Try to survive the Winter: A planquest in Fantasy Colonial America

Can we not start fights with more people. The captain of the ship may be a greedy jerk but he is important enough to have oversight from a higher authority. If something happens we might have more issues then just winter coming down on our heads. Lets trade for what we can then possibly we will have more ships coming to trade once he makes it back. Might have better luck with other traders.

Edit: If nobody likes him and we can do it without issues fine. Take him for all he's got. We deserve shinies as much as the next person.
It's also just a matter of how likely it is that his initial prices are very inflated, such that even he knows it.
 
Say, a thought about trade goods. While we obviously don't want to sell the Excellent Wood or Bark, between our prior stockpiles and the huge windfall we got from 2x Join the Battles, plus the ability to get more with our permitted gathering from the Sun-Loving Vessels, we do have a sizeable quantity of regular quality wood, probably more than we need for Winter.

Wonder how much wood would be needed to get a single "point" for trading, and if it would be worth it. We obviously wouldn't want to spend too much of it, but we have so much at the moment that I'm wondering whether it'd be worth it to trade away some of it.

Although, I believe in the early 1600s England still had plenty of domestic timber (it's not until the 18th century that those become exhausted, though I believe by this point it is largely importing softwood), so the amount of wood needed might be too much, especially when we still want plenty of wood to prepare for Winter. But I thought I might as well put the idea out here.
 
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I think you need to think a bit bigger. Sure England has wood, but does it have as much wood in as a good quality as us? No. That means we have a competitive advantage making anything out of wood. The one thing that every nation wants that takes a large amount of wood to make is ships, especially trade and war ships.

We're basically sitting on something more valuable than a goldmine right now. If we can get some shipwrights and a port they can work at, we could take control of trade. The whole reason that the British were able to become a naval empire was being able to pump out thousands of ships from the American colonies.

Of course, this isn't something that would happen any time soon. I'd give it a generation or two for everything to get set up. We could probably shorten the timeframe depending on what allies we can make. (I really want to talk to the Mistmen.)
 
Wonder how much wood would be needed to get a single "point" for trading, and if it would be worth it. We obviously wouldn't want to spend too much of it, but we have so much at the moment that I'm wondering whether it'd be worth it to trade away some of it.
You have to think of volume and wheight. Wood is heavy and bulky, so unless it has special quality like color or hardness its not really worth the effort to import it when you have domestic production.
 
What happened to the Natives option, in the opening vote? It said there were native societies nearby, and there would be options to trade for some things, was that canceled out by the union born of despair, or are the shepherds and the mistmen them?
 
What happened to the Natives option, in the opening vote? It said there were native societies nearby, and there would be options to trade for some things, was that canceled out by the union born of despair, or are the shepherds and the mistmen them?
There are, I asked about that yesterday. Here's the answer:
Actually, you triggered a synergy.
By chosing the Native option and the Union, you built the colony near the old, dying Dreamer Federation, and gave a main target to the forces of Winter (the old Winter Walkers) during the prologue of the quest, so to speak.
So far more native groups were able to go into hiding and escapt Winter, allowing far more potential contacts with friendly factions.
Making contacts was just somewhat slowed by having to deal with direct survival and the ghosts at first.
And the Trade and Knowledge Trade actions are for now integrated in the Expeditions.
So instead of one group of natives, there's a whole bunch, we just haven't had that much time to go scouting and looking for them. We scouted East and found the Shepherds, and we scouted West, but the natives there (which might have been more ex-Dreamer Federation members) were hostile (or well, maybe not hostile as in malevolent, but paranoid that we were Tribute-Takers), and we need a way to prove we're not.

We haven't scouted North or South yet. Maybe we'll be able to do that Turn 11, or put some effort onto that next year to find some more allies.
 
Vote closed
Scheduled vote count started by OldShadow on Jan 28, 2024 at 5:09 PM, finished with 121 posts and 23 votes.

