Necessary Evil - Session One - Prologue

The Old-School D&D campaign has been derailed lately due to conflicting kid schedules, birthdays, and a wedding anniversary but another campaign has managed to fire off - The Savage Worlds plot-point campaign. You can see more if you scroll down on this page. I have had the book for years and always wanted to run it with my group but never saw an opening. With the recent splitting of my regular group we had the chance to break away from our strong D&D 3.5 focus and try something new, and this is it.

I have 4 players for now and they had a few weeks to make characters after we decided to play NE. The concept in NE is that the Superheroes of the world have been nearly wiped out by an alien invasion. Earth is now occupied by these aliens and the villains are tired of it, so they begin to strike back. The PC's are Supervillains, a nice twist from traditional supers games. They came up with the following:

• Nissa, teenage female vampire (similar to Jessica from True Blood)
• FireStrike, a fire projector/blaster (looks a lot like the Human Torch)
• MegaStrike a radioactive brick (think a glowing green colossus/thing looking guy)
• NightTerror/NightStrike a dark stalker type character with insubstantiality powers.

(I dubbed the dark stalker character "NightStrike" after hearing the other two names and threatened to call the vampire girl "BloodStrike" just to keep the theme alive. )

Since we had not played the system before I decided to run a test combat - a bank robbery. This would also give the PC's a connection, as we set the robbery 5 years before the campaign start and decreed that this was the only time the characters had all worked together.

The fight opened with the characters already in the bank taking money. As they emerged, 2 cops step out of the donut shop across the street and yell "Freeze dirtbags!".

They last all of 1 round as FireStrike takes one down and MegaStrike takes out the other one. Firestrike burns a bennie making sure he takes the cop down in one shot.

Another cop comes out of another shop and is promptly dropped by NightStrike while Nissa feeds on one of the downed cops.

The group rests for a round and heads for their getaway vehicle feeling pretty pleased with themselves. Then, with a whoosh and a resounding CLANK! the well-known armored villain Red Menace lands in the middle of the street and in a bad Russian accent demands the cash.

The fight lasts 2 rounds as Red is clearly not up to taking fire from 4 super opponents (I used the armored hero sample character straight from the NE book and decided he kind of sucks after this - he will have upgrades before his next appearance.) He doesn't go down though. Nissa saunters over to the villain as he goes toe to toe with MegaStrike and glamours him, telling him that the money is "in that bar over there". Red heads toward the bar and the group heads out, though they do see Champion flying by in the distant sky.

Notably, FireStrike has used all of his bennies by the end of this fight.

Notes from our first combat:

1. The WIld Die is working as advertised. It made a difference in this fight.
2. Bennies are important but my players don't totally get them yet.
3. Heavy Armor is important but not as critical as I thought it might be - all super attacks are automatically considered heavy.

Supers RPG's - Personal Background Part 2

One note here - I realize I have neglected to mention GURPS Supers. GURPS is a fine system - I like it and have played multiple campaigns in it, mostly fantasy. I think it excels at low-powered games and falls apart with higher-powered ones. I have most of the 4th edition books and I am told it handles high power much better than 3rd, but I have yet to try it. I just never liked the flavor of GURPS Supers. tried it, didn't like it. Plus it wasn't really a game line on its own, just one book in a larger line with minimal support.

The 2000's saw a rather surprising (to me anyway) wave of new superhero RPG's. By the end of the 90's TSR went under and so the Marvel Game went away. DC went dormant. V&V disappeared years before. Champions was still rolling along and rolled out 5th edition in 2002, and Heroes Unlimited was still in print, but that was about it by the end of the 90's. West End did a DC Universe RPG using a different system but the game came and went in 3 years so I don't know a lot about it and never played or ran it. Pinnalce came out with Brave New World which had a great concept but the system was similar to Deadlands and just didn't feel very Super in my opinion. It didn't last long either.

