Don your TIN STAR and Lay Down the Law in the West (Choice of Games CYOA)

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Don your TIN STAR and Lay Down the Law in the West (Choice of Games CYOA)

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ultrafilter: Aug 23, 2007; It's okay if you have any questions.

A hospital for lawyers, as was normal in the old west.

# ? Jul 22, 2018 03:23

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# ? May 5, 2024 14:00

achtungnight: Oct 5, 2014; I get my fun here. Enjoy!

ultrafilter posted:

A hospital for lawyers, as was normal in the old west.

And today too. Saw more lawyers than nurses the last hospital I visited. Seconding this vote.

# ? Jul 22, 2018 03:58

Olive Branch: May 26, 2010; There is no wealth like knowledge, no poverty like ignorance.

A nice bit of land, before the white man came and tried to make a play for it

# ? Jul 22, 2018 04:41

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

SimplyUnknown1 posted:

A good friend

I really hope that it's a dog.

Or a whore with a heart of gold?

# ? Jul 22, 2018 10:56

Avalerion: Oct 19, 2012

2. "A good friend."

I really enjoyed this CYOA - more for the story and atmosphere than for the "RPG" but still.

# ? Jul 22, 2018 12:08

LightWarden: Mar 18, 2007; Lander county's safe as heaven,
despite all the strife and boilin',
Tin Star,
Oh how she's an icon of the eastern west,
But now the time has come to end our song,
of the Tin Star, the Tin Star!

We almost had a hospital for lawyers, but our dear friend talked us out of such a specific venture.

quote:

"A good friend is the best friend to have. And as I said, I'll be looking after them," Marshal James promises. "Now, I've got a badge here."

He holds up a simple five pointed star of flattened tin. Across the front of it has been etched with the word 'Marshal'. Along one point of the dull silvery metal there is a trace of a dark stain that doesn't seem likely to scrub clean. With a flick of fingers he tosses it to you.

"The star's just tin. It won't stop a bullet. Hell, it won't even cut a steak. Its just a hunk of metal on someone's chest," Marshal James says. "The marshal who wears it has to make it shine by their own hand. So tell me, what are you best at?"

1. "Gunfighting."
2. "Sharpshooting."
3. "Brawling."
4. "Riding."
5. "Surviving in the wild."
6. "Being a lawyer."
7. "Building things."
8. "Blowing things up with gunpowder or nitroglycerin."
9. "Persuading people."
10. "Intimidating people."
11. "Working from sun-up to sun-down."
12. "Not giving up."

Yup, it's skill time folks, so it's up to the thread to figure out what our newly-minted marshal can do out here. The game is going to ask us to pick four things- what we're best at, what we're good at, what we're fair at and what we've dabbled in. These provide a diminishing series of bonuses to their respective skills, though the skill that you dabble in provides a small bonus to the skill selected plus an equal small bonus to three other skills that are related- it doesn't tell you them in advance but most of them tend to make some amount of sense (dabbling in explosives also gives you a bonus to engineering, for example).

Rather than run the vote four times, I'm just going to ask you to vote for the four things you want the Marshal to focus on. Voting on the specific order you want to focus is fine, as is voting for up to four things in general. In the likely event we don't have a consensus, I'll probably going to just weight them and go for the top four skills or so.

Here's our character sheet so far.

quote:

The Unknown Wanderer:
Traits:
Current Companions:
Health: Healthy and vigorous.
Wealth: Broke.

Values:
Order: 50% Freedom: 50%
Honor: 50% Arbitrary: 50%
Law: 50% Individuality: 50%
Notoriety: 0% Anonymity: 100%

Skills:
Gunfighting: 30%
Sharpshooting: 30%
Brawling: 30%
Riding: 25%
Survival: 20%
Legal: 10%
Engineering: 10%
Explosives: 15%
Persuasion: 25%
Intimidate: 25%
Stamina: 20%
Resolve: 20%

Influence:
Marshal James: 50%

Also included are our relationships (we've managed to stay surprisingly neutral on the only named NPC we've met so far), our values (which function as sort of an alignment we can shift around with our actions) and our fame level (we're currently a nobody).

