Rules of The West
1. Read the rules, if you blatantly skip over them I will not pay attention to your sheet or your actions.
2. Most things will be allowed in the RP, but committing fratricide against your family without cause or reason is unacceptable.
3. When posting your actions, you must be deliberate. This means being bold in what you do.
4. When writing I expect you to give me a meaty enough chunk of literature to get a feel of who you are. Maybe 1 or 2 paragraphs should suffice.
5. Thou may lie with a woman or man, but the actions that result of it may be out of my control. Also fade to black, I don't want any broken backs on this mountain.
6. If thou are't to strike down another man, then state where thine strike or projectile will go and to whom the attacks will be addressed to. Basically, I want this: I aim for the Red Shirted Man's left ankle and then fire not I shoot the guy
7. I decided to put the rules in a more stylized text, I'm pretty sure you can figure out what they mean. But if you have questions about rules please ask.
Red Rivers: The Western RP
Intro:
Its the 23rd of February, almost one month since the California Gold Rush began... starting tomorrow it will be a month to be exact. You and your three siblings live together with your mother, father, and grandparents on both sides; whom which live on a large ranch packed with cattle. Its a busy, but relatively calm life, with the occasional cattle rustler showing up to steal your claim. But you've managed. These prospectors however are starting to worry your mother, father says that there's nothing to worry about, "They're after the gold Mary-Ann, they aren't here for the cattle." But frankly you're starting to get worried too, something doesn't feel right as of late. Too many "prospectors" have been showing up around town and near the ranch, all of 'em have been eying the family property.
Maybe you're just becoming paranoid.... or maybe you aren't. Not like it matters father won't hear any of it. Besides, it'd be best not to worry about it; you have some errands to do in town tomorrow.
How Combat Works:
Every Weapon will normally kill in 1 to 2 shots: Yep, combat is going to be something that furthers, causes, or prevents the plot. Instead of it being commonplace, it'll be used in times of high stress or when something needs to be dealt with more violently. So no matter where you're hit, no matter how unscathed you can come out after a bullet wound; chances are you'll end up dying from blood loss or infection if you were lucky enough to escape. (I roll a 1D6: 1-3 Minimal damage (busing, scrapes, grazes), while 4-5 is lethal, and the 6 just kills someone out right.)
You will have 6 Actions when in combat: These six actions are basically the amount of seconds within a minute, so each action will take 10 seconds to preform. But time doesn't really matter unless you're in a duel.
Basic Combat Action Examples:Pulling the hammer back or "****ing" your weapon: Before or after you fire a shot, you must pull the hammer back again to chamber and fire the next shot. So be deliberate and careful when you fire your gun, because it takes a whole action point to fire it again.
Firing or striking: Self-explanatory
Reloading: If you have spare bullets, you load them individually into the chamber. This is why I gave you 6 actions, because most revolvers hold 6 rounds. So in order to fully reload most guns, you have to use up a whole combat turn.
Moving: You move from cover to cover or to another space.
Aiming/Steady Aim: After you have said that you are aiming, you can "steady your aim" further so you can get an accurate shot off. Because this ties into:Accuracy: Lets face it, guns in the Old West sucked major amounts of stale whiskey. Half the time they didn't fire, and if they did the bullet would end up somewhere in the "space-between-spaces". So in order to capitalize that, I've decided to factor in the distance thing I was using in The Tide and amplify that so that you need to
'steady your aim' in order to get a more accurate shot off. Because all guns start out with a -5 'accuracy stat' on a D20 accuracy roll (basically I subtract 5 and the higher number wins).
Healing and Injuries
So you've been shot: Well take a visit to the local surgeon, hope to God that gangrene hasn't set in before you get there. Hope you survive the surgeon, make sure you take your antibiotics, and pray that gangrene won't set in after the surgery. Basically, try to avoid getting shot, clawed, beaten... actually just try to avoid getting attacked in any way.
Tonics: Good Sir or Madame! Does it burn when you pee? Do you have the nightly shakes or withdrawal from the drink? Or maybe you just aren't pleasing your old woman anymore? Well I've got the perfect solution for you!
"AJ Brand Health Tonics" A series of various "medicines" and "potions" that can cure you of any aliment that may be afflicting you. If you get sick with anything, or are poisoned; purchase a bottle, hold your nose, and take a big swig.
Because there might be a chance that it might fix what ails ya'.Sickness: Alright maybe I got ahead, the
Tonics are a cheaper way of healing yourself of poisoning or disease. But when you're out on the trail you can catch a variety of illnesses and poisons. Be it poor hygiene, polluted drinking water, bad meat or veggies, or maybe you ate some Mexican food that isn't agreeing well.
All of them can kill you over time, they will affect your stats, and will hinder your ability to RP without keeling over in pain, vomiting profusely, breaking a limb, or soiling yourself every time you try an action. That and having people avoid you... like the plague (ayyyyy).
Traveling, Time, and Other Survival things:
Time: Everything takes time, moving from place to place, sleeping, eating, anything. But it depends on how long the
action is. Combat will only last 5mins in RP time for most engagements since its so lethal. However travel could take hours, days, or months depending on how far you're wanting to go.
Travel: We will be using the California map, but most places will be fictional so I'll have whats there, rumors you've heard, and how long it'll take to get there by the names. But some places will be real, like: Sacramento, Jamestown, Boddie, and other various cities or mining towns. And because I've been to half those places I do have some knowledge of what went down there or what to expect.
An example would be Boddie (I think that's how you spell it): A mining town that just up and left for no reason. So you could be the cause of that, find out what could've caused that, or something similar.
Hunger, Water, and Sanitation: This is where I'll become the supply stickler. I will be tracking everything you three do, eating, bathing, cleaning, sleeping, everything. Why? Because I want you guys to have a fun supply upkeep meta game that I can flesh out since there will be so few players.
So depending if you brought water or not will count. You can choose to not satiate yourself on river or lake water to avoid becoming sick.
If you're hungry you can go hunting, where I'll have a little "mini-dungeon" called The Wilderness where you'll hunt some animal that I roll up. It could be anything thing from a bear, to a pack of rabbits. But if you don't want to hunt, you can always buy or cook some food before you head out.
Sanitation will be what you're cleaning yourselves with and where. Do you bathe in the rivers? Or do you just stop by a saloon and purchase a night there to clean yourselves up.
Then finally, we have weapon and cart maintenance. You'll have to clean your firearms out from time to time, and if you own a wagon or cart. You'll need to repair it if RNGesus isn't kind to you.
DOWN BELOW WILL BE THE CHARACTERS AND CHARACTER SHEETS!