To anyone who ran/played Airlords of the Ozarks

[Adm.Lee]

One of the things that I didn't like about Airlords when I read it was the assumption that the PCs would get captured and then stage a breakout(s) from the LC camp and lead a big rising. Did anyone who ran/played this mod do it that way? Did anyone come up with some other ideas?

While I liked that T2k modules usually had lots of leeway for GMs to make up their own stuff, a map of the airship parking area would have been really useful here.

As I'm sure I've said elsewhere, I'm likely to run a 1918 version of this somewhere in eastern Europe, or Siberia, or the Caucasus. Hmm, I just had a thought, a 1918 version in the Ozarks would be fascinating.... Or a Prohibition-era one, with New American racist/fascists funded by aerial rumrunning?

[Raellus]

As I'm sure I've said elsewhere, I'm likely to run a 1918 version of this somewhere in eastern Europe, or Siberia, or the Caucasus. Hmm, I just had a thought, a 1918 version in the Ozarks would be fascinating.... Or a Prohibition-era one, with New American racist/fascists funded by aerial rumrunning?

That would be cool. You mentioned Siberia and/or the Caucasus- consider a version taking place during the Russian Civil War. White and Red Russians, Czechs, U.S. Marines... there were a wealth of players supporting the Whites. I'm no expert on the period, but it strikes me as a rich, diverse, and chaotic setting for a T2K-style, deep behind enemy lines campaign. Please keep us posted on what you decide and how it goes. Sounds like a lot of fun.

[Targan]

Hmm, I just had a thought, a 1918 version in the Ozarks would be fascinating.... Or a Prohibition-era one, with New American racist/fascists funded by aerial rumrunning?

I'm with Raellus on this idea. That is one of the more fascinating alternate settings for a T2K campaign that I've ever heard.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Here's a list of the anti-Bolshevik foreign forces that intervened in the Russian Civil War. The WW1 Allies were concerned about a possible Russo-German alliance so they had more than one item on their agenda: -
Czechoslovakia
United Kingdom
Australia
Canada
India
France
Japan
Poland
United States
Estonia
Romania
Serbia
Italy
Greece
China

Other anti-Bolshevik forces were supplied by independence movements from various groups/newly formed states. They included the following: -
Finland
Estonia
Latvia
Lithuania
Poland
Ukraine
Don
Kuban
Georgia
Armenia

And a list of the pro-Boshevik foreign forces: -
Far Eastern Republic
Latvian SSR
Ukrainian SSR
Commune of Estonia
Mongolian communists

The German Empire created several buffer states to protect itself from the situation but the Red Army was very concerned with making peace with the Central Powers to prevent any such problems. The Central Powers certainly kept an eye on things, possibly with diplomats, intelligence agents and military liaison staff.
Central Powers and allies included the following: -
Germany
Austria-Hungary
Ottoman Empire
Baltic German volunteers
Freikorps
Azerbaijan

There was also a group called the Greens AKA the Green Armies. They were armed Ukrainian peasants who fought against all governments to protect their own communities against the normal looting, pillaging, pressganging that occurred in those times. They were sympathetic towards the Red Army before 1919 but became sympathetic towards the White Army after 1919.

Another Ukrainian movement was the anarchist political and military group known as the the Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine AKA the Anarchist Black Army.

With such a number of nationalities and causes, it would certainly make for an interesting Twilight: 2000 campaign and during the period 1920 to 1924, the Fedorov Avtomat (http://world.guns.ru/assault/rus/automatic-fedorov-e.html) was in production - arguably the first assault rifle to be adopted for service - for those PCs who want some "cool guns". There was also the use of chemical weapons, armoured trains, tanks and armoured cars and there's no reason why a campaign couldn't have zeppelins and dirigibles.

[B.T.]

There were even aircrafts in some of the larger German Freikorps, mostly used for recce. (Not certain, if they were used as bombers.)
The situation in the baltics was so chaotic. At one time, whole Freikorps units transferred themselves under command of one of the new baltic states.
And the German government in Berlin could not do too much: The Versailles treaties were still under debate, and the status of the German forces on the Eastern front was unclear. The allied commanders ("Military Inter-Allied Commission of Control") had the command or believed, they were in command.
The situation was so chaotic, that some of the details are still shrouded in secrets.
I allways imagined the sitaution in Poland in the year 2000 as being very similar.
I would really like to read about a "Twilight 1918" campaign!

[Adm.Lee]

It's been a back-burner idea since I wrote a paper on the Russian Civil War in high school, while running T2k the first time around (1986, for those keeping score at home). The parallels of collapsed society & government in central and eastern Europe are easy to draw.

Sometime after the Small Arms Guide (or v2's Infantry Weapons) came out, I realized I had the weapons to do it. I'd have to fudge the field artillery, but so what?

I've been collecting, off and on, some research books, but they're just sitting there. Some kewl trivia I've uncovered so far: the Royal Navy used night torpedo boat attacks and seaplanes launching torpedoes against the Soviet Baltic Fleet. The Germans may have dropped paratroopers on some of the Baltic Islands in 1917-18. The Czechoslovak Legion seized about half of the Trans-Siberian Railway for a while.

