One-shot Mountain Man adventure

[welsh]

I am thinking of running a one-shot based on a mountain man adventure. Essentially the characters are trappers in Salmon River (River of No return) in the late 1850s-1860s. The beaver market has dried up and although some continue to trap, many are becoming scouts and explorers for settlers on the Oregon trail. The government has set up outposts along the trail to assist settlers and to trade with the Indians. Our characters will begin the story at such an outpost as winter approaches

Something happens.

There will be much violence.

Mostly I want to try out some of the rules for Wild West Cthulhu and make some changes as well. This one shot is a bit convoluted. It is more like a three chapter story and may be a prologue to the more developed Wild West Cthulhu campaign I have been planning for awhile.

If you join, I will try to send you some documents that might be helpful and I would encourage a discussion about the Cthulhu rules for Wild West or adapted from Gaslight or Gurps to fit. So part of this will be about trying out existing rules and adapting them, the other will actually be running the adventure.

So.. any interest?
I will also invite keepers who might be interested in co-keeping the campaign.

I am looking for quite a few players to do this. Most of the characters will be mountain men, indians, frontier soldier types. We'll do some work with character creation to get it going. Again, this is primarily to try out rules, to edit or change the rules, and play with character classes, design, combat, etc.

[welsh]

Clarification-

I would want this game to include a couple of trappers/mountain men, an owner of the local trading post, perhaps a few indians, a military officer sent to survey the area and his assistant. Female characters are welcomed. There may be a few prospectors as well.

[Mi-Go Agent]

I might be interested in joining for the one-shot. Do you have anything like a Wild West Cthulhu character sheet?

[welsh]

Yep, I can probably send you the pdf, if you can't find it on-line. I am have the WIld West Cthulhu materials from Worlds of Cthulhu, and it changes up the combat system ... a lot. This is one of the reasons I want to try it out.

As for the campaign- I have also gotten a couple of docs- the GURPs Western adventure book (which is great) and Kuckleduster firearms book. I will try to pdf copies of relevant parts to players, but I would like to get about 5 players to try this out.

What I envision for the one-shot is that its also something of a prelude for a campaign. Both will take place in a settlement near the Salmon River in Idaho, a bit off from the Oregon trail. The first adventure takes place shortly before the Civil War- so a fair share of the weapons of that era will be available. Much of that adventure will focus on a trading post used by local fur trappers and mountain men. IF I did this as a simple one shot, I would focus on the combat rules. But I am thinking of this more as a three chapter, and fairly linear campaign. Something happens, there is an investigation, something else happens and there is a confrontation. Fairly straight forward.

The more established campaign will take 20-30 years later and situated, more or less, near the old trading post and is really a series of adventures for the people who live in that town. What I would like to do is allow the players to create the locals of the town. You can be a miner, a bartender, the law, a hotel proprietor, a prostitute, etc. But the adventures will be generally broader and involve the life (or death) of this little town.

As for the people in the one shot-
The family of the Trapper who built the post-
The officer (a surveyor) and his aide.
a few local mountain men
some local indians
Assorted strangers.

[Mi-Go Agent]

Alright. I'd take one of the mountain men for the three-part one-part.

[welsh]

Hey Mi-Go- send me a pm with your email. I think I can send you the character sheet and the rules I am thinking about.

[welsh]

Character creation sheet for Wild West Cthulhu can be found-

Here-

http://www.worldsofcthulhu.com/fileadmi ... ldWest.pdf

[Laraqua]

I'm more than willing to play but I don't know much about Westerns so I'd probably be another person you'd have to get the GURPS and Cthulhu Western books too.

[Mi-Go Agent]

The character creation sheet was interesting, but I'm not sure what use many of the skills would be. Do you have any other materials that you could post or send?

[welsh]

To be honest, I have been thinking about the skills- I am thinking of making black powdered weapons simply one roll- applicable to both pistols and rifles. Keep it simple. As for grit, etc, not sure how to develop that.

At the present, I am mostly researching my story- I figure Idaho around 1850s for the first part, 1870s for the second. Idaho frontier history is kind of interesting but the research is a pain in the ass!

i will send you both what I got.

[Mi-Go Agent]

I've read Wild West Cthulhu, and I'm not particularly impressed (although when I saw this forum topic, I thought you intended more of a Mountain Man type game than a spaghetti western-I am a bit less interested in plain Wild Western). It seems like the rules are centered around having shootouts, but I think that any Western Cthulhu game would have a much greater emphasis on Native American lore, something simply glossed over.

