When we published ‘Super Skyline Sagas’ for Savage Worlds, we did so for one reason: We wanted to give the Super Hero RPG Genre a killer app for Savage Worlds, because after playing several entries of the genre, we saw something special for good ol’ SWADE.
In this article series, we will show you three unique ways to just pair this book with your core Savage Worlds book, another that taps into the Super Powers Companion, and finally, a Soft GM approach to allow you and your friends to play super hero skirmish battles with a narrative campaign attached to it with a hint of wargaming.
All thanks to the rules found in the Super Skyline Sagas book. It would mean the world if you grabbed a copy -here- to help fund even more Savage Worlds supplements.
On with the show with our first campaign variant!
Dispatch for Savage Worlds
The video game ‘Dispatch’ is an interactive story where you play an Ex-Super Hero who has to retire after losing his power suit, but a private company recruits him to ‘Dispatch’ super heroes to help improve the city, keep order, deal with crime and super villains. Since it is an interactive story, there is a big emphasis on character development and interaction between the mechanical ‘Dispatch’ scenes. We believe that with some tweaks to Super Skyline Sagas, Savage Worlds is the best system to fully capture this gameplay loop and deliver a sandbox super hero campaign that got the same spirit. In fact, there are several variations to the formula inspired by ‘Dispatch’.
City Creation
You can use the rules as is to create a city where the campaign will occur. We do however, suggest the Game Master to make around 4 city blocks minimum per player. Make this a big city, reason being we want the space for trope play and the mechanics we will propose on this campaign variation.
Wild Ace Character Creation
Players could make Wild Aces who are superheroes who are ‘dispatched’ to deal with the different happenings in the City proper, with minimum changes besides the mechanics presented on the “Running the Campaign” section. However, we believe it is more interesting that the players create as Wild Aces the Dispatcher themselves. Furthermore, they don’t even need to be super heroes, maybe they are like in the video game, retired super heroes or human clerks operating the Dispatch computer software.
We then recommend that for each player character, generate 3 Super Heroes using Zadmar’s Super Hero Generator. Either give each three as Allies for each Wild Aces as their ‘assigned team’, or add them to a character pool and have each player ‘draft’ a Super Hero to be part of their team.
As a Game Master, develop some mannerisms and personality elements for these characters. Doesn’t need to be much, sometimes a single line such as “Has anger problems” or “Didn’t really want to be a Super Hero, but it is either the Dispatch program or prison for this one” can be an amazing start to develop characters through play. That should be the focus on the campaign, not to have fully fleshed out characters to interact with the Wild Aces.
This ‘Dispatcher’ character should get roleplaying scenes in between city turns, maybe interacting with their heroes in meetings or having to deal with some of their personal life. Use these scenes to give chances for players to generate Bennies.
Finally, the only way a ‘Super Hero’ under the care of a Dispatcher can get Bennies is if the Dispatcher sends them directly by offering advice on the field.
Creating a Faction
First create one Super Villain per player. These Super Villains operate on their own, no Lieutenants nor Henchmen. If they get captured, they can be added to the ‘Super Hero’ pool at the end of a season (check Running the Campaign for more info). Also create a Super Villain faction that starts with one villain, one lieutenant, and one Henchmen type. The Super Villains not captured by the end of a season fold into this Faction, making it stronger.
Running the Campaign
The campaign operates in the same logic found in Super Skyline Sagas, with the following changes:
Each City Turn counts as one week.
Each super villain and Faction can only activate a Ploy to Advance their Nefarious Goals if the Game Master rolls for it in secret.
Ploys without a main villain can pop up. These are city problems that the Dispatch heroes must contend with.
At the start of a City Turn, the Game Master rolls a d4 a number of times equal to the players at the table x2. Each result leads to the following ploy generation:
1 -The Super Villain Faction attempts one ploy towards their Nefarious Goal.
2 - One Super Villain executes a ploy towards their Nefarious Goal.
3 - An Interlude scene occurs with a Dispatcher and a member of their team.
4 - One Ploy occurs without being attacked by a Super Villain or faction.
