Texas Characters and locations, by campaign

"Granny" Parker	Texas	Granville
Christa "The Picara"	Texas	Granville
Crooked Leg	Texas	Dead
David "Two Braids" Burns	Texas	Granville
English Bob	Texas	Granville
Esteban Cortez	Texas	Granville
Felipe De Vela	Texas	Granville
Fin	Texas	Granville
Otto McNabb	Texas	Dead
Ox the Blacksmith	Texas	Granville
Usdi	Texas	Trail of Tears
Wilhelm	Texas	Granville
Ash Rys-Davies	Privateers	At sea
Jones	Privateers	At sea
Phillippe de Villiers	Privateers	At sea
Sean McMillan	Privateers	At sea
Sir James Throckmorton	Privateers	Dm don't know
Soaring Eagle	Privateers	Dm don't know
The Goliad Kid	Privateers	At sea
Thomas "Two Gun" Dauterive	Privateers	At sea

Texas Timeline

We are pretty much moving to a play by mail for the forseeable future.  Here is a rough draft of the Texas game up to March 16, 1838.  The Privateers game has moved forward up to Aug 3, 1838;  characters that are involved with that subcampaign are unavailable until then.

4/26/1836	Texas	After San Jacinto, party goes after retreating mexican army, attacks 2 wagons carrying payroll, fight with  Honey Eaters, uses money to order Colt revolvers
5/30/1836	Texas	Party  follows Commanche to retrieve Cynthia Parker, Granny's niece.
6/14/1836	Texas	Big Battle, Otto & Tonkawa Rangers killed, Esteban duel with war chief;  party discovers that Cynthis taken by different band
6/22/1836	Texas	Party guided to Peta Nocona who refuses to give up Cynthia, Granny wins rhetoric battle over "kin" issue, agreed that Granny will marry Crooked Leg
6/29/1836	Texas	Granny marries Crooked Leg
7/1/1836	Texas	Battle of the Pass, party travels to New Mexico
8/6/1836	Texas	Raid on silver mine, party nets a wagon load of gold
8/9/1836	Texas	Apache ambush
8/11/1836	Texas	Party takes Santa Fe trail to St. Louis, no Mexican pursuit, standoff with Commanche band, deposits silver, arranges Sam Walker to build factory in Texas
9/4/1836	Texas	Contract w/ Colt finalized
9/8/1836	Texas	Party leaves St. Louis for New Orleans
9/20/1836	Texas	Party forms "Texian Indian Frontier Company"
9/23/1836	Texas	Party rides to Granville proposed area
10/7/1836	Texas	Survey roll for Granville (4), construction of Granville & Colt factory begins
1/2/1837	Texas	Colt Factory completed, Granny rolls (5) on administrative roll for building city up
4/?/1837	Privateers	Party(2) escorts settlers to and up San Antonio River, engages Apache at mission
4/?/1837	Privateers	2nd battle of Galveston Bay
7/4/1837	Texas	Lamar to Granville to discuss politics with party, Father Del Vela begins construction of $7000 cathedral
7/21/1837	Texas	Seguin & Burns lead cattle raid into Mexico
7/23/1837	Privateers	Naval punative expedition leaves Galveston
9/17/1837	Texas	Party returns to Granville w/  1048 cattle & 70 horses, Burns rolls (6) on horse breeding roll
9/24/1837	Texas	Party leaves for Arkansas to purchase iron mine
10/24/1837	Privateers	Naval punative expedition returns to Galveston, delayed by Racer's Storm
11/15/1837	Texas	Party returns to Granville
12/1/1837	Texas	Party is in Houston, arranges deal for with English shipping company for iron in  return for dredging Galveston Bay, Trinity River, intercoastal; Seguin and Lamar politics in bar (Seguin 15/Lamar 13)
12/8/1837	Texas	Party sets Lamar up for "Daddy, Daddy, Daddy", Lamar bad reaction roll (4)  (Seguin 15/Lamar11), Usdi curses Lamar's watch with critical success, blesses Seguin & Houston
1/1/1837	Texas	Construction begins on  70 mile stretch of rail from Red River to Granville
2/1/1838	Privateers	French navy begins blockade of Vera Cruz
2/19/1838	Texas	Party leaves to stage raid on Matamoros
3/2/1838	Texas	Party burns docks, barracks, and warehouses in Matamoros, Goliad Kid seizes schooner-of-war Vera Cruzana; Dredging begins on Galveston Bay channel
3/16/1838	Texas	Party returns Granville w/  horses