[welsh]

I generally agree. A lot of this hinges on gunfight rules. I don't like the idea of having 3 "severe wounds" when you go down to 0 hp and then you are back to 15. That doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I would prefer that players roll "luck" and see how it goes. The quick draw rules seems ok, but the blackpowder rules seem to make things more difficult while the Grit rule doesn't make a lot of sense.

With regard to the Indians- To be honest, I found the Gurps WIld West to be more useful. Not sure if Deadlands does a decent job of it. But everything I have picked up thus far is pretty thin. There is a fair amount of Native American "magic" but I prefer a more horror came than a "spell casting"/fantasy game.

I am thinking more Call of the Wild-White Fang meets Jeremiah Johnson meets Ravenous for the first campaign, while the second campaign would be more of a Deadwood + Horror. Indians figure prominently in both parts of the campaign, but as frequently hostile forces. The region is near the Idaho town of Challis.

That said, the reason I picked Idaho and the periods (mid-to-late 1850s) and then mid-to-late 1870s is because both periods involved some hostility among Indians. Much of my research has been general Idaho history of this period. I need to learn more about the local Indians. Shoshone Indians and Bannocks as well as Nez Pierce. The 1850s involves the decline of the fur trade, the ebbing off of the Oregon Trail and also the withdrawal of major interests. At this time there are no real settlements in this region of Idaho, at least as far as I can tell. A rush for mining won't happen for a few more years. By the mid 1870s there is tension between miners, the beginning of the sheep-cattle range wars, and the Indians are getting rebellious.

[Gaffer]

Hi welsh!

If an player opening comes up, I'd like to be considered. My first choice would be a mountain man/Army scout character, sort of a Kit Carson type, though not as righteous as he was.

I did a fair amount of Deadlands when the system first came out and I think you'd find the Native American character guide -- Ghost Dancers of interest and use.

My preference for any game is for a Keeper who emphasizes story and character over rules.

Thanks for listening.

[Mi-Go Agent]

I am thinking more Call of the Wild-White Fang meets Jeremiah Johnson meets Ravenous for the first campaign, while the second campaign would be more of a Deadwood + Horror. Indians figure prominently in both parts of the campaign, but as frequently hostile forces. The region is near the Idaho town of Challis.

Sounds good. I think Native Americans might be most useful as a supplement to what are usually scholarly roles in classic era. There can only be so many former M.U. professors headed west, and there aren't any libraries in the Rockies to go look up tomes of lore in, so learned native shamans might take up some of the slack.

[welsh]

To be honest, I rather like departing from the Cthulhu canon and make this more of a horror/investigative/adventure campaign. It's not to say that some weirdness won't happen or some bad things will show up, but I find it more fun when the players don't know the nature of the horror. I would rather they think.."Oh shit, what is this?" than,..."Oh I get it! its another incarnations of.... (pick your favorite mythos fiend)"

So think of this more like a Wild West/Horror campaign than a Wild West/Cthulhu campaign. What I really want is to get some historical accuracy- to embed the story in the actual period. I also prefer if my characters come into the game with some private goals and private knowledge. This was done when I got the Zombie Apoc game started on NMA- all characters possess some secrets that may impact the others or themselves. In our adventure, most of the characters would come to the campaign knowing something others might not. This enriches the personal dynamic and makes the game more interesting.

[Mi-Go Agent]

I was planning that, I just couldn't think of a good secret. Ah, one'll come to me tonight. What kind of magic might someone already start with? WWC was extremely slim on magic.

[Mi-Go Agent]

I've thought a little more about this.

To be honest, I rather like departing from the Cthulhu canon and make this more of a horror/investigative/adventure campaign. It's not to say that some weirdness won't happen or some bad things will show up, but I find it more fun when the players don't know the nature of the horror. ..."Oh I get it! its another incarnations of.... (pick your favorite mythos fiend)"

Certainly. The problem is, sometimes when people try to depart from canon, the result is something like "Random collection of consonants is a very powerful Elder God. Fear it!" And they don't even have the residual horror that the players who read the original Mythos stories got. I think even Lovecraft was starting to stumble into a similar problem near the end of his career. If you've ever read the unfinished draft of "The Horror int he Museum" (which I think would have been much better by the time Lovecraft finished it-it lacks that final blast that is Lovecraft's trademark), Rhan-Tegoth seems to be pulled from nowhere and fails to inspire much dread. This isn't to say that deviation from canon shouldn't be tried, just that it takes skill and effort.

