Gamma World, Fallout and Cormac McCarthy’s story, The Road — details at the Vancouver Roleplayers’ Collective Meetup group. If you’re in my hood, feel free to check it out. I’m pretty stoked.

Though I’m less than stoked that all of the Pinterest images I threw onto this blog are now toast. Seriously… I’m going back to Flickr.