One round left

For the most part game mechanics should be the perpetual angelic child that is seen and not heard as far as a clean gaming experience is concerned. One cannot of course help but take note of particularly slick systems due to the abundance of poor  mechanics at the other end of the spectrum and it is an often visited subject at the club.

 

The Feng Shui system has left me in two minds regarding this. As eye wateringly fun as the content is I was left with the impression that after the last action packed episode that we had after a coupe of hours gaming only actually completed one round of play. Now to be fair, we had split the party up and were all baying for the GMs attention so this was always going to test GM Jack's sanity as well as bending the system in several directions. It is also not all that uncommon for a particular session to slow when everyone is off doing different things, more so in various combat or hand to hand scenarios.

 

However things are not all that they seem. Feng Shui basically creates a points ladder upon which every character is placed according to a starting initiative and as actions are expended by all concerned, npc's included, everyone slowly jumps down the ladder. All the GM has to do is count down the ladder until each character is encountered and an action performed whereupon they are moved down again - as characters leave the action they are removed from the ladder. As a picture is still worth a thousand words here is what I am trying to say

 

 

I did find a reddit on this so in someone else words:

 

"

Everyone rolls a d6 and adds their speed, this is the "shot" they act on. The person with the highest shot goes first. They perform an action which has a "shot cost" and their "shot" is reduced by this cost. After the highest shot goes, the GM counts down by ones and everyone whose current shot is that number goes.

Example: I rolled a 5 on a d6 and have a speed 8 so my starting shot is 13. I have the highest shot so I go first. I do a regular attack which costs 3 shots, I perform my attack and my shot is now 10. Once everyone with 12 and 11 goes, I get to go again. If multiple people have the same shot number, PCs go first and if multiple PCs have the same shot number, they go left to right from the GM.
"

 

So the upshot is that actually this isn't a round as such but a sort of collective noun for several rounds. I don't known what that is...rounders ? Either way we are now at the bottom of the ladder after which I can only presume we roll our shot dice again and like all things in life it's a matter of understanding it properly to appreciate how it works.

 

 

The rather large cave troll figurine represents the head chef in a kitchen where I am having a slight altercation. I hadn't realised he used to work for Sauron but either way he has an empty Pizza box belonging to me that needs to be recycled properly so a gunfight is now ongoing. That makes me an eco warrior of sorts I suppose. Above is a quick shot of GM Jack mid game when we are all trying to ask stupid questions.

Savage Speculations

Chaosium's Basic Role-Playing system is my great love, and while Savage Worlds comes a distant second, it still dominates the pursuing pack. I've had great fun running an Eberron campaign under the rules, and I expect it to continue for a while yet, but even so I'm feeling a little stifled by all the fantasy gaming my group seems to be doing.

We've got a regular Pathfinder game on the go, there's Savage Eberron now and then, and Ben's got this big plan for a collaborative sandbox campaign again set in a fantasy realm. These are all good fun games, and I like fantasy as much as the next bespectacled geek, but sometimes I want my character to be able to lay down a burst of suppressive fire or jump off a building on a motorbike. We did have Rogue Trader for that kind of stuff, but I'm not sure that campaign's going to make a return, and anything cyberpunk is a no-go alas. So I've been thinking about more modern or scifi games I could run, using Savage Worlds as the engine.

Savage Star Wars was my first thought, a scifi-fantasy hybrid to be sure, but with enough droids and spaceships and blaster guns to provide a contrast to all the normal sword-swinging of our weekly games. The problem I always had with Star Wars as a gaming setting was that the plot had already been written and cast a long shadow across attempts to run a game; I know others have succeeded, but it was too much of a strait jacket for me.

This was long before Bioware came out with Knights of the Old Republic and in doing so introduced a proof-of-concept setting which had all the right Star Wars bits but was not as beholden to existing canon. Seeing potential here, I went online to see if I could get a second-hand copy of the Old Republic Campaign Guide, saw the price tag of £200, and then gave up on the idea.

Savage Sabre Team/Savage Counter-Strike/Tom Clancy's Savage Six
and
Savage Dozen/Kelly's Savages/Inglourious Saveges/Where Savages Dare
Years a go I played in a BRP-based game in which we played the parts of SAS operatives dealing with a hostage situation. It didn't last long, as the GM didn't think BRP was deadly enough as it was and doubled all weapon damage, so our team was all turned into red mist within minutes. Even so, it has always stuck with me as a viable game concept, and it's something which would work with Savage Worlds, although any such game would be more on the pulpy side, so it would perhaps be better off used to emulate those brilliant 60's and 70's WWII adventure movies.

This one could be a winner, but it does have some potential problems. There is a definite danger of it falling into a formulaic mission-based structure, which may not be a problem but might chafe for some players. There's also the possibility that it might be a bit mundane for some tastes, as I'd be keen to avoid the supernatural, although pulling in some Bond-type silliness or piles of Nazi gold might well alleviate that.

It's not something I've explored, but there's perhaps some potential in throwing this idea into the future, and running some sort of Space Marines or Starship Troopers type game.

Savage Feng Shui
I love Feng Shui as a setting, but the rules seemed to me to get in the way of the fast-and-loose feel they were trying to create. Savage Worlds has the right feel and the pace is just right, so this is one idea with which I've been toying for a while. It's another hybrid setting, but with plenty of guns and car chases to scratch that modern gaming itch, and it's broad enough for anyone to find something they like within. The only potential problem I foresee with this is that while Savage Worlds covers almost everything Feng Shui did, there's one curious omission in that it has no martial arts rules to speak of -- beyond the wonky ones from Deadlands -- so there would be some work needed to include this rather essential element.

Savage Cthulhu
As a BRP-diehard, it would feel like a betrayal on a cosmic level to run a Mythos game in anything other than Call of Cthulhu -- I had to shower for three hours after playing Trail of Cthulhu -- but I could see Masks of Nyarlathotep working quite well in a more Savage style. I'm just not sure I could live with myself afterwards.

Savage Final Fantasy
Bringing in some more technological elements into the bog-standard fantasy setting might make all the difference, but I'm not sure it's getting far enough away, so this is the least developed of my ideas. I'm also not sure it's worth emulating a video game when one can just play the video game, but that's a longer subject for a later post. This one is probably a non-starter.

So there you have it. I'd like to get away from fantasy, not out of any dislike for the genre, but just because we're already doing so much of it and I'd like some variation in my gaming. Feel free to chime in with any suggestions and while I've focussed on Savage Worlds here, I would be more than happy to have a look at any BRP-related recommendations.