TEXT: In the Beginning
  Hey all, 
  I kicked off my ﬁrst Savage Worlds campaign today 
  with my gaming group. We took about a 6 month 
  break from our d20 D&D fantasy campaign and are 
  ﬁnally getting back into it. My original plan was to do a 
  Star Wars meets Serenity homebrew thing but I did not 
  want the creative pressure of writing adventures (I’ve 
  never written anything more than a single dungeon 
  crawl for d20) added to the complications of switching 
  to a new system. So, I put that plan on hold for a while 
  and decided to run Evernight for my group. 
  I’ve DMed my previous campaign from the the 
  start. It was the Freeport trilogy by Green Ronin for 
  D&D. It was my ﬁrst campaign and my ﬁrst experience 
  behind the screen. While at the beginning it proved to 
  be rather easy, it seemed to get more complicated as 
  more feats, spells and magic items were both added 
  to the party as well as the opposition. My job quickly 
  became laborious and no longer fun. Too much to 
  keep track of. I’m already short on brain cells (I blame 
  my youth) and it was just more than I could handle. 
  That’s when Sean Fannon turned me onto Savage 
  Worlds. I played solo through the test drive rules a few 
  times and then played in a few sessions at DragonCon 
  last September. Aside from that, I had no other SW 
  experience.
   
   I have 2 people who were completely new to RPG 
  (were familiar with the concept but had never rolled 
  any bones). One is playing a Sun Priestess (my 
  girlfriend) and the other (the part-timer) is playing a 
  Street Ratty Thiefy type. They both used the prerolled 
  archetypes from the players section of the book. 
  However, they both got their heads around the rules 
  enough yesterday that they both want to “formally” 
  roll up characters now (keeping the same character 
  “class”). To me, that says volumes for the “ease” 
  of learning the system. With other gaming systems 
  (d20) it took several sessions for a complete novice to 
  even understand all his states and what to do in what 
  instance. 
  My other four players have returned from my 
  previous d20 campaign. A husband/wife team with 
  years of RPG experience (mostly D&D in some form 
  or another - the husband being a rules lawyer type 
  with lots of prejudices against non-D&D systems). 
  The wife is playing a ﬁghter/ranger type (the elven 
  ranger from the EN book) and the husband is playing 
  a Wizard that he made himself. He actually stated 
  about half into our game yesterday, “Ya know, there 
  is deﬁnately some parts of this game that make SO 
  much more sense than D&D.” I fainted  
  But, today, I managed to get my group of 6 (normally 
  4) players together (two of which had never played 
  an RPG), rolled up characters (some of them used 
  the prerolled ones), explain the rules (we had only 
  run through 1 combat session last fall but didn’t have 
  much luck), completely run through the Red Swamp 
  adventure, ate pizza, and did plenty of off topic bs’ing, 
  all in less than 8 hours. I’d call that a complete success. 
  The two rookie RPGers had a good time and want to 
  play again. The veteran players were excited about the 
  new system and giggled with glee when they rolled well 
  on saved bennies and a few of them got an advance.
  I’m so jazzed about my experience that I can’t 
  wait the two weeks until we play again. Thanks for 
  everyone’s patience in the core rules forum last week. 
  All those answered questions proved invaluable. 
  I hope to get a chance to post the actual game 
  notes or at least the adventure journal from my party’s 
  scholar (she loves the bonus XP/bennies she’ll get) at 
  some point soon. 
  I LOVE SAVAGE WORLDS! 
  Signed, 
  starwars1138 - Chris in Atlanta
  A Fanboy 
  Savage Sessions #1
  Savage Sessions are fan-contributed accounts of their Savage Worlds 
  gaming sessions.
  
  Deadcross Game, Episode 1
  This is a Deadlands game with a few changes.  Most 
  importantly, it is set in 1870.  Also important is that fact 
  that in this timeline, the Civil War ended in 1865.  Other 
  changes are a bit less important.  I have a bunch of 
  these written up, but, since we only play monthly, I’ll 
  run out after a couple of months)
  Game Start Time: Monday, January 10, 1870.
