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CirclMastr posted:Let's set out in April of 1850 because it's more amusing to me if we're late to the Gold Rush. This seems fitting.
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May 11, 2019 08:22
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| # ? Apr 29, 2024 03:03 |
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SelenicMartian posted:Odell Lake? When in doubt, eat.
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May 11, 2019 08:33
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You know what must be done.
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May 11, 2019 09:17
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We've got a lot of different votes here! Here's the final count: April 1849: 3 April 1850: 8 December 1850: 2 May 1846: 2 June 1843: 2 December 1860: 1 March 1848: 1 So we get to be the Johnny Come Lateleys! Our wagon is led by Commander Keene and will feature CirclMastr (age 5), Poil (age 23), GrandmaParty (age 65), TheMcD (age 18), and SelenicMartian (age 40). The ages here aren't just random! Children are more likely to catch certain diseases, while the elderly are more likely to die if they get sick or injured. Our party here shows a good spread of ages. While everyone wants to head out to California for gold, I'll still give you guys the choice of destination just to make sure. In April 1850 you get the choice of: quote:Oregon City We also have a few jumping off points. You get to choose between: quote:Independence, MO Next up is our wagon! We've got a choice between three wagon sizes. Each costs more out of our starting money but has a greater capacity. Do keep in mind that higher capacity also needs more draft animals to pull, so the cost of a larger wagon might be greater than you think! Your choices are: quote:Small farm wagon ($60, 3000 lbs) Next is your profession. Each profession has a different amount of starting money, a score multiplier if you care about how many points we get if we survive the journey, and some starting skills. We'll pick skills after we pick our profession since each profession may have starting skills already selected. .png) And we have one last choice to make! There are three levels of authority that you can hold over a wagon train, with increasing score bonuses if you successfully make it to the end of the line. A greenhorn is only responsible for their own wagon and gets no choice over the general route the train takes. An adventurer or trail guide gets to actually choose routes, giving the thread the option of deciding which way to go when there's a fork (and potentially risk getting into a Donner Party situation if the wrong route at the wrong time is taken). An adventurer can be fired from the position and continues the game without the responsibility, but a trail guide who gets fired from morale dipping too low will end the game! So choose from: quote:Greenhorn
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May 11, 2019 15:09
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Sacramento The majority vote on year seemed pretty clear that the whole intent of leaving in 1850 was to be a late-comer to the gold rush, so this seems pretty obvious. Independence, MO According to Wikipedia, this city is nicknamed the "Queen of the Trails" because all the major trails went through here. Sounds good. Large Wagon No real reason, so just picking the middle ground. Gunsmith The namesake of our brave leader, Commander Keene, carries a raygun at all times. Seems appropriate. Also, from a meta-gaming perspective, this gives a nice starting pile of money; let's not jump too far into the deep end in game 1. Adventurer Making dumb decisions, getting fired halfway and then spending months criticizing our successor for his decisions? That's the most American way to handle things!
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May 11, 2019 15:31
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Deadmeat5150 posted:You know what must be done.
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May 11, 2019 15:32
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Let's be an adventurer artist collective. Nauvoo to Sacramento sounds painful and eventually warm? Small farm wagon
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May 11, 2019 15:42
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MagusofStars posted:Sacramento Seconding this.
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May 11, 2019 15:50
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MagusofStars posted:Sacramento Thirding this.
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May 11, 2019 15:51
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MagusofStars posted:Sacramento This sounds good to me as well.
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May 11, 2019 15:59
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MagusofStars posted:Sacramento This, but Preacher , preachin' fire and brimstone and the value of being morally upstanding, with the irony of the our motivation to go to California being trying to get stinking rich being completely lost on us.
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May 11, 2019 16:09
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MagusofStars posted:Sacramento Let's do it.
