Here we go with Nathan's work. Its very long but a great read. Just think that he actually became ashamed of it in the end as nobody seemed interested in it.
TWILIGHT: 1964 An alternate history expansion module for Twilight: 2000, that excellent game of post-apocalypse role playing in the aftermath of a nuclear WWIII.
A special note about blatant plagiarism, intellectual property and copyright thievery: While most of what follows is my own imagination, there is much that is not. As you read this you will see that in some places I have out-and-out stolen ideas, names, whole sentences, and everything in between from a variety of sources. These include a lot of websites, literally hundreds of books, movies, and articles. As this is all based on Twilight: 2000, I have of course robbed from the modules with reckless abandon. Why, you ask? Because there is such a wealth of good post-nuke stuff out there on the net and in the media that it would be a shame not to use it. The challenge is adapting it all to my 1964 timeframe, and good lord what a challenge that has been. If I tried to footnote and document every stolen concept and co-opted idea this project would be totally unreadable. Therefore, if you read something in here and say, "Hey, what the hell!!!! That's my idea!!!!" then please don't sue me. In fact, if you have any other ideas to add, let me know and I'll work them in. Thanks for not bankrupting me.
PROLOGUE
The premise here is that the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 went terribly, terribly wrong. Russia nuked us, we nuked them and the whole world fell apart. The game time is late October of 1964, near exactly two years since the bombs fell. The last two years in the USA have seen the collapse of the government and social structure, a schism between the military and the civilian governments and invasion on two fronts, and it will be many decades (if ever) before America is anywhere near normal again. Not as many nukes hit America as you might expect, nothing like the tens of thousands of warheads in a 1980s-era exchange, but they were certainly enough to devastate the nation. The projected nuclear winter, blessedly, turned out to be more of a nuclear autumn and the skies cleared rapidly and the radiation was soon contained to the immediate craters. While the nuclear bombs and the two terrible winters that followed killed off approximately 65% of the population of America, the War had a deleterious effect upon modern society far beyond the already unimaginable annihilation of millions and destruction of property. Following the collapse of civil authority, widespread violence swept through the land in a dog-eat-dog frenzy of looting, rape, theft, and murder. With the availability of firearms and general decline in order, large parts of the nation are positively chaotic and there are areas that are completely lost. There are many areas that are still functioning, though at very different levels than before the war. Nearly everything can be had-for a price, though currency is of limited use with barter being carried out with food, ammunition, gold nuggets, drugs and fuel. To cope with this disaster, local strong men and women, sometimes someone with pre-existing authority like a mayor, a police chief, or the commander of an army post, and sometimes just a person of natural authority would take charge of an area. Organizing, protecting, and controlling food supplies was the key to an area's success or failure and from those group who succeeded came the new social and political entities that dominate the post-nuclear world of 1964. These nuclei take many forms: military governments, local strong man dictatorships, small local democracies, slave-owning aristocracies, and even criminal and biker gangs. Groups with pre-existing social cohesion, such as the Mormons and other religious groups, those with popular leaders, and military bases that were not attacked, all have a considerable edge in survival. Early attempts to consolidate the United States failed due to poor communications, total discrediting of the federal government that fought the war and the lack of a leader with political legitimacy. As the nation's power bases split themselves between the civilian government and military leadership camps, endemic warfare between them began as they jockeyed for scarce resources. This cycle of small-scale warfare and needless destruction helped continue the downward slide of population levels and the loss of technological and economic capabilities. Much like a hundred years ago, the individual states wield the most power in the remaining cities and the relationship between federal and state parliaments is one more of mutual distrust than cooperation. However, the federal government still largely controls the armed forces and communications so they have an advantage over the states. The Road Warrior is a bad analogy; things are only that bad out in the hinterlands. The rest of the nation is a mix of The Day After and Whitley Streiber's War Day. Watch the British movie Threads from the mid-eighties, it will put you in the right mood. But that doesn’t do it justice, either, you'll just have to form your own vision in your mind after you begin reading all this.
GET IN THERE
This gazetteer is organized into nine generalized geographic regions, with some helpful appendices at the end. The exclusion of a city from these state-by-state lists does not mean that it is intact. Civil unrest, hostile military action, and other factors have caused severe damage in regions otherwise untouched by the war. There are many open-ended descriptions and entire cities and areas left blank to allow you to use your imagination. This is exclusively a "where to go, things to see, people to kill" sort of document, basically selected plot ideas within a general framework. It is not an attempt to explore the social dynamics of the world or the politics of those in control; it is just a travel guide, pure and simple. I won't go into the details and philosophy of such common post-apocalyptic terms such as marauders, radiation, air bursts and the like…if you don't already know them then you are reading the wrong document. Go read Jane Austin. For the rest of you, enjoy…
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