Not really an actual play but rather I thought I just let you folks know how the first session went and what stuff I used from the discussions here, so here's a little number (the first of six adventures) for my Burning Honour - Savage Worlds - series of adventures called The Bad, The Ugly and The Coyote Ugly.

Although I have a rough scenario mapped out for the first session of all my campaigns I normally rely on personalities (npcs) to mix it up with the players and then plan "adventures" based on those interactions. So the first adventure I plan (some what) and then I just wait and see what happens when the pcs interact with the world.

Background:

Some stuff which fleshes out the details I gave in my original post.

People of the Book. Besides the Roadwardens and their Samurai like code, the only other organized religion as opposed to the numerous cults that lurk in the shadows of this setting, is a growing religion based on a mix of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. These three religions is never mentioned and the dogma of TPotB is kept vague. They are conservative and form 'Sanctuaries" around the districts.

The Law . The only real law of the land is the authority of the strongman the pcs serve. But the fact is, that each community in the district have their own customs and Roadwardens are given the option of applying the law (customs) of the individual communnities as they see fit. As long as all obey the Roadwardens , the strongman/woman allows the Wardens a lot of flexibility to apply "law" however they wish.

Killing is another matter. Only roadwardens have the authority to execute criminals. No community custom can do this. Normally what happens is that criminals who commit crimes with the exception of murder are either exiled or sent to reeducation hard labout camps, run by TPotP. If they don't repent and after three strikes, Wardens are given the option of applying the "Eastwood" solution :raise:

Locations: (All stuff from Anemone's Modern Ruins link :

http://oboylephoto.com/ruins/index.htm)

The Twist & Shout (got this name from a detective novel ).  One of the three "proper" structures left standing is in fact a brothel managed by Kate One Eye (see Personalities) which services residents from the district and those passing through. I'm using the Hospital X photo from the link.

New Mecca. Not only is this a large community of TPotB, but it also serves a reeducation camp for criminals. It's success has been great and Wardens have had a much easier time in this district because of this place and how it serves the various mobile communities. The Head Priest is John Hukum. I'm using the photo of The Arsenal from the link for NM.

Convoys. Most folks though live in caravans that move from place to place. Somtimes they trade services or goods (brought from other districts) and they generally are always trying to find a place to fit in. A place to call home.

Personalities :

Kate One Eye. Lost an eye during a fight with a roadwarden a long time ago, sent to the reeducation camps and when she left opened up this brothel. It's influnece has grown far and wide much to the dismay of the Book people. Taking a page from Princess Monoke (sp) one of the features of this brothel, is that it is a refuge fro abused women and childern from all over the land (A fair number of them come from the sancturies of TPotB).

Although the women and children don't "work" in the brothel - unless they want to and are over 18 ("The Eye can always tell") - they provide other services, such as tending to the grounds, farming etc. Kate runs a self sufficent establishment and the T&S was granted status as a community with it's own customs.

Father John Hukum. The righteus (in the best kind of way) leader of New Mecca. His reeducation camps focusing on compassion but stern "counselling" has the highest success rate of reforming criminal in the BH setting. A lot of farming goes on in this sacntuary and everybody has a role to play. The sound of hymns are heard most of the day coming from this settlement.

Malaki. Think Denzel Washington from Training Day A fromer Roadwarden thrown out from the Order, his return with his "family" has caused great unease amongst the Wardens themselves and the general population esp now that the "Big Man" has vanished.

The Adventure :

For the first adventure I wanted something simple. A simple resue mission. Very D&D -ish. The "Big Man" had vanished, but for the time being the Wardens (there are about 200 in all including the 9 (:eek: ) pcs) wanted to carry out their final orders on the duty roster before deciding what to do.

For the PCs this meant wandering off the "Reservation" into No Man's Land* to rescue a group of Walkers (caravan folk) from a group of Three Strikers held in an abandoned ship yard - photo of The Boat Yard.

I wanted to keep it simle for a couple of reason. First, I wanted to get a feel of the SW system and second I wanted the pcs to get a feel of the setting. Rescue missions are a great way of doing this.

The pcs had to scout around the area before going in. There was lots of sneaking around, stabbing in the backs and a final 'mobile" showdown in the plains where I switched to Car Wars and got my ass thoroughly kicked by the players.

*No Mans Land is a dangerous place, not only because of bandits but also because other "Wardens" patrol the area and they really, really, really don't like encroachment onto their lands.

Although the adventure was fairly straight froward, three strands of conversations emerged.

