Missive #16: Preparing to Play Roma Bellica
Welcome back Directors.
In Missive 15 we started a new campaign called Roma Bellico (Roman War). We also created the Cell’s controller, an interesting veteran agent named Nora Valente, the owner/operator of a rare and unusual bookstore in a medieval district of Rome known as the Trastevere. We know Nora is a tough, no nonsense agent who has seen her share of missions for Oblivion. At some point she was exposed to something that left her anemic, but allows her to become ethereal once per day for a limited time. As the controller of the cell, she will only rarely get directly involved in missions as her role is to bring missions to the cell and to train the novice agents in what it means to serve Oblivion.
Now work with the players to create the Novice characters. There are so many options in Agents of Oblivion that I recommend you spend lots of time, even with veteran Savage World gamers, to assist them in understanding all the options open to them. The sweet spot for this campaign would number 3 to 4 players, but it could easily be scaled down to 2 or up to 6. As the players complete character generation, ask them to consider who their agents were before joining Oblivion and receiving their basic training.
When the players are ready, I recommend running an Interlude for each of them. This allows them to begin filling in the back story for their characters, gives them some control in the scope of the campaign, and provides great fodder for the Director to play with later. Remember in Missive 5 we discussed the use of Interludes. This also provides each of them with an extra Benny to begin play with, which is always a bonus.
Take the time to role-play their first meeting with their fellow agents and with the controller. Maybe have them fly into the Rome International Airport and be picked up by a long, dark limousine driven by a thirty something, pretty blond driver with a husky voice and a soft cough. As they all pile into the plush car their bags are loaded into the trunk. A dark glass separates them from the driver. Allow them to introduce themselves, and if your group likes to role-play, let them! Because the driver is actually Nora Valente and she is secretly listening to everything they are saying. Taking mental notes about each of their personalities. She drives them to a very urban district of Rome and parks the car in a very dark, parking garage on the seventh level of a ten level building.
Nora rolls down the window separating them, and fixes her rearview mirror so that they can see her pretty blue eyes and she can see them. “Okay agents. Here’s the deal…” and she gives them their first assignment with a standard load out found in small duffle bags in the trunk. She finishes by telling them once they are done with the mission to make their way to 2179 Via Teodoro Pateras in the Trastevere District just south of the Vatican City on the west bank of the Tiber. She promises to meet them there and cautions them to be as discreet as possible. With that she gives them the duffle bags with the standard load out and abandons them in the garage, driving away. So what is the mission? Hmm….We’ll generate that one next time.
Till then, remember anyone could be a Pandoran agent….the waitress, the concierge, the pilot. Anyone. And you could be the target! LOL
