Callos_DeTerran
2010-06-10, 01:32 AM
The dry (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5J13DAkgPCc&feature=PlayList&p=62BAACDD6A9D6F0B&playnext_from=PL&index=80) noise of hooves clomphing along the dust trail was the only noise besides the incessant flapping of the vultures above and their irate calls for the carrion to lay on the ground and accept it's fate. Rider and horse ignored the birds, dead-set eyes focused on the crest of hill before them even as heat shimmers off the sand in waves.
Only once the rider had crested the hill could he see the sprawling town set at the meeting of two rivers meeting one another in the shadow of a tall 'mountain'. More of a big hill really, probably an Injun burial mound or something. The decrepit sign hanging by a single nail declares this place to be Dead Falls, with it's population crossed out and replaced with 'Livin' and Dead, more den a hundrerd'. It was a charming sort of place, for a gold rush town, with plenty of folk both living and dead going about their business. Though most of the deaders wouldn't come out until dusk or night when the light wouldn't hurt their eyes so or literally burn'em to dust. Still there was enough of a smatterin' that one could smell death on the wind without straining too hard and the rider pulls his bandana up to cover his mouth and nose with just a bit of irritation. Ever since the EVENT the West had been stinkin' to high heaven.
But the business in town wasn't the stench, it was one of the low-lifes makin' it, and to that end the bounty hunter hitches his horse to a post before sauntering up to the swing doors of Moriarty's Saloon, his spurs jangling on the ground with each ominous step. A collection of eyes swing to look suspiciously at the new comer, some of them the tell-tale red of the undead, but turn back to their own business soon enough. They can smell one of their own easy enough, easy to tell it wasn't a law man or priest with a bone to pick, and as long as he caused no trouble then he wasn't likely to get it.
Till he sidled up to a poker game, looking across the table at a well dressed gambler with a bushy mustache and pair of beautiful women hangin' on him as if he was their livelihood. Maybe he was.
"You Earl Jones? Earl 'Toothless' Jones?" comes the raspy call.
"Who's askin'?" the gambler replies tersely, one hand dropping below the table with the tell-tale click of a pistol's hammer being drawn back.
"Solomon Kane, here to collect yer bounty. Dead, alive, or deader. Ain't no difference to...!!!"
BANG
The shot echoes loudly in the saloon, quieting the band on stage and the other patrons for a long minute as Earl began to throatily laugh as he rises from his seat, holding the smoking six-shooter that had downed the bounty hunter in one hand.
"What kinda fool goes tellin' a bounty he been caught?" He says with a wicked grin...before his eyes widened in surprise and his mouth dropped open. Solomon pulled himself up off the ground with a deep breath through lungs that hadn't needed to work in a long time, standing slowly as if every joint hurt from the shot. The joints shouldn't have been a problem though, the quarter sized hole through his chest though.
"B-but yer a deader! Your kind...but Solomon Kane ain't supposed to be..!"
Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam! The report of Kane's own six-shooter sounds like lightening and sends some scurrying out to the streets, likely those with their own bounties but they weren't his prey today. No, the ghoul had come for Earl alone and reached up to tug down his bandana to give a wide lipless smile even as he sets a black cigarette between his teeth.
"Dead it is. What kinda fool thinks a single shot downs a fella when the dead have been comin' back up for fifteen years?"
Just another day in Dead Falls...
The official tag for Dead Plains Drifter threads is simply [DPD]. Put that on any threads for this.
Questions and answers:
What is Dead Plains Drifters anyway?
DPD is a FFRP universe which is not based on any one particular published or filmed setting but is rather a (mostly) unique setting unto itself. It takes place in the Old West but with some pretty obvious differences, like all of the ambulatory dead people. Some good places to look for inspiration are Darkwatch, Deadlands, Jonah Hex (from what I've seen of the movie trailers anyway), and most western movies people can think of. It does not necessarily take as heavy of a 'horror' overtones of some of those examples, that depends on the players.
Okay, but how is it different from, say, the Town or ACRONYM?
It differs in several important ways.
First, it is a lot more uniform that the Town and ACRONYM because it's of a very particular and peculiar genre. DPD has settlers, sheriffs, bounty hunters, train robbers, saloon owners, corrupt/non-corrupt mayors, bandits, and law men. Not to mention undead versions of all of the above or 'half-dead' versions. It does not have, say, cyborgs or sniper kittys. Fantastical elements are included too...but they should be handled on a case by case basis.
