The Vatican in T2K

[General Pain]

I'm watching "Angels and Demons" and in the middle of the film I though...I can't remember anyone discussing The Vatican.

- OOBs
- Detailed History
- NPCs
- Timeline
- Adventure Ideas

So if any of my fellow board-members have any input it would be most appreciated.

...welll I'm going to watch the rest of it...even when it's not that good.

BTW: I saw a good Movie the other day - and I recommend it to anyone who have not seen it yet.

Die Fälscher


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0813547/

[Rainbow Six]

I think this may have been discussed at one point on the old boards, but I can't recall for sure...Re: adventure ideas, I'm sure someone once mentioned a scenario where their group met a group of Swiss Guards who were taking Pope John Paul II's body back to be buried in his native Poland.

I'm assuming that Rome would probably have been a target for NATO nukes, but I'd say it's quite plausible that the Vatican's sources might have got some forewarning and the Swiss Guard were able to evacuate the Pope and others to another location, perhaps the Papal Summer Palace Castel Gandolfo?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castel_Gandolfo

From there perhaps the French might offer the Pope sanctuary? Avignon (for example) has a long association with the Papacy, and it might suit the French diplomatically to offer the Pope a safe haven, thus enhancing their reputation with catholics around the World? Another option might be to move to Switzerland, but from a gaming perspective France appeals to me more.

[Mohoender]

Vatican remain somewhere on the backside of my game especially as I considered that Rome was not nuked (I just don't see why it would be targeted).

One possibility with the fall of central government in Italy, however, would be to have Vatican taking control over Rome and over the Lazio, constituting a new Papal State. The pope would remain in Vatican City with Castle San Angelo being militarized again.

At the military level, the Swiss Guard would remain the pope's close guards while the italian units remaining in the Lazio could join and form a more popular army. At last, the local carabinieri could compose the heart of a religious police.

In the meantime, new ties could be built with Malta and with the Hospitalers. These knights could be the core of a new papal navy engaged in combat with the muslim pirates of North Africa.

At last, the company of jesus can quickly be turned into some kind of special force or secret service (IMO). They are found almost everywhere, they are already organized as a military and they have been known to fight in the past. They are less numerous nowadays but they are still found in more than 100 countries.

Moreover, monasteries can take over some of the social service of the defunct civil service, feeding the population, providing shelter and medical support.

I like the idea of the french hosting the Pope in Avignon again. This can be another Pope as it was the case around the year 1000 (A second pope can be an interesting political situation).

I don't recall we ever talked about religious powers in T2K but that might be an interesting subject. IMO several religious organizations will survive everywhere and retain some means of action: as part of an extended community or isolated as seen in the books on Poland.

[Rainbow Six]

Originally Posted by Mohoender

At last, the company of jesus can quickly be turned into some kind of special force or secret service (IMO). They are found almost everywhere, they are already organized as a military and they have been known to fight in the past. They are less numerous nowadays but they are still found in more than 100 countries.

I think using the Jesuits as the Vatican's Secret Intelligence Service is a very good idea indeed.

[natehale1971]

In my groups campaign back when i was in the navy, we actually had the pope who succeeded Pope John Paul II was an East German preist. He was much younger than anyone would have thought (he was 32) since the cardinals felt they needed a young and vibrant Pope... This new Pope (i can't remember the name he chose for his regin) expanded the military forces that had been loyal to the Papal States. In fact he did alot more than just this. He adopted reforms of the priesthood (such as allowing priests to marry among the biggest and most controversial change), he also used the resources of the Catholic Church to establish Papal States around monestaries and cathedrals and the like....

This had alot of things happening in the campaign, especially since the leader of the biggest unit of the 'Polish Free Legion' was a Priest... It was through him that the GMs would provide information about what was going on around the world. Especially since the Papal states had their own communications and transport networks.

Yeah, we had an all-powerful Roman Catholic church in our campaigns.

We felt that there just had to be a major mover-and-shaker out there that had the resources that caused everyone else (including marauders) to think twice about pissing off...

When we played the 'Going Home' module, the Church wasn't to happy with how the French had occupied Belgium & Luxembourgh, half of the Netherlands and the Rhineland while turning a huge swath of the east bank of the Rhine into a dead zone. It was through the chuch who was allowed to go into the terrified German communities that was under martial law imposed by really violent French soldiers who blamed everything that had happened on Germany. It was because the Church had kept informing the British Army of the Rhine of what was going on in the occupation that the Anglo-American forces coming to Bremerhaven was ready for the 'sneak attack' that the french had planned on launching to destroy the surviving forces of the US European Command.

When the dust settled the Germans got back the Rhineland, Alasce-Lorrane was merged with Luxembourgh to create a buffer state seperating France and Germany, the Flemish portion of Belgium became the Republic of Flaners, and the German community of Belgium becomes part of the Netherlands.

Thus the majority of the forces assigned to US European Command had withdrew from Europe and headed back to the US after their last major battle. This also gave a reason for some to remain in Europe to oversee those forces who couldn't get to Bremerhaven (those forces still out in the field surrounded by hostile forces). And it also allowed us to set up the framework for when the 'Return to Europe' modules came out.

But I degress... Back to the Papal States.

Our campaign had Italy breaking into three states... Northern Italy became the Republic of Tuscony, Southern Italy and the islands of Sicly and Sardenia retained the name of the Italian Republic. But the the central provinces of Italy became the Papal States, with their capitol being the Vatican. The Papal states where protected by the Papal Self-Defense Force, made up of the Swiss Guards, and other historic military groups that where recommissioned by the Pople to protect the Church and its people.

[General Pain]

Lots of interesting scenarios. Good work gentlemen.