  Game End time: Thursday, January 13, 1870
  (Posted in a public place)
  Wanted!
  Trustworthy men and women who are QUICK witted 
  and EAGER to face danger.
  Must be WILLING to risk death.
  Wages $40 per week.
  Firearms not provided.
  APPLY, Standard Ghost Rock Bldg San Francisco, 
  California
  The players:
  - Elliott West, Contract Gunman and master of the 
  Harmonica
  - Dr. Stein, Dabbler in incredible technology
  - Father Jesse, Evangelical priest with a checkered 
  past
  - Gordon North, Rough and tumble gunslinger/dentist
  - Wind that Blows from the South, Soft-spoken 
  Shaman with a taste for blood
  - Morgan McConnell - Former Pony Express Rider 
  with a curious mind and a dangerous dog.
  One by one, the characters trickle in to San 
  Francisco and head to the Standard Ghost Rock 
  Building.  Each is greeted by Barney Keller, a 
  lieutenant of John D Rockefeller.  He’s happy to see 
  West and North, but has some dubious feelings about 
  whether the rest of the group can really handle a 
  dangerous mission. Nevertheless, he’s in a hurry, and 
  decides to accept the ﬁrst six people who apply for 
  the job.  He entertains each of them with a show of his 
  ability to handle his six shooter, and tells them he will 
  send for them when he has enough hands to form a 
  posse.
  He tells WtBfts she can hang around and attend 
  to some chores.  Father Jesse heads out to spend 
  the night in an unknown location.  The rest of the 
  group spends the evening across the street at the 
  Shenandoah Hotel, where several of them become 
  acquainted.
  The next morning, the group assembles at the SGR 
  building.  Elliott recognizes Father Jesse as a man 
  he knew under a different name, but doesn’t remark 
  further on the topic.  Keller pulls everyone together 
  and tells them why he needs them.
  It seems that three weeks ago, a train out of 
  Marysville California was robbed.  This train was 
  carrying a ghost rock shipment belonging to SGR. 
  The same thing happened a week ago.  Keller has 
  been assigned to pull together a posse and make 
  sure it doesn’t happen again.  The local sheriff hasn’t 
  been any help in the matter.  He tells the group that 
  they should all meet in two hours at the docks where 
  a boat will take them to Vallejo.  Along the way, Keller 
  continues to entertain them with a display of fancy 
  gun tricks.
  Once in Vallejo, the group boards an express that 
  has been hired just for them (including a car for their 
  horses).  Shortly after the train leaves the station, 
  Keller manages to fatally shoot himself while playing 
  with his gun.  Morgan pounces on the body, retrieving 
  ten dollars and the still-smoking weapon.  This does 
  not sit well with the rest of the group.  An attendant 
  arrives to see what caused the shot.  At ﬁrst, he thinks 
  Morgan is responsible, since she is holding a smoking 
  weapon.  Many members of the group are obliged 
  to support that version of events, but Father Jesse 
  intercedes, and, with the grudging backing of WtBftS, 
  he convinces the attendant that Keller was indeed 
  killed in an accident.  The attendant is not surprised 
  given Keller’s penchant for playing with his weapon.
  The group begins to wonder whether the train 
  will  be attacked.  Gordon locates the engineer and 
  asks him what he knows about the previous attacks.  
  He ﬁnds that the engineer knows nothing about 
  the attacks because this is his ﬁrst day on the job.  
  Likewise for the attendant.  The group discusses 
  leaving the train and heading in to Marysville on foot, 
  but the idea eventually dies, and the train arrives in 
  Marysville.
  Once in town, the body is delivered to the 
  Undertaker.  The gang talks to the sheriff (Bud 
  Peterson) to let him know what happened.  He’s met 
  Keller in the past, and readily accepts the gang’s 
  explanation for the death.  When asked about the 
  attacks, he states simply that he is sure Indians were 
  responsible and that he has no wish to discuss it 
  further.