Regarding the results:
1 - Use this ploy to foment a larger ‘meta plot’ regarding the Super Villain Faction. These are the pushers and movers for the campaign, if the Faction is put to an end, perform a Season Finale on the spot and consider either ending the campaign, or starting a new one, keeping the elements the Players enjoyed such as characters or concepts.
2 - Make sure to use these ploys to develop some ‘color’ and characteristics of the villain. They are a potential recruit after all!
3 - Put this on the map as if it were a Ploy, but when a character gets ‘Dispatched’ to deal with it, generate an Interlude scene involving that character and if possible, the Wild Ace who dispatched them.
4 - This is a tricky one, try to adapt the Ploy to a situation that would occur in a city. For instance, a ‘Propriety Destruction’ ploy could be just a building on fire, or ‘Artifact Acquisition’ could lead to a civilian touching it and becoming possessed by an evil spirit. If nothing works, make it a small gang of Henchmen doing the ploy for it’s own sake.
If you wish to generate a ploy, here’s a quick d12 random table:
1 - Theft
2 - Assassination
3 - Hostage Taking
4 - Property Occupation
5 - Trafficking
6 - Area Dispute
7 - Corruption
8 - Property Destruction
9 - Display of Power
10 - Brainwashing
11 - Artifact Acquisition
12 - Re-roll on this table.
After the Game Master ‘sets up’ the City Map with possible ploys, allow each player to draw initiative from a deck of cards. Each player then gets to decide 1 Dispatch. As in, how many of their Super Heroes they will send to face a Ploy. After that, the next player in line gets to choose, until all players have acted. If there are still ploys on the City, players may decide to draw initiative again, or pass. Keep track on which hero went to which Ploy. Multiple Heroes can be at a single ploy, some from different dispatchers!
After all is set up, all it takes is to solve each ploy. There are two ways to go on about this:
Full Scene
Solve the scene like a regular Savage Worlds scene once the assigned heroes arrive. Make sure the players get to talk to their Dispatched heroes over comms, transfer Bennies in the scenes, and make them a felt presence even if the Game Master controls the NPCs personalities and interactions. Naturally, if combat occurs, the players get to control the Allies to their Wild Aces as normal.
Quick Encounter & Dramatic Tasks
What is more aligned with the ‘Dispatch’ game and what would turbo charge a session would to solve most if not all Ploys via Quick Encounters and Dramatic Tasks, with maybe only key scenes being reserved as Full Scenes, like the first encounter with a Super Villain or an attempt to capture them. Maybe one Full Scene per player per session and the rest is reserved as Quick Encounter and Dramatic Tasks.
Season Play
For each successful Ploy, add 1 point to a Dispatcher and to the Most Value Player Super Hero on it (determined by the Game Master).
Each 3 months (12 City Turns) a Season ends.
When a Season ends, tally how many points each Dispatcher and each Super Hero on their care had. For every 3 points, that character gets an Advancement.
The Dispatcher with the most points is awarded with the prospect of adding an extra member to the Super Hero team (max 5) and/or to send one of their Super Heroes to another Dispatcher.
Generate 3 new Heroes using the Zadmar Super Hero Creation pool and allow that Dispatcher to select one of the three.
The Dispatcher with the least points needs to cut a Super Hero from their team. Usually it is the one with the least points, but the decision is ultimately from the Dispatcher. A Dispatcher can have the minimum of 2 Super Heroes on their team.
Finally, captured Super Villains are offered to the Dispatchers as possible recruits. The Dispatcher with the most points gets first pick, after that they pass the chance to the next Dispatcher in line, and so on. If there is a tie, the Game Master decides who gets to pick.
A Dispatch team can never have more than 5 Super Heroes or less than 2 heroes.
Super Villains who are not recruited in this manner are broken in by the Super Villain faction, adding to their numbers.
For the next Season, add a new Super Villain to the city per each player, and the game goes on!
Next time, we flip the script and see how Super Skyline Sagas can work as a competitive wargame. You don't want to miss it!
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