SEEKING writers for Old West RP

"One Horse Town" will be about a small, Wild West town that sits at a crossroads between the east and the west. What begins as a one horse town quickly booms as conditions change on other trails and settlers -- heading west for gold, silver, land, and more -- and merchants -- bringing their goods and the exploited spoils of the west eastward -- begin to use what becomes known as "Crossroads" as their stop over point.

I will initially play two characters, a wealthy land owner and the Sheriff, as well as several short term and infrequent characters; most will be to provide background or give other writers collaborative opportunities.

I am looking for ALL types of characters. In addition, I would like all writers to try to collaborate with one another, not just with me. I would love to write with all of you every day, but its more fun if we mix up the collaborations a bit.

I would like writers to be willing to play long term and short term players over time, with some of the latter being less developed, expendable characters. (People die!)

You can post your thoughts and/or character ideas here.

You sir are not happy unless you have a dozen fires going

I have two ideas, first is an ex gunslinger/bank and train robber.. retired, and just wants to live out his life peacefully.


The other... Short term is the deputy. More to come when I get home tonight from work

Did I read Western? Oh boy oh boy. If I'll be a wanted writer I'll apply and with my next post throw in characters, but for now. Will have one main character, gunslinger of repute (think Billy The Kid, The Montana Kid etc) two support characters, Bartender (killed) and Ranch hand (up to host to decide)

Main character will be withdrawn without being insulting, good manners and of course one of the fastest guns alive as well as the most accurate, but he loathes to use them and would rather use his rifle or walk away from a fight.

jack80 said:

You sir are not happy unless you have a dozen fires going

I have two ideas, first is an ex gunslinger/bank and train robber.. retired, and just wants to live out his life peacefully.


The other... Short term is the deputy. More to come when I get home tonight from work

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All sounds good. Will reply more tonight at computer (not phone).

And yes, I AM all over the place.

DeathsKnight said:

Did I read Western? Oh boy oh boy. If I'll be a wanted writer I'll apply and with my next post throw in characters, but for now. Will have one main character, gunslinger of repute (think Billy The Kid, The Montana Kid etc) two support characters, Bartender (killed) and Ranch hand (up to host to decide)

Main character will be withdrawn without being insulting, good manners and of course one of the fastest guns alive as well as the most accurate, but he loathes to use them and would rather use his rifle or walk away from a fight.

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Ý

And fantastic to see your name here too! As I said above, more to come. Now we just need a virginal rancher's daughter, a saloon girl, a rich snooty ranch widow, and ...whatever!

I'd be more than interested in hopping in on this. I like westerns. And I think the rancher's daughter or something along that line seems most appealing to me if you'll have me on board. Spring break is coming up this weekend so I'll have plenty of time to crank out a profile.

As far as a short term character, I could see a young rebel type. Her father is maybe the head of a band of bankrobbers, but wouldn't allow her to participate in the festivities, so she could be doing some of her own thievery, passing through the town and what not, getting into some mischief!

SandDollar said:

I'd be more than interested in hopping in on this. I like westerns. And I think the rancher's daughter or something along that line seems most appealing to me if you'll have me on board. Spring break is coming up this weekend so I'll have plenty of time to crank out a profile.

As far as a short term character, I could see a young rebel type. Her father is maybe the head of a band of bankrobbers, but wouldn't allow her to participate in the festivities, so she could be doing some of her own thievery, passing through the town and what not, getting into some mischief!

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Welcome. We will definitely work your characters in!


FOR ALL WRITERS:

BTW, this thread will serve as the WDT (Writers Discussion Thread. If you have questions, comments, or concerns (QCC), please feel free to post them here. Try not to turn it into a chat room, though; every time I see a post here while I am working, I fire up my smart phone (which is old) to check the post, so if I find out it's just someone saying "Yeah" or "I hear that!", it upsets me. Leave such comments to PMs.

I also started an OOC thread but be aware that NO ONE is to post in the OOC but the Host. This is an attempt to make it easy to manage. (I'll tell you a short story: in a previous RP, the OOC got crammed full of stuff that should have been in the WDT, and I totally missed two profiles that were submitted for approval. The people were pissed, and all I could do was say I was sorry.


Concerning Character Profiles, PM them to me. I will format them the way I want to see them in them -- to make them consistent and easy for every one to read and make use of -- and post them to the OOC myself. (I do all of my RPs that way and it seems to work very well.)