  Since the time is approaching midnight, the group 
  looks for accommodations for the evening.  WtBftS 
  ﬁnds a spot to camp outside the nearby saloon. 
  
  Morgan decides to bed down in the stables to be near 
  her horse.  The rest of the group head to the saloon for 
  food, entertainment, and rest.  Elliott and Jesse have 
  a chance to renew their previous acquaintanceship.  
  Jesse assures Elliott the he has reformed and become 
  truly a man of the cloth - though Jesse does seem 
  to have a hard time staying away from drink.  Elliot 
  and Gordon order up the house specialty “Steak 
  and Beans” - Elliott remarks that he could eat steak 
  and beans everyday of his life and be a very happy 
  man (his exact remark was much funnier that that).  
  Jesse spends some time taking up a collection, and 
  spreading the word to the folks in the saloon. They 
  don’t appear very receptive.
  Dr. Stein takes some beans out to WtBftS.  She 
  is grateful for generosity but doesn’t quite grasp his 
  intention (an intention born of long hours of solitude 
  with no possibilities of female companionship.)  They 
  spend some time discussing various ways of collecting 
  blood from human corpses, an issue they both seem 
  to have some solid experience with.
  Jesse asks if anyone would offer him a place to 
  stay for the night.  One miner raises his head and 
  tells Jesse that he would be happy if Jesse spent the 
  night at his place.  This causes some small alarm, 
  but Jesse looks him over and decides that the man is 
  sincere. The miner just wants to talk to someone about 
  some spiritual matters that have been weighing on 
  him heavily.  He manages to keep Jesse up all night. 
  Fortunately, Jesse is a healthy, vigorous man, and he 
  manages to shake off his sleep loss the next morning.
  Rumor has it that WtBftS and Dr Stein are seen 
  emerging from a tent together the next morning, but 
  this is unconﬁrmed, and very likely false.
  In the morning, the group reassembles and runs 
  down a few leads.  First they talk to the clerk at the 
  local ofﬁce of SGR.  He afﬁrms to them that the sheriff 
  says Indians were responsible for the robberies, but 
  also lets them know that the sheriff seemed badly 
  rattled after checking the scene of the ﬁrst robbery.  
  He suggests changing the date of the next shipment of 
  GR, and decides that Elliott has given him approval to 
  do this.
  Gordon and Dr Stein (I think) head to the telegraph 
  ofﬁce to apprise Mr. Rockefeller of the latest course of 
  events.
  Jesse, Elliott and Morgan decide to talk to the sheriff 
  again.  Jesse works up a mini-sermon about the need 
  for people to come clean about the things that are 
  weighing on the minds.  His impassioned delivery 
  shakes the sheriff, who confesses that the train was 
  not robbed by Indians - it was robbed by Walking 
  Dead.  He knows this because everyone on the train 
  was killed.  Their heads were split open and the brains 
  had been scooped out.  He quickly tires of Morgan’s 
  incessant questioning and does his best to ignore her.  
  He’s pretty sure the zombies are the remains of the 
  Curtis gang who were wiped out robbing a train in the 
  same location a year ago.
  He also says that he ﬁrst encountered the undead 
  about a year ago after the demise of the Curtis gang. 
  The badly damaged remains of the Engineer and 
  attendant were attempting to steal a train.  He blacked 
  out during the encounter.  The timely arrival of Father 
  Frank Jones saved his life.
  The group then decided to talk to Father Jones.  
  Jones tells them that he did indeed vanquish the 
  zombies with an axe handle he found nearby.  He’s 
  sure they were zombies because no human could 
  live with the kids of injuries they had clearly suffered.  
  Elliott provides a ﬁtting soundtrack with his harmonica.
  Morgan suggests that the gang should go to the site 
  of the last train robbery and look for clues.  The rest 
  of the group agrees and they ride along (only Morgan, 
  Dr. Stein, and Elliott have horses.  The rest of the 
  party doubles up.)  Once at the site, the group notices 
  that the damage has been completely cleaned up.  Dr. 
