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3月31日 Deadwood is about Gold!Deadwood is about Gold!
Today I'm going to talk about the mechanics of this game I'm planning. The first thing I have to do is create a sort of economic system for my characters to operate under; this brought about the idea that Deadwood, in this historical period, was all about gold. The only reason Deadwood even came to exist was because of the gold in the Black Hills. The migration into the Black Hills was mainly the draw of 'Gold Fever'; everyone from the miners to all the people who profitted off the miners. Gold mining is a central theme to my game.
All players will start off with one character. Right now I am looking at a number of different systems for character generation. I am leaning towards the system in 'Gutshot' from a standpoint of simplicity. The only thing is I will have to flesh it out more for special ability factors particular to mining and the Black Hills. Each character is given an initial cash allowance of $100.00; now in 1876 this was a serious amount of money for some people. The average American family in this time frame only made about $600.00 a year!
Each character gets a 'shopping trip' to prepare them for their venture into the Black Hills. They can also elect to take the money with them as cash into the game. This option leaves them open to buying what they need in Deadwood but it also carries other risks for the character. I may decide to put a system in the game where the player will have the option of accepting certain liabilities for his character in exchange for more money initially. Money will ultimately transfer to the specific goods the character takes into the game.
Weight also becomes a factor in the game. If the character decides to add a horse or mule to their equipment this will not only determine how much they bring into the game but how easily they move about the game. It will also directly effect how much gold they can bring into Deadwood from their claims. Horses or mules will also have additional factors for consideration in the game. Historically one of the biggest expenses of living in Deadwood during the gold rush was buying food for animals. There were some speculators that made a considerable amount of money off selling fodder for horses.
Each character makes a set of choices early on into the game as to how they will try to support themselves. This will decide how they equip themselves and some of their initial actions. If they decide to try their hand at mining they will need to "stake a claim". I am working on what I am thinking of as a sort of 'strategic map'; this will show the general area of the Deadwood settlement itself and the area around it for, ideally, a radius of about twenty miles. The map around Deadwood will show the three priniciple roads of the time. If the map covers a radius of twenty miles from Deadwood it will also show the communities of Spearfish and Lead. Onto this map will be several little sections that will represent areas where minors can "stake a claim". It will cost them nothing to stake a claim but it will require the miner to travel to Deadwood to "file their claim".
Up until a minor has "filed their claim" the particular area is up for grabs. They can mark their claim in a number of ways but until the claim has been filed it is also up to be challenged. Now there is a definite potential for an altercation at this point. I am thinking of establishing a nifty little title form to give to a player once their character successfully files their claim. This would include the character's name, the map plot number for the claim, and the date in the game the claim was filed. Once a claim has been successfully filed the only way to take a claim from a character is to either buy it or take it forcibly. The problem with taking it forcibly, that is to say "claim-jumping", is that you have to demonstrate that you had a right to take the claim from the other character or you invite punitive action against you by the 'Miner's Council'. This could range from you being evicted from the Black Hills to an outright lynching!
Now if a character is killed while mining their claim it can become up for grabs. This is actually more likely than you might imagine. There were numerous cases of indians killing miners on their claims. There has also been speculation of other miners murdering a miner for his claim and they trying to pass it off as an indian attack. There were also cases of a miner being murdered without a suspect being apprehended. Then some enterprising soul would take over the departeds claim. The possibilties are more numerous than you might imagine.
Once you stake and file your claim you begin the process of actually mining for gold. Now right now I am thinking of having one week long strategic turns. Each turn the player makes a set of die rolls to determine how successful their character has been at panning for gold. The 'game master' will actually keep a hidden record of how much gold is actually on every plot. The gold will be divided up into three basic categories; placer gold, shallow mine and deep mine. Hypothetically a character might not find a lot of gold they can get by just panning but still be on top of the proverbial "mother lode". They could also go bust pretty quickly. Gold mining was essentially a gamble.
If the character is lucky and strikes gold it will be randomly determined how much gold they actually collect. The character can do a number of different thing to better their odds at collecting more gold. Usually this is done by spending more of their money on tools or hiring help. It might become attractive for a character to either work with another character, player or NPC, but it will also bring additional risks. If a stake does prove to be profitable then what is to prevent the initially stake-holder from dying in some "terrible accident" and the character helping him then taking over the claim? I'm still working on a system for this sort of eventuality.
Once the character has their hard earned gold dust they will probably want to head for Deadwood to use it. This will take a number of different potential forms; they might simply buy more provisions and equipment. They might decide to throw themselves a little party. They could even decide to hide the gold on their claim. The process of taking the gold into town even has a number of risks; "road agents" were a very real threat in this time. Nobody knows how many sucessful gold miners ended their careers in a shallow grave near a mining trail.
Well, this is enough for now but this is the beginning of some of the basic mechanics for the game. I want to thank all of you who have E-mailed encouragement to me on this process. I will be adding more historical material in the very near future. Yesterday I put down a substantial investment on different items to bring the miniatures game about and additional historical materials. I have even managed to find a full-fledged scholar of the 'soiled doves' to provide me with additional historical materials on their role in all of this! 3月25日 Real World RealitiesReal World Realities and how they can effect things...
