Urban Guerilla and Florida

[Enfield]

I'm going to be starting a campaign based on a mixed civilian and military group aiding in recovery efforts based out of Gainesville, Florida. It consists of a FEMA rep, a Deputy US Marshal, a State Trooper, an Army Intelligence officer, and an Army logistics officer. While engaged in this, they discover that the main threat to stability is coming out of the New America cell in St. Petersburg.

There are a lot of details to work out that GDW just left blank. The following, for instance:

1. Gainesville. (I know that Twilight 1962 had a brief entry on this, which I have read)

2. Camp Blanding (According to Urban Guerilla, 3rd Brigade, 108th is based there. Twilight 1962 suggests that the base was overrun and looted by mutineers who went marauder.)

3. Sea Lord of Jacksonville (If using the TW 1962 model, then in theory this would be a rogue military commander, possibly from Blanding)

If anyone had run this campaign and depicted these areas please let me know.

I've been watching Youtube videos on Florida and reading up on things.

[Olefin]

FYI one other thing they forgot was the USS Constitution replica that was supposed to be heading home after Grenada for St. Petersburg. So the question is did she get home before New America took over and they now have the ship or did she go somewhere else either during the takeover or before.

That ship would be a real asset either for New America or anyone else in the area.

If you look at Howling Wilderness and U.G. there are some details on the area you are looking at.

Keep in mind that the Seminole Indians are also a factor in the area and they are not NA friendly by the end of UG.

If you look at the details of the letter that was included in UG you can see some information on all three areas as well as what was provided in HW

1. Gainesville - the Blueprint mentions that it is under the control of an ROTC unit that was at the University of Florida lead by the professor of military science Colonel Murphy (Tara Murphy from the Grenada module is his granddaughter)


2. Camp Blanding (According to Urban Guerilla, 3rd Brigade, 108th is based there. They are still there and NA has penetrated the brigade but has not yet had success bringing them to their side. HW has them getting ready to possibly go to the offshore island in GA to be able to survive by fishing

3. Sea Lord of Jacksonville - UG says that there are military and civil forces in the area that NA is working to penetrate and that they have control over two major subdivisions - from that I would infer that he is possibly a naval officer from the nearby Naval Air Station or Naval Base that "went rogue" after the nuclear attacks

[Vespers War]

Just as a note, UF has ROTC units for all branches of the military (and has since 1946), so there's plenty of flexibility in creating that unit.

One of the areas where I'll quibble with what's written is that the Seminole shouldn't be as dominant as presented, at least if they're as xenophobic as described. The real-world Seminole Tribe of Florida had only 2,000 members in 2000, with the lower criteria for background being quarter-blooded Seminole. That sounds like a decent-sized group for T2K, but it includes noncombatants, so they can likely only put a few hundred combatants in the field over hundreds of square miles of territory. The easiest way for me to reconcile this is for their presentation in UG to be what NA believes is happening. They're unlikely to actually be getting first-hand information from the region the Seminole claim to control, so propaganda may be credited here.

[rcaf_777]

I might old snaps of Blanding been there a few for exercises

[Enfield]

Originally Posted by Olefin

FYI one other thing they forgot was the USS Constitution replica that was supposed to be heading home after Grenada for St. Petersburg. So the question is did she get home before New America took over and they now have the ship or did she go somewhere else either during the takeover or before.

That ship would be a real asset either for New America or anyone else in the area.

If you look at Howling Wilderness and U.G. there are some details on the area you are looking at.

Keep in mind that the Seminole Indians are also a factor in the area and they are not NA friendly by the end of UG.

If you look at the details of the letter that was included in UG you can see some information on all three areas as well as what was provided in HW

1. Gainesville - the Blueprint mentions that it is under the control of an ROTC unit that was at the University of Florida lead by the professor of military science Colonel Murphy (Tara Murphy from the Grenada module is his granddaughter)


2. Camp Blanding (According to Urban Guerilla, 3rd Brigade, 108th is based there. They are still there and NA has penetrated the brigade but has not yet had success bringing them to their side. HW has them getting ready to possibly go to the offshore island in GA to be able to survive by fishing

3. Sea Lord of Jacksonville - UG says that there are military and civil forces in the area that NA is working to penetrate and that they have control over two major subdivisions - from that I would infer that he is possibly a naval officer from the nearby Naval Air Station or Naval Base that "went rogue" after the nuclear attacks

Yes, this is all typical of the Twilight 2000 material for America--vague and requring a lot of work from the gm.

