SoupNazi
Guest
A night of drunken rambling with fellow tabletop aficionados finally pushed me over the edge of giving DMing a go when the idea of a Wild West adventure sprung up. Since I have no nerdy irl friends have such a good experience with Codexers playing D&D, I figured I'd give it a try here first.
So whether you ever wanted to be a gun-slinging desperado robbing banks and trains, breaking captured comrades out of the Sheriff's jail, a White Hat gun-for-hire that protects ranchers or merchant caravans, or simply a Clint Eastwood just trying to get by in the world of six shooters and Winchester rifles, this might be the game for you.
The ruleset we'd be running this will be Tall Tales BX Wild West - I'll, er, supply the rulebook for people interested, but safe to say it's a pretty typical OSR ruleset that's just been very simply adapted to Wild West, provides rules on gunslinging, riding, items, etc. It's "realistic", there's no magic, the only thing outside the scope of realism are potions and tinktures. Think Red Dead Redemption, an Elixir of Life can actually heal HP, etc.
The setting is an adjusted Deadlands Reloaded one, stripped off its magical components - I will provide the relevant excerpts, but this is the summary straight from the book. Having an alternative setting allows anyone who's not an expert on the actual Civil War era to participate without getting yelled at because "hurr durr Robert E Lee never did that" and "this is not how it happened LOL!!!"...
It's essentially Wild West except the war hasn't been won nor lost, there was a massive earthquake that revealed a new resource - the ghost rock, which is like coal, but far more powerful. In Deadlands, this is used for some weapons etc. that have no place in a Wild West setting. The campaign we'd play will only use it as a highly sought-after, and fought-over, resource that is localized to a single area on the West coast, spanning from the Mexican/Californian border almost all the way up to Oregon:
Now, for the technicalities...
Way of playing:
1) My preference is online play via Discord (voice) & Roll20. Roll20 will provide the overworld and local maps, as well as combat encounter maps. Discord for voice, scheduling, background music, downtime activities, OOC discussions. Aka the Stormcrowfleet way of play.
2) We can also do PbP, I don't mind this option as it will give me more time as a rookie DM to sometimes figure shit out. If we decide for online live play, the players might sometimes need to have patience with me. If PbP, we'll adapt nikolokolus way of playing - posts on Codex, Roll20 for maps and combat encounters, though if possible, in case of important combat encounters I'd still like to hop on voice to resolve things quickly and without confusion that stems from the shitty Roll20 chat.
What kind of campaign?
I don't have a story in my mind and there will be no railroading (well, not OOC at least - railroads will be an important aspect). I've got a few hooks for the start of the campaign in mind, but after that it'll be completely up to the players.
One thing I hope to get across is a decent ratio of social interaction - there will be more talking than in your typical dungeon crawler, and I hope we can have fun even just playing a night out in town. Politics will be involved, and charismatic characters will have a serious role to play in the game, just as much as the gunslingers and potion makers. Dealing with the Law - on either side - will be a big part of the game.
The second focus I want to place is travel - traversing the lands will be difficult and arduous unless you're taking the train (which holds its own dangers in a time where Rail Barons are a thing). Even with a horse, getting lost in an arid desert of Arizona, Utah or New Mexico etc is deadly, and leaving a man without a horse there - that's murder. Remember the scenes when Tuco and Blondie traverse the desert and Tuco withholds water from Clint Eastwood's character? Yeah.
There will of course be duels, there will be caravan ambushes, maybe train or bank robberies, possibly bounty hunting. Cigars, and tonics. Saloons and possibly even poker or cards. Cattle herding, maybe? Indians. All the good stuff and more.
Other than that, there will be combat of course, there will be exploration, and believe it or not, even something reminiscing dungeon crawling, though far less sprawling than in fantasy games.
What's next?
I've created a poll here - one to vote for interest/way of playing, and one for an important aspect of the start. The Wild West places a lot of emphasis on being a Black Hat / White Hat, and I'd like to keep that somewhat relevant, though of course, there will be space for moral ambiguity and for characters developing past the point they were at the start of the adventure. Nonetheless, I have two starts in mind - one where the party is full of Desperados, and whatever starting situation they'll find themselves in will be driven by greed - the other one where they're mostly "decent guys" or at least neutral, and they've come together as victims (or opportunate fellows) of circumstance. That's what the second set of options is for.
You can vote for every single option, which tells me you're just interested in playing and don't care how we go about it. If there is a small preference but you're willing to do either, please post your preference.
Once we come up with something (4-5+1 players for Online, 4-7 players for PbP), we'll have a Session 0 one way or another to discuss character creation, the starting scenario and how your characters fit into it, the scheduling, etc.
So whether you ever wanted to be a gun-slinging desperado robbing banks and trains, breaking captured comrades out of the Sheriff's jail, a White Hat gun-for-hire that protects ranchers or merchant caravans, or simply a Clint Eastwood just trying to get by in the world of six shooters and Winchester rifles, this might be the game for you.
