[CaptainPenguin] 4:23 pm: It's reverse-America-
[CaptainPenguin] 4:23 pm: the settlers go east and get diseases from the natives
[CaptainPenguin] 4:23 pm: Well, but if I can, I would like to downplay a sort of technology-vs-magic outlook.
[CaptainPenguin] 4:24 pm: I don't necessarily want to make this an "old ways vs new ways" game.
[CaptainPenguin] 4:24 pm: How about this-
[CaptainPenguin] 4:24 pm: the natives have more powerful magic.
[CaptainPenguin] 4:25 pm: In addition, the Easterners' magic is tied to objects- enchanted pistols, charmed playing
cards, clockwork birds
[CaptainPenguin] 4:25 pm: (I'm a big fan of balance. )
[CaptainPenguin] 4:25 pm: Why?
[CaptainPenguin] 4:26 pm: Because that's what civilized powers do, of course... Plus, they want that #$%^&*
Eastern Expanse, and they're sure as hell gonna' get out there before the blasted Creoles, or whatever.
[CaptainPenguin] 4:26 pm: They want the resources, or they want land...
[CaptainPenguin] 4:26 pm: And there's gold in the East.
[CaptainPenguin] 4:27 pm: Gold miners
[CaptainPenguin] 4:28 pm: Well, remember, only part of it is big bayous and Lousiana swamps...
[CaptainPenguin] 4:29 pm: Ooh, I like that..
[CaptainPenguin] 4:29 pm: I was just about to say
[CaptainPenguin] 4:29 pm: big insects on the northern plains and such
[CaptainPenguin] 4:30 pm: Oh, I'm with you on the swarms of flies.
[CaptainPenguin] 4:32 pm: Well, most of it will not be sandy...
[CaptainPenguin] 4:32 pm: Most of the Wild West is rocky desert, there's very little in the way of sandy desert
[CaptainPenguin] 4:32 pm: Yes, sure.
[CaptainPenguin] 4:33 pm: Yeah, sure.
[CaptainPenguin] 4:33 pm: Like Arizona.
[CaptainPenguin] 4:35 pm: Oh, I'll have all kinds of animals of that sort...
[CaptainPenguin] 4:35 pm: So...
[CaptainPenguin] 4:35 pm: We have the East...
[CaptainPenguin] 4:35 pm: Where there are settled places...
[CaptainPenguin] 4:36 pm: Then there is the Lousiana-ish bayou-land, the vast swamp
[CaptainPenguin] 4:36 pm: swamp/jungle
[CaptainPenguin] 4:37 pm: And north of that you have arid rocky plains and mesas, possibly Arizona-like
[CaptainPenguin] 4:37 pm: And north of that you get the Northern Plains, and then the Big Mountains (pine forests,
et cetera)
[CaptainPenguin] 4:38 pm: (Note- pseudo-Lousiana verges on a sea)
[CaptainPenguin] 4:38 pm: Mmmm...
[CaptainPenguin] 4:39 pm: On fallen civilizations, you can have the farthest-northeast explorers discovering the ruins
of ancient cities on the northeastern plains
[CaptainPenguin] 4:39 pm: Artifacts... Native stuff, and the Easterners have charmed items
[CaptainPenguin] 4:39 pm: Sacred locations.... We forgot about religion!
[CaptainPenguin] 4:40 pm: Well, I would assume that tombs are sort of included in ruins...
[CaptainPenguin] 4:41 pm: You mean like the Anasazi?
[CaptainPenguin] 4:41 pm: That's great!
[CaptainPenguin] 4:41 pm: I dunno'...
[CaptainPenguin] 4:41 pm: Hmmm
[CaptainPenguin] 4:41 pm: I think I'd probably just do monotheism for the Easterners...
[CaptainPenguin] 4:42 pm: So, clearly, the bayou-gamblers have been here longer.
[CaptainPenguin] 4:43 pm: But perhaps instability in their capitol and central provinces has prevented them from
expanding much.
[CaptainPenguin] 4:43 pm: Life is hard and rough and dangerous- gold miners and horse gangsters are throughout
the region, living in ramshackle boomtowns
[CaptainPenguin] 4:43 pm: Seeya, sparK!