However, that's a good point about the USS Constitution. I may give that one some thought. It could either become a vessel in the NA Navy or else be something that might assist the pcs. Have to decide which.

[Enfield]

Originally Posted by Vespers War

Just as a note, UF has ROTC units for all branches of the military (and has since 1946), so there's plenty of flexibility in creating that unit.

One of the areas where I'll quibble with what's written is that the Seminole shouldn't be as dominant as presented, at least if they're as xenophobic as described. The real-world Seminole Tribe of Florida had only 2,000 members in 2000, with the lower criteria for background being quarter-blooded Seminole. That sounds like a decent-sized group for T2K, but it includes noncombatants, so they can likely only put a few hundred combatants in the field over hundreds of square miles of territory. The easiest way for me to reconcile this is for their presentation in UG to be what NA believes is happening. They're unlikely to actually be getting first-hand information from the region the Seminole claim to control, so propaganda may be credited here.

Right, it could be something where fear and rumour has more power than the Seminoles themselves.

[Jason Weiser]

Or, here is a thought? The Seminoles aren't just Seminoles. They are a collection of communities who have rallied around the Seminole tribal council on the basis of *it works.*

The New Americans, of course, have made assumptions that the Seminoles are the real power, whereas they're just first among equals. The Seminoles are happy to encourage this view, as it seems to discourage New American adventurism.

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Speaking as a non-American, what sort of impact do the Cajuns/Acadians have in the Florida region?
I don't know what the modules say about them because I haven't read most of them in a very long time but as a non-American, the Cajuns appear to be an interesting group that could be a help or a hindrance to the PCs (and anybody else) with one group of Cajuns potentially being friendly but with the next group being indifferent or even hostile towards the PCs.

[Legbreaker]

Who's to say the USS Constitution has even reached that far yet?
One option to introduce the PCs to the ship is have it arrive after TF34 leaves Germany - November 2000 or even later. Other options are a pick from Turkey or even Israel.
Urban Guerilla is set in 2001, but that could well be January, which doesn't leave much time to get across the Atlantic via the West Indies.
Also, would Captain Christiansen persist with docking at St Petersburg after potentially hearing the area has been taken over by NA? Gateway does open with an encounter involving pirates associated with NA, and John Hammersmith is supported by them. Captain Christiansen is clearly concerned about NA too (see pages 23 & 27) and directs the PCs to seek out and pass on any information about them.
Given all that, it's possible a new destination was selected rather than risking the ship and crew just because they used to call that particular port home.

[Enfield]

Originally Posted by Jason Weiser

Or, here is a thought? The Seminoles aren't just Seminoles. They are a collection of communities who have rallied around the Seminole tribal council on the basis of *it works.*

The New Americans, of course, have made assumptions that the Seminoles are the real power, whereas they're just first among equals. The Seminoles are happy to encourage this view, as it seems to discourage New American adventurism.

Good point. In the present decade, we've seen political adtivists rallying around Native American/Canadian/South American causes, which includes everything from radical environmentalists to outright Marxists. Very good point.

[Enfield]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

Who's to say the USS Constitution has even reached that far yet?
One option to introduce the PCs to the ship is have it arrive after TF34 leaves Germany - November 2000 or even later. Other options are a pick from Turkey or even Israel.
Urban Guerilla is set in 2001, but that could well be January, which doesn't leave much time to get across the Atlantic via the West Indies.
Also, would Captain Christiansen persist with docking at St Petersburg after potentially hearing the area has been taken over by NA? Gateway does open with an encounter involving pirates associated with NA, and John Hammersmith is supported by them. Captain Christiansen is clearly concerned about NA too (see pages 23 & 27) and directs the PCs to seek out and pass on any information about them.
Given all that, it's possible a new destination was selected rather than risking the ship and crew just because they used to call that particular port home.

