Post by Oliver R Shead on Oct 10, 2015 8:53:13 GMT
I started running a campaign with two backers, playing two very different characters! The idea for me was to build a deep story-based campaign that was not so much revolving around action and adventure, but more about the characters, their choices, their interactions with others, and politics!
In our first game last week, Richard Hawkins, a drug-dealing medic who's skipped out on a bunch of towns, was heading towards a community called Ship on the banks of the Mississippi in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Tagging along with him was Alex, a tomboy with a good heart (and a trusting soul, who believed him when he said they just needed to "get out of town" for a little while).
On the way to Ship, they ran across several busted and shot-up trucks, with half a dozen well-armed men busy "sorting" through their stuff. There were more than a few bullet holes and splashes of blood. Things could have gotten ugly, but Richard let his mouth pave the way, and they got past with a quick drug trade, leaving the "Mongrel" gang to their own business.
Ship turned out to be an interesting place. A big vessel that was beached on the shore, it was now riddled with windows, doorways, huge access hatches and the like, and had turned into small town in its own right. In the nearby buildings there were other survivors doing it tough, and even tougher were those clustered around the base of the ship in a shanty town.
Richard and Alex immediately got to work on very different spectra - Richard peddled his narcotics and gained valuable contacts, while Alex started helping to fix up the shanty town, make it habitable, and earned many friends.
Along the way they also discovered that the Captain of the ship, who runs the town (and most of this side of the shore), is a good but hard man who brooks no disobedience, but also can see no wrong in his son Bryce - who just happens to be a nasty, nasty piece of work. As the stories came out, Alex and Richard both found that a young girl called Felicia had been brutally attacked by he and his gang of thugs, but when she went and told his dad, she was flogged as a liar. Others have suffered similar fates.
Not to be dissuaded, a short while later Alex had a showdown with Bryce, as he started beating up on the shanty town's barman, and though he wanted to beat her senseless, the shanty town's people rolled up in force to protect her, and he backed off.
Richard, meanwhile, and wheedled his way into the Ship with his medical expertise and judicious slipping of narcs. So much so that that night he got himself (+1 extra), invited to the Captain's table, where they were wined and dined by the Captain, Bryce (who stormed out immediately), and a host of the other influential people of Ship. Richard found their doctor was, in fact, a vet, and shut him down, making him look like an idiot, and what's worse, making it appear that he had been brutalising patients with his treatments. This got him thrown in the brig - and his quarters were given to Alex and Richard.
However, early the next morning Alex found a young girl (one of Felicia's adopted sisters), trying to get into Ship, while the door guard pushed her back.
Alex quickly gleaned something terrible... Felicia had been kidnapped in the night and taken into the hills. A search party had failed to find her, and everyone feared the worst. Alex immediately got herself ready to go - but Richard wasn't in such a hurry. Heck, the girl was probably already dead, which they might be too if they went up there... no, he was busy becoming the new town pimp (taking over from the Doctor).
So Alex set out into the hills with one slightly dodgy guide...
After a few hours they paused just beside an old abandoned high school (which had nearly killed her when its floor gave in). She heard an engine coming, which was odd, but she didn't think much of it. She continued walking, and behind her the guide loaded his bolt-action rifle.
"Just stay right where you are," he said.
Cold horror froze her in her tracks, as she saw the white pick-up truck starting to cross the field - and inside was Bryce.
Desperately, she flung her flashlight at the guide, making him flinch to block it, then she sprinted away. The guide caught up to her, but slipped as he tried to grab her. She fled, they all pursued her, shooting occasionally, but mostly enjoying the hunt, hefting axes and machetes.
Finally, exhausted, she reached a house just before them, rushed inside, hoping to be able to knife them as they came in - but as she opened the kitchen door she came face to face with a horrifying, boil-covered figure. The scuffle was brief. It tripped as it tried to reach her, then shrieked... and was answered by other shrieks - just before she rammed her knife through its head.