Then in 2002 we got TWO totally new super RPG's - Mutants and Masterminds based on d20 mechanics but using a point-build system like Champions, and Silver Age Sentinels using Tri-Stat mechanics and a build system too. That was also the year 5th edition Champions came out so it was a great year for super-systems. Godlike also came out at the same time.

I picked up M&M 1st edition and liked it. I ran some sample combats but we were heavily into D&D so there was no way to make it a regular game. I loved the presentation though and though it was the best looking supers game since Marvel. Until I saw SAS...

SAS was to me the high point of supers game presentation. I love the history of comics, I love the chapter headers presented as old comic book covers, I like the artwork in the book, the character presentations, the page edges colored by chapter - it's just better done than anyone else. I like the system too, but it was hampered by a lack of support. I would still happily play or run it today though.

M&M got some very nice support then it went to a 2nd edition in 2005 and got a lot better. It did touch one of my pet peeves though - I really dislike game systems jumping to a new edition after only 2 or 3 years, games like Shadowrun 1st to 2nd, D&D 3 to 3.5, etc). My dislikes aside the game was a little wonky in places and 2nd edition was a big improvement. M&M is still going strong and I would guess that it's the #1 Supers game today as far as sales.

Godlike came out about this same time and is another great game although more limited in scope, focusing on supers in World War II. Being a history buff and having a particular interest in WW2 this is an awesome game to me and uses the One Roll Engine system which I also think is great though I suspect it's a little strange in play. Power levels are lower and there isn't a ton of support but the concept is awesome and the background is great.

The problem with these newer games is that I haven't gotten to play many of them. I have books for all of them, I like them, but I haven't been able to string together players and time to run a campaign using them. Hopefully NE will open things up like this after we complete it.

The most recent supers game that caught my attention (besides the above) was Necessary Evil for Savage Worlds. It came out in 2004 and was rereleased in 2009 in a slightly updated form. I really like the Savage Worlds system after trying out some fantasy combat with it and after seeing the campaign concept I was sold. it's taken me 6 years to get there and it's been over 10 years since my last supers campaign of any kind, but we're finally there and I am very happy about it.

Super RPG's - Personal Background Part 1

Since Neccessary Evil is up and running I thought I would talk a little bit about my experience with super RPG's.

I started playing Supers in 1982 with the Champions boxed set and it is my first love when it comes to playing a super hero game. I had read some things about it in the Dragon (the RPG internet back then, such as it was) and when I saw it at Hobbies for Dad and Lad in the mall I got it, for $12 if I recall correctly. It came with the rulebook, a pretty decent adventure, a large hexmap of a typical city street corner, and 6 blue d6's (I still have one of those dice today). We made a lot of characters and beat each other over the head with steel girders and lamp posts for years. I think my version was technically the second edition, but it kind of bled into 3rd edition. In 1990 4th edition was the first "clean" relaunch of the Hero System and I got on board quickly, having a regular group of college game buddies that played a lot of fantasy hero. I ran 2 short campaigns of Champions (and one of Fantasy Hero) in the 1990's but then things went dormant in the 2000's as we focused on 3rd edition D&D. I was planning to run a Champions campaign when we finished the current D&D game this year, but the premature detonation of my group changed those plans. My love of Champions aside, there are other good supers games besides Champions.

I played a lot of Marvel Super Heroes in the 80's - it has tons of great background, a quick system with the color table, and feels like a supers game. I would be happy to run or play it today but a lot of people turn up their noses - maybe they think of it as too "kiddie" but to me it's a great system. I have a ton of stuff for it living in the top of my closet and I may run it for the kids sometime soon.

Villains and Vigilantes was one of the first Supers RPGs (they had some great ads in the 80's Dragon) and I have made characters and played some sessions but we never liked it as much as our other options when it came to these kinds of games. The random character generation was a problem after Champions - it could be fun, but if I wanted random powers we already had Gamma World which was more fun for that kind of thing. I still have the rulebook and I have picked up a few adventures for it but I don't know when I would run it over something else.