In my campaign the PC group ended the arc of their European characters when they got home. When we talked about it, they felt that they would get integrated into a larger unit, which had been what they had wanted to do. That made sense to me; they were very much an HQ/Support unit that got cut off, not a band of adventuerers or special ops or anything. Anyway they got home via a frigate that picked them up on the Italian coast.

So if the Constitution is featured, it would have to be introduced in the Florida campaign. But you make a good point. The ship might simply be a good source of backup/support as it is in Gateway to the Spanish Main.

[Enfield]

Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic

Speaking as a non-American, what sort of impact do the Cajuns/Acadians have in the Florida region?
I don't know what the modules say about them because I haven't read most of them in a very long time but as a non-American, the Cajuns appear to be an interesting group that could be a help or a hindrance to the PCs (and anybody else) with one group of Cajuns potentially being friendly but with the next group being indifferent or even hostile towards the PCs.

More of a Louisiana thing, I had thought. from the wikipedia entry

Geography had a strong correlation to Cajun lifestyles. Most Cajuns resided in Acadiana, where their descendants are still predominant. Cajun populations today are found also in the area southwest of New Orleans and scattered in areas adjacent to the French Louisiana region, such as to the north in Alexandria, Louisiana. Strong Cajun roots, influence, and culture can also be found in parts of Southern Mississippi. These areas include Bay St. Louis, Pass Christian, Gulfport, Gautier, Natchez, D'Iberville, and Biloxi, Mississippi. Over the years, many Cajuns and Creoles also migrated to the Houston, Beaumont and Port Arthur areas of Southeast Texas, in especially large numbers as they followed oil-related jobs in the 1970s and 1980s, when oil companies moved jobs from Louisiana to Texas. However, the city of Lafayette is referred to as "The Heart of Acadiana" because of its location, and it is a major center of Cajun culture

[Enfield]

Two key areas for the Sealord of Jacksonville seem to me to be Mayport Naval Air Station and Jacksonville Naval Air Station. Jacksonville NAS is located on an island, from what I understand, and Mayport is a deep water port.

[Olefin]

Originally Posted by Legbreaker

Who's to say the USS Constitution has even reached that far yet?
One option to introduce the PCs to the ship is have it arrive after TF34 leaves Germany - November 2000 or even later. Other options are a pick from Turkey or even Israel.
Urban Guerilla is set in 2001, but that could well be January, which doesn't leave much time to get across the Atlantic via the West Indies.
Also, would Captain Christiansen persist with docking at St Petersburg after potentially hearing the area has been taken over by NA? Gateway does open with an encounter involving pirates associated with NA, and John Hammersmith is supported by them. Captain Christiansen is clearly concerned about NA too (see pages 23 & 27) and directs the PCs to seek out and pass on any information about them.
Given all that, it's possible a new destination was selected rather than risking the ship and crew just because they used to call that particular port home.

Gateway to the Spanish Main takes place in Sept 1 to Dec 15 2000 according to the timeline and NA doesnt go active until Jan 1 2001 in St Petersburg - so she very well may have been there when NA took over publicly there

The operatives who were building the fleet and taking the kids captive (which according to UG was foiled meaning the timeline shows that the fleet was destroyed and the kids freed) were NA linked - so there is a chance the Captain chose an alternate destination after that

[Legbreaker]

Actually, page 20 of Gateway states it's the 1st of December, and earlier on pages 3 & 6 places the ship at Bremmershaven on the 16th of November.
Also, just because NA went public on the 1st of Jan 2001 doesn't mean they weren't already active. We can see this is true because of the Letter of Marque in the strongbox which could be recovered on the 1st of December as well as all the arms provided to Hammersmith's pirates on Carriacou, not to mention Jones' job to kidnap the girls, which he knows has come from "New America".

With all that NA activity in the area, it's quite possible the PCs and through them Captain Christiansen, find out about St Petersburg potentially being not as friendly as hoped. At the very least a cautious approach would be in order and absolutely well within character for the captain.

