The ELF/ALF

[kato13]

pmulcahy 11-14-2005, 10:01 PM I watched a piece about the Earth Liberation Front (and its afilliated group, the Animal Liberation Front) on Sunday on 60 Minutes. They were described as the "most dangerous domestic terrorist group" by the FBI. They commit acts of arson, vandalism, bombings, and lately have been branching off into outright murder, are described as "eco-terrorists," and act in the name of nature, wildlife, and anti-animal testing.


Anyway (without getting into the controversy about their cause or starting a flame war), what do you think happened to this group in Twilight 2000? Did they become totally demoralized by the destruction to nature from the war and sadly melt away? Or have they become enraged, attacking military units and installations wherever possible? Or have they occupied relatively less-despoiled regions, protecting them against damage and incursions as much as possible?

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Enforcer 11-14-2005, 10:14 PM Hmmmm, good question. Without raising anyones hackles, I think (for those who want to say bad things, this is MY opinion, not anyone elses) they would attack military units in their areas they have chosen to protect. They might also dip into the assassination arena, to get rid of "corrupt" politicians and military leaders. Some might even go so far as to establish fiefdoms of their own, to "safeguard" the environment.

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DeaconR 11-14-2005, 10:15 PM Here's an idea for someone to use. I'm reluctant to as I've already got a cult situation in my game, which is a millenarian pseudo christian group.


ELF/ALF have by force or by subterfuge acquired a large and somewhat remote research park. They have got friendly or coerced scientists helping them work on a plague which will even further reduce humankind, seeing this as their opportunity to 'cleanse the Earth'.


BTW...I'm actually taking this from a novel written by someone who at the very least in the context of the book depicts this idea positively: that humanity's 'reduction' by say 99% would do a good thing to cleanse the Earth.


Incidentally, the novel "Nature's End" by Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka paints a dystopian picture of such a group taking over a large part of the general consensus, to the point of there being international political parties that are advocating voluntary suicide as a means of dealing with environmental catastrophe.

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firewalker 11-14-2005, 11:07 PM i would think you could easily have them decide the war was the answer to there prayers (depending on how religious you wanted to make em, be a good start to a cult/cryptic alliance gammaworld stile).


lot's of damage to the ecosystm but also lot's of damage to industral socity. make them a combination of the red death (gammaworld death cult) and luddits on acid.

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thefusilier 11-15-2005, 05:02 AM I don't know much about them, but do you think they would have enough resources and numbers/organization to be able to continue to strike out against the government when the world is so dangerous now?


They might be a dangerous lot in pre-war America but the world is a different place now. Or instead would they be overwhelmed too much and be too busy for their lives, or likewise would they see their hated government pretty much their best bet for being fed and not killed by bandits?

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Targan 11-15-2005, 05:10 AM I doubt they would have the resources to maintain any coherant activity above the tribe/warband level, unless a GM contrived either a much greater resource and support base for them than would be expected in reality, or had them backed by an existing government or group wanting to use them for its own purposes. Perhaps members who had no family or emotional ties might be willing to keep up the fight for mother earth, but most people would abandon higher ideologies when they were fighting to save the lives of their loved ones in the anarchic hell that is post WWIII Twilight:2000.

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DeaconR 11-15-2005, 08:49 AM I actually don't agree, Targan. I think you might find that those who have strong beliefs might have them further entrenched by a great disaster or a war.


Furthermore, consider the case of some terrorists: some of them come from rich backgrounds. A number of revolutionaries of various kinds have come from wealthy or well educated origins. Consider: Lenin, Lafayette, Robespierre, Simon Bolivar, Oliver Cromwell, Josef Stalin and so on.


What I'm suggesting is if you wanted to use these people as one interesting encounter or adventure you could have the scenario I offered above.


On the other hand I remember reading a novel called "Hammer of Eden" by Ken Follett in which a small group of neohippy environmentalists threaten the state of California with a seismic machine they intended to use to start earthquakes. You don't necessarily need a lot of them or a large base to have some theoretical threat.

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thefusilier 11-16-2005, 03:24 AM I actually don't agree, Targan. I think you might find that those who have strong beliefs might have them further entrenched by a great disaster or a war.

Furthermore, consider the case of some terrorists: some of them come from rich backgrounds. A number of revolutionaries of various kinds have come from wealthy or well educated origins. Consider: Lenin, Lafayette, Robespierre, Simon Bolivar, Oliver Cromwell, Josef Stalin and so on.


Their beliefs may remain unchanged or more extreme but its kind of hard to follow them through on a full time basis when you have to struggle to eat and keep from being robbed and killed.

And wealth only goes so far. Once the nukes fall money is worth nothing more than paper.