DC Heroes was interesting but was not as popular among my friends. We tended to follow the Marvel Universe more anyway, plus they had a regular update column in Dragon for years. DC had a lot of heroes we had never seen and the system was not as intuitive to our teenage minds as Marvel or Champions. So both the setting and the system were trumped by other systems, which meant it got very little time in play. I have picked up 1st, 2nd, and 3rd edition since then, plus some adventures, and I see some of the coolness of the system now, but it still feels like more work to run a session than either of our other primary options.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was a cool little game that was technically supers but there weren't a lot of super powers in it (other than Ninjutsu). It was actually fairly gritty and made a good street-level supers game if you wanted to fight in back alleys with knives and baseball bats. We did have fun wit hit when we played it, but it's not really the same kind of game as the rest of these.

Heroes Unlimited was the full-blown Palladium Supers game and it featured the then-OK Palladium system and a bunch of random tables for super powers. You decided your origin, but your stats and powers were rolled randomly and that killed it for us. In the 90's Heroes Unlimited basically became another sourcebook for Rifts among my gaming groups.

A note about Rifts: Rifts gets a lot of grief in some gamer circles because of its over-the-top environment and equipment and classes etc. If you look at it as a post-apocalyptic supers game it makes a lot more sense - giant robots, super-magic, uber-ninjas, big guns, dinosaurs - these are all elements found more commonly in a supers game than a traditional fantasy game. if you try to run it like D&D, it's tough. If you run it like a post-nuclear justice league it should work a lot better.

That was pretty much it for 80's Super RPG's, and the 90's was largely new editions of these same games. I know there was a Basic Roleplaying Supers game but I never saw it on the shelves or in play. Among my friends in the 90's Champions 4th edition was dominant (it's what I ran) and Marvel in 2nd place (what my friend occasionally ran) in between a lot of 2nd edition AD&D, Rifts, some Twilight 2000, and some Megatraveller.

Necessary Evil - it begins

Ran the first session of my new Necessary Evil campaign Friday night and it went very well. I have only run 1 session of Savage Worlds prior to this (and it was years ago) despite having been on the mailing list for the game since before it was published. I am amazed at how quickly and easily the game runs.

I will post more details on Monday -a kid birthday and an anniversary have me rather busy this weekend.

Magic Item: Force of Law

This is a black flanged Mace +2 that inflicts double damage to Chaotic clerics (meaning all Chaotic divine spellcasters). When double damage is inflicted the mace flashes with a bright light (no penalties) and makes a loud tearing almost exploding sound. The mace is quite effective in combat but these side effects make it difficult to keep a battle quiet when stealth is needed.

Lore: Force of Law was created centuries ago by a militant order of lawful clerics known as the Guardians of Order who waged war up and down the coast of the Northern Sea. Disdaining stealth they sought open battle with their foes with the intention of eliminating organized bands of chaotics from the region. They were quite successful, bringing a large measure of peace to the region for a century. During this time their numbers dwindled and their vigilance waned and eventually a band of powerful chaotic clerics and assassins infiltrated their fortress-monastery and eliminated them in a single night. Members of the order out on patrol were now the last survivors and they continued their duty with a renewed almost fanatical zeal until the last of them was slain. The Guardians created many powerful weapons, most of them specialized to fight against chaotic creatures. Almost of them were lost in the orders final years after their base was destroyed.

The New Old Campaign Design - Part 9 - NPC Levels

My plan for this campaign is to emphasize the PC's power in the world more than in some campaigns. The highest level NPC rulers, movers, and shakers will be name level, about 9th or 10th. Characters who climb past 10th level will quickly become legendary figures whose fame will spread far and wide, attracting followers, opportunists, and rivals.

Typical village and town leaders will be about 3rd level - basically everyone starts as a Normal Man but greatness is thrust upon them when the well goes dry, the orcs attack, or something else goes wrong. Some strike out to settle things and end up looting a bandit camp or clearing out a dungeon, gaining wealth and enough XP's to make 2nd-3rd-4th level. These figures are naturally looked upon as the leaders of whatever town they live in if they choose to stay at home after their big adventure and this is how most adventurers end up.

