Savage Worlds French and Indian War

    I've been collecting 15mm French and Indian figures and terrain for several months and slowly getting it painted. You can see some of the results in two previous blog posts: French and Indian Progress and Last of the Virginians.

     We've played several skirmish games since then. Some have been campaign-style linked games using Two Hour Wargames' Long Rifle. Several were straight forward games with humans and animals. For others I added some supernatural elements; zombies and werewolves. My plan from the beginning was to run an RPG or RPG-lite campaign involving trade and exploration in the Ohio River valley that included supernatural creatures and events.

     On a trip to Half Price Books I found a copy of Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition for $5. I had heard good things about Savage worlds so I bought it and started reading it. I continued collecting more 15mm figures for the campaign and started talking with a few friends who were interested in doing some more role playing games. One wanted to fight zombies, one wanted to play FIW  and one had no preference as long as things were quick and easy to learn. My French and Indian campaign idea using Savage Worlds seemed like just the thing.

     Living so close to the climactic events of Braddock's march on Fort Duquesne, I decided that Braddock's retreat would be a good opening scenario. Of course there needed to be a twist.

     On July 9, 1755 Braddock's force  was ambushed by a French force made up of mostly Indians. It is a particularly savage attack and Braddock is severely wounded by a gunshot and several slashes and gouges. His force is forced to withdraw and begins the long march back home. Braddock is in bad shape and is not expected to live long.

     The morning of July 12, 1755. The camp awakes and finds Braddock's body missing from the wagon in which he was being transported. Two of the night guards are found dead with several deep slashing wounds to the neck and abdomen. Braddock's sword is still in the wagon with a small scorch mark on the pommel and the barely detectable smell of cooking meat lingers near. Colonel Washington tasks the party with finding Braddock and returning him to the column as quickly as possible.

     From there it was up to the adventurers to investigate and track Braddock and his abductors.

     The game moved quickly. The mechanics of Savage Worlds are really quite elegant and were easy to adapt to whatever on-the-fly rules I needed to come up with. Everyone had a good time and we're looking forward to the next game.

     Now that the players have an idea of how the rules work and what abilities and skills may be needed, I'll let them adjust their characters a bit for the start of the long term campaign.

      I was also able to score a copy of the Savage Worlds of Solomon Kane on my visit to Half Price Books this week. While it's set much earlier than the FIW, it has a lot of good information for incorporating supernatural beings and spells that will come in handy.