I'm so excited to use Cattledash! as my group's introduction into Frontier Scum tonight! I fell in love with the system after watching QuestingBeast's review of it, and after months of finishing up other games I can finally sit my group down to play a session of it.
I did have a question though. How large is the canyon assumed to be, and about how long is it expected to take to get through it? The descriptors of the law being "hot on your hooves" and seeing their "cloud of dust" pursuing you makes them feel very, very close, but the idea that you would stop to poke around the burned down town or collapsed mine seems at odds with that.
I know cattle drives were often slow and took a while, so I wasn't sure if this was a car chase on horses or more of a long chase with the canyon being a sort of culmination of a longer, unseen engagement with the law.
My plan as of writing is to run the canyon as a two day trek, with them having to make a stop about halfway through (likely in the Burned Down Town) to rest the cattle before continuing on in the morning. I'm hoping for a sunset showdown in the Home Stretch with the law.
Thank you again!
Heya! The landscape leading up to the canyon is assumed to be very flat, so the dust cloud could still be a ways away.
I don't really have a good answer for how far away or how much time it would take for them to catch up ... it's all abstracted into the "timer" mechanic, so you could really scale it any which way. I think a two-day trek sounds like an eminently reasonable interpretation!
The effect of the setpieces on the story also depends on the situation. If the law is closing in the gang might see the saloon as a great place to make a last stand, or maybe the allure of an abandoned bank is reason enough.
There was another comment here proposing modifying the number of checks you make based on the speed of the slowest PC's horse, which could certainly spice up the chase as well!
Let us know how you get on!
Thank you so much for the fast reply!
I just wanted to let you know that the game went very well. The players had a fantastic time, and we ended up with only really wild Witchy Horse Arsonist Grave Digger that stole the show. She unfortunately died to the Cave Hyenas, but everyone else made it out and overcame an ambush by the lawfolk at the home stretch. They had 26 out of the 40 cattle alive by the end.
I just have to say I love how colorful the character creation was and my players said they had almost as much fun just creating their characters and horses as they did actually playing the game.
Definitely looking forward to running more in the future.
Thank you! Glad that it worked out fun 🤟
Oh and in case you missed it, the kickstarter for a new FS adventure, TIDES OF ROT, is launching September 5th!