Originally Posted by Enfield
Certainly. New York, and I believe Kidnapped has the informaton you were mentioning as it discusses an overview of the United States and Canada.
My main thoughts are on how smaller towns and cities south of Pittsburgh would be affected. Spread of refugees without strict regulation are likely to break down.
Anyway, I was thinking that for Greensburg, which is a county seat, that the State Emergency Council of Pennsylvania brings in State Health Authorities, backed by National Guardsmen, to try to contain the situation. The problem is that the situation is out of hand, due to suspicions, lack of complete cooperation and limited resources.
Anyway, I'm working on an adventure based on the 1973 movie "The Crazies".
When the party tries to get through, senior leadership, citing martial law, demand that the party halt and assist them in dealing with the emergency, and will also not allow them to pass. The party can possibly take the long way round but this means going far out of their way. There are forest fires and the roads are choked with refugees further west, however, and the alternative is going back the way they came and taking a longer route south.
Main NPCs:
1. A NG officer, Lieutenant-Colonel Peckem, harried and worried. He is overwhelmed with both dealing with Infection, security and making sure the health officials and specialists can do their obs. Peckem is a decent man, and will listen to the PCs if treated honestly about the importance of the mission. He is a good judge of character, and if they lie he will try to capture them and figure out what they are up to. He is very suspicious of personnel who are deserters or New American sympathizers. The party are a mixed bag, different unit patches, even a couple of different nationalities, and if they are not very straightforward he will not trust them.
2. A NG officer, Major Ryder, in charge of the medical section. He is aware of the lack of resources and also stressed by this. He will advocate that they force the CDC doctor with the group stay with them at least for a month's worth of assistance. He knows that there is no workable cure yet, but will want help in organizing the test cases.
3. Dr. Brookmyre, a civilian doctor, is worried that they're going about things too fast, and is hesitant to fully support what the PA SEC is doing. He is a potential ally in escaping or creating a diversion. His sentimentality distracts him from the bigger picture at times.
4. Dr. Watts is from the State Health Authority. If the party haggle about how long they can stay and how much they can help, he will agree to have the CDC doc stay just a few days so he can pick his brains about research being done back in Ft. Detrick. He will be good cop to Major Ryder's bad cop.
5. David MacMillan: this ex 10th SFG officer is a deeply troubled man. He has PTSD and is haunted and paranoid, and now believes that the government is experimenting on the population. He and a group of his friends and some of their families are acting as a kind of resistance in the area and want to try to help people escape the town.
Basic Plot: The party are being asked to help deal with the crisis. While the CDC doc (an NPC) helps the SHA to better plan their dealings with the outbreak (and is, in effect, a hostage) theparty need to help them track down whoever is attacking their troops and smuggling people out, stealing resources, etc.
Conclusion: the party can either mediate the problem--get MacMillan some reassurance, settle things--or they can hunt him down and capture or destroy his group.
Encounters:
1. Local civilians (generally they are either being herded to a safe zone or else they are in a grouped area getting rations or being checked on. Civilians as per Dawn of the Dead 1978 may not dwell in private homes but are living in areas where they can be supervised.)
2. Local Civilians (this encounter is with people sneaking around or lurking in private buildings. The town has 18,000 people in it and they cannot all be kept track of. These people live as furtive scavengers and will run or try to defend themselves if seen)
3. Infected I (these are people who are sick, exhibiting flu like symptoms, and are being taken under NG escort to a quarantine area in town)
4. Infected II (these are either people who are secretly in a private dwelling or hideaway and sneak out to scavenge but are highly contagious (25%) people who might be believed to be Infected but just have a normal cold or flu doing the same (25%) or are the family or friends of one of the above who are helping hide them. 25% of the time the person is not contagious but the family or friends fear they are and hope they might get better, but believe that the government is euthanizing people, or the last 25% know it is a normal cold or flu but are protecting their loved ones from quarantine. They will be afraid of miltiary personnel but fair treatment will result in sharing rumours and possible requests for help through resources or requests to smuggle them out of town.
5. Infected III. This is an outbreak: there are full on Infected in town in small groups or singles, who may be lurking in a building or sneaking out to prey on people. Sometimes as above the sick are hidden or hide in private or seculuded areas. When they go full Infected they will respond to noises, smells and sights of humans and attack them. They may also have just wandered out mindlessly. Because these are recent, they are very strong and fast and very hungry/lustful/hateful.
6. National Guard Patrol. This is a patrol of 6-11 personnel under a junior NCO (Corporal, Sergeant, etc) who are making sure that civilians are only in safe zones or under quarantine. They will check on any suspicious persons while calling in the encounter to their unit HQ. There will be one HMMWV per 4 personnel.
7. Town Militia Patrol. This is the same but their armaments are less likely to be uniform, and they will have AR-15s instead of M4s. Instead of a Humvee they will have 3/4 ton pickups, jeeps, vans or other civilian vehicles. there is a 25% chance it is a patrol mounted on horseback, another 25% they are on foot, a third that they are riding bicycles. These men and women are a combination often of local police, police reserves or simply locals who are good shots and brave enough to help provide protection to the town.
8. Cleansing Patrol: An area is deemed Infected, riddled with it, and so a stronger force, 14 + 1d20 National Guard are present in addition to a dog team with a dog trained to sniff out Infected. Such a unit will include a sniper team on a rooftop of some secure position doing overwatch in addition to one grenadier and one heavy gunner per 6 personnel. Because they are expecting contact with Infected (roll again; ignore this result and patrols) they are tense and wary, and are wearing MOPP suits. Unless provided excellent identification and security protocols, they will arrest or attack the party.
9. Animals: Due to the lack of humans living in the usual spread out conditions, encounters with skunks, feral dogs, raccoons, feral cats, even deer and bears in the town are possible. They will be scavenging around and sometimes in houses, for example.
10. Scrounging Detail: these tend to be civilians. 25% of the time they are either looters or persons scavenging officially but secretly stealing goods for the black market. They will have civilian firearms and will have a truck (2 1/2 ton, 3/4 ton, etc, usually a civilian model) being used to do this scrounging. They are particularly looking for useful equipment, batteries, stored water and other vital goods that are being placed in warehouses in town. They will be wary of military personnel who are not a known quantity and will call in their appearance on a radio.
11. Partisans: these are David MacMillan's people, and they will be scouting or looking for something to sabotage. There are 4 +1d6 people armed with a mix of civilian and mlitary small arms. They require an observation roll on hard success to spot unless the party is themselves concealed and watching the area, in which case it is a moderate success roll. Acts of sabotage include setting fires, putting tire puncturing traps on roads, or helping smuggle out civilians from private homes. They prefer not to set road bombs yet as they don't want to accidentally kill their own fellow citizens. If things get worse, they will escape.
12. Infected IV: 1d6 x 1d6 Infected appear out of someplace being used as a makeshift hospital. These men and women are very dangerous and highly contagious, and will include 1 Prime per 10 Infected, that is to say, Infected capable of using tools, thinking to some extent and planning. There is a 25% chance that they already overcame some stragglers and will be armed with 1 rifle per Prime. If there are Primes present, they will plan an ambush and sneak around until the party are engaged with another problem or distracted before trying to attack at close range. Primes can also spray infected stomach fluids at close range and possibly infect what they hit.
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