Last week Laurie and I found out our schedules at work were about to go through some radical changes. It had us fairly worried at first but now the impact of the change doesn't seem to be so terrible. It is going to effect our personal lives to a degree but I am of the philosophy that there is opportunity in any adversity.
Here are the facts; our management believes it is critical to our office to have it staffed farther into the evening. I can just imagine the howling our Union people put up over this! We don't have a lot of low seniority people left in our office. I have almost twelve years with the company and I am considered to have relatively low seniority. The way management got around this somewhat was to offer more 4X10 shifts. This is to say a person works four days a week, ten hours a day. There are some people who covet these shifts depending on what day off you get during the week. The natural preference for most people is Monday or Friday; thus you have a three day weekend every week! Trying to get this sort of arrangement is not all that easy. Trying to get this for two people, like Laurie and I, is a long shot at best.
The fact is Laurie and I did. We got Fridays off. Now I have to wonder if somebody wasn't pulling strings for us in the background but I'm not going to question it. It won't be that big a deal for me to work ten hour shifts. Just let me have a coffee run before Caribou closes at 5:00pm and I'm good to go. I think it will be harder on Laurie, she doesn't much like the idea of the long shifts and it will definitely cut into her card-playing time on week nights.
What is the upside of all this? The long weekends during the summer, especially during the summer, will give us an opportunity for more short-range roadtrips. There are a lot of places for historical research on this project of mine within an eight hour drive. Heck, Deadwood itself is only an eight hour drive! It doesn't give us a lot of time at whatever destination we have but it is still more plausible than on a strictly two day weekend.
The other potential advantage of all this depends on what happens on June 30th. This is when this particular set of job tours ends. If we could score the same 4X10 schedule again, that is to say with Fridays off, we could use this during the July travel season. Right now we are planning the Big Expedition of 2007 in July and Convergence is in July. The extra day would help both of those. We have so many sites we want to visit on the big trip in July that the extra 24 hours would come in handy. The only problem is in getting the same shift again; it won't be a problem to get a 4X10 but there are still those who want that Friday slot.
This all remains to be seen. The next thing is to see how much we like the new schedule. It will begin on April 9th... 3月24日 Deadwood: The Legendary Lawless LandDeadwood: The Legendary Lawless Land of the Frontier
The early frontier days of Deadwood were almost legendary for the lawlessness and violence of the mining settlement. It has taken me awhile to sort out the truth and the fiction of this mythology. The fact is that in its inception every white settler who moved into the Black Hills was a criminal; they were violating the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868. Many of them fully expected the United States Army would be booting them out. Most of them also knew that the Sioux were within their rights to kill them on sight! Gold fever had a curious way of outweighing all of this. People from the east who probably wouldn't have broken even the most minor local laws were now blatantly violating the treaty.
Gold also drew in some of the worst elements of American society at that time. The fact that there was no local law enforcement could only have emboldened criminals. It also helps explain why individuals such as Al Swearengen flourished in Deadwood. I want to devote more time to Al someday; I doubt that most people would even know of him if it wasn't for the 'Deadwood' series but he was a very real historical figure. This was a man that was making between $5000 to $10,000 a day in Deadwood in 1876. This was in a time when the average American family of 1876 only made $600 a year!
So what do we know of the lawless nature of Deadwood in 1876? I'll tell you what I have learned. Now in J. S. McClintock's book "Pioneer Days in the Black Hills" he documents 97 homicides that took place in the first three years of the settlement. The indians were blamed for 52 of these; it could have been claim jumpers too. I've also seen reports of greedy miners murdering other miners and attempting to pass it off as an indian attack. Another 34 of this 97 was clearly killed by other white settlers. The remaining 11 were killed by vigilantes. Now this is just one set of numbers. The newspapers of the day tell of unmarked graves turning up periodically that would indicate efforts at hiding other mortal violence. The indians would generally not bother to provide a Christian burial for their victims. Those who would die of natural causes would often at least get the courtesy of some meager monument.
Now mortality among the miners was high from other threats as well. The Black Hills Times on January 6th of 1879 listed a total of 96 deaths in 1878. Of these 66 were from natural causes, 16 from murder, 6 from suicide and 8 from accidents. Now the deaths from natural causes brings up another interesting fact about the frontier days of the region. Some diseases were well known and recognised - such as small pox, typhoid fever or dyptheria - but if the illness was unknown it fell under the all encompassing description of "mountain fever". Now these numbers actually served as a matter of civic pride for some of the local leaders of Deadwood. Based on an estimated population of 12,000 in Lawrence County that would give a death rate of 8 per 1000. At this time in American history the lowest rate in 28 of the major cities of the United States was 11.32 out of a 1000! Now do keep in mind the imperfect reporting of such numbers at this time but it does provide an interesting perspective.
