Except herpes. That shit will stay with you.

In reply to Artemus Carson (msg #911):

Like luggage...

Travis, how long have you been waiting to finally say that?

In reply to Ayasha (msg #913):

I've had that one up my sleeve for a while.  :)

In reply to Travis Sunday (msg #914):

I was hoping someone would say it.

In reply to Judge Messalen (msg #915):

I hate to step on a final line like that.  So...

Travis is in full hiatus mode.  He's leveled up taken care of his other administrative work. He is happy to be wherever and see to the gifting of the horse by Randy.  If anyone needs to engage him in dialogue I'll play along  but you can presume good faith and cooperation and feel free to place him in your narratives as you too wind up and prepare for our time off.  Otherwise, until the Judge sees fit to pick up the virtual dice again, and I hope he does, I offer my thanks to all, especially the Hanging Judge, and hopes that you all...

Vaya con Dios, amigos.

Perhaps Judge Messalen will kindly post a final wrap-up.

I have some administrative work to complete on Randy.  Once that's done, he's resting until the next adventure presents itself.

I don't think there's any wrap up for the Judge to post. I think each player should wrap up, following Travis' suggestions. Feel free to include other players in your wrap-up as long as it is within character and nothing outlandish (for example, a post to the effect of "Yellow makes his contact at the Bull's Head, takes the back stairs down to the cellar to find the alien weapons dealer and purchase a Noisy Cricket . . ." would be well out-of-bounds.)

JEB and Deeds are free to meet, Randy (or Travis or Art or all three) may search for Ayasha. Cole may ride off in any direction he chooses. Anything inter-character related is fine by the Judge. I encourage each of you to wrap up the character's story.

Overall, I have enjoyed this game and all of the players' participation. Thanks for sticking with it and seeing this adventure to the end. I suspect that, after a time, I'll be fixin' to ride the frontier again.

I am preparing the game I have been talking about. I'll post the introduction here, as far as I have it, and would like to invite your comments:

---

The small town of Madison is located in the far north-east of the New Mexico territory, close to the river Cimarron. The climate is warm and friendly, but a little dry. During the summer months, the temperature usually raises over 90 degrees during the day, while it still reaches 50 degrees in winter.

South of Madison is the rocky New Mexican desert. Only a few inactive volcanoes dot the otherwise barren landscape. The old Santa Fe trail runs through here some 20 miles south of town, but travel on the trail has been declining, and only few wagon trains take the longer route through Madison. Still, some do, and it is always an event for the town. To the west are the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, while the area to the north is rather pleasant, with wooded areas, many small creeks, lakes and grassy plains with good soil. Some homesteads and even a ranch can be found here. Directly south-east of town is a fresh-water lake that is fed by an underground river. It provides good fishing. Finally, not far east of Madison starts the Indian Territory after a maze of canyons dug by the Cimarron River over thousands of years.

Roughly 70 people live and work in the town of Madison. Due to the fact that the town is located basically in the remote wilderness, it has become a tight-knit community - but not without it's problems. There is Jason Morgan, who owns the town's saloon and quite a lot of the lands surrounding the town. He lives with his wife and two sons in the biggest house in town, yet he still wants more. Then there is an Outlaw group located somewhere to the west. There are rumors that these men are sometimes employed by Jason Morgan to get rid of homesteaders. The town's doctor is a drunk, and there has been an unsolved murder in town.

But probably the biggest problem for the town is a tribe of Kiowa Indians in the area. The chief has decided to join Comanche Chief Quanah Parker in the Texas panhandle in his war against the white man, and the Chief took all able warriors. This left the women and children and a few old men. While the older women, the old men and the children moved the tribe's camp to a safe place, the young woman stayed. The chief's daughter was very charismatic and aggressive, and she wanted to prove that women could be warriors, too, instead of helpless victims as they were at the Sand Creek Massacre or at the Washita Massacre. So the women picked up arms.

They already attacked one homestead successfully, and the smoke could be seen from the town. When the sheriff investigated, he found a burned down farm, dead settlers, and also four dead Indian women, who obviously had been shot by Samuel Hagen, the farmer who's body was found with his dead wife in the smoldering ruins of the farmhouse. Every gun was missing though, and no ammunition could be found.