This also has the side effect of limiting the availability of powerful magic to characters which is good in my opinion. It also limits the impact of easy magic on the world at large which D&D has never been good at explaining. Things like widespread healing magic, raise dead, cure disease, create food and water could have a major effect on the semi-medieval society found in most D&D worlds. I don't want to think through it for this campaign so making it not widespread and easily available solves that quite nicely for me.

The New Old Campaign Design - Part 8 - Divine Magic & the Chaotic Alignment

As the worldwide nanotech network was shown to be safe, reliable, and powerful, military experiments were underway to create nanotech that would be able to disrupt it. These were generally developed in secret and then held in a dormant state to be released in time of war. There was little hope of overcoming the entire worldwide network as it was too vast and too redundant to be overcome globally. The strategy was to achieve a local superiority to enable a surprise attack or a more effective strike. Some were given limited programming and specific objectives but others were effectively AI's with a mission of creating destruction and disruption by any means available. When the war started these nanite "Chaos agents" were released and performed quite well. Pre-war the thought was that the worldwide cloud would overcome these local clouds so many of them had no off switch, an unfortunate and short-sighted decision.

What happened was that when the cloud dispersed due to the widespread radiation it left the surviving hostile nanite clouds "alive" and unmolested. If these clouds could avoid radiation zones after achieving their programmed missions they could go dormant or find themselves free and with no mission to achieve. Radiation also sometimes caused malfunctions in their original programming leading to unforseen actions and results. Some nanoclouds, prevented from achieving their objectives by these rad zones They too quickly learned the trick of linking with a human and communicating with them to accomplish things they could not.

Over the years these nano clouds have spread and acquired many followers. The smartest have learned much of human psychology and are quite adept at convincing others to follow them. Some of them have developed personalities as well, making them seem even more like angry gods. All of them though tend to be agents of disruption and destruction and violence. It's important that they are not human and they do not care about preserving humanity. Many of them are not especially concerned with preserving themselves. Some have been developed flaws over the years and their goals tend to shift around with no apparent pattern. A few have become concerned with acquiring power and followers and these will even fight other chaotic "gods".

The New Old Campaign Design - Part 7 - Divine Magic & the Lawful Alignment

Divine Magic is not psionics. Divine magic is the ability to tap into a power source unavailable to most beings and use that power to create a variety of effects. This connection also allows the power source to communicate with the being and make its wishes known. These powers are thought of as gods but they are not deities in the strictest sense or in their origin, though they may as well be in their power. None living now know the truth of where this power or these "gods" came from.

One of the last, highest technology systems of the ancient world was a worldwide nanotech cloud. This cloud of microscopic self-reproducing machines was programmed for beneficial purposes - curing disease, healing injury, repairing devices, communications - a variety of missions on a multitude of nanite"networks". These system worked better than expected and earth was set to enter a golden age as these were perfected. Radiation was lethal to these machines (partly by design as a failsafe in case something went wrong).

When the war broke out, prolific use of nuclear weapons devastated these nanite networks and thinned the worldwide nanotech cloud to near-impotence. The computer networks and Artificial intelligences that managed these systems generally withdrew them and concentrated them into a few remote and untainted areas until the radiation died down and they could be regenerated and dispersed into the world again. This reemergence did not occur until well after the height of the Gamma era.

As the limited remaining worldwide infrastructure fell apart, some of the AI's uploaded themselves from the hardware network into the nanotech cloud. many of these AI's developed distinctive personalities during their long isolation and when they re-dispersed their consciousness was spread across a large area. Being programmed to aid humanity they saw much work to do and not many technological resources to use in doing it. They selected certain humans (and dwarves) to be their "operators" and began communicating with them through implanted nanites. Some of them consciously used a religious metaphor to enable the primitive humans to understand what was going on, while others developed the whole paradigm independently. There were many of these AI's, many of them operating on what was effectively a local level, so many local "gods" sprang up over the years. The common characteristics of these gods operations were construction, cooperation, adherence to certain rules, and expansion. This is known today as the "Lawful" philosophy and means that most of these gods' followers get along fairly well. These gods are one of the major drivers of civilization over the past few centuries.