You don't have to look far to find other accounts of life in Deadwood in these days that confirms some of the worst suspicions of the settlement. One John F. Finerty with the Chicago Times left a colorful and descriptive record of his time in Deadwood. He estimated that a man or two was killed every night and describes an environment of drunkeness, debauchery and casual violence. The fleecing of miners for their gold appears to have been very common but seldom in itself resulting in deadly violence. Fist fights between miners were not uncommon in the various social establishments of Deadwood. Al Swearengen even went so far as to try to exploit this by staging 'prize fights' between the locals as public entertainment! There is no evidence he ever rewarded any prize in these events but evidence that he never lacked for participants.
Of course the best known case of criminal violence in the history of Deadwood was the August 2nd, 1876 murder of Wild Bill Hickock by that low-down scallawag Jack McCall (sorry for the moment of editorialisation). This was only one of such recorded events though. The first attempted stage robbery took place near Deadwood on the night of March 25th 1877. The robbery was unsuccessful but resulted in the death of the stage driver. There were several other recorded recorded murders in Deadwood including one on November 18th 1876 that resulted in the shooting of a restuarant patron over a lunch bill!
Now when Seth Bullock was appointed sheriff of Lawrence County in August of 1876 he started a vigorous campaign to reduce the lawlessness of the area. Up until this time the only body of any sort that functioned as a sort of law enforcement body was the local miner's council. This group arguably functioned as a pseudo-legal body. This group might have been one of the elements that prevented the sort of vigilante activity that took place in other parts of the old west. The incidents that I have found show them avoiding lynchings and resorting more often to banishments of offenders. I have read of one case involving claim jumping when the miner's council had the offender escorted out of the area with an armed guard of 200 men and the admonishment that if the offenders returned they would be shot on sight.
Well, I'm going to wind this up for now. Next time, probably tomorrow, I'll focus a little more on Seth Bullock. He wasn't exactly like the portray him in 'Deadwood' but the series is awfully close. This is another one of those topics that is just to big to cover in one sitting.
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3月21日 Deadwood Project and the Minnesota WinterThe Deadwood Project and the Minnesota Winter
I had a temporary setback to the Deadwood Project last Friday. I have a personal policy of paying all my essential bills and investments first and then I can figure out how much of my paycheck can go to my hobbies. Now Laurie and I have been very fortunate this winter; the weather has relatively mild. Now in February we saw some serious cold temperatures hit the state and last Friday we got the energy bill. We replaced our furnace a couple years ago with a more economical model and sealed most of the house but, ouch, it still hit us. Well, some of the gaming project went on hold for a couple weeks.
On the other hand, winter is done and our vacation plans look like they will work out. I work in an industry that is subject to unexpected fluctuation and changes. It never hurts to keep the resume current. We went through another one of these phases recently and came out of it intact. The only problem is it looks like our hours will change and not for the better. It will be even harder for me to game in the evenings.
I will still endeavor to keep putting material on this blog. For all of you who have set up RSS linking on the site all I can say is, "very cool". Look for a substantial amount of new material this weekend. It will either be on crime and violence in Deadwood or, at the request of one fellow, the 'soiled doves' of Deadwood. You would be amazed how much historical material there is available on them. Laurie and I also have a few interesting stories about what we have personally seen and heard about them. They literally left an indelible mark on the town. 3月19日 The 'Military' History of Deadwood: Part IIIThe 'Military' History of Deadwood: Part III
I have always found it interesting how the army was pulled a number of different ways during the formation of Deadwood. When the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 was first signed the gold in the Black Hills was a mystery to most people. It was more important in 1868 to end a bloody war with the indians better known for incidents like the Fetterman Massacre. The army was functioning in what some people today would term as "peace-keeping mission". The confirmation of gold in the Black Hills by the Custer Expedition of 1874 changed the political direction of indian policy radically. The United States was suffering from the financial burden of the recent Civil War and the news of gold was seen as potential relief. The army would soon find political forces pushing it to make the commercial exploitation of the Black Hills possible.
In 1878 the leadership of the United States Army was getting increasingly irritated with some of the people in the Black Hills. On February 26th, 1878 General Crook complained to the War Department of the extent to which the people they were protecting were also stealing property from them! The army was losing horses and material to thieves who would then successfully hide in the settlements within the Black Hills. This was in a time when the army was operating on a thread-bare budget. Eventually none other than William Tecumseh Sherman, commander of the army, would declare, "If the people of Deadwood protect such thieves they can not expect the U.S. troops to protect them and their property against hostile indians."
Inspite of this General Alfred Terry strongly recommended that a regular military post was needed in the Black Hills area. Sherman was reluctant to endorse the idea but eventually gave it approval. This was to start a period of intense posturing and political machinations as each community in the area attempted to persuade the army the future post should be near it. Eventually it all came to an end when on December 31st, 1878 the army officially declared the creation of Fort Meade. The location of the post was considered strategic in its placement near Bear Butte and a number of trails heading westward. It also became a huge economic opportunity for Deadwood since it was only 15 miles from the settlement. By all accounts there was a tremendous traffic between Deadwood and Fort Meade every payday.
Laurie and I have visited Fort Meade a couple times over the years. It is home to the Fort Meade Cavalry Museum and still in use by the South Dakota National Guard and the Army. I will probably tell more of the history of the post later; it would be both home to the 7th Cavalry and site of one of a scandal involving Major Reno; the same Reno of Little Bighorn fame.
