Re: [DL] Random questions - SPOILERS

[Kirk Monsen <munchwolf@yahoo.com>]

--- TwoGunMojo13@aol.com wrote:

> As to 
> portraying the Confederates as "the Bad Guys".....
> as a southerner (Georgia / 
> Tennessee border), that statement kind of makes me
> laugh.     I'll not get 
> into a political or historic debate on this list,
> but gimme a break.     BOTH 
> sides, to answer the question, are made up of human
> beings (for the MOST 
> part!!) and as such can be either 'good' , 'bad' ,
> or 'neutral'.
> 'Yankee' bias aside! heh heh heh ;)

That's the key issue 'for the MOST part'...

S
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We know the leader of the Confederacy works for the
Reckoners, while the Union counterpart does not.  The
whole idea of 'Confed = bad' 'Union = Good' is the
feel I get from reading the source books.  Fort 41,
the Union secret lab, seems like a happy hippie
colony, while Roswell, the Confederate's counterpart,
seems like a labor camp.  When the Union attacks it is
in retaliation to Confederacy aggression.  Most of the
battles listed seem to be the Confederacy moving
north, and not the other way.  Although both sides use
mad science, the Confederacy seems to prefer the more
inhuman versions (ie Mustard Gas).  I'm not trying to
make this a North/South thing either, but I feel the
South as being given a bad rep, and just curious if
that's how people play them?

I'm more interested though in the logistics of the
war.  Is there a trench based front line seperating
the two sides (ala WW1), or is it more fort/outpost
based?  How far west does this recognised seperation
exist, and how is it handled in the disputed areas? 
Maybe I need to go back and re-read my ToT77, BEtS,
and BEtN.  It's been a while.

The main reason for these questions is I've been
thinking of a non-supernatural adventure idea.  A
small Southern squad (although it can easily be
changed to northern) has been assaulting small towns
in the disputed territories disguised as Indians.  At
the last attack they have wiped out a small town, and
sent a message by telegraph to the next nearest town
stating Indians have attacked.  They then move off to
the local Indian reservations and attack while
disguised as Union soldiers.  The idea is to cause the
Union forces to reshuffle their troops to protect
against internal conflicts.  As soon as they do this
though, a large Southern force makes a push on taking
over some of the disputed territories (of course I'd
have Santa Anne then make a move, so the forces would
have to retreat again, but that's beside the point).

This makes me wonder, just how many troops/forts are
located out west?  I'd figure most troops would be
involved back east.  If any large force did try to
'take' one of the territories, they wouldn't have
enough troops to accomplish such a plan (maybe take a
major city or two, but not much more).

Anyway the adventure idea:  The sheriff/local law
ofthe town the posse is in just received a distress
call over the telegraph about indians attacking.  He
gets a small posse together (ie players), and heads
out to investigate.  When the posse gets there, they
find the no survivors and the telegraph smashed (wires
cut, etc).  They can choose to stay and investigate
some more (discovering it was not indians), fix the
telegraph to send a message (the sheriff wants to
contact a local union fort for support), go visit the
local indians (who were just attacked and not friendly
to visitors at the moment), or assume it was an indian
attack, and personally take the message to the nearest
fort to send support.  If the soldiers leave the fort
to stop the indians, the confederacy will make it's
push.  Depending on where the posse is they could
either be completely surprised by the CSA army, or the
could hear reports of them coming and decide whether
to flee or help defend against overwhelming odds. 
Again you can switch the North and South positions
(the aggressors should be the opposite of the posse)
In a nut shell, for a short bit of time the players
are caught right in the middle of the war, and their
actions have some affect on the local outcome.

What I would like to know is how feesible is all this?
 Certainly it's cinematic, but does the premise have
too many holes to drive a Mojave Rattler through?

-Munch Wolf


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