Coldstone

This campaign and story will be largely be dictated by the backgrounds of the characters. Example: if someone wants to make a cattle rustler, there will large nearby ranches with plenty of marketable cattle.

This intends to be a realistic shorter campaign with gritty realism. The story will be a character driven piece, i.e. character's motivations and goals will hopefully drive the plot forward, no plot for plots sake. Therefore, the plot will be generated from the backgrounds of the characters that are provided to me. (Thanks for that, Clay)

Setting

The year is 1862. It's two years into the Civil War down south. Coldstone is a frontier town upstart just south of the Rocky Mountains in southern Idaho. It is just off of the Oregon Trail between the cursed Fort hall and Fort Boise and is booming as it's often a stop-over for mail and freight wagons heading between the western states of Californy and Washingon and the more civilized East. Coldstone is booming as it's a waypoint for settlers heading further west or north, it serves as a base of operations or drop/resupply point for trappers. As it's also frequented by prospectors and money coaches, it has a good solid bank. The Union Pacific Railway is building fast from the east and railmen have been riding about spotting and staking and making offers. Western Union telegraph just reached Coldstone a few weeks back and crews are pushing it hard from there westward ahead of the railway, which is currently between Fort hall and Coldstone. There is a telegraph station in Coldstone carrying word to and from the eastern cities. There is also a mailing service horse and saddlebags every 3rd day from Fort Hall to the east or Coronado to the west or Johnsburg to the South. A carriage brings larger packages about once every couple of weeks. Most blacks are slaves or fugitives, even on the frontier.

Characters

It is not only a time of saddles, revolvers, and stetsons. There are card sharks, lawmen, outlaws, settlers, miners, ranchers, trappers, natives, churchies, rustlers, shrewd businessmen, be they bankers, railmen, oil tycoons, prospectors, or others. You could be a scout, a soldier, an entertainer, and indian agent, a carpenter, a cowboy, a doctor, a buffalo hunter, a snake oil salesman, or everyone's favorite a saloon girl with a heart of gold. There are government agents trying to establish order or going undercover to root out some of the western outlaws. A character could be simply trying to make a living by working some of the new land, or perhaps trying to make a name for him/herself legally, or otherwise, or perhaps just trying to escape his/her past.

The most common weapons available are the Cold "Peacemaker" .45, the Colt Dragoon .44, the Smith&Wesson Model 1 .22, the Sharps Carbine .52, or other muzzle loading rifles and shotguns. It is not necessary that all party members have fire arms and other weapons may be available if supported by your back story.

Characters will start with 100 points. Max of -50 points in disadvantages. No more than a 13 or less than a 7 on any attribute. A 7 would require a good backstory. No more than 4 points into any skill without a good back story.

I will likely assign disadvantages/advantages as I see fit to help weave characters and stories, but will be sure to not break your vision of your character.

Suggested References (at least what I've looked into for motivation)

Movies - Unforgiven, Tombstone, The Long Riders

Reading - http://library.stanford.edu/depts/dp/pennies/texts/dimes_toc.html - Specifically, Jesse James, the Outlaw