3月18日 The 'Military' History of Deadwood: Part IIThe 'Military' History of Deadwood: Part II
When I last left off General Crook had finished his speech from a balcony on the Grand Central Hotel. He had told the population of Deadwood that the indian threat was over. This was just not to be the case. There was a temporary halt of indian attacks through the fall of 1876. The fact of the matter was that the United States government had opened talks with the Sioux. One of the goals of the talks was for the United States to take control of the Black Hills within the conditions of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty. The Sioux had scattered after their victory at the Little Bighorn; this made meaningful negotiations much more difficult. The attacks did drop off during this time though.
As winter came on the various Sioux tribal groups found themselves not prepared. The warfare with the army had disrupted their efforts to hunt buffalo and gather other supplies. Many of these indians started to approach the United States government for sustenance. Gradually many of the tribal groups signed off on the provision in the Fort Laramie Treaty allowing the United States to take control of the Black Hills. There was one significant problem though; the treaty specified that two thirds of the adult indian males had to sign in order for this transfer to take place. There is a lot of evidence that this specified majority did not sign and the United States chose to ignore this fact. This would mean that a number of Sioux continued to feel the Black Hills were their legitimate property.
On January 26th, 1877 a letter was sent to the War Department complaining of a new wave of indian raids. They wanted a military post established in the Black Hills to protect the settlements. Initially no such post was established but army patrols were sent to hunt the raiders. These patrols came from Fort Laramie in Wyoming and Fort Robinson in Nebraska. The first incident involving one of these patrols took place just five days before the ratification of the controversial Black Hills Agreement. It was an indian war party that stole a large number of horses from near Deadwood. Troop 'C' of the Third Cavalry commanded by Lieutenant J. F. Cummings chased the raiders, killing one indian and recovering the stolen horses. This was just the start of an extended period of trouble.
Sitting Bull and many of the Siuox had managed to escape to Canada by this time but roving bands remained. Colonel Nelson A. Miles was in charge of many of the actions that would now take place. It had no major battles but many small bloody skirmishes; it was a war of hit-and-run and search-and-destroy. Eventually it did seem to be over when Crazy Horse and 2000 of his warriors surrendered in May 1877. Even so on July 24th a group of indian renegades attacked government surveyors near the Redwater northwest of Deadwood. This incident resulted in the deaths of three of the troopers escorting the surveyors. It also caused a new panic in Deadwood and new appeals went out for a military post in the Black Hills.
It was in this time that a new change came to the town of Deadwood. The Territorial Governor authorized Sheriff Seth Bullock to raise six companies of militia. Each company consisted of thirty men and was supported by Lawrence County. It doesn't look like these militiamen ever saw action against the indians but in November of that year they and a troop of cavalry assisted Bullock with a civil disturbance at a strike at the Keats Mine.
In December 1877 indian attacks did get to the point that three troops of cavalry from the Third Cavalry came from Fort Laramie. They reached Spearfish on December 23rd and were under the command of Major A. W. Evans. They did manage to stop the indian attacks and Evans was instrumental in convincing General Crook that a permanent military post was needed. On December 31 Crook asked the War Department how long he was to maintain troops in the Black Hills; it was getting costly for the army to keep sending patrols from the distant posts. These posts were from 175 to 300 miles from the Black Hills and it was starting to look like it might be cheaper to just maintain a permanent post in the area.
Part of the reason the army did not establish a post was that the Deadwood militia seemed to be having an effect. Evans had reported that in the area patrolled by the Deadwood militia there had not been any reports of Indian activity. This lack of indian activity could have also been because the heavily armed miners did not waste time trying to determine if an indian was friendly or not anymore. The area was now an armed camp with an understandable paranoid fear of any indian activity.
This fear came to a head in an odd way in January of 1878. The new Fort Custer, established the previous year on the Little Bighorn, had an incident in which white renegades stole a herd of horses and drove them to the Black Hills. There was a good market for horses in the Black Hills and payment was often made in gold. An army scout from Fort Custer, accompanied by a detail of Crow scouts, took chase after the horse thieves. They caught up with them near Spearfish Creek about 15 miles from Deadwood. This started a hot fight that resulted in the scouts recapturing about 50 of the horses. The thieves took off with the remaining stock and headed for Deadwood. The army scout and his Crow detachment followed them right into Deadwood. The problem was that the citizens of Deadwood had such hard feelings against the indians that they hid the horse thieves from the Crow scouts. It got so bad that Evans, the commander of the 3rd Cavalry detachment in the area, had to provide the scouts with an escort to allow them to leave the area safely!
Well, my time is running out here but there is still more to the story. The next chapter should be called "The establishment of Fort Meade" or "How William T. Sherman got pissed off at Deadwood".
3月17日 This one is for Patrick!This one is for Patrick!
Everytime Laurie and I plan a vacation we do a bit of research to find interesting stops along the route. Since we both have a passion for history we tend to look for interesting historical stops. Now quite a bit of this can be done online but the very best items are out of a book. We love hardback books for the home library but on the road paperback is the best!
