GM: Andrew Linstrom
Players: Morgan Ellis, Will Huggins, Karen Twelves, Vernon Lingley, Sean Nittner
System: Savage Worlds – Day after Ragnarok
Andrew wasn’t able to make his Friday night game. Life happened, as it does, and he didn’t get to Nerdly until quite late. Luckily we’re a flexible bunch and everyone found a home for their Friday night gaming. Never the less Andrew wanted to make up for it, so he offered to run Day After on Saturday morning.
I knew nothing about the setting, but it sounded cool. Then I heard “pulp action done by Ken Hite” and I was sold! Here’s the premise, as I was told in 30 seconds. Late WWII the Nazi’s free the World Serpent. To prevent it from destroying the world, we nuked the hell out of it. If died and fell across the western portions of Europe and Africa and leaked out radioactive poison that mutated everything around it. Even dead, it threatens the world. The thing is 100 miles high and affects weather patterns all over the world! Booya!
Oh… and to make our characters, we first make Lego miniatures and then Andrew quickly made the character sheet. I was in love!
Legos…assemble!
I quickly assembled a lego dude with a turban, scimitar and dagger. He was Kalihotep, last son of Ramses, though he never spoke (since the fall) so people just had to deduce all of that from his raised eyebrows and devilish swordplay. A humble merchant before the fall, Kalihotep lost his family when the serpent fell and crushed the entire city they lived in. He did not give up hope, however, that his family might be alive. He had heard rumors of ancient civilizations that our modern cities were built on top of. Perhaps if they collapsed during the fall, his family might be alive… trapped under the belly of the beast!
Not bad for lego man.
Morgan played a gangster with a tommy gun and a dapper suit. Will was a heavy, equipped with a giant gun with an axe bayonet and dynamite. Vernon was the Aussie Chuck Norris. Bare chested, katana’s strapped on his back, practicing kangaroo form and with a code of non-violence. Karen played the devilishly sexy fighter pilot, quick on the draw and quick with the ladies.
A quick intro
After all our characters were made, we didn’t have a lot of time to play, so Andrew started us off in a dog fight. Karen’s pilot (who flew a cargo plane named Lucy) was flying, chased down by the Phantom Ace (a sky pirate) and two interceptors. This was really a scene of show off how awesome you are. The phrase “yeah you do” was said several times as we each showed our characters fending off the Ace and his men. Karen did trick flying, Morgan shot things up with the mounted gun. Will tossed dynamite. Vernon did kangaroo kung fu. I dueled with mooks and eventually the ace on the wing of Lucy. Scimitar vs. Rapier. Scimitar wins!
This scene was fun, but it did illustrate a less than cool part of the Savage Worlds game. There is no fail condition. It’s just a null result. I swing with my sword and miss… nothing happens. I tried to up the ante myself, indicating that I missed with sword and in doing so lost my balance, how I was hanging from the edge of the wing! Still, that didn’t stop any of us from describing ourselves as the awesome.
The lovely Meskinet
It turned out the Phantom Ace was chasing us because we stole something form him, the lovely Meskinet. A woman bedecked in jewels that was not only beautiful but one of the few alive that could use the jewels to protect herself and those around her from the corrupting energy of the World Serpent. We were going in!
Karen’s pilot landed us at a base camp. The Ace flew off, defeated but not broken, and we met with a stodgy academic who did all the necessary exposition to put us into the action. We were going to blow a hole in the snake, and with the protection from Meskinet and the jewels, enter the Serpent and explore.
We played as far as getting to an underground necropolis with ancient dwarves that had enslaved mummies but then it was time to break for lunch.
Thoughts on this game
We played it extremely pulpy, but as I understand it, you can go for more grit as well.
Our characters were caricatures, but for a one hour game, that’s all you really need.
Andrew was great at expanding on what we said to unveil the story. He went with a few prompts from all of us to create an exciting and very genre apporopriate story.
We found a new breed of red shirts: college students. One strayed a little too far from Meskinet and was sucked into the innards of the Serpent. We made sure the camera got a good look at his face before we lost him, so we’d all recognize him when he came back as part of the zombie horde. Yay!
