Credits

Written by Ken MacLennan for Pleasanton's Museum on Main

Copperheads in the Golden State

It's WAR! But not here. Yet. California has declared for the Union, but not all Californians are happy about it. Many of these so-called Copperheads keep their mouths shut and go about their business; others stick to arguing with acquaintances or publishing inflammatory broadsheets. But a brave or desperate few look for more active ways to support the South. Perhaps the flow of gold and silver to Federal coffers can be diverted to the Confederacy; perhaps a loud blow for the South in California will raise morale back East and bring glory and opportunity to those who strike it. Or perhaps, just perhaps, sympathy for the Rebels can be harnessed into something much bigger.

Inspiration
No films, unfortunately. Readings include Leonard Richards, The California Gold Rush and the Coming of the Civil War, and John Boessenecker, Badge and Buckshot: Lawlessness in Old California. The two best-known incidents have entries on Wikipedia, albeit skeletal ones: J.M. Chapman Ingram's Partisan Rangers Seriously, somebody needs to make a movie about this stuff.

Special Playset Rule: Whose Side Are You On?

Loyalties matter. In addition to the usual cards, dice, and pens or markers, make sure that you have at least one blue and at least one red pen or marker. When naming his or her character, each player must choose a red (Rebel) or blue (Union) marker to write the characters name and short description, indicating the characters ostensible affiliation in the War Between the States. A player may indicate undecided by using both colors. No more than one player should do so, and the pressure to choose sides should be the most significant factor in that characters scenes. This is civil war, and the stakes are too high to let anyone sit on the fence.

Contents
Relationships, Objects, Needs, and Locations: Original version

Relationships, Objects, Needs, and Locations: PG-13 version A Seditious INSTA-Setup Background Information Actual Play Reports: Original Version Actual Play Reports: PG-13 Version

Boilerplate
This playset is copyright 2013 by Pleasanton's Museum on Main. All rights are reserved. This playset is an accessory for the Fiasco role-playing game by Bully Pulpit Games. Fiasco is copyright 2009 by Jason Morningstar. All rights are reserved.

Relationships In Civil War California (Original Version)

1. Family 1. Brother Against Brother (or Sister) 2. Parent & Child 3. Family by Adoption 4. Husband & Wife 5. Rich Aunt/Uncle & Poor Nephew/Niece 6. Cousins Work 1. Prospecting Partners 2. Ranch Foreman & Cowboy 3. Boss & Personal Assistant 4. Partners in a Store 5. Master & Servant 6. Co-Employees The Past 1. A Spouse, Presumed Dead 2. Former Master & Escaped Slave 3. Army Buddies from the Mexican War 4. An Old Family Grudge 5. School-Days Bully & Victim 6. Former Prostitute and Frequent Client Romance 1. Old Flames, Rekindled 2. Forbidden Passion 3. Starry-Eyed Newlyweds 4. Unrequited Love 5. Star-Crossed Young Lovers 6. Happily Married Crime 1. Bandit Gang 2. 3. 4. 5.

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2. Con Artist & Mark 3. Plotting Treason! 4. Lawman & Wanted Bandit 5. Crooked Boss & Enforcer 6. Extortionist & Victim Community 1. Rival Faction Leaders 2. Landowner & Squatter 3. Local Official & Owner of Vice Den 4. Arbiters of Society 5. Local Misfits 6. Town Loser & Wife

Needs In Civil War California (Original Version)

1. To Get Out 1. From Under the Family Name 2. Of a Partnership Gone Scary 3. Before They Find Out What You Did 4. Of A Romance Gone Bad 5. Of a Deal Thats Bleeding You Dry 6. Without a Dishonorable Discharge To Get Even 1. With the Law 2. With the Army 3. With a Lover Who Scorned You 4. With a Treacherous Subordinate 5. With the Anglos Who Stole Your Land 6. With the Rest of Your Family To Get Respect 1. From an Overbearing Parent 2. From the Folks Back East Who Laughed at You 3. From the Army 4. From Your Natural Inferiors 5. From This Vicious Little Town 6. From Your Distant Hero To Get Rich 1. Through Your Big Idea 2. While Defending the Union 3. As Soon as Possible 4. Without Honest Work 5. While Getting Those Yankees Goat 6. Before the Lodes Run Out To Get Into 1. The Confederate Army 2. Your Bosss Good Graces 3. The Family Trust Fund 4. The Knights of the Golden Circle 5. The Circle of Respectability 2. 3. 4. 5.