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May 11, 2019 16:10
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Life on the Trail As I mentioned before, you never rode in the wagon unless you weren't able to walk. The 2000+ mile journey generally took about 4 to 6 months depending on your final destination and any delays along the way. While it would be mostly smooth going across the Midwest, you ran into hills, rivers, and eventually the Rocky Mountains. Ferries, bridges, trading posts/forts, and cleared trails would steadily be added over the years to make the journey easier. The California Trail split off at Fort Hall in what's now southeastern Idaho, leaving pioneers heading that way to also contend with deserts with little to no water. Many trail guides and scouts offered to sell knowledge of "shortcuts" and "cutoffs" or would be encouraged by trading post owners to lead wagons off the trail onto a path that took them past the store; this is exactly how the Donner Party got into the mess they did. There was obviously no light on the trail except the moon and stars, so travel was governed by the sun. The typical day would involve breakfast before sunrise, walking until you took a break at noon, then walking again until it got too dark to see. Some people traveling with pregnant women would be able to bring a feather mattress, but most people slept with a blanket, pillow, folding mattress, and/or a rubber ground cover. Ideally the wagon would be packed with containers of the same height so you could form a sleeping platform inside the wagon, but a lot of times you just got to spend half the year sleeping on the ground every day.  The main fare along the trail was flour and salt pork (usually generically called "bacon") as these were what kept the best. Depending on where you were or the connections you had, you may have also had pemmican or cornmeal as common rations. Canning was a new technology at the time and even by the 1860s jars of preserved food were still mostly seen among wealthier travelers who could also afford the weight. A very lightweight desiccated vegetable product had been created by slicing vegetables thin and pressing them into dry, flat cakes that could be boiled in water to make a soup, but these were also relatively expensive compared to salt pork and flour. Cookware was limited by how much weight you could carry and may have been nothing but a pot or a Dutch oven. If you had the money and space, you could bring along livestock that could be slaughtered in an emergency. Food could be supplemented by hunting, fishing, and gathering wild fruits and vegetables along the trail. Some wagons were forced to subsist on nothing but what they could catch or gather after losing or running through all of their supplies. Being desperate enough to slaughter and eat your draft animals was not unknown. And, you know, there's the Donner Party. We'll cover them in more detail later. The most common drink along the trail was water, often gathered from natural sources along the way. California-bound travelers especially needed to carry sufficient water supplies to make it across the desert. Some families brought along milk cows, but because of how quickly unpasteurized milk went bad it would usually be immediately turned into butter or cheese. The most common alcoholic beverage was whiskey, but this bore little resemblance to what we know it as today. The most common grains were corn and rye, but some low-quality "whiskey" could be rotgut made from the cheapest molasses available. Distilleries (which included many farmers turning their surplus corn crop into an easier format to sell) would just sell their colorless neutral grain spirits to rectifiers who would often adulterate the product with flavorings and colorants to make it look more like whiskey, then sell it on to wholesalers who would in turn sell the bottled product to stores and saloons. Any barrel aging done was often incidental as it traveled. All sorts of nasty poo poo was used to make it seem stronger or more legit, from prune juice to sulfuric acid to lanolin. There are tales of whiskey being adulterated with gunpowder and snake venom! Travelers still tried to live it up whenever they could. A party would often be held to celebrate holidays like July 4th and Christmas (though if you were smart you'd be in your destination before winter) and people with musical talent would bring along guitars, banjos, harmonicas, and other musical instruments to entertain the rest of the wagon train when stopped. Wealthier travelers especially wanted to bring as many creature comforts as possible and would fill their wagons with washing equipment, mirrors, grandfather clocks, jewelry, and rugs. These items would rarely make it to Oregon or California due to the need to lighten the load when traversing the mountains. During the gold rush, Fort Laramie was nicknamed "Camp Sacrifice" because of how much junk was abandoned along the side of the road. As you can expect, lots of people made a tidy profit off collecting abandoned items and taking them back to sell. Mormons would send scrap collection parties out along the trail to bring back anything valuable to their colony in Salt Lake City.
