Just to get folks into the spirit of the time, here’s a list of some of the personalities active in 1800, with a few notations concerning the alternate history of the game.

John Adams (Age 65) – President of the Massachusetts Commonwealth.

Johnny Appleseed (Age 26) – John Chapman, A missionary from Massachusetts known for his planting of apple orchards in the Ohio Country. Follower of the The New Church of the Christian mystic Emanuel Swedenborg.

John Armstrong (Age 45) – Frontiersman, soldier and jurist born in New Netherland, explorer of the Ohio Country.

John Jacob Astor (Age 37) – Merchant involved in fur trading, real estate and opium; An immigrant to New Netherland from Germany, he becomes the continent’s first multi-millionaire.

Jane Austen (Age 25) – English novelist, has completed Lady Susan, First Impressions and Sir Charles Grandison or the happy Man, a comedy in 6 acts and is working on Northanger Abbey.

Tony Beaver (Age ???) – Woodsman from Vandalia Territory of Virginia; champion griddle skater of the Virginia Commonwealth.

Daniel Boone (Age 66) – Old scout from the Transylvania Territory of Virginia and founder of the territorial capitol Booneborough, he has by 1800 moved into the French territory of Louisiane, to the Femme Osage territory and has hunted far into the “Mysterious Interior”

William Augustus Bowles (Age 37) – Also known as Estajoca, a Marylander who settled among the Muskogee of Florida and now serves as the leader of the Muskogee Republic.

Meshach Browning (Age 19) – Backwoodsman from Maryland; hunter and explorer of the North Branch Potomac and Youghiogheny Rivers.

Nathaniel “Natty” Bumppo (Age 87) – Old frontiersman from New Netherland, now settled among the Kansa in Lousiane.

Paul Bunyan (Age ???) – French canadian logger of massive proportions dwelling in the northern woods.

John C Calhoun (1782-1850, Age 18) – Farmer living in the backwoods of Carolina.

Jean Pierre Chouteau (Age 42) – “River Baron” and fur trader in St. Louis, Lousiane.

William Clark (Age 30) – Soldier from the Transylvania Territory of Virginia.

Henry Clay (Age 23) – Lawyer and warhawk of Transylvania Territory, he accompanied Aaron Burr on his adventure into the west, helping establish the Texican Republic.

Count of St. Germain – An immortal alchemist who developed the elixir of life and wrote The Most Holy Trinosophia. Was known as Francis Bacon in 16th century England.

Davy Crocket (Age 14) – Young man from the Franklin Free State, by 14 he’s already spent a few years in the wilderness after running away from home over not going to school.

Don Alejandro de la Vega (Age 46) – Popular alcalde of Reina de los Angeles, elevated to the Presidente of the California Republic.

Louis Claude de Saint-Martin (Age 57) – French philosophe; in 1771 he left the French army to become a preacher of mysticism. His properties confiscated during French Revolution, he fled with the Queen and her son to Lousiane.

Mike Fink (Age 30) – “King of the Keelboaters”, born in Fort Pitt in New Netherland, he operates boats on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers.

Hezekiah Frith (Age 37) – British gentleman privateer from Bermuda.

Robert Fulton (Age 35) – American engineer and inventor of steam-driven boats; working on a submarine design (Nautilus) for Napoleon.

Gasparillo (Age 44) – Jose Gaspar, last of the Spanish buccaneers who raids the Florida coast.

Simon Girty (Age 59) – Born in New Netherland, he and his brother were kidnapped and adopted by Senecas; Girty preferred the Native American way of life and dwells with them in the Ohio Country.

William Henry Harrison (Age 27) – Soldier of Virginia, serving in that nation’s attempted colonization of the Ohio Country.

Inali (Age 54) – Also Black Fox, he is the brother-in-law of Dragging Canoe and chief of Ustanali town in the Cherokee Nation.

Incalatanga (Age 56) – Also Doublehead; feared warrior of the Cherokee during the Chickamauga War.

Andrew Jackson (Age 33) – A lawyer and politician dwelling in the wilds of Carolina’s western territory of Tennessee; soon to lead a Carolinian army against the Franklin Free Staters.

