Midpoint Mods

Horses




Characters may only personally own one horse at a time, but are able to trade their current horse for another player's, or a new one from Lee Scoresby, a maximum of one time per month. People can, however, lend and share their horses as frequently as they like!

NAME	BREED	COAT	DESCRIPTION
Bucky Barnes	Draft horse, mare	Bay, clipped tail, braided mane	Gentle and placid, and not particularly smart, but eager to please and very sociable.
Daylight	Draft horse, gelding	Dapple grey, short stiff mane, bobbed tail.	A biter, which is fine when your owner is made of metal, but steady when someone’s in the saddle. He’s really big and Daylight still might not fit on him, but he’s strong enough to carry him if he can manage. Otherwise, he’s good trade fodder, or for carrying supplies.
Hajime Aikawa	--	--	NA - came with Ryo
Inara Serra	Morgan, gelding	Black, white socks and blaze	Has a tendency to chew on anything within reach, from ropes to clothes to hair, but he never bites hard enough to hurt.
Irene	Mustang, mare	Chestnut, white star, back-left white sock	Energetic and demanding, requiring a good rider to keep up with her, but smart and canny and, with enough patience and training, could be an asset in an actual battle instead of just to carry Irene from place to place. She bonds strongly with a rider who gives her actual affection, but ignore her at your peril.
Isamu Fuwa	Mustang, gelding	Red roan, black mane and tail, no socks, star and snip	Smart and impatient, like his owner, and very vocal. He also has a bit of an impish streak, and is prone to stealing hats (particularly Fuwa’s) and food from market stalls. He’s smart enough to actively defy Fuwa.
Misty Day	Australian Stock Horse, gelding	Skewbald chestnut, white mask and blue eyes.	A nervous sort, easily spooked, and isn’t good at holding still.
Jiro Azuma	Quarter horse, mare	Palomino, three white hooves, large star	Stubborn and lazy and obsessed with food. She is also very gentle, though, and has a very easy gait to ride.
Jo Harvelle	Arabian, mare	Dark bay, large pink star	Prancy and bouncy to ride until you get her up past a trot, very spirited and eager to move, but very sweet too, and pretty smart.
Rocket	--	--	NA - came with Groot
Sam Wilson	Morgan, mare	Bay overo, short-cropped mane and tail	Steady and an easy ride, good for someone without much riding experience, but very slow and almost boring, and a little more fond of eating than she probably should be. She’s also very fond of being groomed and of scritches.
Sara Lance	Morab, gelding	Chestnut. Four white socks, white strip.	Irritable and fiesty if you’re in reach of his mouth or hooves, but dependable when you’re on his back, and smart enough to act like a guard dog if you can train him up to it a little.
Taako	American Paint, gelding	Piebald, bare face.	Has a distressing tendency to buck in an attempt to rid himself of his rider. He’s only mean when someone is on his back, though: if you’re leading him or using him for supplies, he’s gentle as a lamb and likes to nuzzle. He’s very fast and sturdy, should Taako manage to control him enough to stay on.
Yaiba Yua	Appaloosa, mare	Buckskin, white blanket with spots	Something of a nervous disposition, and startles easily from loud noises and sudden movements, but she seems to be much more at ease around other horses, particularly ones with self-assured or relaxed dispositions. Very gentle and easy to ride, even for a newbie.
Yoda	Shetland pony, chestnut	White mane and tail, four white socks	Friendly and easy-going, extremely reliable and sure-footed, but has perhaps too much of a tendency to chew on things that get within range of her mouth. Like cowboy hats on tiny heads, or long protruding ears.

To add your character's horse to the list, please use the following form!
<textarea><tr><td>[[Your character's name]]</td> <td>[[Breed and gender]]</td> <td>[[Basic description of its fur and markings]]</td> <td>[[2-3 sentences about your horse's personality. If your character is ineligible, put 'NA:' and the character replacing it.]]</td></tr>

Mod Contact

Contacting the Mods

If you have any major concerns, queries, or wish to ask to be invited into the game, please feel free to do one of the following:

Email [email protected];

PM this journal; or

Contact the mods' plurk account midpointmods.

If you have any questions about game mechanics or setting dressings, please ask at the FAQ, and we will try to respond within 72 hours! If you have any casual or curious inquiries, feel free to hit one or both of the mods up on Plurk!

While Maniette has a semi-public Discord, please do not contact them through it for formal game matters.

Mod Team

Gail | Head Mod
cacopheny

Maniette | Coding/Baby Mod
maniette

Points (and Redeeming them)

Points are the IC game currency. Characters will receive them for participating in game rounds, regardless of whether they win or lose: but of course, how many they win will depend heavily on how much they did to advance their mission goal, whether they were injured or killed, whether they won, and how triumphantly they did. Close matches earn more for the losing team than total party kills might, for example. Teams that win will garner up to a hundred points per character, with some variation depending on whether any particular characters did nothing at all to help their teammates, and teams that lose ranging from ten to fifty per character.

