Savage Worlds : Conan

Last night I was invited back to the RP Haven for a taster game of Savage Worlds set in the Hyborian Age of Conan. The campaign had already run for one gaming quarter and was just starting up for its second quarter. I was the seventh player at the table (6 is the maximum usually allowed) so the GM was being very kind in allowing me to play - thanks Gianna.

The promo picture from the RP Haven site

I have played Savage Worlds once before with Rod (who invited me along tonight to sample the game) as the GM. It is a great little system that lends itself to almost any genre due to the generic nature of the rules.

This evening I played a Pictish warrior (another player's character) who was a dab hand with the bow. I didn't do my usual write-up of this session as I am not a full-time member of the party, but I am hoping to get the occasional invite when the party's numbers are low.

The general gist was that the party had concluded the previous adventure and now had to head north to Vanaheim to repatriate a valuable horn. We were told it was at a certain place deep in the northern realms of the Vanir. We were accompanied by an old-timer who had lost the lower part of his sword arm (the story of how he lost it changed with every telling).

Along the way we ambushed a Vanir slave train which also had some barrels of ale for the celebrations due to happen at the temple where we were headed. We managed to destroy the Vanir raiders and set free their slaves (I, along with my Pictish cousin, managed to take down the leader and one of his other mounted cohorts). We poisoned the ale in the barrels enough to cause stomach cramps and vomiting and then headed towards the fortification.

We disguised ourselves with hair-dye to match that of the red of the Vanir, and it was a good job we did because that was one of the checks to get into the fortification. Once inside, we distributed the ale and watched for an opportunity to get inside the stone edifice. As soon as the vomiting started, we knew we could move around with a little less chance of being discovered.

We managed to find a side door in the wooden pallisade that led into the temple complex and then proceeded to work our way toward the main stone temple entrance. We encountered a few guards, a black-robed bard figure playing a lyre (who conjured some ghostly wolves with it), and three red-robed priestly types, all of whom we killed, but not without my character picking up a phobia of stringed music (caused by the magic of the bard's lyre). In revenge, it was I that killed the blind red-robed priest (my Pictish cousin killed the boy priest) and took their instruments of doom.

We called a halt to the proceedings just as we broke into the main temple complex on our search for the horn. I am sure the others will have a great time recovering the horn and all the adventures associated with it.

It was a great session and has whetted my appetite for more adventures in the Savage Worlds. The Hyborian Age of Conan is also one of my favourite fantasy worlds, so this for me was a match made in heaven.