Into the West (Inactive)

Game Master Simeon

And so this tale begins. Players please check in here.

Checking in. Thanks for the opportunity. :)

Thanks for the pick GM, looking forward to this :)

Thanks for the pick GM Coyote.

I did have a question on making ammunition.

I had Angus take alchemy as a craft. I assumed that using alchemy he could make alchemical cartridges at the same cost a "gunslinger" could. If that's not the case please let me know and I will change a few things.

That is the case. I won't be tracking standard ammo (cartridges, arrows, sling bullets and such) too harshly. Specialized ammo types like cold iron or blunt arrows will be tracked however.

I created some coldiron and silver alchemical cartridges by adding the difference in cost from a regular bullet for a special bullet, if I did it wrong please let me know.

Hey folks. I missed that I had been invited. Dotting in and thanks for the selection and opportunity.

I will look at the recruitment thread again but I do not think I ever saw the starting gold.

Hey John, GM Coyote said here

John Thomas:

Ireland is home to both humans and halflings. Starting wealth will be the average for 4th level.

Ahh, I missed the bit about the average starting wealth. Got myself kitted out now based on that.

Good to see people filling in. I'll shoot a PM over to Kuruk/Gm_Solspiral to see if he's still interested. I should have the first post up today or tomorrow.

checking in will do my profile up this evening sorry about being a laggard :D

GM: Is it ok that I purchased a pistol even though not proficient. It seems thematic to the time even if it is rarely if ever used.

I'll clean up formatting but not going to hold things up for that good to go

John Thomas:
You can purchase it, but you would still take the penalty for non proficiency.

GM,

Will you allow purely-flavor Drakehide Leather armor? I am paying full Dragonhide armor price, but I don't want to have armor check penalties for Medium "Hide" armor (which is what a dragon would provide), so I thought maybe a Drake hide could be made into leather armor instead. She would really love to walk around in the skin of a River Drake. Would make her whole life just a little bit better. :)

(Doesn't add any immunities or resistances or extra AC... just flavor. She's crazy like that.)

Thoughts?

That sounds interesting. I see no reason not to allow it as it doesn't have mechanical changes.

Thank you. :)

Perhaps we should discuss hooks as to why we're together as a group. I'm figuring my character was adopted by the Apache and has some skill at stealth and is a fair archer and I took the veteran trait so maybe I was a scout during the Mex-American war?

Any other war vets in the group?

You may choose to have some previous connections with party members, but you have been selected by the government for your skill. You may have met each other along the way to New Orleans, but unless the various veterans were in the same army unit, there likely aren't many connections.

Kuruk, you look more like Mad Sweeney than Mad Sweeney does ;p

Farasha won't be a vet, but she'll have been hanging around New Orleans doing odd jobs competently for long enough that the government has paid attention enough to offer her work.

So there's an open invitation for her to be drinking buddies with another character or two if anyone wants to write that in :)

Zaranna may have met other people while she was in New Orleans, as her tribe is careful to play nice with the humans, and she has actually started to feel some affection for some of them... but "them" is kind of the point. Her tribe is working to make sure there is a place for Elves in the new world and protect their interests, but they are still Elves, and their superiority is assumed, even if unspoken. They still mainly stick together when they go anywhere, and are slowly working on the "All Beings Are Created Equal" idea... probably not there yet.

That's actually an interesting question that I should probably ask instead of assuming... in this version of the United States is the constitution written only for humans, as now, or does it extend to other non-human races? Were any of the founding fathers non-human?

Zaranna wouldn't really get to be drinking buddies with anyone anyway, since drink makes you less alert, and you have to stay alert in case a drake comes by, and ... every attempted conversation with her where the topic is at all open eventually works around to how drakes are a blight on the world, and people need to understand the danger. People who know her can distract her back to the dice game or the topic at hand, or she might not even bring it up with them, but new people=new audience.

That's actually an interesting question that I should probably ask instead of assuming... in this version of the United States is the constitution written only for humans, as now, or does it extend to other non-human races? Were any of the founding fathers non-human?

Wow that is a fun question. John Adams the surely dwarf or Ben Franklin the halfling.

I would think John Thomas might be a stranger to the group having arrived in town recently. A dust up in a saloon would be the most likely reason for him to have come to anyone's attention, he would have little trouble clearing out a bar of your average ruffians.

On a side note I am going to pick up a second set of armor, either leather or studded, as walking around a town in a fancy chain shirt would draw attention. His good armor would be more for when heading out to do things.

