🌵 Blood and Dust : Interest check, freeform game

[mainsnoires]

CHARACTER SHEET

BASIC INFO

• Player: Mainsnoires
• Name: Elias Connolly
• Alias/Nickname: “Ghost,” “Turncoat,” “Boss”
• Age / Apparent Age: 41 / 41
• Gender: Male
• Race / Heritage: Settler, with rumored Choctaw ancestry through maternal grandmother
• Occupation / Role on the Ranch: Founder and leader of Dead Horse Ranch

ORIGINS & CONNECTIONS

• Background: Elias Connolly was born in obscurity near the southern bend of the Snakecoil River, deep in the scrubland. His father, an Irish fur trapper and occasional bootlegger, had drifted up from Louisiana. His mother, a native healer, moved quietly between white and native circles—healing when paid, cursing when wronged.
  From her, Elias learned the ways of the earth—tracking, medicine, and the secrets buried in the oldest roots. From his father, he inherited a distrust of authority, a love for the wild, and a steady hand with a rifle.
  
  At seventeen, driven by hunger and the pull of something greater, Elias lied his way into a volunteer militia out of Elysian Ridge—a polished but rotting city-state built on gold-rush greed and hidden blood bargains.
  He was promised land and pay for “keeping order” in the contested northern territories. Instead, he found himself marching into sacred ground near the Eagle’s Spine Mountains under sealed orders. He rode with a detachment of twenty to a remote site known as Gallows Pass.
  
  Their mission: secure and cleanse the area of so-called native rebels.
  
  By the time they arrived, the damage was done. Mayor Silas Wayland, Judge Jeremiah Cole, and Marshal Beauregard Crain stood over the body of a shaman from Coyote Hollow, his blood pooled beside a smothered ceremonial fire.
  Elias was ordered to help eliminate the remaining tribe—witnesses to a rite never meant for outsiders. But as he hesitated, everything changed.
  
  A young native warrior broke through the line and shot Marshal Crain at near point-blank range.
  The Marshal staggered… then stood.
  The bullet lodged deep—yet no blood flowed. Not a drop.
  
  Elias felt his stomach turn to iron. Something had been stolen here—something sacred and powerful—and the men he rode for were no longer fully human.
  He refused the order.
  When the flames rose and the screams began, Elias fled. He rode hard through the wilderness, westward, sleepless, hunted by what he’d seen—and by what he’d refused to become.
  His path led him through the frozen fields below White Hollow Glacier, where exposure nearly claimed him.
  Elias never asked why he was spared. He suspected the spirits had their reasons.
  
  He drifted for years—smuggling across Dustveil, running contraband on the Snakecoil ferry lines. He never stayed long. Never used his real name. In some towns, they called him Ghost. In others, Turncoat.
  
  But when he came upon a fertile patch of land west of Lake Awana, where the Snakecoil bends like a horseshoe, he stopped running. There, he founded Dead Horse Ranch—named for the cavalry horse he found rotting by the river, saddle still strapped on.
  
  He built the ranch as a haven for the wounded and the unwanted—drunks, widows, orphans of war, mixed-blood sons with nowhere else to go. He asked only for silence, respect, and no mention of Gallows Pass.
  Elias never returned to Elysian Ridge.
  
  Now, whispers drift on the wind. The Coulters grow bolder. The Adlers tighten their grip east of the city, wielding law and steel. The Braithwaites smuggle strange goods upriver under cover of fog.
  Elias watches. Waits. He sleeps with a loaded pistol and a satchel of bones and braided eagle feathers beneath his bed.
  He knows where his trail ends.
  Back at Gallows Pass.

• Connection to PCs: Took most of them in. Sees the ranch folk as his last shot at redemption.
• Family / Relations: No legal kin.
• Ties to Other Factions: Trading cautiously with the Braithwaites. Distrust the Adlers. Hunted by some in the Coulter Gang. Walks sacred ground in Coyote Hollow with respect.