Thomas Jefferson (Age 57) – President of the Commonwealth of Virginia, he would like to see his country remain independent (i.e. he is an opponent of the unionists) and spread into the Illinois Country and beyond.

John the Conqueror (Age ???) – Also known as High John the Conqueror, John de Conquer; African prince sold as slave in America, he escapes and survives as a trickster figure. John fell in love with the devil’s daughter Eulalie.

Simon Kenton (1755-1836, Age 45) – Frontiersman born in the Bull Run Mountains in Virginia; fled into the wilderness of Transylvania at Age 16 because he thought he had killed a man.

Diedrick Knickerbocker (Age ???) – Elderly scholar of New Amsterdam.

Konieschquanoheel (Age 75) – Also known as Hopocan or Captain Pipe, he is a chief of the Lenape and a member of the Wolf Clan. He was allied with the British during the revolution and attacks settlements in western New Netherland; eventually leads his people into the Ohio Country.

Kunokeski (Age ???) – Also John Watts or Young Tassel, a leader of the Chickamauga (Lower Cherokee). He is kin to Doublehead and Pumpkin Boy and uncle of Sequoyah. Principal chief of the Chickamauga.

Jean Lafitte (Age 24) – Born in Saint-Dominque (Haiti); moved with his mother to La Nouvelle-Orleans after she marries merchant Pedro Aubry; explorer of the Bayou.

Marie Laveau (Age 6) – Future voodoo queen of La Nouvelle-Orleans. Daughter of white planter and free Creole woman of color.

Meriwether Lewis (Age 26) – Former soldier and favorite of Virginia’s President Jefferson.

Manuel Lisa (Age 28) – Scoundrel and fur trader from St. Louis in Louisiane.

George Lisle (1750-1820, Age 50) – Born into slavery in Virginia, he was eventually taken to Georgia, he was converted to Christianity by Rev. Matthew Moore; freed by his owner Henry Sharp, he traveled to Savannah and founded a Baptist congregation. He migrated with the British to Jamaica to avoid slavery in post-revolution Georgia.

Little Turkey (Age 42) – Elected First Beloved Man by the general council of the Cherokee after murder of Corntassel in 1788; he is the Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation.

Samuel Hall Lord (Age 22) – Buccaneer of Barbados; owns a castle-mansion.

Makataimeshekiakiak (Age 33) – Sauk war leader also known as Black Hawk; dwells in the Illinois County claimed by the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Samuel Mason (Age 61) – Virginian; Former captain of militia during the revolution; leader of river pirates and highwaymen on the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Presumably he has clashed with Mike Fink on more than one occaision.

Franz Mesmer (Age 66) – A German philosophe living in Paris, he theorized the existence of animal magnetism and other spiritual forces grouped together as mesmerism – his ideas led to the development of hypnotism by Scottish surgeon James Braid.

Zebulon Montgomery Pike, Jr. (Age 21) – A captain in the army of New Netherland, he is serving in the Ohio Country.

Philip Nolan (Age 29) – Horse-trader and freebooter who helps Aaron Burr found the Texican Republic; born in Belfast and well-educated. Now leads the Texican Rangers.

Nunnehidihi (Age 29) – AKA Major Ridge; Cherokee leader born into the Deer Clan in Cherokee town of Great Hiwassee. Grandfather was a highland Scot. He participates in wars against the Franklin Free Staters.

Thomas Paine (Age 63) – Author, pamphleteer, radical inventor, intellectual, revolutionary. Dwelling in France and planning with Napoleon the invasion of England, possibly with the help of Fulton’s submarines.

Joseph Priestly (Age 67) – English theologian, Dissenting clergyman, philosophe and educator; discovered oxygen and invented soda water, explored electricity with Benjamin Franklin. He now dwells in New Netherland.

Paul Revere (Age 65) – Prominent Bostonian, he meets at the Green Dragon Tavern with the Massachusetts Charitable Mechanic Association.