  Stein has a look at the tracks and decides that they 
  were blown up with dynamite.
  After getting a sniff of ghost rock from Dr. Stein’s 
  weapon, Morgan’s large Wolf-dog, Fluffy, ﬁnds a trail 
  leading south.  The group follows along and, after a 
  short time, ﬁnds a cluster of two small buildings in a 
  ravine surrounded by people who don’t seem to be 
  walking quite right.
  WtBFtS and Elliott use their stealth to sneak around 
  the ravine to get a closer look.  WtBftS notices that 
  there are several beings in the larger cabin and 
  that the stolen ghost rock is probably in the smaller 
  building.
  Dr Stein begins to think of a way to apply his 
  scientiﬁc knowledge to the situation when he is 
  interrupted by the sound of gunﬁre from Gordon. 
  Gordon hits a zombie, but the wound seems to have 
  no effect.  More zombies steam out of the cabin, 
  including one who looks a bit more human.  Dr Stein 
  levels his stun gun at a cluster of zombies around 
  the house and ﬁres.  Unfortunately, the zombies 
  seem resistant to his stun attack, and only a few are 
  affected.
  
  Most of the zombies begin to move directly for the 
  location of Gordon, Dr. Stein, Jesse, and Morgan. 
  Elliott shoots the leader in the head, causing a nasty 
  but non-fatal wound.  zombies near his position open 
  ﬁre on him and WtBftS.  A couple of shots later, and 
  Elliott manages to take out the leader.  He starts on he 
  rest of the small cluster who have opened ﬁre on him.
  Gordon also manages to knock out a zombie, 
  but there are a lot of zombies in the ravine, and the 
  group’s guns seem beset by malfunctions.
  After calling on her eerie gods to stun several 
  zombies, WtBftS decides she will leap into the 
  ravine, using her momentum to crush the skull of a 
  zombie. Her leap is magniﬁcent, but despite intense 
  concentration (three chips burned) she does not 
  manage to connect with the head of her target.  She 
  ﬁnds herself surrounded.
  Jesse decided to dash to her aid, but his sudden 
  movement draws the attention of the mass of zombies 
  bearing down on Gordon, and he is surrounded and 
  nearly killed.  Dr Stein decides to give his stun gun 
  another chance, and this time it proves quite effective.
  With their deadly accuracy, Gordon and Elliott 
  quickly reduce the number of zombies in the ravine.  
  WtBftS pulls herself together and ﬁnishes a couple 
  with her stick.
  After the zombies are accounted for, the group 
  searches the cabins.  The large one appears to be 
  what is left of a regular living area, but everything has 
  long since decayed.  The smaller shack contains the 
  missing ghost rock.
  Elliott and Morgan head back to town, where they 
  hire a wagon and some miners to retrieve the ghost 
  rock.
  The group heads back to town and telegraphs SGR 
  to ask for further instructions, a bit anxious about 
  how they will be paid.  Rockefeller asks them to meet 
  with him ASAP.  They spend the night in Marysville 
  and head back on the morning train.  Rockefeller 
  congratulates them on a job well done, gives them the 
  $40 that was promised and gives them an extra $20 
  for performance beyond his expectations.  He tells 
  them to check back next week, at which time he might 
  have some more work for them.
  Most of the group leaves, but Jesse stays behind to 
  have a talk with Rockefeller about the fate of his soul.
  EXP:
  - Elliott West - 2 xp - total: 2
  - Dr. Stein - 2 xp - total: 2
  - Father Jesse - 2 xp - total: 2
  - Gordon North - 2 xp - total: 2
  - Wind that Blows from the South - 2 xp - total: 2
  - Morgan McConnell - 2 xp - total: 2
  Sumitted by J T White (aka Lamrok)
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Savage Worlds System (SWADE) [multi]/_Misc/Savage Sessions/Savage Worlds - Savage Sessions 1.pdf