Now this might be the best title we have found in a long time:
'A Travel Guide to the Plains Indian Wars', Stan Hoig, 2006, University of New Mexico Press, ISBN-13: 978-0-8263-3934-9 or ISBN-10: 0-8263-3934-4
Stan Hoig has published a number of books on the Plains Indian Wars but this one might be among the best for its sheer utilitarian value. Not only does the book provide an excellent list of historical sites but it has a wonderful brief history of the wars. It allows the reader to put the whole sweep of events into context.
My only disappointment, and this is in now way a critical comment about Stan Hoig, is that it doesn't mention Minnesota or Sioux Uprising of 1862. I can understand why he might have excluded this but it still remains a significant event in the Indian Wars. It might also have been one of the bloodiest of the indian uprisings. The 'Military' History of DeadwoodThe 'Military' History of Deadwood
Since the game I'm working on creating relies heavily on the wargaming community I should write something about the 'military' history of Deadwood. There were no major battles fought in or near Deadwood but the town only came to exist because of military action. The fact of the matter is that Deadwood might be just one of the reasons the Great Sioux War of 1876 was fought!
The Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868 granted the Black Hills as the territory of the Lakota people. It was sacred to the Sioux then and is still sacred to them today. Just look up a bit of recent history about the legal fighting over Bear Butte for proof of this. In 1868 the United States government agreed to withdraw from their forts in the indian territories and to stop the movement of miners over the roads leading to the Montana goldfield. Only a limited military presence was to be allowed in order to enforce the treaty.
The United States Army was largely given the job of enforcing the treaty. In the beginning they did this with a certain degree of success. There is some evidence that goldseekers had ventured into the Black Hills as early as 1833. Even after the Fort Laramie Treaty some white people ventured into the area at risk of being evicted by the army or slaughtered by the indians.
What brought this all to an end was another army expedition. The 1874 Custer Expedition would set into play forces that would bring about the creation of Deadwood. The official purpose of the expedition was to look for a future military post in the Black Hills. Now up until this time the Black Hills was largely a mystery to the United States government. There had been other earlier expeditions in and around the Black Hills but nothing on the scale of the Custer Expedition.
Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer and his 7th Cavalry entered the Black Hills on July 2nd, 1874.
The expedition came from Fort Abraham Lincoln (near present day Bismarck, North Dakota) with over 1000 men and one woman. It was the best equipped expeditions undertaken by the army to that date. It included a large number of civilian scientists, miners, newspapermen and at least one photographer. This whole ensemble was moved in a train of 110 wagons. The indians were soon aware of the expedition and not very happy with it.
What signalled the eventual avalanche of miners into the Black Hills was when gold was discovered by the expedition along French Creek. They didn't just find a small amount of gold either; it was there in significant enough amounts that it earned special mentions in the dispatches that Custer sent back to his commanders. The funny thing was that the news of gold totally overshadowed the original stated purpose of the expedition to find a location for a potential military post!
Within four months after the Custer Expedition had left the Black Hills the first party of gold seekers entered the region in response to the gold discovery. The Gordon Party, as it became to be known, consisted of 26 men and one woman. They actually built a fortified stockade on the French Creek very near the place the Custer Expedition had discovered gold. The Gordon Party entered the Black Hills on December 23rd, 1874 and in April 1875 the army evicted them. The problem was soon there were gold prospectors coming into the Black Hills faster than the army could find and expell them.
It was later in 1875 that the government decided to have the army stage another smaller expedition into the Black Hills. This time one of the specific goals of the expedition was to determine the extent and possible locations of gold in the Black Hills. In May of 1875 the army sent a force of 600 troopers under Lt. Col. Richard I. Dodge from Fort Laramie. The expedition included 16 civilian scientific specialists; two of these were prominent geologists Walter P. Jenney and Henry Newton. Today due to their findings the expedition is often referred to as the Jenney-Newton Expedition. It not only did a more thorough scientific survey of the Black Hills but discovered even more evidence of gold as well as somewhere between 1000 to 1500 illegal miners.
In August of 1875 the army sent General George Crook to evict the miners discovered by the Jenney-Newton Expedition. They did not have a lot of luck in this; they managed to escort roughly 600 miners out of the region. Up until this time the indians had not paid a lot of attention to the miners. The Lakota actually didn't occupy the Black Hills on any sort of long term basis. The Custer Expedition had been large enough that it was impossible for them not to notice. It was now becoming increasingly dangerous for gold seekers to enter the area as some indians began to actively hunt them down.
It was in this time that the United States government started attempting to get the Lakota to secede the Black Hills. Every attempt failed. In September of 1875 President Grant got frustrated with attempts to police the Black Hills or take legal authority over them. He ordered the withdrawal of the army and efforts to evict the miners stopped. The government still issued a lot of proclamations warning gold seekers not to enter the Black Hills but, functionally, the army was ordered to pull back. It is estimated that by the end of 1875 over 4000 miners were illegally within the Black Hills.
It wasn't long before Deadwood and other mining settlements came into existence. It also wasn't long before bloody incidents of indian retaliation started to occur. The odd thing was that the same miners who once worked hard to hide from the army were now demanding that it protect them. This put the army in a awkward position, the Fort Laramie Treaty still existed and it was still there responsibility to enforce the treaty, but did they just abandon the miners to indian attack?