Entertainingly enough, it also offers the option to view your skill sheet in a narrative format, changing the form from numbers to descriptors that change based on how good or bad you are. Here's the current sheet:

quote:

Honor: It is more important that things go smoothly.
Law: Some rules are important
Order: This is the frontier.

Gunfighting: Pull the trigger to make a lot of noise.
Sharpshooting: Barns everywhere are safe from your rifle's wrath.
Brawling: Hitting your opponent's fist with your face isn't really working out.
Riding: The term 'greenhorn' was made for you.
Survival: Living wild means going without room-service.
Legal Understanding: The law is what other people are always yelling about.
Engineering: The first house I built fell into a swamp. So did the second and third. But the fourth one stayed up.
Explosives: Gunpowder is for guns and nothing else.
Persuasion: Your boot tastes wonderful in your mouth.
Intimidate: When you stare at them, people wonder if they've got something in their teeth.
Stamina: Why does the sun have to rise so early?
Resolve: Small children deftly defy you.

Marshal James: Waiting on you

I'll probably include the narrative sheet at least from time to time since many of them are quite fun. Health and Wealth are actually tracked as numbers under the hood, but described in narrative terms during the game.

Most of your skills are pretty self-explanatory, but I'll clarify some things:

-Gunfighting is your skill with a pistol (generally short range), Sharpshooting is your skill with a rifle (generally long range). Different situations call for different options though in many situations the Marshal will have both a pistol and rifle at hand (their effectiveness will still be determined by skill).
-Brawling includes punching, grappling and any melee weaponry you might come across.
-Riding covers generally handling equestrian animals in addition to just staying in the saddle.
-Survival is also the skill used for sneaking around
-High Stamina boosts your health pool a bit, letting you take a few more hits than you normally could (low Stamina won't penalize it, so don't worry)
-Resolve can have some social uses like standing up to someone in an argument, and can also function as a way to keep yourself going when you're in trouble, so it has some overlap with the other skills

So... what four things are we good at?

# ? Jul 23, 2018 01:31

SimplyUnknown1: Aug 18, 2017; Cat Cat Cat

Not Giving Up, Working from Sun-Up to Sun-Down, Intimidating People, and Gunfighting.

I'm sorry, but we have to be better than letting kids walk over us. That's all I really ask.

# ? Jul 23, 2018 01:50

The Lone Badger: Sep 24, 2007

Doctorin' isn't a skill?

# ? Jul 23, 2018 02:24

ultrafilter: Aug 23, 2007; It's okay if you have any questions.

Explosions, intimidation, gunfighting and brawling.

# ? Jul 23, 2018 04:08

Avalerion: Oct 19, 2012

Sharpshooting, Brawling, Intimidating, Surviving.

# ? Jul 23, 2018 06:34

achtungnight: Oct 5, 2014; I get my fun here. Enjoy!

SimplyUnknown1 posted:

Not Giving Up, Working from Sun-Up to Sun-Down, Intimidating People, and Gunfighting.

This is seconded by me. I just want to add that I love the narrative descriptions of skills in this game.

# ? Jul 23, 2018 07:36

The Bold Kobold: Aug 11, 2014; Bold to the point of certain death.

SimplyUnknown1 posted:

Not Giving Up, Working from Sun-Up to Sun-Down, Intimidating People, and Gunfighting.

I'm sorry, but we have to be better than letting kids walk over us. That's all I really ask.

This sound alright, and worse comes to worse we can shore up our other skills.

# ? Jul 23, 2018 09:16

The Lone Badger: Sep 24, 2007

Laywerin', Tongue-Flapping, Resolve, Building. I'm sure we can sort out these problems like reasonable people.

# ? Jul 23, 2018 09:40

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

Brawling, Gunfighting, Sharpshooting and Blowing things up with gunpowder or nitroglycerin.

Anything we can't talk our way out of by blowing it up or hitting it down is not worth worrying about.

# ? Jul 23, 2018 10:27

The_White_Crane: May 10, 2008

Gunfighting, Lawyering, Brawling and Intimidating people.
We'll shoot people, sue their relatives, beat them up and then threaten them. In that order.

Also I can't believe you people passed up the opportunity to run a hospital for lawyers.

# ? Jul 23, 2018 15:17

LightWarden: Mar 18, 2007; Lander county's safe as heaven,
despite all the strife and boilin',
Tin Star,
Oh how she's an icon of the eastern west,
But now the time has come to end our song,
of the Tin Star, the Tin Star!