Second, the plot of DPD is going to be a bit more directed to get the game off the ground and keep it going. There are the good, the bad, and the ugly, and they are mostly organized. As such, most plots and stuff will be interwoven into one big story driven by the players. Or at least that's the intention.
Third, DPD is NOT in any way connected to the Town, at least not in the way ACRONYM is. i.e. you cannot have a character travel between the two. If you want a character in DPD, it is for DPD. You can have a version of the same character for both ACRO/Town and DPD, but they are different characters.
How do I start?
Well, you want to post a character in this thread, and the character registry when it goes up, so everyone can find information on your character and so people can give you helpful criticism on it in a respectful manner.
To prevent a pattern that is all too easy to fall into, it's good to point out the fact that passive actions don't tend to get much attention. Take action, do things that involve other characters, and most importantly don't rely on the story to come to you!
With that in mind, make a post and begin!
There are rules, right?
Yes, there are.
Firstly, no godmodding (or godmoding). A far better explanation of godmodding than I can give is here. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1633965&postcount=5)
Second, please remember that we plan to have a far more directed plot than ACRO or the Town. Please run any major spanners in the works past the people it'll involve on this thread first.
Third, don't ruin anyone else's fun. I can't stress this enough. If you insist on doing so then I insist you kindly leave because rule number four is very important.
Fourth, moderators for this game will be picked by myself or the community (or a combination of the two) who will be tasked with settling arguments that become disruptive. If they (or me) ask you to stop an argument, then stop. If they say something is over-powered or doesn't fit the game, then heed the advice and look closely at what they are talking about to see what they mean.
Fifth, have fun!
What the hell is going on?
In the late 1800s...something happened. No one is all too sure what but plenty of people have got theories on it. Most just call it 'the EVENT' and leave it at that. The result can be seen in almost any city or town west of the Appalachian mountains, the dead walking in a myriad of forms. From simple corpses given motion (minds intact or no) to more powerful creatures of undeath who shun the light and living, the dead aren't staying in their graves anymore. First there was a big fuss, people worried about the dead trying to kill every one else but it wasn't the case...most of the time.
Most deaders have normal minds and personalities, even (rarely) the same as before they died, and usually just want to live out their new lives as best they can. Some are mindless, ferals, that need to be put down like any other rabid animal. Some got minds, but are perverted towards evil but they ain't too much worse then your average murderer with a gun, except you usually have to put more effort putting them down then usual. With how...normal the dead were in most cases, people started to adapt. They didn't always accept the undead but it is a 'live and let unlive' scene until something breaks the fragile balance.
Not a terribly enlightening history overview, but I'm leaving a lot of it to be determined by the players as a whole beyond a few basic guidelines of...
-To some people (as in characters) there's only two sides. The alive and the dead. Fact is, there's lots of different sides, factions, whatever. As many as the players want.
-The fantastic should be kept fantastic and special. The dead may walk, talk, and live next door but no one knows why or how. Other things that can only be described as 'magical' are even more mysterious and hard to come by. To put it in D&D terms (as I will often do because it's a medium most people on the boards will understand), 'magic' takes the form of divination and necromancy kind of spells (no matter the source) and in enchanting items to do intriguing things.
-The game is going to start in the gold mine town of Dead Falls (entirely fictional place) that's situated in Neveda, and will expand from there if more players join or more interest is garnered.
-The game is meant to be cinematic and fun, so history is gonna get mangled up along the way, best to accept that now what with undead existing and such.
Anything else can be determined as the game goes on and will be added to that summary as it becomes relevant.
New and Improved (but loose) Rules v.1.1!
These "rules" are more loose guidelines that serve another FFRPG very well so I adopted them into this one, because they work.
Consider asking to join in fights before jumping in.
Please respect that all plots might not be open. Alternatively, if you yourself want to keep a fight cordoned off from other participants, say so in the OOC, at the beginning of your post, or both.
TALK major fights over with your opponent!
This is to keep arguments about who's the better fighter, who should win, blablablablabla, out of the OOC. Of course, talk these things over in PM, or some kind of IM service. While arguments might break out over said PM/IM... It keeps it out of the OOC. Which is what we're trying to do here. On that note...
Don't argue in the OOC!