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6. A Powerful Man's Bed To Get Love 1. From Someone Who Doesnt Know You Exist 2. From a Parent Obsessed with Success 3. From Anyone Wholl Take You 4. That Drowns Your Shame and Guilt 5. From Your Whole Community 6. From Someone Who Hates You

Locations In Civil War California (Original Version)

1. Frisco and the Bay 1. The Army Base on Alcatraz Island 2. The Benicia Arsenal 3. A Dance Hall on the Barbary Coast 4. St. Marys Hospital on Rincon Hill 5. A Pier on the San Francisco Embarcadero 6. The Back Room of a Boarding-House in Oakland The Gold Country 1. The Hydraulic Mine at Dutch Flat 2. The Store at Carsons Creek 3. The Wells Fargo Office at Placerville 4. A Tapped-Out Creek in the Hills 5. A Mining Camp in the Sierra Foothills 6. Bartrams Hotel, East of Placerville Off the Beaten Path 1. A Dry Gulch in the Central Valley 2. A Cave above the Altamont Pass 3. A Mountain Pass on the Placerville Toll Road 4. Near the Summit of Mount Hamilton 5. Among the Redwoods in the Yosemite Valley 6. A Hidden Cove on the Marin Coast Sacramento 1. The State Capitol Construction Site 2. A Warehouse on the Sacramento River 3. The Goss & Nichols Iron Works 4. A Suite at the Orleans Hotel 5. A Railroad Camp, About Ten Miles Northeast of Town 6. A Disorderly House near the Riverfront The Tri-Valley 1. A Cantina at Alisal 2. The Dublin Stagecoach Stop 3. The Francisco Alviso Adobe 4. John Kottingers Barn in Alisal 5. A Field on the Outskirts of the Livermore Ranch 6. The Bilz Wagon Works in Alisal South of the Bay 1. The Churchyard at Mission San Jose 2. A Shack in Niles Canyon 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

3. 4. 5. 6.

The Hill Farmhouse on New Almaden Road A Quicksilver Mine Shaft in New Almaden A General Store next to San Jose City Hall The Halfway House Inn at Salinas

Objects In Civil War California (Original Version)

1. Weapon 1. A Gatling Gun 2. A Hatchet 3. A Colt Revolver 4. A Branding Iron 5. A Ten-Pound Cask of Gunpowder 6. A Twenty-Pound Sledgehammer Transportation 1. An Armed Schooner 2. A Stagecoach 3. A Buckboard Wagon 4. A Stolen Horse 5. An Engine on the Sacramento Valley Railroad 6. A Single-Sailed Dinghy Valuable 1. $60,000 in Union Gold 2. A Letter of Introduction of Gen. A.S. Johnston 3. A Thoroughbred Race Horse 4. Plans for an Armored Steam Car 5. The Deed to a Comstock Mining Claim 6. Six Crates of Henry Breech-Loading Rifles Information 1. The Name of an Undercover Confederate Agent 2. The Location of Someones Secret Trysting Place 3. The Route of the Next Gold Shipment Leaving Sacramento 4. A Duty Roster with Guard Schedules 5. Someones True Place and Family of Birth 6. The Number of Someone Elses Bank Account Shameful 1. Correspondence Between Illicit Lovers 2. A Compromising Photograph 3. An Opium Pipe 4. A Baby of Mixed Ethnicity and illegitimate Birth 5. A Deck of Marked Cards 6. A Bundle of Counterfeit Banknotes Sentimental 1. A Picture Locket 2. A Quantity of Clipped Tresses, Bound by Ribbon 3. An Heirloom Pocket Watch 4. A Letter from Someones Betrothed 5. The Cigarette Case that Stopped a Bullet 6. A Story Clipped from a Newspaper 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