Block and copy the below into a PM and send to me:

CHARACTER'S NAME:

WRITER'S ID:

CHARACTER'S PIC, GENDER, AGE, PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION:
(Concerning Pics: A must have. No anime, no cartoons, no famous celebrities, limited advertising. If you don't know how to link a pic in, attach the link to the pic in the web site you are borrowing it from and I will pull the pic out. Try to make the pics era appropriate; no cars, no airplanes, no rock and roll stars, etc. There are millions of pics out there on the web that are not famous celebrities on stage or the red carpet.

CHARACTER'S PERSONALITY:

CHARACTER'S PLACE IN THE RP: (Deputy, ranch hand, show girl, miner, etc.)

CHARACTER'S BACKGROUND:

CHARACTER'S CURRENT SITUATION: (New in town, home on the range, looking for work, recently widowed ... anything you didn't include in "Background"

CHARACTER'S DIRECTION: (Do you have a specific or general story line you would like to pursue?)

WRITER'S DESIRE TO WRITE SEXUAL SCENES: (This in not so much a sexual role play; it's more just a wild west story. But, if you are interested in writing sexually explicit scenes -- which will be done in personal threads, which I'll explain later -- or if you are not, tell us here.)

ANYTHING I MISSED THAT YOU WANT TO TELL:

This is the OOC Thread. Remember: please don't post in it.

It is very basic for now because I don't have time to post to it, but if you need more inspiration, remember "Silverado"? Picture a town like that, only much smaller. Or even "High Plains Drifter"(Clint Eastwood), which was a town of less than 2 dozen buildings. Something small like that.

Gotta go to work. Will write most later. Send me those profiles, pardner.

IC Thread for "A One Horse Town" is now available for reading. I say "for reading", of course, be cause no one but moi has a character! . But, we can take care of that. I will PM the profile sheet to everyone and you can PM it back to me at your leisure. I am currently on my phone -- can't get to my computer cuz I am not going home tonight -- so be patient as I get'er done.

My first several posts will be from different characters, some long term PCs, others short term (even expendable) NPCs. These posts are one part character build up, one part story exposition. The info sets the stage and will also be organized in the OOC as we go.


An Important Note About Plots, Collaboration, and Killing Characters:

This story, like all good role plays, will be a collection of individual stories all connected by a common thread ...literally thread, in this case. The general story is about a small town expanding with the influx of outsiders and the progress of society; but the individual stories will be varied, from a simple story of a young man wooing a young woman to a wealthy rancher battling a dozen families over tens of thousands of acres to a pair of gun slingers facing each other on a dusty street.

My point is that while there is a general direction, writers have a free hand to come up with something interesting for them to write.

Okay, about the collaboration part. I like a little spontaneity in my role plays, but remember that if you are going to do something that affects people other than those collaborators you have plotted with, use your brain. Don't go and start a conflagration in town; don't go and kill a character that doesn't belong to unless you have permission; don't introduce a background fact that might destroy another writer's storyline; and such forth. If you ever have a question about whether you should be doing what ever it is that you're planning, ask first!

Okay, killing characters: don't without permission. That covers that!

If you want to create a situation with expendable characters, go for it. (I have two characters in mind already that are expendable, but I'm not telling you until later. And, for added suspense, you and your collaborator can keep the expendability of your character well hidden until the heart stops beating.

One more thing about killing characters: if you have a situation such as a gun fight and you and your collaborator want the one who dies to be by chance, there is a way to do that using posts from players who aren't even involved in our role play. (I used this once in a monster-eating- characters RP once and it worked great.)

Ok, so I managed to get to a computer long enough tonight to get all (I think) of the profiles up in the OOC (except for DK's second one, which I won't have time to look at til tomorrow.

FYI: all writers should be subscribed to 3 thread: IC, OOC, WDT. If u aren't, do it now.

Feel free to put up your character(s) first post anytime.

Night night.

We need female characters now.

We have 3 male writers and 5 or 6 male characters.

In answer to a recent PM, yes, please feel free to begin posting to the IC thread if your character's profile has been posted in the OOC thread. (I should have explained that posting of your profile is acceptance of your character as written and, thus, permission to post, but I simply forgot.)