So think of this more like a Wild West/Horror campaign than a Wild West/Cthulhu campaign. What I really want is to get some historical accuracy- to embed the story in the actual period. I also prefer if my characters come into the game with some private goals and private knowledge. This was done when I got the Zombie Apoc game started on NMA- all characters possess some secrets that may impact the others or themselves. In our adventure, most of the characters would come to the campaign knowing something others might not. This enriches the personal dynamic and makes the game more interesting.

I haven't read much native lore in a long time, but I think that might be the best source of inspiration. Shapeshifting might be a particularly interesting thing to try out.

[Laraqua]

Hey, got what you sent me so far. You got any other files on the Western era to give me an idea of how to get into an Old West character's skin? Not sure what I want to play yet. Maybe a drifter/doctor?

[Gaffer]

Laraqua, if you want a female model, you might look at information on Calamity Jane. She was active a bit after the period, but not a lot. Wild Bill Hickock's life could also be of use, as might Kit Carson's or Jim Bridger's.

[welsh]

I am happy that you are all interested in campaigning and I wish I could say that we'll start the campaign soon. But with Thanksgiving and Christmas, and I will be traveling for about a month in December, getting the campaign started and then putting it on pause seems to me like a bad idea. I also don't want to rush the start of it. That said, I do plan to implement this game, and will try to get it going in January when I get back from overseas adventures.

That said, i would like to start getting characters created and to discuss the Wild West Cthulhu rules. Frankly, some of those rules just don't make a lot of sense to me. For instance, this thing where you character loses all his hit points and his allowed to recover with just a serious wound?

At present I have the knuckleduster and the Wild West Cthulhu stuff. I think I sent you both, ya? If anyone doesn't have the knuckleduster stuff, let me know. I will only send the sections pertinent to our campaign.

As for getting into the campaign- I suggest some fiction and history. Right now I am reading up on the region and the time. Its really interesting history. Irving Stone wrote Men to Match my Mountain- something I am currently looking for. Most of the inspiration of this comes from films-
The first episodes of Centennial, Jeremiah Johnson, the Bronson-Marvin flick Death Hunt, Ravenous... those are the main inspirations.

also-
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fur_trade
http://www.nps.gov/archive/crmo/hcs3a.htm

As for female characters- I had planned that the owner of the trading post that is center of our story is married to an Indian woman and has raised two children.

As for character models- these are mostly older mountain men or the children of mountain men.

The location of our story was and remains somewhat desolate. The Challis area of Idaho is between both the Oregon trail and the trail carved by Lewis & Clarke on their way to Oregon. It lies at the top of the Salmon River so its pretty elevated. The region will remain largely empty until the 1860s-1870s when miners will make strikes. For a brief period, these areas grew until the mines grew spent and people moved elsewhere.

In the 1830s, the fur trade was dominate by the Hudson Bay Company, but by the 1850s, our period, the main camps- Fort Boise and Fort Hall are being challenged and abandoned. There are a few important stops along the Oregon Trail, but our story is located north of that. The nearest area that received regular traffic is probably the Lehmi Pass (once traveled by Lewis and Clarke). This pass had been briefly colonized by a group of Mormons sent north by Brigham Young. But hostilities with Indians had forced the Mormons to evacuate.

http://www.isu.edu/~trinmich/FtBoise.html
http://www.isu.edu/~trinmich/FtHall.html

The two camps (Boise and Hall) had been competitors until Fort Hall was bought out by the Hudson Bay Company. The Hudson Bay Company actually tried to dissuade people from emigrating to Oregon. Supposedly, after they took over Fort Hall, they would leave the wrecks of wagons of those folks who tried to get to Oregon and failed as a warning to others not to go forward. Truth is, the trail was difficult. Nearly 1/3 - 1/4 of the people that traveled it failed to reach the end or died on the trail.

The fur trade is in trouble by the 1840s as substitutes for fur hats and clothing were being manufactured in industrial areas. But before that, the Hudson Bay Company had pretty much trapped out the Salmon and Snake rivers by the early 1830s. The end of the fur trade basically leaves these fellows with uncertain prospects. Former fur trappers were getting by working as scouts and guides to wagon trains and pioneers heading West to Oregon or to California.

