dave_o
Explorer
"Westward is heaven." -- Henry David Thoreau
This is the recruitment thread for a D&D3.5e wild west game. Yep, you read correctly, Dungeons and Dragons wild west game, in the vein of Boot Hill from AD&D past. I love the wild west and have actually run a very similar (mechanics wise) campaign to great success, so I decided I'd share with the message board community that I've loved reading for years.
Tone and Thematic
My games to be fluff heavy and crunch light, meaning that there's a lot of deep roleplaying involved, but not so much hack in slash. Of course, there will totally be fighting, but if you don't build some combat monster you won't be at any disadvantage -- as long as you don't act like the combat monster you aren't. Any fighting is going to require you have your wits about you, the West is brutal.
Influences include Deadlands, A Fistful of Dollars/For a Few Dollars More/The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, Deadwood, Tombstone, and a ton of other Westerns. I'm going for sort of a dark and ruthless thematic with this game, but no so dark as Deadlands (though there will be definite supernatural elements), and not nearly as bouncy as something like Shanghai Knights.
Magic
Having magic in a Wild West game always requires a special note. Here is a special note! Magic exists, works, etc. etc. It's said Grace Biddell, along with suggesting that Abe Lincoln grow a beard, also sparked his interest in thaumaturgy. The only change is that magic needs to be Wild West flavored: gadgets, snake oils, decks of cards (a la the Huckster from Deadlands), Native American rituals are all awesome examples.
And Protection from Missiles includes bullets.
Races
Just Humans, right? Well, not exactly. Those of Asian desent, during the Wild West, were seen as almost mystical creatures, referred to as "Celestials" as a derrogatory term, even. Hence, in this game, those of Asian descent will be Elves, while Whites, Spanish, Mexicans, etc. are all Humans.
Historial Changes
Among others, that you'll get to find out in game, the American Civil War is, as of the game's beginning in 1874, still going on, and in it's 13th year (an ominous number, anyone?) Abe Lincoln is still the president of the Union, and Alexander Stephens new president of the Confederacy. Lincoln survived his assassination attempt in 1865, having met with the little girl, Grace Bedell, who in an October 15, 1860 letter urged Lincoln to both grow a beard and take up thaumaturgy, and thus was able to scry the assassination attempt. Rumors abound that the Confederacy has been employing necromancy in order to "re-use" slaves and fallen soliders, and that Alexander Stephens, Davis' vice president, has turned himself into some necromantic being. (Doesn't Stephens look like a lich to you?)
In short, I'm going to be twisting history all over the place so don't expect things to be exactly how they actually happened.
Character Creation
3rd level, Human of Elf (as described above), standard wealth as in DMG, for sake of ease 1 gold piece = 1 dollar, anything from Core is fine but I'm fine with most other sources as long as you run it by me first. 22 point buy. Max HP at 1st level then 75% HP at levels two and three. Please provide a good concept/description and a background, and feel free to work with other players to combine backgrounds! That just makes my job easier.
I'm looking for about four players, with my girlfriend who's interested in this game as a probable fifth. I'll pick the most well-developed characters whenever we get around to it.
Feel free to ask any questions in the thread! Also, I'm open to suggestions on how the PCs are together, as I always like to have a pretext for that. Parties that are just together for the hell of it feel so flimsy to me. So far I've been thinking something like bandits on the run, cattle drivers, Union (or Confederate) soldiers, passangers in the same rail car, or deputies for a small town like Ellsworth, Kansas. What sounds the most fun?
This is the recruitment thread for a D&D3.5e wild west game. Yep, you read correctly, Dungeons and Dragons wild west game, in the vein of Boot Hill from AD&D past. I love the wild west and have actually run a very similar (mechanics wise) campaign to great success, so I decided I'd share with the message board community that I've loved reading for years.
Tone and Thematic
My games to be fluff heavy and crunch light, meaning that there's a lot of deep roleplaying involved, but not so much hack in slash. Of course, there will totally be fighting, but if you don't build some combat monster you won't be at any disadvantage -- as long as you don't act like the combat monster you aren't. Any fighting is going to require you have your wits about you, the West is brutal.
Influences include Deadlands, A Fistful of Dollars/For a Few Dollars More/The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, Deadwood, Tombstone, and a ton of other Westerns. I'm going for sort of a dark and ruthless thematic with this game, but no so dark as Deadlands (though there will be definite supernatural elements), and not nearly as bouncy as something like Shanghai Knights.
Magic
Having magic in a Wild West game always requires a special note. Here is a special note! Magic exists, works, etc. etc. It's said Grace Biddell, along with suggesting that Abe Lincoln grow a beard, also sparked his interest in thaumaturgy. The only change is that magic needs to be Wild West flavored: gadgets, snake oils, decks of cards (a la the Huckster from Deadlands), Native American rituals are all awesome examples.
And Protection from Missiles includes bullets.
Races
Just Humans, right? Well, not exactly. Those of Asian desent, during the Wild West, were seen as almost mystical creatures, referred to as "Celestials" as a derrogatory term, even. Hence, in this game, those of Asian descent will be Elves, while Whites, Spanish, Mexicans, etc. are all Humans.
Historial Changes
Among others, that you'll get to find out in game, the American Civil War is, as of the game's beginning in 1874, still going on, and in it's 13th year (an ominous number, anyone?) Abe Lincoln is still the president of the Union, and Alexander Stephens new president of the Confederacy. Lincoln survived his assassination attempt in 1865, having met with the little girl, Grace Bedell, who in an October 15, 1860 letter urged Lincoln to both grow a beard and take up thaumaturgy, and thus was able to scry the assassination attempt. Rumors abound that the Confederacy has been employing necromancy in order to "re-use" slaves and fallen soliders, and that Alexander Stephens, Davis' vice president, has turned himself into some necromantic being. (Doesn't Stephens look like a lich to you?)
In short, I'm going to be twisting history all over the place so don't expect things to be exactly how they actually happened.
Character Creation
3rd level, Human of Elf (as described above), standard wealth as in DMG, for sake of ease 1 gold piece = 1 dollar, anything from Core is fine but I'm fine with most other sources as long as you run it by me first. 22 point buy. Max HP at 1st level then 75% HP at levels two and three. Please provide a good concept/description and a background, and feel free to work with other players to combine backgrounds! That just makes my job easier.
I'm looking for about four players, with my girlfriend who's interested in this game as a probable fifth. I'll pick the most well-developed characters whenever we get around to it.
Feel free to ask any questions in the thread! Also, I'm open to suggestions on how the PCs are together, as I always like to have a pretext for that. Parties that are just together for the hell of it feel so flimsy to me. So far I've been thinking something like bandits on the run, cattle drivers, Union (or Confederate) soldiers, passangers in the same rail car, or deputies for a small town like Ellsworth, Kansas. What sounds the most fun?