Then the front door kicked open behind her and in strode Bryce, a machete in his hand and a smile plastered across his face...
Dun, dun duuuun!!! Until next time folks
In our first game last week, Richard Hawkins, a drug-dealing medic who's skipped out on a bunch of towns, was heading towards a community called Ship on the banks of the Mississippi in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Tagging along with him was Alex, a tomboy with a good heart (and a trusting soul, who believed him when he said they just needed to "get out of town" for a little while).
On the way to Ship, they ran across several busted and shot-up trucks, with half a dozen well-armed men busy "sorting" through their stuff. There were more than a few bullet holes and splashes of blood. Things could have gotten ugly, but Richard let his mouth pave the way, and they got past with a quick drug trade, leaving the "Mongrel" gang to their own business.
Ship turned out to be an interesting place. A big vessel that was beached on the shore, it was now riddled with windows, doorways, huge access hatches and the like, and had turned into small town in its own right. In the nearby buildings there were other survivors doing it tough, and even tougher were those clustered around the base of the ship in a shanty town.
Richard and Alex immediately got to work on very different spectra - Richard peddled his narcotics and gained valuable contacts, while Alex started helping to fix up the shanty town, make it habitable, and earned many friends.
Along the way they also discovered that the Captain of the ship, who runs the town (and most of this side of the shore), is a good but hard man who brooks no disobedience, but also can see no wrong in his son Bryce - who just happens to be a nasty, nasty piece of work. As the stories came out, Alex and Richard both found that a young girl called Felicia had been brutally attacked by he and his gang of thugs, but when she went and told his dad, she was flogged as a liar. Others have suffered similar fates.
Not to be dissuaded, a short while later Alex had a showdown with Bryce, as he started beating up on the shanty town's barman, and though he wanted to beat her senseless, the shanty town's people rolled up in force to protect her, and he backed off.
Richard, meanwhile, and wheedled his way into the Ship with his medical expertise and judicious slipping of narcs. So much so that that night he got himself (+1 extra), invited to the Captain's table, where they were wined and dined by the Captain, Bryce (who stormed out immediately), and a host of the other influential people of Ship. Richard found their doctor was, in fact, a vet, and shut him down, making him look like an idiot, and what's worse, making it appear that he had been brutalising patients with his treatments. This got him thrown in the brig - and his quarters were given to Alex and Richard.
However, early the next morning Alex found a young girl (one of Felicia's adopted sisters), trying to get into Ship, while the door guard pushed her back.
Alex quickly gleaned something terrible... Felicia had been kidnapped in the night and taken into the hills. A search party had failed to find her, and everyone feared the worst. Alex immediately got herself ready to go - but Richard wasn't in such a hurry. Heck, the girl was probably already dead, which they might be too if they went up there... no, he was busy becoming the new town pimp (taking over from the Doctor).
So Alex set out into the hills with one slightly dodgy guide...
After a few hours they paused just beside an old abandoned high school (which had nearly killed her when its floor gave in). She heard an engine coming, which was odd, but she didn't think much of it. She continued walking, and behind her the guide loaded his bolt-action rifle.
"Just stay right where you are," he said.
Cold horror froze her in her tracks, as she saw the white pick-up truck starting to cross the field - and inside was Bryce.
Desperately, she flung her flashlight at the guide, making him flinch to block it, then she sprinted away. The guide caught up to her, but slipped as he tried to grab her. She fled, they all pursued her, shooting occasionally, but mostly enjoying the hunt, hefting axes and machetes.
Finally, exhausted, she reached a house just before them, rushed inside, hoping to be able to knife them as they came in - but as she opened the kitchen door she came face to face with a horrifying, boil-covered figure. The scuffle was brief. It tripped as it tried to reach her, then shrieked... and was answered by other shrieks - just before she rammed her knife through its head.
Then the front door kicked open behind her and in strode Bryce, a machete in his hand and a smile plastered across his face...
Dun, dun duuuun!!! Until next time folks
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