AP - The Nazi Horror from Outer Spaaaaaaaace

July 5^th – One Shot Space Pulp w/Maptool

In another of my Savage Worlds Evangelism Experiences, I held an open game of Savage Worlds in a Space Pulp setting of my own creation titled The Nazi Horror from Outer Spaaaaaaace! Participants included Save newbies Worldbuilder, Captainclock, Cyroa from the Maptool Forums. After my last experience with ten players I decided less was more for this adventure.

We played the game over the Internet across a few a timezones using Maptool to share the map and roll the dice with Skype for voice communication. For setting rules we used Slipstream from Pinnacle. The concept for my take on Space Pulp is that Earth has disappeared into a black hole around the time of the WWII. The Nazis are still a threat as the rest of mankind (what's left of it) joined the Great Solar Alliance with the other inhabited planets of the solar system.

In true Space Pulp fashion, the laws of space are a bit different than we know them.

• Space is big.  Think of the biggest thing possible and space is much, much larger than that.  It can take over a day to reach another planet and as much as a week to get to Pluto from Mercury.
• Space is cold.  Space is so cold that if you stay out in it long you'll get frost bite.  Space is so cold a cup water will freeze in a very short time (like a minute).
• It's hard to breath in Space.  Think of trying to run a marathon in Denver and you get the idea.  You can survive in space but you'll be cold and out of breath.
• Space is hazardous.  There are meteor showers, meteor storms, big meteors that leap out of nowhere leaving your pilot saying "What the heck!". 
• Space also has pirates in it. Nazis are a constant threat and don't even start me talking about the giant space squid.  Its dangerous with a capitol D so make sure your ray gun is always charged.

I decided to use pregens who were members of the Solar Alliance Rocket Force (SARF) with the characters starting on the scout ship SARS Reliant. The pregens were Sky, the ship's pilot, Tank, the ships close combat expert, and Wrench, the ship's mechanic. Also available were Reagan, and expert marksman, and Doc, the ship's mentalist and healer.

The game started with the characters receiving a weak distress signal in German from the Lybryth asteroid field. Investigation revealed a large asteroid with a giant metal landing bay door. Upon opening the door the characters discovered a wrecked landing bay with a variety of ships in various states of repair. The entire facility was dark and the floor was covered in mist. Dead , partially eaten Nazis lay everywhere.

Doc determined the wounds were made by human teeth sending the Rockteers to the flying to the tops of the rocketships. Zombie Nazis shambled out of the darkness trying to climb the ships to get to our heroes. Ray gun blasts cut through reanimated flesh as Wrench and Tank shared verbal barbs and began the counting game while Sky gave out tactical advice.

(GM Note: Since these were Savage Worlds newbies this made for a great introduction to combat and initiative)

After the combat the heroes continued to investigate the landing bay stumbling across the living quarters of the former Nazi shipyard workers. They encountered Frau Essen, former cook, who carried a pot of green goo. She used her large ladle to hurl goo globs at the PCs. Goo zombies accompanied Frau Essen oozing through walls and floors to get at the heroes. The goo men's bodies were unstable and reacted differently to different stimuli. For each new attack type I rolled 2d6 against the table below to determine the effect.

2	Empower - Creature becomes Wildcard with ability to control other Zombies
3	Fragment - creature becomes 2d4 smaller versions of itself dropping all scores by 1 die with a minimum of d4
4	Explode - Zombie explodes with a small burst template doing 2d6 damage
5	Grow - Creature gets larger gaining 1d in all traits
6-7	no effect
8-9	normal damage or 2d6 if weapon does no damage
10	2 x damage or 2d8 if weapon does no damage
11	3 x damage or 2d10 if weapon does no damage
12	4 x damage or 2d12 if weapon does no damage

During the combat, the goo men grew, exploded, and were damaged by stun grenades. Things got so bad during the combat the heroes performed a tactical withdrawl (they flew as fast as their rocket belts would carry them) to get away from the goo man menace.

Tank, for some reason, decided to grab one of the goo men and try to fly it outside the base. During the flight the goo man seeped into his space suit and began drowning the pugilist in goo trying to transform Tank in Tank Goo.

Tank resisted hitting the cold air of space. The cold caused the goo man to grow each round engulfing the rocketeer in a giant gelatinous bubble. Sky and Wrench flew to the aid of their comrade with different, improvised weapons (cleaning chemicals and fire extinguishers). Tank set his rocket belt full blasting the gelatin glob. The rocket thrust did enough damage to kill the beast.

The characters killed the rest of the goo men and continued their investigation. They discovered a German super scientist who, himself, was turned into a Wildcard Zombie with mental powers. The Nazi took control of Tank, ordering the rocketeer to kill Wrench. Since that was something Tank wanted to do anyway there was little resistance to the command. Fortunately for Wrench, he and the other rocketeers killed the Nazi Zombie Mad Scientist before Tank could carry out the command.