1. With the Big Man gone, the group was divided as to what to do next. One of the pcs during the course of the adventure has taken on the "leader" role and has gained some followers amongst the rest of the npc raodwardens and some of the pc ones.

The encounter with Malaki - who thinks his "time is now" - throws a spanner in the woks of this pc and his followers. They have this grand idea of drawing all communities together and forming a city. This way they don't have to go on patrol anymore and they can maintain the peace from one location.

Where this "city" would be is anyone's guess, and how to get two polar opposites like John Hukum and Kate One Eye to cooperate is...well let's just say, that there is a lot of talk going on

2. The other pcs the ones not really thrilled by the new emerging leader and the city idea are more interested in finding the "Big Man" and maintaining the status quo. They want to start an investigation immediately and are demanding the resources to do it.

3. Finally there is the probelm with the other Roadwardens who are thinking of leaving and joining up with another district. If they do this, the remaining Wardens will become vulnerable pretty fast. Also rumours that the neighboring distirct strongman - Johnny Legend - has plans for the newly leaderless district is slowly causing concern amongst the Wardens, not to mention well everyone.

Well that's about it. Kinda of long and rambling. Don't worry, this is it. Just thought you folks might like to see how all your suggestions were put to use.

Regards,
David R

So the game is called "Burning Honour" and the characters follow a code of honor and they have to obey the Law.

So, how does that all work? Did the concept of honor actually come up during the game or what?

And man, I gotta check out the Russian flick mentioned in the other thread. Sounds like a fun octaNe game.

Quote from: Jared A. SorensenSo the game is called "Burning Honour" and the characters follow a code of honor and they have to obey the Law.

So, how does that all work? Did the concept of honor actually come up during the game or what?

Well the "honour" part is actually a strick code of conduct (of the pcs creation) the RoadWardens adhere to. One aspect (a very important one) of this is fidelity to the Strongman they serve. With the Big Man gone, the Wardens have to decide how they are going to operate.

As I mentioned, the group is slowly forming into two camps. The first, which believes that they should rework the whole code system and begin fresh, while the second wants to retain the code , find their missing patron and carrying on doing what they have always done.

With regards to the law it's more like they are the law or rather the law and it's execution is part of their code.

Regards,
David R

That reminds me of the "Law of 8" from the Postman movie. That film's background would also make an interesting RPG setting.

- Ed C.

I thought I'd just post this question here because it's related to the game I'm currently running.

As I described further up, the tension in the game amongst the pcs is whether they should abandon the code they have sworn to uphold in favour of something new. Leading the side of the debate which favours something "new" is a player who has become the defacto leader of the group.

His interactions with one of the npcs - the supposed BigBad, Malaki - is slowly developing into ...hell I don't really know what the hell it's developing into.

Malaki was exiled from the Wardens for proposing exactly - more or less - what the leader pc is proposing now : "You are meant to be a King. You deserve to be king" Meanwhile in the background the shadow of Johnny Legend creeps closer.

After the session, the player - whose a friend from overseas said, that Malaki was not a villain but an anti-hero. He really didn't know how to deal with him. I told him to go with the flow. See where it all leads to.

My question is this. How do you folks like your villains? Do you like them nuanced? Do you like them obvious? Shades of grey...or just plain black?

Regards,
David R

"And Now They Have Our Guns"

It's great when those little details that you take for granted really comes back and bites you in the arse. Take guns for instance. In my BH campaign the only ones who have guns are the RoadWardens. When an apprentice becomes a Warden he/she is given their Master's side arm in a solemn ceremony.

Guns are rare. Only the Wardens and this means only the PCs have them. Everybody else makes use of crossbows or knives ...make shift melee weapons. In most cases the Wardens only have to rely on their martial arts/knife fighting training to get them out of trouble. Sometimes they use their side arms...mostly for large group control etc.

Wardens always go on patrol with a partner. So at any given time, they have two side arms and a sniper rifle, along with their "personal" weapons such as knives, hand mounted crossbows etc.

The situation is very tense now. Some of the Wardens have left to join another district. The remaining Wardens are locked in an ideological feud led by two charismatic individuals. Malaki, has been observed meeting with various high profile and influential members of the district, and crime - for once -is on the rise. Folks are getting nervous. A storm is coming.

While on patrol, two pcs were waylaid and in an extremely violent struggle their weapons were taken from them. They suspect from the way how their assailents fought, they were trained by Malaki (himself a former Road Warden) but they have no proof. The can't say for sure that the two bodies they have belong to Malaki's "family". Since the dissapearence of their Strong Man and with some of their fellow Wardens leaving, they have not been able to patrol their borders in full force, leaving said borders open to crossings by outsiders.