The Lone Badger posted:

Doctorin' isn't a skill?

Nope, Doctorin' is a trait, which you pick up by selecting at least one of the choices that indicate your medical background. We managed to avoid selecting any of them though.

Seems like all the votes are in, so I assigned 4 points to your first choice, 3 to your second, etc. Final Tally:

Resolve: 14
Gunfighting : 12
Intimidate: 12
Brawling: 10
Stamina: 9
Legal: 7
Sharpshooting: 6
Explosives: 5
Persuasion: 3
Survival: 1
Engineering: 1
Riding: 0

Gunfighting and Intimidate were tied, but Gunfighting had more first choice picks while Intimidate was the third choice for most of the voters who went for it. And looking through at the final stat screen, it turns out that the minor bonuses I thought were just assigned when dabbling were also assigned to your 1st through 3rd choices of skills, so selecting my example of explosives would give you the engineering bonus no matter when you selected it. Not bad.

quote:

What are you best at? Not Giving Up

(Resolve very greatly increased) (+15 Resolve, +2 Persuasion, +2 Intimidate, +2 Stamina)

quote:

What are you good at? Gunfighting

(Gunfighting greatly increased) (+10 Gunfighting, +2 Sharpshooting, +2 Survival, +2 Explosives)

quote:

What are you fair at? Intimidating people

(Intimidate increased) (+5 Intimidate, +2 Persuasion, +2 Stamina, +2 Resolve)

quote:

"What've you dabbled with?" Brawling

(Brawling slightly increased) (+2 Brawling, +2 Intimidate, +2 Survival, +2 Stamina)

"Never giving up can be the most important thing a marshal does. Aside from dodging bullets and talking idiots down from being idiots," Marshal James notes. "Now, I know who you are but you can't go using your real name out there. After all, you are dead in California."

He removes a small sheaf of papers from his vest pocket. The imprint of a birth certificate is apparent on the foremost while other official looking emblems can be seen atop others.

"Don't worry none about people checking up on you; by the time they pry these from my fingers and figure out they're forged, your four years'll be up. Just don't run for office afterward," he says wryly then taps the end of a gold-gilt pen. "Now, let's get you a working name."

1. "I am Mister�"
2. "I am Miss�"
3. "If I'm going to be a marshal, I'll be calling myself a marshal�"

It's gender time! We be a marshal of nondescript gender or we can also call ourself Mister or Miss Marshal if we'd like. Sadly we can't call ourselves Doc because we never finished med school.

Right after this is going to be name time. I'd put them together but there's a lot of name choices based on your choice of gender plus one more complication: race. There's picking from the Default English names, but you can also choose to represent a different race by selecting one of the following choices from the list of names:

quote:

-[English Names...]
-"I'd like to honor my Indian heritage. A renaming is not something done in a basement."
-"You did happen to notice I am Chinese, right?"

No option for being Mexican, but you can write in your own name choice even if it won't change how the game reacts to you (same if you wanted the marshal to be black). So in the interest of not splitting the vote further please vote for a gender and racial identity (votes will be tallied separately).

Character Sheet posted:

The Unknown Wanderer:
Traits:
Current Companions:
Health: Healthy and vigorous.
Wealth: Broke.
Values:
Order: 50% Freedom: 50%
Honor: 50% Arbitrary: 50%
Law: 50% Individuality: 50%
Notoriety: 0% Anonymity: 100%
Skills:
Gunfighting: 40% (Bottles and cans make for easy targets.)
Sharpshooting: 32%
Brawling: 32% (There are better ways to fight than with your hands.)
Riding: 25%
Survival: 24%
Legal: 10%
Engineering: 10%
Explosives: 17%
Persuasion: 29% (On occasion, people listen to what you have to say.)
Intimidate: 34% (When you growl, people don't mistake it for a purr.)
Stamina: 26% (Once you get moving in the morning, things are fine afterward.)
Resolve: 37% (What you don't want, you don't do.)

Influence:
Influence Marshal James: 50%

# ? Jul 24, 2018 17:54

achtungnight: Oct 5, 2014; I get my fun here. Enjoy!

