Random Idea: John Carver

RPG Random Idea

'Rock Formation NW of Jubilee Point' by avlxyz on Flickr‘Rock Formation NW of Jubilee Point’ by avlxyz on Flickr

This is part of a series of RPG characters, creatures, items, adventure ideas, and locations inspired by random entries from Wikipedia. The material I create may grow distant from its roots.

Today we have John Carver, one of the men who organized the Mayflower voyage to America. He harbored a separatist who was critical of the church, and with the heat rising from King James I’s soldiers, he negotiated with the Virginia Company on a voyage to America. He was governor of the Mayflower, probably wrote the Mayflower Contract, steadied the impetuous military hand of Myles Standish, planned much of Plymouth colony, and died of exhaustion working alongside the other Pilgrims just after their disastrous first winter, without ever seeing the colony find its feet.

Wow.

 

This struggling outpost of Seamouth needs your help.

Thanks to wildly over-optimistic reports of fertile land and ancient riches laying in nearby ruins, Jon the Carver volunteered to organize a settlement on this spit of land. When they arrived, the settlers discovered a wild, dangerous forest on one side and a rocky coast on the other, separated by a narrow strip of fertile soil.

In their first year, a disastrous winter combined with a plague to wipe out most of Seamouth’s inhabitants. The few settlers who managed to penetrate the forest found plenty of old ruins…and savage natives who attack any who come near. And now these savages have started to harass Seamouth itself.

The colony’s cutthroat military commander, Miles, campaigns to strike deep into the forest’s interior and destroy the savages who lurk therein. John the Carver has been holding him back, fearing reprisals if the attack is unsuccessful.

John needs a good fighting group to subdue the savages such that they won’t fight back.

(The players could handle the savages by forging diplomatic ties, or by creating a showy effect that scares them, rather than killing every last one of them.)

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