Holy crap.  It's a real thing - //www.cowboyethics.org

That's almost creepy...

Building on Opaopajr's fine example (http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=25113), here is what I have so far...

1) Basic Setting Context - American West in 1866, centered on the Great Plains area near the Powder River. *Southern Montana, Eastern Wyoming and Colorado, Western South Dakota Nebraska.

Locations of note -

i. Trails/Bozeman/Oregon - (Need some detail)

ii. Union Pacific Railhead -*Fremont, Nebraska at the start of the campaign, and will follow the timeline*http://utahrails.net/up/up-timeline-1864-1880.php*unless modified by the players

iii. Forts/Kearney/Laramie*- (Need some detail)

iv. Cow Towns*- (Need some detail)

v. Native territory - (Need some detail)

Activities of note -

a. Wagon trains

b. Railroad building

c. Native conflicts (Note upcoming Red Cloud's War)

d. Boom towns (Note upcoming Cheyenne's rapid deployment)

e. Ranching/Homesteading

f. Prospecting (Colorado, Montana, and eventually the Black Hills)

2) Campaign Premise - You are a participant in one of the most unique periods in American history. *to what extent is totally up to you...

Shared Goal (your party gathers to one of these choices):

i. Someone who would claim one of the party as kin (blood relative or otherwise) inhabits the area and has sent for him or her to come help. *Other party members can be related or merely neighbors. *Deal with the immediate problem and work on establishing your own lives on the frontier.

ii. Your characters are all connected to the US Army and have been assigned to serve one of the forts in the area. *Goals here include maintaining the fort and keeping the surrounding lands in relative peace.

iii. As with 'iii' above, except the railroad. *This campaign would likely end with the driving of the golden spike in 1869.

Quote from: mcbobbo;713178Holy crap.  It's a real thing - //www.cowboyethics.org

That's almost creepy...

Lolwhut? That site made me laugh so hard. Apparently they don't realize that the cowboy as a heroic figure is purely an invention of Hollywood.

Ah well, no different than a King Arthur fan club I guess.

mcbobbo, what I did when I was building my game was not only look at a long of online sources, but took advantage of the numerous shows out there.  On Netflix (if you have it), there is a series called "The Real West", which was a great source of inspiration.

Of course, I have a bit of an advantage because I grew up on a ranch in a very stereotypical "cowboy" area, so I already had the mindset of that era ingrained.

Wards had a catalog that's closer to my time:

https://archive.org/details/catalogueno13spr00mont

Quote from: Sacrosanct;713566mcbobbo, what I did when I was building my game was not only look at a long of online sources, but took advantage of the numerous shows out there.  On Netflix (if you have it), there is a series called "The Real West", which was a great source of inspiration.

Of course, I have a bit of an advantage because I grew up on a ranch in a very stereotypical "cowboy" area, so I already had the mindset of that era ingrained.

I had a similar upbringing until the divorce.  I was about 9 at the time, so it's pretty fuzzy.  But I'm catching up fast...

Quote from: TristramEvans;713565Lolwhut? That site made me laugh so hard. Apparently they don't realize that the cowboy as a heroic figure is purely an invention of Hollywood.

Ah well, no different than a King Arthur fan club I guess.

I've never heard of these guys either, but I disagree with your assertion here.

You do have descendants, or just upright country folk who hold to those types of values today. They exist. I can respect where these guys are coming from. So many are content to crap on any values associated with white America.

There's no reason not to think some cowboys felt that way - just like the associations of the Great Generation. Not all of that generation held the same values, but some did.

During the expansion of the West, there were many locations that were effectively their own ecosystems because of remoteness.

For example, there are some towns (and remnants of old towns) along the Columbia River. The trade that would extend up to Ft Vancouver and early PDX area / Willamette Valley came across land AND by water. Many of those small towns were linked together, not so much by roads but by boat - on both sides of the river.

Reposting from PM with permission...

Quote from: Opaopajr

Quote from: mcbobboI'm working on a Western sandbox campaign for my oldest son, and thought you might help me design a random encounter table for it.

I didn't know whether to use a series of subtables, or just one big one.

Categories would be...

Human - Pioneer - living/burnt out, Wagon Train active/resting/raided, Cattle Drive, Railroad crew, Bandits, Native - friendly/neutral/hostile, Prospector

Animal - wolves, bear, cougar, snake - nuisance/poisonous, buffalo herd, range cattle, lost horse w tack

Weather - (will probably steal from someplace and tweak)

Stuff like that.  Ideally I would love to see a 'roll twice' option as well.

Any ideas?

I generally use a separate table for general weather. However, dangerous weather phenomena is just as much of an encounter as anything else, and those I like to include into encounter tables. My preference is to keep "encounter weather" sub-categorized into related general weather or general terrain.

I prefer to prioritize encounter tables to Terrain, put in slot alternates for civilizing influences, and then run Season and Weather side tables for further alternates. In a way this covers your "roll again" preference.

e.g. traditional 1d8+1d12 bell curve rarity table. Slots: 5 Common, 4 Uncommon, 4-6 Rare, 4-6 Very Rare. vr, vr, vr/r, r, r, u, u, c, c, c, c, c, u, u, r, r, vr/r, vr, vr.