The Black Hills Pioneer, Deadwood's newpaper then and today, reported many incidents of indian attacks against isolated groups of miners. Quite frequently these turned into massacres of the mining camps. The army decided to move troops into the region to attempt to protect the miners. The first such camp established by the army was 'Camp Collier' near Red Canyon. At the same time the army started a three pronged campaign to attempt to crush the Sioux resistance. This military operation would become known as the Sioux Expedition of 1876 and would become legendary for the June 25th battle along the Little Bighorn River that would result in the destruction of Custer and a large portion of the 7th Cavalry Regiment.
Though the battle was largely removed from the Black Hills the slaughter of Custer's men would have repercussions throughout the Black Hills. The news of the battle did not actually reach Deadwood until July 21st, almost a month after the fight, but the effect was immediate. The emotions ranged from fear to outrage; the locals called for the extermination of the Sioux. The Black Hills Pioneer even editorialised a call for the formation of a 'Black Hills Brigade' to defend the mining settlements and hunt down the white men who sold guns and ammunition to the indians.
Protection for the mining settlements was to come from another source though. General George Crook's command, after their repulse at the Battle of the Rosebud, were short on rations and on August 26th 1876 set out for the Black Hills. The condition of Crook's command was bad enough that it became known as the 'Starvation March'. On the way the 3rd Cavalry Regiment managed to attack and destroy a Sioux village near Slim Buttes, just north of the Black Hills, on September 8th. Part of the goal of this attack was not just to strike at the indians but to find food for the troopers. By this time they had actually been forced to kill and eat some of their horses.
When the news of the condition of Crook's troops reached the mining settlements they worked to put together a relief effort to supply the soldiers. While Crook's famished troops were camped near the Belle Fourche River a large group of civilian wagons and a beef herd reached them from Camp Crook, a small settlement just north of Deadwood. Crook's command actually reached Deadwood on September 15th. The whole mining settlement turned out to greet the troopers. By all accounts it was a considerable celebration. General Crook formally announced the indian threat to the community was over. This wasn't going to be quite the case...
Well, I'll have to take the rest of this up later. My stay at this particular Caribou Coffee is going to come to a close soon. I'll add some of my sources later. I might even get around to settig down some more historical numbers that might be useful to a gamer. I'm also thinking of putting up something about military weapons of the time. Yup, it will be my chance to write about my favorite not-so-historically correct Old West weapon, the Gatling Gun.
3月11日 Gaming Deadwood - Maps and BuildingsGaming Deadwood - Maps and Buildings
One of the challenges of gaming the Deadwood of 1876 is that there is very little information on how the settlement was physically laid out. On September 26th, 1879 a early morning fire destroyed most of Deadwood. Most historical accounts of the destruction put the number of buildings lost at from 200 to 300. The entire business district was leveled; this included all of the most of the establishments depicted in the HBO series 'Deadwood'. Interestingly the Chinatown area, by all accounts, survived relatively intact.
Deadwood was devastated again on May 16th 1883, this time by a flood. This was actually the second flood Deadwood had in its history but the destruction was far greater than the first time. Again a large part of the commercial district was flattened. Interestingly in both of these incidents the loss of life was fairly low.
In 1894 another major fire destroyed most of Deadwood again. Each time these disasters took place the city was fundamentally changed. It also might explain why most of the buildings in Deadwood today are brick or stone.
There is no map that I have been able to find that shows the actual layout of Deadwood before the 1879 fire. I have been able to find a number of pictures taken at this time that give a good idea of the buildings of that time. This is one of the ways I went about planning my hypothetical Deadwood game table.
Now Deadwood was not a small settlement in 1876; most accounts put the population at about 20,000. Now a lot of this population was scattered in the mining camps that surrounded Deadwood but, even with that consideration, most came into Deadwood on a fairly regular basis. The actual number of structures in the settlement was at least 200 buildings. It was the sort of small one street town you see in a lot of Old West games!
Deadwood is constructed in a long, steep gulch. When you walk down main street the hills around you rise sharply; the actual area quite a bit of the city is built in is only about two miles wide. I have a PDF file street map of Deadwood and it does not differ that much in the area covered from what they think the historical layout was. I'm going to put that file on a seperate site in the near future.
So for a gamer what is the best way to build a miniature set up of Deadwood? I actually found a number of different companies that made 28mm resin buildings that would be suitable. The companies I've picked out here are in no way the final word on what is available. It seems like everytime I look at a different miniatures company they are offering something for Old West gaming - this includes buildings.
Arnica Real Estate is one of the best. They not only have some beautiful buildings in this scale but quite a variety.
Old Glory has a pretty decent range too. Now their buildings are closer to 25mm but they have some buildings that Arnica Real Estate doesn't have.
Now we get to that concern common among most gamers; what will this cost? There is a lot to be said for resin buildings. They are more substantial and are kind of like the difference between playing with metal miniatures and cardboard counters. The problem is they can also get expensive. If you are building a sizable setup for a game the cost could be prohibitive. There is hope for the gamer on a budget.
