Those strange lights you saw in the sky? Yeah, those weren’t just “experimental air force jets”. And the news reports of the “wild animal mauling”? There’s no animal with two rows of teeth that can rip through a carbon-fiber ballistic vest – and certainly not one that is only the size of a Labrador. Oh, and the murderous stabbing rampages from “rebels” in Tibet? What if I told you that they were just unfortunate herdsman that got too close to the dried husk of a demon that possessed them. Yeah, there’s whole lot more to this world than the pin-heads and scientists and politicians want you to know. Gotta keep people from panicking and all that right? But what happens when those things that bump in the night come for you?
Dark*Matter has been one of my favorite settings for many years – however, other than a very short one-off game some 15 years ago, I haven’t really gotten a chance to run it. This gaming group and I used to follow X-files a lot in the ‘90s, and there’s been a resurgence of those themes in the past few years – a hidden world just beneath the “normal”. From Warehouse 13 to Supernatural; Grimm to Marvel: Agents of Shield.
In mid-2015, I brushed my Dark*Matter stuff off to finally run a game, but only played an aborted hour or so… realizing that while I used to love running the Alternity system, it no longer had the same appeal for me. But it was more than just prolonged disuse leading to unfamiliarity… my GM’ing style (and playing style if I think about it as well) has changed. And so, it was shelved again.
A post at ENWorld in late 2015 saying that a new version of TORG was coming out in 2016. I went down the rabbit hole a bit and came across a Savage World’s version of TORG – which seemed to work very well. Several ideas for games I’ve been wanting to run began to coalesce in my head. I had been looking for a system that was flexible as well as quick and easier to run; a system that also had modernish settings, was easy to convert material to, or both would be a plus as the amount of published adventure materials for Dark*Matter was extremely limited. Savage Worlds was it! Here is the their tale.
LINKS:
2015 Nov 28 – Session 1.1: The Final Church
2015 Dec 02 – Session 1.2: The Final Church
Session 2: The Final Church
Session 3: The Final Church
Session 4: A Victim of the Art
2016 Feb 28 – Session 5: The Last Equation
2016 Mar 05 – Session 6: The Last Equation
2016 Mar 05 – Session 7: Millennium Knights
2016 May 14 – Session 8: London Calling (Handout)
2016 May 28 – Session 9: Millennium Knights – Nostradamus
2016 Sep 10 – Session 10: Millennium Knights – The West Family
2016 Sep 10 – Session 11: Millennium Knights – Chasing the Ordo Octostium
2016 Oct 09 – Dark*Matter #12: Millennium Knights – Hohenschwangau
2016 Oct 16 – Dark*Matter #13: Millennium Knights – Paris
2016 ?? – Dark*Matter #14: Millennium Knights – Switzerland
2016 Nov 05 – Dark*Matter #15: Big Trouble, Little China
2016 Dec 27 – Dark*Matter #16: A Night at the Ghibli
2016 Dec 27 – Dark*Matter #17: A Dragon crashes
2017 Feb 18 – Dark*Matter #18: Killing Jar
2017 Jul 29 – Dark*Matter #19: Killing Jar 2
2017 Dec 31 – Dark*Matter #20: The Alchemist
2018 Mar 17 – Dark*Matter #21: Thin Blue Line
2018 Jun 02 – Dark*Matter #22: Thin Blue Line
2018 Jul 04 – Dark*Matter – Manuel “Percival” Archuleta – A new PC for the side adventure Law is running
2018 Jul 04 – Dark*Matter #23: Greed Island 1 – What does the world’s rarest and most expensive video game have to do with the disapperances of people around the globe, include one of the most distinguished Hoffman Institute agents? Law’s side adventure here.