[Olefin]

Oh I agree with you Leg - and in fact I would think that since Urban Guerrilla didnt mention them there ( you would think thats a big point to miss) that they must have gone somewhere else - question is where - Jacksonville and join up with the Sea Lord? Norfolk and join up with MilGov? Possibly Georgia to join up with the CivGov forces there (they would probably love to have her as a possible way to keep in communication with their forces in Yugoslavia - that would be a heck of an adventure to GM)? Lots of interesting way she could be used.

about the only thing we know is that she was part of the effort to foil the NA plans in Grenada - and that they were foiled

from UG - " and the failure of our agent in Grenada to secure control over General Cummings' granddaughter resulted in failure to gain a handle over Colonel Murphy through his granddaughter as well, but we must look at these setbacks in light of the overall picture"

[Legbreaker]

Well, one option for getting on the ship is from Texas, so perhaps (with a little timeline juggling) they went in that direction?
Really, all we know is it's unlikely they actually went to St Petersburg and they're not mentioned anywhere else. It's even possible the ship was sunk!

[Vespers War]

Originally Posted by Jason Weiser

Or, here is a thought? The Seminoles aren't just Seminoles. They are a collection of communities who have rallied around the Seminole tribal council on the basis of *it works.*

The New Americans, of course, have made assumptions that the Seminoles are the real power, whereas they're just first among equals. The Seminoles are happy to encourage this view, as it seems to discourage New American adventurism.

That's also possible, particularly as there are Black Seminole. The UG Seminole are explicitly supposed to be driving all the white people out of South Florida, which will need some figuring out in a coalition scenario, particularly since the southern counties are all majority white - Broward and Miami-Dade are both close to 70%, Collier is over 85%, and Monroe is nearly 90%. Those numbers drop if one doesn't consider white Hispanic to be white, but it's still something that'll need some thought to be plausible.

Originally Posted by StainlessSteelCynic

Speaking as a non-American, what sort of impact do the Cajuns/Acadians have in the Florida region?
I don't know what the modules say about them because I haven't read most of them in a very long time but as a non-American, the Cajuns appear to be an interesting group that could be a help or a hindrance to the PCs (and anybody else) with one group of Cajuns potentially being friendly but with the next group being indifferent or even hostile towards the PCs.

Effectively none. There might be a handful in the Panhandle, but they're not a historically significant ethnic group in Florida. The Acadians went to Louisiana because of linguistic ties to France. Florida was Spanish until it was English (and then Spanish again, then American, then Confederate, then American again). Florida's old European settlers are the Crackers, a heavily Scots-Irish group.

[SlapBack556]

Hey guys,

New to the forum, sorry this reply is 8 months old.

So the FL campaign, huh? I used to game with Tom Mulkey back in the '80s regularly at gaming conventions. He was working on a FL sourcebook off and on which fleshed out a lot of the Urban Guerrilla and Howling Wilderness questions.

He was fond of running singular adventures in the big campaign setting that was NA or Seminole - held FL.

One such adventure was published in Challenge, called Tyger Tyger Burning Bright. I play tested at a convention.

To shed more light on some of the "original" thoughts regarding the seminole nation. From my memory, Tom's seminoles were indeed made up of primarily of all the 2nd class citizens and refuse society had cast off. They found their home in the Seminole Nation. So while the upper echelons were comprised of actual Native American seminoles, the rank and file cannon fodder were thugs.

I remember one adventure our group had to discover where people were disappearing. The NA's handed refugees off to the Seminoles who then marched them south (down through Bradenton and into the interior of the state). They'd rest at night at these little fenced in covered areas. and people would die off on the march. What they were doing is each nightly location was actually a shed built upon top of one of the MIRV warheads that failed to detonate, but was leaking. By the end of the trip, the refugees were dead.

The seminoles were nasty bad guys. Perhaps even more than the NAs.

Tom never had us head much further north than Gainesville, as Blanding is right there and Jax. too much (any)GOV troops to deal with. That was part of what he was fleshing out. So I can offer no insight there.

I, too ran some FL adventures for my group in the early '90s. I used some ultralights (from Airlords of the Ozarks), and had one adventure where the party was stalked by the Skunk Ape (FL's bigfoot).

