Blood on the Trail
Blood on the Trail is a Wild West horror campaign. It'll be a straight-up Western with some horror elements popping in to liven things up. For this campaign, vampires/werewolves/demons/whathaveyou are just stories from books.
The year is 1837. The Texas War of Independence (from Mexico) started the summer before as well. Samuel Colt's amazing new revolver has recently been invented and has quickly found it's way into the hands of the hard men of the Wild West.
The first wagon trains on the Oregon Trail left just last year - until now it had been only by horseback or on foot. There's a few early settlers out there, a few forts, and a whole lot of wilderness. It won't be an easy trek by any means, by the excitement of the unknown West beckons. (And that is likely the end to any historical accuracy for this campaign).
Current Characters
Wohali Quinn
Guided by the ghosts of his ancestors and tribal elders
One of the people (Indian)
Knows his place
Violence is only one answer to hopelessness
Isaac Thorn, Young boy hoping to analyze the wild animals and flora/fauna of the west. His dad was a woodsman and his mom was a farmer so he is no stranger to the great outdoors but the frontier excites him as this is untamed wilderness with a lot of new untapped resources and plants and animals that may or may not have been documented and/or discovered.
Lee Potter
High Concept: “Barber by day, astronomer by night”
Trouble: “Scared of his own shadow"
Aspect 1: Gift of gab
Aspect 2: I knew a fella once...
Aspect 3: Something sharp nearby
Lee heard that the West was the place to be, and taking over his father's Barber Shop was never appealing. Lee wants to study the stars. Lee has a Barber kit to make money with, and a rather expensive telescope.
Season 1
The first part of this campaign will involve a wagon train traveling from Independence, MS to Oregon (where? why? We'll cover that in season 2). You're either part of the train or hired on in some capacity.
Current Issue: Building Character on the Trail
Impending Issue: All Is Not What It Seems
The rules for the Wagon Train are below, but here are the specific details for this wagon train.
The Journey
Leg 1, 4 Stages, Stopover: Campion Farms (Large cattle baron estate), Quality 2. Allistair has delivery
Leg 2, 4 Stages, Stopover: Fort Bent (frontier fort), Quality 3
Leg 3, 4 Stages, Stopover: ?
Leg 4, 4 Stages, Stopover: ?
Leg 5, 4 Stages, Stopover: ?
The Wagon Train
4: Will
3: Resources, Ride
2: Fight, Rapport, Notice
1: Crafts, Contacts, Shoot, Athletics
0: Empathy, Physique, Stealth, Lore, Deceive, Provoke
Not used: Burglary, Investigate, Provoke
Notable NPCs
The Smiths Family, Mormon homesteaders, Will and Resource, “Faith will get us through”
Mitt (dad), Sarah (wife), Elua (16, girl), Megan (12, girl), Will (10, boy), Blake (8, boy)
Ephraim Burke (age 12), Part of the Burke family, Notice and Stealth, “This boy is always finding trouble’!”
Also Mom & Dad
Georgia Burke, Ride and Shoot, "". Former indentured servant to Campion Farm.
Cook?, Craft and Empathy, "?", Picked up at Fort Atkinson
Crook?, Deceive and Burglary, "On the Lam (fingers in the cookie jar)", Picked up at Fort Atkinson ()
Dead and Departed: Wishbone (killed by feral vampire in stage 2), Tom Stoke (fetal again), Ted Corbet retires.
Building Characters
Normal FATE rules with some minor tweaks below. Also, each player creates one Notable NPC for the wagon train (see below).
Drive: Rename to Ride. Includes dealing with pack animals and such.
Investigate: "Doing research at the library" is only going to be available at Stopovers. "Looking for clues at the site of the murder" though should be useful more frequently.
Lore: Includes any sort of Survival type roll and Medical issues. No amount of lore will help you with the horrors ahead, though you might know something from fiction.
Notice: Includes tracking
Native Speaker: This stunt allows you to speak with Indians.
Healing: Life on the trail is hard. Any Consequence has to get a successful Lore skill roll (1+Consequence level) to be considered "treated". At each Stopover, two healing rolls are allowed:
First, a Lore roll is made with difficulty 2. On a success, all treated consequences are moved down one slot). If an untreated wound is "in the way", a higher consequence cannot be moved.
Second, another Lore roll is made with difficulty 2. On a success, all untreated consequences are now treated.
Movement
Out on the plains we may have encounters that are larger than the typical Fate zones so a few special rules about
movement, plus horses:
On Foot: You can always move 1 zone and take an action. If taking no action, roll Athletics Overcome with difficulty 2. On fail, move 1. On tie or success, move 2. With Style, move 3.
On Horse: Can move 2 zones and take an action. If not taking an action, roll Ride Overcome with difficulty 2. On fail, move 2. On tie or success, move 3. With Style, move 4.
On Wagon: Wagon trains are just slow. Moving requires an action and they can go 1 zone.
Weapons & Armor
We're going to give Weapons and Armor a try for this campaign with an attempt to "balance" them a bit.
