Post by Catsmate on May 4, 2024 19:31:02 GMT
The Alamo.
OK, I know I should be finishing ‘The Maddess of the Ants’ but I got distracted…..
Over at One Shot Adventures I see that JC (J. C. Connors) has a new scenario out.
OK at first I wasn’t that interested, the “Old West” being my second least favourite genre/setting, but this was an interesting one as it revolved around the Alamo, specifically the last battle there, why I have been considering for a scenario of my own.
However the scenario also includes a pocket universe, with dinosaurs, and a time traveller trying to ‘fix’ (for a certain value of ‘fix’) things. That’s more like it…..
I’m now going to assume that anyone reading further has at least perused Dinosaurs at the Alamo. It's not bad, written for GURPS and easy enough to modify.But how to adapt it to AITAS?
My take. The PCs arrive, perhaps having detected the connection of part of Mexico to another location in space-time. They encounter the PCs from the scenario and examine the pocket universe, while (hopefully) avoiding being eaten, trampled et cetera.
Joe can be from the Time Agency, though I'd take are to eliminate any annoying equipment he might have brought. He may be very suspicious of the PCs once he figures out that they're also time travellers, which for most AITAS character should be a few seconds....
More importantly for the PCs there is the need to ensure that the events at the Alamo go, more-or-less, as historically. The story may change, but the ending much remain the same.
So the cannon cannot be brought back top reinforce the defenders, and the dinosaurs also can’t be allowed to roam outside their environment.
Another idea.
Some years ago I sketched out another scenario around the Battle of the Alamo. A traveller arrived to alter history, but alter it back to the correct path after some meddling.
Augustus knew what would happen if Fannin managed to bring his supply convoy to relieve the defenders.
If the defenders held the Alamo long enough for reinforcements to arrive, the resulting drawn out siege would kill thousands of Texans, but not prevent Santa Anna from eventually overrunning the Alamo, and massacring everyone there.
The losses in the resulting bloodbath would weaken the Texas military (both in men and in morale) enough for Santa Anna to occupy the entire territory. This would lead to outrage in the United States, whipped up by the usual suspects and with British meddling (the UK having designs on California) and to a long drawn out war between the US and Mexico that would last for more than a decade, leaving Mexico devastated and the US severely weakened. Decades later the South would successfully secede, with British backing, and enmesh themselves in the web of alliances that would pave the way for the Great War of 1915-1919.
But if the Alamo fell with only handful of men there, defying Santa Anna's far greater force, it would become a clarion call to the Texans. Santa Anna would win the battle but lose the war.
So Augustus knew what had to be done; he had to sacrifice the Alamo defenders in order to save thousands of lives and prevent a decade of war. So he made his way to Goliad and waited for Colonel Fannin to arrive with reinforcements, and the carts loaded with supplies bound for the Alamo.
He joined Fannin’s troops as a volunteer, claiming to be a farrier and mechanic, skilled at fixing wagons and shoeing horses and oxen.
Over the following nights Augustus sabotaged the wheels of the wagons, loosened the harnesses of the oxen and committed other acts of sabotage, while working on the mind of Fannin. When the force departed he accompanied Fannin long enough to insure the rather timid Colonel Fannin soon lost all confidence and abandoned his mission.
Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?
OK, I know I should be finishing ‘The Maddess of the Ants’ but I got distracted…..
Over at One Shot Adventures I see that JC (J. C. Connors) has a new scenario out.
OK at first I wasn’t that interested, the “Old West” being my second least favourite genre/setting, but this was an interesting one as it revolved around the Alamo, specifically the last battle there, why I have been considering for a scenario of my own.
- This would probably be a good time for non-USAians to check Wikipedia and get the basics of why the Battle of the Alamo is so important to US history and folklore.
However the scenario also includes a pocket universe, with dinosaurs, and a time traveller trying to ‘fix’ (for a certain value of ‘fix’) things. That’s more like it…..
I’m now going to assume that anyone reading further has at least perused Dinosaurs at the Alamo. It's not bad, written for GURPS and easy enough to modify.But how to adapt it to AITAS?
My take. The PCs arrive, perhaps having detected the connection of part of Mexico to another location in space-time. They encounter the PCs from the scenario and examine the pocket universe, while (hopefully) avoiding being eaten, trampled et cetera.
- BTW, the presence of Bowie in the party is odd; historically he should be sick in bed in the mission, having collapsed on 24FEB. This illness may have been typhus, a resurgence of his yellow fever infection, or (more likely) related to Bowie’s chronic alcoholism (perhaps alcoholic pneumonia). Certainly during his co-leadership (with Travis) of the defense of the mission, Bowie was frequently drunk, often confused and irrational
- This might merely be an incorrect detail of history, or it might be a sign of someone meddling (a third time traveller?
).
).Joe can be from the Time Agency, though I'd take are to eliminate any annoying equipment he might have brought. He may be very suspicious of the PCs once he figures out that they're also time travellers, which for most AITAS character should be a few seconds....
More importantly for the PCs there is the need to ensure that the events at the Alamo go, more-or-less, as historically. The story may change, but the ending much remain the same.
So the cannon cannot be brought back top reinforce the defenders, and the dinosaurs also can’t be allowed to roam outside their environment.
- The necessity for adherence to known history means that three of the characters provided as PCs in Dinosaurs at the Alamo are going to die, three more will survive
Another idea.
Some years ago I sketched out another scenario around the Battle of the Alamo. A traveller arrived to alter history, but alter it back to the correct path after some meddling.
Augustus knew what would happen if Fannin managed to bring his supply convoy to relieve the defenders.
If the defenders held the Alamo long enough for reinforcements to arrive, the resulting drawn out siege would kill thousands of Texans, but not prevent Santa Anna from eventually overrunning the Alamo, and massacring everyone there.
The losses in the resulting bloodbath would weaken the Texas military (both in men and in morale) enough for Santa Anna to occupy the entire territory. This would lead to outrage in the United States, whipped up by the usual suspects and with British meddling (the UK having designs on California) and to a long drawn out war between the US and Mexico that would last for more than a decade, leaving Mexico devastated and the US severely weakened. Decades later the South would successfully secede, with British backing, and enmesh themselves in the web of alliances that would pave the way for the Great War of 1915-1919.
But if the Alamo fell with only handful of men there, defying Santa Anna's far greater force, it would become a clarion call to the Texans. Santa Anna would win the battle but lose the war.
So Augustus knew what had to be done; he had to sacrifice the Alamo defenders in order to save thousands of lives and prevent a decade of war. So he made his way to Goliad and waited for Colonel Fannin to arrive with reinforcements, and the carts loaded with supplies bound for the Alamo.
He joined Fannin’s troops as a volunteer, claiming to be a farrier and mechanic, skilled at fixing wagons and shoeing horses and oxen.
Over the following nights Augustus sabotaged the wheels of the wagons, loosened the harnesses of the oxen and committed other acts of sabotage, while working on the mind of Fannin. When the force departed he accompanied Fannin long enough to insure the rather timid Colonel Fannin soon lost all confidence and abandoned his mission.
Comments? Ideas? Suggestions?