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In case didn’t read my last post, my niece wants me to teach her to play role-playing games. Specifically, she asked for D&D, but I decided on Savage Worlds because it’s easy to learn. I started with the basics, things she should know for most games: the reason you say “d8” Instead of “eight-sided die,” how you should never feel silly to talk in character, or how a good GM will let you add a little bit to their world if it lets you play the character you want. She seemed happy with the basics I gave her, so we went from there.

Athena the Thief

My niece’s character hails from Kemria, a riverside city with almost no military force. The men are all fishermen, and the women are mostly fishwives. I gave her a variety of locations around the town, including Lord Ferdinand’s keep, Esmeralda’s boarding house, which she shares with street urchins, and the marketplace, where her character steals to pay her rent.

She decided to name the thief Athena. It’s hard to beat the classics. Athena’s parents ran off together, abandoning her at a young age, which is kind of a horrifying back story. To avoid notice, she frequently changes her hair color (currently platinum blonde with purple tips). She wears a bulky jacket (my niece described it as a medieval sweatshirt) of worn leather, with a hood, padding on her vital points, and a few hidden pockets for knives. All in all, not bad for a first-timer. I found myself especially proud that she didn’t describe the character as pretty or ugly or even plain. It seemed we didn’t have to use attractiveness as one of Athena’s metrics (an advantage to Savage World’s “spirit” vs D&D’s charisma, one I’d never considered).

I had already made Athena’s character sheet before she came into being. Once upon a time, I felt like new players should see each component of their characters, but I’ve realized that seeing pieces out of context just makes them look like a mess. In recent years, I’ve moved toward pregenerated characters for new players. For Athena’s edge (roughly equivalent to D&D’s feats), I gave her Assassin, which increases her bonus damage to enemies she catches off-guard. Sneak attacks don’t happen that often in Savage Worlds, but the effect was deliberate: Athena excels when she catches her opponents unawares, but she’s otherwise a mediocre combatant.

After I emphasized the importance of making interesting (flawed) characters, my niece decided that Athena frequently cuts her thievery close because she’s overly ambitious (greedy). I told her she could take an extra edge for this flaw, and we decided on one that improved her thievery skills in an urban setting.

Arrow the Wonderdog

I have a long-standing tradition of naming my imaginary dogs Arrow. In case you don’t get the point of doing that, it’s something my non-gamer dad passed on to me when I was a little geekling. Depending on the setting, Arrow has been a shaggy wolfound, a graceful Akita, or a massive Mabari. She’s always steadfastly loyal and unnaturally smart. Like Lassie ripping the head off of a goblin. In this case, I made her an orange Tibetan Mastiff that Athena rescued from a life of stray-dom. She grew into the well-fed (and huge) protector of the boarding house.

Raiding Master Topkin

The adventure started when one of Athena’s housemates told her he’d learned to dispel the wards on one of the local wizard’s second story windows. Naturally, Athena was the only one skilled enough to move through the house without getting caught. This lead to the first half of the game, wherein she wandered from room to room, exploring the Master Topkin’s abode and pilfering his valuables. At one point, the wizard awoke to come out of his room and summon a late night snack from the bowels of the abyss. At another point, Athena had to outmaneuver an unfriendly cat.

I would never ordinarily run a one-person game, it worked in this case. I diagrammed the house with dungeon tiles so she had to tactically think about what corners to hide behind and which loot she could nab. Her solo game allowed me to work though a slow-moving thieving mission. No “stealth mode” for her; I didn’t care what she rolled. The mission ended when got a bit cocky, set off a trap, and accidentally knocked over Topkin’s crystal ball. She glimpsed a brief vision of a trio of goblins in the nearby meadow before the ball fell and shattered. I’ll admit, I railroaded the last part rather than rolling for it, but it was her first game, and I wanted to get her on to the rest of her adventure.

Goblins in the Meadow

When Athena returned to the boarding house, she told the younger thieves about her adventure, and they expressed terror at the prospect of goblins nearby. The last goblin attack had been devastating and bloody. I could tell my niece felt kind of silly engaging the NPCs. A lot of players never get over that hump, and she didn’t get a lot of practice. I expected her to head to the nearby keep to speak to the captain of the guard or at least implore the boarding house owner for assistance. Instead, she opted to head right out and “kick some goblin butt,” which cut out some roleplaying I had intended. However, it moved the game along nicely.

Athena brought Arrow with her to the meadow, but left her a ways behind while she sneaked up on the goblins. After listening to them plan their move on Kemria, she launched an attack of her own! With her first attack, she hurled a dagger at an unsuspecting goblin’s head. She did 24 damage, when only 8 was required to kill the goblin. I ruled that she hurled with such force and efficiency that she liquified her enemy in a shower of gore. The other goblins moved to strike. My niece quickly realized the character’s limitations in direct combat, as the goblins wounded her with a cut along her ribs. With a whistle, she called Arrow into the fray, who quickly dispatched the remaining two goblins. At this point, she found a map leading her to another cave, though we ran out of time.

Thoughts, Feelings, and Other Reactions

She loved it. Really, she did. I was pleasantly surprised by her level of immersion. She reacted to every change in mood music, and shouted “I love this game” when she rolled particularly well. Savage Worlds turned out to be good choice for a first game, as she loved the exploding dice mechanic (dice that max out are rolled again and added to the roll’s total, ad infinitum). She later told me that the game “got intense” when her character took a wound. More importantly, she asked if we could play the next day. We didn’t have the chance, but that was probably highest compliment a first-time player can give a GM. Next visit, I’ll set aside more time. We’ll see what my nephew’s up to, Athena could always use another sidekick….