PERSONALITY & MIND

• Core Belief / Guiding Principle: “You don’t run from ghosts. You outlast them.”
• Vice / Flaw: Whiskey, guilt, stubborn.
• Secret They'd Kill To Protect: He was there the night of the native cleansing after the Gallows Pass ritual.
• Fear or Weakness: Losing those under his protection; being unworthy of redemption

SKILLS & TALENTS

Mark 3 with an asterisk * if they are exceptional.

• * Gunfighting
• ☐ Hand-to-Hand / Melee Combat (knives, tomahawks, brawling, ritual blades)[/i]
• ☐ Tracking / Hunting
• * Horsemanship
• ☐ Healing / Medicine
• ☐ Stealth / Infiltration
• * Charisma / Manipulation
• ☐ Ritual Knowledge / Spiritual Ties
• ☐ Repair / Tinkering
• ☐ Survival / Wilderness Living
• ☐ Strategy / Tactics

IDENTITY & INTIMACY

• Character's Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual
• Character's Romantic Preference: Polyamorous
• Relationship History: No serious ties.

• Player's Kinks / Desires / Boundaries: Mainsnoires O/O's

[Rainwood]

Hey, I just stumbled across this. As a lover of fantasy and a late enjoyer of RDRO, this sounds really interesting to me. Looks like you could benefit from a male character too? I'll give the lore and existing character a more thorough read-over later and work on a character sheet if there's room in the game.

[mainsnoires]

Hello there @Rainwood 
This game is still in the process of recruitment, there is definitely room for this.
So far character sheets received are in this thread, please feel free to ask any question relative to the setting, the type of character you'd be interested in or else! 

[Rainwood]

CHARACTER SHEET

BASIC INFO

• Player: Rainwood
• Name: Silas Mercy
• Alias/Nickname: "Si", "Captain"
• Age / Apparent Age: 43
• Gender: Male
• Race / Heritage: Settler - Scots-Irish Appalachian roots
• Occupation / Role on the Ranch: Quartermaster, fence-patcher, trapper/sapper, morale hazard

ORIGINS & CONNECTIONS

• Background: Silas Mercy was born to nobody worth naming and learned early that war leaves behind more ghosts than graves. As a child, he worked as a courier and errand-runner for a ragged Confederate cavalry unit in the borderlands, when they spent three months bogged down in a failed fortification line outside Dustveil. That’s where he watched the engineers and learned to blow a bridge and build a deadfall.The soldiers jokingly gave him a rank, "private", and when the shooting stopped, he was one of the few left alive. With nobody around to outrank him, he "promoted" himself to Captain Mercy - and never looked back.
  
  In the lawless Reconstruction years, Si carved out a name as a planner, trapmaker, and ambush specialist. He sold his services to warlords, settlers, and bandit crews alike. For a time, he rode with the Coulters—until he sabotaged one of their raids and vanished. Since then, he’s haunted backroads and dead towns, leaving false trails and broken reputations.
  
  Now he keeps to Dead Horse Ranch, drawing up patrol plans, fixing fences, and talking to bones like they might answer. He claims he’s done with war. But he never stopped laying traps.
  
  And he never really stopped laughing.
• Connection to PCs: Si's the guy who offers you a swig, a joke, or a razor-precise strategy - sometimes all three. He's easy to talk to but hard to trust. Good in a fight. Better with a plan.
• Family / Relations: Says his real family died in the war. So did his adopted family, for that matter.
• Ties to Other Factions: Betrayed the Coulters mid-raid - some want him dead, others think he's a ghost. Rumored to have run logistics for an Adler-backed mercenary outfit in the 1880s. Keeps a distant eye on Braithwaite movement schedules like a man counting cards.

PERSONALITY & MIND

• Core Belief / Guiding Principle: "Plans are like jokes: timing is everything. And someone’s always the punchline." Si believes chaos is coming, and the best you can do is shape its direction. He ran for the greycoats because they had boots, and that's about the depth of his politics.
• Vice / Flaw: Hides behind humor and misdirection. Sabotages connections the moment they grow roots. Lays traps even when he doesn’t need to.
• Secret They'd Kill To Protect: He killed a Coulter leader with a spring-trap and a song in his throat. Worse, he enjoyed it.
• Fear or Weakness: That there’s nothing beneath the jokes. That when the laughter stops, what’s left is worse than silence.