Terrain: Southern Dry Plains (Texas, Oklahoma, etc.)
R - Dangerous Weather x2, War Party x2, Big Monster x2
U - Alarming Weather x2, Anomaly/Clue, Scary Animal/Traveler

By the way, the slashed slots (i.e. Scary Animal/Traveler) are an example of accounting for wilds/civilized depending on party location.

The weather can be left vague, as you can then let season (as per your time chronicle) or weather table affect the result. Then draft results within those slots:

R - Tornado, Hurricane, Blizzard, Prairie Fire, Flash Flood, Thunderclouds, Dust Storm, Large Hail, etc.

U - Dust Devil, Sleet, Small Hail, Sudden Gale (60+ mph wind), Cloud Burst/Sun Shower (surprise rain), Heat Wave (persisting encounter), Cold Snap (persisting also), Gully Washer (heavy rain, roll again for Danger Weather), Cyclone/Sudden Storm system (roll again for Danger Weather), etc.

Then logically apply season and weather contexts to the results. Hurricanes or Blizzards don't usually happen out of season. Water is needed for certain weather, so droughts or nice sunny days preclude other results.

This way you can embed more than one result into an encounter slot, and let other campaign tools shape your contextualization of those results. This frees up design time as you have a handy delegation tool when you want randomized answers.

If you want, you can start a topic and repost this message and see more community advice. I give you permission.

So question on the type of curve above - how do you determine which 'R' happens?  Pick?  Roll?

Thanks for including me in the conversation!

To select which R when the Danger Weather slot comes up you first take already extant context in account -- the season and weather. And then with what's left you can use either GM prerogative or traditional dX randomization.

So if it was Summer on the Coastal Texas Plains, and on Weather you rolled hot 'n humid (or rainy) you'll have these logical R options:

R - Tornado, Hurricane, Flash Floods, Thunderclouds.

Here you can choose directly, or roll a d4.

Further you can apply finer location detail to help you choose. Like if the party was on lowland (or god forbid walking next to a currently low flowing creek bed), the threat of a sudden flash flood might make more sense.

Even more, you can utilize finer chronological detail to help you choose. Like if the party endured "Cloud Burst" or "Gully Washer" Alarming Weather rather recently, again flash flood might make more sense.

These latter context aids help the feel of veracity, so it is an advance technique worth keeping in mind. However don't feel bound by it; reality is known for curveballs. For if you or your players find this repeated refined context turning predictable you always have randomization (i.e. d4 above) to fall back on.

Quote from: mcbobbo;712938Ooh, I should add a 'horse personally table' to my list...

IIRC, Wilderness Survival Guide has a horse personality table. It also has multiple inclement weather tables. It also will likely be more granular than you may want in your campaign.

But like I said before, there's some surprisingly usable tools in that maligned WSG book!

(I'll get around to reprinting that horsey table. Bear with me.)

I should have gotten to this earlier.

Quote from: mcbobbo;7135601) Basic Setting Context - American West in 1866, centered on the Great Plains area near the Powder River. *Southern Montana, Eastern Wyoming and Colorado, Western South Dakota Nebraska.

This is great! Not just Great Plains, or Northern Great Plains, but down to a sizable land feature.

Quote from: mcbobbo;7135602) Campaign Premise - You are a participant in one of the most unique periods in American history. *to what extent is totally up to you...

Feels a bit broad and vague. There's nothing wrong with a bit of repetition to cement in people's heads. Here's a quick way to focus:

Six words: time, place, sphere, event, why, how.

Scenario Setting = time & place. American West, 1866, near Powder River.

Campaign Premise = sphere & event. Settlers. Gov't Building of Three Forts along Bozeman Trail, lead up to Red Cloud's War with Oglala Sioux & Cheyenne.

Shared Goal/Start = why together, how you operate. See your cool options Below.

Quote from: mcbobbo;713560Shared Goal (your party gathers to one of these choices):

i. Someone who would claim one of the party as kin (blood relative or otherwise) inhabits the area and has sent for him or her to come help. *Other party members can be related or merely neighbors. *Deal with the immediate problem and work on establishing your own lives on the frontier.

ii. Your characters are all connected to the US Army and have been assigned to serve one of the forts in the area. *Goals here include maintaining the fort and keeping the surrounding lands in relative peace.

iii. As with 'iii' above, except the railroad. *This campaign would likely end with the driving of the golden spike in 1869.

... so "why together, how party operates" is:
i. Why? Settler's claim. How? Woodcutters, Hay farmers, Ranchers, etc.
ii. Why? US Army troops. How? Defend 1 of 3 forts.
iii. Why? Railroad building. How? Laborers, or supervising rail reps.

Condensing helps clarify, which in turn helps save processing power. Clearer vision aids design direction; you know what to focus on for your players.

Quote from: Opaopajr;713955 IIRC, Wilderness Survival Guide has a horse personality table. It also has multiple inclement weather tables. It also will likely be more granular than you may want in your campaign.

But like I said before, there's some surprisingly usable tools in that maligned WSG book!

(I'll get around to reprinting that horsey table. Bear with me.)

It's cool.  dndclassics has it - http://www.dndclassics.com/product/17007/Wilderness-Survival-Guide-%281e%29?it=1

Aces & Eights is made for sandbox play, though I wish the full rules were just slightly less complex, or the basic rules just slightly  more complex.

Even so, its full of very awesome sub-systems to handle all kinds of "Wild West" activities (prospecting, cattle driving, western courtroom drama, gambling, etc).