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Old 08-01-2009, 02:04 PM
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A very interesting question and premise for an unconventional Twilight Campaign, Marc.

I see hoarding being a problem at first- bottled water, batteries, canned food, etc. And as certain products become more scarce, a black market would develop. A certain level of criminal behavior usually coallesces around black markets. With increasing shortages, food riots could ensue.

I see people with the means to do so moving to out of the way country estates, mountain cabins, etc. At first, this would take place in areas threatened by the conventional fighting. I see some folks taking advantage and trying to loot vacated properties. In response, perhaps a certain level of vigilantiism would develop where much of the citizenry is armed (I'm thinking of the U.S.). Others I see just sitting tight and hoping for the best. A great and relatively modern example is the "evacuation" of Eastern Prussia as the Red Army steamrolled into Greater Germany.

With the onset of tactical nuclear strikes, I see some cities vacated in a panic, highways clogged with cars and busses and such. At this point, you'd either see strangers banding together to help one another OR people looking out only for themselves and taking advantage of others. It would probably be a bit of both. I guess this question boils down to whether you are optimistic or pessimistic about human nature.

I think you raise a really interesting point about the Twilight War being really unpopular with the general public. Maybe you'd see draft riots.

In the U.S. at least (I don't know enough about other countries' reserves/mobilization systems), a lot of law enforcement personel are military reservists or National Guard members. With the war picking up speed, a lot of them would be recalled to active duty. This would leave law enforcement agencies with fewer bodies to deal with the increasing load of problems briefly touched on above. It would not be pretty. Once again, in the U.S. at least, I see crime rates going up and vigilantiism popping up to deal with it.
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