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May 11, 2019 16:21
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circlmastr is gonna get dysentery and die. preemptive 
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May 11, 2019 16:31
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Well drat, we've already got 5 votes for an entire package deal! I think that's good enough for us to go with!.png) Because we're a gunsmith, we get the Sharpshooting skill for free. You don't have to spend points on skills (and you'll get unspent skill points added to your final score at the destination), but they'll definitely make the journey easier. Medical (50) lessens the chance of illnesses, injuries, and deaths among the party. Riverwork (50) reduces the chance of the wagon tipping or being swamped when crossing a river. Blacksmithing (40) makes it easier to repair broken wagon parts. Carpentry (40) also makes it easier to repair broken wagon parts. Farming/animals (40) makes your entire party immune to smallpox and makes it less likely for your animals to get sick or injured. Tracking (30) makes more game appear when hunting. Botany (20) makes it more likely that you'll find non-poisonous plants when gathering. Commerce/trade (20) gets you better deals when trading. Cooking (20) lets you stretch your food supplies longer. Musical (10) boosts morale if you also bring along a musical instrument. Sewing (10) makes your clothes last longer. Spanish (10) translates any Spanish dialogue from people you encounter.
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May 11, 2019 16:33
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chitoryu12 posted:Farming/animals (40) makes your entire party immune to smallpox Oh, that's a nice touch. Not voting for it though, where would be the fun in that. We want Spanish so we don't miss out on anything. Musical, obviously. Sewing because nobody wants nekkid goons. And I suppose the rest should probably be spent on things that might help us actually survive, so botany, cooking and riverwork?
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May 11, 2019 16:43
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Cooking Spanish Musical Tracking Gun down all animals to some Spanish singing.
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May 11, 2019 16:46
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Medical, tracking, botany and cooking.
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May 11, 2019 16:50
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Tracking, Animals, Cooking, Musical https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlGUwb2R5sQ On an Oregan-Trail-Learning note, the (quack) medical history podcast Sawbones did an ep on Oregan Trail medicine, if anyone wants to do homework / get ready to die. The correct medicine is always opium.
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May 11, 2019 17:38
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SelenicMartian posted:Cooking Spanish This, but add Riverwork. We don't want to get dunked into a river every few feet.
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May 11, 2019 18:40
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I’m going to suggest we get the true OT experience, and pick the skills that seem least likely to get everyone (or anyone) in our party to the end. Spanish (10), Musical (10), Botany (20), Carpentry (40), Blacksmithing (40). If the party dies, at least they’ll leave a kickass wagon behind (assuming it doesn’t sink in a river, of course).
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May 11, 2019 18:57
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Regalingualius posted:I’m going to suggest we get the true OT experience, and pick the skills that seem least likely to get everyone (or anyone) in our party to the end. How dare you. You know Grandma is a master of cooking
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May 11, 2019 19:01
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Well yeah, bread and bacon is all you need to live, right? These trailers knew how to live.
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May 11, 2019 19:17
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GrandmaParty posted:How dare you. You know Grandma is a master of cooking Cooking means more food, which means more of a chance (probably the best one, even) at surviving the trail. Now siddown and eat your raw buffalo.
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May 11, 2019 19:22
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TLDR: Raw meat is the poo poo.
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May 11, 2019 19:30
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lofi posted:TLDR: Raw meat is the shits.
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May 11, 2019 19:31
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Prairie sushi.
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May 11, 2019 19:34
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Currently doing a test game with similar settings as you guys vote. I'm finding hunting surprisingly hard because the game runs at an extremely low resolution (befitting its 2001 status) but my screen is 1920x1080, so the reload button is way down by my hands when clicking on it.
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May 11, 2019 19:39
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lofi posted:TLDR: Raw meat is the poo poo. If it’s bleeding, it’s cleaning!
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May 11, 2019 19:41
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Also an important thing to note when buying supplies: poo poo like grandfather clocks seem useless, but you can actually trade them for money or more valuable goods! I just traded a clock for 176 pounds of pemmican. Helpful since poor Sally died of cholera so that’s one less mouth to feed.
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May 11, 2019 19:50
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At least you know the time of death.
