Starting 'Armies of the Night'

[TiggerCCW UK]

Hi gang,

This module is going to be the next part of my campaign with my ftf group. Can anyone with a better idea of US geography give me some idea of a potential route to get from Norfolk to New Jersey? I'm planning on taking them part of the way by boat, but ant to do the latter part of the journey overland. Any particular points of interest I should consider for them?

Thanks in advance

For information purposes my game sticks mostly to the 1st Ed canon, although I'm more than willing to mix things up a bit - they encountered zombies in Europe.

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by TiggerCCW UK

Hi gang,

This module is going to be the next part of my campaign with my ftf group. Can anyone with a better idea of US geography give me some idea of a potential route to get from Norfolk to New Jersey? I'm planning on taking them part of the way by boat, but ant to do the latter part of the journey overland. Any particular points of interest I should consider for them?

Thanks in advance

For information purposes my game sticks mostly to the 1st Ed canon, although I'm more than willing to mix things up a bit - they encountered zombies in Europe.

My memory of that route is fuzzy, but IIRC, the one of the major freeways does go through at least two major cities -- Baltimore, Maryland and Fredricksburg, Virginia (the capital of Virginia). They might prove interesting to thru-traffic.

[Rainbow Six]

I always liked the idea of doing a heliborne insertion into New York for this adventure, with a UH60 or a Huey taking the team in and dropping them off on a skyscraper's rooftop.

Sorry, I know I'm probably not helping answer the question!

[Benjamin]

I actually based a lot of my old T2K campaigns in a triangle ranging from Pittsburgh to Baltimore and back up to New York City so I'm a bit familiar with the region. (I grew up in southern PA and spent a lot of time in Baltimore so I am familiar in real life with the area.)

Some things to remember are that Washington and Philadelphia are hit pretty hard by the nukes and are most likely still irradiated wastelands, especially true of DC since it suffered a ground burst. This means traveling through these areas could be problematic.

When my group got back from Europe (a little late given that we missed the OP Omega and had to capture a Swedish container ship in early April of 2001) we made landfall near Newport News. After having to forfeit our ship to MilGov we took a inter-coastal fishing boat up through the Chesapeake Bay. We spent some time in Baltimore distilling fuel and making rum at the old Sugar refinery there and rescuing some doctors and marine biologists from a local warlord. (Baltimore might be a great place to stop given that it wasn't nuked, it is one of the most active ports on the East Coast, has the nation's best hospital ((Johns Hopkins)) and has a lot of useful industry.)

In Baltimore we got hold of a midsized car transport (Baltimore is port where the second most foreign import cars arrive, after LA) and tried to run it up the bay and into the Susquehanna River. The Susquehanna River is rocky shallow river but it runs up through an important region of Pennsylvania. It goes up past the state capital of Harrisburg. In T2K canon the state government is still there but has little effective control. You might be able to find some help there or at the major PA National Guard base of Fort Indiantown Gap. After spending a while in the region my group went west to State College, PA (home of the Pennsylvania State University and the location of my gaming group), but you could go east instead.

You could have your group take highway Interstate 78 from Harrisburg to New York City. This will take you through much of eastern Penn. including parts of the state's eastern coal/steel region. They'll go through a bunch of mid-sized towns, the largest being Allentown (PA's fourth largest city at the time). Just before hitting the state of New Jersey they will have to cross the Delaware River. In northern New Jersey I think there are few nuke hits to skirt around but the region is much flatter and more urban.

I hope this helps and if you need more in depth info on any I'll be happy to help if I can.

Benjamin

[JHart]

My memory of that route is fuzzy, but IIRC, the one of the major freeways does go through at least two major cities -- Baltimore, Maryland and Fredricksburg, Virginia (the capital of Virginia). They might prove interesting to thru-traffic.

Did Fredricksburg become the capital after TDM?

Overland from Newport news is up interstate 64 to Richmond then 95 to Washington D.C. and Baltimore. Lots of radiation in northern Virginia.

As mentioned, up Chesapeake Bay to Baltimore and Maryland, and then overland to New Jersey.

All sea route is out the bay, up the eastern shore on the ocean side up to NJ.

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by JHart

Did Fredricksburg become the capital after TDM?

Fredricksburg has always been the capital of Virginia.

[kato13]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

Fredricksburg has always been the capital of Virginia.

Richmond has been the capital of Virginia since its founding I believe.

Oh here is a map of the canon strikes along the corridor.

[Raellus]

Originally Posted by Rainbow Six

I always liked the idea of doing a heliborne insertion into New York for this adventure, with a UH60 or a Huey taking the team in and dropping them off on a skyscraper's rooftop.

You could run that just like a good ol' fashioned dungeon crawl. The unit would have to fight its way down to street level through growing numbers of feral cats, gang-bangers, dements, marauders, renegade military, etc.

Not too sophisticated, but it could be a bloody fun one-off.

[Targan]

Originally Posted by kato13

Richmond has been the capital of Virginia since its founding I believe.

Richmond is certainly the capital of Virginia now but apparently Williamsburg was the colonial capital from 1699 to 1780. According to Wikipedia "During the [American Revolutionary] war, the capital was moved to Richmond at the urging of Governor Thomas Jefferson, who feared that Williamsburg's location would make it vulnerable to British attack".

[TiggerCCW UK]

I really should have paid more attention to the geography when I was working in PA back in '99....