They make the atmosphere oppressive, they make things less fun, and generally unpleasant and maybe even make the arguments larger than they need be. So, if you have a problem with someone, try to talk it out in PM or IM before using the OOC.
These guidelines/loose rules might be viable to change or be added on to as issues come up, but the bases are covered pretty well.
Only once the rider had crested the hill could he see the sprawling town set at the meeting of two rivers meeting one another in the shadow of a tall 'mountain'. More of a big hill really, probably an Injun burial mound or something. The decrepit sign hanging by a single nail declares this place to be Dead Falls, with it's population crossed out and replaced with 'Livin' and Dead, more den a hundrerd'. It was a charming sort of place, for a gold rush town, with plenty of folk both living and dead going about their business. Though most of the deaders wouldn't come out until dusk or night when the light wouldn't hurt their eyes so or literally burn'em to dust. Still there was enough of a smatterin' that one could smell death on the wind without straining too hard and the rider pulls his bandana up to cover his mouth and nose with just a bit of irritation. Ever since the EVENT the West had been stinkin' to high heaven.
But the business in town wasn't the stench, it was one of the low-lifes makin' it, and to that end the bounty hunter hitches his horse to a post before sauntering up to the swing doors of Moriarty's Saloon, his spurs jangling on the ground with each ominous step. A collection of eyes swing to look suspiciously at the new comer, some of them the tell-tale red of the undead, but turn back to their own business soon enough. They can smell one of their own easy enough, easy to tell it wasn't a law man or priest with a bone to pick, and as long as he caused no trouble then he wasn't likely to get it.
Till he sidled up to a poker game, looking across the table at a well dressed gambler with a bushy mustache and pair of beautiful women hangin' on him as if he was their livelihood. Maybe he was.
"You Earl Jones? Earl 'Toothless' Jones?" comes the raspy call.
"Who's askin'?" the gambler replies tersely, one hand dropping below the table with the tell-tale click of a pistol's hammer being drawn back.
"Solomon Kane, here to collect yer bounty. Dead, alive, or deader. Ain't no difference to...!!!"
BANG
The shot echoes loudly in the saloon, quieting the band on stage and the other patrons for a long minute as Earl began to throatily laugh as he rises from his seat, holding the smoking six-shooter that had downed the bounty hunter in one hand.
"What kinda fool goes tellin' a bounty he been caught?" He says with a wicked grin...before his eyes widened in surprise and his mouth dropped open. Solomon pulled himself up off the ground with a deep breath through lungs that hadn't needed to work in a long time, standing slowly as if every joint hurt from the shot. The joints shouldn't have been a problem though, the quarter sized hole through his chest though.
"B-but yer a deader! Your kind...but Solomon Kane ain't supposed to be..!"
Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam! The report of Kane's own six-shooter sounds like lightening and sends some scurrying out to the streets, likely those with their own bounties but they weren't his prey today. No, the ghoul had come for Earl alone and reached up to tug down his bandana to give a wide lipless smile even as he sets a black cigarette between his teeth.
"Dead it is. What kinda fool thinks a single shot downs a fella when the dead have been comin' back up for fifteen years?"
Just another day in Dead Falls...
The official tag for Dead Plains Drifter threads is simply [DPD]. Put that on any threads for this.
Questions and answers:
What is Dead Plains Drifters anyway?
DPD is a FFRP universe which is not based on any one particular published or filmed setting but is rather a (mostly) unique setting unto itself. It takes place in the Old West but with some pretty obvious differences, like all of the ambulatory dead people. Some good places to look for inspiration are Darkwatch, Deadlands, Jonah Hex (from what I've seen of the movie trailers anyway), and most western movies people can think of. It does not necessarily take as heavy of a 'horror' overtones of some of those examples, that depends on the players.
Okay, but how is it different from, say, the Town or ACRONYM?
It differs in several important ways.
First, it is a lot more uniform that the Town and ACRONYM because it's of a very particular and peculiar genre. DPD has settlers, sheriffs, bounty hunters, train robbers, saloon owners, corrupt/non-corrupt mayors, bandits, and law men. Not to mention undead versions of all of the above or 'half-dead' versions. It does not have, say, cyborgs or sniper kittys. Fantastical elements are included too...but they should be handled on a case by case basis.
Second, the plot of DPD is going to be a bit more directed to get the game off the ground and keep it going. There are the good, the bad, and the ugly, and they are mostly organized. As such, most plots and stuff will be interwoven into one big story driven by the players. Or at least that's the intention.