Please ensure that you have read each of the posts above at least once. They contain valuable information about collaboration, direction, "god mode", etc. It's all pretty typical stuff, but I just like to remind folks because it always seems there's one writer who is either new or simply doesn't know.

A couple of other motherly comments:

Okay, that's it for now.

Have fun ... always.

I think I have a temporary job for The Wolf, to help with the cattle that was left behind with Tek. I was thinking of him coming upon them and notice that some have strayed even with Tek guarding them (actually kind of impossible) or I could have him happen upon them on his way to the town and even though it is none of his business he can stay and make sure that the cattle stays save until their owners returns.

Otherwise I will just have him ride into town from the Badlands (if memory serves the Badlands is not near the town lol)

You can have him do that if you like. Gracie would certainly be thankful when she returned to find her cattle safe and sound, but it's up to you. Once her father is in the hands of a doctor, she probably will head back to try and get the cattle to the corral.

G'mornin', pardners.

Just gettin' to read y'alls writin' from yes'uhday. (Wow, that's hard to try to write that way; don't think I'm gonna continue.)

Anyway, just wanted to clarify something. Our story is taking place in late summer; Murdock has ripe tomatoes. I will be creating a Quick Reference Page in the OOC with little facts like this today.

Have fun.

Just got a PM asking me to add more detail to a character's profile. NO! No one changes, everyone stays the same, you are what you are and you can't change it!

Okay, fine ... I'll do it.

That does bring up another point I forgot to mention. (We are just getting started, so there will be a lot of forgot to mention notes.) Over time, I will try to add to your character's profiles. I will include such things as:

• Additional personality traits.
• Additional background.
• Current affairs and activities.
• And more...

Please, as time goes on, if you see that I have missed an important fact that you would like included, PM me and tell me. If it's a little tiny fact buried in a huge IC post, please just tell me what it was or highlight the paragraph that it was in so I can read it; or if it was a very detailed section you feel I should reread again, send me the link for the post.

The idea here, or course, is to allow all writers to get to know your character. We read the IC and we learn, but because it isn't real life, we can easily forget such things as:

• Does your character limp? Taylor does.
• Was your peaceful farmer once a gunslinger? Murdock was.
• Does a character really weigh THAT much and have a narrow waist? (I can't recall which character it was, but his weight came to me in kilograms, so check your math and if I did it wrong, let me know.)

Things like that.


On another note, a dollar in 1881 was worth $20 today, so factor your money dealings in that fashion. I researched several sites trying to find a comparison, and the easiest way I came up with dealing with money was just to go with a Nickel to a Dollar ratio.

Levi Jeans

Riveted jeans

Dry goods merchant Levi Strauss was selling blue jeans under the "Levi's" brand to the mining communities of California in the 1850s.[citation needed] One of Strauss's customers was Jacob Davis, a tailor who frequently purchased bolts of cloth from the Levi Strauss & Co. wholesale house. After one of Davis' customers kept buying cloth to reinforce torn pants, he had an idea to use copper rivets to reinforce the points of stress, such as on the pocket corners and at the top of the button fly. Davis did not have the required money to purchase a patent, so he wrote to Strauss suggesting that they both go into business together. After Strauss accepted Davis's offer, the two men received U.S. Patent 139,121, for an "Improvement in Fastening Pocket-Openings," on May 20, 1873.[1]
[edit] The cost of jeans

In 1885, jeans could be bought in the US for $1.50 (approximately $36 in 2010).

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I know it says 1885, but they got the patent in 1873... I would say Jeans were just now coming into fashion?

I think the above post is cool. Feel free to post things like that in the WDT; they add to the story line, making it easier for writers to get a feel of what life must have been like then. (Use your common sense about how often to post such tidbits and how long, but I can't see that any are going to hurt. Not like we're gonna run out of "1's and 0's" and bring down the internet.)

Hey, you'll notice my post above about money. I found a sight that gave the comparison of 1881 money to 2010 money using the Consumer Price Index, but I couldn't find a site that actually compared prices of objects themselves, from milk to horses to a shot of whiskey. If anyone find one, put a link here. That would be uber-helpful.

AnotherOldGuy said:

[*]Does a character really weigh THAT much and have a narrow waist? (I can't recall which character it was, but his weight came to me in kilograms, so check your math and if I did it wrong, let me know.)

