On a business trip last week whiling away time in my hotel room, I was pleased to find that the newest supplement for Ken Hite’s Savage World setting, The Day After Ragnarok, had been released.  I’m a big fan of DAR.  I’ve written about it a lot. Without hesitation, I eagerly downloaded the PDF, Serpent Scales: Fragments from the World after Serpentfall #1.

Bonus: one of the perks at the hotel was free printing in the business center, so I printed it up (plus a whole lot of other PDFs obtained from DriveThruRPG’s Haiti relief program).  Stuffing Serpent Scales in my bag, I had my reading material for the flight home.

The Day After Ragnarok is set in the days after World War II when Jormungandr was felled by America’s atom bomb.  The World Serpent collapsed across the hemispheres, its venom poisoning the Earth, ruining nationes, giving rise to monsters the world over.  The first issue of Serpent Scales provides details on The New Konfederacy…

Rebuilding the nation from the wreckage.

Rebuilding it in strength and unity.

Rebuilding it free of taint and corrupt blood.

Rebuilding it into a beacon of faith and protection.

Surely everyone can agree with that plan. But the devil is in the details: the nation they rebuild is the Confederacy, or worse. The strength and unity they seek are tyranny and conformity. The blood they would purge is that of their fellow Americans. Their beacon is a flaming cross.

They are the Night Riders, the Army of the New Konfederacy, the Invisible Empire. They are the resurgent Ku Klux Klan.

One thing that  I love is a good bad guy.  I mean, if a game has Nazis in it?  I am so there.

In the words of a commenter over at the Atomic Overmind Board, “If shooting Klansmen in the venom-twisted ruins of the United States is wrong, I don’t wanna be right.”  Ditto, my friend.  Ditto.

Serpent Scales is 16 pages of awesome.  With descriptions of a post-Ragnarok Klan made stronger by Serpent Fall and details on their rivals and schisms, the supplement provides hours and hours of rich story hooks just itching to be played.  As the supplement declares on the first page it truly is “All killer, no filler.”  At $3.95, this thing is a HUGE bargain.

My schedule is set for the upcoming Fear The Con 3, but I may see if I can squeeze in a pick-up game of DAR while I’m there.

Tucked into my window seat, I had my print copy of ‘Scales on my lap when another business traveler settled into the seat next to me.  We exchanged polite smiles.  His eyes tracked down to what I was reading, locking onto the image of robed KKKers.

Did I mention that my fellow traveler was a black guy?

He gave me a look that said it all: Racist.

“It’s a game,” I said.

That didn’t seem to help, so I offered additional clarification: “You shoot Klansmen.”

“Oh?” He hooked a skeptical look at me.

“Yeah, it’s a role playing game,” I dived in.  “The Klan are the bad guys… as the hero, you subvert their efforts, foil their plans, kill ’em dead.”

This appealed to him.  We talked about Day After Ragnarok, Savage Worlds and role playing in general most of the ride back to Dallas.

Jormungandr and the KKK bringing folks to gaming one player at a time.