Third, DPD is NOT in any way connected to the Town, at least not in the way ACRONYM is. i.e. you cannot have a character travel between the two. If you want a character in DPD, it is for DPD. You can have a version of the same character for both ACRO/Town and DPD, but they are different characters.
How do I start?
Well, you want to post a character in this thread, and the character registry when it goes up, so everyone can find information on your character and so people can give you helpful criticism on it in a respectful manner.
To prevent a pattern that is all too easy to fall into, it's good to point out the fact that passive actions don't tend to get much attention. Take action, do things that involve other characters, and most importantly don't rely on the story to come to you!
With that in mind, make a post and begin!
There are rules, right?
Yes, there are.
Firstly, no godmodding (or godmoding). A far better explanation of godmodding than I can give is here. (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1633965&postcount=5)
Second, please remember that we plan to have a far more directed plot than ACRO or the Town. Please run any major spanners in the works past the people it'll involve on this thread first.
Third, don't ruin anyone else's fun. I can't stress this enough. If you insist on doing so then I insist you kindly leave because rule number four is very important.
Fourth, moderators for this game will be picked by myself or the community (or a combination of the two) who will be tasked with settling arguments that become disruptive. If they (or me) ask you to stop an argument, then stop. If they say something is over-powered or doesn't fit the game, then heed the advice and look closely at what they are talking about to see what they mean.
Fifth, have fun!
What the hell is going on?
In the late 1800s...something happened. No one is all too sure what but plenty of people have got theories on it. Most just call it 'the EVENT' and leave it at that. The result can be seen in almost any city or town west of the Appalachian mountains, the dead walking in a myriad of forms. From simple corpses given motion (minds intact or no) to more powerful creatures of undeath who shun the light and living, the dead aren't staying in their graves anymore. First there was a big fuss, people worried about the dead trying to kill every one else but it wasn't the case...most of the time.
Most deaders have normal minds and personalities, even (rarely) the same as before they died, and usually just want to live out their new lives as best they can. Some are mindless, ferals, that need to be put down like any other rabid animal. Some got minds, but are perverted towards evil but they ain't too much worse then your average murderer with a gun, except you usually have to put more effort putting them down then usual. With how...normal the dead were in most cases, people started to adapt. They didn't always accept the undead but it is a 'live and let unlive' scene until something breaks the fragile balance.
Not a terribly enlightening history overview, but I'm leaving a lot of it to be determined by the players as a whole beyond a few basic guidelines of...
-To some people (as in characters) there's only two sides. The alive and the dead. Fact is, there's lots of different sides, factions, whatever. As many as the players want.
-The fantastic should be kept fantastic and special. The dead may walk, talk, and live next door but no one knows why or how. Other things that can only be described as 'magical' are even more mysterious and hard to come by. To put it in D&D terms (as I will often do because it's a medium most people on the boards will understand), 'magic' takes the form of divination and necromancy kind of spells (no matter the source) and in enchanting items to do intriguing things.
-The game is going to start in the gold mine town of Dead Falls (entirely fictional place) that's situated in Neveda, and will expand from there if more players join or more interest is garnered.
-The game is meant to be cinematic and fun, so history is gonna get mangled up along the way, best to accept that now what with undead existing and such.
Anything else can be determined as the game goes on and will be added to that summary as it becomes relevant.
New and Improved (but loose) Rules v.1.1!
These "rules" are more loose guidelines that serve another FFRPG very well so I adopted them into this one, because they work.
Consider asking to join in fights before jumping in.
Please respect that all plots might not be open. Alternatively, if you yourself want to keep a fight cordoned off from other participants, say so in the OOC, at the beginning of your post, or both.
TALK major fights over with your opponent!
This is to keep arguments about who's the better fighter, who should win, blablablablabla, out of the OOC. Of course, talk these things over in PM, or some kind of IM service. While arguments might break out over said PM/IM... It keeps it out of the OOC. Which is what we're trying to do here. On that note...
Don't argue in the OOC!
They make the atmosphere oppressive, they make things less fun, and generally unpleasant and maybe even make the arguments larger than they need be. So, if you have a problem with someone, try to talk it out in PM or IM before using the OOC.
These guidelines/loose rules might be viable to change or be added on to as issues come up, but the bases are covered pretty well.