Anyway, I hope it helps if you needed some background straight from the horses mouth(ish).

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Originally Posted by SlapBack556

Hey guys,

New to the forum, sorry this reply is 8 months old.

Welcome to the forum and don't worry about resurrecting dead threads, we don't have any objection to thread necromancy particularly when it comes from somebody new to the forum (there's so many threads covering so many topics, it doesn't make sense to make new threads all the time, far easier to continue an older thread!)

Originally Posted by SlapBack556

Anyway, I hope it helps if you needed some background straight from the horses mouth(ish).

Thanks for the additional insight, I find this sort of thing quite interesting and I'm sure there's people here who will make use of that info

[Olefin]

Originally Posted by SlapBack556

Hey guys,

New to the forum, sorry this reply is 8 months old.

So the FL campaign, huh? I used to game with Tom Mulkey back in the '80s regularly at gaming conventions. He was working on a FL sourcebook off and on which fleshed out a lot of the Urban Guerrilla and Howling Wilderness questions.

He was fond of running singular adventures in the big campaign setting that was NA or Seminole - held FL.

One such adventure was published in Challenge, called Tyger Tyger Burning Bright. I play tested at a convention.

To shed more light on some of the "original" thoughts regarding the seminole nation. From my memory, Tom's seminoles were indeed made up of primarily of all the 2nd class citizens and refuse society had cast off. They found their home in the Seminole Nation. So while the upper echelons were comprised of actual Native American seminoles, the rank and file cannon fodder were thugs.

I remember one adventure our group had to discover where people were disappearing. The NA's handed refugees off to the Seminoles who then marched them south (down through Bradenton and into the interior of the state). They'd rest at night at these little fenced in covered areas. and people would die off on the march. What they were doing is each nightly location was actually a shed built upon top of one of the MIRV warheads that failed to detonate, but was leaking. By the end of the trip, the refugees were dead.

The seminoles were nasty bad guys. Perhaps even more than the NAs.

Tom never had us head much further north than Gainesville, as Blanding is right there and Jax. too much (any)GOV troops to deal with. That was part of what he was fleshing out. So I can offer no insight there.

I, too ran some FL adventures for my group in the early '90s. I used some ultralights (from Airlords of the Ozarks), and had one adventure where the party was stalked by the Skunk Ape (FL's bigfoot).

Anyway, I hope it helps if you needed some background straight from the horses mouth(ish).

I heard that he had the whole state fleshed out with all kinds of interesting material - must have been amazing to have gamed with him. Be great if anyone had those notes - would be a real treasure trove of information to add to the understanding of Florida and all the players involved.

[SlapBack556]

Hey all,

I was able to get a really good (barely used) copy of Urban Guerrilla (since the trove doesn't have it), and have started going into the depths of my memories and getting a FL campaign fleshed out.

Think about this:
The NAs in St Pete were there before the Thanksgiving day massacre. The upper echelon had worked their way into the local government(s).
When the bombs fell, they dusted off their plans and immediately implemented them.

They've had 3 years to work their web, provide for and, in turn, have the citizens become dependent on, before they simply announced to their (100,000) citizens, "A new day, a new millennia, a New America!"

in game time, it's only been three months of normal people being a New American before the module officially starts.

Any who, I'd love to brainstorm with anyone else who's fleshing out these ideas, too.

Later - SLapBack

[pmulcahy11b]

I ran a campaign taking place in the Clearwater area. The PCs were a combination of SF and shot-down pilots, there were some NPCs who were a combination of Infantry, engineers, and mechanics, and they raised about a battalion of resistance fighters and a small air force (including someone's prize restored F-86E -- they found a body in the hanger who was the owner). They they overreached and tried to bring a B-29 from the Boneyard after weeks of feverish work. All of the PC pilots were were killed when it crashed over Texas and all four engines caught fire (a Pilot: Catastrophic Failure roll, and many early B-29s were suspect to engine fires). Having kicked ass with air support, the rest of the PCs and NPCs simply couldn't maintain the tempo of their assaults, and were eventually hunted down or scattered.

Just a side note, I don't understand why the Russians never nuked the Boneyard.