Aug 072015
 

Day 6 of RPGaDay asks what RPG I most recently played.

RPG-a-day-2015-Twitter-2If it’s played, then it would be Savage Worlds Lankhmar: City of Thieves.

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My good friend, Mark, is running the game via Fantasy Grounds. We’ve just started a campaign in the city and it promises to be a good time. I’m playing a Fezzik-like Northlander called Mammut who is Brawny, a Brawler and suffers from the Clueless, Pacifist (Minor) and Heroic hindrances. Good times!

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If it includes GMing, then last night’s game of Deadlands Reloaded (another Savage Worlds game) would be the most recent.

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The heroes are a group of railroad trouble-shooters (first created for last-minute one-shots) and last night they were called upon o provide security for a genius inventor’s new Ghost Rock-powered train engine. The crowd was very excited and it seemed to be going well, but then a plucky reporter began asking uncomfortable questions about rumours of previous versions of this engine exploding spectacularly, killing all the crew. The exhibition was cut short and the railway baron suggested the trouble-shooters “deal with her.”

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The deserter spotted her sneaking onto the train, but lost track of her in the confusion. Soon enough, they were underway and the group split up completely. Father Gandry checked out running of this new-fangled engine while the deserter tried finding the reporter, whom he saw sneak onto the train and finally the scout checked over the cargo in the freight cars. Then, they scattered again throughout the train.

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The fun kicked into high gear as the scout discovered the man who killed his brother in the coach car and he and Father Gandry argued over whether to shoot him dead on the spot, but the Father’s fear of committing sin and the scout’s Code of Honour prevailed. Landry instead launched into a sermon in the middle of the train and when the killer tried leaving, began focusing on him. The killer responded with verses and the two began a theological argument, only agreeing to continue it in the bar car (with the scout following far behind).

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Meanwhile, the deserter found the reporter hiding in a nun’s car, but the kindly Sister Cabrini paid her fare and left the deserter with no excuse to disturb her further. He took a position to watch the corridor and soon spotted her sneaking out and forward through the corridor. He shadowed her all the way to the front and saw her leave to go to the engine when Sergeant Amos accosted him and accused him of being one of the men who deserted his regiment. He denied it, poorly, and escaped, only to be delayed long enough that when he emerged from the coach car, he finds a group of bandits in the midst of seizing control of the engine and are holding the reporter hostage. Shots are exchanged, but alas, no one can hear further back. Instead the deserter calls out to Amos for help. He joins the deserter, cursing him for having lied, but the fight is on! Two more bandits rise up in the coach car and shout, “hands up!”

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Back in the bar car, Father Gandry confronts the killer and introduces the scout. The killer denies any wrong-doing, nor that he is man they accuse him of being. The train whistle sounds in three brief bursts – the signal to the rest of the gang that the engine is under their control. The killer quickdraws and just misses the scout (who bennies 1 wound) before the scout flips the table and a major gunfight breaks out.
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The shots are flying throughout the train as Amos fights the group in the coach car, valiantly taking down the two there before another bandit returning from the engine surprises him from behind and takes him down. The deserter is in a major shoot-out with the bandit in the engine after having shot the one holding the reporter hostage and Father Gandry is ambushed by the killer as he chases him through the train, taking bullet and getting into a scuffle before the killer breaks away, shot in the back by the scout with his Derringer.

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We end the session with Father Gandry picking himself up, he levels his his pistol at the killer and squeezes off a fatal shot, just as Sister Cabrini emerges from her room and is hit in the head, dropping with a spray of red.

Sadly, we weren’t able to finish the session, but I’m sure everyone’s eager to continue in the near future.

Justin Schmid

Justin started tabletop gaming in 1983 with Basic D&D (red box) and never looked back. He runs and plays in a wide variety of games, including Savage Worlds, Dungeon World, Trail of Cthulhu and many, many more. He also writes professionally for role-playing games, including writing and creating Night's Edge an Alternate Reality Universe for Cyberpunk 2020. He went on to write eight more adventures and sourcebooks in the Night's Edge line, adding vampires and other supernatural perils to the already dangerous world of Cyberpunk. As a freelance writer, he wrote The Bermuda Triangle for Call of Cthulhu, Shadows of the Mind, and Psi Wars for Conspiracy X and contributed to Last Unicorn's Star Trek RPG, as well as to Cybergeneration sourcebooks, and many other games. When he's not creating imaginary worlds for his daughter, he's running games for his friends and writing new adventures or designing new game systems. He currently lives in Vancouver, B.C., Canada.

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