Halls of the Nephilim

Bedlam City Basics is a free supers setting by Plain Brown Wrapper Games. This 47 page pdf contains everything you need to include a dark and dirty Iron Age city to your supers game. The pdf is system agnostic, though there is an expanded version I'll talk about below. So what is Bedlam City exactly?  If you want a comparison, it's the Gotham City to your Metropolis. In the pdf you'll find an overview of the city, as well as neighborhoods, important locations, government info, the media, organized crime, and a discussion of the few heroes tied to the city.  It's a cesspool of greed and corruption. The government is inefficient and crime has infiltrated all aspects of life. I used the pdf many years ago when I ran my FreedomOPS M&M 2e game. My players took a liking to the city, especially in contrast to the gleaming metropolis of Freedom City,

Bedlam City is a greatly expanded version of the setting. There is a Savage Worlds version and a Mutants and Masterminds 2e version. They are huge, clocking in at 535 and 555 pages respectively. You can't really ask for more material in a setting, but too be honest, its too much for me. I think Bedlam City Basics is in the sweet spot of setting information for a GM (minus stats), whereas this one contains too much detail. I know I said that Bedlam City is grimy dark ages 90's stuff, but it's ever darker when fleshed out. Miller's Sin City has nothing on Bedlam City. I have the Savage Worlds pdf, and while I have a lot of Savage Worlds stuff, I can't really gage how well the stats are written because it's just not one I grok with. While the pdf contains a lot of content I won't recommend it for one big reason. There is a note at the end of the item's description that says "[THIS PRODUCT CONTAINS AI-GENERATED ARTWORK. BECAUSE WE'RE POOR]." While I can relate to funds being tight, I still can't condone using AI artwork in books. If that's not an issue for you, that's fine, but I don't like supporting products that use it. I don't remember AI being mentioned in the original version I bought, it must have been added in the updated one.

If you want to add some grime to your supers game, I really recommend downloading Bedlam City Basics.

Camp Terror is a funnel-style horror one-shot adventure for Savage Worlds. The pdf is 4.95 and you can get print and pdf for 8.95. As you can tell by the cover, it's got a great style. The pdf is book marked and easy to navigate.

As a funnel characters are designed to die and players start with multiple. There are 14 80's archetypes. It's interesting because the characters start pretty fragile and it isn't until the 3rd act that they become Wild Cards. Bennies are assigned to players, not characters. This works with the funnel nature. 

Characters are camp counselors working on cleaning up a camp that was closed 13 years earlier because of a killing spree. Sound familiar? It should, but that's the wonderful thing about the adventure. You can tell the author has a love and understanding of slasher flicks. 

The pdf has a great layout and style. The adventure is well designed mechanically, stylistically, and physically. Each act has it's own special rules. There are also several handouts for the adventure. 

I'm still trying to get the hang of Savage Worlds and really dig into the game. That being said, this adventure is really well written. Even if you don't play Savage Worlds, this would be great adventure for Dark Places & Demogorgons. Given the adventure's great style and excellent price point, I recommend this to any slasher or 80's horror fan. Also shoutout to Tommy of  The Most Unread Blog On The Internet. Ever. for posting about this one.

As I mentioned yesterday, I'm about to dive back into Savage Worlds and give it another go. The game uses bennies, which are tokens that can be used to soak damage, help with successes, and do plot things (as of the newest edition). While I might try to pick up some superhero themed poker chips (I believe Wizkids make them as tokens for HeroClix), I think for now I'm going to use my WWE Power Chipz. This was a game WWE released at some point. I know little about it, but I picked these up a while back and they would make excellent bennies. 

Do you play Savage Worlds? If so what do you use for bennies?

"The Fate of the world lies with the scum of the Earth!

When the super heroes of the world are blown to kingdom come by an unstoppable army of invading aliens, who will save the day? Evil... The only forces left to take on the alien menace are the crafty and self-serving super-villains!"

The supers bug has been biting my friends and I recently and I've thought about running Necessary Evil for Savage Worlds. I have SW Explorer's Edition and Necessary Evil Explorer's Edition. With these books I have everything I need to run Necessary Evil.

I don't keep up with Savage Worlds and I recently found out that there's another separate Necessary Evil campaign, Necessary Evil: Breakout. I know that if I run the game, I'll run the original, however I can't decide if I want to use the Explorer's Edition or if I want to expand the game by picking up the second edition of the Savage Worlds Super Hero Companion.