I�m just going to say white male. You want to be something different, vote for it! I�m fine with that.

Edit- make that English Male. The Englishman gunfighter is a character I�ve seen in a few Western movies and it�s important to remember every race has ethnicities.

achtungnight fucked around with this message at 20:33 on Jul 24, 2018

# ? Jul 24, 2018 20:21

The_White_Crane: May 10, 2008

Let's be a genderless Chinese person called Guan Yin. We have both male and female aspects and we're the God-damned Iron Goddess of Mercy!
... who shoots, punches and intimidates people. Look, America is a rough place and we're on holiday, okay?

# ? Jul 24, 2018 20:54

Avalerion: Oct 19, 2012

Female, Indian.

# ? Jul 24, 2018 21:03

sullat: Jan 9, 2012

Chinese Male

# ? Jul 24, 2018 21:50

Odysseus S. Grant: Oct 12, 2011; Cats is the oldest and strongest emotion
of mankind

Chinese Woman

# ? Jul 24, 2018 22:13

ultrafilter: Aug 23, 2007; It's okay if you have any questions.

The_White_Crane posted:

Let's be a genderless Chinese person called Guan Yin. We have both male and female aspects and we're the God-damned Iron Goddess of Mercy!
... who shoots, punches and intimidates people. Look, America is a rough place and we're on holiday, okay?

Seconded.

# ? Jul 25, 2018 00:27

The Bold Kobold: Aug 11, 2014; Bold to the point of certain death.

Avalerion posted:

Female, Indian.

Seconded.

# ? Jul 25, 2018 01:18

Olive Branch: May 26, 2010; There is no wealth like knowledge, no poverty like ignorance.

Avalerion posted:

Female, Indian.

We are one with the land.

# ? Jul 25, 2018 01:37

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

Odysseus S. Grant posted:

Chinese Woman

# ? Jul 25, 2018 04:14

LightWarden: Mar 18, 2007; Lander county's safe as heaven,
despite all the strife and boilin',
Tin Star,
Oh how she's an icon of the eastern west,
But now the time has come to end our song,
of the Tin Star, the Tin Star!

Votes for being Chinese and being a Woman beat out the others by a good margin, so let's break a few glass ceilings out here in the West!

quote:

I am Miss...

Marshal James scribbles something down on the paper then pauses, "Your forename?"

"You did happen to notice I'm Chinese, right?"

"I did notice you were of the celestial persuasion," Marshal James answers, "but I figured you might like an American name to start over with. Fewer questions will come from people you haven't met yet."

He adjusts his papers and pen, "Anyway, give me the Cantonese."

1. "You know, you are right. I'll try an American name."
2. I'd prefer to write it down myself.
3. "Actually, it would be in Mandarin as I come from the Northern China provinces."
4. ...

Since there's a couple of different subsections where you can choose from different names, I'm just going to list all of our options for first names. We can always write in our own choices if nothing interests you.

American posted:

-Ren
-Cameron
-Logan
-Jordan
-Ash
-Mary
-Ann
-Caroline
-Laura
-Helen

Cantonese posted:

-Tse Hei
-Tak Leon
-Hei Fung
-Doi Yue
-Ruolan
-Yung Jie
-Mei Heong

Mandarin posted:

-Zhixi
-Delun
-Xi Feng
-Niu
-Daiyu
-Ruolan

After this, it'll ask us for a surname:

American surnames posted:

-Smith
-Brown
-Slaughter
-Keaton
-Hall
-Sixkiller
-Lamb
-Temple
-Milton
-Adams

Cantonese surnames posted:

-Wong
-Sam
-Liu
-Hong
-Mang
-Meng
-Lam

Mandarin surnames posted:

-Wang
-Shen
-Liao
-Kang
-Lin

And we still have the option to Write it down yourself.

So... What is our name?

LightWarden fucked around with this message at 18:15 on Jul 25, 2018

# ? Jul 25, 2018 18:06

Avalerion: Oct 19, 2012

We seem to be a resolute brawler, so I guess Chun Li fits.

# ? Jul 25, 2018 18:21

achtungnight: Oct 5, 2014; I get my fun here. Enjoy!

I like Ruolan Shen personally.

