[Savage Worlds] FFIV-Inspired Fantasy

[towishimp]

Hi all. I've been out of RPing for awhile, but recently started up a Savage Worlds campaign inspired by Final Fantasy IV, which I recently purchased for my wife's new Gameboy. Most of my players played FF IV back when it was called FF II for the Super Nintendo, so they dug the setting instantly. Here's the progress so far:

Session 1: Intro
This session was mostly to teach the group how to play Savage Worlds. I premade a ton of characters and let them choose who to play:
Eric - The Dark Knight (cocky knight with a dark past)
Amy - The Warden (nature guy and archer)
Jarod - The Black Mage (nerdy blaster type)

Our heroes were all watching the Prince of the Barony parade through the capital, which was nearly deserted. The last regiment of soldiers left in the capital had left last week, so the only guards were the Prince's own bodyguards (The Dark Knight among them). Suddenly, crazed berserkers sprung forth from the crowd and rushed the Prince's carriage. Our heroes lept to their Prince's defense, handling the berserkers handily. Half of the Prince's guards were slain in the battle, however. The Prince, now fearful for his life, demanded to be escorted to Seguro Monastery. The heroes agreed.

The players liked Savage Worlds right away. There's enough crunch and choices to keep the gamist types happy, but it's simple enough to keep things moving in combat. Amy especially appreciated the reduced complexity (she struggles to keep focused on D&D...not because she's not smart, but because she just wants her games to be light and fun, not something to think a lot about).

[towishimp]

Session 2: "There be no Shelter Here"
After a short journey through some mountains, the group arrives at Seguro Monastery. However, they do not find a safe haven. Instead, they find the knights templar who live there slaughtered and turned into zombies. They battle the zombies, their first tough fight. The Dark Knight waded in, confident as ever...until the zombies didn't drop so easily. With The Dark Knight wounded twice, The Warden had to give up shooting (which wasn't that effective, anyhow) and wade in with his shortsword. Some timely acing helped The Warden take the pressure off The Dark Knight and the party's allies (the remnant's of the Prince's guard). Finally, The Black Mage arrived on scene (he chose to gamble on running around behind the zombies) just in time to help finish off the last few.

I went a little horror with this adventure. They had to piece together what went wrong, which was fun. They figured out that food contaminated with some sort of mold had caused the problem...but they now think that the mold turned the knights into zombies. In fact, the mold made them go crazy and kill each other; they were raised as zombies afterward by the major villain as a trap for the PCs.

The PCs got their first advances after this session. Shaken by the fight with the zombies, Eric increased The Dark Knight's Vigor, both to get a better toughness and to raise his chance of soaking wounds. Amy increased The Warden's fighting skill, so that he could repeat his success with the shortsword in the future, if need be. Jarod bought more magic points for The Black Mage.

[towishimp]

Session 3: "Runaway Prince"
In this session, I started to introduce the Main Plot. After the last session, the PCs decided to take the Prince to his father, the King, who was fighting a long, bloody war in the East. The Prince reluctantly agreed, but had other plans. Session 3 started off with the Prince sneaking off in the night, which no one Noticed. In the morning, they discovered him gone, and The Warden easily tracked the Prince to a small clearing that contained some ancient ruins. Some cultists in black robes were at the center, with the Prince chained to a black alter. Also present were some more berserkers. The PCs tried to sneak closer, but they were discovered, and the cultists revealed that the Lord Marax (a minor demon lord) would now be helping The Barony in the war, and that the PCs would agree how good an idea it was once they saw a little demonstration. With that, the lead cultist plunged a wooden dagger into the ground, which set the ground rumbling. The PCs acted quickly shooting and blasting at the cultists and berserkers while the spell took effect. Then from the earth came a giant zombie worm. The worm was supposed to be a long, drag-out fight, maybe even resulting in defeat for the PCs. I set the toughness pretty high (20, 15 if the PCs aimed for gaps in its armor, plus a weak spot of the wooden dagger...if removed, the worm would die). Well, The Black Mage had other ideas...one maxed out bolt spell cast with a raise and some crazy rolling (40 damage) and my tough fight was over in one round.

That left the Prince, who got free and started to run away. He had a head start, so a chase was looking like a long shot...so The Warden shot him in the leg. Effective, but pretty brutal. But the cultists had insinuated that the Prince had made some sort of deal with them, which made drastic measures seem like a good idea. Then the big reveal...it was already too late, the deal had been made, adn Lord Marax would be joining the war on the side of The Barony. The Prince didn't like the demon, but felt that it was a neccessary evil to avoid defeat in the war, which was going worse than the government would let on. The heroes, however, were unmoved, saying that any defeat would be better than allying with demons. The session ended with the Prince saying "If you knew what defeat to this enemy meant, you might reconsider..." The heroes then resolved to continue on to the front, to see the war for themselves.

[towishimp]

Okay, that's the story so far.

Any comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome.

In particular, The Black Mage seems very powerful. My plan is to put him in situations where he can run out of magic points, since that hasn't really come up yet.

Also, please do point out any mistakes about running Savage Worlds that I might've made. It's my first time, so tips and pointers would be appreciated.

Thanks!

[dm_punks]

Nice AP so far!

FF IV is still one of the top Final Fantasies for me, along with FF VI and IX.

As for that giant worm... wow, Toughness 15 is a bit too high, I think. Good thing the Black Mage aced a lot or the fight could have dragged on and on. Was it also a Wild Card?

I'd love to hear more of your campaign so please keep posting! :)

[towishimp]

My schedule's been making getting the group together hard lately, but we managed to squeeze in another session last night.

Session 4: "The War"
The players had been cruising so far, so I wanted to really give them a tough fight this time. The heroes arrived on scene at the battlefield, where the Barony forces had the enemy bottlenecked in a valley. The Barony soldiers were outnumbered, but had managed to force a stalemate thanks to the bottleneck. The enemy, however, had a plan to break the stalemate. As our intrepid heroes crested the mountain path leading into the valley, they saw the battle just beginning. To their right, enemy cannons were bombarding the Barony soldiers. In the center, the enemy's horde of berserkers were attacking all along the front line. To their left, in the Barony rear, the King's fort was under attack and burning. They had to choose where to intervene. They quickly decided that the King had to be saved and rushed to his aid. Inside the King's fort, the enemy had used mechanical ants to dig a tunnel under the walls and were storming the courtyard. The heroes ran inside the now-open gates and joined the fight. It was a tought fight, with the mechanical ants beging very hard to wound. Also, enemy artillery rained in every round, causing havok on the low-toughness soldiers and prompting soak rolls from a few of the PCs. In the end, they prevailed, battered, bruised, and low on Power Points.

The next session will feature the Big Reveal. The PCs will find out who the enemy is, and be faced again with the choice of almost certain defeat at the hands of the enemy or a pact with a minor demon that may guarantee victory, but will come at a price. Their choice here will close this arc of the campaign and determine its future course. Exciting stuff.