For those of you that play Savage Worlds, what do you recommend? I know that I have all I need right now. However, would it benefit my group and I to pick up the Super Hero Companion (and the Aliens Update)? If I decide to use the companion there are several free supplemental things I could use to flesh out the game, but I might have to work to convert some things from the Explorer's Edition.

My physical rewards for The Sixth Gun rpg kickstarter. I snagged the limited edition hardcover, which is beautiful. I bought one custom  wild die.  The other things you see are the stretch goals. In addition, I have a pdfs of the books shown and figure flats for the game. I'm still not sold on the Savage Worlds system, but I'm glad I backed this. I love The Sixth Gun.

If you don't mind painting your minis, Pinnacle has some great minis that are appropriate for Deadlands. They also have some great looking minis that you can grab with their The Sixth Gun kickstarter. They also sell Figure Flats, if you don't mind printing your minis.

I like the figure flats and I think Pinnacle's Deadlands line of miniatures look great. However, I want something solid and I suck at painting. Fortunately for me there are several Heroclix, Horroclix, and Mage Knight figures that would make great Deadlands minis. This is by no means a comprehensive list of all appropriate minis, but these are the ones that came to my mind.

The Bioshock Infinite Heroclix set has a great selection of minis that look great for Deadlands.


They have a nice mix of late 19th century/early 20th century garb with steampunk looking tech. You can buy the starter which has six of these figures for less that thirty dollars or pic up the blind single boosters. The Motorized Patriot gives me some great adventure ideas.

Need some tech? How about a tank mini to represent a secret USA or CSA project. The Mage Knight Dwarven Steam Behemoth Tank from 2001 would be a great miniature to use. You can get them relatively cheap on Ebay. I just snagged one for 11 dollars after shipping.
If you want a lady with little modesty, Deadpool's Outlaw is a good common clix.
If you have any suggestions link them in the comments.

Looks like I'm going to need to learn to love Savage Worlds. I've tried the system in the past and haven't been the biggest fan. It's not that I think it's bad, I just prefer certain other systems that work similarly. However, Pinnacle has launched a kickstarter for one of my favorite comics The Sixth Gun. If you aren't familiar with the comic, it's a fantastic weird west tale. The story revolves around questionable heroes seeking to keep six powerful guns out of the hands of evil cults and an obsessive undead confederate general. It would make a great crossover with Deadlands.

A hanging judge with any of the guns... *shudder*

You can find the link to the Kickstarter here.

Also here's a song and video I love to get you in the weird west mood.

I'm selling my copy of Rippers on Ebay. You can find the auction here. Rippers is a Savage Worlds settings in the style of VanHelsing or League of Extraordinary. It's a really cool setting for Savage Worlds. The pdf is 19.99 and right now my action is only around 12 bucks (plus shipping).  If you're interested in Victorian gaming, steampunk, or classic monsters, check it out.

"Everybody knows there are no such things as monsters…

This past Sunday I was able to roll dice with one of my best friends from high school, Josh. He ran a short Savage Worlds Ghostbusters. The scenario was short and took place circa 1995 in Cincinnati  Ohio (near where Josh lives). It was a lot of fun and we were using it to test out Savage Worlds. Both of us pitched in on the recent East Texas University kickstarter.

The project looks like a lot of fun, but after playing with Savage Worlds, neither of us are thinking its the system we'll use. We're both leaning more towards using classic or cinematic unisystem.

That leads me to the second short game we played Sunday. We kicked off a 1 on 1 Buffy game using the Lair of the Wendigo setting from The Slayer's Guide. The game was fun and I think it will continue to be so. The only issue is that I shoved way too much weird and supernatural into one session. I'm using the Djinn, but instead of replacing elements with Lair of the Wendigo stuff, I just added it. So in his first episode, the character Jack found out he was a totem warrior (which I'm adding more powers to as the series goes on) and faced vampires, wendigo, and fictional characters brought to life. It was a bit crowded.


Finally, Remy, one of the security guards at work (and one of my newest pals) wants to start playing D&D. I talked him into waiting about a month and we're going to give 5th Edition Basic a try. I believe he's going to try to talk his roommates into playing and I'm excited.  I've already got an adventure in mind after watching Grabbers on Netflix last night. If you've not watched the movie, I recommend doing so. To me it felt like an Irish version of Tremors.