# ? Jul 25, 2018 22:24

ultrafilter: Aug 23, 2007; It's okay if you have any questions.

achtungnight posted:

I like Ruolan Shen personally.

# ? Jul 26, 2018 00:56

SimplyUnknown1: Aug 18, 2017; Cat Cat Cat

achtungnight posted:

I like Ruolan Shen personally.

# ? Jul 26, 2018 02:34

LightWarden: Mar 18, 2007; Lander county's safe as heaven,
despite all the strife and boilin',
Tin Star,
Oh how she's an icon of the eastern west,
But now the time has come to end our song,
of the Tin Star, the Tin Star!

Seems like we have enough of a consensus.

Fun fact: Each name option gives you a different minor stat boost for ultimate min-maxing power.

quote:

"Actually, it would be in Mandarin as I come from the Northern China provinces."

"Its all Chinese to me," Marshal James says then gives a shrug.

quote:

Ruolan (+4 Legal)

"Never heard that one before," Marshal James shrugs, "not that I've heard all that many Chinese names, mind you."

He sorts through the papers and makes several additional notations before returning to the first of them, "Anyhow, surname?"

quote:

Shen (+2 Brawling)

"If that's your yen�" Marshal James notes as he jots it down.

Once the scribbling is done he sets aside the pen and takes a glance at his handy work, "Now then, Miss�wait, you reverse the first and last names don't you? Well, Miss Shen Ruolan, shall I lay out the troubles of Lander county for you?"

1. "Sure. I've got time. Tell me everything that is involved here."
2. "Just lay out the bare-bones for me, I'll figure things out when I get there."
3. "Just unlock the door."

# ? Jul 26, 2018 08:02

Avalerion: Oct 19, 2012

1. I've got time for an infodump.

# ? Jul 26, 2018 09:15

The_White_Crane: May 10, 2008

1. We want to know what we're getting into.

# ? Jul 26, 2018 09:29

Comstar: Apr 20, 2007; Are you happy now?

Avalerion posted:

1. I've got time for an infodump.

# ? Jul 26, 2018 10:09

LightWarden: Mar 18, 2007; Lander county's safe as heaven,
despite all the strife and boilin',
Tin Star,
Oh how she's an icon of the eastern west,
But now the time has come to end our song,
of the Tin Star, the Tin Star!

Storytime!

quote:

"Sure. I've got time. Tell me everything that is involved here." (+5 Influence Marshal James)

"Well, Nevada ain't what you'd call populous. The first white man to take a gander at the parched deserts and high mountains was Francisco Garces' back in Seventeen seventy something. He was a missionary and Spanish, did a lot of exploring when he wasn't praying. The man found the Mojave and the Grand Canyon both, but the Spaniards were more interested in California than a stretch of parched earth, so they didn't do near to nothing with it for a long while.

"Then came the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo back in 1848 when Mexico gave up big swaths of territory in exchange for peace with America. Back then, Nevada was called Washoe after one of them Indian tribes but only the mountain men ever saw more than a lick of it. That changed when the Mormons started carving out niches for wagons headed west around 1851. Good work that, changed the whole idea of crossing the frontier. You didn't have to empty your pockets to get on a boat for California anymore.

"But that's all Nevada were for a decade. Just a place to roll your wagon through. No reason to stay; at least until Comstock started silver mining. Thousands came out, mainly from California. Then someone discovered gold near Aurora and so the rush was on. In 1861, Nevada became a territory."

quote:

"Course, in sixty-one the war between the states also got started. I'm sure you heard all about the North versus South, Union versus the Confederacy, blue versus gray, brother against brother. I've got some kin back in Kansas that got elbow deep in blood and I've got to tell you, I'm glad that didn't spill out here. Least ways, not more than a few drops. Anyway, despite the war, people kept coming to Nevada and settling in. There were about five thousand by the time the Federals pushed through Nevada statehood. They had to get an exemption for that but they got it and so the state of Nevada was born in the midst of a terrible, bloody war back east. As you might expect, most in Nevada cast their votes for Lincoln. Shame about what happened to that man�

"Anyway, the war ended and the trickle of settlers became a deluge. Some just come to prospect and get rich enough to go elsewhere, but enough have stuck around that Nevada's now got about forty thousand souls. That's about one per square mile�assuming the border adjustment goes through. Bit of strange politics that. They're shifting the Nevada border a ways east at Utah's expense. Something about the meridians and such that I don't rightly understand. Surveyors might know more, but that's no never mind."

quote:

"Right now silver and gold are both having another rush and the prospectors are like to let slip their findings in whatever town happens to be near. Elko's the biggest, but her Sheriff keeps things well in line. Galena ain't so bad, nor is Kingston or Albion Falls. No, I expect you'll have to make your mark in places like Preston Springs where the law stays abed when cowboys come to play.