[CaptainPenguin] 4:44 pm: There isn't much in the way of large settlement in the arid areas-
[CaptainPenguin] 4:44 pm: Just these rowdy towns
[CaptainPenguin] 4:44 pm: Yes
[CaptainPenguin] 4:45 pm: After a couple generations in the swamps, the swamplanders simply don't like the arid
areas, and tend simply to go to the more southern towns in it to gamble and swindle the miners.
[CaptainPenguin] 4:45 pm: Sure.
[CaptainPenguin] 4:45 pm: Easterners are bayou dwellers, and in addition, the miners and horse folk...
[CaptainPenguin] 4:46 pm: The miners and horse people and gunslingers come from a nation north of the home of
the bayou people... They have frequent border wars.
[CaptainPenguin] 4:46 pm: Perhaps the northeast nation has declared the East "open for the taking"
[CaptainPenguin] 4:47 pm: So...
[CaptainPenguin] 4:47 pm: Easterners have two factions- northerners and bayou people... (Northerners are
American/Yankees and the Southerners are Creole-French/Southerners)
[CaptainPenguin] 4:47 pm: The natives have all kinds of tribes
[CaptainPenguin] 4:48 pm: Fair Folk?
[CaptainPenguin] 4:48 pm: Yes, we should have some other power like that
[CaptainPenguin] 4:48 pm: Something supernatural
[CaptainPenguin] 4:48 pm: Maybe out of the northwest, where all the ruins are?
[CaptainPenguin] 4:49 pm: What, the Fair Folk?
[CaptainPenguin] 4:49 pm: No, they just kind of seep in
[CaptainPenguin] 4:49 pm: They come in where they can.
[CaptainPenguin] 4:49 pm: Oh, mine.
[CaptainPenguin] 4:49 pm: Okay...
[CaptainPenguin] 4:50 pm: Well, I'd like to figure out what the "X-Factor" is, first.
[CaptainPenguin] 4:51 pm: Mmmm... I prefer corporeal, or perhaps a mix of the two. Not like an army of ghosts or
anything like that.
[CaptainPenguin] 4:51 pm: Hmmm... Supernatural, I guess?
[CaptainPenguin] 4:52 pm: Human-ish
[CaptainPenguin] 4:52 pm: Hmmm...
[CaptainPenguin] 4:52 pm: There's a tough one...
[CaptainPenguin] 4:52 pm: Well, let's say they were the cause of the fall of the northern ruins
[CaptainPenguin] 4:52 pm: Is their motivation to
[CaptainPenguin] 4:53 pm: Yes, that'd be good
[CaptainPenguin] 4:53 pm: Perhaps they are servants of the Old Gods
[CaptainPenguin] 4:53 pm: Who the northern civilization displeased
[CaptainPenguin] 4:53 pm: But then the civilization died and the things ran amok
[CaptainPenguin] 4:54 pm: Mmmm
[CaptainPenguin] 4:54 pm: Perhaps
[CaptainPenguin] 4:54 pm: Umm
[CaptainPenguin] 4:54 pm: Well, the natives could worship *some* of the third factor
[CaptainPenguin] 4:55 pm: Perhaps the third factor are sort of Cthulhic... In that they come in a lot of bizarre forms,
and some are more powerful than others
[CaptainPenguin] 4:55 pm: I would go with a Conan-ish option-
[CaptainPenguin] 4:55 pm: These demons or creatures are simply summonable by magic...
[CaptainPenguin] 4:55 pm: Yep.
[CaptainPenguin] 4:56 pm: We could even go slightly toward the "space aliens" option0
[CaptainPenguin] 4:56 pm: This is definitely Cthulhu...
[CaptainPenguin] 4:56 pm: And even Howard hinted that some of his demons were aliens.. In his mind, demon and
alien are not necessarily exclusive.
[CaptainPenguin] 4:56 pm: Yeah!
[CaptainPenguin] 4:56 pm: Perhaps...
[CaptainPenguin] 4:57 pm: Perhaps the Northern Civilization called down the Things From Beyond The Stars
[CaptainPenguin] 4:57 pm: No, Cthulhu aliens
[CaptainPenguin] 4:57 pm: Tentacled beings that drift around planets destroying sanity, not UFOs.
[CaptainPenguin] 4:57 pm: Yeah...
[CaptainPenguin] 4:58 pm: Okay, g'bye, AG!
[CaptainPenguin] 4:58 pm: Feel better!
[CaptainPenguin] 4:59 pm: Mmmmgoood
That's the last bit of the conversation... Stay tuned, kids