Thanks for the info/advice folks. Another quick question - in a T2K environment, what sort of time frame would people envision to make the journey to NYC from Norfolk? I know there are loads of variables, but just a rough ball park figure would be great.

[pmulcahy11b]

Oopsies!

[JHart]

Thanks for the info/advice folks. Another quick question - in a T2K environment, what sort of time frame would people envision to make the journey to NYC from Norfolk? I know there are loads of variables, but just a rough ball park figure would be great.

It's 6-8 hours by road to NYC from Hampton Roads non T2K environment.

That's with good roads and intact BRIDGES and tunnels.

If they're humping it, it might be easier, as rivers can be crossed by a local boat or if they pack a raft.

If they have non amphib vehicles, they'll have to find intact bridges, ferrys or fords to cross water obstacles

[Jason]

I am pretty sure the reason the module pushes the PC's towards hitching a ride with the Harbor Pirate's is the difficulty most other methods involve. Overland is really an entire adventure/campaign in itself.

[Grimace]

Yeah, for travel up the "nuke alley", you'd probably be looking at days to make that trek. And if they decided to skirt around all of the damage, it would take even longer.

So I think what was suggested...using water to get up the Chesapeake Bay and then overland would probably be the best way to have both sea and land movement involved.

If you want to make it shorter, and simpler, to get into the module, then just have them take the water all the way up the East coast and end up on New York, Long Island or Manhattan (depending on how difficult you wanted to make it for them to get going).

But if you're going overland for most of the way, as Jason mentioned, it'll be an adventure/campaign unto itself just getting there.

[TiggerCCW UK]

Well, here we go - about 28 hours till I start the new game. Going to opt for transporting them most of the way by boat, but throw in some overland travel at the end after their landing craft breaks down. Here's hoping nothing terrible happens too them......

[Targan]

Sounds good Tig. I look forward to hearing updates.

[TiggerCCW UK]

About 4 hours to kick off and in game terms I'm pretty well prepared. Sadly not quite so well prepared mentally I'm fairly sure that I heard somewhere that starting a new campaign when you've had less than two and a half hours sleep is not ideal. Seriously tough night last night in work. 6 staff missing (3 due to the Iceland volcano grounding flights from England) and we still took over £21k in 4 hours. Looking forward to the stress relief of messing with peoples heads tonight

[Jason Weiser]

Here's an idea. How about you have the boat drop them off in LI, like around Montauk or so and have them make their way overland and then over the Brooklyn or Manhattan Bridge into the city (The Manhattan Bridge could be fun, had all sorts of maintenance issues in the 90s).

Quoth Wiki:
Original source: Manhattan Bridge Article

Because tracks were on the outer part of the bridge, passing trains caused the bridge to tilt and sway. The wobble worsened as trains became longer and heavier. The New York City Department of Transportation failed to maintain the bridge properly, and the tracks finally were closed for repairs, blocking the paths of the trains that cross the bridge and reducing the number of trains passing between Manhattan and Brooklyn. The north tracks, which had been more heavily used, were closed first, from 1985 to 1988. The blockage split the B and D trains into two sections and rerouted the N via the Montague Street Tunnel.

In September 1990, the south side was reopened to N train traffic, even though major repairs had yet to be made.[7] An 18-month delay of procurements prompted the New York City Transit Authority and politicians to put pressure on the New York City DOT to resume subway traffic, while engineers warned the bridge was still unsafe.[8] On December 27 of that year, state inspectors forced south side service to be halted and rerouted via the tunnel again after corroded support beams were found along with missing steel plates.[7] (Shortly after a memo stating opposition to N train restoration across the bridge, from the city's deputy commissioner for bridges, David Steinberger, to the Transportation commissioner, Lucius J. Riccio, was leaked to The New York Times, Steinberger and his administrative assistant, David Bronstein, were fired. Although the official reason for Steinberger's firing was a difference of managerial approaches, the dismissals were controversial due to their timing and Steinberger being seen as a whistleblower with Riccio brushing off his concerns.)[8][9][10][11] With reluctance from Lucius Riccio and Mayor David Dinkins, the New York City Council's Transportation committee held an inquiry into the decision to restore subway service on the Manhattan Bridge south side (as well as the safety of all New York City bridges), finding that the Transportation Department and the Transit Authority's lack of cooperative inspection was a major contributor for the deteriorating conditions.[12][13][14]

A projection for a reopening date was initially made for 1995.[15] The south side finally reopened on July 22, 2001, whereby the north side was again closed, returning the Q to Broadway, introducing the new W train (which ran on the West End Line) and cutting B and D service from Brooklyn. On February 22, 2004, the north side reopened, and all four tracks were in service simultaneously for the first time in 18 years. B and D trains returned to Brooklyn on opposite routes (B to the Brighton Line, and D to the West End Line), the N once again uses the bridge for travel, and the W no longer runs in Brooklyn. Also, the north tracks were closed during off-peak hours between May and November 1995, and the same for the south tracks in 2003.

[Marc]

Originally Posted by Targan

Sounds good Tig. I look forward to hearing updates.

Agree. It's been a while since I don't read a good roleplaying session report. This one seems promising.

[ex3313]

this may be late but from VA beach there is the chesapeake bridger tunnel that allows one to travel along the east portions of the state it s RT13 till you get to dover then it merges into RT 95 either end will need a ferry as they have large bridges