SKILLS & TALENTS (Narrative-based)

• ☐ Gunfighting
• ☐ Hand-to-Hand / Melee Combat (knives, tomahawks, brawling, ritual blades)
• ☐ Tracking / Hunting
• ☐ Horsemanship
• ☐ Healing / Medicine
• ☑ Stealth / Infiltration
• ☐ Charisma / Manipulation
• ☐ Ritual Knowledge / Spiritual Ties
• ☑ Repair / Tinkering
• ☐ Survival / Wilderness Living
• ☑ Strategy / Tactics

IDENTITY & INTIMACY

• Character's Sexual Orientation: Heteroflexible (claims to be "politely opportunistic")
• Character's Romantic Preference: Commitment-averse. Flirts like a profession, vanishes like a storm cloud.
• Relationship History: A dozen lovers, a dozen regrets. Left someone at an altar once - maybe. Or maybe they left him, it's all a bit of a blur.

• Player's Kinks / Desires / Boundaries: O/Os

NOTES / GM SECRETS (Optional - For GM eyes only, ie add by PM only)

[ThisOneGal]

Partial draft only- if she looks as if she might be a good fit, I'll finish it up.

I'm definitely down to know her better.

[Eva]

As I keep finding myself looking at this interest check over and over, I think I should just state my interest and ask some questions. I'm new-ish to groups, but looking to get a sense of pacing for this RP, as well the number of characters allowed, and how strongly the narrative will be driven (I am not looking for sandbox). How closely are we sticking to traditional gender roles? I'd love to play a doctor, maybe one who is a woman who'd spent some time back east living life as a man, who then fled to the west when she was discovered. Would this be a good fit?

[mainsnoires]

@Nowherewoman 
your character looks good to me, you can definitely complete the sheet in particular in the regards to the connections wit the Dead Horse Ranch or other factions.

@Rainwood 
Character is approved, welcome Silas!

[mainsnoires]

A note regarding the faceclaims, or art you may want to use for your characters: drawing or photo pictures are approved, both even could be use to illustrate the said character.

[mainsnoires]

As I keep finding myself looking at this interest check over and over, I think I should just state my interest and ask some questions. I'm new-ish to groups, but looking to get a sense of pacing for this RP, as well the number of characters allowed, and how strongly the narrative will be driven (I am not looking for sandbox). How closely are we sticking to traditional gender roles? I'd love to play a doctor, maybe one who is a woman who'd spent some time back east living life as a man, who then fled to the west when she was discovered. Would this be a good fit?

Hello @Eva !
To answer your questions :
- Pacing: There’s no strict rule for posting speed, but ideally we’re aiming for about one post every few days per character. That said, we’re flexible — as long as communication stays good, we’ll make it work. As your GM, I’ll stay active and be around to keep the game moving, guide story beats, or assist wherever needed.


- Players: We’re building a small group of 4–5 players, and we’re nearly there. I’ll be leaving this interest thread open a little longer, but soon I’ll create separate threads for the roster, setting/locations, and OOC discussions. A Discord server is also on the table if everyone’s on board with that.

If more players show interest it won't be an issue since a lot of characters are still playable.

- Characters: Each player can have up to two characters, though you’re absolutely welcome to start with just one. I suggest one tied closely to Dead Horse Ranch and another possibly aligned with another faction (Coulters, Adlers, Braithwaites, Natives, etc.).
 Only the Trinity (the Judge, Mayor, and Marshal) will be exclusive GM-controlled NPCs. All other roles, including major faction leaders, are open for players.
If no one claims the Coulter gang leader or a significant native character, I’ll likely step in and cover them.

- The narrative will be :
->GM-driven events, with dedicated threads so you can express interest (these will definitely be linked to the game setting ie Trinity, Rituals...)
-> Players-driven plots: these will be plots created and run by the players, upon approval by the GM. 
-> Sandbox: for character development and downtime between major events. These are optional, not the game's core. You won’t be left wondering what to do next.