Benjamin Rush (Age 54) – Member of the Sons of Liberty and a Freemason. New Netherlander physician, writer, educator, humanitarian and Christian Universalist, as well as founder of Dickinson College. Opponent of slavery and capital punishment, the real Dr. Rush would be called on to provide medicines to the Lewis & Clark expedition, including Turkish opium for nervousness, emetics to induce vomiting, medicinal wine and 600 of Dr. Rush’s Bilious Pills – Rush’s Thunderbolts or thunderclappers – mega-laxitives containing 50% mercury.

Sacagawea (1788-1812, Age 12) – Shoshone maiden kidnapped by the Hidatsa and taken to their village in far northern Louisiane.

Sequoyah (Age 30) – Also George Guess; Cherokee silversmith. His mother was of the Paint Clan and his brother John Watts (q.v.).

John Sevier (Age 55) – Governor of Franklin; born in Virginia of French Huguenot blood. Served in the revolutionary army.

Daniel Shays (Age 53) – Led a rebellion against the Commonwealth of Massachusetts over unpaid wages to veterans of the revolution. Pardoned by then Pres. Hancock, he now lives in New Netherland.

Philip Shuyler (Age 67) – Grand Pensionary of the United Provinces of New Netherland.

Venture Smith (Age 71) – African slave brought to America as a child; born Broteer Furro in Guinea, the son of a prince with several wives. He purchased his freedom in 1765. Dwells in New Netherland as a woodsman; over 6 feet tall, weighed 300 pounds and carried a 9 pound axe for felling trees.

John Stevens (Age 51) – Lawyer, engineer and inventor of New Netherland. Captain in the revolutionary army, he is interested in powering boats with steam engines.

Tecumseh (Age 32) – Shawnee war leader licking his wounds in the vicinity of Fort Green Ville in the Ohio Country (founded by Gen. “Mad” Anthony Wayne of New Netherland, recently deceased).

Thayendanegea (Age 57) – Also known as Joseph Brant; a Mohawk of the Wolf Clan, he dwells in Upper Canada and plots with the French to effect a revolution.

Isaac Tichenor (Age 46) – Governor of the Vermont Republic, a secret unionist of New Netherland extraction.

Rip Van Winkle (Age ???) – Ordinary fellow and supernatural curiosity dwelling in New Netherland.

Daniel Webster (1782-1852, Age 18) – Schoolmaster in Massachusetts’ New Hampshire province. He hasn’t yet encountered Old Scratch.

Mason Locke Weems (1759-1825, Age 41) – American author and book agent, a unionist who has written apocryphal stories of the men who fought the revolution; called Parson Weems. A Marylander, he now dwells in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Eli Whitney (Age 35) – Inventor from Massachusetts, invented cotton gin in 1793 and is manufacturing muskets with interchangeable parts for the Mass. army.

Dominique You (Age 25) – Haitian artillerist, half-brother of Jean Lafitte.

My last 1800 post sparked some discussion (okay, two comments) about magic. Here are my thoughts …

Regarding replacing magic because the setting is more ripe for science – I originally thought about going the science route. It was done in Northern Crown and I’ve certainly mixed science with fantasy in other projects, but for this one I wanted to go the pure magic route. Why? First and foremost, I think the “steampunk” concept tends to completely take over a setting and game. I didn’t want to do that with 1800. I wanted the game to focus on wilderness exploration, which (point number two) leaves science types without the use of a workshop or spare parts, and thus forces us to really stretch the imagination to fit him in. Of course, one can also just use magic and call it science, but that wasn’t a satisfying option for me.

Finally, science and non-human powered machinery as we know it today is really just at its beginnings in 1800 – you’ve had a manned flight in balloon across the English Channel and some demonstrations of steam engines, but steam power hasn’t come to dominate the imagination and landscape just yet. Magic, superstition and pseudo-science, on the other hand, are still alive and well. Consider that the medical training Lewis received for his and Clark’s western exploration involved lots of bleeding and laxatives that were 50% mercury (and that mercury in the explorers’ droppings has apparently helped historians track the Corps of Discovery’s progress across the continent), the presence of esoteric groups like the Freemasons, Rosicrucians, Illuminati and the Invisible College (well, the Royal Society, by this time), and, most importantly, the existence of Native American medicine men and shamans.

