Session Zero: Introduction to Savage Worlds

Name: Session Zero: Introduction to Savage Worlds
Start: 2024-06-26T13:00:00-05:00
End: 2024-06-26T17:00:00-05:00
Location: The Board Room - Tyler

Schedule

Wed Jun 26 2024 at 01:00 pm to 05:00 pm

UTC-05:00

Location

The Board Room - Tyler | Tyler, TX

This is an Introduction / One-Shot session where our House DM, Caleb Campbell will introduce the Savage Worlds system. We'll be using pre-generated characters in order to focus on playing the game and learning the system.
The Setting - Deadlands: The Weird West
"The year’s 1884. Folks from all over the world journey to the American frontier in search of opportunity, freedom, and wide-open spaces. But danger awaits. Some say there are more than just wild creatures on those lonely trails. Some say there are monsters, creatures born of the darkest fears given life by some insidious and overwhelming evil. Out here night seems a little darker, the distance between towns a little farther, and something changes the very landscape itself.
Such tough times also create great heroes, rising across the West to fight Evil’s cold grip with a trusty six-gun, sacred tomahawk, holy miracle, or arcane hex."
The Adventure: Thieving Magpies
"When gold was found in the surrounding hills, the town of Avery’s Bluff came into existence practically overnight.
Now that some of the townsfolk have stumbled upon ghost rock, it truly is a boomtown. In all the commotion it almost went unnoticed that more and more silver and gold trinkets began to disappear. Eventually, people started saying either thieving magpies must be gathering all the shineys or a gang of thieves is responsible for the missing items. It's up to the posse to find out the truth of the theft and put a stop to it once and for all."
Here are some reviewers' points on why Savage Worlds is so awesome:
"Anybody can be anything (depending on setting and setting rules, of course), and it's very easy to adapt your character to the storyline as you go. The age old story of having this tremendous character concept at level 1, but by level 3 you realize while the character would be awesome, for the campaign you're in, it just doesn't work - do you retire it and build a whole new character? In SW, you don't need to - just start learning new things as you go or do some retraining (I know, some systems allow for a touch of this as well, but class based systems are still class based), and voila - that gunslinger you thought would be a badass has morphed into a magical detective who can rely on firearms in a pinch as well, and that's all just going into seasoned.
The settings can be as wide and gonzo, or as narrow and highly specific as you want, and there's going to a book (or ten) out there to support whatever setting you want. SW is so easily extensible, and people have taken to it so well with various 'fringe' supplements that almost anything you can think of, there's going to be setting support for it. That said, by far, my absolute favorite in SW is cyberpunk/shadowrun style, post apoc, and gonzo sci-fi (RIFTS) - SW is the first game in a LONG time that I haven't had any system complaints while playing these types of games.
The mechanics are simple enough to be easy, but can be added to or made more complex through optional rules and setting rules to make the game as easy and fun or gritty and deadly as you want. The 'plug and play' nature of the campaign/setting rules is tremendously easy to set up as a GM and easy to explain to players. The dice mechanics not only are easy to learn, but they actually make sense - you're floor doesn't really change, just your ceiling, and modifiers are just as easily applied or not based on the GM & players wants for the campaign.
If you want the game to feel Heroic, ultra-heroic, peasant, normy, or ultra-gritty post-modern pulp detective comic, it takes about 5 minutes to figure out what you need to adjust to get what you want. I know this is kind of repeating about stuff, but it's worth stating again how ridiculously easy it is to modify this game.
Bennies. I won't go deep into this other than to say that of all the 'luck' mechanics I've played with in various games, this feels the most overall balanced and rewarding. Also, optional GM exchange of bennies rules are amazing.
Initiative and playing with the deck. Man, what a seemingly no-brainer way of doing initiative and turns. Don't care about going first, then don't worry about it, but if you are obsessed with being faster, going first, getting the drop, it's not just little bonus stacking, you get to straight up manipulate the entire way you are dealt initiative, or that your enemies are dealt initiative, and so on. So much fun."
Registration is $20, and as always includes a drink and a snack from The Mark! Registrations are made in-person with cash or credit card and are non-refundable.
*We strongly suggest you pre-register for all paid events at The Board Room - Tyler as soon as possible. Spaces are limited and will fill up quickly. Arriving at the beginning of an event to register will not guarantee you a seat.