- A doctor? we'll definitely appreciate that.
Relative to traditional gender role: While we’re inspired by historical era, we’re definitely not bound to it rigidly. Surnatural, spirits, curses etc... may happen in game for example. So a woman posing as a man back East...maybe to access education or work, who flees West seems like a great concept to me. You'd have to pitch a bit more your idea if you think necessary, but as it is explained, I like this idea!

[Nowherewoman]

@Nowherewoman
your character looks good to me, you can definitely complete the sheet in particular in the regards to the connections wit the Dead Horse Ranch or other factions.

@Rainwood
Character is approved, welcome Silas!

Will try to finish her up tonight after work, then 😁

[Eva]

Hello @Eva !
To answer your questions :
- Pacing: There’s no strict rule for posting speed, but ideally we’re aiming for about one post every few days per character. That said, we’re flexible — as long as communication stays good, we’ll make it work. As your GM, I’ll stay active and be around to keep the game moving, guide story beats, or assist wherever needed.


- Players: We’re building a small group of 4–5 players, and we’re nearly there. I’ll be leaving this interest thread open a little longer, but soon I’ll create separate threads for the roster, setting/locations, and OOC discussions. A Discord server is also on the table if everyone’s on board with that.

If more players show interest it won't be an issue since a lot of characters are still playable.

- Characters: Each player can have up to two characters, though you’re absolutely welcome to start with just one. I suggest one tied closely to Dead Horse Ranch and another possibly aligned with another faction (Coulters, Adlers, Braithwaites, Natives, etc.).
 Only the Trinity (the Judge, Mayor, and Marshal) will be exclusive GM-controlled NPCs. All other roles, including major faction leaders, are open for players.
If no one claims the Coulter gang leader or a significant native character, I’ll likely step in and cover them.

- The narrative will be :
->GM-driven events, with dedicated threads so you can express interest (these will definitely be linked to the game setting ie Trinity, Rituals...)
-> Players-driven plots: these will be plots created and run by the players, upon approval by the GM.
-> Sandbox: for character development and downtime between major events. These are optional, not the game's core. You won’t be left wondering what to do next.

- A doctor? we'll definitely appreciate that.
Relative to traditional gender role: While we’re inspired by historical era, we’re definitely not bound to it rigidly. Surnatural, spirits, curses etc... may happen in game for example. So a woman posing as a man back East...maybe to access education or work, who flees West seems like a great concept to me. You'd have to pitch a bit more your idea if you think necessary, but as it is explained, I like this idea!

That pace seems just about perfect to me. I like to have stuff to write without a lot of pressure and am a big fan of communication and an active GM who moves the story.

I'll move forward with the doctor then and go with the backstory as I mentioned. I should have a CS up for you within the next few days. Things are busy at work so I'm not as fast as I typically would be.

And for what it's worth I do enjoy a discord server for group RPs.

[Eva]

CHARACTER SHEET

BASIC INFO

• Player: Eva
• Name: Regina Louise Parker
• Alias/Nickname: Reggie, or Doc
• Age / Apparent Age: 29
• Gender: Female
• Race / Heritage: Settler
• Occupation / Role on the Ranch: Doctor, humans or horses, though she's better with umans

ORIGINS & CONNECTIONS

• Background: Regina Louise Parker was born a whole minute before her twin brother. Their mother, who unimaginatively named him Reginald Louis Parker, did not stick around long enough to rue the choice. Left to raise both children, their grieving father, a moderately well-off doctor who had been much older than his wife, and was rather tired of life by this point, raised both children as if they were boys. So the Reggies spent much of their youth running about, doing as they pleased: neglected equally, educated equally, spoiled equally. Reginald was a slender, feminine boy, slow to mature, which helped them remain on equal terms for some time. Regina was drawn to her father’s profession from a young age and it was easier to indulge her interests than to shoo her off. Reginald often stuck around to watch because he was not fond of being by himself and so learned the trade by accident.