[Adm.Lee]

I had another glimmer of an idea here: I remember reading that the Great Depression fueled some non-traditional political groups in the US as well as abroad (see: Nazis, Communists, Fascists). One of the shadowy groups was a right-wing coup that was exposed by Marine General Smedley Butler (Or not-- historians disagree whether this was a real conspiracy or all in his imagination).

Anyway, what if New America had a predecessor, just as racist and authoritarian, with its hooks into state and local politics, just like the one in the Airlords module. On top of that, IIRC, some of the US helium mines are in north Texas, which isn't so far away. "Terror from the sky" is a common theme from suspense/action stories of the time. Why not something like that here? Given that the Federal government doesn't have much in the way of law enforcement at the time (Hoover's FBI was brand new, and stumbled a lot when first chasing gangsters), maybe another branch (Army CIC?) forms a group from Great War veterans to explore what's rumored to be going on in Arkansas....

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Plus airship technology was well and truly available by the 1930s, even if they were using hydrogen (Ferdinand Graf von Zeppelin having flown his first zeppelin in July of 1900).

[Matt W]

Sounds like you might use a few plots from the old pulps and/or the hard-boiled detective genre

I recommend "The Gutting of Couffignal" by Dashiell Hammett (of course you'll have to file off the serial numbers)

[Adm.Lee]

The 1930s Ozarks idea has my attention today. I've been inspired by some things I've been reading on the Depression, including a book on Hoover's first years under Roosevelt (he hadn't made himself indispensable yet, and was a Republican appointee, after all). Also, some stuff on Hitler's early years and on the history of the Klan.

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/57882.Public_Enemies
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11407829-superman-versus-the-ku-klux-klan#

Regarding pulp-era stuff, I once looked at a miniatures line (www.pulpfigures.com, I think), and thought, "these practically write their own campaign!" They even have some US Rocket Corps figs. What can we do with those....

[Adm.Lee]

The pulp-era Ozarks bubbled to the front of my brain again (huh, almost five years the day I last posted on it :o). It might be my convention game next year.

I tracked down the D. Hammett story above. That's a good one!

[unkated]

There was a game called Crimson Skies. It took place in the 1930s, in a United States fractured by the depression. One of its settings was New York (of course), where local air units defended against air pirates that attacked from Zeppelin air carriers.

As an air game, I found it unimpressive. It was a poor simulation. The aircraft and weaponry used were imaginary, but real ones could be used instead.


But you may find the setting interesting. In describing the concept of Crimson Skies, Jordan Weisman stated he wanted to "take the idea of 16th century Caribbean piracy and translate into a 1930s American setting.

There is more detail on the setting here:
Crimson Skies Universe (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimson_Skies#Universe)

This may be the kind of thing you want.

Uncle Ted

[The Dark]

Another useful historical bit would be the Transcontinental Motor Convoy of 1919, which went from the District of Columbia to San Francisco along the planned path of the incomplete Lincoln Highway. It took 62 days at an average speed of around 6 miles per hour. About 10% each of vehicles and men did not complete the journey, falling out at various places due to mechanical damage or injury. During the trip, 88 bridges had to be repaired because they were not strong enough for the trucks being used. Travel will be very slow, especially away from the two coasts.

[Adm.Lee]

Crimson Skies was probably in the back of my head when I thought of this, too. I've never played it, only seen the minis from afar. I suppose the scenario I'm thinking of is probably a potential lead-in to such a broken America.

TheDark: I've read of the transcontinental expedition, probably in Ike's memoirs. I especially remember a bit somewhere out West, when some locals thought the trucks were the Army come to settle some dispute with the local Indian reservation. Since the whole expedition only had two .45s for weapons, they were relieved to find that the whole thing had blown over.

[The Dark]

Crimson Skies was probably in the back of my head when I thought of this, too. I've never played it, only seen the minis from afar. I suppose the scenario I'm thinking of is probably a potential lead-in to such a broken America.

TheDark: I've read of the transcontinental expedition, probably in Ike's memoirs. I especially remember a bit somewhere out West, when some locals thought the trucks were the Army come to settle some dispute with the local Indian reservation. Since the whole expedition only had two .45s for weapons, they were relieved to find that the whole thing had blown over.

It was a heck of a convoy, though - 34 heavy trucks, 4 light trucks, 2 mobile machine shops, 1 blacksmith shop, 1 recovery truck, 1 3-ton wheeled tractor, 1 5-ton tracked tractor, 2 spare parts trucks, 2 water tankers, 1 gasoline tanker, 1 mobile searchlight, 4 kitchen trailers, 8 touring cars, 1 reconnaissance car, 2 staff cars, and 9 motorcycles (5 with sidecars). The tractors were generally carried by the heavy trucks, and were used to haul trucks out of ditches or mud or sand.

Two of the motorcycles would scout about 3 miles ahead to report conditions and placard intersections.




One other historical point of interest that I've looked at is the Battle of Blair Mountain (1921), where private planes dropped gas and shrapnel bombs on miners who were rioting after agents of the Baldwin-Felts Detective Agency assassinated local government officials who were pro-unionization.