A Seditious INSTA-Setup for California Confederates

Relationships In Civil War California
For three players Family: Brother against Brother (or Sister) The Past: Army Buddies from the Mexican War Crime: Plotting Treason! For four players, add Romance: Starry-Eyed Newlyweds For five players, add Community: Arbiters of Society

Needs In Civil War California

For three players To Get Even: With the Army For four or five players, add To Get Rich: From Your Big Idea

Objects In Civil War California

For three or four players Valuable: $60,000 in Union Gold For five players, add Transportation: A Stolen Horse

Locations In Civil War California

For three, four or five players The Tri-Valley: A Cantina at Alisal

Historical Notes for California Confederates

For an overview of California's role in the Civil War, try the Wikipedia article here. The material below provides background information about places and people mentioned in the element lists.

Frisco and the Bay

Before Alcatraz Island became a federal prison, it was a military base helping to guard the entrance to

the San Francisco Bay. During the War the federal government uses the island to intern suspected Confederate agents and Copperhead agitators. At the northeast corner of the Bay, the arsenal at Benicia is the Armys largest ordnance facility on the West Coast, and the base there an important staging area for troops serving in the West. St. Marys Hospital is run by the Sisters of Mercy, an order of Irish nuns who also distribute food and clean linen to the poor and the sick of San Francisco.

The Gold Country

Hydraulic mining, such as that pursued at Dutch Flat, involves pressurized water cannons that strip the surface off of mountainsides, directing the resulting slurry into long wooden sluices to extract the gold, sometimes with the aid of mercury. Carsons Creek, one of the early boomtowns of the Gold Rush, is nearly a ghost town now that the easy veins are all worked; and the remaining claims are tied up in legal wrangles. Placerville is one of the hubs of the Gold Country, an important transit point for silver coming from the Comstock Lode and one terminus of Wells Fargos Pioneer stagecoach route. East of town, Bartrams Hotel lies near a bend in the main road where an ambush might easily be staged.

Sacramento
The State Capitol building began construction in 1861 and will probably not be finished until after the warthe victim of difficulties with funding, flooding, and a cumbersome day-by-day contracting system. The Orleans is the citys most luxurious hotel, and hosts a stop on the California Stage Line.

The Tri-Valley
Alisal is a small town only recently emerging from its past as a watering-place and haven for Californio bandits seeking payback from the Anglos. It also serves as the judicial seat of Murray Township in the person of Justice of the Peace John Kottinger. Close by lies the adobe of Francisco Alviso, foreman of the Bernal rancho. More traffic, however, flows through Dublin slightly to the north, where there is a Wells Fargo stagecoach stop. East of Alisal and Dublin lies the ranch of Robert Livermore, Jr., a popular stop for travelers going to or from the southern gold fields.

South of the Bay

Long shorn of its supporting properties, Mission San Jose is a parish church that has given its name to the surrounding town built on the old missions lands. New Almaden, south of San Jose, is the site of a bustling quicksilver mine that supplies mercury for use in the hydraulic mining operations of the Sierras; Edward Hill owns a farm on the road between New Almaden and San Jose. Even further south, the Half Way House Inn lies where the L.A. to S.F. stagecoach route crosses the road between Monterey and San Juan Batista, at the town of Salinas.

Other Noteworthies
The Knights of the Golden Circle are an organization of Confederate sympathizers based in California, from whose membership much Copperhead plotting arises. Gen. A.S. Johnston resigned his U.S. Army commission in 1861 and laid down his command in California to travel East and fight for the Confederacy.