The New Old Campaign Design - Part 6 - Arcane Magic

Arcane Magic is psionics. A person must have some natural psi ability but then can learn to improve it through rigorous study and concentration. A modern scientist might see this as the wild, fixed mutations of the Gamma Terra era gradually subsiding into a latent pool of abilities that can be unlocked through practice to create a variety of effects. This also means that magic-users are not 100% pure-strain humans, but the evolved version of Gamma Terra's humanoids. Not that anyone cares about mutants vs. pure-strains anymore

Because of this origin, Arcane Magic is totally self-contained to the individual, requiring no outside aid.

Magic Items created by Arcane Magic Users are the result of special processes used in their creation. Intensely focused magic is used to change the way a substance interacts with the universe.

Normal common materials used for this are generally temporary in nature, like potions and scrolls.

Permanent magic items like magic swords or armor are usually constructed from "starmetal" which is a highly valued substance in the campaign. In this campaign, starmetal is usually a chunk of living superdense metal fallen to earth from a starship destroyed in orbit during the War of the Gods. It is found in some installations as well but it was not a standard building material even in the height of pre-collapse earth. It is difficult to shape with standard tools which is why it takes a magic user to assist in the working of the metal.

Additionally, as human scientists explored human psionic potential certain materials were found to be psionically active, able to be imprinted on psionically much like writing on a blank piece of paper. This is taxing and not especially pleasant, more akin to writing on paper by cutting your finger and bleeding on the page - it takes a lot of control and both pains and fatigues the user. This is how additional effects can be built into an item such as an invisibility ring or a flaming sword. This is also why elves have created many magic items as it is more natural to them than to a typical human magic-user.

The Healers of the White Hand

One organization that will be found in multiple locations is The White Hand. This is an organization founded by lawful clerics to heal the sick and injured regardless of affiliation, race, or alignment. They wear white robes and their symbol is a white handprint. They are pacifists and do not carry or use weapons of any kind and do not tolerate violence in their facilities.

Their mission is to heal all who need it and they refuse no one unless they shed blood in one of their facilities which is grounds for expulsion. They do not charge for services, instead relying on donations - which often come from grateful, wealthy adventurers.

Their pacifism is total as far as weapons are concerned but they have been known to use spells to defend wounded patients - hold person is not harmful in their eyes and throwing raise dead at an undead creature is mercy, not violence.

The head of a typical White Hand outpost is a 6th level cleric - this is by design as I want the characters to find a way to Cure Disease and Remove Curse without having to go to ridiculous lengths, but Raise Dead should remain uncommon.

There will also be a 3rd level assistant who is the second in command and several 1st level acolytes who assist in tending the wounded.

There may also be a few normal men hanging around the facility to keep it clean and perform basic tasks. These may be maimed in some way or otherwise be recovering from injury.

These outposts typically keep a stock of clean bandages, alcohol, fresh water, and some holy water. There is always a fire burning somewhere in the structure day or night regardless of season.

Expansion: This organization started with a single location and expands one outpost at a time. When the assistant reaches 6th level, the head of the outpost will help him prepare to set up a new outpost. The soon-to-be leader then travels the area to decide where to locate the new branch. He will also pick one acolyte who has progressed beyond 1st level to become his new assistant. Once the new location is chosen they will begin operating from whatever quarters they can find which may be a tent or just a cleared area of ground. The eventual goal is to set up in a permanent facility and do their work with shelter and proper supplies.

DM notes: The total pacifism rule is in to keep players from wanting to join this order - this is intended as a strictly NPC organization. It also makes them a convenient target for atrocities if the campaign goes badly. The organization also exists in case the players do not want to play clerics - I need some kind of convenient healing beyond the NPC priest who joins the party - I don't like running members of the party other than some hirelings.