This, along with my desire to include fantasy-style monsters in the “Mysterious Interior of America” seemed to make old-style magicians, powered down a bit for the setting, the way to go. Of course, somebody running an 1800 campaign could remove the magic or even introduce a more science-intensive class (perhaps the Mechanician) as they like. Once I publish something, you can house rule it to death for all I care!

So, what will the Magician class look like in the game. My initial sketch has it looking something like this (all subject to change, of course) …

Magician
Magicians are men and women who have learned through long study and practice to work magic – breaking the laws of nature and delving into the secret knowledge of the supernatural through the use of special formulas of words, movements and materials. Magicians come in many different varieties, from the intellectual European tradition typified by the likes of John Dee, Isaac Newton and Benjamin Franklin to the servants of the Abrahamic God and the workers of folk magic, be they Dutch hexenmeisters, witches from Naumkeag or Native American medicine men.

Skills: Decipher Code (Knowledge), Identify Plants (Knowledge), Predict Weather (Knowledge), Translate Language (Knowledge), Work Magic (Knowledge)

Choosing a tradition determines one’s spell powers. To work magic, a magician has a percentage chance equal to their skill bonus + knowledge score – the difficulty of the magic (see below). Failure always has a consequence, and they can potentially be dire.

Missionaries, Friars and Soldiers of God
Cantraps: Calm Emotions, Chant, Cure Light Wounds, Protection from Evil (10’ Radius)
Spells (-25%): Divination, Flame Strike, Heal, Holy Smite
Rituals (-50%): Control Water, Control Weather, Earthquake, Holy Word
Master Ritual (-90%): Summon Angel

Alchemists, Philosophers and Freemasons
Cantraps: Dispel Magic, Divination, ESP, Invisibility
Spells (-25%): Break Enchantment, Fly, Hold Monster, Lightning Bolt
Rituals (-50%): Astral Projection, Legend Lore, Repulsion, Shapechange
Master Ritual (-90%): Summon Elemental

Witches, Hexenmeisters, Hoodoo Men, Medicine Men and Granny Women
Cantraps: Calm Animals, Divination, Plant Growth, Wind Wall
Spells (-25%): Commune with Nature, Control Winds, Fly, Summon Animal
Rituals (-50%): Control Weather, Shapechange, Summon Monster [i.e. creatures from folklore and mythology], Whirlwind
Master Ritual (-90%): Summon Spirit [White Buffalo, Rainbow Serpent, Thunderbird – maybe something different for the European folk magic practitioners]

There would also be an NPC category dedicated to Black Magic. The spell descriptions would  include an idea of the material components required. Cantraps could be cast in a round, spells maybe in 2 successive rounds, rituals in 3 and the master ritual over 4. Obviously, we don’t want master magicians pulling angels and elementals out of their hats very often.

That should give you an idea of where my mind is on this subject at the moment. I’ll probably fool with the spell lists some more.

Final bonus – the map continues to shape up. I’ve filled in the Yucatan and some of the islands of the Caribbean and added a few settlements, mostly in the Deep South and in the area of Maine. When all of the settlements are done, I’ll be able to focus on drawing rivers and coasts.

So, I got about 30% finished on this and then started all over – found a better method of translating the map into hexes. At this point, I need to fill in the ecosystems of Canada and Mexico, draw in the coasts, islands, lakes and rivers, maybe draw in some old trails, add in volcanoes (dormant and active) and then drop in all the settlements. So, you know – almost there.

After all of this work on the map (which if nothing else will aid me in producing maps for my Hex Crawl Chronicles for Frog God Games – on sale now!), I’ll probably try to turn it into a game/campaign similar to the Space Princess project. Might call it “1800”, “American Empires”, or “Corps of Discovery”. Don’t know yet.

In the meantime, enjoy the scaled down map …

 

Just waiting for one image – for the Pars Fortuna adventure – before I publish NOD 9. Very excited. In the meantime, I’ve been working on a hex map for the Altered States of America. When it is finished, it should encompass a pretty good chunk of the continent. You can see my progress below.

The hexes here are 20 miles across. I haven’t really tackled the coasts yet or drawn in the major rivers.