Savage Old School - Example Actual Play

I have already had some feedback on the Savage Old School and will be fixing and laying out this week. I had a chance to playtest it with four friends for a couple of sessions. In order to give a little look at how it plays I recorded it and made a transcript to give you a feel of how I run it.

The gang:

Billy as Scarlett
Sandie as Blackleaf
Vinny as Khonan
Jasmine as Elfstar

and Eric as the GM.

When: Friday night nine o'clock.
Where: The living room. Or front room. Or Arizona room. Or whatever people call it.

GM: Okay, so… were return to the dungeon. After the loss of your cleric to the pack of hell hounds…

KHONAN: Language, please.

GM: Sorry, I mean “heck hounds” claimed the life of your cleric on the first level, Khonan the fighter, Elfstar the wizard, and Blackleaf the Rogue…

BLACKLEAF: Don't call me that. I am the thief and proud of it!

GM: …. and Blackleaf the "thief" descend the stairs to dungeon level 2.

KHONAN: I really need healing. Bring the new cleric in before the next fight, please.

GM: Well, right on cue, you see a chain mail clad, mace wielding, holy symbol holding cleric.

SCARLETT: Thank goodness you found me. I was lost and wandered into this ancient hidden dungeon. You look hurt. Let me cure you.

BLACKLEAF: What is your name, cleric?

SCARLETT: I am Scarlett of Johansson.

GM: Billy, not again. Pick another name.

SCARLETT: I like this one.

ELFSTAR: What is with the name? Can you ever be serious? Come up with a name that fits the milieu.

SCARLETT: Like you, Elfstar, the non-elf, stupidly named Halfling.

ELFSTAR: I fireball him… her… whatever.

GM: Change it.

SCARLETT: Please. I like it. Plus you killed off my last character totally unfair like.

GM: Because you refused to change her name. Vanessa of Hudgens. And before I killed that one I killed off Emma of Stone…

SCARLETT: I'm keeping it.

GM: Well, have another character ready to go.

SCARLETT: Megan of Fox on deck.

BLACKLEAF: And can you make a better character drawing than a stick figure with two large circles for boobs? There are two girls playing here and it is not cool.

ELFSTAR: Tell it like it is, sister.

GM: Let's get to playing. So Scarlett casts cure serious wounds and Khonan is healed. Mark off the power points. Now, before you is a twenty by thirty square foot room, a wooden door on the far wall. A chest sits in the middle of the room, a brassiere next to it is burning. Why are you laughing?

ELFSTAR: Not brassiere. That's a bra. You mean brazier.

BLACKLEAF: Burning brassieres? I think we stepped through a portal to the 1960s!

GM: What is your toughness?

BLACKLEAF: 10.

GM: Damn. 

KHONAN: Language.

GM: I rolled a nine for wandering damage.

BLACKLEAF: Whatever. Go on wound me. We have a cleric.

GM: For now.

SCARLETT: Hey…

BLACKLEAF: I will search for traps. I got a raise.

GM: You don't find any.

ELFSTAR: I'll be back. I need to take a piss.

KHONAN: Language. Jesus Christ people. You know I am religious. God has struck down people for less.

GM: Wait, the bathroom is that way.

BLACKLEAF: She's calling Steve again.

SCARLETT: I hate that guy. She's been all goo-goo since they met. Joined at the hip. Joined at the… whatever.

KHONAN: Language.

SCARLETT: I didn't say any bad words.

KHONAN: It was implied. In your heart you sinned.

SCARLETT: In my fart, you mean.

KHONAN: Language!

GM: Okay, so that chest is there. Vinny, sit down.

KHONAN: I need some Red Bull.

GM: I'm trying to set the mood here. Give it a minute.

KHONAN: If my caffeine drops the blood is on your hands.

GM: Okay. So the chest is there, it is lit by the brai… fire thing. What do you do.

BLACKLEAF: That was the mood?

GM: Dim light is a mood. So, what do you do?

ELFSTAR: I'm back.

GM: No more phone calls.

ELFSTAR: Don't worry. I am not talking to him anymore. Ever. Again.

BLACKLEAF: Trouble in paradise.

ELFSTAR: Screw him.

KHONAN: Language.

ELFSTAR: Stuff it, Vinny. Let's just play.

KHONAN: Blackleaf, open the chest.

ELFSTAR: I try to open it.

GM: As you do it a mouth appears with teeth, a tongue…

KHONAN: Mimic! I love me some mimic!

GM: Blackleaf. Strength roll. What did roll?

BLACKLEAF: Six.

GM: Your hands are stuck to it. Notice rolls everyone. Looking for a success.

BLACKLEAF: uh uh.

ELFSTAR: Nope.

KHONAN: Me neither.

SCARLETT: Failed.

GM: The way I like it. So the good guy goes. Mimic attacks the cleric.

SCARLETT: Wow. No surprise there. F**k!

KHONAN: Language.

GM: He rolls a 14 which hits, right?

SCARLETT: Yeah. Stop looking so happy.

GM: So, it does 2d6 damage. Okay, another… there. Two sixes. and two more sixes, and another six… and another… and another… and another… you are dead. 

SCARLETT: You didn't roll that.

GM: It was so big I rule you are automatically, irrevocably dead. No rolls to survive..

SCARLETT: I couldn't see the roll behind that GM screen. You faked it.

GM: And a benny goes into my pile for arguing.You have another character ready? 

KHONAN: Godammit! Would you stop being a total assh**e and getting the rest of us f**ked!

ELFSTAR: Vinny! Language!

BLACKLEAF: Wow. Hypocrite much?

GM: What's that rumbling?

ELFSTAR: It's becoming black outside. The roof… it is ripping open…

SCARLETT: Is that a hand? It's huge. It's pointing at...  it's pointing at Vinny

KHONAN: The hand of God!!!!

(a crack of thunder!)

SCARLETT: It… it killed him.

GM: That's why I am an atheist. If you don't believe in something it can't hurt you.

BLACKLEAF: Wow. Not much left. Ashes. A brown streak on the chair.

ELFSTAR: No, that was already there.

BLACKLEAF: Gross.

GM: My mom is so going to kill me.

ELFSTAR: Dude, you are fifty years old.

BLACKLEAF: Can I have dibs on his can of Red Bull?

If you can even capture the slightest magic we had playing that nightyou will truly be in the cult of the old school.