Walkers Gm: Evil Mike McNeal
Ben (Mike Bradley. Has four kids as dependents.)
Owen (Zach Turner. Has sister and sister-in-law as dependents.)
Mike (Mark Kale. Has one son as a dependent.)
Steve (Mike McNeal. Has twin kids as dependents.)
This week (uh, last week really) we started a Savage Worlds campaign in a new setting Evil Mike developed called, Walkers. It’s a zombie apocalypse setting with a twist—you must have dependents. The setting has various rules for these dependents, plus a few new edges and hindrances. We all start the game with five draws from the Hell on Earth scavenging table. The end result is that we find lots of various ammo, but only a few firearms and none of them use the ammo that we scrounged. Evil Mike makes a rule that you can spend a Benny to change one type of ammo to another type of ammo. Maybe now we’ll have a fighting chance? (I doubt it.)
Our adventure starts with us and our families having a great time on a Carnival line cruise ship. (Right there we should have known we were in trouble.) While on the ship we began hearing news about a virus ravaging the land around us. We were not too concerned. We’re on a ship with tons of food and fun. We’ll wait out the breakout until the authorities get it taken care of.
Six months later…
It turns out that one of the passengers was infected with the virus. We are the last survivors on the ship. Now the entire ship is filled with the walking dead or “walkersâ€. Many of our family members have died or have turned. For the last few days…weeks, it’s hard to tell which, we’ve been barricaded in the ship’s ballroom.
Our food is running low. It’s time to make a break for the lifeboats. But first we decide to head up to the bridge to see if we can get anything useful like maps or navigation equipment. We quietly remove the barricade from the window of the ball room and sneak out. I fail my Stealth roll. Owen fails his Stealth roll. Mike critically fails his Stealth roll and falls flat on his face in the hallway. The heck with sneaking. Next round we open fire.
Mike takes the brunt of the walkers’ attack. He uses up all of his bennies to soak his wounds. We fight to staircase which is bi-step-ual—meaning the stairs go up and down. (Evil Mike’s joke, not mine.)
I and my dependents make it to the bridge level. The walkers catch the rest of the group on the stairs. We can hear their near-hysterical screams. We quietly move down the empty hall towards the door to the bridge—away from our noisy ex-companions. The rest of the group make it to the top of the stairs. There are more screams and gunfire. Oh well…might as well let them come along.
The door to the bridge is locked. I use my lock picking skill to open it. I fail on my first attempt. I try it again and get it open. We all rush inside and close the door. Inside we find a thin, foul-smelling crew member. For a ride on our life boat, he’ll show us where all the things we’re interested in are. We agree.
Next time: Man the Life Boat!
Chaos Steve
