Starting an 1800s styled game set in alternate magic universe USA, need story help

[ShuckedAeons]

Like the title says, I’ve got the setting figured out mostly, the players agreed they’d like to start in the year 1801 and I was thinking of having the campaign revolve around The Louisiana Purchase and US and Mexican (or Aztec in this case) relations.

I’m not sure how to kick off the campaign however. I suppose I could start the players off in a meeting with a representative of the Secretary of State (or some analogue from a wealthy entrepreneur) to get them off and into the wilderness to the west, but I had the thought that it might roll smoother if we started a little smaller. And that’s when I hit serious writers block.

So any opinions or suggestions to work through this block would be much appreciated.

[Ninja_Prawn]

If you're thinking of "starting smaller", does that mean your players will be starting from a fairly low level? I'm thinking you'd have to be somewhat famous and reputable to be sent into the frontier by an important person, right? So if your players are more like ordinary folk to begin with, you'd need a more everyman friendly jumping off point.

Like maybe they start out as porters working for an expedition led by a couple of posh gentlemen, but the expedition gets broken up and the PCs are suddenly on their own?

[Gallowglass]

Like the title says, I’ve got the setting figured out mostly, the players agreed they’d like to start in the year 1801 and I was thinking of having the campaign revolve around The Louisiana Purchase and US and Mexican (or Aztec in this case) relations.

I’m not sure how to kick off the campaign however. I suppose I could start the players off in a meeting with a representative of the Secretary of State (or some analogue from a wealthy entrepreneur) to get them off and into the wilderness to the west, but I had the thought that it might roll smoother if we started a little smaller. And that’s when I hit serious writers block.

So any opinions or suggestions to work through this block would be much appreciated.

1801 is two years before the purchase, but what DID happen in 1801 that is of interest is Napoleon sent a military garrison to Louisiana, which they just acquired back from Spain. This was feared by Thomas Jefferson's government to be prelude to a full invasion. So he backed Napoleon in taking back Haiti to try and build goodwill toward the future purchase from the cash strapped French.

So i would consider the players being sent by the Secretary of State to investigate the French landing and building of their garrison.

[ShuckedAeons]

That's a good start, I got really big on making a campaign my players really wanted, and so the list of hoops to jump through so to speak was that they wanted to start low-level (level 2 in this case) and wanted a more wilderness exploration themed game.

You gave me an idea that works way better than what I had previously in mind. Something smaller to get the adventurer's names out there, that can get them noticed by bigger things or however the game starts shaping up

[TigerT20]

Well, unless magic/the gods turned the tables (they really coulda done with Lay on Hands' universal antidote huh) Tenochtitlan and the Aztecs fell in 1521, with the Inca following in 1533. They're long gone.

If you want political tension, it would probably be better to look at the lead-up to the war of 1812. If you're after the colonialism part, intereaction with the Native Americans should do you.

[Cikomyr2]

The game I ran in the same ish period was post Civil War where the South used magic to imposte a stalemate. The players were Pinkerton agents going in the Territories to investigate a disappeared train.

Starting small and focused is your best bet here. Maybe have the players sent to investigate something weird in some French territories, and the outcome of that investigation will trigger the US desire to make the Louisiana Purchase. From there you can have all the geopolitical adventures you want, but there's a good reason why the PC's are the ones being called on by the State Department again and again - they are the ones who know the Real Reason that led to the purchase.

[GooeyChewie]

If the campaign makes it to late 1803, you could straight up have them join the Corps of Discovery Expedition (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_and_Clark_Expedition). I did something similar once with Magellan's circumnavigation (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magellan%27s_circumnavigation), and it worked really well. You can add a few fantastical elements to make things more interesting. For example I represented a storm that stranded one of Magellan's ships with a trio of elementals; likewise you could have some frost-related monsters attack to represent the harsh winters the Corps endured. Or modify a Yeti a bit and let the party find bigfoot!

[Cikomyr2]

Also, you can always have Lewis and Clarke and all other historical characters related be major NPCs in your campaign. Since they are the ones who surveyed the Louisiana Purchased territories, they should somehow be involved.

[Nhorianscum]

Like the title says, I’ve got the setting figured out mostly, the players agreed they’d like to start in the year 1801 and I was thinking of having the campaign revolve around The Louisiana Purchase and US and Mexican (or Aztec in this case) relations.

I’m not sure how to kick off the campaign however. I suppose I could start the players off in a meeting with a representative of the Secretary of State (or some analogue from a wealthy entrepreneur) to get them off and into the wilderness to the west, but I had the thought that it might roll smoother if we started a little smaller. And that’s when I hit serious writers block.

So any opinions or suggestions to work through this block would be much appreciated.

Well, if anyone in the party is illiterate with low int and a high con/str score you can um "accidentally" them into a fur trading route.

The whole expedition was pretty well traveled by the time Lewis and Clark surveyed it. Just by big buff french dudes who didn't read good. (It was a prerequisite, nobody who could read their payscale signed up for that nonsense)

2 years is plenty to do a full run and then worry about plotting them into plot.

[Vogie]

I'd agree about starting smaller - perhaps you start the campaign with the PCs on the run. One of your many adversaries (detailed above) can show up and obliterate their tiny town. The initial quest could be finding and releasing captives, or perhaps getting to the nearest friendly military outpost/detail, at which point they're told there's not much left of their home - they can either go into the factories up north, or make their way into the west for more adventure.

If you set it After the Louisiana Purchase, you could have a contest styled like the Land rush of 1889 in Oklahoma.

Depending on your proliferation of magic in that world, the characters could be nobodies that are sent along an existing line that suddenly ends. For example, if magic-users are as prevalent as benders in the AtLA world, the low-level casters could be part of the normal use. Just like Earthbenders are railwayworkers and lightningbenders work in the powerplant in LoK, your world could have a thriving steam industry... based on casters solely using Create Water and Create Bonfire combined to create said steam. If they're steam-casters on a steam engine train, the PCs could be thrust into the wilds by any variety of train accidents.

On the other side of the proverbial world, you could even have the PCs as part of the indigenous people of the area who are used to the existing paradigm, and are suddenly pushed west because the invaders keep pushing their borders.

Make sure they find a baby boy being raised by coyotes at some point. Because Were-Pecos Bill is important.