The loss of the two pc's weapons has really stirred things up in the campaign for a couple of reasons. The first is that with those weapons in the wrong hands, a whole lot of shit can happen pretty fast. The main concern is that the weapons esp the sniper rifle would be used on patrolling Wardens, something they didn't have to worry about before, but also they may be used (again the sniper rifle) to assasinate certain key members of the community who have always supported the rule of law...by this I mean the Road Wardens.

The second perhaps larger issue is one of dogma. Part of the RaodWardens code is that  "You never , ever lose you gun". Now as mentioned earlier, there are two camps. The Traditionalist and The Reformers. The pcs who lost their weapons belong in the former. Ouch.

Just thought I'd update this thread , to show you folks how this campaign is turning out.

Regards,
David R

I gotta say David your campaign sounds very cool/fun.

Thanks Ronin.

The campaign has ended and here again is a brief outline of what happened and some post game ramblings.

"Sanction...With Extreme Prejudice"

So in the end New Mecca was chosen as the site for the "new" city...a set up some of the pcs were in favour of while the others although not totally on board with the plan not to mention the "modified" dogma of the Wardens reluctantly embraced the concept.

Father John Hukum who they had made a deal with and who shortly after was gunned down by a sniper had insisted that the dogma of the RaodWardens incorporate elements from the code of The People of the Book. Although this was met with some (heated) resistance from those who opposed change of any kind, in the end the safety of the community was reasoned to be the main concern.

Kate One-Eye was "elected" by the Wardens (PCs) to be the "Mayor" of this new city and her "women" from her former place of business were incorporated into the new city's civil service....since they could read and write not to mention count.

The campaign had two main threads which various pcs got entangled in.

The first was the mystery of the Big Man's dissapearence. PCs investigating this were shocked to find out that he had committed ritual suicide and that his body was hidden by the uncle of one of the pcs. Exactly why he committed suicide ....that's a freakin' complex tale best left untold :raise:

The second thread dealt with the efforts of the pc leading the charge for change and his attempts at the founding of the new city. As mentioned earlier some Wardens were leaving to join other communities...but what was unexpected was that news of the pcs efforts in establishing a new city not to mention changing the dogma of the Wardens had attracted other Wardens from other parts who were dissatisfied with the status quo and who wanted change....not to mention a leader they could follow.

So, as some Wardens left, new ones appeared. Also the influence of Malaki on the "leader" pc and also Malaki's own plans had to be dealt with. Investigation into the stolen weapons of the pcs and their subsequent use on John Hukum did not lead conclusively to Malaki....who was rapidly gaining influence in the area.

This last part led IMO opinion to the campaign's sweet spot. The pcs had a long intense discussion as to what to do with Malaki. The were two options. Invite him to join them and hope they could keep his influence from expanding or well ...kill him.

The party was at first divided on this. After all they didn't not have any concrete evidence of the role he had played in any mischief that had befallen the Wardens or the community. But, pragmatism or lust for power or concern for the community was the order of the day.

After a lengthy discussion a vote was called. By a vast majority the pcs voted that one of them would challenge Malaki to a ritualistic duel. They knew he (Malaki) would not back down...

All through the discussion the pc who had called for the meeting was quiet, once the vote was made she looks up at the leader pc who was going to issue the challenge to Malaki and said (her last words to this pc)  - "Sanction with extreme prejudice" - Thank you Apocalypse Now

The climax of the campaign was divided into two separate intercutting scenes. The first, the duel between the leader pc and Malaki. The second a large group of Wardens (the remaining pcs) battling it out using the Car Wars system with a group of Johnny Legend's boys whilst protecting a Convoy who were trying to reach New Mecca, the site of the new city.

A bittersweet ending considering that the leader pc died..he won the duel but was badly wounded and help did not arrive on time...

Three other pcs died in the Road War. So three pcs were left standing, with a city to build and a growing retinue of Wardens from other lands...

A couple of thoughts.

Firstly using two systems - Savage Worlds and Car Wars (for the auto duels) was not really such a difficult thing to do. In fact I would say it was pretty convenient, changing from one set of rules for personal combat to another set for mass auto duels. The latter gave the Road War a tactical "vibe" that I think would have been missing if I just used vehicle rules (or at least something my players had cobbled together) from SW.

Also during our post game discussion, some of us thought that we should have used or made up some rules for "honor" that would have had in game impact. The "immersionist" player just spat out "rules skanks" (I should not have mentioned the term to her) and continued drinking her vodka.

Regards,
David R