"Now, you might note that I ain't said much about the Indians. Well, I should have. The Shoshone around your parts are on the warpath, and there have been raids all over the place. Its gotten so bad that the army is talking about building a fort right quick to try and suppress those reds. I expect they will too; there's more than enough veterans from the War between the States walking around following the surrender. North or south, it don't matter when its Indians they're fighting.

"Don't know how you'll handle the Shoshone. It ain't like they'll just quiet down and go away. They know how that worked with other tribes back east. They're fired up, armed and, worst of all, smart about things; they pick their targets carefully, cause some hell and then get on out before the cavalry shows up."

quote:

"That brings us to the big thing. The Railroad is coming on through Lander County and it is coming in a hurry. As soon as the Central Pacific finishes the tunnels through the Sierra mountains they're going to start on through Nevada. From the east the Union Pacific railroad has work crews laying track through Nebraska and I think Wyoming territory. Once the two companies link up in Utah this nation will have its first ever trans-continental rail-line.

"Used to be three ways to get to California. You can sail round South America; that takes six months and it ain't a stroll down the boardwalk. You could land in Central America and make your way over the isthmus there to the Pacific and hope to find a ship headed on up. Faster that, but there's all sorts of sickness in the jungles that might shave a good deal more than three months off your life. Lastly, you could go overland; like I said, there's a few trails and roads now thanks to the Mormons, but wagons ain't cheap and out in the wild there a hundred and more dangers waiting to descend. California might be the next paradise on earth but its plenty hard getting here.

"The railroad will change all that. It won't take six months to cross from east to west, it'll take scarcely a week. That goes for goods as well as people too. Prices will go down, which means more can afford to come and settle across the land, and all it'll take is the laying of iron rails.

"But if that untamed county ain't quiet, if the surveyors and graders start getting killed, then the one thing that might stitch together the two halves of this nation might not happen. Can't think of anything worse than that, mainly cause so many have sunk so much sweat, blood, and treasure into seeing it through that everyone in America might as well pull the stitches from their pockets. That's part of the reason I'm recruiting low fruit from strange trees; I need Lander county settled, least ways enough for a rail-line."

Marshal James gives you a considering glance, "I hope you do better than the previous Marshals and spare me the cost of a pine box."

quote:

The radiance of the morning drives out the cold from your bones as you step out. Better than a pull of panther-juice, it swaths you and the whole of San Francisco in a golden light. Even the hanging scaffold, empty now, doesn't look quite so terrifying. A gal can't help but smile because just a little while ago, you didn't think you'd get to see it again.

"Last thing," Marshal James says as he steps before you. The brim of his hat threatens to blot out the happy sun. A bit of tin flashes in his powerful fingers as he affixes the Marshal's badge. "There you are. Nice and legal, that is if'n you affirm; I swear to uphold the laws of Nevada, serve the public and protect the innocent."

1. "I so swear."
2. "Yeah, yeah."

We asked for an infodump and let no one say he didn't deliver.

# ? Jul 27, 2018 00:20

achtungnight: Oct 5, 2014; I get my fun here. Enjoy!

After an info dump like that, #2 is the best response IMO.

# ? Jul 27, 2018 02:53

ultrafilter: Aug 23, 2007; It's okay if you have any questions.

achtungnight posted:

After an info dump like that, #2 is the best response IMO.

# ? Jul 27, 2018 03:56

sullat: Jan 9, 2012

yeah yeah

# ? Jul 27, 2018 05:28

Avalerion: Oct 19, 2012

2. "Yeah, yeah."

# ? Jul 27, 2018 06:28

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ? May 5, 2024 14:00

LightWarden: Mar 18, 2007; Lander county's safe as heaven,
despite all the strife and boilin',
Tin Star,
Oh how she's an icon of the eastern west,
But now the time has come to end our song,
of the Tin Star, the Tin Star!

