The Sorcerer's Manor - Savage Worlds

At Origins this year, I picked up the Savage Worlds Explorer’s Edition rule book. I’ve always enjoyed the concept of the system and the book was a reasonable price so I figured what the heck. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to play any games with it, not even any Savage Worlds Showdown (their miniatures game based on their RPG rules).

Fast forward to November of this year when it was announced that Dark City Games was going to release their great solo adventures for the SW system. Imagine the old “Choose Your Own Adventure” books, but for wargaming! I jumped at the chance to purchase Crown of Kings and immediately started to figure out the SW rules and make four novice characters. Recently, the fine people at DCG re-released one of their free sample modules for SW. I couldn’t pass the chance of take a test drive with the rules before jumping into a full module.

My characters are based off the pre-gen characters available from Pinnacle Entertainment Group (PEG), the makers of Savage Worlds:

Merula Lanus [Human]
Agility: d6, Smarts: d8, Spirit: d6, Strength: d4, Vigor: d6
Fighting d4, Investigation d6, Knowledge (Arcana) d8, Spellcasting d8, Notice d6, Persuasion d4, Streetwise d6, Taunt d4
Pace: 6; Parry: 5; Toughness: 5
Hinderances: Curious, Death Wish, Habit
Edges: Arcane Background (Magic), Attractive, Power Points
Powers: Light, Bolt, Defection

Marcus Twohands [Human]
Agility: d8, Smarts: d6, Spirit: d4, Strength: d6, Vigor: d6
Climbing d6, Fighting d8, Lockpicking d6, Notice d4, Stealth d8, Streetwise d4, Throwing d8
Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 6
Hinderances: Greedy, Overconfident, Outsider
Edges: Ambidextrous, Thief, Two Fisted

Janine Blackhair [Human]
Agility: d6, Smarts: d6, Spirit: d4, Strength: d8, Vigor: d10
Fighting d10, Gambling d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d6, Taunt d6, Throwing d4
Pace: 6; Parry: 7; Toughness: 8 (2)
Hinderances: Bad Luck, Outsider, Pacifist (Mi)
Edges: Berserk, Trademark Weapon (Battle Axe)

Ramel Ramelson [ Dwarf]
Agility: d6, Smarts: d6, Spirit: d8, Strength: d4, Vigor: d6
Faith d8, Fighting d6, Healing d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d6,Persuasion d6, Streetwise d4
Pace: 6; Parry: 6 (1); Toughness: 7 (2)
Hinderances: Arrogant, Big Mouth, Loyal
Edges: Arcane Background (Miracles), Power Points, Low Light Vision
Powers: Boost/Lower Trait, Healing

Here is my set up. I bought a plexiglass sheet so I can write notes if needed.

Since this is a downloadable programmed adventure, I don’t want to spoil any of the fun if someone wants to check it out and play it. For that reason, I will only give some of the highlights!
Against a living statue: Ramel gets a second joker (two in a row) and hits. Both damage dice Ace (An ace is when a die rolls the maximum number – in Ramel case two sixes. Any die that aces is rerolled and the amount is added to the final total) and the resulting damage amount is 19 well enough to crumble the statue.

Against Spiders: Ramel critically fails a vigor roll for poison. I state that it doubles the potency of the poison. Ramel, his body wracked in pain scores a might hit and scores a killing blow (I aced a damage roll). Then Merula moves up and attacks a spider and amazingly hits doing an unheard of 15 points of damage killing the spider.

Against the shadows: Janine rears back with her battle axe and crushes the shadow with a 26 damage points enough for 5 wounds (If you equal the toughness of a model, you score a ‘shaken’ result. For every 4 over the toughness is a wound. Most models have only 1 wound. Wild Cards (like all of my characters) have 4 wounds. The toughness of the shadow is 6, so 6-9: shaken, 10-13: 1 wound, 14-17: 2 wounds and so on). Since the shadow was a wild card, this was an amazing help!

Here's a shot after the final battle before the characters make their way out of the manor. Notice all the notes scribbled about including the map, turn counters and the shadows damage.

All in all, it was a great time. I really like the Savage Worlds system and it really makes the Dark City Games really shine! The only issue is that it’s a 'long' adventure. This sample game took about 6 hours to play from start to finish. I hope that the actual adventure will be faster since I'm more confident on the rules and the like.