In the summer of their 16th birthday, it was decided that Reginald should go to school for medicine and that Regina should find herself a husband. No one knows where this decision came from, their father was usually off-handed with their lives, but on this subject he remained stubborn. The decision did not go over well and the household was thrown into turmoil. Ultimately, Reginald went to school, Regina ran away and joined the army under her brother’s name and information. It was through the army that she managed to earn her Doctor’s certificate, and it was through the army that she discovered that structure and discipline were what had been missing in her rather feral youth. She excelled and while there were no active wars, she served with distinction and rose through the ranks. She had a few discrete lovers, ones who approached her thinking she was a man, but were open enough to go along with the surprise of her gender. She kept lose touch with her brother, not wanting too much contact for fear that her deception would be discovered, and hadn’t mourned when word of her father’s passing reached her. Eventually she received word from her brother’s wife (a person she hadn’t known existed) that her brother had come down with cholera and was on his deathbed. Regina raced to his side, and was there as he took his last breath. His wife, Beth was a sweet young thing rather simple, and was clearly incapable of living on her own. It seemed Reginald had followed in their father's footsteps and married a young, less than bright woman. So it was decided that Regina, who was ready for some new challenges, should simply step into her brother’s role. Regina Louise Parker was buried, mourned by her loving brother and sister-in-law, and life went on much as it had, only the medical care given to the small, close-knit community, by the newly invigorated Dr. Parker was greatly improved. Reginald had only ever been an indifferent physician. This improvement should have been a welcome development, and in some ways it was. However, people started to notice the many subtle differences in Dr. Parker and began to watch for more. Regina isn’t certain who or what gave them away, perhaps it was some mannerism that she let slip, or perhaps Beth (never all that bright) said something incriminating, but they made it work happily for several years before they were discovered. There was outrage, there was a mob, they were called sexual deviants, and there was fire. Regina made it out, barely, but Beth did not. Wracked with guilt for her death, they were only ever friends. She drank her way west, knowing that out west Doctors were rare enough that she could shed her role as her brother and still practice medicine. She wound up at Dead Horse Ranch fairly recently and is warily settling in. She continues to dress as a man, but has let her hair grow out and no longer uses cosmetics to make her face more masculine. She's also recently purchased a dress and sometimes looks at it, not yet able to bring herself to wear it.

• Connection to PCs: She’s a doctor, happy to patch up what’s needed. She’s a heavy drinker and happy to share. She doesn’t share her laudanum though. Still getting to know folks.
• Family / Relations: She's all alone in the world.
• Ties to Other Factions: New to the area, still figuring it out, but is loyal to the Ranch for giving her a soft(ish) place to land.

PERSONALITY & MIND

• Core Belief / Guiding Principle: Service is key. She takes her medical oaths very seriously.
• Vice / Flaw: She drinks to excess and has started dosing herself with Laudanum
• Secret They'd Kill To Protect: Regina was intimate with Beth once, but decided it wasn’t what she wanted. Beth didn’t respond well to the rejection and this led to their discovery.
• Fear or Weakness: That she's unnatural for living the way she has. That she's a failure as a woman.

SKILLS & TALENTS (Narrative-based)
Mark 3 with an asterisk * if they are exceptional.

• ☑ Gunfighting
• ☐ Hand-to-Hand / Melee Combat (knives, tomahawks, brawling, ritual blades)
• ☐ Tracking / Hunting
• ☐ Horsemanship
• ☑ Healing / Medicine
• ☐ Stealth / Infiltration
• ☐ Charisma / Manipulation
• ☐ Ritual Knowledge / Spiritual Ties
• ☐ Repair / Tinkering
• ☐ Survival / Wilderness Living
• ☑ Strategy / Tactics

IDENTITY & INTIMACY

• Character's Sexual Orientation: Mostly Heterosexual, but has experimented.
• Character's Romantic Preference: monogamous leaning
• Relationship History: It's complicated.

• Player's Kinks / Desires / Boundaries: O/O's

NOTES / GM SECRETS (Optional — For GM eyes only, ie add by PM only)

• Is this character unknowingly tied to the immortality secret?
• Any prophecies, curses, or fated connections?

[mainsnoires]

Ruth Walker @Nowherewoman and Regina Louise Parker @Eva are approved for this game!

[mainsnoires]

We have a Saloon!!!! Come and discuss, first drink's on the GM. 
This OOC thread has been posted and is available for people interested in this setting.

[mainsnoires]

We have a discord!

https://discord.gg/pd5s3VGy