The True Story of Savage Sword

 No, not the B&W Conan magazine from the 1970s and 1980s. I do love that series, but that's a topic for another day. Today I want to talk about my buddy Stu's character that he just made for my Villain Mission Force campaign I will be starting on March 15. 

Yes, VMF isn't just a skirmish game. You can run it as an RPG as well. It does require a bit of tweaking from the GM to do this, but not much, really. Anyway, Stu and his sister, Mel, both made their PCs via a Zoom meeting with me over the weekend. One of the things I love about VMF is that you can make your villain PC using random dice rolls applied to tables throughout Chapter 2. 

Stu rolled up a Brawler, and when it came time to generate his name, he went random as well. Here's a shot of the page from VMF: 


So Stu rolled a pair of 3s, generating the name "Savage Sword"--you have to love that alliteration! 

For an Origin Stu rolled "Disgraced Industrialist," and Stu came up with the idea that this character developed a version of the super-soldier serum that went awry. Terrible side effects sidelined the project and cost him his reputation and a load of money. But he forged on and used himself as a test subject. Nothing new here, of course, but it provides such wonderful grist for the story-mill. 

I needed to come up with a model for the Savage Sword, so I went to my pool of Heroclix and found a Terminator model. He was originally wielding a stubby pistol in his right hand, but I did a hand and forearm swap with a hard plastic bit from the Frostgrave Wizards boxed set from Northstar. Then I did a full repaint and the final result is pretty neat, I think. 

Perez's Deathstroke design is a timeless classic.

The right hand swap turned out pretty nice, IMHO! 

Now that we have delved into the origins of the Savage Sword, we'll see what direction his story takes during the campaign. I am excited to watch it play out around the table!

Thanks for reading!

--Scott




Comments

  1. Shawn MederoFebruary 26, 2025 at 11:10 AM

    I've always appreciated that your games straddled the line between narrative skirmish gaming and RPGs. The thing about narrative skirmish gaming is eventually you hit upon a conflict that just needs a bit more attention then figures on a table and it is nice when you can use the tools the system give you to push the story ahead a little further. At least in my experience this leads to higher stakes in the next tabletop battle.

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    1. Scott P.February 27, 2025 at 11:02 AM

      Thanks! My last few games, starting with Techno Fantasy Adventure, and including VMF, include mechanics for non-combat interactions when violence is not an answer. Doing well in these can grant you benefits in later scenes where combat is necessary. It's left up to the GM / Solo player to decide how this should work.

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