'White Wash City' is the most cost effective option I've found yet. It does require a little labor but I'm convinced this is a good trade. You can buy a very well done set of PDF files that you print on cardstock and put together yourself. I've seen these up close and they do look better than you would expect. They also have the advantage that if one is damaged it is relatively easy to just print and assemble another. It is also possible to assemble a large city for the price it would cost to buy two or three resin buildings.
Now, mind you, this all assumes you have a computer and color printer. You also need the patience to assemble the buildings. Some do require a bit more effort than others. It should also be mentioned that the Hotz Artworks website has very good instructions on the tools needed and how best to go about assembling these.
Okay, in one of my future entries I will assemble and set up a street layout that I think would be typical for Deadwood...
3月10日 Gaming Deadwood: The Historical RealityGaming Deadwood: The Historical Reality
Now my introduction to the early history of Deadwood was pretty typical of a lot of people today. I first learned about this frontier settlement watching David Milch's HBO series 'Deadwood'. The series was famous for it's legendary foul language and wonderful performances. The series was literally a Shakespearian tragedy brought to the epic background of the Old West. It was also about 70% historically accurate; Hollywood has always taken liberties with the story of the western expansion.
I do have a couple of differences from many of the people who have watched the series. My wife was already an avid student of the history of the Old West. I had her considerable historical library at my grasp. The wife and I also live close enough to Deadwood that we now frequently visit there; we are even seriously considering retiring there someday. Everytime we visit South Dakota we add to our historical library and learn a bit more. In our visits to Deadwood we have learned a few things about its past that haven't made it into books yet.
Now if I was to recommend some books to start with what would they be? I'm going to fall back on my years at the University of Minnesota School of History and tell you to start with a couple of broad overviews. These will show you the grand outline of the early history of Deadwood. With time we can focus down on single events, individuals and topics.
"Gold, Gals, Guns, Guts: A History of Deadwood, Lead & Spearfish, 1874 - 1976", Editor Bob Lee, Assistant Editors Stan Lindstrom & Wynn Lindstrom, 2004, South Dakota Historical Society Press, ISBN 0-9715171-8-5
This is the essential history of the Black Hills and Deadwood in particular. This provides the factual outline of events and personalities that are essential to all of this. You'll also find out in this book that the HBO series is not far off on most of the people and events it depicts. It will also show you some of the areas where the screen writers took their liberties. It is fairly doubtful that Wild Bill Hickock and Seth Bullock ever had the friendship depicted in the series. It is also interesting that Al Swearengen might have actually been worse than he is shown in the series!
"Pioneer Days in the Black Hills", John S. McClintock, Edited by Edward L. Senn, 1939, Renewed 1966, Current Copyright 2000, University of Oklahoma Press, ISBN 0-8061-3191-8
This is a marvelous book by one of the actual settlers who lived in Deadwood during the early frontier days. Now the book has some of the historical limitations of any first person narrative; all the perspectives are limited to the knowledge and perceptions of the writer. It was also written nearly 60 years after the events described. The thing is McClintocks account still manages to survive careful examination and still stands as one of the best eye-witness accounts of the time. It also interesting to read the personal views of various characters of the period.
These two books started my exploration of the possibilities for a historical game. The biggest thing I came to realise was that Deadwood's early history was every bit as colorful and violent as what Hollywood decided to show. My biggest problem has been deciding what bits and pieces of the history to tackle first.
Then one day it sort of came to me, if you want to make a game you might need to find a map of the town... Gaming DeadwoodGaming Deadwood
It has always amazed that the Old West roleplaying games and historical games haven't picked up on the history of Deadwood more? I guess that it might be my destiny to correct this. I've been working on the idea for awhile and have made some progress. I'm going to try breaking this whole topic down into manageable chunks. The first thing will be the consideration of what rules to use?
I've looked at a lot of different rule sets; this was sort of a research project all on it's own. I have come to broadly define the rule sets in two different categories:
(1) Roleplaying Rules - RPG's
(2) Skirmish Level Rules - Traditional Wargame Rules
There are actually a lot of different RPG rule set available. These are usually the most detailed rules available and concern themselves with a lot more than combat. For my Deadwood game, as violent as early Deadwood could be, there will be a lot of other vital considerations for players. The Roleplaying elements are vital not only to the flavor of the game but the actual mechanics of the game.
I used to play Steve Jackson's GURPs; though not a bad system it left a few things to be desired. One of the popular systems right now is D20 and it doesn't lack for Old West rules. I actually had to look at three different D20 sets for the Old West. Eventually I put down 'OGL Old West' as the D20 system for consideration.
Mongoose Publishing has quite the set of rules in 'OGL Old West' and a substantial amount of experience in gaming to back it up. The beauty of any D20 system is that there are always supplements available that can be adapted to specific gaming needs. I've downloaded several dozen D20 supplements that address a variety of different Old West gaming issues.
One of the most popular Old West set of gaming rules available today is Games Workshop's 'Legends of the Old West'. This game is more like a traditional set of wargame rules than a RPG but has some roleplaying elements worked into it.
