Quote from: Black Vulmea;965860A campaign is "anything longer than three sessions?" Another Pundejo out-of-the-ass pronouncement?

No, but some people think running two sessions passes for a 'campaign'.

QuoteWhat the fuck, man? How the fuck are you using 'alt-history' here?

As in what you see in both Deadlands and Aces & Eights. As in, not our own historical timeline.

While going over Masque of the Red Death again it occurred to me that you could strip out the magic and supernatural and run a western with it without too much hassle. Though would have to wind back the clock a decade or two limit levels to keep guns dangerous.

Quote from: RPGPundit;966094No, but some people think running two sessions passes for a 'campaign'.

Fuck a bunch of your "some people" bullshit, Pundejo - who the fuck said "two sessions passes for a 'campaign'?"

And what makes three 'sessions' holier than two? Why not four? or six? or ten? What makes this anything more than you trying to claim authority over definitions beyond just talking out of your "alpha-male" asshole?

Quote from: RPGPundit;966094As in what you see in both Deadlands and Aces & Eights. As in, not our own historical timeline.

1e Boot Hill's default setting is 'El Dorado County, somewhere in the Southwest' - is that fantasy or alt-history to you?

Quote from: Black Vulmea;9662081e Boot Hill's default setting is 'El Dorado County, somewhere in the Southwest' - is that fantasy or alt-history to you?

Hmm, you and Pundit slugging it out might become popcorn worthy, but in the meantime it has produced something of value.  This is actually a good question.

El Dorado County is where the CA Gold Rush started, not far from the now aptly named Placerville (which was once named Dry Diggin's and Hangtown - I love wandering around Northern California checking out all the little museums and landmarks).  El Dorado County was one of California's original counties, so has been around since 1850.

If a campaign is set in the actual El Dorado County in year whatever, then I'd called that "historical".
If the campaign is set in the real world, but a fictional El Dorado County that's meant to stand in for any Southwest County circa 1865-1890, I wouldn't call the campaign either historical or alt-history.  It's a "fictional" Western campaign, maybe.
For a campaign to be "alt-history" it has to clearly diverge from our history at some point prior to the PCs involvement.

But of course, Clash is right: no matter whether it's "historical", "fictional" or "alt-history" it becomes alt-history as soon as PCs enter the picture, it becomes in essence an alternate timeline.

To me alternative history is when something is obviously different than history as we know it. In this game Hitler won the second world war. That kind of thing. When is a game officially a campaign? I don't know really. One quest could take 3 or even 4 sessions in my experience. So I would say 5 sessions or longer? Longer than a month if you play weekly?

Quote from: Black Vulmea;966208Fuck a bunch of your "some people" bullshit, Pundejo - who the fuck said "two sessions passes for a 'campaign'?"

And what makes three 'sessions' holier than two? Why not four? or six? or ten? What makes this anything more than you trying to claim authority over definitions beyond just talking out of your "alpha-male" asshole?

I'm not sure what the fuck your problem is, retard, but here is why I put that definition in the first post: to make it clear that while it didn't have to be a short campaign, I wasn't talking about one-shots and I wasn't talking about something that you'd thought about running and then didn't and I wasn't talking about a game that petered out immediately; but that otherwise I didn't really care how many sessions you'd played.

I'm not sure what satanic motive you think I had for what I wrote, or if you actually have a thought process of any kind running through the mess of obvious frustration and confused-neanderthal-rage-at-a-world-you-could-never-understand that is your mind, but that was my actual reason for writing it that way.

Quote1e Boot Hill's default setting is 'El Dorado County, somewhere in the Southwest' - is that fantasy or alt-history to you?

Neither. It's a non-fantasy fictional setting. Not history, but unless you have wizards or sexy vampires or such in it, then it's not fantasy either.  It's just a made up quasi-real make-believe-town like you see in westerns written by people who didn't want to do the research.

Quote from: CRKrueger;966212Hmm, you and Pundit slugging it out might become popcorn worthy, but in the meantime it has produced something of value.  This is actually a good question.

El Dorado County is where the CA Gold Rush started, not far from the now aptly named Placerville (which was once named Dry Diggin's and Hangtown - I love wandering around Northern California checking out all the little museums and landmarks).  El Dorado County was one of California's original counties, so has been around since 1850.

If a campaign is set in the actual El Dorado County in year whatever, then I'd called that "historical".
If the campaign is set in the real world, but a fictional El Dorado County that's meant to stand in for any Southwest County circa 1865-1890, I wouldn't call the campaign either historical or alt-history.  It's a "fictional" Western campaign, maybe.
For a campaign to be "alt-history" it has to clearly diverge from our history at some point prior to the PCs involvement.

I haven't looked at the Boot Hill book in years, but as far as I know it was the latter. The fact that they called it "el dorado county" was almost certainly a total coincidence.

I've only played Boot Hill as one shots. Maybe a couple sessions back in the 80s, but nothing memorable.

All my Western campaigns have been Deadlands or other Fantasy West. I ran my own Sixguns & Sorcery campaign on and off for a couple years using AD&D. Think Shadowrun with horses.

2nd Ed Boot Hill notes El Dorado County is "somewhere in the west" and some GM suggestions are Colorado, Wyoming or Texas along the Mexican border. Also gives examples for Texas near a reservation or the border, and one for Colorado and suggestion for orienting the map. But notes it was meant to be placed about anywhere the GM wants.

Make of that what you will.

Quote from: RPGPundit;966391I haven't looked at the Boot Hill book in years, but as far as I know it was the latter. The fact that they called it "el dorado county" was almost certainly a total coincidence.

I'd have to check but I'm pretty sure the El Dorado County in Boot Hill has zilch to do with the real El Dorado County. I'm almost certain they just grabbed it as a cool Western name and placed it in a vague Southwestern U.S. I always had the impression it was meant to be in the Colorado/New Mexico/Arizona region. I don't think anyone here in Southern California would even think of El Dorado County as being "southwest" as it's practically Oregon.

Quote from: Dumarest;966511I'd have to check but I'm pretty sure the El Dorado County in Boot Hill has zilch to do with the real El Dorado County. I'm almost certain they just grabbed it as a cool Western name and placed it in a vague Southwestern U.S. I always had the impression it was meant to be in the Colorado/New Mexico/Arizona region. I don't think anyone here in Southern California would even think of El Dorado County as being "southwest" as it's practically Oregon.

You live here, so you know, but California's so damn big, "practically Oregon" is still over 200 miles away.  El Dorado's about as far north as Kansas City or Colorado Springs.  Depending on the definition, no part of California is in the Southwest, while others count the eastern deserts.  In any case, you're right, Placerville ain't it.

Quote from: CRKrueger;966583You live here, so you know, but California's so damn big, "practically Oregon" is still over 200 miles away.  El Dorado's about as far north as Kansas City or Colorado Springs.  Depending on the definition, no part of California is in the Southwest, while others count the eastern deserts.  In any case, you're right, Placerville ain't it.

Of course we consider Sacramento to be practically Moscow, too.

Quote from: Dumarest;966787Of course we consider Sacramento to be practically Moscow, too.

At least we do in Rocklin.

My latest blog entry is somewhat relevant to this thread.

Quote from: jan paparazzi;966218To me alternative history is when something is obviously different than history as we know it. In this game Hitler won the second world war. That kind of thing.

Agreed. A true alternative history should be one where it's clear that some major event made history different from what we know now. Little ripples in the timestream are just regular RPG sessions.

As to campaign locations, I often keep things as vague as possible. "Somewhere in Texas" usually is enough for my group, unless they come up with a specific plan that involves an actual person or location.