Two Questions

[LoA]

So I have a quick question: What would be a better name for my "displaced American's in a fantasy world" nation? Republic of New America was the best I could come up with, but at the same time, that's kind of lame. I never wanted to specify which state this city was from, even though I probably should. I mainly ask because I'm playing through New Vegas, and I realize that RNA is pretty close to NCR.

Now for a long question: Is a relatively small railroad infrastructure possible? I'm doing research into early railroads to find out how they did it, mainly making rails and how they built the railroad in such a relatively short time. I'm will aware of how the Transcontinental railroad was built on a ton of man-labor. However I'm going on the assumption that this is a relatively large city with industrial capability. Not enough to preserve their way of life from before, but enough to get a weird steampunk/jury-rigged quasi-apocalyptic industrial base going on into the future.

The continent that I put them on is relatively untamed territory. There are very few "Nations", but there are plenty of factions fighting to develop into nation. The Americans managed to secure enough territory to be able to mine, develop, and be able to maintain a military presence. But it's not a very big nation relatively speaking. I gave the city about twenty years of downtime to be able to get their bearings. The railroad probably took a long time to build, but it's there now bring resources in and out of the main city. There are still caravans that bring in resources, livestock, and export goods, so there is something of a medieval wild west (Except this is set on the eastern continent) vibe to this place.

Can you tell that I've been playing a ton of Fallout recently?

[Ghostman]

You could simply name it after the city. It's not at all uncommon for states to be named after their capitals.

Constructing a railroad would be labor intensive, but aren't they now in a world where manual labor is (for the rest of the world) dirt cheap? If they were on peaceful terms with their neighbours for twenty years and had something to provide as acceptable payment, then they prolly could have just hired workers from nearby populations, under terms that the construction halts for the time of harvest so that these people can return to their fields. Mind you, this assumes that peasants are free rather than serfs.

[LoA]

You could simply name it after the city. It's not at all uncommon for states to be named after their capitals.

Constructing a railroad would be labor intensive, but aren't they now in a world where manual labor is (for the rest of the world) dirt cheap? If they were on peaceful terms with their neighbours for twenty years and had something to provide as acceptable payment, then they prolly could have just hired workers from nearby populations, under terms that the construction halts for the time of harvest so that these people can return to their fields. Mind you, this assumes that peasants are free rather than serfs.

What you say makes sense. Maybe The Republic of Fort Noonville allowed in a certain number of refugees? I planned on having a faction of Hobgoblins who were created by elves (who are not the good guys), and they are hell bent on bringing down the elves. They figured out how to make primitive muskets, and want to keep advancing so they can march on the forests that there elves creator dwell in. Humans tend to be raided by them, so people flock to the RFN as soon as possible. Americans could've offered protection in exchange for labor and integration.

[Ninja D!]

I'd say just don't worry about the initials being similar to something else. That will always be the case, even if you don't know it. Otherwise, I think where they came from could make a difference. It could impact whether they establish themselves as a straight republic or more of a confederacy under a federal government.

As for the railroad, I think any such system would probably have to start small and grow. If there aren't a lot of places they want to transport things and people, there would be no reason for it to be expanded beyond a certain point.

Fallout New Vegas is still my absolute favorite game in the franchise.

[LoA]

Eh the town itself had two primary cultures to primary cultures to it. There was a strong cowboy/frontier heritage aspect to the town, and then there was a mid-scale industrial vibe to the town, but when it was home in a America, it was going through hard times during the economic down turn. But the ingredients were there for it to become a boom town, and that's what happened in the New World.

And yeah, after twenty years they do have a small scale railroad. But they also have inner city, narrow gauge monorails in the more developed cities. I'm asking if a small scale railroad operation is possible, and if it is, would it be practical?

And I just bought the rest of the Fallout series, save it Fallout 4. Need to give it another 2-3 years of modding time before I'll throw down investment into it.

[Kindling]

Have you done any research into early railways in other parts of the world than America? I'm thinking for example that the distances being covered in Britain or a similarly small country might be more comparable to those you're looking at in your setting than the huge amounts of space being crossed by early American railways. I'm no expert on the subject, but I just thought it might be worth you looking into.

EDIT: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_rail_transport_in_Great_Britain_1830%E2%80%931922 helpful?

[LoA]

Thank you for the link, I began digging into british railway history, since it's more accurate to whats happening in Noonville Commonwealth(?) with the industrial revolution.

I'm going to work on races now. I already have dwarves and elves in this setting. They are the descendants of humans magically experimented on by an ancient race of dragons (ancestors of the modern dragons before the diverged into the metallic, chromatics, etc), and dwarves have inherited the draconic greed, while elves have inherited the pride of dragons.

I'm thinking of other races to populate. I'm thinking of having humans be different stat-wise depending on cultural origin (or bloodline). As I mentioned before I'm using hobgoblins instead of Orcs because I hate the idea of having a "stupid" race in the mix. One idea I had for a flavor race (not PC) was a race of draconic horses. Their a lot like Kirin, and are the results of the dragons again, experimenting on horses, but somehow the horses inherited both physical attributes, and sentience. They now live secluded in forests, and are highly territorial, but are excellent stewards of there habitats. Just some ideas I've been bouncing off.

Also I had an idea for making a homunculus subtype for humanoids so that I can have construct races without using the Eberron Living construct subtype. Has anyone ever gotten around that?

[Ghostman]

dwarves have inherited the draconic greed, while elves have inherited the pride of dragons.

That is rather clever. I like how it takes a couple of common tropes and puts an unexpected twist behind them.