  • [X] Plan Gentle Encouragement and Meetings
    -[X][Trader] Strongarm David, he has 20 sailors, we have a militia and guns pointed at him from above. He should lower his prices.
    -[X][Huntsman] Make him tour the walls and inspect the Militia
    -[X][Colonists] Make them visit Union and their kin before they make a choice.
    --[X] Have their kin help ease them into the changes that have occurred in Union, though keep the supernatural stuff hidden for now. Introduce them to members of the Winter Walkers and Unchained that they have befriended, who have helped them, etc. The more explicitly supernatural aspects of Union can be introduced gradually, and after they have been reassured that their families haven't sold their souls to demons. However much Winter has changed us, we are still their kin, and they are still ours.
    -[X][Scholar] Invite him and drag him before Sara and Failure. They shall know what to do with him.
    --[X] The Silent Blades should not be present. To avoid...misunderstandings.
    [X] Plan Just the Meetings
    -[X][Trader] Trade with David
    --[X] Goods Bought: Cats (1 point), 3 Fabric (3 points)
    --[X] Goods Sold: Coins & Jewels (1 point), Furs and Leather (1 point) 1 Beaver Fur (2 points)
    -[X][Huntsman] Make him tour the walls and inspect the Militia
    -[X][Colonists] Make them visit Union and their kin before they make a choice.
    --[X] Have their kin help ease them into the changes that have occurred in Union, though keep the supernatural stuff hidden for now. Introduce them to members of the Winter Walkers and Unchained that they have befriended, who have helped them, etc. The more explicitly supernatural aspects of Union can be introduced gradually, and after they have been reassured that their families haven't sold their souls to demons. However much Winter has changed us, we are still their kin, and they are still ours.
    -[X][Scholar] Invite him and drag him before Sara and Failure. They shall know what to do with him.
    --[X] The Silent Blades should not be present. To avoid...misunderstandings.
    [X] Plan: Goods and Deceit
    -[X][Trader] Strongarm David, he has 20 sailors, we have a militia and guns pointed at him from above. He should lower his prices.
    -[X][Huntsman] Pretend to invite him, and ambush him and his men.
    -[X][Colonists] Make them visit Union and their kin before they make a choice.
    --[X] But keep the supernatural in Union hidden for now. After they have spent some time with their thought-lost kin, then we can decide how to hopefully ease them into things.
    -[X][Scholar] Invite him and drag him before Sara and Failure. They shall know what to do with him.
    [X] Plan Gentle Encouragement and Accidents
    -[X][Trader] Strongarm David, he has 20 sailors, we have a militia and guns pointed at him from above. He should lower his prices.
    -[X][Huntsman] Pretend to invite him, and ambush him and his men.
    --[X] Invite the huntsmen to view on of the great threats to the union, the monsters and advice on how to deal with them. Bring him to them and the other huntsmen try to manuver the situation to get the main huntsmen killed while one of the other one surives. Bring them straight back to the ship after
    -[X][Colonists] Make them visit Union and their kin before they make a choice.
    --[X] Have their kin help ease them into the changes that have occurred in Union. Introduce them to members of the Winter Walkers and Unchained that they have befriended, who have helped them, etc. The more explicitly supernatural aspects of Union can be introduced gradually, and after they have been reassured that their families haven't sold their souls to demons.
    -[X][Scholar] Invite him and drag him before Sara and Failure. They shall know what to do with him.
    --[X] The Silent Blades should not be present. To avoid...misunderstandings.
    [X][Trader] Trade with David
    -[X] Goods bought 2
    --[X] Cats! 1
    --[X] Gunpowder 1
    -[X] Goods sold
    --[X] Remaining coins and precious jewelry from Johnstown : 1
    --[X] Unit of beaver fur (2 in stocks) : 1
    [X][Huntsman] Invite him before the Council
    [X][Colonists] Invite them in, hiding the supernatural in Union…until the ship leaves
    [X][Scholar] Invite him and drag him before Sara and Failure. They shall know what to do with him.
    -[X][Trader] Trade with David
    --[X] Goods bought 2
    ---[X] Cats! 1
    ---[X] Gunpowder 1
    --[X] Goods sold
    ---[X] Remaining coins and precious jewelry from Johnstown : 1
    ---[X] Unit of beaver fur (2 in stocks) : 1
 
Speaking of the point of trade goods steel silk of the woodflesh spiders is basically like steel bark but more fashionable and is more obtainable in large quantities if you're willing to fight against giant spiders so another good trade resource to the old world and maybe using the powers of the wild and spirit magic we could tame the spiders to produce silk more safely if that's possible.
 
Speaking of the point of trade goods steel silk of the woodflesh spiders is basically like steel bark but more fashionable and is more obtainable in large quantities if you're willing to fight against giant spiders so another good trade resource to the old world and maybe using the powers of the wild and spirit magic we could tame the spiders to produce silk more safely if that's possible.
Two problems with that.

1) It would trigger the kind of gold rush we are trying to avoid.
2) It might be illegal, on account of the city of Lyons being give sole monopoly over silk production.
 
Potatoes are right out, they are being discovered right now.

And europeans thought it was poisonous for a long time because it was related or looked similar to morning nightshade.

But flax seeds would be good, would help solve our fabric situation.
 
I mean, looking at things objectively, the ship's brought with it largely good things. Even the Huntsman could be treated with multiple ways, or even disposed off without too much difficulty.

It's just extremely stressful because it's a big increase in scale due to re-establishing contact with Europe. Fighting Winter and its servants has a simplicity to it that interactions with the European colonial powers doesn't.
 
That reminds me. Hey @OldShadow, did anything major happen in the Old World while we were surviving Winter? We just got back in contact so it would be nice to know if any wars or plagues have started.
 
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