How dark is the future of the Morrow Project

[bobcat]

all of this is true but as far as the situation goes there are far worse scenario's to wake up to.

lost knowledge and technology are handicaps. i'm assuming roughly 15% literacy rates that aren't very well spread out through the populace. some areas such as settlements built around universities and larger schools will be better off in this regard. the thing is even if the 5 year plan worked there would still have been a major deficit in skilled labor, massive drops in the literacy rate, and the project would be spending most of their resources teaching people how to survive in the long term. the world the teams wake up to has experienced the loss of technical knowledge and technology but the people already know how to survive long term. they've been doing it for 150 years.

xenophobia would be a major handicap that would also have to be handled on the 5 years plan. the big change is that there is no longer a major war in recent memory or possibly still raging. if the teams would have been able to bypass that barrier with mushroom clouds still branded in the commo memory they should still be able to after much of that memory has faded. they also have the advantage of having valuable skills and trade goods to aid them in getting around such barriers, never underestimate how far even a good cup of coffee can go in winning hearts and minds.

before we get to likely aggressors/allies we need a few basic assumptions. first i am assuming Recon Team G-9 from Operation Damocles is successful and sends the wakeup signal. i am also assuming that the project fails to implement even rudimentary COMSEC and that the wakeup signal will be received by everyone with cryo tech. allowing Krell's warriors to have a chance.

as for the likely aggressors/allies. the Snake Eaters could go either way. these are teams of highly trained Green Berets who in 3rd edition are described as being reasonable and having a primary goal of figuring out what the project is up to. assuming the party does not antagonise them they will likely fall into the allies category where their training will make them invaluable in reconstruction. specifically considering the fact that they are specifically trained to be teachers and mentors. if the team forms an alliance with them the lack of education is easily offset by these heavily armed teachers. they would also very likely take an adversarial approach to both Krell and the KFS so even without a formal alliance with the snake eaters those that RT G-9 would wake up if they deal with the AI on the UP could easily present a major stumbling block to the other major hostile factions.

Krell and his forces are known hostile. unless the destruction of Prime Base was so rapid that nobody was able to send a message out, the teams should wake to a warning about this threat. they are limited in technology and lack the ability to react to changing situations without direct oversight. unfortunately assuming RT G-9 is successful their leader will likely be awoken along with surviving Morrow Assets and the Snake Eaters. this makes Krell a credible threat to teams operating within reach of any Krell forces but again unless they destroyed prime base before a message could be sent they should be a threat the teams are able to prepare for.

KFS is one of the more serious threats. fortunately they haven't seen any significant actions in more than a century. if there are any Snake Eater teams awoken in their controlled territories by RT G-9 the KFS will predictably be met with a threat that they are completely unprepared for. yes they have an advantage in that they have Armor and Air Support, but, as Iraq and Afghanistan have showed us these advantages can be offset. that said an armed confrontation with the KFS is a less than ideal solution. if a team could somehow subvert the ruling body of the KFS to align along Morrow Project ideals they could provide a technological base for a more rapid reconstruction. after all what's a little velvet revolution between friends?

[mmartin798]

Originally Posted by bobcat

Krell and his forces are known hostile.

I will have to check when I get home from work, but I do not believe the Krell agents ever shown themselves to the forces from Prime Base. They implanted themselves as insurgents and agitators. I think when they captured the Morrow team members and negotiated, they present only as part of the large angry mob of survivors. Like I said, I am at work and may be wrong but that is what I think it said. If true, Prime Base could only send out a message along the lines of, "Oops! Pissed off some survivors and botched a rescue. Be careful out there!" Far from identifying a group of hostiles.

[RandyT0001]

According to 4th edition, pgs. 477 & 479, Bruce Morrow knows of Krell and the fact that they oppose the MP in the future. Whether he tells the COT or the upper command units of MP is not provided in the book. During Bruce's excursions into the future we can assume he knew of or heard about Krell, the Frozen Chosen, and the KFS. Based upon the implications in the book, Bruce was more concerned with Krell the either of the other two. Maybe the MP defeats the KFS and Frozen Chosen but in doing so weakens themselves so much as to be easily conquered by the horde of Krell.

Guess that's what we are supposed to play out and discover.

[mmartin798]

True, 4th edition does not expressly say whether or not he informed others about Krell. It does indicate that Bruce was very reluctant to interfere with the timeline. The stopping of the 1989 nuclear war was done reluctantly. After Bruce goes and spends two years in the future after that, he comes back even more resolved to not interfere with the timeline ever again and with the desire to know who Krell is. Given that, I would assume he kept all threat data to himself to avoid contaminating the timeline. How bringing back powerful lasers and portable fusion technology does not do that I will conveniently ignore or assume Bruce saw no significant change in the future as a result of bringing those back.

[bobcat]

well back to third edition(i don't have fourth edition yet) in prime base it says that the staff at prime base learned of krell before being wiped out. the fact that his forces were able to secure a nuclear weapon would have pointed to them being a significant threat even if the nuke at the refugee camp was detonated before it could be deployed against morrow in the time between that and the final fall of the base it would have been negligent of the Morrow HQ staff to not send a message warning of this threat before their last stand. add in what i'm being told from fourth edition and there is no feasible way for the the Morrow HQ to have still been in the dark about this threat and fail to send some kind of warning to the teams to be read once they wake up.

[ArmySGT.]

Originally Posted by bobcat

well back to third edition(i don't have fourth edition yet)

Don't buy it until it is revised and properly edited.

[bobcat]

well i'm waiting on the modules to be brought up to speed on it as well as the Errata. i don't like having to guess and improvise to make a module work with a new system only to find out halfway through the campaign that they're releasing the module with accurate updates in a week and i did everything wrong.