We’re not keeping specific points amounts for game rounds at this time, though that may change in the future if this turns into an open game. Currently, we're using our best judgement!

Now for the fun part: what you can get for your points!

Characters can purchase extra meals and alcohol from North or the Madame, which is the most common use of points. Tobacco is also available in various forms, both from Madam and the general stores, and setting-appropriate drugs like marijuana, mushrooms, and mescal can be found on rare occasions from travelling vendors. Characters can purchase private homes in Midpoint for 700 points, or trade their horse for a new one for 200. Supplies like fancier weapons that fit the setting (a good rifle, a better pistol, bullwhips, dynamite, extra knives, etc) and useful things like grappling hooks and kerosene cost anywhere from ten to a hundred points. Supplies that do not fit the setting (semi-automatic pistols, machine guns, laser swords, ray guns, whatever) cost... a lot more. And require you find the right vendor who sells them. Good luck, there.

Points can also be spent on things like trips to the theater, purchasing books to keep from the library, or even buying something familiar from home... again, if you can find the right vendor to ask, and they happen to have what you want. Characters who play along with the Game Makers are much more likely to find these vendors and find things they might like to buy for cheaper.

A more complete list of what folks can spend points on will come in the future. For now, to spend points, please comment to this post with what you want and your general estimate for how many points you think it’s worth, and we’ll haggle :)

<b>Player Name:</b> <b>Character:</b> <b>Requested Item:</b> <b>Suggested Price in Points:</b> <b>Justification:</b> (OPTIONAL)

Setting

The game arena for Midpoint Saloon is a roughly circular area about fifty miles in diameter (approximately 2000 square miles). The area contains a flat scrub plain, melding into desert in the west and mountains to the north, dotted with small copses of trees and the occasional ravine. There is one river, passing just outside the town of Midpoint and running mostly straight from the mountains in the north to the flood plain in the south. The ocean is just visible further south, through the waves of heat, but any attempt to reach it results in various... unpleasant consequences.

A set of train tracks meanders around the game arena, with stations currently located in Midpoint, a mile outside Bank Town, to the west at the Ranch, and in the far north at Tycoon's Depot. The train schedule is erratic and unpredictable, especially as the train has an unfortunate tendency to get blown up.

At six equidistant points along the rim of the game arena are the starting jails. Whenever a new player is brought to the game, or a player dies, they wake up in one of these six jails. This is also where players receive their instructions for each new game round, even if no one needs to be picked up.

Scattered around the arena are small towns and even smaller homesteads, the former all important game nodes and the latter meant as way-stations and hideouts for players, and sometimes sources of information and supplies. Each listed town has a general store, a stable, and a bar, but only Midpoint and Tycoons' Depot have actual inns with rooms available to characters. Otherwise, the contents of the towns vary depending on their name. Tycoons' Depot has the main train station and the houses of the wealthy railroad, ranching, and bank owners as well as their families. Ranch Corner is where ranchers bring their heads of cattle and other animals to be sold, and where if you don't like your assigned mount, you can trade it and some points for a new one.

Then there is the Bad Jail. No one knows where it is, or if it's even inside the game arena itself. It's where you wind up if you break the rules too badly, or fail to be sufficiently entertaining. Nobody really likes to talk about it, but most people have been there at least once...

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Towns

( Starting Jails )

( Midpoint )

( Tycoons' Depot )

( Bank Town )

( The Ranch )

( Miner Flats )

PREMISE

You find yourself in jail. An actual, old-fashioned, dusty jail cell below ground level, judging from the tiny barred window just above eye level, that looks right out of a cowboy flick. Any gear you had on you is now across the room, on the other side of the bars, on hooks and shelves against the far wall by the stairs up into the main room above. Through the window, standing on tip-toes, you can see only scrub desert and distant mountains.

You can't get out: no magic, no lock-picking, no bar-bending succeeds to let you go free.

Then there are steps and the jingling of keys from the room upstairs. It sounds like someone is coming to let you out... and hopefully explain what in tarnation is going on!

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Midpoint is an invite-only, private jamjar game setting set in a twisted version of the Wild West, one with hidden advanced technology and a mysterious group of gamemakers who run the show. Day to day gameplay includes game tasks, slice of life elements between the game rounds, and overarching metaplot discovery opportunities.

The setting runs on set game rounds, with set game teams, lasting two weeks per game round, with two weeks of downtime afterwards, and new players brought in at the start of the game round. A game round consists of missions, between one and three at a time depending on the complexity of the objectives and number of available players. Each mission consists of two teams set to a specific objective, in opposition to each other. Each team is given a goal, suggested courses of action to complete that goal, and some general supplies to start with.

The goal is to complete the objective in as interesting and creative a way as possible, for the entertainment of the gamemakers, and the earning of points and favors from the audience, i.e. the players reading this and the mods.