If you're willing to pay a little extra, I can set you up with one of these <motioning to her well-made blue-green studded leather armor>. About triple the price of Masterwork, but *much* more stylish... and it's made out of River Drake, which is always a plus. The more things we make out of them, the more people will want to hunt them, and you can never kill too many River Drakes, that's what I say.

Kuruk, you look more like Mad Sweeney than Mad Sweeney does ;p

Farasha won't be a vet, but she'll have been hanging around New Orleans doing odd jobs competently for long enough that the government has paid attention enough to offer her work.

So there's an open invitation for her to be drinking buddies with another character or two if anyone wants to write that in :)

Farasha, Having heard of the need for explorers, Angus will head to New Orleans to join up. His wanderlust having gotten the better of him, wanting to see what's west of Texas. So he will at least visit a saloon to relax for the evening and possibly longer if the group isn't ready to leave.

Instead of putting it in the background maybe we can have a discussion in game.

With that in mind, GM Coyote, would you open the game thread so we can either dot and delete or start a little conversation at the local drinking establishment?

On a side note I am going to pick up a second set of armor, either leather or studded, as walking around a town in a fancy chain shirt would draw attention. His good armor would be more for when heading out to do things.

If you're willing to pay a little extra, I can set you up with one of these <motioning to her well-made blue-green studded leather armor>. About triple the price of Masterwork, but *much* more stylish... and it's made out of River Drake, which is always a plus. The more things we make out of them, the more people will want to hunt them, and you can never kill too many River Drakes, that's what I say.

Or you could buy a 'buffalo robe' Hide armor as armor or just to cover that pretty chain shirt... We don't have to worry about killing off the buffalo, there is so many of them.

The first post is up!

So there's an open invitation for her to be drinking buddies with another character or two if anyone wants to write that in :)

Hey Farasha, I'm sorry I didn't respond to this more directly. I got wrapped up in stuff at work and totally forgot to check back.

So I don't know how long Angus would have been in town, but he certainly would have gone to the center of town where the Cabildo is the evening before. His intention would be to check out the 'lay of the land' so to speak. Would Angus and Farasha have met there at 'Charley's bar' the night before or the morning of?

Also does Farasha have an accent? I gave Angus one level in as many knowledge's as I could so he would have a 'liberal education.' When he left home he would focus more on Geography, nature and dungeoneering. But I digress. Would Angus have recognized her accent?

I'm sure he would have shared that he was a Texican, having been a ranger, then a scout for the army. He has the 'wanderlust' of his people and that is why he is going west. He may or may not realize that's the reason, I havn't decided yet. It might be that he doesn't recognize it as 'a wanderlust' yet. But if anyone asks, he will say he's doing it for the money, calling it a 'paid vacation.'

Just a heads up. I will be attending a wedding out of town on Saturday so probably no posts from when i go to bed tonight until Sunday.

with gameplay thread open I'll be posting more regulary as this will now show up when I check.

So I vote we get a writ for land that we can take and hold along with a pension. John Thomas would take some nice California cost and we would have a steady income.

Been pretty forward with requests so thought better to not do it in character and get agreement.

I think we should take it now and go the desert route (but obviously we'd better prepare well). But that's just me. :) I'm okay with you asking for more. I just think we already scored. :)

The bigger challenge may be that Kuruk just basically told us that he didn't want us going that way, so we need to play that out.

Historically this isn't far off from when things got really hairy with the Apache. The Apache did tend to help the US during the Mexican American War since they had been fighting the Spanish since the 1600s and the Mexicans rather intensely from the 1830s-1850s.

Since Kuruk knows how hostile his adopted people can get he's trying to forestall what he sees as a likely conflict. Though in our history that was more like 1860s-1880s.

GM: Wondering if we can possibly get a mock-up of the map that the Colonel showed the party? It might help with planning later on.

Yes, I'll have to make the mock-up with my very rudimentary artistic skills, but it'll be done relatively soon.

can you slap a grid on something like this? Or That?

That seems as good a way to do it as any. I'll figure out a scale and then post it, likely on Google Docs.

I don't know how much you have used google docs for maps but here is a little guide for a player in my other campaign who was going to start GMing. Feel free to ignore it. :)

Mapping

Hey GM Coyote, thanks for letting me switch the skill, Sorry I'm throwing so much on that post.

Up at the top I asked:

For RP sake, Angus called the bartender 'Charley' and has referred to the place as 'Charley's' is that ok? I know it's a tavern, can it be an inn also, or is there an inn or hotel near by?

Is it just a saloon for drinking and gambling or is it more like an in where they serve meals and there are a few rooms to rent. doesn't matter either way, just want to know how to RP it.