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That would be John Lobo. Yes he can weight THAT much and have a narrow waist as he is about 7 to 8 inches taller than I am and judging from my father's height and build...yup it is possible since muscle mass is heavier than fat (like in my case lol)

Thing is that if you think it is too much you are free to trim it down a bit without making him look like a scarecrow.

DeathsKnight said:

That would be John Lobo. Yes he can weight THAT much and have a narrow waist as he is about 7 to 8 inches taller than I am and judging from my father's height and build...yup it is possible since muscle mass is heavier than fat (like in my case lol)

Thing is that if you think it is too much you are free to trim it down a bit without making him look like a scarecrow.

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No, no, no! Leave him as is! I just wasn't sure. I have a horrible time with weights in real life -- I never guess a woman's weight, for fear of my life -- so I wasn't sure. And typos are so common for me that I wasn't sure whether it was accurate or a typo for you.

On this note... everyone should take a look at their Profiles and make sure I did them correctly. Some people don't like the fact that I edit their profiles, but the reason I do it is simple: consistency. I like all of the profiles to be constructed the same way, because I read them over and over again when I collaborate and I find it's easier and faster if they are all set up the same way.

I don't mean to offend anyone with my editing. I am not changing what you wrote because there is anything wrong with it; I am changing it to fit a model in my mind.

Just a note: I don't like the way I set up the Profiles, so I am in the process of altering them. I've been playing with new ideas since I recently learned a new code and format trick. (See, you can teach an old dog new tricks.)

So, please be patient as I shift crap around. And if I accidentally delete something I shouldn't have, please say something.

If you're interested in seeing which way I am going with these, check out this one. I think it's so much easier to read and use.

A word on shotguns in 1881, the first pump/slide action shotgun was designed in 1882 (coincedence perhaps?) The first recorded manufacture of this kind of shotgun was in 1897, the Remington shotgun.

So it seems like the only available shotgun would be either the breakneck double barrel or break neck single barrel.

If somebody can find other info on this please PM me the link, I would be interested in finding out more when I'm wrong

DeathsKnight said:

A word on shotguns in 1881, the first pump/slide action shotgun was designed in 1882 (coincedence perhaps?) The first recorded manufacture of this kind of shotgun was in 1897, the Remington shotgun.

So it seems like the only available shotgun would be either the breakneck double barrel or break neck single barrel.

If somebody can find other info on this please PM me the link, I would be interested in finding out more when I'm wrong

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See, see! This is what I love about the WDT, you just never know what you're gonna learn.

Knight is likely correct about the 1882 part -- I haven't researched it cause I'm going out to lunch -- and, in fact, the weapon Ruby is holding in her picture is a Winchester Model 1897 which wasn't manufactured until, yes, 1897.

But guess what...? We're gonna let it slide, for a couple of reasons:

• One, I really like that picture. It has character.
• Two, it's easier than changing the year of the RP to match the picture, something I would be willing to do but don't really want to go through the hassle of.
• And three, while this is meant to be a historical RP to a degree, we are going to have similar errors in the future.

So, this one gets through, but I gotta say, Knight, good catch! I've been researching my characters and their stuff before I post and it's a lot of fun. You learn things. I once did a knights in shining armor type role play and learned a great deal about the manufacture of armor and weapons, some of which I still remember, or can at least recall when pushed.

So, Ruby gets to keep her shotgun ... but only because McGuire needs a woman who knows how to use one. (Boy, that didn't sound selfish of me, did it?)

Oh, one last note: No Model T's! I'm not changing the date that far!

Ahh, my bad. I'm happy to hear it can stay, though. I love the image of her carrying a shotgun around all nonchalantly. I'll do some more research next time something like that comes up!

SandDollar said:

Ahh, my bad. I'm happy to hear it can stay, though. I love the image of her carrying a shotgun around all nonchalantly. I'll do some more research next time something like that comes up!

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Jeeeeeez, you people. You act like this is just a fictional role play. This is history! Get your act together or next time I'll flunk you! You realize this is graded, right??

Seriously, though, little mistakes like that aren't too horrible. Like I said, I don't want to see one of Henry Ford's little vehicles running about, but if you happen to introduce a 1890s soap or type of clothing fashion that's a couple of years out yet, I think we can live with it.

Fun first ... always!