The ruleset we'd be running this will be Tall Tales BX Wild West - I'll, er, supply the rulebook for people interested, but safe to say it's a pretty typical OSR ruleset that's just been very simply adapted to Wild West, provides rules on gunslinging, riding, items, etc. It's "realistic", there's no magic, the only thing outside the scope of realism are potions and tinktures. Think Red Dead Redemption, an Elixir of Life can actually heal HP, etc.
House-rule on the mountain man - no wolf, bear, or mountain lion as pet. It's a hawk/eagle that can help during travels (can communicate nearest civilization, source of water, danger, etc) or a desert woodrat that does the same, but in enclosed spaces. Both give a +1 attack bonus to the mountain man if used as a distraction, and can do 1d6 extra damage if the mountain man hits.
The setting is an adjusted Deadlands Reloaded one, stripped off its magical components - I will provide the relevant excerpts, but this is the summary straight from the book. Having an alternative setting allows anyone who's not an expert on the actual Civil War era to participate without getting yelled at because "hurr durr Robert E Lee never did that" and "this is not how it happened LOL!!!"...
The year is 1879, and the history is not our own.
After almost two decades of bitter fighting, the American Civil War has ground to a standstill. The Confederate States are still free. California has fallen into the Pacific Ocean. Rail Barons fight bloody battles to decide whom the victor will be in the race for a transcontinental ralroad, while a superfuel called "ghost rock" advances technology by unpredictable leaps and sometimes dangerous bounds. The Sioux have retaken the Dakotas and the Coyote Confederation dances the Ghost Dance on the High Plains.
After almost two decades of bitter fighting, the American Civil War has ground to a standstill. The Confederate States are still free. California has fallen into the Pacific Ocean. Rail Barons fight bloody battles to decide whom the victor will be in the race for a transcontinental ralroad, while a superfuel called "ghost rock" advances technology by unpredictable leaps and sometimes dangerous bounds. The Sioux have retaken the Dakotas and the Coyote Confederation dances the Ghost Dance on the High Plains.
It's essentially Wild West except the war hasn't been won nor lost, there was a massive earthquake that revealed a new resource - the ghost rock, which is like coal, but far more powerful. In Deadlands, this is used for some weapons etc. that have no place in a Wild West setting. The campaign we'd play will only use it as a highly sought-after, and fought-over, resource that is localized to a single area on the West coast, spanning from the Mexican/Californian border almost all the way up to Oregon:
Now, for the technicalities...
Way of playing:
1) My preference is online play via Discord (voice) & Roll20. Roll20 will provide the overworld and local maps, as well as combat encounter maps. Discord for voice, scheduling, background music, downtime activities, OOC discussions. Aka the Stormcrowfleet way of play.
2) We can also do PbP, I don't mind this option as it will give me more time as a rookie DM to sometimes figure shit out. If we decide for online live play, the players might sometimes need to have patience with me. If PbP, we'll adapt nikolokolus way of playing - posts on Codex, Roll20 for maps and combat encounters, though if possible, in case of important combat encounters I'd still like to hop on voice to resolve things quickly and without confusion that stems from the shitty Roll20 chat.
What kind of campaign?
I don't have a story in my mind and there will be no railroading (well, not OOC at least - railroads will be an important aspect). I've got a few hooks for the start of the campaign in mind, but after that it'll be completely up to the players.
One thing I hope to get across is a decent ratio of social interaction - there will be more talking than in your typical dungeon crawler, and I hope we can have fun even just playing a night out in town. Politics will be involved, and charismatic characters will have a serious role to play in the game, just as much as the gunslingers and potion makers. Dealing with the Law - on either side - will be a big part of the game.
The second focus I want to place is travel - traversing the lands will be difficult and arduous unless you're taking the train (which holds its own dangers in a time where Rail Barons are a thing). Even with a horse, getting lost in an arid desert of Arizona, Utah or New Mexico etc is deadly, and leaving a man without a horse there - that's murder. Remember the scenes when Tuco and Blondie traverse the desert and Tuco withholds water from Clint Eastwood's character? Yeah.
There will of course be duels, there will be caravan ambushes, maybe train or bank robberies, possibly bounty hunting. Cigars, and tonics. Saloons and possibly even poker or cards. Cattle herding, maybe? Indians. All the good stuff and more.
Other than that, there will be combat of course, there will be exploration, and believe it or not, even something reminiscing dungeon crawling, though far less sprawling than in fantasy games.
What's next?
I've created a poll here - one to vote for interest/way of playing, and one for an important aspect of the start. The Wild West places a lot of emphasis on being a Black Hat / White Hat, and I'd like to keep that somewhat relevant, though of course, there will be space for moral ambiguity and for characters developing past the point they were at the start of the adventure. Nonetheless, I have two starts in mind - one where the party is full of Desperados, and whatever starting situation they'll find themselves in will be driven by greed - the other one where they're mostly "decent guys" or at least neutral, and they've come together as victims (or opportunate fellows) of circumstance. That's what the second set of options is for.
You can vote for every single option, which tells me you're just interested in playing and don't care how we go about it. If there is a small preference but you're willing to do either, please post your preference.
Once we come up with something (4-5+1 players for Online, 4-7 players for PbP), we'll have a Session 0 one way or another to discuss character creation, the starting scenario and how your characters fit into it, the scheduling, etc.
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