Hi, sorry for silence, record rainfall here in Dunedin so busy battening down hatches and ensuring we have provisions to last in case the flooding continues!

For what it's worth, take the narrative lead with details like whether the drinking hole has an upper floor of guest rooms! GM Coyote will correct us if something we presume doesn't fit, and otherwise it helps with keeping the narrative flow going :)

Post up shortly!

Hi, sorry for silence, record rainfall here in Dunedin so busy battening down hatches and ensuring we have provisions to last in case the flooding continues!

is that Dunedin just north of Clearwater? I have relatives in New Port Richey. Beautiful white beaches. Sad to hear about the flooding.

For what it's worth, take the narrative lead with details like whether the drinking hole has an upper floor of guest rooms! GM Coyote will correct us if something we presume doesn't fit, and otherwise it helps with keeping the narrative flow going :)

Post up shortly!

ok, I will keep that in mind. I like to use hooks, but I don't like assuming too much, either about the GM's or other characters' actions.

GM: Screwed up my languages I think, and need to replace celestial and goblin with some languages that actually exist in this world. :)

Is English "Common" by the way?

Anyway, I was thinking that a Native American language would be good, but I am not sure which one Zaranna might know, or which Native Americans she would have encountered in the New Orleans / Gulf of Mexico area. Any suggestions?

Also, are there still monster/race languages that we might need? I guess I'm just not sure how languages work in this game, sorry.

Kuruk, you have create water as a spell, right? Seems like taking a wagon would be unrealistic. I could also (if allowed) tweak my character back to a caster and get it, but rangers don't get zero level spells, so it would be limited.

Angus: Ah sorry no that's Dunedin as in New Zealand :p

The flooding has mostly abated now so the city is returning to normal thankfully :)

Create water would be ideal for desert travel, however we should still plan a contingency in case anything happens to Kuruk!

yep create water is one I took :D

Angus: Ah sorry no that's Dunedin as in New Zealand :p

LOL, sorry. I feel so provincial. Please except my apologies! I keep forgetting we are such an international group here on the boards ;-)

They still look like beautiful white beaches.

The temperatures look to be a little cooler though: Dunedin and Dunedin near Clearwater

It is good that the flooding has abated though!

Pioneers had wagons, but they weren't the ones breaking the trail, and wagons leave us slow and weak in a lot of ways. We can... but it makes us less maneuverable, and less able to run when that is the best choice.

Honestly I got so immersed forgot about create water cantrip. Given that at least one person has it I no longer worry about water.

Think about how much the Donner party would have benefit form magic!

Pioneers had wagons, but they weren't the ones breaking the trail, and wagons leave us slow and weak in a lot of ways. We can... but it makes us less maneuverable, and less able to run when that is the best choice.

we can always abandon the wagon, but Johns point is valid, what would the west look like with magic, create food, create water, magically fix gear. a lot of the things they would carry in a wagon was so they could repair or prepare, Magic will cover a lot of that.

I'm good with one horse to ride for each of us, and pack animals as needed. It's not realistic by a stretch, but we have magic!

Take a look at this just for fun

That's awesome. Yeah, they have a Lewis and Clark museum near here by the old fort they set up when they were recruiting people (I currently live in Missouri). ... I mean, I agree that our prep is unreasonable compared to them, not only just in terms of magic, but in terms of all the people involved. It was a massive undertaking. If we were going to do like they did, we'd need to get leadership feats and gather up some underlings. I think there were almost 50 of them when they started from Missouri.

For our game, not compared to them, though, I think we're doing fine. We can't get a small army to come with us... can we? I guess I don't really know. Is this more like a Kingmaker game where we are supposed to build influence and work on a macro level to explore? If so, maybe we should start recruiting.

Tomorrow afternoon I am heading out of town for my sisters wedding and then a trip to Nashville for work. Wednesday afternoon till Sunday my internet will be spotty at best as I will be on the family farm.

I will post as I can.

Have a good time GM Red Box

Looks like were winding down for the night. What is the plan for tomorrow? Are there any 'big city' type supplies we're going to need; Telescopes or binoculars, navigation instruments, time pieces or any crafting kits like map making tools?

I assume we will need at least one horse each for the ride to Texas, Angus is more than happy to help find a mount for everyone.

Once in Texas we may possibly get a pack animal or two there. If we were doing this realistically we would get extra horses. Don't know if were really going to need them. In theory if we get our animals killed we can purchase some from natives or Angus can train wild ones. Hopefully with a little help from our ranger.

I'm assuming were going to travel light to Texas. We can get camping type gear in Texas and most stuff we will need. Still think were going to travel much lighter than the same group would have in history without magic...