Now there is a lot to say for 'Legends of the Old West'; it seems to be growing fast with supplements and discussion groups. It has two supplements, 'Blood on the Plains' and 'Alamo' that deal with specific military topics. Roleplaying games tend to not cover the organised warfare that took place in the Old West. Though no major battles were fought near Deadwood quite a few took place with historical impact on the town. It can even be said that the whole Sioux War of 1876 started, in part, over the miner's incursions into the Black Hills.
This is not to say 'Legends of the Old West' is the perfect system. It lacks some of the necessary components for the economic and roleplaying considerations of my Deadwood game. I've even also heard one fellow claim that how could a game created in England know anything about the Old West! Well, this last thing might be true but it isn't a bad game in many ways.
Then comes my personal favorite at his point. This game smoothly blends aspects of both RPG's and Skirmish Level Gaming. This game was also made by a couple fellows who really understand what the Old West was about. What I'm talking about is Hawgleg Publishing's 'Gutshot'!
There is a lot to be said for 'Gutshot', this is one of the smoothest systems I've ever seen. I think I could teach a person to play it in about a half hour. Now, mind you, this is also a relatively new system from a small publisher. This means that expansions and supplements are going to be a little slower in coming but from what I'm seeing they're definitely coming. 'Gutshot' also blends a lot of the aspects of Roleplaying that I need along with one of the best Old West combat systems I've ever played.
Now I'll throw in an additional bonus about 'Gutshot'; the basic game is only twenty bucks. Most of the other rules I've looked at start at thirty or more. In the case of 'Legends of the Old West' once you buy all the supplements you are looking at spending well over a hundred bucks. This is not to say there won't be further investments in 'Gutshot' in the future but from what I'm seeing you will be getting more bang from your buck with this one.
Now I did look at other systems. I even managed to pick up a few rares ones at 'Con of the North'! I just sort of decided to settle on these three for now. I'll be adding more material on this project very soon. One of my next considerations will be some of the historical research towards this game. There is a mythical reality to the history of Deadwood as well as the historical reality. The funny thing is that my reading and travels have shown me that the historical reality of early Deadwood was every bit as wild as the myth created by Hollywood!
3月4日 Deadwood or BustDeadwood or Bust!
This next entry has everything to do with the combination of my passion for history and gaming. I developed a pretty serious interest in the history of the Old West and how to game it. I decided to set up a seperate website to put some of my research on. I've fairly well neglected this site until now but now intend to devote more time to it.
My goal is to build a historical roleplaying game built around the town of Deadwood. If you are interested the link is here:
Marscon DebriefingMarscon Debriefing
Well, I'm finally back to my favorite Caribou Coffee in Inver Grove Heights. This place is my hang out for strong coffee and decent Wi-Fi; you'll find me here a couple nights a week. I have decided to buckle down and update this blog on a more regular basis. I originally started this thing just so family and friends could keep track of Laurie and me while we travelled - the fact of the matter is that this could be so much more!
Laurie and I managed to get unpacked and the swag box emptied. We even watched the first couple of episodes of 'Supernatural' on a DVD set we got. Marscon was quite an experience for us. We have been to gaming conventions before and her LBHA conventions but this was our first emersion in fandom. Since I hang out a lot at gameshops the whole idea of fandom was no big deal to me. I always looked on it as a sort of benign addiction, just like my gaming addiction. What really concerned me was surrounding my wife with so many rabid geeks for a prolonged period.
The fact of the matter was Laurie thoroughly enjoyed the whole spectacle along with it's periodic debauchery. She enjoyed meeting the guest celebrities (Patricia Tallman and Don S. Davis were simply great). We even got a kick out of the drunken Klingons outside our room on the wee hours of Saturday morning. The masquerade on Saturday night was the only thing that brought me regrets. I should have had my camera there! Some of the costumes were simply amazing! There was one Klingon fellow who was totally outstanding.
We spent a bit of time hanging out by the 'Unicorn Games' stand. I think the inclement weather at the beginning of the con had a real effect on sales for the dealers. I talked with some of the veterans of Marscon and they all thought attendence was down. I even had a chance to talk to Don Davis and he told us that the bad weather almost cancelled his flight to Minneapolis.
We attended one discussion on Saturday that was exploring the idea of having a local convention on Westerns; that is to say Westerns as in Old West movies. Now you can only imagine how this amused Laurie and me! We put our E-mail addresses down and left as much contact information as we could. I had the feeling they were testing the proverbial waters to see if they had enough critical mass to make such a venture possible. I personally think it would be possible and should be tried at the very least.
The fact of the matter is that we have already decided to attend Marscon again next year. It was a great time and well worth the money we put down for it. All in all it was great to be surrounded by several hundred people every bit as Geeky as I am.
MarsconThe wife and I attended a new convention this weekend; at least it's a new convention for us. The Marscon Science Fiction Convention, it is quite the eclectic collection of talented geeky individuals and a incredibly good time. My only regret is that I didn't keep the cameras more readily at hand. I came up with a lot of excellent ideas while I was here and will, no doubt about it, update this site with more about these later. I never go to something like this without getting inspiration to something else.
I will say this right now though; this blog will be more active in the near future. I am going to pull some of my other online projects more directly into this. I have a feeling that big changes are ahead! |
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