[DL] Re: Colour scheme of ironclads

["Daniel Gwyn" <dgwyn@colba.net>]

Hi,
    Someone recently wanted to know what the colour schemes of Civil War
era ironclads were.  (I accidentally deleted the message so I don't know
who.)
In any case I looked through my copy of Battleships and Carriers by Steve
Crawford (ISBN1894102835) for all Civil War vessels.  Of the dozen or so
vessels depicted, all were essentially grey, bare metal or cheap paint with
rust highlights.  Apparently, both the Union and Confederate didn't have
time for elaborate and expensive unified colour schemes (aside from all
grey).  One of the Union vessels had a blue funnel band, but otherwise the
ships were very drab.
    In a Deadlands context, it is possible that the two sides relaxed their
war efforts enough to allow time to think about painting ships, so you could
"invent" "official" Union and Confederate ship liveries.  However, I would
think that both governments would opt simply for basic grey.  That is not to
say that a given captain might not decide to adopt a new colour scheme for
some reason.
    I believe someone mentioned seeing the white painted "Olympia".  If I am
not mistaken that ship belonged to the era of the "Great White Fleet" around
the turn of the century.
    I hope this helps.
    Daniel


-----Message d'origine-----
De : Tim Denee <gilkison@ihug.co.nz>
À : deadlands@gamerz.net <deadlands@gamerz.net>
Date : Dienstag, 25. Juli 2000 05:17
Objet : [DL] Pitch's Army o' Darkness (long)


>Hey,
>
>Should your marshal decide to take anything from my ideas, spoilers follow,
>I guess.
>
>As I mentioned a few weeks ago, my posse have unleashed the greater manitou
>Pitch into the world. They seem to have taken this quite lightly, so I've
>decided to hit them with the full force of what having a greater manitou
>walking the earth really means. I haven't planned out the whole shebang,
but
>this is what I have as the groundworks of Pitch's army. The Darkmen are
>essentially just harrowed who have come within Pitch's reach and he's
>shredded the human soul and completely reworked the body. He doesn't have
>many right now; only four or five.
>
>The Darkmen
>Corporeal: D:3d10, N:4d12+4, S:3d12, Q:4d8, V:1d10
>Lockpickin' 5d10, shootin': ebon-cane 4d10, sleight o' hand 3d10, throwin':
>balanced 3d10, climbin' 5d12+4, dodge 4d12+4, fightin': ebon-cane 5d12+4,
>horse-ridin' 3d12+4, sneak 6d12+4, quick-draw: cane 5d12+4
>Mental: C:4d8, K:3d6, M:1d8, Sm:2d8, Sp:2d8
>Scrutinize 3d8, trackin' 3d8, ridicule 3d8, guts 5d8, faith 5d8.
>Edges: The voice: grating, the stare, brawny.
>Hindrances: Cautious.
>Pace: 16
>Size: 7
>Wind: 18
>Special Abilities:
>     Harrowed: Dominion: Manitou 8, Human 0. Powers: Cat eyes 4, ghost 5,
>soul eater 1, supernatural nimbleness 2.
>Gear: An ebon-cane. Three small glass spheres filled with shadowsand.
>Description:  The Darkmen are almost always identical. They're towering
bald
>black men wearing large, black, fur-lined leather winter-coats and carrying
>five-foot long ebony canes topped with a leering silver demons' heads. They
>seldom talk but when they do it's usually to deliver some dry, sarcastic
>insult.
>
>Shadowsand
>Shadowsand is ghost-rock ground up into sand. When imbued with Pitch's dark
>power, it gains the ability to summon various beasts from the hunting
>grounds. To activate it someone must simply shatter the sphere upon the
>ground and then manipulate the dark energy released to summon a being of
>their choice. This does not require a throwing roll as the sand can move to
>where it is required. Note that this means that someone who has not been
>inducted into Pitch's army of darkness cannot use the sand. The person who
>summoned the being must spend wind per round to maintain the creature,
>depending on the level of the power. If they choose not to pay or go
>unconscious, the animal will simply dissipate into a pile of black sand.
>     All creatures summoned are dark and shadowy versions of their true
>self, with blazing red eyes. Except for the night-haunt, this increases
>their overawe by two steps and one dice. Aside from this they use the stats
>for their normal counterparts.
>- Swarm of Wasps: Four wind per round. The wasps stick together and will
>attack one size twelve or smaller object of the casters choice as soon as
>they are summoned. That person is stuck with them; the only way to get ride
>of them is to wait until the summoner no longer pays the wind, or to fully
>immerse yourself in water; the wasps then disintegrate immediately. Moving
>with wasps clouding your vision is very difficult; the target must make a
>fair (5) cognition check or they move in a random direction determined by a
>d12. They are also effectively in pitch-black conditions, and suffer all
the
>penalties that that entails. Finally, for every exposed location on the
user
>'s body, (most commonly the arms and the head), they suffer 2 wind per
round
>as the wasps sting them.
>- Night-Haunts: Three wind per round.
>- Wolves: Two wind per round.
>- Horses: One wind per round.
>
>Ebon-cane
>These rare canes of Pitch's own devising are objects of great power. They
>are fashioned from ghost-wood, made from sturdy oaks grown in ghost-rock
>sand, and are then gifted with some of Pitch's own power. They have a small
>ghost-steel pommel, made to the likeness of a Night-haunt's head.
>- Shadowfan: Darkmen have been seen to twirl their canes in front of their
>faces, creating hazy walls of shadows which hide them very effectively.
>This intrinsic power effectively grants the wielder the ability to cast the
>black magic power Cloak o' Evil at level four.
>- Sandstream: The main function of the ebon-canes is to shoot thin streams
>of black shadowsand. The night-haunt pommel turns to look up and opens it's
>steel mouth at the wielder's beckon, spitting out a steady stream of sand
>which burns flesh like acid, leaving dark, shadowy scars.
>RoF Damage Range
>  1       4d8      10
>Special: Anyone who takes three wounds or more to any location from a
>Sandstream is counted as Ugly as Sin whenever the scars are showing.
>-  Dark-infusion: When a Darkman is alone and in need of numbers, it is not
>uncommon for them to plunge their canes through the chest of a nearby
>corpse, summoning it back to life. To do this the wielder has only to touch
>to chest of any corpse nearby, (the corpse has to have a chest!), and push.
>The pommel will secrete shadowsand to burn through the target's flesh, and
>the sand then finds a vein and rushes to the heart. The heart is turned
into
>a solid lump of ghost-rock and pumps shadowsand around the body, bringing
it
>back to life. The newly undead creature is entirely under the control of
the
>bearer of the staff, and uses the same stats as Walkin' Dead. Its focus is
>its heart, however.
>
>Suggestions? Praise?
>
>Tim "Kill the posse! Kill them all!" Denee
>
>
>
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