Ship's Doctor Ashton Rys-Davies

Born March 13, 1794 in Tunstall, Kent to the Rys-Davies Baronetcy.  The baronetcy was granted to Ash's grandfather for services to the Crown in India during the Seven Years' War, and removed from the books completely in 1836.
Trained as a surgeon at St. Bartholomew in London, 1810...Joined first of Hellfire Clubs 1815...Observes first blood transfusion 1818...Begins magical studies 1821
Developed an aptitude for archeology during school and spent 1826 in Eygpt with James Burton.
Begins in-depth occult studies 1828
Member of several Hellfire Clubs and began taking the magic side far more seriously than the debauchery.  Implicated in the ritual murder of an Earl's daughter, he fled England to the Americas.(Dec 12 ,1835)
The baronetcy was removed from the records, and the situation was hushed up.
Springheel Jack is most likely a weak demon that Ash summoned and failed to control (1835);  Jack would have waited until Ash was out of the area before engaging in shenanagans (Springheel Jack "encounters" begin in Oct 1837)
Ash keeps track of the latest medical trends, and if they don't seem insane, will experiment with them as possible.  Has recently discovered the value of loyalty as a personal advantage, if not necessarily an ethic.
Goes by the name "Dr. William Edwards" currently.
Maintains English sangfroid, Overconfident and callous, overconfidence is telegraphed by self-satisfied smirk.

Ash took service with the "Phantom" initially, but has moved with the rest of the party to the 6-gun "Beulah" (formerly "The Liberty", but renamed by the new owner after the prettiest whore in the boomtown of Ft. Worth) 

Magical Questions in a low-mana world

We have morphed into a spin-off of the original Texas Revolution campaign, based on the 1st Texas Navy.  I'll hold off on a campaign description for now, as I'll be focusing this post on some questions regarding my character, the ship's doctor, who also just happens to be a necromancer. I want to use this opportunity to ask these questions without eating into game time...

One "skill" I took was "Necromantic College" through GCB.  I didn't know what it did when I chose it, but it sure sounded cool ;> After looking through the books, and then finally through the GCB manuals, I discovered that this is a GCB placeholder for college summaries to use for improvisational spellcasting.  I just wasted 5 CP, oops.  As an aside, GCB has a printing option (the Grimoire), which calculates and prints this data as part of your spell lists.

On the other hand, considering that we are playing in a low mana campaign, it may just be that we consider this "skill" to be a prerequisite for learning magic at all, or to add a +1 bonus to the college for learning improvisational spells, or perhaps a bonus in spell research.




If we decide to do this as an explanation for character background, is it possible to do this for the other colleges as well?




This leads to the second set of questions; how did Ash learn his spells to begin with?  Grimoires? Research (spell invention, "Magic" p16)? Improvisational spellcasting?  Teacher?  Demonic tutoring? I can certainly see a doctor with a comfortable wealth level able to drop some bucks in the research department :)


This brings me to a follow-up question regarding the learning of improvisational spells:  If a spell is learned in this method, does it allow the mage to learn the spell without learning the prerequisite, or does the mage have to learn the prerequisite as well, and spend the CP for both?


I also have questions about the skill of  thaumatology...can this skill be used as a substitute for college skills when attempting improvisational spellcasting?  Can it be used as a  bonus for spell invention?  "Grimoire" references "new inventions" in the "Basic" manual (186-187) for this skill, but that seems too easy compared to the method in "Magic".

Finally, there is a section  in "Magic" at the end (p119) - Time, Energy and Cost Tradeoffs (Hurried or Careful spellcasting) that discusses additional time for energy or for skill; this is different then the "Alternate Magic
Ritual Rule" sidebar on p7 that we have been using.  The biggest way in that this is different is that there is not a limit set to how much time can be spent preparing, and that might not be appropriate for a low mana world.


All I know is that is going to be a major pain learning new spells!

This Ones For You, Brent

Still Playin - Just not Europe

Player Status:
Steve - Workin or too damn tired
Russ - Workin or drinkin
Sneaker - Player (restin his DM brains) in another campaign
Jill - Coverin Sneaker's back in another game
Meryl - Dooin teenage chick stuff and/or workin
Phil - Dooin other projects

Alex - Serious health problems
Laura - Tending to Alex

Alex, we're thinking about you. Get better! I hope both of you are all right.

Game Status:
The Train - Discontinued for excessive use of tac nukes
WWII Europe - On hiatus
WWII Pacific - On hiatus
Texas 1836 - On hiatus

Players with accounts - post your funniest gaming stories here until we get some games goin again.

PHIL - TEXAS ON FRIDAY!!!

aboot 4pm

following up with email and harrassing phone calls!

Banned disney cartoon

Perfect propaganda cartoon that portrayed the Nazi mindset in a dangerous and still buffoonish manner.

As our friends in the media should be doing for our jihadi friends now...

Site Admin and other shit

1st - No Texas on Friday; in fact I won't be gaming this weekend at all. I guess I really should turn on my phone.

2nd- Gamer Quotes came down (the tagboard on the sidebar) - they were causing a popup for fast click. Not on my site.
We can just start a thread for funny shit, and make a link to that entry.

EOS

Up to date with Texas

Let's see, two games now have gone by, so what's happened?