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May 11, 2019 19:51
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Look carefully, they are clearly grandfather Glocks.
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May 11, 2019 20:05
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And now my test run made it to Fort Laramie, then my wagon refused to move any further and the save just crashes the game. Hopefully the same doesn't happen to you guys!
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May 11, 2019 20:09
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Sounds about right. 
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May 11, 2019 20:21
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So it looks like there's no one skill block that anyone has voted for, but there's definitely some skills that keep popping up. Our count for that is: Spanish: 3 Musical: 4 Sewing: 1 Botany: 3 Cooking: 5 Riverwork: 2 Tracking: 3 Medical: 1 Farming/animals: 1 Carpentry: 1 Blacksmithing: 1 So to pick the skills, we'll go down the list from what got the most votes! Adding up all the points, our final skills will be Cooking, Musical, Botany, Spanish, and Tracking. This takes up 90 points, leaving us with an extra 30 points added to our final score...if we survive. .png) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39_MGaq8Pks We begin our journey with the tale of the Montgomery children. These cutscenes are universally horrid, but they do have some level of educational value. .png) .png) And here we are! Independence, MO was built on land bought as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803. The town was founded on March 29, 1827 in honor of the Declaration of Independence and quickly became a major town due to its position at the farthest point west where steamboats and other cargo vessels could travel. Joseph Smith, the infamous founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (better known as the Mormons) bought a spot in town in December 1831 and declared that it was where they would build the gathering point for the Mormons in the final days of mankind on Earth, but tensions grew as the Mormons failed to get along very well with their suspicious neighbors. It all reached a head in July 1833 when Mormon leader WW Phelps published the legal requirements for free blacks to come to Missouri in his newspaper The Evening and Morning Star. Local slaveowners were enraged at the Mormons attempting to publish anything that could lead to even a single black person in Missouri not being a slave, so they burned down his newspaper plant and tarred and feathered two Mormons they caught. Later that year, the Mormons were evicted from Jackson County and would continue violent conflict with Missouri residents until Joseph Smith escaped charges of treason and purchased a small town in Illinois to rename Nauvoo. Phelps himself would be at odds with church leadership and testified against Joseph Smith during the conflict, leading to him being excommunicated three times and rejoining every single time. After Smith was killed in 1844 by an angry mob storming the jailhouse he was in, Phelps supported Brigham Young as the new president of the church and lived until 1872. Independence is currently the main jumping-off point for the Oregon Trail and others that utilize its length, like the California Trail we'll be taking. It's a prosperous town full of merchants ready to take our substantial cash. .png) I can't save during the prologue so the price will probably vary by a few dollars, but when you start off you're given the option to buy a pre-arranged package of supplies. This gives you all the things that you need for a journey of that length, assuming nothing goes wrong (like tipping in the river 6 times). So our first choice is: 5 month package 6 month package Let me make the purchase, with some goon suggestions for mandatory gear We also need draft animals, which aren't included in any package deal. There's a stable selling oxen, horses, and mules. 6 oxen is a typical amount for a wagon of our size, though we can go as low as 3 or 4 if we're willing to go slower. What draft animals do we use and how many?
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May 11, 2019 20:50
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6 months, 7 oxens More oxens than what is required is a must. First, it is a walking meat reserve if need arises. Second, it is advisable to have extra oxen if one dies, so we don't slow at the end of the road.
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May 11, 2019 21:09
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6 months, 6 oxen
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May 11, 2019 21:16
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I don't care what you buy as long as you have a couple clocks that you take to the very end.
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May 11, 2019 21:27
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6 months 7 oxen. For some reason I suspect skimping on supplies might not be very good for our future prospects.Deadmeat5150 posted:have a couple clocks that you take to the very end.
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May 11, 2019 22:34
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I didn't know this was an FMV game. Anyway 6 months, 9 oxen because we're goons and want the weed number reference. I have it on good authority (from CJacobs) that 69 is the weed number.Dash Rendar posted:circlmastr is gonna get dysentery and die. preemptive 
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May 11, 2019 22:35
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