As our story concentrates on one trading post- that will bear some explanations. Fur Trade companies might go into a region with a group of men and trap out a river. But often they would also set up trading posts- often temporary, and trade with local Indians. These trading posts were significantly smaller than main forts and could be abandoned quite quickly.

Our story concerns one trading post that was originally established to provide supplies to local fur trappers and to trade with Indians. One of the goals of the mission was also to find an alternative passage East to West. If discovered, such a trail could cut the time it takes to travel from Fort Hall (in the east) to Fort Boise in the West. Interestingly, if you look at a road map or a topographical map, such a route does exist, but its damn narrow and requires one to climb some steep elevations.

Originally a small group of men had gone to the region to establish the fort, and once the basic buildings had been completed, the group had disbanded to engage in trapping, leaving a skeleton crew to remain at the post. This was in the early period of the fur trade and the post, in a desolate part of the country, remained active. When the region had been essentially trapped out, those who lived there had developed ties to area. They had married locals and had come to see the post as their home. They elected to remain in the area and survive through trade, some farming and continued efforts to trap. In the 1850s, the first miners are showing up and the trading post is providing miners with guides and supplies. But this is also a camp that is rather "off the beaten" path. Such country attracts individuals who have fled more civilized parts either for adventure, because they seek treasure, are looking for a refuge to practice their faith, or because they are in trouble with the law. There are some rather nasty outlaws in Idaho at this time.

Your characters will probably start with some secrets. They may know where a potential mine exists, or that a local personality is an outlaw or that you are a wanted man, or that someone is selling alcohol or weapons to the Indians, or another person has found a way through the mountains, or perhaps a hidden treasure of some other sort. I like characters with private agendas.

As for the monsters and my style as keeper-

Generally speaking I don't like to introduce lots of big Mythos badness but would rather have my characters confront horrors that they can perhaps battle. I don't like to bring Gods directly into the campaign, although I do like to use monsters. I tend to create my own monsters but will borrow from odd sources. Zombie Apoc- for instance, remains largely a zombie story, but has introduced other forms of monsters include a bit of inspiration from Lumley's Burrowers Beneath, although it took well into Chapter 2 to discover that. In my Lure of the Nile Campaign, I had a rather large creature emerge in the middle of a hotel lobby and consume certain hotel guests that were "tainted" by having too much knowledge. I have relied on a lot of Egyptian mythology and looked for cross-over ideas that could take advantage of Egyptian mythology in telling this story. As the Lure of the Nile campaign is essentially a prequel to Masks of Nyarlathotep, the Outer God has been part of the story, but only tangentially. Narly is not even a puppet master but has, perhaps, been reluctantly drawn into the story. Characters there have been challenged more by cultists than beasties.

I expect that I will draw in some Indian mythology into our story.

That said, I want this to be a story that is more about uncertainty, tension and fear than about Mythos weirdness. I also enjoy a healthy dose of violence. For example, I think being trapped in a shoddy wooden cabin in winter that is being attacked by a rather hungry bear can be quite terrifying. Not sure if you have read the beginning of White Fang, where a group of trappers are being stalked by a pack of wolves that are eating their dogs, and then, will no doubt, eat them. Or what about sharing a room with a man who might not be your friend by a murderer, or perhaps not a man at all.

Anyway, I don't want to give up too much about the plot and the badness. There will be indians, varmints, monsters, bad people... There probably won't be much magic except perhaps a bit of Indian magic perhaps. A theme of my Lure campaign is alternative universes and the place were alternative universes collide. That campaign was created largely to sustain a group of characters while the original keeper was absent. The only hint I will offer for this campaign is that this story involves "a bad place" - think of a haunted house, a mysterious island, a cursed tomb, a planet of monsters. What kinds of people and things are drawn to such places? Why do such places become bad? Can you put an end to the badness?

Suffice it to say, it is 1850s and you are a mountain man living in a high and desolate forest. The air is still with freshly fallen snow and all you hear is the crunch of snow underfoot. You can sense the presence of Indians watching, of animals hidden in the snow. But you cannot see either man or animal. You seek the scent of a fire, the warmth of a bed inside a stone house. To find that you must trudge through deep snows and cross frozen streams. The weight of your exertions wears you down. You rest and breath in deeply from the mountain air. The air is crisp in your lungs, even as your skin stings with the cold. There is something else, something hungry, and it preys on you.