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Exodus NDS Era Book The Old West
The Old West, front cover

Exodus NDS Era Book

The Old West

An Exodus NDS Era Book, Wyoming and Colorado, 1869 to 1876

Cheyenne and Denver, a hundred miles apart on one railroad, under two sets of laws, from the Wyoming suffrage act of December 1869 to Colorado statehood in August 1876. The Old West is an Exodus NDS Era Book for that corridor: the history and a period map, the Tribal Nations each by its own name, the Army, the railroads and the cattle and mining interests, Origins and Roles for ordinary people of the period, a short set of era rules, adversaries, a starter adventure and ready-made characters. Real places and dates; every character in the book is fictional.

20 chapters, about 119,700 words, free to read here in full.

Read It Online Download the PDF (265 pages, 61.8 MB) Contents Skill Cards Talent Cards

Contents

Part 1 Welcome

  1. 1. Welcome to The Old West The Union Pacific chose the Cheyenne townsite on 4 July 1867 and platted it on 5 July; by 1869 the town was the capital of Wyoming Territory.

Part 2 The Era and Its Peoples

  1. 2. The Era This chapter gives the dates and region, the period map, a dated timeline, and how people lived: who they were, what they earned, who held power, what they believed, and how they traveled, learned…
  2. 3. Tribal Nations Each Tribal Nation active in the Wyoming and Colorado corridor, and on its edges, has its own section: where its people lived in 1874, how they governed themselves, how they made a living, what…
  3. 4. Factions and Powers Each power in this chapter has an entry giving what it is, who leads it, what it wants, what it can and cannot do, where it operates, how it treats the players, its resources, its internal splits…

Part 3 The Corridor

  1. 5. Cheyenne Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory, is a Union Pacific town, the territorial capital, the county seat of Laramie County and the supply door to Fort D.A. Russell and the Black Hills road.
  2. 6. Denver Denver is the capital of Colorado Territory and the end of the Denver Pacific Railway, a hundred miles south of Cheyenne. In 1870 the census counted 4,759 people; by 1880 it counted 35,629.

Part 4 Building a Character

  1. 7. Character Creation and Roles A player character in The Old West is built with the Core Rules, Character Creation, in seven numbered steps (the Core Rules' six, with the free talent as its own step).
  2. 8. Skills and Talents The Old West uses the 22 skills and the universal talents of the Exodus NDS Core Rules (Skills and Talents).
  3. 9. Gear and Prices Money in the corridor is U.S. dollars and cents. The sourcebooks print prices in their own units; this book prices everything in dollars from the record, and the unit column in the echoed tables is a…

Part 5 Rules

  1. 10. Era Rules The Era Rules add to the Exodus NDS Core Rules and the cited sourcebooks. Everything else uses those rules as written.
  2. 11. Adversaries This chapter gives stat blocks for the people, animals and hazards that oppose the players in 1869 to 1876.

Part 6 Running the Game

  1. 12. Places and Campaign Tools This chapter has three parts. Travel at the Table gives the real routes of the corridor with distances, times, fares and stops, and says how news and mail move.
  2. 13. Running the Era This chapter is for the Game Master. It covers table tone, seven campaign modes, using real history at the table, scene frameworks, pacing and the Era Cast.
  3. 14. Historical Reference This chapter lists the real people, events and institutions of the corridor from 1865 to 1880. Each entry gives who or what it was, where and when, and one line on why it matters at the table.

Part 7 The Adventure and the Cast

  1. 15. Starter Adventure The Line North is a five-scene adventure for the seven pregenerated characters (Pregenerated Characters), or for any party of three to six built with Character Creation and Roles.
  2. 16. Pregenerated Characters Seven characters are ready to play; six are members of the Era Cast, and the seventh, the doctor, is not.

Part 8 Reference

  1. 17. Quick Reference Every table names the chapter that owns it. Where a figure here and the owning chapter differ, the chapter governs.
  2. Sources and Further Reading This book is built from the documents of the period and from the work of historians who read them.
  3. 18. Licensing Only the Exodus NDS Core Rules are published under the ORC License. Everything else Kaosweaver, Inc. publishes, including this book, is under copyright and is not open.
  4. About This Book Cheyenne and Denver, the Union Pacific and the Denver Pacific, the Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho country around them, and the years from 1869 to 1876.

The Era Cast

The people who carry the book's art and examples. They are fictional people of the period.

  • Michael Deveney, reference sheet Michael Deveney Deputy U.S. Marshal at Cheyenne
  • Josiah "Si" Tolliver, reference sheet Josiah "Si" Tolliver Drover and Marksman
  • Anselmo Ybarra, reference sheet Anselmo Ybarra Horse Breaker and Tracker
  • Odette Marchand, reference sheet Odette Marchand Parlor House Keeper
  • Edmund Harrow, reference sheet Edmund Harrow Land Agent and Surveyor
  • Wong Yik Lun, reference sheet Wong Yik Lun Merchant and Labor Contractor
  • Elk Walks First, reference sheet Elk Walks First Warrior of the Oglala Lakota
  • Marie Tessier, reference sheet Marie Tessier Interpreter of the Northern Cheyenne
  • Wade Carrick, reference sheet Wade Carrick Stock Thief and Road Agent

The Old West is free to read here in full. It is copyright 2026 Kaosweaver, Inc., all rights reserved, and uses the Exodus NDS Core Rules, which are published under the ORC License. To reuse any of it beyond your own table, just ask. Licensing and permission.