Let's get this show on the road then!

quote:

"Yeah, yeah."

"Get going then, provisional marshal," Marshal James says and flicks a thumb over his shoulder. "I'll send in the paperwork soon enough. And remember, I'll be looking after your friends back here. And I'll try not to let the fact that you killed Priscilla Upton shade our relations none."

quote:

The rest of the day is a blur as you ride away from San Francisco on a borrowed saddle. By evening you reach a lonely hotel across from an idle train station. Waiting in a room under the name Shen Ruolan is a bundle of your belongings, but even those familiar items can't help you settle in when night comes. Your dreams are a disjointed mess filled with a boil of brown mice that erupt from beneath rotted floor boards to spill out and scatter to the winds before the whole place collapses inward. It is almost a relief when the distant blast of a steam whistle wakens you at dawn.

Your journey to Nevada begins by being whisked down iron rails. The boxy black steam engine chugs rhythmically as it pulls both freight and passenger cars along at a speed no horse can match, or at least not for long. The engine drives you steadily eastward, pausing briefly at towns and villages along the way.

Just out the window are men in bowler hats and tidy trim suits, cowboys in long dusters and farmers in rough wool shirts. A few women too, from sun-burnt Madres in calico to little girls in pigtails and sundresses, and they make it official; California is no longer the frontier. Even the flyspeck coaling and watering stations out in the middle of nowhere have a dispatch office now. In a few months there will be little villages all along the line.

quote:

Along one stretch, the iron road has been laid straight through sprawling forests whose tree trunks are six or more feet across. No doubt the trestles below are made from the same wood. Before long the engine labors up a steady incline into snowy peaked mountains that swiftly dominate everything except the sky. Here the tracks round bends just a stone's throw from deep gorges. Time and again the steam engine plunges through tunnels that have been laboriously cut through the mountainsides.

The sun hangs high overhead and slowly broils the land. The train's engine ignores that as it spews out black ash and cinders as it labors toward white-capped mountains filled to the brim with spring snow. Somewhere far ahead, beyond the reach of rails and down twisting, turning wagon trails, out past the ranges of the Sierra, lies Preston Springs and your Marshal's Office.

quote:

The steam engine gives a relieved chug as it slows. The hiss of brakes rises up and then you see it: the end of the line.

Here lies a muddy, sprawling camp of men. Stacks of iron rails and wooden ties wait in high piles to be taken on around an imposing summit and laid down. Only a few solid buildings can be seen. Most are either creaky barns or coal casements. Otherwise it is a sea of tents and cook-fires; neither of which can completely ward away the mountainous chill.

There are Chinese in abundance with their basket hats and simple, loose garb at odds with the puffs of locomotive steam. Amongst them you glimpse a smattering of Irishmen, Red Indians and even a sprinkling of handsome Pacific Islanders who readily fill up the narrow ways between tents as they scurry about under the guidance of their white-shirted supervisors.

You hop down from the passenger car and your boots crunch upon desolate earth beneath. The scent of cinders fades and is replaced with the ripeness of manure, men, and beasts. This high up in the mountains it is hard to catch your breath even when the wind blows strong.

Back by the rear cars a black-bearded fellow in a red shirt wrenches open the siding of a rail car to reveals a small herd of horses and mules. Indeed, one familiar neigh sounds out and you just know that your prize stallion will be ready to canter on down the ramp.

1. He's a beautiful Bay, whose lush brown coat is livened by a black mane and legs.
2. He's a stolid nearly brick red Sorrel whose white 'socks' perpetually seem to be pulled down.
3. The vibrant, multi-hued Pinto's painted composition is set off by startling bright blue eyes.
4. The hardy brown Buckskin's dark eyes and hooves soak in the sunlight.
5. I find it hard not to smile at my steed; a rare slate gray Grulla that bears the faintest hint of zebra striping along the legs.
6. The vivid salt-and-pepper Roan has a splotch of white in a vague star-like mark about one of those dark eyes.

But what is a marshal without a horse?

# ? Jul 27, 2018 18:05

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Don your TIN STAR and Lay Down the Law in the West (Choice of Games CYOA)

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