Sutter's Mill Diggings
A wounded prospector staggers into camp carrying a gold nugget and names one of the characters as the only person he ...
- Law Level
- 2
- Tech Level
- 4
- World
- Earth (Sol)
- Claim jumping, theft, drunken brawls, and black-powder gunfights
- Cave-ins, flooding, unstable mine shafts, and contaminated water
- Limited law enforcement and corrupt claim officials
- Independent miners and prospectors
- Merchants, gamblers, and saloon keepers
- A sheriff, deputies, and competing claim syndicates
The diggings offer assay services, general stores, blacksmithing, boarding houses, saloons, mule hire, and crude medical care. A loosely organized sheriff's posse struggles to control miners, claim jumpers, merchants, and prospectors while gold fever drives prices and violence upward.
A wounded prospector staggers into camp carrying a gold nugget and names one of the characters as the only person he trusts with the location of his claim.
A prospector offers a partnership on a rich new claim, provided the characters escort him through rival territory and secure legal ownership before nightfall.
Picks ring against stone while mules bray, gamblers shout, and campfire smoke mingles with mud, sweat, and woodsmoke. Canvas tents, rough plank shacks, black-powder gunfire, and wagon ruts fill the crowded gold-rush camp.
The richest vein lies beneath an abandoned dig, but its original owners were murdered and their survey map is hidden inside the local assay office.
GM Notes
- Gold creates rapid shifts in wealth, influence, and allegiance.
- Treat firearms, horses, tools, and ammunition as expensive and difficult to replace.
- The camp is neutral ground only until someone produces proof of a valuable strike.