The party gets to Santa Fe, and manages to rob the silver mine. The Mexicans guarding the silver mine decide to seal the mine from the outside while the party is in the mine piling up ingots.

Some badly failed rolls followed by some really good rolls gets the party to the surface (dragging every ounce of silver they can carry), and finds the encampment of the Mexican army. A night attack incurring more brutality then I care to describe at the moment takes out the CO, and nets the party about 20 redshirts.

The party decides to forego El Paso and the Jornada de Meurto (C'mon guys, what's a few Apache amongst friends?) and instead head out to St. Louis. This gives the DM a chance to whittle down the redshirt contingent. The last raid on them coming from a band of Commanche that doesn't recognixe this motley crew as member's of Nocona's group, and of course, how would they?

The party, and their few remaining redshirts, have yet to encounter Kiowa or Pawnee.

But they're headed that way.

Felipe Del Vela... Yeah I got points for using my name

First off let me say this is not your ordinary priest. He is a priest with a mission. He is going to cleanse the Wild West of the heretics, and bring them more close to God. He has yet to recieve any news that it has been stopped and is continuing business as usual. please not this is a fictional character in a Game and is not a copy of any real life events. The priest is in his early 40's and is from Spain.

Believe you me he is trying to tame the Wild west one person at a time if it is God's Will. He is considering himself as Judge, jury and executioner. By all means he will get what he wants and he will serve punishment personally from his hands. Garrot is his favorite means but will take to protecting himself with a knife. It is known that the church does not shed blood, but here in the Wild West these heathens don't fight fair. So he take matters into his own hands, by any means possible. BTW this priest has learned how to use a black powder weapon to protect himself and frineds he finds.
after the marrying of his friend named Granny to crooked leg, it has become interesting. We now have comed to freeing many of slaves and gathering much gold for the building of many mission in these Badlands. Hopefully we have given the GM a headache he will not forget anytime soon. More info on the priest as the game continues. Below is alittle information on the topic of spanish Inquistion.

The Spanish Inquisition was a legally constituted court founded under Ferdinand and Isabella of Castile in 1478 to suppress heresies within the Catholic Church. After concerted efforts to induce Jews and Muslims to accept Christianity - through social and economic pressure and also through special events such as the Disputation at Tortosa in 1413 - it became apparent to the Spanish monarchy that many of the "converted" remained loyal to their pre-conversion traditions and practices. The Inquisition was formulated, primarily under control of the Spanish monarch, as a means of identifying and punishing such converts.

In the history of the Catholic Inquisition, the Spanish Inquisition is especially well-known, particularly in the nature of the auto de fe, or trials, of converted Muslims, Jews, and Illuminists. This Inquisition also gave rise to the Peruvian Inquisition and the Mexican Inquisition, which continued until those countries split off from Spain.

The Inquisition was removed during Napoleonic rule (1808–1812), but reinstituted when Ferdinand VII of Spain recovered the throne. It was officially ended on 15 July 1834. Schoolmaster Cayetano Ripoli, garroted to death in Valencia on July 26, 1826 (allegedly for teaching Deist principles), was the last person executed by the Spanish Inquisition

The Inquisition was a religious court operated by Church authorities, but in contrast to other Inquisitions it did so under the supervision of the Spanish crown. If a person was found to be heretical, they were turned over ("relaxed") to the secular authorities to be punished, since "the Church does not shed blood". Torture was often used to gain confessions. Punishments ranged from public shame (dressing in the sambenito) to burning at the stake. Burning at the stake was carried out after death by garroting (strangulation) for those who repented; burning alive was for the unrepentant; and in effigy for those condemned in absentia. These punishments were conducted in public ceremonies called auto de fe that could last a whole day. The clerical members of the tribunal were assisted by civilians (familiares). The office of familiar of the Inquisition was very prestigious.

Many people made such accusations out of revenge, or to gain rewards from the Crown. The Crown itself may have been behind some of the allegations, in the desire to appropriate wealthy Conversos' lands, property and valuables.

The Inquisition was also used against focuses of early Protestantism, Erasmism and Illuminism and in the 18th century against Encyclopedism and French Enlightenment. In spite of the actions of the other European Inquisitions, witchcraft was a bigger concern for the Spanish people than for the Inquisition. Accused witches were usually dismissed as mentally ill.

Handbook of Texas Online: INDIANS

Handbook of Texas Online: INDIANS

Statehood. Texas entered the United States in 1845-46 (see ANNEXATION), and the situation for Indians was altered. For one change, raiders such as the Comanches, Kiowas, and Wichitas had to learn that the Americans and Texans were one people now, and that they could not rob one and sell the loot to the other, although unscrupulous frontier traders did this for a while. For another, the United States was obligated by the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo^qv to block Indian raids into Mexico, a part of the agreement that the Comanches did not respect because they had not been consulted.

Nothin to do with our game at present - I just liked the line.