In reply to Ayasha (msg #919):

I like it.  It appears to be a strong setting-centric campaign with a number of adventure paths.  I should imagine players would enjoy getting to know the people of Madison, their neighbors and what makes them tick.

The premise is interesting. In what year do you plan to set this game? Based on the description and Quanah Parker's involvement, it would be between 1871-1874. Are you placing this in historical context, or is this an "alternate history?"

It's not clear to me who you expect the players to be or how they would be part of this story. Townies? Soldiers? Adventurers come to town and ending up mixed up in the conflict? Part of Parker's forces?

The game will begin in June 1874. This is within the historical context, although the town of Madison will not be found in any history book in the context of the Red River War. But, in a sense, it will be taking part, although that part is most probably fictional (the real Madison ended up as a Ghost Town, so who knows?).

The players have many options what to play. They can be townies, homesteaders, the sheriff and his deputies, adventurers, settlers, gamblers, gunslingers or even Indians (although the Indians are limited to female characters). I recommend to pick a character that takes action though, because there will be battles to be fought. But not everyone needs to be in the same group.

Ahah, your last sentence sheds the light on my question about who the characters are. It isn't a game with a specific, single group of cooperating characters, necessarily. Do I have that right?

Madison and Folsom are two ghost towns in that area. That's a good place to set this kind of game. Nice choice.

Brings to mind DHR's latest Hidden Canyon adventure, because it is set near ghost towns in Utah.

Have you said what rules you plan to use? I can't remember, my apologies if you already told us earlier.

While it can be a single group, it can also be more than one group. That really depends on what the players want to do.

During the time of the game, Madison is not a Ghost Town. Whether or not it becomes one, depends (among other things) on the actions of the players.

I wanted to use the Sidewinder: Recoiled D20 rules, actually.

In reply to Ayasha (msg #924):

Cool. I assume you know about the Comanche info and Prestige classes in DHR's Fort Griffin Echo 1.1? . . .

I didn't say that I thought Madison (or Folsom) was a ghost town at the time of the game. Neither are the towns in Hidden Canyon. Ghost towns TODAY.

BTW, the bit with Randy looking for Ayasha, (possibly Travis) was left hanging in Ch7. I have no objections to that being wrapped-up. I have left that thread open for now, in case any characters wish to make final posts. A few have done so obviously or stated OOC that they are done, but it's unclear to me whether all are done.

I believe that Ayasha in general wanted to wrap her story publicly. That can be a post like JEB's or Cole's or could be combined with Randy or what-have-you. I'll close Ch7 in a few days if no one else posts.

My game is now officially accepting players. Please feel free to RTJ here:

link to another game

I wanted to post this to the Abilene thread, but it was closed. So I'm posting the little wrap up for Ayasha here:


Ayasha had been waiting for as long as she dared. Nobody of the Cowboys did come out again, and by now the ranchers had probably noticed the missing horse. She could not stay any longer. So with a final glance back to the town she turned and rode away (not directly into the sunset though), to get back to her people.

Nobody had posted for several days, so I closed Ch7. Nuthin' personal.

In reply to Judge Messalen (msg #929):

Randy bought her a Horse and I meant to see that she was visited.  Do some of that Judge thing.

In reply to Travis Sunday (msg #930):

Ok.
--------------

And they all lived happily ever after.

I'm considering re-starting this game.

I'm not in a hurry. I would probably ramp up over the next month or so.

Assuming you are still on RPoL and see this message, please LMK if you would be interested.

Iffin' you're wondering, my thought would be to skip ahead a few years again, including appropriate leveling-up, and then playing in the Frontier Towns: Fort Griffin environment, which is near and dear to my heart. I've been working on a SWEX version of the 3 original volumes and that has re-kindled my interest in running the game. The hiatus from Judging has done me good and if players are still interested, I would like to run some town-based RPG. I would probably welcome other players, too--not necessarily advertising for them, but welcoming connected players from other games.

I won't be offended if you aren't interested. As always, please be honest.

In reply to Judge Messalen (msg #932):

I'm in.

That's good news.  Sure.

It would definitely be a challenge to get Ayasha to a place where she could be in a "Paleface" town for a time, but it's not impossible. I'd be interested, for sure.