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DeaconR 11-16-2005, 04:02 AM This is true, but you seem to basically be saying that you don't like the idea and don't think it is possible.

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thefusilier 11-16-2005, 04:24 AM Thats pretty much where my opinion lies right now, but that may easily change based on more info submitted regarding their suspected numbers, resources, organization etc. I do admit I don't know too much about them, but when even organizations who do have power, numbers, and resources begin to break up in Tw2000, thats where I see these guys doing the same.

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Targan 11-16-2005, 04:29 AM I think its possible, but some thought would have to be put into how such a group would survive and provision itself, and what if any outside help it might receive. There are enough freaky and weird groups around in my campaign for the ELF not to seem all that out of place. An example of how they might continue to operate would be if a survivalist offshoot had managed to squirrel away a bunch of stuff before the war, or as I said before, if they had a powerful patron or allied group helping them for its own purposes. New America is believeable because the authors of T:2000 built up a history for them with a serious bent on surviving a global holocaust. Other groups named by the designers are supported by people with similar ideologies or loyalties. Any remaining ELF forces would be unlikely to attract a lot of support from the general populace, in my opinion.

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abaumgartg 11-16-2005, 12:17 PM Their beliefs may remain unchanged or more extreme but its kind of hard to follow them through on a full time basis when you have to struggle to eat and keep from being robbed and killed.

And wealth only goes so far. Once the nukes fall money is worth nothing more than paper.


This depends. Depending on what the GM wants, there are many scenarios. If you want this group to be better organized and just as fanatic as ever, they could have made a vaccine and prepared for the current reality of the t2k world. Initially this would have given them a huge advantage. Their community would not have lost many people o disease; they could bring in the sick in small numbers to work their farms without worrying about catching the disease. Also, any group that is willing to unleash a disease that will decimate the humnan race is probably ok with gunning down anyone who gets too close to the compound.


Anyway, I wouldn't want something like that in my game, but it certainly could fit into a well run campaign.

just my thoughts :smoke:

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firewalker 11-16-2005, 02:40 PM keep in mind that ELF and other organizations like it don't have that much organization or support (in the military since of supply and recourses) right now. well at lest in so far as my understanding of them goes, being a secret organization and all.


there pretty much the classic cell type org. small groups with vary basic connection at the most. what holds them together and makes them a force is a unity of purpose(thy more or less believe the same things). not any sort of central command giving out orders and dispersing weapons and supplies.


so on an individual basis i would think what you would get is a marauder group that mixes a little political /enviermintal activism with there standard loot and pillage rutian. maybe they only use horses or bike's and have a habit of going out of there way to destroy technology thy consider unwanted (saving there own examples for last of course),



or you could have a group that has sized control in some community and is running it in a utopan /fascist/green friendly stile. these are just the type of groups that would have most believably have a stock pile of weapons

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thefusilier 11-16-2005, 09:57 PM This depends. Depending on what the GM wants, there are many scenarios.


Well sure... that can be applied to any aspect of the game. The GM can have the Soviets in Washington DC if he wanted.

Like Targan said "I doubt they would have the resources to maintain any coherant activity above the tribe/warband level, unless a GM contrived either a much greater resource and support base for them than would be expected in reality." New America exists because the authors gave them a history and vital information... we don't have that for this group so we have to go with what we have IRL.


So basing the question on whatever people know about this group IRL... the question I would understand it as, what happened to them in the near canon tw2000 world? This was hard to write, hope it came out right.

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Targan 11-17-2005, 12:17 AM One ideological angle the Eco-Terrorists could take post WWIII is that the nukes, conventional warfare, civil anarchy and sweeping pandemics are doing a fine job of reducing the extent of the human infection afflicting the planet, and should be assisted in doing their work. The ELF could set about deliberately trashing any remaining industrial sites which could potentially be repaired, breaching or weakening big dams, releasing or destroying remaining livestock assets, flooding coal mines, contaminating fresh water sources, and undermining or directly attacking groups or organisations which they feel have a chance at reinstating order and industry. Once international travel virtually ceases, infecting the entire human populace with a killer disease becomes just about impossible, but wiping out coherent groups living in medium to high density situations with localised epidemics or deliberate food and water shortages is still very possible for terrorist organisations operating independent cell structures. Given how many nukes have already fallen, the ELF might even take the view that a few more detonated in the right places would do much more good for the planet than harm. The ELF and similar eco-warrior groups might find that their best allies are resurgent indigenous nations, such as the Seminoles, Alaskan and Canadian Inuit, Great Plains tribes in the Dakotas, and the desert nations such as the Navaho or the militant branch of Apaches that adopted Geronimo. Or even the indigenous Polynesians on Hawaii.

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