Weapon 0: Hands, ad-hoc weapons. +1 to initiative
Weapon 1: Knife, clubs, dainty pistol, current zone only. +1 to initiative
Weapon 2: Pistol, zone+1 max range
Rifle-ish: Takes two hands, aspect “Clumsy”, unlimited range
Carbine, two-hands, zone+3 range, usable from a horse
Bow: Zone+1 max, 2 hands, "Clumsy"
Weapon 3: Shotgun: In zone only, aspect “Clumsy”
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The stuff below is my rules for the wagon train part of the campaign. If you don't understand this, not a problem.
The Wagon Train
The wagon train will be treated as a full-fledged NPC. It gets skills, stunts, stresses, and consequences like a normal character.
Some skill notes:
Skills it doesn't get: Burglary, Investigate, Provoke
Skills it does have: Athletics (Speed along the way, maximum rank is 10 - Notable NPCs in the wagon train), Contacts (Knowing people along the way), Craft (to repair stuff), Deceive (Hiding stuff, bluffing your defense), Drive, Empathy (Getting along), Fight, Lore, Notice, Physique (Hardiness), Provoke (Convincing someone they shouldn't mess with the train), Rapport (used for Trading), Resources (Equipment you’re carrying), Shoot, Stealth, Will (Keeping spirit up)
The wagon train gets the normal 4, 3, 2, 1 pyramid but... for the wagon train to have a 3 in a skill, a PC must have that skill at 3 or more OR a notable NPC must have that skill. To have a 4 in a skill, a PC must have that skill at 3 or more AND a notable NPC must have that skill. This is done so that losing NPCs matters. This might result in some unbalanced pyramids - that's fine.
The wagon train consists of nameless and uncounted wagons, trail hands, and livestock. Additionally, it can have Notable NPCs in that train as well (not that a Notable NPC might actually be a group of people, not necessarily one person). Each Notable NPC gets two wagon train skills and one aspect.
Example: The Murphys are a wagon of Irish immigrants on your train. They've packed a lot and are frequently in drunken brawls so the get the skills Resources and Fight; and the Aspect "Mean Drunks".
A Wagon Train also gets Fate points as normal. The Fate points can be spent as usual for the Aspects of the Notable NPCs, the Aspects of the wagon train, or can be spent in an Ordeal if a Notable NPC has that skill.
The Journey
Each Wagon Train journey is broken down into a number of Legs with a Stopover being at the end of each Leg. A Leg is further broken down into a number of Stages as a measurement of how far it is from each stopover to the next.
For each Stage, there may be something specific the GM has planned or a random Wagon Train Ordeal (see below).
Once the Stopover has been (theoretically) reached, the Wagon Train rolls an Athletics check of 4 to see if they've actually made it (you got a little lost on the way, you traveled slower than planned, your map wasn't so good). If not, they have to travel for another Stage and try the Athletics roll again. The Athletics roll gets one easier each time until you reach the Stopover.
Wagon Train Ordeal
Each stage of the trip can have a Wagon Train Ordeal where the Wagon Train will have to make a (probably random) skill roll of 6 +/- a Fate roll. Failing the skill is applied as damaged to the wagon train (marking off stress boxes or taking consequences).
Example: The GM randomly rolls Ride as the skill check and decides that the wagon train has to make a hazardous river crossing. A Fate roll of -2 is rolled, so the skill check for this is a 4.
Each Notable NPC in the wagon train with that same skill adds +1 to the roll.
A PC has three options if they have the needed skill or some other skill makes sense:
1) They can add +1 to the roll.
2) They can try to Create Advantage, difficulty 1/2 of what the wagon train needs (so if the difficulty is a 4 for the wagon train, the create advantage difficulty is a 2).
3) If it makes sense, they can take on part of the challenge themselves. For each 1 point they lower the difficulty by, the PC makes a skill roll at twice that. Failing the skill roll means the PC takes damage by the amount they miss it by.
Stopovers
Each Stopover along the way has a Quality rating to reflect the resources available at the Stopover. This can be modified on arrival due to boom or bust conditions:
+4: Boomtown! Three invokes
+2 or +3: Bustling! Two invokes
-1 to +1: As expected
-2 to -3: Hard times. GM two invokes.
-4: Tumbleweeds. GM three invokes.
While at a Stopover, all of the following can be done:
An NPC or PC with contacts can roll Contacts + Quality to create an advantage. Any invokes can then be used on the rolls below.
Can attempt to heal wounds on all PC or NPC (see above).
Wagon train stresses are automatically removed
Can attempt to heal wounds on the wagon train. One roll + Quality rating is made. Any consequence at that level or lower is removed. If the result was 4 or more: the Minor consequence is removed and then all other consequences are moved down one slot.
Trading: A Rapport roll + Quality rating is made against a 4. This Creates the Advantage "Well Stocked"
Recruit Wagon Train Members: Add a new Notable NPC to the wagon train. Roll a Rapport + Quality. You can get a new NPC with random skills for 2 points or a NPC with specific skills you pick for 4 points. You can get as many NPCs as you rolled for in whatever mix you like. Note that this might force you to lower the Athletics score of the wagon train (Max 10 - notable NPCs).
A stay at a stopover lasts about a week. A wagon train can stay longer, and do all of the above again, but the wagon train must lower it's Will or Resources one rank to do so as the extra time on the trail wears on everyone.